Patent ID: 7599987
Filing Date: 2009-10-06
Classification: G06F,G06Q,H04N,Y10S

Abstract:
1. An information processing apparatus, the apparatus including a combination of hardware elements and software elements, comprising: a viewing-action-information collecting unit configured to collect viewing-action information representing viewing action of a user for content; an evaluation calculation unit configured to calculate an evaluation value of each user for the content according to the viewing-action information collected by the viewing-action-information collecting unit; an evaluation-information storage unit configured to store evaluation information representing the evaluation value calculated by the evaluation calculation unit, an evaluation-information list for each user, formed of a predetermined number of the evaluation information in descending order of the evaluation value, being stored in the evaluation storage unit; an evaluation-information providing unit configured to provide each user with their own list among the evaluation-information lists stored by the evaluation-information storage unit and a weighted evaluation for each content in the list; and a degree-of-similarity calculation unit configured to calculate degree of similarity of preferences between a focused-on user being focused on and other users according to the evaluation-information list of the focused-on user and those of the other users, stored by the evaluation-information storage unit; wherein the viewing-action-information collecting unit collects information representing operation content applied by the user, in a reproduction apparatus for reproducing recording-medium content stored in a predetermined recording medium, to the recording-medium content, as the viewing-action information; wherein the evaluation calculation unit calculates the evaluation value of each user for the recording-medium content according to the viewing-action information collected by the viewing-action-information collecting unit; wherein the evaluation calculation unit weights the evaluation values of the other users for predetermined contents according to the degrees of similarity calculated by the degree-of-similarity calculation unit, adds obtained values to calculate the evaluation value of the focused-on user for the predetermined contents, the degree of similarity representing a number of common evaluation information in the evaluation-information lists for the focused-on user and other users; and wherein the evaluation calculation unit produces the weighted evaluation for the content as a result of the calculation, wherein the evaluation calculation unit increases the evaluation value by a predetermined value when the viewing-action information indicates that the reproduction of the recording-medium content had been paused, and then was restarted at a paused position, and wherein the evaluation values are updated every time that update information is generated based on counting display time of the content.