Patent Publication Number: US-2023153888-A1

Title: Recommendation device

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD 
     The present disclosure relates to a recommendation device that selects advertisements to be displayed in accordance with circumstances, in order to display advertisements for either products that a user needs truly or products that are latently demanded as recommended products. 
     BACKGROUND ART 
     In order to display a product advertisement for a user of online shopping, a method of deriving a product advertisement to be displayed and its timing from the user&#39;s purchase information (including a history or schedule) and the characteristics of products is typically used as described in, for example, Patent Literature 1. In addition to this method, a method of determining a product advertisement to be displayed by referring to the purchase tendencies of other users having similar purchase information is also known well. 
     CITATION LIST 
     Patent Literature 
     
         
         Patent Literature 1: JP 2014-215772 A 
       
    
     SUMMARY OF INVENTION 
     Technical Problem 
     However, in a conventional device, only similarity is acquired for products falling within a wide range corresponding to each category. For example, advertisements for smart phones currently being sold are displayed for a customer who purchased a smart phone three years ago. Further, in a conventional device, only similarity is acquired within a narrow range such as brand names and model numbers. For example, for a customer who purchased a detergent one month ago, an advertisement for the same detergent is displayed, and since a certain customer purchased a product B together with a product A, an advertisement for B is displayed for another customer who purchased A. 
     Although these methods make it possible to select a very effective advertisement under suitable circumstances, a problem with the methods is that an unnecessary product advertisement is displayed with a high possibility for a customer who is choosing furniture or a household electrical appliance, which is usually purchased at long time intervals, or a customer who is choosing a product with a specific intention or taste. A problem is that a recommended product suitable for a target customer is not necessarily provided, for example, an advertisement for an inexpensive watch is displayed for a customer who is looking for a high-class watch, or an advertisement for a PC that is not intended for games is displayed for a customer who purchased a game-ready PC three years ago. 
     The present disclosure is made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is therefore an object of the present disclosure to provide a recommendation device that can improve the accuracy of extraction of a recommended product. 
     Solution to Problem 
     A recommendation device according to the present disclosure includes: a product selecting unit for extracting a candidate for recommended product that is to be presented to a target user on the basis of browsing information indicating information about the user&#39;s browsing of a product, and unpurchased product information indicating information about a product that the user has indicated an intention to purchase; and a specification correlation calculating unit for extracting a product having a product specification correlated with a product specification of the candidate for recommended product, and extracting the extracted product as a recommended product. 
     Advantageous Effects of Invention 
     The recommendation device according to the present disclosure extracts a product having a product specification correlated with a product specification of a candidate for recommended product, and extracts this product as a recommended product. As a result, the accuracy of extraction of a recommended product can be improved. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS 
         FIG.  1    is a block diagram showing a recommendation device of Embodiment 1 of the present disclosure; 
         FIG.  2    is a hardware block diagram of the recommendation device of Embodiment 1 of the present disclosure; 
         FIG.  3    is a flowchart showing the operation of the recommendation device of Embodiment 1 of the present disclosure; 
         FIG.  4    is a flowchart showing extraction of recommended products when replacement is performed in a recommendation device of Embodiment 2 of the present disclosure; and 
         FIG.  5    is a flowchart showing extraction of recommended products when lacking products are added in the recommendation device of Embodiment 2 of the present disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS 
     Hereafter, in order to explain the present disclosure in greater detail, embodiments of the present disclosure will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. 
     Embodiment 1 
       FIG.  1    is a block diagram of a recommendation delivery system including a recommendation device according to this embodiment. 
     The illustrated recommendation delivery system includes a recommendation delivery device  1 , a network  2 , and user terminals  3 - 1  to  3 - n . The recommendation delivery device  1  delivers advertisement information about products that users are demanding, to their respective user terminals  3 - 1  to  3 - n  via the network  2 . In this configuration, one or more users receive information about recommended products suited to each of the users, such as product advertisements or news, via the network  2  like the Internet, from the recommendation delivery device  1 , by using their respective user terminals  3 - 1  to  3 - n  each having an input and output function, each of the user terminals being a PC, a smart phone, a TV, or the like. At this time, information about recommended products may be displayed together on part of a screen of a browser, an application, or the like that is caused to display by a user, or may be delivered in the form of an e-mail, a notification, or the like. Further, products mentioned here refer to what users can purchase and use, such as electric appliances, clothing, food products, furniture, travel tours, or concert tickets. 
     The recommendation delivery device  1  includes a recommendation information delivery server  10 , a recommendation device  11 , a browsing information storing unit  12 , an unpurchased product information storing unit  13 , an owned product information storing unit  14 , and a product information storing unit  15 . The recommendation information delivery server  10  delivers recommendation information extracted by the recommendation device  11  to the user terminals  3 - 1  to  3 - n . The recommendation device  11  includes a product selecting unit  110  and a specification correlation calculating unit  111 , and extracts recommended products. The product selecting unit  110  is a processing unit that extracts a candidate for recommended product to a target user on the basis of both browsing information in the browsing information storing unit  12  and unpurchased product information in the unpurchased product information storing unit  13 . The specification correlation calculating unit  111  is a processing unit that extracts a product having a product specification correlated with a product specification of the candidate for recommended product, the candidate being extracted by the product selecting unit  110 , by referring to product specification information  150  in the product information storing unit  15 , and outputs the product as a recommended product. 
     The browsing information storing unit  12  is a storage unit that stores browsing information that is information about the type and contents of a Web page, an application screen, or a document such as PDF that has been caused to be displayed until now by a user. The unpurchased product information storing unit  13  is a storage unit that stores unpurchased product information that is information about a product that a user has indicated the user&#39;s intention to purchase, e.g., the user has paid attention to or has desired to purchase until now. In the unpurchased product information, unlike the browsing information, the user explicitly expresses information such as a fact that a product is not owned or an intention to purchase a product and the strength of the intention. As the simplest example of acquiring the unpurchased product information, there can be considered a method of allowing the user to select a product that the user is interested in or a product that the user desires to purchase from the product information hold by the recommendation delivery device  1 . The owned product information storing unit  14  is a storage unit for storing owned product information that is information about a product that a user has purchased using online shopping or the like, or a product that the user owns. These browsing information, unpurchased product information, and owned product information may include information acquired from the outside of the recommendation delivery device  1 , in addition information registered via the recommendation delivery device  1 . As examples of information acquired from the outside, after a user&#39;s consent is acquired, the browsing information may be acquired from an external service such as a social networking service (SNS), a browser, or a search engine, and the unpurchased product information may be linked to a questionnaire survey that is performed by a third party, a wish list in a shopping site, or the like. Further, after a user&#39;s consent is acquired, the owned product information may be inferred from credit card statements of the user, contents that the user has written on the Internet, etc. When acquiring these pieces of information from the outside, the recommendation information delivery server  10  receives the pieces of information from the delivery sources of these pieces of information through the Internet. The product information storing unit  15  is a storage unit that stores pieces of product information that are classified by their categories, and has product specification information  150  as one type of the product information. The product specification information  150  may be any type of information as long as the product specification information shows information specific to a product, like the size, the specifications, the color, the weight, or a function of the product. 
     Next, the hardware configuration of the recommendation device  11  will be explained by referring to  FIG.  2   . 
     The recommendation device  11  includes a processor  101 , a memory  102 , an input and output interface  103 , a storage  104 , and a bus  105 , as shown in  FIG.  2   . The processor  101  implements the product selecting unit  110  and the specification correlation calculating unit  111  by executing programs corresponding to the functions of the product selecting unit  110  and the specification correlation calculating unit  111 . The memory  102  is storage units, such as a ROM and a RAM, which are used as a program memory that stores various programs, a work memory that is used when the processor  101  performs data processing, a memory in which signal data is developed, and so on. The input and output interface  103  exchanges various types of signals with, for example, the browsing information storing unit  12 , and the product information storing unit  15 , and the recommendation information delivery server  10 . Further, the storage  104  is a storage unit that stores a program corresponding to each of the functions of the product selecting unit  110  and the specification correlation calculating unit  111 , and also stores various types of data. The bus  105  is a communication path for mutually connecting the processor  101 , . . . , and the storage  104 . 
     At least any one of the few product selecting unit  110  and the specification correlation calculating units  111  may be constituted by hardware for exclusive use. 
     Next, the operation of the recommendation device of Embodiment 1 will be explained. 
     First, the product selecting unit  110  extracts, as candidates for recommended products, products that a target user is latently interested in, by using the tendency of the user&#39;s previous actions that is based on browsing information in the browsing information storing unit  12 , information about products that the user has expressed interest in, the information being indicated by unpurchased product information in the unpurchased product information storing unit  13 , and information including purchase results or the likes based on owned product information in the owned product information storing unit  14 . Further, as this extracting process, an analysis may be performed for a combination of the target user and another user. After extracting candidates for recommended products, the product selecting unit  110  outputs the candidates together with a message indicating that these products have not been purchased to the specification correlation calculating unit  111 . 
     In the specification correlation calculating unit  111 , recommended products are determined using product specification information  150  in the product information storing unit  15 . 
       FIG.  3    is a flowchart showing the operation of the specification correlation calculating unit  111 . When receiving the candidates for recommended products from the product selecting unit  110 , the specification correlation calculating unit  111  classifies the candidates into categories, by their product genres, in terms of price, size, and function (step ST 101 ). At this time, the category classifying may be performed by referring to product information in the product information storing unit  15 . Next, the specification correlation calculating unit  111  calculates, as to the candidate products that have been classified into categories, the degree of correlation in product specifications between candidate products (step ST 103 ) for each of the categories (step ST 102 ), and determines whether the correlation degree exceeds a set threshold (step ST 104 ). This is a process of calculating what degree of correlation two or more candidate products classified into the same category have with respect to their specifications, and finding out a category having a stronger correlation. Because it is expected that the category that has been determined to have a strong correlation (YES in step ST 104 ) exhibits the user&#39;s taste, the category (condition) is added to conditions for candidate selection (step ST 105 ). The specification correlation calculating unit  111  then determines whether the calculation has been performed on all the categories (step ST 106 ), and, when determines that the calculation has not been performed on all the categories (NO in step ST 106 ), the processing returns to step ST 102  and the processes of steps ST 102  to ST 105  are repeated. In contrast, when, in step ST 104 , the correlation degree is equal to or less than the threshold (NO in step ST 104 ), the processing just shifts to step ST 106 . 
     In a stage in which all conditions for candidate selection are completely provided (YES in step ST 106 ), the specification correlation calculating unit  111 , for example, narrows down the candidate products on the basis of the conditions for candidate selection in such a way that the conditions are satisfied, or adds, as a candidate product, another product satisfying the conditions on the basis of the product information in the product information storing unit  15 , thereby extracting recommended products (step ST 107 ). 
     Although the specification correlation calculating unit  111  extracts recommended products on the basis of the conditions for candidate selection as mentioned above, the conditions for candidate selection may be outputted to the product selecting unit  110 , and the product selecting unit  110  may select recommended products each satisfying the conditions. Further, as a condition applied to the recommended products, hot-selling products, other users&#39; evaluations, etc. may be referred to. 
     As mentioned above, in Embodiment 1, as the processing of the product selecting unit  110 , products that a user needs explicitly or latently are selected on the basis of the user&#39;s actions, indication of the user&#39;s intention, etc., just as in conventional cases. Then, because on the basis of the specifications of the products selected by the product selecting unit  110 , the specification correlation calculating unit  111  can perform the processing independently of apart in which the narrowing down or addition of a high-relevant product is performed, broad application can be expected as an extension of the existing recommendation methods. 
     Further, as an advantage of the extraction of recommended products, although information such as the product specification information  150  is additionally needed, unlike in the case of previous recommendation methods, the addition of the information makes it possible to catch a user&#39;s taste more finely than in the previous recommendation methods. For example, when a user thinks that a function is unnecessary, and is looking for products to which the function is not added, there&#39;s no other choice but to check the specifications of each product until now because it is difficult to make a search for products by using a key word “without oo function”. The use of this recommendation device makes it possible to infer that a user has intensively checked products without oo function from the user&#39;s actions or indication of the user&#39;s intention, and therefore the user is enabled to efficiently find out products that the user is demanding, in response to the recommendation of products not equipped with oo function. 
     As previously explained, because the recommendation device of Embodiment 1 includes the product selecting unit for extracting a candidate for recommended product that is to be presented to a target user on the basis of browsing information indicating information about the user&#39;s browsing of a product, and unpurchased product information indicating information about a product that the user has indicated an intention to purchase; and the specification correlation calculating unit for extracting a product having a product specification correlated with a product specification of the candidate for recommended product, and extracting the extracted product as a recommended product, the accuracy of extraction of a recommended product can be improved. 
     Embodiment 2 
     Embodiment 2 relates to a configuration in which a user&#39;s next purchase tendency is predicted from owned product information that is history information about products owned by the user. Because the configuration in terms of drawings is the same as that of Embodiment 1 shown in  FIG.  1   , the configuration will be explained using  FIG.  1   . 
     A product selecting unit  110  in Embodiment 2 has a function of acquiring information about owned products of a target user on the basis of owned product information in an owned product information storing unit  14 , in addition to the function of Embodiment 1. Further, a specification correlation calculating unit  111  is configured so as to, in addition to having the function of Embodiment 1, when extracting a recommended product that is a target for replacement of an owned product about which information is acquired by the product selecting unit  110 , extract a product having a product specification correlated with a product specification to be maintained or improved, out of the product specifications of the owned product, and, when extracting a recommended product for compensating for lack of owned products, compare information about a product group which is stored in a product information storing unit  15  and the information about the owned products, and extract, as a lacking product, a product that is not included in the product group, and also determine a product specification of this lacking product from the product specifications of the owned products and extract a product matching the determined product specification. Further, in the product information storing unit  15 , information about a product group, the information indicating a combination of products that is determined on the basis of a predetermined condition, is stored. Because a configuration other than this configuration is the same as that of Embodiment 1, an explanation will be omitted hereafter. 
     Next, the operation of a recommendation device of Embodiment 2 will be explained. 
     First, the product selecting unit  110 , just as in conventional cases, notifies the specification correlation calculating unit  111  of information about products currently owned by a user, together with a message indicating that the products are owned, on the basis of owned product information in the owned product information storing unit  14 , the owned product information indicating the user&#39;s history of previous purchases and the user&#39;s own products. When receiving the information about the owned products, the specification correlation calculating unit  111  performs processing for two patterns including replacement purchase and additional purchase which are shown below. 
     When Replacement of an Owned Product is Considered 
     A flowchart of the operation of the specification correlation calculating unit  111  when replacement of an owned product is considered is shown in  FIG.  4   . 
     When a user who considers purchasing a new product for the reason that the user&#39;s own product has become old or has been broken down is assumed, the specification correlation calculating unit  111  selects products that are candidates for replacement by performing the following processing. First, as to all the user&#39;s own products, it is determined whether or not the replacement of each of the products is desirable, from a purchase time and a time interval for replacement purchase of the corresponding product when the purchase time is known, or from a sales period and a time interval for replacement purchase of the corresponding product when the purchase time is unknown (step ST 201 ). This determination is performed for each of the user&#39;s own products (step ST 202 ). When the replacement is not desirable for an owned product that is a determination object (when NO in step ST 202 ), the processing returns to step ST 201  and the replacement determination is performed on the next owned product. 
     As to a product that has been determined, in step ST 202 , to be desirable to be replaced (YES in step ST 202 ), it is then retrieved whether a specification of the product should be maintained or improved when the product is replaced, from the type of the product, together with the specification of the product, from the product information in the product information storing unit  15  (steps ST 203  and ST 204 ). For example, in general, the “size” in the specifications of furniture or a household electrical appliance should be maintained, and an improvement in another specification such as performance or capability is demanded when the product is replaced. When a specification should be maintained or improved (YES in step ST 204 ), the specification is added as a maintenance or improvement condition (step ST 205 ). In contrast, when a specification should not be maintained or improved (NO in step ST 204 ), the specification, as a specification condition, is not added to conditions for candidate selection. The addition of a specification that should be maintained may be indispensable, and the addition of a specification that should be improved may be free. Next, the specification correlation calculating unit  111  whether or not all the specifications have been processed (step ST 206 ), and, when a specification on which the determination should be performed still remains (NO in step ST 206 ), the processing returns to step ST 203  and the processes of steps ST 203  to ST 205  are repeated. 
     When the determination has been performed on all the specifications in step ST 206  (YES in step ST 206 ), the specification correlation calculating unit  111  extracts products under the conditions for candidate selection (step ST 207 ). More specifically, products that are recommended to be used for replacement and each of which satisfies either a condition to be maintained or a condition to be improved are selected from the product information. After that, whether or not all the products have been processed is determined (step ST 208 ), and, when a yet-to-be-processed product remains (NO in step ST 208 ), the processing returns to the step ST 201  and the above-mentioned processes are repeated, whereas when it is determined that all the products have been processed (YES in step ST 208 ), the product replacement determination processing is ended. 
     In the determination of whether or not the replacement is desirable, out of the above-mentioned processes, an inference that a malfunction may have occurred in a product may be used, on the basis of information as the user&#39;s browsing information in a browsing information storing unit  12 , the information indicating that the user has referred to information about troubleshooting for the product, or the like. Further, information indicating that another user has replaced the same product by a new product may be used. In addition, the selection of products each satisfying a condition may be performed by the product selecting unit  110  after the conditions for candidate selection are sent to the product selecting unit  110 . 
     When Compensation for Lack of the Owned Products is Considered 
     A flowchart of the operation of the specification correlation calculating unit  111  when compensation for lack of the owned products is considered is shown in  FIG.  5   . 
     Irrespective of whether or not a user satisfies, the specification correlation calculating unit  111  selects, as a product that is a candidate for additional purchase, a product lacking in the owned products of the user. In this case, it is assumed that information about a group of combined products is registered in advance as product information in the product information storing unit  15 . For example, in the case of household electrical appliances, it is assumed that a refrigerator, a washing machine, a cleaner, a television, and so on are registered as a group. By using this product information, the specification correlation calculating unit  111  first compares the user&#39;s own products and the product group (step ST 301 ). When it is determined, as a result of the comparison, that there are lacking products, i.e., products that the user has not owned or purchased (YES in step ST 302 ), out of the lacking products, as to a product for which the user has not indicated unnecessity, a condition for a product that is inferred to be appropriate to be additionally purchased from the specifications of the user&#39;s own products included in the group is determined (step ST 303 ). For example, when the user has purchased a refrigerator, a washing machine, and a cleaner made by AA Electric Corporation, a television made by AA Electric Corporation are determined as a condition. Next, on the basis of the derived conditions, the specification correlation calculating unit  111  extracts products satisfying the conditions, from the product information stored in the product information storing unit  15 , just as in the case of replacement (step ST 304 ). Then, whether or not the comparison has been performed on all the owned products is determined (step ST 305 ), and the processing is ended when the determination has been performed on all the owned products (YES in step ST 305 ). In contrast, when an owned product as an object for comparison remains in step ST 305  (NO in step ST 305 ), the processing returns to step ST 301  and the above-mentioned processes are repeated. Further, when there is no lacking product in step ST 302 , the processing is just ended. 
     In this way, in this embodiment, by adding the process using the correlation degrees in product specifications, to the conventional process of extracting recommended products while setting them as targets for replacement purchase or additional purchase, it is possible to more correctly select products that the user is demanding, as an extension of the existing systems. Concretely, recommendations to the user&#39;s purchases over a long period of time, for example, are provided in consideration of the user&#39;s environment (residential space, family structure, economic conditions, etc.), a conventional recommendation method being weak in providing such recommendations, so that a product that is purchased as a replacement or additionally purchased has specifications (size, specifications, price, etc.) matching the environment. 
     As previously explained, in the recommendation device of Embodiment 2, because the product selecting unit acquires information about one or more owned products of a target user on the basis of owned product information indicating information about the products owned by the user, and when extracting a recommended product that is a target for replacement of an owned product of the target user, the specification correlation calculating unit extracts a product having a product specification correlated with a product specification to be maintained, out of product specifications of the owned product, the accuracy of extraction of a recommended product at a time of replacement purchase can be improved. 
     Further, in the recommendation device of Embodiment 2, because the specification correlation calculating unit extracts a product having a product specification correlated with a product specification to be improved, out of the product specifications of the owned product, a recommended product corresponding to a product that a user is demanding can be extracted with a higher degree of accuracy. 
     Further, in the recommendation device of Embodiment 2, because the product selecting unit acquires information about one or more owned products of the target user on the basis of owned product information indicating information about the products owned by the user, and when extracting a recommended product for compensating for lack of the owned products of the target user, the specification correlation calculating unit compares a product group indicating a combination of products and the owned products and extracts, as a lacking product, a product that is not included in the product group, and also determines a product specification of the lacking product from product specifications of the owned products and extracts a product matching the product specification, the accuracy of extraction of a recommended product at a time of additional purchase can be improved. 
     Further, in the recommendation device of Embodiment 2, because the product selecting unit acquires information about one or more owned products that the target user has purchased on the basis of owned product information indicating information about the products owned by the user, and when extracting a recommended product that is a target for replacement of an owned product of the target user, the specification correlation calculating unit extracts a product having a product specification correlated with a product specification to be maintained, out of product specifications of the owned product, and when extracting a recommended product for compensating for lack of the owned products of the target user, the specification correlation calculating unit compares a product group indicating a combination of products and the owned products and extracts a lacking product, and also determines a product specification of the lacking product from product specifications of the owned products and extracts a product matching the product specification, the accuracy of extraction of a recommended product at a time of replacement purchase and at a time of additional purchase can be improved. 
     It is to be understood that any combination of the above-mentioned embodiments can be made, various changes can be made in any component according to any one of the above-mentioned embodiments, and any component according to any one of the above-mentioned embodiments can be omitted within the scope of the present disclosure. 
     INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY 
     As mentioned above, the recommendation device according to the present disclosure relates to a configuration in which a recommendation device is extracted on the basis of browsing information and unpurchased product information about users, and product specifications, and is suitable for providing product advertisements for users in online shopping. 
     REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 
       1  recommendation delivery device,  2  network,  3 - 1  to  3 - n  user terminal,  10  recommendation information delivery server,  11  recommendation device,  12  browsing information storing unit,  13  unpurchased product information storing unit,  14  owned product information storing unit,  15  product information storing unit,  110  product selecting unit,  111  specification correlation calculating unit, and  150  product specification information.