Patent ID: 8564415

Claim:
A user grouping apparatus comprising: a storage that stores a wireless ID aggregate structure, which is an aggregated data structure of a plurality of wireless IDs set up for each wireless management apparatus used by a user, in which each wireless ID is associated with a location and time, where and when the corresponding wireless ID was read out from a wireless ID tag by a wireless ID management apparatus, and wireless ID related information which is information associated with the corresponding wireless ID, hierarchically constructed by classifying the plurality of wireless IDs based on the readout location and further by classifying them based on the readout time; an evaluator, which extracts one or more feature quantities from wireless ID related information of a wireless ID aggregate of a user as a user's preferences, and which evaluates affinity between a first user's preferences as detected from a first wireless ID aggregate and a second user's preferences as detected from a second wireless ID aggregate; and a classifier, which classifies the first user and the second user in one group when the affinity is stronger than a predetermined threshold value, wherein the evaluator evaluates the affinity between a selected feature quantity of information related to a plurality of wireless IDs included in the first user's wireless ID aggregate that has been chosen by a user and a similar feature quantity of information related to a plurality of wireless IDs included in the second user's wireless ID aggregate.