Patent ID: 7471644

Claim:
An information processing apparatus which communicates through a network, comprising: updating decision means for deciding whether at least one of a plurality of connection priority degrees between a different information processing apparatus and opposite parties of communication which share a predetermined space and communicate with each other has been updated, the opposite parties of communication including said information processing apparatus, the plurality of connection priority degrees being calculated based on characteristic information including position information and direction information of the different information processing apparatus and the opposite parties of communication relative to each other, connection request degree information representative of a degree of a connection request to each of the opposite parties of communication, and directional information representative of degrees of a connection request for individual azimuths; notification information production means for producing notification information when it is decided by said updating decision means that at least one of the plurality of connection priority degrees between the different information processing apparatus and the opposite parties of communication has been updated, the notification information to be used for notification of the connection priority degree between the different information processing apparatus and said information processing apparatus from among the plurality of connection priority degrees; output control means for controlling the output of the notification information; receiver means for receiving data from the different information processing apparatus; and operation control means for controlling the execution of control corresponding to the received data based on the connection priority degree between the different information processing apparatus and said information processing apparatus.