Patent Document ID: 7949959
Application ID: 12159364

Base Claim:
1. A target estimation device that estimates a function targeted by a user from among functions of an operated apparatus which has a menu including items in a hierarchical structure and which executes the function when the user selects an item corresponding to the function from among the functions, said target estimation device comprising: an item obtaining unit configured to obtain an item selected by the user from among the items in the hierarchical structure, the item consisting of a plurality of words; a function storing unit configured to store function expressions for each of functions of the operated apparatus, each of the function expressions consisting of a plurality of words and representing one of the functions of the operated apparatus; an identical word detecting unit configured to detect a category of a word identical between (i) a category of a word regarding a word included in the function expressions and (ii) a category of a word regarding a word included in the item obtained by said item obtaining unit, for each of the function expressions stored by said function storing unit; an intention calculating unit configured, for each of the function expressions stored by said function storing unit, to calculate a second similarity from a plurality of first similarities which are generated by classifying, to each category of a word, a similarity between (i-1) a word belonging to the category of the word in the function expressions and (i-2) a word belonging to the category of the word included in the item, depending on the category detected by said identical word detecting unit, the second similarity being calculated as a degree of intention of the user who has selected the item for the function represented by a function expression; a support request input unit configured to receive a signal indicating a support request from the user; and an estimation unit configured, for each of the function expressions stored by said function storing unit, to estimate, when the signal indicating the support request is received, a function from among the functions so that the function having a higher degree of an intention is the function targeted by the user, the degree being calculated based on a similarity between (i) the function expressions stored in said function storing unit and (ii) the item obtained by said item obtaining unit before receiving the signal indicating the support request.

---

Claim 7:
7. The target estimation device according to claim 1 , further comprising: an intention memory in which a degree of an intention calculated by said intention calculating unit for each of the functions is stored; and an intention storing unit configured to store, in said intention memory, degrees of intentions calculated for each of the functions by said intention calculating unit, each time said item obtaining unit obtains an item, wherein said estimation unit is configured to read, from said intention storing unit, the degrees of the intentions between each of the functions and each of the plurality of items, to calculate an average of the degrees of the intentions for each of the functions as a score, and to estimate a function so that the function having a higher score is the function targeted by the user.