Patent Document ID: 20120101890
Application ID: 13277824
Patent Status: 0

Claim One:
1. An information processing method in an information processing device to receive use information relating to an item which has been used in another device, the method comprising: a use history storage step of storing, in a use history storage section, a use history that at least associates a use subject identifier for identifying a user or a terminal device a user has used, with a used item identifier, which is an item identifier for identifying an item used by a user, based on the use information; an associated data creation step of calculating a degree of similarity between two item identifiers based on a use history stored in the use history storage section and creating associated data to be provided to the other device, wherein the associated data causes a base item identifier and an associated item identifier to correspond to each other using the degree of similarity, the base item identifier is an item identifier of a base item, and the associated item identifier is an item identifier of an associated item similar to the base item; and a point distribution calculation step of calculating a change value to change a point value managed for each of the use subject identifiers, wherein the use information corresponding to a use of the associated item based on the associated data in the other device is information including specific information capable of specifying a base item identifier corresponding to the associated item identifier of the used item, in the use history storage step, a use history causing the use subject identifier, the used item identifier, and the specific information at least to correspond to one another is stored in the use history storage section, and in the point distribution calculation step, one use history having the specific information is selected from the use history storage section, a first previous use history set is formed, which is a set of other use histories having the same used item identifier as the base item identifier specified by the specific information of the one use history and being older than the one use history, and a change value to change the point value is calculated for a plurality of use subject identifiers which is at least a part of a user set, wherein the user set is a set of use subject identifiers included in the first previous use history set.