# US 2021/0240701 A1 · Information processing apparatus, determination method, non-transitory computer readable medium storing program, and information processing system

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- Number: US 2021/0240701 A1
- Document ID: US20210240701A1
- Status: Published application
- Kind: A1
- Application number: 16/972,031
- Filed: 2018-06-05
- Published: 2021-08-05
- Earliest claimed: 2018-06-05
- Assignees: NEC Corporation
- Applicants: NEC Corporation
- Inventors: Kazufumi KOJIMA; Masahiro TANI
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20210240701A1

## CPC

- G06F 16/906: Clustering; Classification
- G06F 16/2272: {Management thereof}
- G06F 16/245: Query processing
- G06Q 10/42: Determination of affinities or common interests between users
- G06Q 30/02: Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
- H04L 51/222: using geographical location information, e.g. messages transmitted or received in proximity of a certain spot or area
- H04L 51/52: for supporting social networking services
- H04L 67/12: specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
- H04L 67/306: User profiles
- H04L 67/52: specially adapted for the location of the user terminal
- H04L 67/535: {Tracking the activity of the user (network monitoring arrangements H04L43/00; recording of computer activity G06F11/34)}
- H04W 4/21: for social networking applications
- G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N)
- G06Q: INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- H04L: TRANSMISSION OF DIGITAL INFORMATION, e.g. TELEGRAPHIC COMMUNICATION (arrangements common to telegraphic and telephonic communication H04M)
- H04W: WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS (broadcast communication H04H; communication systems using wireless links for non-selective communication, e.g. wireless extensions H04M1/72)

## Abstract

An information processing apparatus capable of accurately specifying identification information whose users are the same user regardless of information registered by users is provided. An information processing apparatus (1) includes: positional information acquisition means (2) for acquiring positional information associated with at least one piece of related identification information related to each of a plurality of pieces of identification information to be determined for identifying users in a communication service; positional information processing means (3) for specifying hierarchized positional information indicating positional information hierarchized in accordance with a granularity level of a position based on the positional information, calculation means (4) for calculating a similarity between pieces of identification information using the hierarchized positional information, and specifying means (5) for specifying the pieces of identification information belonging to the same user from among a plurality of pieces of identification information based on the calculated similarity.

## Claims

### Claim 1

An information processing apparatus comprising:
positional information acquisition unit configured to acquire positional information associated with at least one piece of related identification information related to each of a plurality of pieces of identification information to be determined, each of the pieces of identification information identifying users in a communication service;
positional information processing unit configured to specify hierarchized positional information indicating positional information hierarchized in accordance with a granularity level of a position based on the positional information;
calculation unit configured to calculate a similarity between pieces of identification information using the hierarchized positional information; and
specifying unit configured to specify pieces of identification information belonging to one user from among the plurality of pieces of identification information based on the similarity that has been calculated.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the calculation unit calculates, using the hierarchized positional information for each granularity level, similarities for the respective granularity levels between the pieces of identification information, and calculates a total sum of similarities obtained by multiplying the calculated similarities for the respective granularity levels by weighting coefficients in accordance with the respective granularity levels as the similarity between the pieces of identification information.

### Claim 3 (depends on 2)

The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the calculation unit counts, in each identification information, for each of the granularity levels, the total number for each data value included in the hierarchized positional information associated with the granularity level, calculates a value obtained by normalizing the total number for each data value that has been counted by the number of related identifications, and calculates the similarities for the respective granularity levels between the pieces of identification information using the normalized value that has been calculated.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The information processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the calculation unit calculates, for each data value that is common to first identification information and second identification information based on which the similarities for the respective granularity levels between the pieces of identification information are calculated, an evaluation value for the data value by multiplying the normalized value in the first identification information by the normalized value in the second identification information, and calculates a total sum of the evaluation values for all the data values that are common to the first identification information and the second identification information as the similarity for each of the granularity levels between the first identification information and the second identification information.

### Claim 5 (depends on 2)

The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the calculation unit determines, in each identification information, for each of the granularity levels, importance of a data value pair for each data value pair included in hierarchized positional information that corresponds to the granularity level and calculates the similarities for the respective granularity levels between the pieces of identification information using the importance of the data value pair.

### Claim 6 (depends on 5)

The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the importance of the data value pair is determined in accordance with at least one of a distance between two places that correspond to the data value pair, a population ratio between the two places that correspond to the data value pair, an index value regarding easiness of movement between the two places that correspond to the data value pair, and a ratio of the data value pair to a total number of data value pairs.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The information processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the importance of the data value pair is determined based on at least one of the distance, the index value regarding easiness of movement, and the population ratio, and the number of times of appearance of the data value pair.

### Claim 8 (depends on 5)

The information processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the calculation unit calculates, for each data value pair that is common to first identification information and second identification information based on which the similarities for the respective granularity levels between the pieces of identification information are calculated, the evaluation value for the data value pair by multiplying the importance of the data value pair in the first identification information by the importance of the data value pair in the second identification information, and calculates a total sum of the evaluation values for all the data value pairs that are common to the first identification information and the second identification information as the similarity for each of the granularity levels between the first identification information and the second identification information.

### Claim 9 (depends on 2)

The information processing apparatus according to claim 2, herein the higher the granularity level becomes, the larger the weight applied by the calculation unit becomes.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising related identification information selection unit configured to determine means for determining the relevance degree between related identification information and selecting one of the at least one piece of related identification information based on the relevance degree,
wherein the positional information acquisition unit acquires positional information associated with the related identification information selected by the related identification information selection unit.

### Claim 11 (depends on 10)

The information processing apparatus according to claim 10,
wherein the related identification information selection unit specifies second related identification information related to first related identification information of the at least one piece of related identification information, and determines, when the second related identification information is included in the at least one piece of related identification information, that the relevance degree between the first related identification information and the second related identification information is high, and selects related identification information with the high relevance degree from among the at least one piece of related identification information.

### Claim 12 (depends on 1)

The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the specifying unit determines, when the similarity that has been calculated is equal to or larger than a predetermined threshold, that users who own two pieces of identification information based on which the similarity is calculated are the same user.

### Claim 13 (depends on 1)

The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:
identification information acquisition unit configured to acquire the plurality of pieces of identification information, the related identification information, and the information associated with the related identification information; and
storage unit configured to store the plurality of pieces of identification information, the related identification information, and the information associated with the related identification information in association with one another,
wherein positional information acquisition unit acquires the positional information from the stored information associated with the related identification information.

### Claim 14 (depends on 13)

The information processing apparatus according to claim 13, wherein the information associated with the related identification information comprises at least one of profile information and posted information.

### Claim 15 (depends on 1)

The information processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the identification information comprises at least one of an account and a telephone number.

### Claim 16

A determination method comprising:
acquiring positional information associated with at least one piece of related identification information related to each of a plurality of pieces of identification information to be determined, each of the pieces of identification information identifying users in a communication service;
specifying hierarchized positional information indicating positional information hierarchized in accordance with a granularity level of a position based on the positional information;
calculating a similarity between pieces of identification information using the hierarchized positional information; and
specifying pieces of identification information belonging to one user from among the plurality of pieces of identification information based on the similarity that has been calculated.

### Claim 17

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing a program for causing a computer to execute the following processing of:
acquiring positional information associated with at least one piece of related identification information related to each of a plurality of pieces of identification information to be determined, each of the pieces of identification information identifying users in a communication service;
specifying hierarchized positional information indicating positional information hierarchized in accordance with a granularity level of a position based on the positional information;
calculating a similarity between pieces of identification information using the hierarchized positional information; and
specifying pieces of identification information belonging to one user from among the plurality of pieces of identification information based on the similarity that has been calculated.

### Claim 18

(canceled)