JP5658986B2 - Electronic book display device, method and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic book display apparatus, method, and program for displaying various contents obtained by digitizing paper-based contents such as manga, newspapers, magazines, documents, textbooks, and reference books.

  Along with information technology innovation in recent years, an information distribution form has been established in which books that are supposed to be printed on paper such as magazines and comics are digitized and viewed with dedicated electronic book viewers such as iPad and Kindle . Conventional revenue models of books are roughly divided into two methods: a method of using book content itself as a product, and a method of obtaining an advertisement fee by inserting an advertisement in the book. In the case of an electronic book, it is easy to edit and process digital content, and various methods have been proposed for inserting advertisements into the electronic book.

  According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-228561, a manga popular character line is rewritten to an advertisement on a blog site. In addition, blog articles and the like are created by effectively using one scene of animation and drama.

  According to Patent Document 2, an advertisement is displayed in an empty area of a comic frame of an electronic book.

JP 2008-158602 JP JP 2002-109359 A

  When an advertisement is inserted into an electronic book, the problem is the insertion position and timing. If an advertisement is inserted in advance in the content dialogue as in Patent Document 1, it becomes impossible to understand the dialogue in the original comic.

  In addition, as in Patent Document 2, the technique of inserting an advertisement into a blank area also detracts from the comic art expression of frame division.

  The present invention provides a user with a highly appealing advertisement at an appropriate timing without impairing the understanding of the content in an advertisement insertion method in an electronic book.

  The present invention analyzes a content of an electronic book, stores a content analysis unit that acquires content analysis information including a reading order of content elements and a layout of content elements, and stores advertisement information including an advertisement and an advertisement layout An advertisement layout that determines an element of content having a layout that matches the layout of the advertisement by comparing the layout of the element of the content included in the advertisement information storage unit and the content analysis information with the layout of the advertisement included in the advertisement information A determination unit, a display control unit that displays content elements including advertisement placement elements on a predetermined display device according to a reading order, a browsing history acquisition unit that acquires a browsing history of each content element, and a browsing history acquisition unit In accordance with the browsing history of each acquired content element, the display control unit A display timing determining unit that estimates a content element that starts browsing or a content element that ends browsing, and determines a display timing of an advertisement having a layout that matches the layout of the estimated content element The display control unit provides an electronic book display device that displays an advertisement on the predetermined display device according to the layout of the elements of the content being displayed on the predetermined display device at the display timing determined by the display timing determination unit To do.

  Preferably, in the electronic book display device, the browsing history acquisition unit acquires a browsing time of each content element for each user, and from each browsing time of each content element acquired by the browsing history acquisition unit, An average browsing time calculation unit for calculating an average browsing time of content elements is provided.

  Preferably, in the electronic book display device, the display timing determination unit is configured to determine the browsing time based on the reading order, the time elapsed since the start of display of the content elements, and the average browsing time of each content element calculated by the average browsing time calculation unit. The content of the content to be started or the content of the content that has been browsed is estimated, and the display control unit is adapted to the layout of the content element to be browsed or the content of the content that has been browsed that the display timing determination unit has guessed. Is displayed.

  Preferably, in the electronic book display device, the popularity calculation unit that calculates the popularity of each content element from the browsing history of each content element acquired by the browsing history acquisition unit, and the desired advertisement layout are adapted. A popular content element extraction unit that preferentially extracts content elements of high popularity calculated by the popularity calculation unit from content elements having a layout, and the display control unit extracts the popular content extraction unit The advertisement is displayed at the display timing determined by the display timing determination unit in accordance with the layout of the content elements.

  Preferably, in the electronic book display device, the browsing history acquisition unit acquires the browsing time of the page, and the popularity degree calculation unit calculates the relative browsing time of the specific frame on the page, whereby the specific frame is displayed. Calculate the popularity of.

  Preferably, in the electronic book display device, the popularity degree calculation unit divides the page browsing time by the total number of lines in the page and multiplies the number of lines of the specific frame on the page to estimate the browsing time of the specific frame. To calculate the popularity of a specific frame.

  Preferably, in the electronic book display device, the popularity degree calculation unit calculates the popularity degree of the specific frame from the relative browsing time of the specific frame, the size of the specific frame, and the size of the words in the specific frame. To do.

  Preferably, in the electronic book display device, the popularity degree calculation unit multiplies the relative browsing time of the specific frame, the size of the specific frame, and the size of the line in the specific frame, thereby multiplying the size of the specific frame. Calculate popularity.

  Preferably, in the electronic book display device, the content analysis unit analyzes a layout of a series of content elements having a continuous reading order and a content element having a continuous reading order, and the advertisement information storage unit has a continuous reading order. And a layout corresponding to each of the plurality of advertisements constituting the series of advertisements, and the advertisement layout determining unit stores the layout and advertisement information of each of the plurality of content elements included in the content analysis information. A set of ad placement elements, which are elements of a series of content having a layout that matches the layout of the series of advertisements, is determined by matching with the layout of each of the plurality of advertisements that make up the series of included advertisements. The control unit assigns each advertisement constituting a series of advertisements that conform to the layout of the series of advertisement placement elements according to the reading order of the advertisement group, Sequentially displayed in accordance with the display of the individual elements of the communication of advertising placement element.

  Preferably, in the electronic book display device, the layout of the content element includes the size of the content element, the advertisement layout includes the size of the advertisement, and the advertisement layout determination unit includes the size of the content element and the advertisement The elements of the content having a layout that matches the layout of the advertisement are determined by comparing the sizes and determining the elements of the content having a size equal to or larger than the size of the advertisement.

  Preferably, in the electronic book display device, the content element includes a comic line, and the display control unit displays the advertisement instead of the line in accordance with the comic line layout that matches the layout of the advertisement.

  The present invention provides an electronic book display device that analyzes content of an electronic book and obtains content analysis information including a reading order of content elements and a layout of content elements, and an advertisement including an advertisement and an advertisement layout A step of storing information, and a step of determining a content element having a layout that matches the layout of the advertisement by comparing the layout of the content element included in the content analysis information with the layout of the advertisement included in the advertisement information A step of displaying the content elements including the advertisement placement element on a predetermined display device according to the reading order, a step of acquiring a browsing history of each content element, and a predetermined history according to the browsing history of each acquired content element Of the content elements that are currently displayed on the display device And determining the display timing of an advertisement having a layout that matches the layout of the estimated content element and the display timing determined by the display timing determination unit There is provided an electronic book display method for executing the step of displaying an advertisement on a predetermined display device in accordance with the layout of elements of the content being displayed on the display device.

  The present invention provides an electronic book display device that analyzes content of an electronic book and obtains content analysis information including a reading order of content elements and a layout of content elements, and an advertisement including an advertisement and an advertisement layout A step of storing information, and a step of determining a content element having a layout that matches the layout of the advertisement by comparing the layout of the content element included in the content analysis information with the layout of the advertisement included in the advertisement information A step of displaying the content elements including the advertisement placement element on a predetermined display device according to the reading order, a step of acquiring a browsing history of each content element, and a predetermined history according to the browsing history of each acquired content element Of the content elements that are currently displayed on the display device And determining the display timing of an advertisement having a layout that matches the layout of the estimated content element and the display timing determined by the display timing determination unit There is provided an electronic book display program for executing the step of displaying an advertisement on a predetermined display device in accordance with the layout of elements of the content being displayed on the display device.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to effectively convey an advertisement without hindering the user from browsing the content by arranging the advertisement having a layout suitable for the content element after the browsing is completed or before the browsing is started.

Schematic configuration diagram of a content distribution system according to the first embodiment The figure which shows an example of the information stored in a database The figure which shows an example of the information stored in a page information table The figure which shows an example of the speech field which arranges each advertisement The figure which shows an example of the information stored in an advertisement table The figure which shows an example of arrangement of advertisement for every serif number Flow chart of distribution process Flow chart of display processing Schematic block diagram of an electronic book viewer according to the second embodiment The figure which shows an example of the information stored in a manga layout information table Flowchart of advertisement display processing of the second embodiment Figure showing a display example of a popular top manga advertisement The figure which shows the other structural example of an electronic book viewer

<First Embodiment>
FIG. 1 shows a configuration of a content distribution system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. This system includes a server 1 and an electronic book viewer 2. The server 1 is configured by a computer (information processing apparatus) including an arithmetic device (CPU), a storage device, an input / output circuit, and the like. The electronic book viewer 2 is an information terminal provided with display means capable of reproducing images, communication means, a calculation device (CPU), a storage device, an input / output circuit, an operation means, and the like, and is configured by, for example, a smartphone or a tablet computer Is done. It should be noted that an unspecified number of electronic book viewers 2 accessing the server 1 may be used.

  Specifically, the server 1 includes a page information analysis unit 10, a database (DB) 11, an operation unit 16, a communication unit 17, and a browsing history acquisition unit 19.

  The DB 11 includes a page table 12, a page information table 13, an advertisement information table 14, and a browsing history table 18.

  The page information analysis unit 10 and the browsing history acquisition unit 19 are configured by an information processing device such as a CPU. The DB 11 is composed of a storage medium such as a hard disk or a memory. The operation unit 16 is an operation unit such as a keyboard, a mouse, or a touch pad.

  The page table 12 stores content images associated with page numbers. The content image is an original data converted into electronic data by a scanner or the like. Original content is organized in pages such as manga, newspapers, weekly magazine articles, office documents (presentation documents, etc.), textbooks, and reference books. The original content image is associated with a page number. The storage format of the original content image is arbitrary, and is stored in a format such as a PDF file or a JPEG image file. Additional information may be recorded in the original content image. This supplementary information may include the author of the content, title, total number of pages, volume number, episode number, and the like.

  The page information table 13 stores page information. The page information is an analysis result of the content image output from the page information analysis unit 10.

  The page information analysis unit 10 analyzes the content image and its accompanying information stored in the DB 11 and outputs content analysis information. If the content analysis information is a series of content (manga, newspaper, weekly magazine articles, office documents, textbooks, reference books, etc.), content author, content title, and the content consists of multiple volumes and episodes Its episode number, number of content pages, page number of each page, content elements for each page (frame, drawing, type of characters in the drawing, speech balloons, lines, text, tables, diagrams, etc.), content This includes element reading order, character features (character name, character line-of-sight direction, character size, position, etc.), text content such as words, position, amount (number of characters), page / section / chapter, etc. The position, size, and type of the content element may be automatically detected based on the feature amount of the face or other object. Automatic detection of content elements may be performed based on machine learning. For example, based on the sample manga for learning, the detection accuracy of the outer edge of the frame or balloon, the threshold for determining the validity of the frame or balloon other than the rectangular area, and the like are set empirically.

  Alternatively, the text sentence (serif) inside the balloon may be recognized by OCR, and the area surrounding it may be recognized as a serif area. Each character of the read line is sorted according to the direction of the character. For example, if the words are written vertically, they are sorted from the beginning to the end of the column, and from the right column to the left column.

  The frame number or the serif number is determined according to a predetermined rule. For example, if the content type is manga, the representative point of each frame or balloon (such as the center or center of gravity of the frame or balloon) from the top right to the bottom left of the frame or balloon included in the content analysis information The page number or serif number is determined by sequentially scanning in the horizontal direction.

  Or although illustration is abbreviate | omitted, a page number or a serif number can also be determined according to the rule according to the author of content.

  Alternatively, the content analysis rule may be not only a rule according to the author or type of content but also a rule according to the author or type of content learned by artificial intelligence.

  Rule learning is performed as follows, for example. First, correct rules are prepared in advance for each of a plurality of basic patterns. The page information analysis unit 10 extracts feature quantities (thickness and length of the frame boundary line) for each of the plurality of basic patterns. Then, the page information analysis unit 10 estimates the reading order of frames assumed by the content creator from the extracted feature values. The page information analysis unit 10 compares the reading order estimated for each basic pattern with the correct rule, and optimizes the parameter for estimating the reading order of the frames. The page information analysis unit 10 estimates the reading order of the comic frames according to the optimized parameters.

  For simplicity of explanation, it is assumed that the original content is a manga and the original content image is an image corresponding to each page of the manga. Manga is content that consists of both pictures (whether live-action or drawing) and lines.

  In this case, the page number, the frame number, the speech number (the reading order of each speech bubble in the same frame), the speech position (the speech bubble position), and the speech size (the speech width, the height) analyzed by the page information analysis unit 10. Is stored in the page information table 13. Hereinafter, the line number, the line position, and the line size may be collectively referred to as line information.

  The browsing history acquisition unit 19 acquires the browsing history of each element (analyzed page, frame, line) of the content by the electronic book viewer 2 and stores it in the browsing history table 18. The pages, frames, and lines in the browsing history table 18 correspond to the pages, frames, and lines in the page information table 13. That is, the browsing history acquisition unit 19 stores the browsing time of each user corresponding to pages, frames, and lines that can be analyzed by the page information analysis unit 10. The browsing time includes the estimated time. The browsing history is classified for each specific set of content images (for example, content images for one volume of manga).

  The browsing time of each user's page or the like is acquired by the browsing history acquisition unit, and stored in the browsing history table 28 in association with unique identification information such as a user ID. Alternatively, instead of storing the browsing time for each user, the average browsing time of each content (page, frame, line, etc.) by each user may be stored. Furthermore, the average browsing time may be the browsing time of a single user.

  As an example, the browsing history acquisition unit 19 calculates the time from when the display start instruction for the currently displayed page (current page) is input to the time when the display start instruction for the next page is input. It is acquired as viewing time and stored in the browsing history table 18. A page display start instruction is input to the electronic book viewer 2 by a single tap, a double tap, or the like to the operation unit 27. The server 1 detects this display start instruction in real time via the communication unit 17 and acquires the browsing time of the current page. Of course, the browsing time may be acquired by the electronic book viewer 2. The browsing time of each page of each user can be acquired by acquiring the browsing time of the current page for all pages of content and for all users.

  FIG. 2 shows the structure of information stored in the DB 11. FIG. 3 shows an example of information stored in the page information table 13. FIG. 4 shows an example of information stored in the browsing history table 18.

  Referring to FIG. 1 again, the electronic book viewer 2 is composed of a portable information terminal such as a smartphone or a tablet computer, and includes display means capable of reproducing an image, communication means, operation detection means, information processing apparatus, and the like.

  Specifically, the electronic book viewer 2 includes an advertisement placement determination unit 15, a database (DB) 21, a page display unit 35, a content display control unit 25, an advertisement timing determination unit 26, an operation unit 27, and a communication unit 29.

  The page display unit 35 is a display unit configured by a display device such as an LCD. The operation unit 27 is an operation detection unit configured with a touch panel or the like. Preferably, the operation unit 27 is stacked on the page display unit 35 and can detect various operations such as single tap, double tap, swipe, and long press on the page display unit 35.

  The communication unit 29 is a communication unit that is connected to the communication unit 17 of the server 1 to transmit and receive information.

  The DB 21 includes a page table 22, a page information table 23, an advertisement information table 24, and a browsing history table 28. Information equivalent to the page table 12, the page information table 13, the advertisement information table 14, and the browsing history table 18 is stored in the DB 21, respectively. Store. That is, when the electronic book viewer 2 requests the server 1 to transmit an electronic book, the server 1 exports each information of the DB 11 to the DB 21 via the communication unit 29, and the page table 12, the page information table 13, the advertisement information Information of the table 14 and the browsing history table 18 is stored in the DB 21 as information of the page table 22, the page information table 23, the advertisement information table 24, and the browsing history table 28. However, the information in DB 11 and the information in DB 21 do not have to be completely the same. The DB 11 is a library that stores various types of content images, for example, content images of each volume of manga by different authors, in order to respond to requests from various users. The DB 21 only needs to store information on each table related to the content that the user of the electronic book viewer 2 wants to browse.

  The content display control unit 25 performs content display control and advertisement display control for the page display unit 35.

  The advertisement placement determination unit 15 determines the placement position of the advertisement on the content image based on the speech information (the location and size of the speech) stored in the page information table 23. This arrangement position is stored in the advertisement information table 24 again.

  For example, the advertisement placement determination unit 15 determines the placement position of the advertisement as follows.

  First, the advertisement placement determining unit 15 calculates the area A of the speech area necessary for displaying the advertisement from the minimum size of the advertisement stored in the page table 12 (the size of the area necessary for displaying the advertisement). If there are multiple lines for one advertisement, the necessary area is calculated for all the lines.

  Next, the advertisement placement determination unit 15 calculates the area B of the speech area where the advertisement can be displayed from the speech size of the page information table 13. When a plurality of lines are present on one page, the area is calculated for all the lines.

  Next, the advertisement placement determination unit 15 matches the area A and the area B to determine a speech area where each advertisement can be placed, that is, a speech area where the area B ≧ area A. When there are multiple lines, arrange the lines in the same page in the order of frame number and line number, and determine the line of lines that each of the multiple advertisements fits in the line area of consecutive frame numbers and line numbers. .

  For example, it is assumed that the page information table 23 and the advertisement information table 24 as shown in FIG. In this case, the advertisement placement determination unit 15 determines that the advertisement placement positions corresponding to the advertisements of the advertisement number 1 and the speech number 1, the advertisement number 1 and the speech number 2, and the advertisement number 1 and the speech number 3 are the frame number 1 and the speech line, respectively. Number 3, frame number 2, serif number 1, frame number 2, serif number 2 are determined. As a result, the placement position of the advertisement for each speech number as shown in FIG. 6 is determined (the correspondence between the advertisement and the speech location).

  If a plurality of advertisements cannot be placed in the speech area of consecutive speech numbers, the advertisement is placed in the speech areas of discontinuous speech numbers. However, in this case as well, the arrangement of the advertisement numbers and serif numbers of the placed advertisements follows the reading order of the content elements. The determined placement position of the advertisement may be stored in the advertisement information table 24.

  The advertisement timing determination unit 26 determines the arrival timing of the advertisement corresponding to each content element being browsed. The content display control unit 25 arranges and displays the advertisement at the corresponding arrangement position in response to the advertisement timing determination unit 26 determining that the advertisement arrangement timing has arrived. As described above, the advertisement placement position is determined by the advertisement placement determination unit 15 and is stored in the advertisement information table 24.

  As an example, the determination of arrival of the advertisement placement timing by the advertisement timing determination unit 26 is performed as follows.

  1. The advertisement timing determination unit 26 acquires the browsing history of each element of the content from the browsing history table 28. Similar to the browsing history table 18 (see FIG. 4), the browsing history includes the browsing time of each page, each frame, or each line of the user. The advertisement timing determination unit 26 calculates an average browsing time of content elements (pages, frames, or lines).

  When the average browsing time corresponding to the content element has elapsed since the start of display of the content element, the advertisement timing determination unit 26 relates to the content element or the content element in the reading order before and after the content element. It is determined that the advertisement placement timing has arrived.

  For example, when the average viewing time corresponding to a page, frame, or line has elapsed since the start of display of a certain page, frame, or line, the advertisement timing determination unit 26 has reached the ad placement timing for that page, frame, or line Judge.

  By repeating this determination for each content element display, an advertisement that matches the layout of the content element is displayed according to the display of the content element. More preferably, both a pattern in which an advertisement is arranged before the start of the line browsing and a pattern in which an advertisement is arranged after the end of the line browsing are prepared, and any one of them is implemented.

  The pattern for placing advertisements before the start of browsing is as follows. That is, the advertisement timing determination unit 26 calculates the average serif browsing time from the number of serifs in the page and the average page browsing time of each user. The advertisement timing determination unit 26 measures the elapsed time from the start of page display, and when the elapsed time reaches the average serif browsing time, the advertisement timing determining unit 26 estimates that the next serif browsing starts, and the advertisement corresponding to the next serif It is determined that the arrangement timing has arrived. Thereafter, it is determined that the advertisement placement timing corresponding to the (n + 1) th line has arrived every time the average line browsing time elapses from the display start of the nth line.

  The pattern for placing the advertisement after the end of the browsing of the dialogue is as follows. That is, the advertisement timing determination unit 26 calculates the average serif browsing time from the number of serifs in the page and the average page browsing time of each user. The advertisement timing determination unit 26 measures the elapsed time from the start of the page display, and when the elapsed time reaches the average serif browsing time, the advertisement timing determining unit 26 estimates that the first serif browsing has ended, and corresponds to the first serif. It is determined that the advertisement placement timing has arrived. Thereafter, it is determined that the advertisement placement timing corresponding to the nth line has arrived every time the average line browsing time elapses from the display start of the nth line. In any of the patterns, the arrangement timing of the advertisement is taken into consideration so as not to prevent the user's browsing of the dialogue, and this point is different from the conventional technology. The advertisement is deleted after a predetermined time has elapsed from the start of display (for example, after 5 seconds), and at the same time, the display of the original line is restored. As a result, there will be no major hindrance to browsing the original dialogue.

  The average browsing time corresponding to a page, a frame, or a line is calculated by the following formula.

Average page browsing time = Total content browsing time / Total number of content pages Average frame browsing time = Total content browsing time / Total number of content lines Average line browsing time = Total number of frames with lines × Average frame browsing Time / content total number of lines Here, the total number of pages, the total number of frames, and the total number of lines are values stored in the page information table 13 (see FIG. 3). The total browsing time of the content is acquired by the browsing history acquisition unit 19. If each page, frame, and line browsing time can be acquired, the corresponding average browsing time can be obtained from each browsing time. Therefore, the above formula is merely an example of calculating the average browsing time. The average browsing time may be calculated by the server 1 and stored in the browsing history table 18, or may be calculated by the electronic book viewer 2 and stored in the browsing history table 28.

  Alternatively, a simpler determination of the ad placement timing can be made as follows.

  2. When a predetermined time (fixed value) has elapsed since the page was opened (viewing of the page), it is determined that the advertisement placement timing for the page has arrived.

  3. When a page is opened, it is determined that the advertisement placement timing for that page has arrived.

  4). When a predetermined user operation on the speech area displayed on the page display unit 35, for example, a single tap, a double tap, or a long press is detected, it is determined that the advertisement arrangement timing corresponding to the speech area has arrived.

  5. It is determined that the advertisement placement timing has arrived at random timing after the start of content display.

  The display mode of the advertisement is arbitrary. Emphasis may be achieved by changing the color of the advertisement to bold or changing the color. In addition, serif characters are deleted so as not to hinder the display of advertisements. When displaying a plurality of advertisements in one speech area, display them at once or display them in order.

  FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of distribution processing executed between the server 1 and the electronic book viewer 2. The electronic book viewer 2 executes S1 and S5, and the server 1 executes S2 to S4. Programs for causing the server 1 and the electronic book viewer 2 to execute this processing are stored in computer-readable storage media (RAM, ROM, CDROM, etc.) provided in the server 1 and the electronic book viewer 2, respectively.

  In S <b> 1, the electronic book viewer 2 transmits a content request to the server 1 via the communication unit 29.

  In S2, the server 1 is waiting for a content request, and when receiving a content request from the electronic book viewer 2 via the communication unit 17, the process proceeds to S3.

  In S <b> 3, the page information analysis unit 10 of the server 1 analyzes the requested content and stores the result in the page information table 13.

  In S4, the page information analysis unit 10 of the server 1 transmits the page table 12, the page information table 13, the advertisement information table 14, and the browsing history table 18 to the electronic book viewer 2 via the communication unit 17. When the electronic book viewer 2 has the browsing history acquisition unit 19, it is not necessary to transmit the browsing history table 18 from the server 1.

  In S5, the electronic book viewer 2 receives the page table 12, the page information table 13, the advertisement information table 14, and the browsing history table 18 via the communication unit 29, and these are received as the page table 22, the page information table 23, the advertisement. The information table 24 and the browsing history table 28 are stored in the DB 21. And it progresses to the below-mentioned display processing. The content image in the page table 12 may be transmitted in page units or frame units, and only information corresponding to the transmitted content image unit may be transmitted as information in other tables. .

  FIG. 8 shows a flowchart of display processing executed by the electronic book viewer 2.

  In S10, the content display control unit 25 starts displaying the content image based on the page table 22 and the page information table 23 of the DB 21. The content image is switched according to the content image feed instruction input to the operation unit 27. When the content image includes a manga, the switching unit is a page (or frame). The order of switching follows the page number (or frame number). However, since the user may desire irregular browsing such as reading and skipping pages, a content image switching operation ignoring this order may be allowed.

  In S <b> 11, the advertisement placement determination unit 15 determines the placement position of the advertisement on the speech of the content image based on the speech information (the location and size of the speech) stored in the page information table 23.

  In S12, the content display control unit 25 determines whether the line area of the frame being displayed has the advertisement placement area determined in S11. In the case of Yes, it progresses to S13, and in the case of No, it returns to S10 and continues displaying the content image based on the user operation.

  In S13, the advertisement timing determination unit 26 determines whether or not a condition for starting advertisement display is satisfied for the currently displayed frame. In the case of Yes, it progresses to S14, and in No, it returns to S10.

  In S14, the advertisement timing determination unit 26 displays an advertisement corresponding to the advertisement placement area of the currently displayed frame. As a result, the dialogue is displayed in place of the advertisement (see FIG. 6). The advertisement may be deleted after a predetermined time has elapsed, and the lines may be displayed again. Then, in response to the content image sending instruction being input to the operation unit 27, the process returns to S10, and the display of the instructed content image and the display of the advertisement corresponding to the displayed content image or speech area are repeated.

  As described above, the advertisement is displayed at an appropriate timing synchronized with the display of the content image, and the advertisement can be effectively transmitted to the user. In particular, the advertisement can be transmitted without hindering the user from browsing the content by placing the advertisement in the dialogue after the browsing is completed or before the browsing is started.

Second Embodiment
FIG. 9 shows a configuration of an electronic book viewer 200 according to the second embodiment. Blocks having the same functions as those in the second embodiment are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof is omitted. Further, the electronic book viewer 200 can be connected to the server 1 via the communication unit 29 to transmit and receive various data.

  The electronic book viewer 200 includes a popular frame determination unit 30 and a popular frame manga creation unit 31. The DB 21 stores a manga layout information table 32.

  FIG. 10 shows an example of information stored in the comic layout information table 32. In the manga layout information table 32, the layout number, the number of frames, the position information of the speech areas corresponding to the number of frames, and the advertisement corresponding to each speech area are grouped. The layout number is a layout identification number. The number of frames indicates the number of frames necessary for the placement of advertisements, and the coordinates of the speech placement areas indicate the position information of the speech areas corresponding to the placement of the advertisements (here, expressed by xy coordinates).

  FIG. 11 shows a flowchart of the advertisement display process of the second embodiment. Programs for causing the electronic book viewer 2 to execute this processing are stored in computer-readable storage media (RAM, ROM, CDROM, etc.) provided in the server 1 and the electronic book viewer 2, respectively.

  In S <b> 101, the electronic book viewer 200 acquires the browsing history of the browsing history table 28. Alternatively, if the electronic book viewer 200 includes the browsing history acquisition unit 19, the browsing history may be acquired from the browsing history acquisition unit 19.

  In S <b> 102, the electronic book viewer 200 acquires page information in the page information table 23. Alternatively, if the electronic book viewer 200 includes the page information analysis unit 10, the page information analysis unit 10 may acquire page information.

  In S103, the popular frame determination unit 30 calculates the popularity of each content element stored in the page table 22 based on the browsing history, and extracts a predetermined number of popular content elements based on the popularity. To do. As an example, the extraction of popular content elements is performed as follows.

  First, the popular frame determination unit 30 calculates the browsing ratio of content elements analyzed by the page information analysis unit 10 (estimated ratio of time spent browsing the content elements). The browsing ratio of a specific frame is the total browsing time of the page including the specific frame (average browsing time when there are multiple users) by the certain user or users, the total number of lines in the specific frame, It is a value calculated from the total number of lines in the page. The number of frames and the number of lines are based on the acquired page information.

For example, the viewing ratio v of a frame on a page is v = f (x, y, z)
Here, x is the total browsing time of the page, y is the number of lines in the frame, and z is the total number of lines in the page. f is a monotone increasing function with respect to two parameters of the total browsing time of the page and the number of lines in the frame, and is a monotonic decreasing function with respect to the total number of lines in the page. That is, if the number of lines in the frame is large, the frame browsing ratio increases (the time spent for browsing the line of the frame becomes relatively long in the browsing time of the entire page). Also, if the total number of lines in the page is large, the frame browsing ratio is small (the time spent for browsing the frame is relatively short). For example, f = x × y / z. The average browsing time may be the browsing time of a single user.

  Next, the popular frame determination unit 30 calculates the popularity of each frame based on the browsing ratio of each frame. For example, the popularity of the top element is calculated by the following formula.

Popularity v = g (u, v, w)
Here, u: frame size, v: frame browsing ratio, w: total size of each speech area of frame, for example, g = u × y × w. That is, the popularity increases as the size of the frame is large, the relative browsing time of the frame is long, or the total size of the speech area is large.

  Then, the popular frame determination unit 30 selects a serif region having a layout that matches the position information of the serif region corresponding to the layout number arbitrarily specified from the operation unit 16 in the manga layout information table 32 with a high degree of popularity. A predetermined number (for example, the top four) is preferentially extracted from the frames, and these are determined as popular frames. Note that, as in the first embodiment, the matching between the pieces of position information may be performed by the advertisement placement determination unit 15.

  In S <b> 103, the popular frame manga creation unit 31 creates a popular frame manga advertisement by placing an advertisement in the speech area of each popular frame determined by the popular frame determination unit 30. The advertisement timing determination unit 26 displays the created popular frame manga advertisement on the page display unit 35. The advertisement display timing can be the same as in the first embodiment. That is, an advertisement is placed before the start of browsing the original lines in the popular frame or after the browsing ends. You may make it display only an advertisement from the beginning, without displaying an original line at all. FIG. 12 is a display example of a popular top manga advertisement.

  As described above, when an advertiser or the like designates a desired layout number from the operation unit 16, the popular frame of the manga that can secure a speech arrangement area corresponding to the designated layout number is extracted. Then, by creating a manga using the extracted popular frames and placing an advertisement designated for the manga, the advertisement can be effectively transmitted to the content viewer.

  In the first and second embodiments, all or part of the blocks related to the processes in FIGS. 7, 8, and 11 may be provided in the server 1 or the electronic book viewer 2. Good. For example, the popular frame determination unit 30 and the popular frame manga creation unit 31 may be provided in the server 1. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 13, the electronic book viewer 2 may include a page information analysis unit 10 and a browsing history acquisition unit 19.

  1: Server 2: Electronic book viewer

Claims (12)

A content analysis unit that analyzes the content of the e-book and obtains content analysis information including the reading order of the content elements including manga pages, frames, and lines and the layout of the content elements;
An advertisement information storage unit for storing advertisement information including an advertisement and a layout of the advertisement;
An advertisement layout determining unit that determines a content element having a layout that matches the layout of the advertisement by comparing a layout of the element of the content included in the content analysis information with a layout of the advertisement included in the advertisement information; ,
A display control unit for displaying the elements of the content on a predetermined display device according to the reading order;
A browsing history acquisition unit that acquires the browsing time of each content element for each user ;
From the browsing time of each content element for each user acquired by the browsing history acquisition unit, an average browsing time calculation unit that calculates the average browsing time of each content element;
Based on the reading order, the time elapsed since the start of display of the content element, and the average browsing time of each content element calculated by the average browsing time calculation unit, the element of the content that starts browsing or the element of the content that has finished browsing guess, and display timing determination unit for determining the display timing of the advertisement with a compatible layout to the layout of the guess element content,
With
The display control unit is an electronic book display device that displays the advertisement on the predetermined display device in accordance with a layout of content elements being displayed on the predetermined display device at the display timing determined by the display timing determination unit. The electronic book display device according to claim 1 , wherein the display control unit displays an advertisement that conforms to a layout of a content element that starts browsing or a content element that has finished browsing, which is estimated by the display timing determination unit. From the browsing history of each content element acquired by the browsing history acquisition unit, a popularity calculating unit that calculates the popularity of each content element;
A popular content element extraction unit that preferentially extracts an element of a highly popular content calculated by the popularity calculation unit among content elements having a layout that matches a desired advertisement layout;
With
The display controller, the accordance layout elements of extracted content of popular content element extracting section, the electronic book display apparatus according to claim 1 or 2 for displaying the advertisement in the display timing determined in the display timing determination unit . The browsing history acquisition unit acquires the browsing time of the page,
The electronic book display device according to claim 3 , wherein the popularity calculation unit calculates the popularity of the specific frame by calculating a relative viewing time of the specific frame on the page. The popularity calculation unit calculates the estimated browsing time of the specific frame by dividing the browsing time of the page by the total number of lines in the page and multiplying by the number of lines of the specific frame of the page. The electronic book display device according to claim 4 , wherein the degree of popularity of the specific frame is calculated. The popularity calculating unit according to claim 4 calculates the popularity of the specific frame from the size of the words relative viewing time and said specific frame and the size of the particular frame of said specific frames or 5. The electronic book display device according to 5. The popularity calculation unit calculates the popularity of the specific frame by multiplying the relative viewing time of the specific frame, the size of the specific frame, and the size of the words in the specific frame. The electronic book display device according to claim 6 . The content analysis unit analyzes a layout of a series of content elements in which reading order is continuous and a content element in which the reading order is continuous,
The advertisement information storage unit stores a series of advertisement groups in which reading order is continuous and a layout corresponding to each of a plurality of advertisements constituting the series of advertisements,
The advertisement layout determination unit collates each layout of a plurality of content elements included in the content analysis information with each layout of a plurality of advertisements constituting a series of advertisements included in the advertisement information, Determining a series of ad placement elements that are elements of a series of content having a layout that matches the layout of the series of advertisements;
The display control unit adjusts each advertisement constituting a series of advertisements conforming to the layout of the series of advertisement placement elements in accordance with the display order of the individual elements of the series of advertisement placement elements according to the reading order of the advertisement group. The electronic book display device according to claim 1, wherein the electronic book display device sequentially displays the electronic book. The content element layout includes the size of the content element;
The advertisement layout includes the size of the advertisement;
The advertisement layout determination unit has a layout that matches the layout of the advertisement by collating the size of the element of the content with the size of the advertisement and determining a content element having a size equal to or larger than the size of the advertisement electronic book display apparatus according to any one of claims 1-8 to determine the elements of the content. The content elements include manga lines,
The electronic book display device according to any one of claims 1 to 9 , wherein the display control unit displays the advertisement instead of the line in accordance with a manga line layout adapted to the layout of the advertisement. The electronic book display device
Analyzing the content of the e-book and obtaining content analysis information including the reading order of content elements including comic pages, frames and lines, and the layout of the content elements;
Storing advertisement information including an advertisement and a layout of the advertisement;
Determining a content element having a layout that matches the layout of the advertisement by comparing the layout of the content element included in the content analysis information with the layout of the advertisement included in the advertisement information;
Displaying the content elements on a predetermined display device according to the reading order;
Obtaining the browsing time of each content element for each user ;
Calculating the average browsing time of each content element from the browsing time of each content element for each user;
From the reading order, the time elapsed since the start of display of the content element, and the calculated average browsing time of each content element, the content element to be browsed or the content element that has been browsed is estimated, and the estimation is performed. Determining when to display an advertisement having a layout that conforms to the layout of the elements of the selected content;
Displaying the advertisement on the predetermined display device in accordance with a layout of elements of the content being displayed on the predetermined display device at the determined display timing;
E-book display method to execute. The electronic book display device
Analyzing the content of the e-book and obtaining content analysis information including the reading order of content elements including comic pages, frames and lines, and the layout of the content elements;
Storing advertisement information including an advertisement and a layout of the advertisement;
Determining a content element having a layout that matches the layout of the advertisement by comparing the layout of the content element included in the content analysis information with the layout of the advertisement included in the advertisement information;
Displaying the content elements on a predetermined display device according to the reading order;
Obtaining the browsing time of each content element for each user ;
Calculating the average browsing time of each content element from the browsing time of each content element for each user;
From the reading order, the time elapsed since the start of display of the content element, and the calculated average browsing time of each content element, the content element to be browsed or the content element that has been browsed is estimated, and the estimation is performed. Determining when to display an advertisement having a layout that conforms to the layout of the elements of the selected content;
Displaying the advertisement on the predetermined display device in accordance with a layout of elements of the content being displayed on the predetermined display device at the determined display timing;
E-book display program for running.

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