JP7806432B2 - Information processing device, information processing system, and program - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an information processing device, an information processing system, and a program.

Technology aimed at improving the productivity of work using information processing devices such as personal computers has long existed, which visualizes the names and usage times of each application software and electronic file used from the operation logs of the information processing device (see Patent Document 1).

Patent No. 6399828

However, in order to improve business productivity, it is necessary to visualize the business process as a whole by determining the purpose of each of one or more tasks performed for a predetermined purpose. However, conventional technology lacks the accuracy required to determine the purpose of each of one or more tasks performed using information processing devices. As a result, the majority of the work required to visualize business processes has been done manually.

The object of the present invention is to visualize the business process as a whole by more accurately determining the purpose of each of one or more tasks performed using an information processing device than has been possible in the past.

The invention described in claim 1 is an information processing device comprising a processor, which extracts information regarding work performed for a predetermined purpose and features of the information from log information indicating the operation history of its own device, estimates the predetermined purpose based on the results of comparing the extracted features with information regarding the purposes of multiple types of work that have been pre-stored , and when estimating the predetermined purpose for the same work at a first timing and at a second timing that is later than the first timing, corrects the result of the estimation that was unclear at the first timing to the result of the estimation that is clear at the second timing .
The invention described in claim 2 is an information processing device comprising a processor, which extracts information regarding work performed for a predetermined purpose and features of the information from log information indicating the operation history of its own device, estimates the predetermined purpose based on the results of comparing the extracted features with information regarding the purposes of multiple types of work that have been pre-stored, and when estimating the predetermined purpose, refers to and applies the results of estimation of the predetermined purpose of other work that was being performed in parallel as the result of estimation of work with the same purpose .
The invention described in claim 3 is an information processing system having one or more information processing devices, comprising: an extraction means for extracting, for each of the one or more information processing devices, information regarding work performed for a predetermined purpose and features of the information from log information indicating the operation history of each of the one or more information processing devices; an estimation means for estimating the predetermined purpose for each of the one or more information processing devices based on the result of comparing the extracted features with information regarding the purpose of multiple types of work that is stored in advance; and a correction means for correcting, when estimating the predetermined purpose for the same work at a first timing and a second timing that is later than the first timing, an estimation result that was unclear at the first timing to an estimation result that was clear at the second timing .
The invention described in claim 4 is a program for causing a computer to realize the following functions: a function of extracting information about work performed to carry out a predetermined task and feature values of the information about the work from log information indicating the operation history of the computer's own device; a function of estimating the purpose of the work based on the results of comparing the extracted feature values with information about the purpose of multiple types of work that has been stored in advance; and a function of correcting the result of the estimation that was unclear at the first timing to the result of the estimation that was clear at the second timing when estimating the predetermined purpose for the same work at a first timing and at a second timing that is later than the first timing.

According to the present invention of claim 1, an information processing device can be provided that can visualize the overall business process by more accurately determining the purpose of each of one or more tasks using its own device than in the past. Furthermore, when estimating a "predetermined purpose," the results of previously performed estimations are referenced, thereby improving the reliability and consistency of the estimation results. Furthermore, the results of later estimations are referenced to correct the results of earlier estimations, thereby improving the reliability and consistency of the estimation results. Furthermore, the initial estimation results can be corrected based on subsequently acquired information, thereby improving the reliability and consistency of the estimation results.
According to the present invention of claim 2 , an information processing device can be provided that can visualize the overall business process by determining the purpose of each of one or more tasks using its own device more accurately than before. Furthermore, when estimating a "predetermined purpose," it is possible to refer to the results of estimations related to other tasks, thereby increasing the reliability of the estimation results for the purpose of a task. Furthermore, when estimating a "predetermined purpose," it is possible to refer to the results of estimations of predetermined purposes related to other tasks being performed in parallel, thereby increasing the reliability of the estimation results.
According to the present invention of claim 3 , an information processing system can be provided that can visualize a business process as a whole by more accurately determining the purpose of each of one or more tasks using one or more information processing devices than in the past. Furthermore, when estimating a "predetermined purpose," the results of previous estimations are referenced, thereby improving the reliability and consistency of the estimation results. Furthermore, the results of later estimations are referenced to correct the results of earlier estimations, thereby improving the reliability and consistency of the estimation results. Furthermore, the initial estimation results can be corrected based on subsequently acquired information, thereby improving the reliability and consistency of the estimation results.
According to the present invention of claim 4 , a program can be provided that can visualize an entire business process by more accurately determining the purpose of each of one or more tasks using an information processing device than in the past. Furthermore, when estimating a "predetermined purpose," the results of previous estimations are referenced, thereby improving the reliability and consistency of the estimation results. Furthermore, the results of later estimations are referenced to correct the results of earlier estimations, thereby improving the reliability and consistency of the estimation results. Furthermore, the initial estimation results can be corrected based on subsequently acquired information, thereby improving the reliability and consistency of the estimation results.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of an employee terminal. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a functional configuration of a control unit of an employee terminal. 10 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing up to estimation of the purpose of work, among the processing flows of the employee terminal; 10 is a flowchart showing the flow of a process for correcting the result of estimating the purpose of the work of an employee, which is part of the process flow of the employee terminal. 10A and 10B are diagrams showing specific examples of character strings related to the work of an employee extracted by an employee terminal and attribute information of the character strings. 10 is a diagram showing a specific example of "purpose of work" and its detailed information stored in advance in a database of a storage unit of an employee terminal. FIG. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a specific example of an estimation result of the content of a task. FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an overall configuration of an information processing system. 10 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing for estimating the purpose of an employee's work, among the processing flows of the management server;

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
First Embodiment
(Hardware configuration of employee terminals)
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the hardware configuration of the employee terminal 10. As shown in FIG.
The employee terminal 10 is an information processing device such as a personal computer, tablet terminal, or smartphone operated by an employee performing work for a predetermined purpose. The employee terminal 10 has a control unit 11, a memory 12, a storage unit 13, a communication unit 14, an operation unit 15, and a display unit 16. These units are connected via a data bus, an address bus, a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) bus, etc.

The control unit 11 is a processor that controls the operation of the device through the execution of various software such as the OS (operating system) and application software. The control unit 11 is composed of, for example, a CPU (Central Processing Unit). The memory 12 is a storage area that stores various software and data used to execute the software, and is used as a working area for calculations. The memory 12 is composed of, for example, RAM (Random Access Memory).

The memory unit 13 is a storage area that stores input data for various software programs and output data from various software programs, and stores databases for storing various information, such as the objective DB 801 and operation log DB 802 described below. The memory unit 13 is composed of, for example, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), SSD (Solid State Drive), or semiconductor memory used to store programs and various setting data. The communication unit 14 sends and receives data via the network 90 or by a communication method such as infrared communication. The communication unit 14 sends and receives data to and from the outside.

The operation unit 15 is composed of, for example, a keyboard, mouse, mechanical buttons, and switches, and accepts input operations. The operation unit 15 also includes a touch sensor that forms a touch panel integrally with the display unit 16. The display unit 16 displays images, text information, and the like. The display unit 16 is composed of, for example, a liquid crystal display or organic EL (Electro Luminescence) display used to display information.

(Functional configuration of the control unit of the employee terminal)
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the functional configuration of the control unit 11 of the employee terminal 10. As shown in FIG.
In the control unit 11 of the employee terminal 10, an acquisition unit 101, an information management unit 102, an extraction unit 103, a comparison unit 104, an estimation unit 105, and a correction unit 106 function.

The acquisition unit 101 acquires log information indicating the operation history of its own device. The log information acquired by the acquisition unit 101 is stored in the operation log DB 802 of the storage unit 13. The log information acquired by the acquisition unit 101 includes information such as the window that was the target of the operation, the application software used, the file that was opened, the location where the file was saved, screenshot images, and keyboard input history. Here, "window" refers to the work screen displayed on the display unit 16 of the employee terminal 10.

The information management unit 102 stores and manages information relating to the objectives of multiple types of work in a database. Information relating to the objectives of multiple types of work is information that associates the "objective of the work" with detailed information about that work. Here, "work" refers to the smallest unit of an employee's action performed to produce a certain deliverable. The unit of work performed by an employee operating the employee terminal 10 is the unit of a window displayed on the screen of the display unit 16. For example, the work of opening a browser window to view a document, the work of opening a presentation application software window to create a document, and the work of opening an application software window for sending and receiving email to create an email are each considered to be a single work.

Work performed by employees has a purpose. For example, opening a browser window to view documents can have a variety of possible purposes, but the purpose of that work cannot be identified solely from the operation of opening a browser window to view documents. For this reason, the information management unit 102 pre-stores and manages information on multiple types of work purposes that can be identified as the purpose of an employee's work in a database in an extractable format. Specifically, "work purpose" as information on the purpose of multiple types of work is stored in association with detailed information. In the purpose DB 801, "work purpose" is classified into multiple hierarchies, with detailed information associated with each hierarchical level.

The "task objectives" stored in objective DB 801 are categorized, for example, into major and minor categories. In this case, text information is associated with each minor category as detailed information. Here, the classification of "task objectives" is not limited to major and minor categories, but may also include intermediate categories, resulting in three levels, or 3+n levels (n is an integer greater than or equal to 1). Specific examples of information relating to multiple types of task objectives stored in objective DB 801 will be described later with reference to Figure 6.

In addition, the information management unit 102 stores and manages the log information acquired by the acquisition unit 101 in the operation log DB 802 (see Figure 1) of the storage unit 13.

The extraction unit 103 extracts information about work performed for a predetermined purpose (hereinafter sometimes abbreviated as "work-related information") from the log information stored in the operation log DB 802 of the storage unit 13. Specifically, the extraction unit 103 extracts, as "work-related information," character strings related to the employee's work and attribute information for those character strings for each window displayed on the display unit 16 of the device itself. The attribute information includes one or more of the following information: the type of character string, the position of the character string in the window displayed on the display unit 16 of the device itself, and the size of the character string displayed in the window. The attribute information also includes information indicating the importance of the character string. Specific examples of the extracted character strings related to the employee's work and the attribute information for those character strings will be described later with reference to Figure 5.

The extraction unit 103 extracts feature quantities of information related to the work. Specifically, the extraction unit 103 weights the strings using information indicating the importance of the strings, which is included in the string attribute information, and extracts strings that serve as feature quantities of the information related to the work based on the weighting results. When the extraction unit 103 extracts strings that serve as feature quantities of the information related to the work, it determines the importance of the strings based on one or more of the following information: the type of string, the position of the string in a window displayed on the display unit 16 of the device itself, and the size of the string displayed in the window.

The comparison unit 104 compares the character strings extracted by the extraction unit 103 as feature quantities of the information about the tasks with the character strings included in the information about the tasks of multiple types stored in the task DB 801. The comparison method used by the comparison unit 104 is not particularly limited, and for example, it compares vectors that are distributed represented using morphological analysis.

The estimation unit 105 estimates the purpose of the work performed by employee W based on the results of the comparison by the comparison unit 104. Specifically, the estimation unit 105 estimates the purpose of the work performed by employee W based on the results of comparing character strings as feature quantities of the information about the work with character strings included in pre-stored information about the purposes of multiple types of work. For example, the estimation unit 105 estimates the purpose of the work performed by employee W based on the cosine similarity, which indicates the closeness of the angles formed by the vectors, as a result of comparing vectors represented in a distributed manner using morphological analysis.

Here, when estimating the purpose of the same task performed at a first timing and a second timing that follows the first timing, the estimation unit 105 can refer to the result of estimating the purpose of the task at the first timing when making the estimation at the second timing. In other words, when estimating the purpose of the task at the mth timing (m is an integer value greater than or equal to 1), the estimation unit 105 can refer to the result of estimating the purpose of the task at the m-th timing (m-1).

Furthermore, when estimating the purpose of a task, the estimation unit 105 takes into consideration whether other tasks are being performed in parallel, and if other tasks are being performed in parallel, it can refer to the estimated results of the purposes of those other tasks being performed in parallel. For example, when an employee is creating materials for an internal explanation aimed at improving business processes, they may occasionally open a browser to do research while operating application software. In such work, the employee will frequently switch windows to alternate between operating the presentation application software and operating the browser, but the purpose of both operations is "supporting business process improvement." Therefore, if the purpose of one task (e.g., operating the presentation application software) has already been estimated, the estimation unit 105 can improve processing efficiency by referring to the estimated results when estimating the purpose of the other task (e.g., operating the browser).

Furthermore, the estimation unit 105 estimates the purpose of the work performed by employee W, as well as the content of the work, based on the information about the work extracted by the extraction unit 103. Specifically, the estimation unit 105 estimates the content of the work performed by employee W for each window, based on one or more pieces of information from the type of application software for each window, the title name, and the operation history of the device itself. Specific examples of the results of the estimation of the content of the work will be described later with reference to FIG. 7.

The correction unit 106 corrects the result of the estimation of the purpose of the work by the estimation unit 105. Specifically, the correction unit 106 refers to the result of the estimation by the estimation unit 105 at the second timing and corrects the result of the estimation at the first timing, which occurs before the second timing. For example, suppose the same work is performed at both the first timing and the second timing. Then, suppose the result of the estimation of the purpose of the work by the estimation unit 105 at the first timing was unclear, but the result of the estimation of the purpose of the work at the second timing was clear. In this case, the correction unit 106 refers to the result of the estimation of the purpose of the work at the second timing and retroactively corrects the result of the estimation of the purpose of the work at the first timing.

For example, suppose an employee is using application software to create materials for an internal explanation aimed at improving business processes. In such a case, when the employee starts the operation, input operations unrelated to the original purpose of the work (for example, an operation to create a new file) are often performed, and the operation to save the file is often not performed, so the estimation result by the estimation unit 105 may be "unknown." However, as the work progresses, operations related to the original purpose of the work are performed, and the estimation result of the purpose of the work at that time is referenced, and the initial estimation result of "unknown" is retroactively corrected. For example, if an operation to save the file with the file name "Business Process Improvement Proposal" is performed as the work progresses, the estimation result by the estimation unit 105 becomes "Business Process Improvement Support," so the correction unit 106 corrects the estimation result of "unknown" to "Business Process Improvement Support." This complements the estimation result.

(Processing of employee terminals)
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the process flow up to estimating the purpose of the work, among the process flow of the employee terminal 10.
When the employee terminal 10 acquires its own log information (YES in step 401), it stores and manages the acquired log information in a database (step 402). Specifically, it stores and manages the log information of its own device in the operation log DB 802 of the storage unit 13. On the other hand, if the employee terminal 10 has not acquired its own log information (NO in step 401), the employee terminal 10 repeats the processing of step 401 until it acquires its own log information.

The employee terminal 10 extracts information about the work performed by the employee at the first timing from the log information stored and managed in the database of its own device (step 403). Specifically, it extracts character strings related to the employee's work and attribute information for those character strings for each window displayed on the display unit 16 of its own device. Next, the employee terminal 10 extracts feature quantities of the information about the work (step 404). Specifically, it weights the character strings related to the employee's work using information indicating the importance of the character strings, which is included in the attribute information, and extracts character strings as feature quantities of the information about the work based on the weighting results.

The employee terminal 10 compares the character strings extracted in step 403 as feature quantities of the work information with character strings contained in information about the purpose of multiple types of work stored in the database (step 405), and estimates the purpose of the work performed by the employee based on the results of the comparison (step 406). Specifically, the purpose of the work performed by the employee is estimated based on the results of the comparison between the character strings extracted as feature quantities of the work information with character strings contained in information about the purpose of multiple types of work stored in the purpose DB 801 of the memory unit 13.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of the process of correcting the result of the estimation of the purpose of the employee's work, which is part of the process flow of the employee terminal 10.
If the result of the estimation of the purpose of the work at the first timing is unclear (YES in step 501) but the result of the estimation of the purpose of the work at the second timing is clear (YES in step 502), the employee terminal 10 refers to the result of the estimation at the second timing and corrects the result of the estimation at the first timing (step 503).

In contrast, if the result of the estimation of the task purpose at the first timing is clear (NO in step 501), the correction process ends without being performed. Also, if the results of the estimation of the task purpose at both the first timing and the second timing are unclear (YES in step 501 and NO in step 502), the result of the estimation at each of the first timing through the second + m - (minus) 1 timings is corrected by referring to the result of the estimation at the second + m (m is an integer greater than or equal to 1) timing when the result of the estimation becomes clear (step 504).

(Specific example)
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a specific example of character strings related to the work of employees extracted by the employee terminal 10 and attribute information of the character strings.
As described above, the "information related to work" extracted from the log information stored in the operation log DB 802 includes character strings related to the work of employee W and attribute information of those character strings. This information is stored in the operation log DB 802 in a database configuration such as that shown in FIG. 5, for example.

That is, as shown in Figure 5, for each character string related to employee W's work, attribute information such as "data type," "position," "size," and "importance" is associated and stored. Among the attribute information, "data type" indicates the type of character string. Examples of "data type" include the title (window title) displayed in the window that is the unit of work, a screenshot of the screen, etc.

The attribute information "position" indicates the position of a character string in a window displayed on the display unit 16 of the employee terminal 10. Examples of "position" include "-", a symbol indicating that there is no position information within the screen, such as the title displayed in the window (window title), and "top of document", "center of document", "bottom of document", etc., which indicate the part of the document displayed in the window where the character string is located. The attribute information "size" indicates the external size of the character string. Examples of "size" include "large", which indicates that the external size of the character string exceeds a predetermined threshold, "medium", which indicates that the size is within a predetermined threshold, and "small", which indicates that the size is equal to or smaller than a predetermined threshold.

The attribute information "importance" indicates the degree of importance of a character string, and is used as the basis for weighting when extracting character strings that serve as feature quantities for information about a task. Examples of "importance" include symbols such as "S," "A," "B," and "C" in descending order of importance, as well as numerical values not shown. In the example of Figure 5, the character string that serves as the title (window title) displayed in the window that is the unit of work has an "importance" of "S" regardless of its position or size. Other specific examples of subordinate information are shown in Figure 5.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a specific example of the "objective of work" stored in advance in the objective DB 801 of the storage unit 13 of the employee terminal 10 and its detailed information.
The "objectives of work" stored in advance in the objective DB 801 are classified into two levels consisting of major categories and minor categories, as shown in Fig. 6, and detailed information is associated with each level. Specifically, the major categories include "business development,""technologydevelopment,""salesactivities,""patentapplications," and "joint research contract conclusion."

For example, one major category, "Business Development," is divided into two subcategories, "Business Process Improvement Support" and "Satellite Office Business," with detailed information associated with each of "Business Process Improvement Support" and "Satellite Office Business." For example, the text information "Establishing customer issues for business process improvement, business feasibility studies, and business model verification" is associated as detailed information for "Business Process Improvement Support." Also, for example, the text information "Establishing customer issues for satellite office business, business feasibility studies, and business model verification" is associated as detailed information for "Satellite Office Business."

For example, one major category, "Technology Development," is divided into two subcategories, "Business Process Analysis Technology" and "Biosignal Processing Technology," with detailed information associated with each of "Business Process Analysis Technology" and "Biosignal Processing Technology." For example, the text information "Overall design of business process analysis, selection of acquired data type, log data format design, and consideration, construction, and evaluation of data analysis methods" is associated as detailed information for "Business Process Analysis Technology." Furthermore, the text information "Research and selection of biosignal processing technology" is associated as detailed information for "Biosignal Processing Technology." Other specific examples of work objectives stored in objective DB 801 are shown in Figure 6.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a specific example of the estimation result of the work content.
The content of the work performed by the employee terminal 10 is estimated for each window based on one or more pieces of information regarding the work extracted from the log information as described above, such as the type of application software for each window, the title name, and the operation history of the device itself.

Each of "A1," "A2," "B1," etc. shown in Figure 7 indicates one task. "Active app" indicates the type of application software used by the employee, and "window name" indicates the title of the window. "Key inputs per unit time" and "mouse inputs per unit time" indicate the operation history of the employee terminal 10. "Work content" indicates the content of the employee's work, estimated based on the information on "active app," "window name," "key inputs per unit time," and "mouse inputs per unit time."

As shown in Figure 7, for example, task "A1" was performed using application software for word processing or presentations, and involved a high level of keystrokes per unit time and a low to medium level of mouse inputs per unit time. From this information, the employee terminal 10 outputs an inferred result that the employee was likely creating some kind of document.

For example, task "D2" was performed using browser application software, and involved a low level of keystrokes per unit time, while the amount of mouse input per unit time consisted of a high level of scrolling. From this information, the employee terminal 10 outputs the inferred result that the employee was likely browsing a website.

Here, the content of the work can also be estimated based on information about windows being used simultaneously. For example, if the above-mentioned work "A1" and work "D2" were being performed in parallel, it would be possible to output an inferred result that suggests that the person was researching websites while creating materials. Figure 7 shows other specific examples of inferred work content results and the information that forms the basis for these results.

Second Embodiment
In the second embodiment, the process of estimating the purpose of each of the work performed by a plurality of employees is performed by a server.
(Configuration of information processing system)
FIG. 8 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of the information processing system 1.
The information processing system 1 is configured by connecting employee terminals 10-1 to 10-r (r is an integer value of 1 or greater), a management server 30, and an administrator terminal 50 via a network 90. The network 90 is, for example, a local area network (LAN) or the Internet.

As in the first embodiment, the employee terminals 10-1 to 10-r are information processing devices such as personal computers, tablet terminals, and smartphones operated by the employees W1 to Wr who perform work for a predetermined purpose. However, unlike the first embodiment, the employee terminals 10-1 to 10-r in the second embodiment do not perform the process of estimating the purpose of the work themselves. Therefore, they transmit log information indicating the operation history of their own devices, which serves as the basis for estimating the purpose of the work, to the management server 30, which estimates the purpose of the work. Hereinafter, when it is not necessary to explain each of the employee terminals 10-1 to 10-r individually, they will be collectively referred to as "employee terminal 10" or "r employee terminals 10." In addition, in this case, employees W1 to Wr will be collectively referred to as "employee W" or "r employees W."

The management server 30 is an information processing device that serves as a server for managing the entire information processing system 1. From log information showing the operation history of each of one or more employee terminals 10, the management server 30 extracts, for each employee terminal 10, information about work performed for a predetermined purpose and the characteristics of that information. The management server 30 then compares the extracted characteristics with information about the purpose of multiple types of work that is pre-stored and managed in a database, and, based on the comparison results, estimates the purpose of the work performed by employee W by operating its own device for each employee terminal 10.

The manager terminal 50 is an information processing device such as a personal computer, tablet terminal, or smartphone operated by manager M, who is in a position to manage employee W. The manager terminal 50 outputs the estimation results sent from the management server 30. The estimation results output from the manager terminal 50 are used, for example, in the management work of manager M.

Note that the functions of each of the above-mentioned information processing devices (employee terminal 10, management server 30, and administrator terminal 50) are just examples, and it is sufficient for the information processing system 1 as a whole to have the above-mentioned functions. Therefore, some or all of the above-mentioned functions may be shared or cooperated within the information processing system 1. For example, as in the first embodiment, all of the functions of the management server 30 may be functions of the employee terminal 10, or some or all of the functions of the management server 30 may be functions of the administrator terminal 50. This facilitates processing in the information processing system 1 as a whole and enables the processes to complement each other.

(Hardware configuration of the management server and administrator terminal)
The hardware configuration of the management server 30 and the manager terminal 50 is similar to the hardware configuration of the employee terminal 10 shown in Fig. 1. Therefore, illustration and description of the hardware configuration of the management server 30 and the manager terminal 50 will be omitted.

(Functional configuration of the control unit of the management server)
The control unit of the management server 30 has blocks with the same functional configuration as the control unit 11 of the employee terminal 10 shown in Fig. 2 and is therefore not shown in the figure, but the functional contents differ in the following respects: For example, the acquisition unit 101 of the employee terminal 10 acquires log information from its own device, but the acquisition unit of the management server 30 acquires log information from at least the employee terminal 10 of the target employee W out of r employee terminals 10 (r is an integer value of 1 or greater).

Furthermore, for example, the extraction unit 103 of the employee terminal 10 extracts information about the work performed by employee W at a first timing and its characteristic quantities from the log information of its own device stored and managed in a database (e.g., operation log DB 802 of the memory unit 13). In contrast, the extraction unit of the management server 30 extracts information about the work performed by each of r employees W at a first timing and its characteristic quantities from the log information of r employee terminals 10 stored and managed in the database of the memory unit.

Furthermore, for example, the comparison unit 104 of the employee terminal 10 compares the character string used as a feature with the character string contained in the information about the purpose of multiple types of work stored in the database, while the comparison unit of the management server 30 compares the character string used as a feature of the information about each task performed by employee W at the first timing with the character string contained in the information about the purpose of multiple types of work stored in the database of the storage unit. That is, in the first embodiment described above, when the purpose of employee W1's task is estimated, an estimation is made based on the log information of employee W1's employee terminal 10. However, in the second embodiment, when the purpose of employee W1's task is estimated, an estimation is made based not only on the log information of employee W1's employee terminal 10, but also on the log information of each of employees W2 to Wr. This makes it possible to determine when, where, with whom, and what type of work employee W1 was performing.

(Management server processing)
FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the process flow of the management server 30 for estimating the purpose of the work of the employee W1.
When the management server 30 receives log information from at least the employee terminal 10-1 of the employee W1 who is the subject of estimation among the r employee terminals 10 (YES in step 601), it acquires the received log information (step 602) and stores and manages the acquired log information in the database of the storage unit (step 603). On the other hand, if no log information has been received (NO in step 601), the management server 30 repeats the processing of step 601 until log information is received from at least the employee terminal 10-1 of the employee W1 who is the subject of estimation.

The management server 30 extracts information about the work performed by each of the r employees W at the first timing from the log information of the r employee terminals stored and managed in the database (step 604). Specifically, as information about the work, character strings related to the work of each of the r employees W and attribute information of those character strings are extracted for each window displayed on the display unit 16 of each of the r employee terminals 10. The management server 30 extracts feature quantities of information about the work performed by each of the r employees W who performed the work at the first timing from the log information stored and managed in the database (step 605). Specifically, weighting is performed using information indicating the importance of the character strings contained in the attribute information of the character strings related to the work performed by each of the employees W who performed the work at the first timing, and character strings that serve as feature quantities of the information about the work are extracted based on the weighting results.

The management server 30 compares the character strings extracted in step 605 as feature quantities of the information about each task performed by employee W who performed the task at the first timing with character strings included in the information about the purpose of multiple types of tasks stored in the database (step 606). Based on the results of the comparison in step 606, the management server 30 estimates the purpose of the task performed by the target employee W1 (step 607). Specifically, the purpose of the task performed by employee W1 is estimated based on the results of comparing the character strings extracted in step 605 as feature quantities of the information about each task performed by employee W who performed the task at the first timing with character strings included in the information about the purpose of multiple types of tasks stored in advance.

Although the present embodiment has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. Furthermore, the effects of the present invention are not limited to those described in the above-described embodiment. For example, the hardware configuration shown in Figure 1 and the system configuration shown in Figure 8 are merely examples for achieving the object of the present invention and are not particularly limited. Furthermore, the functional configuration shown in Figure 2 is also merely an example and is not particularly limited. The functional configuration used to realize this function is not limited to the example shown in Figure 2.

Furthermore, the order of the processing steps shown in Figures 3, 4, and 9 is merely illustrative and is not particularly limited. The processing is not limited to being performed chronologically in the illustrated order of steps; it does not necessarily have to be performed chronologically, but may be performed in parallel or individually. Furthermore, the specific examples shown in Figures 5 to 7 are also merely illustrative and are not particularly limited.

1... Information processing system, 10... Employee terminal, 11... Control unit, 30... Management server, 50... Administrator terminal, 90... Network, 101... Acquisition unit, 102... Information management unit, 103... Extraction unit, 104... Comparison unit, 105... Estimation unit, 106... Correction unit

Claims (4)

a processor;
The processor:
extracting information relating to work performed for a predetermined purpose and feature quantities of the information from log information indicating the operation history of the device;
estimating the predetermined purpose based on a result of comparing the extracted feature amount with information on the purpose of a plurality of types of work stored in advance ;
When the predetermined purpose is estimated at a first timing and a second timing subsequent to the first timing for the same task, the result of the estimation that is unclear at the first timing is corrected to the result of the estimation that is clear at the second timing .
Information processing device. a processor;
The processor:
extracting information relating to work performed for a predetermined purpose and feature quantities of the information from log information indicating the operation history of the device;
estimating the predetermined purpose based on a result of comparing the extracted feature amount with information on the purpose of a plurality of types of work stored in advance;
When estimating the predetermined purpose, a result of estimation of the predetermined purpose of another task being performed in parallel is referred to and applied as a result of estimation of the task having the same purpose .
Information processing device. one or more information processing devices;
an extraction means for extracting, for each of the one or more information processing devices, information relating to an operation performed for a predetermined purpose and a feature amount of the information from log information indicating an operation history of each of the one or more information processing devices;
an estimation means for estimating the predetermined purpose for each of the one or more information processing devices based on a result of comparing the extracted feature amount with information relating to the purpose of a plurality of types of work stored in advance;
a correction means for correcting, when the predetermined purpose is estimated at a first timing and at a second timing subsequent to the first timing, a result of the estimation that is unclear at the first timing to a result of the estimation that is clear at the second timing;
An information processing system comprising: On the computer,
a function of extracting information about work performed to carry out a predetermined task and feature quantities of the information about the work from log information indicating the operation history of the device itself;
a function of estimating the purpose of the work based on a result of comparing the extracted feature amount with information on the purpose of a plurality of types of work stored in advance;
a function of correcting the result of the estimation that was unclear at the first timing to the result of the estimation that was clear at the second timing when a predetermined purpose is estimated at a first timing and a second timing that is later than the first timing for the same task;
A program to achieve this.