JP2002109128A - Quiz service providing method using e-mail and server system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a quiz service in which a communication fee can be suppressed and also to provide a quiz service that is convenient to a user. SOLUTION: A quiz participation server 3 displays a quiz participation image for participating in the quiz service to an accessing user. A user portable telephone 11 designated to request quiz participation on the screen, automatically prepares an empty e-mail whose destination is made to be a quiz mail server 5 and transmits the empty e-mail. When a quiz processing server 7 receives the empty e-mail, the server 7 extracts the prescribed number of quizzes at random, pastes the quizzes on the text of the return mail of the empty e-mail and returns the return mail (question mail) to the user. When the user receives the question mail, the user writes the answer to each quiz on the return mail of the question mail and transmits the return mail (answer mail) to the server 7. When the server 7 receives the answer mail, the server 7 decides whether the answer of each quiz, written on the answer mail, is correct or wrong, calculates the total point score on the basis of the number of correct answers, writes the total point score on the return mail of the answer mail and transmits the return mail to the user.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention provides a quiz service for giving a question to a user and informing the user of the result of the correct / wrong answer to the question. Related to the technology provided from the server below.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, WWW which has been carried out on the Internet by using a portable telephone equipped with a WWW browser has been proposed.
Users receiving services are increasing. As one of the services, there is a quiz service in which a quiz is given to a user and the result of correct / incorrect judgment of the answer to the quiz is notified to the user.

[0003] In this conventional quiz service, generally,
A user accesses a Web server that provides a quiz service (hereinafter, referred to as a quiz server), receives one quiz, inputs an answer of the quiz, and then determines whether the answer is correct or incorrect in the quiz server. . After that, the user receives the result of the correct / wrong judgment of the answer from the quiz server and selects whether or not to receive the next one quiz.

[0004] When these operations are repeated and all the quizzes (of a predetermined number of titles) have been answered, the quiz service ends.

[0005]

By the way, in order to receive a WWW service on the Internet using a portable telephone, a system having a predetermined provider function (for example, a portable telephone service provided by a portable telephone service provider used by a user). (Telephone network) to access a desired Web server via the system and to go online to receive a desired WWW service. That is,
While the desired server and the user's mobile phone are online, the user is in a state of talking to a predetermined provider, and the length of time in that state or the amount of data transmitted and received in that state , A communication fee using the mobile phone is charged.

In the conventional quiz service described above, a quiz question, input of an answer thereto, judgment of correctness of the input answer, and notification of the result of the correctness are transmitted between the user's mobile phone and the quiz server. Is done while online. These processes are repeated each time you answer one quiz, so it takes a considerable amount of time to complete all quizzes.
That is, the length of time during which the user is in a talking state increases. For this reason, the communication fee using the mobile phone becomes high and burdens the user. Further, during this state, the mobile phone cannot make or receive an incoming call or receives an incoming call. In such a case, the quiz service is forcibly terminated and an incoming call is received, so that the user may be in trouble and the usability is poor. If the quiz service is forcibly terminated, it is necessary to connect to the Internet again. In that case, the quiz will be retried from the first question, and the communication fee will be further increased by retrying. Burdensome.

[0007] In the conventional quiz service, the quiz server may request input of the user's address or mail address in order to provide a specific service to a user who has completed all quizzes. In this case, if there is an error in the user's input, the specific service cannot be provided, and the user is required to input the address or the mail address twice. However, it is troublesome and time-consuming to input many characters such as an address or an e-mail address by operating keys of the mobile phone. Also, during the input, the user is in a state of talking with the predetermined provider, so that the communication fee is higher.

[0008] Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a quiz service capable of suppressing communication charges.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a user-friendly quiz service.

[0010]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a quiz service providing method in which a question extracted from a group of questions prepared in advance is sent to a question e-mail in response to a question request from a user. And sending the question e-mail to the user terminal, filling in the answer e-mail with the answer to the problem described in the question e-mail in the answer e-mail and prompting the user to reply to the server, and the answer returned from the user. The method includes a step of receiving an e-mail and a step of making a right / wrong judgment of the answer written in the received answer e-mail and notifying a user of the result of the right / wrong judgment.

According to the present invention, the user receives the questions and answers the questions by e-mail. Since the communication fee for sending and receiving the e-mail is small, the communication fee can be reduced as compared with the related art.

In a preferred embodiment, the user terminal has an e-mail reply function for automatically creating a reply e-mail with the destination of the received e-mail as the destination and the destination of the received e-mail as the source. In the above case, the prompting step prompts the user to fill in the answer in a reply e-mail to the question e-mail automatically created using the e-mail reply function and reply, and the step of receiving the reply is from the user. Receive the reply e-mail as the answer e-mail.

In a preferred embodiment, a step of displaying a question request screen for a user to request a question on a user terminal, and when the user requests a question on the displayed question request screen, the question as a question request is displayed. Controlling the user terminal to automatically send the request e-mail to the server.

[0014] In a preferred embodiment, the notifying step transmits a determination result electronic mail in which a result of the right / wrong determination is described to the user terminal.

[0015] In a preferred embodiment, the group of questions includes questions related to the subject of the advertisement, or questions for practice or simulation of a test related to a specific genre.

In a preferred embodiment, the transmitting step randomly extracts questions from the group of questions.

In a preferred embodiment, each question included in the question group is assigned a score, and the transmitting step is performed so that the total score of the questions to be set becomes a predetermined score. A problem is extracted from the above problem group.

In a preferred embodiment, the result of the right / wrong judgment notified to the user is a correct answer rate for the number of questions taken or a total score of points related to the correctly answered questions.

In a preferred embodiment, a score assignment step of assigning a score to each question included in the question group is performed. In the score assignment step, the correct answer rate of each question is calculated, and based on the calculated correct answer rate. And assign a score to each question.

In a preferred embodiment, the user receives the question e-mail and calculates an answer time length considered to be necessary for answering the problem described in the question e-mail; Based on the calculated answering time length, there is a step of ranking each user with respect to the received answer e-mail, and a step of informing each user of the ranking result.

In a preferred embodiment, the method includes a step of informing the user that a prize (a prize, a prize, or a prize service) is to be provided based on the result of the right / wrong judgment or the ranking result.

In a preferred embodiment, the user terminal has a WW
It is a mobile phone equipped with a W browser.

The quiz service providing server system according to the second aspect of the present invention writes a question extracted from a group of questions prepared in advance in a question e-mail in response to a question request from a user, Means for sending an e-mail to the user terminal, means for prompting the user to reply to the server system by filling in the answer e-mail with the answer to the problem described in the question e-mail, and sending the answer e-mail returned from the user A means for receiving, and means for making a correct / wrong determination of the answer entered in the received answer e-mail and notifying the user of the result of the right / wrong determination.

[0024]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a quiz service providing system according to one embodiment of the present invention.

In the system according to the present embodiment, each user receives a quiz service using a mobile phone (hereinafter referred to as a user mobile phone) 11 having a browser function. The Internet 1 includes a system (hereinafter, referred to as a provider) 9 having a provider function for accessing the quiz service according to the present embodiment on the user mobile phone 11, and a Web serving as a window for participating in the quiz service. A server (hereinafter, a quiz participation server) 3 is connected. In addition, a mail server (hereinafter, referred to as a quiz processing server) 7 for executing various processes for providing the quiz service is provided on the Internet 1.
A quiz mail server 5 is connected (of course, the quiz processing server 7 may be connected to the Internet 1). The provider 9 is provided with a mail server (hereinafter, provider mail server) 13.
The provider mail server 13 receives the e-mail addressed to the user and immediately transmits the e-mail to the user, or receives the e-mail transmitted to the desired destination by the user and immediately transmits the e-mail to the desired destination. Alternatively, if an e-mail addressed to the user is stored when an e-mail inquiry to be described later is received from the user mobile phone 11, the e-mail is transmitted to the user.

In order to receive the quiz service, the user accesses the quiz participation server 3 via the provider 9 using the user's mobile phone 11, and the quiz participation server 3
Is input on the quiz participation screen described later provided by the quiz. At this time, the user's mobile phone 11 automatically sends an empty e-mail addressed to the quiz processing server 7 (that is, an e-mail having no message described in the body, hereinafter referred to as a participation request), as described later. Email)) and send it. Needless to say, the mail address of the sender user is described in the participation request mail. After the user's mobile phone 11 transmits the participation request mail, the user may cancel the communicable connection state between the user's mobile phone 11 and the provider 9.

Further, the user receives a reply mail from the quiz processing server 7 in response to the transmitted participation request mail, that is, a later-described question mail in which a predetermined number (for example, 10 questions) of quizzes are described (this question). The mail is stored in the provider mail server 13 at the same time, or a mail inquiry function mounted on the user's mobile phone 11 (a function for confirming whether or not the mail addressed to the user is stored in the provider mail server 13). Received when an email inquiry is made using.) When the user receives the question mail, the answer of each quiz is described on the reply mail of the question mail, and after finishing the reply, the reply mail (hereinafter, the answer mail) in which the answer of each quiz is input is provided on the quiz processing server. 7 is designated to the user mobile phone 11. When specified, the user mobile phone 11 connects (accesses) to the provider 9 and transmits an answer mail to the provider mail server 13, and disconnects from the provider 9 when transmission is completed. At this time, the provider 9 sends the quiz processing server 7 a question mail reception time at which the user received the question mail on the user mobile phone 11 (or a time at which the provider mail server 13 transmitted the mail to the user mobile phone 11). The question mail reply time returned from the user mobile phone 11 to the question mail received by the user (or the provider mail server 13 receives the answer mail from the user or the quiz processing server 7).
At the time of transmission). In addition, as a form of describing the answer of each quiz, for example, when the received content (that is, the question quiz) is automatically pasted to the reply mail, only the answer is given at a predetermined or arbitrary position of the reply mail. If you do not automatically paste the received content into the reply email, just write the answer of each quiz,
Alternatively, there is a form in which the answer to each quiz is described after the question quiz is manually copied and attached to the reply mail.

Further, the user sends a reply mail from the quiz processing server 7 to the transmitted answer mail, that is, an e-mail (described later) in which the result of correctness determination of each answer for a predetermined number of quizzes given is described. Is received). Further, the user sends an e-mail (hereinafter, a rank notification mail) in which the rank of each user who has participated within a certain period of time (for example, in the third week of September) is described in the provider mail server 13.
Receive from.

When accessed by the user, the quiz participation server 3 displays a quiz participation screen described later on the user's mobile phone 1.
1 is displayed. When a request to participate in the quiz is input on the quiz participation screen, an empty e-mail (participation request mail) addressed to the quiz processing server 7 is automatically created in the user mobile phone 11. And send.

The quiz mail server 5 receives the electronic mail sent to the quiz processing server 7 and immediately sends it to the quiz processing server 7 (or the quiz processing server 7 sends the electronic mail). The quiz processing server 7 stores the e-mail, notifies the quiz processing server 7 that the e-mail is stored, or receives the e-mail transmitted to the user by the quiz processing server 7 and immediately sends the received e-mail to the user (that is, the provider mail server 13). ).

The quiz processing server 7 has a large number (for example, one
It has a quiz table in which quizzes (of 00 questions) and the correct answer of each quiz are described. Quiz processing server 7
When a blank e-mail (participation request mail) is transmitted from the user through the quiz mail server 5, a predetermined number (for example, 10 questions) of quizzes are randomly extracted from the quiz table, and Paste it in the blank text of the reply email of the received participation request email.
Then, the quiz processing server 7 replies to the user who transmitted the participation request e-mail with a reply e-mail (hereinafter referred to as a question e-mail) to which ten quizzes are pasted. In addition, the answer method of the quiz registered in the quiz table described above may be any form such as a XX format and a description formula. In addition, the quiz registered in the quiz table described above includes a question (hereinafter referred to as an advertising problem) asking whether the quiz is related to an advertisement target (for example, a travel tour or a new service using a mobile phone) advertised by a private company. Or practice or simulate questions related to a particular genre (eg, middle or final exams in junior high school, high school or college entrance exams, qualification exams, etc.) (note that private companies are cosmetic manufacturers, Guidance institution, travel agency, insurance company, credit company (card company, etc.)
Etc., but is not limited to only these examples).

When the answer mail is transmitted from the user through the quiz mail server 5, the quiz processing server 7 refers to the quiz table to determine whether each answer described in the answer mail is correct or not. Do. The quiz processing server 7 calculates a total judgment result such as a correct answer rate with respect to the number of questions or a total score of each quiz answered correctly from the correct / error judgment result of each answer, and pastes it into the body of the e-mail as a reply of the answer mail. . The quiz processing server 7 replies to the user who transmitted the answer mail the mail to which the comprehensive judgment result has been pasted (hereinafter, “correct / wrong comprehensive judgment result mail”). It should be noted that the right / wrong judgment, calculation of the total judgment result, and creation of the right / wrong total judgment result mail may be performed by a human.

The quiz processing server 7 receives from the provider 9 a notification of the question mail receiving time and the question mail reply time (these times are times on the user's mobile phone 11) relating to the transmitted answer mail. When
By subtracting the question e-mail reception time from the question e-mail reply time, a time length (hereinafter referred to as an answer time) that is considered to be used for answering each quiz that has been set is calculated. As a method of calculating the answer time length, in addition to the above-described method of (1) subtracting the question mail reception time from the question mail reply time on the user's mobile phone, (2) the provider mail server 13 Is sent from the user mobile phone 11 (or the time when the answer mail is sent to the quiz processing server 7) to the time when the provider mail server 13 sends the question mail to the user mobile phone 11 (or the question mail is sent from the quiz processing server 7). (3) subtracting the time when the quiz processing server 7 receives the answer mail from the time when the question mail was transmitted, or (3) the method described in (1) to (3) above. Are appropriately combined.

Also, when calculating the answer time length, the quiz processing server 7 determines the mail address of the user who has participated in the quiz service according to the present embodiment, the correct / wrong comprehensive judgment result regarding the user's answer mail, and the The answer time length related to the user's answer mail is registered in a quiz participant registration table described later. The quiz processing server 7 periodically (for example, once a day) ranks each user based on the correct / incorrect comprehensive judgment result and the answer time length registered in the quiz participant registration table, and ranks each user. Create the described order notification email and send it to the user. In addition, as a result of the ranking, the quiz processing server 7 creates and transmits an e-mail indicating that a prize is provided to a user of a specific order, for example, the first place. There are various types of prizes, such as coupons that can be used in specific places, discounts on mobile phone call charges, and products or services related to the advertisement provided by the advertisement source of the advertisement (of course, Prizes may be used instead of prizes.) When offering prizes, for example,
(A) The destination address of the prize provider is described in the e-mail indicating that the prize is provided, and the e-mail describing the destination of the prize provided by the user who received the e-mail is mailed or faxed. By sending the prize to the address of the provider of the prize, the provider of the prize (for example, the address of the user) is notified to the provider.
(B) The prize provider may ask the user of the prize destination by telephone to inform the user of the prize provider. (C) The mobile phone company may instruct the user in advance the address of the prize provider. After obtaining permission, the prize provider requests that the prize provider inform the mobile phone company of the user's address identified from the e-mail address of the prize provider user (A) to (C). The prize is sent to the user by any of the methods described in (1). By using these methods, it is less likely that the information of the prize provider is leaked to a third party than by notifying the prize provider of the prize provider by e-mail. Further, by using the method (C), the user who receives the prize can receive the prize without bothering the hand. (By the way, the user who receives the prize has been provided with the prize. It is even better to confirm that you are the person who sent the answer email, as a specific method to have the same answer email sent earlier be sent again, or
When sending an answer e-mail, write an arbitrary password and send it, and when providing a prize, you may be sent an e-mail with that password written).

Further, the quiz processing server 7 performs a charging process for the advertisement source of the advertisement target related to the advertisement problem registered in the quiz table. The quiz processing server 7
The billing amount is determined based on, for example, the number of times the advertisement problem has been set within a certain period (for example, one week) or the number of times that the set advertisement problem has been correctly answered.

Hereinafter, the present embodiment will be described in detail.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a quiz participation screen provided by the quiz participation server.

As shown in this figure, the quiz participation server 3
Provided on the quiz participation screen 15, a “join” button 17 for inputting that the user requests to participate in the quiz service, and a “do not participate” button 19 for inputting that the user does not participate in the quiz service Is expanded. On this screen 15, the user enters the “join” button 1
When the user presses the button 7, the user's mobile phone 11 automatically creates and sends an empty e-mail addressed to the quiz processing server 7 (quiz mail server 5). When pressed, this screen 15 closes, for example). The quiz participation screen 13 includes, for example, a “browse detailed information” button (not shown) for requesting browsing of a detailed description of the quiz service.
Is set, and when the button is pressed, detailed information on the quiz service is displayed on the user's mobile phone 11 or an e-mail (hereinafter, a quiz service detailed e-mail) containing the detailed information is sent to the user. It can also be sent to. The quiz service detail email contains not only the above detailed information but also the
The button 17 may be set. If the user sends an e-mail replying to the quiz service detail mail, the user may be considered to have requested to participate in the quiz service.

When the quiz processing server 7 receives the empty e-mail, the quiz processing server 7 refers to the following quiz table to create a question mail.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the quiz table described above.

As shown in the figure, the quiz processing server 7 has a quiz table for each score (point) level determined according to the difficulty level of the quiz. More specifically, the quiz table includes a high score quiz table 21a in which quizzes having a high quiz difficulty and a score level of “high” (for example, 15 points) are registered, and a quiz having a medium quiz difficulty. A medium score quiz table 21b in which a quiz with a score level of "medium" (for example, 10 points) is registered, and a score level of "low" (e.g., 5 points) because the quiz is of low difficulty.
And a low score quiz table 21c in which quizzes are registered. Each of the quiz tables 21a, 21b, 21c has an identification number of the quiz, a quiz associated with the identification number, a correct answer of the quiz, and whether or not the quiz is an advertisement problem. Whether it is a problem or not).

When the user sends the empty e-mail, the quiz processing server 7 determines that the total points when all the correct answers are given to the quiz to be set become a predetermined point and the total number of questions becomes the predetermined number. Quiz tables 21a, 21b, 21 so that
c to extract a quiz at random (for example,
From the high score (for example, 15 score) quiz table 21a, 2 points are set so that the total point when all correct answers are 100 points.
Q, medium score (for example, score 10) quiz table 21b
4 questions, low score (for example, 5 points) Quiz table 2
2c is randomly extracted from 1c, and the total number of questions is set to 10).

The quiz processing server 7 sends the quiz table 21a, 21b,
The correctness of each answer described in the answer mail is determined by referring to the correct answer recorded in the answer mail 21c, and the total score of each quiz answered correctly is determined from the correctness determination result of each answer. After obtaining the total score and calculating the answer time length, the quiz processing server 7 registers them in the following quiz participant registration table.

FIG. 4 shows an example of the quiz participant registration table.

As shown in the figure, the quiz participant registration table 23 of the quiz processing server 7 stores the mail address of the user who participated in the quiz service, the total score of the quiz score answered by the user, and the total score of the quiz answered by the user. ) And the answer time length of the user (unit is, for example, “second”) is registered.

The quiz processing server 7 transmits the quiz participant registration table 23 every predetermined period (for example, once a day).
, And rank the users in descending order of the total score (if the total score is tied, the user with the shorter answering time is ranked higher), and an e-mail describing the ranking (Order notification mail) is created and sent to each user. In addition, as a result of the ranking, the quiz processing server 7 creates and sends an e-mail indicating that the prize will be sent to the top user (even if the prize notification mail indicates that the prize will be sent). good).

Hereinafter, the flow in this embodiment will be described.

FIG. 5 shows a flow when participating in the quiz service according to the present embodiment.

As shown in the figure, first, the user accesses the quiz participation server 3 via the provider 9 using the user mobile phone 11 (step S1). The quiz participation server 3 provides a quiz participation screen to the accessing user (S2). The user mobile phone 11 displays the provided quiz participation screen (S3).

When the "do not participate" button is pressed on the quiz participation screen (N in S4), the quiz participation screen is closed (S5). On the other hand, when the above-mentioned "Join" button is pressed (Y in S4), an empty e-mail whose destination is the quiz mail server 5 is automatically created (S6) and transmitted (S6). S7).

FIG. 6 shows a flow when the quiz processing server 7 creates a question mail.

When the quiz processing server 7 receives the empty e-mail (participation request mail) from the user through the quiz mail server 5 (S8), the total number of questions becomes, for example, 10
As mentioned above, each of the quiz tables 21a,
A predetermined number of quizzes are randomly extracted from 1b and 21c, respectively (S9). Then, the extracted quiz is pasted on the body of the reply e-mail of the empty e-mail (S1).
0), and reply it to the user who sent the empty e-mail (S11).

FIG. 7 shows a flow from when the user receives the question e-mail until the user sends the answer e-mail.

When the question mail is sent to the provider mail server 13, the provider mail server 13
The question mail is immediately transmitted to the user (S12).
Upon receiving the question e-mail (S13), the user enters the answer of each quiz on the reply mail of the question e-mail (S13).
14), and sends it (answer mail) to the quiz processing server 7 (S15).

FIG. 8 shows a flow when the quiz processing server 7 receives the answer mail.

When the quiz processing server 7 receives the answer mail (S16), the quiz table 21a, 21b,
With reference to 21c, the answer of each quiz described in the answer mail is determined to be correct, and a total score is calculated based on the number of correct answers (S17). Also, the quiz processing server 7
Calculates the answer time length from the question mail reception time and the question mail reply time relating to the answer mail (S1).
8). Then, the quiz processing server 7 registers, in the quiz participant registration table 23, the mail address of the source user of the answer mail, the total score of the answer mail, and the answer time length of the answer mail (S19). .
The quiz processing server 7 describes the calculated total score in the reply mail of the answer mail, and transmits it to the user related to the total score (S20).

FIG. 9 shows a flow when the quiz processing server 7 notifies the order.

After a predetermined period (for example, one day) has elapsed (Y in S21), the quiz processing server 7 refers to the quiz participant registration table 23 and ranks each user based on the total score and the answer time length. (S22), and a ranking notification mail describing the ranking is created and transmitted to each user (S23). In addition, as a result of the ranking, the quiz processing server 7 writes, in a ranking notification e-mail, a message indicating that a prize will be sent to the top user.

As described above, according to the above-described embodiment, the quiz question to the user, the answer to the quiz related to the question, and the notification of the result of the right / wrong judgment related to the answer are all sent using electronic mail. This eliminates the need for the user mobile phone 11 to maintain a state in which communication with the provider 9 is possible as in the related art, and greatly reduces the length of time that the user mobile phone 11 is in a call state. 11 can be reduced. From another point of view, even if the quiz service according to the present embodiment is used, the user's mobile phone 11
In this case, the state in which transmission or reception can be performed is greatly lengthened, so that usability is improved. Further, since there is no problem that the quiz service is forcibly terminated, the user can participate in the quiz service with ease.

Further, according to the present embodiment, the mail processing server 7 is described as the destination and the user's mail address is described as the transmission source only by pressing the “participate” button 17 on the quiz participation screen 15. A blank e-mail is created and sent. As a result, the user's mail address (for example, 09012345678@aaa.com) is automatically registered, so that there is no need to input the mail address as in the related art, which is convenient. Also, even if the quiz service provider according to the present embodiment sometimes needs information on the address of the participating user, the user can uniquely identify the user from the e-mail address of the mobile phone, so the user inputs the address. This is convenient because there is no need.

Further, according to the present embodiment, the quiz tables 21a, 21b, and 21c are provided with a question (advertisement question) for asking questions related to the advertisement target, or a practice or simulation for a test related to a specific genre. Problems may also be registered.
If the user is presented with an advertisement problem, it is possible to enhance the advertisement effect of the advertisement target related to the problem. In addition, if questions for practice or simulation of a test related to a specific genre are set, problems can be solved even in a narrow space (for example, in a relatively crowded train) using a mobile phone. Therefore, the user can effectively use time.

According to the present embodiment, quizzes are randomly extracted from the quiz tables 21a, 21b, 21c and set. As a result, even if the same user uses the quiz service many times to aim for the same question, the possibility of giving the same user the same quiz is low. Can be prevented. In other words, the user who has used the quiz service a plurality of times and the user who has used the quiz service for the first time can be impartial. In addition, the user is able to enjoy the quiz service as many times as the possibility that the same quiz is given no matter how many times the quiz service is used is low.

Although the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described above, this is an exemplification for describing the present invention, and is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention only to this embodiment. The present invention can be implemented in other various forms.

For example, the provider mail server 13
Instead of sending the mail addressed to the user immediately to the user, the mail may be sent when the user checks the mail appropriately. By doing so, the user can receive the question e-mail and answer the quiz at a convenient time, so that a more convenient quiz service can be provided.

As another example, the quiz processing server 7
Can assign a score to each prepared quiz. As a specific method, the correct answer rate is calculated from the number of answerers and the number of correct answers for each quiz,
A score is assigned to each quiz based on the calculated correct answer rate. More specifically, for example, the correct answer rate is 5%
If so, 100/5 is 20 points and the correct answer rate is 50%
If so, 100/50 will be given to 2 points. If the score is determined in this way, a quiz with a low correct answer rate, that is, a quiz that seems to be high in difficulty, will have a high score, and a quiz with a high correct answer rate, that is, a quiz that is considered to have low difficulty, will have a low score. Then, each can be assigned to a quiz.

Even if the points are allocated as described above, the quiz processing server 7 determines a quiz to be given at random. As a result, there is a possibility that only a question with a high score (a question with a low correct answer rate) may be set, or a problem with only a low score (a question with a high correct answer rate) may be set. That is, even if all of the quizzes given are correctly answered each time, there is a possibility that the obtained score will be different each time. For this reason, the score obtained by correct answer is related to the good or bad luck, so that the user can expect high score even if he is not good at quiz, so that he can enjoy the quiz service more. Become.

In addition, for a quiz regarding an advertisement, the number of answerers, the number of correct answerers, and the percentage of correct answers can be notified to the advertisement source by e-mail or the like. Thus, the advertising source can know how many people have been advertised.

As yet another example, the correct / wrong comprehensive judgment mail may include the correct answer for all quizzes presented and detailed information related to the quiz along with the score and the answer result. This allows the user to know the correct answer for the wrong quiz, so that the knowledge can be enhanced. Further, regarding a quiz regarding an advertisement, even if the advertisement is not known at all at the time of setting the question, the user is notified about the advertisement after answering, so that a higher advertisement effect can be achieved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the overall configuration of a quiz service providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a quiz participation screen provided by a quiz participation server.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a quiz table.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a quiz participant registration table.

FIG. 5 is an exemplary view showing a flow when participating in a quiz service according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a flow when the quiz processing server 7 creates a question mail.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a flow from when the user receives the question e-mail until the user sends the answer e-mail.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a flow when the quiz processing server 7 receives an answer mail.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a flow when the quiz processing server 7 notifies the order.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Internet 3 Quiz Participating Server 5 Quiz Participating Server 9 Quiz Participating Server 9 Provider 11 Mobile Phone (User Mobile Phone) 13 Provider Mail Server

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) G09B 7/02 G09B 7/02

Claims (13)

[Claims] 1. A quiz service for presenting a question to a user and notifying the user of the result of correct / incorrect determination of the answer to the user from a server in a network environment to a user having a user terminal having an electronic mail transmission / reception function. In a method, in response to a question request from a user, a question extracted from a group of questions prepared in advance is described in a question e-mail, and the question e-mail is transmitted to the user terminal. Prompting the user to reply to the server with an answer to the problem described in the email in an answer e-mail; receiving the answer e-mail returned from the user; and the received answer e-mail Notifying the user of the result of the right / wrong judgment of the answer entered in the Quiz service providing method with. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the user terminal has an e-mail reply function for automatically creating a reply e-mail having a source of the received e-mail as a destination and a destination of the received e-mail as a source. The prompting step prompts the user to enter and answer the reply to a reply e-mail to the question e-mail automatically created using the e-mail reply function, and the receiving step includes: 2. The quiz service providing method according to claim 1, wherein the reply e-mail returned from the server is received as the answer e-mail. 3. A step of displaying on the user terminal a question request screen for the user to request a question, and when the user requests a question on the displayed question request screen, the question request as the question request is provided. Controlling the user terminal to automatically send an electronic mail to the server. 4. The quiz service providing method according to claim 1, wherein said notifying step transmits a judgment result electronic mail in which a result of said right / wrong judgment is described to said user terminal. 5. The quiz service providing method according to claim 1, wherein the question group includes a question asking questions related to an advertisement target, or a question for practice or simulation of a test related to a specific genre. 6. The quiz service providing method according to claim 1, wherein the transmitting step randomly extracts questions from the group of questions. 7. A question is assigned to each question included in the question group, and the transmitting step is performed so that a total score of the question points to be set is a predetermined score. The quiz service providing method according to claim 1 or 6, wherein a question is extracted from the quiz service. 8. The quiz service providing method according to claim 1, wherein the result of the correct / incorrect judgment notified to the user is a correct answer rate with respect to the number of questions taken or a total score of points related to the questions answered correctly. . 9. A score assignment step of assigning a score to each question included in the question group, wherein the score assignment step calculates a correct answer rate of each of the questions, and calculates a correct answer rate based on the calculated correct answer rate. 2. The quiz service providing method according to claim 1, wherein a score is assigned to each of the questions. 10. A step of calculating an answer time length considered to be necessary for the user to receive the question e-mail and to answer a problem described in the question e-mail; The quiz service provision according to claim 1, further comprising: ranking each user according to the received answer e-mail based on the determined answer time length; and notifying each user of the ranking result. Method. 11. The quiz service providing method according to claim 1, further comprising a step of notifying a user that a prize is provided based on the result of the right / wrong judgment or the result of the ranking. 12. A quiz service providing method in which the user terminal is a mobile phone equipped with a WWW browser. 13. A quiz service in which a question is presented to a user and the result of correct / incorrect determination of the answer to the user is provided from a server system to a user having a user terminal having an e-mail transmission / reception function in a network environment. In the server system, in response to a question request from the user, a question extracted from a group of questions prepared in advance is described in a question e-mail, and the question e-mail is transmitted to the user. Means for prompting the user to enter an answer to the question described in the question e-mail in the answer e-mail and return the answer to the server system; means for receiving the answer e-mail returned from the user; The correctness of the answer entered in the answer e-mail is determined, and the result of the correctness determination is transmitted to the user. Quiz service providing server system and means for.