JP2002259285A - Method and device for message exchange, program, and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a method for message exchange by which a user can intuitively understand the activity state of a community and do communication activities friendly by displaying on a user terminal a virtual life which changes in action and display style by reflecting the community activity states of members of each community and also a smooth or friendly communication is made and the community is activated by the behavior of the virtual life, and to provide a message exchange device employing the method. SOLUTION: The state of the community decided according to various statistics regarding the registration state of messages to the community and the browsing state of registered messages and the analysis results of the reply relation among the registered messages, and the contents of the registered messages are represented as different kinds of indexes and according to the indexes, the behavior and display style of the virtual life corresponding to the community displayed on the screen of a terminal device are controlled.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a system in which each user of a plurality of terminal devices connected to a network registers a message in a community as a user group for exchanging information via the network. And a message exchange device using the message exchange method for exchanging a message between the plurality of users by browsing the message.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, NIFTY-
A plurality of users, such as Server (trademark) and CompuServe (trademark) in the United States, connect their personal computers to a host computer at a center via a modem and a public telephone network, and based on a predetermined communication protocol. In the field of so-called personal computer communication services for communication, an online electronic bulletin board system (Bu
lletin Board System, BB
A communication service using S) is known.

[0003] Also, the WWW (World) of the Internet
d Wide Web), posts (registers) its own opinion (information) from the terminal to each member constituting the community, publishes it to the community, and also discloses the contents of opinions from other members constituting the community. We make it a service that allows browsing in a public format by making it public
A communication service using a bulletin board system is also known.

[0004] Further, in these communication services, it is possible to post a reply to an opinion posted by another member, and consequently, the flow of a certain topic is formed as a thread structure which is a reply-related structure, thereby participating in the community. Can be presented to other members.

[0005] Apart from this, a mailing list service has conventionally been provided in an electronic mail system. this is,
A service that pre-registers the e-mail address of a member user on a mail server and distributes information (topics) owned by one member to other members at the same time. Receives e-mail posted to itself By storing the information in the terminal, it is possible to exchange information about topics common to other members without constantly connecting to the network.

[0006] Recently, a service is known in which electronic mail posted by a mailing list service is disclosed to members using a WBS BBS.

There is also known a chat in which text messages can be exchanged online in real time and a voice chat in which voice messages can be exchanged.

On the other hand, in recent years, as a software program for a personal computer, a breeding simulation game for growing tropical fish and a breeding simulation game for growing a virtual life with artificial intelligence living in a virtual world have been known. Tamagotchi (trademark) (trademark) of Bandai Co., Ltd. is also known as a portable electronic device incorporating this kind of breeding simulation game program. Also, there are many known devices that simulate a virtual pet by using a person's attachment to an adorable pet to make devices and software programs more accessible.

As an electronic pet using a network, in sending and receiving e-mail between persons having the same e-mail software program, it becomes familiar by displaying the e-pet belonging to an individual so that the e-mail is delivered. There is "PostPet" (trademark) of Sony Communication Network Co., Ltd., which is an easy-to-use e-mail software program. Also, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-192384 discloses a technique in which a character grown in his / her own electronic device can participate in various events in a virtual space on the Internet and can be freely activated.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 10-333542 discloses a three-dimensional representation of an electronic pet that can be shared and raised by a plurality of users in a shared virtual space of a three-dimensional representation. A technique for displaying is disclosed.

[0011]

In the communication system described above, communication troubles may occur due to miscommunication, and the state of the communication system cannot be understood by a third party unless the message is read as a community activity. There was no means to intuitively grasp the activity status of the community.

In the conventional communication system, since there is no means for activating communication, a community is created, but the number of message postings is small, and the community activity often declines.

Further, the above-mentioned breeding simulation game program is a program for individuals to enjoy breeding simulation by themselves, and furthermore, it was not possible to breed by a plurality of people.

An electronic pet using the above-described network is an electronic device that is the owner, and has a one-to-one relationship with the owner of the software program. Although it is possible to work, it is impossible for a remote user other than the owner to breed when desired, or to observe the growth process, and multiple users share a single electronic pet and breed it I couldn't do that.

The electronic pet described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-333542 discloses a technique of a method of transferring data between a server and a client system so that a plurality of people can breed the pet through a network. Is to change the growth parameters on a one-to-one basis according to each user's action such as feeding.
It did not cooperate with communication behavior in the shared virtual space. Further, the communication relationship between a plurality of users is not reflected on the electronic pet.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and each user of a plurality of terminal devices connected to a network has:
A message is registered in a community as a user group that communicates by exchanging information via the network, and by browsing the registered message, when exchanging a message among a plurality of users, each user terminal receives a message. By displaying the virtual life whose behavior and display form changes reflecting the community activity status of the members of the community, the user can intuitively understand the activity status of the community, perform communication activities with a familiarity, and It is an object of the present invention to provide a message exchange method, a message exchange apparatus, a program, and a recording medium using the same, which enable smooth or friendly communication and activation of a community by behavior.

[0017]

According to the present invention, each user of a plurality of terminal devices connected to a network registers a message in a community as a user group for exchanging information via the network, and the registered message is registered. By browsing the registered message, messages are exchanged among the plurality of users, various statistics regarding the registration status of the message in the community and the browsing status of the registered message, a reply relationship between the registered messages, The state of the community determined based on the analysis result of the content of the registered message is represented by a plurality of types of indices (community state parameters), and based on the plurality of types of indices, displayed on the screen of the terminal device. The feature is to control behavior and display form of virtual life corresponding to community .

According to the present invention, by reflecting on the user terminal the community behavior status of members of each community and displaying the virtual life whose behavior and display form change, the user can perform the behavior and display of the virtual life. Through the form, it is possible to intuitively understand the activity status of the community, to carry out communication activities with familiarity, and to achieve smooth and friendly communication and revitalize the community by the behavior of virtual life.

By displaying the activity status of the community indirectly in virtual life, it becomes easy to understand intuitively. In addition, the effect of the members being influenced by the behavior of the virtual life and the community activity becoming normal and active is obtained. is there.

Preferably, a plurality of messages corresponding to the status of the community are stored in advance as messages from the virtual life, and a message corresponding to the status of the community represented by the index is stored in the stored messages. Select and register the selected message in the community as the action of the virtual life corresponding to the community.

[0021] Preferably, characteristic information of message contents in the community is created from a keyword extracted from each message registered in the community, which characterizes the contents of each message, and the number of appearances of the keyword. When a community in which activities such as message registration are stagnant is detected, external information (for example, information on the web) is searched based on the characteristic information of the community, and the searched external information is In order to provide to the community, the external information and / or identification information indicating the location of the external information (for example,
A message including the URL is registered in the community as a virtual life action corresponding to the community (provides a topic to the community whose activity is stagnant).

Preferably, the value of the weight of the characteristic information used in searching for the external information is changed based on the presence or absence of a message including the external information and / or identification information indicating the location of the external information. For example, if there is a reply to a message posted to virtual life to provide a topic, it is assumed that the provided external information is of a topic that interests members, and that external information is searched. The weight of the feature information used for is increased. When retrieving the external information later, by giving priority to the feature information having the higher weight, it is possible to provide only a topic that is likely to actually attract the interest of the member, and the community activity of the user can be provided. It can be useful for activation.

Preferably, based on the index, a growth level of the virtual life reflecting the result of the registration and browsing activities by the members of the community is selected, and the virtual life is displayed according to the selected growth level. Change the form. The user can intuitively understand the activity status of the community by the display form of the virtual life.

[0024] Preferably, an index (for example, an index indicating a relationship between a user who is a poster and a viewer of the message group extracted from a series of messages connected by a reply relationship registered in the community). A specific person is active in the center, a certain number of people are active in the center, an unspecified number of people are operating in a confused state, etc.) The behavior of the virtual life is controlled (for example, charming the specific person).

[0025] Preferably, based on an index indicating the degree of disagreement of opinions of the message group extracted based on the contents of a series of messages connected by a reply relationship registered in the community, the community correspondence is determined. (Eg, arbitrate between disputed users). The behavior of virtual life enables smooth, friendly communication and revitalization of the community.

[0026] Preferably, an index indicating the degree of disagreement of the message group extracted based on the contents of a series of message groups connected by the reply relation registered in the community, Based on the index of the member's registration and browsing activities,
The behavior of the virtual life corresponding to the community is controlled (for example, in the case of a community in which there is little message posting / browsing activity even if there are conflicting opinions, the virtual life is caused to act to stimulate the conflict).

[0027] Preferably, said community comprises said plurality of users based on an index indicating the prominence of message registration / browsing activity by only some of the members of said community. When it ’s time to split a new community,
A new virtual life corresponding to the new community is generated. In this way, by additionally displaying a separate virtual life, the user can intuitively understand that it is time to divide the community.

[0028] Preferably, there are a plurality of said communities, said virtual life is associated with each of said plurality of communities, and each of said messages extracted from each message registered in each of said plurality of communities. From the keywords that characterize the content and the number of occurrences of those keywords,
Characteristic information of the message content in the community is created, a similar community is determined based on the characteristic information, and a message informing the similar community of the community of the existence of the own community is registered as a virtual life action corresponding to each community. Alternatively, the virtual life corresponding to the similar community of the community is displayed on the screen corresponding to the community. Introducing a community with similar topics can be easily introduced through the behavior of virtual life, and it can reduce the anxiety when a user tries to join a new community. The number of participating members increased,
Enhance community activities.

[0029]

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

FIG. 1 shows an example of the overall configuration of a message exchange system according to this embodiment. A plurality of personal computers and portable terminals (here, personal computers) connected to a communication network 12 such as the Internet or an intranet are shown. For example, three (3) user terminals 11 are connected to the server device 1 connected to the communication network 12.
By communicating with the user terminal 3, the users of the respective user terminals 11 communicate with each other through message exchange via the server device 13.

Here, the portable terminal may be a portable telephone which can be connected to a message exchangeable network such as the Internet.

This message exchange system, for example,
It may be an electronic bulletin board system (BBS). That is, the server device 13 receives a request from the user terminal 11 and provides, for example, screen data for inputting a message or browsing the message to the WWW browser of the user terminal 11 that has made the request, When a message is sent from the server 11, the message is stored, and the stored message is centrally managed. When a request is received from another user, the requesting source can view the stored message. This is realized by a CGI program that transmits data to the user terminal 11 of the PC.
In this case, data is exchanged between each user terminal 11 and the server device 13 using a communication protocol called HTTP.

Data transmitted from the server device 13 to each user terminal 11 is, for example, HTML (HyperText).
(Markup Language) format data, and a file of image data of virtual life, which is the gist of the present invention, is attached to the transmission data. This image data is, for example, GIF (Graphics Int)
The image may be an animation image in an (Format) format, or may be an animation image in another image format. It may be one described in a Java program.

A user group for exchanging messages by such a message exchange system is called a community, and a plurality of communities may exist in the message exchange system of FIG. May be a member. In addition, to be called a member of a community, it is only necessary to register a message in the community, browse the registered message, and access the community, and there are no other restrictions. I do.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the configuration of the main part of the user terminal 11.

When the user terminal 11 receives the data transmitted from the server device 13, the data is subjected to predetermined processing by the arithmetic processing unit 26 and then displayed on the display 28 via the WWW browser 27. For example, using a mouse, a keyboard, or the like, an operation of specifying coordinates and inputting characters on a screen displayed on a display 28 via a WWW browser 27 is performed. Then, it is transmitted to the server device 13 via the network 12.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a configuration of a main part of a server device 13 as a message exchange device of the present invention.

The server device 13 includes an input / output unit 21, a processing unit 25, an information database (hereinafter simply referred to as an information DB) 2
3. It comprises an HTML drawing data output unit 22.

The processing section 25 mainly registers and registers messages.
Processing for BBS such as browsing, and processing related to virtual life, which is the gist of the present invention, are performed. Here, the processing of the processing unit 25 is realized by causing a computer including a CPU and other peripheral circuits to execute a CGI program (CGI application) describing each processing procedure.

The data transmitted from the user terminal 11 to the server device 13 is passed to the processing unit 25 via the input / output unit 21. If the data is a content requesting execution of the CGI program, the processing unit 25
And executes the processing.

Drawing data (for example, GIF (G
raphic Interchange Formata
The image data of animation created using a plurality of still images in the t) format) is processed into transmission data in the HTML format in the HTML drawing data output unit 22, and transmitted from the data output unit 22 to the network 12. Is returned to the user terminal 11 and the WW of the user terminal 11
It is displayed on the display 28 via the W browser 27.

When the server device 13 receives the message browsing request transmitted from the user terminal 11, the processing unit 2
5 obtains the requested message from the information DB 23, processes the message into HTML-formatted transmission data at the data output unit 22, and transmits the data to the user terminal 11 via the network 12.
To return. When this transmission data is received by the user terminal 11, it is displayed on the display 28 via the WWW browser 27.
Will be displayed. When the server device 13 receives a message browsing request, it stores the history of the message in the information DB 23.
Write to.

When the server device 13 receives a message registration (posting) request transmitted from the user terminal 11,
In the processing unit 25, the contents of the message, the message I
D. If the message is a reply message to an existing message, the information such as the message ID, posting date and time, and the poster of the reply destination message are described in information D.
Stored in B23. Then, after registering the above information in the information DB 23, the user terminal 1 which has made the registration request
1 and a response to the effect that the posted message has been received is returned as transmission data.

The information DB 23 stores, for example, information as shown in FIGS.

FIG. 4 shows an example of storage of user information in the information DB 23. In the information DB 23, the name and affiliation of each user who uses the message exchange system of FIG. 1, and user identification information (user ID) Are stored in a table format.

FIG. 5 shows an example of storage of community information in the information DB 23. In the information DB 23, the community names and the establishment dates of a plurality of communities existing on the message exchange system of FIG. (Community ID: CID) and the like are stored in a table format.

Further, the virtual life which is the gist of the present invention is:
One body is associated with each community, and identification information (virtual life ID: PETID) of virtual life associated with each community is also registered in the community information of FIG.

The community information shown in FIG. 5 is transmitted from the server device 13 to the user terminal 11, for example, when a user inputs predetermined items on a community creation screen as shown in FIG. 13, the contents input on this screen, the community ID and the virtual life ID automatically issued by the system are displayed in FIG.
Is generated by registering on the table shown in FIG.

FIG. 6 shows an example of storage of message information in the information DB 23. In the information DB 23, each message transmitted to be posted from the user terminal 11 is identified by its identification information (message ID: MID). And
Community ID (CI
D), a message title and text, a user ID (UID) as identification information of a user who is a poster, a posting date, and the like are stored in a table format. Message ID (MI
D) is automatically issued from the processing unit 25. Further, each message stores a browse count indicating whether the message has been browsed by another user, that is, whether the message has been read or unread.

Further, in each message, the MID of the other message of the reply destination is the PID (Parental (parent)).
Message ID). Of course, P
Some messages do not have an ID. The number of PIDs is not limited to one, but may be plural.

In the example shown in FIG. 6, for a message with MID = “28101”, MID = “28102” to “28102”.
106 ". That is, MID =
Since the values of the PIDs associated with the messages “28102” to “28106” are “28101”, these messages are reply messages to the message with MID = “28101”.

Further, the message with MID = “28107” is a reply message to MID = “28106”.

The connection structure (see FIG. 9) of a series of message groups connected in such a reply relationship is called a thread. FIG. 9 shows a structure of a thread existing in a message group registered in a certain community.

FIG. 7 shows an example of the storage of the message access history in the information DB 23. In the information DB 23, when a message browsing request from the user terminal 11 is received, based on the contents of the request, the browsing request is not processed. The message ID of the received message, the community ID of the posting destination of the message, the date and time when the viewing request was received, the user ID of the requester, and the like are stored in a table format.

FIG. 10 shows an example of the functional configuration of the processing section 25 of FIG. In the following description, only one community will be described unless otherwise specified.

As described above, the input / output unit 21 receives a message posting request and a browsing request from the user terminal 11, and also receives an input of a direct action to the virtual life.

The direct action on the virtual life is, for example, a button input such as “raise the bait” or “stroke the head” input on the display screen displayed on the user terminal 11.

The processing unit 25 mainly includes the message processing unit 1
00, a message information parameter acquisition unit 101, a community state management unit 102, a virtual life state management unit 103,
The virtual life behavior determining unit 104 is provided.

[0059] The message processing unit 100 includes the user terminal 1
1 to register a message in the information DB 23,
23 to retrieve the message requested.

Message information parameter acquisition section 101
Calculates, for each community, various statistics regarding the registration status of a message in the community and the browsing status of the registered message from various information stored in the information DB 23, and replies between registered messages. A thread structure is extracted from the relationship, the content of a registered message is analyzed based on the extracted thread structure, and the result is used as a message information parameter of the community as a message information parameter database (DB) 105. To be stored.

The community status management unit 102 performs a process of determining a community status using the message information parameter group as input data, calculates a community status parameter group, and outputs the community status parameter DB 10
6 and manages it.

The virtual life state management unit 103 receives the community state parameter group from the community state management unit 102 or a direct stimulus input as a direct action to the virtual life from the input / output unit 21 as an input, and A process of determining a state is performed, a parameter group of virtual life is calculated, and stored in the virtual life state parameter DB 107.

The virtual life behavior determining unit 104 performs a process of selecting a virtual life behavior pattern by inputting a virtual life state parameter group from the virtual life state management unit 103, and according to the selected behavior pattern, a virtual life behavior DB 108.
Acquisition of behavior pattern display data, etc., and HTM
The display data is passed to the L drawing data output unit 22.

Next, the processing operation of the server device shown in FIGS. 3 and 10 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

When a user selects a certain community using a mouse or the like from a community list screen shown in FIG. 15, for example, provided from the server device 13 to the user terminal 11, the server device 13 11
Next, a top screen as shown in FIG. 16 is provided for the user to participate in the selected community.

The screen shown in FIG. 16 mainly includes an area 68 for displaying a list of messages already registered in the community selected by the user, and a screen selected from the list displayed in this area 68. An area 69 for displaying one message is provided. Further, a virtual life 70 of the community is displayed.

In addition to the display of the virtual life 70, the profile of the virtual life 70 may be displayed (region 7).
1).

When "new" button 63 or "reply" button 64 is clicked on with a mouse or the like, a message posting screen as shown in FIG. 17 is displayed. The message posting screen mainly includes a message input area 71 and an area 7
A “send” button 72 is an instruction button for registering the message input to 1 in the community, and a “cancel” button 73 is used to cancel posting.

Now, in order to directly input a stimulus to the virtual life 70, one of the buttons 61 such as "praise", "square" and "play" at the upper left of the screen shown in FIG. 16 is clicked with a mouse or the like. I just need. By performing such an operation, the generated event message is input from the user terminal 11 to the community status management unit 102 via the input / output unit 21 of the server device 13 (Step S).
1). In the case of the event message generated by the direct stimulus input, the process proceeds to step S2, where the virtual life state management unit 103 updates the virtual life parameter via the community state management unit 102 (step S2). Then, based on the updated virtual life parameters, the virtual life behavior determining unit 104 executes an output process for displaying an animation of the behavior of the corresponding virtual life (step S3).

When one message is selected from the message list display area 68 on the screen shown in FIG. 16 and a request to browse the message is input from the user terminal 11 to the input / output unit 21 of the server device 13 ( Step S
1. The process proceeds to step S4) and step S5, and a message browsing process is executed.

After inputting a message in the message input area 71 of the screen shown in FIG. 17, a "send" button 72 or a "cancel" button 73 is clicked with a mouse or the like, and a message posting request is sent from the user terminal 11 to the server device. 13 (step S).
1, step S6), and proceed to step S7 to execute a message posting process.

If the request from the user terminal 11 is not a direct stimulus input to virtual life, a message browsing request, or a message posting request, the process proceeds to step S8, and other processing is performed.

Next, the message browsing process of step S5 in FIG. 11 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

When the message processing unit 100 receives a message browsing request, the message processing unit 100 first updates the browsing count of the message requested to be browsed among the message information stored in the information DB 23 (step S21). The browsing count is incremented by “1” each time there is a browsing request for the message. In the unread state, the viewing count is “0”.

In response to the update of the browsing count, the message information parameter, the community status parameter, and the virtual life status parameter are sequentially updated (step S22), and the virtual life behavior determining unit 104 updates the updated virtual life status parameter. HTML drawing data output unit 2 for drawing animation data of animation of behavior of virtual life according to
2 (step S23). In parallel with this, the message processing unit 100 reads the message requested to be browsed from the message DB 23 (step S24).
Also, a message access history (see FIG. 7) for the message browsing request is recorded.

In the input / output unit 21, the message processing unit 10
H including the drawing data of the virtual life, which is output from the message read at 0 and the HTML drawing data output unit 22
The TML document is combined with the TML document and transmitted to the requesting user terminal 11 (step S25).

Next, the message posting process of FIG. 11 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

Upon receiving the message posting request, the message processing unit 100 first determines whether the message posting request is generated by selecting the “send” button 72 on the screen shown in FIG. It is determined by checking the description of the header part of the posting request message whether or not 73 has been selected and generated (step S31).

When the posting request is generated by operating the "send" button 72, the flow advances to step S32 to execute a message receiving process. In the case of a posting request generated by operating the “cancel” button 73, the process proceeds to step S33, where the virtual life behavior determining unit 10
4 executes an animation output process of a predetermined behavior of the virtual life when the posting is abandoned.

The input / output unit 21 transmits an HTML document including virtual life drawing data output from the HTML drawing data output unit 22 to the user terminal 11 that has issued the request.

Next, the message receiving process of FIG. 13 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

When the message processing unit 100 receives the message posting request generated by selecting the “send” button 72 on the screen shown in FIG. 17, the message processing unit 100 adds the posted message attached to the message posting request to the posting request. And register it in the designated community (step S44). That is, as shown in FIG. 6, the message ID (MI
D), the message ID, the community ID (CID) of the posting destination of the message, the title and text of the message, the user ID (UID) as identification information of the user who is the poster, the posting date, etc. Is stored in the information DB 23 as message information. The browsing count is recorded as “0”. Further, an existing message (reception message) indicating that the post message has been received is read from the information DB.

When the message information is updated in this manner, the message information parameter obtaining unit 101 and the community state management unit 102 receive the message, and perform the processing of updating the message information parameter and the community state parameter, respectively. It is executed sequentially (step S41). Accordingly, the virtual life state management unit 103
Executes a process of updating the virtual life state parameter (step S42), and furthermore, executes the virtual life behavior determination unit 10
4 outputs, to the HTML drawing data output unit 22, the drawing data of the animation having the behavior corresponding thereto (Step S).
43).

In the input / output unit 21, the message processing unit 10
0 and the HTML document containing the drawing data of the virtual life output from the HTML drawing data output unit 22 and the requesting user terminal 11.
(Step S45).

Although the message posting process and the browsing process described above are processes based on operations on a web browser, message posting and receiving / browsing processes by e-mail can be considered separately.

The message browsing processing result and the message posting processing result returned from the server device 13 to the user terminal 11 are displayed on a screen as shown in FIG. 16 and FIG. For example, a message selected by the user as a result of the message browsing process is displayed in the display area 69, and an animation of the virtual life 70 is displayed. Also, a received message as a result of the message browsing process is displayed on a screen as shown in FIG. 17, and at the same time, an animation of virtual life is also displayed.

Although the screens shown in FIGS. 16 and 17 are displayed here by the processing of the input / output unit 21 of the server device, the present invention is not limited to this case. When the display process is performed by a web browser on the user terminal 11 as the display process, CGI, Java servl
et may be used. The display may be transmitted by e-mail.

FIG. 18 is a view for explaining a method of determining the behavior of a virtual life based on community state parameters, which are environment information of the virtual life, and direct stimulus input. FIG. 19 is a flowchart for explaining a processing operation relating to virtual life in the processing unit 25 of FIG. Hereinafter, a description will be given based on the flowchart shown in FIG. 19 and with reference to FIG.

Message information parameter acquisition section 101
Generates and updates a message information parameter for each community, each thread, and each user from the message information and the like stored in the information DB 23 (step S5
1).

The message information parameters generated / updated by the message information parameter acquisition unit 101 include:
As shown in FIG. 18, for each community, the number of users who have viewed the message group posted (registered) in the community (“number of viewers”) and the number of users who have posted messages to the community (“poster”) Number), the number of messages posted to the community (“message number”), the frequency of posting messages to the community (“posting frequency”), the “thread structure”, and the like.

For each thread, the distribution of contributors for each thread (“thread contributor distribution”), the distribution of message viewers for each thread (“thread reader distribution”), and posting to the community The ratio of the quoted text volume of other messages in the message ("the ratio of the quoted text volume"), the "judgment value by the rule dictionary", and the like.

For each member (each user) of each community, based on the thread structure, the number of users who posted a reply message to each message posted by that member (“posted message for each member”) for each thread Or the number of users who have viewed each message posted by that member ("the number of messages viewed by each member") and may use them as message information parameters. .

The “number of viewers” can be obtained, for example, from the value of the browse count in the message information as shown in FIG. Also, the access history can be obtained by totalizing the access history for each community from the message access history as shown in FIG.

The “number of contributors” is, for example, the user who posted a message registered in the community (corresponding to the CID of the community) for each community from the message information as shown in FIG. (U
ID) can be obtained by counting the number of IDs.

The “number of messages” is registered for each community from the message information as shown in FIG.
(Corresponding to D) by counting the number of messages.

The “posting frequency” is, for example, based on the number of messages registered in the community and the posting date (or posting date) for each community from the message information as shown in FIG. For example, it can be obtained as a statistical value of how many messages are posted in one day. Note that a parameter called “posting frequency” may be calculated for each community, each thread, and each user.

For example, the structure of each thread existing in each community as shown in FIG. 9 can be used as the message information parameter.

“Thread contributor distribution” means that, for each thread, the contributor of each message constituting the thread is
This is information indicating the degree of dispersion (dispersion) of the message posting status based on which message is frequently replied to. For example, how many thread structures are composed of messages posted by only a few specific members of the community,
This is information for determining how much a partial thread structure is formed by posting a specific number of members to a part of one thread structure.

"Thread viewer distribution" means that, for each thread, the message group of the thread
Is information for determining which message is frequently viewed by which user while referring to the message access history shown in FIG.

A rule dictionary in which words serving as clues for judging conflicting relations and synchronizing relations between messages in reply from the contents of messages registered in each community are stored in advance as keywords. Each keyword can be extracted from each message using this rule dictionary, and can be used as a message information parameter (judgment value by the rule dictionary) for each message.

As described above, the message information parameter obtaining unit 101 obtains the message information as shown in FIG. 6 stored in the information DB 23, the message access history as shown in FIG. 7, the thread as shown in FIG. In addition to the above, any useful information for expressing the activity state of the community (by posting or browsing a message) is extracted as a message information parameter.

The community status management unit 102 generates and updates community status parameters representing the current status of the community based on the message information parameter group (step S52). As the community state parameter, “scale”, “activity”, “degree of relation between members”, “message confrontation”, “degree of member interest dispersion”, “community maturity”, and the like can be considered.

The “scale” is provided with several levels of values such as “number of viewers”, “number of contributors”, “number of messages”, and “posting frequency” as message information parameters. When the value of the message information parameter reaches the value corresponding to each level, the “scale” of the community is set as the value of the level.

[0104] The "activity level" is set, for example, by providing several levels of values such as "posting frequency" as a message information parameter, and when the value of "posting frequency" reaches a value corresponding to each level. The “activity” of the community is set to the value of the level.

The “degree of relation between members” is, for example, based on “thread structure” as a message information parameter and other message information parameters, for each thread.
Relationship patterns between members who are contributors / viewers of the messages that make up the thread (for example, "a certain person is mainly active""a certain part is mainly active "" The unspecified number of people are working in a confused state ").

The “message conflict degree” is, for example, based on a “thread structure” as a message information parameter and other message information parameters, the relation between messages (conflict relation, neutral relation, synchronization relation) for each thread.
Is the result of the determination.

The “member interest dispersion degree” is, for example, a determination result of a state in which a plurality of topics are mixed in one community.

The “community maturity” includes “number of viewers” as message information parameters of each community,
There are several levels for values such as “number of contributors” and “number of messages”, and when the value of each message information parameter reaches the value corresponding to each level, the “community maturity” of the relevant community is The value of the level.

As shown in FIG. 18, the direct stimulus input from the user to the virtual life is “compliment”, “karuka”, “play”, “message posting”, “message reading”, and message posting. "Cancel" can be considered.

Based on the above-mentioned community state parameters, which are environment information surrounding the virtual life, and the direct stimulus input, the virtual life state management unit 103 determines the behavior of the virtual life,
Each virtual life state parameter for controlling the display mode is updated (step S53).

FIG. 18 shows a virtual life state parameter.
As shown in the above, "community revitalization desire" wants to activate message exchange, "communication healthy desire" wants to adjust the balance of message exchange, and "affection desire" wants to show charm to the community. , "Community appetite" that wants to be recognized by community viewers, "community split appetite" that wants to differentiate communities with many topics into individual topics, and "community integration" that wants to integrate similar communities "Degree of desire", "Degree of emotion of joy" who wants to act of joy, "Degree of emotion of anger" who wants to act of anger, "Degree of emotion of sadness" that wants to act of sadness, and behavior of fun The "degree of emotion of fun" to be followed, the "age" indicating the years of survival, the "health degree" indicating the health condition, and the like can be considered.

Here, what kind of parameter is provided is not particularly limited, but various kinds of virtual life state parameters can be considered depending on how the community state parameter is reflected in the behavior of virtual life.

The virtual life behavior determining unit 104 performs a process for determining the behavior and display form of the virtual life based on the virtual life state parameter (step S54). As a method of determining the virtual life behavior pattern, for example, the virtual life state parameter is used as input data, the point of the behavior pattern of each virtual life is calculated by a neural network, and the behavior pattern that has become the largest point is determined as the behavior. I do. The display form of virtual life, that is, for example,
The method of determining the shape of the appearance of the virtual life, such as the image of the virtual life of the child or the image of the adult virtual life, is the same as the method of determining the behavior pattern As shown in FIG. 18, the virtual life behavior patterns include posting a message and providing a topic (“Providing a topic”), “promoting a conflict” of a message, “arbitrating a conflict” of a message, and “sprinkling charm”. ”, Spawns and“ proliferates ”virtual life, to similar communities,“ goes out ”to advertise their affiliations, expresses joyfully, expresses what is happening, expresses sadly, plays There are expressions that are being given, expressions that are sleeping, expressions that are dancing, and just hanging out.

Note that the community state parameter and the direct stimulus input are reflected on the virtual life state parameter.
Various methods are conceivable as a method of determining the virtual life behavior pattern from the virtual life state parameter, and an example thereof will be described later.

[0115] The virtual life behavior determining unit 104 reads messages of a plurality of users who are members of each community,
Determined based on the state of the community (community state parameter) reflecting the user's activity such as posting, and the virtual life state parameter updated by a direct operation on the virtual life (including a posting operation, a browsing operation, and a canceling operation) The virtual life behavior DB 10 stores the drawn data of the virtual life corresponding to the behavior pattern and the display form of the virtual life.
8 and output it to the HTML drawing data output unit 2
2 to the user terminal 11 and the user terminal 11
Animation display of virtual life on the screen (step S5
5).

(Second Embodiment) Next, a method of reflecting a community state parameter or a direct stimulus input on a virtual life state parameter and determining a virtual life behavior pattern from the virtual life state parameter is described with reference to FIG. However, some examples will be described.

FIG. 20 shows the server device 13 shown in FIG.
3 shows a more detailed configuration example of the virtual life behavior determining unit 104 of the processing unit 25, and other functional units mainly used for processing in the virtual life behavior determining unit 104.

In FIG. 20, the community profile management unit 114 uses the message information stored in the information DB 23 to designate, for each community, a word that frequently appears in the content of each message posted to that community as a keyword. The extracted keyword groups are combined to create profile information indicating the content of interest of the community.

The profile information of each community is periodically updated and managed by the community profile management unit 114, and a profile database (hereinafter, referred to as a profile database) is provided.
It is easily stored in the profile DB 115.

FIG. 22 shows an example of storing profile information for each community. In association with the community ID (CID) of each community, profile information indicating the content of interest of the community, for example,
(Baseball, 21, 1) (sports, 10, 1) (watching 5,
1, 1) (keyword, number of appearances, weight).

Here, for example, the weight is set to have a higher value as the number of messages in which the keyword appears is larger, and to be higher as the keyword is more important in the community.

The virtual life behavior determining unit 104 includes a behavior pattern selection unit 111, a behavior output unit 112, a posted message generation unit 113, and a similar information search unit 116.

The action pattern selecting section 111 selects a corresponding action pattern of the virtual life from the virtual life state parameter group.

The posted message generating unit 113 generates a message to be posted to the virtual life (virtual life action storage unit 1).
Read out the specified message stored in advance in 08)
And so on.

The action output section 112 performs output processing according to the action pattern selected by the action pattern selection section 112.

The similar information search unit 116 accesses the Internet to search for information on the Web based on profile information for each community, and passes the result to the posted message generation unit 113.

(1) The community status management unit 102
When the posting frequency of the message information parameter of the community is decreasing (for example, when the decreasing rate of the posting frequency of the message information parameter of the community is equal to or more than a predetermined value), the activity level of the community status parameter is set to the decreasing state. Update (Steps S101 to S1)
02).

Then, the virtual life state management unit 103 increases the desire for community activation of the virtual life state parameter (step S103), and the virtual life behavior determination unit 104.
The topic providing action is selected as the virtual life action pattern by the action pattern selecting unit 111 (step S104).

When the topic providing action is selected, the posted message generating unit 113 generates a virtual defined life message according to the value of the posting frequency, which is the message information parameter of the community, and the rate of decrease in the value. Action D
It is selected and read from B108 and passed to the action output unit 112.

For example, a message such as "No one has posted recently" is selected as a message from virtual life.

The action output unit 112 performs a process of posting the message selected by the posted message generating unit 113 to the community to which the virtual life belongs, as if the virtual life had posted the message.

That is, the selected message is:
From the action output unit 112 to the HTML drawing data output unit 22,
The message is received by the message processing unit 100 via the input / output unit 21 and registered in the community to which the virtual life belongs. UID representing the poster of this message
, The identification information of the virtual life is recorded.

At a certain user terminal 11, the top screen of the community to which the virtual life belongs (see FIG. 16)
Is displayed, the selected message is displayed in the display field of the poster of the selected message in the display area 68 of the message list, and the virtual life 70 on the top screen is displayed.
To make it clear as if he had said, the virtual life mark 67
Is displayed.

(1 ') Another processing operation of the virtual life behavior determining unit 104 when the topic providing behavior is selected will be described.

When the topic providing behavior is selected as the virtual life behavior pattern in step S104, the posted message generation unit 113 inquires of the similar information search unit 116.

Similar information retrieval unit 116 that received the inquiry
Makes an inquiry to the community profile management unit 114 for profile information indicating the content of interest of the community, and obtains the profile information from the profile DB 115.

The similarity information search unit 116 uses the profile information representing the content of interest of the community as a search formula (for example, one by one, or two or more, in descending order of the weight of the keyword as the profile information). Combined into a search formula), Internet 102
To search for external information such as information on the Web, and search for external information appropriate to the topic of the community or a URL (Uniform Resource) of the external information.
ce Locators) and other link information,
One of them is passed to post message generating section 113.

[0138] Post message generating section 113 reads a prescribed message such as "There was such information" from virtual life behavior storage DB 108, and combines it with the received external information and / or link information such as URL. Return to the action output unit 112.

The action output unit 112 performs a process of posting the synthesized message to the community to which the virtual life belongs, as if posted by the virtual life.

That is, the synthesized message is received by the message processing unit 100 from the action output unit 112 via the HTML drawing data output unit 22 and the input / output unit 21, and is transmitted to the community to which the virtual life belongs. be registered. As the UID indicating the poster of this message, identification information of the virtual life is recorded.

At a certain user terminal 11, the top screen of the community to which the virtual life belongs (see FIG. 16)
Is displayed in the display column 68 of the poster of the composite message in the message list display area 68 because the composite message clearly indicates that the virtual life 70 on the top screen has said the virtual life mark. 67 is displayed.

As described above, for a message posted (appearing) to provide a topic by virtual life,
In fact, when a reply message is posted from a member of the community, it is determined that the topic has been provided successfully, and the value of the keyword weight as profile information used when searching for the provided external information is increased. Conversely, if the reply is not posted after the elapse of the predetermined time, it is determined that the topic provision was unsuccessful, and the value of the keyword weight as the profile information used when searching for the provided external information is reduced. I do.

[0143] The profile information may also be updated by "praise" or "saru", which are direct operations on virtual life.

(2) The community status management unit 102
The maturity of the community state parameter is calculated from numerical values indicating the actual posting and browsing activities by the members of the community, such as the “number of viewers”, “number of contributors”, and “number of messages” of the message information parameters (step S)
105 to step S106). For example, "viewers"
There are several levels for values such as "number of contributors" and "number of messages". When at least one of these message information parameters reaches a value corresponding to each level, the maturity level of the community Is the value of the level.

The virtual life state management unit 103 checks the maturity value of the community state parameter and converts it into the age of the virtual life state parameter (step S10).
7). The age value is provided with several levels, and as the age value reaches a value corresponding to each level, the display form of the virtual life is gradually switched from the child state to the adult state and displayed (step S108).

The image data corresponding to the virtual state from the child state to the adult state, and several growth levels between them is stored in the virtual life behavior DB 108.

The age of the virtual life state parameter is sent to the behavior pattern selection section 111 of the virtual life behavior determination section 104.

When the behavior pattern selection unit 111 selects a behavior pattern from a group of virtual life state parameters other than age, first, a parameter called this age is checked, and an image in a display form corresponding to the age of the virtual life is checked. Is selected and output to the action output unit 112.

[0149] Further, a prescribed message of language usage in a child state and a prescribed message of language usage in an adult state are stored in the virtual life behavior DB 108 in advance.
When posting a message to the virtual life, the user checks the parameter of age, selects a prescribed message using words corresponding to the age of the virtual life, and outputs the action output unit 112.
Output to

As described above, when the display form of the virtual life is switched, when the top screen of the community to which the virtual life belongs is displayed (see FIG. 16), for example, the virtual life that has grown up before is displayed. 70 graphics will be displayed.

(3) The community status management unit 102
Analyzing the thread structure as a message information parameter, which is the structure of the reply relationship between messages, the number of replies to the posted message for each member as the message information parameter, and the number of replies to the posted message for each member,
For example, based on who views your posted messages and who responds frequently,
For each thread, a relationship pattern between members who are posters and viewers of the messages is extracted from a reply relationship between the messages (steps S111 and S11).
2).

The relationship patterns between the members to be extracted include, for example, 1) a certain specific person is mainly active, 2) a certain part of the people is mainly active, 3)
An unspecified number of people are working in a confused state.

When any of these is detected, the community status management unit 102 sets, for example, a flag corresponding to any of the above patterns to “1” as a community status parameter.

As a method of determining the relation pattern, for example, a message group of a specific person receives a reply from 10% of the number of contributors of each message constituting the thread, and the message determines the thread. If one person is in a state of being viewed by 70% of the number of viewers of each of the constituent messages, it is determined that "a specific person is mainly active". In addition, when there are several specific persons mentioned above, "a part of several persons are mainly active"
Is determined. If the specific person does not exist, it is determined that "an unspecified number of people are working in a confused state".

If the flag corresponding to “a specific person is active mainly” is “1” in the degree of relationship between members of the community state parameter, the virtual life state management unit 102 Increase the value of the degree of lust for the specific person as a life state parameter (step S1)
13) As a result, the virtual life behavior determining unit 104 selects, as the behavior of the virtual life toward the specific person, a behavior pattern of the virtual life that gives charm to the specific person (step S114).

When a user accesses the server device 13 via the user terminal 11, the UID of the user is sent, so that the specific person can be identified based on the UID. For example, when the specific person accesses the community (for example, FIG.
When the top screen as shown in (1) is displayed on the user terminal 11), an animation is displayed in which the virtual life 70 is charming.

(4) The community status management unit 102
From the thread structure as a message information parameter, which is the structure of a reply relationship between messages, a relationship pattern such as a conflict relationship, a neutral relationship, and a tuning relationship is extracted from each thread as a relationship between messages.

As a method for determining the relationship pattern between these messages, the number of messages constituting each thread is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, and a new reply message is added to the thread structure to determine the thread structure. Is updated, but if the update frequency (the number of updates within a predetermined time) is equal to or greater than a predetermined value,
It is determined that there is an opposition or synchronization relationship. Next, for each message of the thread determined as such,
Reference is made to a judgment value from the rule dictionary as a message information parameter.

In the message information acquisition unit 101, “Yes,” “Sympathy”, “Same opinion”, “Agree”, “I agree”
Words indicating consent such as "I think so", words expressing dissatisfaction such as "I do not think", "Disagree", "I can not agree", and words such as "ridiculous" and "low brain" A rule dictionary that describes a list of words intended to abuse the other party is stored. Using this rule dictionary, words (keywords) having the meanings of consent, objection, and abuse and the frequency of appearance from the body of each message Is the “judgment value based on the rule dictionary” of the message.

[0160] The community state management unit 102 determines whether each message constituting the thread determined to be in a conflicting relationship or a synchronized relationship is based on the message information parameter of "judgment value by rule dictionary". It is determined that a thread having a predetermined number or more of messages in which a meaningful keyword appears (frequently) has a conflict, and the value of “message conflict” of the community state parameter is increased to a value indicating “conflict”. (Step S113). In addition, threads having a predetermined number or more of messages in which a keyword having consent appears (frequently) are determined to have the same relationship, and the value of the “message conflict degree” of the community state parameter is set to “synchronization relationship”. (Step S11)
4).

In the virtual life state management unit 103, when the value of the “message conflict degree” of the community state parameter increases and a conflict close to the quarrel state is detected, the virtual life state management unit 103 calculates the virtual life state according to the value of the “message conflict degree”. The value of the state parameter “community healthy desire” is increased (step S115).

When “community healthy desire” exceeds a certain threshold, the action of arbitrating the conflict is the action pattern selection unit 1 of the virtual life action determination unit 104 as the action of the virtual life.
11 is selected (step S117).

When an action of “arbitrating conflict” is selected in the action pattern selecting section 111, the virtual life action DB 108
From this, for example, the drawing data of the animation of the action such as “Crying and crying” and “Singing up” is read and output to the action output unit 112.

[0164] The posted message generation unit 113
A prescribed message such as "Well, well" is read from the virtual life behavior DB 108, and is read out by the behavior output unit 1.
12 is output.

For example, when an operation of inputting a reply message to any of the messages constituting the thread is performed, the drawing data is displayed on the user terminal 11. In addition, a process of posting the specified message to the community to which the virtual life belongs is performed as if the virtual life were posted.

On the other hand, in the virtual life state management unit 103, when the value of the “message conflict degree” of the community state parameter becomes low, and when the synchronizing relationship is detected, the virtual life state management unit 103 sets the virtual life state value according to the value of the “message conflict degree”. Increase the value of the parameter “community approval desire” (step S11)
6).

If the virtual life status parameter “community appetite” exceeds a certain threshold, the virtual life behavior determining unit 104 selects “joy” or “dance” as the virtual life behavior pattern (step S118), from the virtual life behavior DB 108, for example, "please" and "dance"
Read the animation drawing data of actions such as
Output to the action output unit 112.

The method for determining the relationship pattern between messages may be a method other than the above. For example, members who read a message will have a new way to input their willingness to agree or disagree with the message,
The score is totaled for each message and used as a message information parameter. And the community state management unit 1
At 02, a conflict, a neutral relationship, and a synchronizing relationship of messages may be determined based on the scores for each thread.

Further, when the above conflict is detected, the value of the “activity level” of the community state parameter, the “number of viewers”, the “number of contributors”, the “number of messages” of the message information parameter, etc. If the value is small and the “community maturity” is updated to be low, the virtual life state management unit 103 sets the virtual life state parameter May be updated.

(5) Message information parameter management unit 1
01 is, for example, for each thread and for a part of the thread, indicates the existence state of the thread that only a plurality of specific members are browsing and posting, the thread poster contributor distribution as a message information parameter, the thread The distribution of the viewer is generated and updated (step S121).

When the values of the distribution of thread contributors and the distribution of thread readers increase, the posting / browsing activity among only some members of the community, rather than the entire members, has become remarkable. Represents.

If the value of the thread variance of the thread of the message information parameter is equal to or greater than a predetermined value and / or if the value of the thread variance of the thread is equal to or greater than the predetermined value, the community state management unit 102 sets the community state parameter as the community state parameter. The value of "member interest dispersion degree" is increased (step S122).

If the value of the “member interest dispersion degree” is equal to or more than the predetermined value, the virtual life state management unit 103 updates the “community division desire degree” to a higher value (step S123).
If the value of “community division desire” is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, the virtual life behavior determining unit 104 selects a “proliferate” behavior as a virtual life behavior pattern (step S12).
4).

As the “propagating” behavior, for example, by adding one separate virtual life, the division time of the community is naturally notified.

For example, at a certain user terminal 11, the top screen of the community to which the virtual life belongs (FIG. 1)
6) is displayed, two virtual lives 70 are displayed.

Further, as described above, the value of the “member interest dispersion degree” becomes equal to or more than a predetermined value, and a part of a certain thread includes:
When the existence of a partial thread that only a specific member is browsing and posting is detected and the “community division desire degree” is equal to or greater than a predetermined value, an action in which virtual life is multiplied is selected, and a separate virtual life is selected. One additional body is generated, but if the above-mentioned partial thread is separated from the current community and an operation for generating a new community is performed, the newly added virtual life is added to the new community. May be treated as a virtual life belonging to. At this time, the new community is recorded on a community registration table as shown in FIG.
Identification information of the newly added virtual life (PETI
D) and recorded.

(Third Embodiment) One community up to this point has been described.

Next, a case where the message exchange system of FIG. 1 manages a plurality of communities will be described.
The parts different from the second embodiment will be described.

In a state where a plurality of communities exist, as shown in FIG. 22, the profile DB1 shown in FIG.
15 and is managed by the community profile management unit 114 in FIG.

Community profile management section 114
Calculates the similarity between profile information of each community and determines a similar community.

As a method of determining a similar community, for example, the same keyword is present in the profile information of each of the two communities by using information (keyword, number of appearances, weight) described in the profile information. Then, the sum of values obtained by multiplying the number of appearances of the keyword by the weight value is set as the similarity between the profile information of the two communities. When the value of the similarity is equal to or more than a predetermined value, it is determined that the two communities are similar.

For example, assume that communities A and B are similar communities. As a natural method of reminding each other members of the similar community, for example, a virtual life belonging to the community A posts a message to the similar community B as if the virtual life belongs to the similar community B.

[0183] In this case, as a message that the virtual message to post, for example, is Taro of "(community A). Everyone of (community B) Hello. (Community A) is, of (keyword ka) and (keyword kb) There are many people who want to talk, and I also love the story of (keyword kc). " For example, the above defined message is read from the virtual life behavior DB 108,
In the message, (Community A) is the name of the community to which the virtual life belongs, (Community B) is a similar community name, (Keyword ka) (Keyword kb)
(Keyword kc), obtained from profile information,
A post message of virtual life is generated by embedding a keyword having a high appearance frequency in a message of the community.

As another method for reminding a similar community of nature, for example, a virtual life belonging to the community A is displayed on the top screen of the similar community B as shown in FIG. For example, an animation may be displayed. For example, when an access from a certain user terminal 11 to the community B occurs, the HTML drawing data output unit 22 converts the display data of the top screen of the community B as shown in FIG.
After synthesizing the drawing data of the virtual life corresponding to the community A, the drawing data is transmitted to the requesting user terminal 11.

As described above, according to the third embodiment, a community with a similar topic can be easily introduced through the action of virtual life, and a user can newly join a new community. It is also possible to reduce anxiety at the time of taking, so that the number of members newly participating in the community increases and the activity of the community can be activated.

The method of the present invention described in the first to third embodiments can be executed by a computer by executing a program such as a magnetic disk (floppy (registered trademark) disk, hard disk, etc.), an optical disk (C
D-ROMs, DVDs, etc.) and storage media such as semiconductor memories for distribution.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described first to third embodiments, and various modifications can be made in the implementation stage without departing from the scope of the invention. Furthermore, the above embodiments include inventions at various stages, and various inventions can be extracted by appropriate combinations of a plurality of disclosed configuration requirements. For example, even if some components are deleted from all the components shown in the embodiments, (at least one of) the problems described in the column of the problem to be solved by the invention can be solved, and the effect of the invention can be solved. If at least one of the effects described in (1) is obtained, a configuration from which this component is deleted can be extracted as an invention.

[0188]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The user can intuitively understand the activity status of the community based on the behavior and display form of the virtual life, perform a communication activity with a familiarity, and furthermore, the behavior of the virtual life enables smooth, friendly communication and activation of the community.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a message exchange system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a user terminal constituting the message exchange system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a server device as a message exchange device constituting the message exchange system of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a storage example of user information stored in an information database of a server device.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a storage example of community information stored in an information database of a server device.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a storage example of message information stored in an information database of a server device.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a storage example of a message access history stored in an information database of a server device.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a display example of a community creation screen.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a thread structure existing in a message group registered in a certain community;

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a functional configuration example of a processing unit in FIG. 3;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart for explaining the outline of the processing operation of the server device.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating a message browsing process operation.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart for explaining a message posting processing operation.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart for explaining a message reception processing operation;

FIG. 15 is a view showing a display example of a community list screen displayed on the user terminal.

FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a display example of a screen corresponding to the community first displayed on the user terminal when a user selects a certain community;

FIG. 17 is a view showing a display example of a message posting screen.

FIG. 18 is a view for explaining a method of determining the behavior of virtual life based on community state parameters, which are environment information of virtual life, and direct stimulus input.

FIG. 19 is a flowchart for explaining a processing operation relating to virtual life in the processing unit in FIG. 10;

20 is a diagram illustrating a more detailed configuration example of a virtual life behavior determining unit of a processing unit of the server device illustrated in FIG. 10 and other functional units mainly used for processing in the virtual life behavior determining unit. .

FIG. 21 is a flowchart illustrating a specific example of a method of reflecting a community state parameter on a virtual life state parameter and determining a virtual life behavior pattern from the virtual life state parameter.

FIG. 22 is a diagram showing a storage example of community profile information.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 ... User terminal 12 ... Communication network 13 ... Server apparatus 21 ... Input / output part 22 ... HTML drawing data output part 23 ... Information database (information DB) 25 ... Processing part 100 ... Message processing part 101 ... Message information parameter acquisition part 102 ... Community state management unit 103 ... Virtual life state management unit 104 ... Virtual life behavior determination unit 105 ... Message information parameter database 106 ... Community state parameter database 107 ... Virtual life state parameter database 108 ... Virtual life behavior database 111 ... Action pattern selection unit 112: action output unit 113: post message generation unit 114: community profile management unit 115: profile database 116: similar information search unit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing from the front page (72) Koichi Sasaki, Inventor Toshiba R & D Center, Komukai, Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan (72) Inventor Toshihiro Kayama, Komukai, Kawasaki, Kanagawa No. 1, Toshiba Town Inside Toshiba R & D Center

Claims (22)

[Claims] 1. Each user of a plurality of terminal devices connected to a network registers a message in a community as a user group for exchanging information via the network, and browses the registered message. In the message exchange method of exchanging messages among the plurality of users, various statistics on a registration status of the message in the community and a browsing status of the registered message, a reply relationship between the registered messages, and a The state of the community determined based on the analysis result of the content is expressed by a plurality of types of indices, and based on the plurality of types of indices, the behavior and display mode of the virtual life corresponding to the community displayed on the screen of the terminal device. A message exchange method, comprising: 2. As a message from the virtual life,
A plurality of messages corresponding to the status of the community are stored in advance, a message corresponding to the status of the community represented by the index is selected from the stored messages, and the selected message is The message exchange method according to claim 1, wherein the action of the virtual life is registered in the community. 3. Characteristic information of message content in the community is created from a keyword extracted from each message registered in the community, the keyword characterizing the content of each message, the number of appearances of the keyword, and the like. When a community in which activities such as message registration are stagnated is detected, external information is searched based on the characteristic information of the community, and the searched external information is provided to the community. The message exchange method according to claim 1, wherein a message including external information and / or identification information indicating the location of the external information is registered in the community as a virtual life action corresponding to the community. 4. A value of a feature information weight used in searching for the external information is changed based on the presence or absence of a reply message to the message including the external information and / or identification information indicating the location of the external information. 4. The message exchange method according to claim 3, wherein: 5. A virtual life growth level that reflects the results of registration and browsing activities by members of the community is selected based on the index, and the display form of the virtual life is changed according to the selected growth level. The message exchange method according to claim 1, wherein 6. The community correspondence based on an index indicating a relationship between a user who is a poster and a viewer of the message group extracted from a series of messages connected by a reply relationship registered in the community. The message exchange method according to claim 1, wherein the behavior of the virtual life is controlled. 7. A virtual system corresponding to the community, based on an index that is extracted based on the contents of a series of messages connected by the reply relationship registered in the community and that indicates the degree of disagreement of the message group. The message exchange method according to claim 1, wherein the behavior of life is controlled. 8. An index indicating the degree of disagreement of opinions of a group of messages extracted based on the contents of a series of messages connected by a reply relationship registered in the community, and registration by members of the community. The message exchange method according to claim 1, wherein the behavior of the virtual life corresponding to the community is controlled based on an index indicating the result of the browsing activity. 9. A new community consisting of the plurality of users from the community based on an index indicating the remarkability of message registration / browsing activities by only some of the members of the community. 2. The message exchange method according to claim 1, wherein when it is determined that it is time to divide the new community, a new virtual life corresponding to the new community is generated. 10. A plurality of communities, wherein the virtual life is associated with each of the plurality of communities, and the content of each message extracted from each message registered in each of the plurality of communities is characterized. Based on the keywords and the number of appearances of the keywords, feature information of the message content in each community is created for each community, and similar communities are determined based on this feature information. 2. The message exchange according to claim 1, wherein a message notifying the existence of the own community is registered in the similar community of the community, or a virtual life corresponding to the similar community of the community is displayed on the screen corresponding to the community. One . 11. Each user of a plurality of terminal devices connected to a network registers a message in a community as a user group for exchanging information via the network, and browses the registered message. In the message exchange device for exchanging messages among the plurality of users, various statistics regarding the registration status of the message in the community and the browsing status of the registered message, the reply relationship between the registered messages and the registered message Means for expressing the state of the community determined based on the analysis result of the content of the message with a plurality of indices; and the behavior of the virtual life corresponding to the community displayed on the screen of the terminal device based on the plurality of indices And a means for controlling the display mode. Sage exchange device. 12. The system according to claim 11, further comprising: means for storing, as the message from the virtual life, a plurality of messages corresponding to the status of the community, and corresponding to the status of the community represented by the index from the stored messages. The message exchange apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the selected message is selected, and the selected message is registered in the community as a virtual life action corresponding to the community. 13. A means for creating characteristic information of message contents in the community from keywords extracted from each message registered in the community, the number of appearances of the keywords characterizing the contents of each message, and the index. Means for searching for external information based on the feature information of the community when a community in which activities such as message registration are stagnant is detected, further comprising: The method according to claim 11, wherein a message including the external information and / or identification information indicating the location of the external information is registered in the community as a virtual life action corresponding to the community in order to provide the community to the community. Message exchange device. 14. A weight value of characteristic information used in searching for the external information is changed based on the presence or absence of a reply message to the message including the external information and / or identification information indicating the location of the external information. 14. The message exchange device according to claim 13, wherein: 15. A growth level of the virtual life reflecting a result of registration / browsing activity by a member of the community is selected based on the index, and a display form of the virtual life is changed according to the selected growth level. The message exchange device according to claim 11, wherein 16. The community correspondence based on an index indicating a relationship between a user who is a poster and a viewer of the message group extracted from a series of messages connected by a reply relationship registered in the community. The message exchange device according to claim 11, wherein the behavior of the virtual life is controlled. 17. A virtual system corresponding to the community, based on an index indicating the degree of disagreement of the group of messages extracted based on the contents of a series of messages connected by the reply relationship registered in the community. The message exchange device according to claim 11, wherein the message exchange device controls behavior of life. 18. An index indicating the degree of disagreement between opinions of a group of messages extracted based on the contents of a series of messages connected by a reply relationship registered in the community, and registration by members of the community. 12. The message exchange device according to claim 11, wherein the behavior of the virtual life corresponding to the community is controlled based on an index indicating the result of the browsing activity. 19. A new community composed of the plurality of users from the community based on an index indicating the remarkability of message registration / browsing activities by only some of the members of the community. 12. The message exchange device according to claim 11, wherein when it is determined that it is time to divide the new community, a new virtual life corresponding to the new community is generated. 20. A plurality of communities, wherein the virtual life is associated with each of the plurality of communities, and the contents of each message extracted from each message registered in each of the plurality of communities are characterized. Means for creating feature information of message content in each community from a keyword or the number of appearances of the keyword, and means for determining a similar community based on the feature information. As a behavior of the virtual life, a message notifying the existence of the own community is registered in a similar community of the community, or a virtual life corresponding to the similar community of the community is displayed on the screen corresponding to the community. When Message exchange device according to claim 11 that. 21. Each user of a plurality of terminal devices connected to a network registers a message in a community as a user group for exchanging information via the network, and browses the registered message. A program for causing a computer to execute a process for exchanging messages among the plurality of users, wherein various statistics regarding a registration status of a message to the community and a browsing status of a registered message, and a registered message A process for expressing the state of the community determined based on the analysis result of the reply relationship between the registered messages and the content of the registered message with a plurality of types of indices; and on the screen of the terminal device based on the plurality of types of indices. Control the behavior and display form of the virtual life corresponding to the community to be displayed. Program for executing the processing, to the computer. 22. Each user of a plurality of terminal devices connected to a network registers a message in a community as a user group for exchanging information via the network, and browses the registered message. A recording medium on which a program for causing a computer to execute a process for exchanging messages among the plurality of users is recorded, and various statistics regarding a registration status of the message to the community and a browsing status of the registered message are provided. A process for expressing a state of the community determined based on a reply relationship between registered messages and an analysis result of the content of the registered message with a plurality of types of indices; and the terminal based on the plurality of types of indices. Behavior and table of the virtual life corresponding to the community displayed on the screen of the device A recording medium recording a program for executing a process for controlling the form, to the computer.