JP2003132089A - Server, character search device, character search method, program and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a server, a character search device, a character search method, a program and a recording medium with the program recorded thereon that can search for a character meeting one's wishes simply and in a short time. SOLUTION: On a search screen, a selection box 40 for selecting a search key from registered categories such as motif, touch, image and use condition, a selection button 50 for selecting a search key from registered categories based on a popularity poll for characters, a 'search' button B4 and the like are displayed. Then, if the 'search' button B4 is clicked, by searching a character table in which the motif, touch, image, use condition, announcement time and popularity ranking of each character are previously described based on a plurality of inputted search keys, the corresponding character is extracted.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a character search server, a character search device, a character search method, a program, and a recording medium.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a character is used for stationery, toys, etc., the property right owned by the right holder of the character is called "commercialization right". Where "character"
Is said to be an "abstract concept that should also be called the personality of a character sublimated from a concrete expression in a manga."
Judgment on July 17, 2014). Explaining the conventional character commercialization business, as shown in FIG. 15 showing a general transaction form of characters, first, a window company (a licensor) who has taken over the copyright from the author, or the character is a product of its own. One of the buyers (licensees) of the commercialization right who wants to use the service asks the other party for permission of the commercialization right, or the agency acts as a licensor or a licensee to perform the transaction. Then, the license fee obtained by this transaction is distributed to the author, the licensor, and the agency based on the agreement between the author and the licensor, and the agreement between the author, the licensor, and the agency. ing.

[0003]

By the way, the selection condition of the character is different for each licensor, and the value of the character is greatly influenced by the popularity which changes depending on the generation and the time. There is a problem that it takes a lot of time and labor to manually select one character from among these. For this reason, even if the character is popular at the time of selection, there is a case in which the character's popularity is greatly reduced at the time of selling a product using the character. In particular, in recent years, a wide variety of characters have appeared on a daily basis, and trendy characters change rapidly. Therefore, in order to effectively utilize the commercialization rights of this type of character, select a character that suits the licensee's wishes in a short period of time. Is needed. Also, conventionally,
Although the general consumer's opinion was taken into consideration when selecting a character, the character was not selected by reflecting the intention of the author included in the character.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a server, a character search device, a character search method, a program, and a recording medium storing this program, which can easily and quickly search for a character that matches a desire. Has an aim.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, in the invention described in claim 1, the server stores the image data of a plurality of characters and the characteristic information for each character. Means and a search means for extracting a character specified from the characteristic information corresponding to the search key from the storage means based on one or more search keys input from a client terminal connected via a communication network. And output means for outputting the image of the character extracted by the search means to the client terminal as a search result, wherein the characteristic information is a character motif, touch, image, use condition, announcement time, or author. It is characterized by including information corresponding to any one or more of the created introduction sentences.

In the invention described in claim 2, in the server according to claim 1, the characteristic information further includes the popularity of the character, and the characteristic information is provided to a client terminal connected via a communication network. Displaying a plurality of characters stored in the storage means, means for prompting selection of a character to be voted, and determining the popularity of each character based on at least the number of votes for each character,
And a means for updating the popularity included in the characteristic information based on the popularity.

According to another aspect of the present invention, in the character search device, image data of a plurality of characters, storage means for storing characteristic information for specifying the characters, and one or more input search keys. Input means for inputting, and a search means for extracting a character specified from the characteristic information corresponding to the search key from the storage means based on the search key input by the input means; Means for displaying an image of a character as a search result, wherein the characteristic information is any one of a character motif, a touch, an image, a condition of use, a publication time, a degree of popularity, or an introduction sentence created by the author.
It is characterized by including information corresponding to one or more.

According to the invention of claim 4, in the character search method, the step of the server inputting one or more search keys from a client terminal connected via a communication network, and the server includes a plurality of search keys. A step of extracting a character specified by the characteristic information corresponding to the search key from the storage means for storing the image data of the character and the characteristic information specifying the character; and the server searching the image of the extracted character. As a result, the step of outputting to the client terminal, the characteristic information corresponds to any one or more of a character motif, a touch, an image, a usage condition, a publication time, or an introduction sentence created by the author. It is characterized by including information.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the character search method according to the fourth aspect, the characteristic information further includes the popularity of the character, and the client terminal is connected via a communication network. Against
Displaying a plurality of characters stored in the storage means,
Further, a step of urging the selection of a character to be voted, a step of obtaining a popularity degree of each character based on at least the number of votes of each character, and a step of updating the popularity degree included in the characteristic information based on the popularity degree are further included. It is characterized by having.

In a sixth aspect of the present invention, in a program, a computer for searching for a character, image data of a plurality of characters, storage means for storing characteristic information for specifying the character, and communication. A search unit for extracting a character specified from the characteristic information corresponding to the search key from the storage unit based on one or more search keys input from a client terminal connected via a network; and the search unit. The image of the character extracted by is made to function as an output means for outputting to the client terminal as a search result, and the characteristic information is a motif of the character, a touch, an image, a use condition, a publication time, or an introduction sentence created by the author. It is characterized by including information corresponding to any one or more of the above. According to the invention of claim 7, claim 6
It is a computer-readable recording medium in which the program described in [1] is recorded.

According to the invention described in claims 1, 3, 4 and 6, any one or more of the motif of each character, touch, image, use condition, time of announcement, or introductory text prepared by the author. Since the information corresponding to is used as the characteristic information of each character and the character of the corresponding characteristic information is extracted based on a plurality of search keys, it is possible to easily and quickly search for a character that matches the wish.

According to the second and fifth aspects of the present invention, since the character information includes the popularity of the character, it is possible to easily and quickly search for a character whose popularity matches the desire. Also, accept the vote of the character,
Since the popularity included in the characteristic information is updated based on the number of votes for each character, a trendy character can be searched.

According to the invention of claim 7, claim 6
By recording the program described in 1 above in a computer-readable recording medium, the computer reads and executes the program stored in the recording medium, whereby the motif, touch, image, use condition, and announcement of each character are presented. It is possible to perform a character search process based on information corresponding to at least one of the introduction texts created by the author or the author.

[0014]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings as appropriate.

(1) Embodiment (1.1) Outline of Embodiment First, an outline of a service provided by a Web server according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. Web
The server 10 is a server that builds three markets (partial market, second-part market, over-the-counter open market) on the Internet for the purpose of distributing characters. As shown in the figure, in the present embodiment, a service corresponding to a partial market and a second-part market is called a "character market", and a service providing an over-the-counter market and other services is called a "character fan club". . Hereinafter, each market will be described. i) In the over-the-counter open market, if a character that does not violate public order and morals or copyright law is passed a certain examination, it is entered (registered) and the entered character (hereinafter referred to as "entry character") is aimed to become prominent. In this market, entry characters that have reached a certain level of popularity with general consumers are managed as over-the-counter characters. The over-the-counter public character is treated as a character in which part of the ownership of the license fee obtained by the character is sold to general consumers. ii) The second-part market is a market that manages, as popular characters, those characters for which a certain amount of equity rights have been purchased among publicly displayed characters, and promotes commercialization of popular characters. In this market, popular character search services, popular character introductions, merchandise right placement, etc. are performed. iii) Some markets manage characters that are more popular than the characters handled in the second part market as famous characters,
It is a market that promotes the commercialization of famous characters. In this market, we provide famous character search services, introduce famous characters, and seek commercialization rights. The open market is mainly for general consumers, while the second and partial markets are mainly for corporate transactions.

(1.2) Configuration of the Embodiment FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the embodiment of the present invention. In this figure, a Web server 10 is connected to the Internet via a route control device (router) 11 and is also connected to a terminal 12 of a service providing company via an Ethernet (trademark) cable. In addition, on the Internet, PCs (Personal Com) operated by general consumers and corporations (corporations that may be licensees) are operated.
puter), PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), client terminals 13, 14, 15, 16 such as mobile phones
Are connected via an ISP (Internet Service Provider) not shown. Here, this Web server 1
0 and each of the client terminals 13 to 16 use TCP / IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Int).
It is performed based on the protocol of the ernet protocol), and H is performed by the Web browser of each client terminal 13-16.
An HP (Home Page), which is a file described in an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) language using a TTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) protocol, is browsed. Although illustration is omitted, the Web server 10 and each of the client terminals 13 to 1 are available on the Internet.
A general Internet server group, such as a mail server, an SMTP server, and a POP server, for realizing electronic mail exchange among the six is connected.

(1.2.1) Web Server Next, the detailed configuration of the Web server 10 will be described. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the Web server 10. In the web server 10, the control unit 20 has a CPU
(Central Processing Unit)
b Control of each unit of the server 10, storage or reading of various data in the storage units 21 to 24, calculation of data stored in the storage units 21 to 24, and the like are performed. Input control unit 2
Reference numeral 5 controls data input from client terminals 13 to 16 connected via the Internet. The output control unit 26 controls the data output to the client terminals 13-16. The input / output control unit 27 inputs / outputs data to / from the terminal 12 of the service providing company via the LAN.

(1.2.2) A main program is stored in the storage content storage unit 21 of the storage unit of the Web server.
This main program is read and executed by the control unit 20, and, for example, the client terminals 13 to 16 are used.
, A program for displaying the main menu screen, member registration screen, search screen, etc., character recruitment, registration,
A program to introduce, a program to sell multiple ownerships of a character's license fee, a program to send and receive e-mail, a program to search for a character, and popular vote results for a character And a program for creating a character table described later.

The image data of the character is stored in the storage unit 22. The image data of this character is a copyrighted work whose copyright is managed by a general consumer who has created a copyrighted work such as a character or a sales company of the character. It should be noted that although there may be any type of image data for one character, in the present embodiment, description will be given assuming that one type of image data is stored for convenience of explanation. Further, in the storage unit 22, data such as an introduction sentence of the author of each character is stored in association with each image data.

The storage unit 23 also stores a character table 30. In the character table 30, as shown in FIG. 4, the file name of the image data that has been examined out of the image data of the character stored in the storage unit 22, the data that identifies the market that handles the character,
The classification information of the character, the number of sold ownership of the license fee of the character, and the number of votes for each attribute (general, male, female, teen, etc.) are described in association with each other.

Here, the classification information is information that characterizes the character (feature information), and is information that is used when searching, and as shown in FIG. 4, motifs, touches, images, and announcement times. , Usage conditions, popularity ranking, etc. Specifically, the motif is used to classify a character by a person, an animal, a plant, a landscape, or the like. For each classification, a person (one person / group / family / child / baby / young / adult), animal ( Detailed categories are set such as bear / dog / cat / monkey / gorilla / other). Also, touch means character, fancy, pop, fairy tale, comical humor, art, CG (Computer Gra
phics), etauma, classical, etc. An image is a character that is retro, gentle,
It is classified by surreal, simple, reality, individuality, cute, masculine, feminine, fun, Japanese style, Western style, etc. The motif, touch, and image fields are selected from these categories.
The classification of types is described. In the present embodiment, the service provider company selects the motif, touch, and image of each character by examination. The reason is,
This is because, depending on the judgment of the author of the character, the arbitrary tendency becomes too strong, which may deviate from the feeling of general consumers. In this way, by setting motifs, touches, and images by examination by a third party, it is possible to improve the search accuracy of general consumers.

The usage conditions describe the loyalty of each character and the industry category. Here, the industry category (AB shown in FIG. 4) indicates the industry in which the license of this character is permitted, but it is necessary to limit the duplicate use of the same industry due to the characteristics of the commercialization right. Therefore, information indicating that the industry has already been contracted for use is described or deleted from the industry category.

Further, the storage unit 24 stores a member file. This member file is a member ID, password, name, handle, gender, birthday, email address, bank account, questionnaire result at registration, character information registered by the member (file name, etc.), member service usage information. Etc. Of these, the service usage information is information that mainly indicates the usage frequency of the over-the-counter open market (access frequency, usage time, purchase history of equity interest, etc.). This information is used, for example, when an equity interest in the license fee of the character is sold, to notify the member who frequently uses it by e-mail.

(1.3) Operation of the Embodiment Next, the operation of the Web server 10 in this embodiment will be described. Hereinafter, for convenience of description, a case where the client terminal 13 accesses the Web server 10 and uses various services will be described as an example. First, the client terminal 13 uses the HP address of the Web server 10 (URL: Uniform Reso
urce Locators) to establish a communication link with the Web server 10, the control unit 2 of the Web server 10
As shown in the flowchart of FIG. 5, 0 causes the main menu screen to be displayed on the screen of the client terminal 13 (step Sa1) and prompts the terminal operator to perform the “member registration” and “login” processings of this embodiment. , "Character fan club", "Character market" to select the desired processing. On such a main menu screen, a mouse cursor is displayed, and the terminal operator can select the desired process by moving the mouse cursor to the display area corresponding to the desired process and clicking the mouse. ing.

(1.3.1) Member Registration First, the operation at the time of member registration will be described. When the terminal operator selects the "member registration" process on the main menu screen, the control unit 20 displays the member registration screen on the screen of the client terminal 13 (step Sa2). On this member registration screen, as shown in FIG. 6, input boxes and check boxes for inputting name, handle name, gender, credit number, date of birth, email address, answer result of questionnaire, and transmission instruction of these input information. A "send" button B1 for performing the operation and a "clear" button B2 for instructing deletion of the input information are displayed. On the member registration screen, the terminal operator moves the mouse cursor to the display area of each box and clicks the mouse or operates the keyboard to check the check box or input characters in the input box. Then, when the terminal operator clicks the "send" button B1, the control unit 20 determines whether or not all the information has been input (step Sa3), and when all the information has not been input,
A message to that effect is displayed to prompt the user to enter information that has not been entered.

On the other hand, when the control unit 20 determines that all the information has been input, it issues a registration keyword that uniquely identifies the terminal operator (step Sa4), and the mail address entered on the member registration screen. Is read and the registered keyword is notified to the terminal operator by e-mail (step Sa5). Information input to the member registration screen (hereinafter referred to as "member information") is temporarily stored in the storage unit 24 or the like in association with the registration keyword.

Next, when the control unit 20 sends the electronic mail, the password registration screen is displayed on the screen of the client terminal 13 (step Sa6). On the password registration screen, as shown in Fig. 7, a message such as "The registration keyword has been sent by email. Please check the mailbox!" And the input box for the registration keyword and password are displayed. The operator is prompted to enter the registered keyword notified by e-mail and the password desired by the terminal operator.

Then, when the registration keyword and password are input and the "send" button B1 is clicked by the terminal operator, the control unit 20 searches the input registration keyword and determines whether or not it has been issued. (Step Sa
7) If already issued, a member file is created from the member information associated with the registered keyword and the input password (step Sa8) and stored in the storage unit 25. At this time, the control unit 20 controls the client terminal 1
Display the message "Registered." On the screen of 3.
The terminal operator is notified that member registration has been completed (step Sa9). On the other hand, the control unit 20 deletes the member information for which the registered keyword and password have not been input after a certain period of time, so as to avoid the case where the member information is stored forever. here,
On the member registration screen, it is possible to return to the main menu screen at any time by performing a predetermined operation. Further, in the various screens shown below, it is possible to return to the main menu screen at any time by performing a predetermined operation.

(1.3.2) Login Next, on the main menu screen, the terminal operator enters the user ID and password in the "User ID" and "Password" input boxes to log in, and then "Login". When the button B3 is clicked, the control unit 20 searches the member file stored in the storage unit 25 to determine whether the input user ID and password have been registered, as shown in the flowchart of FIG. It is determined whether or not (step Sb1). Then, the control unit 20
When it is determined that the user ID and password have been registered, the login screen is displayed on the screen of the client terminal 13,
For terminal operators, "character fan club",
Prompt to select a desired process from the "character market" (step Sb2). At this time, the control unit 20
By changing the background color of the screen to a color different from the main menu screen, the terminal operator can immediately determine that the login screen has been reached.

On the other hand, when the user ID and password are not registered, the control unit 20 clears the contents of the input box and prompts the user to enter the user ID and password again. In the present embodiment, the mail address entered on the member registration screen is used as the user ID. As a result, since the terminal operator can be uniquely identified by the user ID, the password may be duplicated with another person, and the password can be set easily for the terminal operator to remember.

(1.3.3) Character Fan Club on Main Menu Screen When the terminal operator clicks the mouse on the display area of "Character Fan Club" on the main menu screen, the flowchart of FIG. As shown in, the control unit 20 displays the service menu screen on the screen of the client terminal 13 (step Sc1), and prompts the terminal operator to be a non-member of the character fan club.
Prompt to select the desired service from "Character popularity vote", "Vote result", "Character library", and "Introduction of member services" which are services that can be used by both members.

Here, when the terminal operator clicks the mouse in the display area of the "character popularity vote", the control unit 20 displays the voting screen on the screen of the client terminal 13 (step Sc2). This voting screen will include
As shown in FIG. 10, a preset number of characters to be voted, a check box for inputting a reason for a favorite character selected from among them, and attributes of the terminal operator (male, female, etc.) are set. A check box for input is displayed, prompting the terminal operator to select a favorite character and to input the reason and attribute of the terminal operator.
The character for voting is the character table 30.
The market field of is selected from the characters of "entry" (= entry character).

When the terminal operator inputs all the information and then clicks the "vote" button B4, the control section 20 displays the message "Thank you for voting" on the screen of the client terminal 13 ( Step Sc3). At this time, the control unit 20 updates the value of the number-of-votes field of the character table 30 stored in the storage unit 23 to the latest number of votes for the voted character, and updates the latest number of votes based on the value of the number of votes field. The popularity ranking is calculated, and the popularity ranking field is updated to the latest popularity ranking (step Sc4).

Next, the control unit 20 determines whether or not an entry character whose popularity ranking is equal to or higher than a predetermined standard has occurred, based on the value of the popularity ranking field of the character table 30 (step Sc5). Here, the control unit 2
For 0, the processing is terminated when no entry character having a popularity ranking higher than the reference is newly generated, whereas when there is an entry character having a popularity ranking higher than the reference, a market field of the corresponding character in the character table 30. Is changed from "entry" to "storefront" (step Sc6). That is, an entry character that has gained a certain degree of popularity from the result of the popularity vote is treated as an over-the-counter public character.

In this case, the control unit 20 searches for a member who frequently uses the service based on the service usage information of the member file stored in the storage unit 24, reads out the mail address of the member, and stores it at the store. An e-mail describing that a character has been newly registered in the open market is transmitted (step Sc7). As a result, members who frequently use it can know that the character has been newly listed on the over-the-counter open market, in other words, the ownership of the license fee for the new character has been sold. You can get to know things quickly.
It should be noted that electronic mail may be sent to all members, not just members who frequently use the service.

On the other hand, when the terminal operator clicks on the "voting result" display area on the service menu screen, the control unit 20 displays the previous voting target character and its popularity ranking on the screen of the client terminal 13. Is displayed (step Sd1). When the terminal operator clicks on the display area of the “character library” on the service menu screen, several types of characters are displayed on the screen of the client terminal 13 based on the image data of the characters stored in the storage unit 22. It is displayed (step Se1). When the terminal operator clicks on the "Introduction to member services" display area on the service menu screen, the control unit 20 displays the member service introduction screen on the screen of the client terminal 13 (step Sf1). . On the introduction screen of the member service, explanations of “open-air market” and “character recruitment” are displayed. It should be noted that, also on these various screens, it is possible to return to the service menu screen by a predetermined operation, or to return to the main menu screen and log in.

(1.3.4) Character Market on Main Menu Screen In the main menu screen, when the terminal operator clicks the mouse on the display area of "character market", the control unit 20 displays As shown in FIG. 9, an introduction screen of the member service provided by the character market is displayed on the screen of the client terminal 13 (step Sg
1). On the introduction screen of such a service, explanations of "partial market" and "second part market" are displayed. In this embodiment, all the services provided by the character market are member services, so the character market on the main menu screen is limited to the description of the services.

(1.3.5) Character screen of login screen Next, the operation when the login screen is displayed will be described. When the terminal operator clicks the mouse on the display area of the "character fan club" on the login screen, as shown in the flowchart of FIG.
0 displays the service menu screen on the screen of the client terminal 13 (step Sb4), and prompts the terminal operator to use all the character fan club services such as "character popularity vote", "voting result", and "character library". , Prompt to select the desired service from the “open-air market” and “character recruitment”. here,
The operation of the control unit 20 when a click operation is performed on the display areas of the “character popularity vote”, the “voting result”, and the “character library” is step Sc3 to step S described above.
c8, step Sd2, step Se2 and step S
The description is omitted because it is the same as f2.

On the other hand, when the terminal operator clicks on the display area of the “store open market”, the control section 20 searches the market field of the character table 30 stored in the storage section 23, An open store character is extracted (step Sb5). Then, the control unit 20
Displays a list of these characters on the screen of the client terminal 13 as an equity right sale screen for license fees (step Sb6), and prompts the terminal operator to select a character who desires to purchase an equity interest. Next, when the terminal operator selects the character (step Sb7), the control unit 20 displays a screen for purchasing the ownership of the license fee on the screen of the client terminal 13 (step Sb8) and purchases the ownership by a predetermined operation. Is instructed (step Sb
9) Perform charging processing for charging the purchase amount using the credit number of the corresponding member file (step Sb)
10).

At this time, the control unit 20 updates the value of the sales unit number field of the equity right of the character table 30 stored in the storage unit 23 by 1 for the character for which the equity right is purchased (step 1). Sb11), it is determined whether or not the value of the field (the number of sales units of equity interest) exceeds a predetermined value (for example, 300) (step Sb12). Here, the control unit 20 ends the process when the number of equity units sold is less than or equal to a predetermined value, whereas the control unit 20 determines the character table when the number of equity units sold is greater than or equal to a predetermined value. The market field of the corresponding character of 30 is changed from "storefront" to "two copies" (step Sb13). As a result, the over-the-counter public characters whose number of equity rights sold exceeds the predetermined standard value,
It is treated as a popular character in the Nibu Market. It should be noted that the reason why the character is listed on the second-part market based on the number of sales of equity rights is because the general consumer who influences the popularity of the character has a high utility value of the commercialization right. This is to respect the judgment. In other words, one of the features of the present invention is that the service providing company does not judge whether the character is a popular character, but the general consumer directly makes the judgment.

On the other hand, when the terminal operator clicks on the display area of “character recruitment” on the service menu screen, the control unit 20 causes the client terminal 13 to operate.
A mail creation screen for the licensee is displayed on the screen (step Sb14) to prompt the terminal operator to send the image data of the character. Then, when the image data of the character is attached and the "send" button B1 is clicked, the control unit 20 transmits the e-mail to which the image data of the character is attached to a predetermined destination (step Sb15). . Here, this destination is a person in charge of examining the character, etc., and after such person in charge examines the motif, touch, and image of the character, and the contract such as the usage conditions is concluded, the character is regarded as the entry character and the image. The data is stored in the storage unit 22. Further, the character table 30 shows the motif, touch, image, usage condition, etc. of the entry character.
The entry character is made available to the public in the above-mentioned character library or for voting. It should be noted that, also in these various screens, it is possible to return to the service menu screen or the main menu screen by a predetermined operation.

(1.3.6) Character Market on Login Screen Next, when the terminal operator clicks the mouse on the display area of "Character Market" on the login screen, as shown in the flowchart of FIG. And the control unit 2
0 displays a market selection screen on the screen of the client terminal 13 (step Sh1), and asks the terminal operator whether the market is a partial market dealing with famous characters or a two-part market dealing with popular characters. The selection of (Step Sh
1). The operation is the same except that the market field of the character table 30 handles "partial" characters in some markets, and the market field of the character table 30 handles "two" characters in the bipartite market. Therefore, the operation will be described below assuming that one of the markets is selected. If the market field of the character table 30 is “partial”, it is determined that the service providing company has become a famous character, or
This is the case when the author is a famous author. That is, in the present invention,
Since it is relatively easy for a service providing company to determine whether a character is a well-known character, the service providing company makes the determination. By making the above judgment directly by a general consumer, the speed of these judgments can be improved.

Here, when the terminal operator performs a click operation in any display area of the market, the control section 20 displays a search screen on the screen of the client terminal 13 (step Sh2), and prompts the terminal operator to do so. Then, the user is prompted to enter a search key for searching for a character for which the commercialization right is desired. As shown in FIG. 13, on the search screen, a selection box 40 for selecting a search key from registered categories such as motifs, touches, images, and usage conditions, the number of lots of products to be commercialized, and the upper generation are input. Input boxes 45, 46 for selecting, a selection box 50 for selecting a search key from registered categories based on the popularity vote of the character, and a "search" button B for instructing to start the search.
4 and "Clear" button B2 to instruct to delete the search key
And are displayed. Then, when the terminal operator selects a search key for a desired box from these various boxes and then clicks a "search" key B4, the control unit 2
0 is the character table 30 stored in the storage unit 23.
The character of the corresponding market (partial market or bipartite market) is extracted by referring to the market field of.
Next, the control unit 20 controls the character table 30 based on the search keys selected in the selection boxes 40 and 50.
The corresponding character is extracted from the previously extracted characters by referring to the classification information of (step Sh3).

In this case, when the search key is selected in the plurality of selection boxes 40, the character table 3
Characters including all of these search keys are extracted based on the classification information of 0. For example, in the selection box 40,
"Animal (motif)", "Fancy (touch)",
When "retro (image)" and "3.9 to 3.0% (use condition)" are selected, a character including classification information that satisfies all of them is extracted. If, for example, “A industry” is selected in the use condition selection box 40, the use condition field of the classification information (see FIG.
The character including "A" is extracted in the reference). Furthermore, when the search key is selected in the selection box 50, by searching the popularity ranking field (see FIG. 4) of the classification information based on the search key,
Characters that further satisfy the popularity ranking (within 5th place, within 50th place, etc.) of the selected attribute (male, female, etc.) are extracted. It is not always necessary to select the search key from all of the selection boxes 40 and 50, and the terminal operator may select the desired search key from the arbitrary selection boxes 40 and 50. In this way, the control unit 2
When 0 extracts the character including the input search key (step Sh3), the extracted character is displayed as a search result on the screen of the client terminal 13 (step Sh4). As a result, the terminal operator can search for a desired character from among popular characters among various characters stored in the Web server 10,
It is possible to easily and quickly search for a desired character from among famous characters.

Then, when the terminal operator performs a click operation in the display area of any of the characters (step Sh
5), the control unit 20 displays the detailed screen of the character on the screen of the client terminal 13 (step Sh6). On the character detail screen, as shown in FIG. 14, an image of the character, an introductory text of the author, past commercialization results of this character, merchandisable categories, and an “inquiry” button B5 are displayed. To be done. If the terminal operator has input the lot number and the upper generation of the product to be commercialized on the search screen, the character detail screen further displays the royalty amount calculated based on the input lot number and the first generation. It has become so. As a result, the terminal operator can know the details of the character selected by himself / herself, and can use it for determining whether or not to obtain permission for the commercialization right.

Next, when the terminal operator clicks the "inquiry" button B5, the control unit 20 displays a mail creation screen for the licensor on the screen of the client terminal 13 (step Sh7), and the terminal operator Prompts the user to enter inquiry details. Then, when the inquiry content is input and the “Send” button B1 is clicked,
The control unit 20 sends this e-mail to the licensor (step Sh8). Incidentally, even in these various screens, it is possible to return to the login screen by a predetermined operation. With this, the terminal operator can easily and quickly inform the licensor that he / she wants to use this character for his / her own product, and then can discuss specific details between the licensor and the terminal operator. Has become. When a license fee is obtained from this character, the license fee is distributed not only to the author and the licensor, but also to the general consumer who purchased the equity interest.

As described above, in the present embodiment, in the “character fan club”, the popularity vote of the entry character by the general consumer is performed, and when the popularity rank becomes equal to or higher than the predetermined rank, the “store open market” is displayed. Since it is a character to be handled by, the character that gained popularity, that is,
Trendy characters can be quickly extracted.
Then, in the "open-air market", the ownership of the license fee of the character is sold to general consumers, and when the number of units sold reaches a predetermined value, it is treated as a character handled in the "two-part market". It is possible to quickly extract a character that the consumer determines that the value of the commercialization right is high and link it to commercialization. Further, in the “open-air market”, the ownership of the license fee of the character is sold to the general consumer, so that the general consumer's interest in the character can be significantly increased.

The case of determining whether or not the character is handled in the "store open market" based on the popularity ranking has been described. In short, the determination may be made based on the popularity of the character. The determination may be made based on the growth rate of the number, the number of votes in a predetermined period, or the growth rate of the votes. The number of votes is not limited to the method of counting the votes of one terminal operator as one vote. One terminal operator may vote a plurality of points at a time, and the total number of points may be counted as the number of votes.
For example, one terminal operator votes 10 points for a character and 5 points for another character,
You may adopt a voting form such as.

Further, in the present embodiment, in the “partial market” and the “second part market”, the person who desires the permission of the commercialization right desires the motif, touch, image, use condition,
Since a corresponding character can be extracted using a combination such as popularity (popularity rank (including popularity rank for each attribute)) as a search key, character search accuracy can be increased. In addition, in the "Nibun market", search for the character corresponding to the search key from the popular characters, while in "Some market", the search key corresponds to the famous character that is even more popular than the popular character. Since it is configured to search for a character to be displayed, it is possible to extract a character having a popularity degree that suits a desire. For example, it is possible to search for a trendy character at that time. As a result, a person who desires to obtain a commercialization right using this search service can easily and quickly extract a character that matches a product concept using a character, a corporate image, or a purchasing class. As a result, it becomes possible to activate the transaction of characters by various services provided by the Web server 10 of the present embodiment.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, We
Although the case where various services are provided only by the b server 10 has been described, the Web server 10 may provide these services by using an application server.
For each service, for example, "Character Fan Club",
The above services may be provided using different Web servers or application servers for each "character market".

In addition, in the above-described embodiment, in addition to the character motif, touch, image, and use condition, the word in the introduction sentence of the character and the search according to the time of announcement are further searched for. You may do it. Since the introductory text of the character describes the thoughts and intentions that the author put in the character, by including the introductory text of the character in the search target, the character whose thoughts and intentions of the author match the wish is extracted. It becomes possible. By thus making it possible to select a plurality of types of search conditions, the search accuracy can be further improved.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the case has been described in which only the characters satisfying all the conditions of the search key input by the terminal operator are extracted, but the characters satisfying all the conditions are not necessarily selected. There is no need to limit it. In reality, since royalties and the like are often resolved through discussion, for example, royalties may be extracted even for characters that do not satisfy the input condition.

Further, this character search processing is performed on the Web.
The computer (character retrieval device) such as a personal computer (PC) or PDA (personal computer) used by a user is not limited to the server 10 alone, and is recorded on a recording medium such as an HD (Hard Disk), a magnetic recording medium, an optical recording medium, or a semiconductor recording medium It may be applied as a process of searching for a desired character from the generated characters. That is, in this case, instead of inputting the search key via the communication network, the operator of the computer may directly input the search key and display the search result on the screen of the computer.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the case where the program for performing the character search process is stored in advance in the Web server 10 has been described. However, this program is a magnetic recording medium, an optical recording medium, a semiconductor memory. The program may be recorded in a computer-readable recording medium such as a medium and the computer such as a server may read and execute this program.

In addition, the character in the present invention reflects recent circumstances in which expression development is wide-ranging, and is not limited to "an abstract concept that should be called the personality of a character sublimated from a concrete expression of a manga", but "various" It includes all abstract concepts that can be applied to various purposes. Specifically, those born by general human arrangements, those born by general animal arrangements, anthropomorphized (human character) animals, anthropomorphized (human character). Includes robots and other fictitious creatures / robots, fictitious (built-up) worlds themselves, brands (including the brand logo), marks, photographs, and paintings. The types of characters that can be applied to the present invention are listed by application.
There are anime characters, corporate characters (developed in M, posters, and products), comic characters (including picture books, etc., generally used for publishing), movie characters, game characters, and characters on digital contents.

[0056]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since a character is searched using a combination of motif, touch, image, usage condition, and popularity as a search key, it is possible to easily and quickly search for a character that matches the desire.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of services provided by a Web server according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a Web server.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the contents of a character table.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a member registration screen.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a password registration screen.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a voting screen.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing a search screen.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a character detail screen.

FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a conventional transaction form of a commercialization right.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Web server, 12 …… Administrator terminal, 13 to 16 ... Client terminal, 20 ... control unit, 21-24 ... storage unit, 25 ... Input control unit, 26 ... Output control unit, 27 ... Input / output control unit, 30 ... Character table.

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. Based on image data of a plurality of characters, storage means for storing characteristic information for each character, and one or more search keys input from a client terminal connected via a communication network, The storage means includes a search means for extracting a character specified by the characteristic information corresponding to the search key, and an output means for outputting an image of the character extracted by the search means to the client terminal as a search result. The server is characterized in that the characteristic information includes information corresponding to any one or more of a character motif, a touch, an image, a use condition, a publication time, or an introduction sentence created by the author. 2. The characteristic information further includes the popularity of the character, and displays a plurality of characters stored in the storage means to a client terminal connected via a communication network, thereby selecting a voting target. And further comprising means for urging the selection of the character, and means for determining the popularity of each character based on at least the number of votes for each character and updating the popularity included in the characteristic information based on the popularity. The server according to claim 1, wherein the server is a server. 3. Image data of a plurality of characters, storage means for storing characteristic information for specifying the characters, and one or more search keys that are input, based on the one or more input search keys, the characteristics corresponding to the search keys. The feature information includes a search unit that extracts a character specified from information, and a unit that displays the image of the character extracted by the search unit as a search result. A character search device characterized by including information corresponding to at least one of an announcement time, a degree of popularity, and an introduction sentence created by the author. 4. The step of the server inputting one or more search keys from a client terminal connected via a communication network, and the server comprising image data of a plurality of characters and characteristic information for specifying the characters. The step of extracting a character specified from the characteristic information corresponding to the search key from the storage means to be stored, and the step of the server outputting an image of the extracted character to the client terminal as a search result. A character search method, wherein the information includes information corresponding to at least one of a character motif, touch, image, usage condition, time of announcement, or an introduction sentence created by the author. 5. The characteristic information further includes the popularity of the character, and displays a plurality of characters stored in the storage means to a client terminal connected via a communication network, thereby selecting a voting target. Further comprising the step of urging the character to be selected, and the step of obtaining the popularity of each character based on at least the number of votes for each character, and updating the popularity included in the characteristic information based on the popularity. The character search method according to claim 4, which is characterized in that. 6. A computer for searching for a character is input from a client terminal connected via a communication network and image data of a plurality of characters, storage means for storing characteristic information for specifying the character. A search unit that extracts a character specified from the characteristic information corresponding to the search key from the storage unit based on one or more search keys; and an image of the character extracted by the search unit as the search result. The feature information is information corresponding to any one or more of a character motif, a touch, an image, a usage condition, a publication time, or an introduction sentence created by the author. A program characterized by including. 7. A computer-readable recording medium on which the program according to claim 6 is recorded.