JP2006127371A - Animation selecting apparatus and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an animation selecting apparatus enabling an input person to add an animation which expresses a user's intention and emotions selectively in accordance with character input without complicated operation. <P>SOLUTION: The animation selecting apparatus comprises: a kana-kanji (Japanese syllabary-Chinese character) conversion means 101 capable of displaying Chinese character conversion candidates and selecting one with respect to inputted Japanese syllabary character information; an animation candidate extracting means 103 for extracting automatically candidates of an animation related to a meaning of the Chinese character a user has selected by the Chinese character conversion means; an animation candidate display selecting means 105 for displaying the extracted animation candidates and enabling the user to select one; and a character/animation encoding means 106 for encoding selected Chinese character information and animation information. The user can select an animation from the animation candidates related to the meaning of the Chinese character by linking with the Chinese character conversion operation. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an animation selection technique for computer graphics (hereinafter referred to as CG), and more particularly to an apparatus for displaying and selecting animation candidates from inputted character information.

Conventional animation display devices in this field include an input character processing method described in Patent Document 1. This method is used in a chat in which a plurality of users can have a conversation in real time over a network, and when a specific character is included in a character input by the user, a specific event associated with the specific character is detected. (For example, a change in a character image) is generated.
JP 2002-325965 A

  However, in the input character processing method as described above, a specific event preset on the system, that is, an animation is generated for the input character, and the user who inputs the character can select the animation. Therefore, the user's intention is not necessarily reflected. Furthermore, under certain conditions with input information, the same animation is always generated, which tends to be monotonous, and the user is likely to get bored. Also, even if the user who enters characters can select an animation, a dedicated application that combines characters and animation is necessary if operations such as searching from a huge database of animation information are required separately from the character input operation. It is considered that the user is not able to use it easily.

  Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of such a situation, and an input person can selectively add an animation that expresses a user's intention or emotion in accordance with character input without complicated operations. An object is to provide an animation selection device.

  In order to achieve the above object, an animation selection device according to the present invention includes a kana-kanji conversion means for displaying and selecting kanji conversion candidates for input kana character information, and a kanji character selected by the user in the kanji conversion means. Animation candidate extraction means for automatically extracting animation candidates related to meaning, animation candidate display selection means for displaying the extracted animation candidates and making the user selectable, and encoding the selected kanji information and animation information And character / animation encoding means.

  With this configuration, the user can selectively add an animation that expresses the user's intention or emotion in accordance with the character input without complicated operations.

  According to the present invention, in a character-based communication tool such as e-mail or chat, a transmission-side user can selectively add an animation such as a character that matches an intention or emotion according to character input. Then, by displaying the character information with animation on the receiving side, it is possible to provide an apparatus that can transmit the intention and emotion of the transmitting user more faithfully and intuitively to the receiving user.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration example of an animation selection device 100 for carrying out the method of the present invention.

  The animation selection device 100 shown in FIG. 1 relates to kana-kanji conversion means 101 that can display and select kanji conversion candidates for input kana character information, and the meaning of the kanji selected by the user in the kana-kanji conversion means 101. Animation candidate extraction means 103 that automatically extracts animation candidates, animation candidate display selection means 105 that displays the extracted animation candidates and makes the user selectable, and encodes the selected kanji information and animation information And character / animation encoding means 106.

  Note that the animation selection device 100 may have kanji data storage means 102 for storing kanji data as a basis for kanji conversion in the kana / kanji conversion means 101. Further, the animation selection device 100 may include animation data storage means 104 that stores animation data.

  The animation data stored in the animation data storage means 104 may be motion data of a CG character such as a human being, or may be animated with emoji data that can be animated. Any data can be used. As specific examples of motion data of CG characters, for each joint object of a human-like character based on the H-Animam (Humanoid Animation) specification defined by the Web3D Consortium (former VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language Consortium)) , Position (x, y, z), rotation (x, y, z, θ), scale (sx, sy, sz) information, and the like are referred to as operation data in the present invention. The pictogram data is an image of the size of a single character that is becoming popular with e-mails on mobile phones, and assumes an image that expresses a person's face, animal, etc. and further animates it. .

  Hereinafter, a flow of a series of processes in the animation selection device 100 will be described.

  Since the animation selection device 100 starts processing from an operation of inputting a user's kana character and performing kanji conversion, the character input operation will be described first.

  First, the user inputs a kana character using a character input key. The input method may be Katakana input or Roman input, and is not particularly limited. The character input device is not particularly limited in the present invention, and may be, for example, a general keyboard of a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a PC) or a character input key of a mobile phone.

  Next, the user normally inputs a kanji conversion key in order to convert the input kana character into kanji. By this kanji conversion key input operation, the kana / kanji conversion means 101 refers to the kanji data stored in the kanji data storage means 102 to display kanji conversion candidates so that the user can select them. Since the process of the kana-kanji conversion means 101 is the same as the kana-kanji conversion process that is already popular on PCs and mobile phones, for example, Microsoft IME (manufactured by Microsoft), the description thereof is omitted. However, in the kana-kanji conversion means 101 in the present invention, information on kanji selected by the user from among the kanji conversion candidates, for example, a set of kanji codes such as Shift-JIS can be output to the outside. Are input to the animation candidate extraction means 103. The set of kanji codes output by the kana-kanji conversion means 101 is predicted from incomplete word information, which has been rapidly spreading on mobile phones in recent years, displays conversion candidates, and inputs characters by user selection operations. The output result of the predictive conversion function to assist may be sufficient.

  In the animation candidate extraction means 103, a set of kanji codes output from the kana-kanji conversion means 101 is used as input information, and the animation associated with the meaning of the set of kanji codes, that is, words, is stored in the animation data in the animation data storage means 104. The extracted result is input to the next animation candidate display selection means 105. Specifically, the animation candidate extraction unit 103 includes, for example, the ID (identifier) list information of the input word as shown in FIG. 2 and animation data related to the input word that exists in the animation data storage unit 104. To manage the correspondence with IDs. For example, if the word input to the animation candidate extraction unit 103 is “angry”, there may be a plurality of angry actions. (1) If the whole body shouts loudly, (2) lightly If you get angry only by facial expression, (3) you get angry enough to be careful with a small voice, there are animation data corresponding to each, and these are associated with the word “angry” It shall be. Note that the correspondence between the word and the animation data does not need to be fixed in advance and may be arbitrarily changed by the user. The animation data stored in the animation data storage means may be updated to the latest data as needed via the Internet, for example, as well as fixed data set in advance.

  One or more pieces of ID information of the extracted animation data are input to the animation candidate display selection means 105 based on the information on the correspondence relationship between the input word and the animation data related to the input word. In the example of FIG. 2, there are three pieces of ID information 001A, 001B, and 001C for animation data expressing “anger”.

  As a characteristic effect of this animation candidate extraction means 103, for example, only kana character information “Okuru” has a plurality of meanings such as “anger”, “occurs”, “rising”, and animation data candidates. However, since extraction is performed using words after conversion of kana-kanji characters, the meaning of the words is limited, and at the same time, animation data candidates can be limited, so that only the optimal candidates can be extracted.

  Next, the animation candidate display selection means 105 receives the output result of the animation candidate extraction means 103 as input information, specifically receives ID information of animation data, and selects one or more animation candidates as a PC display or a mobile phone. Displayed on a liquid crystal screen or the like, and allows the user to select a desired animation from animation candidates. Animation candidates can be displayed in text, for example, (1) yelling loudly using the entire body, (2) lightly angry only with facial expressions, (3) angry enough to be careful with loud voices, etc. When the animation selection device 100 has the animation data storage unit 104, the character shape data held in advance by the animation selection device 100 and the animation acquired from the animation data storage unit 104 may be displayed. Using the data, for example, the three types of angry animation candidates as described above may be actually reproduced and displayed, and after the user visually confirms the animation, the animation may be selectable. If the animation data is pictogram data, it may be displayed. Depending on the result of the user's selection operation, the animation data selected by the user from among a plurality of animation candidates will be displayed next, for example, at the beginning of the animation candidate display when the same word is input next time. The display order of animation candidates from may be changed. After the user selects an animation from the displayed animation candidates, the ID information of the selected animation data is input to the character / animation encoding means 106.

  The character / animation encoding means 106 encodes the kanji code set information output by the kana-kanji conversion means 101 and the ID information of the animation data, which is the output result of the animation candidate display selection means, and communicates with the communication partner side. To your device. For example, e-mail is output to a file, and chat is transmitted as data on the network.

  More specifically, in the case of e-mail, for example, if it is defined as a format using XML (extensible Markup Language) in a format in which animation data ID information is embedded as metadata in the text information that is the body of the mail. However, in the present invention, other information may be used as long as it can be handled as information obtained by encoding character information and animation information. In the case of chat, after the character information, the data may be transmitted as a set of a tag for animation data ID and ID information.

  At this time, if the user sets character modification information such as a change in character size, bold type, or italic type for the input character information, the character modification information is also displayed as character and animation information. And encoded and transmitted.

  The processing outline of the receiving terminal that receives and displays the character / animation information encoded by the character / animation encoding means 106 will be described below.

  The receiving terminal decodes the transmitted character information and animation information, as well as character modification information, if any. For example, it is necessary to synchronize with the process of displaying the character information sequentially on the screen or reading it out by voice. In response to this, animations representing motions such as getting angry and laughing are sequentially played using the character shape data held in advance in the receiving terminal. Also, the animation expressing this motion is emphasized according to the character modification information. For example, when the character size is large, bold, italic, and as a more emphasized operation, the playback speed is increased and the parameter of the operation data is controlled more greatly to express intense operation To play.

  The basic operation of the animation selection device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, in step S11, a kana character input from the user is accepted, and the process proceeds to the next step S12 by inputting a kanji conversion key or the like. When inputting a kana character, for example, it is assumed that the user can select and set character modification information such as a character size, bold type, and italic type in advance.

  In step S12, kanji conversion candidates are displayed from the kana characters input in step S11, and the user selects kanji from among them.

  In step S13, it is determined whether or not animation candidates associated with the meaning of the kanji selected by the user in step S12 exist in the animation data storage unit 104. If there is an animation, the candidate information is handed over to step S14. If no animation exists, the process proceeds to step S16 with a flag indicating that the animation does not exist.

  In step S14, information on animation candidates whose existence has been confirmed in step S13 is displayed on the screen. The display contents of the animation candidate may be character information, or the animation data may be acquired from the animation data storage means 104 to actually reproduce and display the animation. These display formats can be freely selected by the user. It shall be possible.

  In step S15, the user can select a desired animation from the animation candidates displayed in step S14 by key input or the like.

  In step S16, the kanji selected by the user in step S12, the animation selected by the user in step S15, and the character modification information set by the user in step S11 are encoded as associated information and output to a file or memory. To do. If there is no animation candidate in step S13 and it is determined NO in the determination process, only character and character modification information are encoded and output without encoding animation information in step S16.

  In step S17, it is determined whether an end flag has been generated. If NO is determined, the process returns to step S11. If YES is determined, the operation is terminated.

  The above basic operation may be realized as a program for operating a computer represented by a personal computer.

  The animation selection device according to the present invention has a mechanism capable of selecting an animation related to a kanji selected in accordance with a kanji conversion operation, and in addition to character information, an animation that matches the intention of the transmitting user can be added. It is useful as a character-based communication tool represented by e-mail and chat. Moreover, it can be applied not only to animation data but also to applications such as addition of audio data.

The figure which shows the structural example of the animation selection apparatus 100 Table showing examples of correspondence between input words and animation data A flowchart showing the operation of the animation selection device 100

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Animation selection apparatus 101 Kana / kanji conversion means 102 Kanji data storage means 103 Animation candidate extraction means 104 Animation data storage means 105 Animation candidate display selection means 106 Character / animation encoding means

Claims (14)

An animation selection device capable of displaying and selecting animation candidates related to character information input by a user,
Kana-kanji conversion means for displaying and selecting kanji conversion candidates for the input character information;
Animation candidate extraction means for extracting animation candidates related to the kanji selected by the user in the kana-kanji conversion means;
In the animation candidate extraction means, animation candidate display selection means for displaying the extracted animation candidates and enabling the user to select,
An animation selection apparatus comprising character / animation encoding means for encoding kanji information selected by the user and animation information selected by the user. The animation selection device according to claim 1,
An animation selection device, wherein the animation information is character motion data. The animation selection device according to claim 1,
An animation selection device, wherein the animation information is a pictograph. The animation selection device according to claim 1,
An animation selection device characterized in that the kana-kanji conversion means has a predictive conversion function that predicts and displays conversion candidates from incomplete character information and allows a user to select them. In the animation selection device according to claim 1, in the animation candidate display selection means,
An animation selection device, wherein each animation candidate is displayed as an explanation based on character information. In the animation selection device according to claim 1, in the animation candidate display selection means,
An animation selection device characterized in that each animation candidate is actually animated and displayed. In the animation selection device according to claim 1, in the character / animation encoding means,
An animation selection device characterized in that information for changing animation is added and encoded in accordance with modification information for displaying characters. An animation selection method capable of displaying and selecting animation candidates related to character information input by a user,
A kana-kanji conversion step for displaying and selecting kanji conversion candidates for the input character information;
An animation candidate extraction step for extracting animation candidates related to the kanji selected by the user in the kana-kanji conversion step;
In the animation candidate extraction step, an animation candidate display selection step for displaying the extracted animation candidates and enabling the user to select,
An animation selection method comprising: a character / animation encoding step for encoding kanji information selected by the user and animation information selected by the user. The animation selection method according to claim 8.
An animation selection method, wherein the animation information is character motion data. The animation selection method according to claim 8.
An animation selection method, wherein the animation information is a pictograph. The animation selection method according to claim 8.
An animation selection method characterized in that the kana-kanji conversion step has a predictive conversion function that predicts and displays conversion candidates from incomplete character information and allows a user to select them. In the animation selection method according to claim 8, in the animation candidate display selection step,
An animation selection method, wherein each animation candidate is displayed as an explanation based on character information. In the animation selection method according to claim 8, in the animation candidate display selection step,
An animation selection method characterized in that each animation candidate is actually animated and displayed. In the animation selection method according to claim 8, in the character / animation encoding step,
An animation selection method comprising: encoding by adding information for changing an animation according to modification information for displaying characters.

Images