JP2006345250A - Speaker determination method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To offer a method for determining a speaker according to progress of proceedings of a meeting, especially to the conditions of the meeting. <P>SOLUTION: It is method for determining the next speaker among attendants of a meeting in session through a computer. The subject is solved by a step of determining conditions of an attendant who should be nominated, based on the conditions of the meeting; a step of determining the attendant in accordance with the determined conditions among attendants of the meeting in session; and a step of outputting information of the determined attendant. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a method for determining a speaker, in particular, among proceedings of a teleconference or a teleconference using a network.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there are systems for conducting an electronic conference between attendees at remote locations via a video conference or a network. For example, in a teleconference system, there is a conventional technique in which a speaker is selected based on the number of utterances and the utterance time during a meeting of each attendee in order to adjust a speech opportunity (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-67858

  When a stagnation occurs at a conference, it is generally performed to promote the conference (active exchange of opinions) by appointing a speaker. When nominating a speaker, the moderator needs to consider who should be nominated according to the situation of the meeting. Compared to face-to-face meetings, it is difficult to understand each attendee's situation in electronic conferences over a network where attendees do not meet together. There is a problem that is difficult. According to the above-described prior art, each speaker can have an equal opportunity to speak, but the speaker cannot be selected in consideration of the conference situation.

  In view of such a situation, the present invention has an object to provide a method for determining a speaker according to the proceeding of a meeting, in particular, the meeting situation.

  Accordingly, in order to solve the above-mentioned problem, the present invention is a method for causing a computer to determine the next speaker among attendees of an ongoing conference, and the attendee to be appointed based on the status of the conference. Determining a condition of the meeting, determining an attendant meeting the determined condition among attendees of the ongoing meeting, and outputting information of the determined attendee.

  As described above, according to the speaker determination method of the present invention, the computer determines the attendee's profile based on the meeting status (remaining time and the total number of speech), and the attendee who matches the profile is determined as the next speech. Therefore, the speaker can be determined according to the meeting situation.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described based on the following examples. In the following embodiments, a server is exemplified as an example of a computer that realizes the present invention, and a user terminal is exemplified as a computer used by a user, and these server and user terminal are connected via a network. There are a plurality of user terminals for the attendees of the conference to use one by one or a plurality of users. Each program and data held by the server and user terminal may be held in other computers connected by a network, and the server and user terminal may read the data from these other computers and perform processing.

  FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment for realizing a speaker determination method according to the present invention by a computer. The speaker determination system of FIG. 1 includes a server 1 that performs the processing of the present invention, user terminals T1 to Tn that are computers used by users who are conference reservations or attendees, server 1, and respective user terminals. Are connected to each other so that they can communicate with each other. In the following description, the user terminal T1 is used on behalf of the user terminal.

  The server 1 is a computer, and the communication program 11, the reservation program 12, the conference progress program 13, and the speaker determination program 14 are used as programs for executing processing, and the user master is used as a data file used when executing processing. 21, the conference reservation DB 22, the conference record DB 23, the conference-specific user DB 24, and the speaker selection table 25 are respectively held in the storage means. Further, an input device 18 for receiving an operation directly from an operator and an output means 19 for outputting information are provided.

  The communication program 11 is a program for the server 1 to communicate with other computers via the network N. Through the communication program 11, the server 1 accepts data related to conference reservation from the user terminal T1, key press data operated by the user when the conference is held, or transmits request data to the user terminal T1. You can do it.

  The reservation program 12 is a program for updating the conference reservation DB 22 based on information related to conference reservation received by the server 1 from the user terminal T1.

  The conference progress program 13 performs a process for holding an electronic conference, such as determining the next speaker according to key press information transmitted from the user terminal T1 for one or a plurality of conferences being held. It is a program.

  The speaker determination program 14 is a program that performs processing for the server 1 to actively determine the next speaker when the conference being held is a predetermined condition.

  The user master 21 is a data file for managing information related to meeting attendees. The timing of data registration in the user master 21 may be in accordance with the timing of receiving information related to conference reservation from the user terminal T1, or may be different timing, but prior to the start of the conference, Information on attendees shall be registered in advance.

  The conference reservation DB 22 is a data file for managing information related to the start time and end time in association with each conference according to the information related to the conference reservation transmitted from the user terminal T1.

  The conference record DB 23 records, for each conference in progress managed by the conference progress program 13, information related to the remarks transmitted from the user terminal T 1, information related to responses of other attendees to the remarks, and the like in association with each other. This is a data file.

  The conference-specific user DB 24 associates information on the number of utterances and the status of affirmation or denial of the opinions of other attendees for each participant in the conference managed by the conference progress program 13. This is a data file for recording.

  The speaker selection table 25 is a data file that holds selection criteria for a user to be nominated next for the speaker determination program 14 based on the status of the conference.

  The network N is a communication network such as the Internet or wireless, and connects the server 1 and each user terminal so that they can communicate with each other. The network N may be any form of network as long as the connected computers can communicate with each other.

  The user terminal T1 is a computer, and holds a communication program 41, a conference reservation program 42, and a conference participation program 43 as storage programs in order to execute processing. In addition, an input device 48 for accepting an operation directly from a user and an output means 49 for outputting information are provided.

The communication program 41 corresponds to the communication program 11 of the server 1 and is a program for transmitting data input from the user to the server 1 and receiving data transmitted from the server 1. is there.

  The conference reservation program 42 corresponds to the reservation program 12 of the server 1 and is a program for registering data related to a conference to be held in the future on the server 1 based on an operation from the user.

  The conference participation program 43 corresponds to the conference progress program 13 of the server 1, and detects a key pressed by the user using the input means 48 for an ongoing conference in which the user of the user terminal is participating. This is a program that performs processing for participating in an electronic conference, such as detecting video or audio of a user's speech. Further, based on a request for speech from the speaker determination program 14, an output for prompting the user of the user terminal to speak is also performed.

  The server 1 and the user terminal T1 have the following hardware configuration (not shown). That is, it is configured to include an input device, an output device, a drive device, an auxiliary storage device, a memory device, an arithmetic processing device, and an interface device that are mutually connected by a bus. Note that the various devices constituting the computer may be accommodated in a single casing or may be distributed and accommodated in a plurality of casings.

  The input device includes, for example, a keyboard, a mouse, a microphone, a camera, and the like, and is used to input various operation instructions, voice, video, and the like to the computer. The output device is composed of, for example, a display, a printer, a speaker, etc., and outputs various screens and data necessary for operation. The interface device is an interface for connecting to the network N, and includes, for example, a modem or a router.

  The program for controlling these computers can also be provided by a recording medium such as a CD-ROM. The recording medium on which the program is recorded is set in the drive device, and the program is installed in the auxiliary storage device via the drive device. As a recording medium on which the program is recorded, for example, a recording medium for recording information optically, electrically or magnetically such as a CD-ROM, a flexible disk, a magneto-optical disk (MO), or a ROM, a flash memory, etc. Various types of recording media, such as a semiconductor memory that electrically records information, can be used.

  The program also includes a program recorded on a recording medium of another computer connected via the interface device. A program recorded in a recording medium or the like of another computer is downloaded via an interface device and installed in an auxiliary storage device. The auxiliary storage device stores the installed program and various files necessary for processing the program. The memory device reads and stores the program from the auxiliary storage device at the time of activation. The arithmetic processing unit realizes processing to be performed by the server 1 and the user terminal T1 in various processes according to a program stored in the memory device.

  Next, a data file held by the server 1 will be described. FIG. 2A is a data example of the user master 21. The user master 21 is a data file for managing information related to users who are attendees of a conference, and includes a user ID for uniquely identifying a user who is an attendee of the conference, and nomination and personal information of the user. Estimated from the average number of utterances and average affirmation rate per hour as well as the average number of utterances and average affirmation rate as information about the affiliation, title and responsibility, the IP address of the user terminal T1 used by the user, and the status of the user in the previous meetings Information related to the personality of the user is managed in association with each other.

  In this example, the personality is set with a user who has an average number of utterances of 6 or more as an active group and a manager or manager who has an average affirmation rate of 75% or more as a coordinator. The operator can appropriately determine what data is used and how the personality is set. Although not shown, it is also possible to manage information such as the total number of utterances by agenda.

  The user master 21 may be updated at any timing as long as information on attendees of the conference is registered in advance prior to the start of the conference. The average number of utterances, average affirmation rate, and personality columns update the average number of utterances and average affirmation rate based on the contents of the conference record DB 23 described later when a certain conference is finished. It may be updated at the timing of updating the personality setting based on the rate.

  The data on the first line in the figure shows that the user with the user ID “2001” has the name “Yamada”, belongs to “Sales Department 1”, has no title, and the average number of utterances per hour in previous meetings is 10 times, the average affirmation rate for the opinions of others is 75%, and the personality represents the condition that the average number of utterances is 6 times or more, so it is assumed that it is an “active group”.

  FIG. 2B is a data example of the conference reservation DB 22. The conference reservation DB 22 is a data file for managing information related to the conference based on the content transmitted to the server 1 by the conference reservation program 42 of the user terminal T1, and is registered in advance prior to the conference. As long as the information on the ongoing conference is not updated, it may be updated at any timing.

  The conference reservation DB 22 manages a conference number for uniquely identifying a conference, the name of the conference, information on the date and time of the conference, information on the agenda of the conference, information on attendees, and the like in association with each other. For example, the data in the first row is a conference whose conference number is “2004121301” and is a conference held from 9:00 to 11:00 on December 13, 2004 with the name “sales meeting”. Indicates that the user has an ID of 2001, 2002, 5004, or 9001. In addition, information related to materials used for the conference may be associated and managed.

  With such data, the conference progress program 13 of the server 1 can uniquely identify a plurality of conferences that can be held at the same time on the system, and can manage the date and time of attendance and attendees.

  FIG. 3A is a data example of the conference record DB 23. The conference record DB 23 is generated by the server 1 individually for each conference being held and is updated whenever a user makes a statement in the conference, and information on the state of affirmation and denial from other attendees for the statement Is a data file that manages the time at which the utterance is made, the kind of the utterance, the ID of the utterer, the content of the utterance, and the video. It is not necessary to limit the data relating to the content of speech to text or video as shown in the figure, and the spoken voice may be recorded as it is.

  When the type of utterance is “opinion”, record the number of positive or negative keys pressed by other attendees in response to the opinion, and the affirmation rate of the opinion (the positive number is positive and negative) Calculate and record the value divided by the total number. It can be seen that the higher the affirmation rate, the more the opinion obtained in the meeting.

  For example, the data in the first row shows a record of a statement made by a user whose ID is 2001 as a comment statement at 9 o'clock in a meeting being held. Further, for example, in the data on the fifth row, an opinion is made by a user whose ID is 5004 at 9:10, and the response of other attendees to the opinion is 4 affirmations (4 affirmative key presses). It is recorded that there was one negative (one negative key was pressed) and the affirmation rate of the opinion was 80%.

  Based on such data, the conference progress program 13 and the speaker determination program 14 of the server 1 can manage the state of speech in each conference.

  FIG. 3B is an example of data in the conference-specific user DB 24. The user-by-conference DB 24 is generated by the server 1 individually for each conference being held, and is updated each time a remark is made from the user in the conference or information on pressing of an affirmative or negative key is received. It is a data file for managing each situation, and is associated with the user ID, the number of utterances, the number of affirmations or negative key presses on other people's opinions, the affirmation rate (the affirmation number is divided by the total number of affirmation and negation Information). It can be seen that the higher the affirmation rate, the stronger the user tends to respond positively to the opinions of others.

  For example, the data in the first line is that the user with ID 2001 speaks a total of 15 times by the current time in a conference being held, presses the affirmative key four times against the opinions of others, and sets the negative key to 2 This indicates that the affirmation rate is 66%. In addition, since each user does not necessarily have to react to pressing the affirmative or negative key for the opinion of others, the total number of pressing the positive and negative keys for each user is It doesn't matter.

  With such data, the conference progress program 13 and the speaker determination program 14 of the server 1 can manage the status of each user in each conference.

  FIG. 3C is a data example of the pressed information management table. The press information management table is generated for each conference that is being held, and is updated each time the server 1 receives the key press information from the user terminal T1 as data for temporary storage. This is a data file for storing transmitted key press information by the user, and manages the user ID and the pressed key information in association with each other.

  For example, the data in the first row indicates that the “C” key is pressed in the user terminal T1 of the user whose ID is 2001. Based on such data, the conference progress program 13 of the server 1 nominates the user who is to be designated next, for example, in the order in which the keys are pressed (that is, in the order registered in the pressed information management table). Can do.

  FIG. 4A shows an example of key table data. The key table is a data file held by the server 1 for managing the meaning of the pressed key, and manages the key value and the meaning given to the key in association with each other. It may be updated at any timing as long as it is registered in advance prior to the start of all conferences and is not updated during any conference.

  By referring to such data, the conference progress program 13 of the server 1 determines what kind of user's intention the key pressed by the user means and stores it in the pressed information management table. The meaning of the key can be determined. For example, in the pressed information management table shown in FIG. 3C, the user who pressed the key first is the user whose ID is “C”, and the “C” key indicates that he wants to say a comment (raise hand). The user who pressed the key next time is the user with ID “5004”, and the “S” key indicates that he / she wants to ask a question (raise hand).

  Therefore, the conference progress program 13 detects the key press by the user, determines the start or end of the conference, records the information of the user who pressed the key related to raising the hand in the press information management table, and designates the speech in order. When the type of remark is “opinion”, after the remark is made, the other attendees are asked to press the affirmative or negative key, or the user terminal T1 between the start and end of the remark. Can be recorded in the conference record DB 23 as the content of the message.

  FIG. 5 is a data example of the speaker selection table 25. The speaker selection table is a data file that defines the selection criteria for the next speaker to be nominated according to the conference status, and classifies the conference status according to the remaining time of the conference and the total number of statements in the conference. And a table unit 252 that stores data relating to the position, character, number of speaking experiences, and affirmation rate of the speaker as a selection criterion of the speaker in association with the classification of the table unit 251. ing.

  By referring to such data, the speaker determination program 14 of the server 1 can obtain the user selection condition to be nominated next in accordance with the status of the conference being held. Then, based on the selection condition, a user who should be uttered can be determined.

  Next, the speaker determination method of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining processing performed by the conference progress program 13 of the server 1. According to the process shown in this flowchart, the conference progress program 13 individually designates the next speaker according to the user's key press, holds the conference, ends it, or ends the conference. The speaker determination program 14 is called to execute speaker determination processing. When there are a plurality of conferences to be held simultaneously, the conference progress program 13 individually performs conference progress processing by the processing shown in this flowchart for each conference.

  The conference progress program 13 refers to the conference reservation DB 22 and confirms at a predetermined interval whether or not the current time has reached the date and time of each registered conference. If there is a meeting that has reached the date and time, the meeting is started in step S01. The start of the conference means that the server 1 notifies the start of the conference to the user terminal T1 used by each user registered in association with the conference, starts the conference participation program 43, and transmits from the user terminal T1. This means that the key press information is received.

  The start of the conference is the timing at which key pressing information indicating the start of the conference is received from the user terminal T1, and the conference information in the conference reservation DB 22 in which the user operating the user terminal T1 is registered as an attendant. A conference whose current date / time matches or approximates the date / time of the event may be determined as a conference to be started.

  Next, in step S02, a message for prompting key input is transmitted to the user terminal T1. Refer to the attendee ID from the attendee column of the conference reservation DB 22 for the conference to be processed, refer to the address of the user terminal T1 used by the user of the ID from the user master 21 based on the ID, and the address A message is transmitted to the address via the communication program 11.

  The conference participation program 43 of the user terminal T1 that has received the message for prompting the key input outputs the message to the user via the output means 49. When the user who recognizes the message presses a key on each user terminal, the conference participation program 43 of the user terminal T1 detects the pressed information and transmits the pressed information to the server 1.

  The conference progress program 13 waits for the key press information from the user terminal T1 in step S03 for a predetermined time. If no key is input after waiting for the predetermined time, has the predetermined condition been satisfied in step S08? If the condition is not met, the process returns to step S02 again to prompt the user to press the key and wait for the key input from the user terminal T1. Step S08 will be described later.

  If key press information from the user terminal T1 is detected in step S03, processing is distributed according to the pressed key type in step S04. If the pressed key is a key indicating the end of the conference, this process is terminated.

  The pressed key is a key related to the raising hand, that is, any one of I (opinion), H (supplement), S (question), K (answer), and C (comment) in the key table shown in FIG. For example, the pressed information management table shown in FIG. 3C includes the ID of the user who pressed the key (the user ID associated with the address of the user terminal T1 that transmitted the key pressed information) and the key information. The additional update is performed, and the process proceeds to step S05, and the user who pressed the key is designated as the speaker in the order registered in the pressed information management table.

  In step S05, the conference progress program 13 determines the user registered at the top in the push-down information management table as a speaker, and designates the user and outputs a message prompting the user terminal T1 to speak. Among the users who have seen the message, when the user who has received the speech designation recognizes that he / she has been designated, he / she starts speaking after pressing the speech start key, and when he / she ends the speech, Press. The conference progress program 13 broadcasts the speech data transmitted from the user terminal T1 to the user terminal used by other attendees.

  In step S06, the conference record DB 23 is additionally updated with data related to the content of the speech transmitted between the speech start key and the speech end key from the user terminal T1 operated by the speaker. The user's utterance count is incremented. When the utterance is finished, the head data of the pressed information management table, that is, the data of the hand raising whose utterance is finished by the nomination is deleted.

  In step S07, if the key pressed by the user designated in step S05 is I (opinion), if the user terminal T1 of other attendees agrees with the opinion, affirmative, if not Transmits a message prompting the user to press the negative key, accepts the positive or negative key pressed from the user terminal T1 of the other attendee for a predetermined time, and determines the total number of positive keys and negative keys pressed. , Update the affirmative number column and the negative number column of the comment of “opinion” in the conference record DB 23 additionally updated in S06, and divide the affirmative number by the sum of the affirmative number and the negative number, so that the other attendance of the opinion The affirmation rate from the person is calculated, and the affirmation rate column is updated.

  If the affirmative key is transmitted from the user terminal T1, the affirmative number column of the user ID associated with the user terminal in the conference-specific user DB 24 is denied. When it is a key, the negative number column is incremented respectively, and the positive number is calculated by dividing the positive number by the sum of the positive number and the negative number, thereby calculating the positive rate for the opinion of the other attendees of the user, The affirmation rate column of the conference-specific user DB 24 is updated.

  Therefore, in the process of step S07, information regarding the affirmative or negative status of other attendees with respect to the opinion utterance from the user uttered in response to the nomination of S05 can be recorded.

  In step S05 to step S07, the processing related to the utterance from one user is completed. Therefore, the processing returns to step S03, and in the same manner, processing for designating the first user in the pressed information management table as the utterer is performed.

  Now, in step S03, there is no data stored in the pressed information management table (that is, all users who pressed the key related to raising the hand have already been nominated as speakers), and the user terminal can wait for a predetermined time. If no key press information is transmitted from T1, it is determined in step S08 whether a predetermined condition has been met.

  The predetermined condition is, for example, whether or not five minutes or more have elapsed since the last statement. The conference progress program 13 refers to the conference record DB 23 and determines whether there is a divergence of 5 minutes or more by comparing the utterance time of the last utterance (that is, the utterance with the newest time) with the current time. To do. If it is determined that there is no transmission of key press information from the user terminal T1 and that more than 5 minutes have elapsed since the last message, the process proceeds to step S09.

  In step S09, it is checked whether or not it can be considered that the conference has ended. The end of the conference can be determined to be ended if the current time has passed the end time with reference to the end time column of the conference reservation DB 22 for the conference to be processed, or the start time is subtracted from the end time. If the remaining time is less than ¼ of the total meeting time, it can be determined that the meeting has ended based on the meeting time obtained in step 1 and the remaining time of the meeting obtained by subtracting the current time from the end time. . It is possible for the operator of this system to determine which state is determined to be the conference end as appropriate. If it is determined that the conference is over, the process is terminated.

  If it is not determined that the conference has ended, the conference progress program 13 activates the speaker determination program 14 to perform speaker determination processing in step S10 described later. When the speaker determination process is performed in step S10, the process returns to step S06, and the data related to the message in the DB is updated.

  Next, details of the speaker determination process in step S10 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the speaker determination process performed by the speaker determination program 14. The speaker determination program 14 automatically selects the next speaker to be nominated according to the situation of the conference when there is no speech for a predetermined time and cannot be regarded as the end of the conference, as described above. Decide and nominate a statement.

  First, in step S21, the speaker determination program 14 detects the conference status. As the conference status, the status of the remaining time of the conference and the status of the speech are used as judgment materials. Regarding the status of the remaining time of the conference, the conference time obtained by referring to the start time column and the end time column of the conference reservation DB 22 for the conference to be processed, obtaining the current time, and subtracting the start time from the end time Then, based on the remaining time of the meeting obtained by subtracting the current time from the end time, the degree of remaining time is calculated as compared with the entire meeting time. For example, if the remaining time is greater than or equal to a predetermined value A (for example, 2/3 of the total meeting time), the remaining time is “more”, and the remaining time is less than the predetermined value A and a predetermined value B (for example, 1/3) If the remaining time is less than a predetermined value B, it is determined that the remaining time is “less”.

  In addition, regarding the state of speech, the degree of speech activity is determined based on the total number of speeches recorded so far in the conference record DB 23 of the conference to be processed. For example, if the total number of utterances is greater than or equal to a predetermined value A, “large”, and if the total number of utterances is less than the predetermined value A and greater than or equal to the predetermined value B, “medium”, the total number of utterances is a predetermined value. If it is less than B, it is judged as “less”.

  In addition to the total number of utterances, the degree of utterance activity is determined by, for example, dividing the total number of utterances by the elapsed time from the start of the conference to calculate the number of utterances per hour, and the number of utterances per hour. Is greater than a predetermined value A, the number of utterances per hour is less than the predetermined value A and greater than or equal to a predetermined value B. If it is less, it can be judged as “less”.

  Based on the remaining time of the conference and the state of speech detected in step S21, in step S22, the speaker selection table 25 is referred to and the selection criteria for the user to be designated as the speaker is referred. An example of the speaker selection table 25 is shown in FIG.

  The speaker selection table 25 includes a table 251 that stores information related to the conference status, and a table 252 that stores information related to the selection criteria of the speaker for each conference status classified in the table 251. By using such a table, the speaker determination program 14 can determine a selection criterion for a user to be designated as the next speaker among the attendees of the conference according to the status of the conference.

  In step S22, first, a column corresponding to the status of the remaining time of the meeting detected in step S21 is referred from the table 251 in the speaker selection table 25, and in the corresponding column, next, detected in step S21. By referring to the column corresponding to the state of speech, the line in the table 251 is determined, and the data related to the selection criterion registered in the line of the table 252 is referred to. That is, the speaker determination program 14 determines the conditions of attendees to be nominated based on the status of the conference in steps S21 and S22.

  In step S23, based on the selection criteria obtained in step S22, the conference reservation DB 22, the user master 21, and the conference-specific user DB 24 are referred to, and users who meet the selection criteria are determined from users who are conference attendees. Then, a request process for a speech that designates the user is performed. Then, the process returns to step S06.

  For example, if it is detected in step S21 that the remaining time of the meeting is “long” and the speech is “low”, it corresponds to the third line of the table 251, so the third line of the table 252 is referred to, and in step S22. As the selection criteria, the job title is “section manager / department manager”, the personality is “active group”, and the number of speaking experiences and the affirmation rate are not required. In step S23, the user IDs of conference attendees to be processed are first referred to from the conference reservation DB 22 according to the selection criteria. Then, referring to the user master 21 based on the user ID, a user whose title is “section manager / department manager” and whose personality is “active group” is extracted.

  If the conference to be processed is conference No. “2004121301”, the conference reservation DB 22 indicates that the attendee's user ID is “2001”, “2002”, “5004”, “9001”, etc. Based on the ID, the user master 21 is referred to, and as a user who matches the post and personality conditions, Kaida Kaida who has the user ID “5004” is extracted. Then, a message requesting to speak is sent to each user's user terminal T1 with Kaida as the next speaker.

  If there is less time left in the meeting, but there are few comments, it may be a topic that is difficult for regular employees to speak, so according to these selection criteria, comments that ignite managers such as general managers and section managers Can be requested.

  Further, for example, when it is detected in step S21 that the remaining time of the meeting is “low” and the speech is “medium”, it corresponds to the eighth line of the table 251, so that the selection is made by referring to the eighth line of the table 252. As criteria, the selection criteria are “section manager / department”, personality is “summarizing role”, number of speaking experiences is “speaking experience of 6 or more of this agenda”, and positive rate is “60% or more” Get.

  When the user IDs of the attendees of the meeting to be processed are “2001”, “2002”, “5004”, “5005”, and “9001”, the user who matches the job title and personality condition with reference to the user master 21 As a result, the section manager Okada with the user ID “5005” and the section manager Kuroda with the user ID “9001” are extracted. Then, the director Sora who meets the criteria for selecting the number of speaking experiences and the affirmation rate is determined as the next speaker, and a message requesting the director to speak is sent to the user terminal T1 of each user.

  If the remaining time of the meeting is small, it is a stage of summarizing as a meeting. Therefore, according to such a selection criterion, it is possible to ask a participant who has a high affirmation rate to speak.

  Further, for example, if it is detected in step S21 that the remaining time of the meeting is “medium” and the number of utterances is “high”, it corresponds to the fourth line of the table 251 and is therefore selected by referring to the fourth line of the table 252. As a standard, the job title is “Pair”, the personality is “Active”, the number of speaking experiences is “Speaking experience of 3 or more on this agenda”, and the affirmation rate is unquestioned.

  When there is still time remaining in the meeting, it is considered that it is a stage to accept more active remarks, so according to these selection criteria, the positive rate should be asked to speak to active attendees without questioning. Can do.

  FIG. 8 is an example of a screen output to the output means 49 of the user terminal T1. In this example, in response to the fact that the speaker determination program 14 of the server 1 has sent a message requesting that the director Kaida is the next speaker to the user terminal T1 of each user, the output means 49 of the user terminal T1 outputs the message. Shows the screen.

  The screen 800 that the conference participation program 43 of the user terminal T1 outputs to the output unit 49 in response to reception of a message from the server 1 relates to an area 801 for displaying the conference No. and conference name, the current date and time, and the remaining time of the conference. An area 802 for displaying information, a material list area 803, an area 804 for displaying information related to a message, an area 805 for outputting various messages transmitted from the server 1, and information on the meaning of a pressed key. An area 806 for displaying is included.

  The material list area 803 is an area for displaying materials used in the conference, and can display a list of material names or display the contents of materials according to instructions from the user. . An area 804 for displaying information related to a speech is an area for showing the attendees of the conference to other attendees, and displaying the video of the speech or text representing the content of the speech. Is possible.

  The message of the request for speaking to the speaker determined by the speaker determining program 14 in the process of step S23 is displayed in the area 805 as shown in the figure if it is a request for speaking to the above-mentioned Director Kaita. Since such a display is displayed on the user terminal T1 used by each conference attendee, the person who has been designated can recognize that he / she should speak, and who has been nominated other attendees It is possible to grasp the situation.

  In addition, when the conference progress program 13 nominates a speaker in step S05 in response to pressing of the raise hand key from the attendee, the conference participation program 43 of the user terminal T1 is similarly sent to the output means 49 to the speaker. A message for requesting speech is displayed in area 805.

  As described above, according to the processing flow shown in FIG. 6, the conference progress program 13 determines the speaker to be nominated next based on the key information pressed by the user who is the attendee of the conference, Depending on the situation, the status of affirmation or denial by other attendees can be grasped. Further, according to the processing flow shown in FIG. 7, the speaker determination program 14 determines a selection criterion for a user to be appointed based on the conference situation when the conference is in a predetermined situation, and based on the selection criterion. Thus, the user who should be designated as the next speaker can be determined from the users who are attendees of the conference.

  The flow shown in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 is for the server 1 to decide the speaker and designate the speaker, so that the conference automatically proceeds. The server 1 moderates the information of the speaker to be nominated next. The process of presenting to a person and actually assigning a statement can be performed manually by the presenter.

  In this case, in step S05 and step S23, when the speaker who should be nominated next is determined by the above-described processing, information on the determined speaker (for example, nomination) is not transmitted to each attendee's user terminal. And output to the user terminal T1 operated by the presenter. When receiving an input for instructing a speaker designation from the user terminal T1 of the moderator, a message of the designation is transmitted to each user terminal.

  With such a configuration, the speaker 1 to be nominated next is determined by the server 1, and information on the determined speaker is presented to the presenter. Therefore, the presenter can use the presented information as a judgment material when considering a speaker to be nominated next.

  The configuration shown in FIG. 1 is an example, and may not match the actual configuration of the program module. For example, the conference participation program 43 may be installed in the user terminal T1 in advance, or may take the form of being distributed from the server 1 to the user terminal T1 when the conference is started in step S01 in FIG. .

  As for the data holding methods shown in FIGS. 2 to 5, other methods may be used as long as similar data can be managed. Also, other methods may be used for the output screen shown in FIG. 8 as long as the same main information is output.

  As an advanced operation of this system, the server 1 may be provided with a function for creating the minutes based on the data relating to the remarks from each attendee recorded in the meeting record DB 23. In that case, all the contents of the remarks may be output as minutes, and if the type of remark is “opinion”, only the opinions with an affirmation rate of 60% or more are output to the minutes. Alternatively, when the type of utterance is “opinion”, information on the affirmation rate may be added and output to the minutes.

  The present invention may have the following configurations as described below.

  (Appendix 1) A method for causing a computer to determine the next speaker among attendees of an ongoing conference, the step of determining the conditions of attendees to be nominated based on the status of the conference and the holding A speaker determination method, comprising: a step of determining attendees that meet the determined condition among attendees of a meeting in progress; and a step of outputting information on the determined attendees.

  (Supplementary note 2) The speaker determination method according to supplementary note 1, wherein the status of the conference is information including at least the remaining time of the conference being held or the total number of statements in the conference.

  (Supplementary note 3) The speaker determination method according to supplementary note 1, wherein the condition of the attendee to be appointed is information including at least an affirmative rate with respect to the title or character of the attendee or an opinion of another attendee.

  (Additional remark 4) The said speaker determination method starts a process when there is no next remark even if more than predetermined time passes since the remark made by the participant in the said meeting, The remark of Additional remark 1 characterized by the above-mentioned Person determination method.

  (Additional remark 5) In the speaker determination apparatus which determines the next speaker among the attendees of the meeting in progress, about each meeting, meeting reservation DB which memorize | stores the information regarding at least the start time of a meeting, and end time; A conference record DB that records statements from attendees of the conference, and a speaker selection table that stores the conditions of attendees to be assigned in association with the remaining time of the conference and the total number of statements; , Referring to the conference reservation DB and the current time for the conference being held, time calculating means for calculating the remaining time of the conference, and referring to the conference record DB for the conference being held, Selection conditions for determining the conditions of attendees to be nominated, referring to the speaker selection table, based on the total number of messages to be calculated for determining the total number of messages in the conference, and the calculated remaining time and total number of messages in the conference Decision Speaker determination characterized by comprising speaker determination means for referring to information on attendees of the current meeting and the participant who meets the selected selection condition as the next speaker apparatus.

It is a block diagram of one Example of the speaker determination system by this invention. It is a data example of (A) user master and (B) meeting reservation DB of this invention. It is a data example of (A) meeting record DB of this invention, (B) user DB according to meeting, and (C) pressing information management table. It is a data example of the (A) key table of this invention. It is a data example of the speaker selection table of this invention. It is a flowchart of the meeting progress process of this invention. It is a flowchart of the speaker determination process of this invention. It is an example of the screen output displayed on the user terminal by this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1 server N network T1 user terminal 11 communication program 12 reservation program 13 conference progress program 14 speaker determination program 18 input means 19 output means 21 user master 22 conference reservation DB
23 meeting record DB
24 User DB by conference
25 Speaker selection table 41 Communication program 42 Conference reservation program 43 Conference participation program

Claims (3)

A method for causing a computer to determine the next speaker among attendees of an ongoing conference,
Determining the conditions of attendees to be nominated based on the status of the meeting; determining the attendees meeting the determined conditions among the attendees of the ongoing meeting;
And a step of outputting information on the determined attendees.   The speaker determination method according to claim 1, wherein the conference status is information including at least the remaining time of the conference being held or the total number of messages in the conference. The speaker determination method according to appendix 1, wherein the condition of the attendee to be appointed is information including at least an affirmative rate with respect to the title or character of the attendee or an opinion of another attendee.

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