JP2010232887A - Conference management apparatus and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To promote such conference operation as to lead out the opinion of a person at a weak position in a conference. <P>SOLUTION: A conference management apparatus includes a data storage section and a state management means. The data storage section stores a management table and a conference table. The management table stores therein an ID of each of attendants, data indicating a strength level of a position of the attendant's own in a conference, the number of times of statements of the attendant in the conference and an upper limit for the number of times of statements. The conference table stores therein an ID of a speaker, position data of the speaker and a time in a time-sequential manner. The state management means receives from an attendant terminal of the speaker the ID of the speaker and statement data of the speaker, stores in the conference table the ID of the speaker, the position data of the speaker and the time, and increases the number of times of statements of the speaker by 1 in the management table. The state management means then determines whether predetermined conditions are satisfied or not, the predetermined conditions including conditions that the position data of the present speaker indicates a first level and the position data of another preceding speaker represent a level higher than the first level. If the predetermined conditions are satisfied, the state management means decreases the number of times of statements of the other preceding speaker in the management table. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present technology relates to a technology for supporting and managing a conference operation.

  Various meetings are held at companies, etc., and decisions are made based on the discussions of attendees. After the meeting, the results of the decisions are communicated to the relevant departments, and measures are taken in accordance with the decisions. It is normal. However, since there is a problem in the operation of the meeting, the consensus of the attendees is not reflected in the conclusion of the meeting, and therefore, there is a problem that measures according to the conclusion are not properly implemented in each related department.

  On the other hand, there is a technology that supports the operation of a conference. For example, in order to determine the next speaker among attendees of an ongoing conference, the remaining time of the conference and the total number of speeches of the conference are calculated, and the speaker selection table is based on the remaining time of the conference and the total number of speeches. From the above, the conditions of the attendees to be nominated are determined, and the attendees that meet the selected selection conditions are determined as the next speaker from the attribute information of the attendees of the meeting. However, remarks that encourage other attendees to speak are not considered.

  In addition, there is already a device to reduce the number of speaking opportunities for participants with a lot of speech and to increase the number of speeches for a small number of participants, but handling of statements that encourage other participants to speak. Is not considered.

  Furthermore, in order to smoothly advance the conference, there is a conventional technique in which a floor is sequentially given to conference participants based on priority. Priority is a function that uses one or more combinations of attributes of participants (social status, position, specialized field, etc.), accumulated speech time, number of speeches, last speech time, fixed value, speech request level. Is calculated by However, remarks that encourage other attendees to speak are not considered.

JP 2006-345250 A JP-A-2-067858 JP-A-8-274888

  As mentioned above, despite the fact that the meeting was concluded and a conclusion was reached, the morale declined due to the meeting conclusion, indifference to the meeting conclusion, and the policy indicated in the conclusion ignored or repelled Are ambiguous and unsatisfactory in decisions and instructions at meetings.

  In particular, regarding lack of consent, the meeting management is such that, among the attendees of the meeting, those with strong positions make decisions on their own, and those who are familiar with the issues and countermeasures and those in charge of implementing measures are weak and difficult to give opinions Is related. However, the prior art does not take into consideration efforts in conference operation to encourage the voice of those who are weak in the conference to reflect the opinions of those who are weak in the conference as much as possible. For this reason, the introduction of the prior art does not improve the problems described above.

  Therefore, the purpose of the present technology is to promote conference management that draws the opinions of those who are weak in the conference.

  The conference management device includes an attendee identifier, data indicating the level of strength of the attendee's position in the conference, a management table storing the attendee's speech count and the speech count upper limit for the attendee, A management data storage unit that stores a conference progress table that stores the identifier, the data indicating the position of the speaker and the time in time series, and an attendee for the speaker among the attendee terminals for each attendee The terminal receives data representing the speaker's identifier and that the speaker has spoken, reads the data representing the speaker's position stored in the management table in association with the speaker's identifier, and In addition to storing the identifier, the data representing the speaker's position, and the time in the conference progress table, the management table includes state management means for increasing the number of speakers by 1 in the management table. In the state management means described above, the data representing the position of the present speaker stored in the conference progress table is data representing the first level, and other data immediately before the present speaker It is determined whether or not a predetermined condition including that the data representing the position of the other immediately preceding speaker stored for the speaker is data representing a level higher than the first level is satisfied, and the predetermined If it is determined that the above condition is satisfied, the number of utterances of other speakers immediately before in the management table is reduced.

  Conference management that draws the opinions of those with weak positions at the conference will be promoted.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an outline of the system. FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the conference support server. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a main processing flow in the embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a processing flow of the initial processing. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of the management table. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of the post conversion table. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of the job conversion table. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of a correspondence table between the position determination value and the maximum number of utterances. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating a screen display example of the attendee terminal. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of the conference progress table. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a processing flow of the speech counter adjustment processing. FIG. 12A is a diagram showing a main processing flow. FIG. 12B is a diagram illustrating an example of the opponent number history table. FIG. 13 is a flowchart illustrating the adjustment process. FIG. 14 is a functional block diagram of a computer.

  FIG. 1 shows a system outline diagram of an embodiment of the present technology. For example, a network 1 that is a wired or wireless LAN (Local Area Network) includes a plurality of attendee terminals 5 (5a to 5d in the figure) and a conference support server 3 that performs main processing in the present embodiment. It is connected. The attendee terminal 5 is, for example, a device installed in a conference room, or a personal computer that the attendee brings into each conference room. In the present embodiment, it is assumed that a microphone 6 (6a to 6d in FIG. 1) is connected to each attendee terminal 5. In addition, a conference support client program 51 is executed in the attendee terminal 5, and the program 51 allows the attendee terminal 5 to output various information to the attendee and accept input from the user. An interface unit 511, a voice data acquisition unit 513 that acquires voice data related to attendees' speech from the microphone 6 of the attendee terminal 5, and a communication unit 515 that performs data communication with the conference support server 3 are realized. Note that the voice data acquisition unit 513 may include a voice recognition processing unit.

  FIG. 2 shows a functional block diagram of the conference support server 3. The conference support server 3 receives the data transmitted from the attendee terminal 5 and stores the data about the conference and the attendees of the conference, and the communication processing unit 31 that transmits necessary data to the attendee terminal 5. Data stored in the management data storage unit 37 is updated based on the data received from the management data storage unit 37 and the communication processing unit 31, and if necessary, the data is sent to the attendance terminal 5 in the communication processing unit 31. The state management unit 33 that requests to transmit the message, and a well-known voice recognition process is performed on the voice data that is received from the attendee terminal 5 and that is received from the attendee terminal 5 in response to the request from the state management unit 33 And a voice recognition processing unit 35.

  Next, processing contents of the system shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 will be described with reference to FIGS. First, before starting the conference, initial processing is performed (FIG. 3: step S1). This initial process will be described with reference to FIG.

  First, the manager of the conference operates the attendee terminal 5 to input a list of attendee names and attendee IDs (for example, employee IDs). The user interface unit 511 of the attendee terminal 5 receives an input of a list of attendee names and attendee IDs from the conference manager, and causes the communication unit 515 to transmit to the conference support server 3. The communication processing unit 31 of the conference support server 3 receives a list of attendee names and attendee IDs from the attendee terminal 5 and outputs the list to the state management unit 33. When acquiring the list of attendee names and attendee IDs, the state management unit 33 generates and registers a management table in the management data storage unit 37 (step S21).

  An example of the management table is shown in FIG. In the example of FIG. 5, the attendee ID, the attendee name, the attribute, the position determination value, the strength of the position, the rank, the speech counter, and the maximum number of speeches are registered. ing. In step S21, data is registered in the attendee ID and attendee name columns. The speech counter is counted up every time a speech is detected after the conference has actually started.

  Next, the state management unit 33 causes the communication processing unit 31 to acquire attribute values of predetermined attributes of attendees from, for example, a DB server (not shown) connected to the network 1 (step S23). For example, when the DB server or the like holds a database for managing the names of attendees, the names of duties, the number of past decisions in meetings, and the like, such data is acquired for each attendee. Also, the conference manager may input the same as the attendee ID and the attendee name. Further, the management data storage unit 37 may manage such data. When the status management unit 33 acquires the job title and job title of the attendee, the job title value corresponding to the job title is read from the job title conversion table as shown in FIG. 6 for job titles, and the job names are shown in FIG. The job value corresponding to the job name is read from such job conversion table and registered in the management table. The post conversion table and the job conversion table are prepared in the management data storage unit 37, for example. The past decision times are registered in the management table as they are.

Then, the state management unit 33 calculates the position determination value from the attendee attribute data, and sorts the position determination value according to the position determination value (step S25). In the present embodiment, the position determination value is calculated by the following equation.
A * Position value + B * Job value + C * Number of past decisions + D
A to D are predetermined coefficients. For example, an example of calculation with A = 1, B = 1, C = 1, and D = 5 is shown in the management table of FIG. The sorting is performed in descending order of the position determination values, for example. In this step, the ranking is performed in the strong order in the ranking column of the management table.

  Thereafter, in the management table, the state management unit 33 sets up to half of the attendees in the descending order of ranks as a weak group (that is, a group of attendees with weak positions), and sets the remaining attendees as strong groups (that is, A group of attendees with strong positions is set (step S27). When the number of attendees is odd, the majority is set to be a weak group. Through this step, “strong” or “weak” is registered in the strong / weak column of the management table.

  And the state management part 33 sets the speech count upper limit according to the determination value of a position in a management table (step S29). For example, a correspondence table between the position determination value and the upper limit value of the number of utterances as shown in FIG. 8 is prepared, and the upper limit value of the number of utterances is specified according to the position determination value for each attendee. Register in the corresponding record. Note that instead of a table, a calculation formula may be prepared to calculate the upper limit value of the number of utterances.

  By performing the processing as described above, the preprocessing of the processing described below is completed.

  In each attendee terminal 5, an attendee who is an operator inputs an attendee ID to the user interface unit 511.

  In addition, the user interface unit 511 of the attendee terminal 5 displays a screen as shown in FIG. 9 for example, and requests input from the attendee when speaking. Specifically, the corresponding one of the types shown in the display column 901 is selected, and the corresponding one of the functions is selected. In the present embodiment, “question”, “answer”, and “others” are set as the types of statements, and one of these is clicked. Furthermore, “explanation”, “approval”, “opinion”, “blocking”, “promotion”, and “others” are set in the speech function, and any one of these is clicked.

  In addition, since it may be difficult to input the display field 901 while speaking, it may be input by the attendant of the facilitator role. In that case, the user interface unit 511 of the attendee terminal 5 for the attendant of the facilitator role can specially input, for example, a combination of the attendee ID of the speaker, the speech type, and the speech function, and the user interface When the unit 511 receives the input, the unit 511 outputs the input to the communication unit 515 and transmits the communication unit 515 to the conference support server 3. Then, the state management unit 33 of the conference support server 3 associates the attendee ID, the speech type and the speech function, the attendee ID received from the attendee terminal 5 of the speaker, the voice data, and the like into the conference progress table. sign up.

  Further, as shown in the display column 902, in this embodiment, for the attendees of the weak group, approval or disapproval is input for the speech of the conference. Specifically, during or after each utterance, click either “Agree” or “No”.

  The result of the click is transmitted from the user interface unit 511 to the conference support server 3 via the communication unit 515.

  Further, in the display columns 903 and 904, corresponding display is performed based on the relationship between the speech counter and the upper limit value of the number of speeches and the state of approval or disapproval regarding the speech of the conference. For example, when the value of the utterance counter reaches the upper limit of the number of utterances, “Please refrain from speaking” is displayed in response to an instruction from the conference support server 3. On the other hand, for example, in the case where the opponent of the weak group exceeds the majority of the weak group, “Please speak” to the weak group attendant in response to an instruction from the meeting support server 3. Is displayed. The conference support server 3 may send a specific message content, or a message ID may be sent and the user interface unit 511 of the attendee terminal 5 may display the corresponding message. Also good. Furthermore, in the case of being divided into display fields 903 and 904, display is possible even if only which one is turned on is designated.

  Returning to the description of the processing in FIG. 3, when the conference starts, the voice data acquisition unit 513 of each attendee terminal 5 generates voice data when detecting the speech of the attendee who is the operator of the attendee terminal 5. To the communication unit 515. The voice data acquisition unit 513 may register the voice of the attendee in advance so as to detect only the speech of the attendee who is the operator of the attendee terminal 5. In addition, the voice data acquisition unit 513 measures a speech start time (or a speech start time and a speech end time) and outputs the measured speech start time (or speech start time and speech end time) to the conference support server 3 together with the voice data.

  Furthermore, the user interface unit 511 receives a click of a button corresponding to the message type and the message function from the screen as illustrated in FIG. 9, and outputs the selected message type and the identifier of the message function to the communication unit 515. As described above, the identifier of the speech type and the speech function is transmitted together with the attendee ID of the speaker from the attendee terminal 5 of the attendant of the facilitator when the attendee of the facilitator is present. .

  Then, the communication unit 515 of the attendee terminal 5, for example, at the end of the speech, uses the attendee ID, the speech start time, the speech data, the speech type, and the identifier (ID) of the speech function as data indicating that the speech has been performed. It transmits to the meeting support server 3. Note that the voice data may be transmitted to the conference support server 3 by performing voice recognition processing on the voice data at the attendee terminal 5. Thereby, the communication load of the network 1 and the processing load of the conference support server 3 can be reduced.

  In response to this, the communication processing unit 31 of the conference support server 3 receives the attendee ID, the speech start time, the voice data, the voice type, and the identifier of the voice function from the attendee terminal 5, and outputs them to the state management unit 33. To do. Upon receiving such data, the state management unit 33 causes the voice recognition processing unit 35 to perform a well-known voice recognition process and receives a voice recognition result for the voice data, and receives a voice recognition result together with other data in the management data storage unit 37. Register in the progress table (step S3).

  An example of the conference progress table is shown in FIG. In the example of FIG. 10, the start time of the speaker, the speaker name specified by the attendee ID from the management table, and the position (“strong” or “weak”) of the speaker specified by the attendee ID from the management table. The speech type, the speech function, and the speech content that is the voice recognition result are registered. Patterns A to C are reference data for use in the following description. In the example of FIG. 10, a title such as “section manager” is displayed to the speaker. This is also for the following explanation, and the attendee ID or the attendee name is actually registered.

  Further, the state management unit 33 increments the speech counter corresponding to the received attendee ID in the management table by 1 (step S5). Further, a speech counter adjustment process is performed (step S7). The speech counter adjustment process will be described with reference to FIG.

  In this comment counter adjustment process, in principle, a speaker belonging to the strong group made a statement that encourages attendees belonging to the weak group to speak, and an attendant belonging to the weak group responded as a speaker accordingly. In this case, the utterance counter of the speaker belonging to the strong group is decreased. In this way, attendees belonging to the strong group are not forced to unilaterally conclude the conclusion, but encourage the attendees belonging to the weak group to speak and express their opinions as much as possible. By reflecting the opinions of the weak group, the conference management is promoted so as to convince the attendees belonging to the weak group not to impose the strong group but to the conclusion of the conference.

  First, the state management unit 33 determines whether the present speaker is an attendee belonging to the weak group (step S31). If the present speaker is not an attendee belonging to the weak group, the process is not subject to processing and the process returns to the original process. On the other hand, if the present speaker is an attendee belonging to the weak group, it is determined whether the other previous speaker is an attendant belonging to the strong group (step S33). Note that the same speaker may speak continuously for a short time ("ma"). In this way, if the preceding and following utterances are from the same speaker, the determination is made by linking and determining who is the other speaker immediately before. For example, in the example of FIG. 10, Mr. M utters four times after 9:25, which means that there is a short period between these utterances. Therefore, the other speaker who has just connected between them becomes the U section manager.

  When the other speaker immediately before belongs to the weak group, the process returns to the original process because it is not the target of the process. On the other hand, when the other immediately preceding speaker belongs to the strong group, the state management unit 33 determines whether the accompanying condition is satisfied (step S35). For example, there are three patterns of the accompanying conditions.

  The condition of the pattern A is determined in advance by a sequence of a combination of a speech type and a speech function of a speaker belonging to a strong group who has spoken first, and a combination of a speech type and a speech function of a speaker who belongs to a weak group who has spoken later. Including the condition that the pattern is For example, when the utterance type of the speaker belonging to the strong group who said earlier is “Question”, the utterance type of the speaker belonging to the weak group who spoke later is “Answer”, and the utterance function is “Opinion” In addition, this condition shall be satisfied. When such a pattern A is adopted, it is determined that the U section manager's statement at 9:21 and Mr. M's statement after 9:25 correspond to this pattern A in the example of FIG. Also, Mr. K's remarks at 9:45 and Mr. M's remarks at 9:46 are determined to fall under this pattern A. However, Mr. KN's remarks at 8:40 and Mr. M's remarks at 8:44 do not match the conditions of Mr. M's remarks. Similarly, Mr. KN's remarks at 8:57 and 9:01 It is determined that Mr. M's remark does not match the remark type. In the pattern A column of FIG. 10, “Yes” is registered when the condition is met. Note that other combinations of the speech type and the speech function may be used as a condition.

  The condition of pattern B is a condition that focuses on the speech time. For example, if the speaking time of a speaker belonging to the strong group who has spoken earlier is less than a predetermined threshold value, it can be determined that the previous speech has only been matched. Accordingly, it is determined that the attendees belonging to the weak group are not urged to speak and the condition is not satisfied. Furthermore, if the speaking time of a speaker belonging to a weak group who has spoken later is less than another threshold, even if an attendant belonging to the strong group prompts the attendant of the weak group to speak, The attempt is not successful. However, if Mr. M's remarks from 9:25 in FIG. 10 are continuously speaking with a gap, they may be determined by connecting them. In the example of FIG. 10, there are four portions that satisfy the conditions of steps S31 and S33. However, in FIG. 10, “Yes” is registered as all of them satisfy the speech time condition. As for the speech time, the difference between the speech start time and the next speech start time may be used, and the actual speech time can also be specified when performing the speech recognition process. There is no need to use the speech time. Further, when the speech start time and the speech end time are received from the speaker's attendee terminal 5, the difference may be used.

  The condition of the pattern C is that at least a part of the names of the attendees of the weak group is included in the content of the speech of the strong group speaker who spoke earlier. In the example of FIG. 10, the 9:21 U manager remarks that “Mr. M” (“Mr.” is only shown in FIG. 10 for the sake of clarity) belongs to the weak group. The name of is included. In such a case, it is presumed that Mr. M is intentionally talking to Mr. M. Therefore, when such a pattern C is matched, it is determined that the accompanying condition is satisfied. In addition, since it may be called not by name but by title, etc., a word to be extracted from the content of speech of a strong group speaker may be designated in advance.

  If it is determined that the accompanying conditions as described above are not satisfied, the process returns to the original process. On the other hand, when it is determined that the accompanying condition is satisfied, the state management unit 33 decrements the speech counter of the other immediately preceding speaker in the management table by 1 (step S37). In this way, even if an attendee belonging to the strong group makes a speech that encourages an attendee belonging to the weak group to speak, the speech counter will not increase, so there is a risk of losing his / her speech opportunity. It is possible to encourage the attendees who belong to the weak group to speak without any. That is, the speech of attendees belonging to the weak group increases, and the conference can be advanced so that dissatisfaction, stress, etc. do not remain as much as attendees belonging to the weak group.

  Returning to the description of the processing in FIG. 3, the state management unit 33 determines whether or not the value of the speech counter of the current speaker is equal to or greater than the maximum number of speeches in the management table (step S <b> 9). If the value of the current speaker's speech counter is greater than or equal to the maximum number of speeches, a "listen" sign is displayed on the attendee terminal 5 of the current speaker in order to suppress the current speaker's speech The communication processing unit 31 is caused to transmit a command for causing it (step S11). When the communication unit 515 of the present speaker's attendee terminal 5 receives a command for displaying the “listening” sign from the conference support server 3, the communication unit 515 outputs the command to the user interface unit 511. Nine display fields 903 are displayed. In some cases, a measure such as turning off the microphone 6 may be performed. Thereafter, the processing shifts to the processing in FIG.

  On the other hand, when the value of the utterance counter of the utterer is less than the utterance count upper limit, the process proceeds to the process of FIG.

  Shifting to the description of the processing in FIG. 12A, for example, an attendee who belongs to the weak group while a certain speaker speaks or after speaking, displays a display field on the display screen (FIG. 9) of the attendee terminal 5. Click the agree or disagree button shown at 902. The user interface unit 511 of the attendee terminal 5 receives a selection input for or against, and causes the communication unit 515 to transmit intention display data indicating approval or disapproval to the conference support server 3. Hereinafter, the process is performed for the weak group until step S49, but the process may be performed for all attendees.

  The communication processing unit 31 of the meeting support server 3 receives intention display data for or against from the attendee terminals 5 of the attendees belonging to the weak group, and outputs them to the state management unit 33. The state management unit 33 receives the approval or disapproval intention display data, counts the number of attendees who have expressed the objection, and registers them in the opponent number history table of the management data storage unit 37 (step S41). An example of the opponent number history table is shown in FIG. 12B. In the example of FIG. 12B, a count history of the number of opponents is registered.

  Then, the state management unit 33 determines whether or not the statement counter adjustment condition (that is, the conditions of steps S31 to S35) is satisfied (step S43). For example, when step S37 is performed while satisfying the conditions of steps S31 to S35, a flag is set to ON, and in this step, it is determined whether this flag is set to ON. If it is determined that the message counter adjustment condition is satisfied, adjustment processing is performed (step S45). This adjustment process will be described with reference to FIG. After step S45, the process proceeds to step S47.

  In the adjustment process, first, the state management unit 33 determines whether or not the current number of opponents is smaller than the previous number of opponents (step S61). If the number of opponents this time has decreased from the previous number of opponents, the speaker belonging to the strong group urged the attendees belonging to the weak group to speak, and this encouragement actually caused the participants belonging to the weak group to It is recognized that the fact that the remarks were made was effective because it increased the support for the remarks of the meeting (here, the number of opponents was negatively reduced). Therefore, in the management table, the value of the speech counter of the other immediately preceding speaker is reduced by 1 (step S63). Then, the process returns to the original process.

  On the other hand, if it cannot be said that the current number of opponents is decreasing than the previous number of opponents, the processing returns to the original processing.

  In step S63, the value of the utterance counter is decremented by 1. However, since approval for the conference has increased (the number of opponents has decreased), the effect is recognized and the upper limit of the number of utterances is increased. Also good. Furthermore, the value of the speech counter may be decreased by a large number such as “2” instead of “1”.

  Furthermore, intention display data representing approval or disapproval from all attendees may be collected, and the number of opponents from all attendees may be counted and registered in the opponent count history table. Further, the number of supporters may be counted and registered in the supporter history table to determine whether the supporters have increased.

  Returning to the description of the processing in FIG. 12A, the state management unit 33 of the conference support server 3 determines whether the number of opponents satisfies a predetermined condition (step S47). Specifically, it is determined whether the number of opponents is a majority of attendees belonging to the weak group. When the number of opponents does not reach half of the number of attendees belonging to the weak group, the process proceeds to step S51. If the number of opponents is a majority of the attendees belonging to the weak group, the speech of attendees belonging to the weak group is further promoted so that the opinions of attendees belonging to the weak group are included in the conclusion of the meeting as much as possible. It must be reflected. Accordingly, the state management unit 33 outputs an instruction to the communication processing unit 31 so as to display “pronounce” on the attendee terminals 5 of the attendees belonging to the weak group, and attendance of attendees belonging to the strong group An instruction is output to the communication processing unit 31 so as to display a message prompting “listening” on the person terminal 5 (step S49). Specifically, a display is made in the display field 904 of FIG. 9 on the attendee terminals 5 of attendees belonging to the weak group. On the other hand, a display is made in the display field 903 of FIG. 9 on the attendee terminals 5 of attendees belonging to the strong group. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S51.

  In step S51, the state management unit 33 determines whether the process is finished, that is, whether the meeting is finished. For example, when there is no sound for a predetermined time or when an end is instructed explicitly from any attendee terminal 5 or when no attendee terminal 5 is operating, it is determined that the process is ended. To finish the process. On the other hand, if the process is not finished, the process returns to step S3 in FIG.

  By carrying out the processing as described above, it is possible to promote the conference management in which the attendees belonging to the strong group give an opportunity to express their opinions to the attendees belonging to the weak group without any disadvantage. This avoids leaving the dissatisfaction of attendees belonging to the weak group by pushing the strong person's claims against the attendees belonging to the weak group, and as much as possible to the opinions of attendees belonging to the weak group in the conclusion of the meeting. It can be reflected.

  Although the embodiment of the present technology has been described above, the present technology is not limited to this. For example, the functional block diagrams of FIGS. 1 and 2 are examples, and may not necessarily match the actual program module configuration. The attendee terminal 5 may be a dedicated terminal device instead of a general personal computer.

  As for the position, not only strength but also three or more levels may be set.

  Furthermore, although examples of the accompanying conditions of patterns A to C are shown, the accompanying conditions may be arbitrarily combined.

  Although not described in the processing described above, the communication processing unit 31 also manages the correspondence between the attendee ID and the address of the attendee terminal 5.

  Furthermore, the processing flow described above is also arranged in time series so as to cover the functions. For example, processing such as initial processing, speech counter management, approval / disapproval intention display data, etc., is performed in a separate thread. You may make it do. In particular, regarding the aggregation of intention display data in favor or opposite, the aggregation timing is performed every time when the speech data is received in the above example, but other timing may be adopted.

  Further, for the approval / disapproval intention display data, the example of using the button in the display field 902 is shown in the example of FIG. 9, but for example, the button in the display field 901 (for example, “Approve” button) may be used. However, it is often easier for attendees to distinguish from the buttons used when speaking. Furthermore, it is possible not only to agree and disagree, but also to make a somewhat negative level of intention such as there is concern, for example, to set multiple levels from agree to disagree and indicate either Also good.

  Further, the display screen as shown in FIG. 9 is an example, and various modifications are possible.

  The conference support server 3 and the attendee terminal 5 described above are computer devices, and are connected to a memory 2501, a CPU 2503, a hard disk drive (HDD) 2505, and a display device 2509 as shown in FIG. A display control unit 2507, a drive device 2513 for a removable disk 2511, an input device 2515, and a communication control unit 2517 for connecting to a network are connected by a bus 2519. An operating system (OS) and an application program for executing the processing in this embodiment are stored in the HDD 2505, and are read from the HDD 2505 to the memory 2501 when executed by the CPU 2503. If necessary, the CPU 2503 controls the display control unit 2507, the communication control unit 2517, and the drive device 2513 to perform necessary operations. Further, data in the middle of processing is stored in the memory 2501 and stored in the HDD 2505 if necessary. In an embodiment of the present technology, an application program for performing the above-described processing is stored in a computer-readable removable disk 2511 and distributed, and installed from the drive device 2513 to the HDD 2505. In some cases, the HDD 2505 may be installed via a network such as the Internet and the communication control unit 2517. Such a computer device realizes various functions as described above by organically cooperating the hardware such as the CPU 2503 and the memory 2501 described above with the OS and necessary application programs.

  The present embodiment can be summarized as follows.

  The conference management device includes an attendee identifier, data indicating the level of strength of the attendee's position in the conference, a management table storing the attendee's speech count and the speech count upper limit for the attendee, A management data storage unit that stores a conference progress table that stores the identifier, the data indicating the position of the speaker and the time in time series, and an attendee for the speaker among the attendee terminals for each attendee The terminal receives data representing the speaker's identifier and that the speaker has spoken, reads the data representing the speaker's position stored in the management table in association with the speaker's identifier, and In addition to storing the identifier, the data representing the speaker's position, and the time in the conference progress table, the management table includes state management means for increasing the number of speakers by 1 in the management table. In the state management means described above, the data representing the position of the present speaker stored in the conference progress table is data representing the first level, and other data immediately before the present speaker It is determined whether or not a predetermined condition including that the data representing the position of the other immediately preceding speaker stored for the speaker is data representing a level higher than the first level is satisfied, and the predetermined If it is determined that the above condition is satisfied, the number of utterances of other speakers immediately before in the management table is reduced.

  In this way, if a weak speaker speaks because of being encouraged by a strong speaker at the conference, the opportunity to speak to a weak speaker who is difficult to speak or has a chance to speak at the conference It is considered as an effort to obtain consensus among the attendees of the meeting as much as possible, and gives an extra opportunity to speak to strong speakers.

  In addition, the above-mentioned predetermined condition is that the current total speech time of the current speaker or the current total speech time of the current speaker and the speech time of the other previous speakers are longer than the predetermined time. May be included. This is because utterances such as simply matching and replying do not contribute significantly to consensus formation at the conference. In addition, even when the speaking time of a strong speaker is short, there are many cases where it cannot be said that an actual weak speaker is urged to speak, so it may be excluded.

  Furthermore, the attendee name may be further stored in the management table described above in association with the identifier of the attendee. Further, the conference management apparatus performs speech recognition processing on the speech data included in the data representing the speech received from the attendee terminal for the speaker, and stores the speech recognition processing result in the management data storage unit Voice recognition processing means may be further included. In such a case, the predetermined condition described above is the speaker name stored in the management table in association with the identifier of the current speaker in the speech recognition processing result for the other previous speaker. It is also possible to include a condition that at least a part of is included.

  In this way, if a strong speaker has designated the name of a weak speaker, the strong speaker will be aware of the weak speaker and ask the weak speaker to manage the conference. This is because it seems to be trying to be fairer.

  Further, the state management means described above represents the purpose of the speaker's speech from the attendee terminal (for example, the attendee terminal for the speaker or the attendee terminal of another attendee (facilitator role attendee)). When data (for example, a speech type and a speech function in the embodiment) is further received, data representing the purpose of the speech may be stored in the conference progress table in association with the identifier of the speaker. In such a case, the predetermined condition described above is data indicating that the purpose of the speech about the other immediately preceding speaker is urging the current speaker to speak, and the present speaker You may make it include the conditions that the data showing the purpose of utterance about is data showing that it is an answer.

  Thus, if the data representing the purpose of the speech is obtained by the speaker, the intention of the speaker can be easily grasped, so that it can be easily determined whether or not it contributes to the optimization of the conference operation.

  In addition, the state management means described above has received data indicating the approval or disapproval of the remarks at the meeting from the attendee terminal of the attendee in which the data indicating the relatively weak position is stored as the data indicating the position in the management table In this case, the number of attendee terminals that have transmitted data representing the opposite or data representing approval may be counted and stored in the history data storage unit. In that case, if it is determined that the above-mentioned predetermined condition is satisfied, the recent number of attendee terminals that have transmitted the data representing the opposite stored in the history data storage unit is smaller than the previous number. It may be determined whether the recent number of attendee terminals that have transmitted the data representing the approval or stored in the history data storage unit is greater than the previous number. And the recent number of attendee terminals that have transmitted data representing the opposite is less than the previous number of attendee terminals that have transmitted data representing the opposite or stored in the history data storage unit. When it is determined that the number of voices has increased from the previous number, the number of voices of other immediately preceding speakers in the management table may be reduced or the upper limit of the number of voices may be increased.

  In this way, it is possible to make more statements to strong speakers who have encouraged the speakers of weak speakers who substantially increase the number of supporters of the conference. It is. As a result, the conference can be managed so as to contribute more to consensus formation.

  Further, the state management means described above receives data indicating approval or disapproval regarding the speech at the meeting from the attendee terminal of the attendee in which data indicating a relatively weak position is stored as data indicating the position in the management table. You may do it. When there are a large number of attendance terminals that have transmitted data representing the opposite or a small number of attendance terminals that have transmitted data that represents approval, the A message that prompts the attendees to refrain from speaking is displayed on the attendee's terminal that stores data representing a strong position, and data representing a relatively weak position is stored as data representing a position in the management table. It is also possible to perform at least one of displaying a message prompting the user to speak on the attendee terminal of the attendee who is present.

  For example, if the speech is negative in the conference, it is necessary to manage the conference in such a way that there will be no dissatisfaction by increasing the number of speech from weaker attendees. It is intended to prevent the situation from pushing the conclusion to attendees who are weak in high pressure.

  It is possible to create a program for causing computer hardware to perform the processing described above, such as a flexible disk, a CD-ROM, a magneto-optical disk, a semiconductor memory, a hard disk, etc. It is stored in a computer-readable storage medium or storage device. Note that data being processed is temporarily stored in a storage device such as a computer memory.

  The following supplementary notes are further disclosed with respect to the embodiments including the above examples.

(Appendix 1)
An attendee identifier, data indicating the level of strength of the attendee's position in the conference, a management table storing the attendee's speech count and the maximum speech count of the attendee, the speaker identifier and the speaker A management data storage unit that stores a conference progress table that stores data indicating the position of the person and time in chronological order;
From the attendee terminal for each attendee, from the attendee terminal for the speaker, the identifier of the speaker and the data indicating that the speaker has spoken are received and associated with the identifier of the speaker Read data representing the position of the speaker stored in the management table, store the identifier of the speaker, data representing the position of the speaker, and time in the conference progress table, and in the management table State management means for increasing the number of utterances of the speaker by one;
Have
The state management means includes
The data representing the position of the present speaker stored in the conference progress table is data representing the first level, and is stored for other speakers immediately before the present speaker. Determining whether or not a predetermined condition including that the data representing the position of the other immediately preceding speaker is data representing a level higher than the first level is satisfied;
When it is determined that the predetermined condition is satisfied, a conference management device that reduces the number of times of the other speakers immediately before in the management table.

(Appendix 2)
The predetermined condition includes a condition that the current total speech time of the current speaker or the current total speech time of the current speaker and the speech time of the other previous speakers are longer than a predetermined time. The conference management device according to attachment 1.

(Appendix 3)
The management table further stores attendee names in association with the attendee identifiers,
Voice recognition processing for performing voice recognition processing on voice data included in the data representing the utterance received from the attendee terminal for the speaker, and storing the voice recognition processing result in the management data storage unit Further comprising means
The predetermined condition includes at least a part of a speaker name stored in the management table in association with the identifier of the current speaker in the speech recognition processing result for the other speaker immediately before. The meeting management device according to attachment 1 or 2, including the condition that

(Appendix 4)
The state management means includes
When data representing the purpose of the speaker's speech is further received from the attendee terminal, the conference progress table stores data representing the purpose of the speech in association with the speaker's identifier;
The predetermined condition is
The data representing the purpose of the speech for the other speaker immediately before is data representing the prompting of the present speaker, and the data representing the purpose of the speech for the current speaker is an answer. The conference management device according to any one of appendices 1 to 3, including a condition that the data indicates that the data exists.

(Appendix 5)
The state management means is
When receiving data indicating approval or disapproval about the remarks in the meeting from the attendee terminal of the attendee who stores data indicating a relatively weak position as data indicating the position in the management table, Count the number of attendee terminals that have sent data representing the approval, store it in the history data storage,
When it is determined that the predetermined condition is satisfied, the recent number of attendee terminals that have transmitted the data representing the opposite stored in the history data storage unit is smaller than the previous number or Determining whether the recent number of attendee terminals that have transmitted the data representing the approval stored in the history data storage unit is greater than the previous number;
The recent number of attendee terminals that have transmitted the data representing the opposite is less than the previous number or the attendance terminals that have transmitted the data representing the approval stored in the history data storage unit. If you determine that the recent number is higher than the previous number,
The conference management device according to any one of appendices 1 to 4, wherein the number of utterances of the other immediately preceding speakers in the management table is reduced or the upper limit of the number of utterances is increased.

(Appendix 6)
The state management means is
Receiving data indicating approval or disapproval about the remarks in the meeting from the attendee terminal of the attendees in which data representing a relatively weak position is stored as data representing the position in the management table;
If there are a large number of attendance devices that have sent data representing the opposite, or a small number of attendance devices that have sent data that represents approval,
Displaying a message urging the attendees to refrain from speaking on the attendee terminals of the attendees in which data representing a relatively strong position is stored as data representing the position in the management table; At least one of displaying a message prompting to speak on the attendee's terminal of the attendee in which data representing a relatively weak position is stored as the data representing the position of any one of appendices 1 to 5 One conference management device.

(Appendix 7)
An attendee identifier, data indicating the level of strength of the attendee's position in the conference, a management table storing the attendee's speech count and the maximum speech count of the attendee, the speaker identifier and the speaker A conference management method executed by a computer accessible to a management data storage unit that stores a conference progress table that stores data indicating time and time in time series,
From the attendee terminal for each attendee, from the attendee terminal for the speaker, the identifier of the speaker and the data indicating that the speaker has spoken are received and associated with the identifier of the speaker Read data representing the position of the speaker stored in the management table, store the identifier of the speaker, data representing the position of the speaker, and time in the conference progress table, and in the management table Increasing the number of utterances of the speaker by one;
The data representing the position of the present speaker stored in the conference progress table is data representing the first level, and is stored for other speakers immediately before the present speaker. Determining whether or not a predetermined condition including that data representing the position of another immediately preceding speaker is data representing a level higher than the first level is satisfied;
When it is determined that the predetermined condition is satisfied, the step of reducing the number of utterances of the other immediately preceding speakers in the management table;
A meeting management method including:

(Appendix 8)
An attendee identifier, data indicating the level of strength of the attendee's position in the conference, a management table storing the attendee's speech count and the maximum speech count of the attendee, the speaker identifier and the speaker A computer that can access a management data storage unit for storing a conference progress table that stores data indicating time and time in time series,
From the attendee terminal for each attendee, from the attendee terminal for the speaker, the identifier of the speaker and the data indicating that the speaker has spoken are received and associated with the identifier of the speaker Read data representing the position of the speaker stored in the management table, store the identifier of the speaker, data representing the position of the speaker, and time in the conference progress table, and in the management table Increasing the number of utterances of the speaker by one;
The data representing the position of the present speaker stored in the conference progress table is data representing the first level, and is stored for other speakers immediately before the present speaker. Determining whether or not a predetermined condition including that data representing the position of another immediately preceding speaker is data representing a level higher than the first level; and
When it is determined that the predetermined condition is satisfied, the step of reducing the number of utterances of the other immediately preceding speakers in the management table;
Meeting management program to run.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Network 3 Conference support server 5 Attendee terminal 51 Conference support client program 511 User interface unit 513 Voice data acquisition unit 515 Communication unit 31 Communication processing unit 33 Status management unit 35 Voice recognition processing unit 37 Management data storage unit

Claims (8)

An attendee identifier, data indicating the level of strength of the attendee's position in the conference, a management table storing the attendee's speech count and the maximum speech count of the attendee, the speaker identifier and the speaker A management data storage unit that stores a conference progress table that stores data indicating the position of the person and time in chronological order;
From the attendee terminal for each attendee, from the attendee terminal for the speaker, the identifier of the speaker and the data indicating that the speaker has spoken are received and associated with the identifier of the speaker Read data representing the position of the speaker stored in the management table, store the identifier of the speaker, data representing the position of the speaker, and time in the conference progress table, and in the management table State management means for increasing the number of utterances of the speaker by one;
Have
The state management means includes
The data representing the position of the present speaker stored in the conference progress table is data representing the first level, and is stored for other speakers immediately before the present speaker. Determining whether or not a predetermined condition including that the data representing the position of the other immediately preceding speaker is data representing a level higher than the first level is satisfied;
When it is determined that the predetermined condition is satisfied, a conference management device that reduces the number of times of the other speakers immediately before in the management table. The predetermined condition includes a condition that the current total speech time of the current speaker or the current total speech time of the current speaker and the speech time of the other previous speakers are longer than a predetermined time. The conference management apparatus according to claim 1. The management table further stores attendee names in association with the attendee identifiers,
Voice recognition processing for performing voice recognition processing on voice data included in the data representing the utterance received from the attendee terminal for the speaker, and storing the voice recognition processing result in the management data storage unit Further comprising means
The predetermined condition includes at least a part of a speaker name stored in the management table in association with the identifier of the current speaker in the speech recognition processing result for the other speaker immediately before. The meeting management device according to claim 1 or 2 including a condition that The state management means includes
When data representing the purpose of the speaker's speech is further received from the attendee terminal, the conference progress table stores data representing the purpose of the speech in association with the speaker's identifier;
The predetermined condition is
The data representing the purpose of the speech for the other speaker immediately before is data representing the prompting of the present speaker, and the data representing the purpose of the speech for the current speaker is an answer. The conference management apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, including a condition that the data indicates that there is data. The state management means is
When receiving data indicating approval or disapproval about the remarks in the meeting from the attendee terminal of the attendee who stores data indicating a relatively weak position as data indicating the position in the management table, Count the number of attendee terminals that have sent data representing the approval, store it in the history data storage,
When it is determined that the predetermined condition is satisfied, the recent number of attendee terminals that have transmitted the data representing the opposite stored in the history data storage unit is smaller than the previous number or Determining whether the recent number of attendee terminals that have transmitted the data representing the approval stored in the history data storage unit is greater than the previous number;
The recent number of attendee terminals that have transmitted the data representing the opposite is less than the previous number or the attendance terminals that have transmitted the data representing the approval stored in the history data storage unit. If you determine that the recent number is higher than the previous number,
The conference management device according to claim 1, wherein the number of utterances of the other immediately preceding speakers in the management table is reduced or the upper limit of the number of utterances is increased. The state management means is
Receiving data indicating approval or disapproval regarding the remarks in the meeting from the attendee terminal of the attendees in which data representing a relatively weak position is stored as data representing the position in the management table;
If there are a large number of attendee devices that have sent data representing the opposite, or a small number of attendee devices that have sent data that represents support,
Displaying a message urging the attendees to refrain from speaking on the attendee terminals of the attendees in which data representing a relatively strong position is stored as data representing the position in the management table; 6. At least one of displaying a message prompting a speaker on the attendee's terminal of an attendee in which data representing a relatively weak position is stored as data representing the position is performed. One conference management apparatus. An attendee identifier, data indicating the level of strength of the attendee's position in the conference, a management table storing the attendee's speech count and the maximum speech count of the attendee, the speaker identifier and the speaker A conference management method executed by a computer accessible to a management data storage unit that stores a conference progress table that stores data indicating time and time in time series,
From the attendee terminal for each attendee, from the attendee terminal for the speaker, the identifier of the speaker and the data indicating that the speaker has spoken are received and associated with the identifier of the speaker Read data representing the position of the speaker stored in the management table, store the identifier of the speaker, data representing the position of the speaker, and time in the conference progress table, and in the management table Increasing the number of utterances of the speaker by one;
The data representing the position of the present speaker stored in the conference progress table is data representing the first level, and is stored for other speakers immediately before the present speaker. Determining whether or not a predetermined condition including that data representing the position of another immediately preceding speaker is data representing a level higher than the first level; and
When it is determined that the predetermined condition is satisfied, the step of reducing the number of utterances of the other immediately preceding speakers in the management table;
A meeting management method including: An attendee identifier, data indicating the level of strength of the attendee's position in the conference, a management table storing the attendee's speech count and the maximum speech count of the attendee, the speaker identifier and the speaker A computer that can access a management data storage unit for storing a conference progress table that stores data indicating time and time in time series,
From the attendee terminal for each attendee, from the attendee terminal for the speaker, the identifier of the speaker and the data indicating that the speaker has spoken are received and associated with the identifier of the speaker Read data representing the position of the speaker stored in the management table, store the identifier of the speaker, data representing the position of the speaker, and time in the conference progress table, and in the management table Increasing the number of utterances of the speaker by one;
The data representing the position of the present speaker stored in the conference progress table is data representing the first level, and is stored for other speakers immediately before the present speaker. Determining whether or not a predetermined condition including that data representing the position of another immediately preceding speaker is data representing a level higher than the first level; and
When it is determined that the predetermined condition is satisfied, the step of reducing the number of utterances of the other immediately preceding speakers in the management table;
Meeting management program to run.

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