JP2022127757A - Information processing apparatus, information processing method, program, communication system, and communication terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

To support communication more efficiently.SOLUTION: An information processing apparatus includes: an acquisition unit which acquires communication history information between multiple communication terminals; an analysis unit which calculates average response time, for each predetermined period, from a first communication terminal of the above communication terminals, on the basis of the communication history information; and a providing unit which provides a first index corresponding to the average response time or an average response time from the first communication terminal corresponding to a current period, to a second communication terminal.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

The present invention relates to an information processing device, an information processing method, a program, a communication system, and a communication terminal.

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, there has been known a technique for reducing the burden of waiting for an answer in text communication by detecting and predicting state information (status) of a communication destination in a general-purpose text communication application of a simultaneous multi-person participation type. As an example of such a technique, there is a technique of detecting a status using monitoring of a user's input interface and displaying the status detection result (see Patent Document 1, for example).

JP 2008-70994 A Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2009-163601

An object of the present invention is to assist in achieving more efficient communication.

In order to solve the above problem, according to an aspect of the present invention, an acquisition unit acquires communication history information between a plurality of communication terminals, and based on the communication history information, a first communication terminal of the plurality of communication terminals An analysis unit that calculates an average response time from one communication terminal for each predetermined period, and an average response time corresponding to the current period from the first communication terminal or a first index corresponding to the average response time and a providing unit for providing to the second communication terminal.

The predetermined period may include at least one of a time period and a day of the week.

The predetermined period includes a time period, and the analysis unit determines the transmission time of the reply message from the first communication terminal included in the communication history information and the transmission time of the transmission message corresponding to the reply message. Based on this, the average response time for each time zone from the first communication terminal may be calculated.

The analysis unit calculates a response time based on a difference between a transmission time of the reply message and a transmission time of the transmission message, determines a time zone to which the response time belongs, and classifies the response time by time zone. Then, the average response time for each time period may be calculated based on the classification result.

The analysis unit may determine the time period to which the transmission time of the transmitted message belongs as the time period to which the response time belongs, and calculate the response time for each determined time period.

When a destination is specified in the reply message, the analysis unit may determine the time period to which the transmission time of the transmission message belongs as the time period to which the response time belongs.

If no destination is specified in the reply message, and if the sending time and the sending time of the reply message belong to the same time zone on the same day, the analysis unit determines the time to which the sending time of the reply message belongs. A time period may be determined as the time period to which the response time belongs.

When a destination is not specified in the reply message, and when the transmission times of the transmission message and the reply message belong to different time zones or different days, the analysis unit divides the response time into May not be used to calculate average response time.

The predetermined period includes a day of the week, and the analysis unit classifies the response time by time zone and day of the week based on the transmission time of the outgoing message, may be calculated.

The analysis unit calculates a ratio of average response times between the first communication terminal and the third communication terminal as a response time ratio, and the provision unit calculates the response time ratio as the first index. It may be provided to two communication terminals.

The analysis unit determines whether or not a message is transmitted/received between the first communication terminal and the second communication terminal based on the communication history information. Along with an indication of 1, the presence or absence of said message transmission/reception may be provided to said second communication terminal.

The analysis unit calculates an average response time for each combination of a plurality of participants in a communication session based on participant information and communication session information included in the communication history information, and the provision unit calculates the first an average response time in a communication session attended by a first participant of the communication terminal and a second participant of the second communication terminal, or a second indicator corresponding to the average response time, in the second communication may be provided to the terminal.

The analysis unit calculates the average response time for each combination of the plurality of participants and the location combination of the plurality of participants, and the provision unit calculates the current location of the first participant and the average response time in a communication session attended by said first participant and said second participant at the same location combination as the second participant's current location combination or a second response time according to said average response time may be provided to the second communication terminal.

The analysis unit calculates an average response time for each combination of the plurality of participants and the combination of activity states of the plurality of participants, and the provision unit calculates the current activity state of the first participant and the average response time or to said average response time in a communication session attended by said first participant and said second participant at the same activity state combination as said second participant's current activity state combination A responsive second indication may be provided to the second communication terminal.

The analysis unit calculates an average response time for each combination of the plurality of participants and the combination of terminal types used by the plurality of participants, and the provision unit calculates the average response time for each combination of terminal types used by the plurality of participants. the average response time in a communication session participated in by said first participant and said second participant in the same combination of terminal types as the combination of terminal type and terminal type currently used by said second participant or said A second metric responsive to average response time may be provided to the second communications terminal.

The analysis unit may calculate the average response time based on at least one of the response time for a specific participant and the response time for all participants among the plurality of participants.

The analysis unit may calculate a ratio of average response times of the plurality of participants as the second index.

The analysis unit ranks the plurality of participants in descending or descending order of the average response time, and the providing unit transmits the ranking result as the second index to the second communication terminal. may provide.

The analysis unit calculates the number of statements for each combination of a plurality of participants in the communication session based on the participant information and the communication session information included in the communication history information, and the provision unit calculates the first A third indicator may be provided to the second communication terminal according to the number of statements in a communication session attended by a first participant at the communication terminal and a second participant at the second communication terminal. .

According to another aspect of the present invention, communication history information between a plurality of communication terminals is acquired, and based on the communication history information, a first communication terminal out of the plurality of communication terminals calculating an average response time for each predetermined period; and sending an average response time corresponding to the current period from the first communication terminal or a first index corresponding to the average response time to the second communication terminal A method of processing information is provided, comprising: providing.

According to another aspect of the present invention, a computer comprises: an acquisition unit for acquiring communication history information between a plurality of communication terminals; an analysis unit that calculates an average response time from the communication terminal for each predetermined period; and an average response time corresponding to the current period from the first communication terminal or a first index corresponding to the average response time and a program that functions as an information processing device that includes a providing unit that provides information to two communication terminals.

According to another aspect of the present invention, an acquisition unit acquires communication history information between a plurality of communication terminals; and a providing unit that provides an average response time corresponding to the current period from the first communication terminal or a first index corresponding to the average response time an information acquisition unit that acquires the average response time or the first index from the information processing device; and presentation control that controls presentation of the average response time or the first index. A communication system is provided, comprising: a second communication terminal comprising: a second communication terminal;

According to another aspect of the present invention, based on communication history information between a plurality of communication terminals, average response time information for each predetermined period from a first communication terminal among the plurality of communication terminals is provided. When the information processing device provides an average response time calculated by the processing device and corresponding to the current period from the first communication terminal or a first index corresponding to the average response time, the information processing device and a presentation control unit configured to control presentation of the average response time or the first indicator.

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to support more efficient communication.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS It is a figure which shows an example of a schematic structure of the communication system which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the communication terminal according to the same embodiment; FIG. It is a block diagram showing an example of a functional configuration of a communication server according to the same embodiment. It is a block diagram showing an example of a functional configuration of a communication analysis server according to the same embodiment. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation example of the communication terminal according to the same embodiment; It is a figure which shows the example of the classified unit time zone. It is a communication network diagram showing the presence or absence of message transmission between terminal users in one time period. It is a communication network diagram centering on one terminal user. FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining an example of calculation of response time; FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining an example of calculation of response time; FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining an example of calculation of response time; FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining an example of calculation of response time; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining calculation of communication support information; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a processing concept for reflecting the influence of social activity; It is a processing flow for reflecting the influence of social activities. It is a figure which shows the provision destination of communication support information. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a display example of status information; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a display example of status information; FIG. 10 is a diagram showing a display example of status information; It is a figure which shows an example of a schematic structure of the communication system which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the communication terminal according to the same embodiment; FIG. It is a block diagram showing an example of a functional configuration of a communication server according to the same embodiment. It is a block diagram showing an example of a functional configuration of a communication analysis server according to the same embodiment. It is a figure which shows the information acquisition flow by a communication analysis server. FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an analysis flow by a communication analysis server; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the influence of social relationships on utterance characteristics; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the influence of social relationships on utterance characteristics; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the influence of social relationships on utterance characteristics; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the influence of social relationships on utterance characteristics; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the influence of social relationships on utterance characteristics; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the influence of communication locations on utterance characteristics; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the influence of communication locations on utterance characteristics; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the influence of communication locations on utterance characteristics; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the influence of communication locations on utterance characteristics; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the concepts of response time and the number of statements; FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the concepts of response time and the number of statements; It is a figure which shows the example of provision of communication support information. It is a figure which shows the example of provision of communication support information. It is a block diagram showing an example of the hardware constitutions of the device concerning the embodiment of the present invention.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the present specification and drawings, constituent elements having substantially the same functional configuration are denoted by the same reference numerals, thereby omitting redundant description.

In addition, in the present specification and drawings, a plurality of constituent elements having substantially the same or similar functional configurations are distinguished by attaching different alphabets after the same reference numerals. However, when there is no particular need to distinguish between a plurality of components having substantially the same or similar functional configurations, only the same reference numerals are used.

<First embodiment>
First, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described.

(Overview)
A first embodiment of the present invention relates to a communication analysis system.

The first embodiment of the present invention is a general-purpose communication terminal (hereinafter referred to as " status information about the communication destination is displayed on the information display screen of a general-purpose text communication application (hereinafter referred to as "COM application") installed in the terminal" or "communication terminal").

Here, the communication terminal is a device such as a mobile communication terminal or a computer that has a communication function and can be loaded with a COM application. Examples of such devices include personal computers, mobile phones, smart phones, and the like. Text communication means communication by sending and receiving texts (characters) instead of voice calls.

A COM application is an application having a real-time text communication function such as an instant messenger used by a terminal user. In recent years, such applications are also called chat or messaging applications, or more broadly social networking service (SNS) applications, since they are applications for exchanging text messages.

Status information means information indicating a user's status.

More specifically, the first embodiment of the present invention analyzes text communication history information between past COM application users, and generates predictive information for reducing communication contact time and information for improving communication behavior. Categorize and selectively display information on terminals that require it.

The communication contact time is the time from when the contact is made to when the contact corresponding to the reply to the contact is made when the contact is made for the purpose of communication. For example, a call that is not answered after several calls can be expressed as "Time wasted due to long communication contact time."

Accordingly, the first embodiment of the present invention aims to reduce the communication contact time of the COM application user, shorten the response time to the other party, and support efficient communication.

In the first embodiment of the present invention, in order to predict the status of a communication destination, the "response time to a message received during a social activity period" of a terminal user using a COM application and the "social relationship is used as an index.

More specifically, the first embodiment of the present invention acquires response times for messages received in a specific unit time zone from past text communication histories between terminal users using COM applications, and obtains these response times are classified according to the same day of the week so that the characteristics of daily social activities are reflected, and the average response time for the same time period for each classified day of the week is calculated. In the first embodiment of the present invention, the COM application user's "response time in social activities by day of the week and time period", the average of the above indicators for all message senders, and the indicators for each sender By calculating the ratio of .

These indices can be displayed in a COM application address book or the like as communication destination status information (response time prediction or communication improvement information). Therefore, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, the terminal user can grasp the prediction of the response time for each social activity time zone of the communication destination and the own communication state.

In the first embodiment of the present invention, status information of a partner with whom no communication history has been made can also be displayed. This allows terminal users to predict the status of everyone in the communication network. As a result, the terminal user can reduce the communication contact time, which is caused by not knowing the status of the communication destination, and can carry out efficient communication without stress such as waiting for an answer.

Furthermore, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to display to the terminal user the evaluation values of the response times of all other terminal users (eg, faster than average, slower than average, etc.). For this reason, a communication improvement effect can be expected that encourages efforts to shorten the response time.

The technology according to the first embodiment of the present invention is a technology for supporting communication efficiency in this way.

(existing technology)
In text communication, by detecting or predicting the status information of the communication destination and displaying the status information in an address book, etc., the existing technology for reducing the communication contact time waste and the resulting mental stress in text communication is as follows. shown in

1. Method for monitoring user's input interface 1) User message input state monitoring in COM application Existing technology detects the message input state in terminal user's use of COM application and displays it as status information to the communication destination. As an example, the existing technology displays "inputting text" as status information to the communication destination when the user is inputting a message in a COM application.

2) User's application usage status monitoring Existing technology detects the status of the input interface of applications other than COM applications that the user is using, and displays it as status information to the communication destination. As an example, the existing technology displays status information such as "using a browser", "creating a document with a document creation application", and "talking with a telephone application". These correspond to cases in which the detected information itself is used as status information.

2. Method of judging the status state The existing technology judges the message transmittable state to each user from the information obtained from the monitoring result of the user interface in the communication terminal in 1) and 2) above, and the judged message It controls message transmission based on availability. As an example, the existing technology determines that if the other party is using a document creation application and the input interface is inputting, it is in a state of not being able to receive messages (busy), displays the status, and sends a message. stop. Documents describing this existing technology (hereinafter also referred to as “existing technology 1”) include the above-mentioned Patent Document 1 and the like.

(Main differences between this embodiment and existing technology)
Next, main differences between the first embodiment of the present invention and existing technology 1 will be described. Needless to say, there may be differences between the first embodiment of the present invention and the existing technology 1 other than the differences described here.

With existing technology 1, when text communication is performed with multiple terminal users using COM applications such as bulletin boards, chats, and instant messengers, the status of communication destinations is unknown, resulting in wasted communication contact time (e.g. In order to solve the problem of decreased communication efficiency due to the loss of time due to long waiting times for answers and the resulting mental stress,
1. An input interface for a user who uses a COM application and a method for detecting the state of the application;2. Above, 1. We propose status determination and transmission/reception control using the detection result of
In this proposal, we clarify the problems in the above method and propose a new solution.

1) Status detection method 1-1) Solution by existing technology Existing technology 1 is a system in which COM application users directly and manually register information about their In order to solve problems such as inconvenience and inaccuracy such as omission of registration, etc., the user selects and registers status information such as "unsupportable" in the status display part such as monitor the input interface to the user's application when As a result, the existing technology 1 automatically detects the state related to the use of other applications while the COM application is in use.

As an example, the existing technology 1 detects the state of "input start, input in progress, input pending, etc." from the input interface monitoring result for COM applications, and regarding the use of other applications, the type of application used and the operation From the state, determine the status such as "inserting file, creating document, researching, calling".

1-2) Problems of existing technology Existing technology 1 requires 1) the state of the input interface in the user's terminal operation, and
2) Use state information detected from the state of the application.

In existing technology 1, state detection using means 1) and 2) requires that the terminal user keep the COM application active at all times and communicate with other applications while switching the active state. I assume. Here, in the existing technology 1, the period during which this COM application is active is described as a "message exchangeable state", and this information is provided to the terminal user who is using another COM application as real-time status information. It is explained that it is displayed as

However, the status determination from the communication state using the state detection result is not realistic unless the COM application of the terminal user is active for a long time. In more detail, when the inactive state of the COM application continues for a long time (for example, when text communication is not performed and other applications are used to create documents or search for information) condition continues, etc.), the terminal user's status can only be determined as "always low possibility of responding to outgoing messages or busy", and the status of the communication partner is determined except for ongoing real-time text communication method is not suitable.

In this method, there is also the problem that the active state of the COM application must be intentionally maintained in order to display the status of the message exchange ready state.

In addition, in the existing technology 1, in order to reply to the text message, it is necessary to investigate on the Internet while entering the message, and if the COM application becomes inactive by operating the browser, " Input pending, browser in use" is displayed. However, if the user does something unrelated to the terminal operation in this state (for example, in this "pending input, using the browser", the user confirms materials, talks with neighbors, or , temporarily leaving the seat, etc.), correct state detection is not performed, and the reliability of the status display is impaired.

Furthermore, in the existing technology 1, the COM application user must constantly acquire information on operations by the system and disclose it to other terminal users. Therefore, in existing technology 1, the mental burden of being monitored inevitably arises, and the mental burden becomes a factor that hinders smooth communication.

1-3) Solution in this proposal The solution in this proposal uses information about events and usage conditions that occur when the terminal user operates the terminal, and according to the determined conditions, the terminal user It does not determine the status of the communication availability state of The proposed solution is to provide each terminal user with "predictive information on response" that reflects the social activities and social relationships of each terminal user of the communication network from past text communication history information between terminal users. It is displayed as status information. Thus, the solution method according to this proposal supports smooth communication. Its features are shown below.

1) Calculation of the terminal user's "response time to other terminal users in a specific time period" A terminal user's response time to other terminal users is calculated for each time zone, and indexed as "a terminal user's response time to other terminal users in a specific time zone". This value is an index for expressing communication behavior that indicates how long it took for a terminal user to reply to other terminal users in a specific time period, and is unique to the terminal user who sent the message. It becomes the basic information for calculating the prediction information of the response time from the transmission partner.

When a terminal user communicates with a plurality of other terminal users during a specific time period, this value exists individually among a plurality of other terminal users who have communicated with the terminal user.

2) Calculation of terminal user's “response time of terminal user to other terminal users in a specific time period reflecting social activities” Communication behavior of terminal users may be affected by daily social activities. For example, there is a regular meeting on Monday morning, so the reply to the message is slow, or there is a lot of out-of-office work due to the nature of the work, so there is a delay in checking the message.

Therefore, in the solution method according to the present proposal, the indices obtained in 1) above are classified by the same day of the week, and the average of the indices for the same time period is obtained for each classified day of the week. As a result, the index obtained in 1) above can be indexed as "the response time of the terminal user to other terminal users in a specific time period reflecting social activities". This value is the predicted response time of the terminal user to other terminal users in a specific time zone on a specific day of the week.

3) Calculation of the terminal user's "ratio of the terminal user's response time to other terminal users in a specific time period that reflects social relationships and the average of all terminal users" Terminal use explained in 1) and 2) above A person's response time can vary depending on their social relationship with the communication partner. For example, differences in position in the workplace, such as whether the communication partner is a superior or a colleague, and differences in response time depending on the degree of intimacy with the communication partner can be considered.

Therefore, the solution according to this proposal is based on the index obtained in 2) above for all terminal users who are communication destinations, which is the "response time of terminal users to other terminal users in a specific time period that reflects social activities." , and calculate the ratio with the same index for each communication destination terminal user. The proposed solution uses this ratio as an index that reflects the social relationships between terminal users. In addition, the solution method according to the present proposal ranks this index, and uses it as prediction information indicating the rank of response speed in addition to the response prediction time information obtained in 2) above.

It is conceivable that the communication behavior of terminal users in their daily social activities varies depending on their social activities and their social relationships with communication partners. The solution method according to the present proposal calculates such differences in communication behavior as indices 1), 2), and 3) above only from the text communication history.

In addition, the solution method according to this proposal is to provide all terminal users in the communication network with responses using indicators related to response time prediction that reflect the effects of social activity characteristics by day of the week and time period on communication behavior. Time prediction information and terminal user's response time evaluation information using an index relating to response time trends reflecting the influence of social status on communication behavior are displayed. As a result, the terminal user can reduce communication contact time with the other terminal user, and can work to improve communication behavior for shortening the response time to the other terminal user. This can be expected to improve communication efficiency.

The above are the characteristics of the first embodiment of the present invention. Details of the features of the first embodiment of the invention are described in the details of the embodiment below.

(Details of embodiment)
Next, details of the first embodiment of the present invention will be described.

(System configuration)
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a communication system according to the first embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 1, a communication system 1 according to the first embodiment of the present invention includes N communication terminals 10 (N is an integer equal to or greater than 2), a communication server 20, a communication analysis server 30, and a network 50. and

1. network 50
The network 50 is a general-purpose communication network that connects the communication server 20, the communication analysis server 30, and the communication terminal 10 and enables two-way information communication between these components.

2. Communication server 20
The communication server 20 connects to the communication terminals 10-1 to 10-N used by the users 70-1 to 70-N via the network 50, and transmits the text to the users 70-1 to 70-N. A general-purpose communication application server that provides communication functions.

3. Communication analysis server 30
Communication analysis server 30 connects communication server 20 to communication terminals 10-1 to 10-N via network 50, and receives information from users 70-1 to 70-N from communication terminals 10-1 to 10-N. By using the terminal usage history information and the communication history information of the communication server 20, the communication between the users is analyzed, and the information for supporting the communication with the users is calculated. Analysis methods and information to assist in communication are detailed below.

4. Communication terminal 10
The communication terminal 10 is a terminal having a communication client function for text communication between users and other terminal users, and is connected to the communication server 20 via the network 50 . Further, the communication terminal 10 connects to the communication analysis server 30 via the network 50, receives the communication analysis result from the communication analysis server 30, and provides the terminal user with the status of other terminal users as visualization information. The visualization information will be explained in detail later.

Moreover, in the first embodiment of the present invention, it is mainly assumed that the communication terminal 10 is a PC (Personal Computer). However, the form of the communication terminal 10 is not limited. For example, the communication terminal 10 may be a mobile terminal such as a smart phone.

5. User 70
A user 70 is a person who uses the communication terminal 10 . For example, the communication terminal 10 and the user 70 are in one-to-one correspondence.

(Functional configuration of communication terminal)
Next, an example of the functional configuration of the communication terminal 10 according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the communication terminal 10 according to the first embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 2 , communication terminal 10 includes control unit 110 , operation unit 140 , storage unit 150 , communication unit 160 and display unit 180 .

1) Operation unit 140
The operation unit 140 functions as an example of an input unit and receives input from the user. For example, the operation unit 140 receives information input by the user when the user uses a COM application to perform text communication with a user of another terminal. Here, it is assumed that operation unit 140 includes a mouse and a keyboard, but the form of operation unit 140 is not limited. For example, the operation unit 140 may include a touch panel, buttons, and the like. Alternatively, operation unit 140 may include a microphone that receives voice input from the user. The operation unit 140 provides input from the user to the control unit 110 . Note that the operation unit 140 can be implemented by the input device 815 (FIG. 38).

2) Storage unit 150
Storage unit 150 stores programs and data for controlling the operation of communication terminal 10 . The program includes an OS (Operating System), an application, and the like. As an example, the storage unit 150 has a terminal information management unit 152 . Note that the storage unit 150 can be implemented by a storage device 809 (FIG. 38).

The terminal information management unit 152 manages usage information of the communication terminal 10 . The terminal information management unit 152 provides the usage information of the communication terminal 10 to the usage information acquisition unit 131 .

3) Communication unit 160
Communication unit 160 communicates with other devices. For example, communication unit 160 is directly connected to network 50 and communicates with communication server 20 and communication analysis server 30 via network 50 . Note that the communication unit 160 can be implemented by the communication interface 811 (FIG. 38).

4) Display unit 180
The display unit 180 functions as an example of a presentation unit, and presents (displays on the screen) presentation information to the user through a GUI (Graphical User Interface) under the control of the presentation control unit 134 . For example, the display unit 180 presents presentation information to the user when the user uses a COM application to perform text communication with a user of another terminal. Here, it is assumed that the display unit 180 is configured by a display, but the form of the display unit 180 is not limited. Note that the display unit 180 can be implemented by a display device 823 (FIG. 38).

5) Control unit 110
The control unit 110 provides various functions that the communication terminal 10 has. Control unit 110 has AP (application) unit 120 and communication support information providing unit 130 . AP section 120 has communication AP section 121 and user AP section 122 . The communication support information providing unit 130 has a usage information acquisition unit 131 , a transmission control unit 132 , a reception information acquisition unit 133 and a presentation control unit 134 . The control unit 110 is implemented by the CPU 803, the ROM 805, and the RAM 807 (FIG. 38).

Communication AP unit 121 is implemented by executing a COM application. A COM application is an application that provides a client function for users to perform text communication with other users. The COM application can use the text communication service by connecting to the communication server 20 via the network 50, connect to COM applications used by other users, and perform text communication between users. can. The communication AP unit 121 provides usage information of the COM application by the user to the usage information acquisition unit 131 .

Examples of COM applications include applications such as e-mail, SNS, and instant messenger. All information related to text communication handled by the COM application is managed by the communication server AP section 220 (FIG. 3) that provides the text communication function, and is stored in the communication server AP data section 251 (FIG. 3) as communication history information. Stored. These pieces of information will be explained in detail in the explanation of the communication server 20. FIG.

The user AP unit 122 is implemented by executing a user application (AP). The user AP is a general-purpose application used by the user for purposes other than communication. Examples of the user AP include an OA application for creating documents or performing calculations, an application for searching information, and the like. The user AP unit 122 provides the usage information acquiring unit 131 with usage information of the user AP by the user.

The usage information acquisition unit 131 acquires usage information of the communication terminal 10 from the terminal information management unit 152 . The usage information acquisition unit 131 also acquires usage information (input interface operation history information) of the operation unit 140 (input interface). Further, the usage information acquisition unit 131 acquires the usage information of the communication AP from the communication AP unit 121 and acquires the usage information of the user AP from the user AP unit 122 . The details of the information acquired by the usage information acquisition unit 131 are as shown in (1) to (4) below.

(1) Information acquired from terminal information management unit 152 (a1) User identification information is added so that the source of information (terminal or user) can be identified when information is transmitted to communication analysis server 30. This is an ID unique to the information sender (for example, user number or terminal MAC address). This ID is managed by the communication analysis server 30 .

(a2) Terminal usage start time is date and time information (time stamp) at which the terminal was activated.
(a3) Terminal use end time is date and time information (timestamp) when the power supply of the terminal was shut down.

(a4) Terminal usage suspension start time is date and time information (timestamp) when the terminal is temporarily unavailable due to operations such as transition to power saving mode due to power management settings of the terminal or screen lock due to security settings. .
(a5) Terminal usage suspension release time is date and time information (timestamp) when the terminal becomes usable again after transitioning to power saving mode due to the power management settings of the terminal or when the screen lock state due to security settings is released. is.

(2) Information acquired from operation unit 140: Information is acquired at the time when an event occurrence is detected in operation unit 140. FIG.
(a6) Information input device type information is information (1: keyboard, 2: mouse, etc.) given to identify an information input device or information input means.
(a7) The operation start time is date and time information (time stamp) when an operation or information input using the operation unit 140 started.
(a8) The operation end time is date and time information (time stamp) at which the operation or information input using the operation unit 140 ended. This information is event information as in (a3) above, and the communication analysis server 30 determines the operation end time.

(3) Information acquired from the communication AP unit 121: Information is acquired at the time when an event related to the state change of the communication AP is detected.
(a9) The COM application name is a name or symbol specific to the COM application for identifying the COM application.
(a10) The application start time is date and time information (time stamp) when the application was started.
(a11) The application end time is date and time information (time stamp) when the application ended.
(a12) Usage start time is date and time information (time stamp) when the COM application became active. In other words, (a12) use start time is time information when use of the COM application was started.
(a13) Usage end time is date and time information (time stamp) when the COM application became inactive. In other words, (a13) use end time is information on the time when the use of the COM application was suspended or interrupted.

(4) Information acquired from the user AP unit 122 : Information similar to information acquired from the communication AP unit 121 .
(a14) The user application name is a name or symbol specific to the user AP for identifying the user AP.
(a15) The application start time is date and time information (time stamp) when the used AP was started.
(a16) The application end time is date and time information (time stamp) when the used AP ended.
(a17) Usage start time is date and time information (time stamp) when the usage AP became active. In other words, (a17) use start time is time information when use of the used AP was started.
(a18) Usage end time is date and time information (time stamp) when the AP in use became inactive. In other words, the (a18) use end time is information on the time when the use of the used AP was suspended or interrupted.

The transmission control unit 132 transmits the usage information of the communication terminal 10, the operation unit 140, the communication AP usage information, and the user AP usage information to the communication analysis server 30 via the communication unit 160. The communication unit 160 is controlled so that The reception information acquisition unit 133 acquires analysis results (analysis results based on usage information by other users) received by the communication unit 160 from the communication analysis server 30 . The analysis results will also be explained in detail later. The presentation control unit 134 controls the display unit 180 so that the analysis results are presented to the user.

(Example of communication terminal operation)
Next, an operation example of the communication terminal 10 according to the first embodiment of the invention will be described. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation example of the communication terminal 10 according to the first embodiment of the invention.

(S11) Start When the communication terminal 10 is activated, the operation unit 140, the communication AP unit 121, and the user AP unit 122 in the communication terminal 10 are automatically started.

(S12) Confirmation of Terminal Startup (End) Time The user information acquisition unit 131 acquires time information related to the startup state of the terminal and the previous terminal power-off time. Information calculated and obtained from these information are (a2) to (a5). On the other hand, (a1) is information given by setting.

(S13) Information recording (temporary recording)
The user information acquisition unit 131 temporarily records and saves the information acquired in the above (S12) in an internal memory or a file.

(S14) Presence or Absence of Received Information The received information acquisition unit 133 confirms with the communication analysis server 30 whether or not there is an update of the communication analysis result. The reception information acquisition unit 133 receives the analysis result via the communication unit 160 if the information is updated. The communication analysis results received here will be described in detail later.

(S15) Creation of Visualized Information The presentation control unit 134 visualizes the communication analysis result received from the communication analysis server 30 as "response possibility by time period". The communication analysis method will be explained in detail later.

(S16) Information display The presentation control unit 134 controls the display unit 180 so that the information visualized in the above (S15) is displayed to the user. After that, the reception information acquisition unit 133 confirms the presence or absence of reception information. If there is no received information, the process of (S17) is performed. The visualization information will be explained in detail in the explanation of the operation of the analysis unit 332 .

(S 17 ) Event Occurrence Monitoring The user information acquisition section 131 monitors events from the operation section 140 , the communication AP section 121 and the user AP section 122 in the communication terminal 10 . Information acquired with the event is (a6) to (a18). When an event is detected, the process of (S18) is performed.

(S18) Acquisition of information (temporary recording)
The user information acquisition unit 131 temporarily records and saves the information acquired in the above (S17) in an internal memory or a file.

(S19) Attachment of user identification information The transmission control unit 132 attaches the user identification information to the information temporarily stored in (S13) and (S18), thereby sending the information to the communication analysis server 30. get information about The value given here corresponds to (a1) above.

(S20) Information Transmission The transmission control section 132 transmits the information obtained in (S19) to the communication analysis server 30 via the communication section 160 via the network 50. FIG.

(Functional configuration of communication server)
Next, an example of the functional configuration of the communication server 20 according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the communication server 20 according to the first embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 3, communication server 20 includes control unit 210 , storage unit 250 and communication unit 260 .

1) Storage unit 250
Storage unit 250 stores programs and data for controlling the operation of communication server 20 . The program includes an OS (Operating System), an application, and the like. Note that the storage unit 250 can be implemented by a storage device 809 (FIG. 38). The storage section 250 has a communication server AP data section 251 . Communication server AP data section 251 stores communication history information and data for managing communication.

2) Communication unit 260
Communication unit 260 communicates with other devices. For example, the communication unit 260 is directly connected to the network 50 and communicates with the communication terminal 10 and the communication analysis server 30 via the network 50 . Note that the communication unit 260 can be implemented by the communication interface 811 (FIG. 38).

3) Control unit 210
The control unit 210 provides various functions that the communication server 20 has. The control section 210 has a communication server AP section 220 . The control unit 210 is implemented by the CPU 803, the ROM 805, and the RAM 807 (FIG. 38).

Communication server AP unit 220 is realized by executing communication server AP. The communication server AP is a general-purpose communication application server that connects to the communication AP installed in the communication terminal 10 and provides communication services so that users can communicate with other users by text. For example, the communication server AP corresponds to a text communication application server such as an instant messenger.

For example, the communication server AP unit 220 stores communication history information obtained by providing communication functions in the communication server AP data unit 251 .

(Functional configuration of communication analysis server)
Next, an example of the functional configuration of the communication analysis server 30 according to the first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the communication analysis server 30 according to the first embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 4 , communication analysis server 30 includes control unit 310 , storage unit 350 and communication unit 360 .

1. Storage unit 350
Storage unit 350 stores programs and data for controlling the operation of communication analysis server 30 . The program includes an OS (Operating System), an application, and the like. Note that the storage unit 350 can be implemented by a storage device 809 (FIG. 38). The storage unit 350 has an information management unit 352 and an information storage unit 353 .

2. Communication unit 360
Communication unit 360 communicates with other devices. For example, the communication unit 360 is directly connected to the network 50 and communicates with the communication terminal 10 and the communication server 20 via the network 50 . Note that the communication unit 360 can be implemented by the communication interface 811 .

3. control unit 310
The control unit 310 provides various functions that the communication analysis server 30 has. Control unit 310 has communication analysis processing unit 330 . Communication analysis processing section 330 has acquisition section 331 , analysis section 332 and provision section 333 . The control unit 310 is implemented by the CPU 803, the ROM 805, and the RAM 807 (FIG. 38).

1) Acquisition unit 331
The acquisition unit 331 receives two types of information from the communication terminal 10 via the communication unit 360 and performs the following processing.

(1) Process 1: Reception of information (a1) to (a18) In process 1, the acquisition unit 331 receives the information (a1) to (a18) regarding the user's terminal usage from the communication terminal 10 via the communication unit 360. Acquired and stored in the information storage unit 353 . The acquisition unit 331 acquires (a1) to (a18) at the timing when data transmission from the transmission control unit 132 is detected.

(2) Process 2: Reception of information (b1) to (b6) In process 2, the acquisition unit 331 requests information from the communication server AP unit 220 of the communication server 20 via the communication unit 360, and communicates the information. Communication history information is acquired via the unit 360 . The acquisition unit 331 stores the acquired communication history information in the information storage unit 353 . The text communication history information includes the following (b1) to (b6).

(b1) The user ID is a unique ID given to the user by the communication server AP unit 220 to identify the terminal user who uses the COM application, and is managed as internal information of the communication server AP unit 220. be. The user ID here corresponds to an ID for identifying the sender of the message.

(b2) Destination ID is the ID of the user of another communication terminal 10 to which the message is to be sent. A plurality of users may be specified as the destination ID. The destination ID here corresponds to the user ID of the recipient of the message.

(b3) Message ID is a unique ID given to each individual message by the communication server AP unit 220 to identify the message.

(b4) The quoted message ID corresponds to the message ID of the other message when the other message is quoted in the reply message. For example, when a reply is made to a certain transmission message, a combination of the message ID (b4) of the transmission message and the message ID (b3) of the reply message is stored as internal information of the communication server AP section 220. .

(b5) Transmission time information is information indicating the time (time stamp) at which the message was transmitted.

(b6) Message confirmation time is the time when the message was confirmed at the destination. More specifically, the message confirmation time is the time the user of the communication terminal 10 activates the COM application after the message is received by the COM application. When the COM application is activated, the user can see the message on the screen. The message confirmation time is managed as internal information of the communication server AP section 220 as read time.

Receipt of information in the processing 1 and processing 2 is performed at time intervals indicated by the time interval information set in the information management unit 352 .

The acquisition unit 331 acquires various types of usage information accumulated in the information accumulation unit 353 from the information accumulation unit 353 . The analysis unit 332 performs analysis based on various types of usage information acquired by the acquisition unit 331 and obtains analysis results. The providing unit 333 controls the communication unit 360 so that the analysis result is transmitted to the communication terminal 10 via the communication unit 360 as status information.

2) Information storage unit 353
The information accumulation unit 353 accumulates the information received in the process 1 and the process 2 by the acquisition unit 331 .

3) Information management unit 352
The information management unit 352 stores setting information necessary for the operation of the acquisition unit 331 , the analysis unit 332 and the information storage unit 353 . The setting information includes the following (c1) to (c7).

(c1) Acquisition time interval is time interval information (time stamp) at which the acquisition unit 331 requests information from the communication server AP unit 220 via the network 50 .

(c2) Information acquisition time is time information (time stamp) at which the acquisition unit 331 acquired information from the communication server AP unit 220 at the time interval of (c1) above. (c2) is confirmation information for preventing redundant acquisition of information.

(c3) Unit time period information is information in which a time interval for dividing one day into unit time periods, a division start time, and a division end time are set. For example, if a time interval of 1 hour, a division start time of 7:00, and a division end time of 17:00 are set, a day from 7:00 to 17:00 is divided into 1-hour time zones, and 10 divided into unit time periods.

(c4) Calculation target section information is information for setting a date and time section for which calculation is performed by the analysis unit 332 . For example, when 180 days are set as the calculation interval, the analysis unit 332 performs calculations for the information for the past 180 days starting from the previous day.

(c5) Calculation start information is time information at which the analysis unit 332 starts calculation. For example, when 23:00 is set as the calculation start information, the calculation by the analysis unit 332 is started at 23:00.

(c6) Calculation interval information is temporal interval information at which calculation is performed by the analysis unit 332 . For example, when 3 days (72 hours) is set as the calculation interval information, the analysis unit 332 performs the calculation once every 3 days.

(c7) A setting exclusion condition is date and time information (for example, date and time information such as a holiday) excluded from calculation targets by the analysis unit 332 . For example, if 2019/10/7 is set as the setting exclusion condition, this day is excluded from the calculation targets of the analysis unit 332 .

4) Analysis unit 332
The analysis unit 332 performs communication analysis on the information accumulated in the information accumulation unit 353 and causes the information accumulation unit 353 to accumulate the analysis results. The provision unit 333 acquires the analysis results accumulated in the information storage unit 353 and provides the communication terminal 10 with the acquired analysis results. The analysis result provided by the providing unit 333 is visualized as communication support information in the communication terminal 10 and presented to the user.

More specifically, the analysis unit 332 analyzes the communication behavior of the terminal user based on past communication history information (processes 1 to 3 below). Processing 1 to 3 performed by the analysis unit 332 will be sequentially described below.

(1) Processing 1: Terminal user's "response time to other terminal users in a specific unit time period" calculation The terminal user's "response time to other terminal users in a specific unit time period" is: It means the difference between the time when a terminal user receives a message from another terminal user and the time when a reply message is sent to the other terminal user who is the sender of the message, in a predetermined time period. The concept for obtaining the terminal user's response time in the specific unit time period is shown below.

FIG. 6 shows five unit time periods classified according to the set (c3) unit time period information. FIG. 7 is a communication network diagram showing the presence or absence of message transmission between terminal users in one specific time slot among those time slots. In the communication network diagram, each circle indicates a terminal user, and the presence or absence of a connection between the circles indicates the presence or absence of communication history between the two circles in the specific time period. Here, when the response time of terminal user C is to be obtained, as shown in FIG. Subject to time calculation.

Note that since text communication uses the message transmission time to perform calculations, unlike real human conversations, it is not possible to identify the relationship between transmission and reply from the content of the conversation. Therefore, it is necessary to determine the message relationship between the users of both terminals from the communication history and perform the calculation. The judgment criteria and calculation method for obtaining the response time between terminal users are shown below.

(1-1) Calculation Method 1: Reply Message to Specific Message There are two cases of a reply message to a specific message. Both of the return messages in these two cases result in cases where (b4) the quoted message ID is included, but are treated differently in calculations.

(a) When a specific message and a reply message to it exist within the same specific time zone,
The analysis unit 332 determines the time period to which the transmission time of the transmission message from the terminal user B belongs as the time period to which the response time belongs. As a calculation example, the message sent by the terminal user B within the unit time period (c3) in FIG. Time information is included, and the reply message from terminal user A includes (b1) user ID, (b2) destination ID, (b3) message ID, (b4) quoted message ID, and (b5) Contains transmission time information. Here, if the (b4) quoted message ID included in the terminal user A's reply message matches the (b3) message ID of the terminal user B, the analysis unit 332 determines that the terminal user A's The reply message is determined to be a reply message to the specific message, and the difference in the (b5) transmission time information of the messages from both terminals is defined as "time (b) - time (a)" as the response time.

(b) When the specific message and the reply message to it do not exist in the same specific time zone,
The transmission time of the message sent by terminal user B and the transmission time of the reply message of terminal user A within the unit time period (c3) in FIG. 10 do not belong to the same specific unit time period. In such a case, in the unit time period in which the message was sent from terminal user B, terminal user A, who sent a reply, did not recognize the message, or even though he/she recognized the message, It corresponds to the case that did not do.

As an example, terminal user A may have received an outgoing message, but was too busy to check it. Alternatively, it is conceivable that the terminal user A confirmed the sent message but was unable to reply. Alternatively, it is conceivable that the transmitted message is a simple message to which the terminal user A does not feel the need to reply (for example, a notification that does not require a reply). It is conceivable that the reply was not made for one of these reasons. However, even if the response time is extremely long, it is considered correct to judge that there was a need for a reply to the message from the fact that the terminal user A sent a reply. Therefore, the analysis unit 332 determines the time period to which the transmission time of the transmission message from the terminal user B belongs as the unit time period to which the response time belongs.

As a calculation example, the message sent by the terminal user B within the other unit time period (c3) in FIG. The reply message from terminal user A includes (b1) user ID, (b2) destination ID, (b3) message ID, (b4) quoted message ID, (b5) ) contains transmission time information. Here, if the (b4) quoted message ID included in the terminal user A's reply message matches the (b3) message ID of the terminal user B, the analysis unit 332 determines that the terminal user A's The reply message is determined to be a reply message to the specific message, and the difference in the (b5) transmission time information of the messages from both terminals is defined as "time (b) - time (a)" as the response time.

(1-2) Calculation method 2: When the message is not a reply message to a specific message In addition to the above (1-1), as shown in FIG. It is assumed that the message ID is not included. In this case, the analysis unit 332 determines (c3) the time (b) at which the terminal user A sent the reply message in the specific unit time period and the latest message transmission time (a) sent by the terminal user B. Let the difference be the response time in the specific unit time period to which the transmission time of the latest message belongs.

Note that, as shown in FIG. 12, when a transmission message is sent outside the specific unit time period to which terminal user A's message belongs, the analysis unit 332 calculates the response time for terminal user A's message. do not have. Such messages can be considered communications that do not require a response (eg, greetings, unimportant communications, etc.). Therefore, even if a message is sent from terminal user A to terminal user B in the specific unit time period, analysis unit 332 regards the message from terminal user A as not a reply message to terminal user B.

The analysis result regarding the response time obtained by the above processing 1 is accumulated in the information accumulation unit 353 . For example, analysis results regarding the response time are as shown in (d1) to (d3) below.

(d1) Terminal user information is information on two terminal users whose response times have been calculated. Terminal user information has the meaning of a sender and a replyer. Specifically, the terminal user information is two (b1) user IDs.

(d2) A response time is a response time in a specific unit time period. Specifically, the response time is the response time of the replyer to the sender in (d1) above.

(d3) Unit time period information is specific unit time period information for which the value of (d2) is calculated. This unit time information is determined based on (c3) unit time information.

(2) Process 2: Calculation of the terminal user's "total and average response times of the terminal user to other terminal users in a specific time period, reflecting the activity" may be affected. For example, I have a regular meeting on Monday morning, so I'm slow to respond to messages. In addition, due to the nature of the work, there are many out-of-office hours on Wednesdays, so there is a delay in checking messages.

Therefore, the analysis unit 332 calculates (d2) response time for each terminal user obtained in (1) process 1 above in order to reflect the influence of activity on the day of the week and time period. Classify by day of the week. Then, the analysis unit 332 obtains the sum of the response times in each unit time period for each classified day of the week, obtains the sum of the response times of the specific terminal user in the relevant unit time period, "total response time of terminal users to other terminal users". Then, the analysis unit 332 finds the average of them, and converts it into an index as "the average response time of the terminal user to the other terminal users in the specific time period reflecting the social activity".

These values are used to calculate the communication support information regarding the response time of the terminal user to other terminal users in a specific time zone on a specific day of the week. The flow of processing is shown in FIG. 13 and details are given below.

(S21) Start Automatically starts when the communication analysis server 30 starts.

(S22) Processing target information detection The analysis unit 332 starts processing at the date and time set in (c5) calculation start information of the setting information management unit 352, and extracts (c4) calculation target section information and (c6) setting exclusion conditions. Confirm. Then, the analysis unit 332 obtains (d2) response time information for each unit time period in the (d3) unit time period corresponding to the (c4) calculation target section information, and obtains (e2) response time information for each unit time period. Calculate the sum and (e3) the average response time for each unit time period.

(S23) Classification by day of the week The analysis unit 332 classifies (e2) the sum of the response times by unit time period and (e3) the average response time by unit time period detected in (S22) above into groups by day of the week. do. As an example, in FIG. 14, there are seven day-of-the-week groups from Monday to Sunday in the week corresponding to the section determined by (c4) calculation target section information.

(S24) Classification by unit time period The analysis unit 332 performs (c3) the sum of response times by (e2) unit time period for each group information classified by day of the week in (S23) above. and (e3) classify the average response time by unit time. As an example, in FIG. 14, the unit time period is p1 to p8, and for each unit time period, the sum of (e2) the response time by unit time period and the average response time by (e3) unit time period of the same unit time period. are grouped together.

(S25) Calculation of average response time by day of the week/same unit time For the sum and (e3) the average response time by unit time, the average is obtained by (c4) the number of times per week of the calculation target section information. This value becomes an index of the "average response time" and the "average response time" of the terminal user to other terminal users in a specific day of the week and time zone reflecting social activities.

The analysis result regarding the response time obtained by the process 2 above is accumulated in the information accumulation unit 353 . For example, analysis results regarding the response time are as shown in (e1) to (e4) below.

(e1) Terminal user information is information on two terminal users whose response times have been calculated. Terminal user information has the meaning of a sender and a replyer. Specifically, the terminal user information is two (b1) user IDs.

(e2) The total response time for the same day of the week/same unit time period is the total response time from the terminal user to a specific other terminal user on the same day of the week/same unit time period.

(e3) Average response time by same day of the week/same unit time period is a value obtained by averaging the above (e2) by the number of weeks.

(e4) Unit time period information is information obtained by adding day-of-the-week information to the specific unit time period information obtained by obtaining the values of (e2) and (e3) above. This information is determined based on the unit time zone information of (c3).

(3) Process 3: Calculation of terminal user's "ratio of response time to other terminal users in a specific time period that reflects social relationships" Due to the influence of relationships, differences may occur depending on the other party even if the communication has the same content. For example, it is thought that the relationship between terminal users is that of superiors and subordinates, and that differences in intimacy affect social relationships. In some cases, such a difference in response time causes a decrease in communication efficiency. Therefore, terminal users need communication support information to reduce the difference in response time.

Therefore, the analysis unit 332 converts "total and average response times of each terminal user to other terminal users in a specific time period reflecting activity" obtained in (2) processing 2 to "in a specific unit time period, For each terminal user, the ratio of the response time to the specific terminal user to the average response time to other terminal users is calculated. Then, the communication terminal 10 displays this ratio to the terminal user as an evaluation index of communication behavior. This allows the terminal user to grasp the response time evaluation of other terminal users (classified as fast, normal, slow, etc. based on the average threshold), and to reduce the difference in response time due to social relationships. Communication behavior can be improved.

The flow of processing is shown in FIG. 15 and details are given below.

(S31) Start Automatically starts when the communication analysis server 30 starts.

(S32) Processing target information detection This processing uses analysis information resulting from (2) processing 2. FIG. Therefore, when (2) process 2 ends, the analysis unit 332 detects the analysis result output in (S25) of (2) process 2 as process target information. Here, the detected information is (e1) terminal user information, (e2) total response time for the same day of the week and same unit time period, (e3) average response time for the same day of the week and same unit time period, ( e4) Unit time zone information.

(S33) Response time difference/ratio calculation The analysis unit 332, from the information detected in the above (S32), (e4) for each unit time zone, (e1) the communication destination of the terminal user from the terminal user information (e3) Find the sum of the average response times for all terminal users for the same day of the week and same unit time period. As an example, the analysis unit 332 calculates the value of (e3) of the terminal user 1 who is the communication destination within the specific unit time + the value of (e3) of the terminal user 2 + . . . + the (e3) of the terminal user N to find the value of This index is the total response time of the terminal user in a specific unit of time.

The analysis unit 332 obtains an average by dividing this total by the number of terminal users N, and defines it as "(f2) average response time for all terminal users in a specific unit time period". For this "(f2) average response time for all terminal users in a specific unit time period", find "(e3) ratio of average response time for each terminal user by same day of the week and same unit time period" and compare can represent information about the classification of whether the response time to each terminal user is fast or slow (hereinafter referred to as "response time evaluation").

The analysis result regarding the response time obtained by the process 3 above is accumulated in the information accumulation unit 353 . For example, analysis results regarding response time are as shown in (f1) to (f4) below.

(f1) Terminal user information is information of two terminal users whose response times have been calculated. Terminal user information has the meaning of a sender and a replyer. Specifically, the terminal user information is two (b1) user IDs. However, when the value of (f2) below is used, the (f1) terminal user information is only replyer information.

(f2) The average response time for all terminal users is the sum of the average response times for all senders (e3) on the same day of the week and in the same unit time period. This is the average value based on the number of people.

(f3) Response time ratio by terminal user is the ratio of (e3) average response time by same day of the week and same unit time period to the above (f2) average response time for all terminal users in a specific unit time period. .

(f4) unit time period information is information obtained by adding day-of-the-week information to the specific unit time period information obtained by obtaining the values of (f2) and (f3). This information is determined based on the unit time zone information of (c3).

(4) Information Provided to Terminal User The provision unit 333 acquires the analysis results accumulated in the information accumulation unit 353 . The analysis result is the analysis result of the above process 2 and process 3, and is the "response time of the terminal user to other terminal users in the specific time period that reflects the activity" and the "response time of the terminal user that reflects the social relationship" of the terminal user. This is the analysis result regarding the ratio of response times of terminal users to other terminal users in a specific time zone. The providing unit 333 provides the communication support information obtained by visualizing the analysis result to the communication terminal 10 via the network 50 .

The visualized communication support information is 1) the terminal user whose response time was calculated, 2) other terminal users who have communication history with the terminal user, and 3) the terminal user. and other terminal users (multiple) who have no communication history. As an example, in a communication network centered on terminal user B as shown in FIG. 16, three pieces of communication support information provided to each terminal user are as follows.

1) Information for terminal user B In FIG. 16, terminal user B, who played a central role in communication analysis, is provided with support for improving communication with other communication terminals (A, C, and D) having communication histories. Information is provided. The target of communication improvement is the response time to other communication terminals. By displaying the degree of delay in the response time for each other terminal user based on a threshold, it is possible to obtain the effect of encouraging efforts to improve the difference in response time due to social relationships, and shortening the response time. .

FIG. 18 is an example in which the communication terminal 10 displays the response time status information for the terminal users (A, C, D) to the terminal user B (FIG. 16). Details of the information to be displayed are given below.

(v20) represents the day of the week to which the current time belongs.
(v21) represents specific unit time zone information to which the current time belongs.
(v22) represents a terminal user to whom information is provided.
(v23) represents a list of terminal users. Indicates that the status information is related to terminal users (A, C, D) who have communication histories.
(v24) Represents the response time ratio of terminal users (A, C, D). The response time ratio is displayed using (f3) response time ratio by terminal user. For example, the response time ratio may be an average value of 1, and may be a value representing the degree of slowness depending on the magnitude from 1.
(v25) This is an example of communication evaluation display. This is an example of easy-to-understand communication support information obtained by classifying the response time ratios of (v24) by general threshold values.

2) Information for terminal users and other terminal users (A, C, D) who have communication histories In FIG. C and D) are provided with the predicted response time (average response time) in the current unit time period as communication support information. This estimated response time is information indicating the time until a reply from terminal user B arrives when a message is sent to terminal user B in the current unit time period. This allows terminal users (A, C, D) to minimize communication contact time until an answer arrives.

FIG. 17 is an example of status information display regarding the estimated response time of terminal user B to terminal user A who is one of the other terminal users of FIG. Details of the information to be displayed are given below.

(v10) represents the day of the week to which the current time belongs.
(v11) represents specific unit time zone information to which the current time belongs.
(v12) represents a terminal user to whom information is provided.
(v13) represents a list of terminal users. It indicates that the status information is related to the terminal user B and the status information related to the terminal user C.
(v14) represents the response prediction time. Specifically, (v14) is for terminal user B's terminal user A (e3) average response time by day of the week and same unit time period, and terminal user C's (f2) for all terminal users is the average response time.
(v15) represents the presence or absence of communication history. Terminal user A has a communication history with terminal user B, but does not have a communication history with terminal user C.

3) Information for other terminal user E who has no communication history with the terminal user In FIG. ), response time prediction information in the current unit time is provided as communication support information. However, there is no information that can be calculated from the communication history. Therefore, the providing unit 333 provides terminal user B's predicted response time (average response time). Terminal user E has no history of communication with terminal user B, but the expected response time is positioned as communication support information for minimizing wasted time at the time of first communication contact.

FIG. 19 is an example of displaying the status information of terminal user B who has no communication history to terminal user E in FIG. Details of the information to be displayed are given below.

(v30) represents the day of the week to which the current time belongs.
(v31) represents specific unit time zone information to which the current time belongs.
(v32) represents a terminal user to whom information is provided.
(v33) represents a list of terminal users. Indicates that the status information is related to terminal user B.
(v34) represents response prediction time information. Specifically, (v34) is the average response time of the terminal user B in the specific unit time period. As (v34), (f2) the average response time for all terminal users is used.

(Effect of the first embodiment)
This proposal uses only text communication history information between terminal users in the communication network, instead of the existing status determination method that uses the monitoring result of the input interface as the input condition for determination to determine the status of the terminal user. Then, communication analysis is performed to determine the communication status of the terminal user.

This proposal is based on the individual response time of all terminal users to other terminal users in a specific unit time period in a communication network. We obtain an index related to the prediction of response time in a specific time period that reflects social status, and an index related to the difference in response time that reflects the influence of differences in social status on communication behavior, and visualize these indices as communication support information.

According to this proposal, by classifying this visualized communication support information according to the terminal user who needs it and providing it to all terminal users of the communication network, it is expected that communication contact time will be reduced and response time will be shortened. can do. This can improve the communication efficiency of the entire communication network.

<Second embodiment>
Next, a second embodiment of the invention will be described.

(Overview)
A second embodiment of the present invention relates to a communication analysis system.

In the second embodiment of the present invention, past communication history information and location of communication between users of communication terminals used for text communication with people in remote locations in daily social activities. From information and historical information on the user's activity status, the terminal user's (1) social relationship with the communication partner, (2) changes in workability and social position due to changes in communication locations, and ( 3) Analyze the effect on utterance characteristics (number of utterances and utterance speed) due to changes in communication style due to activity states such as during movement. As a result, the second embodiment of the present invention provides E1) statement prediction time information for giving equal opportunity to make statements to terminal users who communicate, and E2) for improving the balance of statements. The purpose is to provide communication support information for communication balance information.

In this proposal, speaking means sending a message. As an example, preparing to speak means the process of preparing to send a message. Here, utterance characteristics will be described. The number of utterances is the number of utterances by terminal users participating in communication (hereinafter also referred to as "participants") when communicating, and the response time is the number of utterances by other participants to one participant's utterances. is the time until the reply utterance of This utterance characteristic is considered to change due to the influence of the above conditions (1) to (3).

(1) Social relationship with communication partner When a participant communicates, the hierarchical relationship in the organization with the participant participating in the same communication session (hereinafter also referred to as "COM session") When there is a social relationship such as a customer-sales relationship, it is conceivable that a change occurs in the utterance characteristics of the participants. As an example, when the social relationship between participant A and participant B in the same COM session is that of a colleague at work, the response time from participant A to B is short, and the social relationship between participant A and B is subordinate. In the case of a boss relationship with A, it is easy to assume that there will be a difference such as a long response time from A to B. Note that the COM session means a time period of conversation during which communication takes place.

(2) Changes in workability and social position due to changes in communication locations , working from home, working at a remote office, or working at a client or business partner depending on the situation), communication may be conducted in places other than the designated office seat. At this time, depending on the place of communication, it is considered that the utterance characteristics of the communication participants may be affected. The first reason for this is the change in communication workability due to the difference in location, and the second reason is the change in social position at that location.

As an example, since the participant A, who usually communicates at an occupied seat, performs work, there is a change in the workability of communication when communicating on site. Moreover, if the work place is a customer's place and another person at the customer's place is next to the customer, it can be assumed that the number of communications and response speed will decrease depending on the social position at that place. In addition, mobile communication is becoming popular in the near future, and it is thought that the security environment in public places (for example, prevention of peeping) will affect the change in speech characteristics.

(3) Changes in communication style due to activity status, such as while on the move Depending on the type of work and work characteristics, terminal users may work in multiple locations as explained in (2) above, and walking and transportation A change in the state of activity occurs due to movement, such as the use of In some cases, the need to communicate arises regardless of changes in activity status. In fact, depending on the type of communication terminal, there are terminals that can communicate reasonably while walking, and depending on the terminal user, changes in communication style such as terminal selection and terminal usage will occur. This change in communication style is thought to affect utterance characteristics.

For example, when using a terminal such as a smartphone while walking, using simple words and symbols such as stamps increases the response speed and reduces the number of utterances. On the other hand, there are some people who get the opposite result depending on their skill level in smartphone operation. People who use terminals such as PCs are likely to be affected by (2) described above, and responses may be delayed. However, when using public transportation, depending on the seated state, there may be cases where there is no change from normal.

In remote communication, unlike face-to-face communication, it is not possible to visually confirm the status of the communication partner, so communication participants cannot detect changes in utterance characteristics due to the above (1) to (3). In many cases, communication is carried out in the form of a phone, which hinders smooth communication.

Therefore, in this proposal, classification is performed so that the effects of (1) to (3) above on the utterance characteristics of communication participants can be reflected. In more detail, this proposal classifies COM sessions by the same participant from past communication history, communication location, and activity status history information, and classifies utterance characteristics according to the social relationship with the communication partner in (1) above. to reflect changes in The classified COM sessions for each of the same participants are further classified according to the communication place so that (2) changes in workability and social standpoint due to changes in the communication place can be reflected.

Furthermore, the present proposal is based on the information classified by the above (1) and (2), and (3) changes in communication style and relationship with communication style so that changes in utterance characteristics due to changes in communication style due to activity status such as moving can be reflected. Classification is performed according to the activity status and terminal type. With this classification, communication sessions with the same participant can be grouped to reflect the participant's location and communication style. As an example, even in the COM session of the same participant,
(Group 1)
Participant A (location: company, no movement, PC), participant B (location: home, PC, no movement, PC), participant C (location: customer, no movement, PC)
(Group 2)
Participant A (location: company, not moving, PC), participant B (location: home, PC, not moving, PC), participant C (location: customer, moving, smartphone)
can be classified as

Then, this proposal obtains indicators such as F1) response time F2) number of statements, which is the statement characteristic of each participant, for the COM sessions classified by each group, and F1) by participant in the same classification group. The average of the response times is calculated as E1) predicted speech time for each participant in the classified group. Similarly, this proposal finds the average number of F2) statements for each participant in the classified group, and uses the ratio as E2) communication balance information. E1) and E2) are communication support information provided to each participant.

According to this proposal, the following Effect 1) and Effect 2) can be expected by providing each participant with this communication support information when the COM session starts.

Effect 1) Suppression of undesired communication behavior By displaying E1) utterance prediction time information of a participant who is preparing to speak at the start of a COM session, other participants will be able to know the waiting time until the end of the utterance. , Speech is suppressed until this time expires. As a result, by speaking while other participants are preparing to speak, other participants give up speaking midway, resulting in undesirable communication behavior such as losing the opportunity to speak or worsening the flow of communication. can be deterred.

Effect 2) Improvement of communication balance By displaying E2) communication balance information, which is the ratio information on the number of statements of all participants at the start of the COM session, we will make efforts to improve the equal distribution of opportunities to make statements among participants. can work.

The technology according to the second embodiment of the present invention performs control to forcibly limit the speech of participants in text communication with a person in a remote location where it is difficult to understand and understand the situation of the other party. It is a technique for supporting improvement of communication by providing information that supports autonomous efforts to improve communication between communication participants without having to worry.

(existing technology)
In a COM session, when many participants communicate at the same time, problems such as giving up speaking or losing the timing to speak occur due to messages from other participants arriving while a participant is preparing to speak. I have something to do. If such a thing occurs, it will affect the flow of the entire communication, and the efficiency of the communication will be lowered, such as the communication time will be lengthened.

As an existing technology to solve such a problem, based on the results of COM session participant state (status) detection and input speed evaluation, the message display time and user interface (send button) display for message transmission in the COM application There is a way to restrict the participants from speaking by controlling the .

1. Method for detecting participant's status (status) 1) Text input status monitoring The text input status of COM session participants is monitored, and the message input status during preparation for speech is detected and used as status information. As an example, the other party's status is displayed as "Creating a message".

2) Input speed evaluation Information on the number of utterances and total usage time history is acquired from the past communication history for the type of input means used during communication based on the input speed of COM session participants, and evaluated according to defined criteria. As an example, participant A uses the screen keyboard (2 points), the number of statements per hour is 20 (5 points), and the total usage time is 16 points from 200 hours (9 points). It is used when comparing the input speed of

2. A method for controlling the speech display time and the user interface display for sending speech in a COM application from the state detection result of the participants. If it is a text input state, compare the input speed of the participants calculated by the input speed evaluation method of 1.2). A user interface for text transmission (e.g., a send button, etc.) is provided to control the display time of the message and delay the display of the message until the person with the slow input speed speaks, and at the same time, prevent the participants with the fast input speed from sending the text they are creating. ) is hidden.

For example, if a participant with slow input speed is inputting text, the speech from the participant with fast input speed will be temporarily put on hold, and after the participant with slow input speed, the speech from the participant with fast input speed will be put on hold. becomes visible. According to the input speed comparison results, if a person with a slow input speed is creating a message, by hiding the message send button of the communication application of the participant with a fast input speed, the user with a slow input speed can performs control so that the speech is not disturbed by the display of another's speech while preparing to speak.

An existing technology (hereinafter also referred to as "existing technology 2") for controlling the message display time and the user interface for message transmission in the communication application of 2 above based on the user state detection result obtained from the method of 1 above is described. Documents that have been published include the above-mentioned Patent Document 2 and the like.

(Main differences between this embodiment and existing technology)
Next, main differences between the second embodiment of the present invention and existing technology 2 will be described. Needless to say, there may be differences between the second embodiment of the present invention and the existing technique 2 other than the differences described here.

Patent Literature 2 points out the following problems when a large number of instant messenger participants simultaneously use a communication application to communicate. "In communication using instant messenger, when a participant is inputting text, if a statement arrives from another participant, it may interfere with the preparation of the statement. can get worse.”

In order to solve such a problem, in the existing technology 2, the cause of the problem is the difference in the input speed of the communication participants. We propose a solution to control the speech display time and the user interface for sending speech in applications. In this proposal, we clarify the problems in the above method and propose a new solution.

1) Participant state/input speed detection method 1-1) Solution for existing technology 2 In order to solve the problem that the flow of communication deteriorates due to giving up and the order of speaking being out of order, we propose a participant's input state detection and input speed evaluation as a method to detect the participant's state.

1-2) Issues of Existing Technology 2 (1) Detecting Participant's Input State In Existing Technology 2, in order to control utterances to participants, the presence server is used as an input condition for controlling utterances of communication participants. The input state detection result of the participant is used as the input condition for speech control. However, due to the development of OS multitasking functions in recent communication terminals, it is common for all applications including COM applications such as instant messengers to run in the background and also to have a notification function. Therefore, even when the COM application is not being used, it is often possible to check the content and the notification of messages received from the other party. In some cases, a text editing application that is not a COM application may be used to create the contents of the statement, so it is not always necessary to use a COM application. For this reason, it cannot be said that the accuracy is sufficient to use the status monitoring result of "inputting" in a communication application as an input condition for speech control.

(2) Participant's input speed evaluation Existing technology 2 defines the communication application user's input speed as the sum of (a) to (c) below.
(a) Evaluation value for the type of input device used (b) Evaluation value for the number of statements per unit time (for example, one hour) (c) Evaluation value for the total usage time of the communication application This method is subjective evaluation. In the near future, there is a lack of reliability as a method of detecting the input speed of participants. Examples are shown below.

1) Evaluation value depending on the type of input device used In recent years, in addition to the conventional keyboard for character input, there are various input methods such as input word recommendation and voice input based on dictionary and content prediction. and input method can be selected. The difference in input speed depending on the type of input device of the terminal is a matter of proficiency and cannot be said to be determined by the type of input device. As an example, it is not correct to assume that all smartphone input methods are touch panel keyboards.

2) Evaluation value based on the number of utterances per unit time (for example, 1 hour) The length of utterances varies depending on the content and situation. It may be a simple answer to the other party's question or request (e.g., yes, understand, ?, etc.), or it may be long (e.g., an explanation for the question). Therefore, it is not appropriate to use the number of utterances in a specific unit time in the past as a criterion for input speed evaluation. In particular, considering the use of stamps in recent communication, it is not suitable to use the number of statements as a condition for input speed evaluation.

3) Evaluation value based on total usage time of COM application The total usage time of COM application influences the proficiency level regarding the functional operation of the application. Therefore, although there are differences in skill levels among the participants, it can be expected that all the participants will have nearly the same evaluation value at the stage when they have learned how to operate the functions. Therefore, it is not appropriate to use the total usage time as a factor for input speed comparison.

In Patent Document 2, even if a participant is slow to speak, in order to give equal opportunity to speak to a person who speaks quickly, emphasis is placed on "the difference in the input speed of the participants". I am proposing a solution. However, the participant's input speed evaluation method lacks reliability in terms of accuracy as a method of determining control input conditions for controlling the participant's speech.

1-3) Solution in this Proposal In this proposal, for the purpose of controlling to stop speaking, monitoring of the usage state of the input device and subjective definition of the participant's input speed evaluation are not performed. In this proposal, as described above, based on past communication history information, location information of communication, and history information on the state of the user, there are three conditions that affect the utterance characteristics of the participants: (1) communication partner; and (2) changes in workability and social position due to changes in communication places, and
(3) Analyze the utterance characteristics of each participant reflecting changes in communication style due to activity states such as during movement. In this way, the present proposal calculates E1) predicted speech time information described above, and provides it to all COM session participants as communication support information when other participants start preparing to speak.

With this communication support information, as described in the above "Effect 1) Suppression of undesired communication behavior", by speaking while other participants are preparing to speak, other participants give up their speech in the middle. As a result, it is possible to suppress undesirable communication behavior such as loss of opportunity to speak or deterioration of flow of communication. At the same time, as explained in "Effect 2) Improving communication balance", it is possible to encourage improvement efforts to achieve equal distribution of speaking opportunities among participants.

To create these communications support information,
E1) utterance prediction time related information;
E2) A method of calculating communication balance-related information will be described in detail in the following embodiments.

2) Speech control method 2-1) Solution by existing technology In existing technology 2, based on the above 1) user state detection result and input speed evaluation information, the participant's input speed is compared and the input speed In order to prevent messages from other participants from arriving when late participants are typing (preparation stage for speaking), the display of messages from other participants is suspended and the send button is pressed for other participants. is not displayed, and the display of speech and transmission timing are controlled so that a user whose input speed is slow does not give up speaking.

2-2) Issues with existing technology In existing technology 2, in order to give equal opportunity to speak to all participants as much as possible, message transmission is controlled based on the input speed evaluation value for participants with fast input speeds. However, this method has the following problems.

(1) The accuracy of input state detection for speech control is low.
As described in 1) above, there is a problem of input accuracy, so the result of utterance control is also unreliable.
(2) The process up to making a statement is not considered.
The existing technology 2 does not consider the basic process up to the statement in communication. In actual communication, it can be assumed that the following processes (a) to (d) are performed in order. In this process, (a) to (c) may be regarded as speech preparation time.

(a) read the utterances of the communication partner;
(b) Prepare to make a response statement. (e.g. thinking, looking at materials, etc.)
(c) Create the content of the reply statement. (Example: Enter text.)
(d) send the utterance; (Example: Press the send button.)

The existing technique 2 focuses only on the state detection result of (c), ie, "inputting", which is treated as the speech preparation time. In other words, when a participant whose input speed is slow enters this state (c), control is performed to prevent speech from other participants from reaching the participants. However, if another participant's speech arrives in the state of (a) or (b), in reality, "thinking during speech preparation time is disturbed."

(3) Conditions affecting the speaking characteristics of participants are not considered.
As described in (2) above, the existing technology 2 does not take into account the process up to the participant's speech, so the condition that affects the participant's speech is
(1) social relationships with communication partners, (2) changes in workability and social position due to changes in communication locations, and
(3) It does not take into consideration changes in communication style due to activity states such as while moving, and only the input speed evaluation without consideration of the utterance process related to the thinking of the participants is used as the criterion for judgment.

2-3) Solution in this Proposal In this proposal, the participant's utterance control is not performed with the subjective definition of the participant's attribute as the input condition. Instead, the utterance characteristics in communication of the participants are calculated from the communication history, the communication location information, the activity state of the participants and the history information of the communication style, and the communication analysis is performed to calculate the communication index.

Using these communication indicators, when the COM session is started, during the speech process of the specific participant, the social relationship with the communication partner and the communication place change in the COM session of the specific participant as described above. By displaying communication support information to other participants that reflects the influence of changes in workability and social position due to changes in workability and social position due to changes in communication style due to activity status such as moving, other participants can To support communication so as not to interfere with speaking and to advance communication in the direction of improving communication balance. The communication support information to be displayed is shown below.

F1) Predicted speech end time for participants in preparation for speech All participants are given a time to predict the end of speech preparation, in order to prevent undesirable communication behavior such as interference from other participants during the speech preparation time. Display the predicted speech end time of the participant.

F2) Predicted speech end time ratio to participants who are preparing to speak By displaying the ratio of the predicted speech end time to participants who are preparing to speak for all participants, the participants who are preparing to speak can be given consideration. As with F1) above, undesirable communication behaviors are discouraged.

F3) Speech count ratio of each participant By displaying the utterance ratio of each participant in the COM session to all participants, it is possible to maintain and improve the communication balance in the entire COM session.

F4) Ratio of the number of statements made with the participant who is preparing to make a statement By displaying the number of statements made with the specific participant in comparison with all the participants, it is possible to maintain and improve the communication balance with the specific participant. A method for calculating these pieces of communication support information will be described in detail in the following embodiments.

(Details of embodiment)
Next, details of the second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

(System configuration)
FIG. 20 is a diagram showing an example of a schematic configuration of a communication system according to the second embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 20, a communication system 2 according to the second embodiment of the present invention includes N communication terminals 12 (N is an integer equal to or greater than 2), a communication server 22, a communication analysis server 32, and a network 50. and

1. network 50
The network 50 is a general-purpose communication network that connects the communication server 22, the communication analysis server 32, and the communication terminal 12 and enables two-way information communication between these components.

2. Communication server 22
The communication server 22 connects to the communication terminals 12-1 to 12-N used by the users 72-1 to 72-N via the network 50, and transmits the text to the users 72-1 to 72-N. A general-purpose communication application server that provides communication functions.

3. Communication analysis server 32
The communication analysis server 32 connects the communication server 22 to the communication terminals 12-1 to 12-N via the network 50, and receives information from the communication terminals 12-1 to 12-N when the communication terminal 12 is used. By using the location/status information of the users 72-1 to 72-N and the communication history information of the communication server 22 at the time of using the COM application, the communication between the users is analyzed, and the information to the user 72 of the communication terminal 12 is Communication support information (1) Predicted speech end time of the participant in preparation for speech (2) Ratio of predicted speech end time with participants in preparation for speech (3) Ratio of number of speeches of each participant (4) Participation in speech preparation Calculate information to provide the ratio of the number of utterances to

4. Communication terminal 12
The communication terminal 12 is a terminal having a communication client function for text communication between users and other terminal users, and is connected to the communication server 22 via the network 50 . Further, the communication terminal 12 connects to the communication analysis server 32 via the network 50, receives the communication analysis result from the communication analysis server 32, and provides the terminal user with the status of other terminal users as visualization information. The visualization information will be explained in detail later.

Also, in the second embodiment of the present invention, it is mainly assumed that the communication terminal 12 is a PC. However, the form of the communication terminal 12 is not limited. For example, the communication terminal 12 may be a mobile terminal such as a smart phone.

5. User 72
A user 72 is a person who uses the communication terminal 12 . For example, the communication terminal 12 and the user 72 are in one-to-one correspondence.

(Functional configuration of communication terminal)
Next, an example of the functional configuration of the communication terminal 12 according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 21 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the communication terminal 12 according to the second embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 21, communication terminal 12 includes control section 110A, operation section 140, storage section 150, communication section 160 and display section 180. FIG. In the following, control unit 110A will be mainly described, and detailed descriptions of operation unit 140, storage unit 150, communication unit 160, and display unit 180 will be omitted.

1) Control section 110A
110 A of control parts provide the various functions which the communication terminal 12 has. 110 A of control parts have the communication AP part 121, the information detection part 124, and 130 A of communication support information provision parts. 130 A of communication support information provision parts have 133 A of reception information acquisition parts, and 134 A of presentation control parts. The control unit 110A is implemented by the CPU 803, the ROM 805, and the RAM 807 (FIG. 38).

The information detection unit 124 acquires the type of the communication terminal 12, the user's location information, and the user's status information when the user communicates. Triggers for acquisition and accumulation of these information are detected by monitoring the use of COM applications by users. The information acquired by the information detection unit 124 is accumulated inside the information detection unit 124 . The information detection unit 124 also transmits the acquired information to the communication analysis server 32 via the communication unit 160 . The information acquired by the information detection unit 124 is the following (a1) to (a5).

(a1) User identification information is an ID unique to an information sender that is given so that the information sender (terminal or user) can be identified when information is sent to the communication analysis server 32 (for example, user number or terminal MAC address, etc.) This ID is managed by the communication analysis server 32 .

(a2) Terminal type information is identification information given to classify the type of communication terminal 12 used when the user 72 communicates (for example, a personal computer: 1, a smart phone: 2, etc., system-defined terminal classification has a correspondence between a name and an arbitrary control number).

(a3) Terminal location information is the location information of the communication terminal 12 when the user 72 communicates (for example, GPS information 1: place of work 1, GPS information 2: home, etc.). have correspondence of information.). If the communication terminal 12 does not have a function of detecting terminal location information, information arbitrarily input by the user may be used as this information.

(a4) User status information is the acceleration information of the communication terminal 12 when the user communicates (for example, sum of acceleration information 1: walking, sum of acceleration information 2: no movement, sum and classification of acceleration information) have correspondence of information.). The sum of the acceleration information may include the sum of the acceleration intensities in the three axial directions, or may include the average value of the acceleration information in the time period when the acceleration information is generated.

(a5) Time information This is time information (time stamp) when the information (a1) to (a4) above is acquired.

Received information acquisition unit 133A acquires the analysis result received by communication unit 160 from communication analysis server 32 . The analysis results will also be explained in detail later. The presentation control unit 134A controls the display unit 180 so that the analysis results are presented to the user.

(Functional configuration of communication server)
Next, with reference to FIG. 22, an example of functional configuration of the communication server 22 according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 22 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the communication server 22 according to the second embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 22 , communication server 22 includes control unit 210 , storage unit 250 and communication unit 260 . Here, communication server AP section 220 and communication server AP data section 251 will be mainly described.

The communication server AP section 220 handles the following (b1) to (b10).

(b1) The COM session ID is unique identification information for managing messages in a time period during which communication between users is performed. This information is given by the communication server 22 . As an example, a COM session ID can be considered a conference number.
(b2) COM session start time is date and time information (time stamp) when the COM session started.
(b3) COM session end time is date and time information (time stamp) when the COM session ended.

(b4) COM session participant information is the (b5) user ID of the user who participated in a specific COM session.
(b5) The user ID is a unique ID given to the user by the communication server AP unit 220 in order to identify the terminal user who uses the COM application. managed. Used as the source ID of the message.

(b6) Destination ID is the ID of another terminal user to whom the message is to be sent. A plurality of users may be designated as the destination ID. If the destination ID is not specified, the (b4) COM session participant information participating in the (b1) COM session becomes the destination.

(b7) Message ID is a unique ID given to each individual message by the communication server AP unit 220 to identify the message.

(b8) The quoted message ID corresponds to the message ID of the other message when the other message is quoted in the reply message. For example, when a reply is made to a certain transmission message, a combination of the message ID (b8) of the transmission message and the message ID (b7) of the reply message is stored as internal information of the communication server AP section 220. .

(b9) Transmission time information is information indicating the time (time stamp) at which the message was transmitted.

(b10) Message confirmation time is the time when the message was confirmed at the destination. More specifically, the message confirmation time is the time the user of communication terminal 12 activates the COM application after the message is received by the COM application. When the COM application is activated, the user can see the message on the screen. The message confirmation time is managed as internal information of the communication server AP section 220 as read time.

Communication server AP unit 220 is realized by executing communication server AP. The communication server AP is a general-purpose communication application server that connects to the communication AP installed in the communication terminal 10 and provides communication services so that users can communicate with other users by text. For example, the communication server AP corresponds to a text communication application server such as an instant messenger.

The communication server AP data unit 251 has a management function for providing communication services to users using COM applications, and performs service settings and saves communication history log information. The information to be saved is the information handled by the communication server AP unit 220 with the save date/time information (time stamp) added. The information to be handled is the above (b1) to (b10) and the following (b11).

(b11) Recording date and time information is time information (time stamp) when information (b1) to (b10) was recorded.

(Functional configuration of communication analysis server)
Next, with reference to FIG. 23, an example of functional configuration of the communication analysis server 32 according to the second embodiment of the present invention will be described. FIG. 23 is a block diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the communication analysis server 32 according to the second embodiment of the invention. Referring to FIG. 23 , communication analysis server 32 includes control section 310A, storage section 350 and communication section 360 . Below, 310 A of control parts are mainly demonstrated.

The control unit 310A has a communication analysis processing unit 330A. Communication analysis processing section 330A has acquisition section 331A, analysis section 332A, and provision section 333A. The control unit 310A is implemented by the CPU 803, the ROM 805, and the RAM 807 (FIG. 38).

1) Acquisition unit 331A
Acquisition unit 331A acquires two types of information shown in (1) and (2) below from communication server 22 via communication unit 360 . In addition, the acquisition unit 331A acquires the information shown in (3) below from the communication terminal 12 via the communication unit 360 .

(1) Communication History Information The acquisition unit 331A requests and acquires information of a specific time period from the communication history information accumulated in the communication server AP data unit 220 in order to create communication support information. This specific time interval setting information is a unit interval for communication analysis and is managed by the information management unit 352 .

(2) Communication server AP status information The communication server AP status information is the following for the user communicating using the COM application: (3) Trigger information for acquiring communication terminal type, location, and status information and as trigger information for providing communication support information to the user in real time. This information is requested at set time intervals and managed by the information management unit 352 .

(3) Acquisition of Communication Terminal Type, Location, and Status Information Acquisition unit 331A acquires (2) the communication server AP status information, and at the same time acquires the corresponding COM session participant's terminal type, location, and status information from the communication terminal 12. Get from

332 A of analysis parts perform the following two processes with respect to the information acquired by 331 A of acquisition parts.

Processing 1: Acquisition and accumulation of communication-related information Processing 2: Calculation and accumulation of communication support information

3-1) Process 1: Acquisition and Accumulation of Communication-Related Information The acquisition unit 331A acquires communication history information, which is communication-related information, from the communication server 22 in order to calculate communication support information. Further, the acquisition unit 331A acquires history information on the type, location, and state of the communication terminal 12 from the communication terminal 12 . Information acquired by the acquisition unit 331A is stored in the information storage unit 353 . FIG. 24 shows the flow from information acquisition to storage, and the details of the processing are shown below.

(S71) Start When the communication analysis server 32 is activated, it activates the analysis unit 332A and starts its operation.

(S72) Setting Information Confirmation The analysis unit 332A confirms (c1) information acquisition time and (c2) information acquisition time, which are time interval information for requesting information from the communication terminal 12, with the information management unit 352. FIG. Information managed by the information management unit 352 is shown below.

(c1) Acquisition time interval is time interval information (time stamp) at which the acquisition unit 331A requests information from the communication server AP unit 220 via the network 50 .

(c2) Information acquisition time is time information (time stamp) at which the acquisition unit 331 acquired information from the communication server AP unit 220 at the time interval of (c1) above. (c2) is confirmation information for preventing redundant acquisition of information.

(c3) Calculation target section information is information for setting a date and time section for which calculation is performed by the analysis unit 332A. For example, when 180 days is set as the calculation interval, the analysis unit 332A performs calculation for the information for the past 180 days starting from the previous day.

(c4) Calculation start information is time information at which calculation is started by the analysis unit 332A. For example, when 23:00 is set as the calculation start information, the calculation by the analysis unit 332A is started at 23:00.

(c5) Calculation interval information is temporal interval information for which calculation is performed by the analysis unit 332A. For example, when 3 days (72 hours) is set as the calculation interval information, the calculation is performed by the analysis unit 332A once every 3 days.

(S73) Information request The analysis unit 332A requests information from the acquisition unit 331A. As a result, the acquisition unit 331A requests communication history information from the communication server AP unit 220 of the communication server 22, requests history information on the type, location, and state of the communication terminal 12 from the information detection unit 124 of the communication terminal 12, and obtains the information. to get The information acquired here has the same contents as (b1) to (b11) and (a1) to (a5).

(S74) Confirmation of Received Information The analysis unit 332A compares the information received in the above (S73) with the date information of the accumulated information in the information accumulation unit 353, and confirms whether or not there is updated information with a new date.

(S75) The information recording analysis unit 332A adds and stores the updated information in (S74). The information to be accumulated is (b1) to (b11) obtained from the communication server 22, (a1) to (a5) obtained from the communication terminal 12, and (d1) information acquisition time information (time stamp).

3-2) Processing 2: Calculation and Accumulation of Communication Support Information The analysis unit 332A uses the information (b1) to (b11) and (a1) to (a5) recorded in the information accumulation unit 353 to A communication index, which is information for providing support information to the user, is calculated, and the result is recorded in the information storage unit 353 .

Based on this information, the analysis unit 332A determines (1) the social relationship with the communication partner, (2) changes in workability and social position due to changes in the communication location, and (3) communication based on the activity state such as during movement. Categorize COM session participants into groups so that style change conditions can be reflected. Then, the analysis unit 332A calculates F1) response time F2) number of statements, which is the statement characteristic of each participant in each COM session, and uses it as communication index information for providing communication support information. The processing flow is shown in FIG. 25, and the details of the processing are shown below.

(S41) Start When the communication analysis server 32 is activated, it activates the analysis unit 332A and starts its operation.

(S42) Setting information confirmation The analysis unit 332A confirms the information (c3) calculation interval information of the information management unit 352, determines the range of the period for calculating the communication index, and (c5) the time interval for calculation based on the calculation interval information. and (c4) determine the time to start calculation from the calculation start time information. These pieces of information are set values.

(S43) Grouping Processing The analysis unit 332A performs grouping processing. The grouping process is a process for reflecting the above conditions (1) to (3) for calculating the communication index. An example will be given for each condition.

Condition (1) Reflection of Social Relationship with Communication Partner As an example, as shown in FIG. 26, communication participants A and B in one COM session form one communication group. Here, assuming that A and B have an equal social relationship as colleagues in the company, A and B will be informal (unofficial and accidental) due to the influence of human relationships (e.g., intimacy, camaraderie, etc.) ) communication style is high, and it is easy to respond to simple consultations and questions. (For example, faster, etc.)

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 27, when a boss C, who has a different position within the organization, participates in the communication between A and B, it is conceivable that the ratio of formal (efficiency-prioritized) communication in which organizational goals are prioritized increases. , utterances become cautious, and communication between A and B is different from that shown in FIG. 26 and may change. The social relationships in the examples of Figures 26 and 27 (response time slows down, etc.) are as shown in Figures 28-30.

Therefore, the analysis unit 332A obtains a list of (b1) COM session IDs having the same (b4) COM session participant information and classifies them as groups in order to classify the COM sessions to be calculated according to participant groups. . This allows the COM sessions by a particular participant to be segmented.

As an example,
Group 1: COM session list by participants A, B, and C (COM session ID list)
Group 2: COM session list by participants A and B (COM session ID list)
・・・
Group N
A group such as

Condition (2) Reflection of changes in workability and social standpoints due to changes in communication locations The analysis unit 332A determines the utterance characteristics due to changes in social standpoints depending on communication locations for the group information classified according to the above condition (1). Each group is further classified by the location information of the communication participants to reflect the impact on communication.

As an example, as shown in FIG. 31, A and B are communicating in a normal main work place, and as in FIG. 32, A is communicating at a customer's site or a public place. , a change in utterance characteristics (response time slows down, etc.) due to a change in A's social position at that location.

Therefore, the analysis unit 332A confirms the (a3) terminal location information of the participants, and in addition to the classification of the condition (1), classifies each participant according to the communication location.

As an example, the analysis unit 332A classifies Group 1, which is the classification result of condition (1): COM session list (COM session ID list) by participants A, B, and C,
Group 1a: COM session list (COM session ID list) by participant A (office), participant B (office), and participant C (office)
Group 1b: COM session list (COM session ID list) by participant A (customer), participant B (office), and participant C (office)
・・・
Group N
It can be further classified according to the place of communication of participant A, such as

Condition (3) Reflection of change in communication style due to state of activity such as on the move The analysis unit 332A reflects the influence of changes in communication style due to state of activity on the utterance characteristics for the information classified according to condition (2). Therefore, each group is further classified according to the participant's activity status and terminal information used for communication.

For example, as shown in FIG. 33, communication is performed at the usual main work place, and as shown in FIG. 34, A is communicating using a mobile terminal (such as a smartphone) while moving. , In addition to being on the move, changes in communication style due to the convenience of terminals (for example, use of stamps and use of simple phrases) can cause changes in utterance characteristics (faster response speed, etc.).

Therefore, the analysis unit 332A confirms (a2) terminal type information and (a4) user status information, and in addition to the classification of condition (2), the status of each participant during communication and the communication style of the terminal used. Classify.

As an example, the analysis unit 332A classifies Group 1a, which is the classification result of condition (2): COM session list (COM session ID list) by participant A (office), participant B (office), and participant C (office). of,
Group 1aaa: COM session list (COM session ID list) by participant A (office, moving, smartphone), participant B (office, not moving, PC), and participant C (office, not moving, PC)
Group 1aba: COM session list (COM session ID list) by participant A (office, no movement, smartphone), participant B (office, no movement, PC), participant C (office, no movement, PC)
・・・
Group N
can be further categorized according to the communication style of participant A's state and the terminal used, as shown below.

Through these processes, a classification code for classifying groups and a COM session list (COM session ID list) belonging to the corresponding group are determined. This information is recorded in the information storage unit 353 . The information to be recorded is the following (e1) and (e2).

(e1) Group information is a classification symbol that reflects conditions (1) to (3) that affect the utterance characteristics of communication participants. The contents are group identification numbers or characters for the same participants, identification numbers or characters for identifying different locations of communication participants, and identification numbers or characters for identifying differences between states and terminals.

As an example,
In the case of <group 1, participants: A, B, locations: 1, 2, states: 1, 1, terminals: 1, 3>,
The group information is expressed in the format <(1), (A, B), (1, 2), (1, 1), (1, 3)>. These pieces of information are composed of a group identification number and information (a1) to (a4).

(e2) COM session ID list information is list information of COM session IDs belonging to the above (e1) group information. As an example, the notation is of the form <100, 101, 103...>. Each number corresponds to the (b1) COM session ID number.

These processes make it possible to calculate a communication index that reflects conditions (1) to (3) that affect utterance characteristics.

(S44) Communication Index Calculation The analysis unit 332A calculates a communication index ((F1) response time and (F2) number of utterances described above) for providing communication support information. The communication index is calculated for (e2) COM session ID list information for each (e1) group information of the processing result of (S43).

(4-1) F1 Response time "Response time between communication participants" means the time difference in statements between participants in COM sessions belonging to (e1) group information and (e2) COM session ID list information . This time difference requires the following two calculations depending on the communication destination. This calculation is performed for each (e1) (e1) group information.

(4-1-1) Response time for all communication participants The analysis unit 332A acquires a message list of the information storage unit 353 having the (b1) COM session ID belonging to the same (e1) group information. Then, the analysis unit 332A selects (b6) a list of (b7) message IDs for which the destination ID is not specified for each COM session, and calculates (b9) the difference in transmission time between each message. The average of these time differences is (e1) the response time for all communication participants for each group information.

As shown in the example of the instant messenger user screen in FIG. 35, in one communication session, the response time is T1 and T2 (that is, the time until the next statement is made for one statement). Applicable. FIG. 36 shows an example of the processing flow and the communication index calculation interval when communication with the same contents as in FIG. 35 is performed.

From the example of FIG. 36, in the communication session T4, the "response time for all communication participants" of the communication group (participants: user 1, user 2, user N) is T1 (reply message 2 to message 1). time until message 3) + T2 (time until reply message 3 to message 2) in the number of calculation intervals (=2).

(4-1-2) Response time for a specific communication participant As shown in the example of the instant messenger user screen in FIG. Let T3 be the time until the The analysis unit 332A obtains a message with a designated destination and a message to be the destination from the list of messages, and obtains a time difference between the two messages. The average time of the time difference between these two messages is the "response time for a specific participant among communication participants".

Similarly, the example in FIG. 36 will be described. In the communication session T4, the "response time for a specific participant among the communication participants" from participant N to participant 1 in the communication group (participants: user 1, user 2, user N) is The time interval T3 (the time from message 1 to message 4) until participant N's reply message (msg4) corresponding to participant N's reply message (msg1) from party 1 is T3, and the average response time in the communication session corresponds to the reply. is the average time in the number of sections (=1) in which the utterance to

Results obtained by these calculations are recorded in the information storage unit 353 . The information to be recorded is the following (f1) to (f7).

(f1) group information is the same as (e1) group information. (f1) Group information is arrangement information of group identification symbols and participant IDs.

(f2) Calculation interval indicates the time interval range to be calculated. This interval has the same time information as (c3) calculation interval information. (For example, January 1, 2020 to January 31, 2020)

(f3) COM session information is COM session information to be calculated. It becomes (b1) COM session ID belonging to (f1) group information.

The (f4) response time by communication participant is the average of the individual response times of the communication participants in the corresponding (f1) group information by (f3) COM session information. (b5) User ID, (b6) Destination ID and array information associated with values. (Example: User ID, all, 10 seconds)

The (f5) response time of all communication participants is the average of the response times of all communication participants for each (f3) COM session information in the corresponding (f1) group information. (f5) Response time of all communication participants is (a1) array information having association between user identification information and value. (Example: all, all, 10 seconds)

The (f6) response time for a specific communication participant is the average response time for a specific communication partner for each (f3) COM session information in the corresponding (f1) group information. (f6) Response time for a specific communication participant is (a1) array information having association between user identification information and value. (Example: User ID, User ID, 10 seconds)
(f7) Calculation date and time is date and time information (time stamp) when the calculation was performed.

(4-2) F2 Number of Statements “Number of statements among communication participants” means the number of statements among participants in a COM session for each (e2) COM session ID list information belonging to (e1) group information. The number of utterances requires the following two calculations, similar to F1) response time, depending on the communication destination. This calculation is performed for each (e1) (e1) group information.

(4-2-1) Number of Responses to All Communication Participants The analysis unit 332A acquires a message list of the information storage unit 353 having the (b1) COM session ID belonging to the same (e1) group information. Then, the analysis unit 332A selects (b6) a list of (b7) message IDs for which the destination ID is not specified for each COM session, and acquires the number between each message. This number is (e1) the number of responses to all communication participants by group information.

From the example of FIG. 36, in communication session T4, the "number of responses to all communication participants" of the group (participants: user 1, user 2, user N) is the sum of the number of statements made by each participant. User 1: 2 cases, User 2: 1 case, and User N: 0 cases.

(4-2-2) Number of Responses to Specific Participant Among Communication Session Participants The analysis unit 332A acquires a list of messages with designated destinations from the acquired message list in one communication session, , the total number of statements corresponding to statements from a specific participant to a specific participant is calculated as "the number of responses to a specific participant among communication session participants".

From the example of FIG. 36, in the communication session T4, in the communication group (participants: user 1, user 2, user N), from the participant N to the participant 1, "Response to a specific participant among the communication participants The number of cases" is calculated as T3 (message 4 for message 1), which is one case. Results obtained by these calculations are recorded in the information storage unit 353 . The information to be recorded is the following (f8) to (f11).

(f8) The number of statements to all communication participants is the number of messages to all communication participants for each (f3) COM session information in the corresponding (f1) group information. (f8) The number of statements for all communication participants is array information that associates values with (b5) user IDs and (b6) destination IDs. (Example: User ID, all, 10 records)

(f9) The number of messages to a specific communication participant is the number of messages to a specific communication partner for each (f3) COM session information in the corresponding (f1) group information. (f9) The number of statements to a specific communication participant is array information having associations between (b5) user ID, (b6) destination ID, and values. (Example: User ID, User ID, 10 records)

Using the value of (f8) above, the analysis unit 332A obtains the ratio of the number of utterances for each communication participant to the total number of utterances in the COM session, and sets this as the utterance ratio for each participant. This information is recorded in the information storage unit 353 .

(f10) The utterance ratio is the utterance ratio of each participant in the COM session. (f10) Speech ratio is array information having a relationship between (b5) user ID and value. (Example: User ID, 60%)

Note that the analysis unit 332A uses the value of (f9) to find the ratio of the number of times that individual messages are received for each participant, and sets this as the message reception ratio for each participant.

(f11) The utterance reception ratio is the ratio of individual utterances received by each participant in the COM session. (f11) Speech reception ratio is array information having a relationship between (b5) user ID and value. (Example: User ID, 60%)

(4-3) Calculation of communication support information The analysis unit 332A calculates the calculation results obtained from (4-1) and (4-2) above, (e1) belonging to each group information, (e2) COM session ID list information COM Communication support information is calculated from information (f1) to (f11) obtained for each session. These results are recorded in the information storage unit 353 .

(4-3-1) Predicted utterance end time Analysis unit 332A calculates for each of all COM sessions recorded in (e2) COM session ID list information belonging to (e1) group information, above (f5) communication participants Calculate the sum of the response time for all and (f6) the response time for a particular communication participant, and calculate the average with the number of all COM sessions as the denominator. This value is the predicted speech time of each participant, which is the time from the start of speech preparation to the end of speech of all the participants in the classified group.

(f21) Estimated speech end time is a value for the above (f1) group information. (Example: 25 seconds)

(4-3-2) Predicted Speech End Time Ratio The analysis unit 332A uses (e1) the predicted speech end time calculated in (4-3-1) above and (e2) COM session ID list information belonging to each group information. (f4) The ratio of the response time for each communication participant calculated for each of all recorded COM sessions is obtained, and the average is calculated using the number of all COM sessions as the denominator. This value is the ratio of predicted speech end times for each participant in the classified group, and serves as a criterion for determining whether the overall response is fast or slow.

(f22) Speech end prediction time ratio is array information having a relation of values of participants belonging to the above (f1) group information. (Example: Participant ID, %)

(4-3-3) Speech number ratio information The analysis unit 332A calculates the total of the above (f10) speech ratios for each of all COM sessions recorded in the (e2) COM session ID list information belonging to (e1) group information and calculate the average with the number of all COM sessions as the denominator. This value becomes the ratio information of the number of statements for each participant in the classified group.

(f23) utterance number ratio information is array information having a relationship of values with the participants belonging to the above (f1) group information. (Example: Participant ID, %)

(4-3-4) Statement number ratio information among participants The analysis unit 332A calculates statement ratio information among participants in the above (f23) statement number ratio information. This value becomes ratio information of the number of statements among participants belonging to the classified group.

(f24) Statement number ratio information between participants is array information having a relationship between participants ((b5) user ID, (b6) destination ID) belonging to the above (f1) group information and a relationship of ratio information. is. (Example: Participant ID, Participant ID, %)

(S45) The information storage analysis unit 332A records the results of (f1) to (f11) and (f21) to (f22), which are the calculation results of (S43) and (S44), in the information storage unit 353.

(Provision of communication support information)
In the communication analysis server 32, the method by which the provision unit 333A provides the user with the communication support information (f21) to (f24) calculated by the analysis unit 332A will be described below.

As described above, the acquisition unit 331A monitors the operating state of the communication AP and acquires trigger information for providing communication support information to the user in real time. The information to be acquired is 1) COM session start information and 2) participant information. Based on this information, the acquisition unit 331A simultaneously acquires (a1) user identification information, (a2) terminal type information, (a3) terminal location information, and (a4) user status information from the communication terminal 12 .

The providing unit 333A acquires (f1) group information having the same value, and provides communication support information (f21) to (f24) of the corresponding group to the communication terminal 12 via the communication unit 360. FIG. Examples of information provided to the user are shown in FIGS. 37 and 38. FIG.

As shown in FIGS. 37 and 38, a user 1 who is a communication participant who communicates can use an instant messenger G12 to view visualized information G21 through the display unit 180 of the communication terminal 12. can. The visualization information G21 is a visualization information providing application, and is provided from information calculated by the analysis unit 332A and stored in the information storage unit 353. FIG. Each item of the visualization information G21 is the following (G210) to (G216).

(G210) Communication participant information is participant information obtained from the communication group participating in the communication session. (f1) group information is used as this information.

(G211) The predicted speech end time is the average speech time of the participants in the communication group in the past fixed period. This information is displayed by using (f21) predicted speech end time. By displaying this information, it is possible to prevent undesirable communication behaviors in communication such as interference from other participants during the speech preparation time for all participants.

(G212) The predicted speech end time ratio with the participant in preparation for speech is the ratio of the average speech time interval between the participant and the participant in preparation for speech in the past fixed period in the communication group. This information is displayed using (f22) speech end prediction time ratio. By displaying this information, it is possible to know the predicted speech time ratio of the participant who is currently preparing to speak and the participant who sees the information. Undesirable communication behavior can be deterred.

(G213) The ratio of the number of statements of each participant is the ratio of the average number of statements of the participants in the communication group in the past fixed period. This information is displayed using (f23) utterance number ratio information. To maintain and improve communication balance in the entire COM session by displaying the utterance ratio of each participant in the COM session to all participants.

(G214) The ratio of the number of statements to participants who are preparing to speak is the ratio of the average number of statements between the participants in the communication group and the participants who are preparing to speak during a certain past period. This information is displayed by using (f24) utterance number ratio information among participants. By displaying this information, it is possible to know the ratio of the number of statements made by participants who are currently preparing to make statements and the number of statements made by participants who are looking at the information, and maintain a balance of communication throughout the COM session, such as taking into account participants who do not make many statements.・Make improvements possible.

(G215) Ranking of predicted utterance time of all participants is a ranking display of the (G211) predicted utterance end time of each participant. By displaying this information, each participant can know the position of his/her own response time in the group, and improve the communication balance and speed in the COM session.

(G217) The ranking of the number of statements by all participants is a ranking display of the number of statements, in addition to the (G213) ratio of the number of statements by each participant. By displaying this information, it is possible to maintain and improve the communication balance throughout the COM session, such as by adjusting the number of statements.

(Effect of Second Embodiment)
In existing technology 2, when real-time text communication such as a business meeting is performed using an instant messenger, a message from the other party arrives while creating a message for making a statement, and the message creation is interrupted. As a solution to this problem, we propose a method of restricting the speech of communication participants as a result.

However, restricting speech in order to have equal opportunity to speak in communication may hinder the flow of communication in communication with a specific purpose such as a business meeting. In particular, the user's presence display in instant messengers in the near future is a general-purpose function, and it is easy to know that the communication partner is preparing to speak (display during input), so it is possible to predict the other party's state and conversation. , the participant can know that the speech of the other party has ended.

Therefore, it is expected that communication participants can make autonomous adjustments without restricting their statements. For example, it can be easily expected that the frequency of utterances and the number of utterances will differ depending on social relationships and the contents of communication (reports, contacts, consultations, etc.).

In this proposal, we do not implement forced control to limit utterances in communication. Analyze the communication history and the user's usage history of the terminal so that changes in gender and social position and (3) changes in communication style due to activity status such as on the move can be reflected. This provides four types of communication support information regarding the response time and the number of responses regarding the utterance characteristics.

As a result, the participants autonomously suppress undesirable actions in communication, and furthermore, by guaranteeing the participants' opportunities to speak, the effect of improving the balance of communication can be expected.

(Hardware configuration)
FIG. 39 shows communication terminals 10 and 12, communication servers 20 and 22, and communication analysis servers 30 and 32 (hereinafter referred to as communication terminals 10 and 12, communication servers 20 and 22, and communication analysis servers 30 and 32) according to the embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of the device (which may be referred to as "the device according to the present embodiment" without distinguishing between them).

Communication terminals 10, 12, communication servers 20, 22, and communication analysis servers 30, 32 do not need to have all of the following hardware configurations (for example, sensor is not required), and a hardware module capable of realizing the functional configuration of each device may be appropriately limited and provided.

Referring to FIG. 39, the device according to this embodiment includes a bus 801, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 803, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 805, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 807, a storage device 809, a communication interface 811, a sensor 813 , an input device 815 , a display device 817 and a speaker 819 .

A CPU 803 executes various processes in the apparatus according to this embodiment. The ROM 805 also stores programs and data for causing the CPU 803 to execute processing in the apparatus according to this embodiment. The RAM 807 also temporarily stores programs and data when the CPU 803 executes processing.

A bus 801 interconnects the CPU 803 , ROM 805 and RAM 807 . A storage device 809 , a communication interface 811 , a sensor 813 , an input device 815 , a display device 817 and a speaker 819 are also connected to the bus 801 . Bus 801 includes, for example, multiple types of buses. As an example, bus 801 includes a high speed bus connecting CPU 803, ROM 805 and RAM 807, and one or more other buses that are slower than the high speed bus.

A storage device 809 stores data to be temporarily or permanently stored in the device according to this embodiment. The storage device 809 may be, for example, a magnetic storage device such as a hard disk, or may be EEPROM (Electrically Erasable and Programmable Read Only Memory), flash memory, MRAM (Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory). , FeRAM (Ferroelectric Random Access Memory) and PRAM (Phase change Random Access Memory).

A communication interface 811 is communication means provided in the device according to the present embodiment, and communicates with an external device via a network (or directly). The communication interface 811 may be an interface for wireless communication, in which case it may include, for example, a communication antenna, RF circuits and other circuits for processing communication. Also, the communication interface 811 may be an interface for wired communication, and in this case may include, for example, a LAN terminal, a transmission circuit, and other circuits for communication processing.

Sensor 813 is, for example, a camera, microphone, biosensor, other sensor, or a combination thereof. A camera captures an image of a subject, and includes, for example, an optical system, an image sensor, and an image processing circuit. A microphone picks up ambient sound, converts the sound into an electrical signal, and converts the electrical signal into digital data.

The input device 815 is a touch panel, a mouse, a line-of-sight detection device such as a camera, a microphone, or the like. The display device 817 displays an output image (that is, a display screen) from the device according to the present embodiment, and is realized using, for example, a liquid crystal, an organic EL (Organic Light-Emitting Diode), a CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), or the like. can be The speaker 819 outputs sound, converts digital data into an electric signal, and converts the electric signal into sound.

(summary)
Although the preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail above with reference to the accompanying drawings, the present invention is not limited to such examples. It is obvious that a person having ordinary knowledge in the technical field to which the present invention belongs can conceive of various modifications or modifications within the scope of the technical idea described in the claims. It is understood that these also naturally belong to the technical scope of the present invention.

For example, the above describes the first embodiment of the present invention and the second embodiment of the present invention separately. However, the first embodiment of the invention and the second embodiment of the invention do not necessarily have to be implemented separately. For example, the first embodiment of the present invention and the second embodiment of the present invention may be implemented after being appropriately combined.

1 communication system 10 communication terminal 110 control unit 120 AP unit 121 communication AP unit 122 user AP unit 130 communication support information providing unit 131 usage information acquisition unit 132 transmission control unit 133 reception information acquisition unit 134 presentation control unit 140 operation unit 150 storage Unit 152 Terminal information management unit 160 Communication unit 180 Display unit 20 Communication server 210 Control unit 220 Communication server AP unit 250 Storage unit 251 Communication server AP data unit 260 Communication unit 30 Communication analysis server 310 Control unit 330 Communication analysis processing unit 331 Acquisition unit 332 analysis unit 333 provision unit 350 storage unit 352 information management unit 353 information storage unit 360 communication unit 50 network

Claims (23)

an acquisition unit for acquiring communication history information between a plurality of communication terminals;
an analysis unit that calculates an average response time per predetermined period from a first communication terminal among the plurality of communication terminals based on the communication history information;
a providing unit for providing a second communication terminal with an average response time corresponding to a current period from the first communication terminal or a first indicator according to the average response time;
An information processing device. The predetermined period includes at least one of a time period and a day of the week,
The information processing device according to claim 1 . The predetermined period includes a time period,
The analysis unit, based on the transmission time of the reply message from the first communication terminal and the transmission time of the transmission message corresponding to the reply message included in the communication history information, Calculate the average response time for each time period,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 2. The analysis unit calculates a response time based on a difference between a transmission time of the reply message and a transmission time of the transmission message, determines a time zone to which the response time belongs, and classifies the response time by time zone. and calculating the average response time for each time period based on the classification result;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 3. The analysis unit determines a time zone to which the transmission time of the transmitted message belongs as a time zone to which the response time belongs, and calculates the response time for each determined time zone.
The information processing apparatus according to claim 4. When a destination is specified in the reply message, the analysis unit determines the time zone to which the transmission time of the outgoing message belongs as the time zone to which the response time belongs.
The information processing device according to claim 5 . If no destination is specified in the reply message, and if the sending time and the sending time of the reply message belong to the same time zone on the same day, the analysis unit determines the time to which the sending time of the reply message belongs. determining a time slot as the time slot to which the response time belongs;
The information processing device according to claim 5 . When a destination is not specified in the reply message, and when the transmission times of the transmission message and the reply message belong to different time zones or different days, the analysis unit divides the response time into not used to calculate average response time,
The information processing device according to claim 5 . The predetermined period includes a day of the week,
The analysis unit classifies the response time by time period and day of the week based on the transmission time of the transmitted message, and calculates an average response time for each time period and day of the week based on the classification result.
The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 3 to 8. The analysis unit calculates a ratio of average response times between the first communication terminal and the third communication terminal as a response time ratio,
The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the providing unit provides the response time ratio to the second communication terminal as the first indicator. The analysis unit determines whether or not a message is transmitted or received between the first communication terminal and the second communication terminal based on the communication history information,
The providing unit provides the second communication terminal with the presence or absence of the message transmission/reception together with the average response time or the first index.
The information processing apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 10. The analysis unit calculates an average response time for each combination of a plurality of participants in the communication session based on the participant information and the communication session information included in the communication history information,
The providing unit provides an average response time in a communication session in which a first participant of the first communication terminal and a second participant of the second communication terminal participate, or a second providing to the second communication terminal an indication of
The information processing device according to claim 1 . The analysis unit calculates the average response time for each combination of the plurality of participants and the location combination of the plurality of participants,
The providing unit is attended by the first participant and the second participant at the same combination of locations as the combination of the current location of the first participant and the current location of the second participant. providing the second communication terminal with an average response time in the communication session or a second indicator responsive to the average response time;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 12. The analysis unit calculates an average response time for each combination of the plurality of participants and the combination of the activity states of the plurality of participants,
The providing unit provides the first participant and the second participant with the same activity state combination as the combination of the first participant's current activity state and the second participant's current activity state. providing to the second communication terminal an average response time in a communication session attended by or a second indicator responsive to said average response time;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 12. The analysis unit calculates an average response time for each combination of the plurality of participants and for each combination of terminal types used by the plurality of participants,
The providing unit provides the first participant and the second participant with the same terminal type combination as the combination of the terminal type currently used by the first participant and the terminal type currently used by the second participant. providing the second communication terminal with an average response time in a communication session participated in by the participant or a second indicator responsive to the average response time;
The information processing apparatus according to claim 12. The analysis unit calculates the average response time based on at least one of the response time for a specific participant and the response time for all participants among the plurality of participants,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 12. The analysis unit calculates the ratio of the average response times of the plurality of participants as the second index,
The information processing apparatus according to claim 12. The analysis unit ranks the plurality of participants in descending order or descending order of the average response time,
The providing unit provides the second communication terminal with the ranking result as the second index.
The information processing apparatus according to claim 12. The analysis unit calculates the number of statements for each combination of a plurality of participants in the communication session based on the participant information and the communication session information included in the communication history information,
The providing unit provides a third index corresponding to the number of statements in a communication session in which a first participant of the first communication terminal and a second participant of the second communication terminal participate in the second provided to communication terminals of
The information processing apparatus according to claim 12. Acquiring communication history information between a plurality of communication terminals;
calculating an average response time per predetermined period from a first communication terminal among the plurality of communication terminals based on the communication history information;
providing to a second communication terminal an average response time corresponding to a current time period from said first communication terminal or a first indication responsive to said average response time;
A method of processing information, comprising: the computer,
an acquisition unit for acquiring communication history information between a plurality of communication terminals;
an analysis unit that calculates an average response time per predetermined period from a first communication terminal among the plurality of communication terminals based on the communication history information;
a providing unit for providing a second communication terminal with an average response time corresponding to a current period from the first communication terminal or a first indicator according to the average response time;
A program that functions as an information processing device comprising an acquisition unit for acquiring communication history information between a plurality of communication terminals;
an analysis unit that calculates an average response time per predetermined period from a first communication terminal among the plurality of communication terminals based on the communication history information;
a providing unit that provides an average response time corresponding to the current period from the first communication terminal or a first indicator according to the average response time;
An information processing device comprising
an information acquisition unit that acquires the average response time or the first index from the information processing device;
a presentation control unit that controls presentation of the average response time or the first indicator;
a second communication terminal comprising:
communication system. An information processing device calculates an average response time for each predetermined period from a first communication terminal of the plurality of communication terminals based on communication history information among the plurality of communication terminals, and When the information processing device provides the average response time corresponding to the current period from an information acquisition unit to acquire;
a presentation control unit that controls presentation of the average response time or the first indicator;
communication terminal.

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