JP7462375B2 - Server, program, and information processing method - Google Patents

Description

This disclosure relates to servers, programs, information processing methods, etc.

Recently, services that distribute videos have become widespread (for example, see Patent Document 1). Technology such as that shown in Patent Document 2 has also been disclosed.

JP 2018-180681 A JP 2018-92617 A

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a server communicating with a first terminal of a first user and a second terminal of a second user different from the first user includes a communication unit that receives first information regarding the generation of a question transmitted from the first terminal, and a control unit that generates one or more questions based on second information regarding the second user based on the reception of the first information, and the communication unit transmits first question information consisting of one or more questions to the first terminal, receives third information regarding the first question information transmitted from the first terminal based on the transmission of the first question information, and transmits second question information based on the third information to at least the second terminal.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, a program executed by a server communicating with a first terminal of a first user and a second terminal of a second user different from the first user includes the following steps executed by the server: receiving first information regarding the generation of a question sent from the first terminal by a communication unit of the server; generating one or more questions based on second information regarding the second user based on the reception of the first information by a control unit of the server; transmitting first question information consisting of one or more questions to the first terminal by the communication unit; receiving third information regarding the first question information sent from the first terminal based on the transmission of the first question information; and transmitting second question information based on the third information to at least the second terminal by the communication unit.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, an information processing method of a server communicating with a first terminal of a first user and a second terminal of a second user different from the first user includes receiving first information regarding the generation of a question transmitted from the first terminal by a communication unit of the server, generating one or more questions based on second information regarding the second user based on the reception of the first information by a control unit of the server, transmitting first question information consisting of one or more questions to the first terminal by the communication unit, receiving third information regarding the first question information transmitted from the first terminal based on the transmission of the first question information, and transmitting second question information based on the third information to at least the second terminal by the communication unit.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, a program executed by a first terminal of a first user communicating with a server is executed by the first terminal to transmit first information regarding the generation of a question for a second user different from the first user to the server via a communication unit of the first terminal, receive first question information consisting of one or more questions generated by the server based on second information regarding the second user based on the transmission of the first information, display the one or more questions on a display unit of the terminal, and transmit third information regarding the first question information to the server via the communication unit based on input by the first user to the first terminal on which the one or more questions are displayed.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a system configuration according to a first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of functions realized by a control unit of the server according to the first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of information stored in a storage unit of the server according to the first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a data configuration of account registration data according to the first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a live management database according to the first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of functions realized by a control unit of the terminal according to the first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of information stored in a storage unit of the terminal according to the first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed on a display unit of the terminal according to the first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed on a display unit of the terminal according to the first embodiment. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of a flow of a process executed by each device according to the first embodiment. 10 is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of a question process according to the first embodiment. 13 is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of a question process according to a first modified example. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a live management database according to the second embodiment. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed on a display unit of a terminal according to a second embodiment. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed on a display unit of a terminal according to a second embodiment. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed on a display unit of a terminal according to a second embodiment. 10 is a flowchart showing an example of a flow of processes executed by each device according to the second embodiment. 13 is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of a question posting process according to a second embodiment. 13 is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of a question and answer process according to a second embodiment. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a live management database according to the third embodiment. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of a screen displayed on a display unit of a terminal according to a third embodiment.

<Compliance with legal matters>
It should be noted that the disclosures described herein are subject to compliance with the laws of the country of implementation, such as communications secrecy, as necessary for the implementation of the disclosure.

<Embodiment>
In this specification, for ease of understanding, there are some places where the phrase "by way of example and not by way of limitation" is used; however, it should be noted that not only these places, but also the entirety of the embodiments described below are not limited to the contents of the description.

Embodiments for implementing the programs and the like related to this disclosure will be described with reference to the drawings.

A system may be, by way of example and not limitation, comprised of multiple devices.
The multiple devices may be a combination of devices of the same type, a combination of devices of different types, or a combination of devices of the same type and devices of different types.
Note that a system can be considered, by way of example and not limitation, as a plurality of devices working together to perform some kind of processing.

Furthermore, a system relating to a client (client device) and a server can be considered to be, by way of example and not limitation, at least one of the following:
(1) Terminal & Server (2) Server (3) Terminal

(1) is, by way of example and not limitation, a system that includes at least one terminal and at least one server. One example of this is a client-server system.

The server is, by way of example and not limitation, composed of the following devices, which may be a single device or a combination of multiple devices:

Specifically, the server is configured to have at least one processor (for example and without limitation, a CPU: Central Processing Unit, a GPU: Graphics Processing Unit, an APU: Accelerated Processing Unit, a DSP: Digital Signal Processor (for example and without limitation, an ASIC: Application Specific Integrated Circuit, an FPGA: Field Programmable Gate Array), etc.), a computer device (processor + memory), a control device, an arithmetic device, a processing device, etc., and may be a configuration having multiple of the same type of any one device (for example and without limitation, a CPU + CPU, a homogeneous multi-core processor, etc.), or a configuration having multiple different types of any one device (for example and without limitation, a CPU + DSP, a heterogeneous multi-core processor, etc.), or may be a combination of multiple devices (for example and without limitation, a processor + computer device, a processor + arithmetic device, a heterogeneous combination of multiple devices, etc.).
The processor may be a virtual processor.

Furthermore, when a server executes some processing, if the server is configured with a single device, the processing described in the embodiment is executed by the single device. If the server is configured with multiple devices, the server may be configured to execute some processing by one device and execute other processing by the other device. As a non-limiting example, if the server is configured with a processor and an arithmetic device, the server may be configured to execute a first processing by the processor and execute a second processing by the arithmetic device.
Furthermore, when a configuration is made up of a plurality of devices, the devices may be arranged in locations physically separated from one another.

Furthermore, the server functions may be provided in the form of PaaS, IaaS, or SaaS in cloud computing, for example and without limitation.

The control unit of the system can be at least one of the control unit of the terminal and the control unit of the server. In other words, by way of example and not limitation, the control unit of the system can be any of the following: (1A) only the control unit of the terminal, (1B) only the control unit of the server, or (1C) both the control unit of the terminal and the control unit of the server.

In addition, the control and processing (hereinafter collectively referred to as "control, etc.") performed by the control unit of the system may be (1A) performed only by the control unit of the terminal, (1B) performed only by the control unit of the server, or (1C) performed by both the control unit of the terminal and the control unit of the server.
In addition, in (1C), as an example and not a limitation, some of the controls performed by the control unit of the system may be performed by the control unit of the terminal, and the remaining controls may be performed by the control unit of the server. In this case, the allocation (allocation) of the controls may be equal or may be allocated in different proportions.

Furthermore, when referring to a communication unit of a server, if the server is configured with a single device, it may be the communication unit itself that the single device has, or, if the server is configured with multiple devices, the communication unit of the server may be configured to include each communication unit that each device has.
As an example and not by way of limitation, if a server comprises a first device and a second device, the first device having a first communication unit and the second device having a second communication unit, the communication unit of the server may be conceptualized as including the first communication unit and the second communication unit.

(2) As an example and not a limitation, the system may be a system made up of multiple servers (hereinafter referred to as a "server system"). In this case, the configuration of each server may be the same as that described above.

The control etc. performed by the server system may be performed by only one of the multiple servers (2A), by only the other servers (2B), or by both the one server and the other servers (2C).
In addition, in (2C), as an example and not a limitation, one server may perform part of the control etc. performed by the server system, and another server may perform the remaining control etc. In this case, the allocation (allocation) of the control etc. may be equal or may be allocated in different proportions.

(3) By way of example and not limitation, the system may be made up of multiple terminals.
The system may be, by way of example and not limitation, a system such as the following:
A system in which terminals have server functions (distributed system). This can be realized, for example and without limitation, by using blockchain technology.
A system in which terminals communicate wirelessly with each other. This can be realized, for example and without limitation, by communicating in a peer-to-peer (P2P) manner using short-range wireless communication technology such as Bluetooth (registered trademark).

The above is not limited to the control unit, but also applies to each functional unit such as the input/output unit, communication unit, memory unit, clock unit, etc., which may be components of the system.

In the following embodiment, a system including a terminal and a server (a client-server system) is illustrated as an example and not as a limitation.
Incidentally, the server system described above in (2) can also be applied as the server.

Also, instead of a system including a terminal and a server, a system not including a server, such as the above-mentioned system (3) as an example and not a limitation, may be applied.
In this case, the embodiment can be configured based on the above-mentioned blockchain technology. Specifically, by way of example and not limitation, data stored and managed in a server described in the following embodiment is stored on the blockchain. Then, the terminal generates a transaction to the blockchain, and when the transaction is approved on the blockchain, the data stored on the blockchain can be updated.

It should be noted that even when the term "terminal" is used, this is not limited to the meaning of a terminal as a client device in a client server.
That is, a terminal may include the concept of a device other than in a client-server context.

In addition, the expression "through a communication I/F" is used appropriately in this specification. This is not intended to be limiting, but may be taken as an example to indicate that a device transmits and receives various types of information and data through a communication I/F (through a communication unit) based on the control of a control unit (such as a processor).

In addition, in this specification, when the terms "related to" and "associated" are used, such as "B related to A" or "B related to A," this may mean, by way of example and not limitation, that "B" has some kind of relationship with "A." Specific examples of this will be described later.

In addition, in this specification, when a device performs processing on two or more objects, such as "transmitting A and B" or "receiving A and B," this may include performing "A" and "B" in unison (hereinafter referred to as "simultaneous"), and performing "A" and "B" with different timing (hereinafter referred to as "non-simultaneous").
As an example and not a limitation, when referring to transmitting first information and second information, this may include both concepts of transmitting the first information and the second information in a synchronized manner and transmitting the first information and the second information with a lag in timing.
In addition, taking into consideration the lag (time lag), "simultaneous" may include "almost simultaneously."

Note that, even if "A" and "B" are performed at different times, this only needs to be the processing targeting "A" and "B," and the purpose does not necessarily have to be the same.
As an example and not a limitation, when the first information and the second information are transmitted as described above, it is sufficient to transmit the first information and the second information, and this may include cases where the first information and the second information are transmitted for the same purpose as well as cases where the first information and the second information are transmitted for different purposes.

An example of a service that allows users to chat (hereinafter, referred to as a "chat service") is a messaging service.
Moreover, an application for realizing a chat service is called a "chat application", and an application for realizing a messaging service is called a "messaging application".
By way of example and not limitation, a chat application may allow users to chat in chat rooms, and by way of example and not limitation, a chat application may or may not allow users to make calls (such as voice calls or video calls) between each other.

Note that messaging services (MS) (including instant messaging services (IMS)) can also be considered as one form of social networking services (SNS). For this reason, messaging services and social networking services may or may not be distinguished. In other words, social networking services may include messaging services.

As an example of a messaging service, an instant messaging service (IMS) that transmits and receives content in the form of simple messages between multiple devices (terminals, for example and not for limitation) via a server is exemplified.
By way of example and not limitation, an instant messaging application may allow users to talk in talk rooms, and by way of example and not limitation, an instant messaging application may or may not allow users to make calls (such as voice calls or video calls) between each other.

A chat room (for example, but not limited to, a talk room) can be a UI (User Interface) or GUI (Graphical User Interface) that allows each user to view content sent and received between the terminals of multiple users.

Chat rooms can also include one-to-one user chat rooms (hereinafter referred to as "one-to-one chat rooms"), group chat rooms including multiple users (hereinafter referred to as "group chat rooms"), and chat rooms with official account users (hereinafter referred to as "OA chat rooms").

For data management purposes, a one-to-one chat room may be managed as a one-to-one user or one-to-one account chat room, or as a group chat room consisting of two users or two accounts.

An official account is an account of a business operator (an account of a user of the business operator) rather than that of a general user, and by way of example and not limitation, a user of this official account can use a terminal similar to that of a general user to send and receive content (messages) with other devices via the server.

In this specification, content may be information transmitted from a source to a destination. Also, content may be one or more pieces of content.

The content may include, by way of example and not limitation, text content in the form of text, image content in the form of images (including at least one of still images and/or moving images), audio content in the form of sounds (including voice), and the like.
In addition, the content may include operation content such as buttons and icons for user operation, and link content such as link information (including, but not limited to, a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier)).

The text may include, by way of example and not limitation, at least one of national characters, extended characters, machine-dependent characters, numbers, symbols, graphics, and signs, all of which are represented by character codes.
The text does not have to include at least one of the above characters, extended characters, machine-dependent characters, numbers, symbols, figures, and signs, and may include other text.

The image may include at least one of various types of image information, such as, for example and not limitation, icons, buttons, stamps, emojis, and banner images.

In the following embodiments, a live streaming service is exemplified as an example of a service that allows a user to live-stream live content such as image content and sound (including audio) content, or to view live-streamed live content. An application for realizing the live streaming service is referred to as a "live streaming application." The name of the live streaming application may also be referred to as a "Live Streaming App."
It may also be referred to as a live application or live service.

As a form for realizing a live distribution service, any of the following forms can be applied, by way of example and not limitation.
(A) A form in which a live streaming application is configured as a standalone application; (B) A form in which the functionality of a live streaming service is provided as one function of a messaging application; (C) A form in which an application having the functionality of a live streaming service and the functionality of a messaging service (an integrated application) is configured; (D) A form in which a messaging application is configured as an application separate from the live streaming application.

In embodiments (B) and (C), by way of example and not limitation, the live streaming service provider may be the same as the messaging service provider.
In this case, as one method, the user's account in the messaging application and the user's account in the live distribution application can be a common account.
Alternatively, in this case, the user's account in the messaging application and the user's account in the live streaming application may be automatically associated (linked).

In form (D), by way of example and not limitation, the live streaming service provider may be a different provider from the messaging service provider.
In addition, in the form (D), a process for associating a user's account in the messaging application with a user's account in the live distribution application (a linking process) can be performed.

However, unlike the above, it is also possible to provide a messaging service function as one of the functions of a live streaming application.

In addition, in this embodiment, expressions such as "information is transmitted and received between users" and "information is transmitted and received between terminals" may be used, but these may be considered to be substantially synonymous.
In addition, when a client-server system is applied, it is possible to configure the system so that information is transmitted between terminals via a server, but this may also be expressed as transmission and reception of information between users or terminals. Also, as described above, information may also be transmitted and received between terminals without applying a client-server system.

In the following examples, a live broadcast is exemplified in which a live broadcaster user (hereinafter referred to as a "liver" or may be referred to as a "broadcaster") broadcasts a live video, and a viewer user (hereinafter referred to as a "viewer") watches the live video. Broadcasting of live content may also be referred to simply as "live broadcasting." In the following examples, live content may also be referred to simply as "live."

In addition, any of the above-mentioned forms (A) to (D) may be applied as a form for realizing a live streaming service, but the following embodiment mainly illustrates, by way of example and not limitation, the application of form (A) in which a live streaming application is configured as a standalone application.

<Example>
Hereinafter, an embodiment to which the present invention is applied will be described, focusing mainly on an embodiment to which a live distribution service is applied.
However, as will be described later, the techniques described in the following embodiments can also be similarly applied to services other than live distribution services.

As a non-limiting example, in the case of live streaming services, there may be cases where a live streamer has difficulty finding a topic to talk about during the live stream, which may lead to an awkward moment.
Also, there may be cases where a viewer wants to liven up a live broadcast. In this case, as a non-limiting example, the viewer may consider asking the live streamer a question. However, depending on the viewer, even if they try to ask a question, they may not know what to ask the live streamer and may be in trouble.

First Example
The first embodiment is a basic embodiment that allows viewers to ask questions to live streamers.

The contents described in the first embodiment are applicable to any of the other embodiments and other modified examples.
In addition, the same components as those already mentioned are given the same reference numerals and will not be described again.

<System Configuration>
FIG. 1A is a diagram illustrating an example of a system configuration of a communication system 1 according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.
In the communication system 1, as an example and not a limitation, a server 10 and a plurality of terminals 20 (terminal 20A, terminal 20B, terminal 20C, . . . ) are connected via a network 30.

The server 10 has a function of providing a predetermined service (for example, but not limited to, a live distribution service, a messaging service, etc.) to the terminal 20 owned by the user via the network 30. For example, but not limited to, the server 10 can also be expressed as a live distribution server, a messaging server, etc.
In this embodiment, a first user who watches a live broadcast via a network and a second user who is a live broadcaster are users of the server 10.

The number of servers 10 and the number of terminals 20 connected to the network 30 are not limited. As a non-limiting example, a case is envisioned in which multiple first users watch the same live broadcast on their respective terminals.

The terminal 20 (terminal 20A, terminal 20B, terminal 20C, ...) may be any information processing terminal capable of implementing the functions described in each embodiment. Examples of the terminal 20 include, but are not limited to, a smartphone, a mobile phone (feature phone), a computer (such as, but not limited to, a desktop, laptop, tablet, etc.), a media computer platform (such as, but not limited to, a cable or satellite set-top box, a digital video recorder), a handheld computer device (such as, but not limited to, a PDA (personal digital assistant), an email client, etc.), a wearable device (such as a glasses-type device, a watch-type device, etc.), a VR (Virtual Reality) terminal, a smart speaker (a device for voice recognition), or other types of computers or communication platforms. The terminal 20 may also be expressed as an information processing terminal.

The configurations of terminal 20A, terminal 20B, and terminal 20C can be the same, for example and not for limitation. Furthermore, if necessary, the terminal used by user X may be expressed as terminal 20X, and user information in a specific service associated with user X or terminal 20X may or may not be expressed as user information X.

The network 30 serves to connect one or more terminals 20 and one or more servers 10. In other words, the network 30 refers to a communication network that provides a connection path so that the above-mentioned various devices can connect and then send and receive data.

One or more portions of network 30 may or may not be wired or wireless. Network 30 may include, by way of example and not limitation, an ad hoc network, an intranet, an extranet, a virtual private network (VPN), a local area network (LAN), a wireless LAN (WLAN), a wide area network (WAN), a wireless WAN (WWAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), a portion of the Internet, a portion of the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), a cellular network, integrated service digital networks (ISDN), wireless LAN, long term evolution (LTE), code division multiple access (CDMA), Bluetooth, satellite communications, or the like, or a combination of two or more thereof. Network 30 may include one or more networks 30.

The server 10 (not limited to, but an example of a server, information processing device, or information management device) has a function of providing a predetermined service to the terminal 20. The server 10 may be any device that is an information processing device that can realize the functions described in each embodiment. The server 10 includes, not limited to, a server device, a computer (not limited to, but an example of, a desktop, laptop, tablet, etc.), a media computer platform (not limited to, but an example of, a cable or satellite set-top box, digital video recorder, etc.), a handheld computer device (not limited to, but an example of, a PDA, email client, etc.), or other types of computers or communication platforms. The server 10 may also be expressed as an information processing device. When it is not necessary to distinguish between the server 10 and the terminal 20, the server 10 and the terminal 20 may or may not be expressed as information processing devices.

[Hardware (HW) configuration of each device]
The HW configuration of each device included in the communication system 1 will be described.

(1) Terminal HW Configuration FIG. 1A shows an example of the HW configuration of the terminal 20.
The terminal 20 includes a control unit 21 (CPU: central processing unit), a storage unit 28, a communication I/F 22 (interface), an input/output unit 23, a clock unit 29A, and a position calculation information detection unit 29B. The HW components of the terminal 20 are connected to each other via a bus B, for example and not for limitation. It is not essential that the HW configuration of the terminal 20 includes all of the components. For example and not for limitation, the terminal 20 may or may not be configured such that individual components or multiple components are removable.

The communication I/F 22 transmits and receives various data via the network 30. The communication may be performed either wired or wirelessly, and any communication protocol may be used as long as the communication between the two devices is possible. The communication I/F 22 has a function of communicating with various devices such as the server 10 via the network 30. The communication I/F 22 transmits various data to the various devices such as the server 10 according to instructions from the control unit 21. The communication I/F 22 also receives various data transmitted from the various devices such as the server 10 and transmits it to the control unit 21. The communication I/F 22 may also be simply referred to as the communication unit 22. When the communication I/F 22 is configured with a physically structured circuit, it may also be referred to as a communication circuit.

The input/output unit 23 includes a device for inputting various operations to the terminal 20, a device for outputting the results of processing performed by the terminal 20, etc. The input/output unit 23 may be an integrated input unit and an output unit, or may be separate input unit and output unit, or it may not be the case.

The input unit is realized by any one or combination of any type of device that can accept input from a user and transmit information related to the input to the control unit 21. Examples of the input unit include, but are not limited to, a touch panel, a touch display, hardware keys such as a keyboard, a pointing device such as a mouse, a camera (operation input via moving images), and a microphone (operation input by voice).

The output unit is realized by any one or a combination of any type of device capable of outputting the results of processing by the control unit 21. Examples of the output unit include, but are not limited to, a touch panel, a touch display, a speaker (audio output), a lens (for example, but not limited to, 3D (three dimensions) output or hologram output), a printer, etc.

By way of example only, the input/output unit 23 includes, by way of example and not limitation, a display unit 24, a sound input unit 25, a sound output unit 26, and an imaging unit 27.

The display unit 24 is realized by any one of all types of devices or a combination thereof that can display according to the display data written to the frame buffer. Examples of the display unit 24 include, but are not limited to, touch panels, touch displays, monitors (for example, but not limited to, liquid crystal displays and organic electroluminescence displays (OELDs)), head mounted displays (HDMs), projection mapping, holograms, and devices that can display images, text information, etc. in air (which may or may not be a vacuum). Note that these display units 24 may or may not be capable of displaying display data in 3D.

The sound input unit 25 is used to input sound data (including voice data; the same applies below). The sound input unit 25 includes a microphone and the like.
The sound output unit 26 is used to output sound data and includes a speaker and the like.
The imaging unit 27 is used to obtain image data (including still image data and moving image data; the same applies below). The imaging unit 27 includes a camera and the like.

If the input/output unit 23 is a touch panel, the input/output unit 23 and the display unit 24 may be arranged facing each other and have approximately the same size and shape.

The clock unit 29A is a built-in clock of the terminal 20, and outputs time information (timekeeping information). The clock unit 29A is configured to include, for example and not limitation, a clock that uses a crystal oscillator. The clock unit 29A can also be expressed as a timekeeping unit or a time information detection unit, for example and not limitation.

The clock unit 29A may or may not have a clock that conforms to the NITZ (Network Identity and Time Zone) standard or the like.

The position calculation information detection unit 29B is a functional unit that detects (measures) information (hereinafter referred to as "position calculation information") necessary for the control unit 21 to calculate (measure) the position of its own terminal 20. The position calculation information detection unit 29B can also be expressed as a position calculation sensor unit, for example and not by way of limitation.

The position calculation information detection unit 29B includes, by way of example and not limitation, a satellite positioning sensor (satellite positioning unit) which is a sensor or unit for calculating the position of the terminal 20 using a satellite positioning system such as GPS (Global Positioning System), an inertial measurement sensor (inertial measurement unit (IMU (Inertial Measurement Unit))) which is a sensor or unit for calculating the position of the terminal 20 using an inertial navigation system, a UWB positioning sensor (UWB positioning unit) which is a sensor or unit for calculating the position of the terminal 20 using UWB (Ultra Wide Band), etc.

The satellite positioning unit includes, by way of example and not limitation, an RF receiving circuit that converts RF (Radio Frequency) signals, including positioning satellite signals transmitted from positioning satellites and received by an antenna (not shown), into digital signals, and a baseband processing circuit that performs correlation calculation processing or the like on the digital signals output from the RF receiving circuit to capture the positioning satellite signals, and outputs information such as satellite orbit data and time data extracted from the positioning satellite signals as information for position calculation.

The inertial measurement unit has an inertial sensor that detects information required to calculate the position of the terminal 20 by inertial navigation calculation. Examples of inertial sensors include, but are not limited to, a three-axis acceleration sensor and a three-axis gyro sensor, and output the acceleration detected by the acceleration sensor and the angular velocity detected by the gyro sensor as information for position calculation.

The UWB positioning unit includes, by way of example and not limitation, an ultra-wideband RF (Radio Frequency) receiving circuit that converts an ultra-wideband RF signal, including an ultra-wideband pulse signal for positioning transmitted from a positioning beacon and received by an antenna not shown, into a digital signal, and a relative position calculation processing circuit that calculates the relative position between the terminal 20 and the positioning beacon based on the digital signal output from the ultra-wideband RF receiving circuit.
As an example and not by way of limitation, the UWB positioning unit may or may not cause the terminal 20 to function as a positioning beacon by transmitting an ultra-wideband RF signal including an ultra-wideband pulse signal for positioning from an antenna not shown.

By way of example and not limitation, the control unit 21 calculates the position of its own terminal 20 at regular or specific timings based on the position calculation information detected by the position calculation information detection unit 29B. The terminal position is referred to as the "terminal position", and the calculated terminal position is referred to as the "calculated terminal position". The control unit 21 may, but may not, associate the calculated terminal position with the date and time when the calculated terminal position is calculated and store it in the storage unit 28 as calculated terminal position history data.

Note that it is not essential to provide the position calculation information detection unit 29B in the terminal 20, and it is not necessary to provide it.

The control unit 21 has circuitry that is physically structured to execute functions realized by the code or instructions contained in the program, and is realized by, for example and not by way of limitation, a data processing device built into hardware. As such, the control unit 21 may or may not be described as a control circuit.

The control unit 21 may include, by way of example and not limitation, a central processing unit (CPU), a microprocessor, a processor core, a multiprocessor, an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC), and a field programmable gate array (FPGA).

The storage unit 28 has a function of storing various programs and various data required for the operation of the terminal 20. The storage unit 28 includes, by way of example and not limitation, various storage media such as a hard disk drive (HDD), a solid state drive (SSD), a flash memory, a random access memory (RAM), and a read only memory (ROM). In addition, the storage unit 28 may or may not be expressed as a memory.

The terminal 20 stores the program P in the memory unit 28, and by executing this program P, the control unit 21 executes the processing of each unit included in the control unit 21. In other words, the program P stored in the memory unit 28 causes the terminal 20 to realize each function executed by the control unit 21. Furthermore, this program P may or may not be expressed as a program module.

(2) HW Configuration of Server FIG. 1A shows an example of the HW configuration of the server 10. As shown in FIG.
The server 10 includes a control unit 11 (CPU), a storage unit 15, a communication I/F 14 (interface), an input/output unit 12, and a clock unit 19. The components of the HW of the server 10 are connected to each other via a bus B, for example and not for limitation. It is not essential that the HW of the server 10 includes all components as the configuration of the HW of the server 10. For example and not for limitation, the HW of the server 10 may or may not be configured such that individual components or multiple components are removable.

The control unit 11 has circuitry that is physically structured to execute the functions realized by the code or instructions contained in the program, and is realized, for example and not by way of limitation, by a data processing device built into hardware.

The control unit 11 is typically a central processing unit (CPU), but may also be a microprocessor, a processor core, a multiprocessor, an ASIC, or an FPGA, or may not be such a unit. In this disclosure, the control unit 11 is not limited to these.

The storage unit 15 has a function of storing various programs and various data required for the operation of the server 10. The storage unit 15 is realized by various storage media such as a HDD, SSD, and flash memory. However, in this disclosure, the storage unit 15 is not limited to these. Furthermore, the storage unit 15 may or may not be expressed as a memory.

The communication unit (communication I/F) 14 transmits and receives various data via the network 30. The communication may be performed either wired or wirelessly, and any communication protocol may be used as long as mutual communication can be performed. The communication I/F 14 has a function of performing communication with various devices such as the terminal 20 via the network 30. The communication I/F 14 transmits various data to various devices such as the terminal 20 according to instructions from the control unit 11. The communication I/F 14 also receives various data transmitted from various devices such as the terminal 20 and transmits it to the control unit 11. The communication I/F 14 may also be simply referred to as the communication unit 14. When the communication I/F 14 is configured with a physically structured circuit, it may also be referred to as a communication circuit.

The input/output unit 12 includes a device for inputting various operations to the server 10, a device for outputting the results of processing performed by the server 10, and the like. The input/output unit 12 may be an integrated input unit and an output unit, or may be separate input unit and output unit, or it may not be the case.

The input unit is realized by any one or combination of all types of devices that can accept input from a user and transmit information related to the input to the control unit 11. The input unit is typically realized by hardware keys such as a keyboard, or a pointing device such as a mouse. Note that the input unit may or may not include a touch panel, a camera (operation input via video images), or a microphone (operation input via voice), but is not limited to these.

The output unit is realized by any one or a combination of any type of device capable of outputting the results of processing by the control unit 11. Examples of the output unit include, but are not limited to, a touch panel, a touch display, a speaker (sound output), a lens (for example, but not limited to, 3D (three dimensions) output or hologram output), a printer, etc.

By way of example only, the input/output unit 12 includes a display unit 13, by way of example and not by way of limitation.

The display unit 13 is realized by a display or the like. The display is typically realized by a monitor (for example, but not limited to, a liquid crystal display or an organic electroluminescence display (OELD)). The display may or may not be a head mounted display (HDM) or the like. These displays may or may not be capable of displaying display data in 3D. In the present disclosure, displays are not limited to these.

The clock unit 19 is a built-in clock of the server 10, and outputs time information (timekeeping information). The clock unit 19 is configured to include, for example and not limitation, an RTC (Real Time Clock) as a hardware clock, a system clock, etc. The clock unit 19 can also be expressed as a timekeeping unit or a time information detection unit, for example and not limitation.
(3) Others The server 10 stores the program P in the storage unit 15, and by executing this program P, the control unit 11 executes the processes of each unit included in the control unit 11. In other words, the program P stored in the storage unit 15 causes the server 10 to realize each function executed by the control unit 11. This program P may or may not be expressed as a program module.
The same applies to other devices.

In each embodiment of the present disclosure, the CPU of the terminal 20 and/or the server 10 is described as executing the program P to achieve this.

The control unit 21 of the terminal 20 and/or the control unit 11 of the server 10 may or may not realize each process by a CPU having a control circuit, but may also realize each process by a logic circuit (hardware) formed in an integrated circuit (IC (Integrated Circuit) chip, LSI (Large Scale Integration)) or a dedicated circuit. These circuits may be realized by one or more integrated circuits, and the multiple processes shown in each embodiment may or may not be realized by a single integrated circuit. Depending on the degree of integration, an LSI may also be called a VLSI, a super LSI, an ultra LSI, etc. For this reason, the control unit 21 may or may not be expressed as a control circuit.

In addition, the program P (which may be, for example and not by way of limitation, a software program, computer program, or program module) of each embodiment of the present disclosure may or may not be provided in a state stored in a computer-readable storage medium. The storage medium is capable of storing the program P in a "non-transitory tangible medium." The program P may or may not be for realizing part of the functions of each embodiment of the present disclosure. Furthermore, the program P may or may not be a so-called difference file (difference program) that can realize the functions of each embodiment of the present disclosure in combination with a program P already recorded in the storage medium.

Furthermore, when referring to a system program (a program executed by the system), the system is as described above. The above-mentioned system program is a program that can be executed by the entire system, and this program may be composed of individual programs of the devices that make up the system, for example and without limitation, and the programs stored in each device that makes up the system may be different from each other. In other words, it is not necessary for the programs to be common to the individual devices that make up the system.
As a non-limiting example, if a system is composed of a terminal and a server, and a program of the system is P1, the program P1 of the system is composed of a program P2 stored in the terminal and a program P3 stored in the server, and P2 and P3 are for executing the program of the system and may be different programs. As a non-limiting example, the program P2 stored in the terminal may be a program that executes a first process and transmits the result of the first process to the server, and the program P3 stored in the server may be a program that executes a second process on the received result of the first process and transmits the result of the second process to the terminal.

The storage medium may include one or more semiconductor-based or other integrated circuits (ICs) (such as, by way of example and not limitation, a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or an application specific IC (ASIC)), a hard disk drive (HDD), a hybrid hard drive (HHD), an optical disk, an optical disk drive (ODD), a magneto-optical disk, a magneto-optical drive, a floppy diskette, a floppy disk drive (FDD), a magnetic tape, a solid state drive (SSD), a RAM drive, a secure digital card, or a drive, any other suitable storage medium, or a suitable combination of two or more of these. The storage medium may be volatile, non-volatile, or a combination of volatile and non-volatile, as appropriate. It should be noted that the storage medium is not limited to these examples and may be any device or medium capable of storing the program P. Also, the storage medium may or may not be referred to as a memory.

The server 10 and/or the terminal 20 can realize the functions of the multiple functional units shown in each embodiment by reading the program P stored in the storage medium and executing the read program P.

In addition, the program P of the present disclosure may or may not be provided to the server 10 and/or the terminal 20 via any transmission medium capable of transmitting a program (such as a communication network or broadcast waves). By way of example and not limitation, the server 10 and/or the terminal 20 executes the program P downloaded via the Internet or the like to realize the functions of the multiple functional units shown in each embodiment.

In addition, each embodiment of the present disclosure may be realized in the form of a data signal in which the program P is embodied by electronic transmission.
At least a part of the processing in the server 10 and/or the terminal 20 may or may not be realized by cloud computing consisting of one or more computers.
At least a part or all of the processing in the terminal 20 may or may not be performed by the server 10. In this case, at least a part or all of the processing of each functional unit of the control unit 21 of the terminal 20 may or may not be performed by the server 10.
At least a part or all of the processing in the server 10 may or may not be performed by the terminal 20. In this case, at least a part or all of the processing of each functional unit of the control unit 11 of the server 10 may or may not be performed by the terminal 20.

Unless explicitly stated, the judgment configuration in the embodiments of the present disclosure is not essential, and a specified process may or may not be executed when the judgment condition is satisfied, or when the judgment condition is not satisfied.

The programs disclosed herein are implemented using, by way of example and not limitation, scripting languages such as ActionScript and JavaScript (registered trademark), compiler languages such as Objective-C and Java (registered trademark), and markup languages such as HTML Living Standard.

<Functional configuration>
(1) Functional Configuration of the Server FIG. 1-2 is a diagram showing an example of functions realized by the control unit 11 of the server 10 in this embodiment.
The control unit 11 includes, as a functional unit, an application management processing unit 111 for executing application management processing according to an application management processing program 151 stored in the storage unit 15, by way of example and not of limitation.

FIG. 1C is a diagram showing an example of information stored in the storage unit 15 of the server 10 in this embodiment.
In the storage unit 15, for example and not limitation, an application management processing program 151 executed by the control unit 11 as application management processing, account registration data 153, and a live management database 155 are stored.

The account registration data 153 is registration data related to an account of an application (for example, but not limited to, a live distribution application), and an example of the data configuration is shown in FIG. 1-4.
In the account registration data 153, for example and not by way of limitation, a user name, an application ID, and other registration information are stored in association with each other.

The user name is the name of the account of the terminal 20 that uses this application, and by way of example and not limitation, the name registered by the user of the terminal 20 when using the application is stored.

The application ID is information used to identify an application account, or the account itself.
This application ID is preferably a value unique to each account, and as a non-limiting example, a unique value (proper value) is set and stored by the server 10 for each account.
The application ID is information associated with the terminal 20 or the user of the terminal 20, and is an example of information related to the terminal or information related to the user of the terminal.

Other registration information may include, by way of example and not limitation, various types of information such as identification information for identifying the terminal 20, the telephone number (terminal telephone number) of the terminal 20, an email address (terminal email address), and authentication information such as passwords (login password, authentication password, etc.) used for various authentications in the application.

The identification information for identifying the terminal 20 may be, for example and not for limitation, a terminal ID (for example and not for limitation, an International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI)).
Furthermore, the identification information for identifying the user of the terminal 20 may be, for example and without limitation, an application ID for a general user or an application ID for an official user.

It should be noted that the application ID may or may not be replaced by a "user ID."
Furthermore, in the case of an application in which only one account can be registered per terminal 20, as an example and not a limitation, it is possible to use "identification information for identifying terminal 20 = identification information for identifying the user of terminal 20 = application ID".

Also, by way of example and not limitation, it may or may not be possible to assign multiple terminal IDs to one application ID. In this case, it may or may not be possible to run applications in parallel (in parallel) on multiple terminals 20 using one application ID as an identification (login) target.

Also, instead of various IDs such as application IDs, it is possible to apply a method of managing accounts using information such as terminal telephone numbers.
In this case, instead of storing ID information such as an application ID in account registration data 153, information such as a terminal telephone number can be stored in account registration data 153. Note that, instead of replacing ID information such as an application ID with information such as a terminal telephone number, ID information such as an application ID may or may not correspond one-to-one to information such as a terminal telephone number.

In the following various embodiments, for the sake of simplicity, it is assumed that one account is registered for one terminal 20.
Furthermore, in this case, since, as described above, "identification information for identifying terminal 20 = identification information for identifying the user of terminal 20 = application ID," the term "user of the account" may be essentially synonymous with "terminal of the account."

In addition, other registration information may include, by way of example and not limitation, information about the user (user information).

The user information may include, by way of example and not limitation, the user's attribute information (hereinafter referred to as "user attribute information"), such as the user's date of birth, age (generation), gender, place of residence, family composition, occupation, and income.
In addition, the user information may include, by way of example and not limitation, the user's self-introduction information (information such as a self-introduction text), information about undisclosed plans, and private information (which may include information about hobbies, preferences, interests, etc.).
User information can include, by way of example and not limitation, multiple categories of information.

By way of example and not limitation, the user information can be input by the user into the terminal 20 in the live streaming application when the user registers to use the live streaming application or at any time thereafter, and the information can be transmitted from the terminal 20 to the server 10 and registered.

It is also possible to require only broadcasters who will be live streamers to register user information, and not require users who will only be viewers to register user information.

Users who can register an account can be, for example and without limitation, general users (general users), but official users may also be able to register an account.
It should be noted that, by way of example and not limitation, the rules described in the following examples may not be applied to official users.

The live performance management database 155 is a database for managing information related to live performances distributed by live streamers, and an example of the data configuration of a live performance management database 155A is shown in FIG. 1-5.
In the live management database 155, live management data is stored, for example and not by way of limitation, as data for each account of a user who has become a live streamer.

Each live management data stores, by way of example and not limitation, a live streamer application ID and comment management data.

The live streamer application ID stores the application ID of the user who has become a live streamer among the application IDs stored and registered in the account registration data 153.

The comment management data is data for managing comments made by the live streamer and viewers during the live broadcast delivered by this live streamer, and by way of example and not limitation, the comment time, which is the time the comment was made, the speaker application ID, which is the application ID of the user who made the comment, and comment information regarding the content of the comment, etc. are stored in association with each other.

The comment time may be the comment date and time.
Also, the comment time (for example and not by way of limitation, the time elapsed from the start of live distribution) may be stored.

(2) Terminal FIG. 1-6 is a diagram showing an example of functions realized by the control unit 21 of the terminal 20 in this embodiment.
The control unit 21 includes, as a functional unit, an application processing unit 211 for executing live distribution application processing according to an application processing program 281 stored in the storage unit 28, as an example and not a limitation.

FIG. 1-7 is a diagram showing an example of information stored in the storage unit 28 of the terminal 20 in this embodiment.
In the storage unit 28, for example and not for limitation, an application processing program 281 to be executed as application processing, and an application ID 283 of the own terminal 20 or the user of the own terminal 20 are stored.

<Display screen>
Below, examples are provided of information displayed on the display unit 24 of the terminal 20 of a live streamer who streams a live show using a live streaming application (Live Streaming App), and information displayed on the display unit 24 of the terminal 20 of a viewer who watches the live show using the live streaming application.
In the following example, a user A.A is a live streamer, and users other than user A.A (users B.B. to E.E., for example, not for limitation) are viewers. In addition, among the viewers, a user who asks a question to a live streamer becomes a "questioner," and the live streamer becomes a "responder" to the question.

In the example shown in FIG. 1-8(1), a live streaming application is running on the terminal 20B of user B. Accordingly, the top area of the display unit 24 displays the name of the live streaming application being executed (Live Streaming App), as well as the icon image ICB of user B associated with the application ID of the live streaming application, and the user name (B.B).

The image (image content) being distributed by the live streamer is displayed in the central area of the display unit 24, and the sound (audio content) being distributed by the live streamer is output from the sound output unit 26. The content being distributed by the live streamer may be both image content and audio content, or only one of them.

Also, above the center of the display unit 24, an icon ICL containing the word "Live" indicating that a live broadcast is being distributed is displayed, and an icon image ICA and user name (A.A) of live streamer A are displayed in association with the icon ICL. This allows user B to recognize that the live broadcast he is watching is being distributed by user A.A (the live streamer is user A.A).

A comment input area CIR is provided in the bottommost area of the display unit 24. Comments entered in the comment input area CIR are displayed in a comment display area CR provided above the comment input area CIR, superimposed on the image content, in association with the identification information (icon image and user name) of the live streamer or viewer who entered the comment. As described below, the comment display area CR may display not only the comments entered in the comment input area CIR, but also questions from viewers to the live streamer and answers from the live streamer to the viewer.

In this example, comments from user A.A, who is a live streamer, and comments from user C.C, who is a viewer different from user B.B, are displayed in the comment display area CR. All of these comments were entered by each user (A.A, C.C) in the comment input area CIR on their own terminals 20 (20A, 20C). The comments displayed in the comment display area CR move from bottom to top each time a new comment is displayed.

An icon ICG is displayed in the lower right corner of the comment display area CR to display gifts that viewers can provide to the live streamer.
In this example, when the viewer taps on the icon ICG, the screen changes to that shown in FIG. 1-8(2).

In the example shown in FIG. 1-8(2), an area SR1 is provided at the bottom of the display unit 24 for viewers to select gifts to provide to the live streamer.
Area SR1 displays the amount of money the viewer can use to purchase gifts, for example but not limited to, the balance of the viewer's electronic money account (in this example, "625 yen"), and displays icons (IC1, IC2, ..., ICQ) corresponding to the gifts the viewer can select.

As a non-limiting example, icon IC1 corresponds to a gift of "10 yen", and when selected, a payment of "10 yen" is made and a heart mark is presented to the liver.
As a non-limiting example, icon IC2 corresponds to a gift of "20 yen", and when selected, a payment of "20 yen" is made and a flower mark is presented to the liver.
Live streamers who receive heart or flower marks can use these cumulative numbers as an indicator of their popularity to appeal to viewers.

The icon ICQ corresponds to a gift of "100 yen", and by selecting it, a payment of "100 yen" is made and the right to ask a question to the live streamer is acquired. In this specification, this gift is referred to as a "question card" by way of example and not by way of limitation.

In this manner, by the user selecting a gift, the user may make a payment equivalent to the gift amount to the live streaming application, or the user may make a payment equivalent to the gift amount to the live streaming application, or the user may make a payment equivalent to the gift amount to the live streaming application, and in response to this payment, the live streaming application may pay a predetermined amount (for example, and not by way of limitation, a certain percentage of the gift amount) to the live streaming application.

The payment resulting from the selection of a gift may be presented to the viewer as a charge for the use of a live streaming application, or may be presented to the viewer as a remittance to the live streamer. In addition, the amount paid by the viewer to acquire the right to ask a question may be set by the live streamer at will, or may be set by the viewer at will. As a non-limiting example, the live streamer may set a minimum amount, and the viewer may be allowed to set any amount above that minimum.
In this example, when the viewer taps on the icon ICQ, the screen changes to that shown in FIG. 1-8(3).

In the example shown in FIG. 1-8 (3), an area SR2 is provided at the bottom of the display unit 24 for selecting keywords for questions viewers can ask the live streamer. In this example, four keywords indicating question categories (fields, etc.) ("games," "food," "sports," and "anime") are displayed, and buttons BTK1 to BTK4 corresponding to each keyword are displayed.

Note that, although details will be described later in a modified example, as a non-limiting example, keywords may be generated by a language model.
In addition, the language model may generate keywords to be presented based on information such as live broadcast information, the live streamer's user attribute information and comments, and the user attribute information and comments of viewers who have acquired the right to ask questions (or viewers who have not acquired the right to ask questions).

When the viewer taps button BTK2, a question about the corresponding keyword (category) "food" is generated by the language model, by way of example and not limitation.
When the viewer taps the button BTR1 labeled "Create again" below the buttons BTK1 to BTK4, a different keyword is generated again for at least one of the four displayed keywords. Then, for the keyword combinations including the newly generated keyword, a button corresponding to each keyword is displayed.

Therefore, if the viewer thinks that any of the candidates generated by the language model can be used as a question keyword to generate a question (question candidate), he or she can simply select the button corresponding to that candidate, and if the viewer does not want to use any of the candidates to generate a question (question candidate), he or she can simply operate button BTR1.

The viewer may be allowed to determine the keywords to be used in generating the question by himself/herself, not limited to the keywords presented by the language model. In this example, a keyword input area KIR for inputting the keywords to be used in generating the question is provided at the bottom of the area SR2.
A viewer inputs a keyword that he or she wishes to use to generate a question in the keyword input area KIR, and a question is generated based on the input keyword by the language model.
In this example, when the viewer taps the button BTK2, the screen changes to that of FIG. 1-9(1).
In addition to the input keywords, the language model may generate questions to be presented based on information about the live broadcast, the live streamer's user attribute information and comments, and the user attribute information and comments of viewers who have acquired the right to ask questions (or viewers who have not acquired the right to ask questions).

In the example shown in FIG. 1-9(1), an area SR2 for selecting a question to be asked by a viewer to a live streamer is provided at the bottom of the display unit 24. In this example, three questions based on the selected keywords ("What did you have for dinner last night?", "What is your least favorite food?", and "What is your specialty dish?") are generated by the language model, and buttons BTQ1 to BTQ3 corresponding to each generated question are displayed.
In addition to the selected keywords, the language model may generate questions to be presented based on information about the live broadcast, the live streamer's user attribute information and comments, and the user attribute information and comments of viewers who have acquired the right to ask questions (or viewers who have not acquired the right to ask questions).

Note that keywords are generated by the language model and presented to the viewer, but questions based on the presented keywords may be created through input from the viewer (e.g., text input).

When the viewer taps button BTR2 labeled "Create again" located below buttons BTQ1 to BTQ3, a different question may be regenerated for at least one of the three questions displayed. Then, for the combination of questions that includes the regenerated question, a button corresponding to each question will be displayed.

Therefore, if a viewer thinks that any of the candidates generated by the language model can be presented as a question to the live streamer, they can simply select the button corresponding to that candidate, and if they do not want to present any of the candidates as a question to the live streamer, they can simply operate button BTR2.

When a viewer taps any of the three buttons BTQ1 to BTQ3, the question corresponding to the selected button will be displayed as a question from the viewer to the live streamer on the display unit 24 of each viewer's terminal 20, including the viewer who asked the question and the viewer who did not ask a question, and will also be displayed on the display unit 24 of the live streamer's terminal 20.
In this example, when the viewer taps button BTQ2 (question "What is your least favorite food?"), the screen changes to that shown in FIG. 1-9(2).

In the example shown in FIG. 1-9(2), a question unit QU including the selected question "What's your least favorite food?" and an icon image of the viewer (user B) who asked the question is displayed superimposed on the image content on the display unit 24 of the terminal 20B of the viewer (user B) who asked the question. Also, in this example, based on the fact that this question is a question generated by a language model, information that can identify that it was generated by a language model (as an example, and not by way of limitation, an icon labeled AI Q) is added.

In this case, as shown in FIG. 1-9 (3), the question unit QU is displayed on the display unit 24 of the terminal 20A of the live streamer (user A) on which the distribution application is running, and the question unit QU is also displayed on the display unit 24 of the terminal 20C of the viewer (user C) who did not ask a question, so that questions can be shared without compromising the live feeling.
The question unit QU may include the user name (B.B.) of the viewer who asked the question.

In the example shown in Fig. 1-9(3), a live streaming application is being executed on the terminal 20A of a live streamer user A. Accordingly, the name of the live streaming application being executed (Live Streaming App), and the icon image ICA and user name (A.A) of user A associated with the application ID of the live streaming application are displayed in the uppermost area of the display unit 24.
Also, similar to the terminal 20B of the viewer (user B.B.), a question unit QU including a question selected by the viewer is displayed.

Here, unlike the viewer's terminal 20, the live streamer's (user A.A.) terminal 20A may also display an example answer unit AU that includes example answers to questions posed by the viewer. In this example, the example answer unit AU includes an example answer (in this example, "green pepper") generated by a language model based on the posed question (selected by the viewer).

In this embodiment, the answer example unit AU is not displayed on either the terminal 20 (20B) of the viewer who asked the question or the terminal 20 (20C) of the viewer who did not ask the question. This is not limited to the above embodiment, and the answer example unit AU may be displayed on the terminal 20 (20B) of the viewer who asked the question but not on the terminal 20 (20C) of the viewer who did not ask the question, or may be displayed on both the terminal 20 (20B) of the viewer who asked the question and the terminal 20 (20C) of the viewer who did not ask the question.

In addition to the questions presented (selected by the viewer), the language model may generate example answers based on information about the live broadcast, attribute information and comments of the live streamer, and attribute information and comments of viewers who have acquired the right to ask questions (or viewers who have not acquired the right to ask questions).

When a live streamer (user A.A) taps on the answer example unit AU, the answer example contained in the answer example unit AU is displayed on the display unit 24 of the live streamer's (user A.A) terminal 20A as the live streamer's (user A.A) answer to the question contained in the question unit QU, and is also displayed on the display unit 24 of the terminal 20 of the viewer (user B.B who asked the question, and user C.C who did not ask a question).

As an example and not a limitation, the selected example answer may be included as the "answer" of the live streamer in the question unit QU displayed on each terminal 20. Also, the question included in the question unit QU may be displayed in the comment display area CR in association with the icon image and user name (B.B) of the questioner (user B.B), and the selected example answer may be associated with the icon image and user name (A.A) of the live streamer (user A.A) and displayed in association with the question.

In the example shown in Figure 1-9 (3), one example answer is generated by the language model based on the selected question and presented to the live streamer, but this is not limited to the above form, and multiple example answers may be generated by the language model and presented to the live streamer for selection.
As a non-limiting example, similar to the example shown in FIG. 1-9(1), three example answers may be generated by a language model based on the selected question, and buttons corresponding to each of the three may be displayed. Then, when a live streamer selects one of the buttons, the example answer corresponding to the selected button may be displayed on each terminal 20 as the live streamer's answer.

As in the example shown in Figure 1-9(1), when the user taps the recreate button labeled "Create again" located below these three buttons, a different answer example is regenerated for at least one of the three displayed answer examples. Then, for the combination of answer examples that includes the newly generated answer example, a button corresponding to each answer example is displayed.

Therefore, if a live streamer thinks that one of the candidates generated by the language model can be presented as an answer to the viewer, he or she can simply select the button corresponding to that candidate, and if he or she does not want to present any of the candidates as an answer to the viewer, he or she can simply operate the recreate button.

In the above example of the display screen, the question selected by the questioner may be displayed in a comment input field, and the questioner may be able to edit (correct or change) this.
In addition, the example answer selected by the questioner may be displayed in a comment input field, and the live streamer may be able to edit (correct or change) this.

<Processing>
1-10 is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of processing executed by each device according to the present embodiment, which is a diagram showing an example of the flow of live processing based on a live distribution application.
From the left, there are shown a process executed by the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B, a process executed by the control unit 11 of the server 10, and a process executed by the control unit 21 of the terminal 20A.

In the flowchart described below, the process is illustrated in correspondence with an example display screen, in which user A.A is a live streamer and users other than user A.A (users B.B. to E.E., as examples and not limitations) are viewers. In addition, user B.B. is illustrated as an example of a viewer (and questioner), and the process performed by the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B of this user B.B. is illustrated.
Note that the processes executed by the control unit 21 of the terminal 20 of the viewer other than user B can be similar to those executed by the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B, and therefore are not shown in the drawings.

In addition, here we will provide examples of relatively basic processing to which the present invention is applied, and processing to realize some of the configurations shown in the example display screens may be explained in modified examples.

Note that the processes described below are merely examples of processes for implementing the method of the present disclosure, and the present disclosure is not limited to these.
Other steps may be added to the process described below, or some steps may be omitted (deleted) from the process described below.
The same applies to the various processes described in this specification.

The control unit 21 of the terminal 20A starts a process of transmitting live streaming information regarding the live streaming to the server 10 via the communication I/F 14 (A110).
Based on receiving the live streaming information from terminal 20B via communication I/F 14, control unit 11 of server 10 starts a process of transmitting live information based on the live streaming information (including, by way of example and not limitation, content information of a live stream (hereinafter referred to as "live content information") streamed by user A.A, a live streamer, etc.) to terminal 20A and terminal 20B via communication I/F 14 (S110). Note that live streamers may be able to send comments, and comment information based on these comments may be included in the live content information.

Upon receiving the live information from the server 10 via the communication I/F 22, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B starts a process of displaying the received live information on the display unit 24 (B110).
Similarly, upon receiving the live information from the server 10 via the communication I/F 22, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20A starts a process of displaying the received live information on the display unit 24 (A115).

Although not shown in the figures, viewers including user B.B may be able to send comments, and comment information based on these comments may be transmitted from the terminal 20 of the viewer. As a non-limiting example, this comment information may be transmitted to terminal 20A or the terminals 20 of other viewers via the server 10. Note that the comment information may also be transmitted from the server 10 to the terminal 20 of the viewer who sent the comment information.

After steps A110, S110, and B110, question processing is performed on each device (A120, S120, B120).

1-11 is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of question processing executed by each device according to the present embodiment. The diagram should be read in the same way as FIG. 1-10.
The control unit 21 of the terminal 20B determines whether or not to purchase a question card (B1210). Specifically, by way of example and not limitation, the control unit 21 determines whether or not a user input (operation input, sound input, etc.; the same applies below) for purchasing a question card has been made via the input/output unit 23.

If it is determined that a question card is to be purchased (B1210: YES), the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B transmits question card purchase request information to the server 10 via the communication I/F 22 (B1220).

The control unit 11 of the server 10 judges whether or not question card purchase request information has been received from the terminal 20B via the communication I/F 14 (S1210). If it is determined that the information has been received (S1210: YES), the control unit 11 of the server 10 acquires user information (S1220). Specifically, as a non-limiting example, for user A.A, who is a live streamer, the control unit 11 acquires user information of user A.A included in other registration information stored in association with the application ID of user A.A in the account registration data 153.

Thereafter, the control unit 11 of the server 10 performs a keyword acquisition process (S1230).
As one method, by way of example and not limitation, words that are candidate keywords (by way of example and not limitation, words that can be question categories such as those shown in the example display screen) can be stored in advance as a database in the storage unit 15 of the server 10. Then, by way of example and not limitation, the control unit 11 of the server 10 can randomly extract a set number of words (by way of example and not limitation, four) as keywords from this database.
Note that the keywords are not limited to the words that can be question categories as shown in the example display screen, but may be a set number of words randomly extracted from any words stored in a database.

The control unit 11 of the server 10 may also search the database for keywords related to the information based on at least one of the user information of the user A. A, who is a live streamer, acquired in step S1220. Then, a set number of keywords may be extracted from the search results.
As explained in the example of the display screen, keywords may be generated by a language model, as will be described in detail later.

Next, the control unit 11 of the server 10 transmits keyword information including the acquired keywords to the terminal 20B via the communication I/F 14 (S1240).

After step B1220, when keyword information is received from the server 10 via the communication I/F 22, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B causes the display unit 24 to display the keywords included in the received keyword information (B1230).

Then, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B transmits selected keyword information including the keyword (hereinafter referred to as the "selected keyword") selected by the user from the keywords displayed on the display unit 24 via the input/output unit 23 to the server 10 via the communication I/F 22 (B1240).

After step S1240, when the selected keyword information is received from terminal 20B via communication I/F 14, control unit 11 of server 10 performs question candidate generation processing (S1250). Specifically, by way of example and not limitation, one or more question candidates (question candidates) are generated using the user information of user A, who is a live streamer by way of example and not limitation, acquired in step S1220, and the selected keywords included in the selected keyword information received from terminal 20B, by way of example and not limitation, a language model.

Here, the language model may be, by way of example and not limitation, a trained language model, and by way of example and not limitation, a model that, when it receives an input sentence, generates an output sentence that corresponds (is related) to the input sentence based on the learning content.
Additionally, the language model may be, by way of example and not limitation, a probability distribution model for word strings, or, by way of example and not limitation, any model that can determine the probability of occurrence of all words following a given word string.
As the language model, various language models such as "GPT-3 (Generative Pre-trained Transformer-3)", "BART (Bidirectional Auto-Regressive Transformer)", "BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers)", and "T5 (Text-to-Text Transfer Transformer)" can be used, but are not limited to these. Even when the same language model (GPT-3, for example and not limited to these), is used, if the data set used for learning is different, the output for the same input may vary.

Specifically, based on the user information of user A, the live streamer extracted in step S1220, an input sentence is generated, which is a string of "N" words separated by ", (comma in English, etc.)" as an example and not a limitation. The generated input sentence is input to a language model, and the string inferred by the language model is output as a sentence. This output sentence becomes a question candidate.
As a non-limiting example, multiple candidate questions can be obtained by performing the above process multiple times while changing the words in the user information used to generate the input sentence.

As mentioned above, if the datasets used for learning are different, the output for the same input may vary, so the same input sentence may be input to the language model.

In addition, if the grammar or expression of the question sentence of the generated question candidate is inappropriate, the control unit 11 of the server 10 may modify the grammar or expression of the question sentence so that it is correct.

Then, the control unit 11 of the server 10 transmits question candidate information including the generated question candidates to the terminal 20B via the communication I/F 14 (S1260).

After step B1240, when the question candidate information is received from the server 10 via the communication I/F 22, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B, by way of example and not limitation, causes the display unit 24 to display the question candidates included in the received question candidate information (B1250).

Thereafter, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B transmits question information regarding a question selected by the user via the input/output unit 23 from the question candidates displayed on the display unit 24 to the server 10 via the communication I/F 22 (B1260).
The question information may include, by way of example and not by way of limitation, information capable of identifying the selected question candidate (by way of example and not by way of limitation, an ID for identifying the question candidate, the question candidate itself), etc.
Then, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B ends the question process.

After step S1260, when question information is received from terminal 20B via communication I/F 14, control unit 11 of server 10 transmits answer request information based on the question information to terminal 20A via communication I/F 14 (S1270).
The answer request information may include, by way of example and not limitation, the question identified by the question information received from terminal 20B.
Then, the control unit 11 of the server 10 ends the question processing.

The control unit 21 of the terminal 20A determines whether or not reply request information has been received from the server 10 via the communication I/F 22 (A1210). If it is determined that reply request information has been received (A1210: YES), the control unit 21 of the terminal 20A causes the display unit 24 to display the received reply request information (A1220).
This allows the user A.A, who is a live streamer, to answer the question. This answer may be transmitted to the terminal 20B as live distribution information (live information) by the user A.A's voice, or may be transmitted to the terminal 20B as live distribution information (live information) by characters based on input to a keyboard or the like. In addition, if the question can be answered by a choice of options, the answer may be selected from the choices.
Then, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20A ends the question process.

In this question processing, the answer request information is illustrated as being sent from server 10 to terminal 20A, but the question information received by server 10 from terminal 20B can be sent from server 10 to terminal 20B (and other viewer terminals 20) together with the live content information described above.

Also, as an example, but not limited to, terminal 20B stores question information designated (selected) by user B, who is a user of terminal 20 and a questioner, in storage unit 28 as application data. Then, the question information may not be transmitted from server 10 to terminal 20B, but may be transmitted from server 10 to terminal 20A of the live streamer and terminals 20 of viewers other than terminal 20B.
Also, the question information from the questioner may be transmitted only to the terminal 20A of the live streamer from the server 10. In other words, the question information from the questioner may not be transmitted to the terminal 20 of the viewer.

Also, steps S1230 and S1240 may be omitted so that keyword information is not transmitted from the server 10 to the terminal 20B.
In this case, steps B1230 and B1240 may be omitted, and the control unit 11 of the server 10 may generate question candidates in step S1250 by using, for example and not by way of limitation, the user information of the user A.A., by way of example and not by way of limitation, a language model.

Similarly, steps S1230 and S1240 may be omitted, and the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B may receive keywords (hereinafter referred to as "input keywords") input by the user through operation or voice via the input/output unit 23 in step B1230, and transmit input keyword information including the received input keywords to the server 10 in step B1240. Then, the control unit 11 of the server 10 may generate question candidates by, for example and not by way of limitation, a language model in step S1250 using the user information of user A.A and the input keywords.

In addition, without omitting the above steps, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B may transmit information including the selected keyword and the input keyword to the server 10 in step B1240. Then, in step S1250, the control unit 11 of the server 10 may generate question candidates by, for example and not by way of limitation, a language model using the user information of user A.A, the selected keyword, and the input keyword.

Returning to FIG. 1-10, after performing the question process in step A120, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20A judges whether or not to end the live streaming (A130). If it is judged not to end (A130: NO), the process returns to A120. On the other hand, if it is judged to end (A130: YES), the control unit 21 of the terminal 20A transmits live streaming end request information to the server 10 via the communication I/F 22 (A140).
Then, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20A ends the process.

After performing the inquiry process in step S120, the control unit 11 of the server 10 determines whether or not live streaming end request information has been received from the terminal 20A via the communication I/F 22 (S130). If it is determined that the live streaming end request information has not been received (S130: NO), the process returns to S120. On the other hand, if it is determined that the live streaming end request information has been received (S130: YES), the control unit 11 of the server 10 transmits live streaming end information to the terminal 20B via the communication I/F 14 (S140).
Then, the control unit 11 of the server 10 ends the process.

After performing the question process in step B120, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B determines whether or not the live streaming end information has been received via the communication I/F 22 (B130). If it is determined that the live streaming end information has not been received (B130: NO), the process returns to B120. On the other hand, if it is determined that the live streaming end information has been received (B130: YES), the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B causes the display unit 24 to display the received live streaming end information (B140).
Then, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B ends the process.

Effects of the First Embodiment
In this embodiment, a server 10 that communicates with a terminal (not limited to, an example of a first terminal) of a viewer (not limited to, an example of a first user) and a terminal (not limited to, an example of a second terminal) of a live streamer (not limited to, an example of a second user) is provided with a communication I/F 14 that receives information regarding the generation of a question transmitted from the viewer's terminal, and a control unit 11 that generates one or more question candidates (not limited to, an example of a question) based on the live streamer's user information (not limited to, an example of second information regarding the second user) based on the reception of the information regarding the generation of the question. The communication I/F 14 transmits question candidate information (not limited to, an example of first question information) consisting of the one or more generated question candidates to the viewer's terminal, receives question information (not limited to, an example of third information) transmitted from the viewer's terminal 20 based on the transmission of the question candidate information, and transmits question information (not limited to, an example of second question information) including a question for the live streamer based on the received question information to the live streamer's terminal 20.
As an example of an effect of an embodiment obtained by such a configuration, the server can generate one or more questions based on second information regarding the second user based on receiving first information regarding question generation transmitted from the first terminal. Also, the server can ask a question to the second user based on the third information transmitted from the first terminal by transmitting first question information consisting of one or more questions to the first terminal, receiving third information regarding the first question information transmitted from the first terminal based on the transmission of the first question information, and transmitting second question information based on the third information to at least the second terminal.

In this case, the control unit 11 may generate one or more question candidates using a language model.
As an example of an effect of the embodiment obtained by such a configuration, the server can easily and appropriately generate one or more questions using a language model.

In addition, in this embodiment, information regarding question generation sent from the viewer's terminal 20 to the server 10 (not limited to this, an example of first information) includes information based on input by the viewer to his/her own terminal 20, and the control unit 11 of the server 10 is configured to generate one or more candidate questions based on the information based on this input and information regarding the live streamer (not limited to this, an example of second information).
As an example of an effect of an embodiment obtained by such a configuration, the server can generate one or more questions based on information based on input by a first user to a first terminal and second information about a second user.

In this case, the information based on the input may include words input by the viewer to his/her terminal 20 .
As an example of an effect of an embodiment obtained by such a configuration, the server can appropriately generate one or more questions based on a word entered into the first terminal by the first user and second information about the second user.

In this case, the communication I/F 14 of the server 10 may transmit one or more keywords to the viewer's terminal 20 for use in generating one or more question candidates, and the information based on the above input may include a keyword selected by the viewer from the one or more keywords.
As an example of an effect of the embodiment obtained by such a configuration, one or more words to be used for generating one or more questions can be transmitted from the server to the first terminal, and the control unit 11 of the server 10 can appropriately generate one or more questions based on a word selected from the one or more words by the first user and the second information on the second user.

In this case, the control unit 11 of the server 10 may generate one or more keywords based on the live streamer's user information (not limited to this, an example of second information related to the second user).
As an example of an effect of an embodiment obtained by such a configuration, one or more words used to generate one or more questions appropriately generated based on the second information about the second user can be transmitted from the server to the first terminal.

In this embodiment, the question information (not limited to, an example of third information) transmitted from the viewer's terminal 20 to the server 10 includes a question candidate (not limited to, an example of the first question) selected by the viewer (not limited to, an example of the first user) based on the question candidate information (not limited to, an example of the first question information), and the question information (not limited to, an example of the second question information) transmitted from the server 10 to the live streamer's terminal 20 includes the selected question candidate.
As an example of an effect of an embodiment obtained by such a configuration, second question information including a first question selected by the first user based on the first question information can be transmitted from the server to the second terminal.

In addition, this embodiment illustrates a configuration in which a live streamer (not limited to, but an example of a second user) is a user who streams live streaming content (not limited to, but an example of content), and a viewer (not limited to, but an example of a first user) is a user who watches the live streaming content.
As an example of an effect of the embodiment obtained by such a configuration, a first user can view content distributed by a second user. In addition, when viewing the content, the first user can ask a question to the second user.

In this case, the communication I/F 14 of the server 10 may receive live streaming information (not limited to this, but an example of information regarding content distribution) from the live streamer's terminal 20, and transmit live content information (not limited to this, but an example of content information) based on this live streaming information and question information (not limited to this, but an example of second question information) corresponding to the question candidate selected by the viewer to the viewer's terminal 20 and the live streamer's terminal 20.
As an example of an effect of an embodiment obtained by such a configuration, the server can receive information regarding the distribution of content from the second terminal, and then transmit second question information to the first terminal and the second terminal together with content information based on the information regarding the distribution of the content.

In addition, in this embodiment, a terminal (not limited to, an example of a first terminal) of a viewer (not limited to, an example of a first user) communicating with the server 10 transmits information regarding the generation of a question to a live streamer (not limited to, an example of a second user) to the server 10 via the communication I/F 22, and based on the transmission of the information regarding the generation of the question, question candidate information (not limited to, an example of the first question information) consisting of one or more question candidates (not limited to, an example of a question) generated by the server 10 based on the live streamer's user information (not limited to, an example of the second information regarding the second user) is received via the communication I/F 22. Then, the viewer's terminal 20 displays a question included in the received question candidate information on the display unit 24, and based on an input by a user to the display unit 24 on which the question is displayed, the question information (not limited to, an example of the third information regarding the first question information) is transmitted to the server 10 via the communication I/F 22.
As an example of an effect of the embodiment obtained by such a configuration, the terminal of the first user can receive one or more questions generated by the server based on the second information about the second user based on the first information about the generation of a question for the second user being transmitted to the server. The terminal of the first user can display the received one or more questions on the display unit, and transmit third information about the first question information to the server based on an input by the first user to the display unit on which the question is displayed. This allows the second question information based on the transmitted third information to be transmitted from the server to at least the second terminal, making it possible for the first user to ask a question to the second user.

<First Modification (1)>
In the above embodiment, the viewer acquires the question card by purchasing it for a fee, but the present invention is not limited to this.
The viewer may be allowed to obtain the question card free of charge.
As will be described in the second embodiment, the viewer may be allowed to purchase question cards of different amounts (charges).

<First Modification (2)>
The information used by the server 10 to generate question candidates using a language model or the like, as described in the above embodiment, is merely an example and is not limited to what has been described above.

The information used by the server 10 to generate question candidates may include, in addition to the live streamer's user information, at least one of the following pieces of information, by way of example and not limitation:
・Comment history during live streaming (including at least one of the comment history of the live streamer and the comment history of viewers) ・Information based on the voice of the live streamer during live streaming (transcription of the voice, etc.)
・User information of the questioner ・Current information (news, trending information on SNS and search engines)
・Knowledge base information (information contained in dictionaries, encyclopedias, etc.)
It is also possible to use a combination of two or more of these pieces of information.

As an example and not a limitation, the comment history during a live broadcast and information based on the voice of the live broadcaster during the live broadcast may be treated as one type of user information of the live broadcaster.
In addition, as a non-limiting example of current affairs information or knowledge base information, a user may be allowed to register information that interests or concerns him/her in advance, and the information that interests or concerns the live streamer may be treated as one type of user information for the live streamer.

As one method, as described in the above embodiment, the control unit 11 of the server 10 can generate question candidates using only the live streamer's user information.
However, without being limited to this, the control unit 11 of the server 10 may generate question candidates by using, as a non-limiting example, the live streamer's user information in addition to any of the above information.

In addition, the control unit 11 of the server 10 may generate candidate questions by using at least one of the above pieces of information, for example and not by way of limitation, without using the live streamer's user information.

In this modified example, the user information of the live streamer (not limited to this, but an example of the second information) includes information such as comment history information during the live stream by the live streamer and information based on the live streamer's voice (not limited to this, but an example of information based on the content of the content being distributed).
As an example of an effect of a modified example obtained by such a configuration, the server can generate one or more questions based on information based on the content distributed by the second user.

<First Modification (3)>
As explained in the above embodiment, the keyword is not essential, and the processing related thereto may be omitted.
In this case, by way of example and not limitation, steps S1230, S1240, B1230, and B1240 may be omitted in the processing of FIG. 1-11.

In addition, when using keywords, the control unit 11 of the server 10 may generate and acquire the keywords using a language model or the like.
Specifically, as a non-limiting example, a language model in which a word is inferred when the word is input (as a non-limiting example, a language model using a vector space of words) may be used, and any word may be input into the language model, and the word inferred by the language model may be obtained as a keyword.

As another example, but not limited to this, a language model that infers a sentence when a word or the like is input can be used, and any word or the like can be input into the language model, and the word can be extracted from the output sentence inferred by the language model and obtained as a keyword.

In these cases, words based on the live streamer's user information may be input to the language model.
In addition, the input to the language model is not limited to the user information of the live streamer, but may also be words based on various types of information as shown in the first modified example (2).

By varying the input to the language model, multiple keywords can be generated.

Furthermore, when acquiring keywords, the same information used to acquire the keywords may not be used to generate question candidates.
As a non-limiting example, if a certain piece of information from a live streamer is used to obtain keywords, that same piece of information may not be used to generate question candidates.

Similarly, when acquiring keywords, information of the same type as the information used to acquire the keywords may not be used to generate question candidates.
As a non-limiting example, if a certain type of information from a live streamer is used to obtain keywords, that same type of information may not be used to generate question candidates.

This may also be the case when using information other than the live streamer's user information.
The same may be applied to the case where a live streamer's user information and other information are used.

Also, by way of example and not limitation, when displaying keyword information in step B1230 of the process of FIG. 1-11 or FIG. 1-12, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B may cause the display unit 24 to display keyword regeneration confirmation information for confirming with the user whether or not to request (ask) regeneration of the keyword. One example of this, by way of example and not limitation, is the button BTR1 shown in FIG. 1-8 (3).

<First Modification (4)>
As shown in the example display screen, in the above embodiment and each modified example, the control unit 11 of the server 10 may generate example answers to questions and transmit them to the live streamer's terminal 20.

Fig. 1-12 is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of question processing executed by each device in this modified example. The diagram should be read in the same way as Fig. 1-11.
After step S1260, the control unit 11 of the server 10 performs an answer example generation process (S1265). Specifically, as an example and not a limitation, an answer example to a question specified by the question information received from the terminal 20B via the communication I/F 14 is generated by a language model.

Specifically, as a non-limiting example, the question sentence of a question and the live streamer's user information may be input into a language model, and the output sentence inferred by the language model may be an example answer to the question.
In this case, multiple example answers can be generated by varying the input.

Next, in step S1270, the control unit 11 of the server 10 transmits answer request information including the question candidate (question) selected by the user B.B and an example answer thereto to the terminal 20A via the communication I/F 22.
This allows the user A.A, who is a live streamer, to answer the question while referring to the example answers displayed on the display unit 24 of the terminal 20A in step B1220.

This modified example shows a configuration in which the control unit 11 of the server 10 generates example answers to questions (not limited to, but an example of a question included in the second question information), and the communication I/F 14 of the server 10 transmits the example answers to the live streamer's terminal 20 (not limited to, but an example of the second terminal).
As an example of an effect of the embodiment obtained by such a configuration, the server can generate example answers to the question included in the second question information and transmit the example answers to the question to the second user, thereby making it easier for the second user to answer the question.

<First Modification (5)>
In the above embodiment and each of the modified examples, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B may be configured to be able to modify the question candidate selected by the user based on a user input.

Specifically, by way of example and not limitation, after step B1250 of the process in FIG. 1-11 or FIG. 1-12, the control unit 21 of terminal 20B determines whether or not a user input to modify the question candidate selected by the user has been made via the input/output unit 23. Then, if it is determined that such input has been made, the control unit 21 of terminal 20B can transmit, in step B1260, question information including the modified question candidate (hereinafter referred to as the "modified question candidate") to the server 10 via the communication I/F 22.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the example in which the candidate question is corrected on the viewer's terminal 20 .
As a non-limiting example, in the above process, the control unit 11 of the server 10 may perform a process of modifying the question specified by the question information transmitted from the terminal 20B to the server 10 (such as a process of arranging the question). Then, the control unit 11 of the server 10 may transmit answer request information including the question thus obtained to the terminal 20A via the communication I/F 14.

This modified example shows a configuration in which the question information (not limited to, an example of third information) transmitted from the viewer's terminal 20 to the server 10 includes a question candidate (not limited to, an example of a first question) selected by the viewer (not limited to, an example of a first user) based on the question candidate information (not limited to, an example of first question information), and the question information (not limited to, an example of second question information) transmitted from the server 10 to the live streamer's terminal 20 includes the selected question candidate.
As an example of an effect of the modified example obtained by such a configuration, second question information including a first question selected by the first user based on the first question information can be transmitted from the server to the second terminal.

In this case, the question information (not limited to, an example of the second question information) sent from the server 10 to the live streamer's terminal 20 may include a question (not limited to, an example of the second question) based on the selected question (not limited to, an example of the first question).
As an example of the effect of the modified example obtained by such a configuration, second question information including a second question based on a first question selected by the first user based on the first question information can be transmitted from the server to the second terminal.

In this case, the question information (not limited to, an example of third information) transmitted from the viewer's terminal 20 to the server 10 may include a question candidate (not limited to, an example of a third question modified from the first question) modified by the viewer (not limited to, an example of a first user), and the question information transmitted to the second terminal may include the modified question candidate.
As an example of the effect of the modified example obtained by such a configuration, second question information including a third question modified from the first question by the first user can be transmitted from the server to the second terminal.

<First Modification (6)>
In the above embodiment and each modified example, if the generated question candidates include, for example and not by way of limitation, question candidates that are determined to be ethically questionable, such as question candidates that include inappropriate words (hereinafter referred to as "inappropriate words") or question candidates that may conflict with laws or gender, the server 10 determines these question candidates as NG question candidates. Then, question candidates that do not fall under the NG question candidates (hereinafter referred to as "OK question candidates") may be transmitted to the viewer's terminal 20.

Note that, although ethical conditions are used comprehensively here, multiple categories of conditions may be set, such as ethical conditions, legal conditions, and gender-related conditions. The appropriateness of a question candidate may be determined based on at least one of multiple conditions, such as question candidates that include ethically questionable words, question candidates that may conflict with the law, and question candidates that may conflict with gender issues. One of these conditions may be applied, or two or more conditions may be applied in combination.

One method of achieving this, by way of example and not limitation, is to store a database of inappropriate words (NG words, by way of example and not limitation) in the memory unit 15 of the server 10. The control unit 11 of the server 10 can then determine for each question candidate whether or not the sentence of that question candidate contains an inappropriate word, and if it is determined that the sentence contains an inappropriate word, set an inappropriate flag (NG flag) for that question candidate. In other words, by way of example and not limitation, the control unit 11 of the server 10 can perform a filter process (filtering process) for inappropriate words on the generated question candidates.

Also, in relation to the first modified example (5), if a candidate question is determined to be inappropriate by the filtering process, the control unit 11 of the server 10 may modify the candidate question to one that does not include inappropriate words, and then transmit the modified candidate question to the viewer's terminal 20. As a non-limiting example, if a candidate question includes an inappropriate word, the candidate question may be modified by replacing the inappropriate word with another word.

Furthermore, in the above, the control unit 11 of the server 10 may transmit OK question candidates and NG question candidates to the viewer's terminal 20 in a distinguishable manner. Specifically, as a non-limiting example, for an NG question candidate, information indicating that the question candidate may be inappropriate (which may be the above-mentioned inappropriate flag) may be transmitted in association with the question candidate. Then, for an NG question candidate, the viewer's terminal 20 may display the question candidate on the display unit 24 with an NG mark or the like.

In this case, the viewer's terminal 20 may similarly display the OK question candidate on the display unit 24 with an OK mark or the like indicating that the question candidate is not problematic.
Also, the viewer's terminal 20 may be configured to display OK question candidates with an OK mark or the like and to display NG question candidates without a mark or the like.

In addition, while the example given here is of processing question candidates, the same can be done for keywords.

This modified example shows a configuration in which the communication I/F 14 of the server 10 transmits to the viewer's terminal 20 question candidate information consisting of question candidates that satisfy the set conditions from among one or more question candidates generated by the control unit 11.
As an example of the effect of the modified example obtained by such a configuration, fourth question information consisting of a question that satisfies a condition among one or more questions generated by the control unit of the server can be transmitted to the first terminal, or conversely, question information consisting of a question that does not satisfy the set condition can be prevented from being transmitted to the first terminal.

In addition, this modified example illustrates a configuration in which the communication I/F 14 of the server 10 transmits question candidate information (not limited to, but an example of fifth question information) consisting of question candidates that do not satisfy the set conditions, out of one or more question candidates generated by the control unit 11, to the viewer's terminal 20 in a manner that can be distinguished from question candidate information (not limited to, but an example of fourth question candidate) consisting of question candidates that satisfy the set conditions.
As an example of the effect of the modified example obtained by such a configuration, it is possible to enable the first user to distinguish and recognize questions that satisfy the conditions from questions that do not satisfy the conditions, among one or more questions generated by the control unit of the server.

In this case, the set conditions may include that the question does not have any ethical issues.
As an example of the effect of the variation obtained by such a configuration, ethically questionable questions can be distinguished from ethically unquestionable questions.

<First Modification (7)>
As shown in the example of the display screen, in the above embodiment and each modified example, the server 10 may regenerate the question candidates.

Specifically, by way of example and not by way of limitation, when displaying question candidate information in step B1250 of the process in FIG. 1-11 or FIG. 1-12, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B causes the display unit 24 to display question candidate regeneration confirmation information for confirming with the user whether or not to request (ask) regeneration of question candidates. One example of this, by way of example and not by way of limitation, is the button BTR2 shown in FIG. 1-9(1).
It should be noted that the display of the question candidates and the display of the question candidate regeneration confirmation information do not necessarily have to be performed at the same time.

When a user input is made to the question candidate regeneration confirmation display via the input/output unit 23, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B can transmit question candidate regeneration request information, which requests the regeneration of question candidates, to the server 10 via the communication I/F 22. Then, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B can return the process to step B1250.

In this case, after step S1260 of the process in FIG. 1-11 or FIG. 1-12, the control unit 11 of the server 10 determines whether or not question candidate regeneration request information has been received from the terminal 20B via the communication I/F 14. Then, if it is determined that the request has been received, the control unit 11 of the server 10 can return the process to step S1250.

It is also possible to set a limit on the number of times a question can be regenerated. As a non-limiting example, the upper limit is set to three times (regeneration is limited to three times). If the number of times that the control unit 11 of the server 10 has received question candidate regeneration request information from the terminal 20B exceeds the upper limit, the control unit 11 of the server 10 may not perform the question candidate generation process, and may notify the terminal 20B that no more question candidates can be regenerated.

In addition to regenerating the question candidates, the control unit 11 of the server 10 may be able to, for example and not by way of limitation, regenerate the aforementioned keywords or regenerate the aforementioned example answers.

In this modified example, the communication I/F 14 of the server 10 transmits question candidate information (not limited to, an example of the first question information) to the viewer's terminal 20 (not limited to, an example of the first terminal), and then receives question candidate regeneration request information (not limited to, an example of the fifth information related to question generation) transmitted from the viewer's terminal 20. Then, based on receiving the question candidate regeneration request information, the control unit 11 of the server 10 generates one or more question candidates based on the user information of the live streamer, and the communication I/F 14 transmits question candidate information (not limited to, an example of the sixth question information consisting of one or more questions) including the one or more generated question candidates to the viewer's terminal 20.
As an example of the effect of the modified example obtained by such a configuration, and not by way of limitation, if the questions displayed on the first terminal do not include a question that the first user wants, the first user can request the server to generate (or regenerate) a question, and the server can generate (regenerate) one or more questions and then send them to the first terminal.

<First Modification (8)>
In the above embodiments and each of the modified examples, when multiple questions are asked to a live streamer, duplicate or similar questions may be prevented from being asked to the live streamer.

In this case, by way of example and not limitation, the control unit 11 of the server 10 accumulates questions included in the answer request information already sent to the live streamer's terminal 20 (hereinafter referred to as "answer requested questions") in the storage unit 15. Then, by way of example and not limitation, the control unit 11 of the server 10 determines the similarity between the questions generated in the question candidate generation process and the answer requested questions (similarity determination), and can prevent question candidates that are determined to have a similarity equal to or greater than a set standard (high similarity) from being sent to the live streamer's terminal 20, etc.
The similarity of questions may be considered as the relevance of the questions.

The similarity determination can be realized by, for example and not by way of limitation, using the similarity in the encoding results of a language model for the accumulated sentences (for example and not by way of limitation, norm or cosine similarity). One method can be realized by, for example and not by way of limitation, using an embedded representation (=encoding result) of a language model such as the aforementioned "BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers)".

This makes it possible to prevent questions related to or similar to questions already provided to the live streamer from being provided with them. As a result, the live streamer does not have to answer similar questions.

Second Example
The second embodiment is an example, not a limitation, that allows a live streamer to specify (select) a question to answer from among multiple questions.

The contents described in the second embodiment are applicable to any of the other embodiments and other modified examples.
Furthermore, the same components as those already mentioned are given the same reference numerals and will not be described again.

<Data structure>
FIG. 2A is a diagram showing an example of a data structure of the live management database 155B which is an example of the live management database 155 in this embodiment.
Each live management data stores, by way of example and not limitation, a live streamer application ID, comment management data, and question management data.

The live streamer application ID and comment management data can be, by way of example and not limitation, similar to the live stream management database 155A shown in FIG. 1-5.

The question management data is data for managing questions from viewers, and by way of example and not limitation, the question ID, questioner application ID, question time, gift class, and question content are stored in association with each other.

As a non-limiting example, the question ID is set and stored by the server 10 as a unique ID for each question.

The questioner application ID stores the application ID of the questioner (the viewer who asked the question) identified by this question ID.

The question time is, by way of example and not limitation, the time when the question information for this question was received from the questioner's terminal 20, as clocked by the clock unit 19 of the server 10.

As a non-limiting example, the gift class stores a class according to the charge for the question card purchased by the asker to ask the question identified by this question ID.

The question text for this question will be stored in the question content.

<Display screen>
FIG. 2B is a diagram showing an example of information displayed on the display unit of the terminal 20B of the viewer (user B.B.).
2-2(1) shows a screen to which the viewer (user B.B.) moves when the viewer taps the icon ICG. At the bottom of the display unit 24, an area SR4 is provided for the viewer to select a gift to be provided to the live streamer.

Unlike the example shown in Figure 1-8 (2), multiple amounts (in this example, 100 yen, 300 yen, 500 yen, and 1000 yen) are preset as the amount to be paid to obtain the right to ask questions to live streamers (the amount to be paid to purchase a charging card), and icons corresponding to each amount (in this example, ICQ1, ICQ2, ICQ3, and ICQ4) are displayed.

By tapping on any of the icons ICQ1 to ICQ4, the viewer pays the amount corresponding to the selected icon and can acquire the right to ask a question according to that amount.
(1) The priority of answers to questions may be set high.
(2) Many questions may be possible,
(3) Long questions may be possible,
(4) It may be possible to ask questions about specific categories (for example, but not limited to, unpublished schedules, the live streamer's private life, etc.),
(5) The questions may be displayed in a more prominent manner.
These may also be combined in any desired manner.

(2) To allow for a greater number of questions to be asked, by way of example and not limitation, the larger the amount, the more questions the asker may select. By way of example and not limitation, the server 10 or the terminal 20 of the asker may set the number of questions the asker may select from among candidate questions in correspondence with the amount, and the asker may select questions up to the set number.

(3) To allow for longer questions, by way of example and not limitation, the control unit 11 of the server 10 can adjust (change) the input sentence in the question candidate generation process so that the larger the amount, the longer the question sentence is inferred by the language model.

(4) To enable questions of a specific category, by way of example and not limitation, the control unit 11 of the server 10 may input into the language model, in the question candidate generation process, input sentences that use more of the live streamer's unpublished schedule information or private information, the larger the amount.

(5) In order to display the question in a more conspicuous manner, by way of example and not limitation, the server 10 or the terminal 20 may add more conspicuous (more flashy) decoration to the question as the amount increases, or may display the question in a more conspicuous color.

In addition, (1) regarding the priority of answers to questions, the display order of the questions (higher the display position, higher the priority; lower the display position, lower the priority), the order of answers (earlier the order, higher the priority; later the order, lower the priority), the time to answer (if the answer time is set short, higher the priority; if the answer time is set long, lower the priority), etc. can be used as indicators.

In addition, for icons with low monetary value, the viewer may be restricted from generating keywords and questions using a language model (prohibited or limited in category, number of uses, number of candidates presented, time of use, etc.), but for icons with high monetary value, the viewer may be able to generate keywords and questions using a language model.
Conversely, for icons with low monetary value, the viewer must generate keywords and questions using a language model (keywords and questions are limited to the presented candidates), but for icons with high monetary value, the viewer may be able to input questions themselves without using a language model.

On the other hand, for icons with low monetary value, the liver may be able to generate answers using a language model, but for icons with high monetary value, the liver may be restricted from generating answers using a language model (prohibited, or the category, number of uses, number of candidates presented, time available for use, etc. may be limited).
In other words, if a viewer selects an icon with a low price, the live streamer can answer the question using a language model, but if a viewer selects an icon with a high price, the live streamer may have to answer the question themselves without using a language model.

Conversely, for icons with low monetary value, the liver may be restricted from generating answers using a language model (prohibited or the category, number of uses, number of candidates presented, time of use, etc. may be limited), but for icons with high monetary value, the liver may be able to generate answers using a language model.
In other words, if a viewer selects an icon with a low price, the live streamer will not be able to use a language model for the question and will therefore have difficulty answering, but if a viewer selects an icon with a high price, the live streamer will be able to use a language model for the question and will therefore have an easier time answering.

When the viewer taps on the icon ICQ3 (500 yen), multiple keywords for generating questions according to that amount are generated and presented to the viewer (see FIG. 1-8 (3) as an example and not a limitation). Then, when the user selects one of the keywords, multiple questions are generated based on the selected keyword and presented for selection, as shown in FIG. 2-2 (2).

If the viewer taps button BTQ2 ("What is your least favorite food?"), the screen shown in Figure 2-2 (3) will appear. This screen displays a message MS1 ("Question sent") indicating that a question has been sent to the live streamer.

Meanwhile, as a result of the question being sent from the viewer, a message MS2 ("Your question has been received") is displayed on the terminal 20A of the live streamer (user A.A), as shown in Figure 2-3 (1), indicating that a question has been received from the viewer.
In this way, in this example, when a viewer selects a question for a live streamer, the question is not immediately displayed on either the viewer's terminal 20B or the live streamer's terminal 20A. Therefore, the live broadcast (display of image content) is not interrupted by the unexpected display of the question.

An icon ICQL is displayed at the lower right of the comment display area CR for displaying a list of questions sent to the live streamer by each viewer.
In this example, when the live streamer taps the icon ICQL, the screen transitions to the screen shown in Fig. 2-3(2). Then, in the area SR6 provided at the bottom of the display unit 24, each question ("What is your least favorite food?", "What is your favorite anime?", "What is your favorite basketball team?") sent by multiple viewers (user B.B., user D.D., user E.E.) is displayed in association with the icon image (ICB, ICD, ICE) and user name (B.B, D.D, E.E.) of the questioner, and further with the time of reception (how many minutes ago the question was received).

When a live streamer selects a question he or she wishes to answer from among the questions displayed in area SR6, that question is displayed on the live streamer's (user A.A.) terminal 20A.
In this example, the live streamer taps on the question of user B, a viewer, displayed at the top of area SR6 ("What food do you dislike?"), which transitions to the screen in FIG. 2-3(3).

In the example of Figure 2-3 (3), a question unit QU1 including the selected question “What is your least favorite food?” and the icon image of the viewer who asked the question is displayed superimposed on the image content on the display unit 24 of the live streamer’s terminal 20A.
Similarly, the question unit QU1 is displayed on the terminals 20 (20B, 20D, 20E) of the viewers (user B.B., user D.D., user E.E.).

In addition, based on the selected question, an example answer ("green pepper") is generated by the language model as described above, and an example answer unit AU1 containing the generated example answer is displayed below (at the corresponding position to) the question unit QU1 on the display unit 24 of the live streamer's terminal 20A.

In this example, the answer example unit AU1 includes a send button SB1. When the live streamer (user A.A) taps the send button SB1, the live streamer's (user A.A) terminal 20A and the terminals 20 (20B, 20D, 20E) of the viewers (users B.B, D.D, and E.E) display an answer ("I don't like green peppers") based on the answer example ("green peppers") along with the question ("What food do you hate?") selected by the questioner (user B.B).
In addition, an answer based on an example answer may be generated by a language model, or the live streamer may input an answer based on the example answer (as an example and not a limitation, the live streamer may edit the answer from the example answer displayed in the comment input field CIR by operating the comment input field CIR).

In the example of FIG. 2-4(1), the selected question "What's your least favorite food?" and the icon image of the viewer who asked the question are displayed on the terminal 20B of the viewer (user B.B), along with an updated question unit QU1A that includes an answer based on an example answer generated by the language model ("I don't like green peppers"). This question unit QU1A is displayed on the terminal 20A of the live streamer (user A.A) and the terminals 20 (20B, 20D, 20E) of each viewer (user B.B, user D.D, user E.E).

In this example, if the language model infers a sentence such as "I don't like green peppers" as an example answer, this example answer can be presented to the live streamer and then used as the live streamer's answer based on the live streamer's input.

Next, when a predetermined time (3 seconds, for example, but not limited to this) has elapsed since question unit QU1A was displayed (or when an operation to hide question unit QU1A or to select another question is performed), question unit QU1A will be hidden as shown in Figure 2-4 (2), and the question and answer combination contained in question unit QU1A will be displayed in the comment display area CR in association with the icon images and user names of the questioner and the live streamer.

In this example, in region RQB, a question is displayed corresponding to the icon image and user name (B.B) of user B.B, who is the questioner, and an answer is displayed corresponding to the icon image and user name (A.A) of user A.A, who is the live streamer, and the inside of the region is displayed in a common form (first form) with question unit QU1A, thereby clarifying the correspondence between question unit QU1A and region RQB.

In addition, when the live streamer (user A) taps icon ICQL to select user D.D's question (see FIG. 2-3(2)), a question unit QU2 is displayed on the terminal 20B of the viewer (user B.B), which includes the question of another viewer (user D.D) "What is your favorite anime?" and the icon image of the viewer who asked the question. This question unit QU2 is displayed on the terminal 20A of the live streamer (user A.A) and the terminals 20 (20B, 20D, 20E) of each viewer (user B.B, user D.D, user E.E).

Next, in this example, the live streamer (user A.A.) directly inputs a response to the question included in question unit QU2 into the comment input field CIR without using a language model. As a result, as shown in FIG. 2-4 (3), the question from the viewer (user D.D.) ("What is your favorite anime work?") is displayed in a common form (second form) with question unit QU2 in the comment display area CR, associated with the viewer's (user D.D.) icon image ICD and user name (D.D.). The response entered by the live streamer (user A.A.) to the question is then displayed as the comment immediately following the question, associated with the live streamer's icon image ICA and user name (A.A.).

In this way, the live streamer can create a response using a language model, or can create a response by inputting information into the comment input field CIR.
Furthermore, by displaying the question unit and the question (or question and answer) corresponding to that question unit in the comment display area CR in a common manner, it is possible to clarify the correspondence when multiple questions (or questions and answers) are displayed.

Here, the question (or question and answer) may be displayed in different manners depending on the set amount. As a non-limiting example, for a question (or question and answer) generated based on the selection of the 100 yen icon ICQ1 in area SR4 of FIG. 2-2(1), the question unit and comment may be displayed in a first manner, whereas for a question (or question and answer) generated based on the selection of the 500 yen icon ICQ3, the question unit and comment may be displayed in a second manner.

In the above example, information that can identify that the question was generated by a language model (as an example, but not limited to, an icon labeled AI Q) is added to the question based on the fact that the question is generated by a language model. In contrast, information that can identify that the answer was generated by a language model is not added to the answer generated by the language model.
In addition, without being limited to this, for answers generated by a language model, information that can identify that the answer was generated by a language model (as an example, and not by way of limitation, an icon labeled AI Q) may be added to the answer.

<Processing>
Fig. 2-5 is a flow chart showing an example of the flow of processing executed by each device in this embodiment. The diagram should be read in the same way as Fig. 1-10.
After step B110, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B performs a question posting process with the server 10 (B220). After step S110, the control unit 11 of the server 10 performs a question posting process (S220).

FIG. 2-6 is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of a question posting process.
In this figure, the left side shows the process executed by the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B, which is the viewer, and the right side shows the process executed by the control unit 11 of the server 10.

Steps B1210 to B1260 and steps S1210 to S1260 are similar to those in FIG. 1-11.
After step S1260, the control unit 11 of the server 10 performs a question information accumulation process (S2270). Specifically, the control unit 11 adds and stores information based on the question information transmitted from the terminal 20B in step B1260 (question ID, questioner application ID, question time, gift class, question content) as a new data record to the question management data of the corresponding live management data.

Here, only terminal 20B is shown as a viewer, but similar processing is performed for the terminals 20 of the other viewers, so that data based on the question information of each viewer who asked a question is accumulated as a new data record in the question management data of the corresponding live management data.
Of course, it may be possible for the same viewer to ask a question multiple times.

In addition, in step S2270 or thereafter, the control unit 11 of the server 10 may notify the terminal 20A of the live streamer user A.A that a question has been asked by the questioner.

Returning to FIG. 2-5, after step B220, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20B transfers the process to B130. Then, if it is determined that the live streaming end information has not been received (B130: NO), the process returns to B220.

After step S220, the control unit 11 of the server 10 performs question answer processing with the terminal 20A (S230). After step A115, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20A performs question answer processing (A230).

FIG. 2-7 is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of a question and answer process.
In this figure, the left side shows the processing executed by the control unit 21 of the terminal 20A, which is a live streamer, and the right side shows the processing executed by the control unit 11 of the server 10.

The control unit 11 of the server 10, by way of example and not limitation, refers to the question management data of the corresponding live management data and determines whether there are any questions (question IDs) that remain unerased (S2310).

If it is determined that the unsent question remains (S2310: YES), the control unit 11 of the server 10 sends, by way of example and not limitation, posted question list information including the data record corresponding to the unsent question from the question management data to the terminal 20A via the communication I/F 14 (S2320).

When the posted question list information is received from the server 10 via the communication I/F 22 (A2310: YES), the control unit 21 of the terminal 20A causes the display unit 24 to display the posted question list based on the received posted question list information (A2320). As a non-limiting example, the display unit 24 displays the posted question list in a manner that allows the live streamer to recognize at least the questioner and the question content.

Next, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20A determines, based on a user input to the input/output unit 23, whether or not a question to be answered has been designated (selected) from the list of posted questions (A2330).
If it is determined that the question has been designated (A2330: YES), the control unit 21 of the terminal 20A transmits answer question designation information including the question ID corresponding to the question to the server 10 via the communication I/F 22 (A2340).
Furthermore, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20A transmits, by way of example and not limitation, question answer information including at least the question ID of the specified question and the answer content to the server 10 via the communication I/F 22 (A2350).
Then, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20A shifts the process to the end determination of A2360.

After step S2320, the control unit 11 of the server 10 determines whether answer question specification information has been received from the server 10 via the communication I/F 14 (S2320).

If it is determined that the answer has been received (S2320: YES), the server 10 continues to receive the answer information transmitted from the terminal 20A via the communication I/F 14. Then, the control unit 11 of the server 10 performs a question answer information relay process (S2340). Specifically, the control unit 11 relays the answer to the question contained in the received question answer information to the terminal 20B.
The answer contents can be similarly relayed to the terminals 20 of the other viewers.

Next, the control unit 11 of the server 10 performs a question information deletion process (S2350). Specifically, by way of example and not limitation, the control unit 11 deletes (deletes) from the question management data the data record corresponding to the question ID included in the question answer information transmitted and received from the terminal 20A in step A2350. In other words, the control unit 11 deletes the data record of the answered question from the question management data.
Then, the control unit 11 of the server 10 transfers the process to the end determination of A2360.

Returning to FIG. 2-5, after step A230, the control unit 21 of the terminal 20A transfers the process to A130. Then, if it is determined that the live distribution should not end (A130: NO), the process returns to A230.

After step S230, the control unit 11 of the server 10 proceeds to step S130. If it is determined that no live streaming end request information has been received (S130: NO), the control unit 11 returns to step S220.

In the above process, the server 10 transmits the list of submitted questions to the live streamer's terminal 20, the list of submitted questions is displayed on the live streamer's terminal 20, and the live streamer specifies (selects) a question, but this is not limited to the above.

Each time a question is posted by a questioner, the server 10 may transmit answer request information for that question to the live streamer's terminal 20.
In this case, the live streamer's terminal 20 can, by way of example and not limitation, store the posted question list data in the storage unit 28, and add a question included in the answer request information to the posted question list data every time the live streamer receives answer request information from the server 10. The live streamer's terminal 20 can then display the posted question list on the display unit 24 based on the posted question list data stored in the storage unit 28, and allow the live streamer to specify (select) a question.

<Effects of the Second Example>
In this embodiment, the communication I/F 14 of the server 10 transmits posted question list information to the live streamer's terminal 20, receives answer question designation information (not limited to, but an example of information regarding the fourth question selected by the second user) based on this posted question list information, and transmits the question designated by the received answer question designation information (not limited to, but an example of the fourth question) to the viewer's terminal 20.
As an example of an effect of an embodiment obtained by such a configuration, it becomes possible to first have a second user view a list of questions selected by a first user, and then send only the questions selected by the second user from that list to the first terminal for viewing by the first user.

In addition, this embodiment shows a configuration in which the communication I/F 14 of the server 10 transmits answer request information to the live streamer's terminal 20 multiple times, receives answer question designation information (not limited to, but an example of information regarding the fourth question selected by the second user) based on the answer request information transmitted multiple times, and transmits a question (not limited to, but an example of the fourth question) specified by the received answer question designation information to the viewer's terminal 20.
In this case, as above, it is possible to first have the second user view a list of questions selected by the first user, and then send only the questions selected by the second user from that list to the first terminal for viewing by the first user.

<Third Example>
The third embodiment is, by way of example and not by way of limitation, an embodiment relating to preventing a live streamer from giving contradictory answers to questions that he or she has specified (selected) (avoiding contradictory answers).

The contents described in the third embodiment are applicable to any of the other embodiments and other modified examples.
Furthermore, the same components as those already mentioned are given the same reference numerals and will not be described again.

<Data structure>
FIG. 3A is a diagram showing an example of a data structure of the live management database 155C which is an example of the live management database 155 in this embodiment.
The data structure of each live management data is almost the same as that of the live management database 155B in Fig. 2-1, but the structure of the question management data is partially different. Specifically, the question management data stores a question ID, a questioner application ID, a question time, a gift class, a question content, and, by way of example and not limitation, a response content to the question content.

In this embodiment, unlike the second embodiment, even if the server 10 receives question and answer information from the live streamer's terminal 20, the server 10 can prevent the data record corresponding to the question from being erased.
Specifically, as an example and not a limitation, in the question management data, a question ID corresponding to a question identified by the question answer information received by the server 10 is stored in association with the answer content included in the question answer information.
Furthermore, for a question ID corresponding to a question for which no question answer information has been received (an unanswered question), by way of example and not limitation, "N/A (Not Applicable)" is associated and stored.

FIG. 3B is a diagram showing another example of the display of questions and answers displayed on the terminal 20A of the live streamer (user A.A.).
As shown in Figure 3-2 (1), the upper area of the display unit 24 of terminal 20A displays a question unit QU1 containing one of the questions sent by a plurality of viewers (in this example, "What is your least favorite food?"), and below question unit QU1, an example answer unit AU1 containing an example answer to the question contained in question unit QU1 (in this example, "green peppers") is displayed.

The question in question unit QU1 is, by way of example and not limitation, any question included in the list of questions (see FIG. 2-3(2)) that is displayed when the live streamer taps on the icon ICQL. When the live streamer hides question unit QU1 by swiping on the screen in FIG. 3-2(1), the corresponding answer example unit AU1 also automatically moves in the same direction as the swipe and becomes hidden.

As shown in Figure 3-2 (2), in the comment area CR, the question contained in the hidden question unit QU1 ("What's your least favorite food?") is displayed as a comment from the viewer who asked the question (user B.B.), and the answer based on the example answer contained in the hidden answer example unit AU1 ("Green peppers!") is displayed as a comment from the live streamer (user A.A.).

A different question is selected from the list of questions based on priority (or relevance to the answered question), and a new question unit QU4 containing that question (in this example, "What is your favorite food?") is displayed, along with a new answer example unit AU4 containing an example answer generated by the language model based on that question (in this example, "tomatoes").

Here, as in this example, when multiple questions including a first question and a second question are asked of the live streamer, and there is a high relevance between the first question, which has already been answered, and the second question for which an example answer is to be generated (as an example, and not a limitation, when the questions are in the same category and contain the same words), the language model generates an example answer to the second question so that there is no contradiction between the answer to the first question and the example answer to the second question.

By way of example and not limitation, when the first question and the second question have similar meanings, the language model generates an example answer to the second question based on the answer to the first question, the example answer having a similar meaning to the answer to the first question. Also, when the first question and the second question have opposing meanings, as in this example, the language model generates an example answer to the second question based on the answer to the first question, the example answer having a different meaning from the answer to the first question.

This prevents live streamers who use language models to answer questions from giving contradictory answers to multiple questions.
Also, in this example, a question that has already been answered and that is highly related to the question included in question unit QU4 ("What is your favorite food?") ("What is your favorite food?") and the answer to that question ("Green peppers") are displayed as a warning to the live streamer to provide an answer that is consistent with his or her previous answers.

Here, as an example, but not limited to, which may be related to the first modified example (8), the control unit 11 of the server 10 accumulates questions that have already been answered by the live streamer (hereinafter referred to as "answered questions") in the storage unit 15. Then, as an example, but not limited to, the control unit 11 of the server 10 may determine the similarity between the answered question and the question for which an answer example is to be generated (similarity determination), and may not generate an answer example for a question for which the similarity is determined to be equal to or greater than a set standard (high similarity). In other words, as one method, inconsistencies in answers are avoided by not generating answer examples for questions that are determined to have a high similarity (relevance).
The similarity of questions may be considered as the relevance of the questions.

As described above, the similarity determination can be realized by using the similarity in the encoding results of a language model for the accumulated sentences (norm or cosine similarity, for example and not by way of limitation), as described above. One method can be realized by using the embedded representation (=encoding result) of a language model such as the above-mentioned "BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers)," for example and not by way of limitation.

By doing this, example answers will not be generated for questions that are related or similar to questions that the live streamer has already answered. As a result, it is possible to prevent the live streamer from giving contradictory answers to questions.

<Effects of the Third Embodiment>
This embodiment illustrates a configuration in which a terminal 20 (not limiting, but an example of a second terminal) of a live streamer (not limiting, but an example of a second user) performs processing to prevent the live streamer from giving contradictory answers to questions from a questioner.
As an example of an effect of an embodiment obtained by such a configuration, by way of example and not by way of limitation, even when many questions are posed to the second user, the second user may be able to appropriately answer each of the questions.

＜Other＞
(1) Applications (services)
In the above embodiment and each modified example, the present invention is applied to a live distribution application, but the present invention is not limited to this.

By way of example and not limitation, the present invention may be applied to a matching application (matching service) that allows one user (first user) to ask a question to another user (second user).

Furthermore, as a non-limiting example, there is a system in which, when a broadcaster broadcasts live using a video distribution application (video distribution service), viewers charge (pay) the broadcaster in the form of, for example and not by way of limitation, a donation. In such a system, as a non-limiting example, a viewer who makes a donation equal to or greater than a set amount is granted the right to ask questions of the broadcaster, and it is possible for the viewer to ask questions of the broadcaster using a method similar to that described in the above embodiment and each modified example.

The technique of the present invention may be applied to a system in which some content is distributed by a distributor and the distributed content can be viewed by a user.

(2) Question Generation Method In the above embodiment and each modification, the process of generating questions (candidate questions) mainly using a language model has been illustrated, but the present invention is not limited to this.
The server 10 or the terminal 20 may generate questions (candidate questions) using a sentence generation method (sentence generation model) that is not generally included in the category of a language model (such as, for example and without limitation, a method of randomly returning questions). Any method can be applied as the sentence generation method.
The same may be applied to the generation of keywords, example answers, and the like.

(3) Processing Subject In the above embodiment and modified examples, the control unit 21 of the questioner's terminal 20 may generate question candidates using a method similar to the method described in the above embodiment.
The same may be applied to the generation of keywords, example answers, and the like.

In addition, when a live streamer answers a question using a language model (for example and not limitation, when an answer is generated using a language model using example answers), the live streamer's terminal 20 may generate an answer to the question using a method similar to the method described in the above examples, etc.

Reference Signs List 1: Communication system 10: Server 20: Terminal 30: Network

Claims (20)

A server communicating with a first terminal of a first user and a second terminal of a second user different from the first user,
A communication unit that receives first information related to the generation of a question transmitted from the first terminal;
and a control unit configured to generate one or more questions based on second information about the second user based on receiving the first information;
the communication unit transmits first question information consisting of the one or more questions to the first terminal, receives third information related to the first question information transmitted from the first terminal based on the transmission of the first question information, and transmits second question information based on the third information to at least the second terminal ;
the third information includes a first question selected by the first user based on the first question information;
The second question information includes the first question . 2. The server of claim 1,
The control unit generates one or more questions according to a language model. 2. The server of claim 1,
the first information includes information based on an input by the first user to the first terminal;
The control unit generates one or more questions based on information based on the input and the second information. 4. The server according to claim 3,
The input-based information includes words entered by the first user into the first terminal. A server communicating with a first terminal of a first user and a second terminal of a second user different from the first user,
A communication unit that receives first information related to the generation of a question transmitted from the first terminal;
and a control unit configured to generate one or more questions based on second information about the second user based on receiving the first information;
the first information includes information based on an input by the first user to the first terminal;
The control unit generates one or more questions based on information based on the input and the second information;
the communication unit transmits first question information consisting of the one or more questions to the first terminal, receives third information related to the first question information transmitted from the first terminal based on the transmission of the first question information, and transmits second question information based on the third information to at least the second terminal;
The communication unit transmits one or more words to be used to generate the one or more questions to the first terminal, and the information based on the input includes a word selected from the one or more words by the first user. 6. The server according to claim 5,
The control unit generates the one or more words based on the second information. 2. The server of claim 1 ,
The second question information includes a second question based on the first question. 2. The server of claim 1 ,
the third information includes a third question modified from the first question by the first user;
The second question information includes the third question. A server communicating with a first terminal of a first user and a second terminal of a second user different from the first user,
A communication unit that receives first information related to the generation of a question transmitted from the first terminal;
and a control unit configured to generate one or more questions based on second information about the second user based on receiving the first information;
the communication unit transmits first question information consisting of the one or more questions to the first terminal, receives third information related to the first question information transmitted from the first terminal based on the transmission of the first question information, and transmits second question information based on the third information to at least the second terminal;
The control unit generates example answers to the questions included in the second question information, and the communication unit transmits the example answers to the second terminal. A server communicating with a first terminal of a first user and a second terminal of a second user different from the first user,
A communication unit that receives first information related to the generation of a question transmitted from the first terminal;
and a control unit configured to generate one or more questions based on second information about the second user based on receiving the first information;
the communication unit transmits first question information consisting of the one or more questions to the first terminal, receives third information related to the first question information transmitted from the first terminal based on the transmission of the first question information, and transmits second question information based on the third information to at least the second terminal;
The communication unit transmits fourth question information consisting of a question that satisfies a set condition among the one or more questions to the first terminal. 11. The server of claim 10 ,
The communication unit transmits fifth question information, consisting of a question that does not satisfy the condition among the one or more questions, to the first terminal in a manner distinguishable from the fourth question information. 11. The server of claim 10 ,
The conditions include that the questions are free of ethical issues. A server communicating with a first terminal of a first user and a second terminal of a second user different from the first user,
A communication unit that receives first information related to the generation of a question transmitted from the first terminal;
and a control unit configured to generate one or more questions based on second information about the second user based on receiving the first information;
the communication unit transmits first question information consisting of the one or more questions to the first terminal, receives third information related to the first question information transmitted from the first terminal based on the transmission of the first question information, and transmits second question information based on the third information to at least the second terminal;
the communication unit receives fifth information related to generation of a question transmitted from the first terminal after transmitting the first question information to the first terminal;
The control unit generates one or more questions based on the second information upon receiving the fifth information;
The communication unit transmits sixth question information consisting of the one or more questions to at least the first terminal. A server communicating with a first terminal of a first user and a second terminal of a second user different from the first user,
A communication unit that receives first information related to the generation of a question transmitted from the first terminal;
and a control unit configured to generate one or more questions based on second information about the second user based on receiving the first information;
the communication unit transmits first question information consisting of the one or more questions to the first terminal, receives third information related to the first question information transmitted from the first terminal based on the transmission of the first question information, and transmits second question information based on the third information to at least the second terminal;
The communication unit transmits the second question information to the second terminal multiple times, receives information regarding a fourth question selected by the second user based on the second question information transmitted multiple times, and transmits the fourth question to at least the first terminal. 2. The server of claim 1,
the second user is a user who distributes content;
The first user is a user who views the content. A server communicating with a first terminal of a first user and a second terminal of a second user different from the first user,
A communication unit that receives first information related to the generation of a question transmitted from the first terminal;
and a control unit configured to generate one or more questions based on second information about the second user based on receiving the first information;
the communication unit transmits first question information consisting of the one or more questions to the first terminal, receives third information related to the first question information transmitted from the first terminal based on the transmission of the first question information, and transmits second question information based on the third information to at least the second terminal;
the second user is a user who distributes content;
The first user is a user who views the content,
The communication unit receives information regarding the distribution of the content from the second terminal, and transmits content information based on the information regarding the distribution and the second question information to the first terminal and the second terminal. A server communicating with a first terminal of a first user and a second terminal of a second user different from the first user,
A communication unit that receives first information related to the generation of a question transmitted from the first terminal;
and a control unit configured to generate one or more questions based on second information about the second user based on receiving the first information;
the communication unit transmits first question information consisting of the one or more questions to the first terminal, receives third information related to the first question information transmitted from the first terminal based on the transmission of the first question information, and transmits second question information based on the third information to at least the second terminal;
the second user is a user who distributes content;
The first user is a user who views the content,
The second information includes information based on the distribution details of the content. A program executed by a server communicating with a first terminal of a first user and a second terminal of a second user different from the first user,
receiving first information related to question generation transmitted from the first terminal by a communication unit of the server;
generating, by a control unit of the server, one or more questions based on second information regarding the second user based on receiving the first information;
transmitting first question information consisting of the one or more questions to the first terminal by the communication unit;
receiving, by the communication unit, third information related to the first question information transmitted from the first terminal based on the transmission of the first question information;
and transmitting second question information based on the third information to at least the second terminal by the communication unit ,
the third information includes a first question selected by the first user based on the first question information;
The second question information includes the first question . 1. An information processing method of a server that communicates with a first terminal of a first user and a second terminal of a second user different from the first user, comprising:
receiving first information related to question generation transmitted from the first terminal by a communication unit of the server;
generating, by a control unit of the server, one or more questions based on second information regarding the second user based on receiving the first information;
transmitting first question information consisting of the one or more questions to the first terminal by the communication unit;
receiving, by the communication unit, third information related to the first question information transmitted from the first terminal based on the transmission of the first question information;
transmitting second question information based on the third information to at least the second terminal by the communication unit ;
the third information includes a first question selected by the first user based on the first question information;
The second question information includes the first question . A program executed by a first terminal of a first user in communication with a server, the program comprising:
transmitting first information regarding generation of a question for a second user different from the first user to the server by a communication unit of the first terminal;
receiving, by the communication unit, first question information consisting of one or more questions generated by the server based on second information related to the second user based on the first information;
displaying the one or more questions on a display unit of the first terminal;
and transmitting, by the first terminal, third information related to the first question information to the server through the communication unit based on an input by the first user to the first terminal on which the one or more questions are displayed ;
the third information includes a first question selected by the first user based on the first question information, and is used to generate second question information to be transmitted to a second terminal of the second user;
The second question information includes the first question .

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