KR20020073018A - Method for growing character by data communication - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A method for growing a character by using communication is provided to grow a character based on the degree of interactional connection of a user. CONSTITUTION: Subscriber terminals(10,20) are accessible to the Internet. Subscribers(A,B) apply for a character growing service by using the terminals. A program for growing a character and a character are downloaded from a service provider to the terminal. The terminal checks the transmission of data to the other terminal and the reception of data from the other terminal. Depending on the degree of data transmission and reception, the character stored in the terminal is grown. A mobile communication service provider(30) helps the terminal use the wireless Internet and install the character growing program to the subscriber terminal. A character growing service provider(40) provides the character growing program and character to the subscriber terminal through an Internet server(41). The character is provided by using an image contents server(42) depending on the choice of the subscriber. The image contents server transmits the energy of a corresponding character to the terminal with response to the energy supply request from the character.

Description

How to grow a character using communication {Method for growing character by data communication}

The present invention relates to a character additional service of the Internet or wireless Internet, and more particularly, the character is provided to his terminal through the Internet or the wireless Internet, and the character grows according to the degree of interconnection such as the number and time of connection with a specific counterpart. It's about a service that lets

Recently, personal mobile communication users such as cellular phones and PCS are rapidly increasing, and the number of subscribers has already surpassed the number of landline users. Such mobile communication devices are widely distributed to young people, and a large number of middle and high school students as well as university students possess mobile communication devices.

Many mobile operators are currently providing various additional services, such as incoming melody download service, character download service, entertainment, games and chat, to attract younger customers, one of the most popular of these services is character. It is a service.

Young people, called N generations, like new and fun things and like to decorate their handsets with them.

The character service is popular among many young people on the Internet, and it is possible to select a character of its own and to change the shape or the hair of the character as desired.

In the past, there was a game called Tamagotchi, which raises characters as if they were pets. This is a promising business that has gained a lot of popularity among young people, as it has been popular among young people.

Characters currently provided are such that the user can change the shape of the character's head or costume as desired as described above. In addition, in the case of a game that raises a character, such as Tamagotchi, each game machine is to allow the user of the game machine to independently raise a character.

An object of the present invention is to provide a character raising service that grows characters according to the degree of interconnection (connection time and number of times, etc.), such as chatting, SMS, and telephone calls with a specific partner connected to a network, rather than raising an individual alone. .

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an entire system for providing a service according to the present invention.

Figure 2 is a flow chart illustrating a character raising service operating method.

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

11, 12: wireless communication terminal 20: computer for using the Web

30: mobile service provider 40: character raising service provider

41: Internet Server 42: Image Content Server

Method for raising a character using the communication of the present invention for achieving the above object is a step of checking the number of the external terminal to communicate with the terminal in which the character raising character is stored in the Internet additional service to grow the character, external terminal If the terminal has a predetermined number, the step of checking the communication degree with the external terminal, and growing the character stored in accordance with the communication degree.

1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an entire system for providing a service according to the present invention.

Subscriber terminal (10, 20) is a terminal capable of the Internet (Web) or wireless Internet, subscribers (A, B) apply for the character raising service using the subscriber terminal (10, 20), from the character raising service provider Download the character raising program and character to the subscriber's wireless communication terminal (10).

The growth of the character is when the wireless communication terminal 10 checks each time when transmitting data to and receiving data from the specified terminal, the wireless communication terminal 10 according to the degree of data transmission and reception It is to grow a saved character. This will be described later in detail.

The mobile communication provider 30 enables the wireless communication terminals 10 to use the wireless Internet, and installs and provides a character raising program in the wireless communication terminal 10 provided to the mobile communication subscriber.

The character raising service provider 40 provides a character raising program and character to the wireless communication terminal 10 through the Internet server 41. At this time, the character raising characters are provided by using the image content server 42 according to the selection of the subscribers (A, B), the image content server 42 corresponding to the request for energy replenishment of the character from the wireless communication terminal 10 The energy of the character is transmitted to the terminal.

2 is a flowchart illustrating a method of operating a character raising service.

The mobile communication subscriber A uses the wireless communication terminal 11 or the terminal 20 using the web to communicate with the Internet server 41 or the character raising service provider 40 of the character raising service provider 40. Connect to the Internet server (not shown) of the operator 30 to apply for the character raising service (step 201). This character raising is not only available alone, but through a communication between one's own terminal and a specific external terminal, so there must be a partner. The subscriber connected to the Internet server 41 enters the phone number of the other party (B) terminal 12 to use the service and selects a character produced separately for character raising.

In this case, the subscriber may arbitrarily designate the other party or may be designated by mutual consent. That is, the character raising service does not affect the other party at all, and only the subscriber transmits the data such as a telephone call, a chat, a short message transmission to the corresponding party, and how much data is received from the corresponding party. Since it is to raise the character stored in the terminal does not affect the opponent. Therefore, it is not necessary to obtain the consent of the designated party. However, in order to use these services more fun, it is desirable to use mutual services with the other party. For example, you can test the level of interest between lovers based on who grew more characters.

Subscriber (A) applied to use the character raising service Internet server 41 of the character raising service provider 40 or the Internet server of the mobile communication provider 30 contracted with the character raising service provider 40 If not downloaded from the wireless communication terminal 11 (not shown), and then downloads the character raising character selected by the character raising program automatically stores the character in the terminal 10 (step 202).

In this case, the character raising program may be provided to the terminal 11 when the subscriber A joins the corresponding mobile communication from the mobile communication service provider 30 having a contract with the character raising service provider 40. In this case, the subscriber only needs to download and store the character raising character from the above-mentioned Internet servers.

The wireless communication terminal 11 which has downloaded the character raising program checks the telephone number of the corresponding external terminal when communicating with the external terminal based on the execution of the character raising program (step 203). That is, the wireless communication terminal 11 checks each time whether or not to transmit or receive data with the designated wireless communication terminal 12. When the subscriber A tries to transmit data (telephone call, chat, short message transmission, etc.) to the outside, the telephone number of the external terminal to be input is monitored. When the number of the wireless communication terminal 12 is input and the data is transmitted during monitoring, the transmission status (transmission amount and the number of transmissions such as how long the data has been transmitted) is checked and stored. In addition, when the data is received from the outside, the wireless communication terminal 11 checks the telephone number of the data sender, and if the caller's telephone number is the telephone number of the designated wireless communication terminal 12, the reception status of the data (how long the data is received) Check the amount of reception and the number of reception) and save it.

The wireless communication terminal 11 grows the character according to the degree of communication with the wireless communication terminal 12 having the designated telephone number as described above based on the execution of the character raising program (step 204). The growth of the character is performed in real time whenever data communication with the wireless communication terminal 12 occurs according to the check result in step 203, or aggregates the data communication situation in a certain time unit (for example, a day) so as to correspond thereto. It can be grown. Character according to the present invention is made in the form of a sophisticated block unit up to a certain form is designed in the form of a block unit, the form of the block unit is assembled or disassembled in the growth stage.

In addition, the growth rate of the character can vary the growth rate according to data transmission and reception. For example, when the wireless communication terminal 11 transmits data to the wireless communication terminal 12, the character grows to 200 bytes every data transmission, and when receiving data from the wireless communication terminal 12, the character is 100 bytes every data reception. To grow. Of course, the growth rate and the degree of growth between the transmission and reception can be controlled. As a result, when the data reception is large, the character's growth rate is slower than when the data transmission is large, and thus, it is particularly effective among lovers, as it induces a lot of calls to the other party for the character's growth.

The wireless communication terminal 11 stores the last transmission time or reception time with the wireless communication terminal 12 based on the execution of the character raising program, and counts the time from this time until the next transmission / reception is made (step 205). ).

If the wireless communication terminal 11 does not transmit data to the wireless communication terminal 12 or receives data from the wireless communication terminal 12 for a predetermined time after the last transmission / reception time, there is insufficient energy source to grow a character ( Step 206), the wireless communication terminal 11 displays a warning message requesting energy replenishment and emits a warning sound (e.g., 'hungry').

The user of the wireless communication terminal 11 in contact with the message and the warning sound presses the call button of the wireless communication terminal 11 to access the character raising service provider 40 and downloads the energy of his character (step 207).

The downloading in this step 207 is made possible by the subscriber A pressing the call button of the wireless communication terminal 11 only once. To this end, the phone number of the character raising service subscriber (A) and the character information selected by the subscriber (A) is stored in the DB of the mobile communication provider (30). The character raising program requires energy supplementation when the subscriber A presses the call button of the terminal 11 in a situation where an energy supplement is required, that is, a warning message for requesting energy supplementation is displayed on the wireless communication terminal 11. The signal is transmitted to the mobile communication service provider 30. The mobile telecommunication service provider 30 having received the energy replenishment request signal searches the DB to find the character stored in the wireless communication terminal 11. Next, the terminal 11 is connected to the image content server 42 of the character raising service provider 40 so as to download an energy source for the character stored in the wireless communication terminal 11. Character raising service provider 40 that provides the energy source of the character is charged for the character energy supply to the phone number of the corresponding wireless communication terminal (11).

If the character's growth continues and the character's growth is complete or if subscriber A no longer wants to use the character raising service (step 208), this service is terminated, otherwise the service continues.

In step 208, the character may continue to grow, but only to a certain extent, or to some extent, to die like a living creature, increasing the achievement of subscriber A by setting the completion point of character growth and downloading the new character again. It is desirable to increase interest by receiving new growth.

The present invention is not limited to the above, and various modifications are possible.

For example, the above-described steps 203 to 206 may be performed by the character raising service provider 40 or the mobile communication service provider 30. In step 201, if the telephone numbers of the wireless communication terminal 11 and the counterpart terminal 12 are registered in the DB of the mobile communication provider 30, the service provider 40 or the mobile communication service provider 30 may use the wireless communication terminal 11 Of the communication information with the wireless communication terminal 12 is checked. When communication between the wireless communication terminal 11 and the wireless communication terminal 12 occurs, the service provider 40 or the mobile communication provider 30 grows the character in real time or on a predetermined time unit according to the communication degree. The mobile communication service provider 30 stores the last communication time between the wireless communication terminal 11 and the wireless communication terminal 12 and counts the time until the next communication. If no communication occurs between the two wireless communication terminals 11 and 12 for a predetermined time, the service provider 40 or the mobile communication provider 30 transmits a warning message to the wireless communication terminal 11 as a short message. Since the following process is the same, description is abbreviate | omitted.

As described above, the method of growing a character using the communication of the present invention has the effect of inducing the interest of the user by growing the character according to the degree of communication with a specific counterpart, and promote the user's telephone use. .

Claims (8)

In the internet add-on service to grow a character, (1) checking the number of the counterpart terminal communicating with the terminal in which the character growth character is stored; (2) checking the degree of communication with the counterpart terminal when the counterpart terminal has a predetermined number; And (3) a method for growing a character using communication comprising growing a stored character according to the communication degree. The method of claim 1, wherein the communication in the step 1 is a telephone call, an image chat, or a short message transmission with the external terminal. The method of claim 1, wherein the terminal generates at least one warning message and a warning sound if communication with an external terminal having a designated number is not performed for a predetermined period of time. The method of claim 1, wherein the character is grown at different growth rates when transmitting data to the external terminal and when receiving data from the external terminal. The method of claim 1, wherein the growth of the character is performed in a wireless communication terminal. The method of claim 1, wherein the number of the external terminal is a phone number of the external terminal. The method of claim 1, wherein in step 3, the character is in the form of an elaborate block unit and the forms of the block unit are assembled or disassembled according to the growth stage. . The communication method according to claim 3, wherein when at least one of the warning message and the warning sound is output, the terminal receives energy for character growth from the character raising service provider only by pressing any one button of the terminal. How to grow a character using.