WO2007058420A1

WO2007058420A1 - Emoticon message transforming system and method for the same

Info

Publication number: WO2007058420A1
Application number: PCT/KR2006/002126
Authority: WO
Inventors: Se Hyuk Song
Original assignee: Polidigm Co., Ltd.
Priority date: 2005-11-17
Filing date: 2006-06-02
Publication date: 2007-05-24

Abstract

Provided an emoticon message conversion system which extracts an optimal emoticon in accordance with the size of an outgoing message of a service subscriber and message tags set by a user, combines the emoticon and the outgoing message so as to generate an emoticon message, provides the generated emoticon message to a destination mobile communication terminal, and further extracts abbreviated symbols of a user from an outgoing messaige so as to provide a message, in which the abbreviated symbols are substituted with preset words or common phrases, to a destination mobile communication terminal. In the emoticon message conversion system, in accordance with tags inserted in a message, preset setting values, or basic setting values, an emoticon is extracted so as to be inserted into a short message. Therefore, a user does not need to create an emoticon by combining characters/numbers one by one, but can easily show an emoticon.

Description

[DESCRIPTION] [Invention Title]

EMOTICON MESSAGE TRANSFORMING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR THE SAME

[Technical Field]

The present invention relates to an emoticon message conversion system which can be provided in a mobile communication system, and more specifically, to an emoticon message conversion system which extracts an optimal emoticon in accordance with the size of an outgoing message of a service subscriber and message tags set by a user, combines the emoticon and the outgoing message so as to generate an emoticon message, provides the generated emoticon message to a destination mobile communication terminal, and further extracts abbreviated symbols of a user from an outgoing message so as to provide a message, in which the abbreviated symbols are substituted with preset words or common phrases, to a destination mobile communication terminal.

[Background Art]

In the invention, an emoticon message means a message, in which a specific emoticon is inserted in a short message, in addition to a mobile communication text message written by a user. In general, an emoticon means a text message which is used to deliver emotion or intention to the opposite party. In the invention, an emoticon message means a text-type message which is additionally written by a user so as to be inserted into a text message, without being limited to delivering emotion or intention.

Recently, as a communication technology develops, additional services provided in a mobile communication terminal also develop diversely for user's convenience. Among them, a text message service (SMS; Short Message Service, and LMS; Long Message Service) serves to deliver to the opposite party what is desired to be said, when conversation by telephone is impossible.

Meanwhile, a user uses an emoticon so as to express his/her intention in a message, the emoticon being obtained by combining general letters (for example, English and Korean alphabet) and special letters (for example, symbols and rules). What is written by a user or what is widely known in public is used as an emoticon. For example, a smiling face is represented by ':)' or ':-)', which seems like a smiling face when turned to the right. For another example, when an emoticon such as ^IΛo^ΛI, ^IΛΛI, or ^IΛ.^ΛI is added next to a sentence saying 'feel so good', it is possible to emphasize the feeling.

In a conventional short message service, a user calls a short message writing menu of a mobile communication terminal, and inputs letters/numbers, which will be transmitted to the opposite party, through key buttons of the mobile communication terminal, thereby creating one short message. That is, a user presses letter/number buttons of the mobile communication terminal so as to input words which will be transmitted to the opposite party, and presses letter/number buttons in a different order so as to input a letter/number-combined emoticon, thereby creating one short message.

In the conventional method, a user should select general letter/numbers/special letter one by one so as to combine them, in order to insert an emoticon into a short message. Therefore, it is annoying to write an emoticon message. Further, since all emoticons are not provided in a mobile communication terminal and a user does not know all emoticons which are widely known, it is impossible to accurately represent an emoticon suitable for what is desired to be delivered. Accordingly, the opposite party cannot accurately understand the meaning of the emoticon shown in the short message. Further, in the related art, the size of a short message to be transmitted is limited to, for example, 80 bytes depending on a transmission method. Therefore, as the number of words to be transmitted to the opposite party increases, there are difficulties in representing all emoticons in a short message with a limited transmission capacity.

Meanwhile, when an emoticon is written by combining letters/numbers or a general text message is written, a user must input various letters/numbers through limited buttons of a mobile communication terminal. Further, in order to write one word or text, multiple consonant button inputs and multiple vowel button inputs are needed. Therefore, users who are not accustomed to the text message writing function of a mobile communication terminal, or particularly inputting letters through a button-pressing method, do not frequently use the text message service in comparison with the convenience thereof, but usually use a text message service through the Internet by using a computer keyboard.

Accordingly, a technique is urgently required, in which a subscriber can optimally represent his/her emotion or intention, while reliably maintaining the compatibility with the text message service technique according to the related art. When a text message or emoticon is written, the number of inputs using the buttons of a mobile communication terminal should be effectively shortened so as to provide a user with the convenience. Further, as users use a paid text message service, a mobile communication provider can create profits.

In general, the capacity of a mobile communication terminal in Korea, which can send a short message one time, is limited to 80 bytes. In the service of attaching an emoticon to a short message, a surplus space in the capacity of 80 bytes, which is not filled with a short message, is utilized as a space for attaching an emoticon. Therefore, the larger the surplus space, the more the kinds of attachable emoticons. In the related art, however, character codes corresponding to enter and blank are unconditionally used to set the boundary between an emoticon and a short message, while the short message and the emoticon are combined. Therefore, the surplus space is wasted, so that the number of attachable emoticons is shortened.

[Disclosure] [Technical Problem]

An advantage of the present invention is that it provides an emoticon message conversion system which extracts an optimal emoticon in accordance with the size of an outgoing message of a service subscriber and message tags set by a user, combines the emoticon and the outgoing message so as to generate an emoticon message, provides the generated emoticon message to a destination mobile communication terminal, extracts abbreviated symbols of a user from an outgoing message so as to provide a message, in which the abbreviated symbols are substituted with preset words or common phrases, to a destination mobile communication terminal, and makes the best of a short message space of 80 bytes so as to provide an effective emoticon attachment service.

In the invention, when a vertical emoticon is attached, a letter string composing an emoticon is inserted between the spaces of a subscriber message. When an emoticon string is inserted between letters, in which one character is composed of two bytes, like the Korean alphabet or special symbols, the subscriber message can be broken. Therefore, another advantage of the invention is that it provides an emoticon attachment service in which an emoticon string can be inserted even when a vertical emoticon is attached.

[Technical Solution]

According to an aspect of the invention, emoticon message conversion system includes an emoticon storing unit that stores all or some of a plurality of emoticons which have the same shape and have different sizes from each other, a plurality of emoticons which have different shapes and express the same emotion, various tags, and a plurality of emoticons corresponding to the tags; a subscriber information storing unit that stores setting items related to an emoticon message conversion service and terminal information of mobile communication terminals (incoming/outgoing message terminal information); a message receiving unit that receives a message written by a subscriber in the terminal side; a subscriber authentication unit that verifies the terminal information of a destination mobile communication terminal receiving the message and the setting items related to the emoticon message conversion service; a message discriminating unit that recognizes whether or not tags are inserted in the message, separates a subscriber message and the tags from the received message when the tags are inserted, analyzes the separated tags, and calculates a surplus capacity with respect to the received message; an emoticon extracting unit that extracts from the emoticon storing unit one or more emoticons corresponding to the tags when the tags are inserted, extracts from the emoticon storing unit one or more emoticons corresponding to the setting items related to the emoticon message conversion service when the tags are not inserted, and selects an optimized emoticon from one or more extracted emoticons by referring to the surplus capacity; an emoticon combining unit that refers to the number of letters/numbers in horizontal line in accordance with the display specification of the destination mobile communication terminal, attaches an emoticon in front of a short message, in the back of the short message, or between the spaces of the short message such that the left side of the short message is aligned on the display, obtains length information of the short message and length information of the horizontal line on the display of the destination mobile communication terminal when an emoticon is attached in the back of the short message, judges whether or not the length of the short message corresponds to integer times the length of the horizontal line on the display on the basis the length information, inserts an enter into the end of the short message only when the length of short message does not correspond to integer times, and then combines the subscriber message and the selected emoticon or substitutes the received message with the selected emoticon on the basis of the setting items related to the emoticon message conversion service or the tags, thereby generating an emoticon message; and a message transmitting unit that transmits the emoticon message to the destination mobile communication terminal.

According to another aspect of the invention, the emoticon storing unit further stores various abbreviated symbols and a plurality of short texts (words or common phrases) corresponding to the abbreviated symbols, and the message discriminating unit further recognizes whether abbreviated symbols are inserted in the message or not. The emoticon message conversion system further includes a short text extracting unit that extracts a short text (word or common phrase) indicated by the recognized abbreviated symbol, and a message substituting unit that substitutes the recognized abbreviated symbol with the extracted short text in the message.

According to a further aspect of the invention, the emoticon message conversion system further includes an Internet matching unit that provides all or some of a function of subscribing the emoticon message conversion service, a function of writing a message, a function of setting items related to the emoticon message conversion service, and a function of setting/inquiring abbreviated symbols through a web page.

According to a still further aspect of the invention, the emoticon extracting unit extracts an emoticon, including a blank region having a size lager than the subscriber message, from the emoticon storing unit, and the emoticon combining unit substitutes and inserts the subscriber message into the entire portion or a portion of the blank region of the extracted emoticon.

According to a still further aspect of the invention, the emoticon combining unit substitutes the subscriber message with a specific emoticon and combines the selected emoticon and the subscriber message.

According to a still further aspect of the invention, an emoticon message conversion method includes judging whether or not the length of a received short message text is less than predetermined K bytes; attaching a one-line horizontal emoticon if the length of the text is not less than K bytes, and filling K bytes of the short message text with blanks if the length of the text is less than K bytes; setting to an initial value the number N of lines on the display screen of a mobile communication terminal and byte M of the position where an emoticon is attached; checking the number of ACSII characters between the (8*N-M)th byte and the (8*(N+1)-M)th byte of the text; judging whether the number of ASCII characters within the interval of the checking is odd or not; increasing M by one (M = M + 1) if the number of ASCII characters within the interval is odd; setting the (8*(N+1)-M)th byte to a position where the (N+l)th emoticon letter string is attached, when the number of ASCII characters within the interval is not odd or M is increased by one; increasing N by one (N = N + 1) and then judging whether N is larger than four (N > 4) or not; proceeding to the checking of the number of ASCII characters if N is not larger than four, setting a position where the next emoticon string is attached, and judging whether the length of the text is smaller than (K-M) bytes if N is larger than four; and attaching a one-line horizontal emoticon if the length of the text is not smaller than (K-M) bytes, and removing the blanks added to the (K-M)th to Kth bytes of the text if the length of the text is smaller than (K-M) bytes.

According to a still further aspect of the invention, an emoticon message conversion system includes an emoticon storing unit that stores a plurality of emoticons; a subscriber information storing unit that stores message conversion settings and various mobile communication terminal information; a message receiving unit that receives a subscriber message from an outgoing message terminal; a subscriber authentication unit that verifies terminal information of an incoming message terminal and message conversion settings; a message discriminating unit that analyzes the subscriber message and calculates the surplus capacity of a short message with respect to the subscriber message; an emoticon extracting unit that refers the surplus capacity so as to extract an emoticon, used for the subscriber message, corresponding to the message conversion setting from the emoticon storing unit; an emoticon combining unit that, when creating an emoticon message by referring to the message conversion setting so as to combine and arrange the subscriber message and the extracted emoticon, refers to the number of bytes of the horizontal line in accordance with the display specification of the incoming message terminal so as to combine the subscriber message and the emoticon such that the left side thereof is aligned on a display, judges whether or not the length of the subscriber message corresponds to integer times the length of the horizontal line on the display of the incoming message terminal when the emoticon is attached in the back of the subscriber message, and inserts an enter into the end of the subscriber message if the length of the subscriber message does not corresponds to integer times, thereby generating the emoticon message; and a message transmitting unit that transmits the emoticon message to the incoming message terminal.

According to a still further aspect of the invention, the emoticon combining unit includes at least one of: a first combining section that attaches the emoticon in front of the subscriber message; a second combining section that attaches the emoticon in the back of the subscriber message; a third combining section that attaches portions of the emoticon between the spaces of the subscriber message; a fourth combining section that substitutes the subscriber message with the emoticon; a fifth combining section that substitutes portions of the subscriber message with portions of the emoticon; and a sixth combining section that combines the subscriber message and the emoticon such that the subscriber message and the emoticon are arranged vertically in parallel on the display of the incoming message terminal.

According to a still further aspect of the invention, the sixth combining section vertically divides the space of the emoticon message into two parts, arranges the subscriber message in the first vertical space, and arranges the emoticon in the second vertical space, while checking the number of remaining bytes for each line of the first vertical space such that two-byte characters of the subscriber message are not broken at the right end of the first vertical space.

According to a still further aspect of the invention, the emoticon extracting unit extracts from the emoticon storing unit one or more emoticons corresponding to the message conversion setting, and selects an optimized emoticon from the extracted emoticons by referring to the surplus capacity. According to a still further aspect of the invention, the emoticon extracting unit extracts from the emoticon storing unit an emoticon including a blank region having a size lager than the subscriber message, and the emoticon combining unit substitutes and inserts the subscriber message into the blank region of the extracted emoticon.

According to a still further aspect of the invention, an emoticon message conversion method includes checking whether the length of blank space in a received subscriber message is larger than (L*B) bytes (L is the number of lines of a vertical emoticon, and B is the number of bytes of one line of a vertical emoticon); vertically dividing an emoticon message space into two parts so as to fill the entire portion or portions of a first vertical space, in which the subscriber message is arranged, with blanks; setting to an initial value line variable i of the display screen of a mobile communication terminal and byte variable f of a position where an emoticon is to be attached; checking the number of ASCII characters between the ((M-B)*i-f)th byte and the ((M-B) *(i+l)-f)th byte of the message text (M is the number of bytes composing one line of a short message); judging whether the number of ASCII characters within the interval of the checking is odd or not, and increasing i by one if the number of ASCII characters is odd; setting the ((M-B)*(i+l)-f)th byte to a position where the (i+l)th emoticon letter string is attached; and judging whether the line variable i increased by one is larger than (L-I) or not, and if the value is not larger than (L-I), returning to the checking of the number of ASCII characters so as to repeat the process.

According to a still further aspect of the invention, the emoticon message conversion method further includes judging whether the length of blank space is larger than (L*B+f) or not, if the line variable i increased by one is larger than (L-I); and attaching a one-line horizontal emoticon if the length of blank space is not larger than (L*B+f).

[Advantageous Effects]

According to the present invention, the filtering method and the individualization unit using a statistical method are used as means for recognizing context. Therefore, there is an effect of reducing an error of context recognition.

Further, the contents management module uses the DB, and the contents usage module uses the memory mapped I/O using the data file. Therefore, the same data are present in the DB and the data file. Further, since the contents usage module maps the data file into the memory at the time of the initialization, the data can be used at a high rate.

Further, since the contents management module updates the DB and the data file at the same time, the contents usage module can instantly use the latest data. [Description of Drawings]

Fig. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a communication network to which the present invention is applied. Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of an emoticon message conversion system according to the invention.

Figs. 3 to 6 are flow charts showing a process of emoticon message conversion according to the invention.

Figs. 7 and 8 are emoticons , for explaining an emoticon message attachment service according to the invention.

Fig. 9 is a flow chart for explaining a process in which a vertical emoticon is attached in the emoticon message conversion system according to the invention.

Fig. 10 is a flow chart for explaining a generalized process in which a vertical emoticon is attached in the emoticon message conversion system according to the invention. Reference Numerals

10 mobile communication terminal

12 SMS center

13 message conversion server

14 emoticon/short text DB 15 subscriber DB

20 message receiving section

21 subscriber authentication section

22 message discriminating section

23 emoticon extracting section 24 emoticon combining section

25 message transmitting section 26 Internet matching section

27 short text extracting section

28 message substituting section

[Best Mode]

Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. When it is judged that the specific description of related known function or constitution clouds the point of the invention, the description will be omitted. Terms to be described below are defined in consideration of the functions of the invention, and can differ in accordance with the intension of a user and operator or the practice. Accordingly, the meaning of the terms should be interpreted on the basis of the content of the specification.

Fig. l is a diagram showing the constitution of a communication network according to an embodiment of the invention. Hereinafter, a communication network which provides a short message service (SMS) will be exemplified in the present invention. Without being limited thereto, however, the scope of the invention can be applied to a communication network which provides a general text message service such as LMS or MMS.

As shown in Fig. 1, the communication network, to which the invention is applied, includes a mobile communication terminal 10 which transmits a short message to a SMS center (SMSC) 12, the short message being written by a user (hereinafter, referred to as 'a subscriber¹) who has subscribed for an emoticon message conversion service; a base transceiver station (BTS) 11 which relays transmission and reception signals between the mobile communication terminal 10 and the SMS center 12; the SMS center 12 which, when receiving a short message from the mobile communication terminal 10, requests a message conversion server 13 to convert the short message and transmits an emoticon message, converted from the short message, to a destination mobile communication terminal; the message conversion server 13 which extracts an abbreviated symbol from an outgoing message so as to substitute with a preset short message (word or common phrase), extracts an emoticon, which is to be inserted into the short message of the mobile communication terminal 10, from an emoticon/short text DB 14 when requested to convert the short message by the SMS center 12, and divides the short message of the mobile communication terminal 10 into one or more short messages in accordance with the message size so as to generate an emoticon message combined with the extracted emoticon; the emoticon/short message DB 14 which stores various tags, a plurality of emoticons and abbreviated symbols corresponding to the tags, and words or common phrases corresponding to the respective abbreviated symbols; a subscriber DB 15 which stores personal information of subscribers and setting items related to the emoticon conversion service; and a computer 16.

In addition to those components, the above communication network further includes basic components for providing mobile communication function and Internet connection function, such as a BTS controller, a mobile communication exchanger, a packet data service node, a router, a home-position register, a visitor-position register and the like. It will be easily understood by a person with an ordinary skill in the art that other components are further provided as described above.

In the present invention, a mobile-communication subscriber can write a short message through the mobile communication terminal 10 or the interface means of the computer 16. The written message is transmitted to the message conversion server 13 through the SMS center 10 or is immediately transmitted to the message conversion server 13. That is, the short message written through a short message writing menu loaded on the mobile communication terminal 10 is transmitted to the message conversion server 13 via the BTS 11 and the SMS center 12. Alternately, a subscriber can write the corresponding short message on a short-message writing web page of the message conversion server 13 through an Internet function included in the mobile communication terminal 10 or the computer 16.

Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of an emoticon message conversion system according to the invention.

As shown in Fig. 2, the emoticon message conversion system includes a message receiving section 20 which receives a short message of a subscriber from the SMS center 12; an subscriber authentication section 21 which checks through the subscriber DB 15 whether the subscriber has joined the emoticon message conversion service, verifies setting items related to the emoticon message conversion service designated by the subscriber, and verifies terminal information of a destination mobile communication terminal which is to receive the short message; a message discriminating section 22 which recognizes whether abbreviated symbols are inserted into the short message or not, recognizes whether tags are inserted into the short message or not, separates sentences and tags from the short message substituted by a message substituting section 28, the sentences (hereinafter, referred to as 'subscriber message') being composed of letters/numbers corresponding to the content which is desired to be delivered to the opposite party, parses the separated tags, and calculates the size of the separated subscriber message so as to calculates the surplus capacity (the remaining space) of the short message; an emoticon extracting section 23 which extracts an emoticon, indicated by the verified setting items related to the emoticon message conversion service or the parsed tags, from the emoticon/short text DB 14; a short text extracting section 27 which extracts a short text (words or common phrase), indicated by the recognized abbreviated symbol, from the emoticon/short text DB 14; the message substituting section 28 which substitutes the extracted short text for the abbreviated symbol of the recognized short message; an emoticon combining section 24 which checks whether or not the sum (that is, an estimated size of the emoticon message) of the size of the separated subscriber message and the size of the extracted emoticon exceeds a transmission limit (for example, 80 bytes) of short message, divides the subscriber message into more than one subscriber message in accordance with the result, and combines the divided subscriber messages and the extracted emoticon; a message transmitting section 25 which transmits the combined emoticon message to the SMS center 12; and an Internet matching section 26 which receives the subscription of the emoticon message conversion service from a mobile communication subscriber through the mobile communication terminal 10 and/or the computer 16 and the Internet and provides a subscriber of the emoticon message conversion service with a function of wiring a short message through a web page, a function of various setting items related to the emoticon message conversion, and a function of setting/inquiring abbreviated symbols and short texts (words or common phrases) corresponding to the abbreviated symbols.

In the present invention, tags inserted into a short message of the mobile communication terminal 10 or template-type emoticons (hereinafter, referred to as 'template emoticon') corresponding to setting items related to the emoticon message conversion service and a message written by a subscriber to be inserted into the short message are combined through various methods, within a limited size which is permitted in the short message service. Then, they are converted into an emoticon message. Here, a process of combining a subscriber message with emoticons and the template emoticon will be described in relation to corresponding components. hi the present invention, a UA (User Agent) profile (for example, the pixel and screen size of LCD, a message transmission method, whether or not to support MMS, maker information and the like) of a destination mobile communication terminal which receives a short message is checked. When the destination mobile communication terminal has a limit in the message reception capacity, it is checked whether the size of the short message exceeds a transmission limit (for example, 80 bytes) or not. When there is no limit in the message receiving capacity like a multimedia-supported terminal such as an MMS phone, a short message written by a subscriber and emoticons are combined regardless of a transmission limit of short message.

The SMS center 12 transmits a short message of the mobile communication terminal 10 to the message receiving section 20 of the message conversion server 13 and requests the conversion of the short message into an emoticon message. Further, the SMS center 12 transmits the converted emoticon message to the destination mobile communication terminal 10. The emoticon/short text DB 14 stores a plurality of emoticons of which the sizes (for example, one, two, three, •••, 78, 79, 80 bytes) differ from each other, a plurality of emoticons which have different shapes from each other and represent the same emotion effect, a plurality of tags designated by a subscriber, a plurality of emoticons which are written by a subscriber so as to correspond to the respective tags, abbreviated symbols designated by a subscriber, and short texts (words or common phrases) corresponding to the respective abbreviated symbols.

The subscriber DB 15 stores a telephone number of a mobile communication terminal, the name of a mobile-communication subscriber, a tag activation option (or an option of prohibiting the insertion of emoticon), an emoticon automatic-insertion option, a short message division option, emoticon setting values which are previously designated by a subscriber, and terminal information of respective mobile communication terminals (terminal information of short-message transmitting/receiving mobile communication terminals) (for example, whether or not to support a multimedia messaging service, display specifications of the terminals and the like). Through the personal information (for example, a mobile communication terminal number, whether or not a subscriber has joined the emoticon message conversion service, a subscriber ID, a password and the like) of the subscriber which is stored in the subscriber DB 15, the subscriber authentication section 21 checks whether the subscriber has joined the mobile communication conversion service. Further, the subscriber authentication section 21 verifies the setting items related to the emoticon message conversion service, stored in the subscriber DB 15, and the terminal information of a destination mobile communication terminal receiving a short message, the setting items including the option of prohibiting the insertion of emoticon (or a tag deactivation option), the emoticon automatic insertion option, the short message division option, the emoticon setting values designated by the subscriber. After that, the subscriber authentication section 21 provides the corresponding component with information which is required for the conversion of emoticon message. For example, if the tag activation option among the setting items related to the emoticon message conversion service is not set, a letter/number combination (for example, {@@} or the like) according to the tag regulation, inserted in the short message, is not recognized as a tag. Then, the conversion into an emoticon message corresponding to the tag is not performed. That is, the letter/number combination, which is identical to a tag but is desired to be transmitted to the opposite party, is prevented from being converted into an emoticon message. Among the setting items related to the emoticon message conversion service, the subscriber sets a corresponding item on a web page provided by the Internet matching section 26 of the message conversion server 13 through the mobile communication terminal 10 and/or the computer 16. Preferably, the personal information of the subscriber is provided from a corresponding mobile communication service provider. Particularly, the subscriber can apply for the emoticon message conversion service to the mobile communication service provider or emoticon message conversion service provider.

When a destination mobile communication terminal has no limit in a message receiving capacity like a multimedia-supported terminal (for example, an MMS phone or the like), the subscriber authentication section 21 causes the corresponding component to immediately combine the short message, written by the subscriber, and emoticons regardless of transmission limit of short message.

The SMS center 12 receiving the short message from the mobile communication terminal 10 requests the conversion of the short message into an emoticon message, if the corresponding mobile communication subscriber has joined the emoticon message conversion service. Otherwise, the SMS center 12 transmits the short message to a destination mobile communication terminal through a conventional manner.

The message conversion server 13 may not check whether the subscriber has joined the emoticon message conversion service, because the authentication is performed by the SMS center 12 as described above. However, the message conversion server 13 performs the authentication of an ID and password for accessing the web page, in order to support message writing through the web page. In this case, the authentication is performed two times so as to protect the subscriber information.

The message discriminating section 22 performs message conversion preprocessing. That is, the message discriminating section 22 checks whether tags and/or abbreviated symbols are inserted in the short message of the mobile communication terminal 10 or not, and recognizes the corresponding tags and/or abbreviated symbols. If an abbreviated symbol is inserted in the short message received by the message receiving section 20, the message discriminating section 22 causes the short text extracting section 27 to extract a short text corresponding to the abbreviated symbol, and analyzes the short message substituted by the message substituting section 28. On the other hand, the message discriminating section 22 immediately analyzes the short message if an abbreviated symbol is not inserted in the short message received by the message receiving section 20. That is, the function of extracting a short text or the function of substituting a short message is selected according to whether an abbreviated symbol is inserted in the short message or not.

The short text extracting section 27 extracts a short text (word or common phrase), indicated by the abbreviated symbol recognized by the message discriminating section 22, from the emoticon/short text DB 14, and the message substituting section 28 substitutes the abbreviated symbol with the short text extracted by the short text extracting section 27, the abbreviated symbol being included in the short message (or the short message received by the message receiving section 20) recognized by the message discriminating section 22.

Table 1 shows abbreviated symbols and short texts (words or common phrases) corresponding thereto.

[Table 1]

As shown in Table 1, when consonants and vowels (abbreviated symbols) such as "-&^■ O ψ I ] up' are included in a short message written by a subscriber, the abbreviated symbols are substituted with a common phrase saying "S) SI T H ¹] 4". As another example, " 1 A }- ] }- " in a short message is substituted with a common phrase saying "^M]- ^"H"¹-] up'.

Meanwhile, the message discriminating section 22 separates the subscriber message and tags which are inserted in the short message. When an abbreviated symbol is not inserted in the short message, the message discriminating section 22 preferably separates the subscriber message and tags which are inserted in the short message received by the message receiving section 20. Further, the message discriminating section 22 analyzes the separated tags so as to provide the emoticon extracting section 23 with information required for extracting the corresponding emoticon, and calculates the size of the separated subscriber message (and the size of the tags) so as to calculate the remaining capacity of the short message. Here, the remaining capacity is obtained by subtracting the size of the subscriber message from the transmission limit (for example, 80 bytes) of short message. Meanwhile, when the destination mobile communication terminal has no limit in the message receiving capacity like a multimedia-supported terminal such as an MMS phone, the short message written by the subscriber and the emoticon are combined, regardless of the transmission limit of short message. At this time, the message discriminating section 22 does not need to calculate the size of the subscriber message and the remaining capacity.

Meanwhile, the message discriminating section 22 checks whether tags are inserted in the short message of the mobile communication terminal 10 or not. If tags are not inserted, the emoticon extracting section 23 extracts corresponding emoticons in accordance with the emoticon setting value or emoticon automatic insertion option verified by the subscriber authentication section 21. Here, the tags are script-type emoticon indicators, and can be defined by the emoticon message conversion service provider or directly by the mobile communication subscriber. Table 2 shows a part of the tag regulation.

[Table 2]

For example, if a combination of tag and subscriber message, represented by '{v} I love you¹, is inserted in the short message written by a mobile communication subscriber, the short message is converted into the following emoticon message in accordance with the tag regulation.

V V V v v v vv v v v vv V V V V

V I love you V

V V V vv v v vv v v v v V V V V

As described above, the emoticon message is obtained by combining the template-type emoticon composed of a plurality of special letters such as 'v' and a subscriber message saying 'I love you¹ which is inserted into the inside of the emoticon. When the tag activation option is not set or tags are not inserted in a short message, and if it is verified by the subscriber authentication section 21 that the emoticon setting value is designated, the emoticon extracting section 23 extracts a corresponding emoticon, indicated by the emoticon setting value, from the emoticon/short text DB 14. Alternately, if it is verified by the subscriber authentication section 21 that the emoticon setting value is not designated and the emoticon automatic insertion option is activated, the emoticon extracting section 23 extracts a corresponding basic emoticon from the emoticon/short text DB 14.

On the other hand, when the tag activation option is set and tags are inserted in a short message, the emoticon extracting section 23 extracts a corresponding emoticon from the emoticon/short text DB 14, the emoticon being indicated by the tag results analyzed by the message discriminating section 22. At this time, the emoticon extracting section 23 extracts from the emoticon/short text DB 14 an emoticon having a size optimal to the surplus capacity of the short message in consideration of the surplus capacity of the short message calculated by the message discriminating section 22. The sizes of short messages written by respective mobile communication subscribers are different from each other. Accordingly, if the same emoticon is applied to different short messages in which the same tag is inserted, the emoticon cannot be represented in one short message in accordance with the size of the corresponding short message.

Meanwhile, when a destination mobile communication terminal has no limit in a message receiving capacity like a multimedia-supported terminal such as an MMS phone, the emoticon extracting section 23 extracts an emoticon with the largest capacity among the set emoticons, and the remaining capacity does not need to be considered. As an example where the remaining capacity of short message should be considered, the emoticon extracting section 23 extracts an emoticon having a size optimal to the remaining capacity of the message, calculated by the message discriminating section 22, from the emoticon/short text DB 14. As another example, the emoticon extracting section 23 extracts an emoticon, including blank letters corresponding to the size of the subscriber message calculated by the message discriminating section 22, from the emoticon/short text DB 14. Further, the emoticon extracting section 23 extracts an emoticon having an optimal size with respect to the message transmission limit among emoticons including blank letters corresponding to the size of the subscriber message. In the above embodiment, the emoticon having an optimal size extracted by the emoticon extracting section 23 can be selected so as to have the same size as the transmission limit (for example, 80 bytes) of short message. That is, the entire subscriber message written by a mobile communication subscriber can be substituted with a specific full-page emoticon in the present invention. Further, in accordance with an emoticon or subscriber setting, a subscriber message can be inserted in the above full-page emoticon. Alternately, a subscriber message can be simply substituted so that only a full-page emoticon is transmitted.

As a further example, the emoticon extracting section 23 extracts an emoticon, having a size within the surplus capacity interval of the message calculated by the message discriminating section 22, from the emoticon/short text DB 14 in accordance with the size interval of the subscriber message calculated by the message discriminating section 22. That is, the size of the subscriber message of the short message is divided into constant intervals, and an emoticon having a size within the interval close to the surplus capacity of the short message is extracted so that the emoticon is shown in the short message for the subscriber message within the corresponding interval. At this time, emoticons which have the same shape and have the same emotion expression effect or emoticons which have different shapes and have the same emotion expression effect are extracted. When the subscriber message classification interval is set at 10 bytes, and if the size of the subscriber message is 15 bytes, the subscriber message is considered to be a message included in the interval of 11 to 20 bytes, and an emoticon having a size of less than 60 bytes is determined as an optimal emoticon. Accordingly, the size of the emoticon message becomes 75 bytes (15 bytes + 60 bytes) and does not exceed the transmission limit of short message. The subscriber message classification interval can be set by a mobile communication subscriber through the Internet matching section 26. As described above, an emoticon message corresponding to '{¥} I love you' is as follows.

vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

¥ I love you ¥ vvvvvyvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv

However, although an emoticon message corresponding to '{¥} I love you very much, Sun- Young¹ has the same shape (or different shape which can show the same emotion expression) as follows, it is preferable that the emoticon message does not exceed the transmission limit of short message.

¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥

¥ I love you very much, Sun- Young ¥

¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥¥

Additionally, the emoticon extracting section 23 preferably performs the extraction of an optimal emoticon as described above, when the subscriber authentication section 21 verifies that an short message division option (so-called multi message activation option) is not set (that is, conversion into one emoticon message). However, the optimal emoticon may be not considered, when the subscriber authentication section 21 verifies that the short message division option is activated. Such an example is applied to the case where a destination mobile communication terminal has a limit in the message receiving capacity. For an optimal emoticon, a template with the largest capacity is first extracted so as to be combined with the short message.

When a destination mobile communication terminal has a limit in the message receiving capacity, the emoticon combining section 24 estimates the result obtained by summing the size of the subscriber message separated by the message discriminating section 22 and the size of the emoticon (that is, an emoticon indicated by the emoticon setting value designated by the subscriber, a basic emoticon, or an emoticon corresponding to a tag) extracted by the emoticon extracting section 23. After that, the emoticon combining section 24 checks if the estimated result (the estimated size of an emoticon message) exceeds the transmission limit. Further, if the estimated result does not exceed the transmission limit of short message, the emoticon combining section 24 immediately combines the subscriber message and the emoticon. Meanwhile, when a destination mobile communication terminal has no limit in the message receiving capacity like a multimedia-supported terminal (for example, MMS phone), it is preferable that the emoticon combining section 24 immediately combines the subscriber message and the emoticon regardless of the estimated result.

When a destination mobile communication terminal has a limit in the message receiving capacity, and if the estimated result exceeds the transmission limit of short message, the subscriber authentication section 21 verifies whether the short message division option is set. Then, the emoticon combining section 24 divides the subscriber message into a plurality of messages and combines the divided subscriber messages and the emoticon, respectively. That is, the emoticon combining section 24 sequentially divides the corresponding letters/numbers of the subscriber message in an arrangement order in accordance with the surplus capacity of the short message remaining after the emoticon is inserted. Then, the emoticon combining section 24 generates a plurality of subscriber messages, and combines the respective divided subscriber messages and the emoticon so as to convert into a plurality of emoticon messages. Alternately, the emoticon combining section 24 combines the subscriber message and the emoticon so as to convert into one emoticon message, regardless of the surplus capacity of the short message remaining after the emoticon is inserted. Then, the emoticon combining section 24 converts the emoticon message into a plurality of emoticon messages as many as the transmission limit of short message.

Additionally, as the emoticon combining section 24 verifies that the estimated result exceeds the transmission limit of short message and the subscriber authentication section 21 verifies that the short message division option is not set, the emoticon combining section 24 can inform the mobile communication terminal 10 of the overflow of the emoticon message, can induce the subscriber to set the short message division option, can cause only the subscriber message to be transmitted to the destination mobile communication terminal, or can combine the subscriber message and an incomplete emoticon (that is, an emoticon of which only a portion is shown because of the limited capacity of short message). On the other hand, when a destination mobile communication terminal has no limit in the message receiving capacity like a multimedia-supported terminal (for example, MMS phone), it is preferable that the above functions of the emoticon combining section 24 are not performed.

The process of combining the subscriber message and the extracted emoticon can be implemented in various methods. (1) The first method is where the subscriber message is substituted with an emoticon and the substituted emoticon and the extracted emoticon are combined into one emoticon. (2) The second method is where the subscriber message is inserted into portions or the entire portion of the blank letters of the emoticon. (3) The third method is where an emoticon is inserted into the front portion or back portion of the subscriber message. Preferably, by using the second method, the subscriber message is inserted into an emoticon (template emoticon) which has a size as large as the transmission limit of short message and includes a plurality of blank letters. That is, when a tag such as '{love}' is inserted in the short message written by a subscriber, an 80-byte template emoticon having a flower shape or heart shape is extracted, and a subscriber message saying 'love' is inserted into the blank of the template emoticon so as to be converted into an emoticon message. Accordingly, the emotion of the subscriber can be effectively expressed in the small-sized short message.

The Internet matching section 26, which is connected to the mobile communication terminal 10 and/or the computer 16 through the Internet, provides an emoticon message conversion service subscription web page, a web page for writing a short message, a web page for various environment settings (for example, selecting the tag activation option, selecting the emoticon automatic insertion option, selecting the short message division option, designating the emoticon setting values or the like) related to the emoticon message conversion, and a web page for setting/inquiring abbreviated symbols and short texts (word or common phrase) corresponding thereto. It will be easily understood by a person with an ordinary person in the art that the short message, written on the web page for writing a short message of the Internet matching section 26 by a mobile communication subscriber, is processed by the respective components, as described above. Additionally, in accordance with the request of the subscriber, the mobile communication terminal 10 can be informed that the emoticon message conversion is normally performed. Further, the emoticon message conversion service can be charged by a monthly flat rate, can be charged based on the number of transmitted short messages, or can be charged based on the number of transmitted emoticons. Although the short message service has been described as an example in the present specification, it will be easily understood by a person with an ordinary skill in the art that the present invention can be utilized in a long message service and multimedia message service and the transmission limit of short message is not limited to a specific size.

Figs. 3A to 3D are flow charts showing the emoticon message conversion process according to the present invention.

First, a message written by a subscriber of the mobile communication terminal 10 is received from the SMS center 12 (300), and the information on the mobile communication subscriber and the terminal information on a destination mobile communication terminal are checked through the subscriber DB 15 (301). Here, the mobile communication subscriber information includes personal information (for example, a mobile communication terminal number, whether the subscriber has joined the emoticon message conversion service or not, a subscriber ID and password) of the mobile communication subscriber and setting items (for example, the tag activation option (or the emoticon insertion prohibition option), the emoticon automatic insertion option, the short message division option, the emoticon setting value previously designated by the subscriber and the like) related to the emoticon message conversion service. Further, the terminal information of the destination mobile communication terminal includes a UA profile (for example, the pixel and screen size of LCD, a message transmission method, whether or not to support MMS, maker information and the like) of the destination mobile communication terminal. The setting items related to the emoticon message conversion service and the terminal information of the destination mobile communication terminal are used as reference information required for extracting, dividing, and combining emoticons.

Next, it is checked whether the mobile communication subscriber has joined the emoticon message conversion service (302). If the mobile communication subscriber has not joined the emoticon message conversion service, the emoticon message conversion process is terminated, and the short message is transmitted to the destination mobile communication terminal through the SMS center 12 by using a conventional method. Additionally, if the mobile communication subscriber has not joined the emoticon message conversion service, the subscriber can be induced to join the service.

On the other hand, if it is verified that the mobile communication subscriber has joined service (302), it is checked whether an abbreviated symbol is inserted in the short message (303). If an abbreviated symbol is inserted in the short message, a short text (word or common phrase) indicated by the abbreviated symbol is extracted from the emoticon/short text DB 14 (304), and the abbreviated symbol of the short message is substituted with the extracted short text (305). If an abbreviated symbol is not inserted in the short message, the step immediately proceeds to 306.

After that, the size of a subscriber message in the received or substituted short message is calculated (306), and the surplus capacity of the short message is calcukited (307). Then, it is checked whether tags are inserted in the received or substituted short message (308). Here, when the steps of 304 and 305 are not performed, it is checked in the step of 300 whether tags are inserted in the received short message or not. If it is verified that tags are not inserted in the short message (308), it is checked whether the emoticon setting value designated by the mobile communication subscriber is present or not (309). If the emoticon setting value designated by the mobile communication subscriber is present, an emoticon indicated by the emoticon setting value is extracted from the emoticon/short text DB 14 (310). If the emoticon setting value designated by the mobile communication subscriber is not present, a basic emoticon is extracted from the emoticon/short text DB 14 (311). In accordance with the setting items related to the emoticon message conversion service, the short message can be transmitted through a conventional method. For example, when tags are not inserted in the short message and the emoticon setting value is not designated, the short message is transmitted to the destination mobile communication terminal through the SMS center 12 by using a conventional method.

If it is verified that tags are inserted in the short message, the subscriber message and tags are separated in the short message (312). The separated tags are analyzed (313), and the emoticon indicated by the result of the analyzed tags is extracted from Ihe emoticon/short text DB 14 (314).

After that, the sum of the size of the subscriber message in the received or substituted short message and the size of the corresponding emoticon extracted in the step of 310, 311, or 314 is estimated (315). Then, whether the destination mobile communication terminal supports the multimedia messaging service (MMS) or not is checked through the terminal information of the destination mobile communication terminal verified in the step of 301 (In other words, it is checked whether the destination mobile communication terminal has a limit in the message receiving capacity or not) (316).

If it is verified that the destination mobile communication terminal supports MMS (316), the subscriber message and the extracted emoticon are immediately combined (317). On the other hand, if the destination mobile communication terminal does not support MMS, it is checked whether the estimated result exceeds the transmission limit of short message (318). If it is verified that the estimated result does not exceed the transmission limit, the process proceeds to the step of 317. On the other hand, if the estimated result exceeds the transmission limit of short message, the subscriber message is divided into a plurality of messages (319), and the divided subscriber messages and an emoticon are respectively combined (320). Then, the emoticon message in the step of 317 or 320 is transmitted to the SMS center 12 (321), and the SMS center 12 transmits the emoticon message returned from the message conversion server 13 to the destination mobile communication terminal.

In order to use the emoticon conversion service according to the present invention, it is assumed in the embodiment shown in Figs. 3A to 3D that predetermined tags are inserted in the short message delivered from the mobile communication terminal 10. However, it should be understood that the emoticon conversion service of the invention can be constructed so as not to support tags at all, depending on the implemented service. Further, although not shown, the display specification of a destination terminal should be considered in combining a subscriber message and an emoticon so as to generate an emoticon message. That is, the emoticon message should represent a form desired by a subscriber on the display screen of the destination terminal, and the emoticon message of the present invention has a template structure. Therefore, in consideration of the display specification of the destination terminal, or particularly, the number of letters in the horizontal line, an emoticon message should be generated so that the left side thereof coincides on the display. Among the flow charts of the emoticon conversion service according to the present invention, Fig. 6 shows a process in which an emoticon is caused to start from the first byte of the next line when the emoticon is attached next to the short message of a subscriber. When an emoticon is attached to the short message of a subscriber, the emoticon can be attached in front of the short message, can be attached next to the short message, or can be attached between the spaces of the short message. In the present invention, the case where an emoticon is attached next to the short message will be described. When an emoticon is attached next to the short message, the following two methods can be considered, in order to cause the emoticon to start from the first byte of the next line. The first method is where a character code (hereinafter, referred to as 'enter') corresponding to 'enter' is inserted next to the short message and the emoticon is then inserted. The second method is where a character code (hereinafter, referred to as 'blank') corresponding to 'blank' is inserted until a new line begins next to the short message and the emoticon is then inserted. hi this case, if the terminated position of the short message coincides with the right end of the short-message display screen of the mobile communication terminal, a new line begins. Therefore, although enter is not inserted, the emoticon starts from the first byte of the next line. Particularly, if enter is inserted in this case, the emoticon can start from the next line after the next in some mobile communication terminals. Therefore, it is checked in the present technique whether or not the terminated position of the short message coincides with the right end of the short message display screen of the destination mobile communication terminal. If the position does not coincide, enter is inserted. Otherwise, enter is not inserted. Then, bytes corresponding to enter are saved so that the number of selectable emoticons is enlarged, and simultaneously, unnecessary blank line is not inserted in a specific mobile communication terminal. This method will be referred as a third method, hereinafter.

In the second method, unnecessary blank line is not generated. However, since blanks are inserted, byte space in which the emoticon can be inserted is wasted. The following table shows emoticon display spaces of the first to third methods in accordance with the length of a short message, in the case of a mobile communication terminal in which one line of the short message display screen is 16 bytes, the largest length of displayable short message is 80 bytes, and the sizes of enter and blank are one byte.

[Table 3]

In the second method, a space is wasted because of the insertion of blank. In the first method, a space is not wasted. In the third method, however, the number of bytes corresponding to enter is saved more than in the first method, when the length of the short message is 16, 32, 48, 64, and 72 bytes in the case of the above-described mobile communication terminal. Further, since terminals in which enter corresponds to two bytes are widely used, it can be expected that kinds of automatically attached emoticon becomes abundant through the third method. Furthermore, the third method perfectly solves the problem of the first method, where additional blank line is generated between the short message and the emoticon in some mobile communication terminals.

Fig. 6 shows an embodiment according to the third method, in which an internal process of the step of 317 in Fig. 4 is described in detail. That is, length information corresponding to one line of the short message display screen of the destination mobile communication terminal is secured (330), and it is checked that the terminated position of the short message is the end of the screen (331). If the position coincides with the end of the screen, an emoticon is attached to the end of the short message (333). Otherwise, enter is attached to the end of the short message (332), and an emoticon is then attached (333).

Even when a new line begins inside an emoticon, the third method is used. A case where an emoticon such as Fig. 7 is attached will be exemplified. The emoticon of Fig. 7 is composed of 12 bytes in first line, 12 bytes in second line, and 14 bytes in third line. When the first method is used so that the above emoticon is properly displayed on the short message display screen of a mobile communication terminal in which the length of one line is 16 bytes, two enters are needed in the total emoticon capacity of 38 bytes. Therefore, 40 bytes are required in the mobile communication terminal in which one enter is one byte.

In the second method, 46 bytes are required because four bytes of blank space should be inserted into the first and second lines, respectively. In the third method, 40 bytes are required as in the first method.

A difference between the first and third methods can be found when it is examined that an emoticon of Fig. 8 is attached. The emoticon is composed of 16 bytes in first line, 16 bytes in second line, and 16 bytes in third line. When the first method is used, 50 bytes are required. However, when the third method is used, only 48 bytes are required because enter is not necessary. Synthetically, when the input short message of a subscriber has a size of 30 to 32 bytes, and if the first method is used, the above emoticon cannot be attached. However, if the third method is used, the above emoticon can be attached. In the case of a mobile communication terminal in which enter has a size of two bytes, and when the short message has a size of 27 to 32 bytes, the emoticon cannot be attached through the first method, but can be attached through the third method.

In the service using the emoticon message conversion system of the invention, there are provided two types of emoticons, such as horizontal and vertical emoticons.

As shown below, the horizontal emoticon can be attached after all text letters written by a subscriber are displayed. Since the discrimination between the text and the emoticon is clear, a method of attaching an emoticon is very simple.

A)(A A)

(^Λ0^Λ)(^Λ _.

Ll I-" 11-1

In the case of the vertical emoticon, letter arrays of emoticon should be inserted between the spaces of the text.

#7) 7} AA -

^sJH (-_-00)

£^£ - D-

4.

In order to generate the same text message as the above example of the vertical emoticon, the letter array should arranged in an order of "#717}" + "AA ~" + "4] «1H " + "(-_-00)" + ".2-^" + ... □_-. + ^»^-s}^-iJ| ^>• + ^»/i~^» + ^»4^» + "AAA". In this case, four emoticons are respectively attached in the seventh, 14th, 21st, and 29th bytes, and the last emoticon is attached after five blanks are added.

An algorithm in which the vertical emoticon is attached will be described as follows. Fig. 9 is a flow chart for explaining a process where the vertical emoticon is attached in the emoticon message conversion system according to the invention. First, the message conversion server 13, which receives a message written by a subscriber of the mobile communication terminal 10 from the SMS center 12, judges whether the size of the input short message is less than 40 bytes (401).

If it is judged that the size of the short message text is not less than 40 bytes, a one-line horizontal emoticon is attached (402), and the process is terminated. If the size of the short message is less than 40 bytes, the message conversion server 13 judges that a vertical emoticon can be attached, and fills the short message text with blanks up to the 40th byte (403).

The message conversion server 13 sets to ¹O' the number N of lines of the display screen of the mobile communication terminal 10 and a byte M at a position, where an emoticon will be attached (404).

After that, the number of ASCII characters between (8*N-M)th byte and (8*(N+1)-M)th byte of the text is checked (405), and it is judged whether the number of ASCII characters within the interval of the above step of 405 is odd or not (406).

At this time, if it is judged in the step of 406 that the number of ASCII characters within the interval is odd, M is increased by one (M = M +1) (407). The reason is as follows. When the vertical emoticon is attached, a letter array composing an emoticon is inserted between the spaces of the text. At this time, when an emoticon string is inserted between letters composing one character with two bytes like the Korean alphabet or a special symbol, the text can be broken. Therefore, even when the vertical emoticon is attached, the Korean alphabet is not broken by increasing M.

On the other hand, when the number of ASCII characters within the interval is not odd or M is increased by one, (8*(N+1)-M)th byte is set to the (N+l)th emoticon string attachment position (408).

When the number of characters is not odd but even and N and M are respectively substituted with 0 in the above step of 408, the emoticon string attachment position of the first line, shown through the above process, is set to the eighth byte. Meanwhile, when the number of characters is odd, and if M increased by one (M+l) is substituted in the above step of 408, the seventh byte is set to the emoticon string attachment position of the first line. This can be verified by the example such as '^"7] 7}' of '^?) 7} ^ 3fl -*] ϋlif-£- -Sr ^^^"M ¹^. ' which is an example of the vertical emoticon.

After that, N is increased by one (N = N+l) (409), and it is judged whether N is larger than four (N > 4) (410). The reason why it is judged whether N is larger than four (N > 4) in the step of 410 is that the number of displayable lines does not exceed five, when the size of the display screen of the mobile communication terminal 10 is 80 bytes and one line of the display screen is composed of 16 bytes.

If it is judged in the step of 410 that N is not larger than four, the process proceeds to the above-described step (405) so that the next emoticon string attachment position is continuously set. If N is larger than four, it is judged that the length of the text is less than (40-M) bytes (411).

At this time, if it is judged in the step of 411 that the length of the text is not less than (40-M) bytes, one-line horizontal emoticon is attached (412), and the process is terminated. If the length of the text is less than (40-M) bytes, the added blank letters in (40-M)th to 40th bytes of the text are removed (413).

The step of 413 can be explained by exemplifying the above-described vertical emoticon. In the last line of '^ 7J ^ sflA] SL^-B: ^^rtM ^rΛ five blank letters, that is, five bytes are added to three bytes of ¹^- •', and the last emoticon string is then attached.

Fig. 10 shows a process in which the vertical emoticon is attached in the emoticon message conversion system of the invention, and is a flow chart for generalizing the process of Fig. 10.

In the shown flow chart, constants L, B, and M are defined as follows:

* L : the number of lines composing the vertical emoticon;

* B : the number of bytes composing one line of the vertical emoticon; * M : the number of bytes composing one line of a short message.

For convenience of explanation, the following vertical emoticon is assumed. $ $ $

( ( ^Λ . ^Λ ) )

O O

< ) ( >

/ I

Since the vertical emoticon is composed of five lines, and one line is composed of seven bytes, L and M respectively correspond to 5 and 7 (L = 5; B = 7). The constant of M indicating the number of bytes composing one line of the short message is set to 16 (M = 16, that is, 80 / 5), because it is prescribed in Korea that a short message of 80 bytes is displayed in five lines. However, the constant of M is set so as to differ depending on each country and individual specification.

The flow chart shown in Fig. 10 is very similar to that of Fig. 9 in the whole operational method. In other words, the flow chart of Fig. 10 can be obtained by further generalizing and partially improving the flow chart of Fig. 9. Therefore, the descriptions of the previously-described steps will be omitted.

First, it is checked whether a blank space enough to insert an emoticon in the short message is secured or not (501). Since the data size of the vertical emoticon corresponds to (L*B) bytes, it is checked whether the length of the blank space is larger than (L*B) bytes or not. If the blank space is not sufficient (NO), the process proceeds to the step of 502, so that a horizontal emoticon is attached. Only when the blank space is so sufficient as to contain a vertical emoticon (YES), the vertical emoticon is inserted.

Meanwhile, 'the blank space' is calculated by (L*M - the number of bytes of subscriber message), and the meaning thereof will be described in detail. The definition of 'the blank' in

Fig. 10 is closely related to the format of a vertical emoticon to be inserted. For example, when it is assumed that the terminal display is composed of five lines and the vertical emoticon is composed of three lines, the value of 'the blank space' in the flow chart of Fig. 10 is obtained by calculating for three lines corresponding to the vertical emoticon, not five lines of the entire terminal display.

After that, L*(M-B) bytes of space in the emoticon message text is filled with blank (503), in order to prepare when the length of the message sent by a subscriber is smaller than L* (M-B) bytes. That is, the following preprocessing is performed. The entire space of the emoticon message is divided into two parts such that blank letters are inserted in one part (hereinafter, referred to 'a first vertical space') and the vertical emoticon is inserted in the other part (hereinafter, referred to as 'a second vertical space'). The necessity of the preprocessing is clarified, referring to an example where the subscriber message is short, for example, a subscriber message 'Hollywood' and the above vertical emoticon are combined as follows.

hollywo $ $ $ od ( ( ^Λ . ^Λ ) ) O O < ) ( >

/ I

The length of the subscriber message 'Hollywood' is not so sufficient as to form the second vertical space in which the vertical emoticon can be arranged in the original shape. Therefore, the first vertical space in which the subscriber message is displayed is previously filled with blank letters (for convenience, the inserted blank letters are displayed by '_').

In the present embodiment, the first vertical space for displaying the subscriber message is disposed in the left side of the terminal display, and the second vertical space for displaying the emoticon is disposed in the right side of the terminal display. However, the first vertical space may be disposed in the right side, and the second vertical space may be disposed in the left side, depending on embodiments. Further, in the present embodiment, the entire first vertical space is previously filled with blank letters. However, since it is obvious that a foregoing part of the first vertical space is filled with the subscriber message, the length of the subscriber message may be checked so that only a part which is not filled can be filled with blank letters.

Comparing Fig. 10 with Fig. 9, the steps of 505 and 508 are shown by generalizing the steps of 405 and 408. Since it is prescribed in Korea that a short message of 80 bytes is displayed in five lines, the number of bytes M composing one line of the short message is set to 16 (= 80 / 5). Further, when the embodiment of Fig. 9 is created by the present inventor, it is intended that the entire emoticon message is vertically and exactly divided into two parts such that the subscriber message and the vertical emoticon message are disposed. Therefore, the number of bytes B composing one line of the vertical emoticon is set to 8 (= M / 2). Accordingly, numerical expressions of the steps 505 and 508 in Fig. 10 are obtained by generalizing the numerical expressions of the steps 405 and 408 of Fig. 9. Reversely, the steps of 405 and 408 in Fig. 9 correspond to the steps of 505 and 508 of Fig. 10 in the case of M = 16 and B = 8.

It is checked whether the length of the blank is larger than L*(B+f) bytes or not (511), which corresponds to the step 411 in which it is checked whether the length of the text is smaller than (40-M) bytes. Here, the variable f increases by one when the emoticon attachment position is pushed back, in order to prevent a two-byte character, such as the Korean alphabet, from being broken. Although the length of the blank space is (L*B) bytes before attachment, additional space is needed when f is not 0.

A case where a subscriber message saying '^.^^^^tf *i ¹^ -§^• ^ al*| ϋ-°]-τi-' and the above 5*7 vertical emoticon message are combined so as to compose an emoticon message will be exemplified. $ $ $

( ( ^Λ . ^Λ ) )

O O

< ) ( >

/

Here, since the subscriber message text saying '^πHϊ ¹^h-M ⁷^ -i -ir ^i -2- ^Λi ^⁰}-§-' has a length of 30 bytes (that is, 15 letters * two bytes/letter), the size of the blank space is 40 bytes (that is, five lines * 14 bytes - 30 bytes). Therefore, it is expected that an extra space is provided in consideration of 35 bytes (five lines * 7 bytes) for inserting the vertical emoticon. However, as the subscriber message text composed of two-byte characters is managed so as not to be broken, f becomes 5 (f = 5). Therefore, it can be found that an extra space is not present at all when the vertical emoticon is combined. Accordingly, in the text saying

iI-⁰Hr', the vertical emoticon cannot be combined even though only one character is added.

Although a few embodiments of the present general inventive concept have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that changes may be made in these embodiments without departing from the principles and spirit of the general inventive concept, the scope of which is defined in the appended claims and their equivalents. According to the present invention, a corresponding emoticon is extracted in accordance with tags inserted in a message, setting values designated by a subscriber, or a basic setting value, and is inserted into a short message. Therefore, the subscriber does not need to create an emoticon by combining letters/numbers one by one, but can easily show an emoticon.

Further, since a template-type emoticon and a text written by a subscriber are combined, the subscriber does not need to pay attention to an array order of letters/numbers. Through an emoticon having the largest size, emotion can be effectively expressed to the opposite party, and a short message can be freely written regardless of the capacity of a text desired by the subscriber.

Further, depending on tags inserted in a short message and the setting value of a subscriber, an optimal emoticon is extracted and provided. Therefore, the subscriber can display an emoticon suitable for emotion expression, and the opposite party can accurately recognize the emotion expression.

Further, depending on the text inserted in a short message, the short message is divided into a plurality of messages, and the divided messages are respectively combined with an emoticon. Therefore, the emoticon is prevented from being broken because of the limited size of the short message.

Further, the emoticon message conversion function is performed while a conventional short message service is maintained. Therefore, a subscriber can write a short message in a familiar manner, and the emoticon message conversion service can be provided to mobile communication terminals which have been previously spread. Further, the abbreviated symbol designated by a subscriber can be substituted with word or common phrase. Therefore, a text message can be written by much smaller number of button inputs

Further, the limited short message space of 80 bytes can be utilized at the maximum so as to provide an effective emoticon attachment service.

Claims

[CLAIMS] [Claim 1 ]

An emoticon message conversion system comprising: an emoticon storing unit that stores all or some of a plurality of emoticons which have the same shape and have different sizes from each other, a plurality of emoticons which have different shapes and express the same emotion, various tags, and a plurality of emoticons corresponding to the tags; a subscriber information storing unit that stores setting items related to an emoticon message conversion service and terminal information of mobile communication terminals (incoming/outgoing message terminal information); a message receiving unit that receives a message written by a subscriber in the terminal side; a subscriber authentication unit that verifies the terminal information of a destination mobile communication terminal receiving the message and the setting items related to the emoticon message conversion service; a message discriminating unit that recognizes whether or not tags are inserted in the message, separates a subscriber message and the tags from the received message when the tags are inserted, analyzes the separated tags, and calculates a surplus capacity with respect to the received message; an emoticon extracting unit that extracts from the emoticon storing unit one or more emoticons corresponding to the tags when the tags are inserted, extracts from the emoticon storing unit one or more emoticons corresponding to the setting items related to the emoticon message conversion service when the tags are not inserted, and selects an optimized emoticon from one or more extracted emoticons by referring to the surplus capacity; an emoticon combining unit that refers to the number of letters/numbers in horizontal line in accordance with the display specification of the destination mobile communication terminal, attaches an emoticon in front of a short message, in the back of the short message, or between the spaces of the short message such that the left side of the short message is aligned on the display, obtains length information of the short message and length information of the horizontal line on the display of the destination mobile communication terminal when an emoticon is attached in the back of the short message, judges whether or not the length of the short message corresponds to integer times the length of the horizontal line on the display on the basis the length information, inserts an enter into the end of the short message only when the length of short message does not correspond to integer times, and then combines the subscriber message and the selected emoticon or substitutes the received message with the selected emoticon on the basis of the setting items related to the emoticon message conversion service or the tags, thereby generating an emoticon message; and a message transmitting unit that transmits the emoticon message to the destination mobile communication terminal.

[Claim 2]

The emoticon message conversion system according to claim 1, wherein the emoticon storing unit further stores various abbreviated symbols and a plurality of short texts (words or common phrases) corresponding to the abbreviated symbols, and the message discriminating unit further recognizes whether abbreviated symbols are inserted in the message or not, the emoticon message conversion system further including: a short text extracting unit that extracts a short text (word or common phrase) indicated by the recognized abbreviated symbol, and a message substituting unit that substitutes the recognized abbreviated symbol with the extracted short text in the message.

[Claim 3]

The emoticon message conversion system according to claim 1 or 2 further including an Internet matching unit that provides all or some of a function of subscribing the emoticon message conversion service, a function of writing a message, a function of setting items related to the emoticon message conversion service, and a function of setting/inquiring abbreviated symbols through a web page.

[Claim 4]

The emoticon message conversion system according to claim 3, wherein the emoticon extracting unit extracts an emoticon, including a blank region having a size lager than the subscriber message, from the emoticon storing unit, and the emoticon combining unit substitutes and inserts the subscriber message into the entire portion or a portion of the blank region of the extracted emoticon.

[Claim 5]

The emoticon message conversion system according to claim 3, wherein the emoticon combining unit substitutes the subscriber message with a specific emoticon and combines the selected emoticon and the subscriber message.

[Claim 6]

An emoticon message conversion method comprising: judging whether or not the length of a received short message text is less than predetermined K bytes; attaching a one-line horizontal emoticon if the length of the text is not less than K bytes, and filling K bytes of the short message text with blanks if the length of the text is less than K bytes; setting to an initial value the number N of lines on the display screen of a mobile communication terminal and byte M of the position where an emoticon is attached; checking the number of ACSII characters between the (8*N-M)th byte and the (8*(N+1)-M)th byte of the text; judging whether the number of ASCII characters within the interval of the checking is odd or not; increasing M by one (M = M + 1) if the number of ASCII characters within the interval is odd; setting the (8*(N+1)-M)th byte to a position where the (N+l)th emoticon letter string is attached, when the number of ASCII characters within the interval is not odd or M is increased by one; increasing N by one (N = N + 1) and then judging whether N is larger than four (N > 4) or not; proceeding to the checking of the number of ASCII characters if N is not larger than four, setting a position where the next emoticon string is attached, and judging whether the length of the text is smaller than (K-M) bytes if N is larger than four; and attaching a one-line horizontal emoticon if the length of the text is not smaller than (K-M) bytes, and removing the blanks added to the (K-M)th to Kth bytes of the text if the length of the text is smaller than (K-M) bytes.

[Claim 7]

An emoticon message conversion system comprising: an emoticon storing unit that stores a plurality of emoticons; a subscriber information storing unit that stores message conversion settings and various mobile communication terminal information; a message receiving unit that receives a subscriber message from an outgoing message terminal; a subscriber authentication unit that verifies terminal information of an incoming message terminal and message conversion settings; a message discriminating unit that analyzes the subscriber message and calculates the surplus capacity of a short message with respect to the subscriber message; an emoticon extracting unit that refers the surplus capacity so as to extract an emoticon, used for the subscriber message, corresponding to the message conversion setting from the emoticon storing unit; an emoticon combining unit that, when creating an emoticon message by referring to the message conversion setting so as to combine and arrange the subscriber message and the extracted emoticon, refers to the number of bytes of the horizontal line in accordance with the display specification of the incoming message terminal so as to combine the subscriber message and the emoticon such that the left side thereof is aligned on a display, judges whether or not the length of the subscriber message corresponds to integer times the length of the horizontal line on the display of the incoming message terminal when the emoticon is attached in the back of the subscriber message, and inserts an enter into the end of the subscriber message if the length of the subscriber message does not corresponds to integer times, thereby generating the emoticon message; and a message transmitting unit that transmits the emoticon message to the incoming message terminal.

[Claim 8]

The emoticon message conversion system according to claim 7, wherein the emoticon combining unit includes at least one of: a first combining section that attaches the emoticon in front of the subscriber message; a second combining section that attaches the emoticon in the back of the subscriber message; a third combining section that attaches portions of the emoticon between the spaces of the subscriber message; a fourth combining section that substitutes the subscriber message with the emoticon; a fifth combining section that substitutes portions of the subscriber message with portions of the emoticon; and a sixth combining section that combines the subscriber message and the emoticon such that the subscriber message and the emoticon are arranged vertically in parallel on the display of the incoming message terminal.

[Claim 9]

The emoticon message conversion system according to claim 8, wherein the sixth combining section vertically divides the space of the emoticon message into two parts, arranges the subscriber message in the first vertical space, and arranges the emoticon in the second vertical space, while checking the number of remaining bytes for each line of the first vertical space such that two-byte characters of the subscriber message are not broken at the right end of the first vertical space.

[Claim 10]

The emoticon message conversion system according to claim 8, wherein the emoticon extracting unit extracts from the emoticon storing unit one or more emoticons corresponding to the message conversion setting, and selects an optimized emoticon from the extracted emoticons by referring to the surplus capacity.

[Claim 11 ]

The emoticon message conversion system according to claim 8 or 10, wherein the emoticon extracting unit extracts from the emoticon storing unit an emoticon including a blank region having a size lager than the subscriber message, and the emoticon combining unit substitutes and inserts the subscriber message into the blank region of the extracted emoticon.

[Claim 12]

An emoticon message conversion system comprising: an emoticon storing unit that a plurality of emoticons; a subscriber information storing unit that stores message conversion setting and various mobile communication terminal information; a message receiving unit that receives a subscriber message from an outgoing message terminal; a subscriber authentication unit that verifies the terminal information of an incoming message terminal and the message conversion setting; a message discriminating unit that analyzes the subscriber message and calculates the surplus capacity of a short message with respect to the subscriber message; an emoticon extracting unit that refers to the surplus capacity so as to extract an emoticon, used for the subscriber message, corresponding to the message conversion setting from the emoticon storing unit; an emoticon combining unit that, when creating an emoticon message by referring to the message conversion setting and combining the subscriber message and the extracted emotion, vertically divides the space of the emoticon message into two parts, airranges the subscriber message in the first vertical space, and arranges the emoticon in the second vertical space, while checking the number of remaining bytes for each line of the first vertical space such that two-byte characters of the subscriber message are not broken at the right end of the first vertical space, thereby generating the emoticon message; and a message transmitting unit that transmits the emoticon message to the incoming message terminal.

[Claim 13]

The emoticon message conversion system according to claim 12 further including a second emoticon combining unit that refers to the number of bytes of the horizontal line in accordance with the display specification of the incoming message terminal so as to combine the subscriber message and the emoticon such that the left side thereof is aligned on the display, judges whether or not the length of the subscriber message corresponds to integer times the length of the horizontal line on the display of the incoming message terminal when the emoticon is attached in the back of the subscriber message, and inserts an enter into the end of the subscriber message if the length of the subscriber message does not corresponds to integer times, thereby generating the emoticon message.

[Claim 14]

An emoticon message conversion method comprising: checking whether the length of blank space in a received subscriber message is larger than (L*B) bytes (L is the number of lines of a vertical emoticon, and B is the number of bytes of one line of a vertical emoticon); vertically dividing an emoticon message space into two parts so as to fill the entire portion or portions of a first vertical space, in which the subscriber message is arranged, with blanks; setting to an initial value line variable i of the display screen of a mobile communication terminal and byte variable f of a position where an emoticon is to be attached; checking the number of ASCII characters between the ((M-B)*i-f)th byte and the

((M-B)*(i+l)-f)th byte of the message text (M is the number of bytes composing one line of a short message); judging whether the number of ASCII characters within the interval of the checking is odd or not, and increasing i by one if the number of ASCII characters is odd; setting the ((M-B)*(i+l)-f)th byte to a position where the (i+l)th emoticon letter string is attached; and judging whether the line variable i increased by one is larger than (L-I) or not, and if the value is not larger than (L-I), returning to the checking of the number of ASCII characters so as to repeat the process.

[Claim 15]

The emoticon message conversion method according to claim 14 further including: judging whether the length of blank space is larger than (L*B+f) or not, if the line variable i increased by one is larger than (L-I); and attaching a one-line horizontal emoticon if the length of blank space is not larger than (L*B+f).