JP2010224813A - Emotion estimation device and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an emotion estimation device and method, for estimating the emotion of a writer of text data with high accuracy at low cost. <P>SOLUTION: A receiving unit 110 receives text data. An extraction unit 150 extracts an emotion expression, an object expression and an intention expression which mutually have dependency from the text data. A determination unit 160 refers to an emotion expression ontology, an object expression ontology and an intention expression ontology to determine an emotion expression class, an object expression class and an intention expression class to which the extracted emotion expression, object expression and intention expression belong respectively. An estimation unit 170 obtains an emotion vector associated with the set of the determined emotion expression class, object expression class and intention expression class from an emotion table storage 138, and estimates the emotion of the writer of the text data using the obtained emotion vector. A transmission unit 120 transmits the estimation result. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an emotion estimation apparatus and method.

  Conventionally, a technique for estimating the writer's emotion using text data is known. For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a technique in which words representing emotions are constructed as an emotion expression dictionary, and words extracted from text data are collated with the emotion expression dictionary to determine the writer's emotions.

JP 2002-230011 A

  However, the emotion of the writer of the text data is not determined depending on a specific word such as a word representing emotion, but is often determined by a combination of a plurality of words. In addition, since the number of expressions of text data writers and variations thereof are enormous, it would be very costly to define rules for estimating emotions for all words representing emotions or combinations thereof.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an emotion estimation apparatus and method that can estimate the emotion of a writer of text data with high accuracy and can be realized at low cost. To do.

  In order to solve the above-described problems and achieve the object, an emotion estimation apparatus according to an aspect of the present invention includes a sensitivity expression that expresses the nature or emotion of an event, and a sensitivity expression that is a concept class to which the sensitivity expression belongs. A relationship between a sensitivity expression ontology storage unit that stores a sensitivity expression ontology indicating a relationship with a class, a target expression that expresses an object represented by the sensitivity expression, and a target expression class that is a concept class to which the target expression belongs. An intention expression storing an intention expression ontology that indicates a relationship between an object expression ontology storage unit that stores an object expression ontology to be displayed, an intention expression that expresses an intention or impression, and an intention expression class that is a class of a concept to which the intention expression belongs. A set of an ontology storage unit, the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class; An emotion table storage unit that stores an emotion table in association with each other, an input unit that inputs text data, and the emotional expression, the target expression, and the intention expression in which each expression is dependent on the text data An extraction unit for extracting the emotional expression, the target expression, the sensitivity expression class to which the intention expression belongs, the target expression class, and the set of the intention expression class, the sensitivity expression ontology, and the target expression Ontology, a determination unit that determines with reference to the intention expression ontology, and the emotion information associated with the determined set is acquired from the emotion table storage unit, using the acquired emotion information, An estimation unit for estimating an emotion of a writer of text data, and an output unit for outputting an estimation result

  The emotion estimation method according to another aspect of the present invention includes an input reception step in which an input reception unit receives input of text data, and a sensitivity expression in which an extraction unit expresses the nature or emotion of an event from the text data. Extracting the object expression expressing the object represented by the sensitivity expression, and the sensitivity expression, the object expression, and the intention expression in which each expression of the intention expression expressing the intention or impression is in a dependency relationship; The sensitivity expression ontology storage unit stores a sensitivity expression ontology indicating a relationship between the sensitivity expression and a sensitivity class that is a concept class to which the sensitivity expression belongs, and the target expression and the target expression Object expression ontology that stores object expression ontologies that indicate the relationship with the object expression class that is the class of concept to which the object expression belongs -Refer to the intention expression ontology of the intention expression ontology storage section that stores the intention expression ontology indicating the relationship between the target expression ontology of the storage unit and the intention expression class that is a class of a concept to which the intention expression belongs. A determination step for determining a set of the extracted emotional expression, the target expression, the emotional expression class to which the intention expression belongs, the target expression class, and the intention expression class, respectively; The emotion information associated with the determined group from an emotion table storing an emotion table in which a group of the class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class is associated with emotion information indicating emotion And estimating the writer's emotion of the text data using the acquired emotion information, Output control unit, characterized in that it comprises an output control step of outputting the estimation result to the output unit.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to estimate an emotion of a writer of text data with high accuracy and to realize it at a low cost.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of an outline of the emotion estimation system according to the first embodiment. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of functional blocks of the emotion estimation device and the terminal device according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a sensitivity expression ontology according to the first embodiment. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of the target expression ontology according to the first embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of an intention expression ontology according to the first embodiment. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of an emotion table according to the first embodiment. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of text data. FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of syntax tree data generated from text data. FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a set of a sensitivity expression, a target expression, and an intention expression in which each expression is in a dependency relationship. FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an example of a set of a sensitivity expression class, a target expression class, and an intention expression class. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of an emotion vector acquired from the emotion table storage unit according to the first embodiment. FIG. 12 is a diagram illustrating an example of an emotion estimation vector. FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of an emotion estimation result vector. FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a procedure flow of processing performed by the emotion estimation apparatus according to the first embodiment. FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a procedure flow of the expression extraction process according to the first embodiment. FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example of syntax tree data generated from text data. FIG. 17 is a diagram illustrating an example of a set of a sensitivity expression, a target expression, and an intention expression. FIG. 18 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a procedure flow of class determination processing according to the first embodiment. FIG. 19 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a flow of a procedure of emotion estimation processing according to the first embodiment. FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of an outline of the emotion estimation system according to the second embodiment. FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating an example of functional blocks of the emotion estimation apparatus according to the second embodiment. FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating an example of a symbol table according to the second embodiment. FIG. 23 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of a flow of processes performed in the emotion estimation system according to the second embodiment. FIG. 24 is a diagram illustrating an example of mail that the terminal device according to the second embodiment transmits to the mail server. FIG. 25 is a diagram illustrating an example of a mail text that the mail server according to the second embodiment transmits to the emotion estimation apparatus. FIG. 26 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a procedure flow of emotion estimation processing according to the second embodiment. FIG. 27 is a diagram illustrating an example of mail that the mail server according to the second embodiment transmits to the terminal device.

  DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of an emotion estimation apparatus and method according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

(First embodiment)
In the first embodiment, the emotional expression, the target expression, and the intention expression in which each expression is dependent are extracted from the text data, and extracted by referring to the sensitivity expression ontology, the target expression ontology, and the intention expression ontology. The emotional expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class to which each expression belongs is determined. Then, the emotion of the writer of the text data is estimated using the emotion vector associated with the determined set of the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class.

  “Ontology” is a systematic arrangement of the concepts of words in a certain field, and is expressed using, for example, “classes” indicating concept classifications, “instances” indicating examples of concepts, and the like.

  In Ontology, the positional relationship between words placed on the ontology expresses the relative meaning between concepts. Generally, the relationship between concepts is a high-order relationship (is-a relationship), the whole Any of a partial relationship (part-of relationship) and an instance relationship (instance-of relationship) is included.

  And by following the relationship between words on the ontology, you can measure the conceptual distance between two words or replace a word with a more abstract word. A specific example of the ontology will be described later.

  In the first embodiment, a sensitivity expression ontology that systematizes a sensitivity expression that expresses the nature or emotion of an event, a target expression ontology that systematizes a target expression that expresses an object represented by the sensitivity expression, and an intention or an impression Using the intention expression ontology that systematizes the intention expression to be expressed, the sensitivity expression, the target expression, and the intention expression are abstracted to estimate the emotion.

  First, the configuration of the emotion estimation system according to the first embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of an outline of an emotion estimation system 1 including an emotion estimation apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the emotion estimation system 1 includes a terminal device 20 that transmits text data to the emotion estimation device 10 and an emotion estimation device 10 that estimates the emotion of the writer (the user of the terminal device 20) from the text data. Each device is connected via a network 30.

  In the first embodiment, a user (writer) of the terminal device 20 creates text data such as an email or a blog, and transmits this text data to the emotion estimation device 10. Then, the emotion estimation device 10 analyzes the received text data, estimates the writer's emotion, and returns the estimation result to the terminal device 20. The emotion estimation device 10 may return the information as an estimation result by managing the estimated emotion and symbols, advertisement information, product information, or the like in association with each other in advance.

  In emotion estimation system 1, emotion estimation device 10 functions as a server, and terminal device 20 functions as a client. In the example shown in FIG. 1, the terminal device 20 is realized by a mobile phone, but any terminal can be applied as long as it functions as a client to a server such as a PC (Personal Computer). The network 30 may be any network regardless of wired or wireless, a LAN (Local Area Network), or a public communication line.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of functional blocks of the emotion estimation device 10 and the terminal device 20 according to the first embodiment. As shown in FIG. 2, the emotion estimation device 10 includes a reception unit 110, a transmission unit 120, a storage unit 130, a communication control unit 140, an extraction unit 150, a determination unit 160, and an estimation unit 170. . The terminal device 20 includes an input unit 210, a display unit 220, a transmission unit 230, a reception unit 240, an input reception unit 250, a communication control unit 260, and a display control unit 270.

  First, the configuration of the emotion estimation device 10 will be described.

  The receiving unit 110 (an example of an input unit) inputs text data, and can be realized by, for example, a communication interface or an existing input device such as a button or a touch panel. Note that in the case of realizing the communication interface, the reception unit 110 receives text data transmitted from the terminal device 20. The transmission unit 120 (an example of an output unit) outputs an emotion estimation result such as an emotion estimated from text data. For example, a communication interface, a liquid crystal display, a plasma display, an organic EL display, or a touch panel display It can be realized by an existing display device such as. In the case of realizing the communication interface, the transmission unit 120 transmits the emotion estimation result to the terminal device 20.

  The storage unit 130 stores information used for various processes performed by the emotion estimation apparatus 10. For example, the storage unit 130 includes an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), an SSD (Solid State Drive), a memory card, an optical disk, or a RAM (Random It can be realized by an existing storage medium that can be stored magnetically, electrically, or optically such as (Access Memory). The storage unit 130 includes a dictionary storage unit 131, a sensitivity expression ontology storage unit 133, a target expression ontology storage unit 135, an intention expression ontology storage unit 137, and an emotion table storage unit 138.

  The dictionary storage unit 131 stores various dictionary data such as a morphological analysis dictionary used for natural language processing such as morphological analysis and syntax analysis.

  The sentiment expression ontology storage unit 133 stores a sentiment expression ontology that indicates a relationship between a sentiment expression that expresses the nature or emotion of an event and a sentiment expression class that is a concept class to which the sentiment expression belongs. “Sensitivity expression” is an adjective or adjective verb. For example, words such as “joyful” and “fun” are emotional expressions that express emotions, and words such as “blue” and “high” indicate the nature of the event. It is the expressed sensitivity.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a sensitivity expression ontology according to the first embodiment. In the example shown in FIG. 3, an ellipse indicates a class and a rectangle indicates an instance. Further, arrows between classes indicate upper and lower relationships, and arrows between classes and instances indicate classes to which the instances belong.

  For example, in FIG. 3, “Sensitivity” is higher and “Impression” and “Emotion” are placed (defined), and “Sensitivity” is more abstract than “Impression” and “Emotion”. "Impression" and "Emotion" are less abstract than "".

  The target expression ontology storage unit 135 stores a target expression ontology that indicates a relationship between a target expression that expresses an object represented by a Kansei expression and a target expression class that is a concept class to which the target expression belongs. The “target expression” is an adjective or an adjective verb. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of the target expression ontology according to the first embodiment. However, since it is the same as the sensitivity expression ontology except that the target expression is defined, a detailed description is omitted.

  The intention expression ontology storage unit 137 stores an intention expression ontology indicating a relationship between an intention expression that expresses an intention or an impression and an intention expression class that is a class of a concept to which the intention expression belongs. "Intentional expression" is a verb (phrase) or particle, for example, "Danaa" in "Good weather" means that the writer is satisfied, and "I want to go out" want to go out However, it expresses softly that there are concerns and anxiety. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of an intention expression ontology according to the first embodiment. However, since it is the same as the sensitivity expression ontology except that the intention expression is defined, detailed description is omitted.

  The emotion table storage unit 138 stores an emotion table in which a set of a sensitivity expression class, a target expression class, and an intention expression class is associated with emotion information indicating an emotion.

  FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating an example of an emotion table according to the first embodiment. In the example illustrated in FIG. 6, the emotion information is an emotion vector that is a vector expression having a plurality of types of emotions as elements. The emotion vector is a vector expression having four emotions of emotions as elements, and the presence / absence of each emotion is expressed by binary values “1” and “0”. Note that “1” indicates that there is an emotion, and “0” indicates that there is no emotion.

  In the sensitivity expression class, the object expression class, and the intention expression class, “ANY” means designation of an arbitrary class in the ontology, and “−” means that no class is designated. . That is, by using “-”, it is also possible to define an emotion for a combination of one or two of the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class.

  In addition, in the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class, when an upper class in the ontology is specified, the specification of a lower class of the class is also included. As shown in FIG. 6, when “impression” is designated as the sensitivity expression class, designation of “favorable”, “unpleasant”, and “neutral” (see FIG. 3), which are lower classes of the class, is also included.

  The communication control unit 140 (an example of an input reception unit and an output control unit) performs reception control on the reception unit 110 and output control on the transmission unit 120. For example, when the reception unit 110 and the transmission unit 120 are realized by a communication interface, the communication control unit 140 causes the reception unit 110 to receive text data transmitted from the terminal device 20, and an emotion estimated from the text data. Are transmitted from the transmission unit 120 to the terminal device 20. Further, for example, when the reception unit 110 is realized by an input device and the transmission unit 120 is realized by a display device, the communication control unit 140 receives input of text data from the input device and outputs an emotion estimation result to the display device. Let

  The extraction unit 150 extracts, from the text data received by the reception unit 110, a sensitivity expression, a target expression, and an intention expression in which each expression has a dependency relationship.

  Specifically, the extraction unit 150 refers to the dictionary data stored in the dictionary storage unit 131, parses the text data received by the reception unit 110, and indicates a syntax tree indicating the dependency relationship within a single sentence. Generate data.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating an example of syntax tree data generated from text data, and illustrates syntax tree data generated from the text data illustrated in FIG. 7. In the example shown in FIG. 8, the text data (compound sentence) shown in FIG. 7 is divided into three simple sentences, and each single sentence is syntax tree data indicating the dependency relationship between words.

  Then, the extraction unit 150 extracts a set of a sensitivity expression, a target expression, and an intention expression, each expression having a dependency relationship, from each single sentence of the generated syntax tree data. However, for simple sentences in which all of the emotional expression, the target expression, and the intention expression do not appear, any one of these expressions or a combination of two expressions may be extracted.

  FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of a set of a sensitivity expression, a target expression, and an intention expression in which each expression is in a dependency relationship. The sensitivity expression, the target expression, and the target expression extracted from the syntax tree data illustrated in FIG. Indicates a set of intention expressions. In the example shown in FIG. 9, expression sets 311 and 312 that are sets of the sensitivity expression, the target expression, and the intention expression are extracted from the syntax tree data shown in FIG. In the expression set 312, the target expression is “−”, and is a set of sensitivity expression and intention expression.

  Note that the set of the extracted emotional expression, target expression, and intention expression is registered as a sensitivity expression list in a work storage area (not shown) for use by the determination unit 160 described later.

  The determination unit 160 refers to the Kansei Expression Ontology, the Target Expression Ontology, and the Intention Expression Ontology for the Kansei Expression Class, the Target Expression Class, and the Intention Expression Class to which the Kansei Expression, the Target Expression, and the Intention Expression belong respectively extracted by the extraction unit 150 And decide.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of a set of a sensitivity expression class, a target expression class, and an intention expression class, and shows a class set to which each expression of the set shown in FIG. 9 belongs. In the example shown in FIG. 10, class sets 321 and 322, which are sets of the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class, indicate a class set to which each expression of the expression groups 311 and 312 shown in FIG. 9 belongs. ing. For example, the emotional expression “good” in the expression group 311 belongs to the class “favorable” in the emotional expression ontology shown in FIG. 3, and thus the sensitivity expression class of the class group 321 is “favorable”.

  Note that the set of the extracted emotion expression class, target expression class, and intention expression class is used by the estimation unit 170 described later, and is registered as a sensitivity expression class list in a work storage area (not shown).

  The estimation unit 170 acquires emotion information associated with the set of the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class determined by the determination unit 160 from the emotion table storage unit 138, and uses the acquired emotion information. Estimate the writer's feelings of text data.

  More specifically, the estimation unit 170 includes (applicable) the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class corresponding to the set of the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class determined by the determination unit 160. The emotion vector associated with each set is acquired from the emotion table storage unit 138.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of emotion vectors acquired from the emotion table storage unit 138, and illustrates the emotion vectors of the class set illustrated in FIG. In the example shown in FIG. 11, since the combination “favorite, weather, satisfaction” of the class set 321 exists in the emotion table shown in FIG. 6, the emotion vector is associated with the combination (1, 0, 0). , 1). Further, since the combinations of the class sets 322 correspond to both “joy, ANY, ANY” and “ANY, ANY, anxiety” in the emotion table shown in FIG. 6, the emotion vectors are (1, 0, 0, 0), (0, 0, 1, 0).

  Then, the estimation unit 170 adds all the emotion vectors acquired from the emotion table storage unit 138, and estimates the emotion of the writer of the text data from the value of the emotion estimation result vector that is the emotion vector after the addition. However, since there may be a plurality of emotion vectors associated with the combination of the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class, in this case, the estimation unit 170 calculates an emotion vector for each combination of emotion vectors. The emotion of the text data writer is estimated from the value of the emotion estimation result vector obtained by adding up and averaging the emotion estimation vector that is the emotion vector after the addition.

  FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of the emotion estimation vector, and shows a vector added for each combination of emotion vectors shown in FIG. In the example shown in FIG. 11, since there are two types of emotion vectors (1, 0, 0, 0) and (0, 0, 1, 0) in the class set 322, the emotion vector and class of the class set 321 There are two types of combinations with the emotion vectors of the set 322.

  Therefore, the estimation unit 170 adds the emotion vector (1, 0, 0, 1) of the class set 321 and the emotion vector (1, 0, 0, 0) of the class set 322, and also adds the emotion vector ( 1, 0, 0, 1) and the emotion vector (0, 0, 1, 0) of class set 322 are added. As a result, two types of emotion estimation vectors (2, 0, 0, 1) and (1, 0, 1, 1) shown in FIG. 12 are obtained.

  Since the acquired emotion vector and emotion estimation vector are used to estimate the emotion of the writer of the text data, they are registered as an emotion vector list and an emotion estimation vector list, respectively, in a work storage area (not shown).

  Then, the estimation unit 170 obtains an emotion estimation result vector by averaging the two types of emotion estimation vectors, and estimates the emotion of the writer of the text data from the values of the elements of the emotion estimation result vector.

  FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of the emotion estimation result vector, which is obtained by averaging the emotion estimation vectors shown in FIG. In the example shown in FIG. 13, the value of the emotion estimation result vector is (1.5, 0, 0.5, 1), and the value of the “joy” element is the largest. Estimate the writer's emotion as “joy”.

  The communication control unit 140, the extraction unit 150, the determination unit 160, and the estimation unit 170 can be realized by a control device such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), for example.

  Next, the configuration of the terminal device 20 will be described.

  The input unit 210 inputs text data, and can be realized by an existing input device such as a button or a touch panel.

  The display unit 220 displays an estimation result or the like transmitted from the emotion estimation device 10 according to an instruction from the display control unit 270 described later. For example, a liquid crystal display, a plasma display, an organic EL display, a touch panel display, or the like This can be realized by the existing display device.

  The transmission unit 230 transmits the text data input by the input unit 210 to the emotion estimation apparatus 10, and the reception unit 240 performs the emotion estimation on the estimation result of the writer of the text data transmitted by the transmission unit 230. It is received from the device 10. The transmission unit 230 and the reception unit 240 can be realized by a communication interface, for example.

  The input receiving unit 250 receives text data input from the input unit 210.

  The communication control unit 260 performs transmission control with respect to the transmission unit 230 and reception control with respect to the reception unit 240, causes the text data to be transmitted from the transmission unit 230 to the emotion estimation device 10, and emotion estimation transmitted from the emotion estimation device 10. The reception unit 240 receives the result.

  The display control unit 270 causes the display unit 220 to display the emotion estimation result received by the receiving unit 240.

  The input receiving unit 250, the communication control unit 260, and the display control unit 270 can be realized by a control device such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit).

  Next, the operation of the emotion estimation apparatus according to the first embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a flow of a process performed by the emotion estimation apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment.

  First, the communication control unit 140 controls the receiving unit 110 to receive text data transmitted from the terminal device 20 (step S10).

  Subsequently, the extraction unit 150 performs an expression extraction process for extracting the emotional expression, the target expression, and the intention expression in which each expression is dependent from the text data received by the receiving unit 110 (step S20). Details of the expression extraction process will be described later.

  Subsequently, the determination unit 160 sets the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class to which the sensitivity expression, the target expression, and the intention expression respectively extracted by the extraction unit 150 belong, the sensitivity expression ontology, the target expression ontology, and the intention expression. A class determination process is performed by referring to the ontology (step S30). Details of the class determination process will be described later.

  Subsequently, the estimation unit 170 acquires an emotion vector associated with the set of the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class determined by the determination unit 160 from the emotion table storage unit 138, and the acquired emotion vector is obtained. The emotion estimation process is performed to estimate the emotion of the writer of the text data (step S40). Details of the emotion estimation process will be described later.

  Subsequently, the communication control unit 140 controls the transmission unit 120 to transmit the writer's emotion estimated by the estimation unit 170 to the terminal device 20 as an estimation result (step S50).

  FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing an example of the procedure of the expression extraction process shown in step S20 of FIG.

  First, the extraction unit 150 refers to the dictionary data stored in the dictionary storage unit 131, parses the text data received by the reception unit 110, and generates syntax tree data from the text data (step S200). . FIG. 16 is a diagram illustrating an example of syntax tree data generated from text data, and illustrates syntax tree data generated from the text data illustrated in FIG. 7.

  Subsequently, the extraction unit 150 divides the compound sentence in the syntax tree data into simple sentences based on punctuation marks and conjunctions in the syntax tree data (step S202). When the compound sentence in the syntax tree data shown in FIG. 16 is divided into simple sentences, the syntax tree data shown in FIG. 8 is obtained.

  Subsequently, the extraction unit 150 acquires an unprocessed simple sentence from the divided simple sentences (step S204).

  Subsequently, the extraction unit 150 sets an adjective or an adjective verb included in the acquired simple sentence as a sensitivity expression (step S206).

  Subsequently, the extraction unit 150 sets a noun included in the acquired single sentence as a target expression (step S208).

  Subsequently, the extraction unit 150 sets a verb included in the acquired single sentence as an intention expression (step S210).

  Subsequently, the extraction unit 150 confirms whether or not the set emotional expression, target expression, and intention expression are in a dependency relationship (step S212).

  17 is a diagram illustrating an example of the sensitivity expression, the target expression, and the intention expression set by the extraction unit 150. The sensitivity expression, the target expression, and the intention set in each simple sentence of the syntax tree data illustrated in FIG. A set of expressions is shown. In the example shown in FIG. 17, the sensitivity expressions, target expressions, and intention expressions of the expression groups 311 and 312 are in a dependency relationship, but the sensitivity expressions, target expressions, and Intentional expressions are not dependent on each other.

  If there is a dependency relationship (Yes in step S212), the extraction unit 150 registers a set of the sensitivity expression, the target expression, and the intention expression in the sensitivity expression list (step S214). On the other hand, when there is no dependency relationship (No in step S212), the extraction unit 150 does not perform the process of step S214. Therefore, in the example shown in FIG. 17, only the expression sets 311 and 312 are registered in the emotion expression list as shown in FIG.

  Subsequently, the extraction unit 150 checks whether or not all the divided simple sentences have been processed (step S216), and when all the simple sentences have been processed (Yes in step S216), the processing ends. On the other hand, when all the simple sentences have not been processed (No in step S216), the processes in steps S204 to S214 are repeated.

  FIG. 18 is a flowchart showing an example of the procedure of the class determination process shown in step S30 of FIG.

  First, the determination unit 160 acquires an unprocessed set from the set of the sensitivity expression, the target expression, and the intention expression registered in the sensitivity expression list (step S300).

  Subsequently, the determination unit 160 collates the acquired Kansei expression with the Kansei expression ontology stored in the Kansei expression ontology storage unit 133 and determines the Kansei expression class to which the Kansei expression belongs (Step S302).

  Subsequently, the determination unit 160 collates the acquired target expression with the target expression ontology stored in the target expression ontology storage unit 135, and determines a target expression class to which the target expression belongs (step S304).

  Subsequently, the determination unit 160 compares the acquired set of intention expressions with the intention expression ontology stored in the intention expression ontology storage unit 137, and determines the intention expression class to which the intention expression belongs (step S306).

  Subsequently, the determination unit 160 registers the set of the determined sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class in the sensitivity expression class list (step S308). The combinations of the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class to which the sensitivity expression, the target expression, and the intention expression shown in FIG. 9 belong are as shown in FIG.

  Subsequently, the determination unit 160 checks whether or not all sets of the sensitivity expression, the target expression, and the intention expression registered in the sensitivity expression list have been processed (step S310), and if all have been processed (step S310). Yes), the process is terminated. On the other hand, if not all have been processed (No in step S310), the processing in steps 300 to S308 is repeated.

  FIG. 19 is a flowchart showing an example of the flow of the emotion estimation process shown in step S40 of FIG.

  First, the estimation unit 170 acquires an unprocessed set from the set of the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class registered in the sensitivity expression class list (step S400).

  Subsequently, the estimation unit 170 searches the emotion table storage unit 138 for an emotion vector associated with the set of the acquired emotion expression class, target expression class, and intention expression class (step S402).

  Then, when there is a set of the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class corresponding to the acquired combination of the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class, the estimation unit 170 (in step S404). Yes), the emotion vector associated with the class set is registered in the emotion vector list (step S406). In addition, the emotion vector of the set of the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class shown in FIG. 10 is as shown in FIG.

  On the other hand, when there is no combination of the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class corresponding to the acquired combination of the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class (No in step S404), the estimation unit 170 does not perform the process of step S406.

  Subsequently, the estimation unit 170 confirms whether or not all sets of the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class registered in the sensitivity expression class list have been processed (step S408), and does not process all of them. In that case (No in step S408), the processes in steps S400 to S406 are repeated.

  On the other hand, when all the processing has been performed (Yes in step S408), the estimation unit 170 acquires an unprocessed combination from the combinations of emotion vectors registered in the emotion vector list (step S410).

  Subsequently, the estimation unit 170 adds the acquired emotion vector values of the combinations (step S412).

  Subsequently, the estimation unit 170 registers the emotion estimation vector obtained by adding the emotion vector values to the emotion estimation vector list (step S414). In addition, the emotion estimation vector which added the emotion vector for every combination in FIG. 11 is as showing in FIG.

  Subsequently, the estimation unit 170 confirms whether or not all combinations of emotion vectors registered in the emotion vector list have been processed (step S416). If not all have been processed (No in step S416), The processes in steps S410 to S414 are repeated.

  On the other hand, when all the processes have been performed (Yes in step S416), the estimation unit 170 takes the average value of the emotion estimation vectors registered in the emotion estimation vector list and estimates the emotion of the writer of the text data (step S418). . The emotion estimation result vector obtained by averaging the emotion estimation vectors in FIG. 12 is as shown in FIG. 13, and since the value of the element of “joy” is the largest, the estimation unit 170 determines the emotion of the writer of the text data. Is estimated to be “joy”.

  As described above, in the first embodiment, the emotional expression, the target expression, and the intention expression in which each expression has a dependency relationship are extracted from the text data, and the sensitivity expression ontology, the target expression ontology, and the intention expression ontology are used. Then, the emotional expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class are abstracted to estimate the writer's feeling of the text data. Therefore, according to the first embodiment, the emotion of the writer of the text data can be estimated with high accuracy and can be realized at low cost.

  In particular, in the first embodiment, the sensitivity expression, the target expression, and the intention expression are abstracted into the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class, respectively, through the ontology. Vectors can be defined, and the amount of emotion table data can be greatly reduced.

  Also, in the Kansei expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class, if a higher class is specified, a lower class and instance are also specified, so an emotion vector can be defined abstractly, and a lower class can be specified. For example, since emotion vectors can be specifically defined, rules for estimating emotions can be set flexibly.

  Note that the first embodiment is suitable for a system using a so-called targeting method that distributes information in accordance with individual user behavior and interests to stimulate the purchase behavior of the user or to enclose the user. . According to the first embodiment, it is possible to estimate an emotion of text data created for a mail or a blog by a user and present information in accordance with the estimated emotion. For example, a product with a healing effect can be recommended to a user who is depressed.

(Second Embodiment)
Next, in the second embodiment, an example will be described in which not only the emotion of the writer of the text data is estimated but also an icon indicating the estimated emotion is given.

  In the following, differences from the first embodiment will be mainly described, and components having the same functions as those in the first embodiment will have the same names and names as those in the first embodiment. Reference numerals are assigned and explanations thereof are omitted.

  First, the configuration of the emotion estimation system according to the second embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating an example of an outline of an emotion estimation system 1001 including the emotion estimation apparatus 1010 according to the second embodiment.

  The emotion estimation system 1001 shown in FIG. 20 transmits a mail transmitted from a terminal device to a destination terminal device via a mail server 1040. The emotion estimation device 1010 receives the text of the mail from the mail server 1040. Then, the emotion of the received mail text is estimated, and an icon indicating the estimated emotion is transmitted to the mail server 1040. In the second embodiment, the case where the terminal device 20 is a mail transmission source and the terminal device 21 is a mail transmission destination will be described as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to this. The transmission source may be the terminal device 20 and the mail transmission destination.

  Since the configuration of the terminal device 21 is the same as that of the terminal device 20, the configuration of the emotion estimation device 1010, which is the main difference between the first embodiment and the second embodiment, The operation of the emotion estimation system 1 will be described.

  FIG. 21 is a diagram illustrating an example of functional blocks of the emotion estimation apparatus 1010 according to the second embodiment. Emotion estimation device 1010 is based on the point that symbol table storage unit 1139 is included in storage unit 1130 and that the symbol associated with the emotion estimated by estimation unit 1170 is acquired. 10 and different.

  The symbol table storage unit 1139 stores the estimated emotion and the symbol indicating the emotion in association with each other. FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating an example of a symbol table according to the second embodiment. In the example illustrated in FIG. 22, the symbol is an icon, and an emotion indicating any emotion is associated with an icon indicating the emotion.

  The estimation unit 1170 acquires a symbol associated with the estimated emotion from the symbol table storage unit 1139.

  Next, the operation of the emotion estimation system according to the second embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 23 is a sequence diagram illustrating an example of a flow of processes performed in the emotion estimation system 1001 according to the second embodiment.

  First, the terminal device 20 transmits a mail addressed to the terminal device 21 to the mail server 1040 (step S610). FIG. 24 is a diagram illustrating an example of mail transmitted from the terminal device 20 to the mail server 1040.

  Subsequently, the mail server 1040 transmits the text of the mail received from the terminal device 20 to the emotion estimation device 1010 (step S620). FIG. 25 is a diagram illustrating an example of a mail text that the mail server 1040 transmits to the emotion estimation apparatus 1010.

  Subsequently, the expression extraction process shown in step S630 and the class determination process shown in step S640 performed by the emotion estimation apparatus 1010 are the same as the expression extraction process shown in step S20 and the class determination process shown in step S30 in FIG. The description is omitted.

  Subsequently, the estimation unit 1170 of the emotion estimation apparatus 1010 obtains an emotion vector associated with the set of the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class determined by the determination unit 160 from the emotion table storage unit 138. Then, an emotion estimation process is performed in which the emotion of the writer of the text data is estimated and an icon indicating the estimated emotion is acquired from the symbol table storage unit 1139 (step S650).

  FIG. 26 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the flow of the emotion estimation process shown in step S650 of FIG. In addition, since the process from step S700 to S718 is the same as the process from step S400 to S418 shown in FIG. 19, description is abbreviate | omitted.

  When the writer's emotion is estimated in step S718, the estimation unit 1170 acquires an icon associated with the estimated emotion from the symbol table storage unit 1139 (step S720). Note that the emotion estimation result vector of the text data shown in FIG. 25 is as shown in FIG. To do.

  Returning to FIG. 23, subsequently, the communication control unit 140 controls the transmission unit 120 to transmit the icon 1101 to the mail server 1040 together with the emotion estimated by the estimation unit 1170 (step S660).

  Subsequently, the mail server 1040 gives the icon 1101 received from the emotion estimation apparatus 1010 and transmits the mail received from the terminal apparatus 20 to the terminal apparatus 21. FIG. 27 is a diagram illustrating an example of mail transmitted from the mail server 1040 to the terminal device 21. An icon 1101 is added to the mail illustrated in FIG.

  As described above, in the second embodiment, the emotion of the mail sender is estimated from the mail text, and an icon indicating the estimated emotion is added and the mail is transmitted to the transmission destination. I can tell the other party.

  The emotion estimation apparatuses 10 and 1010 of the above embodiment include a control device such as a CPU, a storage device such as a ROM (Read Only Memory) and a RAM, an external storage device such as an HDD, SSD, and a removable drive device, It has a display device such as a liquid crystal display and an input device such as a keyboard and a mouse, and has a hardware configuration using a normal computer.

(Modification)
The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments as they are, and can be embodied by modifying the constituent elements without departing from the scope of the invention in the implementation stage. In addition, various inventions can be formed by appropriately combining a plurality of constituent elements disclosed in the above embodiments. For example, some components may be deleted from all the components shown in the embodiment. Furthermore, constituent elements over different embodiments may be appropriately combined.

  In the above embodiment, the emotion estimation apparatuses 10 and 1010 have been described with respect to an example in which text data is received. However, if a voice recognition unit that recognizes voice and generates text data is provided, the user's voice (for example, , A voice of a telephone) is received, text data is generated by recognizing the received voice, and a user's emotion can be estimated from the generated text data.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1,1001 Emotion estimation system 10, 1010 Emotion estimation apparatus 20, 21 Terminal device 30 Network 110 Reception part 120 Transmission part 130, 1130 Storage part 131 Dictionary storage part 133 Kansei expression ontology storage part 135 Target expression ontology storage part 137 Intention expression ontology Storage unit 138 Emotion table storage unit 140 Communication control unit 150 Extraction unit 160 Determination unit 170, 1170 Estimation unit 210 Input unit 220 Display unit 230 Transmission unit 240 Reception unit 250 Input reception unit 260 Communication control unit 270 Display control unit 311, 312, 333 to 335 Expression group 321 and 322 Class group 1040 Mail server 1101 Icon 1139 Symbol table storage unit

Claims (7)

A sentiment expression ontology storage unit that stores a sentiment expression ontology indicating a relationship between a sentiment expression expressing the nature or emotion of an event and a sentiment expression class that is a concept class to which the sentiment expression belongs;
A target expression ontology storage unit that stores a target expression ontology indicating a relationship between a target expression that represents the target object represented by the Kansei expression and a target expression class that is a concept class to which the target expression belongs;
An intention expression ontology storage unit that stores an intention expression ontology indicating a relationship between an intention expression expressing an intention or an impression and an intention expression class that is a class of a concept to which the intention expression belongs;
An emotion table storage unit that stores an emotion table in which a set of the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class is associated with emotion information indicating emotion;
An input section for inputting text data;
An extraction unit that extracts the sensitivity expression, the target expression, and the intention expression, each expression having a dependency relationship from the text data;
The extracted Kansei expression, the target expression, the Kansei expression class to which the intention expression belongs, the object expression class, and the intention expression class are grouped as the Kansei expression ontology, the object expression ontology, and the intention expression ontology, respectively. A determination unit that determines with reference to
An estimation unit that acquires the emotion information associated with the determined set from the emotion table storage unit, and uses the acquired emotion information to estimate the writer's emotion of the text data;
An emotion estimation apparatus comprising: an output unit that outputs an estimation result.   The emotion estimation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the extraction unit extracts the sensitivity expression, the target expression, and the intention expression, each expression having a dependency relationship from the text data.   The emotion estimation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the emotion information is an emotion vector that is a vector expression including a plurality of types of emotions as elements.   When the determination unit determines a plurality of sets, the estimation unit acquires the emotion vectors associated with each set from the emotion table storage unit, and adds the acquired emotion vectors together The emotion estimation apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the emotion of the writer of the text data is estimated.   The estimation unit acquires a plurality of the emotion vectors from the emotion table storage unit when there are a plurality of the emotion vectors associated with the determined set, and averages the acquired emotion vectors The emotion estimation apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the emotion of the writer of the text data is estimated. A symbol table storage unit for storing the estimated emotion and a symbol indicating the emotion in association with each other;
The estimation unit further acquires the symbol associated with the estimated emotion of the writer of the text data from the symbol table storage unit,
The emotion estimation apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the output unit further outputs the acquired symbol. An input receiving step for receiving an input of text data;
From the text data, the extractor has a dependency relationship between a sensitivity expression expressing the nature or emotion of the event, a target expression expressing the object represented by the sensitivity expression, and an intention expression expressing the intention or impression. An extraction step of extracting the Kansei expression, the object expression, and the intention expression;
The Kansei Expression Ontology of the Kansei Expression Ontology Storage Unit for storing a Kansei Expression Ontology indicating a relationship between the Kansei Expression and the Kansei Expression Class that is a concept class to which the Kansei Expression belongs, and the target expression and the target The target expression ontology that stores the target expression ontology indicating the relationship with the target expression class that is the concept class to which the expression belongs, and the intention expression that is the class of the concept to which the intention expression and the intention expression belong With reference to the intention expression ontology of the intention expression ontology storage unit that stores the intention expression ontology indicating the relationship with the class, the extracted Kansei expression, the target expression, the Kansei expression class to which the intention expression belongs, A determination step of determining a target expression class and a set of the intention expression classes ,
From the emotion table storage unit that stores an emotion table in which a set of the sensitivity expression class, the target expression class, and the intention expression class is associated with emotion information indicating emotion, the estimation unit Estimating the associated emotion information and using the acquired emotion information to estimate the writer's emotion of the text data; and
An output control unit comprising: an output control step for causing the output unit to output an estimation result.

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