JP2018092528A - Chat system, management device, terminal device, and method and program for assisting selection of destination - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a user interface that allows for easily selecting an appropriate destination in a chat system.SOLUTION: A chat system with a terminal device that allows for selecting a chat connection destination from a touch panel on a display screen is provided, the system comprising means of acquiring information indicative of a degree of communicability of a user of another terminal device enlisted as a connection destination candidate for the terminal device; and means of changing how a button for each connection destination candidate is displayed on a connection destination selection screen displayed on the terminal device in accordance with the acquired information indicative of a degree of communicability.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

  The present invention relates to a chat system, a management device, a terminal device, a destination selection support method, and a destination selection support program.

  In families raising children, for example, there are many situations where someone can help a child (infant) even during housework. On the other hand, grandparents (from the perspective of their children) often want to communicate with their children (grandchildren), but the reality is that if they live far away they can't go to frequent meetings. . Therefore, a solution utilizing recent IT (information and communication technology) is desired.

  The inventor has been studying a communication method using video chat, etc., which makes it easy for infants to concentrate and makes it difficult to get tired in the long run. However, there is a problem in the user interface for selecting a connection destination when starting video chat. I found.

  In video chat, for adults, it can be determined that it is okay to talk to this person for this time, but for infants, the circumstances of such other parties are unthinkable. It is thought that the partner who entered is selected. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a connection destination selection screen in a general video chat. As shown in the list on the right side, partners who are connection destination candidates are displayed by icons of a uniform size. Therefore, an infant selects an icon that has entered the eye without thinking deeply.

  Further, in order to express the degree of communication with the other party, for example, in a system such as Skype (trademark or registered trademark), not only “Online” and “Offline”, but also a detailed state such as “Away” and “Uploading” Can be set by the user himself / herself, and the status is shown to the other party together with an icon. However, this method is not likely to be a criterion for selecting an opponent for infants who cannot read the letters and still cannot fully think about the other party.

  For this reason, there is a need for a user interface that can guide a child who may be placed on an infant.

  Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-228867 has set forth as an object the solution to the problem of providing effective mobile phone communication to a small child, but does not focus on the situation of connection destination selection. Patent Document 2 relates to display control in message chat, but does not focus on the scene of connection destination selection.

  On the other hand, it is thought that there is a mental barrier to the transmission of the parents and other parents who do not know when it can be transmitted to the infant. For example, if a video chat is transmitted when an infant is sleeping, the child is awakened, and there is a concern that the parent of the child may be inconvenienced.

  In addition, although video chat has been described, the same applies to voice-only chat.

Special table 2014-515571 gazette JP 2014-067358 A

  As described above, in a chat system that a child such as an infant may use, there is a problem in selecting a connection destination on both the transmission side and the reception side.

  The present invention has been proposed in view of the above-described conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a user interface capable of easily selecting an appropriate connection destination in a chat system.

  In order to solve the above-described problem, in the present invention, a chat system including a terminal device that allows a chat connection destination to be selected from a touch panel on a display screen, is a connection destination candidate of the terminal device. A button for each connection destination candidate on the connection destination selection screen displayed on the terminal device in accordance with means for acquiring information indicating the degree of call possibility of the user of another terminal device and the acquired information indicating the degree of call possibility Means for changing the display of.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a user interface capable of easily selecting an appropriate connection destination in a chat system.

It is a figure which shows the example of the connection destination selection screen in a general video chat. It is a figure which shows the structural example of the system concerning one Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of an external appearance structure of a video chat robot. It is a figure which shows the hardware structural example concerning the information processing of a video chat robot. It is FIG. (1) which shows the operation example of handing play. It is FIG. (2) which shows the operation example of handing play. It is FIG. (3) which shows the operation example of handing play. It is a figure which shows the example of a data structure of a user state management table. It is a sequence diagram which shows the process example of embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of a connection destination selection screen.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described. Although a video chat system using audio and video will be described as an example, it goes without saying that the user interface for selecting a connection destination can also be applied to an audio-only chat system.

<Configuration>
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 2, a video chat robot 1 used mainly by infants and a terminal device 2 used mainly by communication partners such as grandparents can be connected via a network N such as the Internet. The network N is connected to a management server 3 that provides connection destination information when the video chat robot 1 or the terminal device 2 is connected to the video chat, and relays the video chat as necessary.

  The video chat robot 1 includes a video chat unit 11, a hand control unit 12, and a video control unit 13. The video chat unit 11 has a function of executing processing for video chat on the video chat robot 1 side. The hand control unit 12 has a function of controlling a hand (described later) provided in the video chat robot 1. The video control unit 13 has a function of controlling video on the video chat in conjunction with hand control. Note that the video control unit 13 is not required when the video on the video chat linked to the hand control is performed on the terminal device 2 side or the management server 3 side.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an external configuration example of the video chat robot 1. In FIG. 3, the video chat robot 1 includes a head case 101 and a body case 106. The head casing 101 is provided with a screen unit 102 on the front surface, a camera 103 is provided above the screen unit 102, speakers 104 are provided on both sides of the screen unit 102, and a microphone 105 is provided below the screen unit 102. Is provided. The body housing 106 is provided with a hand 107 that imitates a hand and has a state in which an article can be placed and a state in which the article is taken in and hidden. The screen unit 102 is provided with a touch panel for operation input. Furthermore, the video chat robot 1 can be provided with a self-propelled mechanism and a rotating mechanism for following the user (child) and facing the front of the user. The user can be recognized by face recognition or color recognition by the camera 103 or other sensors.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration example related to information processing of the video chat robot 1. In FIG. 4, a video chat robot 1 includes a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 1001, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 1002, a RAM (Random Access Memory) 1003, and an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) connected to each other via a bus 1000. / SSD (Solid State Drive) 1004, connection I / F (Interface) 1005, and communication I / F 1006.

  The CPU 1001 performs overall control of the operation of the video chat robot 1 by executing a program stored in the ROM 1002 or the HDD / SSD 1004 using the RAM 1003 as a work area. A connection I / F 1005 is an interface with the camera 1007, the microphone 1008, the speaker 1009, the touch panel 1010, the placement sensor 1011, and the motor 1012. The communication I / F 1006 is an interface for communicating with other information processing devices (terminal device 2, management server 3, etc.) via a network. The function of the video chat robot 1 is realized by the CPU 1001 executing a predetermined program. The program may be acquired via a recording medium, may be acquired via a network, or may be embedded in a ROM.

  Note that the terminal device 2 and the management server 3 have a general computer hardware configuration. The terminal device 2 that performs video chat has video / audio input / output functions such as a camera, a microphone, a monitor, and a speaker.

  According to the video chat robot 1, in addition to normal conversations by voice and video video chat, you can play songs (sing a song together), books (read a book), come and play, hide and seek, etc. Can do. Further, hand-playing can be performed by a mechanism such as a hand specially provided in the video chat robot 1.

  5 to 7 are diagrams showing an example of handing play operation by the video chat robot 1. FIG. 5A shows a state where the child CH is about to place the article OBJ on the hand 107 of the video chat robot 1. FIG. 5B shows an example of a screen displayed on the terminal device 2 on the grandfather GF side at that time. A video of a child CH holding the article OBJ is displayed on the main screen, and the sub-screen is displayed. The video of the grandfather GF himself (video displayed on the video chat robot 1 side) is displayed.

  FIG. 6A shows that the object OBJ is hidden and cannot be seen because the hand 107 is changed from the open state to the closed state in the video chat robot 1, and the image OBJ together with the grandfather GF is displayed on the screen unit 102 ( (Composite image) is displayed. As a result, the child CH recognizes that the article OBJ he / she has handed over has passed to the grandfather GF. FIG. 6B shows an example of a screen displayed on the terminal device 2 on the grandfather GF side at that time. The video of the child CH is displayed on the main screen, and the grandfather GF is displayed on the sub-screen. The person's video and the image of the article OBJ are displayed.

  FIG. 7A shows a state where the article OBJ has disappeared from the sub-screen of the terminal device 2 on the grandfather GF side due to the grandfather GF performing an article return operation (such as pressing a corresponding button). FIG. 7B shows a state where the hand 107 of the video chat robot 1 is in an open state and the article OBJ can be seen again. Accordingly, the child CH recognizes that the article OBJ has returned from the grandfather GF.

  Returning to FIG. 2, the terminal device 2 includes a video chat unit 21 and a video control unit 22. The video chat unit 21 has a function of executing processing for video chat on the terminal device 2 side. The video control unit 22 has a function of controlling video on the video chat in conjunction with the control of the hand of the video chat robot 1. Note that the video control unit 22 is not required when the video chat robot 1 side or the management server 3 side controls the video on the video chat in conjunction with the control of the hand of the video chat robot 1. The video controller 13 of the video chat robot 1 and the video controller 22 of the terminal device 2 may control the video on the video chat in cooperation.

  The management server 3 includes a video chat control unit 31, a video control unit 32, a log acquisition unit 33, a user status management unit 34, and a user status management table 35. The video chat control unit 31 has a function of controlling video chat between the video chat robot 1 and the terminal device 2. The video control unit 32 has a function of controlling video on the video chat in conjunction with the control of the hand of the video chat robot 1. The log acquisition unit 33 has a function of acquiring a log such as a connection history (connection start / end date and time, connection terminal ID, etc.) between the video chat robot 1 and the terminal device 2 and an operation status of handing play.

  The user state management unit 34 has a function of holding and managing a user name, an icon image, and the like displayed on the connection destination selection screen for each user in the user state management table 35. The user status management unit 34 also receives information indicating the degree of talk set by each user from the video chat robot 1 or the terminal device 2 via the video chat control unit 31 and information indicating the surrounding environment of each user. Etc. and taking into account the log of the log acquisition unit 33, it also has a function of determining and managing information indicating the degree of call possibility for each user. Furthermore, the user state management unit 34 also has a function of providing information indicating the degree of call possibility of the connection destination candidate user periodically or when requested by the video chat robot 1 or the like. The connection destination selection screen may be generated by the video chat control unit 31 of the management server 3 and transmitted to the video chat robot 1 or the terminal device 2 to be connected or the video to be connected. You may carry out in the chat robot 1 or the video chat parts 11 and 21 of the terminal device 2. FIG.

  FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the data structure of the user state management table 35. In FIG. 8, the user status management table 35 includes “user ID (terminal ID)”, “robot flag”, “user name”, “icon image”, “online / offline”, “acquired information”, and “degree of call for each other user ID”. It has items such as.

  “User ID (terminal ID)” is information for identifying a user or a terminal (video chat robot 1, terminal device 2). The “robot flag” is information indicating whether or not the terminal used by the user is the video chat robot 1 used by the infant. “User name” is information on the name of the user displayed on the connection destination selection screen. The “icon image” is information (raw data or a link to a storage destination) of a button icon on which a user's face or the like displayed on the connection destination selection screen is displayed. In the present embodiment, an infant is interested in selecting an icon in which the other party's face is displayed in large size, and the size of the face is also controlled by controlling the size of the icon. Since it is easy for control to increase in proportion, it is desirable to make the size of the face in the icon image uniform. For example, a face contour guide can be displayed when an icon image is registered by camera shooting. Further, the size of the face can be made uniform by image processing.

  “Online / offline” is information indicating whether the terminal used by the user is online or offline. “Acquired information” is information obtained from each terminal and indicating the degree of speech set by each user, information indicating the surrounding environment of each user, and the like. The “degree of call possibility for each other user ID” is determined from the following viewpoint.

If the robot flag is ON (the user is an infant)
-Information indicating the degree of speech set by other users as connection destination candidates-Information indicating chat history between infants and other users-Based on information indicating the surrounding environment of other users, etc. The degree of call possibility for each user ID is determined.

  For example, three levels of “I do not want to talk”, “Normal”, and “I want to talk” are set as the degree of talking. When “I don't want to talk” is set, this is given priority over other information, and the degree of callability is lowered.

  The chat history takes into account the time zone in which chatting has been performed in the past, the call time (connection time), and the number of connections, and the higher the call time, the higher the degree of call possibility. In addition, the longer the call time in the past and the greater the number of connections, the higher the call possibility level. Note that the video chat robot 1 has a function of acquiring the smile level of the infant by image processing and a function of inputting an evaluation of the degree of enjoyment of the infant by parents and the like. From the history, as the degree of enjoyment of the other child's infant, the degree of callability can be changed according to the average score of past smiles and the evaluation of the mother.

  The surrounding environment is information that other users who are connection destination candidates start or operate the chat application, and the user can respond as soon as the user starts or operates the chat application. The degree of possibility of a call is increased because it is highly likely. In addition, when it is possible to link with a smart house or the like that can monitor the power consumption status in the home, the degree of communication is increased when the user is determined to be at home based on sensor information obtained from the smart house.

If the robot flag is OFF (the user is not an infant)
-Information indicating the degree of speech set by the parent / guardian of the infant included in the connection destination candidates-Information indicating the surrounding environment of the infant-Based on information indicating the state of the infant, etc. Is determined.

  The degree to which the infant is speaking is set by the infant's parents or the like. For example, three levels of “I do not want to talk”, “Normal” and “I want to talk” are set. When “I don't want to talk” is set, this is given priority over other information, and the degree of callability is lowered. It is possible to set all the connection destination candidates at once or individually.

  Infant's surrounding environment is information on the location of the infant that is a candidate for connection, and in cooperation with smart houses and childcare diary apps, etc. Is detected, and the degree of callability set for each scene is changed.

  The state of the infant is information such as the mental state of the infant and the distance from the video chat robot 1, the sound around the video chat robot 1 (infant cry), the distance from the infant (close to the video chat robot 1). The degree of call is changed according to whether the video chat robot 1 is interested.

<Operation>
FIG. 9 is a sequence diagram showing a processing example of the above embodiment. In FIG. 9, when the terminal device 2 sets the degree of speaking (including setting change) by a user other than an infant to the video chat unit 21 or changes the environment (step S <b> 101), the terminal device 2. The video chat unit 21 transmits information to that effect to the management server 3 (step S102). When receiving the information from the terminal device 2, the video chat control unit 31 of the management server 3 passes the received information to the user state management unit 34, and the user state management unit 34 calls the connection destination candidate in the user state management table 35. The degree of possibility is updated (step S103). The method for determining the call possibility degree is as described in FIG.

  When the video chat robot 1 sets the degree of talk (including setting change) of the infant's parents or the like to the video chat unit 11, or changes in the environment or state (step S104), the video The video chat unit 11 of the chat robot 1 transmits information to that effect to the management server 3 (step S105). When receiving the information from the video chat robot 1, the video chat control unit 31 of the management server 3 delivers the received information to the user status management unit 34, and the user status management unit 34 selects connection destination candidates in the user status management table 35. The call possibility degree is updated (step S106). The method for determining the call possibility degree is as described in FIG.

  After that, when the parent or the like or the infant starts the video chat application on the video chat robot 1 (step S107), the video chat unit 11 of the video chat robot 1 requests connection destination candidate information from the management server 3 (step S107). S108). When the video chat control unit 31 of the management server 3 receives the request for connection destination candidate information from the terminal device 2, the video chat control unit 31 delivers the received information to the user state management unit 34. Connection destination candidate information that can be connected by one infant is returned (step S109). At this time, the connection destination candidate information includes a user ID, a user name, an icon image, and a call possibility degree of the connection destination candidate. Offline users are not included in connection destination candidates. In addition, although the case where connection destination candidate information was responded at the time of application activation in the video chat robot 1 was described, connection destination candidate information is provided when the state of another user changes thereafter. In this case, it may be obtained by making a request from the video chat robot 1 side, or may be provided unilaterally from the management server 3 side.

  Upon receiving the connection destination candidate information, the video chat unit 11 of the video chat robot 1 displays a connection destination selection screen (step S110). The connection destination selection screen is displayed so that the size of the icon image or the face size of the connection destination candidate having a high degree of call possibility is increased. At this time, if the ratio of the face to the icon image is uniform, changing the size of the icon image also changes the size of the face at the same ratio, but if the ratio of the face is not uniform, the size of the icon image Only the size of the face may be changed by image processing without changing the size of the icon image. Further, not only the size of the icon image or the size of the face, but also the arrangement on the screen can be made according to the degree of call availability. For example, it is possible to place the one having the highest degree of callability at the center of the screen and the next at the upper left and right sides. Further, the degree of attention may be changed by changing the blinking of the icon, the change in color (saturation, brightness, contrast), and the like.

  FIG. 10 shows an example of the connection destination selection screen. The icon image of “Jiji”, which has the highest degree of call possibility, is displayed in the center of the screen, then “Yu-san” in the upper left, and “Auntie Kaori” in the upper right. In the lower left, icon images are displayed in the order of “papa”. As a result, even for infants who cannot take into account the other party's circumstances and cannot read the characters, there is a higher possibility of selecting “Jijiji” displayed in the center where the face is large and conspicuous. It is possible to guide to outgoing behavior that matches the intimacy of the person.

  The generation of the connection destination selection screen may be performed in the video chat unit 11 of the video chat robot 1 based on the connection destination candidate information, or may be performed in the video chat control unit 31 on the management server 3 side.

  Returning to FIG. 9, when the connection destination is selected from the connection destination selection screen in the video chat robot 1 (step S <b> 111), the video chat unit 11 specifies the connection destination and sends a connection request to the management server 3. This is performed (step S112). When receiving the connection request from the video chat robot 1, the video chat control unit 31 of the management server 3 transmits the connection request to the terminal device 2 that is the connection destination (step S113).

  When the user performs a connection permission operation on the terminal device 2 (step S114), the video chat unit 21 notifies the management server 3 of the connection permission (step S115), and between the video chat robot 1 and the terminal device 2. Video chat is started (steps S116 and S117).

  In addition, although the case where the infant who uses the video chat robot 1 selects the connection destination has been described, the connection destination selection screen is provided by using a similar connection destination selection screen when a user other than the infant who uses the terminal device 2 uses the connection apparatus. This makes it easier to understand the status of infants and children included in the previous candidates, and can reduce mental barriers during outgoing calls.

<Summary>
As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to provide a user interface that can easily select an appropriate connection destination in the chat system.

  More specifically, on the connection destination selection screen, by changing the degree of attracting attention such as the size of icons, face size, placement, etc. according to the other party's state, the permutation of the other party that can be sent even by infants who cannot read characters It is possible to guide the selection in accordance with the other party's condition and intimacy.

  As a result, the infant can easily select a partner who is likely to be able to connect and can increase the satisfaction of the infant. As a result, the infant's own intention to use the chat is increased, and the satisfaction of the infant's parent is increased. It can also be increased and further utilization can be promoted.

  Not only for infants but also for adults who want to send to infants, you can make a call after knowing when you want the infant to chat at the infant's home. Can lower mental barriers.

  The present invention has been described above by the preferred embodiments of the present invention. While the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments, various modifications and changes may be made to the embodiments without departing from the broad spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the claims. Obviously you can. In other words, the present invention should not be construed as being limited by the details of the specific examples and the accompanying drawings.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Video chat robot 11 Video chat part 12 Hand control part 13 Image | video control part 101 Head case 102 Screen part 103 Camera 104 Speaker 105 Microphone 106 Trunk case 107 Hand 2 Terminal device 21 Video chat part 22 Video control part 3 Management Server 31 Video chat control unit 32 Video control unit 33 Log acquisition unit 34 User status management unit 35 User status management table N Network

Claims (10)

A chat system including a terminal device that enables a chat connection destination to be selected from a touch panel on a display screen,
Means for obtaining information indicating a degree of call possibility of a user of another terminal device that is a connection destination candidate of the terminal device;
A chat system comprising: means for changing a display of a button for each connection destination candidate on a connection destination selection screen displayed on the terminal device in accordance with the acquired information indicating the degree of call possibility. When the terminal device is used by an infant, information indicating the degree of speech set by a user of the other terminal device that is a connection destination candidate, information indicating a chat history between the infant and the user, The chat system according to claim 1, wherein information indicating the degree of call possibility is determined based on at least one of information indicating a surrounding environment of the user. When the terminal device is used by a person other than an infant, the information indicating the degree of speech set by the guardian of the infant, the information indicating the surrounding environment of the infant, The chat system according to claim 1, wherein information indicating the degree of call possibility is determined based on at least one of information indicating an infant's state. The change in the display of the button for each connection destination candidate is the change in the size of the button, the change in the size of the face displayed on the button, the blinking of the button, the change in the color of the button, the display of the button The chat system according to claim 1, wherein the chat system is at least one of a change in position. A chat system management device including a terminal device capable of selecting a chat connection destination from a touch panel on a display screen,
Means for obtaining information indicating a degree of call possibility of a user of another terminal device that is a connection destination candidate of the terminal device;
A management device comprising: means for changing a display of a button for each connection destination candidate on a connection destination selection screen displayed on the terminal device according to the acquired information indicating the degree of call possibility. The terminal device of the chat system including a terminal device capable of selecting a chat connection destination from a touch panel on a display screen,
A terminal device comprising means for changing a display of a button for each connection destination candidate on a connection destination selection screen in accordance with information indicating the degree of call possibility of a user of another terminal device that is a connection destination candidate. A method to be executed by a chat system management device including a terminal device capable of selecting a chat connection destination from a touch panel on a display screen,
Obtain information indicating the degree of call possibility of the user of another terminal device that is a connection destination candidate of the terminal device,
A destination selection support method, comprising: executing a process of changing a button display for each connection destination candidate on a connection destination selection screen displayed on the terminal device in accordance with the acquired information indicating the degree of call possibility. In the chat system management device equipped with a terminal device that can select the chat connection destination from the touch panel on the display screen,
Obtain information indicating the degree of call possibility of the user of another terminal device that is a connection destination candidate of the terminal device,
A destination selection support program for executing a process of changing a display of a button for each connection destination candidate on a connection destination selection screen displayed on the terminal device according to the acquired information indicating the degree of call possibility. A method to be executed by the terminal device of the chat system including a terminal device capable of selecting a chat connection destination from a touch panel on a display screen,
Destination selection support characterized by executing a process of changing the display of a button for each connection destination candidate on the connection destination selection screen according to information indicating the degree of call possibility of the user of another terminal device as a connection destination candidate Method. In the terminal device of the chat system provided with a terminal device capable of selecting a connection destination of chat from a touch panel on the display screen,
Destination selection support characterized in that a process for changing the display of a button for each connection destination candidate on the connection destination selection screen is executed in accordance with information indicating the degree of call possibility of the user of another terminal device that is a connection destination candidate program.