JP7071906B2 - Communication mediators, communication mediator methods, and programs - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a communication mediator, a communication mediator method, and a program.

Conventionally, a community site is known in which a consultation or the like is written on a website on the Internet and an answer is obtained from another user. In this regard, the message history sent by the user is saved for each user, other users with similar interest items are identified based on the saved message history, and users with similar interest items are presented. A method of communication between users is known (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2008-191748

However, in the conventional technique, it may take time to identify another user who has an interest item similar to the user's interest item, or the identified user may not immediately input a comment. Therefore, it may be difficult for the user to obtain highly reliable information with responsiveness.

The present invention has been made in consideration of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a communication mediation device, a communication mediation method, and a program capable of acquiring highly reliable information with responsiveness. It is one of.

The communication mediation device, the communication mediation method, and the program according to the present invention have adopted the following configurations.
(1): The communication mediation device according to one aspect of the present invention includes a group chat management unit that provides group chat and the group chat management unit based on the contents of conversations received by terminal devices of a plurality of users. Participate in a theme determination unit that determines the theme of the conversation based on the content of the conversation managed by the group chat management unit and a group chat managed by the group chat management unit based on the theme determined by the theme determination unit. A participant selection unit that selects participants to other chats from the user who is chatting, and an output control unit that outputs the contents of the conversation of the other chat to the terminal device of the user selected by the participant selection unit. , Is a communication mediation device.

(2): In the aspect of (1) above, the theme determination unit determines whether or not the theme of the conversation has been changed based on the content of the conversation acquired by the group chat management unit, and participates in the conversation. When the theme determination unit determines that the theme of the conversation has been changed, the person selection unit reselects the participants of the conversation based on the changed theme.

(3): In the embodiment of (1) or (2) above, the experience value giving unit for imparting the experience value of the participant who participated in the conversation is further provided, and the participant selection unit is provided by the experience value assigning unit. Participants in the conversation are selected based on the given experience points related to the changed theme.

(4): In the aspect of (3) above, the participant selection unit adjusts the participants who participate in the conversation based on the experience value given by the experience value giving unit.

(5): In the embodiment (3) or (4), the output control unit outputs information about a participant to be output to the terminal device based on the experience value given by the experience value assigning unit. Is to change.

(6): In any one of the above (3) to (5), the experience value giving unit participates based on the number of responses of the participants or the response rate to similar themes in the past. It gives experience points to a person.

(7): In any one of the above (3) to (6), the experience value giving unit acquires the evaluation results of other participants from the participants of the conversation, and the acquired evaluation results are used. Based on this, the experience value of the participant is given.

(8): In the communication mediation method according to one aspect of the present invention, the computer provides a group chat based on the content of the conversation received by the terminal devices of a plurality of users, and based on the content of the conversation. , The theme of the conversation is determined, and based on the determined theme, participants in other chats are selected from the users participating in the managed group chat, and the terminal device of the selected user. It is a communication mediation method that outputs the contents of the conversation of the other chat.

(9): The program according to one aspect of the present invention causes a computer to provide a group chat based on the content of a conversation received by the terminal devices of a plurality of users, and the program is based on the content of the conversation. The theme of the conversation is determined, and based on the determined theme, participants in other chats are selected from the users participating in the group chat, and the terminal device of the selected user is used to select the other users. It is a program that outputs the contents of chat conversations.

According to (1) to (9), the user can acquire highly reliable information with responsiveness.

It is a block diagram of the communication system 1 including the communication intermediary device of embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the contents of answer DB182. It is a figure which shows an example of the contents of group chat management DB 184. It is a figure which shows an example of the contents of the experience value DB 186. It is a figure which shows an example of the functional structure of a terminal apparatus 200. It is a figure which shows an example of the conversation realized by the communication intermediary device 100. It is a figure which shows an example of the image IM1 which is displayed on the display part 230 of a terminal device 200 from a communication intermediary device 100. It is a figure which shows an example of the image IM2 displayed on the terminal apparatus 200-2 to 200-4. It is a figure which shows an example of the image IM3 displayed on the terminal apparatus 200-1. It is a figure which shows an example of the image IM4 which evaluates a participant. It is a figure which shows an example of the image IM5 whose display mode was changed based on the empirical value. FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing flow of the communication intermediary device 100. It is a figure which shows an example of the hardware composition of the communication intermediary device 100 of an embodiment.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the communication mediation device, the communication mediation method, and the program of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

[overall structure]
FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a communication system 1 including a communication mediator of the embodiment. The communication system 1 includes, for example, a communication mediator 100 and a plurality of terminal devices 200-1 to 200-n (n is an integer of 2 or more). Hereinafter, for convenience of explanation, the terminal devices 200-1 to 200-6 will be described. It is assumed that the terminal devices 200-1 to 200-6 are terminals used by users A to F, respectively. The communication mediator 100 and the terminal devices 200-1 to 200-6 are, for example, WAN (Wide Area Network), LAN (Local Area Network), the Internet, a dedicated line, a wireless base station, a provider, a Wi-Fi network, and the like. It is connected via a network NW such as Bluetooth (registered trademark). In the following description, when the terminal devices 200-1 to 200-6 do not distinguish which terminal device they are, the code after the hyphen indicating which terminal device they are is omitted, and "terminal device". It will be referred to as "200". The same applies to other configurations described using hyphens.

The communication mediator 100 may be, for example, a computer included in a cloud computing system or a computer that operates independently without depending on other devices. The communication mediation device 100 includes, for example, a communication unit 110, an interface unit 120, a group chat management unit 130, a theme determination unit 140, a participant selection unit 150, an output control unit 160, and an experience value giving unit 170. , The storage unit 180 is provided. These components are realized by, for example, a hardware processor such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) executing a program (software). In addition, some or all of these components are hardware (circuits) such as LSI (Large Scale Integration), ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit), FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array), GPU (Graphics Processing Unit), etc. It may be realized by the part; including circuitry), or it may be realized by the cooperation of software and hardware. The above-mentioned program may be stored in a storage unit 180 such as an HDD (Hard Disk Drive) or a flash memory included in the communication mediator 100 in advance, or may be stored in a removable storage medium such as a DVD or a CD-ROM (a removable storage medium such as a DVD or a CD-ROM). It is stored in a non-transient storage medium), and may be installed in the storage unit 180 by attaching the storage medium to the drive device.

The storage unit 180 is realized by, for example, an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), a flash memory, an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory), a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), or the like. The storage unit 180 stores, for example, a response DB (Database) 182, a group chat management DB 184, an experience value DB 186, and other information. The contents of the answer DB 182, the group chat management DB 184, and the experience value DB 186 will be described later.

The communication unit 110 communicates with the terminal device 200 and other external devices via the network NW. For example, the communication unit 110 receives the content of the conversation from the terminal device 200, or transmits the content of the conversation input from another terminal device to the terminal device 200 of the user who participates in the chat. Here, chat means, for example, in a network NW, a plurality of people input characters, voices, images, and the like to have a conversation.

The interface unit 120 receives the content of the conversation by the terminal device 200, and analyzes the structure and meaning of the text, voice, and image included in the content of the received conversation. When the content of the conversation received from the terminal device 200 is voice, the interface unit 120 converts the voice into text and analyzes the content. Further, the interface unit 120 refers to the answer DB 182 based on the result of analyzing the content of the conversation, and extracts the answer information based on the content of the conversation.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of the response DB 182. In the answer DB 182, the input information and the answer contents are associated with the conversation ID. The conversation ID is identification information that identifies a pair of input information and response content. The input information is, for example, the content received by the interface unit 120. The interface unit 120 refers to the input information of the answer DB 182 based on the result of analyzing the content of the conversation, extracts the answer content based on the content of the conversation, and generates the content of the pseudo conversation based on the extracted answer content. Then, the content of the generated conversation is transmitted to the terminal device 200.

The interface unit 120 may realize a part or all of the process of analyzing the structure and meaning of the above-mentioned text and the process of generating the contents of a pseudo conversation by AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology. Further, the interface unit 120 may have a function as a chatbot. The chatbot is, for example, an automatic conversation with a user by utilizing artificial intelligence or the like.

The group chat management unit 130 provides a group chat based on the content of the conversation received by the terminal devices 200 of the plurality of users, and manages the execution state thereof. Group chat is, for example, a function or service that allows a plurality of users to connect at the same time and chat as a group, instead of a conversation by a chatbot. The execution state is, for example, information about members and themes participating in the group chat. The group chat management unit 130 stores, for example, the information of the user who is performing the group chat in the group chat DB 184.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of the group chat management DB 184. In the group chat management DB 184, for example, a member and a theme are associated with a group ID which is identification information for identifying a group. A member is information about a user who is a member of the group. Further, the member may be the identification information of the terminal device used by the users participating in the group. Further, the theme is, for example, the content of the theme estimated by performing a semantic analysis from the content of the conversation in the chat. When the member is changed or the theme is changed during the chat, the group chat management unit 130 updates the contents of the member or the theme related to the target group. Therefore, the theme stored in the group chat management DB 184 corresponds to the theme of the group chat currently being held.

The theme determination unit 140 determines the theme of the conversation based on the content of the conversation acquired by the group chat management unit 130. Further, the theme determination unit 140 may determine whether or not the theme of the conversation has been changed, for example, based on the content of the conversation received by the interface unit 120.

The participant selection unit 150 selects participants for other chats from the users participating in the group chat managed by the group chat management unit 130 based on the theme determined by the theme determination unit 140. .. In this case, the participant selection unit 150 selects the participants of the conversation based on the experience value for each user given by the experience value giving unit 170. For example, the participant selection unit 150 selects as a participant a user whose experience value for the theme or the total experience value described later is equal to or greater than the threshold value from the users participating in the group chat. When the threshold value is zero (0), the participant selection unit 150 includes all users (including users without experience points) who are participating in the group chat of the same theme as the theme determined by the theme determination unit 140. Is selected as a participant.

Further, the participant selection unit 150 may adjust the participants who participate in the chat based on the experience value given by the experience value giving unit 170. Adjusting the participants means, for example, adjusting so that the number of participants whose experience value is equal to or higher than the threshold is a predetermined number, or adjusting so that users with high experience value and users with low experience value participate in a predetermined ratio. be. For example, the participant selection unit 150 may first participate in a large number of participants selected by lowering the threshold value, and then narrow down the participants by the above-mentioned adjustment. Whether or not to perform the above-mentioned selection or adjustment may be registered in advance as setting information. The setting information may be set in advance by the administrator of the communication intermediary device 100 or the like, or may be set by each user of the terminal device 200.

Further, when the theme determination unit 140 determines that the theme of the conversation has been changed, the participant selection unit 150 may reselect the participants of the conversation based on the changed theme. The details of the function of the participant selection unit 150 will be described later.

The output control unit 160 controls the content of the conversation to be output to the terminal device 200. Further, the output control unit 160 outputs the contents of other chat conversations to the terminal device 200 of the user selected by the participant selection unit 150.

The experience value giving unit 170 grants the experience value of the participants who participated in the conversation. Further, the experience value giving unit 170 stores the given experience value in the experience value DB 186. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the contents of the experience value DB 186. In the experience value DB 186, for example, a theme-specific experience value and a total experience value are associated with a user ID which is identification information for identifying a user. The experience value by theme is an index value based on the number of times of participating in other chats, the number of responses, the response rate, the evaluation results of other participants, etc. for each theme. The response rate is, for example, the ratio of conversations answered by the user to all conversations on a certain theme. Further, the response rate may be the response rate for similar themes in the past among the total number of responses. The total experience value is the average or total experience value of each theme. In the example of FIG. 4, the total experience value stores the average of all thematic experience values.

Further, the experience value giving unit 170 may give the user's experience value based on the evaluation result from the participant acquired by the interface unit 120. For example, the experience value giving unit 170 is expected to be more likely to comment an appropriate answer by the user as the experience value shown in FIG. 4 is higher.

Next, the functional configuration of the terminal device 200 will be described. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of the functional configuration of the terminal device 200. The terminal device 200 is, for example, a wireless communication terminal such as a smartphone or a tablet terminal. Further, the terminal device 200 may be an information processing device such as a PC (Personal Computer).

The terminal device 200 includes, for example, a communication unit 210, an input unit 220, a display unit 230, an application execution unit 240, a display control unit 250, and a storage unit 260. These components are realized, for example, by a hardware processor such as a CPU executing a program (software). In addition, some or all of these components may be realized by hardware such as LSI, ASIC, FPGA, GPU (circuit unit; including circuitry), or realized by collaboration between software and hardware. May be done. The above-mentioned program may be stored in a storage unit 260 such as an HDD or a flash memory provided in the terminal device 200 in advance, or may be stored in a detachable storage medium such as a DVD or a CD-ROM (non-transient storage). It is stored in a medium), and may be installed in the storage unit 260 by mounting the storage medium on the drive device.

The storage unit 260 is realized by, for example, an HDD, a flash memory, an EEPROM, a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM, or the like. The storage unit 260 stores, for example, the communication application 262 and other information.

The communication unit 210 communicates with the communication mediation device 100 and other external devices via the network NW.

The input unit 220 accepts user input by operating various keys, buttons, etc., for example. The display unit 230 is, for example, an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) or the like. The input unit 220 may be integrally configured with the display unit 230 as a touch panel.

The application execution unit 240 is realized by executing the communication application 262 stored in the storage unit 260. The communication application 262 communicates with the communication intermediary device 100 via the network NW, for example, conducts a pseudo conversation by text or voice generated by the communication intermediary device 100, or participates in a chat of another user. , An application that engages in conversations with other users.

The display control unit 250 controls the content to be displayed on the display unit 230 and the display timing. For example, the display control unit 250 causes the application execution unit 240 to display an image or the like associated with the communication application 262 to be executed on the display unit 230. Further, the display control unit 250 may generate an image based on the information regarding the display mode or the like transmitted by the communication mediation device 100, and display the generated image on the display unit 230. Further, the display control unit 250 may generate a sound associated with a part or all of the contents shown in the image, and output the generated sound from a speaker (not shown) of the terminal device.

[Communication mediator]
Next, the specific processing contents of the communication mediator 100 will be described. In the following, the communication mediator 100 receives a consultation from the user A via the terminal device 200-1, obtains an answer to the received consultation from the response DB 182, and causes another user to participate in the conversation. explain.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a conversation realized by the communication mediator 100. Further, FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of an image IM1 displayed on the display unit 230 of the terminal device 200 from the communication mediation device 100. 6 and 7 assume that the time changes downward in the figure, and that the times T1 to T3 in FIGS. 6 and 7 are the same time, respectively.

Further, in the example of FIG. 7, for convenience of explanation, the screen area of the display unit 230 is not considered, but in reality, a predetermined number of comments are displayed from the latest comment contents by the scroll function of the screen. It shall be done. Further, in the example of FIG. 7, the input information (conversation content) input by the user A of the terminal device 200-1 is assumed to be displayed on the right side of the image IM1, and the conversation content transmitted from the communication intermediary device 100. Or, the content of the conversation from another user shall be displayed on the left side of the image IM1 together with the user name. Further, in the example of FIG. 7, it is assumed that the content of the conversation is displayed by superimposing it on the balloon image. The content and layout displayed on the image IM1 are not limited to this. For example, the time when the comment image or the like is displayed may be displayed on the image IM1, or the icon image or the like assigned to each user may be displayed. The same applies to other similar images IM2 to IM5.

First, when the interface unit 120 of the communication intermediary device 100 receives the access from the terminal device 200, the first sentence for starting the conversation is acquired from the answer DB 182, and the information regarding the acquired answer information is obtained from the accessed terminal device 200. Send to. Specifically, the interface unit 120 analyzes the meaning of the text information accessed by the communication application 262 and the text information input by the user, and acquires the analysis result as the input information. Then, the interface unit 120 collates the analyzed input information with the input information of the answer DB 182, and acquires the answer content associated with the matching input information. "Matching" includes input information having a high degree of similarity in which the matching rate between the analysis result and the input information is equal to or higher than the threshold value.

Further, the output control unit 160 sets the output mode of the response content acquired by the interface unit 120 based on the input content of the terminal device 200. For example, the output control unit 160 may generate an image for displaying information about the answer content, or may generate information for displaying the image on the display control unit 250 of the terminal device 200. The interface unit 120 outputs the information generated by the output control unit 160 to the accessed terminal device 200.

At time T1 in FIGS. 6 and 7, for example, when the terminal device 200-1 shown in FIG. 1 accesses the communication mediator device 100, the communication mediator device 100 asks, "What kind of consultation do you have today?" The message image SC1 is displayed on the display unit 230 of the terminal device 200-1. Next, when the input information AC1 of "overtime is hard" is received from user A, the content SC2 of the conversation such as "how much overtime is there?" Is displayed on the screen as the corresponding answer information. Next, when the input information AC2 of "100 hours a month" is received from the user A, the theme determination unit 140 determines the consultation theme based on the contents of the conversation so far. In this case, the theme determination unit 140 may determine the theme based on the input information AC1 and AC2 input from the user A, and collates the input information AC1 and AC2 with a plurality of preset themes. , One theme may be selected. In the examples of FIGS. 6 and 7, it is assumed that the consultation theme is "the remaining table is difficult".

Next, the participant selection unit 150 selects another user to participate in the conversation between the user A of the terminal device 200-1 and the communication mediation device 100. In this case, the participant selection unit 150 acquires information about other users who are currently chatting, which is managed by the group chat management unit 130, and chats on a relevant theme based on the acquired information. Select the user who is doing it.

Specifically, the participant selection unit 150 refers to the group chat management DB 184 based on the theme determined by the theme determination unit 140, and participates in the members of the group who are chatting on a theme with high similarity. To be selected. At time T2 in FIGS. 6 and 7, the participant selection unit 150 refers to the theme of the group chat management DB 184 based on the determined theme “remaining table is difficult” and chats on the theme whose similarity is equal to or more than the threshold value. User B to User D of the group "Gr1" who is doing the above are selected as participants. The participant selection unit 150 may have all users B to D participating in the corresponding group "Gr1" participate, or may select members to participate based on predetermined conditions.

For example, the participant selection unit 150 causes the output control unit 160 to generate an image for inquiring from the user B to the user D whether or not to participate in the chat of the user A, and the generated image is generated by the user B to the user B. It may be transmitted to the terminal devices 200-2 to 200-4 used by D.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the image IM2 displayed on the terminal devices 200-2 to 200-4. The image IM2 includes text information for inquiring whether or not to participate in another chat, and a selection item display area A1 for selecting whether or not to participate. In the example of FIG. 8, the selection item display area A1 includes an icon IC1 that permits participation and an icon IC2 that refuses participation. When the icon IC1 is selected by the operation by the users B to D received by the image IM2, the participant selection unit 150 selects the user as a participant.

Further, the participant selection unit 150 generates an image IM3 that asks the user A whether or not to participate in the chat when there is a user who has been permitted to participate, and the terminal that the generated image is used by the user A. It may be displayed on the device 200-1. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of the image IM3 displayed on the terminal device 200-1. In the example of FIG. 9, the character information indicating the number of users who are permitted to participate and the selection item display area A2 for selecting whether or not to permit the participation of the users are included. In the example of FIG. 9, the selection item display area A2 includes an icon IC3 that permits participation and an icon IC4 that refuses participation. When the icon IC3 is selected by the operation by the user A received by the image IM3, the participant selection unit 150 selects the user as a participant. Further, when the icon IC4 is selected, the participant selection unit 150 transmits information indicating that the participation is rejected by the user A to the terminal devices 200-2 to 200-4 used by the users B to D. You may. In the following example, it is assumed that the users B to D permit the participation and the user A also permits the participation of the users B to D.

The participant selection unit 150 acquires setting information indicating whether or not to display the screens of FIGS. 8 and 9 described above on the terminal devices 200-1 to 200-4, and does not display the setting information. The selected users B to D may be automatically joined without the permission of the users A to D.

The participant selection unit 150 talks with the user A about the terminal devices 200-2 to 200-4 used by the users B to D who are permitted to participate (specifically, the time T1). ~ Information up to T2) is transmitted. The interface unit 120 receives the contents of conversations from other users, and displays the contents of the received conversations on the terminal devices 200-1 to 200-4. After the time T2 in FIGS. 6 and 7, the interface unit 120 receives and outputs the content DC1 of the conversation of the user D, the content BC1 of the conversation of the user B, and the content CC1 of the conversation of the user C. It is transmitted to each terminal device 200-1 to 200-4 in an output mode controlled by the control unit 160. When displaying the contents of conversations of other users, the output control unit 160 also superimposes and displays information identifying the user on the balloon image, as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7.

Further, when the content of the input information AC3 is received by the user A after the contents of the conversation DC1, BC1, and CC1 are displayed, the theme determination unit 140 determines the contents of the conversation based on the input information AC3 of the user A. Dynamically re-determine the theme from. The theme determination unit 140 may dynamically redetermine the theme based on the input information of other participating users instead of (or in addition to) the input information of the user A. At the time T3 in FIGS. 6 and 7, the theme determination unit 140 analyzes the meaning of the user A's comment "Is it easy for the programmer to change jobs?" Change to "overtime". This makes it possible to reset the conversation theme at an appropriate time.

The participant selection unit 150 refers to the group chat management DB 184 based on the changed theme, and reselects the users who participate in the chat. In this case, the participant selection unit 150 refers to the group chat management DB 184 and selects a member of the group ID "Gr2" who is chatting on the theme of changing jobs as a participant candidate. Further, the participant selection unit 150 sends an image inquiring whether or not to participate in the chat of the user A to the terminal devices 200-5 and 200-6 used by the users E and F, and permits the participation in the inquiry. The user who has been selected is selected as a participant in the chat of user A.

Further, since the theme has been changed, the participant selection unit 150 may terminate the participation in the chat of the users B to D who participated in the previous theme. In this case, among the participating users B to D, the user who has input the content of the conversation related to the following theme may continue to participate in the chat. After the time T3 in FIGS. 6 and 7, it is assumed that the user E of the group ID “Gr2” and the user C who has input a comment related to the current theme participate in the chat of the user A. In this case, the interface unit 120 receives the content EC1 of the conversation of the user E with respect to the comment input AC3 and the content CC2 of the conversation of the user C, and the received comments are the terminals used by the user A, the user C, and the user E. Transmission to devices 200-1, 200-3, and 200-5.

In this way, by deciding the theme based on the conversation with the user A and involving other users who are talking on the decided theme, the user A gives a responsive and highly reliable answer. Can be obtained.

Further, when the chat of the user A is completed, the experience value giving unit 170 assigns the experience value of the user who participated in the chat. For example, the experience value giving unit 170 grants experience points based on the number of responses for each theme and the response rate to similar themes in the past. Further, the experience value giving unit 170 causes the output control unit 160 to generate an image for the user A to evaluate each participant who participated when the chat ends, and the user A receives the generated image. Experience points may be given to each participant based on the evaluation result of.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing an example of an image IM4 for evaluating participants. The image IM4 includes, for example, an evaluation content display area A3 for evaluating participants and an end icon IC5 for ending the display of the image IM4. The evaluation content display area A3 includes, for example, an area for inputting an evaluation value for each participating user. In the example of FIG. 10, a radio button for selecting one of "satisfied", "normal", and "dissatisfied" with respect to the conversation content for each user is shown. User A sets an evaluation value for each participant and selects the end icon IC5. The image IM4 may be transmitted to users other than the user A who participated in the chat, and the evaluation result of each user who participated may be acquired. The experience value giving unit 170 gives the user's experience value based on the information input by the image IM4 shown in FIG. 10, and updates the experience value DB 186. In the example of FIG. 10, when "satisfied" is selected, higher experience points are given than when "normal" or "dissatisfied" is selected, and when "normal" is selected, "dissatisfied" is given. Grants higher experience points than selected. As a result, when selecting a participant, a more appropriate user can be made to participate based on the latest experience value. As a result, it is possible to obtain a highly reliable answer to the consultation content.

[Modification example]
When displaying the information about the participant who participated in the chat of the user A, the output control unit 160 may change the display mode based on the experience value of the participant. The information about the user includes, for example, at least one of the contents of the conversation of the participants who participated in the chat, the identification information of the participants (for example, the user name), the balloon image, and the like. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of the image IM5 whose display mode is changed based on the empirical value. When displaying the conversation content or user name of a user who has a high experience value among the users who participated in the chat of the user A, the output control unit 160 displays the character size larger than the size of the characters displayed by the other users. Further, the output control unit 160 may display a balloon image in which a comment of a user having a high experience value regarding the current theme is input larger than the balloon image of another user, and may change the background color of the balloon image to another. It may be displayed in a color or pattern that is emphasized more than the background color of the user's balloon image. The output control unit 160 may change the character size, the balloon image size, or the background color of the image to a more emphasized color or pattern as the empirical value increases.

Regarding the example of the image IM5 shown in FIG. 11, the content of the conversation of the user C who has a high experience value for the theme at the times T2 to T3 The characters of CC1 are displayed larger than the content of the conversation of other users, and the balloon image is displayed. The background color is highlighted. Further, the characters of the conversation content EC1 of the user E who has a high experience value for the theme after the time T3 are displayed larger than the conversation content of the other user, and the background color of the balloon image is highlighted. In the example of FIG. 11, the contents CC1 and CC2 of the conversation of the user C exist, but the output mode is changed based on the experience value for the theme when the comment is input. As a result, it is possible to visually determine a user who has a high experience value for the participants in the conversation.

[Processing flow]
FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing an example of the processing flow of the communication intermediary device 100. The process shown in FIG. 12 may be repeatedly executed at a predetermined timing or cycle. In the example of FIG. 12, first, the interface unit 120 acquires the contents of a conversation among a plurality of users (step S100). Next, the group chat management unit 130 manages the execution state of the group chat from the contents of the conversation (step S102). Next, the theme determination unit 140 determines the theme of the conversation (step S104).

Next, the participant selection unit 150 selects or adjusts the participants who participate in the conversation (chat) based on the determined theme, the experience value for each user, and the like (step S106), and the selected or adjusted participation. The content of the conversation is output to the person (step S108). Next, the group chat management unit 130 manages the execution state of the group chat reflecting the selected participants (step S110). Next, the theme determination unit 140 determines whether or not the theme has been changed (step S112). When the theme is changed, the process returns to step S106 to reselect the participants. If the theme has not been changed, it is determined whether or not to end the process according to a user's instruction or the like (step S114). If the process is not completed, the process returns to the process of step S110. Further, when the end of the process by the user operation is accepted, or when a predetermined time has elapsed since the latest comment was input, the experience value giving unit 170 assigns the experience value to the participants (step S116) and processes. To finish.

According to the embodiment described above, in the communication mediation device 100, the group chat management unit 130 and the group chat management unit 130 that provide group chat based on the contents of conversations received by the terminal devices 200 of a plurality of users. Participate in a group chat managed by the theme determination unit 140, which determines the theme of the conversation based on the content of the conversation managed by, and the group chat management unit 130, based on the theme determined by the theme determination unit 140. The output control unit 160 that provides the contents of the conversation of other chats to the participant selection unit 150 that selects participants to other chats from the user and the terminal device 200 of the user selected by the participant selection unit 150. By providing, it is possible to acquire highly reliable information with responsiveness.

In addition, according to the embodiment, even if the face of the other party can be seen or the content is difficult to consult casually when the user is an acquaintance, an anonymous unspecified number of people who are currently interested in the same theme Since only a short conversation is held, the user can feel free to consult. In addition, since participants are currently selected from users who are chatting on the same theme, answers can be obtained more quickly. In addition, the credibility of the comment can be grasped by displaying the user with high experience value and evaluation in an identifiable display mode. Further, according to the present embodiment, the communication mediation device 100 can realize not only the function of a chatbot but also the function as a "chat host" that mediates communication with other users. This makes it possible to provide a more appropriate conversational communication service to the user.

[Hardware configuration]
The communication mediator 100 of the above-described embodiment is realized by, for example, the configuration of computer hardware as shown in FIG. FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of the hardware configuration of the communication mediator 100 of the embodiment.

In the communication mediation device 100, the communication controller 100-1, the CPU 100-2, the RAM 100-3, the ROM 100-4, the storage device 100-5 such as a flash memory or an HDD, and the drive device 100-6 have an internal bus or a dedicated communication line. It is configured to be interconnected by. A portable storage medium such as an optical disk is mounted on the drive device 100-6. The program 100-5a stored in the storage device 100-5 is expanded in the RAM 100-3 by a DMA controller (not shown) or the like, and executed by the CPU 100-2, so that the functions of each component of the communication intermediary device 100 can be performed. It will be realized. Further, the program referred to by the CPU 100-2 may be stored in a portable storage medium mounted on the drive device 100-6, or may be downloaded from another device via the network NW.

The above embodiment can be expressed as follows.
It comprises a storage device and a hardware processor that executes a program stored in the storage device.
By executing the program, the hardware processor
Provides group chat based on the content of conversations received by the terminals of multiple users.
Based on the content of the conversation, the theme of the conversation is determined.
Based on the determined theme, participants in other chats are selected from the users who are participating in the managed group chat.
Output the contents of the conversation of the other chat to the terminal device of the selected user.
A communication mediator that is configured to.

Although the embodiments for carrying out the present invention have been described above using the embodiments, the present invention is not limited to these embodiments, and various modifications and substitutions are made without departing from the gist of the present invention. Can be added.

1 ... Communication system, 100 ... Communication mediator, 110, 210 ... Communication unit, 120 ... Interface unit, 130 ... Group chat management unit, 140 ... Theme determination unit, 150 ... Participant selection unit, 160 ... Output control unit, 170 ... Experience value giving unit, 180, 260 ... Storage unit, 200 ... Terminal device, 220 ... Input unit, 230 ... Display unit, 240 ... App execution unit, 250 ... Display control unit

Claims (9)

A group chat management unit that provides multiple group chats based on the content of conversations received by the terminal devices of multiple users.
A theme determination unit that determines the theme of the conversation of the first group chat based on the content of the conversation of the first group chat managed by the group chat management unit.
From a user participating in a second group chat other than the first group chat managed by the group chat management unit to the first group chat based on the theme determined by the theme determination unit. Participant selection department that selects participants in
An output control unit that outputs the contents of the conversation of the first group chat to the terminal device of the user selected by the participant selection unit.
A communication mediator equipped with. The theme determination unit determines whether or not the theme of the conversation in the first group chat has been changed based on the content of the conversation acquired by the group chat management unit.
When the theme determination unit determines that the theme of the conversation in the first group chat has been changed, the participant selection unit participates in the conversation in the first group chat based on the changed theme. Reselect the person,
The communication mediation device according to claim 1. Further provided with an experience value giving unit that grants experience points of participants who participated in the group chat conversation managed by the group chat management unit .
The participant selection unit selects participants in the conversation of the first group chat based on the experience value related to the changed theme given by the experience value assigning unit.
The communication mediation device according to claim 2 . The participant selection unit adjusts the number of participants participating in the conversation of the first group chat based on the experience value given by the experience value giving unit.
The communication mediation device according to claim 3. The output control unit changes the display mode of the information about the participant to be displayed on the terminal device so as to emphasize the display mode of the information given by the experience value assigning unit as the experience value of the participant increases .
The communication mediator according to claim 3 or 4. The experience value granting unit grants experience points to the participants based on the number of responses of the participants or the response rate to similar themes in the past.
The communication mediation device according to any one of claims 3 to 5. The experience value giving unit acquires the evaluation results of other participants from the participants of the conversation of the first group chat, and based on the acquired evaluation results, the experience value of the participants who participated in the conversation is obtained. Give,
The communication mediation device according to any one of claims 3 to 6. The computer
Providing multiple group chats based on the content of conversations received by the terminals of multiple users, respectively.
Based on the content of the conversation of the first group chat included in the plurality of group chats, the theme of the conversation of the first group chat is determined.
Participants in the first group chat from users participating in the second group chat other than the first group chat included in the plurality of group chats based on the determined theme. Select and
The content of the conversation of the first group chat is output to the terminal device of the selected user.
Communication mediation method. On the computer
Multiple group chats are provided based on the content of the conversation received by the terminal devices of multiple users.
Based on the content of the conversation of the first group chat included in the plurality of group chats, the theme of the conversation of the first group chat is determined.
Participants in the first group chat from users participating in the second group chat other than the first group chat included in the plurality of group chats based on the determined theme. Let me choose
Have the selected user's terminal device output the content of the conversation of the first group chat.
program.

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