WO2004095308A1 - Method and system for expressing avatar that correspond to message and sentence inputted of using natural language processing technology - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a method and system for representing avatars corresponding to character messages and the contents of the messages using natural language processing technology. The method analyzes the prefixes, nouns, suffixes and newly-coined words of a character message based on the natural language processing technology, extracts avatar images, such as eye, nose, mouth and motion, corresponding to the contents of the character message input by a client through chat or the character message of a mobile communication terminal, and allows the intention of the client, which is intended to be transmitted to a counterpart client, to be more effectively perceived by the counterpart client through the shape and motion of the avatar of the client that is an intention transmitting means, such as a cartoon.

Description

METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR EXPRESSING AVATAR THAT CORRESPOND TO MESSAGE AND SENTENCE INPUTTED OF USING NATURAL LANGUAGE

PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY

Technical Field

The present invention relates, in general, to a method and system for representing avatars corresponding to character messages and the contents of the messages using natural language processing technology and, more particularly, to a method and system for representing avatars corresponding to character messages and the contents of the messages using natural language processing technology, which analyzes the prefixes, nouns, suffixes and newly-coined words of a character message based on the natural language processing technology, extracts avatar images, such as eye, nose, mouth and motion, corresponding to the contents of the character message input by a client through chat or the character message of a mobile communication terminal, and allows the intention of the client, which is intended to be transmitted to a counterpart client, to be more effectively perceived by the counterpart client through the shape and motion of the avatar of the client that is an intention transmitting means, such as a cartoon. Background Art

Natural language processing technology is a field of computer science that deals with concepts and methods of simulating human intelligent communication behaviors. Unlike the operations of a computer related to a database, artificial intelligent enables human meta-knowledge (the knowledge of knowledge) and heuristics (humans' empirical knowledge) to be utilized. To the question, "What is the size of Admiral Sun-shin Lee's shoes?," humans would easily answer "I don't know." In contrast, computers answer the question after searching all knowledge stored therein. This is one of the differences between humans and computers.

A human intellectual process is composed of learning, inference and self-correction. Research has been performed to implement the human intellectual process m a computer. Furthermore, it is difficult to implement common sense in a computer because the amount of the common sense is infinite. However, research related to common sense has been attempted. When humans are walking, speaking, riding bicycles and driving automobiles, they do not make decisions after intentional meditation. The fact that as human skills are parts of humans, humans do not need to recognize the skills is the same as the fact that humans do not need to recognize the detailed movement of their bodies to perform common actions. Accordingly, attempts to imitate humans have many limitations.

In the field of natural language processing, systems, such as automatic translation machine, a voice recognition device, and an optical character reader, have been put to practical use.

In early stages, most games and chat services provided avatars that were formed by combining several characters, or were already finished. In general, users selected some, which can represent their likings and personalities, from avatars provided by service providers, and used them.

Recently, by providing a plurality of avatar components (such as eyes, noses, mouths, hair styles and customs) with the assistance of the development of graphic technology, the number of combinations of components has been infinitely increased, so that clients can create and use various and differentiated avatars.

However, the above-described avatars are problematic in that the utilization thereof is very limitative because the avatars are only a means for expressing an intention that clients can input through e-mail, Short Message Service (SMS) or chat, users are easily fed up with avatars because the avatars remain constant as long as clients do not change images or the components of the avatars set by the clients in early stages, and the avatars cannot express emotion and motion as long as the clients do not change the components of the avatars. A method of representing avatars after previously selecting desired emotion and motion is described in Korean Unexamined Pat. Appl. Publication No. 2000-0072569 (December 5, 2000), and this method is problematic in that the presentation of motion and action is limitative.

Another method is disclosed in Korean Unexamined Pat. Appl. Publication No. 2003-0026506 (April 3, 2003), which recognizes simple emoticons and several words (e.g.,^ΛΛ, _?_?. @-@, HaHa) . However, in this method, the representation of emotion is limitative and motion cannot be expressed.

Disclosure of the Invention

Accordingly, the present invention has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a method and system, which, when every character message oriented toward the use of an avatar is input on the wired or wireless Internet, creates the emotion and motion of an avatar using a means for interpreting and comprehending a sentence input by the client using natural language processing technology and a means for extracting avatar images corresponding to the interpreted and comprehended sentence, and transmits an avatar capable of representing the emotion and motion corresponding to the character message and the contents of the character message, which is input by a client on the wired or wireless Internet, to a counterpart client. In order to accomplish the above object, the present invention provides a method of representing avatars corresponding to input character messages and contents of the character messages on mobile communication terminals or wired or wireless Internet using natural language processing technology, comprising the first step of searching for natural language words of a character message through respective recognition units and analyzing contents of the character message in conjunction with a natural language processing database, at a natural language processing server; the second step of extracting avatar images to correspond to the analyzed contents of the character message with reference to a previously registered avatar database, at an avatar server; and the third step of applying the extracted avatar images to a previously registered avatar of a client

In the meantime, the method may further include the step of creating an avatar of the client if the avatar of the client does not exist.

The present invention provides a system for representing avatars corresponding to input character messages and contents of the character messages on mobile communication terminals or wired or wireless Internet using natural language processing technology, including a natural language processing server including natural language recognition units for searching for natural language words of a character message input by a client, and a natural language processing unit for analyzing and comprehending the contents of the character message extracted by the natural language recognition units m conjunction with a natural language database; an avatar server including a natural language link unit for receiving the contents of the character message input by the client and comprehended by the natural language processing unit, an avatar image extraction unit for extracting avatar images corresponding to the contents of the character message, which are transmitted from the natural language link unit, from an avatar image database, an avatar image application unit for applying the avatar images, which are extracted by the avatar image extraction unit, to an avatar of the client previously registered in the avatar image database, and an avatar control unit for controlling the avatar of the client to which natural language processing is applied and managing continuous motion to represent a meaning of the character message input by the client; and a central control unit for controlling the natural language server and the avatar server and providing interfaces between the respective servers. Accordingly, in accordance with the above-described construction, the avatar representing method of the present invention analyzes the contents of a sentence input from a client who sends a character message through wired or wireless data communications with a mobile communication company or website having adopted the present invention, extracts avatar images representing the facial expressing and motion, and applies the avatar images to the avatar of the client, so that the client can make the counterpart client more effectively perceive his or her intention through the avatar in which emotion and motion are implemented by linking the character message input by the client with the avatar of the client.

The avatar representing system includes a natural language processing server, an avatar server and one or more clients inputting character messages via mobile communication terminals or the Internet so as to comprehend a character message input from a client via a mobile communication terminal or the Internet and apply emotion and motion to the avatar of the client to express the meaning of the character message.

Furthermore, the present invention provides a control method using natural language processing technology in a method of representing emotion and motion on a mobile communication terminal or the Internet through the above- described system operation and the below-described steps. That is, to comprehend expressible emotion and motion included in the character message input by the client on the mobile communication terminal or the Internet, and apply the emotion and motion to the avatar of the client, the system of the present invention includes the natural language processing server, the avatar server and at least one client inputting the character message. The method of the present invention includes the step of analyzing a sentence, which is input from the client who sends character messages oriented toward the use of an avatar through wired or wireless communication related to a mobile communication company or website, using the respective recognition units (prefix recognition unit, noun recognition unit, suffix recognition unit, newly-coined recognition unit and database) of the avatar server, the step of extracting expressible motion and motion with reference to an avatar database using the avatar server (avatar link recognition unit, avatar image extraction unit, avatar image application unit and avatar control unit) , and the step of applying extracted avatar images to the previously registered avatar of the client.

Furthermore, the avatar may include all visual images capable of representing the client.

Brief Description of the Drawings FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing servers and clients having an avatar server for representing avatars and a natural language processing server in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a server for representing avatars in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart schematically showing a process of representing an avatar in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a process ranging from the input of a character message by a client to the creation of an avatar in terms of servers that intend to represent an avatar; and FIG. 5 is an example view of a resulting screen on which an avatar message of the mobile communication terminal of a client, to which natural language processing in accordance with the embodiment of the present invention is applied, is displayed on the mobile communication terminal of a counterpart client.

^Description of principal elements of the drawings*

100: natural language recognition server 105: avatar server

110: client 115: counterpart client

200: natural language link unit 205: avatar image extraction unit 210: avatar image application unit 215: avatar control unit

220; prefix recognition unit 225: noun recognition unit

230: suffix recognition unit 235: newly-coined word recognition unit 240 avatar image database

245 registered avatar image database

250 natural language processing database 255 central processing unit

500 input screen of mobile communication terminal of client 505 resulting screen of mobile communication terminal of counterpart client

Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

A preferred embodiment of the present invention is described with reference to the attached drawings.

In the assignment of reference characters to the elements of the attached drawings, the same elements are designated by the same reference characters as much as possible even though depicted in different drawings.

Furthermore, in the following description, many specific items, such as specific elements, are illustrated to describe embodiments of the present invention, which is provided only to help the further comprehensive understanding of the present invention. It is apparent to those skilled m the art that the present invention can be implemented without depending on the specific items. Furthermore, in the description of the present invention, if it is determined that detailed descriptions regarding related known functions or constructions may unnecessarily make the gist of the present invention vague, the detailed descriptions will be omitted. To specify the present invention, variations or modifications can be made within the range without departing from the scope of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing servers and clients having an avatar server for representing avatars and a natural language processing server in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the present invention analyzes the contents of a character message sent between clients 110 and 115, and varies the avatar of the client to represent emotion and motion corresponding to the meaning of the character message and, thus, make the counterpart client 115 having received the character message effectively perceive the contents of the character message. The present invention is embodied while having a natural language processing server 100 and an avatar server 105, or working in conjunction with them.

The natural language processing server 100 stores and holds the prefixes, nouns, suffixes and newly-coined words of a language. The prefixes, nouns, suffixes and newly- coined words of the language are stored in a database with the contents thereof being matched to meanings required for natural language processing.

The avatar server 105 performs functions of providing an avatar in conformity with a sentence that the client 110 inputs, managing avatars, providing an avatar and a message to a counterpart, and performing operations in conjunction with the natural language processing server 100.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a server for representing avatars in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 2, the server is composed of the natural language processing server 100 and the avatar server 105, and implements the present invention by transmitting and receiving useful data therebetween through a central control unit 255.

The natural language processing server 100 includes a prefix recognition unit 220, a noun recognition unit 230, a newly-coined word recognition unit 235, a natural language processing unit 260, and a natural language processing database 250.

The prefix recognition unit 220 functions to search for and recognize prefixes included in the sentences input by the client 110, and refers to a plurality of prefixes that have been previously stored in the natural language processing database 250 and can be input by the client 110.

The noun recognition unit 225 functions to search for and recognize nouns included in sentences input by the client 110, and refers to a plurality of nouns that have been previously stored in the natural language processing database 250 and can be input by the client 110.

The suffix recognition unit 230 functions to search for and recognize prefixes included in sentences input by the client 110, and refers to a plurality of suffixes that have been previously stored in the natural language processing database 250 and can be input by the client 110. The newly-coined word recognition unit 230 functions to search for and recognize newly-coined words included in the sentences input by the client 110, and refers to a plurality of newly-coined words that have been previously stored in the natural language processing database 250 and can be input by the client 110.

The natural language processing unit 260 functions to comprehend the meaning of a character message that the respective recognition units 220, 225, 230 and 235 have extracted in conjunction with the natural language processing database 250.

The avatar server 105 includes a natural language link unit 200, an avatar image extraction unit 205, an avatar image application unit 210, an avatar control unit 215, an avatar image database 240, and a registered avatar image database 245.

The natural language link unit 200 receives the meaning of a character message input by the client 110, which has been comprehended by the natural language processing unit 260 of the natural language processing server 100.

The avatar image extraction unit 205 extracts avatar images corresponding to the meaning of the character message from the avatar image database 240.

The avatar image application unit 210 converts the extracted avatar images into commands for transmitting instructions to cause the avatar of the client to represent the meaning and automatically varies the avatar of the client according to a program.

The avatar control unit 215 functions to control the avatar to which natural language processing is applied, and manages continuous motion to represent the meaning of the character message input by the client.

The avatar image database 240 is a database in which a plurality of avatar images required for the representation of the meaning of the character message input by the client 110 are stored.

The registered avatar image database 245 is the storage where the basic avatars of the client 110 are stored. The basic avatars are original avatars to which extracted avatar images (eye, nose, mouth, motion, etc.) are applied to represent the meaning of a character message input by the client 110 through an avatar of the client 110.

The central control unit 255 functions as an interface that controls the respective servers (the natural language server and the avatar server) and manages data exchange between the servers . When the client 110 inputs a character message via a mobile communication terminal or the Internet, the natural language processing server 100 comprehends the meaning of the character message, extracts avatar images corresponding to the comprehended meaning, and applies the extracted avatar images to the avatar of the client 110. With this construction, the client 110 can transmit his or her intention to the counterpart client 115 more effectively.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart schematically showing a process of representing an avatar in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 3, when a character message is input via a mobile communication terminal or the Internet at step 300, the creation of an avatar that the present invention intends to implement starts. If the client 110 already possesses his or her own avatar at step 305, an analysis of the character message starts at step 310. If the client 110 does not possess the avatar, the avatar of the client is created at step 325. Avatar images corresponding to the meaning of the input character message are extracted at step 315, and are applied to the avatar of the client 110 at step 320.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a process ranging from the input of a character message by a client to the creation of an avatar in terms of servers that intend to represent an avatar. Referring to FIG. 4, when the client 110 inputs a character message that is intended to be transmitted to the counterpart client 115 at step 400, the natural language processing server 100 searches for and analyzes the prefixes of the character message at step 405, searches for and analyzes the nouns of the character message at step 410, searches for and analyzes the suffixes of the character message at step 415, searches for and analyzes the newly-coined words of the character message at step 420, and performs natural language processing at step 425.

If the contents of the character message can be natural language processed at step 430, an extracted result of the natural language processing is transmitted to the natural language link unit 200 of the avatar server 105 at step 435, and avatar images corresponding to the emotion and motion of the character message are extracted at step 440. The extracted avatar images are inserted into the existing avatar of the client 110 at step 445, and an avatar to which the extracted avatar images are applied is created at step 450.

Thereafter, if a continuous avatar is necessary at step 455, the previous steps are repeated. Thereafter, the continuous avatar is created, and the contents of the character message are inserted into the created avatar at step 460.

If the contents of the character message cannot be natural language processed at step 430, a basic avatar is created and then the contents of the character message are inserted into the basic avatar at step 465.

FIG. 5 is an example view of a resulting screen on which an avatar message of the mobile communication terminal of a client, to which natural language processing in accordance with the embodiment of the present invention is applied, is displayed on the mobile communication terminal of a counterpart client. Referring to FIG. 5, in the use of the present invention, the client 110 inputs a character message via his or her mobile communication terminal or the Internet at step 500. The character message is natural language processed into an avatar, and a resulting screen 505 is displayed on the counterpart client 115.

When the message "take an umbrella" 500 is input, an avatar 505 in which an umbrella image and the expression "take" are inserted into a basic avatar is displayed on the mobile communication terminal or Internet screen of the counterpart client 115.

Industrial Applicability

As described above, in accordance with the present invention, a client can easily and realistically express his or her intention, which is intended to be transmitted to a counterpart client, using the shape of motion of his or her avatar via a mobile communication terminal or the Internet, so that there is an advantage in that the intention of the client can be interestingly and correctly transmitted compared to an existing avatar chat or message transmission.

Claims

Claims

1. A method of representing avatars corresponding to input character messages and contents of the character messages on mobile communication terminals or wired or wireless Internet using natural language processing technology, comprising: the first step of searching for natural language words of a character message through respective recognition units and analyzing contents of the character message in conjunction with a natural language processing database, at a natural language processing server; the second step of extracting avatar images to correspond to the analyzed contents of the character message with reference to a previously registered avatar database, at an avatar server; and the third step of applying the extracted avatar images to a previously registered avatar of a client

2. The method as set forth in claim 1, wherein the first step further comprises the step of creating an avatar of the client if the avatar of the client does not exist.

3. A system for representing avatars corresponding to input character messages and contents of the character messages on mobile communication terminals or wired or wireless Internet using natural language processing technology, comprising: a natural language processing server (100) comprising natural language recognition units (220, 225, 230 and 235) for searching for natural language words of a character message input by a client, and a natural language processing unit (260) for analyzing and comprehending contents of the character message extracted by the natural language recognition units in conjunction with a natural language database (250) ; an avatar server (105) comprising a natural language link unit (200) for receiving the contents of the character message input by the client and comprehended by the natural language processing unit (260) , an avatar image extraction unit (205) for extracting avatar images corresponding to the contents of the character message, which are transmitted from the natural language link unit (200) , from an avatar image database (240) , an avatar image application unit (210) for applying the avatar images, which are extracted by the avatar image extraction unit (205) , to an avatar of the client previously registered in the avatar image database (245) , and an avatar control unit (215) for controlling the avatar of the client to which natural language processing is applied and managing continuous motion to represent a meaning of the character message input by the client; and a central control unit (255) for controlling the natural language server (100) and the avatar server (105) and providing interfaces between the respective servers .