JP2005149202A - Community formation system, community formation method, program and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a community formation system/method capable of easily forming a community suitable to a user's request. <P>SOLUTION: In this community formation system including a plurality of user terminals mutually connectable through a network, each user terminal comprises a relationship holding means for holding attribute information including a user's name, a user ID and trial information, and relationship information with other users; a message formation means for transmission to other users; a relationship generation/deleting means; and a relationship strength updating means. The relationship information includes a relationship name, the user name or user ID, a pointer to a program of other users, and a relationship strength, and a community composed of a user terminal group holding relationship information of the same relationship name is formed based on the relation ship information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a community formation system, a community formation method, a program, and a recording medium, and more particularly to a technique that is effective when applied to a community formation system using a portable terminal.

  Conventionally, as a service for supporting the encounter between users of a user terminal using a user terminal connected via a network such as the Internet, for example, Navigety (http://nabigety.tv/) There is a service for performing matchmaking based on a keyword input by the user.

  The service performed by the navigation is server-driven, and the user connects, for example, a dedicated device to the mobile terminal held by the user, and the mobile terminal's location measurement function, nickname, date of birth, gender, and 6 The server notifies the server of user input information consisting of one mode selected from the modes representing the user behavior desires defined. The server performs matchmaking between the notified input information and store information prepared on the service provider side or registered store information, and transmits the selected information to the user terminal.

  In addition to services such as Navigeti, for example, a server-led service for managing a community between users (user terminals) is, for example, an excitement circle (http://circle.excite.co.jp). )

  In the excitement circle, bulletin boards of various themes are opened on a Web server, and only registered users can access and use the bulletin boards. Therefore, a group (community) of users interested in each theme can be easily formed and managed.

  However, services such as Navigetty that support encounters generally only distribute (provide) information, and do not grasp the user's behavior after receiving the information. Also, since the information to be distributed is selected by matchmaking based on simple information input by the user, it cannot be said that the information is necessarily useful for the user. Therefore, there is a problem that it is difficult to form a community between users who use the service.

  Also, in the service such as the excite circle, generally, the server only manages the information of each user terminal registered in each bulletin board, and does not consider the human relationship between users. . Also, other members cannot obtain an objective evaluation scale for determining whether or not a member (user) participating in the bulletin board (community) can be trusted. Therefore, it becomes a community between user terminals participating in the provided bulletin board, and there is a problem that it is difficult to form a community reflecting human relationships between users.

  In addition, since services such as Navigetty generally focus on searches using keywords prepared on the service provider side, there is a problem that it is difficult to provide information adapted to the detailed needs of users.

  In addition, a service such as the above-mentioned excitement circle forms a community by participating in a bulletin board prepared by the service provider, and it is difficult to form a community without a bulletin board suitable for the user's request. There is.

  The objective of this invention is providing the community formation system and the community formation method which can form easily the community suitable for a user's request.

  Another object of the present invention is that it is easy to form a community reflecting the human relationship between users, and each user participating in the community can easily obtain the reliability of other users. It is to provide a community formation system and a community formation method.

  The above and other objects and novel features of the present invention will be apparent from the description of this specification and the accompanying drawings.

  The outline of the invention disclosed in the present application will be described as follows.

  (1) A community forming system comprising a plurality of user terminals that can be connected to each other via a wired or wireless network, and forming a community between users holding the user terminals by a program executed on the user terminals Each user terminal includes a relationship holding means for storing attribute information including a user name, a user ID, and preference information, and relationship information indicating a relationship with another user, and others on the system. A message creating means for creating a message to be transmitted to the user terminal, a relationship generating / deleting means for receiving or transmitting the message transmitted from another user terminal on the system and generating or deleting the relationship information; The relay held by the relationship holding means Relationship strength updating means for updating the strength of the relationship, the relationship information includes a relationship name, a user name or user ID, a pointer to the program of the other user terminal, and the strength of the relationship A community that forms a community of user terminals that hold relationship information of the same relationship name based on the relationship information that is generated and held between the user terminals that have transmitted and received the message Forming system.

  (2) The relationship generation / deletion unit of each user terminal determines whether the relationship holding unit holds relationship information with another user terminal that has transmitted and received a message, and holds the relationship information. If there is not, the relationship holding means holds the relationship based on the strength of the relationship with the other user terminal having the relationship when the new relationship is generated. Means for deleting zero or one or more relationship information, and the relationship strength updating means obtains an evaluation value based on the evaluation of the user of the other user terminal as viewed from the user's viewpoint. Relation between the means for calculating and the other user based on the evaluation value Means for increasing or decreasing the strength of the network, and the creation and deletion of relationships reflecting the evaluation of users of other user terminals from the viewpoint of the user of each user terminal, and the updating of the strength. Do it.

  (3) In addition to the above means, each user terminal includes reliability information holding means for holding reliability information of other user terminals holding the relationship information, and reliability information of other user terminals. A reliability information update unit that updates the reliability information based on the relationship information generated by the relationship generation / deletion unit and the deleted relationship information, and a message is transmitted from the user terminal. In addition, the reliability information of its own terminal held by the reliability information holding means is attached to the message and transmitted.

  (4) A community forming method comprising a plurality of user terminals that can be connected to each other via a wired or wireless network, and forming a community between users holding the user terminals by a program executed on the user terminals Each user terminal holds a user name, a user ID, attribute information including preference information, and relationship information representing a relationship with another user; and other user terminals on the system Creating a message to be transmitted to the network, receiving a message transmitted from another user terminal on the system and generating or deleting the relationship information, and holding the relationship in the relationship holding means Updating the strength of the relationship, The step of holding the relationship information holds the information including the relationship name, the user name or the user ID, the pointer to the program of the other user terminal, and the strength of the relationship, and the user who sent and received the message Based on the relationship information generated and held between terminals, a community of user terminals holding the relationship information with the same relationship name is formed.

  (5) In the step of generating or deleting the relationship, the user ID and the relationship name of the transmission source of the received message, or the combination of the user ID and the relationship name of the transmission destination of the transmitted message are changed to the own user. Determining whether it is held in the terminal, generating new relationship information when not held in the user terminal, and holding in the user terminal including the new relationship information Calculating a deletion probability based on the strength of the relationship included in each relationship information, and zero or one or more relationships based on the calculated deletion probability means Deleting the ship information, and The step of updating the strength of the relationship includes the step of calculating an evaluation value based on the evaluation of the user of the other user terminal as viewed from the user's viewpoint, and the other user based on the calculated evaluation value. Increasing or decreasing the strength of the relationship with each other, and generating and deleting the relationship reflecting the evaluation of the user of the other user terminal from the viewpoint of the user of each user terminal, and updating the strength Do it dynamically.

  (6) In addition to the above steps, the user terminal holds the reliability information of the other user terminals holding the relationship information, the reliability information of the other user terminals, and the own user terminal. And updating the reliability information based on the relationship information generated and the deleted relationship information, and the step of holding the reliability information holds a relationship with its own user terminal. A first reliability component composed of reliability information of other user terminals that are present and a second reliability component composed of reliability information of other user terminals whose own user terminal holds the relationship And updating the reliability information, based on the reliability information of the transmission source user terminal attached to the received message, Updating the reliability information of the transmission source user terminal included in the first reliability component or adding the reliability information of the transmission source user terminal to the first reliability component; and generating or deleting the relationship Linking the user terminal information of the second reliability component with the user terminal information holding the relationship information in its own user terminal in cooperation with the step of performing Update the reliability information of the user terminal to be a value obtained by equally dividing the sum of the reliability information of all user terminals included in the first reliability component by the number of user terminals included in the second reliability component. Steps.

  The community forming system according to the present invention is a means for holding the relationship between each user terminal and another user terminal that has actually transmitted and received a message as relationship information in its own terminal, as in the above-mentioned means (1). Is provided. Therefore, a community of a plurality of user terminals can be formed only by connecting the relationship names included in the relationship information between the user terminals. At this time, as in the means of (2), the relationship information held by the user terminal is managed by the subjective evaluation of the user of each user terminal, and the relationship is dynamically generated and By providing means for deleting and updating the strength, it is possible to autonomously form a community reflecting the human relationship between users. Further, as described in (3) above, each user terminal is provided with a means for holding reliability information of other users and a means for updating, so that from the community reflecting the subjective evaluation of each user, An objective evaluation scale for each user participating in the community can be obtained.

  Further, when forming a community using the community forming system, steps such as the means (4) to (6) are performed at each user terminal.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail together with embodiments (examples) with reference to the drawings.
In all the drawings for explaining the embodiments, parts having the same function are given the same reference numerals and their repeated explanation is omitted.

  In the community forming system of the present invention, user terminals participating in the system hold relationship information with other user terminals that actually sent and received messages, and the community is connected by the relationship between the user terminals. By forming the network, we can provide information and meet people that meet the needs of users.

1 and 2 are schematic diagrams showing a schematic configuration of a community formation system according to a first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of the entire system, and FIG. 2 is a configuration of user terminals participating in the system. FIG.
In FIG. 1, 1 is a network and 2 is a user terminal. In FIG. 2, 201 is a communication control unit, 202 is a user search unit, 203 is a message creation unit, 204 is a relationship holding unit, 205 is a relationship generation / deletion unit, 206 is a relationship strength update unit, and 207 is Evaluation value calculation means, 208 is input means, 209 is output means, and 210 is processing control means.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the community forming system according to the first embodiment includes a plurality of user terminals 2 connected via a wired or wireless network 1. At this time, for example, as shown in FIG. 2, the user terminal 2 includes a communication control unit 201 that controls communication via the network 1, a user search unit 202 that searches for another user terminal that transmits a message, A message creation unit 203 that creates a message to be transmitted to another user terminal, and relationship holding that holds attribute information including the user name, user ID, and trial information, and relationship information that represents a relationship with another user Means 204, relationship generation / deletion means 205 for receiving or transmitting a message transmitted from another user terminal on the system and generating or deleting the relationship information, and relationship holding means 204 A relationship that updates the strength of the relationship Strength updating means 206, evaluation value calculating means 207 for calculating the user's evaluation value used when updating the strength of the relationship, input means 208 for creating a message, etc., and output means for outputting the received message 209 and processing control means 210 for controlling processing on the user terminal.

  3 to 9 are schematic diagrams for explaining a community forming method in the community forming system according to the first embodiment. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure performed in each user terminal. FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a transmission message, FIG. 6A is a flowchart illustrating a procedure for generating and deleting a relationship, and FIG. 6B is an example of relationship information. FIG. 7, FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a relationship information deletion procedure, FIG. 8 (a) is a diagram showing an example of a user evaluation screen, and FIG. 8 (b) is a flowchart showing a relationship strength update procedure. 9 (a) and 9 (b) are diagrams showing how a community is formed.

  In the community formation system according to the first embodiment, the user terminal 2 receives a message or a command (hereinafter referred to as a message or the like) to the processing control unit 210 as shown in FIG. 3, for example (step 301). The following processing is performed according to the contents of the input message or the like.

  First, the processing control unit 210 determines whether the input message is a request to participate in the system (step 302). If the request is a participation request, the processing control unit 210 connects to the network 1 via the communication control unit 201. Participate in the system (step 303).

  In the user terminal 2, if the message input to the processing control unit 210 is not a request for participation in the system, it is determined whether the request is a user search request (step 304). The user search means 202 searches for other user terminals that meet the specified conditions (step 305). At this time, the search for the other user terminal includes a system search for searching on a system in which the user terminal 2 participates, and a search for a user terminal holding relationship information by the relationship holding means 204. There are two ways. In step 305, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, when the user search means 202 receives a search request (step 30501), it is determined whether the request is a search in the system (step 30502). At this time, if the search is in the system, for example, another user terminal participating in the system is searched according to the condition input by the user using the input means 208 (step 30503). If the search is not in the system, for example, another user terminal is searched from the relationship information held in the relationship holding unit 204 in accordance with the condition input by the user using the input unit 208 ( Step 30504). Then, it is determined whether another user terminal that matches the condition has been detected (step 30505), and if detected, the user ID of the detected user terminal is output (displayed) to the output means 209 (step 30506). If it cannot be detected, an error message to that effect is displayed on the output means 209 (step 30507).

  If the message input to the processing control means 210 is not a request for participation in the system or a user search request, the user terminal 2 determines whether it is a message transmission request (step 306). If it is a transmission request, a message is created by the message creation means 203 and transmitted (step 307). Here, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, in the user terminal 2 </ b> A with the user name A, it is assumed that a search in the system is performed as the process of step 305 and the user terminal 2 </ b> B with the user name B is detected. At this time, if the user with the user name A transmits a message to the user with the user name B, the user with the user name A uses the input unit 208 to check the user terminal 2B as the transmission destination. Enter the user ID, the relationship name (relation name) used when generating the relationship, and the message to be sent. Then, the message creation unit 203 creates a transmission message composed of the user ID of the transmission destination, the user ID of the transmission source, the relationship name, and the message body as shown in FIG. It transmits to the user terminal 2B.

  In the user terminal 2, if the message or the like input to the processing control unit 210 is not a request to join the system, a user search request, or a message transmission request, then a message sent from another user terminal Is received (step 308), and if it is a received message, the message is output to the output means 209. Here, considering the example shown in FIG. 5, in the user terminal 2 </ b> B having the user name B that has received the message transmitted from the user terminal 2 </ b> A having the user name A, the received message is input to the processing control unit 210. Then, a message is displayed on the output means 209 through step 301, step 302, step 304, step 306, and step 308 (step 309).

  If it is determined in step 308 that the message is received, the message is output to the output unit 209, and the relationship generation / deletion unit performs relationship generation / deletion processing (step 310). . In step 310, for example, as shown in FIG. 6A, first, the transmission source user ID and the relationship name are extracted from the received transmission message (step 31001). Next, the relationship holding means 204 is searched to determine whether the same combination of relationship information is held (steps 31002 and 31003). At this time, if there is no same combination, a new relationship is generated (step 31004). When generating the relationship, for example, as shown in FIG. 6B, relationship information including a user ID, a relationship name, and strength is held in the relationship holding unit 204. At this time, the initial value of the relationship strength is 0 (zero).

If a new relationship is generated by the above procedure, a relationship deletion determination and deletion process based on the relationship strength is performed (step 31005). In step 31005, for example, as shown in FIG. 7, first, a variable i for the held relationship information is initialized (step 31005a). Next, the relationship strength R _i of the i-th relationship information (entry) is extracted from the held relationship information (step 31005b). Next, the probability P _i of deleting the i-th entry is calculated from the relationship strength R _i (step 31005c). At this time, the probability P _{i to be} deleted is calculated using, for example, a Y-axis symmetric function of a sigmoid function such as Equation 1 below.

In the case of calculating the probability P _i of deletion using Equation 1, the probability P _i approaches 0 as the intensity R _i is a positive (> 0) larger value, contrary to the normal sigmoid function. In addition, the probability P _i approaches 1 as the intensity R _i is negative (<0) and the absolute value is larger. Therefore, the probability that the relationship strength R _i is a large positive value, that is, the relationship between users is stronger, the smaller the probability of being deleted.

When the deletion probability P _i is obtained using Equation 1, an attempt is made with the probability (step 31005d), and a final determination is made as to whether or not to delete (step 31005e). At this time, if it is determined to be deleted, the i-th entry (relationship information) is deleted from the relationship holding means 204 (step 31005f). If it is determined not to be deleted, the relationship information is held in the relationship holding means 204 (step 31005g). Thereafter, it is determined whether or not the processing has been performed on all entries (relationship information) (step 31005h). If there is an entry that has not yet been processed, the variable i is updated (step 31005i), and the processing is performed. repeat. When the processing for all entries (relationship information) is completed, the processing of step 31005 ends.

  In this way, when a message is received from another user terminal, a relationship is generated, and the relationship information of the user terminal having a weak relationship is deleted, so that the strength of the relationship is strong for the user. It is refined only to relationship information with other users' user terminals.

  On the other hand, in the determination at the step 31003, if there is the same combination in the relationship holding means 204, since the relationship has already been generated, the relationship generation / deletion processing is not performed.

  Further, the user terminal 2 evaluates the user who has transmitted the message with respect to the user who has seen the message output (displayed) in the step 309. Therefore, for example, an evaluation screen as shown in FIG. 8A is displayed to the user who has finished viewing the message (step 311).

  In the user terminal 2, if the message or the like input to the processing control unit 210 is not a request to join the system, a user search request, a message transmission request, or a received message, then the user evaluation message If it is an evaluation message, the strength of the relationship held in the relationship holding means 204 is updated based on the evaluation message (step 313). When updating the relationship strength, for example, as shown in FIG. 8B, first, an evaluation value V is calculated from an evaluation message that is an evaluation performed by the user (step 31301). At this time, for example, as shown in FIG. 8A, the evaluation value V is set to an evaluation value V = + 1 when evaluated as good, and is set to an evaluation value V = −1 when evaluated as bad. Next, it is determined whether the evaluation value V is 0 or more (step 31302), and if it is larger than 0, an increment request for increasing the strength is made (step 31303). On the other hand, if the value is 0 or less, a decrement request is made to decrease the strength (step 31304). Thereafter, it is confirmed from the information such as the user name of the user to be evaluated in the evaluation message whether the relationship information (entry) of the user name is held in the relationship holding means 204 (step 31305). . At this time, if there is an entry, the strength included in the entry (relationship information) is updated (step 31306). When the intensity is updated, the intensity is increased or decreased depending on whether the increment request or the decrement request is added. At this time, for example, if the increment request is added, the strength is increased by 1, and if the decrement request is added, the strength is decreased by 1. If it is determined in step 31305 that there is no corresponding entry (relationship information), the evaluation message is ignored and the process ends.

  Here, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, a process after a message is transmitted from the user terminal 2A with the user name A to the user terminal 2B with the user name B will be briefly described. In the user terminal 2B of the user name B that has received the message, first, the processes of the step 309, step 310, and step 311 are performed. At this time, after performing the process of step 310, as shown in FIG. 9A, the user terminal 2B of the user name A is sent to the user terminal 2B of the user name A with a probability of 1/2. A relationship is generated. Although illustration is omitted, if the user with the user name B evaluates the user with the user name A, the strength of the relationship increases. Therefore, after that, when a new relationship is generated in the user terminal 2B having the user name B, the probability of being deleted becomes low. On the contrary, if the evaluation of the user with the user name A performed by the user with the user name B is bad, the strength of the relationship becomes weak. Therefore, after that, when a new relationship is generated in the user terminal 2B with the user name B, the probability of being deleted increases.

  Further, the user of the user terminal 2B of the user name B who has received the message from the user terminal 2A of the user name A sees the message and creates a message as shown in FIG. If it is transmitted to the user terminal 2A of A, the same processing is performed on the user terminal 2A of the user name A, and a relationship with the user terminal 2B of the user name B is generated with a probability of 1/2.

Thus, by evaluating the user of the user terminal that transmitted the message to his / her user terminal and updating the relationship strength based on the evaluation, the relationship strength of the user with a low evaluation is lowered. As a result, when the relationship is deleted in step 310, the probability P _{i of} deletion is increased, so that it is considered that the relationship is naturally deleted without the user being aware of it. And the community between user terminals is formed dynamically and autonomously by repeating the process demonstrated here between several user terminals.

  And if you repeat sending and receiving such messages and continue to evaluate well, the strength of the relationship will increase accordingly, so the probability of being deleted after a new relationship is generated becomes very low, and the relationship is Become more powerful.

  In addition, since the strength of the relationship related to the formation of the community is increased or decreased based on the subjective evaluation of the user, the strength of the relationship becomes high when the evaluation (human relationship) between the users is good, If the evaluation between the users is bad, the strength is lowered, and the user is eventually deleted. As a result, the evaluation itself is subjective, or only from the viewpoint of the whole community, only a community with a good evaluation (human relationship) between users remains.

  As described above, according to the community formation system of the first embodiment, the relationship is generated and held on each user terminal, and the community is formed by the connection of the relationship. It becomes easy to form a community.

  In addition, by updating the strength of the relationship based on the subjective evaluation of each user, a community reflecting the human relationship between users can be easily formed. Moreover, even if the evaluation itself is subjective, since only the community with good human relations remains from the viewpoint of the entire community, each user can easily obtain an objective evaluation scale of other users.

  The community formation system of the first embodiment can also be realized by a computer and a program executed by the computer. In this case, for example, a computer may be used as the user terminal 2 and a program for causing the computer to execute each process may be copied and executed as necessary. At this time, the program may be provided by being recorded on a magnetic, electrical, or optical recording medium, or may be provided via a network such as the Internet. Further, it can be realized by using a mobile terminal such as a PDA or a mobile phone instead of the computer.

  FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram for explaining a modification of the community forming system of the first embodiment, and is a diagram showing a configuration of the entire system.

  In the first embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, the case where a wide-area community that is not subject to physical and geographical restrictions is formed through a network such as the Internet has been described as an example. However, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the present invention can also be applied when a community is formed between users within a certain limited range, such as a wireless LAN. In this case, for example, as shown in FIG. 10, a user participating in the system enters the area 4A in which the user terminal 2 is held and the wireless base station 4 such as the wireless LAN access point can be accessed. Then, messages are transmitted / received to / from other user terminals 2 through the radio base station 4 in the procedure as described in the first embodiment, and relationship generation and deletion, and strength update are dynamically performed. Do. As described above, when messages are transmitted / received via the radio base station 4, the users holding the user terminals 2 are located in the area 4 </ b> A accessible to the radio base station 4. You will be in a place near. Therefore, it is easy not only to send and receive messages between user terminals, but also to actually meet users. Further, in the case of a system that transmits and receives messages between user terminals by wireless communication as described above, the user terminals can directly perform wireless communication without using the wireless base station 4.

11 and 12 are schematic diagrams showing a schematic configuration of the community formation system according to the second embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a user terminal, and FIG. 12 is reliability information stored in the user terminal. It is a figure which shows the example of.
In FIG. 11, 211 is reliability information holding means, 212 is reliability information update means, and 213 is message separation means.

  Similar to the community formation system described in the first embodiment, the community formation system according to the second embodiment includes a plurality of user terminals 2 connected via the network 1. At this time, as described in the first embodiment, each user terminal 2 holds the relationship information in its own terminal, and dynamically generates and deletes the relationship and updates the strength. The difference from the user terminal 2 described in the first embodiment is that, in addition to the relationship information, reliability information of other users is held in its own terminal and dynamically updated. Therefore, in the following description, detailed description regarding the same configuration and processing as those of the user terminal 2 described in the first embodiment will be omitted.

  As shown in FIG. 11, the user terminal 2 participating in the community formation system of the second embodiment, in addition to the means included in the user terminal 2 described in the first embodiment, reliability information holding reliability information. A holding unit 211; a reliability information communicating unit 212 that updates the reliability information held by the reliability information holding unit 211; and a message separating unit 213 that separates the reliability information from the received message.

  The reliability information held by the reliability information holding means 211 is divided into a first reliability component (FROM component) and a second reliability component (TO) component, for example, as shown in FIG. The first reliability component is a component made up of reliability information of other user terminals that hold relationship information for their own user terminals. Further, the second reliability component is a component composed of reliability information of other user terminals that hold relationship information in their own user terminals. In the example shown in FIG. 12, the direction of the arrow indicates the direction of the relationship. For example, the user terminal A holds the relationship information of the user terminals 2B and 2C in its own terminal. Therefore, the second reliability component of the user terminal 2A includes reliability information for users with user IDs B and C. In FIG. 12, since the user terminals 2X, 2Y, and 2Z hold relationship information for the user terminal 2A, the first reliability component of the user terminal 2A has user IDs of X, Y, and Z. It consists of reliability information about users.

  In addition, the reliability information of each user terminal has an initial value of 1, and is transmitted with the reliability information added to the transmission message and propagated to other user terminals, whereby the reliability information is increased or decreased. Further, the reliability information for each user of the second reliability component is obtained by equally dividing the sum of reliability information for each user constituting the first reliability component by the number of users constituting the second reliability component. Value. In the example illustrated in FIG. 12, the sum of the reliability information of the users configuring the first reliability component of the user terminal 2 </ b> A is 6. Therefore, the reliability information of the users with user IDs B and C included in the second reliability component is a value obtained by dividing 6 by 2 of the number of users, that is, 3.

  FIGS. 13 to 16 are schematic diagrams for explaining a community forming method in the community forming system according to the second embodiment, and FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing points different from the forming method according to the first embodiment. 14A and 14B are diagrams for explaining message transmission processing, and FIGS. 15A, 15B, and 16 are flowcharts for explaining the procedure of reliability information update processing. .

  In the community formation system of the second embodiment, the user joins the system according to the procedure described in the first embodiment, searches for a user terminal that transmits a message, and makes a message transmission request. If it is determined in step 306 that the message input to the processing control unit 210 is a message transmission request, a transmission message is created as shown in FIG. Information is added and transmitted (step 307 ′). Here, for example, as shown in FIG. 14A, consider a case where a message is transmitted from the user terminal 2A to the user terminal 2B. At this time, the message creation unit 203 that has received the message transmission request creates a message based on the information input by the user using the input unit 208 and the second reliability of the reliability information holding unit 211. The reliability information of the transmission destination user ID is extracted from the frequency component and added to the created message. In this case, the destination user ID is B as shown in FIG. Therefore, the reliability information 3 of the user ID B is extracted from the second reliability component and added to the transmission message. When there is no reliability information to be extracted, a value for notifying that there is no reliability information, for example, 0 is assigned.

  In this way, in the user terminal 2 that has received the message with the reliability information as shown in FIG. 14B, it is determined that the message has been received in the step 308 as shown in FIG. Is output to the output means 209 (step 309). Further, when the message is received, only the creation and deletion of the relationship (step 310) is performed in the first embodiment, but in the second embodiment, in addition to the generation and deletion of the relationship, the reliability Information is updated (step 315).

  In step 315, the process related to the generation and deletion of the relationship may be the same as the process described in the first embodiment (step 310), and thus detailed description thereof is omitted.

  On the other hand, for updating the reliability information, for example, as shown in FIG. 15A, first, the transmission source user ID and the reliability information are separated from the message received by the message separation means 213 (step 31501). . Then, the reliability information of the first reliability component held in its own user terminal is updated (step 31502).

  In step 31502, for example, as shown in FIG. 15B, it is first determined whether or not the reliability information is a valid value (step 31502a). At this time, if the reliability information is a valid value, that is, reliability information held by the user terminal that is the transmission source of the message, next, the transmission to the first reliability component (FROM component) Whether there is reliability information (entry) of the original user ID is checked (step 31502b). At this time, if there is an entry, the reliability component is updated (step 31502c). If there is no entry, it is added to the first reliability component (step 31502d).

  On the other hand, if the reliability information is not a valid value, first, it is checked whether or not there is reliability information (entry) of the user ID of the transmission source in the first reliability component (step 31502e). At this time, if there is an entry, the entry is deleted (step 31502f). If there is no entry, the process ends without doing anything.

  When the processing of step 31502 as shown in FIG. 15B is completed, relationship generation / deletion processing is performed (step 31503). Since this process is the same as step 310 shown in the first embodiment, detailed description thereof is omitted.

  When the processing of step 31503 is completed, the result, that is, the information on the generated relationship and the deleted relationship is acquired, and the reliability information of the second reliability component (TO component) is updated ( Step 31504). In the process of step 31504, first, the second reliability is obtained from the information of the user ID that generated the relationship by receiving the message from the relationship generation / deletion unit 205 and the user ID that deleted the relationship. The user ID included in the component is synchronized with the user ID holding the relationship information by the relationship holding means 204. When the user IDs are synchronized, the sum of the reliability of all the user IDs of the first reliability component is equally divided by the user ID included in the second reliability component.

  Here, as shown in FIGS. 14A and 14B, consider a case where a message is transmitted from the user terminal 2A to the user terminal 2B. At this time, if the process shown in FIG. 15B is performed after the message is received by the user terminal 2B, the reliability information of the user ID A in the first reliability component of the user terminal 2B is 3 Updated to At this time, if the relationship generation / deletion means 205 newly generates a relationship with the user with the user ID A, and deletes the relationship with the user with the user IDs E and G, FIG. As shown in (a), the relationship generation / deletion unit 205 notifies the reliability update unit 212 of this, and the user IDs of the second reliability component are two, A and F. Then, as shown in FIG. 16B, the reliability information of user ID A of the first reliability component has been updated to 3, and the sum of the reliability information of the first reliability component has become 8. The reliability information of the user IDs A and F of the second reliability component is obtained by equally dividing the sum (8) of the reliability information of the first reliability component by the two user IDs A and F, respectively. The information becomes 4. Thereafter, when a message is transmitted from the user terminal 2B to the user terminals 2A and 2F of the user IDs A and F, the updated reliability information (4) is added and transmitted. Then, on the user terminals 2A and 2F that have received the message, the relationship is generated and deleted, and the strength is updated.

  Thus, every time a message is received, in addition to the relationship information, the reliability information is generated, updated, and deleted, and when the message is transmitted, the reliability information is given and propagated. It is possible to easily acquire the reliability of other users without having to send and receive messages to aggregate and display the user's reliability in the community while autonomously and adaptively forming the community it can.

  As described above, according to the community formation system of the second embodiment, the relationship is generated and held on each user terminal, and the community is formed by the connection of the relationship, which is suitable for the user's request. It becomes easy to form a community.

  In addition, by updating the strength of the relationship based on the subjective evaluation of each user, a community reflecting the human relationship between users can be easily formed. Moreover, even if the evaluation itself is subjective, since only the community with good human relations remains from the viewpoint of the entire community, each user can easily obtain an objective evaluation scale of other users.

  In this way, every time a message is received, reliability information is generated, updated, and deleted in addition to relationship information, and when the message is received, the reliability information is given and propagated. The reliability of other users can be easily acquired without sending / receiving messages for counting and displaying the reliability of the other users.

  The community forming system of the second embodiment can also be realized by a computer and a program executed by the computer. In this case, for example, a computer may be used as the user terminal 2 and a program for causing the computer to execute each process may be copied and executed as necessary. At this time, the program may be provided by being recorded on a magnetic, electrical, or optical recording medium, or may be provided via a network such as the Internet. Further, it can be realized by using a mobile terminal such as a PDA or a mobile phone instead of the computer.

  Furthermore, the community forming system of the second embodiment is not limited to the form shown in FIG. 1, but the form shown in FIG. 10, that is, wireless communication via the wireless base station 4, or wireless base station 4 may be a system in which messages are transmitted and received by direct wireless communication between user terminals that do not go through 4.

  The present invention has been specifically described above based on the above-described embodiments. However, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. is there.

It is a schematic diagram which shows schematic structure of the community formation system of Example 1 by this invention, and is a figure which shows the structure of the whole system. It is a schematic diagram which shows schematic structure of the community formation system of Example 1 by this invention, and is a figure which shows the structure of the user terminal which participates in a system. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the formation method of the community in the community formation system of a present Example 1, and is a flowchart which shows the procedure of the process performed by each user terminal. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the formation method of the community in the community formation system of a present Example 1, and is a figure which shows a user's search procedure. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the formation method of the community in the community formation system of the present Example 1, and is a figure which shows the example of a transmission message. FIGS. 6A and 6B are schematic diagrams for explaining a community forming method in the community forming system according to the first embodiment. FIG. 6A is a flowchart showing a procedure for creating and deleting relationships, and FIG. 6B is a relationship. It is a figure which shows an example of information. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the formation method of the community in the community formation system of a present Example 1, and is a flowchart which shows the deletion procedure of relationship information. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the formation method of the community in the community formation system of a present Example 1, FIG. 8 (a) is a figure which shows an example of a user evaluation screen, FIG.8 (b) is the update of the intensity | strength of a relationship. It is a flowchart which shows a procedure. It is for demonstrating the formation method of the community in the community formation system of the present Example 1, and Fig.9 (a) and FIG.9 (b) are figures which show a mode that a community is formed. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the modification of the community formation system of the said Example 1, and is a figure which shows the structure of the whole system. It is a schematic diagram which shows schematic structure of the community formation system of Example 2 by this invention, and is a figure which shows the structural example of a user terminal. It is a schematic diagram which shows schematic structure of the community formation system of Example 2 by this invention, and is a figure which shows the example of the reliability information hold | maintained at a user terminal. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the formation method of the community in the community formation system of the present Example 2, and is a flowchart which shows a different point from the formation method of the said Example 1. FIG. FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram for explaining a community forming method in the community forming system according to the second embodiment, and FIGS. 14A and 14B are diagrams for explaining message transmission processing. It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the formation method of the community in the community formation system of the present Example 2, and Fig.15 (a) and FIG.15 (b) are flowcharts explaining the procedure of the update process of a reliability component. . It is a schematic diagram for demonstrating the formation method of the community in the community formation system of the present Example 2, and is a flowchart explaining the procedure of the update process of a reliability component.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Network 2 ... User terminal 201 ... Communication control means 202 ... User search means 203 ... Message preparation means 204 ... Relationship holding means 205 ... Relationship generation / deletion means 206 ... Relationship strength update means 207 ... Evaluation value calculation means 208 ... Input means 209 ... Output means 210 ... Processing control means 211 ... Reliability information holding means 212 ... Reliability information updating means 213 ... Message separating means 4 ... Radio base station 4A ... Area where user terminals can access radio base stations

Claims (10)

A community forming system comprising a plurality of user terminals that can be connected to each other via a wired or wireless network, and forming a community between users holding the user terminals by a program executed on the user terminals. ,
Each user terminal has a user name, a user ID, attribute information including preference information, and relationship holding means for holding relationship information representing relationships with other users,
Message creating means for creating a message to be transmitted to another user terminal on the system;
Relationship generation / deletion means for receiving a message transmitted from another user terminal on the system and generating or deleting the relationship information;
A relationship strength updating means for updating the strength of the relationship held by the relationship holding means,
The relationship information includes a relationship name, a user name or a user ID, a pointer to a program of the other user terminal, and the strength of the relationship,
Based on the relationship information generated and held between the user terminals that sent and received the message, forming a community consisting of user terminals holding the relationship information of the same relationship name Characteristic community formation system. The relationship generation / deletion unit of each user terminal determines whether the relationship holding unit holds relationship information with another user terminal that has transmitted and received a message. A means for generating a new relationship, and a relationship held by the relationship holding means based on the strength of the relationship with another user terminal having the relationship when the new relationship is generated Means for deleting zero or more ship information,
The relationship strength updating means includes a means for calculating an evaluation value based on a user's evaluation of the other user terminal as viewed from the user's viewpoint, and a relationship with the other user based on the evaluation value. Means to increase or decrease the strength of
The relationship generation and deletion reflecting the evaluation of the user of another user terminal viewed from the user's viewpoint of each user terminal, and the strength update are dynamically performed. Community formation system. Each user terminal, in addition to the above means, reliability information holding means for holding reliability information of other user terminals holding the relationship information;
Reliability information update means for updating the reliability information based on the reliability information of other user terminals, the relationship information generated by the relationship generation / deletion means, and the deleted relationship information,
3. When transmitting a message from the user terminal, the reliability information of the terminal held by the reliability information holding unit is added to the message and transmitted. Community formation system. A community forming method comprising a plurality of user terminals that can be connected to each other via a wired or wireless network, and forming a community between users holding the user terminals by a program executed on the user terminals. ,
Each user terminal holds a user name, a user ID, attribute information including preference information, and relationship information representing a relationship with other users;
Creating a message to be sent to another user terminal on the system;
Receiving a message transmitted from another user terminal on the system and generating or deleting the relationship information;
Updating the strength of the relationship held by the relationship holding means,
The step of holding the relationship information holds information including a relationship name, a user name or a user ID, a pointer to the program of the other user terminal, and the strength of the relationship,
Based on the relationship information generated and held between the user terminals that sent and received the message, forming a community consisting of user terminals holding the relationship information of the same relationship name A community formation method that features. In the step of generating or deleting the relationship, the user ID and relationship name of the source of the received message, or the combination of the user ID and relationship name of the destination of the transmitted message are held in its own user terminal. A step of determining whether or not the user terminal is holding the new relationship information when not being held in the user terminal, and including all the information held in the user terminal including the new relationship information. For the relationship information, a step of calculating a deletion probability based on the strength of the relationship included in each relationship information, and zero or one or more relationship information based on the calculated deletion probability means A step of deleting,
The step of updating the strength of the relationship includes a step of calculating an evaluation value based on a user's evaluation of the other user terminal as viewed from a user's viewpoint, and the other based on the calculated evaluation value Increasing or decreasing the strength of the relationship with the user,
5. The relationship generation and deletion reflecting the evaluation of the user of another user terminal viewed from the user's viewpoint of each user terminal, and the strength update are dynamically performed. Community formation method. In addition to the above steps, the user terminal holds reliability information of other user terminals holding the relationship information; and
Updating the reliability information based on the reliability information of other user terminals, the relationship information generated by the user terminal and the deleted relationship information,
The step of holding the reliability information includes a first reliability component composed of reliability information of another user terminal holding a relationship with the user terminal, and the user terminal holding the relationship. A second reliability component consisting of reliability information of other user terminals that are being held separately,
The step of updating the reliability information includes updating the reliability information of the transmission source user terminal included in the first reliability component based on the reliability information of the transmission source user terminal given to the received message, or Adding reliability information of the transmission source user terminal to the first reliability component;
In cooperation with the step of generating or deleting the relationship, synchronizing the user terminal information of the second reliability component with the user terminal information holding the relationship information in its own user terminal;
The number of user terminals included in the second reliability component is the reliability information of the user terminal included in the second reliability component, and the sum of the reliability information of all user terminals included in the first reliability component. The community forming method according to claim 4, further comprising a step of updating to a value equally divided by. A program for executing a community forming method for forming a community between a plurality of user terminals that can be connected to each other via a wired or wireless network,
The program is stored in the user terminal.
Procedure to retain attribute information including user name, user ID, preference information, and relationship information indicating relationships with other users,
Creating a message to be sent to another user terminal on the system;
Receiving a message transmitted from another user terminal on the system and generating or deleting the relationship information;
Updating the strength of the relationship held in the user terminal,
The procedure for holding the relationship information includes holding a relationship name, a user name or a user ID, a pointer to a program of the other user terminal, and information including the strength of the relationship,
Based on the relationship information generated and held between the user terminals that have transmitted and received the message, a community of user terminals holding the relationship information of the same relationship name is formed. A featured program. The procedure for generating or deleting the relationship includes the user ID and relationship name of the source of the received message, or the combination of the user ID and relationship name of the destination of the transmitted message at its own user terminal. A procedure for determining whether it is held, a procedure for generating new relationship information when it is not held in its own user terminal, and all holding in its own user terminal, including the new relationship information The procedure of calculating the deletion probability based on the strength of the relationship included in each relationship information and zero or one or more relationship information based on the calculated deletion probability means And causing the user terminal to execute a procedure for deleting
The procedure for updating the strength of the relationship includes a procedure for calculating an evaluation value based on a user's evaluation of the other user terminal performed from the viewpoint of the user, and the other based on the calculated evaluation value. Causing the user terminal to execute a procedure for increasing or decreasing the strength of the relationship with the user terminal;
8. The relationship generation and deletion reflecting the evaluation of a user of another user terminal viewed from the user's viewpoint of each user terminal, and the strength update are dynamically performed. Program. In addition to each of the above procedures, the program stores the reliability information of other user terminals that hold the relationship information;
Based on the reliability information of the other user terminal, the relationship information generated by the user terminal of itself and the deleted relationship information, the user terminal is caused to execute a procedure for updating the reliability information,
The procedure for retaining the reliability information includes a first reliability component composed of reliability information of another user terminal that holds a relationship with its own user terminal, and the own user terminal. Separately holding the second reliability component consisting of reliability information of other user terminals,
The procedure for updating the reliability information includes updating the reliability information of the transmission source user terminal included in the first reliability component based on the reliability information of the transmission source user terminal attached to the received message, or A step of adding reliability information of the transmission source user terminal to the first reliability component;
In cooperation with the procedure for generating or deleting the relationship, the user terminal information of the second reliability component is synchronized with the user terminal information holding the relationship in its own user terminal,
The number of user terminals included in the second reliability component is the reliability information of the user terminal included in the second reliability component, and the sum of the reliability information of all user terminals included in the first reliability component. The program according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the user terminal is caused to execute a procedure for updating to a value equally divided by. 10. A recording medium on which the program according to claim 7 is recorded.

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