U.S. Pat. No. 7,043,438

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

By referring now to the drawings, embodiments of a moral standard protecting system and an interactive game system utilizing therewith in accordance with the present invention will be described below.

EXAMPLE 1

An embodiment of a system in accordance with the present invention, as shown inFIG. 1, is a system for protecting moral standard in voice and/or text communication performed between user terminals2through an administrative server1on a communication network N such as the Internet, cable television networks (CATV), or the like. The administrative server1includes a storage device1ahaving large capacity to record various kinds of information described hereinafter.

The system of this embodiment can be broadly divided into steps of certificating users, recording voice and/or text information that is submitted and received between the user terminals2on a voice and/or text communication, retrieving a disobedience in morals in the recorded voice and/or text information, and warning the disobedience in morals.

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A user who wishes a connection starts a specific purpose application in the user terminal2, and connects the user terminal2to the communication network N, and accesses the administrative server1. The administrative server1requires an identification ID to the accessing user terminal. The administrative server1extracts from the storage device1athe registration information corresponding to the identification ID submitted from the user terminal2, and checks the registration information. If there is no problem, the administrative server1accepts the access of the user and establishes the connection. If there is any problem, the server1rejects the access of the user. At this time, the registration information to be recorded in the storage device1aincludes disobedient data concerning a frequency and a degree of disobedience in morals described hereinafter. When the user accesses the administrative server1, the server1takes a disposal such as a warning to the user, a rejection of the access, or the like in accordance with contents in the disobedient data of the user.

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A voice and/or text communication between the user terminals2transmits voice and/or text information in an interval in time of, for example, one-fourth seconds. This transmission of the voice and/or text information is carried out by generally utilizing a compression/decompression technique that is conventional in the art. When the voice and/or text communication starts, the administrative server1records in a folder in order the voice and/or text information transmitted in a given period in time and produce communication data by writing the user identification ID of the user who has carried out the voice and/or text communication in the folder.

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An operation of retrieving disobedience in morals in the recorded voice and/or text information is carried out usually periodically. The administrative server1invokes the communication data recorded in the storage device1aand retrieves whether any words corresponding to disobedience in morals are used in the voice and/or text information. For this purpose, disobedient data of words or the like corresponding to disobedience in morals are registered beforehand as wave data and text data in the storage device la. The retrieval is carried out by comparing the voice and/or text information and the data corresponding to disobedience in morals. In results of the retrieval, when the server1decides that the words or the like corresponding to disobedience in morals are used, the server1records the disobedient data that indicates the disobedience in morals in the registration information of the user at the side submitting the voice and/or text information.

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An administrator invokes information concerning disobedience in morals from the storage device1aonto the administrative control table (not shown) and confirms again the voice and/or text information that has been decided to be disobedient in morals by actually hearing or seeing the information. In results of confirmation, the voice and/or text information that has been decided to be disobedient in morals is added to the registration information of the user as additional information to notify a waning when the user who has submitted the disobedient information accesses the server1. In the case where a frequency and a degree of disobedience in morals are flagrant or the warning is blinked, the administrator preferably records the information of the user on a blacklist so that the administrative server1restricts or rejects an access of the user when identifying the user as described above.

EXAMPLE 2

Another embodiment of a system in accordance with the present invention is, as shown inFIG. 2, a system for protecting moral standard in a combination of a voice and/or text communication and an interactive game performed between user terminals2(2a,2b,2c, . . . ) through an administrative server1on a communication network N.

The system in this embodiment can be broadly divided into functions of providing an interactive game and protecting moral standard in a voice and/or text communication described in Example 1.

A user who wishes to play an interactive game accesses an administrative server1from a user terminal2aand must receive user identification, as described in the first embodiment. When the user is identified, the administrative server1establishes a connection between the administrative server1and the user terminal2a, and ensures a transmitting path for game information, and also ensures a transmitting path for voice and/or text information. On the other hand, the administrative server1sets up a game table for the game that the user wishes to play and submits and presents game table information to the user terminal2a. At the same time, the administrative server1indicates the setting-up of the game table to the other accessed user terminals2b,2c, . . . to recruit entries. The user who wishes to enter the game acquires the set-up game table information from the administrative server1and presents game table information on the user terminal2b. Then, the administrative server1establishes a connection between the server1and the user terminal2band ensures a transmitting path for game information and voice and/or text information by the same process that has done to the first entry (2a).

When the entries are decided, the game starts. Since contents of a game itself, a process of progress, and the like are outside the scope of the present invention, explanations of them are omitted here. The administrative server1records in a storage device1agame information that is changing in association with a progress of the game and voice and/or text information that have submitted and received between the user terminals while the game is played.

The administrative server1retrieves words or the like corresponding to disobedience in morals in voice and/or text information recorded in the storage device1a. The retrieved voice and/or text information is presented on an administrative control table. It will be easily understood for a person skilled in the art that the process for protecting moral standard by utilizing warning means or the like to the user who has used the voice and/or text information that is decided to be disobedient in morals by the administrative server is same as the process in the first embodiment described above. However, in this embodiment, it should be noted that entries can enjoy an interactive game further since they can recognize that they are playing with not a machine partner but other human entries by their communication each other via the voice and/or text communication in the game, in addition to protecting moral standard.

According to the present invention, in a voice and/or text communication such as chat, voice chat, electronic bulletin board, electronic message board, or the like, it is possible for an administrator to take a suitable disposal and prevent any problem actions in morals such as aspersion, detraction, decrial, or the like to the others by recording in the storage device1atransmitted voice and/or text information together with identification information of the user terminal that has submitted the voice and/or text information, retrieving words that disobey morals in the voice and/or text information recorded in the storage device, recording disobedient data which indicates disobedience in morals in registration data of the user who has submitted the voice and/or text information retrieved by the retrieval, presenting the disobedient voice and/or text information and the identification information of the user at the submitting side to an administrator control table in the administrative server. Also, it is possible to express one's will by a voice and/or text communication in an interactive game on the Internet as well as to protect moral standard in a voice and/or text communication, thereby making the game more interesting.

From the above description of the invention, one skilled in the art will perceive improvements, changes and modifications. Such improvements, changes and modifications within the skill of the art are intended to be covered by the appended claims.