KR20070024918A - Apparatus and method for providing a video communication service in a virtual space - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for providing a video communication service in a virtual space. The present invention provides a virtual space in a scenario form for a user's virtual character to play in a user terminal according to a user's selection. In this case, the user interface is arranged on the user interface, and the user's image is provided to the interface so as to perform a conversation in a video conference manner between a plurality of users in real time. According to the present invention, video communication is provided in a virtual space, so that a more realistic conversation can be performed in the virtual space according to various scenarios provided in the virtual space.

Description

Apparatus and method for providing video communication service in a virtual space {APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR PROVIDING VIDEO CONFERENCE SERVICE SERVICE IN VIRTUAL SPACE}

1 is a configuration diagram for explaining a network system to which the present invention is applied;

2 is a structural diagram illustrating an operation of a video communication service providing apparatus in a virtual space according to the present invention;

3 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a character performing a conversation in a virtual space;

4 is an example of a virtual space where the conversation of FIG. 3 is performed;

5 is an example for explaining that the AI server of the present invention performs an artificial intelligence conversation with a virtual character of a user.

<Description of the symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

210: virtual space server 220: AI server

230: voice server 240: video communication server

250: database

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for providing a video communication service in a virtual space, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for providing a video communication service in a virtual space for use in an online education system.

At present, online education through a network such as the Internet is provided in various ways. However, in the existing online education system, the method of teaching is not limited in that the education method is simply stored in the homepage of the teaching materials on the homepage and the students download the learning materials stored on the homepage. It does not provide a variety of lecture programs.

Among these online education systems, Korean Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-0024160 (Online Education System Interoperating with Game) and Korean Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-0072766 (English Conversation Education through Online Game Server, Client, and TTS Chat System Using Internet) ) And Korean Patent Application Publication No. 2004-0023158 (Method and System for Providing Network Game Service), respectively, provide a language education system that implements interactiveness, which is an advantage of online education, through an interface of a game. One-way multimedia broadcasting or text-driven existing online education system can be changed to be more interesting and developed into a form that can compete with remote users to some extent.

However, the inventions disclosed in the Patent Publication Nos. 2000-0024160 and 2004-0072766 fail to provide controllability and a certain level of compulsory force, which is one of the biggest disadvantages when used for online education. Although it has succeeded in attracting users with the keyword of game, there is a problem of being passive in practical system utilization or raising the level of participation of learning to maintain it at a certain level.

In addition, the invention disclosed in the Patent Publication No. 2004-72766 is compared to the Patent Publication No. 2000-0024160 or the Patent Publication No. 2004-00023158 by incorporating the characteristics of the interactive text-to-speech (TTS) to the education system It can be evaluated as a more advanced attempt, but it is difficult to recognize correctly even if the user pronounces correctly due to the deviation caused by the difference between the volume and the vocalization of individual users in the field of speech recognition and synthesis, which is a general disadvantage of TTS technology. There is a problem, and in the field of synthesis, the pronunciation of various sentences cannot be digested like a natural language, so there is a technical problem to use for practical purposes such as language education.

On the other hand, according to Patent Publication No. 2002-0066804 (a real-time online cyber learning system that can interface with instructors and learners), one instructor and a plurality of learners are real-time in a virtual space by a video communication method utilizing video conferencing technology. A learning system for conducting education is provided.

However, the Patent Publication No. 2002-0066804 is a real-time service as the instructor is not only able to provide a learning service suitable for the level of individual users with the temporal control of real-time, but also always deal with a large number of users. There is a limitation in providing interactive queries and responses.

On the other hand, game industries such as online 3-Dimension (hereinafter simply referred to as '3D') massively multiplayer online role playing game (hereinafter, simply referred to as 'MMO RPG') and casual games, Most existing games are actively developing genres for game development, but due to the unique user characteristics of the market itself, 'low loyalty', there is a demand for a technical alternative to prevent the user from leaving.

The present invention has been proposed to solve the above problems, the apparatus for providing a video communication service in a virtual space for providing an education service in a video communication method by transmitting video and audio in real time in an online virtual space of a scenario type And to provide a method.

The present invention also provides an apparatus and method for providing a video communication service in a virtual space for adopting a video conferencing method when necessary in a virtual space so that a virtual character exists in the virtual space and a practical user communicates when necessary. There is another purpose.

In addition, the present invention provides an apparatus and method for providing a video communication service in a virtual space in which one instructor meets more learners, and the learners can individually learn by meeting the instructors individually according to the speed difference between learners. There is another purpose.

In order to achieve the above object, according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the apparatus for providing a video communication service in a virtual space, having a plurality of scenario maps, the user's virtual character in the user terminal according to the user's selection A virtual space server for providing a virtual space in a scenario form for playing by the player; An artificial intelligence (AI) server for providing a non-player character (NPC) in a virtual space provided by the virtual space server to perform a dialogue scenario that varies according to the role and the situation of the virtual character of the user; A voice server for receiving a voice or text from the user terminal, recognizing whether the user has made a correct response, and transmitting a result to the user terminal by voice; And a video communication server for arranging an interface in a periphery of the virtual character of the user and providing a video of the user to the corresponding interface to perform a conversation in a video conference manner in real time between a plurality of users. A video communication service providing apparatus is provided.

Here, the AI server, by setting an intelligent dialogue method for each NPC for each role, it is possible to recognize the user's words, select a sentence suitable for the situation to perform a text communication with the virtual character of the user, the AI server The voice server may ask a specific NPC to question a virtual character of a user using a voice quiz and perform voice communication through voice recognition with the virtual character of the user. In addition, the AI server may adjust the difficulty step by step according to the user's level in the virtual space to proceed to the scenario-based virtual space. At this time, it is preferable that the AI server uses an artificial intelligence writing language (AIML).

In addition, when the virtual character of any user approaches the virtual character of another user less than or equal to a predetermined distance, the video communication server arranges an interface in a peripheral portion of the virtual character, and provides the user's image to the interface. Thus, the user can perform a conversation in a video conference manner in real time.

On the other hand, according to another embodiment of the present invention, a method of providing a video communication service in a virtual space, comprising: providing a virtual space in the form of a scenario for the user's virtual character to play in the user terminal according to the user's selection; And arranging an interface in a periphery of the virtual character of the user, and providing an image of the user to the corresponding interface to perform a conversation in a video conference manner in real time between a plurality of users. A provision method is provided.

Here, the method may further include providing an NPC to the virtual space to perform a dialogue scenario that varies according to the virtual character, role, and situation of the user, and the dialogue scenario is preferably written in AIML.

The method may further include receiving a voice or text from the user terminal, recognizing whether the user has made a correct response, and transmitting a result to the user terminal by voice.

The above objects, features and advantages will become more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. First of all, in adding reference numerals to the components of each drawing, it should be noted that the same components have the same number as much as possible even if displayed on different drawings. Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Prior to the description, terms used in the present invention will be defined as follows.

The term 'virtual space' defined in the present invention refers to a space on a computer network provided in 3D or 2D, and in many cases, an MMO RPG having a scenario form will be described as an example, but is not limited thereto. It may also include a virtual community space.

In addition, 'video communication' is defined as a conversation between users in real time in a video conference method. Therefore, in the description of the present invention, an online education will be mainly described as an example, but the present invention is not limited thereto, and it will also include a case where a community member conducts a video conference with each other in a virtual space classified as a community.

In an embodiment of the present invention, a user connecting to a server and performing communication provided by the present invention is called a 'user', and a terminal used by the user to access a server provided by the present invention is called a 'user terminal'. Shall be.

Users are classified as 'learners' and 'professors', and learners refer to users who participate in the virtual space and perform video communication, and instructors participate in the virtual space and perform video communication in the same way as learners. It refers to a user dedicated to education. Of course, learners and instructors are users who are classified when online education is performed in a virtual space, and otherwise, there is no need to classify in this way.

Herein, a terminal corresponding to the learner is called a 'learner terminal' and a terminal corresponding to the instructor is called a 'teacher terminal'.

The number of learners or users who can enter one virtual space may or may not be limited according to a predetermined value.

1 is a configuration diagram illustrating a network system to which the present invention is applied.

As shown in the figure, in the system to which the present invention is applied, the service providing server 110 is connected to a plurality of terminals through a network such as the Internet.

The plurality of terminals includes a plurality of instructor terminals 120 and a plurality of learner terminals 130.

The learner corresponding to the learner terminal 130 is provided with a video communication service in a virtual space, and the instructor corresponding to the instructor terminal 120 is provided with a video communication service in a virtual space.

2 is a structural diagram of an embodiment for explaining a service operation of a video communication service providing apparatus in a virtual space according to the present invention.

As shown in the figure, the service providing server 110 of the present invention, the virtual space server 210, artificial intelligence (artificial intelligence (hereinafter, simply referred to as "AI") server 220, voice server 230) And a video communication server 240 and a database 250, and are connected through a network with a virtual space that is a user area.

When the user accesses a website (not shown) provided by the server of the present invention, the user goes through a login process and downloads a specific map of the scenario of the virtual space selected by the user. Programs for video communications and programs including AI dialogue engines, voice client engines, etc. can be installed together. However, the client program may not be provided to the user terminal but may be streamed from the server.

The user may participate in a scenario-based language training step by step using a pre-installed client program, or may access an online game system to run a program. In this case, the user may communicate with the other user using his or her virtual character. Through the server 240, it is possible to perform video communication of 1: 1, 1: N or N: N by utilizing devices for own video communication and audio communication.

The virtual space server 210 holds a plurality of scenario maps, and is responsible for providing a scenario-type virtual space to a user terminal according to a user's selection.

At the same time, if the user is accompanied by a process of receiving a specific question (command) from the service providing server 110, the client program automatically accesses the AI server 220 to receive the related instructions or the AI server composed of various scenarios The game is performed according to the step selected by the user on the step 220. 3 to 6 illustrate this process.

3 is a flowchart illustrating an example in which a character performs a conversation in a virtual space, and FIG. 4 is an example of a virtual space in which the conversation of FIG. 3 is performed, and illustrates a situation in which a user's virtual character orders a drink. To illustrate.

As shown in the figure, the AI server 220 provides a non-player character (hereinafter simply referred to as 'NPC') in a virtual space set by a user to perform a role-specific dialogue. can do. As described above, the AI server 220 tags various conversation scenarios that may vary according to roles and situations by using an artificial intelligence writing language (hereinafter, simply referred to as 'AIML') statement to communicate with the AI. Make it work. However, the language used by the AI server 220 is not limited to AIML, which will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

In addition, the AI server 220 by setting the intelligent dialogue method for each role per NPC, by recognizing the user's words, by selecting a sentence appropriate to the situation to answer the user, to intelligently lead a context-sensitive conversation Can be. 5 is an example for explaining that the AI server of the present invention performs an artificial intelligence conversation with a virtual character of a user.

Meanwhile, the voice server 230 may receive a voice or text of the user from the user terminal, recognize whether the user has a correct response, and transmit a signal to the user.

That is, a voice quiz may be asked to a user's virtual character to a specific NPC in a virtual space, so that listening / speaking through voice recognition may be performed. In addition, the specific NPC may be transmitted by the voice server 230 as a voice according to the pronunciation of the native speaker transmitted by the artificial intelligence dialogue system.

In the above, the AI server 220 has been described to provide communication through the NPC, but the present invention is not limited thereto. The flow as shown in FIG. 3 may be performed by watching a multimedia video in the form of a video on demand (hereinafter referred to as a VOD) and answering the question. Method, and a method of answering a short sentence or designated word using AI engine or voice recognition / synthesis, and directly accessing the video communication server 240 to answer questions in real time from the instructor through question and answer with the instructor. It can be done in a way that solves the problem.

In this case, when it is necessary to determine a learning level suitable for a contest or a user's level, the AI server 220 may determine a user's problem solving degree according to a user level according to whether a given step is correct or not and the difficulty level specified by the question bank. It can be adjusted to provide learning and scenario steps.

The video communication server 240 provides an interface to a specific part of the user's virtual character, such as the upper part of the head, or arranges the interface on a display unit (not shown) of the user terminal in a video conferencing format so that learners and instructors Enables you to conduct conversations in a video conference manner in real time.

At this time, in consideration of the limited resources of the instructor, the AI server 220 by adjusting the difficulty step by step according to the level of the learner in the virtual space but the bottle is generated when one instructor at the same time a plurality of learners The neck (retardation phenomenon) can be dispersed.

According to the present invention, by using the video communication technology, it is possible to respond to a single resource of the instructor at different time intervals according to the level difference of the user, thereby enabling the control and evaluation of the learner by the instructor. Thus, according to the present invention, it is possible to implement a 1: 1 individual learning system that enables more advanced forms of role playing.

On the other hand, the communication of the present invention can be made even between the virtual characters of a plurality of learners.

When a user approaches a virtual character of another user who meets on the virtual space provided by the virtual space server 210, the video communication server 240 sets a messenger type interface of the user virtual character. When provided at the top or at a specific location, and the user starts a conversation substantially through the image provided in the corresponding interface, there is an effect as if the actual conversation is made.

Therefore, the user can perform 1: 1 or group communication in real time as needed.

The method of the present invention as described above may be implemented as a program and stored in a computer-readable recording medium (CD-ROM, RAM, ROM, floppy disk, hard disk, magneto-optical disk, etc.).

The present invention described above is not limited to the above-described embodiments and the accompanying drawings, and various substitutions, modifications, and changes can be made in the art without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention. It will be clear to those of ordinary knowledge.

As described above, the present invention provides a video communication in a virtual space, and selectively performs a conversation in a manner of performing a mission with an NPC or an instructor according to a will of the user according to various scenarios provided in the virtual space, Through real conversations with other users, more realistic conversations can be performed in the virtual space.

Therefore, the present invention has an effect of providing an interactive online education system by newly providing a possibility of spontaneously obtaining information to be acquired through an interface called virtual space.

Claims (10)

In the video communication service providing apparatus in a virtual space, A virtual space server for holding a plurality of scenario maps and providing a scenario-type virtual space for a user's virtual character to play on a user terminal according to a user's selection; An artificial intelligence (AI) server for providing a non-player character (NPC) in a virtual space provided by the virtual space server to perform a dialogue scenario that varies according to the role and the situation of the virtual character of the user; A voice server for receiving a voice or text from the user terminal, recognizing whether the user has made a correct response, and transmitting a result to the user terminal by voice; And A video communication server for arranging an interface in a peripheral portion of the virtual character of the user and providing a video of the user to the corresponding interface to conduct a conversation in a video conference manner between a plurality of users in real time. Apparatus for providing a video communication service in a virtual space including a. The method of claim 1, The AI server, The apparatus for providing a video communication service in a virtual space by setting an intelligent conversation method for each NPC, recognizing a user's words, selecting a sentence suitable for a situation, and performing a text communication with the virtual character of the user. The method of claim 1, The AI server and the voice server, Apparatus for providing a video communication service in a virtual space, characterized in that a specific NPC to question the user's virtual character using the voice quiz, and to perform voice communication through the voice recognition with the user's virtual character. The method of claim 1, The AI server, Device for providing a video communication service in a virtual space, characterized in that the progress of the scenario-based virtual space by adjusting the difficulty step by step according to the user's level in the virtual space. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, The AI server, Apparatus for providing a video communication service in a virtual space, characterized by using an artificial intelligence writing language (AIML). The method of claim 1, The video communication server, When a virtual character of a user approaches a virtual character of another user less than a predetermined distance, the interface is disposed in a peripheral portion of the virtual character, and the user's image is provided to the interface, thereby real-time video conferencing between users. Apparatus for providing a video communication service in a virtual space, characterized in that to conduct a conversation in a manner. In the video communication service providing method in a virtual space, Providing a virtual space in the form of a scenario for a user's virtual character to play at a user terminal according to a user's selection; And Arranging an interface in a periphery of the virtual character of the user, and providing an image of the user to the corresponding interface to perform a conversation in a video conference manner between a plurality of users in real time; Video communication service providing method in a virtual space including a. The method of claim 7, wherein And providing an NPC in the virtual space to perform a dialogue scenario that varies depending on the user's virtual character, role and situation. The method of claim 8, The conversation scenario, Method for providing a video communication service in a virtual space, characterized in that written in AIML. The method of claim 7, wherein And receiving a voice or text from the user terminal, recognizing whether the user has made a correct response, and transmitting the result to the user terminal by voice.

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