DISCUSSION SUPPORT APPARATUS, DISCUSSION SUPPORT METHOD, AND COMPUTER-READABLE MEDIUM

• US 20100235444A1
• Filed: 11/18/2009
• Published: 09/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 03/13/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujifilm Business Innovation Corp. (Fujifilm Holdings Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: YAMAZOE, Nobuyuki
• Granted Patent: US 8,296,363 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/204
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/00 Administration; Management

Abstract

A discussion support apparatus includes a holding unit, an accepting unit and a generating unit. The holding unit holds pieces of discussion state information each indicating a state of a discussion at a corresponding one of points in time included in a period of time during which discussions are performed. The accepting unit accepts a discussion start operation indicating a start of discussion on a topic for which discussion has been started. The generating unit generates, based on one or more of the pieces of discussion state information indicating states of discussions at points in time before a point in time when the accepting unit accepts a discussion start operation for a certain topic, topic-related information indicating at least one piece of discussion state information which is related to the certain topic and which is specified from among the one or more of the pieces of discussion state information.

Claims

1. A discussion support apparatus comprising:

a holding unit that holds plural pieces of discussion state information each indicating a state of a discussion at a corresponding one of points in time included in a period of time during which discussions are performed;

an accepting unit that accepts a discussion start operation indicating a start of discussion on a topic for which discussion has been started; and

a generating unit that generates, based on one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information indicating states of discussions at points in time before a point in time when the accepting unit accepts a discussion start operation for a certain topic, topic-related information indicating at least one piece of discussion state information which is related to the certain topic and which is specified from among the one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information.

2. The discussion support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a processor that controls the holding unit, the accepting unit and the generating unit.

3. The discussion support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a determining unit that determines, based on each of the one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information, as to whether each of the one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information indicates a state of a discussion on the certain topic, wherein

the generating unit generates the topic-related information based on determination results obtained by the determining unit.

4. The discussion support apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the determining unit determines as to whether each of the one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information indicates the state of the discussion on the certain topic, based on a comparison result between each of the one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information and a piece of discussion state information at the point in time when the accepting unit accepts the discussion start operation.

5. The discussion support apparatus according to claim 3, wherein

the determining unit sequentially determines, in order which is based on the points in time corresponding to the one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information, as to whether the one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information indicate states of discussions on the certain topic, respectively, and

the generating unit generates the topic-related information based on discussion state information that is subjected to the determination made by the determining unit when the determination result obtained by the determining unit changes.

6. The discussion support apparatus according to claim 4, wherein

the determining unit sequentially determines, in order which is based on the points in time corresponding to the one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information, as to whether the one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information indicate states of discussions on the certain topic, respectively, and

the generating unit generates the topic-related information based on discussion state information that is subjected to the determination made by the determining unit when the determination result obtained by the determining unit changes.

7. The discussion support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

an index calculating unit that calculates, based on each of the one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information, an index for each of the one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information, the index indicating a degree of association or a degree of dissociation between each of the one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information and the certain topic, wherein

the generating unit generates the topic-related information indicating the at least one piece of discussion state information which is related to the certain topic and which is specified, based on the indices for the one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information, from among the one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information.

8. The discussion support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a topic-related information updating unit that updates the topic-related information in response to a request from a user.

9. The discussion support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a related-screen display unit, wherein

after the accepting unit accepts the discussion start operation for the certain topic, the relate-screen display output unit displays a screen related to any of pieces of discussion state information that are different from the at least one piece of discussion state information indicated by the topic-related information generated by the generating unit and that are included in the one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information indicating the states of discussions at the points in time before the point in time when the accepting unit accepts the discussion start operation for the certain topic.

10. The discussion support apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the screen displayed by the related-screen display unit is related to discussion state information at the latest point in time among the pieces of discussion state information, which are different from the at least one piece of discussion state information indicated by the topic-related information and which are included in the one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information indicating the states of discussions at the points in time before the point in time when the accepting unit accepts the discussion start operation for the certain topic.

11. The discussion support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

when, before the accepting unit accepts the discussion start operation indicating the start of the discussion on the certain topic, the accepting unit accepts a discussion start operation for another topic different from the certain topic, the generating unit further generates another piece of topic-related information indicating at least one piece of discussion state information which is related to said another topic and which is specified from among one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information related to points in time included in a period of time from a time when the accepting unit accepts the discussion start operation for said another topic to a time when the accepting unit accepts the discussion start operation for the certain topic.

12. The discussion support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the generating unit generates the topic-related information indicating pieces of discussion state information that are adjacent to each other in terms of order based on points in time corresponding thereto.

13. The discussion support apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a related-screen display unit, and

a topic-related information updating unit that updates the topic-related information in response to a request from a user, wherein

after the accepting unit accepts the discussion start operation, the related-screen display unit displays a screen related to any of pieces of discussion state information that are different from the at least one piece of discussion state information indicated by the topic-related information generated by the generating unit and that are included in the one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information indicating the states of discussions at the points in time before the point in time when the accepting unit accepts the discussion start operation for the certain topic, and

the topic-related information updating unit updates the topic-related information in response to a request from the user which is accepted after the related-screen display unit displays the screen related to any of the pieces of discussion state information, which are different from the at least one piece of discussion state information indicated by the topic-related information and which are included in the one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information indicating the states of discussions at the points in time before the point in time when the accepting unit accepts the discussion start operation for the certain topic.

14. A computer-readable medium storing a program that causes a computer to execute a discussion support process, the discussion support process comprising:

holding plural pieces of discussion state information each indicating a state of a discussion at a corresponding one of points in time included in a period of time during which discussions are performed;

generating, based on one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information indicating states of discussions at points in time before a point in time when a discussion start operation for a certain topic is accepted, topic-related information indicating at least one piece of discussion state information which is related to the certain topic and which is specified from among the one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information.

15. A discussion support method comprising:

holding plural pieces of discussion state information each indicating a state of a discussion at a corresponding one of points in time included in a period of time during which discussions are performed;

generating, based on one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information indicating states of discussions at points in time before a point in time when a discussion start operation for a certain topic is accepted, topic-related information indicating at least one piece of discussion state information which is related to the certain topic and which is specified from among the one or more of the plural pieces of discussion state information.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the generating of the topic-related information is performed by a processor.