Background image display control system used in chat system

• US 6,417,819 B1
• Filed: 12/21/1998
• Issued: 07/09/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 12/25/1997
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Matsumoto, Yasuhide, Murakami, Masahiko, Okada, Sumiyo
• Primary Examiner(s): WU, XIAO MIN
• Application Number:
  US09/216,983
• Time in Patent Office: 1,296 Days
• Field of Search: 345/1, 345/2, 345/3, 345/629, 345/636, 345/637, 345/640, 345/1.1, 345/1.2, 345/1.3, 345/2.1, 345/2.2, 345/2.3, 707/526, 707/527, 707/528, 707/10, 707/529, 707/531
• US Class Current: 345/1.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/14 Digital output to display device ; Cooperation and interconnection of the display device with other functional units
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 12/1827 Network arrangements for conference optimisation or adaptation

Abstract

A background image display control system is applied to a chat system in which a server performs a broadcast communication control of character information between a plurality of user computers connected to a channel in a network. The background Image display control system causes each of the plurality of user computers to display an image in a background of chat character strings based on the character information. The background image display control system includes a table storage unit for storing a table indicating relationships between conditions based on states revealable in the chat system and background images, and a display control unit for causing each of the plurality of user computers to display a background image in the background of the chat character strings when a condition corresponding to a state revealed in the chat system corresponds to the background image in the table.

Claims

1. A background image display control system, applied to a chat system in which a server performs a broadcast communication control of character information between a plurality of user computers connected to a channel in a network, for causing each of said plurality of user computers to display an image in a background of chat character strings based on the character information, said background image display control system comprising:

table storage means for storing a table indicating relationships between conditions based on states revealable in said chat system and background images; and

display control means for causing each of said plurality of user computers to display a background image in the background of the chat character strings when a condition corresponding to a state revealed by information received in said chat system corresponds to the background image in said table.

2. The background image display control unit as claimed in claim 1, wherein said table include priority orders each of which corresponds to one of the conditions, said system further comprising:

condition selecting means for selecting a condition corresponding to a higher priority order in said table when a plurality of conditions corresponding to the state revealed in said chat system are indicated in said table, wherein said display control means causes each of said plurality of user computers to display a background image corresponding to the condition selected by said condition selecting means in the background of the chat character strings.

3. The background image display system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said display control means comprises:

image data storage means for storing image data for the background image indicated in said table, wherein image data representing the background image corresponding to the condition is read our from said image data storage means and said display control means causes each of said plurality of user computers to display the background image based on the image data.

4. The background image display control system as claimed in claim 3, wherein said image data storage means is provided in said server, so that the image data representing the background image is transmitted from said server to each of said plurality of user computers.

5. The background image display control system as claimed in claim 3, wherein said image storage means is provided in one of said plurality of user computers, so that the image data representing the background image is transmitted from said one of said plurality of user computers to other user computers.

6. The background image display control system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said table storage means and said display control means are provided in each of said plurality of user computers.

7. The background image display control system as claimed in claim 6, wherein said display control means comprises:

image data storage means for storing image data for the background image indicated in said table, wherein image data representing the The background image corresponding to the condition is read our from said image data storage means and said display control means causes a user computer having said image data storage means to display the background image based on the image data.

8. The background image display control system as claimed in claim 1, said display control means causes each of plurality of user computers to display a plurality of background images when a plurality of conditions corresponding to a plurality of states revealed in said chat system correspond to said plurality of background images in said table.

9. The background image display control system as claimed in claim 1, said table storage means stores character string setting table indicating character strings corresponding to the background images, wherein said display control means causes each of said plurality of user computers to display the background image and the character string corresponding to the background image in said character string setting table.

10. A computer readable storage medium storing a program causing a computer to execute a process in a background image display control system, applied to a chat system in which a server performs a broadcast communication control of character information between a plurality of user computers connected to a channel in-a network, for causing each of said plurality of user computers, with reference to a table, to display an image in background of chat character strings based on the character information, said table indicating relationships between conditions based on states revealable in said chat system and background images, said program comprising:

a display control procedure for causing each of said plurality of user computers to display a background image in the background of the chat character strings when a condition corresponding to a state revealed by information received in said chat system corresponds to the background image in said table.

11. A background image display control system, applied to a chat system in which a server performs a broadcast communication control of character information between user computers connected to a channel in a network, causing each of said user computers to display an image in a background of chat character strings based on the character information, said background image display control system comprising:

a table storage unit storing a table indicating relationships between conditions based on states revealable in said chat system and background images; and

a display control unit causing each of said plurality of user computers to display a background image in the background of the chat character strings when a condition corresponding to a state revealed by information received in said chat system corresponds to the background image in said table storage unit.