Picture book production system, server for producing picture book, and recording medium

• US 7,162,197 B2
• Filed: 12/04/2001
• Issued: 01/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/04/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hudson Soft Co., Ltd. (Konami Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Hudson Soft Co., Ltd. (Konami Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Kitamura, Yoshimasa
• Primary Examiner(s): Mosser; Kathleen
• Assistant Examiner(s): Stoica; Maria
• Application Number:
  US10/000,033
• Publication Number:
  US 20020069225A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,862 Days
• Field of Search: 434/317
• US Class Current: 434/317
• CPC Class Codes: A63H 33/38 Picture books with additional toy effects, e.g. pop-up or slide displays picture books B42D1/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/40 of multimedia data, e.g. slideshows comprising image and additional audio data retrieval of still image data G06F16/50; retrieval of audio data G06F16/60; retrieval of video data G06F16/70
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/062 Combinations of audio and printed presentations, e.g. magnetically striped cards, talking books, magnetic tapes with printed texts thereon
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/493 Interactive information services, e.g. directory enquiries ; Arrangements therefor, e.g. interactive voice response [IVR] systems or voice portals
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management

Abstract

The object of the invention is to provide a picture book production system accompanied with a server and a recording medium for creating a picture book, in order to reduce a user'"'"'s energy and to help create a picture book containing images and sentences which are mutually consistent despite a very small amount of stored data. When a user operates a mobile phone 40 to select three keywords, which are transmitted via a wireless base station 30 and a network 20 to a server 10, where a CPU 11 of the server 10 converts the arrangement of the three keywords, reads sentence data along with image data corresponding to the keywords from a memory 12, and produces three scenarios (picture book constituent parts) by synthesizing the sentence data and the image data, so that the picture book is produced by combining the scenarios.

Claims

1. A picture book production system comprising:

a memory means for storing a plurality of sentence data associated with a behavior of a main character corresponding to a first plurality of keywords representing said behavior of said main character in a picture book, said memory means also storing a plurality of image data corresponding to said plurality of sentence data;

a selection means for selecting a second plurality of keywords from said first plurality of keywords, the second plurality of keywords being smaller or equal to in number to the first plurality of keywords;

a production means for reading out from said memory means said sentence data and said image data by using a sentence data retrieval key comprising said main character and said selected second plurality of keywords, and synthesizing said read-out sentence data and said read-out image data to produce a plurality of picture book constituent parts;

a connecting sentence producing means for selecting a connecting sentence to be inserted between said picture book constituent parts, said connecting sentence comprising a blank, and then inserting a word associated with said sentence data retrieval key into said blank to modify said connecting sentence; and

a scenario combining means for combining said plurality of picture book constituent parts while inserting said modified connecting sentence between said picture book constituent parts to produce said picture book.

2. The picture book production system according to claim 1, wherein:

said plurality of image data includes animations.

3. The picture book production system according to claim 1, wherein:

said memory means stores said plurality of sentence data and said plurality of image data in accordance with seasons; and

said production means recognizes a present season by a time means, reads out from said memory means said sentence data and said image data corresponding to said present season, and produces said picture book.

4. A picture book production system comprising:

a memory means for storing a plurality of sentence data associated with a behavior of a main character corresponding to a plurality of keywords representing said behavior of said main character in a picture book, said memory means also storing a plurality of image data corresponding to said plurality of sentence data;

a selection means for selecting, in a particular order, multiple keywords from said plurality of keywords;

a production means for rearranging the order of said selected multiple keywords, reading out from said memory means said plurality of sentence data and said plurality of image data by using a sentence data retrieval key comprising said main character and said selected multiple keywords, synthesizing said read-out plurality of sentence data and said read-out plurality of image data to produce a plurality of picture book constituent parts;

a connecting sentence producing means for selecting a connecting sentence to be inserted between said picture book constituent parts, said connecting sentence comprising a blank, and then inserting a word associated with said sentence data retrieval key into said blank to modify said connecting sentence; and

a scenario combining means for combining said plurality of picture book constituent parts in said rearranged order of the multiple keywords while inserting said modified connecting sentence between said picture book constituent parts to produce said picture book.

5. The picture book production system according to claim 4, wherein:

said multiple keywords are rearranged in a random order.

6. The picture book production system according to claim 4, wherein:

said plurality of image data includes animations.

7. The picture book production system according to claim 4, wherein:

said memory means stores said plurality of sentence data and said plurality of image data in accordance with seasons; and

said production means recognizes a present season by a time means, reads out from said memory means said plurality of sentence data and said plurality of image data corresponding to said present season, and produces said picture book.

8. A picture book production system comprising:

a memory means for storing a plurality of sentence data associated with a behavior of a plurality of main characters in a picture book and corresponding to a plurality of keywords representing said behavior of said main characters, said memory means also storing a plurality of image data corresponding to said plurality of sentence data;

a selection means for selecting one main character and multiple keywords from said plurality of main characters and said plurality of keywords, the multiple keywords being selected in a particular order;

a production means for rearranging the order of said selected multiple keywords, reading out from said memory means said plurality of sentence data and said plurality of image data by using a sentence data retrieval key comprising said one selected main character and said selected multiple keywords, synthesizing said read-out plurality of sentence data and said read-out plurality of image data to produce a plurality of picture book constituent parts;

a connecting sentence producing means for selecting a connecting sentence to be inserted between said picture book constituent parts, said connecting sentence comprising a blank, and then inserting a word associated with said sentence data retrieval key into said blank to modify said connecting sentence; and

a scenario combining means for combining said plurality of picture book constituent parts in said rearranged order of the multiple keywords while inserting said modified connecting sentence between said picture book constituent parts to produce said picture book.

9. A picture book production system comprising:

a memory means for storing a plurality of locations for movement of a main character and a plurality of sub-characters appearing therein corresponding to a plurality of keywords representing a behavior of said main character in a picture book, said memory means also storing a plurality of sentence data, associated with said behavior, corresponding to said keywords, said locations, and said sub-characters, said memory means also storing a plurality of image data corresponding to said plurality of sentence data;

a selection means for selecting a keyword from said plurality of keywords;

a production means for determining said locations and said sub-characters on the basis of said selected keyword, reading out from said memory means said sentence data and said image data by using a sentence data retrieval key comprising said selected keyword, said determined locations and said determined sub-characters, and synthesizing said read-out sentence data and said read-out image data to produce a plurality of picture book constituent parts;

a connecting sentence producing means for selecting a connecting sentence to be inserted between said picture book constituent parts, said connecting sentence comprising a blank, and then inserting a word associated with said sentence data retrieval key into said blank to modify said connecting sentence; and

a scenario combining means for combining said plurality of picture book constituent parts while inserting said modified connecting sentence between said picture book constituent parts to produce said picture book.

10. A picture book production system comprising:

a memory means for storing a plurality of sentence data associated with a behavior of a main character corresponding to a plurality of keywords representing said behavior of said main character in a picture book, said memory means also storing a plurality of image data corresponding to said plurality of sentence data;

a selection means for selecting multiple keywords from said plurality of keywords;

a production means for reading out from said memory means said sentence data and said image data by using a sentence data retrieval key comprising said main character and said selected multiple keywords, and synthesizing said read-out sentence data and said read-out image data to produce a plurality of picture book constituent parts;

a connecting sentence producing means for selecting a connecting sentence to be inserted between said picture book constituent parts, said connecting sentence comprising a blank, and then inserting a word associated with said sentence data retrieval key into said blank to modify said connecting sentence;

a scenario combining means for combining said plurality of picture book constituent parts while inserting said modified connecting sentence between said picture book constituent parts to produce said picture book; and

a display means for displaying said picture book.

11. A server for producing a picture book in accordance with information from a terminal connected via a network, said server comprising:

a memory means for storing a plurality of sentence data associated with a behavior of a main character corresponding to a plurality of keywords representing said behavior of said main character in said picture book, said memory means also storing a plurality of image data corresponding to said plurality of sentence data;

a production means for reading out from said memory means said sentence data and said image data by using a sentence data retrieval key comprising said main character and multiple keywords selected from said plurality of keywords by said terminal, and synthesizing said read-out sentence data and said read-out image data to produce plurality of picture book constituent parts;

a connecting sentence producing means for selecting a connecting sentence to be inserted between said picture book constituent parts, said connecting sentence comprising a blank, and then inserting a word associated with said sentence data retrieval key into said blank to modify said connecting sentence; and

a scenario combining means for combining said plurality of picture book constituent parts while inserting said modified connecting sentence between said picture book constituent parts to produce said picture book.

12. The server for producing a picture book according to claim 11, wherein:

said production means enables said picture book to be read for said terminal in accordance with a request from said terminal.

13. The server for producing a picture book according to claim 11, wherein:

said terminal comprises a mobile phone, PHS, PDA, pocketboard, or PC.

14. A recording medium for recording comprising:

a plurality of sentence data corresponding to a first plurality of keywords representing a behavior of a main character in a picture book;

a plurality of image data corresponding to said plurality of sentence data; and

a computer operating program for (1) reading out, from said plurality of sentence data and from said plurality of image data, said sentence data and said image data by using a sentence data retrieval key comprising said main character and a second plurality of keywords selected from said first plurality of keywords, (2) synthesizing said read-out sentence data and said read-out image data to produce a plurality of picture book constituent parts, (3) selecting a connecting sentence to be inserted between said picture book constituent parts, said connecting sentence comprising a blank, and then inserting a word associated with said sentence data retrieval key into said blank to modify said connecting sentence, and then inserting said modified connecting sentence between said picture book constituent parts, and (4) combining said plurality of picture book constituent parts while inserting said modified connecting sentence between said picture book constituent parts to produce said picture book.