Interface, system and method of providing instant messaging service

• US 20090077186A1
• Filed: 09/17/2007
• Published: 03/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Inventec Corporation
• Original Assignee: Inventec Corporation
• Inventors: Yue, Nasara, Chiu, Chaucer
• Application Number:
  US11/898,826
• Publication Number:
  US 20090077186A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]

Abstract

An interface, a system and a method of providing an instant message service are provided, so as to solve a problem that the interface of providing the instant message service is excessively dull. A first image is used to represent a user, and a second image is used to represent a contactor. When the contactor sends an instant message to the user, the instant message is displayed around the second image representing the contactor sending the message, thereby achieving a function of a livelier interface.

Claims

1. An interface of providing an instant messaging service, comprising:

a main window, for displaying a contactor list of a user;

a first image, corresponding to the user, for representing state of the user in the interface;

a message input block, provided for the user to input a first instant message;

a second image, respectively displayed in the interface after at least one contactor in the contactor list is selected, and respectively corresponding to each contactor, for representing state of each corresponding contactor; and

a message display block, displaying a second instant message sent by each contactor around each corresponding second image.

2. The interface of providing an instant messaging service as claimed in claim 1, wherein the main window further arranges display sequence of the contactors according to frequencies of talk between the user and the contactors.

3. The interface of providing an instant messaging service as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first image and the second image are displayed in the interface in a manner of being Always On Top.

4. The interface of providing an instant messaging service as claimed in claim 1, wherein the first image and the second image are further moved to random positions of the interface by operation of the user.

5. The interface of providing an instant messaging service as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second image is displayed in the interface in a manner of suddenly occurring in the interface.

6. The interface of providing an instant messaging service as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second image moves to enter the interface from a random position of a random side of each boundary of the interface.

7. The interface of providing an instant messaging service as claimed in claim 1, the message display block is displayed in the interface in a manner of a popup window.

8. The interface of providing an instant messaging service as claimed in claim 1, wherein the interface further comprises a history message list for displaying the first instant message sent by the user and the second instant message sent by each contactor.

9. A method of providing an instant message service, at least one contactor being set in a contactor list by a user, comprising the steps of:

displaying a first image representing state of the user, wherein the first image corresponds to the user;

selecting at least one contactor from the contactor list;

respectively displaying each of the second images representing state of each of the selected contactors, wherein each of the contactors and each of the second images are of a one-to-one relation;

after the user inputs a first instant message, sending the first instant message to at least one of the selected contactors; and

when a second instant message sent by one of each selected contactor is received, displaying the second instant message around the second image corresponding to the contactor.

10. The method of providing an instant messaging service as claimed in claim 9, wherein the step of displaying the second image further comprises:

determining a distance between the second image and the first image, according to a frequency of sending the instant messages between the contactor corresponding to the second image and the user; and

determining a position of the second image and displaying the second image, according to the distance and the position of the first image.

11. The method of providing a instant messaging service as claimed in claim 9, further comprising a step of moving the second image corresponding to the contactor towards an inverse direction of the first image, when it is judged that either at least one of the contactors or the user does not send the instant messages for a certain time.

12. The method of providing a instant messaging service as claimed in claim 9, further comprising a step of moving the second image corresponding to the contactor towards the first image, when it is judged that the user sends the first instant message to at least one of the contactors or at least one of the contactors receives the second instant message.

13. A system of providing an instant messaging service, comprising:

a contactor display module, for displaying all contactors of a user;

an image display module, for displaying a first image representing state of the user, and displaying each second image corresponding to each selected contactor when at least one of the contactors in the contactor display module is selected, wherein each of the second images respectively represents the state of each of the corresponding contactors;

a message input module, provided for inputting a first instant message;

a message transmission module, for sending the first instant message to at least one of the contactors and receiving a second instant message sent by at least one of the contactors; and

a message display module, for displaying the second instant message around the second image corresponding to the contactor.

14. The system of providing an instant messaging service as claimed in claim 13, wherein when receiving the second instant message, the image display module further moves the second image corresponding to the contactor, so as to shorten the distance between the second image and the first image.

15. The system of providing an instant messaging service as claimed in claim 13, wherein when either one of the contactors corresponding to the second image or the user does not send the first instant message and the second instant message in a certain time, the image display module further moves the second image away from the first image.

16. The system of providing an instant messaging service as claimed in claim 13, wherein the message display module is further used to display the first instant message sent by the user and the second instant message sent by each of the contactors according to a specific sequence.