Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US6240443?dq=5527183
Timestamp: 2014-09-20 16:12:29
Document Index: 621750351

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 40', 'art 110', 'art 120', 'art 110', 'art 122', 'art 120', 'art 110', 'art 122', 'art 138', 'art 110', 'art 122', 'art 126', 'art 224', 'art 224']

Patent US6240443 - Communication system and communication method - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign in<nobr>Advanced Patent Search</nobr>PatentsThe present invention discloses a communication system in a network system having a plurality of user terminals connected to a communication network and a plurality of network resources accessed by the user terminals, the communication system having a communication part which makes the user terminals...http://www.google.com/patents/US6240443?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US6240443 - Communication system and communication methodAdvanced Patent SearchPublication numberUS6240443 B1Publication typeGrantApplication numberUS 09/204,798Publication dateMay 29, 2001Filing dateDec 3, 1998Priority dateDec 5, 1997Fee statusLapsedPublication number09204798, 204798, US 6240443 B1, US 6240443B1, US-B1-6240443, US6240443 B1, US6240443B1InventorsGen Suzuki, Hiroya Tanigawa, Atsuhito Nakase, Yoshinori Ohkuvo, Takashi YamagataOriginal AssigneeNtt Software CorporationExport CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (9), Referenced by (14), Classifications (5), Legal Events (5) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetCommunication system and communication methodUS 6240443 B1Abstract The present invention discloses a communication system in a network system having a plurality of user terminals connected to a communication network and a plurality of network resources accessed by the user terminals, the communication system having a communication part which makes the user terminals accessing the same network resource exchange and share communication information. The communication part has a communication server and a communication controlling part, provided in each user terminal, for obtaining information of the user terminals accessing the same network resource and for exchanging the communication information with the user terminals through the communication server. The communication server groups the user terminals accessing the same network resource as one group on the basis of resource locators notified of by the user terminals, and distributes information of the user terminals of the one group to the user terminals of the one group.
A chat system, for example, NetMeeting� of Microsoft Corp., is known as a communication system which uses communication networks such as the Internet. In this case, if a user accesses a server used only for the chat system, a list of names of the users is shown to the user, and the user can chat with the other users.
In the case of Onlive� provided by OnliveTechnology Inc., it is known that a virtual image of a user accessing a virtual space is shown in the virtual space and the user can chat with virtual images of the other users which the user meets in the virtual space.
However, in the system such as Netmeeting� used only for chat and separated from an HP, a user cannot know which HP the other users are accessing while the user is chatting with the other users. Therefore, it is not easy for a plurality of users to chat while they are accessing the same HP.
In a chat system such as the Onlive� system which is contained in the WEB, users can chat while they are accessing an Onlive� HP. However, on other home pages which do not include any chat system, users cannot chat while sharing the same home pages.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is a general object of the present invention to provide a network-resource-linked-type communication system, a communication method and a computer usable medium in which the above disadvantages are eliminated. In the communication system of the present invention, user terminals accessing the same network resource can communicate, for example, chat, with one another.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The principle of the present invention will now be described with reference to FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 1, a network system has a communication network 2, user terminals 4 1, 4 2, . . . connected to the communication network 2, and network resources 6 1, 6 2, . . . accessed by the user terminals 4 1, 4 2. . . through the communication network 2. A communication system 10 according to the present invention has a communication part, which includes a communication server 20 and a communication control part 40.
FIG. 3 is a sequence chart for explaining the principle of the communication method of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3, the communication method of the user terminal according to the present invention comprises steps 2, 4, 8, 10, and 12. In step 2 (hereinafter, in the figures, step is abbreviated as �S�.), the communication server is notified of a resource locator which indicates the location of a network resource accessed by the user terminal through the communication network. In step 4, information of the user terminals which are accessing the network resource is grouped by resource locators indicating same network resource, and stored in a memory of the communication server. In step 6, information of the other user terminals accessing the same network resource is distributed to each user terminal accessing the same network resource by using the information of the grouped user terminals stored in the memory of the communication server. In step 8, the user terminal selects one or more user terminals with which the user terminal exchanges its communication information by referring to the distributed information of the other user terminals. In step 10, the communication information addressed to the selected user terminals is sent to the communication server from the user terminal. In step 12, the communication information distributed to the addressed user terminals from the communication server is retrieved by the addressed user terminals.
In other words, according to the communication system embodied by the present invention, in a system in which a user terminal browses a resource accessed by specific users or by any number of users (hereinafter the term �browser� will be used as a system like this), a user who is accessing a network resource or a resource locator which indicates the location of the network resource by using specific or indefinite protocols is provided with a list of other users who are accessing the same network resource or the same resource locator.
In the following, an embodiment of the present invention will be described precisely with reference to FIG. 4 to FIG. 9. First, as shown in FIG. 4 which shows a block diagram of the communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of user terminals 101, 102, . . . is connected to an HP-linked-type communication server 200 and a plurality of web servers 91, 92, . . . through the Internet 10. The web servers may be any type of servers as long as they are connected to the Internet. The user terminals use browsers which are generally on the market (such as the Netscape Navigator� of Netscape Inc.), access any uniform resource locator, and refer to the home pages. The HP-linked-type communication server 200 includes a URL correspondence table 201 which stores URLs of home pages referred to by the user terminals and information of the user terminals corresponding to the URLs by receiving URL information sent from the user terminals. The HP-linked-type communication server 200 makes a user list 104 which is a list of user terminals connected to the same URLs by referring to the URL correspondence table 201, and sends the list 104 to the user terminals 101, 102, . . .
In this embodiment, chat is described as communication. However, voice conversation, mail exchange, image exchange games (for example, a game of �scissors, paper, rock�), and so on are available.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram of the user terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5, the user terminal 101 comprises a browser part 110 and an HP-linked-type communication control part 120. The browser part 110 is a browser generally on the market (for example, Netscape Navigator� of Netscape Inc. and so on).
As shown in FIG. 6, in step 1, a URL retrieval/configuration part 122 in the communication control part 120 in FIG. 5 retrieves a URL being accessed by the browser part 110. For example, in the case of using Netscape Navigator� of Netscape Inc. as a browser, it is known that the URL being accessed can be retrieved by using a function WWW_RegisterURLEcho which is open to the public. The URL retrieval/configuration part 122 may use a URL which was retrieved beforehand and stored.
Further, the communication control part 138 can obtain a URL being accessed by other users by referring to the terminal number of the users, and can configure the URL being accessed by the other users to the browser part 110 from the URL retrieval /configuration part 122 via the control part 126. For example, in the case of using Netscape Navigator� of Netscape Inc. as a browser, it is known that the URL being accessed can be retrieved by using a function WWW_RegisterURLEcho which is open to the public. Therefore, it is possible to communicate with other users while a plurality of users move from one HP to another HP simultaneously.
In step 10, the server communication control part 224 reserves memory space for communication corresponding to the user list information. Then, if the server communication control part 224 receives communication information such as character strings, voice, mail, images, and so on, it can distribute the communication information to all user terminals listed in the user lists or specific user terminals. As such a distribution control of communication information, for example, OnLive� provided by OnLiveTechnology Inc. is known as a prior art.
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