Patent ID: 8319777

Claim:
A character display, comprising: an arrangement storage unit that plurally stores arrangement information defining reference positions and reference orientations in a virtual space for each of a plurality of characters and defining a main character from among the plurality of characters; an arrangement selector that selects one set of arrangement information from among the stored plurality of arrangement information; a posture storage unit that stores coordinate groups expressing the positions and postures of characters relative to the reference positions and reference orientations in association with elapsed time; a posture acquirer that acquires, from among the stored coordinate groups, the coordinate group stored in association with the elapsed time from a predetermined time to the present; a mover/rotator that, for each character in the plurality of characters defined by the selected arrangement information, performs orthogonal transformations with respect to a coordinate group obtained from the reference positions and reference orientations defined for the characters in the arrangement information, and then takes the obtained coordinate group to be the coordinate group expressing the positions and postures of the characters in the virtual space; an emphasis identifier that identifies, from among the plurality of characters one of the plurality of characters as an emphasized character; a generating/displaying unit that uses the calculated coordinate group expressing the respective positions and postures of the plurality of characters to generate an image wherein the characters are arranged in the virtual space, and then displays the generated image; and an arrangement exchanger, configured such that when the arrangement information is selected, the reference position and reference orientation of the emphasized character is exchanged with the reference position and reference orientation of the main character, the generating/displaying unit being further configured to generate a second image wherein the characters are arranged in the virtual space using the exchanged reference position and reference orientation, the arrangement exchanger being further configured such that the reference positions and reference orientations of the characters other than the emphasized character are also randomly exchanged with each other.