Patent ID: 6909453

Claim:
A virtual television phone apparatus comprising: a communication unit operable to carry out voice communication; a character selecting unit operable to select CG character shape data for at least one of a user and a communication partner; a voice input unit operable to acquire voice of the user; a voice output unit operable to output voice of the communication partner; a voice analyzing unit operable to analyze voice data of the communication partner received by the communication unit or both of the voice data of the communication partner and voice data of the user; an emotion presuming unit operable to presume an emotion state of the communication partner or emotion states of both of the communication partner and the user using a result of the voice analysis by the voice analyzing unit; a motion control unit operable to control a motion of the CG character based on the presumption by the emotion presuming unit; an image generating unit operable to generate an image using the CG character shape data and motion data generated based on control information generated by the motion control unit; and a displaying unit operable to display the image generated by the image generating unit.