Patent ID: 7823074

Claim:
An information processing system, comprising: a plurality of information processing apparatuses; and a service providing apparatus connected with the plurality of information processing apparatuses over a network; the service providing apparatus including: providing means for providing, to a given one of the plurality of information processing apparatuses, a service of a private virtual space in which a first mascot and an icon are arranged, wherein the private virtual space, the first mascot and the icon are associated with a particular user of the plurality of information processing apparatuses, the icon representing an actual electrical device that is located in a real space associated with the particular user and that is connected over a local network to a particular one of the plurality of information processing apparatuses, storage means for storing layout information defining a layout of the private virtual space and for storing a selected location of the icon within the layout of the private virtual space, the location of the icon being selected by the particular user, and sharing means for sharing the service of the private virtual space being provided to the given one of the plurality of information processing apparatuses with another one of the plurality of information processing apparatuses being used by another user; the given one of the plurality of information processing apparatuses and the another one of the plurality of information processing apparatuses each including: display control means for controlling display of the private virtual space in which the icon is arranged, and in response to the icon being selected by the particular user or the another user, for controlling display of the state of the electrical device and display of controls by which an operation is performed by the particular user or by the another user, wherein the actual electrical device is a television set, the icon arranged in the private virtual space is a television icon, and said controlling display of the state of the electrical device by said display control means includes modifying the television icon to display the channel currently being received by the television set when the television set is in a power-on state; the particular one of the plurality of information processing apparatuses including: control means for controlling the electrical device over the local network in response to a the operation performed by the particular user or by the another user.