Patent ID: 7983980

Claim:
An auction system for enabling human-like automatic bidding by absentee agents for absent participants, comprising: a plurality of terminals; and an auction server connected to the terminals via a network and comprising a plurality of elements, each defining one of a plurality of absentee agents for making bids at an auction in response to absent participant requests that are conveyed from the network-connected terminals; wherein each absentee agent comprises: means for determining a bidding atmosphere of the auction based on a rate of bidding prices at the auction and number of on-site bidders that make bids at the auction; means for determining a character pattern for assigning a character to the absentee agent in accordance with the determined bidding atmosphere and a number of the absentee agents that can make bids at the auction; and means for changing the character of the absentee agent based on the determined character pattern and an ID of the absentee agent on the basis of a predetermined probability.