Patent ID: 7440899

Claim:
A phonetic-sound providing system comprising: a server operable to distribute conversation information; and a plurality of different kinds of household electric apparatuses in a house, communicably connected to said server, operable to output the conversation information distributed from said server to an only and single user who stays in the house alone; said server comprising: storage means for storing fictitious personality information indicating characteristics of a personality associated with the household electric appliance, respectively; receiving means for receiving text information for producing a conversation between the plurality of household electric appliances, or searching means for searching the Internet and collecting provided information; conversation dividing means for dividing the conversation information into a plurality of pieces of voiced phonetic-sound outputted from a plurality of speakers based on the fictitious personality information; allotting means for allotting the plurality of pieces of voiced phonetic-sound to each household electric appliance in line with a character of each household electric appliance shown by the fictitious personality information based on the fictitious personality information; producing means for producing a conversation file which has the contents of the allotted pieces of voiced phonetic-sound in a way to speak in line with the character of each household electric appliance shown by the fictitious personality information; timing determining means for determining an order of an output of the conversation file produced by the producing means, for determining output timing of the conversation file of each of the household electric appliances respectively in accordance with the determined order, and for producing timing information which indicates the determined output timing as if each household electric appliance is having the conversation, by coordinating the output timing of a plurality of conversation files; and transmitting means for transmitting the conversation information to respective household electric appliance associated with the conversation information; and each of said household electric appliance comprising: output means for outputting a phonetic sound as if each household electric appliance is having the conversation in a real world by coordinating the output timing of a plurality of conversation files and arranging the plurality of household electric appliances in an area such that the only-and-single user is allowed to hear the conversation among the household electric appliances, so that the user is provided with the information indirectly.