The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 05, 2006
Filed:
Sep. 10, 2001
Akiko Asami, Shizuoka, JP;
Akiko Asami, Shizuoka, JP;
Sony Corporation, , JP;
Abstract
An information providing system, apparatus, and method, and a data recording medium wherein a user can frequently communicate with an imaginary electronic pet that virtually lives in a piece of electric equipment so that the user can operate the electric equipment with increased interest and happiness. The system includes a plurality of interconnected pieces of electric equipment for transmitting and receiving character data. Each piece of equipment includes a character system for processing the character data, a representation system for representing a character to indicate a representation to a user of the electric equipment, and a connection system for establishing a connection to another piece of equipment. The character system rocesses the character data based on character representation data for providing the character with a predetermined representation, and the representation system provides information from the character to the user.