Message providing method, message providing device, and message providing program

Abstract

Participants such as bereaved family members and related parties at funerals, memorial services, and other events are provided with a message that they feel is coming from an object such as the deceased person who is unable to give a message of their own. [Solution] In a message providing system 1, a management device functioning as a message providing device outputs a plurality of questions (a group of questions) for collecting information such as participants' memories of an object (deceased person) based on the attributes of the object, and outputs a message generation command to a message generating device to generate a new message regarding the object based on the participants' answers to the collected group of questions. The message providing device outputs a generated message to have the participants evaluate whether the generated message is appropriate, and outputs the message generated by a message generating device 4 according to the obtained evaluation result of the generated message to provide it to the participants as a message from the object (deceased person).

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a method, device, and program for providing a message that can be perceived as having been pseudo-issued by an object that cannot directly issue a message. [Background technology]

[0002] Patent Document 1 has the objective of providing a specific method and mechanism for making thorough notifications based on the interpersonal relationships surrounding the deceased at the time of a funeral, for the bereaved family to learn about a wide range of interpersonal relationships surrounding the deceased, and for the bereaved family to receive heartwarming memorial messages from memorial message providers. The system obtains data about the deceased from the bereaved family, and based on this data, sends information about the funeral and requests for memorial messages for the deceased by e-mail, fax, etc., and also posts a notice with similar content on an Internet homepage, whereupon the provider of the memorial message can directly enter the message into a format set up on the Internet homepage and / or edit and print the memorial message sent to the server by e-mail or the image data attached to it, and further compiles memorial messages sent by mail, etc. into an album.

[0003] Patent Document 2 discloses an object of providing a message collection system and method for collecting messages spoken by attendees at a funeral while looking at a portrait of the deceased, and discloses that the message collection system is characterized by comprising a pseudo telephone set that is placed in a position where the portrait of the deceased can be seen and that has a pseudo handset receiving section and a pseudo handset, and a recording device that records audio using a microphone in response to detecting the lifting of the pseudo handset, and that the message collection system can also record video using a camera in response to detecting the lifting of the pseudo handset, and discloses a message collection method that uses the message collection system to collect messages at a wake or funeral. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0004] [Patent Document 1] JP 2005-259096 A [Patent Document 2] JP 2019-088365 A Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0005] Traditionally, at funerals such as the wake and funeral service where people mourn the death of the deceased, and at memorial services and memorial services such as the 49th day, third anniversary, and 13th anniversary of the death where people miss the deceased, since the deceased is unable to deliver a message themselves, services have been provided that provide the deceased with video or audio recordings or text information such as diaries and wills that they left behind while they were alive, giving bereaved family members and attendees an opportunity to feel even more deeply about the deceased.

[0006] Videos, audio, and text information left by the deceased while they were alive (hereinafter referred to as information before their death) directly evoke memories of the deceased, but since there is a limit to the amount of video and audio left, if multiple memorial services are held, participants may become bored as they are exposed to the same information about the deceased while they were alive every time. In addition, if the deceased did not record videos or audio before their death, they would not be able to receive such services.

[0007] If the deceased was engaged in social activities such as working for a company, stories from the workplace are information that the bereaved family of the deceased rarely have access to. In consideration of this, a system has been devised to collect voice messages about the deceased from funeral attendees and provide them to the bereaved family.

[0008] While the information about the deceased provided by such a system is fresh to the bereaved family, it is also perceived by them as a third party's opinion of the deceased. Therefore, if there are many differences between the personality of the deceased that the bereaved family felt and the information about the deceased provided by the system, the bereaved family may lose the sense of authenticity of the information about the deceased provided by the attendees.

[0009] To provide a message providing method, a message providing device, and a message providing program for providing a message that participants such as bereaved family members and related parties who attend a funeral, memorial service, or other such event feel as if it is being delivered by an object such as a deceased person who is unable to deliver a message themselves. [Means for solving the problem]

[0010] The invention of claim 1 includes a question group acquisition step of acquiring a question group for collecting information about an object from participants related to the object as answers to questions; a response collection step of outputting the question group acquired in the question group acquisition step and collecting answers to the question group from the participants; a message generation instruction step of outputting an instruction to a message generation device to generate a message artificially issued by the object using the answers collected in the response collection step; and a message generation instruction step of outputting an instruction to a message generation device to generate a message artificially issued by the object using the answers collected in the response collection step. a generated message evaluation step of acquiring the message and comparing the acquired message with the answers collected in the answer collection step and evaluating the message based on the degree of matching of the characteristic words of the messages; and a message output step of outputting the message as a message from the object. Claim 2 The invention of claim 1 further comprises a step of notifying the participant of a request for additional answers when the amount of information collected about the participant's answers is small. 1 This is a method for providing a message as described above. Claim 3The present invention obtains a set of questions for collecting information about an object from participants related to the object as answers to the questions, outputs the obtained set of questions to collect answers to the set of questions from the participants, outputs an instruction to a message generation device for generating a message artificially issued by the object using the collected answers, and outputs the message generated by the message generation device to a message generation device. and comparing the acquired message with the collected answers to evaluate the message based on the degree of matching of the characteristic words of the acquired message and the collected answers. The message providing device outputs the message from the object to be presented to the participants. Claim 4 The invention of the present invention includes a computer that acquires a set of questions for collecting information about an object from participants related to the object as answers to the questions, outputs the acquired set of questions to collect answers to the set of questions from the participants, outputs an instruction to a message generation device to generate a message artificially issued by the object using the collected answers, and transmits the generated message by the message generation device to a message generation device. a message obtained by comparing the message with the collected answers and evaluating the message based on the degree of matching of the characteristic words; and a message evaluated by comparing the message obtained with the collected answers. and a message providing program for causing the device to function as an output device for presenting a message from the object to the participants. Claim 5 The invention includes a question group acquisition step of acquiring a question group for collecting information about the deceased from participants related to the deceased as answers to questions, a response collection step of outputting the question group acquired in the question group acquisition step and collecting answers to the question group from the participants, and a message generation device. ,before a message generation instruction step of outputting an instruction for generating a message uttered by the deceased person using the answers collected in the answer collection step; a generated message evaluation step of acquiring the message and comparing the acquired message with the answers collected in the answer collection step and evaluating the message based on the degree of agreement of the characteristic words of the respective messages; and a message output step of outputting the message as a message from the deceased. The invention of claim 6 provides a set of questions for collecting information about the deceased from participants related to the deceased as answers to the questions. A set of questions classified into a plurality of categories to enable the participants to understand the deceased from multiple perspectives. a question group acquisition step of acquiring the question group acquired in the question group acquisition step; According to the dual process model of grief worka response collection step of collecting responses from the participants to the group of questions by outputting the responses; ,before a message generation instruction step of outputting an instruction for generating a message uttered by the deceased person using the answers collected in the answer collection step; a generated message evaluation step of acquiring the message and comparing the acquired message with the answers collected in the answer collection step and evaluating the message based on the degree of matching of the characteristic words of the messages; and a message output step of outputting the message as a message from the deceased. Effect of the Invention

[0011] According to the message providing method of claim 1, an object that cannot actually issue a message by itself can issue a message that participants feel as if it had been issued by itself. Messages that were evaluated as acceptable for presentation to participants is provided. According to the message providing method of claim 2, Participants who have collected less information about the object are notified of requests for more information. . Providing the message of claim 3 Device According to The message provided is one that participants feel as if the object, which cannot actually emit a message, had emitted itself, and that has been evaluated as acceptable for presentation to the participants. . Providing the message of claim 4 program According to the study, an object that cannot actually send out a message can send messages that participants feel as if they are sending out themselves. Messages that were evaluated as acceptable for presentation to participants is provided. Providing the message of claim 5 method According to the deceased Participants will be provided with a message that they feel as if they came from the speaker themselves. According to the message providing method of claim 6, a message is provided that makes participants feel as if the deceased person, who is currently unable to issue a message, had issued it himself. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0012] [Figure 1] 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a message providing system according to an embodiment of the present invention; [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the message providing system according to the present embodiment. [Diagram 3]13 is a flowchart illustrating a process of acquiring a group of questions. [Figure 4] FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a question group management table 40. [Diagram 5] FIG. 13 is a diagram showing the structure of a question list 50 managed by question group code. [Figure 6] FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a question list according to a question group code. [Figure 7] 1 is a flowchart illustrating a process for presenting a set of questions and collecting answers. [Figure 8] FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the basic structure of a prompt input to the message generating device 4. [Figure 9] 13 is a flowchart illustrating the process of evaluating the validity of a message (step 208). [Figure 10] 13 is a display screen of an operator terminal 2 for performing message validity evaluation. [Figure 11] FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the hardware configuration of a computer such as a personal computer (PC). [Figure 12] 1 is a flow chart illustrating a process for collecting refined answers. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0013] Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

[0014] 1 is a diagram illustrating the configuration of the message providing system of this embodiment. The message providing system 10 selects a plurality of questions (a group of questions) for collecting information such as participants' memories of the object based on the attributes of the object (an object related to the message provided by this message providing system, which cannot actually send a message itself but which the participants feel as if it has sent a message in a pseudo manner, and one specific example of the object is a "deceased person") set via the operator terminal 2, outputs the selected questions to the participant terminal 3, outputs a message generation command to the message generating device 4 so as to generate a new message related to the object based on the answers of the participants to the group of questions compiled by the operator terminal 2, outputs the generated message to the operator terminal 2 so that the generated message generated by the message generating device can be evaluated as to whether it is appropriate, and The system is composed of a management device 1 that outputs a message generated by a message generation device 4 in accordance with the evaluation results of the generated message obtained from an operator terminal 2 to an output device 5 as a message from an object (deceased person); an operator terminal 2 that inputs the attributes of the object, compiles the participants' answers to a group of questions and outputs them to the management device 1, and outputs the evaluation results of the generated message to the management device; a participant terminal 3 that inputs the answers to the group of questions presented by the operator and outputs them to the operator terminal 2; a message generation device 4 that generates a message in accordance with an instruction to generate a message based on the participants' answers to the group of questions input from the management device 1 and outputs the message to the management device 1; and an output device 5 that presents the evaluated generated message to the participants as a message from the object (deceased person).

[0015] The management device 1 is realized by a computer such as a server device. The operator terminal 2 and the participant terminal 3 are realized by a personal computer (PC) such as a laptop computer or a multi-function mobile terminal such as a smartphone. The message generation device 4 is realized by a cloud service that realizes so-called artificial intelligence (AI). Note that the message generation device 4 is not limited to a cloud service, and may be realized by, for example, a server device. The output device 5 is realized by a display device that displays the textualized generated message, but may also be realized by a device having a display function, such as a laptop computer or a so-called tablet terminal. In addition, if the textualized generated message is printed and output on a paper medium, it may also be realized by a printer device. In addition, when the generated message is converted into voice, the output device 5 is realized by a device with a speaker function, such as a laptop computer or a smartphone.

[0016] The management device 1 and the message generating device 4 are connected via a wired or wireless internet line. The management device 1, the operator terminal 2, and the participant terminal 3 are preferably connected via a wireless communication line such as Wi-Fi (registered trademark) or Bluetooth (registered trademark), but may be connected via a wired communication line such as Universal Serial Bus (USB). The management device 1 and the output device 5 are preferably connected via a wired communication line such as a VGA cable or an HDMI (registered trademark) cable, but may be connected via a wireless communication line.

[0017] In the following, a message generated by the message generating device 4 may be simply referred to as a "generated message." In the following, unless otherwise specified, a participant means a bereaved family member or a related person of the deceased who is participating in a funeral, a memorial service, or a meeting such as a so-called "meeting to remember the deceased." In the following, an operator means a natural person who plays the role of a so-called facilitator who meets with participants (including not only face-to-face meetings in the real world but also face-to-face meetings via an online conference system and face-to-face meetings in a virtual space via an avatar) to present a group of questions, collect answers to the group of questions, and present an evaluated generated message to the participants (however, in the case where the present invention is realized in a virtual space, the operator is not limited to a natural person and may be an avatar). In the following, a "message from the deceased" means a generated message (a new message) that the participants feel as if the deceased had spoken to them.

[0018] 2 is a diagram for explaining the operation (information processing flow) of the message providing system of this embodiment. When the message providing process of the present invention is started (step 201), the management device 1 and the operator terminal 2 cooperate to execute an acquisition step (step 202) for acquiring a group of questions used to collect object-related information such as episodes from the object (deceased person) before its death and memories of the deceased person from participants. As will be described later, when acquiring the group of questions, the attributes of the object are designated.

[0019] FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining the process of acquiring a group of questions. When the acquisition process starts (step 31), the operator operates the operator terminal 2 to input the attributes of the object (deceased person) for the participant from a terminal screen (not shown) and transmit it to the management device 1 (step 32). One specific example of the attributes is the classification of the relationship between the deceased and the participant, such as "parent", "child", "spouse", and "other", which are listed in the attribute column of the question group management table shown in FIG. 4. The attributes are not limited to those exemplified here, and for example, a relationship or blood relationship such as "grandparent" or "cousin" may be added, or a binary table (matrix) with the relationship may be formed by adding the age at death of the object. In addition, the "occupation" and "gender" of the deceased during his / her lifetime may be added as appropriate. In other words, the "attribute" referred to here may be one item that narrows down the relationship between the object (deceased person) and the participant, including the bereaved family, or may be a combination of multiple items. In addition, if the relationship between the object and the participant at the workplace of the participant is taken into consideration, the attributes may be "superior", "subordinate", or "colleague".

[0020] FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the question group management table 40. The question group management table 40 manages question group codes corresponding to each attribute specified in the attribute column 41. The attribute column 41 is further divided into four categories, namely, a "parent" category 42, a "child" category 43, a "spouse" category 44, and an "other" category 45, according to the attribute (relationship) of the object (deceased person) to the participant input by the operator via the scanner terminal. Since question group codes G01, G02, G03, and G04 that identify a question group corresponding to the relationship are set in advance in each category, one question group code corresponding to the input attribute of the deceased person is obtained. Note that the question group management table 40 may be configured to manage questions for each attribute, and the management device 1 may output multiple questions to the operator terminal 2 according to the attribute of the deceased person instead of the question group code.

[0021] Next, a question group preset for each attribute managed by a question group code will be described with reference to FIG.

[0022] Fig. 5 is a diagram showing the structure of a question list 50 managed by question group code. Note that Fig. 5 shows an example of a question group in which the attribute of an object is "parent" (question group code=G01).

[0023] The question list 50 classifies question groups consisting of a plurality of questions for each question group code (G01, G02, G03, G04 in this embodiment) shown in a question group code column 51 into a plurality of themes preset in a theme column 52 as shown in a question set column 53, and manages them in a manner that allows the questions to be acquired (output) for each theme. The purpose of the question groups is not only to collect information about the deceased in order to enable the message generating device to generate a "message from the deceased," but also to allow participants, including bereaved family members, to remember the deceased and explore the meaning of their personal lives in the process of understanding and answering the questions.

[0024] It is generally known that losing an irreplaceable (important) person in one's life is a serious experience and causes complex emotions in the person involved. Grief refers to the physical and mental changes that occur in the person due to these complex emotions. The process by which bereaved family members accept the loss of a loved one (the deceased) and recover or overcome the grief or state of loss is called grief care or grief work. Funerals and memorial services for the deceased are one form of grief work by those related to the deceased, including the bereaved family members. Various theories about grief work have been studied and systematized, but one that has attracted attention in recent years is the dual process model proposed by Margaret Strebe and Henk St. This is a model in which bereaved family members recover from and overcome grief while fluctuating between two orientations: "a loss-oriented process in which they face the grief of losing the deceased" and "a recovery-oriented process in which they work on their own new lives."

[0025] As shown in the theme column 52 in Figure 5, the questions aimed at collecting information about the deceased are divided into multiple categories so that participants answering the questions can grasp the life and career of the deceased from multiple perspectives. Furthermore, the seven themes listed in the theme column 52 correspond to the four stages of grief work, as follows:

[0026] (1) "Recollection" stage: This corresponds to the process of evoking specific memories of the participants with the deceased and remembering what that person was like. The themes associated with this stage are "daily memories," "personality and charm," and "special episodes."

[0027] (2) "Reevaluation" Phase: This corresponds to the process in which participants review and reassess the life and relationships of the deceased from a new perspective. The themes that correspond to this stage are "words and teachings," "relationships with family," and "society and work."

[0028] (3) "Meaning" stage: This corresponds to the process in which participants explore the meaning and value of the deceased's life and interpret their teachings and influence in the present context. The themes associated with this stage are "Words and Teachings" and "Society and Work".

[0029] (4) "Growth" Stage: This corresponds to the process of reflecting on how participants themselves have changed and grown through their relationship with the deceased and thinking about how they can use this experience in their future lives. The theme associated with this stage is "influence and growth."

[0030] Presenting participants with a set of questions corresponding to each of the themes shown in the theme column 52 in Figure 5 in order from top to bottom is nothing but having participants sequentially carry out activities (executing the grief work process) that correspond to the four stages of grief work described above. In other words, the question sets 53 listed in the question list 50 shown in Figure 5 are arranged in accordance with the natural flow of grief work (practicing a step-by-step approach).

[0031] In addition, of the four stages of grief work mentioned above, the "meaning-making" stage overlaps with the "words and teachings" theme and the "society and work" theme, which are associated with the "reevaluation" stage. This is nothing other than a simulation of the "wavering between two intentions" in the dual process model mentioned above (the practice of overlap and repetition). Furthermore, the order of the themes shown in the theme column 52 expands from personal memories to social influences, which also has the effect of broadening the perspective of the participants in their grief work as they answer the questions.

[0032] The final theme in theme column 52, "Impact and Growth," is directly linked to the final stage of grief work, the "Growth" stage. This has the secondary effect of helping participants integrate their experience of loss into their own (future) lives, which is the most important process in grief work, through the process of collecting information about the object from the participant.

[0033] Next, a question list according to a question group code will be described with reference to FIG.

[0034] FIG. 6(a) shows an example of a part of the question list corresponding to the question group code G02. If the deceased is a child of a bereaved family member who died before becoming an adult, it is expected that the child will not have any employment experience. In addition, the range of social activities is narrower than that of an adult, and it is expected that the range of social activities will be, for example, interactions with people in the neighborhood and friends from elementary, junior high, and high school. In consideration of this point, the multiple questions associated with the theme "society and work" in FIG. 5 are replaced with questions 61, 62, and 63 in FIG. 6(a), respectively. Strictly speaking, the attribute of the deceased is "child" only when the bereaved family members are parents, and the attribute of the deceased from the perspective of participants other than the parents is "other" rather than "child". However, when explaining a preferred embodiment of the present invention, taking into consideration other participants who practice their own grief work by being close to their parents who have lost their children, the attributes of the deceased are aligned with those of the bereaved family members (participants) who are equivalent to the chief mourner at a funeral and have the deepest relationship with the deceased.

[0035] FIG. 6(b) shows an example of a part of the question list corresponding to the question group code G03. When the deceased is the spouse of a bereaved family member, there is no blood relationship between the spouse and the deceased, and they are strangers at first. However, it is common for the spouse to be greatly influenced by the deceased, who was originally a stranger. In consideration of this, the question "What is it in your daily life (omitted)?" corresponding to the "daily memories" theme in FIG. 5 is changed to question 64 in FIG. 6(b), the question "Please tell us (omitted) between you and the deceased" corresponding to the "special episode" theme in FIG. 5 is changed to question 65 in FIG. 6(b), and the question "Did your relationship with the deceased (omitted) grow?" corresponding to the "influence and growth" theme in FIG. 5 is changed to question 66. Here too, the attribute of the deceased from the perspective of any participant is not "spouse", but the attribute of the deceased is aligned to "spouse" for the reasons mentioned above.

[0036] The question list corresponding to the question group code may be composed of, for example, a common question list that lists questions that are common to all attributes and an individual question list that lists only questions that are specific to each attribute, or question list 50 as shown in FIG. 5 may be provided for all attributes.

[0037] Furthermore, the question list is not limited to a preset one as described above, but may be obtained by an operator using a so-called generative artificial intelligence (AI) such as the message generation device 4, and instructing the generative AI to generate questions related to the seven themes exemplified in the theme column of Figure 5, taking into account the attributes of the participants, such as "surviving family members," "relatives," and "company associates," in relation to the deceased person (object).

[0038] Returning to Figure 3, upon receiving the object attributes from the operator terminal 2, the management device 1 refers to a question group management table stored and managed in a memory unit inside the management device 1 (not shown), obtains a question group code corresponding to the attributes, and selects a question group consisting of multiple questions linked to the question group code (step 33).

[0039] Next, the management device 1 outputs / transmits the selected set of questions to the operator terminal 2 (step 34), and ends the process of obtaining the set of questions (step 35).

[0040] 2, after the step of acquiring a set of questions (step 202) is completed, the step of presenting a set of questions and collecting answers is executed by the operator terminal 2 and the participant terminal 3 working together (step 203). The steps of presenting a set of questions and collecting answers will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

[0041] 7 is a flow chart explaining the process of presenting a group of questions and collecting answers. When this process starts (step 71), the operator operates the operator terminal 2 to present the group of questions transmitted from the management device 1 to the operator terminal 2 to the participants, and transmits them, for example, one question at a time to the participant terminal 3 (step 72). This is because it is desirable to avoid presenting multiple questions to the participants at once, which can cause communication between the operator (facilitator) and the participants to be hindered, as it can cause the participants to have difficulty understanding the intent of the questions or take longer than necessary to answer.

[0042] The participant, who is the user of the participant terminal 3 that received the question, operates the participant terminal 3 to input a response to the question displayed on a screen (not shown) of the participant terminal 3 as a text message (step 73). The response is not limited to being input in text format, but may be input in voice format. In recent years, voice recognition software capable of converting voice data into text data with high accuracy has been implemented on smartphones, so that the use of such voice recognition software makes it easy to collect the participants' voice responses in text data format on the operator terminal.

[0043] Next, the participant operates the participant terminal 3 to transmit the input answer to the operator terminal 2 (step 74). For example, the answer is transmitted by tapping a "send" button displayed on the screen of the operator terminal 2 (not shown).

[0044] The operator who sent the question operates the operator terminal 2 to check whether replies to the sent question have been received from all participants (step 75). For example, the operator terminal 2 may display on an operation screen (not shown) the names of participants who have received a reply, or conversely, the names of participants who have not received a reply, to determine whether replies have been received from all participants. If replies have not been received from all participants (step 75-NO), the operator prompts the participants who have not received a reply to enter a reply (step 73) or to send a reply (step 74).

[0045] If the operator confirms that answers have been received from all participants (step 75-YES), the operator then operates the operator terminal 2 to confirm whether answers have been received for all questions (step 76). For example, the operator can determine whether answers to all questions have been received by displaying the total number of questions and the number of answered questions in a manner that allows comparison on an operation screen (not shown) of the operator terminal 2. If answers to all questions have not yet been received from the participants (step 76-NO), the operator returns to step 72 and transmits the unanswered questions to the participant terminal 3, and repeats the subsequent processing steps until answers to all questions from all participants are received. Then, if it is confirmed that answers to all questions have been received from all participants (step 76-YES), the process of presenting the question group and collecting answers is completed (step 77).

[0046] In the above explanation, the question sentences are presented one by one as an example of a preferred embodiment, but the present invention is not limited to this, and it is of course possible to post a number of questions to the participants all at once, and it is also possible to appropriately change whether to present one question at a time or a number of questions all at once depending on the age of the participants (if the participants are young children or elderly people, it may be difficult for them to answer each of the multiple questions presented at the same time). Also, the confirmation process in steps 75 and 76, which requires the intervention of the operator in the above explanation, may be realized by automatic processing without the intervention of the operator, by program-controlling a computer built in the operator terminal 2.

[0047] Returning to FIG. 2, once the process of presenting the questions and collecting answers (step 203) is completed, instructions (also called prompts) for causing the message generation device 4 to generate a new message regarding the object are created based on the answers collected from the participants (step 204), and the created instructions are input from the management device 1 to the message generation device 4 (step 205).

[0048] 8 is a diagram for explaining the basic structure of a prompt input to the message generating device 4. A prompt 80 is made up of a message generating condition part 81, a message generating instruction part 82, and a condition input part 83.

[0049] The message generation condition part 81 is an instruction to instruct the message generation device 4 to generate a message using information written or dictated by the participant himself / herself about a deceased person object related to the participant, rather than using so-called big data.

[0050] The message generation instruction part 82 is an instruction for instructing the message generating device 4 to start a message generation process. Here, it does not simply instruct to generate a message, but includes an instruction to clarify what kind of message to generate. Specifically, it instructs that the message should "respect the personality of the deceased," that the message should be "addressed to the surviving family," and that the subject of the message should be the deceased.

[0051] The condition input part 83 is an instruction for inputting the answers of the participants collected in the process of presenting the group of questions and collecting the answers described with reference to FIG.

[0052] In addition to the three parts described above, the prompt may include additional instructions such as "generate a message that respects the personality and values ​​of the deceased and conveys their individuality," "generate a message that reflects the deceased's memories with his or her family and speaks to them again," or "generate a message that does not provide a solution to the problem but is close to the family's feelings and expresses the deceased's feelings of walking together with them."

[0053] The prompt is created using the basic prompt structure shown in Fig. 8. Specifically, the notation "deceased" is replaced with a personal name, and additional instructions are created by appropriately selecting from the required specifications for the above-mentioned message that are presented in advance as a template. Note that the prompt is input by the management device 1, but the prompt may be created by the management device 1 or by the operator operating the operator terminal 2. Note that when a template is presented to the operator when creating a prompt, even if the operator is unfamiliar with handling a message generation device such as a so-called generation AI (artificial intelligence), the operator can input an appropriate message generation instruction to the message generation device by using the template.

[0054] Returning to FIG. 2, when the message generating device 4 generates a new message related to the object in response to the input prompt, the management device 1 acquires the generated message from the message generating device 4 (step 206). The appropriateness of the acquired message is evaluated (steps 207, 208). The appropriateness of the message is evaluated by checking whether the message generating device 4 generates a new message related to the object (deceased person) according to the instructions of the prompt, whether the generated message contains no falsehood by checking against the information about the object (deceased person) collected from the participants, or which of the multiple new messages generated is more suitable to be presented to the participants (for example, a message that seems to express the likeness of the deceased person from the viewpoint of the operator who plays the role of facilitator). First, an example of evaluating whether the new message related to the object in the management device 1 follows the instructions of the prompt will be described with reference to FIG. 9.

[0055] Fig. 9 is a flow chart for explaining the process contents of the message validity evaluation process (step 208) in Fig. 2. When this process starts (step 91), the management device 1 performs morphological analysis processing on the object-related information collected from the participants as answer sentences to the questions, and extracts characteristic words Qsp consisting of nouns, verbs, and adjectives included in the answer sentences (step 92). This is because the answer sentences of the participants contain nouns and proper nouns closely related to the deceased person, which is the object, verbs expressing the deceased person's nostalgic actions, and adjectives expressing the appearance and impression of the deceased. Next, the management device 1 performs morphological diffraction processing on the new message generated by the message generation device 4 in the same manner, and extracts characteristic words Msp consisting of nouns, verbs, and adjectives included in the generated message (step 93).

[0056] Whether the instruction of the prompt is followed is judged by the matching rate Rcm between the characteristic word Qsp and the characteristic word Msp. As explained in FIG. 8, the prompt 80 input to the message generating device 4 instructs to generate a new message based on the content of the participant's answer. If the message generating device 4 generates a new message according to this instruction, the characteristic word Qsp of the answer sentence of the participant should be reflected in the new message. Therefore, the matching rate Rcqm of the characteristic word Msp of the new message to the characteristic word Qsp of the answer sentence is calculated (step 94), and the obtained matching rate Rcqm is compared with a predetermined threshold value Rth (step 95). If the matching rate Rcqm is greater than the threshold value Rth, the characteristic word Qsp of the answer sentence also appears in the new message, and the characteristic word Msp of the new message reflects the characteristic word Qsp of the answer sentence, so it is safe to judge that the new message has been generated by the message generating device 4 as a "message from the deceased" according to the instruction. Therefore, if the match rate Rcqm is greater than the threshold value Rth (step 95-YES), the management device 1 outputs the new evaluated message as a "message from the deceased" for presentation to the participants (step 96) and ends the message validity evaluation process (step 99).

[0057] If the matching rate Rcqm is not greater (smaller) than the threshold value Rth (step 95-NO), it is determined that the characteristic word Qsp of the answer sentence is not reflected in the new message, and the message generation device 4 has not generated the new message as instructed. In this case, it is highly likely that it is not appropriate to present the new message to the participants as a "message from the deceased," so the management device 1 outputs a warning message to the operator, for example, to the operator terminal 2 (step 97). At the same time, the management device 1 changes the prompt and inputs the changed prompt to the message generation device 4 (step 98), returning to step 205 in FIG. 2. The message validity evaluation process is then temporarily terminated (step 99).

[0058] In a service that provides a message generation function such as ChatGPT (registered trademark), which is an embodiment of the message generation device 4, in order to generate a variety of messages, the prompt itself that functions as a message generation instruction command does not have a strict grammar for commands (instructions) such as JavaScript (registered trademark), but generates messages according to message generation instruction commands that are generated by artificial intelligence that estimates the intention of the service user reflected in the prompt. Therefore, when creating a script, it is desirable to take care that the message generation device 4 interprets the script according to the creator's intention.

[0059] In the prompt change process in step 98, it was expected that the characteristic word Qsp included in the participant's answer would be reflected in the new message if the instruction "Please generate a message from the deceased" in the message generation instruction part 82 in Fig. 8 was used, but contrary to expectations, the characteristic word Qsp was not included in the characteristic word Msp. Therefore, it is possible to change the script to clearly indicate that the content of the participant's answer will be reflected in the new message. For example, the instruction "Please generate a message from the deceased" in the message generation instruction part 82 in Fig. 8 is changed to "Please generate a message from the deceased that reflects the participant's memories and episodes."

[0060] The message validity evaluation process is not limited to processing by the management device 1. For example, the validity evaluation process may be processed by an operator using the operator terminal 2, and the result of the validity evaluation may be received by the management device 1 via the operator terminal 2. In addition, the message validity evaluation process may be processed by both the management device 1 and the operator terminal 2, in other words, a so-called double check may be performed.

[0061] A case where the message validity evaluation step is performed using the operator terminal 2 will be described with reference to Fig. 10. Fig. 10 shows a display screen of the operator terminal 2 for performing message validity evaluation. Here, the operator terminal 2 is realized using a mobile information terminal 1010.

[0062] The display screen 1020 of the mobile information terminal 1010 is provided with an object information display area 1030 for displaying object-related information collected from the participants as responses to the questions, and a new message display area 1040 for displaying a new message related to the object (deceased person) generated by the message generating device 4. The display screen 1020 is further provided with an evaluation criteria display area 1070 for displaying (predetermined) evaluation criteria that an evaluator such as an operator refers to when evaluating a new message.

[0063] The object information display area 1030 and the new message display area 1040 are provided with scroll bars 1050, 1051 and scroll knobs 1060, 1061, respectively, so that information can be viewed in a display area of ​​limited size. Even if scroll bars are not used, the information displayed in each area may be scrolled by a flick operation on the object information display area 1030 or the new message display area 1040.

[0064] In the object information display area 1030, the collected answer sentences (object-related information) are displayed for each participant. Nouns, proper nouns, verbs, adjectives, etc. that appear in memories and episodes related to an object (deceased person) may vary depending on the participant even in answer sentences expressing the situation of the same object. In consideration of this, in this embodiment, instead of the answer sentences, the characteristic words Qsp contained in the answer sentences are displayed for each participant. Instead of displaying only the characteristic words Qsp, the entire answer sentence may be displayed for each participant.

[0065] In the new message display area 1040, new messages related to a plurality of objects generated by the message generating device 4 are displayed in a divided manner for each message. In FIG. 10, new message 1041 and new message 1042 are displayed side by side, but new messages may be displayed one by one in the new message display area, or the number of new messages displayed simultaneously may be changed appropriately according to the length (number of words) of the new messages. As will be described later, the areas displaying the new messages 1041 and 1042 are provided with radio buttons 1045 and 1046 for selecting new messages that may be evaluated for validity and presented to participants as "messages from the deceased". It is desirable that these radio buttons be changed appropriately according to the number of new messages displayed in the new message display area 1040.

[0066] The operator possessing the operator terminal 2 (mobile information terminal 1010) compares the new message with the object-related information displayed side by side on the display screen 1020, and, while referring to the evaluation criteria displayed in the evaluation criteria display area 1070, operates radio buttons 1045, 1046 to select from among the new messages 1041, 1042 generated by the message generation device 4 those which are deemed appropriate for presentation to participants as "messages from the deceased."

[0067] The message validity evaluation by the operator will be described in more detail. In the object information display area 1030 of FIG. 10, among the characteristic words extracted from the answers of the participants A, B, C, and D, the characteristic words "strict" and "rigorous" that indicate the personality of the deceased, the characteristic words "university", "desired school", and "passed" that evoke the common episodes that occurred between the participants and the deceased, and the characteristic words "naturally" and "naturally" that evoke the deceased's response to the common episodes are noted. The new messages 1041 and 1042 displayed in the new message display area 1040 have in common that they are "messages from the deceased" that indicate that the children who were treated with strictness were naturally passed into the university of their choice, and it is considered that the message generating device 4 may be evaluated as having generated the new message in accordance with the prompt 80 in FIG. 8. Here, if we focus on the characteristic words "shy" and "embarrassed" extracted from the answer of the participant D displayed in the object information display area 1030, these characteristic words are not extracted from the answers of the other participants, but they can be considered as characteristic words that indicate one side of the hidden personality of the deceased. In addition to the fact that "it was only natural that he would pass the entrance exam for his preferred university," the new message 1042 also includes the message "he was embarrassed to be happy in front of his children, so he acted in a natural manner...," which shows his hidden personality. Referring to the evaluation criteria displayed in the evaluation criteria display area 1070, which indicates that "if a message that shows a hidden side of the deceased is generated, select that message first," the new message 1042 should be selected based on this evaluation criteria. Therefore, the operator, who is the evaluator, selects the new message 1042 by tapping the radio button 1046, for example, and then taps the "Accept" button 1080 displayed on the display screen 1020, and notifies the management device 1 via the operator terminal 2 that the new message 1042 has been selected as the evaluation result of the new message.

[0068] On the other hand, for example, if the characteristic word displayed in the object information display area 1030 is not included in the new message displayed in the new message display area 1040, in other words, if it is considered that the content of the participant's reply is not reflected in the new message, the operator taps the regenerate button 1090 displayed on the display screen 1020 without selecting any new message, and notifies the management device 1 via the operator terminal 2 that a new message will be generated again for the message generation device 4. Then, the management device 1 changes the prompt as described in FIG. 9, and inputs the changed prompt again to the message generation device 4.

[0069] In the above description, one message that is evaluated as appropriate to be presented to participants as a "message from the deceased" is selected from among new messages related to multiple objects (deceased persons) generated by the message generating device 4, but multiple messages may be selected as a result of the appropriateness evaluation. Naturally, the evaluation criteria displayed in the evaluation criteria display area 1070 are not limited to the content exemplified in this embodiment. For example, the evaluation criteria may be such that "a message with content common to the responses of all participants is selected."

[0070] As shown in FIG. 10, an object information display area 1030 displays object-related information (which may be characteristic words expressing objects extracted from the answers) collected from participants as answers to a group of questions, and a new message display area 1040 displays a new message related to the object (deceased person) generated by the message generation device 4. In addition, an evaluation criteria display area 1070 is provided to display evaluation criteria for evaluating whether it is appropriate to present the new message as a "message from the deceased." This has the effect that even if the operator is a third party who had no prior knowledge of the object (the deceased) in life, he or she can appropriately evaluate and present a "message from the deceased" that sounds like the deceased to the participants.

[0071] In addition, the reason why the message generating device 4 did not generate a new message related to a valid object (deceased person) may be that the prompt was inappropriate, or that the amount of object-related information related to the object (deceased person) collected from the participants is small. Therefore, if the amount of answer information collected in the step of presenting a group of questions and collecting answers (step 203) in Fig. 2 is less than a predetermined threshold, it is desirable to urge the participants to increase the amount of answer information.

[0072] Such an improved process of presenting a set of questions and collecting answers will be described with reference to Fig. 12. Fig. 12 is a flowchart explaining the improved process of collecting answers. Since this flowchart is an improvement of the process of presenting a set of questions and collecting answers explained in Fig. 7, the same processing steps as before the improvement are denoted with the same reference numerals as in Fig. 7.

[0073] The process of collecting improved answers starts (step 71), and the process up to the step of participants operating the participant terminal 3 to transmit the answers they have entered to the presented questions to the operator terminal 2 (step 74) is the same as in FIG. 7. The answers transmitted from the participants are then received by the operator terminal 2, and the amount of information Vpi of the received answers is calculated (step 1201). If the answers are received as a text message, the amount of information Vpi is the number of characters in the text message. Once the amount of information Vpi has been determined, a comparison is made to see if it exceeds a predetermined information amount threshold Vth (step 1202).

[0074] If the amount of information Vpi is equal to or less than the threshold value Vth (step 1202-NO), the message generating device 4 determines that there is a high probability that a new message related to a valid object (deceased person) cannot be generated, and notifies the participant terminal 3 of the participant who transmitted the answer corresponding to the amount of information Vpi that an additional answer is required to be input (step 1203). This request notification is preferably a warning notification that prompts additional input, such as "Please reminisce about the deceased in more detail" or "Are there any other episodes about the deceased besides the answer you gave me?". The processes of steps 1201 to 1203 can be easily realized by program control of a computer built into the operator terminal 2 without relying on an operator. In addition, the process of step 1203 can be easily realized by program control of a computer built into the operator terminal 2 without relying on an operator, by utilizing a chat function or the like that is supported in advance by a mobile information terminal such as a smartphone that functions as the operator terminal 2, so that the above warning notification can be displayed on the operation screen of the participant terminal 3 that is the communication destination of the operator terminal 2.

[0075] The participant possessing the participant terminal 3 that received the warning notification will check the warning notification displayed on the operation screen, and will then operate the participant terminal 3 to re-execute the answer input process of step 73, and re-send the re-entered answer to the operator terminal 2 (step 74).

[0076] If the amount of information Vpi exceeds the threshold value Vth (step 1202-YES), the process from step 75 onward in FIG. 7 is repeated, and therefore a description thereof will be omitted.

[0077] The amount of information Vpi does not have to be the number of characters; for example, the amount of data in a text message may be used as the amount of information Vpi. When participants are asked to input their answers to the questions in audio format, the number of characters can be used as the amount of information Vpi by converting the audio data into text data, or the amount of audio data can be used as the amount of information Vpi. When answers are asked to be input in audio format, the recording time of the audio data may be used as the amount of information Vpi. When the recording time of the audio data is used as the amount of information Vpi, it is desirable to obtain the amount of information Vpi from the actual speaking time of the participant.

[0078] Returning to FIG. 2, as a result of the message validity evaluation process (step 208), a new message regarding the object (deceased person) by the message generation device 4 that is evaluated as being appropriate to present to the participants as a "message from the deceased" (step 208-YES) is output to the output device 5 by the management device 1 and presented to the participants (step 209). Here, if the message generation device 4 does not generate a new message that is evaluated as being appropriate to present to the participants as a result of the message validity evaluation, the operator (playing the role of facilitator) may create a "message from the deceased" and present it to the participants by referring to the object-related information collected from the participants and the new message regarding the object (evaluated as being inappropriate to present) generated by the message generation device 4. Note that the "message from the deceased" created by the operator playing the role of facilitator may be presented to the participants in addition to the new message regarding the object that is evaluated as being appropriate to present. In this case, if the message created by the operator is presented as a "message from the facilitator" rather than as a "message from the deceased", the participants will be provided with two messages, one from the deceased person and one from the facilitator.

[0079] Then, the "message from the deceased" is presented to the participants, and the series of processes by the message providing system is completed (step 210). As described above, the "message from the deceased" may not only be presented by displaying it on a display device, but may also be presented by printing it out on paper and handing it to the participants as a "letter from the deceased."

[0080] According to the embodiment of the present invention described above in Fig. 2, object (deceased) related information is collected from participants consisting of bereaved family members and related parties of the object (deceased), and a "message from the deceased" (a new message about the object) that the participants feel as if it was sent by the object itself is provided from the object related information collected from the participants, without using information collected from the object (deceased) itself during its lifetime. Furthermore, the validity of the new message is evaluated based on a comparison between the new message about the object generated by the message generating device 4 and the object related information collected from the participants, and then the new message is presented to the participants, which has the remarkable effect of avoiding the presentation of a new message to the participants that would cause the participants to doubt whether it was sent by the object (deceased).

[0081] 1 fulfills the function of controlling and managing the operation of the entire system, but since it outputs to present new messages related to objects (deceased persons) to participants while exchanging information with the operator terminal 2 / participant terminal 3 / message generation device 4, it can also be said that the management device 1 itself fulfills the function of a message providing device. Therefore, the present invention may be understood as a program for causing a computer constituting the management device 1 to function as a message providing device.

[0082] 11 is a diagram showing the hardware configuration of a computer such as a personal computer (PC). A CPU (Central Processing Unit) 1100 is a control unit that executes processing in accordance with a software program that describes the processing procedure (execution sequence) of data handled by the management device 1.

[0083] ROM (Read Only Memory) 1110 stores programs used by CPU 1100 and calculation parameters used when CPU 1100 executes calculation processing. RAM (Random Access Memory) 1120 stores programs used by CPU 1100 when executing calculation processing and parameters that change as appropriate during execution. These are interconnected by host bus 1150 (a so-called internal bus of a computer) that is composed of a CPU bus etc.

[0084] The HDD (Hard Disk Drive) 1130 has a built-in hard disk, drives the hard disk, and records or reproduces programs executed by the CPU 1100, data for arithmetic processing, the results of the processing, etc. In some cases, a database for recording large amounts of data referenced by the CPU 1100 is constructed in the HDD 1130. The HDD 1130 is also mutually connected to the CPU 1100 etc. via a host bus 1150.

[0085] The communication unit 1140 controls communication with other constituent devices such as the operator terminal 2, the participant terminal 3, and a message generating device via a network line (not shown). Communication with other constituent devices is performed by appropriately selecting wireless communication such as Wi-Fi (registered trademark) or wired communication such as optical communication.

[0086] The program for causing a computer to function as a message providing device may be recorded on a recording medium such as a CD (compact disc) or a DVD (digital versatile disc) and read into the HDD 1130 or the RAM 1120 via a reading device (not shown). Alternatively, the program may be stored in another device provided outside the computer and read into the HDD 1130 or the RAM 1120 from the other device via the communication unit 1140.

[0087] Various modifications of the embodiment of the present invention are possible. For example, the participant terminal 3 may not be included in the devices constituting the message providing system 10, and the processing steps to be executed by the participant terminal 3 may be executed by the operator terminal 2. In other words, the operator terminal 2 and the participant terminal 3 may be substantially the same mobile information terminal such as a smartphone or tablet terminal. In this case, the display screen (operation screen) of the operator terminal 2 may be used instead of the participant terminal 3 to present the group of questions to the participants. Alternatively, the group of questions (question sentences) may be printed on a paper medium or the like by the output device 5 realized by a printer device, and the printed paper medium or the like may be distributed and presented to the participants as an answer sheet. In addition, when collecting object-related information about the deceased from the participants using paper media, the answer sheet on which the participant has written the object-related information may be scanned by a scanner device or the like to convert it into image data, and the image data may be subjected to character recognition processing, so that the object-related information written by hand on the answer sheet may be imported into the message providing system 10 as text data.

[0088] In the above explanation, it has been assumed that the object "deceased" is a natural person. However, in light of the recent pet boom, it is said that owners who lose a pet may feel a sense of loss similar to that of losing a child. Taking this into consideration, the deceased is not limited to natural people, but may also include pets such as dogs and cats. Therefore, the option "pet" may be added to the attributes for narrowing down the relationship between objects and participants.

[0089] Also, if we note that deceased people and pets are objects that cannot actually send messages by themselves, non-animal living things such as trees can also be objects. Also, if information such as memories, episodes, and feelings about the object can be collected from participants related to the object, the object is not limited to living things, but can be a corporation such as a company, or an artificial object such as a building. Furthermore, it can be a specific area such as a disaster area, a facility such as a hospital or school, a class or class at a school, or a community or team such as a department of a company.

[0090] If the object is a "corporation," the people related to the object are the managers and employees of the corporation. These people gather as participants and answer a set of questions that are set and prepared in advance about their memories of the company and their feelings about the company, and object-related information is collected. The collected object-related information is used to generate a new message about the object (corporation / company) generated by the message generation device 4, and the message is evaluated using a predetermined evaluation criterion, generating and providing a message that the participants feel as if it was sent by the corporation / company itself, such as a message about the values ​​or corporate philosophy that the corporation / company wants to cherish.

[0091] When the object is a "region," especially a disaster area, the people related to the object are the residents of that region, and by using object-related information collected at a meeting where people related to the object answer a series of questions about fond memories of their hometowns, for example, a new message can be generated and provided to the residents left behind in the region that the meeting participants feel as if it had come from the region itself.

[0092] If the object is a "school," the people related to the object would be teachers, graduates, and current students of the school. For example, at a gathering such as an alumni reunion, if object-related information is collected by answering a series of questions about fun memories of learning together, a new message about the fun of learning together that participants feel as if it came from the school itself can be generated and provided.

[0093] If the object is a "hospital," the people related to the object would be the patients, doctors, and nurses of the hospital. At a meeting where people related to the object gather, for example, if a patient answers a set of questions prepared in advance about their memories of hospitalization, object-related information collected can be used to generate and provide a new message about the bond between caregivers and patients that participants can feel as if it was coming from the hospital itself.

[0094] In either case, if the present invention is applied, a message is generated based on information about the object collected from those involved (participants) of the object, as if the object had issued it itself, and is presented to those involved (participants) of the object, without using a message issued by the object itself. In this case, the participants do not mean "family members or those involved with the deceased who are participating in a funeral, memorial service, or a gathering such as a so-called 'memorial service for the deceased,'" as mentioned above, but rather those involved with the object who cannot issue a message themselves, and who participate in a gathering such as a gathering where those involved talk about their memories and feelings about the object.

[0095] Collecting memories and episodes about the deceased from the participants using the question list in Figure 5, which has been explained as an example of this embodiment, not only provides the participants with a message from the deceased generated by message generation device 4 using the collected object-related information about the deceased, but also has the remarkable effect of healing the participants from the grief caused by separation from the deceased who was important to them, as the questions are designed to allow them to practice grief work theory, in particular grief work based on the dual process model, in the process of answering the questions shown in the question list. [Explanation of symbols]

[0096] 1...Management device 2...Operator terminal 3…Participant terminal 4. Message generating device 10. Message delivery system 40...Question group management table 50…Question List 80…Prompt

Claims

1. a question group acquisition step of acquiring a question group for collecting information about the object from participants related to the object as answers to the questions; a response collection step of outputting the set of questions acquired in the set of questions acquisition step and collecting responses from the participants to the set of questions; a message generation instruction step of outputting an instruction to a message generating device for generating a message artificially issued by the object using the answers collected in the answer collecting step; a generated message evaluation step of acquiring a message generated by the message generating device, comparing the acquired message with the answers collected in the answer collecting step, and evaluating the acquired message based on the degree of matching of the respective characteristic words; a message output step of outputting an evaluated message generated by the message generating device and evaluated in the generated message evaluation step as a message from the object; A method for providing a message comprising the steps of:

2. The message providing method according to claim 1, characterized in that the response collecting step includes a request notification step of notifying the participant that an additional response is required when the amount of information collected regarding the participant's response is small.

3. obtaining a set of questions for collecting information about the object from participants related to the object as responses to the questions; outputting the acquired set of questions and collecting answers from the participants to the set of questions; outputting instructions to a message generating device for generating a message artificially issued by the object using the collected responses; Acquire a message generated by the message generating device, compare the acquired message with the collected answers, and evaluate the message based on the degree of match of the characteristic words of the messages, An evaluated message evaluated by comparing the acquired message with the collected answers is output for presentation to the participants as a message from the object. A message providing device comprising:

4. Computer, obtaining a set of questions for collecting information about the object from participants related to the object as responses to the questions; outputting the acquired set of questions and collecting answers from the participants to the set of questions; outputting instructions to a message generating device for generating a message artificially issued by the object using the collected responses; Acquire a message generated by the message generating device, compare the acquired message with the collected answers, and evaluate the message based on the degree of match of the characteristic words of the messages, An evaluated message evaluated by comparing the acquired message with the collected answers is output for presentation to the participants as a message from the object. A message providing program that functions as a device.

5. a question group acquisition step of acquiring a question group for collecting information about the deceased from participants related to the deceased as answers to the questions; a response collection step of outputting the set of questions acquired in the set of questions acquisition step and collecting responses from the participants to the set of questions; a message generation instruction step of outputting an instruction to a message generation device for generating a message uttered artificially by the deceased person using the answers collected in the answer collection step; a generated message evaluation step of acquiring a message generated by the message generating device, comparing the acquired message with the answers collected in the answer collecting step, and evaluating the acquired message based on the degree of matching of the respective characteristic words; a message output step of outputting an evaluated message generated by the message generating device and evaluated in the generated message evaluation step as a message from the deceased person; A method for providing a message comprising the steps of:

6. a question group acquisition step of acquiring a question group for collecting information about the deceased from participants related to the deceased as answers to the questions, the question group being classified into a plurality of categories so that the participants can grasp the deceased from multiple perspectives; a response collection step of outputting the set of questions acquired in the question collection step according to a dual process model of grief work and collecting responses from the participants to the set of questions; a message generation instruction step of outputting an instruction to a message generation device for generating a message uttered artificially by the deceased person using the answers collected in the answer collection step; a generated message evaluation step of acquiring a message generated by the message generating device, comparing the acquired message with the answers collected in the answer collecting step, and evaluating the acquired message based on the degree of matching of the respective characteristic words; a message output step of outputting an evaluated message generated by the message generating device and evaluated in the generated message evaluation step as a message from the deceased person; A method for providing a message comprising the steps of:

Images