A METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PROVIDING AND CONTROLLING A VIRTUAL AGENT AND VIRTUAL PET USED FOR E-MAIL, A CONTROL PROGRAM SUPPLY MEDIUM

摘要

An E-mail can be sent easily with an animated representation as if a pet were going in and out on a GUI picture simulating the inside of a room for dispatching or delivering a mail. In addition, the user can send an E-mail with a friendly feeling for an agent. By sending agent data updated responsive to experiences of an electronic pet as annexed papers to the E-mail, the animation as if an electronic pet (103) were going in and out on a GUI picture (100) simulating the inside of a room for dispatching or delivering a mail is displayed. The behaviour of the pet displayed by animation is varied depending on the keeping environment. The electronic pet (103) selects an illustrative sentence in keeping with the agent data from pre-set illustrative sentences for voluntary sending the sentence as an E-mail to a user who is a keeper or to a counterpart of past mailing of the user. IMAGE