JPH03262230A - Composite mail delivering system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To allow this system to offer the simplified message communication service with excellent operability by allowing delivering destination to designate the delivery destination without notifying the classification of a medium for which a message is constituted by a caller. CONSTITUTION:In order to avoid complicated terminal equipment numbers, a message delivery destination number list by medium classifications at every delivery destination is registered in advance in a composite mail device 5. A caller designates the delivery destination by designating the delivery destination ID of a recipient independently of a delivered message at the time of the message delivery. The composite mail device 5 handles the each message information of a different kind of medium as unified information and stores it in a memory 15 and a disk 17. The composite mail device 5 detects the classifications of medium sent by the caller depending which of voice, facsimile data interfaces is accessed, and used 2 sets of information comprising it and the delivery destination ID designated by the caller as a key to retrieve the message delivery destination number list by the medium classifications at every delivery destination and to decide the destination number and delivers the message of a relevant medium to terminal equipments (2, 3, 4...).

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a composite mail delivery system, and in particular, the present invention relates to a multi-media delivery method, and in particular, the present invention relates to a multi-media delivery system, in which messages are sent by multiple media by being engraved on various terminal devices connected to an exchange network and handling various media. This invention relates to a composite mail delivery method that can effectively service information.

[Prior Art] Recently, using an e-mail device installed in a switching network, message information in various media such as voice, image, text, etc. is queued to terminal devices connected to the switching network and sent simultaneously. Devices have been developed that provide email services such as information, confidential, and circulation services. This e-mail device stores and manages various types of message information for each medium to which the message belongs, such as voice mail service using a telephone, facsimile mail service using a facsimile terminal, and data terminal such as a personal computer. It provides e-mail services using text mail services, etc.

Conventional technology regarding this type of e-mail service is as follows:
For example, JP-A No. 60-30244, JP-A No. 60-30244,
The technique described in Japanese Patent No. 30245 and the like is known.

These conventional technologies are related to the case where multimedia mail is used for a retrieval service, and by notifying the existence of messages in other media using the medium at the time of access, messages in other media can be retrieved again. Users can access and retrieve the information, allowing them to communicate messages using multiple media.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, the above-mentioned prior art does not give consideration to a multi-media message communication method in a delivery service, which is the basis of message communication. For example, in the above-mentioned conventional technology, when delivering multiple media such as voice and facsimile, the method of specifying the delivery destination is the nearest telephone number of the destination in the case of voice, and the nearest telephone number of the destination in the case of facsimile. The operation is complicated in that the caller has to select the delivery destination depending on the delivery medium, such as a facsimile telephone number.

Also, as mentioned above, if a message delivered by a delivery service is composed of message information from multiple media, the message information from those multiple media will be delivered at the same time or after a certain period of time, and will be delivered to the recipient at the same time. If this is not possible, it cannot be said that an efficient message communication service has been provided.

For example, in the delivery service according to the conventional technology, when a message consisting of voice and facsimile is sent,
Due to the difference in the load ratio between voice mail and facsimile mail in the multi-mail device, voice mail was delivered but facsimile mail was not delivered to the recipient even after several hours had passed, and as a result, facsimile mail was There is a risk that the message communication will be inefficient, such as having to confirm the voice mail part with the sender when it arrives.

Conversely, even if voice and facsimile messages can be delivered to the recipient at the same time, depending on the recipient's environment, each person may receive only one phone call.
Although fax machines are assigned to individual machines, fax machines may be assigned to groups or workplace floors, and it may take time for the output fax to be delivered to you. It may happen that the voice message can be heard directly, but the facsimile cannot be viewed at the same time as the voice message.

Due to the above-mentioned circumstances, multimedia mail services have been developed around retrieval services that message recipients can access whenever they wish, rather than time-constrained delivery services. .

However, in the retrieval service, if the message recipient is -
Since the user must access the multifunction mail device and perform operations to do so, if the user neglects access due to busy schedules or other reasons, the message will not be retrieved during that time, making it impossible to expect timely message communication. There is a problem.

In addition, in the retrieval service of the multimedia communication system according to the conventional technology, when retrieving a message composed of message information of multiple media, if it is found that there is a part of the message composed of other media, However, there is a problem in that the multimedia mail system must be accessed again using a terminal for supporting other media to retrieve messages from other media, making the operation complicated.

The purpose of the present invention is to solve the problems of the prior art described above,
Even when one message to a terminal device is composed of a plurality of pieces of message information belonging to each of a plurality of media, this is a highly practical composite that can effectively service these message information to the terminal device. The purpose is to provide a mail delivery method.

[Means for Solving the Problems] According to the present invention, the above object is achieved by providing an index table for delivery destination numbers by media, which is composed of a delivery destination ID and a delivery destination number for each medium, for each delivery destination. achieved,
Furthermore, this is achieved by managing linkage information between message information of each medium constituting one message within the composite mail device and setting a time lag in the delivery time of the message information to be delivered.

Furthermore, the above object is achieved by, when a person who retrieves message information from a certain medium instructs a delivery destination for the message information from another medium, the composite mail device delivers the message information from the other media to the delivery destination. Ru.

[Operation] A delivery destination ID consisting of a delivery destination for media A, a delivery destination for media B, a delivery destination for media C, etc. is registered in advance in the composite mail device. The mail delivery service user (delivery instruction person) only needs to specify the above-mentioned registered delivery destination ID, without being aware of the mail delivery destination. The composite mail device can thereby determine the medium to be sent, search for a delivery destination for each medium based on the specified delivery destination ID, and deliver the medium to the corresponding delivery destination.

When a user requests a delivery service using multiple media, the user instructs the composite mail device to inform the multiple media that message information from multiple media constitutes one message. Thereby, the compound mail device manages within the compound mail device that message information from a plurality of media are linked to each other. Furthermore, when delivering one piece of message information from a plurality of media constituting one message, the composite mail device can deliver message information from other media linked to the message information from that medium with a time difference. This enables multimedia communication with high utility value in delivery services.

If the user's message exists in multiple media, when the message in one media is retrieved from the user, that media is used to notify the existence of the other media, and the message is sent to the other media. The user confirms whether or not to deliver the message, and if so, has the user specify the delivery destination using the corresponding media within the same call. Upon receiving this instruction, the composite mail device can output the message via other media to the specified delivery destination.

[Embodiment] Hereinafter, an embodiment of the composite mail delivery system according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an exchange network equipped with a combined mail delivery function according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a management form of message delivery destination information, and FIG. A flowchart explaining the procedure for searching message delivery information; FIG. 4 is a diagram explaining the flow of queue information for facsimile data and audio data output processing; FIG. 5 is a diagram explaining details of the queue information;
FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically showing the management form of the queue management table for each delivery destination terminal number, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart explaining the procedure for accessing the table shown in FIG. 6.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating the procedure of the message service, and FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating the connection procedure between the terminal device and the composite mail device for carrying out the message service. In Figure 1, 1 is a switchboard, 2.2 is a telephone, and 3 is a telephone.
．． 3 is a facsimile terminal, 4.4 is a data terminal, 5 is a composite mail device, 11 is a voice interface, 12 is a facsimile interface, 13 is a data interface, 14 is a CPU, 15 is a memo I, 16 is a disk controller, and 17 is a It is a disk device.

The exchange network according to an embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG.
2. A telephone as a terminal device that handles audio media.
2', facsimile terminal that handles image data 3.3
', data terminals 4, 4'', etc. that handle code data are connected to a composite mail device 5.The exchange 1 connects the aforementioned terminal devices other than the composite mail device 5 through line circuits. It is connected to a central office line etc. via a trunk circuit (not shown), and a switch circuit is switched under the control of a processor that performs overall call processing to control exchange connections between arbitrary terminal devices. are doing.

The composite mail device 5 connected to the exchange 1 has a voice interface 1], a facsimile interface 12,
It is equipped with a data interface 13 and handles each message information of different media such as audio media, image media, code media etc. as unified data, and these message information are stored in the memory 15 and the disk device 1.
It will be accumulated in 7th grade. Each piece of message information is then retrieved at any timing under the control of the CPU 14, and sent to the terminal device that accessed it or the terminal device that has been designated to output the message for the purpose of message communication service. sent to.

The disk device 17 is connected to other interfaces, the CPU 14, and the memory 15 via a disk controller 16 that provides an interface.

In the system according to one embodiment of the present invention configured as described above, delivery designation of message information is performed as follows.

Currently, telephone 2, facsimile terminal 3, and data terminal 4
Consider the case where a message sender who owns a telephone 2', a facsimile terminal 3'', and a message receiver who also owns a data terminal 4'' delivers a message.

In such a case, the above-mentioned prior art requires that if the sender intends to use the telephone 2 to deliver audio media to the recipient, for example, the sender must specify the number of the telephone 2'' owned by the recipient. , Similarly, when trying to deliver image data to a recipient using the facsimile terminal 3, specify the number of the facsimile terminal 3' owned by the recipient,
If the data terminal 4 is used to deliver the code data to the recipient, the data terminal 4' owned by the recipient
The message sender selected and specified the terminal equipment number owned by the message recipient, keeping in mind the medium to be delivered.

In one embodiment of the present invention, in order to avoid the above-mentioned complexity of terminal equipment number selection, as shown in FIG.
A media-specific delivery destination number table for each delivery destination is registered in advance in the composite mail device 5, and the message sender can specify the delivery destination ID of the message recipient when delivering the message, regardless of the delivery medium. Accordingly, the delivery destination can be specified.

The composite mail device 5 uses the voice interface 1 shown in FIG. 1 to determine the type of media sent from the message sender.
1. Detected when either the facsimile interface 12 or the data interface 13 is accessed, and uses two pieces of information as keys: the detected media type and the delivery destination ID specified by the message sender,
It searches the delivery destination number table for each delivery destination and media shown in FIG. 2, determines the message delivery destination number, and operates to deliver the message of the corresponding medium to the terminal device.

The delivery destination number table for each delivery destination and media shown in Figure 2 is as follows:
The delivery destination number for each media is registered for each delivery destination. Using the message delivery destination ID, a table for each delivery destination is obtained via the delivery destination number and table address, and this table is described above. The configuration is such that the delivery destination terminal device number can be determined by searching for the type of media detected in .

An overview of the above-mentioned processing will be explained using the flow shown in FIG.

(1) When receiving a delivery request from a message sender, the compound mail device 5 receives the delivery destination ID and the message in a predetermined medium, and stores the message in the memory 15 or disk device 17 via the corresponding interface.
At the same time, the type of media is identified from the activated interface (step 31).

(2) Search for the delivery destination number and table address using the delivery destination ID as a key, and secure the delivery destination number and table address (steps 32 and 33).

(3) Using the delivery destination number, table address, and media type as keys, search and secure the delivery destination number for each media, and send the message to this delivery destination (
Step 34.35).

According to the embodiment of the present invention described above, the message sender can specify the delivery destination of the message without being aware of the type of media that composes the message, thereby providing a very easy-to-use and highly efficient message communication service. It can be carried out.

In one embodiment of the present invention, when a message consisting of message information in a plurality of media is delivered to a message recipient, after the message information consisting of one medium is delivered to the message recipient, the message information is sent from other media at a time lag. The message information consisting of the message information can be delivered to the message recipient.

The operation in this case will be explained below.

Now, let us consider a case in which a message sender wishes to deliver a floor plan of the vicinity of a meeting place and an added voice explaining it to a plurality of message recipients, for example, in order to guide the meeting.

At this time, the message sender uses the facsimile terminal 3 that he or she owns to request the multifunction mail device 5 to deliver a floor plan near the meeting place, and uses the telephone 2 to make a voice request for the floor plan. The user makes a voice request to the composite mail device 5 to deliver the explanation.

When requesting delivery to the multifunction mail device 5 using the facsimile terminal 3 and telephone 2, the message sender:
The delivery destination I such as the delivery destination terminal number is sent to the composite mail device 5.
D, and a number (hereinafter referred to as a message number) that can be arbitrarily adopted by the message sender in the sense that a plurality of message information of different media constitutes one message.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 6, the composite mail device 5 that has received the delivery request divides the message information received for each delivery destination terminal number (or delivery destination ID) into queues and inks for each medium. I'll keep it. The format of this queue, except for the forward pointer and backward pointer, is as shown in FIG. Address, final address, media type (voice, facsimile, code, etc.) indicating the type of message information medium, message number specified by the message sender at the time of delivery request, and interval indicating the time until the next message information is delivered. Consists of values.

The interval value until the next message information is delivered may be registered as a fixed value in the system or as a variable value for each delivery destination.
The message sender may give instructions when requesting delivery.

Now, in the composite mail device 5 that received the message delivery request as described above, message information constituting one message sent by the message sender is stored as message information constituting one message.
Since there are messages for voice media and facsimile media, there is one queue for voice media and one queue for facsimile media in the queue table for each delivery destination terminal number shown in Figure 6, and these queues are , are linked by the same message number.

In this state, the compound mail device 5 sends the data delivery shown in FIG. 4 to the designated delivery destination in a predetermined priority order, that is, in this example, giving priority to facsimile media. It is connected to the rear of the facsimile data delivery queue 41 in the relationship diagram. This facsimile data delivery queue 41 is output as actual facsimile data to the designated delivery destination in the next stage of facsimile data output processing.

Through this facsimile output process, the facsimile data containing the floor plan has been output to the designated delivery destination.

Thereafter, the compound mail device 5 uses the delivery destination terminal number shown in the corresponding queue of the facsimile that has finished outputting (the facsimile data queue with the sketch) as a key, and sends it to the delivery destination shown in FIG. Index the queue table for each terminal. With this index, the composite mail device 5 can
Using the message number in the corresponding queue for which the facsimile output has been completed as a key, searching for a message information queue of a plurality of remaining media constituting one message from media with a priority equal to or lower than the media type in the corresponding queue; After the time indicated by the interval value in the corresponding queue has elapsed after the facsimile has been output, the message information queue in another medium, which was previously searched from the queue table for each delivery destination terminal, i.e., in this example, the audio media queue that remains. , connected to the rear of the audio data delivery queue 42 shown in FIG. In this case, if you want to increase the accuracy of delivery time, connect this queue to the front.

Thereby, the audio explanation for the sketch is outputted to the designated terminal through the audio data output process shown in FIG. 4. Thereafter, the compound mail device 5 searches the queue table for each delivery destination terminal in FIG. 6 for the message information queue of the next medium, as in the case after facsimile output, but in this example, the message information queue of the other medium is searched. Since the message does not exist, the delivery specified above is terminated.

Next, an outline of the above-mentioned operation will be explained using the flow shown in FIG. The operations up to the completion of facsimile data output are the same as those in the first embodiment of the present invention described above, so only the operations after the completion of facsimile data output will be described here.

(1) When the output of facsimile data is completed, the facsimile data in the facsimile data delivery queue for which this output has been completed is
The delivery destination terminal number, message number, and interval value are saved (steps 71 and 72).

(2) Using the delivery destination number as a key, search the queue management table for each corresponding delivery destination terminal number, and check whether there is a code media queue with the same message number as the message number saved in step 72. (Steps 73.74).

(3) In step 74, if there is a code media cue, take the interval value saved in step 72,
Output code media email (step 75.7)
6).

(4) After completion of step 76, or if there is no coded media cue in step 74, check whether there is an audio media cue with the same message number as the message number saved in step 72; if not, process. If there is, the interval value saved in step 72 is taken and the audio media mail is output (steps 77 to 79).

In the above, if, after receiving the floor plan by facsimile, the recipient urgently wishes to send a message explaining the contents of the floor plan by telephone, he/she can send a message explaining the contents of the floor plan by telephone by accessing the composite mail device 5. It is also possible to search and retrieve the information from the queue table for each delivery destination terminal number in FIG.

According to the above-described operation example of the present invention, it is possible to provide message information from multiple media constituting one message as a delivery service, thereby eliminating the problem of forgetting to retrieve mail, which is common in retrieval services, and ensuring reliable and efficient delivery. Furthermore, since one message is composed of multiple media, it is possible to provide message communication services with rich content.

Furthermore, according to the operation example of the present invention described above, there is a time difference in the delivery of message information by a plurality of media constituting one message, and the time difference can be freely selected. rear,
This gives you time to understand the message, and since it is a delivery service, there is no charge to the recipient of the message.

The present invention further provides a method for transmitting messages from other media within the same call according to instructions from the person accessing the compound mail device, if it is found that there is a message sent to the person accessing the compound mail device by another media user when the compound mail device is accessed. Delivery can be made to the terminal equipment handled.

The operation in this case will be explained below.

Here, the operation will be described on the assumption that when the composite mail device 5 is accessed using the telephone 2, there is a facsimile message in addition to the voice message.

When the composite mail device 5 is accessed by the telephone set 2 in FIG. This can be easily learned by using the technology described in, etc.

However, in the prior art, even if a message containing facsimile data is received, the facsimile data cannot be retrieved from the telephone 2, and the facsimile terminal 3 is used to access the multifunction mail device 5 again. It was about extracting data.

As shown in FIG. 9, one embodiment of the present invention uses the telephone 2 to retrieve the number of the facsimile terminal 3, which is the output light of facsimile data, during the same call as when the telephone 2 retrieves voice data. , the compound mail device 5 detects the output light of the facsimile data using the bush signal detector, and outputs the facsimile data to the detected number, as described above. This eliminates a lot of complexity.

The outline of this operation will be explained below with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9.

(1) When accessing the composite mail device 5,
The accessing person connects to the composite mail device 5 by dialing, and sends an ID signal according to the response guidance sent after the connection is established (step 81).

(2) The compound mail device 5 checks whether there is a message sent to the accessing person by media other than voice, such as facsimile, and if there is no other message, only the voice message is sent to the accessing person (step 82 .83).

(3) In step 82, if there is a facsimile message, a voice message is transmitted and the accessing person is notified by voice that there is a facsimile message (step 84).

(4) After receiving this notification, the accessing person who has been informed that there is a message by facsimile notifies the composite mail device 5 of the output light of the facsimile message by a push signal of the telephone or the like, The call is temporarily disconnected (step 85) (5) After that, the multifunction mail device connects by dialing based on the number of the destination of the facsimile data received in step 85, and transmits the facsimile data ( Step 86).

In the operation example described above, when the multifunction mail device 5 is accessed by the facsimile terminal 3 and the data terminal 4 in addition to the telephone 2, even if it is found that there are messages in other media, the messages in those other media are Output light can be directed to the composite mail device in each medium within the same call as the composite mail access.

According to the above-described operation example according to an embodiment of the present invention, when there are messages in a plurality of media, it is not necessary to access these messages many times from a terminal device that handles each medium to retrieve the messages. In order to survive,
This has the advantage that message recipients are not charged, and there is no need to use a terminal device to access the multifunction mail device 5 over and over again, which improves operability. Obtainable.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, the following effects can be achieved.

In the delivery service of multimedia communication systems,
Since the message delivery destination can be specified without being aware of the message sender or the type of media composing the message, a simplified message communication service with good operability can be provided.

Since message information from a plurality of media constituting one message can be provided as a delivery service, a reliable and efficient message communication service can be provided.

Furthermore, it is possible to set a time difference in the delivery of message information by a plurality of media constituting one message, and it is possible to provide message communication services with good operability and efficiency to message recipients.

When a message in multiple media exists for a message recipient, the first media that accesses the multimedia device can be used to notify the presence of a message in other media and specify the output of that message. Therefore, it is possible to provide a message communication service that is easy to use for users.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an exchange network equipped with a composite mail delivery function according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing a management form of message delivery destination information, and FIG. is a flowchart explaining the procedure for searching message delivery information; FIG. 4 is a diagram explaining the flow of queue information for facsimile data and voice data output processing; FIG. 5 is a diagram explaining details of the above queue information;
FIG. 6 is a diagram schematically showing the management form of the queue management table for each delivery destination terminal number, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart explaining the procedure for accessing the table shown in FIG. 6.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating the procedure of the message service, and FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating the connection procedure between the terminal device and the composite mail device for carrying out the message service. 1... Switchboard, 2.2°... Telephone,
3.3 "Facsimile terminal, 4.4"... Data terminal, 5... Composite mail device, 11... Voice interface, 12... Facsimile interface, 13...・Data interface, 14・
...CPU, 15...Memo 1 bar 16...
... Disk controller, 17... Disk device. Ryo 2 figure 267 Ryo 3 figure 4 Izuhan 8 figure JP-A-3 262230 (11) Illustration duplication. 1 gradient 1 menopu

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Various terminal equipment and line switching equipment that handle various media;
and a multimedia communication system configured with a multimedia mail device, which is characterized in that instructions and management of message delivery destinations using multiple media are performed all at once, regardless of the media being handled. Delivery method. 2. When one message to be delivered is composed of message information of multiple media, linkage information is provided between the multiple message information and these message information are delivered to the message recipient with a time difference. The composite mail delivery method according to claim 1, characterized in that: 3. When accessing a compound mail device, if it is determined that a message from another medium exists in the compound mail device, the message sent by another medium will be sent to the compound mail device according to the specification from the person accessing the compound mail device during the same call. 3. The composite mail delivery method according to claim 1, wherein the message is delivered to a terminal device that handles media.