JPH10178501A - Information processing method, device and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To effectively call the desired opposite party with a simple operation by retrieving the telephone number of a sender of an instructed mail and connecting a remote device that inputs an instruction to the telephone of a retrieved telephone number. SOLUTION: A command recognizing part 104 recognizes which button is pressed when there is a command input from a user. Here, a signal that is sent by pressing a push button and a command that corresponds to it are preliminarily stored. For instance, when 1, 5 and # are inputted, it is decided that the command means a request of a telephone replay, and a telephone replay processing part 105 executes telephone replay processing. That is, the part 105 extracts an electronic mail address of an originator from header information of an electronic mail and fetches the originator's telephone number from a transfer telephone number holding part 106 with the electronic mail address as a retrieval key. Then, it performs dial processing of the telephone number and calls a transfer telephone.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information processing method and apparatus and a storage medium, and more particularly to confirming the contents of an electronic mail addressed to the user using a telephone.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the development of networks, the use of electronic mail has been widespread. In addition, electronic mail is often used to transmit information such as guidance for meetings. For this reason, if you are away from your computer for a long time,
There has been a problem that e-mail cannot be read and important information cannot be known.

[0003] As a countermeasure to this problem, there is an "e-mail reading device" for confirming the contents of an e-mail using a telephone. This device retrieves an e-mail addressed to the user when the user calls the e-mail reading device,
It converts it to voice and conveys it to the user over the phone. With this device, wherever you have a phone,
You can check the contents of the e-mail addressed to you.

[0004]

However, by taking some action on the received e-mail, such as not only receiving it, but also replying to it, the e-mail becomes more useful as a communication means. .

However, in the conventional "e-mail reading device" for confirming the contents of e-mail using a telephone, there has not been a function of replying to e-mail.
Therefore, the user who has confirmed the contents of the e-mail by telephone, if he / she wants to reply, looks up the telephone number of the other party in his / her address book and makes a call to the number, or uses a computer having an e-mail function again. Even when replying, the user must check the mail address of the other party in his / her address book and send the mail, which is troublesome and increases the time loss.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, the present invention recognizes a telephone transfer instruction input from a remote device and issues the instruction in response to the recognition of the telephone transfer instruction. The present invention provides an information processing method, an apparatus, and a storage medium that search for a telephone number of a sender of an e-mail and control to connect a remote device that has input the instruction and the telephone of the searched telephone number.

[0007] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, the present invention preferably determines a mail which is being read out at the time when the instruction is recognized, as the mail to which the instruction has been issued.

[0008] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, the present invention preferably inputs information for specifying the mail to be transferred by telephone together with the telephone transfer instruction, and the instruction is given by the input information. Identify the email that was sent.

[0009] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, the present invention preferably provides an information indicating the order of the read mail from among the read mails. Information.

[0010] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, according to the present invention, preferably, the information for specifying the mail to be forwarded by telephone is information for specifying the sender of the mail.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problem of the prior art, the present invention preferably notifies the searched telephone number by voice instead of the telephone connection control.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, the present invention preferably notifies the searched telephone number by voice.

[0013] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, the present invention preferably stores a mail address and a telephone number corresponding to the mail address in advance in association with each other, and stores the stored information. Is used to perform the search.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, the present invention preferably stores an e-mail address and a plurality of telephone numbers corresponding to the e-mail address in advance in association with each other. Control to connect the line to a plurality of telephone numbers sequentially.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, the present invention preferably stores the plurality of telephone numbers in a priority order.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, according to the present invention, preferably, the telephone transfer instruction is input by a push button signal.

To solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, the present invention preferably provides that the remote device is a telephone.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, the present invention preferably restores the line connection with the remote device in response to the line disconnection with the telephone of the searched telephone number. .

[0019]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the device according to the present invention. In the figure, 101 is a telephone, 102 is a public network, 103 is a speech synthesis output unit, 104 is a command recognition unit, 105 is a telephone reply processing unit, 106 is a transfer telephone number holding unit, and 107 is an e-mail holding unit.

FIG. 2 shows a hardware configuration of the apparatus according to the present invention. Here, a control memory 21 stores a control program according to a control procedure as shown in the flowchart of FIG. Reference numeral 22 denotes a central processing unit that performs determination, calculation, and the like in accordance with a control procedure stored in the control memory 21. 23 is a memory. 24 is a disk device,
The transfer telephone number holding unit 106 and the electronic mail holding unit 107 are held. 25 is a bus.

Next, the operation according to the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

When a user makes a telephone call to the present apparatus and the telephone is connected to the present apparatus via a public line (S301), the present apparatus performs use start processing such as confirmation of a user ID (S301).
302), an appropriate e-mail is extracted from the e-mail holding unit (S303), and is read out by the speech synthesis output unit and output from a telephone connected via a public line (S304).

When the reading of one mail extracted in S303 is completed, the system waits for a command input from the user (S303).
305). When there is a command input from the user, the command recognition unit recognizes what kind of input has been made (which push button has been pressed). Here, the signal transmitted by pressing the push button and the corresponding command are stored in advance, and the user presses the button based on this rule and the device recognizes it. For example, if the command “request for telephone call” is determined in advance as push buttons “1” + “5” + “#”,
When "1.5. #" Is input, it is determined that the command indicates a request for a telephone reply (S306), and the telephone reply processing unit 105 executes a telephone reply process (S307).

The telephone reply processing unit 105 extracts the sender's e-mail address from the header information of the e-mail,
Using the electronic mail address as a search key, the telephone number of the caller is extracted from the transfer telephone number holding unit 106.
Then, the telephone number is dialed and a transfer call is made. FIG. 4 is an example of the transfer destination telephone number holding unit 106,
The e-mail address and the telephone number are stored in association with each other.

In the case of another command (S308),
The corresponding process is executed (S309).

When the user hangs up the telephone or inputs a command indicating termination or confirms that there is no e-mail to be read out (S310), the processing of this apparatus is terminated.

If another command such as an end command has not been input for a certain period of time, or if a command for instructing "reading the next mail" has been input, the process returns to S303, and from the next mail extraction to S310. Continue processing.

Also, in the above description, a command input waiting step (S
305) is described, but if a command (push button signal) is input during the reading of the mail in S304, the reading of the mail may be interrupted and the processing of S306 to S310 may be started. .

The telephone reply processing in S307 causes S3
After connecting the telephone line connected to the apparatus at 01 in the destination designated at S306, the connection is cut off by the other party to return to the same connection state as S301 again. By doing so, the processing of the mail by another command (S309) and the reading processing of the next mail can be continued, and the user can read the mail and reply to the telephone by one line connection operation to the apparatus. , The reading of the mail can be resumed.

When the telephone of the user and the telephone of the mail sender are connected by the telephone reply process in S307,
The line between the user's telephone and the apparatus may be disconnected.

After the telephone reply processing in S307, the user may be able to select whether or not to resume the connection with the apparatus at S302 by a command.

In the above example, an example has been described in which a command input wait state is entered each time one mail is read out and a telephone reply command is received for the one mail read out, but this command is received. The timing is not limited to this example. For example, when the user sends a telephone reply command to
Alternatively, by inputting a command of “anybody's mail” and recognizing the command by the command recognizing unit 104, the specified mail is taken out of the mail connected in the command S301 and read out in S304, A telephone reply process can also be performed.

In the above description, as an example of the transfer destination telephone number holding unit, one telephone number is stored for one mail address, but as the telephone number of the caller,
For example, if there is a plurality of phone numbers such as a company phone number, a home phone number, and a mobile phone number, a plurality of phone numbers are associated with one mail address and held, and a call is made to one phone number. When there is no other party, a call may be made to another telephone number. In this case, priorities may be added to the plurality of telephone numbers in advance, and calls may be made in this order.

In the above embodiment, a transfer call is made to the telephone number of the caller retrieved from the transfer telephone number holding unit. However, in consideration of a user who wants to call the caller later, the transfer telephone is called. Instead of calling, the phone number of the caller may be read aloud. Further, a transfer call may be made and the telephone number may be read out.

The present invention may be applied to a system constituted by a plurality of devices or to an apparatus constituted by a single device. A recording medium storing software program codes for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiments is supplied to a system or an apparatus, and a computer (or CPU or MPU) of the system or apparatus executes the program code stored in the recording medium. Needless to say, this can also be achieved by executing the reading.

In this case, the program code itself read from the recording medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment, and the recording medium on which the program code is recorded constitutes the present invention.

As a recording medium for supplying the program code, for example, a floppy disk, hard disk, optical disk, magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, C
DR, magnetic tape, nonvolatile memory card, ROM
Etc. can be used.

When the computer executes the readout program code, not only the functions of the above-described embodiment are realized, but also the OS or the like running on the computer is actually executed based on the instructions of the program code. It goes without saying that a part or all of the above-described processing is performed, and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

Further, after the program code read from the recording medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion board inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on an instruction of the program code, It goes without saying that the CPU provided in the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs a part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

[0041]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Recognizing the telephone transfer instruction input from the remote device, searching for the telephone number of the sender of the instructed mail in response to the recognition of the telephone transfer instruction; By controlling the connection with the telephone having the specified telephone number, a desired party can be efficiently called by a simple operation. In addition, a telephone call can be made in response to listening to the mail.

As described above, according to the present invention, the mail read out at the time when the instruction is recognized is determined as the mail to which the instruction is given, so that the telephone can be called when the mail is heard. Can be applied.

As described above, according to the present invention, together with the telephone transfer instruction, information for specifying the mail to be transferred is input, and the input information is used to specify the mail for which the instruction has been made. Thus, even after the e-mail has been heard, the operation of making a call to a desired party can be easily performed.

As described above, according to the present invention, the information for specifying the mail to be forwarded by telephone is information indicating the order of the read-out mail. Thereby, a call can be made to a desired party by a simple operation of instructing how many plums are.

As described above, according to the present invention, the information for specifying the mail to be forwarded by the telephone is the information for specifying the sender of the mail. Can be applied.

As described above, according to the present invention, the searched telephone number is notified by voice instead of the telephone connection control, so that the telephone number of a desired partner can be easily obtained. You can enter.

As described above, according to the present invention, by notifying the searched telephone number by voice,
In addition to automatic dialing to the desired party, the telephone number can be easily obtained.

As described above, according to the present invention, an e-mail address and a telephone number corresponding to the e-mail address are stored in advance in association with each other, and the search is performed using the stored information. By doing so, even when the telephone number is not entered in the mail itself, the telephone number of the sender of the mail can be reliably searched.

As described above, according to the present invention, an e-mail address and a plurality of telephone numbers corresponding to the e-mail address are stored in advance in association with each other, and the plurality of stored telephone numbers are stored in advance. By controlling to connect the lines sequentially, the lines can be reliably connected to the sender even if the sender has a plurality of contacts.

As described above, according to the present invention, a priority can be added to the plurality of telephone numbers and stored, so that the line can be more efficiently connected to the sender.

As described above, according to the present invention, by inputting the telephone transfer instruction by a push button signal, any desired simple input means capable of inputting a push button signal is provided. You can make a telephone reply to the other party.

As described above, according to the present invention, the remote device can be used as a telephone, and can perform a telephone reply process to a desired party anywhere as long as there is a general means such as a telephone.

As described above, according to the present invention, when the line with the telephone of the searched telephone number is disconnected, the line connection with the remote device is restored, so that the desired number can be restored. Even after replying to the caller, the user can resume listening to the e-mail without calling again.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a basic configuration diagram of an information processing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a system configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart showing a processing procedure of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a transfer telephone number holding unit in the present invention.

Claims (15)

[Claims] 1. A method for recognizing a telephone transfer instruction input from a remote device, retrieving a telephone number of a sender of an e-mail instructed in response to the recognition of the telephone transfer instruction, An information processing method, comprising controlling to connect a device and a telephone having the retrieved telephone number. 2. The information processing method according to claim 1, wherein the mail read out at the time when the instruction is recognized is determined as the mail to which the instruction has been given. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein information for specifying the mail to be transferred is input together with the telephone transfer instruction, and the specified mail is specified based on the input information. Information processing method. 4. The information according to claim 3, wherein the information for specifying the mail to be forwarded by telephone is information indicating the order of the read out mail. Information processing method. 5. The information processing method according to claim 3, wherein the information for specifying the mail to be transferred by telephone is information for specifying a sender of the mail. 6. The information processing method according to claim 1, wherein the searched telephone number is notified by voice instead of the telephone connection control. 7. The information processing method according to claim 1, wherein the searched telephone number is notified by voice. 8. The method according to claim 1, wherein an e-mail address and a telephone number corresponding to the e-mail address are stored in association with each other, and the search is performed using the stored information. The information processing method described. 9. A method in which an e-mail address and a plurality of telephone numbers corresponding to the e-mail address are stored in advance in association with each other, and control is performed such that a line is sequentially connected to the plurality of stored telephone numbers. 2. The information processing method according to claim 1, wherein: 10. The information processing method according to claim 1, wherein priorities are added to the plurality of telephone numbers and stored. 11. The information processing method according to claim 1, wherein the telephone transfer instruction is input by a push button signal. 12. The information processing method according to claim 1, wherein the remote device is a telephone. 13. The information processing method according to claim 1, wherein a line connection with the remote device is restored when a line with the telephone of the searched telephone number is disconnected. 14. An instruction recognizing means for recognizing a telephone transfer instruction input from a remote device, and a search means for retrieving a telephone number of a sender of the instructed mail in response to the recognition of the telephone transfer instruction. An information processing apparatus comprising: a remote device that has input the instruction; and control means for controlling connection between the remote device and the telephone having the searched telephone number. 15. A computer-readable storage medium, comprising: a step of recognizing a telephone transfer instruction input from a remote device; and, in response to the recognition of the telephone transfer instruction, a sender of a mail instructed by the instruction. A storage medium storing a program of a step of searching for the telephone number of the remote controller, and a step of controlling connection between the remote device that has input the instruction and the telephone having the searched telephone number.