KR20060099058A - Electronic namecard management system and method that promote convenient input of paper namecard data - Google Patents

Abstract

The main object of the present invention is to facilitate the input of the contents of a business card (company / department / phone number / address, etc.) into a computer (PC) used by an individual.

That is, the person who received the business card manually inputs all the information into the PC by hand or uses the optical character reader without using a method such as using the optical card reader. It is a basic idea of the present invention to help input and to provide electronic business cards to provide convenience of business card management.

Internet, Email, Email, Business Card, Contact

Description

Electronic namecard management system and method that promote convenient input of paper namecard data}

1: Overall configuration conceptual diagram

2: Improvement of electronic business card and memo field

As PC and INTERNET are spreading and developing, most of the management work such as storing and modifying personal information (contact information) that are obtained through business cards is also performed on the PC.

In other words, Microsoft's Outlook (including Outlook Express) products are installed as free or commercial products on almost all PCs, so the environment supporting management of the business card information once entered is well established.

(Of course, there are many personal information management softwares classified as PIMS (Personal Information Management Software) in addition to Outlook, but for convenience, this description is based on Outlook for the sake of understanding.)

Microsoft handles business card files (contacts) in Outlook under the standard vCard, which is recognized as an international standard that is currently registered with the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

(see http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2426.txt)

However, if you do not move all the information such as name, company, department, phone, address, and e-mail printed on business cards received on paper, you cannot manage it conveniently with Outlook or any other PC software. In order to

There are numerous patent applications, patent registrations, commercial products and services.

In summary, only the methods of reading the contents of paper business cards up to now,

There are four ways to classify:

1. Optically read common business cards

(Including mobile phones with dedicated business card OCR or photo reading)

-Read normal business cards (user must correct in case of recognition error)

-Improved read rates by specially restricting the way text is printed

2. Use Bar Code

-Print the striped code on the business card

3. Using 2D Code

Print square shaped codes on business cards in black and white or color

4. Use RFID

Business card information in RFID chip

However, all of these methods have a fundamental limitation that first, business cards must be made in such a form, and that a person who receives and uses business cards must use an OCR device, a bar code reader, an RFID reader, and the like.

If you receive an e-mail (card file or vCard (Virtual Card file)) instead of a paper card, you can easily save it in the 'Contacts' item in Outlook.In this case, however, the name of the card is first sent to the card recipient by e-mail. There is a fundamental constraint on the delivery of business cards.

In addition, even if you have already received a paper card, you can get a new business card again. In this case, it is often unclear which card is the latest business card. If you do not update your contact information, you may be exemplified by the name of the business card holder.

In addition, some services that update the contact information entered into Outlook in real time until now have appeared, but there is a fundamental difference from the spirit and structure of the present invention, in particular the function to call the latest contact information or call the old contact information In addition to the specified items such as numbers and company names, there is a lack of a function of storing / managing a message in a description form.

Accordingly, the present invention has been made in order to solve the above problems, the subdivision of the invention as follows.

1. Maximize convenience of PC business card information input

2. Support to get the latest contact information with the contact information before the change

3. Create new media by activating additional items when exchanging personal information

In order to achieve this object, the following technical problem is implemented.

1. Only minimal personal information from the point of view of the person registering the business card (hereinafter referred to as registrant)

   Enable this service while saving

   : Recently, account stealing accidents caused by leaking social security numbers have become a big problem. To verify your identity without checking your social security number, send a password to the e-mail address you register and enter it on the service homepage for confirmation. It has the effect of checking whether it is actually used, and does not require a separate social security number. In addition, by dividing the information items that are open to work and information items that are open to people with whom they have a personal acquaintance, personal information leakage is prevented unintentionally.

2. With minimal input from the point of view of the business card requestor (hereinafter referred to as the requestor)

   Having the registrant's business card file installed on his PC

   : Enter only the registrant's name and phone number or name and e-mail address, and the e-mail box file containing the rest of the information (company / department / address and various additional information) will be sent to his or her email account. Or automatically entered by Sofware installed for this system.

Entering only one of the name, phone number, or e-mail will reduce the number of typing, which may be convenient. However, it is possible to be misused by malicious attempts to collect a phone number or e-mail. Any information must be known so that the rest of the personal information can be obtained through the electronic business card file.

3. To obtain current contact information using the contact information before the change.

   Most people change their phone number (mobile phone, home phone, work phone), and if they are not very close to them, they lose their contact. In other words, if you fail to make a phone call after a long time with the contact phone number written on the business card received during business meeting. Therefore, if the registrant enters his previously used phone number or e-mail account on the server of this service, the business card requester looking for the person's contact gets the current contact as soon as he inquires the previous contact information with this service. You can even save it on your PC.

4.Use Outlook contact 'Notes' field as a means of communication

   In general, the 'memo' field is used by a person who stores a business card to enter his or her own name, date, and appearance of the name of the business card. However, using the system proposed in the present invention, if a business card provider writes in this field descriptive contents that cannot be included in a small sized paper name such as his introduction, a recent blog or minihompy You might be able to do something similar to what Minihompy does.

In other words, if a business card does not exist, you can add a new one. If you already have a business card, add the new 'note' contents created by the card registrant at the top and preserve the contents of the 'Note' field. Implement the function of attaching.

This will allow the 'note' field to function as a one-way communication, even if the recipient of the electronic card containing the 'note' field randomly adds any content to the 'note' field, or deletes some of the content. It is also possible to easily record the information on the counterpart.

The configuration of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description and the implementation description according to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a schematic of the overall concept of the present invention.

100: Web server on the Internet providing the service

200: PC (or the person) used by person who registers his business card

300: PC (or the person) used by person requesting business card

400: 200 users (or their PCs) who know eMail accounts

When described in the order written in Figure 1 as follows.

① Membership: 200 (Registrant) accesses 100 (Web Server) through 210 copies (Internet Explorer, etc.) and performs 120 copies (member registration).

② Business card registration: ① Business card registration immediately after membership registration. If you enter your old phone number or e-mail account, you can find your current contact (business card) based on that information.

③ The electronic business card registered in the 110th section by the 120th self-named function is sent to the 220th section which manages the registrant's own e-mail account.

④ Add-in Installation: Install the software required to perform this service on PC as an add-on to Outlook (Add Toolbar and Tray Icon).

⑤ Business card request: Any person accesses 100 copies through 310 copies and requests a business card using the 130 copies card request function.

⑥ Query business card inquiry: 130 copies of the name card holder's PC (221) (Add-in) to inform the business card request and wait for a response

⑦ Response to approve or not: 130 people receive the response of 200 users to approve business card provision through 221 parts. Of course, this procedure is skipped if you set your card to accept without approval.

⑧ Business card transmission: 140 copies of business cards will be delivered in the form of e-mail according to the approval of business card provision.

⑨Add-in transmission: ⑧ 300 business card requesters who experienced the effect of this service during the business card transmission process will be in the position of 100 again through membership registration, business card registration, Add-in installation, etc.

입력 Renewal input: business card registrant updates his business card information as needed

Update business card distribution: The updated business card is delivered to the person who requested the business card through 140 copies to be synchronized by eMail or Add-in drive.

Business card distribution: Business card registrants can send e-mails to their acquaintances who know their accounts through 140 copies.

Sending e-mail with business card attached: 200 Users can send e-mail using 220 Outlook on their PC.

⑭ P2P Function: The Add-in installed for this service is P2P (Peer to Peer) method for various applications such as sending / receiving arbitrary files, instant messenger similar to MSN, or telephone function using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technique. Can be.

In Figures 2 to 10, although the existing electronic business card can convey more information than the paper business card, the electronic business card 30 improved by the present invention uses memo items as a kind of message delivery route, so that the contents of the business card provider write the business card. It is intended to be delivered to the receiver of as it is.

If you already have the name card, the contents of the message are added to the top of the existing memo and the date and time are automatically recorded so that it can be applied similarly to the recently used blog (Web log).

On the basis of the above, using the system implementing the present invention, the following effects are clearly exhibited.

1. Maximize the utility of paper business cards

2. The effect of finding the latest contact information of former acquaintances who were unintentionally disconnected

3. Mediaization of the vCard “memo” field

It has the effect of combining the advantages of messenger, mini homepage, homepage, blog, e-mail, mobile phone short service, etc., so it can be used as a new type of Internet media.

Although the present invention has been described in connection with the above-mentioned embodiments, it is possible to make various modifications or variations without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

Accordingly, the appended claims will cover such modifications and variations as fall within the spirit of the invention.

In addition, although the patent application text was prepared on the basis of the use of Microsoft's Outlook product, it is confirmed that the above invention is universally applicable to other contact management software besides Outlook.

Claims (5)

To obtain the business card file of the person who has already registered the business card on the server with minimal input from the person who checks or requests the business card. If you enter only the registrant's name and phone number or the name and e-mail address, the e-mail box file containing the rest of the information (company / department / address and various additional information) is sent to his or her e-mail account. In connection with claim 1, a statement is required to prevent the possibility of misuse by malicious attempts to collect telephone numbers or e-mails, and the information of any one of the telephone numbers and e-mails must be known to the rest of the personal information via an electronic file. How to get it implemented To obtain current contact information using the contact information before the change If the registrant of the business card has previously entered his or her previously used phone number or e-mail account on the server of this service, the person looking for his / her contact (business card requester) enters the previous contact information and immediately accesses the current contact. Get it and save it to your PC. In relation to claim 3, when the person using the service (card registrant) changes the contact information, the contact information used up to the last time is automatically stored, and afterwards the current contact information (card file) How to automate How to use 'Notes' field of electronic business card file as a means of communication. Adds new 'notes' written by the card registrant at the top while preserving the contents of the 'notes' field already existing when the contents of the e-mail file filer are sent to the recipient of the e-cards. To implement the function of unidirectional communication by attaching date and time.

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