JP2000184065A - Communication network system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To permit a user to easily discriminate importance and urgency of a call request selected at the time of notice irrespective of a used telephone terminal. SOLUTION: When there is a call from a third person while the user of communication service is in the middle of the call, the will of the user is recognized by a calling user will table 30. In the case of a special third person, an important business man table 50 is indexed at the time of notice, a profile is sound-converted/synthesized, is sound-mixed with the call and the user is informed of it at the time of registration. When the number of call request times is under the number of call permission times or information is not given in the calling user will table 30, a user identification number is registered in a call request times counter table 40, the number of call request times is counted and information is not given to the user until the number becomes the number of call permission request times. The call from the third person is always informed to the user at regular notice time in the calling user will table 30.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to call-waiting. The content is a service provided when a user subscribed to call waiting receives a call request from a third party who is not the other party during a call.
The communication network system provides the user with information for determining who the call from the third party is, whether it is an important call, or urgent contents.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When a telephone user makes a call, a busy tone may be returned because the user is busy. Then,
There is a function called routing. Suppose a telephone user subscribes to this feature. Then, when a call is received from a third party while the user is busy, the user is notified by voice or signal that there is an incoming call. in this case,
The user can switch to a call with a third party by off-hook. Again, when going off-hook, the user can talk to the first party. Hereinafter, this is repeated.

[0003] Other methods include the following. A user sets specific conditions in the communication network system. When the specific condition is satisfied, the communication network system stores the third party's business. This is a method that the user hears it later. In addition, it is possible to display the user identification number of the third party by the function of the telephone terminal of the user. other,
If the user has subscribed to the three-way call function service, when a call is made from a third party, the call-waiting function may be used to confirm the other party and then make a three-way call by a predetermined operation. it can.

[0004]

However, in the current communication network system, the problem remains when a user receives a call from a third party while the user is busy. In the method of notifying that a call has been received by voice or signal, the user cannot identify a third party. for that reason,
There is a problem that there is no information for determining whether or not a user should make a call with a third party until the current call is interrupted. In addition, the content of the call from a third party cannot be specified. In the current communication network system, information on the will of a third party, such as the importance or urgency of a call, is not transmitted. Therefore, it is not known whether the call is important. After all, if there is a call request from a third party, it will always be notified. When a call request notification is repeatedly given from a plurality of third parties, the user and the other party may feel annoying.

[0005] In addition, when a call request from a third party is made during a user's call, the method of storing a third party's business in the communication network system by satisfying a specific condition also has the following problem. There is a problem that it is difficult to know from what kind of person and what kind of call request is made after hearing the call.

There is also a problem when a third party's call request is made during a user's call and the third party's user identification number can be displayed on the user's telephone terminal. There is a problem that it depends on the function of the telephone terminal used by the user.
In addition, there is a problem that the information is always displayed on the terminal regardless of the user's intention. If the user has a display function, the user can determine who the third party is. However, the importance and urgency of call requests from third parties are not considered in the communication network system. Therefore, the call request from the third party is always notified by the display. As a result of this, the interrupting element that appears during a call remains unresolved.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, there is provided a communication system in which, when a telephone user receiving a call receives an incoming call from a third party, the processing is performed by a processing method selected and registered by the user in advance. In a network system, first storage means for storing a service contract, second storage means for storing a user's intention for designating a processing method, a user identification number of a third party, and the number of permitted calls. And a fourth storage unit for registering the user identification number of the important user, and a fifth storage unit for storing a profile corresponding to the user identification number of the telephone user. Storage means, a voice conversion / synthesis means for converting a profile into a synthesized voice, and a voice mixing means for mixing the synthesized voice with the voice during the call and notifying a user, and controlling each means. Communication with control means for processing And network system.

Further, according to the present invention, the voice mixing means measures a time limit for outputting a synthesized voice when there is no idle time of a voice during a call, and passes through a timing adjustment unit for adjusting the output timing of the synthesized voice. An idle time detector that detects the idle time of voice during a call and controls the output of the timing adjuster, and mixes the output of the timing adjuster that is a synthesized voice with the output of the idle time detector that is a voice during a call. A communication network system comprising a sound mixing output unit.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail. Hereinafter, this communication service refers to the service for identifying a third-party call request during a call according to the present invention.

An outline of the present invention is that when a user of this communication service receives a call request from a third party during a call by contract, the importance and urgency of the call request are determined by the user. The degree to which the call request is to be notified and the degree of importance and urgency to be notified are registered in the communication network system in advance.
Thus, even if the user makes a call request from a third party during a call, regardless of the telephone terminal used, the call can be made without disturbing the call at that time. Alternatively, the user can easily determine the importance and urgency of the call request by a notification from the communication network system. An object of the present invention is to provide the above communication service.

An example of a partial configuration in a communication network system that provides the communication service will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 shows an example of a configuration of a function for providing the present communication service, which is provided in a communication network system. This communication service is provided by a program 10 described later using each storage table and a voice function described later.

The present invention comprises the following components. First, each table in FIG. 1 is configured on a memory. Then, each table is read, written, rewritten, and cleared by a program by a user's operation.

FIG. 2 shows a configuration example of the user contract table 20. The user contract table 20 stores whether or not this communication service is contracted for the user identification number of each telephone user.

FIG. 3 shows an example of the structure of the user intention table 30 during a call. This table has a role to memorize the user's willingness to respond to a call request from a third party. In this table, items of the number of permitted calls, the user's intention choice, and the user's intention are provided in correspondence with the user identification number of the user.

The number of allowable call requests sets the number of times a user has requested a call from a third party during a call to inform the user of an incoming call. In this case, a third party who may have an important and urgent business that the user does not intend may call repeatedly. Assuming this, the user measures the importance based on the number of repetitions and allows the notification of the incoming call. This setting is
It is assumed that the user of the communication service can make settings by a method such as operation from a telephone terminal.

[0016] The user's choices include, as options, a function that the user wants the communication network system to have when a call request is made by a third party. In this example, three types of options are set. “Always notify”
Means that if there is an incoming call from a third party, the user is always notified of the incoming call. “Notification in case of special third party” means notifying the user during a call only when the third party receives a call from a special person such as a best friend or family member. The table for setting a special person in this case is an important employee table 50 described later with reference to FIG.
“No notification below the allowable number of times” means that the number of calls is less than the number set as the allowable number of calls in this table, regardless of the party who made the call request. That is, the incoming call is not notified. In the case of this option, the communication network system notifies the user who is talking about the incoming call if the incoming call is repeated the number of times of the call allowable request. A method of counting the number of incoming calls will be described with reference to a call request number counter table 40 described later with reference to FIG. These options can also be arbitrarily set by the user.

In the item of user intention, whether or not the user sets the above-mentioned user intention option as a condition is set for each option. Therefore, the user can select a plurality of options as the user's intention. For example, “notification in case of special third party” and “no notification if less than the allowable number of requests” can be selected at the same time. This can also be set by a user of the communication service by a method such as operation from a telephone terminal.

FIG. 4 shows a call request counter table 4.
0 is a configuration example. This table contains, for each user identification number of a user, the user identification number that made the call request when the user made a call request from a third party during a call, and the number of call requests, that is, Count how many times it took,
The number of times is stored. As for the user identification number for which a call was requested, the user identification number of the third party is registered when the incoming call is not notified to the user when the call is received from the third party during the user call. At this time, 1 is set in the counter. Thereafter, when a registered third party makes a call request, 1 is added to the counter.

When another party requests a call,
A user identification number of another third party is newly registered, and 1 is set in the counter. Thereafter, if there is a call request again, 1 is added to the counter. The data of the user identification number and the counter for which the call was requested are deleted when the call of the user during the call is terminated, but after the call is terminated, the third table of this table is deleted. It is also possible to transmit a call request from a user by voice using the speaker of the user's telephone terminal.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the configuration of the important employee table 50. This table stores, for each user of the communication service, a user identification number of a third party who owns an important business based on his / her intention. This is to register the user identification number of a person corresponding to a special third party appearing in the item of user intention choice in the user intention table during a call in FIG. This registration can be set by a user of the communication service by a method such as an operation from a telephone terminal.

FIG. 6 shows an example of the configuration of the user information database 60. Here, profiles such as the names of telephone subscribers or important users and business names are stored in correspondence with the user identification numbers. This user information database 60
Then, the profile is stored as a character code.

FIG. 7 shows an example of the configuration of the voice conversion / synthesis function 70. Here, the character code of the user's profile, which is the result of indexing the user information database 60 in FIG. 6, is converted into a voice, and the synthesized voice to be heard by the user during a call together with the guide text. Create For example, the voice conversion / synthesis function 70 generates a voice saying "Taro Taro is calling." In this case, "Tokyo Taro" is obtained by converting the character code of the profile into a voice, and is synthesized with a guidance sentence prepared by the voice conversion / synthesis function 70 "Call from Mr.". Note that it is optional whether the profile and the guide text are synthesized using character codes and then voice-converted, or the profile is voice-converted and then synthesized with the voice of the guide text.

FIG. 8 shows a configuration example of the sound mixing function 80. Here, the synthesized voice created by the voice conversion / synthesis function 70 is mixed with the voice of the other party of the user during the call. For example, a synthesized voice “Call from Tokyo Taro” is inserted into the voice of the user during the call and mixed. At this time, the voice mixing function 80 has a built-in function of detecting the idle time of the other party's voice during the call and mixing the voices so that the voices do not overlap. If the free time cannot be detected within the time limit, the voice mixing function 80 immediately mixes the synthesized voice with the voice of the other party. The configuration inside the sound mixing function 80 is composed of three parts. First, there is a timing adjustment unit 100 having a buffer function and an output function (not shown) for storing synthesized speech and a function for measuring a time limit. Second, there is a vacant time detecting unit 90 having a function of detecting a timing at which a voice during a call becomes available and a function of outputting a signal for controlling the timing adjusting unit 100 by the function. Thirdly, there is provided a sound mixing output unit 110 for mixing the output of the idle time detection unit 90 and the output of the synthesized sound of the timing adjustment unit 100 to output a mixed sound. The sound mixing function 80 performs the above operation from the above configuration.

FIGS. 9 and 10 show the program 10 shown in FIG. 1 for the present communication service. This program 10
Is stored in the communication network system, and the user contract table 2
0, a user intention table during a call 30, a call request number counter table 40, an important user table 50, a user information database 60, a voice conversion / synthesis function 70, and a voice mixing function 80. The present communication service is provided while being used while being controlled. This program 10 will be described in the following operation. The above components constitute the configuration example of the present invention in FIG.

The operation of the communication network system in this communication service will now be described with reference to the program 1 shown in FIGS.
This will be described in detail with reference to FIG. The caller dials the user identification number of the call request partner using the telephone terminal. In step 100, the communication network system receives a call request from a caller. In step 101, a caller detects that a called party who requests a call is busy. Here, if the called party is not talking, there is no opportunity to use this service. In step 102, the communication network system searches the user contract table 20 of FIG. 2 using the user identification number of the called party dialed by the third party caller, and the called party enters this communication service. -Check if you have a service contract. As a result of examining the contract status of this communication service, if there is no contract, this service is not implemented. If there is a contract, the program proceeds to step 103. In step 103, the communication network system extracts the user identification number of the caller from the information received from the caller. Here, the sender is a third party as referred to in this specification. The called party is a user of the present communication service, that is, a contractor of the present communication service.

In step 104, the communication network system uses the communication user information table 30 shown in FIG. 3 based on the user identification number of the callee who is the user of the communication service.
Index. Then, the communication network system confirms the number of allowable call requests stored in the table and the intention of the user to respond to the call request from the third party, that is, the user's intention, and acquires the information as information. If the user's intention is “notify about a special third party call request”, the program proceeds to step 105.

In step 105, the communication network system indexes the important user table 50 shown in FIG. 5 based on the user identification number of the user, and obtains the user identification number of the third party who is the sender. Is included in the list of items of “user identification number of important user”. As a result of the comparison, if a user identification number of a third party is detected in the item list of “user identification number of important user”, the program proceeds to FIG.
Go to step 106 of 0. This means that the third party was an important user and a special third party. In addition, as a result of collation, if the user identification number of the third party is not detected in the item list of “user identification number of important user”, the third party is not an important user. , It was not a special third party. At this time, the program proceeds to step 113. However, if the user's intention is “not notified if the number is less than the allowable number”, the program proceeds to step 110.

When the process proceeds to step 106 in FIG. 10, the communication network system indexes the user information database 60 shown in FIG. 6 based on the user identification number of the third party,
A profile such as the name of a third party or the name of a company represented by a character code is acquired. Next, at step 107, the communication network system uses the speech conversion / synthesis function 70 shown in FIG. 7 to synthesize a third-party profile represented by the character code acquired at step 106 with the guidance sentence. Convert to For example, "This is a call from Taro Tokyo." In this case, "Tokyo Taro" is the profile of the third party, and "I'm calling from you." Is the guide text, and these are synthesized into synthesized speech.

Next, at step 108, the communication network system compares the voice of the other party during the user communication of the communication service with the synthesized voice obtained by voice expressing the profile of the third party obtained at step 107. The sound is mixed using the sound mixing function 80 shown in FIG. This is to insert a synthesized voice that conveys a call request from a third party into the call voice of the other party during the user call. Therefore, if the synthetic voice of the notification is mixed when the other party during the user's call does not emit a voice, only the synthetic voice of the notification is generated. Conversely, if the synthesized voice is mixed when the other party during the user's call is uttering voice, the two will overlap.

Therefore, in this communication service, it is assumed that the two voices are mixed at a timing that does not overlap within the time limit. The time limit can be set arbitrarily and can be set by the user at the time of applying for this communication service, such as a method such as operation from a telephone terminal, but it is assumed that the initial value is determined. When the time limit expires, the two sounds are immediately mixed.

Specifically, the operation of the sound mixing function 80 of FIG. 8 is as follows. When the synthesized voice that notifies the notification of the call request from the third party is input, it is written and stored in a buffer (not shown) of the timing adjustment unit 100.
The timing adjustment unit 100 sends a free time detection operation start signal to the free time detection unit 90 and starts measuring the time for the time limit. The vacant time detecting section 90 detects the vacant timing of the voice during the call of the other party of the user who is inputted and passes, and controls by transmitting a detection signal to the timing adjusting section 100. The timing adjustment unit 100 receives this and outputs the synthesized voice to be mixed stored in a buffer (not shown). An output of the idle time detection unit 90, which is the voice of the other party of the user during the call, and a timing adjustment unit, which is a synthetic voice that notifies the user that there is a call request from a third party, in the voice mixing output unit 110 And 100 outputs. Then, the mixed sound is output from the sound mixing output unit 110. If no free time is detected within the time limit,
The timing adjustment unit 100 outputs synthesized speech autonomously,
The voice mixing output unit 110 mixes the voice during the call and the synthesized voice to output a mixed voice.

For example, the voice mixing function 80 detects an arbitrary time available by the next word when there is a voice saying "Today is fine weather" in the voice during a call, and immediately detects the time from a third party. Synthesized voice “call from Tokyo Taro” indicating the call request is mixed and output. If the time limit has elapsed, the audio mixing function 80 will overlap and mix the audio. In this case, it is assumed that which voice is to be made larger or the same can be set by the user at the time of applying for the communication service by a method such as operation from a telephone terminal. However, it is assumed that the initial settings have been determined.

Next, at step 109, the communication network system notifies the user of the communication service of the voice mixed at step 108. With this notification, the user recognizes that there is a call request from a third party.

By the way, if the result of the execution of step 104 indicates that the user intention is “always notified” in the user intention table 30 during a call, the program proceeds to step 1.
Proceed to 06. Thereafter, the communication network system operates in steps 106 to 109 in the same manner as the operation described above.

As a result of the execution of step 104 in FIG. 9, the user's intention is "not notified if the number of calls is less than the allowable number" in the busy user intention table 30, that is, the number of call requests from a third party is equal to the busy user. If the number is less than the number of call requests set in the will table 30, if there is no notification, the program proceeds to step 110.

In step 110, the program indexes the call request counter table 40 shown in FIG. 4 based on the user identification number of the user. Then, the program registers the user identification number of the third party in the item of the user identification number that has made the call request, and adds 1 to the item of the counter. Subsequently, in step 111, the program executes the in-call user intention table 3 obtained in step 104.
The number of allowable call requests of 0 is compared with the counter value in the counter item of the number of calls request counter table 40.
As a result of the comparison, if the counter value is equal to the number of permitted calls, the number of permitted calls is satisfied, and the program proceeds to step 112. If the counter value is smaller than the permitted number of calls, the program proceeds to step 113 because the permitted call conditions are not satisfied.

If the counter value satisfies the number of permissible call requests in step 111, then in step 112 a third party who satisfies the number of permissible call requests of the user of the communication service of the call request counter table 40 is executed. Delete the user identification number. The program also sets the counter to the initial value of 0. This means that since the call request of the third party has been notified, only the data of the corresponding third party in the call request counter table 40 is reset. Thereafter, the communication network system proceeds to step 10 in FIG.
The operation from step 6 to step 109 is performed in the same manner as described above, and the user of the communication service is notified of a call request from a third party.

If the counter value does not satisfy the number of permitted calls in step 111 in FIG. 9, the communication network system in step 113 calls the third party to the user, that is, the party called by the third party is busy. Notify by busy tone. As a result, the state of the communication network system returns to the initial state of step 100. The above-described operation is repeated when a caller as a third party makes a call, that is, repeats a call request. With the repeated call request, the counter value of the call request counter table 40 also increases.

The use form will be described below. In the above embodiment, an example of the configuration for providing the communication service will be described.
The user contract table 20 shown in FIG. 2, the user intention table during call 30 shown in FIG. 3, and the call request counter table shown in FIG.
5, an important user table 50 in FIG. 5, a user information database 60 in FIG. 6, a voice conversion / synthesis function 70 in FIG. 7, and a voice mixing function 80 in FIG. It was expressed as something. However, except for the voice conversion / synthesis function 70 and the voice mixing function 80, even if a communication network system is configured by integrating various tables and the user information database 60, the present communication service is similarly used. It is possible to provide.

In the above-described embodiment, FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of a communication network system for providing the present communication service. However, the information to be notified to the user is not a profile of the telephone network subscriber but a profile. If the communication network system is a user identification number of a third party that does not require additional information, the user information database 60 of FIG. 6 and FIG. 9 and FIG.
This communication service can be similarly provided without the step 106 in the program 0.

In the above-described embodiment, FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of a communication network system for providing the present communication service. However, the information to be notified to the user is not a profile of the telephone network subscriber but a profile. If a special audio signal is used, the same applies without the user information database 60 in FIG. 6, the voice conversion / synthesis function 70 in FIG. 7, and the steps 106 and 107 in the programs in FIGS. 9 and 10. This communication service
It is possible to provide a service.

[0042]

According to the present invention, when a user of the communication service receives a call request from a third party during a call, the user stores the communication service in the communication network system by some method. , Based on the user's willingness to respond to the importance and urgency of the call request from the third party, the communication network system will determine whether the third party has requested the call and who the third party is. Notify the user. Therefore, regardless of the telephone terminal used, the user can easily determine the importance and urgency of the selected call request at the time of notification. In addition, according to this communication service, when a user makes a call request from a third party, the call request is not notified to the user unless the third party satisfies the conditions. Will not be disturbed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration example of a part of a communication network system that provides the communication service.

FIG. 2 is a configuration example of a user contract table 20;

FIG. 3 is a configuration example of a user intention table 30 during a call;

FIG. 4 is a configuration example of a call request counter table 40;

FIG. 5 is a configuration example of an important user table 50;

FIG. 6 is a configuration example of a user information database 60;

FIG. 7 is a configuration example of a voice conversion / synthesis function 70;

FIG. 8 is a configuration example of a sound mixing function 80;

FIG. 9: Example 1/2 of the present communication service program 10

FIG. 10 shows an example 2/2 of the communication service program 10.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Program 20 User contract table 3
0 User intention table during call 40 Call request count counter table 50 Important user table 60 User information database 70 Voice conversion / synthesis function 80 Voice mixing function 90 Free time detector 1
00 Timing adjustment unit 110 Sound mixing output unit

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A communication network system in which when a telephone user receiving a call receives an incoming call from a third party, the processing is performed by a processing method selected and registered by the user in advance. Storage means for storing the contract of the third party, second storage means for storing the user's intention designating the processing method, and third means for counting and storing the user identification number of the third party and the number of call permission requests. Storage means for registering the user identification number of the important user, fifth storage means for storing a profile corresponding to the user identification number of the telephone user, and a synthesized voice Communication comprising a voice conversion / synthesizing means for converting the voice into a voice and a voice mixing means for mixing the synthesized voice with the voice during the call and notifying the user of the communication; Web system. 2. The voice mixing means measures a time limit for outputting the synthesized voice when there is no idle time of the voice during the call and passes through a timing adjustment unit for adjusting an output timing of the synthesized voice. The idle time detecting section for detecting the idle time of the voice during the call and controlling the output of the timing adjusting section, the output of the timing adjusting section being the synthesized voice, and the idle time detecting section being the voice during the call 2. The communication network system according to claim 1, further comprising a voice mixing output unit for mixing the outputs of the communication network.