JP2003037689A - Mobile terminal, voice gateway and load distribution system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a mobile terminal that can select an optimum voice gateway and connects it to the Internet in the case of access to the Internet. SOLUTION: The mobile terminal 103 for connecting with the Internet 105 via a prescribed voice gateway (e.g. 101) among a plurality of voice gateways (101, 102) for transceiving information on the basis of voice information acquired through telephone connection, browsing information on the Internet 105 and capable of voice input/output, is provided with a position detection section 118 that acquires current position information, a position information management section 123 that stores installed position information of a plurality of the voice gateways (101, 102) and a connection means that retrieves a closest voice gateway (e.g. 101) among a plurality of the voice gateways (101, 102) on the basis of the current position information and the installed position information and makes a telephone connection to the closest voice gateway (e.g. 101).

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a portable terminal device for making a telephone connection to a communication network such as the Internet and a server for receiving a telephone connection.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Usually, when connecting to the Internet using a terminal such as a personal computer, a telephone connection is made from a home or a company to a specific access server managed by a company operating an Internet connection service called a provider. Communication is established by doing.

Recently, PHS (Persona)
There is an increasing number of cases of mobile computing in which a mobile terminal device such as a Handyphone System) is used to connect to the Internet from a destination.

As one of the functions of such a portable terminal device, a voice browser for acquiring information on the Internet by voice input / output or soft keyboard input is being developed. Voice browser is mobile phone or PHS
Using a mobile terminal device such as, a telephone connection is made to an access server called a voice gateway to obtain information on the Internet.

In the voice gateway, voice recognition processing of information input to a voice browser, information retrieval processing for retrieving information from a server on the Internet based on the information subjected to the voice recognition processing, and results of the information retrieval processing Performs voice synthesis processing for converting the output for returning to the voice browser to voice. At present, such processing (speech recognition processing, information retrieval processing, speech synthesis processing) is performed only in a specific voice gateway connected by telephone.

[0006]

Normally, when connecting to the Internet at a fixed place, the telephone number of the closest access server should be checked and initialized so that the next connection will automatically be performed at the time of initialization. You can connect to the selected access server. However, when connecting to the Internet at the destination by using the voice browser mentioned in "Prior Art", the set voice gateway is not always close. Therefore, when the distance between the voice browser and the voice gateway is long, it is necessary to pay a high communication charge and communication efficiency is poor. In addition, it takes time and effort to check the telephone number of the voice gateway closest to the current position at the destination and then make a telephone connection, and if there is no way to know the current position, it is not possible to know which voice gateway is the closest. There is a problem.

Furthermore, since a voice gateway that accepts a connection requires heavy load processing such as voice recognition, information retrieval, and voice synthesis, if many voice browsers are connected at the same time, the processing cannot be completed. There is also a problem that various services cannot be provided.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and a mobile terminal device capable of selectively connecting an optimum voice gateway when connecting to the Internet, and a voice gateway performing distributed processing according to processing load. Another object of the present invention is to provide a load balancing system.

[0009]

In order to solve such a problem, for example, a mobile terminal device of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, among a plurality of voice gateways that transmit and receive information based on voice information acquired by telephone connection, a portable terminal capable of voice input / output that connects to the Internet via a predetermined voice gateway and browses information on the Internet. An apparatus, comprising: acquisition means for acquiring current position information; holding means for holding installation location information of the plurality of voice gateways; and a plurality of voice gateways based on the current location information and the installation location information. Connection means for searching the voice gateway at the installation location closest to the current position and connecting to the voice gateway by telephone.

The voice gateway of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, to obtain voice information by telephone connection from a mobile terminal device that can input and output by voice,
A voice gateway in a load balancing system having a plurality of voice gateways capable of transmitting and receiving information on the Internet based on the voice information, the measuring means for measuring a processing load, and load information of another voice gateway. If the processing load measured by the acquiring unit and the measuring unit is equal to or higher than a predetermined level, based on the load information acquired by the acquiring unit,
And a distributed processing means for causing the other voice gateway to perform a predetermined process.

[0011]

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

(First Embodiment) FIG. 1 shows a first embodiment of the present invention.
2 is an overall configuration diagram showing a mobile terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention and a load distribution system including a plurality of voice gateways for acquiring and processing voice information input to the mobile terminal device. FIG. Note that, although one mobile terminal device and two voice gateways are illustrated in FIG. 1 for convenience of explanation, a plurality of mobile terminal devices and a plurality of voice gateways may be used.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the processing when the mobile terminal device makes a telephone connection to the voice gateway. Further, FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a load distribution process in the voice gateway.

In FIG. 1, the portable terminal device 103 has a key input unit 117 for inputting a command by a soft keyboard input and a voice input unit 122 for inputting a command by voice.
A voice output unit 121 that outputs information by voice, a display unit 116 that displays information, a position detection unit 118 that incorporates a device such as PHS or GPS that acquires current position information of the mobile terminal device, and various places. The location information management unit 123, which stores information such as the location and telephone number of the voice gateway installed in, and the voice installed in the location as close as possible using the current location information obtained by the location detection unit. It has a connection determination unit 120 that selects a gateway, and a control unit 119 that controls transmission / reception of information through the communication unit A130 and that performs processing inside the mobile terminal device.

The voice gateway 101 also includes a voice recognition unit 106 for converting voice information input to the mobile terminal device 103 into a character string, and a voice synthesizing unit for converting information obtained from a communication network 105 such as the Internet into voice. 107, an information retrieval unit 124 that retrieves and acquires the requested information from the information on the Internet 105,
A load measurement unit 108 that measures the load of the voice gateway 101 at any time, and a load information management unit 109 that acquires and updates information such as load information and installation location of each voice gateway (102) connected to the Internet 105 via the Internet 105. And communication unit A126 and communication unit B
The control unit 110 controls transmission / reception of information through 127 and performs internal processing of the voice gateway 101. Since the voice gateway 102 has the same function as the voice gateway 101, the description thereof will be omitted.

The operation of the mobile terminal device 103 having the above configuration will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. The operation of the mobile terminal device 103 described below is controlled by the control unit 119 by software called a so-called voice browser.

When the user of the mobile terminal device 103 tries to connect to the Internet 105, the position detecting unit 118 acquires the current position information of the user (step S201),
It is sent to the connection determination unit 120. The connection determination unit 120 searches the location information of the voice gateway registered in advance in the location information management unit 123, selects the telephone number of the voice gateway closest to the current location (step S202), and sends it to the control unit 119. . The control unit 119 makes a telephone connection to the selected voice gateway via the public network 104 using the communication unit A130 (step S203).

As described above, if the current location information is acquired, the voice gateway closest to the current location is searched and the telephone connection is made, it is not necessary to pay a high communication charge even at a destination such as a business trip. This saves the user from having to directly check the connection telephone number of the voice gateway installed nearby.

Next, the operation of the voice gateway having the above structure will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 and 3.

The procedure for the user to make a telephone connection using the portable terminal device 103 to the nearest voice gateway 101 (here, the voice gateway 101 has been selected) from the current position has been described above, and will be omitted. When the user inputs a voice into the mobile terminal device connected by telephone to the voice gateway, the voice input unit 122 detects the voice input and sends it to the control unit 119. The voice information sent to the control unit 119 passes from the communication unit A 130 through the public network 104 and the communication unit A 126 of the voice gateway 101 to the control unit 1.
Sent to 10.

Details of the processing in the voice gateway are described in the flow chart of the load distribution processing in the voice gateway in FIG. 3, which will be described with reference to this.

When the voice information input from the portable terminal device is transmitted, the control unit 110, which constantly measures the load of the voice gateway, the load measuring unit 108 acquires the load information (step S301). If the control unit 110 determines that the load on the voice gateway is small,
(NO in step S302), the voice recognition unit 106 performs voice recognition processing (step S309) on the voice information, converts the voice information into a character string, and transfers the character string to the information search unit 124.

When the control unit 110 determines that the load on the voice gateway is larger than a preset value,
(YES in step S302), the current position information of the mobile terminal device is acquired through the public network 104 (step S30
3) From the voice gateways installed in various places registered in the load information management unit 109, search for a voice gateway that is as close as possible and has a small load (step S304). When the voice gateway 102 is found in the vicinity because the load is small, the voice information is sent to the control unit 113 of the voice gateway 102 via the communication network 1.
05, and the voice recognition processing is distributed (step S305). When the character string subjected to the voice recognition processing by the voice recognition unit 114 of the voice gateway 102 returns to the voice gateway 101, the information search unit 124 searches for information on the Internet via the communication unit B127 based on this character string. To obtain (step S306). If the information acquired here is to be voice information (step S30
(7: YES), the voice synthesis unit 107 performs voice synthesis processing.
(Step S308). When voice synthesis is not performed (NO in step S307), the process ends.

The information after the above load balancing processing is stored in the control unit 1.
The communication unit A 126 uses the communication unit A 126 to pass the data to the control unit 119 via the public network 104 and the communication unit A 130 of the mobile terminal device 103. The mobile terminal device 103 that has received the information
If the received information is audio information, the audio output unit 121 such as headphones or a speaker outputs. In addition, if it is other than voice information, the display unit 116 such as a liquid crystal display
To display.

As described above, even if the load of the voice gateway for voice recognition processing of the input voice information becomes heavy, the load balancing system according to the present embodiment searches for a voice gateway having a small load and distributes the processing. As a result, it is possible to avoid troubles such as a drop in service and system down due to heavy voice recognition processing, information retrieval processing, and voice synthesis processing.

(Second Embodiment) In the first embodiment, when the load of the system of the voice gateway to which the mobile terminal device is connected by telephone is large, the voice recognition processing is performed by searching for a voice gateway having a small load as close as possible. Although the method of distributing information is explained, the process up to the voice recognition is performed by the voice gateway to which the mobile terminal device is connected by telephone, and the information search process for acquiring information from the Internet based on the character string after the voice recognition process is performed nearby. It is also possible to distribute it to a voice gateway with a light load.

The details of the load distribution process in the voice gateway of this embodiment are shown in the flowchart of FIG.
Unlike the first embodiment, the system load information is acquired (step S301) after the voice recognition processing (step S309) of the voice information input to the mobile terminal device, and when the load is large (step S302). YES) Acquires the current position information of the client (step S303), selects a voice gateway with a small system load and is close (step S304), and sends the character string after voice recognition to another voice gateway for information. The search processing is distributed (step S401).

(Third Embodiment) In the present embodiment, the voice recognition process and the information retrieval process are processed by a voice gateway to which the mobile terminal device is connected by telephone, and the voice synthesis that converts the information obtained from the Internet into voice information. A method of distributing processing to voice gateways near and having a light load will be described.

The details of the load balancing process in the voice gateway of this embodiment are shown in the flowchart of FIG.
In the present embodiment, the voice information input to the mobile terminal device is subjected to voice recognition processing (step S309), information is retrieved based on the character string obtained by the voice recognition processing, and the information is acquired from the Internet (step S306). Is converted to voice information by voice synthesis processing (step S30
7, YES), the load information of the system is acquired (step S301). If the load is large (YES in step S302), the current position information of the user of the mobile terminal device 103 is acquired (step S303), a voice gateway with a small load is selected (step S304), and the Internet is selected from the Internet. The acquired information is sent to the selected voice gateway to distribute the voice synthesis processing (step S50).
1).

(Fourth Embodiment) First, Second, Third
In the embodiment, only one process among the processes such as the voice recognition process, the information search process, and the voice synthesis process is distributed to the other voice gateways. However, two or more processes in which the above three processes are combined are combined. It may be distributed to other voice gateways.

[0031]

Other Embodiments Even when the present invention is applied to a system including a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, a printer, etc.), an apparatus including one device (for example, a copying machine). Machine, facsimile machine, etc.).

Further, an object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium (or recording medium) recording a program code of software for realizing the functions of the above-described embodiment to a system or apparatus, and to supply a computer of the system or apparatus ( Alternatively, by the CPU or MPU) reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium,
It goes without saying that it will be achieved. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention.
Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also based on the instruction of the program code,
An operating system (OS) running on the computer does some or all of the actual processing,
It goes without saying that the processing includes the case where the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized.

Further, after the program code read from the storage medium is written in the memory provided in the function expansion card inserted in the computer or the function expansion unit connected to the computer, based on the instruction of the program code. , The CPU provided in the function expansion card or the function expansion unit performs some or all of the actual processing,
It goes without saying that the processing includes the case where the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized.

When the present invention is applied to the above storage medium, the storage medium stores the program code corresponding to the above-described flowchart.

[0035]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to provide a mobile terminal device capable of selectively connecting an optimal voice gateway when connecting to the Internet, and a voice gateway and a load distribution system that perform distributed processing according to processing load.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a mobile terminal device and a load balancing system according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing processing at the time of telephone connection in the mobile terminal device according to the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a load distribution process in the voice gateway according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a load distribution process in the voice gateway according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a load distribution process in the voice gateway according to the third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols] 101 voice gateway 102 voice gateway 103 mobile terminal device 104 public network 105 communication network 106 voice recognition unit 107 voice synthesizer 108 Load measurement unit 109 Load information management unit 110 control unit 111 Load measurement section 112 Load Information Management Department 113 control unit 114 voice recognition unit 115 Speech synthesizer 116 display 117 Key input section 118 position detector 119 Control unit 120 Connection determination unit 121 Audio output section 122 voice input unit 123 Location Information Management Department 124 Information Retrieval Department 125 Information Search Department 126 Communication unit A 127 Communication unit B 128 Communication unit B 129 Communication unit A 130 Communication unit A

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification code FI theme code (reference) H04Q 7/36 H04Q 7/04 Z (72) Inventor Yasuo Okutani 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. F-term (reference) 5K024 AA02 BB01 BB02 CC11 GG01 GG03 GG10 GG13 5K027 AA11 EE00 HH26 5K067 AA28 AA29 BB04 DD19 DD20 DD57 EE02 EE10 EE16 EE16 NN16KK12FF20 NN15KK12FF20 KK15FF20FF15 FF20 FF15 FF20 FF15 FF20 FF15 FF20 FF20 FF20

Claims (12)

[Claims] 1. A voice input / output capable of browsing information on the Internet by connecting to the Internet via a predetermined voice gateway among a plurality of voice gateways for transmitting and receiving information based on voice information acquired by telephone connection. A portable terminal device, including: an acquisition unit that acquires current position information; a holding unit that holds installation place information of the plurality of voice gateways; and a plurality of the plurality of units based on the current position information and the installation place information. Among these voice gateways, there is provided a connection means for searching a voice gateway at an installation location closest to the current position and connecting to the voice gateway by telephone. 2. A plurality of voice gateways capable of acquiring voice information by telephone connection from a portable terminal device capable of voice input / output and transmitting / receiving information on the Internet based on the voice information. A voice gateway in a load balancing system, a measuring means for measuring a processing load, an obtaining means for obtaining load information of another voice gateway, and a processing load measured by the measuring means is equal to or higher than a predetermined level. A voice gateway, comprising: distributed processing means for causing the other voice gateway to perform a predetermined process based on the load information acquired by the acquisition means. 3. The predetermined processing to be executed by the other voice gateway by the distributed processing means is voice recognition processing for converting the voice information into a character string, or information on the Internet is searched based on the voice information. 3. The voice gateway according to claim 2, further comprising at least one of an information search process for converting the information on the Internet to a voice synthesis process for converting the information on the Internet into a voice. 4. A plurality of voice gateways capable of acquiring voice information by telephone connection from a portable terminal device capable of voice input / output and transmitting / receiving information on the Internet based on the voice information. A load balancing system, wherein the voice gateway is a measuring unit that measures a processing load, an obtaining unit that obtains load information of another voice gateway, and a processing load measured by the measuring unit is equal to or higher than a predetermined level. And a distributed processing unit for causing the other voice gateway to perform a predetermined process based on the load information acquired by the acquisition unit. 5. The predetermined processing to be performed by the other voice gateway by the distributed processing means is a voice recognition processing for converting the voice information into a character string, or a search for information on the Internet based on the voice information. The load balancing system according to claim 4, further comprising at least one of an information search process for performing the above-described information retrieval process and a voice synthesis process for converting information on the Internet into a voice. 6. A voice input / output capable of browsing information on the Internet by connecting to the Internet via a predetermined voice gateway among a plurality of voice gateways for transmitting / receiving information based on voice information acquired by telephone connection An information processing method in a portable terminal device, the acquisition step of acquiring current position information, based on the installation location information and the current position information of the plurality of voice gateways, among the plurality of voice gateways, the current And a connection step of searching for a voice gateway at an installation location closest to the position and connecting to the voice gateway by telephone. 7. A plurality of voice gateways capable of acquiring voice information by telephone connection from a portable terminal device capable of voice input / output and transmitting / receiving information on the Internet based on the voice information. A voice gateway information processing method in a load balancing system, comprising a measuring step of measuring a processing load, an acquiring step of acquiring load information of another voice gateway, and a processing load measured by the measuring step of a predetermined level or more. In this case, a distributed processing step of causing the other voice gateway to perform a predetermined process based on the load information acquired in the acquisition step is included in the voice gateway information processing method. 8. The predetermined process to be performed by the other voice gateway in the distributed processing step is a voice recognition process for converting the voice information into a character string, or a search for information on the Internet based on the voice information. 8. The information processing method of the voice gateway according to claim 7, further comprising at least one of an information retrieval process for performing the above-described information retrieval process and a voice synthesis process for converting the information on the Internet into a voice. 9. A plurality of voice gateways capable of acquiring voice information by telephone connection from a portable terminal device capable of voice input / output and transmitting / receiving information on the Internet based on the voice information. An information processing method in a load balancing system, wherein the voice gateway information processing method includes: a measurement step of measuring a processing load; an acquisition step of acquiring load information of another voice gateway; When the processing load is equal to or higher than a predetermined level, based on the load information acquired by the acquisition step, a distributed processing step for causing the other voice gateway to perform a predetermined processing is provided. Information processing method. 10. The predetermined process to be performed by the other voice gateway in the distributed processing step is a voice recognition process for converting the voice information into a character string, or a search for information on the Internet based on the voice information. 10. The information processing method in the load balancing system according to claim 9, further comprising at least one of an information search process for performing a voice synthesis process and a voice synthesis process for converting information on the Internet into a voice. 11. A storage medium storing a control program for realizing the information processing method according to claim 6 by a computer. 12. A control program for causing a computer to implement the information processing method according to claim 6.