JP2003110743A - Communication terminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide communication terminal equipment capable of realizing more tight communication between a calling side and an incoming side according to the situations of the other party. SOLUTION: This communication terminal equipment capable of transmitting and receiving voice data and additional data other than the voice data is provided with an input part capable of inputting additional data and a communication processing part for transmitting its own identification data and the additional message inputted from the input part at the time of requesting speech with the other party, and for receiving the identification data and the additional message when a speech is requested.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication terminal device, and more specifically, it can send an additional message together with its own terminal ID at the time of a call request to the other party, and can make a call when receiving (calling). The present invention relates to a communication terminal device capable of transmitting a response message to a user.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a recent communication terminal device, for example, a telephone, the I of the telephone making a call request to the other party.
D, for example, a telephone number or the like can be displayed on the display of the telephone that has received the call request. User ID
The display can also confirm the person who has made the call request before starting the call.

As a method for obtaining information other than the ID (telephone number, etc.) on the caller's telephone, for example, information about the message the caller is trying to make in a call, a method of directly listening to the requirements by actually making a call Is common. Alternatively, as described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-62108, in a situation where a telephone call cannot be actually made, an answering machine function of the telephone itself or an answering machine prepared on the telephone communication system. There is a way to use the service. According to this method, once the information regarding the subject is stored in the storage area of the telephone or the storage area of the information processing device for the answering machine service, there is a margin to confirm the information after the incoming call. At that time, the information stored in the storage area is taken out and the message is heard.

Further, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 11-41344 discloses a call request when the person who receives the call request cannot receive the call and the telephone of the person who receives the call request is set to answering machine mode. Before sending the call, the call answering party may ask why the person who received the call request cannot make a call by sending the answering machine answering message or the call request refusal message that was set in advance to the person who requested the call. Is disclosed.

[0005]

In the communication system using the above-mentioned telephone, when the call request is received, the requirement of the telephone is confirmed and the importance is compared with the situation in which the user is placed. I had no chance to do it. In order to quickly make a comparative judgment of importance, it is necessary to actually start a call. For example, during a conference, it interrupts the conference or leaves the seat, which greatly affects the work performed before the call is received.

[0006] Further, when the call request is received, information such as the other party's message is not known. Therefore, for example, regarding the scheduled time for replying to the person who made the call request, it is possible to respond flexibly according to the message. If it is not possible to make a call and if you want to convey the judgment result such as importance to the other party, you have to actually make a call. An object of the present invention is to improve the convenience of communication in a communication terminal device.

[0007]

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication terminal device capable of transmitting and receiving call voice data and additional data other than the call voice data, and an input unit capable of inputting the additional data. A communication process of transmitting the identification data of the user and the additional message input from the input unit when requesting a call with the other party, and receiving the identification data and the additional message when a call is requested There is provided a communication terminal device comprising:

When the above communication terminal device is used, the identification data and the additional message can be transmitted at the time of the call request. Therefore, the decision material for deciding whether or not the person who receives the call request starts the call based on it. Can be obtained.

[0009]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION A communication terminal device according to the present embodiment will be described below by taking a case where a telephone is used as an example of a communication terminal device and transmitting and receiving between two telephones. The inventor has come up with the idea of additionally transmitting a message together with an identification terminal ID of the telephone when the telephone makes a call request to the other party. The terminal ID and the additional message may be displayed, for example, on a display device attached to the telephone set on the side that receives the call request (hereinafter referred to as the “callee side”). Based on the terminal ID and the additional message, the user of the called-side telephone set has made a call request before making a call (hereinafter referred to as "calling side").
It is possible to know the importance of a call to and from, and it will be a powerful material to judge whether or not it is necessary to make a call immediately.

A communication terminal apparatus and a communication system using the same according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 11. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of a communication terminal device (hereinafter referred to as “telephone”) according to an embodiment of the present invention. The communication system shown in FIG. 1 includes a calling side communication telephone 1 and a receiving side telephone 1.
It consists of two telephones, 1 and 1. These two telephones 1 and 11 have almost the same configuration and function, and the originating side telephone and the receiving side telephone can be exchanged. Regarding the description of each functional block, the description of one of the telephone 1 and the telephone 11 also serves as the explanation of the other functional block.

The telephone 1 includes a communication processing unit 2, a voice processing unit 3, a speaker 4, a microphone 5, and an input device 6.
It has a control unit 7, a storage device 8, a display device 9, and a message processing unit 10. The telephone 11 also has similar functions, and these functions are indicated by reference numerals obtained by adding 10 to the reference numerals assigned to the respective functional blocks in the telephone 1. The telephone 1 and the telephone 11 are the communication network 1
0c or the like via a wired cable or wireless (10a, 1
0b) so that they can be connected to each other.

The communication processing unit 2 is connected to the other party's telephone 11 via the communication system 10c and calls the other party's telephone 11. More specifically, it also has a function of receiving a ringing tone and the like, and transmitting and receiving a digital message expressed by voice or characters.

The audio processing unit 3 receives the digital audio data processed and output by the communication processing unit 2, and outputs the D / A
Performs voice data processing such as conversion and volume adjustment to convert call voice data into audible voice signals. The data after the voice data processing is output as voice through the speaker 4. Further, the voice processing unit 3 performs a voice data conversion process such as A / D conversion on the voice input from the microphone 5,
It has a function of outputting to the communication processing unit 2. The input device 6 is
You can enter data such as messages.

The control unit 7 controls each device provided in the telephone. The storage device 8 stores various data.
The display device 9 displays an identification ID for identifying the telephone, an additional message, and the like. The message processing unit 10
A message input from the input device 6 or the like is displayed on the display device 9
Perform processing for displaying on.

The receiving side prepares and maintains a call refusal message in advance before receiving a call. FIG. 2 is a flowchart of maintenance of the call refusal message. With reference to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, a process in which the called party maintains a call refusal message in preparation for a new incoming call will be described.

As shown in FIG. 2, the telephone is initially in the standby state S0. When the called-side user uses the input device 16 to instruct maintenance of the call refusal message, the control unit 17 shifts to the call refusal message maintenance mode of step S1. In step S2, the message processing unit 20 displays the maintenance menu,
For example, a menu of function selection modes such as “create”, “edit”, and “end” is displayed on the display device 19. The step receiving side user selects one of the function selection modes using the input device 16.

If the "create" mode is selected, the process proceeds to step S3, where the message processing unit 20 causes the storage device 18 to operate.
Check the free space in the call rejection message storage area in.
If it is determined in step S3 that the free storage area does not exist, the process proceeds to step S4, and a warning message indicating that the free storage area does not exist is displayed.
Go to step S6.

If it is determined in step S3 that there is a free storage area, the called user can create a new call refusal message (new message) using the input device 16 in step S5. In Figure 6,
An example of the data format of the call refusal message stored in the storage device 18 is shown. FIG. 7 shows the contents of the group ID.

As shown in FIG. 6, the call refusal message group has a plurality of group IDs and a plurality of call refusal messages corresponding to the respective group IDs and indicating call refusal message contents. Group ID is
This is given to divide the contents of the message into categories, and data in the format as shown in FIG. 7, for example, is stored in the storage device 18.

As shown in FIG. 6, as the call refusal message, a character string-based format is shown as an example. By adding a special symbol in the character string, an area (hereinafter referred to as “arbitrarily set character string”) in which the character string is partially added and edited can be specified at the stage of selecting and transmitting the call rejection message. For example, print in C
The character string format that uses the f () function as a model is used. In the call message on the second line from the top of FIG. 6, "% 2d"
Represents a 2-digit numerical character string. That is, the message "I will contact you in about"% 2d "minutes at"% 2d "."
If you enter "\ 03 \ 30 \" just before sending, it will be stored as a specific message "I will contact you at about 03:30." By doing so, it is possible to easily create a message that is flexible and suitable for the incoming scene. At this time, following the incoming call rejection message, the default value stored in the arbitrarily set character string delimited by the delimiter "\" is stored in order from the message head. In the above example, by entering "\ 03 \ 30 \", the first% 2 of "% 2d minutes" at "% 2d" above
The value of 03 is assigned to d, and the value of 30 is assigned to the subsequent% 2d.

It is to be noted that the call rejection message is selected and transmitted at the time of an incoming call, and the caller side waits for the call until the callee side transmits the call rejection message. As described above, by using the method of rewriting only the important part of the fixed message (the specific time represented by a number in the above example), a quick response to the other party becomes possible. As the default value, the character string input when selecting the message last time is stored. In step S5, the group ID of the message is also designated.

However, the group ID = 0 is a single default message selected when the user does not specify the call refusal message. Therefore, it is not specified as a message created by the user.

When the "edit" mode is selected in step S2, the message that has already been input can be edited again. First, the message to be re-edited is selected using the input device 16. In step S6, the message processing unit 20 selects and retrieves a message from the storage device 18 according to the instruction from the input device 16, and causes the display device 19 to display the message. As described with reference to FIG. 6, the selected message is edited again in step S7 according to the format.

Then, in step S8, it is determined whether or not the edited creation message is empty. If a creation message exists, it is determined that the message is valid, and the creation message is stored in the storage device 18 in the format shown in FIG. 6 in step S9.

If it is determined in step S8 that the created message does not exist (empty), the message is deleted. However, when the group ID is 0, that is, when it is the default, the initialization message of the group ID = 0 stored in the storage device 18 is read in step S10, and the message of the group ID = 0 (step S12) is read. The initial message) is stored in the storage device 18. Then, the screen returns to the maintenance menu selection screen (step S2). When the "end" mode is selected in step S2, the maintenance menu is ended and the state returns to the standby state (step S0) again.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a procedure when the calling side 31 performs a calling operation and the receiving side 51 selects a call. The procedure will be described with reference to FIG. On the calling side 31, the user (caller) inputs a call message (message) using the input device 6.

At this time, as long as the voice processing unit 3 or a processing unit accompanying it has a voice identification function of identifying the voice input through the microphone 5 and the voice processing unit 3 and recognizing the characters as data, it is free. You can enter a character string in a short time. Then, the identification information 33 such as a telephone number for identifying the communication partner is input and transmitted. The telephone terminal sets the input call message and the communication partner, that is, the telephone ID (number) of the receiving side and the telephone ID (number) of the transmitting side, and transmits the set to the communication system through the communication processing unit 2.

FIG. 11 shows an example of the data structure of outgoing message data transmitted at this time. The data structure includes a called party ID, a calling party ID, and a call message. The receiving-side telephone receives the outgoing message data from the communication system by the communication processing unit 12 (FIG. 1). A call bell rings to notify the user (receiver) of the incoming call, and the outgoing message data is sent to the message processing unit 20.
(Fig. 1). The call message included in the outgoing message data and information about the calling party are displayed on the display device 19 (FIG. 1).

The callee determines the subsequent processing method according to the information displayed on the display device 19 and the situation where the callee is placed. For example, when it is determined that a call should be made immediately, the terminal is instructed to “call” through the input device 16 (FIG. 1), and a voice call with the caller is started.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing the flow of processing performed at the originating telephone when making a call. FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 are flowcharts showing the flow of processing performed by the receiving-side telephone when receiving a call. 8 to 10,
It is a figure which shows the process according to a time series diagram, and FIGS. 3-5 corresponds to FIGS. 8-10, respectively.
The following description will proceed with reference to FIG. 1 as appropriate.

As shown in FIG. 3, the process proceeds from the standby state of step S0 to step S13. In step S13, the caller inputs the call message using the input device 6 by using the calling telephone 1. At this time, the message processing unit 10 causes the display device 9 to display the content of the message being input. In step S14, the caller inputs the telephone number of the other party. Preparation of the calling party is complete.

In step S15, an actual calling operation is performed. First, the message processing unit 10 sends the input call message and the telephone number of the other party to the communication processing unit 2. The communication processing unit 2 uses the telephone number 1 of the input telephone number.
1 and a predetermined communication network 10c.

Data including the telephone number of the other party, the telephone number of the other party, and the call message shown in FIG. 11 is transmitted, and the telephone 11 of the other party is called. As shown in FIG. 4, in step S21, the communication processing unit 12 of the telephone 11 receives the call from the communication processing unit 2 of the telephone 1. The communication processing unit 12 transmits to the control unit 17 a signal notifying that there is an incoming call.

In step S22, the control unit 17 rings the call bell through the voice processing unit 13 and the speaker 14 to notify the user that an incoming call has been received. The communication processing unit 12 sends the received call message and caller telephone number shown in FIG. 6 to the message processing unit 20. The message processing unit 20 causes the display device 19 to display information based on the call message and the caller telephone number. At this time, if the callee is in a call-enabled state or if the caller's call message displayed on the display device 19 is viewed and it is determined that the call is currently in a call-disabled state, the call priority is high. The device 16 gives an instruction to "receive" (step S24).

Upon receiving this instruction, the control unit 17 moves to step S25 and shifts the communication processing unit 12 to the normal call state. At this time, the calling bell also stops. The communication processing unit 12 on the called side notifies the communication processing unit 2 on the calling side that the called side has received a call, and the voice processing unit 13
The voice data input and output in (1) is exchanged with the communication processing unit 2.

The communication processing unit 12 of the telephone 11 on the receiving side
The control unit 7 on the calling side is notified that a call is established with the telephone 1 on the calling side. Upon receiving this notification, the control unit 7 of the telephone 1 on the calling side shifts to the normal call state in step S17 (FIG. 3). The communication processing unit 2 receives the voice data input by the voice processing unit 3 and the speaker 4 from the communication processing unit 1.
Replace with 2. When the call ends, the process returns to step S0 (standby state).

If the calling side interrupts the calling in step S20, the receiving side also receives the calling in step S35 (FIG. 4), stops the calling bell in step S36, and returns to the standby state S0.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a communication when the calling side 31 makes a call (call) and the called side 51 returns a call refusal message. The flow until the called side 51 displays the call message and the calling party information is the same as the flow described with reference to FIG. When the callee 51 sees the call message and determines the importance based on the situation and the message in which the callee 51 is placed, and when it is determined that the call is not made, the input device 16 (FIG. 1) is used. Then, the telephone 11 is instructed to reject the call. I received this instruction,
The control unit 17 disconnects the call bell, performs a process of creating a call refusal message, transmits the created call refusal message to the calling side, and disconnects the communication. The calling side receives the call refusal message from the called side, displays it on the display device, and terminates the communication by seeing the call refusal message.

The specific processing flow in the telephone terminal regarding the diagram of FIG. 9 is as follows. A call is made from the originating telephone 1 (steps S13 to S16 in FIG. 3). In response to this, the receiving telephone set 11 receives the call and displays the call message (from S21 to S2 in FIG. 4).
The processing up to 4) is the same as in FIG.

In step S24 (FIG. 4), if the callee is not in the call-enabled state and the call priority is lower than the work performed by the callee, whether or not to notify the call reject message in step S26. Or shift to the selection mode.

First, in step S27 (FIG. 5), the control unit 1
7 stops the call bell. Then, the message processing unit 20 retrieves all the group names from the storage device 18 and displays them on the display device 19 as a list. In step S28,
The callee uses the input device 16 to select one group from the list of all groups. Next, the message processing unit 20 takes out the call refusal messages belonging to the group from the storage device 18, and displays them in a list on the display device 19. In step S29, the callee selects any one of the call refusal messages from the input device 16. The other party's identification number may be associated with the call refusal message in advance. The association is preferably configured to be changed on a case-by-case basis.

If the call rejection message contains an optional character string, the relevant part should be replaced with a default character string delimited by "\", and an underline should be displayed to indicate the optional character string. Explicitly. In step S30, it is checked whether or not an arbitrarily set character string is present in the call rejection message selected in step S29. If an arbitrarily set character string is present, the process proceeds to step S31 to edit the arbitrarily set character string. Display device 19
Display the cursor on any of the optional characters in the call rejection message displayed in. When there are one or more arbitrary setting character strings, the arbitrary setting character string to be edited is designated by a cursor key or the like provided on the input device 16. When the arbitrarily set character string is changed based on the other party's requirement or the reason for rejecting the call, the default setting value in the call rejection message is also replaced as the setting value before that in step S32.

In step S30, if the arbitrarily set character string does not exist, the process proceeds to step S33 to end the editing work. At this time, the microphone 15 and the voice processing unit 1
If the voice processing unit 13 or the input device 16 or its associated processing unit has a voice identification function of identifying the voice input through the 3 and recognizing it as character data, a free character string can be input in a short time. Therefore, it is possible to enhance the expressiveness of the communication refusal message. When adding a message to the call refusal message, the process returns to step S28.

When the call refusal message creation / editing work is completed in step S33, the created call refusal message is transmitted to the originating telephone set 1 through the communication processing unit 12 in step S34.

The process returns to the standby state (step S0) shown in FIG. As shown in FIG. 3, when the communication processing unit 2 of the calling side telephone 1 receives the call refusal message from the communication processing unit 12 of the receiving side telephone 11 in step S18, it notifies the control unit 7 of that fact in step S19. Along with the notification, a call refusal message is sent to the message processing unit 10. In step S19, the message processing unit 10
Displays the received call refusal message on the display device 9, and returns to the standby state S0.

In FIG. 10, the calling side 31 makes a call,
5 is a diagram showing a situation in which a fixed time has elapsed without editing the call refusal message due to circumstances such as the called side 51 not being able to operate the telephone 11.

A call is made from the calling side telephone 1 (from step S13 to step S16 in FIG. 3). The process until the receiving side telephone 11 receives the information including the call message and displays the call message on the display device 19 (from step S21 to step S24 in FIG. 4) is the same as the process shown in FIG. . As shown in step S37 of FIG. 4, when a certain time has elapsed after receiving the call, it is determined that the time-out has occurred. The message processing unit 20 retrieves the default call reject message (FIGS. 6 and 7) with the group ID = 0 stored in the storage device 18,
In step S38 (FIG. 4), it is transmitted to the calling side telephone 1 via the communication processing unit 12. Then, step S36
At, the calling bell is stopped and the process returns to the standby state (step S0). The processing in the originating telephone 1 is shown in FIG.
The process is the same as the process shown in (step S18 and step S19).

As described above, when the communication terminal device according to the present embodiment is used, in the situation where the call cannot be answered generally, although it is not always possible to make a call, such as in a train or in a conference, the called side cannot Can know the other party's call requirements before making a call. Therefore, it becomes easy to determine which of the call and the current situation is to be prioritized, depending on the situation where the callee is placed and the importance of the call message, and the action according to the situation can be selected.

Further, since the incoming call rejection message can be created in consideration of the importance of the obtained incoming call message, it is possible to obtain auxiliary data for setting the opportunity of communication with the other party.

In addition, since an incoming call rejection message is prepared in advance and only important parts can be changed by a simple operation when receiving an incoming call, the contents of the calling party message and the calling party message can be checked, for example, It is also possible to reply to the caller with a call refusal message that specifies the time to call back.

The calling side sees the call refusal message from the called side and performs other work until the contact time. The called side is required to use another communication means such as e-mail to make a call. It is possible to take a response such as to convey, and to plan more efficient action scheduling.

Also, since the call channel with the caller and the call message are set, the call channel with the caller is immediately determined as a result of judging that the call priority is high by looking at the call message. You can enter.

Note that there is, for example, an electronic mail as a character-based tool for notifying a user of a message before making a call. However,
Since the e-mail system is isolated from the call channel, it is necessary to take a separate call procedure to make a call. That is, the message receiver takes a call origination action or returns to the sender by e-mail or the like that the call is available.
The calling party needs to take the outgoing call action. If the communication terminal device according to the present embodiment is used, the above-mentioned operation complexity is eliminated.

Although the embodiments of the present invention have been exemplified above, the above-mentioned examples have no restrictive meaning. In addition, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications, improvements, and combinations can be made.

For example, although the telephone has been described as an example of the communication terminal device according to the above-described embodiment, the communication terminal device may be a portable telephone, a portable information processing terminal, a personal computer, or the like, which has a transmitting / receiving function and a data input function. A device with and is included.

[0056]

According to the present invention, when a call is made using a communication terminal device such as a telephone, the calling side and the called side are
You can have a closer communication according to the situation of the opponent.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of a communication terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a call between two telephones is assumed.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart regarding maintenance processing of a call refusal message that is set in advance before an incoming call in the communication terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart regarding processing on the calling side in the communication terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart regarding processing on the called side in the communication terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart relating to a call rejection message creation process and a call origination process among the processes on the called side in the communication terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a data format and data contents stored in a storage device regarding a call refusal message set before an incoming call.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a data format and data contents stored in a storage device regarding the contents of a group ID of the call refusal message shown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a diagram when a callee selects a call when an incoming call is received in the communication technology using the telephone according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram in the case where the called party selects call refusal at the time of an incoming call in the communication terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a diagram of a communication terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention when a callee does not perform an operation when receiving a call.

FIG. 11 is a format of data sent from the calling side to the called side at the time of calling.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 11 ... Telephone (communication terminal device), 2, 12 ... Communication processing unit, 3, 13 ... Voice processing unit, 4, 14 ... Speaker,
5, 15 ... Microphone, 6, 16 ... Input device, 7, 17 ... Control unit, 8, 18 ... Storage device, 9, 19 ... Display device, 1
0, 20 ... Message processing unit.

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A communication terminal device capable of transmitting and receiving call voice data and additional data other than the call voice data, wherein an input unit capable of inputting the additional data and identification of itself when requesting a call with the other party. A communication terminal device comprising: a communication processing unit that transmits data and an additional message input from the input unit, and that receives the identification data and the additional message when a call is requested. 2. The communication terminal device according to claim 1, further comprising a display unit that displays the received identification data and the received additional message. 3. A selection means capable of selecting one of a call start mode for immediately starting a call when a call is requested and a call refusal mode for notifying that a call is currently unavailable. Item 1. The communication terminal device according to Item 1 or 2. 4. A storage unit for storing a plurality of call refusal messages and, when the call refusal mode is selected, one of the call refusal messages selected from the plurality of call refusal messages. The telephone according to claim 3, further comprising: a call refusal message sending unit that sends back a call refusal message to the communication terminal device on the side requesting the call. 5. At least one of the plurality of call refusal messages has a variable portion, and the variable portion is edited by inputting data corresponding to the variable portion from the input unit. Claim 4 capable of
The communication terminal device according to. 6. The communication terminal device according to claim 4, wherein the display unit displays the received call refusal message.