JP2003218987A - Communication terminal, searching server, sender identification method, incoming call identification information service charge imposing method, and program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a communication terminal that allows a user to confirm outline of a sender and communication contents without the need for any particular action at transmission and for increasing a transmission data amount. <P>SOLUTION: A first communication means 11 is connected to a voice speech channel switching network and a second communication means 12 is connected to an IP network packet switching network to conduct communication. A phone caller has only to register incoming identification attached information such as voice and video reproduced at a receiver side once onto a searching server and a receiver side uses the second communication means to search the searching server to acquire the incoming identification attached information. Thus, the receiver side can confirm the caller and outline of communication contents without the need for increasing traffic of channel switching network. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

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, a search server, and a call originator, by which the recipient can identify the sender by sound or image information, and at the same time, identify the communication at the time to the recipient. The present invention relates to an original identification method, an incoming call identification information service, and a program for realizing them.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, communication infrastructure has been rapidly developed as represented by the spread of the Internet, and it has become a means of obtaining and exchanging information, which is no longer necessary in daily life by e-mail and Web browsing. . In the world of personal computers, various contents have been accessed using Web browsers, and e-mail software has been used for work, friendships, and exchange of information in a wider range. Broadband communication has been promoted, and seamless network connection environment such as high-speed constant connection and packet communication has become available at low cost regardless of wired or wireless communication. Mobile phones are no longer just a means of wireless communication, but each carrier (telephone communication service provider)
Although different methods such as circuit switching and packet switching are supported, it supports sending and receiving information using the IP network, and the function of a phone and the function of a Web browser and an e-mail terminal can be achieved with one mobile phone. I came to hold it together. Recently, mobile phones and services that can simultaneously connect to both circuit-switched networks and packet-switched networks have begun. For example, NTT DOCOMO's FOMA (Freedom Of
Mobile multimedia Access) is that.

By the way, in an electronic mail, the sender's address can be identified by the sender's sender's address (From: or Sender: field). Further, in recent wired / wireless networks, a service is provided in which the telephone number information of the calling side is notified to the called side at the time of call setting. By using this service, the notified telephone number can be displayed or voiced. There are commercially available terminal devices that read aloud or present previously associated voice and image information. When presenting voice or image information for identification at the time of an incoming call in these terminal devices, it is necessary to register a telephone number on the receiving terminal side and associate the information to be presented with that number. Frequently performing this with respect to the supposed sender has been difficult, especially when the receiver is a handicapped person or an elderly person, due to the problem of the amount of work and the complexity of operation. As a method for improving such a situation, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-257131, "Communication Terminal Device", the caller side designates musical tone data to be sounded at the receiver side at the time of calling and adds it to the call setting message. Then, a method of transmitting the data is proposed. As a result, the sender side can convey the identification information of himself / herself and the outline of the communication at that time to the other party at the time of the incoming call without special designation on the receiver side. Further, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2000-349863 "Communication Terminal Device and Switch", a richer tone color expression is made possible by inserting and transmitting WAV format data or compressed WAV format data in a call setting message, and the receiving side at the switch. By determining whether the terminal can process this type of data, it is possible to suppress an increase in traffic.

[0004]

However, although it is possible for the sender side to specify the identification sound to be sounded at the receiving side terminal by the above-mentioned conventional technique, the sender prepares the data to be added at each transmission. However, there is a problem that the amount of transmitted data also increases. Also, the contents cannot be understood unless communication is started. In particular, the telephone has an essential problem that it is impossible to know what the communication is unless you talk to the other party. The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and it is not necessary to do special things at the time of transmission, and a communication terminal capable of knowing the originator and the outline of communication without increasing the amount of transmission data. An object is to provide a device and a method of source identification.

[0005]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a communication terminal device according to claim 1 is a communication terminal device for exchanging information with an unspecified number of opponents, wherein: Retrieval means for retrieving the identification additional information of the sender based on the identification information about the sender included in the received contents at the time of the incoming call in the first communication means, and output means for outputting the retrieved additional identification information. And the most main feature is that the search means searches using a second communication means different from the first communication means. That is, when a call arrives at the first communication means, the second communication means is used to search for and output information for identification prepared by the caller, so that the caller can be identified before communication is started. Can recall the outline of communication. Also, it is possible to determine whether the caller is an unknown sender. According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the communication terminal device according to the first aspect, the first communication means is a wired or wireless telephone network, and a telephone number of a caller is used as identification information. To do. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the communication terminal device according to the first or second aspect, the identification additional information is musical tone data. A fourth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in the communication terminal device according to the first or second aspect, the additional identification information is image data. That is, it is possible to retrieve the additional identification information specified by the caller using the telephone number as a key,
Since it is presented by sound and images, it is possible to easily identify the sender and determine the outline of communication. The claim 5 of the present invention is the claim 1.
Alternatively, in the communication terminal device according to the second aspect, when the search unit searches for the additional identification information of the sender based on the identification information, the data format of the additional identification information is specified.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the communication terminal device according to the first or second aspect, when the search means searches for the additional identification information of the sender based on the identification information, the additional identification information is added. It is characterized in that the data format of information and the priority of the data format are designated. That is,
Since there are some data formats that cannot be reproduced depending on the function of the communication terminal device on the receiving side, it is possible to select a data format that matches the function of the communication terminal device. In addition, claim 7 of the present invention
In the communication terminal device according to claim 1 or 2,
A cache memory for storing the retrieved additional identification information is provided, and if the retrieval unit has additional identification information that meets the retrieval condition, the second communication unit summarizes the additional identification information. The output means outputs the identification additional information in the cache when the summary information and the content of the identification additional information in the cache match. That is, since the communication terminal device is provided with the cache, unnecessary traffic is not generated. Also, since the latest information is checked using the summary information, it is possible to quickly confirm whether the additional identification information is correct.
The search server according to claim 8 of the present invention is a search server which is used by connecting to a network, and means for storing the additional identification information in association with the identification information, and summarizing the additional identification information to obtain the summary information. The present invention is characterized by including a means for creating and a search response means for returning corresponding identification additional information or summary information of the identification additional information in response to a search request using the identification information as a key via the network. According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the search server according to the eighth aspect, the identification additional information is musical sound data.
According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, in the search server according to the eighth aspect, the identification additional information is image data. That is, since the identification additional information is summarized and summary information is created and returned in response to a request, it is not necessary to transmit music data or image data having a large capacity unnecessarily. In addition, since it is sound and video, a variety of expressions are possible.

[0007] Claim 11 of the present invention includes claims 8 to 10.
In the search server described in [3], when the search response means returns the identification additional information, if there is a plurality of corresponding identification additional information, the identification addition is performed according to the data format designated by the search request and the priority of the data format. It is characterized by returning information or summary information. That is, the identification additional information can be returned in a data format suitable for the request source.
The caller identification method according to claim 12 of the present invention is a caller identification method in a communication terminal device that exchanges information with an unspecified number of opponents, and the received contents when a call is received from the first communication means. And a step of searching for the sender's additional identification information by using the second communication means based on the identification information included in the above, and a step of outputting the searched additional identification information. Further, claim 1 of the present invention
3 is a sender identification method according to 12, wherein the first communication means is a wired or wireless telephone network, the second communication means is the Internet, and the identification information is a telephone number of a sender. It is characterized by being. A fourteenth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in the transmission source identification method according to the twelfth or thirteenth aspect, the identification additional information is musical tone data. A fifteenth aspect of the present invention is the source identification method according to the twelfth or thirteenth aspect,
The additional identification information is image data. A sixteenth aspect of the present invention is a billing method for a service that provides information for identifying a caller when an incoming call arrives. The caller's identification information and additional identification information corresponding to the identification information are stored and a request is made in response to the request. As a consideration for creating and providing the identification additional information and / or the summary information of the identification additional information, the registrant of the identification additional information is charged. A seventeenth aspect of the present invention is a billing method for a service that provides information for identifying a caller when an incoming call arrives, and a search request for the additional identification information or the summary information is made to the search server that provides the additional identification information. Therefore, when the search server responds to the search request, the registrant of the identification additional information is charged. That is, convenient information can be supplied to the receiver by registering once at the sender's expense. In addition, claim 18 of the present invention
Is a program for causing a computer to function as the communication terminal device according to any one of claims 1 to 7. A program according to claim 19 of the present invention is a program for causing a computer to function as the search server according to any one of claims 8 to 11.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication network in which the present invention operates. In this embodiment, a wireless communication network and a mobile phone are described as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to a general home phone, an information communication system using a personal computer, and the like. In FIG. 1, a communication terminal device 1 is a communication terminal device provided with both a communication means for connecting to a circuit switching network 2 for voice communication and a communication means for connecting to a packet switching network 3 for an IP network. This communication terminal device can be communicated with not only by ordinary home telephones connected to the circuit switching network, but also by mobile phones, PHSs and the like. Reference numeral 4 is a radio base station for the circuit switching network 2 and 5 is a radio base station for the packet switching network 3.
The wireless base station 5 for wireless communication is further connected to the Internet 6, and the communication terminal device 1 can be connected to the Internet 6 via the wireless base station 5. Further, a search server 7 is connected to the Internet 6 to provide an information search service for identifying the sender. The search server 7 is a computer that operates on a conventional website, and provides not only an information search service but also a service that allows data maintenance such as registration, change, and deletion of identification additional information. Data maintenance can be performed from the personal computer 8 equipped with a Web browser. In order to connect the personal computer 8 to the Internet 6, there are connection methods such as dial wrap and ADSL to an Internet provider. The sender is We
b The browser is used to access the search server 7 and personal authentication is performed using the ID or the like. Next, the additional identification information (tone, voice data, video data, etc.) created in advance is uploaded to the telephone number to be registered, and the association is registered. The search server 7 may provide a service or music library in which music data can be created on the browser. After registration, the caller makes a call to the recipient in the usual way. At this time, the identification information (telephone number) is notified to the recipient. A telephone number can be included in the call setup message of the circuit-switched digital communication network, and it is provided by the telephone service provider so as to notify the calling number even on a normal analog line. The terminal device on the receiver side acquires the outgoing telephone number from the network at the same time as the incoming call. The identification additional information designated by the caller is acquired using the caller telephone number as a key and presented to the recipient. The receiver can listen to (or see) this additional identification information, roughly specify the sender and the communication contents, and then receive the incoming call. The operator of the search server 7 confirms that the additional identification information has been used by the receiver terminal device, and charges the sender a considerable amount. Alternatively, the fixed charge may be applied not for each use but for a predetermined period (for example, one month) in which a pay-as-you-go system or an upper limit of the data amount is set according to the data amount of the identification additional information.

Next, the configuration of the communication terminal device 1 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the communication terminal device according to the present invention, and takes the form of a portable telephone or a home-use stationary telephone. Also, a personal computer may be configured as a main element. The first communication means 11 is means for connecting to and communicating with a circuit switching network for voice communication. The second communication means 12 is a communication means for connecting and communicating with a packet switching network for an IP network. Control unit 14
Is composed of a microprocessor and related circuits, and controls the operation of the communication terminal device 1, processes data such as voice, and controls interrupts. The memory 13 is composed of a ROM that stores a program of processing performed by the communication terminal device 1, and a RAM that stores data of a program being executed, data of processing performed by the program, intermediate results, and the like. In addition, this RAM is S
If the RAM is used, the identification additional information that has already been acquired can be cached with low power consumption. Alternatively, if the area used for the cache is composed of a flash memory, the stored contents are retained even when the power is turned off. The input unit 15 is a part that processes data input by the user of the communication terminal device 1, and includes voice data from the microphone 16, a telephone number of the other party from the key switch 17, a control command to the communication terminal device 1, and the like. Process input. The output unit 18 is a unit that outputs visible data such as characters, figures, and images to the display unit 19 and outputs audio data to the speaker 20.

Next, the configuration of the search server will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of the search server according to the present invention. As described above, the search server 7 is installed so as to be accessible via the Internet, so-called W.
It is a computer that constitutes an eb site. The communication interface 31 is for connecting the Internet and the search server 7. The processing unit 32 is composed of a microprocessor and a memory, and is a unit for processing a search request for identification additional information and various requests coming from the Internet. In addition, the summary information of the identification additional information is also processed by the processing unit 3
2 creates. By the way, this summary information
It is created by a technique called a digest algorithm, which is an existing technique and is known by the names MD5 and SHA1. In the present invention, it is used to determine whether or not one piece of additional identification information is the same as another piece of additional identification information. For convenience, the file creation date and time and the file size may be used. The point is that it is possible to determine whether or not they are the same with less information without comparing the contents of the files one by one. This summary information may be created and stored when the identification additional information is registered, or may be created after receiving the search request. The input / output control unit 33 is an external storage device 3 in which identification additional information data, various programs, data, etc. are stored.
4 and give instructions to the search server 7,
It is a part that processes input / output from the input / output device used during management. Devices connected as input / output devices include a keyboard, a mouse, a display device, and the like.

Next, the flow of the source identification process will be described with reference to FIG. First, a message for notifying an incoming call is transmitted from the network to the receiving side terminal device (S40). This message contains the identification information (telephone number) of the sender (S
41). Next, the identification additional information is searched for in the cache memory in the terminal using this identification information as a key (S42). At this time, the search result is acquired from the higher priority order designated in advance in the terminal device. The priority order is the order of data formats convenient for the terminal device to process. Then, the search result is determined (S43). If it is in the cache, the summary information of the identification additional information is acquired (S4).
4). This summary information may be a message summary such as MD5 or SHA1, or simply file date and size information. Next, a request for the summary information of the identification additional information corresponding to the same sender identification information is transmitted to the search server (S45a). This request is made through a network (second communication means) connecting the terminal device and the search server. This can be the internet,
It may be a network for data transfer unique to the network to which the terminal device is connected. Then, the result of the request is determined (S46a). Then, if the search server also has the summary information of the identification additional information corresponding to the sender identification information, the summary information acquired from the search server is compared with the summary information in the cache (S47). The additional information is reproduced and presented to the recipient (S48). If they are not equal, the sender considers that the additional identification information has been changed by some intention, requests the additional identification information to the search server again, reproduces the additional identification information acquired from the search server, and presents it to the recipient ( S49). The identification additional information acquired at this time and the summary information acquired in S45a are stored in the cache in the terminal device.

On the other hand, if the summary information is not found in the search server in S46a, it is considered that the sender has deleted the identification additional information for some purpose, and the operation at the time of incoming call designated by the terminal device by default (for example, bell (Sound, etc.) is performed (S50). If no additional identification information is found in the cache in S43, a request for additional identification information corresponding to the same sender identification information is sent to the search server as in S45a (S45).
b). Then, the result is determined (S46b). If the additional identification information is not found in the search server, the operation (for example, ringing a bell) specified by default in the terminal device is performed (S50). If the additional identification information is found in the search server, the obtained additional identification information is reproduced and presented to the recipient (S51). Although not shown, the summary information of the additional identification information is requested to the search server, and both the additional identification information and the summary information are stored in the cache in the terminal device. In the above embodiment, the expression of reproducing the additional identification information is used. However, the identification additional information has various data formats, and musical tone data includes data composed of musical score information such as MIDI. In the present specification, WAV is used.
Voice waveform data such as or MP3 is also included in the musical sound data. In this case, returning to the original sound to generate sound is called reproduction. In addition, GIF, JPEG, TIFF
Displaying image data such as the above as an original image is also called reproduction.

[0013]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The caller of the telephone only needs to once register the additional information such as audio and video presented (reproduced) on the receiving side on the search server, and the receiving side can search and identify the search server using another line. Since the additional information is acquired, it is not necessary for the sender to add tone data etc. each time it is sent, and since the incoming call identification additional information is sent via the packet switching network, traffic on the circuit switching network The recipient can obtain information about the sender and an outline of the communication without increasing the number.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication network in which the present invention operates.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a communication terminal device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration of a search server according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a flow of a source identification process of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 communication terminal device, 7 search server, 11 first communication means, 12 second communication means, 13 memory, 14 control unit, 15 input unit, 18 output unit, 19 display unit, 2
0 speaker

Claims (19)

[Claims] 1. A communication terminal device for exchanging information with an unspecified number of other parties, based on identification information about a first communication means and a sender included in received contents of the first communication means when an incoming call is received. A second communication means different from the first communication means, and a search means for searching the sender's identification additional information and an output means for outputting the searched identification additional information. A communication terminal device characterized in that a search is performed using. 2. The communication terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the first communication means is a wired or wireless telephone network, and the telephone number of the caller is used as the identification information. 3. The communication terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the additional identification information is tone data. 4. The communication terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the additional identification information is image data. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the search means searches the additional identification information of the sender based on the identification information by designating a data format of the additional identification information. Communication terminal equipment. 6. The searching means, when searching for the additional identification information of the sender based on the identification information, specifies the data format of the additional identification information and the priority order of the data format. The communication terminal device according to claim 1. 7. The communication terminal device according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising a cache memory for storing the searched additional identification information, wherein the search means stores the additional identification information matching the search condition in the cache. If the summary information of the identification additional information is retrieved from the second communication means, the output means retrieves the identification additional information in the cache if the summary information and the summary information of the identification additional information in the cache match. A communication terminal device characterized by outputting. 8. A search server used by connecting to a network, means for storing identification additional information in association with identification information, means for summarizing the identification additional information to create summary information, and a network. And a search response means for returning corresponding identification additional information or summary information of the identification additional information in response to a search request using the identification information as a key via the search server. 9. The search server according to claim 8, wherein the additional identification information is tone data. 10. The search server according to claim 8, wherein the additional identification information is image data. 11. The search response means, when returning the identification additional information, if there are a plurality of corresponding identification additional information, the identification additional information or the identification additional information according to the data format designated by the search request and the priority of the data format. 11. The search server according to claim 8, which returns summary information. 12. A method for identifying a sender in a communication terminal device for exchanging information with an unspecified number of other parties, wherein the second method is based on the identification information included in the received contents when the call is received from the first communication means. And a step of outputting the identification additional information of the sender using the communication means, and a step of outputting the retrieved additional identification information. 13. The first communication means is a wired or wireless telephone network, the second communication means is the Internet, and the identification information is a telephone number of a caller. 12. The sender identification method described in 12. 14. The transmission source identification method according to claim 12, wherein the additional identification information is tone data. 15. The method for identifying a transmission source according to claim 12, wherein the additional identification information is image data. 16. A billing method for a service that provides information for identifying a caller when an incoming call arrives, wherein identification information of the caller and identification additional information corresponding to the identification information are stored, and the identification is performed in response to a request. A method for charging an incoming call identification information service, characterized in that a registrant of the additional identification information is charged as a consideration for creating and providing additional information and / or summary information of the additional identification information. 17. A billing method for a service that provides information for identifying a caller when an incoming call arrives, wherein the search server that provides the additional identification information has a search request for the additional identification information or summary information, A method for charging an incoming call identification information service, characterized in that the registrant of the additional identification information is charged when the search server responds to the search request. 18. A program for causing a computer to function as the communication terminal device according to claim 1. 19. A program for causing a computer to function as the search server according to claim 8.