JP2003281068A - Instant messaging system and instant messaging program - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an instant messaging system and an instant messaging program capable of easily selecting a communication destination even for a portable telephone with a narrow display area by displaying users in a contact list in the order of a priority. <P>SOLUTION: A communication control part 11 receives user information transmitted from a portable terminal 20. A user information registration and change processing part 12 receives the user information and stores the user information into a user information DB (database) 14. A display contact list preparation part 13 reads the user information from the user information DB (database) 14 and calculates the display order of registered users on the basis of data such as a user status and a display priority stored in a contact list management DB 15. The display contact list preparation part 13 prepares a contact list for displaying the user according to the display order and transmits the contact list to the portable terminal 20. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an instant messaging system, and in particular, the priority of a user name displayed in a contact list is calculated according to the status of a mobile terminal and the importance of a communication destination, in descending order of priority. The present invention relates to an instant messaging system and an instant messaging program that display a user name.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Instant messaging systems, which have been used for consumers in the past, are spreading to use in companies. In addition, until now, it was mainly used on desktop computers.
(Personal Digital Assistant) and mobile phones and other mobile terminals are becoming popular. The instant messaging system can be used not only for exchanging data and messages, but also for information providing services, for example, for providing stock price information, for notifying when the stock price fluctuates more than the user has set. It is about to be introduced. The important point of this instant messaging system is that you can send data and messages after checking the status of the person you are trying to communicate with by the status of the person displayed on the terminal. is there.

As the status to be displayed, not only whether the user is logged in to the network or logged out, but also information such as that he / she is away from his / her seat or is near him / her is used. On the user's terminal, registered communication partners who frequently exchange messages are displayed by user name, and the status is displayed for each user name. Considering the case where the registered user name is used in a company,
Generally speaking, it seems that there will be several dozen or more. When used on a desktop computer, as shown in FIG. 14, the terminal screen has a large display area and high resolution, so that even if there are many registered user names, they can be displayed practically without any trouble.

[0004]

However, with the widespread use of instant messaging systems,
Although it is considered that the number of user names used by mobile terminals will increase, the number of user names that can be displayed is greatly limited in the case of the mobile phone shown in FIG. In particular, if the user name in the contact list is online, the method of displaying the user name at the top of the contact list increases the number of registered user names, and thus increases the number of online user names. Only the user name is displayed. Therefore, scrolling of the screen is often used to select a communication partner, which is not practical.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object thereof is to set the priority of the user of the communication partner displayed in the contact list according to preset importance or significance of communication, and An instant messaging system that allows you to select a communication partner with a high priority without scrolling the screen even if there are few user names that can be displayed from a user with a high rank such that the display screen is narrow like a mobile phone, and To provide an instant messaging program.

[0006]

In order to solve the above problems, the invention according to claim 1 includes a server that provides an instant message service, a plurality of mobile terminals, and a communication network that connects them. In the provided instant messaging system, the server stores user information including a communication control unit that controls communication with the mobile terminal, and user information including a user name list indicating communication destinations registered by the mobile terminal. A database, and a user information processing unit that performs user information registration processing or update processing of the user information database based on a processing request received from the mobile terminal via the communication control unit,
A contact list management database that stores a display rule and data for determining the display order of user names in the contact list displayed on the mobile terminal, and user information stored in the user information database is read out, and based on the display rule. An instant messaging system, comprising: a contact list creation unit that determines a display order of user names to create a contact list and sends the contact list to the mobile terminal.

The invention described in claim 2 is the same as claim 1
In the instant messaging system described in
The contact list creation unit sets the display order of the user names registered by the display order calculation method set in the display rule, using the communication priority, the position information and status from the mobile terminal, and the communication frequency as parameters. It is characterized by calculating and creating a contact list.

The invention described in claim 3 is the same as claim 1
In the instant messaging system according to [1], the mobile terminal sets a weighting value according to importance for parameters such as priority, position and status of the mobile terminal, and communication frequency, which are used for calculating the display order of the contact list. The display rule can be set and changed.

The invention according to claim 4 is the same as claim 1
In the instant messaging system according to [4], the mobile terminal sends update information when the status such as login and logout to the communication network and the current position change, and the display contact list creation unit causes the display contact list creation unit to communicate with the communication control unit. The contact list in which the display order of the user name is updated based on the update information received via the contact list is transmitted to the mobile terminal.

The invention described in claim 5 is the same as claim 1
In the instant messaging system according to [4], the display contact list creation unit sets a threshold to a value calculated based on the display rule, and deletes a user name whose calculated value is equal to or less than the threshold from the contact list. Is characterized by.

Further, the invention according to claim 6 is an instant messaging system including a server for providing an instant message service, a plurality of mobile terminals, and a communication network for connecting them, and a user name indicating a communication destination. A step of registering user information including a list of user names in a user information database or updating the user information, and a display rule and data for calculating a display order of user names in a contact list displayed on the mobile terminal. Storing in a list management database, reading user information stored in the user information database, determining a display order of user names based on the display rule to create a contact list, and displaying the contact list on the mobile terminal. The steps to Is an instant messaging program.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of an instant messaging system according to the embodiment.
In the figure, reference numeral 10 is a server that provides an instant message service to registered users. 20
Is a portable information terminal that registers user information in the server 10 via the communication network 100 and receives an instant message service, and a mobile phone, PDA, car navigation terminal, or the like is used. The mobile terminal 20
It has a position measuring device and sends position information to the server 10. This position information is used to determine the significance of communication based on the positional relationship with the communication partner or a specific place. The positional relationship with a specific place is an element that determines whether the provision of the service is meaningful or not depending on whether the user is in a place where the user can reach the supermarket or not, for example, in the service that provides supermarket sale information. . Further, it is possible to use the time zone as a factor for judging the significance of communication. Based on such a determination, only the user name that has significance for communication can be displayed in the contact list and the service can be provided.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the instant messaging system. A communication control unit 11 controls communication performed with the mobile terminal 20 via the communication network 100. Reference numeral 12 denotes a user information registration / change processing unit that processes registration or change of user information input from the mobile terminal 20 via the communication control unit 11. Reference numeral 14 is a user information DB (database) that stores the user information supplied from the user information registration / change processing unit 12. Reference numeral 15 is a contact list management DB that stores display rules and data in which a method for calculating the display order of user names is set. Reference numeral 13 denotes a display contact list creation unit that creates a contact list based on the user information and display rules stored in the user information DB 14.

FIG. 4A shows a contact list management DB.
15 is a diagram showing an example of data stored in 15 and used for display order calculation. FIG. "High priority" and "low priority" of data are display priorities set by the user. "Distance" is a user who does not need to be displayed when the distance is long, and "distance near" is a user who does not need to be displayed when the distance is short. "High frequency" and "low frequency" are set according to the frequency of communication. The weights A to F are weighting values of the rank calculation parameters and are set by the user.
The contact list management DB 15 stores these data and the data obtained by the display contact list creation unit 13. FIG. 4B is a diagram showing an example of data stored in the user information DB 14. The user information data includes the user ID (Identification), the list of IDs of the communication partners registered by the user, status information such as login to the network, logout, etc., the number of times of communication for each fixed period and each destination. It consists of the communication frequency history shown.

The operation of the instant messaging system will be described below with reference to the drawings. In order for the user to receive the instant message service from the server 10, it is necessary to register the user information. Therefore, first, the process of registering and changing the user information will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 5 is a sequence diagram showing a procedure for registering and changing user information. FIG. 6A is a flowchart showing the flow of registration processing, and FIG. 6B is a flowchart showing the flow of change processing. To register the user information, a processing request is transmitted from the mobile terminal 20. The communication control unit 11 receives the processing request via the communication network 100 (step S111). The user information registration / change processing unit 12 receives the processing request from the communication control unit 11 and acquires the DB scheme from the user information DB 14.

Based on this DB scheme, the user information registration / change processing unit 12 sends the information to be registered in the user information DB 14 as a response to the request content to the mobile terminal 20 via the communication control unit 11. (Step S112). The mobile terminal 20 sends the user information and the input request according to the request content reply. The communication control unit 11 receives the user information transmitted from the mobile terminal 20 (step S113). In step S114, the user information registration / change processing unit 12 determines whether the user ID has already been registered. If the user ID is not registered, the received user information is registered in the user information DB.14 (step S
115), and sends an end notification to the mobile terminal 20 via the communication control unit 11. On the other hand, if the user ID is registered,
In step S116, the user information registration / change processing unit 12 sends an instruction to the mobile terminal 20 to use another ID.

Next, the process of changing the user information will be described. First, the change processing request is transmitted from the mobile terminal 20. The communication control unit 11 receives the processing request via the communication network 100 (step S121). The user information registration / change processing unit 12 receives a processing request from the communication control unit 11 and receives an ID designated from the user information DB 14.
Get user information of. The user information registration / change processing unit 12 returns this user information as a reply to the request content to the mobile terminal 20 via the communication control unit 11 (step S122). The mobile terminal 20 sends an input request for user information to be changed according to the response from the server 10.

The communication control unit 11 receives the changing user information transmitted from the mobile terminal 20 (step S12).
3). In step S124, the user information registration / change processing unit 12 determines whether the contents to be changed are valid.
If the determination result is YES, the corresponding data in the user information DB 14 is updated with the received user information (step S125), and the end notification is sent to the mobile terminal 20 via the communication control unit 11. On the other hand, if the contents to be changed are not valid, the process proceeds to step S126, where the user information registration / change processing unit 12 points out invalid information and sends an instruction to the mobile terminal 20 to re-input.

Next, the process of creating the contact list will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram showing the procedure for creating the contact list, and FIGS. 8 and 9 are flowcharts showing the flow of the creating process. First, the mobile terminal 20 sends a contact list creation request to the server 10. The communication control unit 11 receives the contact list creation request (step S210) and outputs it to the display contact list creation unit 13. The display contact list creation unit 13 accesses the contact list management DB 15 to acquire the contact list creation rule of the user who made the creation request (step S220).

Next, the display contact list creating section 13
Accesses the user information DB 14 to read the contact list of the user (step S230), and proceeds to step S240. Then, in step S240, the processes of steps S241 to S245 are performed. In step S241, the display contact list creation unit 13
Reads the status of the user included in the contact list from the user information DB 14. Next, the communication history of the user included in the contact list is acquired from the user information DB 14 (step S24).
2). Further, the position information of the user included in the contact list is acquired (step S243). Step S2
The processes of 41 to S244 are repeated for the number of users registered in the contact list, and the process proceeds to step S250.

FIG. 9 shows the flow of the contact list creating process in step S250. First, the display contact list creation unit 13 creates a list for calculating points including the acquired user status, communication history, and terminal position information, and assigns points to each user (step S251). Here, as shown in FIG. 10A, in the contact list, as a user,
It is assumed that “a”, “i”, “u”, “e”, “o”, and “ka” are registered. Weights A to F in FIG.
Is arbitrarily set by the user, but the default value 1 is set here. FIG. 10B shows the status of the user, the distance to the mobile terminal 20, and the communication frequency.

In step S252, the weight B * 100 is subtracted from the point of the user whose distance is far from the current position of the portable terminal 20 among the users set to "distance" in the point calculation rule. FIG. 11 shows the calculation logic of the point calculation of each user based on the point calculation rule. As shown in FIG. 11, the point in the "distance" column of the user "u" is -1 * 100. next,
Weight C * 10 from the point of the user whose distance is close to the current position of the mobile terminal 20 among the users set to “close distance”
0 is subtracted (step S253).

In step S254, 5 is subtracted from the points of the users who are included in the contact list to be displayed and whose status is offline. Succeedingly, in a step S255, a weight A * 10 is added to the point of the user designated as “high priority”. Step S25
In 6, the weight B * 10 is subtracted from the points of the user designated as "low priority". Next, step S25.
A weight E * 5 is added to the user designated as “high frequency” in step 7, and F * 5 is subtracted from the user designated as “low frequency” in step S258. Note that step S252
~ Numerical value 100 used to calculate points in S258,
10, 5 can be set arbitrarily according to the importance of each parameter.

As shown in the order after sorting in FIG. 11, sorting is performed from the highest point of each user calculated according to the above procedure (step S259) to determine the order of display. Here, it is assumed that a threshold value, -50, is set for the calculated points. Therefore, the user whose point is -50 or less is deleted from the displayed contact list (step S260). As a result,
As shown in the contact list rank of 1, the displayed users are in the order of "a", "o", "ka", and "i" from the top. Next, the user of high frequency and the user of low frequency are specified from the communication frequency history of the user, and the information of the contact list management DB 15 is updated (step S261). Then, the process proceeds to step S270, and the created contact list is transmitted to the mobile terminal 20 via the communication control unit 11.

Next, registration and change processing in the contact list management DB 15 will be described with reference to FIGS. 12 and 13. FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a sequence of a registration procedure and a modification procedure in the contact list management DB 15 shown in FIG.
3 is a flowchart of registration and change processing. First,
A registration processing request is transmitted from the mobile terminal 20. The communication control unit 11 receives this registration processing request (step S30
1), and sends it to the display contact list creation unit 13. The display contact list creation unit 13 uses the contact list management D.
B.15 is accessed to read a request content response indicating information to be registered, and the mobile terminal 20 is accessed via the communication control unit 11.
(Step S302).

The mobile terminal 20 inputs and sends information to be registered according to the received response from the server 10. The registration information received by the communication control unit 11 is sent to the display contact list creation unit 13 (step S303).
The display contact list creation unit 13 uses the user information DB /
The user ID stored in 14 is collated to determine whether the registered ID is designated (step S304). When the registered ID is designated, the received information is registered in the contact list management DB 15 (step S305), and the end notification is transmitted to the mobile terminal 20.
On the other hand, if an unregistered ID is specified, the process advances to step S306 to notify the mobile terminal 20 that the specified ID cannot be used. The data registered in the contact list management DB 15 is also changed by the same processing as described above.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the user names of communication partners displayed in the contact list are displayed in descending order of priority, it is easy to select communication partners with high priority even when the display is very limited like a mobile phone, and instant messaging system It is possible to obtain the effect of further increasing the convenience. In addition, the priority of the displayed user name can be automatically changed according to the location information of the mobile terminal and the significance of communication, which enables an efficient information service by the company and the usefulness of the instant message service. It is possible to obtain the effect of being able to increase.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram showing an instant messaging system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display area of a mobile phone.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an instant messaging system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of data accumulated in a user information database and a contact list management database.

FIG. 5 is a sequence diagram showing procedures for registering and changing user information.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a process of registering and changing user information.

FIG. 7 is a sequence diagram showing a procedure for creating a display contact list.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing a process of creating a display contact list.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing a process of calculating a display order of a contact list.

FIG. 10 is a diagram showing parameters of a display rule.

FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a calculation logic for calculating a display order.

FIG. 12 is a sequence diagram showing a procedure for registering and changing a contact list management database.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart showing a process of registering and changing a contact list management database.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a display area of a conventional terminal.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 Instant messaging system 11 Communication control unit 12 User information registration / change processing unit 13 Display contact list creation section 14 user information DB (database) 15 Contact list management database (database) 20 mobile terminals

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An instant messaging system comprising a server that provides an instant message service, a plurality of mobile terminals, and a communication network that connects them, wherein the server controls communication for controlling communication with the mobile terminals. Section, a user information database storing user information including a list of user names indicating communication destinations registered by the mobile terminal, and a processing request received from the mobile terminal via the communication control section. A user information processing unit that performs a user information registration process or an update process of the user information database; and a contact list that stores display rules and data for calculating the display order of user names in the contact list displayed on the mobile terminal. Management database and the user information stored in the user information database An instant messaging system, comprising: a contact list creation unit that reads user information, determines a display order of user names based on the display rule, creates a contact list, and sends the contact list to the mobile terminal. . 2. The contact list creation unit is a user registered by a display order calculation method set in the display rule, with parameters of communication priority, position information and status from the mobile terminal, and communication frequency. The instant messaging system according to claim 1, wherein a display list of names is calculated to create a contact list. 3. The mobile terminal displays the weighted value according to the importance of parameters such as priority, position and status of the mobile terminal, and communication frequency, which are used for calculating the display order of the contact list. The instant messaging system according to claim 1, wherein the instant messaging system can be set and changed in a rule. 4. The portable terminal sends update information when the status such as login or logout to the communication network and the current position change, and the contact list creating unit receives the update information via the communication control unit. The instant messaging system according to claim 1, wherein a contact list in which the display order of user names is updated based on the updated information is created and sent to the mobile terminal. 5. The contact list creation unit sets a threshold value to a value calculated based on the display rule, and deletes a user name whose calculated value is equal to or less than the threshold value from the contact list. The instant messaging system according to claim 1. 6. An instant messaging system including a server that provides an instant message service, a plurality of mobile terminals, and a communication network that connects them, and uses user information including a list of user names indicating communication destinations. A user information database or updating the user information, and storing a display rule and data for calculating a display order of user names in the contact list displayed on the mobile terminal in the contact list management database. Reading the user information stored in the user information database, determining the display order of the user names based on the display rule to create a contact list, and causing the computer to execute the step of displaying the contact list. Instant message for Programming program.