JP2003283654A - Internet telephone system and program thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To save the time required for transferring a telephone call. <P>SOLUTION: An Internet telephone system comprises a button telephone unit 5 connected with an IP network 2 and consisting of at least one communicable terminal (IP telephone unit 4), and an IP telephone unit 1 for calling the telephone unit 5 through the IP network. When a calling party calls the telephone number of an enterprise A, a main unit 3 sends a constitutional list of the enterprise A to the telephone unit 1 and that list is displayed. When the calling party confirms the constitutional list and selects a desired section, the main unit 3 sends the list of persons in charge consisting of the name of respective persons in charge constituting that section and the state information of the persons in charge including presence, absence and busy of each person in charge to the telephone unit 1 and that list is displayed. When the calling party confirms the constitutional list and selects a desired person in charge, the main unit 3 calls a telephone unit 4 corresponding to the selected person in charge. <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 internet telephone system and a program capable of making a telephone call by using an internet protocol (IP).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, when making a call, a caller dials a destination telephone number known by the caller to call the destination telephone terminal. Here, when the responder who responded to the call is not the desired party or department, the caller verbally informs the call responder of the call and has the caller transfer the call. There is.

[0003]

As described above, in the prior art,
When the caller makes a call to the other party and the answerer who answers the call is not the desired party or department, it takes a lot of time and trouble because the person requesting the caller is called again. The problem is that the caller has to wait during this intermediary.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to eliminate the trouble of telephone transfer.

[0005]

In order to solve such a problem, the present invention provides a first device which is connected to an IP network (Internet) and comprises at least one terminal capable of making a call, and an IP network. A second device for calling and calling the first device via the IP network
And a second device that transmits a number assigned in advance to the group, the first device including an information storage unit that stores information indicating whether or not a member of the group can call. A notification unit that is connected to notify the second device of the information stored in the information storage unit and indicating whether or not the group member can be called, and a specific operation of the second device in response to the notification by the notification unit. And a control means for controlling a call to a terminal assigned to the member.

In this case, the first device is a key telephone which is connected to the IP network and includes a main device having an information storage means, a notification means and a control means, and a slave unit accommodated in the main device as the terminal. It is configured by a device. Further, the first device comprises a management server connected to the IP network and provided with an information storage means, a notification means and a control means, and a telephone terminal connected to the IP network as the terminal.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. (First Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an Internet telephone system according to the present invention, showing a first embodiment. This Internet telephone system, as shown in FIG.
And a key telephone device 5 including a main device 3 and a plurality of IP telephone devices 4A to 4N accommodated in the main device 3 as slaves. The IP telephone device 1 and the key telephone device 5 are IP telephone devices. It is connected via a network (Internet) 2.

Here, the IP telephone apparatus 1 has a control unit 11 for controlling the entire IP telephone apparatus 1 and a speaker 12.
, A microphone 13, a voice / data processing unit 14 having a function of decompressing and restoring a received packet while packetizing a voice signal or data, and an IP network connection unit 15 which is an interface with the IP network 2.
And a memory 16, a display unit 17, and an operation unit 18. Further, the main device 3 includes a control unit 31 that controls the entire main device 3, an IP network connection unit 32 that is an interface with the IP network 2, and a memory 33.
And an IP telephone connection unit 34 which is an interface with the IP telephone devices 4A to 4N. Further, the IP telephone devices 4A to 4N have the above-mentioned I as shown in FIG.
The IP telephone device 1 has substantially the same configuration as the P telephone device 1.
In place of the IP network connection unit 15, the main device connection unit 45 that is an interface with the main device 3 is provided.

Here, the key telephone device 5 is, for example, a company A.
Of the plurality of IP telephone devices 4A to 4N accommodated in the main unit of the button telephone device 5, the IP telephone devices 4A, 4B, ... Are arranged in the department a of the company A and within the department a. Assigned to each person in charge. Also, multiple IP
Of the telephone devices 4A to 4N, IP telephone devices 4E, 4F,
Is assigned to the department b of the company A and is assigned to each person in charge in the department b. In addition, a plurality of IP telephone devices 4A to 4N
Among them, the IP telephone devices 4M and 4N are arranged in the department c of the company A and assigned to each person in charge in the department c.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display situation on the display unit 17 of the IP telephone apparatus 1 when the IP telephone apparatus 1 shown in FIG. An outline of the operation of this system will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. When the caller dials the telephone number of the company A by operating the operation unit 18 of the IP telephone device 1, the dial operation is detected by the control unit 11 and the voice / data processing unit 14 is detected.
And is sent as a dial signal to the IP network 2 side via the IP network connection unit 15. As a result, an incoming call from the IP network 2 arrives at the main device 3,
The incoming call is transmitted to the control unit 31 via the IP network connection unit 32.

In this case, in response to the incoming call, the control unit 31 of the main unit 3 reads out the data showing the configuration list of the company A registered in advance in the memory 33 and makes an IP telephone call via the IP network 2. It is transmitted to the device 1 side. The company A configuration list data is received by the voice / data processing unit 14 via the IP network connection unit 15 of the IP telephone device 1 and transmitted to the control unit 11. In this case, the control unit 11
Is displayed on the display unit 17 as shown in FIG.
And a configuration list of the company A composed of the department c.

After confirming such a list display of the company A configuration, the caller selects a department b to which the other party he / she wants to talk by using a cursor key (not shown) of the operation unit 18, and presses a decision button of the operation unit 18. Press down. Then, the control unit 11 of the IP telephone device 1 detects this and transmits the department b selection information to the main device 3. The control unit 31 of the main device 3 is this department b.
When the selection information is received, the name of each person in charge of the department b, which is stored in advance in the memory 33, and the person state information indicating that the person in charge is present, absent, talking, etc. (that is, the person in charge calls) B) consisting of information indicating whether or not
The contact person list data is read and transmitted to the IP telephone device 1.

The control unit 11 of the IP telephone device 1 is the main device 3
When the department b person in charge list data is received from
7 is displayed as shown in FIG. In this way, on the display unit 17 of the IP telephone device 1 which is the calling telephone terminal, the names of the persons in charge of the department b of the company A ba, bb, bc, bd, b.
e, bf, bg, bh and the person-in-charge state information indicating whether the person in charge is present, absent, or busy are displayed in pairs. When the caller sees such a person-in-charge list display and determines that the desired person is currently present and can answer the call, he or she selects the person-in-charge name ba with the cursor key and presses the decision button.

Then, the control unit 11 of the IP telephone apparatus 1 transmits the person-in-charge name selection information to the main apparatus 3. When the control unit 31 of the main device 3 receives the person-in-charge name selection information transmitted from the IP telephone device 1, it controls the IP telephone connection unit 34 and, for example, I of the department b assigned to the person-in-charge name ba.
The P telephone device 4E is called. Then, when the IP telephone device 4E detects that the call is answered, the path between the IP telephone device 4E and the IP network connection unit 32 is connected. As a result, the caller and the person in charge of the department b, the IP telephone device 1, the IP network 2, the main device 3,
A call can be made via the IP telephone device 4E.

As described above, when the caller sends the telephone number of the company A, the configuration list of the company A is displayed on the calling side telephone terminal, and the caller confirms the displayed configuration list to obtain the desired configuration. When a department is selected, the caller list is displayed on the calling telephone terminal, showing a list of the people in charge who are in charge of each department and the status of the person in charge, including the presence, absence, and busy status of each person. It is possible to call a desired person in charge. As a result, it is possible to save the time and labor for the call transfer, and it is possible to eliminate the wasteful time that the caller waits during the call transfer.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration around the IP network 2 to which the present invention is applied. As shown in FIG. 3, the IP telephone device 1 that is the calling telephone terminal is connected to the IP network 2, and the main device 3 of the key telephone device 5 that is the receiving telephone terminal is also connected to the IP network 2. ing. The IP network 2 has a telephone number and I
A device called a gatekeeper GK that manages the correspondence with the P address is connected.

When the telephone number of the company A is operated by the IP telephone apparatus 1, the IP telephone apparatus 1 passes the telephone number to the gatekeeper GK via the IP network 2 at the time point, and the telephone number at the time point. IP corresponding to
Get the address. Then, the obtained IP address is transmitted to the IP network 2 at a point of time. As a result, the incoming call is notified to the main device 3 of the key telephone device 5, which is the called telephone terminal corresponding to this IP address. When the main device 3 responds to this incoming call, the configuration list data of the company A is transmitted to the IP telephone device 1 side and displayed on the display unit 17 as described above, and the corresponding department is selected from the departments displayed in the list. Is selected on the side of the IP telephone device 1, the person-in-charge list data of the department is transmitted to the IP telephone device 1 and displayed. Then, when a desired person in charge is selected from among the persons in charge displayed on the IP telephone device 1 side, the IP telephone device 4 corresponding to the selected person in charge is called.

Next, FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram showing the first operation of the present system. The operation of this system will be described in more detail based on this sequence diagram. In the first storage section of the memory 33 of the main device 3, a list of departments constituting the company A in which the key telephone device 5 is arranged is registered. In addition, the second storage unit of the memory 33 of the main device 3 stores a list of person-in-charge names constituting the departments and person-in-charge status information corresponding to the persons in charge for each department. Here, the person-in-charge status information indicating the presence or absence of each person in charge is stored in the second storage unit based on the operation of the person in charge of the IP telephone device 4. Further, when the person in charge is in a call, the control unit 31 automatically detects this and stores the information indicating that the person is in a call as the person-in-charge status information corresponding to the person in charge. This allows
In the second storage unit of the memory 33, information about each person in charge, presence / absence of the person in charge, and in-call is stored as person-in-charge state information.

When the representative number of the company A is called from the calling telephone terminal (IP telephone device) 1 by the operation of the caller (step S1 in FIG. 4), the main device 3 receives the call as described above. Is coming. When the control unit 31 of the main device 3 responds to the incoming call, it reads the company A configuration list data from the first storage unit of the memory 33 and sends it to the calling telephone terminal 1 (step S2). When receiving the company A composition list data, the originating telephone terminal 1 displays the company composition list on the display unit 17 as shown in FIG. 2A (step S3).

Here, when the caller confirms the company A configuration list displayed on the display unit 17 and selects a desired department (step S4), the control unit 11 of the calling telephone terminal 1 detects this. And sends it to the main device 3 as department selection information. When the control unit 31 of the main device 3 receives the department selection information, the list of persons in charge, which is composed of the person-in-charge name and the person-state information of each department in the second storage unit of the memory 33, according to the department selection information. The data is read and transmitted to the calling telephone terminal 1 (step S5).

The control unit 11 of the calling side telephone terminal 1 includes the main unit 3
When the person list data sent from is received, the display unit 1
7 displays a list of persons in charge as shown in FIG. 2B (step S6). Here, when the caller confirms the list display on the display unit 17 and selects a desired person in charge (step S
7), the control unit 11 of the calling telephone terminal 1 detects this and transmits the person-in-charge selection information to the main device 3. When the control section 31 of the main device 3 receives this person-in-charge selection information, for example, the destination telephone terminal (IP telephone apparatus) 4 corresponding to the selected person in charge.
A call is made to A (step S8). Then, when the response of the called telephone terminal 4A to this call is detected (step S9), the calling telephone terminal 1 and the called telephone are connected by connecting the path between the called telephone terminal 4A and the calling telephone terminal 1. A call is started with the terminal 4A (step S1).
0).

Next, the second operation of this system will be described with reference to the sequence diagram of FIG. In the sequence diagram of FIG. 5, the same parts as those in FIG. 4 are designated by the same reference numerals. That is, when the representative number of the company A is called from the calling telephone terminal 1 by the operation of the caller (step S1), the incoming call arrives at the main device 3. When the control unit 31 of the main device 3 responds to the incoming call, it reads the company A configuration list data from the first storage unit of the memory 33 and sends it to the calling telephone terminal 1 (step S2). When receiving the company A composition list data, the originating telephone terminal 1 displays the company composition list on the display unit 17 as shown in FIG. 2A (step S3).

Here, after the sender confirms the company A configuration list displayed on the display unit 17 and selects a desired department,
When the call key is clicked (step S11), the control unit 11 of the calling telephone terminal 1 detects this and sends it to the main unit 3 as department call selection information. Upon receiving this department call selection information, the control unit 31 of the main device 3 makes a simultaneous call to all the unused telephone terminals 4 in the selected department (step S12). Then, when the response of the called-side telephone terminal 4A to the general calling is detected (step S13), the path between the called-side telephone terminal 4A and the calling-side telephone terminal 1 is connected, and the called-side telephone terminal 1 and the called-side telephone terminal 1 are called. A call is started with the side telephone terminal 4A (step S14).

As shown in FIG. 6, a CPU 31A and a recording medium 31B are provided in the control unit 31 of the main unit 1 which performs the operations shown in the sequence diagrams of FIGS. 4 and 5, and C
The above operation is realized by the PU 31A reading and executing the program recorded in the recording medium 31B.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment. In this system, an IP telephone apparatus 1A is used as an originating telephone terminal and a destination telephone terminal in an IP network 2, respectively. Also, the IP telephone device 1B is connected, and the management server 6 is connected to the IP network 2. Here, in the first memory of the management server 6,
A configuration list of each department that represents the constituent elements of the company A is registered, and a list of the person-in-charge names and the person-in-charge status information corresponding to the person in charge of each department is stored in the second memory of the management server 6. Remember for each department.

Next, the operation of the system configured as described above will be described. When the representative number of the company A is called from the IP telephone device 1A, which is the calling side telephone terminal, by the operation of the caller, an incoming call arrives at the management server 6. When the management server 6 responds to this incoming call, it reads the company A configuration list data from the first memory and sends it to the IP telephone device 1A. IP
When the telephone device 1A receives the company A composition list data, the display 17 displays the company composition list as shown in FIG.

Here, when the sender confirms the company A configuration list displayed on the display unit 17 and selects a desired department,
The control unit 11 of the IP telephone device 1A detects this and transmits it to the management server 6 as department selection information. Management server 6
Upon receiving this department selection information, the I reads out the person list data including the name of each person in charge of the section according to this department selection information and the person state information from the second memory, and I
It is transmitted to the P telephone device 1A. At this time, the management server 6 also sends to the IP telephone device 1A the telephone numbers of the respective persons registered in advance in the second memory in order to make a call from the IP telephone device 1A to the desired person. Send.

Upon receipt of the person-in-charge list data transmitted from the management server 6, the control section 11 of the IP telephone apparatus 1A displays a person-in-charge list on the display section 17 as shown in FIG. 2 (b). Here, when the caller confirms the list of persons in charge on the display unit 17 and selects a desired person in charge, the control unit 11 of the IP telephone device 1A detects this and disconnects from the management server 6. At the same time, the telephone number of the selected desired person of the telephone numbers of the persons in charge transmitted from the management server 6 side is automatically transmitted, and the IP telephone device corresponding to the selected desired person of interest. Make a call to 1B. Then, in response to the call from the IP telephone device 1B side, a call is started between the originating telephone device 1A and the destination telephone device 1B. When the caller confirms the list of persons in charge on the display unit 17 and selects a desired person in charge, the IP telephone device 1A
The control unit 11 may transmit the person-in-charge selection information to the management server 6 so that the management server 6 calls the IP telephone device 1B corresponding to the person in charge. In this case, when the management server 6 detects a response to the call from the IP telephone device 1B, the management server 6 internally has a calling telephone device 1A and a receiving telephone device 1B.
Make a call by connecting the path between and.

In the first and second embodiments, the list of each department constituting the company is stored in the main device 3 or the management server 6 as the composition list of the company, and the name of each person in charge of the department is stored. By storing the person-in-charge information and the person-in-charge state information in the main device 3 or the management server 6 as a person-in-charge list, the caller can freely call the desired person in charge. The organization list of the group having a plurality of organizations, and the member list including the names of the constituent members of one organization and the status information such as the presence / absence of the constituent members, the busy status, etc., of the main device 3 or the management server 6 The same effect can be obtained by storing in the memory. Further, when the size of the group is small, the same effect can be obtained by storing the member list including the names of the members forming the group and the status information of the members in the main device 3 or the management server 6. Play. That is, in this case, when an incoming call arrives based on an outgoing call from the originating telephone terminal, the main device 3 or the management server 6 responds to the incoming call and then transmits the stored member list to the originating telephone terminal. In response to the member selecting operation of the calling side telephone terminal, the called side telephone terminal assigned to the member is called.

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, I
A first device including at least one terminal connected to the P network and capable of making a call; and a second device connected to the IP network and making a call to the first device via the IP network, The information storage means is connected to the first device, the information storage means for storing information indicating whether or not the members of the group can make a call, and the second storage device for transmitting the number assigned in advance to the group. A notification unit for notifying the second device of information indicating whether or not the member of the group stored in the group can be called, and a control unit are provided, and the control unit responds to the notification by the second device. For example, when a specific operation to identify a member is detected, the call is made to the terminal assigned to the member, so that it is possible to save the time and effort of the telephone transfer, and the caller can It is possible to eliminate the waste of time to wait between the intercession of the phone.

In this case, the first device is a key telephone which is connected to the IP network and comprises a main device equipped with information storage means, notification means and control means, and a slave unit accommodated in the main device as the terminal. Since it is configured by the device, the system can be configured easily and economically. Further, since the first device is composed of the management server connected to the IP network and provided with the information storage means, the notification means, and the control means, and the telephone terminal connected to the IP network as the terminal, the system can be easily configured. Can be configured.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram (FIG. 1 (a)) showing a first embodiment of an Internet telephone system according to the present invention and a block diagram (FIG. 1 (b)) showing a configuration of an IP telephone device.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display situation of a calling side IP telephone device which constitutes the telephone system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a configuration situation around an IP network to which the telephone system is applied.

FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram showing a first operation of the telephone system.

FIG. 5 is a sequence diagram showing a second operation of the telephone system.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of a control unit in a main device in a key telephone device which constitutes the telephone system.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the present telephone system.

[Explanation of symbols]

1, 1A ... IP telephone device (calling side telephone terminal), 1B ... IP
Telephone device (destination telephone terminal), 2 ... IP network, 3
... Main device, 4, 4A to 4N ... IP telephone device, 5 ... Button telephone device, 6 ... Management server, 11, 31, 41 ... Control unit, 12, 42 ... Speaker, 13, 43 ... Microphone, 1
4, 44 ... Voice / data processing unit, 15, 32 ... IP network connection unit, 16, 33 ... Memory, 17, 47 ... Display unit, 18, 48 ... Operation unit, 31A ... CPU, 31B ...
Recording medium, 34 ... IP telephone connection part, 45 ... Main device connection part, GK ... Gatekeeper.

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Hironori Tanaka             2-3 2-3 Shimo-Meguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo Stocks             Company Tamura Electric Works F term (reference) 5K030 HA08 HB01 JT01 LD10 LD15                 5K051 AA01 AA08 BB02 CC02 DD02                       DD13 EE01 EE02 FF01 HH16                       HH18

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A first device comprising at least one terminal connected to an IP network and capable of making a call;
A second device connected to the P network and calling to the first device via the IP network to make a call, wherein the first device allows or disallows the call to members forming a group. Is connected to the information storage means for storing information indicating the number, and the second device that has transmitted the number pre-assigned to the group, and is capable of calling the member of the group stored in the information storage means. -Notifying means for notifying the second device of information indicating the impossibility, and when a specific operation of the second device is detected in response to the notification by the notifying means, a call to the terminal assigned to the member is made. An internet telephone system comprising a control means for controlling. 2. The device according to claim 1, wherein the first device is connected to the IP network,
An Internet telephone system comprising a key telephone device comprising a main unit having the information storage unit, the notification unit and the control unit, and a slave unit housed in the main unit as the terminal. 3. The device according to claim 1, wherein the first device is connected to the IP network,
An internet telephone system comprising a management server having the information storage means, the notification means and the control means, and a telephone terminal connected to the IP network as the terminal. 4. A first step of storing, in a storage unit of a first device including at least one terminal connected to an IP network and capable of making a call, information indicating whether or not a call can be made to a member of the group. A second number that is transmitted through the IP network, the number assigned to the group;
Connected to the second device, and notifying the second device of the information stored in the storage section, which indicates whether or not a call can be made to the members of the group, and a process of the second step. And a third step of controlling a call to a terminal assigned to the member when a specific operation of the second device is detected in response to the notification based on the program.