JP2003283703A - Communication terminal and communication system utilizing the same - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a communication terminal capable of almost completely excluding a problem of spam, allowing a transmitter side to confirm a mail reception state, and eliminating unnecessary wariness of even a first opposite party. <P>SOLUTION: The communication system is provided with: a caller terminal 1 with an advance notice signal transmission means for transmitting an advance notice signal prior to mail transmission to a server; and a communication control means for performing processing of starting or not starting communication depending on a communication signal or a communication reject signal sent from a receiver side terminal 5 via the server 3. <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 a communication terminal device such as a mobile phone or PHS and a communication system using the same.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, communication terminals such as mobile phones and PHSs have been added with a function of connecting to an Internet line.
It is now possible to send and receive electronic mail (hereinafter simply referred to as "mail"). This allows e-mail to be used without owning a personal computer, which contributes to a significant spread of e-mail users.

[0003]

On the other hand, the problem of so-called junk mail, which is a kind of social problem, has come to occur. This is because companies that sell some information services send out promotional emails at random.

For this reason, the communication terminal user has to receive an unnecessary mail and pay the communication charge, and the communication carrier is burdened with a server and cannot maintain smooth communication. There's a problem.

Further, as a fundamental problem of mail, there is a problem that it is not clear whether or not the other party has received the mail, and becomes uneasy when sending an important mail. Furthermore, if you send an email to a person introduced by a third party for the first time,
In some cases, the recipient may be wary of the email and delete it without opening the email.

The present invention has been made by paying attention to the above problems. It is possible to almost completely eliminate the problem of unsolicited e-mail, and the receiving side of the e-mail can be confirmed on the sending side. The present invention intends to provide a communication terminal device capable of removing unnecessary warning even if there is any.

[0007]

[Means for solving the problems] Prior notification signal transmitting means for transmitting a prior notification signal to a server prior to transmission of mail, and a communication signal or a communication refusal signal sent from a receiving side terminal via the server According to the present invention, a communication control means is provided for performing processing for starting communication or not starting communication.

[0008]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention is a prior notification signal transmitting means for transmitting a prior notification signal to a server, and a communication signal transmitted from a receiving side terminal via the server. Alternatively, it has a communication control means for performing communication or processing not starting communication according to the communication refusal signal, sending a pre-signal before starting communication and sending it via the server received via the server. Since it is determined whether to start communication according to the received communication signal or communication refusal signal, the communication state is determined according to the circumstances of the receiving side.

[0009]

Embodiments of the communication terminal device of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the concept of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a calling terminal. The originating side terminal 1 has a microphone, a speaker, a keyboard and the like used in a general mobile phone, but since these constituent members are well known, detailed description thereof will be omitted, and only the structure peculiar to the present invention will be described. explain.

Reference numeral 2 denotes an advance signal transmitting means, which outputs a communication type display signal indicating any one of voice communication, mail communication and data communication selected by the user. A digital signal corresponding to the communication type display signal is sent to the server 3 via an antenna by a known high frequency circuit. Details of the exchange of information accompanying this communication will be described later.

In the server 3, the received data confirmation means 4 confirms the sender name and the amount of data, and temporarily stores the communication contents and checks the conditions of the communication contents. In other words, the amount of data is checked for missing required data as communication data. Then, the server 3 displays the above-mentioned caller name, data amount, and communication type on the receiving side terminal 5 through a well-known mobile phone communication network or PHS communication network (hereinafter, both communication networks are collectively referred to as a mobile phone communication network). Send a signal. Reference numeral 6 is a received data storage means.

As a result of checking the data received by the server 3, if the essential data is missing or the amount of data is too large, it is stored in the received data storage means 6 in the server 3 as shown in FIG. The communication contents data is deleted, and the data indicating that the communication is not completed is transmitted to the originating terminal 1. As a result, the originating terminal 1 can display the status on a liquid crystal display device or the like. The user of the calling terminal 1 can see that the communication is not completed by looking at the displayed content.

The receiving side terminal 5 demodulates the signal sent from the server 3 and displays the name of the sender, the received communication contents or the received mail contents on the well-known liquid crystal display device 7 and the signal from the server 3. A ringing tone is emitted or the vibration generator is operated to indicate that the signal has been received.

The user of the receiving side terminal 5 recognizes that the signal from the server 3 has been received by the ringing tone or the notification signal of the vibration generator, and by seeing the information displayed on the liquid crystal display device 7, the user It is possible to confirm whether it is communication and what the content of communication is.

As an example of the display of the liquid crystal display device 7, FIG.
Display the sender's name, phone number, or simple message as shown in. The recipient can select, for example, the following three actions in accordance with the displayed contents. In other words, whether to permit communication and start communication, or refuse communication,
Alternatively, a selection signal indicating whether or not to prompt the sender to leave a message to the server 3 is transmitted.

The server 3 sends a signal corresponding to the received selection signal to the receiving side terminal 5. In response to this, characters or the like for selecting the recipient's intention are displayed on the liquid crystal display device 7 of the receiving side terminal 1. When the sender receives the signal permitting the communication selected by the receiver, the communication can be performed via mail communication, voice communication, or the like.

The above is the outline of the communication terminal device of the present invention, which will be described in detail below with reference to the flowcharts. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the originating terminal 1. First, in step A, the process is started. Next, in step B, the advance notification method is selected. That is, as described above, the advance notification signal indicating which of the voice communication, the mail communication, and the data communication is desired is selected.

Next, in step C, the user inputs the title of the communication and inserts a signal representing the caller profile, which has been input in advance, into the advance notification signal. Then, the process proceeds to step D, and the destination telephone number is determined by inputting the destination telephone number or selecting from the telephone number book data input in advance.

The pre-notification method and communication title entered,
Information such as the sender profile or the destination telephone number is sent to the server 3 as information (hereinafter referred to as UUI information) in step E. The server 3 checks in step F whether or not the UUI signal from the originating terminal 1 contains all necessary information.

If the UUI signal is insufficient, the server 3 informs the originating terminal 1 of the lack of data, and the process returns to step B. If there is no shortage of UUI signals, the server 3 transfers the UUI signals to the receiving side terminal 5.

At the receiving side terminal 5, the processing proceeds to step G, where a calling signal such as a bell sound is issued and the incoming call screen data is displayed. That is, the U sent from the originating terminal 1 next time
Information such as voice communication, mail communication, data communication requested by the caller, the profile of the caller, and the like input by the UI signal are displayed on the liquid crystal display device.

In step H, the receiver sees the displayed contents and permits or rejects the communication, or sends a signal to the server 3 indicating that he / she wants to carry out the communication after allowing the communication. The server 3 sends a signal indicating the intention of the receiving side to the transmitting side communication terminal 1 in step I. According to the signal sent, the receiving side terminal 1 displays whether communication is started in step J, a notification of communication refusal is displayed, or communication is performed later.

As described above, it is possible to inform the recipient of the originator or the outline of the communication by sending the intention of the originator to communicate and the profile of the originator to the recipient. Depending on this, the recipient can select how to communicate, eliminate junk mail, or judge whether to immediately start communication depending on the urgency of the sender. can do.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.
The second embodiment is an example of the case where the recipient only needs to give a simple reply but the reply is important without having to talk.

The sender operates the sender terminal 1 to wait for a reply mail from the receiver while maintaining the connection, or on-time transmission or after disconnecting the mail and then waiting for the reply mail from the receiver. Select whether to make a time shift call,
Information such as a message or type of communication, that is, whether a text-only mail or an image or voice data is attached is input, and a destination of the mail is designated.

As a result, the sender name from the sender terminal 1,
Communication data such as sentences, images or voices, and data indicating on-time transmission or time-shift transmission are transmitted to the server 3.

The server 3 checks the data sent from the caller terminal 1 for excess or deficiency, and if there is an error, it sends it to the caller terminal 1 if the predetermined conditions are not met. Encourage sending of missing data. If there is no excess or deficiency in the data sent from the sender terminal 1 or if the lack of data is resolved, the server 3 displays information indicating who the sender is, the contents of communication, on-time transmission, or time shift. The data indicating whether or not the call is originated is sent to the receiving side terminal 5 of each designated transmission destination.

As shown in FIG. 4, at each receiving side terminal 5, the liquid crystal display device 7 displays from whom the mail is sent, the presence or absence of attached data such as a contact message or a voice message, and options for requesting an answer.

The user of each receiving-side terminal 5 can judge whether or not the received mail is memorable by looking at the contents of the received mail, and perform a reply operation according to the necessity of reply.
These YES or NO reply operations can be completed by a simple operation of pressing the function key provided on the receiving side terminal. In the example of FIG. 4, it is the attendance notification of the conference, and the answer is whether or not to attend. As a result, the reply information is sent from each receiving terminal 5 to the server 3.

The server 3 sends the reply information from each receiving side terminal 5 to the transmitting side terminal 1 depending on whether it is an on-time transmission or a time shift transmission. That is, in the case of on-time transmission, the response information is immediately sent to the transmission side terminal 1, and in the case of time shift transmission, the response information is temporarily stored in the server 3 and the response information is transmitted to the transmission side terminal by a known electronic mail transmission method. . During the series of operations from step A to step J described above, the connection is maintained between the calling side terminal 1 and the server 3.

In the above example, the method of sending notifications to a plurality of receiving side terminals 5 all at once has been described, but it is also possible to send to only one receiving side terminal 5. In some cases, the owner of the receiving-side terminal 5 may be able to respond to attendance at a conference, for example, only by attendance, but in some cases, attendance attendance with conditions such as attendance when other business is completed may be performed. In such a case, the owner of the receiving side terminal 5 returns a message indicating the condition to the server 3, and the server 3 sends the message to the transmitting side terminal 1. This operation can be performed according to the operation of each receiving side terminal when inserting a voice message.

The above operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, in step A, the process is started. Next, in step B, the advance notification method is selected. That is, as described above, the advance notification signal indicating which of the voice communication, the mail communication, and the data communication is desired is selected.

Next, in step C, the user inputs the title of the communication, and inserts a signal representing the caller profile, which has been input in advance, into the advance notification signal. The processing up to this point is the same as that of the first embodiment shown in FIG. Then, the process proceeds to step D, and the e-mail address of the other party to communicate with is determined. This determination includes a method of taking out the address book and a method of manually inputting the address data.

When the mail address is determined, step E
Proceed to (3) to send UUI information and mail data, that is, data such as sender information and communication text to the server 3. The server 3 checks in step F whether or not the UUI signal from the originating terminal 1 contains all necessary information.

If the UUI signal is insufficient, the server 3 notifies the originating terminal 1 of the lack of data, and the process returns to step B. If the UUI signal is sufficient, the server 3 saves the UUI information in step G,
The UUI signal is transferred to the receiving side terminal 5.

At the receiving side terminal 5, the process proceeds to step H to issue a ringing signal such as a bell sound and display the incoming call screen data. That is, the U sent from the originating terminal 1 next time
Information such as voice communication, mail communication, data communication requested by the caller, the profile of the caller, and the like input by the UI signal are displayed on the liquid crystal display device.

The recipient sees the display contents and permits or rejects the communication in step I, or sends a signal to the server 3 indicating that he / she wants to perform the communication after allowing the communication. The server 3 sends a signal corresponding to each of the three signals representing the intention of the receiving side to the transmitting side communication terminal 1 in step J. Here, the process of saving the voice message is performed in step J.
In the case of, the voice data is stored in the hard disk or the like in the server 3.

During the series of operations from step A to step K described above, the connection is maintained between the calling terminal 1 and the server 3 while maintaining the connection.

The caller side terminal 1 displays whether communication is started in step K, a notification of communication refusal is displayed, or communication is performed later according to the signal sent.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described.
The third embodiment is an example in the case of performing large-capacity data communication such as voice, image or moving image.

The sender operates the sender terminal 1 to select the advance notification method, and creates the notification content to the recipient or the previously created notification content. Then, the e-mail address of the other party is designated and transmission is made to the server 3.

The server 3 checks the data sent from the caller terminal 1 for excess or deficiency, and if there are any errors, sends it to the caller terminal 1 if the predetermined conditions are not met. Encourage sending of missing data. If the mail does not meet the conditions, the user recreates the mail data and sends the mail again to the server 3.

At the receiving terminal 5, as shown in FIG. 6, the mail from the liquid crystal display device 7, the presence or absence of a simple contact message or attached data, its size, the time required for reception, and the server 3 are used. Options such as a request to save or delete the data accumulated in are displayed.

Looking at this, the receiver judges whether to immediately receive the attached data, refuses to receive it, or saves it in the server 3, and operates the receiving terminal 5 to display the above selection result in the server. Return to 3. In response to this, the server 3 determines whether to send the stored data to the receiving terminal 5, delete the stored data, or maintain the storage, and perform the operation according to the determination.

Further, the server 3 determines whether the receiving side terminal 5 receives the mail in the on-time state, that is, the state in which the communication is maintained, refuses the reception, or saves the data in the server 3 to the sender side terminal 1. By sending the data shown, the user of the originating side terminal 1 can know how the user of the receiving side terminal 5 made a decision.

The above operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, in step A, the process is started. Next, in step B, the advance notification method is selected. That is, the notification content is created or selected as described above. Next, in step C, the user inputs the title of the communication, specifies the data to be attached, and inserts a signal representing the previously input caller profile into the advance notification signal. The processing up to this point is the same as in the first embodiment of FIG. 3 and the second embodiment of FIG.

Then, in step D, the telephone number of the other party is determined and the telephone number is input. When the telephone number is determined, the process proceeds to step E, and UUI information and mail data, that is, data such as sender information, communication text, and attached data are sent to the server 3. The server 3 checks in step F whether or not the UUI signal from the originating terminal 1 contains all necessary information.

If the UUI signal is insufficient, the server 3 notifies the originating terminal 1 of the lack of data, and the process returns to step B. If the UUI signal is sufficient, the server 3 saves the UUI information and attached data in step G, extracts the UUI information, and sends the UUI to the receiving terminal 5.
Transfer the signal.

In step I, the receiving side terminal 5 issues a ringing signal (bell) and displays the incoming call screen data. Looking at this display, the user looks at this display and judges whether to receive the attached data immediately, reject the reception, or save it in the server 3, seeing this, The data indicating the above selection result is operated and returned to the server 3.

Upon receiving the data indicating the selection result, in step K, the data is sent to the receiving side terminal 5, the data is kept stored, or the stored data is erased. In addition, in accordance with the above three operations, data indicating which one has been performed is sent to the calling side terminal 1, and the calling side terminal 1 performs a corresponding display in step L.

[0051]

Since the communication terminal device of the present invention is configured as described above, the person who receives the mail can confirm the sender and the content of the communication or the content of the received mail before receiving the entire text of the mail. , Junk mail can be prevented.

Further, the communication terminal device of the present invention can select the communication method to be received, and the user of the receiving side terminal can select the communication method at his / her own convenience. Moreover, since the communication can be performed according to the convenience of the receiving side, the person on the transmitting side can communicate without hesitation. Alternatively, if you can achieve the purpose by receiving a simple answer without having to talk, you can achieve the purpose by only prompting the receiver to give a simple answer, so the sender can communicate with peace of mind. it can.

Further, according to the present invention, when a large amount of data such as image data, moving image data or audio data is attached and sent, it is possible to select whether or not to receive the data according to the convenience of the receiving side. . Also, the sender can confirm whether the receiver has received the data or refused the reception.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing a first embodiment of a communication terminal device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a first embodiment of a communication terminal device of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the first embodiment of the communication terminal device of the present invention. .

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a second embodiment of the communication terminal device of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the second embodiment of the communication terminal device of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a third embodiment of the communication terminal device of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation of the third embodiment of the communication terminal device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Originating terminal 2 Advance signal transmission means 3 servers 4 Received data confirmation means 5 Receiver terminal 6 Received data storage means 7 Liquid crystal display

Continued front page    F term (reference) 5K024 AA01 AA61 AA63 AA65 BB04                       CC11 GG01 GG03                 5K067 AA21 AA30 BB04 BB21 DD11                       DD17 DD51 EE02 EE10 EE16                       FF02 FF07 FF23 GG01 HH22                 5K101 KK02 KK20 LL12 NN18 NN21                       PP03 PP09 PP10 RR25

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A pre-notification signal transmitting means for transmitting a pre-notification signal to a server and a communication start or a communication in response to a communication signal or a communication refusal signal sent from a receiving side terminal via the server. A communication terminal device having communication control means for performing processing not started. 2. The communication terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the advance notification signal is a signal for notifying that voice communication will be performed. 3. The communication terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the communication terminal device is a signal for notifying that e-mail communication will be performed, as the advance notification signal. 4. The communication terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the communication terminal device is a signal for notifying that electronic data communication of digitized voice data, image data or the like will be performed as the advance notification signal. 5. When a prior notification signal is received from the server, information corresponding to the prior notification signal is displayed on the display device, and a communication acceptance signal or a communication refusal input by the user according to the display. A communication terminal device that returns a communication end / rejection signal corresponding to the signal to the server. 6. A pre-notification signal is sent to the server,
The communication with the receiving terminal is started when a communication approval signal is received from the receiving terminal through the server, and the communication termination processing is performed when the communication refusal signal is received. Communication terminal equipment.