JP2008301177A - Telephone communication system and cellular phone terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable a call termination requesting person to contact a called partner even when the partner does not notice the call termination. <P>SOLUTION: When a user γ of a terminal C performs a call termination request (origination) to a terminal A, at a point when a user α of the terminal A does not answer the call termination request for over predetermined time, the terminal A searches for terminals existing in its vicinity by short range radio communication. The terminal A obtains terminal identification information of a nearby terminal (terminal B here) and notifies the terminal A of the terminal identification information on condition that the terminal identification information is registered in the self-terminal. Thus, the user γ learns that a user β is near the user α and it becomes possible for the user γ to contact the user α via the user β. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a telephone communication system and a mobile phone terminal that perform telephone communication between terminals.

  In recent years, with the widespread use of mobile phone terminals, many people own and carry mobile phone terminals. This makes it much easier to get in touch than before. However, the user does not always look at the mobile phone terminal, and does not care about the presence of the mobile phone terminal when it is unnecessary. For this reason, the mobile phone terminal is devised to notify the user of the mobile phone terminal that there is an incoming call request, using sound, image, light, vibration, etc., for an incoming call request that comes without an advance notice.

  However, the incoming call may not be noticed because the mobile phone terminal is in a cage or the user is performing some violent actions such as running. Such a state in which an incoming call is not noticed is not desirable for the side that has made an incoming call request (outgoing call) or for the side that has received the incoming call request (terminal user).

In order to solve such a problem, a portable receiver that is worn on the body, such as being housed in a pocket of a user's clothes of a mobile phone terminal, has been proposed (see Patent Document 1). . When the user wears this portable receiver, even if the mobile phone terminal body is in a bag or the like, the user notices the incoming call by the mobile phone terminal body transferring the incoming call request to the portable receiver. I can expect that.
JP 08-47049 A

  However, since the invention described in Patent Document 1 requires a portable receiver in addition to the mobile phone terminal main body, it not only increases the terminal cost, but also carries the portable receiver with the terminal main body, and The receiver must be worn, and handling becomes complicated.

  In addition, when the user is exercising vigorously, it is conceivable that he / she does not notice the incoming call notification by the portable receiver.

  The present invention has been made in such a background, and intends to enable the incoming call requester to contact the other party even when the other party who made the call does not notice the incoming call.

  The telephone communication system of the present invention is a telephone communication system including first, second, and third terminals having a telephone communication function, and each of the first, second, and third terminals includes a telephone communication unit and And a notification means for informing the user of information, a storage section for storing telephone book data, and a control section for controlling each section. The control unit of the first terminal issues the second request due to the fact that the user of the second terminal has not responded for a predetermined time or more after issuing an incoming call request to the second terminal by the telephone communication unit. When the terminal identification information of the third terminal obtained as a result of searching for the third terminal existing in the vicinity of the terminal is returned, the third terminal existing in the vicinity of the second terminal is found. The notification means notifies the user of the first terminal. When the control unit of the second terminal receives an incoming call request from the telephone communication unit and there is no response by the user for a predetermined time, the short-range wireless communication unit searches for a third terminal existing within a short-range range, When the terminal identification information is received from the third terminal, the terminal identification information is notified to the first terminal that has issued the incoming request. The control unit of the third terminal receives the search by the short-range wireless communication unit from the second terminal and returns the terminal identification information of the own terminal.

  With this configuration, when the user of the first terminal calls the second terminal, the second terminal may be in the vicinity if the user of the second terminal does not notice the incoming call. Search for a terminal. If the third terminal exists, the second terminal automatically acquires the terminal identification information of the terminal and responds to the first terminal. As a result, the user of the first terminal can contact the user of the second terminal located nearby through the user of the third terminal.

  After the first terminal issues an incoming call request, the second terminal searches for a third terminal in the vicinity of the second terminal because the user of the second terminal has not responded for a predetermined time or more. When the terminal identification information of the third terminal obtained as a result of the response is returned, it is checked whether or not the terminal identification information is registered in the phone book in the own terminal. It is preferable that the notification means notifies the user of the terminal itself that the third terminal has been found. Thereby, when the incoming call requester and the user of the third terminal are not acquainted with each other, the notification of the presence of the third terminal to the incoming requester is suppressed.

  Also in the second terminal, when the terminal identification information of the third terminal is obtained, the first terminal is notified on the condition that the terminal identification information is registered in the telephone book of the second terminal. It is preferable to do. Thereby, when the user of the second terminal and the third user are not acquainted with each other, the notification of the terminal identification information from the second terminal to the first terminal is suppressed.

  The control unit of the first terminal stops the communication with the second terminal, and then receives the predetermined operation for the notification to the user of the first terminal, the third terminal (second terminal) The terminal can make an incoming call request. This saves the user of the first terminal the trouble of inputting the telephone number of the third terminal or selecting it from the telephone directory.

  In addition, when the control unit of the first terminal receives a predetermined operation from the user of the own terminal before the communication with the second terminal is stopped, the control unit It is also possible to issue a relay instruction to relay the call. As a result, the first terminal establishes a telephone communication path with the third terminal using the second terminal as a repeater without disconnecting the communication with the second terminal.

  According to the present invention, by using a telephone terminal in the vicinity of a person who does not notice the incoming call of the telephone terminal because the telephone terminal is in a cage or the like, it is possible to communicate with the other party who originally wanted to contact. Will be able to take.

  DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. The content described here is merely an example, and the present invention is not limited to this.

  FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of the entire telephone communication system in the present embodiment. This telephone communication system is composed of at least three telephone terminals (here, mobile telephone terminals) 101, 102, and 103, which are connected by a wireless communication interface. The wireless communication interface includes a mobile phone communication interface using the base stations 104 and 105 and a network 106 such as a mobile phone network, and a short-range wireless communication interface that directly performs wireless communication between terminals existing within a short-range range. It is. In this embodiment, Bluetooth (registered trademark) is assumed as the short-range wireless communication interface. However, the communication interface is not limited to Bluetooth (registered trademark) as long as the communication interface can directly perform wireless communication between terminals within a short range. Hereinafter, the mobile phone terminal is also simply referred to as a terminal.

  In this system, the user γ of the terminal C (103) in FIG. 1 wants to contact the user α of the terminal A, and receives an incoming call request (outgoing call) to the terminal A (101) owned by the user α. ) Is assumed. At this time, it is assumed that the user α of the terminal A stores his / her terminal A in a bag and does not notice the incoming call. When the user α does not respond to the incoming request for a predetermined time or longer, the terminal A searches for a terminal existing in the vicinity thereof. Here, the “neighborhood” is a range in which the person can be in contact with him orally and, for example, within about 10 m, preferably within a few meters, at a distance from the terminal A. When a nearby terminal (terminal B in this case) is found, the terminal identification information is obtained, and the terminal identification information is notified to the terminal A under a predetermined condition.

  In response to this, the terminal C informs the user γ that the terminal B existing in the vicinity of the terminal A has been found, so that the user γ is near the user α who is trying to contact. I understand that. Therefore, the user γ can contact the user α via the user β of the terminal B by contacting the terminal B of the user β from the terminal C based on the notified terminal identification information. It becomes.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the internal functions of the mobile phone terminal 200 corresponding to the terminals 101 to 103 shown in FIG.

  The control unit 202 includes a central processing unit (CPU), for example, and is a part that controls each part of the terminal via the bus 201 based on a program stored in the ROM 209. The bus 201 is a transmission line for transmitting data such as image data, audio data, and mail data in addition to control data.

  The communication unit 203 is a part that wirelessly transmits and receives data such as image data, audio data, and mail data to and from the base station via the antenna 215.

  The display unit 204 is a part that displays various information such as characters, images, and moving images on a display device such as a liquid crystal display or an organic EL.

  The operation unit 205 is a part that captures user instructions and data from various keys such as a numeric keypad and a control key.

  The memory 208 is a readable / writable memory that stores various data such as telephone directory data, images, mail data, and messages. At least a portion includes an area for storing data in a nonvolatile manner. The phone book data of the present embodiment includes at least the other party's telephone number and the other party's name.

  The ROM 209 is a read-only memory that stores various programs such as a program code for operating the control unit 202 and important data such as a terminal ID in a nonvolatile manner.

  The speaker 211 is a part that converts an electrical signal into sound and emits the sound. The microphone 212 is a part that converts sound into an electrical signal.

  The short-range wireless communication unit 213 is a part that enables data exchange with other terminals through wireless communication only via a short distance such as Bluetooth (registered trademark) via the antenna 214.

  All of these blocks operate by power supplied from a power supply circuit (not shown).

  The mobile phone terminal is provided with notifying means for notifying the user of the mobile phone terminal when an incoming call request sent from another telephone is received. As such notification means, there are a speaker 211 that outputs a sound such as a ringtone or a ringing melody, a display unit 204 including a display that displays an image or a character, an LED that emits light of a predetermined color, a vibrator that generates vibration ( (None of which are shown).

  The operation of a typical use case of the system of FIG. 1 will be described below with reference to the sequence diagram of FIG. FIG. 3 shows an operation example in time series from the top to the bottom for each of the terminals A to C.

  Now, the user γ of the terminal C (103) that is the first terminal tries to contact the user α of the terminal A that is the second terminal, and the terminal A (101) owned by the user α And an incoming call request (outgoing) is made (S11). This incoming request is made to the terminal A of the user α via the base station 105 with which the terminal C of the user γ is communicating, the network 106, and the base station 104 with which the terminal A of the user α is communicating. Is called. The terminal A of the user α that has received the incoming call request notifies the user α that there is an incoming call request by means of notifying means using sound, light, vibration, etc. provided in the terminal as described above.

  The terminal A that receives the incoming call request tries to notify the user α that the incoming call request has been made using a conventional method (sound, emit display or LED, vibrate, etc.). However, if the user α does not respond to the incoming request even after a predetermined time has elapsed since receiving the incoming request (that is, the terminal A does not go into an off-hook state) (S21, Yes), the terminal A is Bluetooth (registered trademark). ) And other nearby mobile phone terminals are searched using near field communication (S22). When the terminal B of the user β, which is the third terminal, is found by short-range wireless communication (S23, Yes), the terminal A receives the terminal identification information of the user β of the terminal B from the terminal B. The terminal identification information is a mobile phone number or arbitrary information that can identify individual terminals.

  The terminal A checks whether or not the received terminal identification information is registered in the phone book in the terminal A of the user α (S24). If registered, it is determined that the user β is an acquaintance of the user α. Accordingly, the terminal A automatically makes a call with the terminal C of the user γ who is requesting the incoming call via the communication unit 203 regardless of the user's instruction (S12), and the terminal identification of the user β is performed. Information is notified to terminal C. Terminal C checks whether or not the mobile phone terminal information of terminal B is registered in the telephone directory (S14). If registered (S15, Yes), the terminal C notifies the user γ that the user β is near the user α by displaying a message or outputting a voice (S16). At this time, the terminal C may display the mobile phone terminal information of the terminal B and information accompanying it (for example, information obtained from the phone book) to the user γ. However, as long as the terminal C stores the mobile phone number of the terminal B, such information does not necessarily have to be presented to the user.

  When the terminal identification information is information other than the mobile phone number, the terminal can acquire and use the corresponding mobile phone number from the phone book.

  Upon receiving such notification, the user γ stops the incoming request to the terminal A of the user α, and then receives an incoming call request (outgoing) from the terminal C to the user β of the terminal B notified of the terminal identification information. Can be performed. The call at this time is made to the mobile phone number of terminal B of user β registered in the phone book of terminal C. If the user β responds to the incoming request of the user γ, the user γ can contact the user α through the user β, for example, verbally. That is, the user γ of the terminal C making the incoming call request contacts the user β of the terminal B based on the indicated information, and wants to contact the user β who should be in the immediate vicinity via the user β. It becomes possible to contact the other party (user α).

  When terminal A that has received an incoming request searches for a nearby terminal, there may be cases where other terminals having telephone numbers registered in the terminal A's phone book are not found at all by short-range wireless communication. . In such a case, the terminal A receiving the incoming request does not notify the terminal C making the incoming request of the information of the nearby mobile phone terminal. At that time, the terminal A may make a call with the terminal C making the incoming call request and notify that there is no other terminal that can be contacted nearby.

  In addition, only the telephone numbers of other terminals that are not registered in the terminal C that is requesting an incoming call may be notified as terminals that are in the vicinity of the terminal A that is receiving the incoming call request. In the case of FIG. 1, it can be determined that the user β making a call reception request with the user β of another terminal B is not an acquaintance. Also in this case, the terminal C that has made the incoming call request may notify the user that there is no other terminal that can be contacted.

  FIG. 4 is a flowchart of processing according to the present embodiment of terminal A that has received an incoming call request. When terminal A receives an incoming request from terminal C (user γ) (S301), terminal A informs user α that there is an incoming request. If the user α responds to the incoming request within a predetermined time (S302, No), the terminal A makes a call with the terminal C that has made the incoming request and performs normal processing (S308).

  If the user α does not respond within the predetermined time (S302, Yes), the terminal A searches for another terminal B in the vicinity by short-range wireless communication (S303). If there is no other terminal B in the vicinity (S304), terminal A does nothing and ends the flow. Instead, a call is made with the terminal C that has made an incoming call request, and it is informed to the user γ of the terminal C by a display or voice message that there is no other terminal nearby, and the process ends. May be.

  When the terminal A detects another terminal B present in the vicinity (S304, Yes), the terminal A receives the terminal identification information from the terminal B by short-range wireless communication.

  Therefore, the terminal A checks its own phone book based on the received terminal identification information (S305). If the terminal identification information of the terminal B is not found in the phone book in the terminal A (S305, No), it is determined that there is no user α acquaintance in the vicinity, and this flow is terminated without doing anything. At this time, similarly to the above, a call may be made with the terminal C that has made the incoming call request, and it may be terminated by notifying that another terminal is not nearby by an automatic voice response.

  If the other terminal B is registered in the phone book in the terminal A (S305, Yes), the user β of the other terminal B can be determined to be an acquaintance of the user α. Therefore, the terminal A establishes a call with the terminal C that is requesting an incoming call by mobile phone communication by the communication unit 203 regardless of a user instruction (S306), and the terminal C identifies the terminal B of the terminal B. Information is notified (S307), and this flow ends. As a method of notifying terminal identification information, for example, a response by DTMF (Dual Tone Multi-Frequency) called a tone signal can be used.

  Note that the processing in steps S303 to S307 may be performed using the opportunity that the terminal A that received the incoming call request places when the terminal A switches to the answering machine mode. In this case, the “predetermined time” matches the set time for shifting to the answering machine response.

  In addition, when the incoming request is received, if the user does not respond for a predetermined time or more, the user may be able to selectively set whether or not to shift to the operation mode of the present embodiment. If the user has set “No”, the process does not proceed to S303 and does not proceed to Step S308 even if the condition of Step S302 is satisfied. Further, the “predetermined time” may be variably set by the user.

  Whether or not to notify the terminal C that has made an incoming call request of the information of the other terminal B acquired by the terminal A depends on whether the user β of the terminal B and the user γ of the terminal C making the incoming call request On the condition that the same group is set in the phone book of the terminal A of the user α, the user β and the user γ are determined to be acquainted when this condition is satisfied, and the notification is permitted. May be.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart of processing according to the present embodiment of terminal C that issues an incoming call request.

  When the user γ of the terminal C in FIG. 1 makes an incoming call request to the terminal A of the user α who is a partner with whom he / she wants to contact (S401), as long as the user γ continues the incoming call request, the terminal is kept responding to the incoming call request. Repeat the incoming request for A. If there is an incoming response from the terminal A (S402, Yes), it is determined whether or not it is a normal incoming response (S403). This can be determined based on whether the incoming response is a response by a predetermined signal such as the DTMF signal. If it is a normal incoming call response of the other user, normal call processing is started (S407).

  If it is not a normal incoming call response, that is, an incoming call response for notifying information on whether or not another terminal B exists in the vicinity of the terminal A for which an incoming call request has been made (if present, the terminal identification information). If so (S403, No), the information is acquired from the terminal A (S404). When the terminal identification information of the terminal B is acquired, it is checked whether or not the information is registered in the telephone directory in the terminal C (S405). If it is not registered, this flow is terminated without doing anything to the user γ.

  If the terminal identification information of the terminal B is registered in the telephone directory of the terminal C (S405, Yes), it is confirmed that the terminal B exists in the vicinity of the terminal A (that is, the user β exists) for the user γ. For example, the user γ is notified (notified) by a predetermined method such as displaying a message (S406). As a result, it is understood that there is a possibility that the user can contact the user α of the terminal A making the incoming call request by performing a predetermined operation on the terminal B and contacting the terminal B. In this case, as a notification means for informing the user γ of information, for example, in the screen as shown in FIG. 6A, the terminal C displays whether or not the user γ transmits to the user β of the terminal B on the screen of the display unit. Message may be displayed to solicit user's γ instruction operation, and if the user's instruction from the operation unit is “Yes”, a call to terminal B may be made. Such a message is stored in the ROM 209 or the memory 208 in advance. “XX” in the message can be extracted from the registration data in the telephone directory. Instead of such a screen display, the message may be output by voice generated by voice synthesis or the like as shown in FIG. 6B to invite the user's instruction operation. The voice synthesis means is realized by software by the control unit 202, or a voice synthesis IC or the like is provided separately.

  Note that the user γ of the terminal C may be notified of the presence of the terminal B that is likely to be present near the terminal A that has received the incoming request after the user γ has given up the incoming request or can be notified to the user. It may be as soon as you are ready. Further, when the user α responds to a normal incoming call response after the terminal A that has received the incoming request has received notification of the information of the terminal B, the flow ends without notifying the user γ of the presence of the terminal B. You may do it.

  FIG. 7 shows a modification of the processing sequence of FIG. The same processing steps as those in FIG. 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description is omitted. In the example of FIG. 3, the communication is terminated when the presence of the terminal B is notified to the user γ in step S <b> 16, but when the user performs a predetermined operation without stopping the communication, An instruction (relay instruction) to relay the call with the terminal B is given (S17). In response, terminal A establishes a short-range wireless communication path for voice call with terminal B using short-range wireless communication (S26), and the voice call between terminal C and terminal B is relayed. (S18). It is assumed that the user α of the terminal A is not aware that the terminal A is performing such a relay operation, but the user α has already understood that such a process can be performed. The user may be allowed to set in advance whether or not to accept such a relay instruction. When the terminal A receives such a relay instruction, it determines whether or not to perform a relay operation based on the setting contents.

  As in FIG. 6, in the case of FIG. 7, for example, in the screen shown in FIG. 8A, the terminal C displays the screen of the display unit on which the user γ relays the terminal A to the terminal B. A message for inquiring whether or not to make a request may be displayed to solicit user operations. Further, instead of such a screen display, the message may be output by voice as shown in FIG. 8B to solicit the user's instruction operation.

  The preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described above, but various modifications and changes other than those mentioned above can be made. For example, although the terminal that issues an incoming call request has been described as a mobile phone terminal, it may be a fixed telephone terminal.

  Further, when terminal A obtains terminal identification information of a nearby terminal B by short-range wireless communication, it is configured to notify terminal A if it is registered in the phone book in terminal A. When searching for a nearby terminal B, the terminal A first informs the terminal B of its own terminal identification information, and the terminal B assumes that the terminal identification information of the terminal A is registered in its own telephone directory. The terminal identification information may be notified to the terminal A.

Furthermore, as a condition for the user γ of the terminal C to know the terminal identification information of the terminal B, one of the following cases can be considered.
(1) Both the terminals A and C register the information of the terminal B in their own telephone books.
(2) The terminal B registers the information of the terminals A and C in its own phone book.
(3) The terminal B registers the information of the terminal A in its own phone book, and the terminal C registers the information of the terminal B in its own phone book.
(4) The terminal A registers the information of the terminal B in its own phone book, and the terminal B registers the information of the terminal C in its own phone book.
(5) Each of the terminals A and B registers the partner information in its own phone book, and each of the terminals B and C registers the partner information in its own phone book.

It is a figure which shows schematic structure of the whole telephone communication system in embodiment of this invention. It is a block diagram showing the function inside the mobile telephone terminal corresponding to each terminal shown in FIG. FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram illustrating an operation of a typical use case of the system of FIG. 1. It is a flowchart of the process of the terminal which received the incoming call request in this Embodiment. It is a flowchart of the process which concerns on this Embodiment of the terminal which has issued the incoming call request in this Embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of a screen in the process of FIG. 6, and the example of audio | voice output. It is a sequence diagram which shows the modification of the process sequence of FIG. It is a figure which shows the example of a screen in the process of FIG. 7, and the example of audio | voice output.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101,102,103 ... Telephone terminal, 104,105 ... Base station, 106 ... Network, 200 ... Mobile phone terminal, 201 ... Bus, 202 ... Control part, 203 ... Communication part, 204 ... Display part, 205 ... Operation part, 208 ... Memory, 211 ... Speaker, 212 ... Microphone, 213 ... Short-range wireless communication unit, 214, 215 ... Antenna

Claims (6)

A telephone communication system including first, second, and third terminals each having a telephone communication function,
Each of the first, second and third terminals is
The telephone communications department;
A notification means for informing the user of information;
A storage unit for storing telephone book data;
A control unit for controlling each unit,
The control unit of the first terminal causes the second terminal because the user of the second terminal has not responded for a predetermined time or more after issuing an incoming call request to the second terminal by the telephone communication unit. When the terminal identification information of the third terminal obtained as a result of searching for the third terminal existing in the vicinity of the terminal is returned, the third terminal existing in the vicinity of the second terminal is found. To the user of the first terminal by the notification means,
When the control unit of the second terminal receives an incoming call request from the telephone communication unit and there is no response by the user for a predetermined time, the short-range wireless communication unit searches for a third terminal existing within a short-range range, When the terminal identification information is received from the third terminal, the terminal identification information is notified to the first terminal that has issued the incoming request,
The telephone communication system, wherein the control unit of the third terminal receives the search by the short-range wireless communication unit from the second terminal and returns the terminal identification information of the own terminal. The telephone communications department;
A notification means for informing the user of information;
A storage unit for storing telephone book data;
A control unit for controlling each unit,
The control unit was obtained as a result of searching for a terminal in the vicinity of the counterpart terminal due to the fact that the user of the counterpart terminal did not respond for a predetermined time or more after issuing the incoming call request by the telephone communication section When the terminal identification information of the terminal is responded, it is checked whether or not the terminal identification information is registered in the phone book in the own terminal. A mobile phone terminal characterized in that the notification means notifies the user of the terminal itself that a terminal existing in the vicinity of the counterpart terminal has been discovered due to not responding for a time or longer.   The control unit according to claim 2, wherein after the communication with the counterpart terminal is stopped, the control unit makes an incoming call request to the nearby terminal when receiving a predetermined operation for notification to the user of the own terminal. Mobile phone terminal.   When the control unit receives a predetermined operation from the user of the terminal before the communication with the partner terminal is stopped, the control unit relays that the partner terminal relays a call with the nearby terminal. The mobile phone terminal according to claim 2 which gives an instruction. The telephone communications department;
Near field communication part,
A storage unit for storing telephone book data;
A control unit for controlling each unit,
When the control unit receives an incoming call request from the telephone communication unit and does not respond by a user for a predetermined time, the control unit searches for a terminal existing in a short range by the short range wireless communication unit, and the terminal identification information from the terminal Is received, it is checked whether or not the received terminal identification information is registered in the phone book in its own terminal, and on the condition that it is registered, the terminal identification information is sent to the terminal that issued the incoming call request. A mobile phone terminal characterized by notification.   The control unit notifies the terminal identification information to the terminal that issued the incoming request, and then receives a relay instruction from the partner terminal to relay a call to the nearby terminal, when the short-range wireless communication 6. The mobile phone terminal according to claim 5, wherein a communication path for a call is established with the neighboring terminal by a unit, and the call with the terminal that has issued the incoming call request is relayed.

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