JP4512065B2 - Communication system and method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication system and method, and for example, relates to a communication system and method for transmitting an e-mail or the like to a partner when the call is addressed to a telephone number and the partner cannot be connected.

  Conventionally, the user has been selectively in contact with the other party by e-mail or telephone. That is, when the user wants to send an e-mail, the mailer is activated, the e-mail address is entered, the text is entered, and the e-mail is sent to the other party.

  Also, when a user wants to make a call, the other party is called by starting dialer software (hereinafter referred to as “software”) or IP telephone software and entering a telephone number.

  Furthermore, a code that uniquely specifies the storage location of information resources such as files distributed on the Internet, such as URLs (Uniform Resource Locators), is activated when a browser is used for chatting on the Web and bulletin board entry. Was accessed by typing

  In addition, when a video is captured by a camera and a conversation is performed while the video is transmitted to the other party, camera video display software is activated.

  In this way, in a communication system using a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as “PC”) or the like, a technique for efficiently communicating with the other party is described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-211438. .

  That is, in the system described in the above publication, a user interface control program that operates on a computer connected via a network and a plurality of communication media control programs are connected by a standard application programming interface. Refers to common address information and provides a link function between communication media.

Therefore, a plurality of media can be called with a unified simple operation, and it is not necessary to be aware of different address formats depending on the media, and the cooperation function between media can be used without an extra operation. Furthermore, an appropriate media control program can be selected according to the environment.
JP 2001-21114 A

  However, in the conventional technology, for example, when a call is made to the other party and the other party cannot make a call while on the telephone, and the user tries to send an e-mail instead, the user manually sends the e-mail. It was necessary and troublesome to start the mail software and enter the email address of the other party.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to enable a user to make a call to another party using another communication tool without newly performing troublesome work in order to improve the usability of the application.

In order to solve the above problems, the communication system of the present invention, shows at least two destination possessed by the other party, the address table the user for each relevant destination is assigned arbitrarily changeable priorities, the destination And an external tool registration table indicating information that can be arbitrarily changed by the user as a set of information used when making a call to the destination, and a storage unit for storing the information, from the address table, Based on an incoming mail history, a destination search unit that searches for at least two destinations using a mail address as a key, and one selected destination among the at least two destinations searched by the destination search unit; software has become the set selected based on the external tool registration table, selected the Sofutou Reads information necessary for A startup process, and a software activation means for performing transmission processing, the destination search means, the mail coming into its destination, header analysis means for analyzing the header of the email And when the received mail is a mail that has normally arrived at the self-destination as a result of the analysis by the header analysis means, at least two of the destinations using the mail address of the mail as a key Search for
If the received mail is an unreachable mail due to unreachable mail sent from the self destination to the destination, the mail address of the other party of the mail is extracted and at least 2 using the mail address as a key When a connection cannot be established to one of the other parties, the destination that has not been transmitted to the other party is automatically searched based on the priority .

Further, the communication method of the present invention, shows at least two destination possessed by the other party, the address table the user for each relevant destination is assigned arbitrarily changeable priorities, and the destination, to the destination A storage step for storing an external tool registration table indicating information that can be arbitrarily changed by the user and information used in combination with software used for outgoing calls, and based on the incoming mail history from the address table. In addition, a destination search step for searching for at least two destinations of a party to be sent using a mail address as a key, and a header analysis for analyzing the header of the mail with respect to a mail received at its destination in the destination search step Step and the destination search step, according to the analysis result of the header analysis step, Incoming mail, when a mail arrives normally to the self destination searches at least two of said destinations of the source mail address of the mail as a key, the incoming mail, the self destination In the case of unreachable mail due to unreachability of mail sent to the destination of the other party, the mail address of the other party of the mail is extracted, and connection cannot be established to at least two of the other parties using the mail address as a key A step of automatically searching for the destination that has not been transmitted to the other party based on the priority , and a selected one of the at least two destinations searched by the destination searching step and the set selected based software has become the external tool registration table, processing starts for the selected the software Loading information required, characterized in that it comprises a software activation step of performing transmission processing.

  As described above, according to the present invention, in order to improve the usability of the application, it is possible to allow the user to make a call to the other party without using a new troublesome work.

  Specifically, the address used by the external tool is automatically searched from the name and phone number, and it is passed to the external tool and started, so the dialer software inputs the switching time of the other tool and the address used at the switching destination. It is possible to save time and improve the efficiency of operations.

  In addition, it is necessary to introduce integrated software because it can be used without memorizing the operation of other communication devices without memorizing the operation of other communication devices. Save time.

  Furthermore, if you purchase a new dialer, you can use what you already have for other communication tools, and when you install a new communication tool, if you have a dialer, you can easily use only the necessary ones. Since it can be added, the introduction cost can be reduced.

  Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of an operation system installed in a PC constituting the communication system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

  FIG. 1 shows a plurality of programs operating on an operating system (hereinafter referred to as “OS”), an input / output device driver 1 that controls the operation of the input / output device, and a modem that controls the operation of a modem and an external telephone. An external telephone driver 2, a browser 3 for handling files on the web, a mailer 4 for sending and receiving e-mails, and IP telephone software 5 for realizing a voice call using the Internet protocol (hereinafter referred to as "IP") And a camera video display software 6 for activating a camera installed on the other side, and a dialer 7.

  The dialer 7 includes a user interface (user I / F) 71, a telephone call / incoming processing unit 72, an external software activation processing unit 73, an address book 74, and an address search processing unit 75 which will be described below.

  The user I / F 71 analyzes a user input operation, passes input information to each processing unit, and passes a processing result of each processing unit to the input / output device driver 1.

  The incoming / outgoing call processing unit 72 performs outgoing / incoming call processing, includes an outgoing call history / incoming call history table, and further includes a destination non-response detecting means.

  The external software activation processing unit 73 activates the external software in response to an external software activation command from the user I / F 71, the telephone call incoming / incoming processing unit 72, and the address search processing unit.

  The address book 74 is a storage unit that can register external tool information to be used, e-mail address, URL, IP address, camera address and other personal address information, and external tool priority information.

  The address search processing 75 searches for an address stored in the address book 74 using the character string given from the user I / F 71 as a key, searches for an available external tool from the associated data, and searches for the user I / F 71. , It is passed to the telephone outgoing / incoming processing unit 72 or the external software activation processing unit 73.

  2 and 3 are flowcharts showing the operation of the PC shown in FIG.

  First, when making a call, the input / output device driver 1 detects the destination number and passes it to the call origination / reception processing unit 72 (step A1).

  Next, the incoming / outgoing call processing unit 72 performs outgoing call processing for the destination number from the input / output device driver 1 (step A2).

  Then, the incoming / outgoing call processing unit 72 determines whether or not the other party answers within a preset time (step A3).

  As a result of the determination, if the destination does not respond within the preset time, the destination telephone number information is passed to the address search processing unit 75 as a destination non-response. The address search processing unit 75 searches whether the telephone number received from the incoming / outgoing call processing unit 72 is in the table in the address book 74 (step A4).

On the other hand, the result of the determination, if the phase hand responds within the preset time, and terminates the processing shown in FIG. 2 performs normal call processing.

  When a telephone number exists in the table in the address book 74, the address data designated in accordance with the priority order associated with the telephone number is read from the address table for each user as shown in FIG. Is read from the external tool registration table as shown in FIG. 6 (step A6).

  In FIG. 6, “Dialer” corresponds to “Telephone call processing unit”, “Mailer” corresponds to “Mailer execution file”, “Browser” corresponds to “Browser execution file”, “IP An example is shown in which “IP phone execution file” corresponding to “telephone” and “camera video display software execution file” corresponding to “camera display” are read.

  On the other hand, when the telephone number does not exist in the table in the address book 74, the processing shown in FIG.

  In FIG. 5, destinations including “TEL1”, “XX @”, and “http // ˜” are registered for Mr. A, and “XX @”, “http // ˜” for Mr. B are registered. A destination including “TEL2” is registered, and for Mr. C, “03-XXXXX-XXXXXX”, “090-XXXXXX-XXX”, “http // xxx.yyy For example, a destination including “.com” and “C@xxx.yyy.com” is registered.

  Incidentally, it is possible to register a plurality of addresses of the same type, for example, when registering an office telephone number and a mobile phone number for one user.

  The address search processing unit 75 passes the read information to the external software activation processing unit 73. The external software activation processing unit 73 activates the external software based on the information given from the address search processing unit 75, and gives the appropriate destination information to perform the calling process (step A7).

  The address table for each user in the address book 74 needs to be registered in advance by the user via the user I / F 71. Also, the user registers in advance the association between various addresses and the external software to be used via the user I / F 71. However, since the dialer 7 itself handles the outgoing call, when making a outgoing call, registration is made to send appropriate data to the incoming / outgoing call processing unit 72.

  Next, the operation of FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG.

  When a call is received, the call origination / inbound processing unit 72 detects the information of the caller (step B1).

  The incoming / outgoing call processing unit 72 includes an incoming call history storage unit as shown in FIG. 4 for storing the caller information of an incoming call as an incoming call history, and when the user performs a redial operation with reference to this storage unit (Step B3), the outgoing / incoming call processing unit 72 sends the source information (phone number) to the address search processing unit 75 among the information stored as the incoming call history.

  FIG. 4 shows an example in which the incoming date and time, sender information, and name can be registered as a set.

  When the address search processing unit 75 searches for another address of the same user associated with the telephone number given from the call origination / reception processing unit 72, the address search processing unit 75 obtains information necessary for starting the application using each address. A search is performed (steps B4 to B6), and if data exists, all information is passed to the user I / F 71.

  The user I / F 71 outputs information from the address search processing unit 75 to the output device using the input / output device driver 1 (step B7).

  The user selects a communication means (e-mail, Web, etc.) from the output information, and the user I / F 71 receives the result again (step B8).

  The user I / F 71 passes the information selected by the user to the external software activation processing unit 73. The external software activation processing unit 73 activates the external software based on the given information and provides appropriate destination information to the external tool (step B9).

  Next, the operation of this embodiment will be specifically described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 7, parts that perform the same processing as those shown in FIG.

  For example, the telephone outgoing / incoming processing unit 72 performs a telephone outgoing call process using the telephone number 03-XXXXXX-XXX (step A2).

  If the other party does not respond, the call origination / termination processing unit 72 sends the other party's telephone number to the address search processing unit 75 as a non-response (step A3).

  The address search processing unit 75 searches the address table for each user in the address book 74 using the received telephone number as a key (step A4), and when the address data of the user having the telephone number of the key is found, the priority order is that telephone. The address data next to the number, AAA@xxx.com, is taken out.

  Then, information for starting registered external software using the address (e-mail address) and a mailer execution file are read from the external software registration table as shown in FIG. 6 (step A6).

  The obtained information is given to the external software activation processing unit 73, and the external software activation processing unit 73 executes the mailer execution file here and passes AAA@xxx.com to the mailer 4 (step A7).

  If the information obtained in step A6 is URL: http://xxx.yyy.com, browser execution file, the external software activation processing unit executes the browser execution file, activates the browser, and http: // Pass xxx.yyy.com to the browser.

  If the information obtained in step A6 is the IP phone address and the IP phone execution file, the external software activation processing unit 73 executes the IP phone execution file to activate the IP phone software, and the destination IP address Give a phone address.

  If the information obtained in step A6 is the camera number and the camera image display software execution file, the external software activation processing unit 73 executes the camera image display software execution file to activate the camera image display software, Give the camera number you want to display.

  In addition, in the case where the outgoing / incoming call processing unit performs the outgoing call processing of the telephone number 03-XXXXXX-XXX, in the case of non-response to the other party as in the above example, Assume that the address obtained as a result of the search is another telephone number 090-OOXX-XXXXXX. In this case, the software using the telephone number is the dialer 7 itself, and is associated with the telephone outgoing / incoming processing unit 72 in the external software registration table.

  Therefore, the telephone number 090-OOXXX-XXX which is obtained as a result of the search is sent from the address search processing unit 75 to the telephone call / incoming processing unit 72. Upon receiving the telephone number, the telephone outgoing / incoming processing unit 72 automatically makes a call to the delivered telephone number.

  Furthermore, if there is an incoming call from Mr. C's phone number 03-xxxx-yyyy on December 21, 2001, the incoming / outgoing call processing unit 72 stores the incoming call history processing unit 72 in FIG. Store information as shown.

  When the user calls this information via the user I / F 71, the call origination / incoming processing unit 72 sends the telephone number 03-xxxx- to the address search processing unit 75 before passing the history information to the user I / F 71. yyyy is sent, and by using the telephone number as a key, the address search processing unit 75 searches the address book 74 for whether or not the telephone number exists in the address table for each user as shown in FIG.

  In FIG. 5, since 03-xxxx-yyyy exists in the table, all the address data of the user having the telephone number, 090-xxxx-yyyy, http://xxx.yyy.com, c @ xxx. Read data required for starting yyy.com and other external applications that use each address data, phone call processing, browser execution file, mailer execution file, and let the user select which one to use Output via the user I / F 71.

  An example of the output at this time is shown in FIG. Here, the output at this time is displayed in accordance with the priority order registered in the address book 74. When the user selects e-mail, the user I / F 71 analyzes the operation of the user and recognizes that e-mail has been selected. Then, the user I / F 71 passes the e-mail address c@xxx.yyy.com and the mailer execution file information to the external software activation processing unit 73.

  Upon receiving the information, the external software activation processing unit activates the mailer and gives the destination information of c@xxx.yyy.com. Similarly, when other than e-mail is selected, an appropriate application is started and the selected address information is given.

(Embodiment 2)
In the first embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to a dialer having a telephone function has been described as an example. However, in the second embodiment, the present invention is applied to a mailer having an e-mail transmission / reception function and external communication software is activated. An example will be described.

  FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the OS according to the second embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment is different in that the mailer 4 includes an address search processing unit 45, an external software activation processing unit 43, and the like instead of the dialer 7 in the first embodiment shown in FIG. In FIG. 9, the same parts as in FIG.

  The mail outgoing / incoming processing unit 42 includes an incoming call history table as shown in FIG. 10 and means for determining whether the mail is an unreached message.

  FIG. 10 shows an example in which information is stored in the incoming call history storage unit when there is an incoming call from C@xxx.yyy.com on December 21, 2001. .

  FIG. 13 is a flowchart when the mailer 4 performs a reply operation on an incoming mail.

  First, the header of the mail is analyzed (step C2), and it is determined whether the mail has arrived normally, or whether the mail that has been sent by itself and has not reached the destination has returned (step C2). Step C3).

  If it is determined that the mail is unreachable mail, the original destination mail address included in the header is extracted (step C4), and the address book is searched using this mail address as a key (steps C5 and C6).

  If it is determined that the mail has arrived normally, the address of the same user is searched using the sender mail address as a key (steps C6 and C7).

  The search result is displayed. When a mail address is selected, processing is performed by the mail sending / receiving processing unit 42. When a telephone number is selected, the dialer 7, which is external software, is activated to pass the telephone number. Other processes are the same as the reply process for the incoming call history of the telephone described in the first embodiment.

(Embodiment 3)
In the first and second embodiments, the present invention is applied to dialers and mailers, and external software is activated. However, in the third embodiment, the present invention is applied to IP telephone software having a call function based on IP. An example of starting external communication software is shown.

  FIG. 11 is a block diagram illustrating a schematic configuration of an OS according to the third embodiment of the present invention. The third embodiment of the present invention is different in that the IP telephone software 5 includes an address search processing unit 55, an external software activation processing unit 53, and the like instead of the dialer 7 in the first embodiment shown in FIG.

  The IP phone outgoing / incoming processing unit 52 has an incoming call history table as shown in FIG. FIG. 12 shows an example of registration when an IP phone call is received from Mr. C on December 21, 2001.

  The reply operation for a call received by an IP phone is to search for another address of the same user using the IP phone address as a key. When an IP phone address is selected, the own IP phone call processing unit 52 If a telephone number is selected, a dialer, which is external software, is activated and the telephone number is passed. This is the same as the replying operation for the incoming call history described in the first embodiment.

  In the case of an IP phone, the other party may not answer, so the IP phone call incoming / outgoing processing unit 52 has the same means as the means for detecting the other party non-response in the first embodiment. As for the processing when the other party does not respond, the address search is performed using the IP phone address as a key, and when the IP phone address comes out as a result, the IP phone call processing section possessed by itself performs the processing, When the telephone number comes out as a result, the processing is the same as that described in the first embodiment except that the telephone number is given to a dialer which is external software and the telephone number is started.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of this invention. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the first embodiment. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the first embodiment. It is a figure which shows the example of the incoming call history table in Embodiment 1. It is a figure which shows Example 1 of an address table for every user. It is a figure which shows Example 1 of an external software registration table. It is a flowchart which shows the specific example of operation | movement of Embodiment 1 of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of an application selection request | requirement screen. It is a block diagram of Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the incoming call history table in Embodiment 2 of this invention. It is a block diagram of Embodiment 3 of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of the incoming call history table in Embodiment 3 of this invention. It is a flowchart of the mail reply process in Embodiment 2 of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Input / output device driver 2 ... Modem / external phone driver 3 ... Browser 4 ... Mailer 5 ... IP phone software 6 ... Camera image display software 7 ... Dialer program 71 ... User I / F
72 ... Call incoming / outgoing processing unit 73 ... External software activation processing unit 74 ... Address book 75 ... Address search processing unit

Claims (5)

The address table that shows at least two destinations of the other party and to which a priority that can be arbitrarily changed by the user is assigned to each destination, the destination, and software used when sending to the destination Storage means for storing an external tool registration table indicating information that can be arbitrarily changed by the user,
From the address table, based on an incoming mail history, a destination search means for searching for at least two destinations using a mail address as a key;
Based on the external tool registration table, the selected one of the at least two destinations searched by the destination searching means and the paired software are selected based on the external tool registration table, and the selected software is activated. With software activation means that reads the information necessary for
The destination search means further comprises a header analysis means for analyzing the mail header for mail received at its own destination,
According to the analysis result of the header analysis means,
If the received mail is a mail that has normally arrived at the self-address, search for at least two of the addresses using the mail address of the mail as a key,
If the received mail is an unreachable mail due to unreachable mail sent from the self destination to the destination, the mail address of the other party of the mail is extracted and at least 2 using the mail address as a key One of the features and to Turkey Myunikeshon system that automatically searches based partner to the destination that is not sent to the other party if a connection can not be established to the priority. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein the software activation unit reads in advance information necessary for activation processing of the destination software that can be transmitted before transmitting to the destination. Furthermore, a camera is installed in the vicinity of the other party's computer, and is provided with a start command camera video display software for starting the camera assigned to the camera, and the start command camera video in a situation where the other party cannot respond to voice communication. Communication system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized that you start the display software. The communication system according to any one of claims 1 to 3 , wherein the software activation unit activates any one of mail software, a browser, camera video display software, and Internet telephone software. Shows at least two destination possessed by the other party, the address table the user for each relevant destination is assigned arbitrarily changeable priorities, and the destination, and a software to be used for outgoing with respect to the destination A storage step for storing an external tool registration table indicating information that can be arbitrarily changed by a user, which is a set of information;
From the address table, based on the incoming mail history, a destination search step of searching for at least two of the destinations to be sent using a mail address as a key ;
In the destination search step, a header analysis step of analyzing the header of the mail for the mail received at its destination,
In the destination search step, according to the analysis result of the header analysis step,
Email with the incoming, when a mail arrives normally to the self destination searches at least two of said destinations of the source mail address of the mail as a key,
If the received mail is an unreachable mail due to unreachable mail sent from the self destination to the destination, the mail address of the other party of the mail is extracted and at least 2 using the mail address as a key Automatically searching for the destination that has not been sent to the other party based on the priority when a connection cannot be established with the other party ;
Based on the external tool registration table, the selected one of the at least two destinations searched by the destination search step and the paired software are selected based on the external tool registration table, and the selected software is activated. And a software activation step of reading information necessary for the transmission and performing a transmission process .