JPH07182416A - Conference reservation system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To effectively perform a reservation of a conference by inquiring of each member of the conference about his schedule in response to a request given from a communication terminal for reservation of the conference end based on the request information on the name of the conference, the desired date of the conference, etc., and by totalizing the replies of members to decide the date of the conference. CONSTITUTION:A CPU 1 of a conference reservation system 20 is connected via the bus lines to an external storage control part 2, an optical reader 4 which reads the originals received by a facsimile, a G3 control part 5 end e G4 control part 6 which perform the G3 and G4 fecsimile transmission/reception respectively via a telephone circuit or an ISDN circuit, a LAN control part 7 which performs the communication to an external LAN, etc. When a call is received from a user who wants to make reservation on a conference, the system 20 acquires the request information on the desired dates of the conference, the member names, the time required for the conference, etc. Then the system 20 inquires of the schedule control terminal prepared for each member included in the request information about presence/absence on/from the conference based on the request information. Thus the System 20 totalizes the replies of members and decides the date of the conference.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a conference reservation system, more specifically a multimedia mail server (hereinafter referred to as MMM).
S), the conference scheduling system is capable of adjusting the schedule of the conference members and determining the date and time of the conference in response to a request from the conference host.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art It is a very troublesome task to determine a date and to contact members when holding a meeting frequently held in a company, a government office, a company or the like. Particularly, the larger the number of members, the more difficult it is to adjust the schedule of each member. Conventionally, when adjusting the schedule of meeting participants, the meeting organizer calls each member and confirms the schedule of each member, and confirms the schedule for each member and the availability of meeting rooms according to the number of members. Although it was taken into consideration, in recent years, a conference reservation system using an information processing system has been constructed.

As a conventional conference reservation system, a conference calling means, a plurality of calling means, and a plurality of display means are provided, as proposed in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2-1267671 "Method of calling a meeting of an electronic exchange". In addition, a notice of convening a meeting is sent to a plurality of members all at once, and the attendance of the members is confirmed by key information transfer means.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 4157 "Teleconference Reservation Device", for facilitating reservation request processing, a facsimile and an optical reading means enable reservation application by a request form described in a predetermined format, or JP-A-4-1604
As shown in "Communication Conferencing System" in No. 8, the conference organizer terminal notifies the participating members of data including the holding conditions such as the holding plan and the holding date and time of the meeting and the inquiry information about the meeting. There is a meeting preparation support system, etc. that has the function of collecting the responses from members.

However, in the above-mentioned conventional conference reservation system, the schedule is set by ignoring the schedule of each member. Therefore, if there is a member who is not convenient for the set schedule, the schedule is adjusted again. I had to do it. In addition, in the conventional system, it is troublesome because the reservation of the conference room on the decision date is manually made only by the notification of the conference date and the confirmation of the lack of sunrise, and there is a risk that the reservation of the conference room may be forgotten. . In particular, the size of a conference room varies depending on the number of participating members, but since the decision of the date and the determination of the number of participating members are subtly related, booking a conference room is also a complicated task. It was Furthermore, in the method of sending the decided notice of the conference by telephone, facsimile, or documents, some members may forget to hold the conference and may be absent, so it is necessary to contact each member for confirmation on the day of the conference. There were many

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems of the conventional conference reservation system. When determining the date of the conference, each member is inquired about his / her schedule, and It is an object of the present invention to provide a conference reservation system capable of efficiently making a conference reservation by automatically selecting a convenient day. Furthermore, automatic reservation of meeting rooms according to the number of members,
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a conference reservation system that enables thorough notification of the date of each member.

[0006]

In order to solve the above problems, the first aspect of the present invention
In a conference reservation system by a multimedia mail server in which a plurality of information processing terminals are connected via a communication line, the invention of claim 1 responds to a conference reservation request from the communication terminal,
Means to obtain required information such as meeting member name, desired meeting date and time, required time, etc., a method to inquire each member's schedule based on this information, aggregate the answers from each member and set the meeting date and time And means for determining. In the second invention, in a conference reservation system using the same multimedia mail server, a means for responding to a conference reservation request from a communication terminal and obtaining request information such as a conference member name, a desired conference holding date and time, and a required time. , A means to inquire each member's schedule based on this information, a means to aggregate the answers from each member to determine the date and time of the meeting, and a meeting room management means to manage the usage allocation of a predetermined meeting room And a suitable conference room is allocated based on the information on the determined date and time and the number of conference members.
Further, according to the third invention, in a conference reservation system by a multimedia mail server in which a plurality of information processing terminals are connected via a communication line, a conference reservation request from the communication terminal is handled, and a conference member name, a desired conference date and time are held. , Means for obtaining required information such as required time, means for inquiring each member's schedule based on this information, means for aggregating the answers from each member and determining the date and time of the meeting, It is characterized by providing a means for leaving information such as the date and time of the event and the number of meeting members in the schedule management terminal of each member.

[0007]

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the illustrated embodiments. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a conference reservation system according to the present invention. In the figure,
Reference numeral 1 denotes a central processing unit (hereinafter referred to as a CPU) that controls the entire system and executes various calculations, and includes an external storage device control unit 2 that controls an external storage device via a bus line and data and A shared memory 3 in which a program is stored, an optical maker (hereinafter referred to as OMR) 4 for optically reading a document received by a facsimile such as G3 or G4, and transmission / reception of a G3 facsimile via a telephone line are performed. G3 control unit for facsimile control unit (FCU) 5 for ISD
It is connected to a G4 control unit 6 for transmitting and receiving a G4 facsimile via an N line and a LAN control unit 7 for communicating with an external LAN.

Further, the G3 control unit 5 has a network control unit (NCU) 8 for accessing a telephone line, and the G4 control unit 6 has a home line terminating device 9 for terminating the ISDN line and supplying power. Further, the LAN controller 7 has a transceiver 1 for connecting the LAN cable and the LAN controller.
0 is a hard desk 15 in the external storage device controller 2.
And a floppy disk 16 are connected, and the CP
A display device CRT 13 and a printer 14 are connected to U1. Reference numeral 11 is a power supply that supplies power to each block.

The system described above is incorporated as a part of the information network shown in FIG. 2, for example, and functions as the conference reservation system of the present invention in combination with another information terminal device. In FIG. 2, reference numeral 20 denotes the conference reservation system shown in FIG. 1, which is connected to the LAN network 21 via the transceiver 10 and further the conference room reservation system 22 and the schedule connected to the LAN. It is connected to the management terminal 23. If necessary, it is connected to another LAN network via the second and third transceivers 24.

On the other hand, the MMMS 20 is provided with the CRT 13 as described above, and is further connected to many G3 FAX and telephone terminal devices via the NCU 8 and the telephone line network 25, and via the in-home line termination device. ISDN network 2
6, and is further connected to the G4 FAX connected to it. Among them, the conference room reservation system plays a role of managing the use status and reservation of a plurality of required conference rooms, providing vacant room information in response to a request, and allocating an appropriate conference room. In addition, the schedule management device 23
For example, it is provided in each department and manages the schedule of each person in that department on a weekly or monthly basis. In some cases, a device may be provided for each person.

An embodiment of the operation and control of the conference reservation system of the present invention configured as above will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a control example of the conference reservation system of the present invention. First, a user who desires to reserve a conference calls the conference reservation system 20 from a terminal telephone. When the conference reservation system 20 detects an incoming call (S1), the conference reservation system 20 determines whether the purpose of the call is a conference reservation or another purpose (S2). If the purpose of the incoming call is other than the conference reservation, it corresponds to each purpose (S3), and if it is the conference reservation, the desired date and time of the conference, member name, required time, purpose of the conference, etc. Hear from the conference reservation person the information necessary for inquiries to members and members (S
4). To judge when the call is received or to make a reservation to the conference reservation system, use the touch-tone button operation of the telephone, operate a separately provided keyboard, or apply by voice from the user. A method of making a judgment by a voice recognition means can be considered.

The conference reservation system that has received these information inquires of the schedule management terminal 23 provided corresponding to the members in the above information whether or not it is possible to attend at the desired conference date and time ( S5). From each schedule management terminal, the response information of each member is input via a keyboard, etc., and the conference reservation system that receives this information determines whether there is a date and time that all members can attend. If there is no date and time that is convenient for all (S6), the meeting time is changed (S7), and the same inquiry is transmitted to the schedule management terminal (S5).

If, as a result of the inquiry, there is a date and time that all can attend, the date and time of the conference, the time and the number of attending members are determined (S8), and the conference room reservation system 22 reserves the conference room. Is performed (S9). When making a reservation for a conference room, it is possible to consider the necessity of equipment such as a blackboard and a video system as needed. After making the above reservation, notify the schedule terminal of the decided meeting date and time etc. (S10), make a reservation on the schedule table of each member on the day, and manage so that other schedules will not be entered To do.
In this way, if the decided scheduled date of holding a conference is registered in each person's schedule management terminal and his / her schedule is checked every day, there is no risk of forgetting to hold the conference. Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and various variations are possible. For example, the means proposed in the conventional conference reservation system can be used together, or some of the above-mentioned means can be appropriately combined and used.

[0014]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, at the time of conference reservation, it is possible to automatically select the date and time that all can attend, according to the convenience of each member, and to automatically reserve the conference room. Because you can do it, you do not have to worry about forgetting to reserve a meeting room. Further, by registering the decided scheduled date of holding the conference in the schedule management terminal of each member, the attendance at the conference will not be forgotten. It is not necessary to provide all of the above means, and some may be implemented in combination as needed.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a conference reservation system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an information network system incorporating the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a control example of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 CPU, 2 external storage device control unit, 3 shared memory, 4 OM, 5 G3 control unit, 6 G4 control unit, 7 LAN control unit, 8 network control unit, 9 home network terminal device, 10, 24 transceiver, 11 power supply, 12 missing number, 13 CRT, 14 printer, 15 hard disk, 16 floppy disk, 20 conference reservation system, 21 LAN network, 22 conference room reservation system, 23 schedule
Management terminal, 25 telephone network, 26 ISDN
network.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. In a conference reservation system using a multimedia mail server in which a plurality of information processing terminals are connected via a communication line, in response to a conference reservation request from the communication terminals, a conference member name, a desired conference holding date and time, and a required time. Etc., a means for inquiring each member's schedule based on this information, and a means for aggregating answers from each member to determine the date and time of the meeting. Meeting reservation system to do. 2. In a conference reservation system using a multimedia mail server in which a plurality of information processing terminals are connected via a communication line, in response to a conference reservation request from the communication terminal, a conference member name, desired conference holding date and time, required time Etc., a method of inquiring each member of their schedule based on this information, a method of summarizing the responses from each member and determining the date and time of the meeting, and the use of a predetermined meeting room A conference reservation system, comprising: a conference room managing unit that manages allocation, wherein an appropriate conference room is allocated based on the information about the determined date and time and the number of conference members. 3. A conference reservation system using a multimedia mail server in which a plurality of information processing terminals are connected via a communication line, responding to a conference reservation request from the communication terminal, meeting member name, desired meeting holding date and time, required time. Etc., a means for inquiring each member of their respective plans based on this information, a means for aggregating the responses from each member and determining the date and time of the meeting, and the determined date and time of the meeting. A conference reservation system comprising means for leaving information on the number of conference members in the schedule management terminal of each member.