JPH0736809A - Terminal system provided with telephone function - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily, quickly and efficiently execute information exchange for important items or the like in the same document between plural terminals. CONSTITUTION:Plural telephone function equipped terminals mutually connected through telephone lines 3, 4 are respectively provided with display parts and position input devices (e.g. track balls loaded on receivers) in addition to respective telephone functions. Respective display parts can display the same document data 15 by mutually communicating the document data 15 and cursor data and two kinds of cursors 13, 14 which are respectively controlled by position input devices included in the self terminal and the opposite terminal are simultaneously displayed by respectively different shapes or colors. Consequently a document or the like can be easily and efficiently inspected between plural separated terminal users.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a telephone function-equipped terminal system which can be operated while interacting by telephone, and in particular, the terminal device is equipped with a pointing device (position input device) such as a trackball or a mouse. The present invention relates to a terminal system with a telephone function capable of facilitating information exchange with a telephone interlocutor by using such a terminal device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when a person talks with a partner about a specific material or document by telephone, the material or document is sent to a telephone interlocutor in advance by mail or facsimile (FAX). I was having a telephone conversation while referring to the material. Recently, electronic mails have been used to send materials to a terminal on the other side and have a dialogue between them, or, for example, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 04-84587, a videophone with a storage function can be stored. There has been proposed a mail system or the like in which information can be exchanged by both parties while referring to the same material by using it as a terminal device of a mail system.

[0003]

In the conventional method of exchanging information by telephone with the other party by previously mailing or faxing the above-mentioned material to the other party, the important points of the material are indicated during the conversation. There is a method that there is no way to do so, the information content is not accurately transmitted to the other party, and in general, there are many unclear portions in the material of FAX transmission, which hinders information exchange. In addition, there is a drawback that the device using a videophone with a storage function becomes large in size. The object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, using a terminal equipped with a telephone function,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a terminal system with a telephone function using a terminal equipped with a position input device such as a handset with a built-in track ball, which enables information exchange with the other party to be performed easily and efficiently.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a telephone function terminal system comprising a plurality of telephone function terminals connected by a telephone line and a mail line. In addition to the telephone function, each of the attached terminals includes at least a display unit and a position input device (eg, a pointing device such as a trackball), and each of the display units is a document via the mail line. The same document data can be displayed by communicating the data and the cursor data, and the cursor and the position input device of the other party's telephone function terminal can be controlled by the position input device of the own telephone function terminal. The feature is that two kinds of controlled cursors are displayed at the same time.

[0005]

In the terminal system with a telephone function of the present invention having the above-mentioned configuration, the key points of the document data on the screen of the own terminal are designated by the cursor so that the same document data of the other terminal can be obtained. Pointer designation is displayed at the same designated location, and the cursor on the own terminal can be freely moved from the other party's terminal, making it easy to exchange information by using this terminal system with telephone function, It can also be done efficiently.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. First, FIG. 1 shows an overview of a terminal system with a telephone function according to this embodiment. As shown in FIG. 1, the terminal system with a telephone function of this embodiment includes a self-terminal 1 having a telephone function, a partner terminal 2 also having a telephone function,
It is composed of a telephone line 3 for connecting these terminals and a mail line 4 for communicating document data and cursor data. In this case, a personal computer (PC), workstation (WS), word processor (WP) or the like is used as the terminal.

FIG. 2 shows a functional block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the telephone function-equipped terminal 1 (or 2) has a control unit 5 for controlling the terminal, a display unit 6 for displaying document data and a cursor, an electronic mail, etc. Storage unit 7 for storing information of the other party's terminal 2 (or 1), an interface unit 8 composed of wiring connectors for the telephone line 3 and the mail line 4, a keyboard unit 9, a telephone conversation and It is characterized in that it is constituted by the handset unit 10 with a built-in track ball for moving the cursor.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the own terminal cursor and the other party terminal cursor displayed on the respective screens of the own terminal screen and the other party terminal screen. On the own terminal screen 11 and the other party terminal screen 12, in addition to the document data 15 transferred by the electronic mail, the own terminal cursor 13 operable by the own terminal 1 and the other party terminal 2 are operated. Two types of possible partner terminal cursors 14 are displayed. The own terminal cursor 13 and the partner terminal cursor 14 can be easily distinguished from each other on the terminal screen by, for example, differentiating their shapes and colors. When operating the cursor, it can be operated by pressing the cursor operation button 16 attached to the display unit.

The receiver unit 10 with a built-in track ball is provided with a track ball 17 on the back of the receiver unit as shown in FIGS. 4 (a) and 4 (b), for example. As a method of operating the cursors 13 and 14 in such a trackball-embedded handset unit 10, a handset unit 10 with a built-in trackball as shown in FIG. How to operate the track ball 17 as it is, or the handset part 1 with a built-in track ball
A method of operating the track ball 17 while holding 0 in hand can be considered. The latter operation method is built in so that when the handset 10 with the built-in trackball is held by hand, the trackball 17 is exactly located at the position of the index finger, which enables a very natural operation even during a telephone conversation. .

FIG. 5 shows a processing flowchart of the terminal system with a telephone function configured as described above. First, a call is made from the own terminal 1 to the other party's terminal 2 using the telephone line 3 (step 100) and a dialogue with the other party is performed. When it becomes necessary to examine the content of the material during the dialogue, the partner terminal 2 (or the own terminal 1) is used to send the document data 15 from the own terminal 1 (or the other terminal 2) to the mail line 4. Data is transferred (step 101). By this data transfer, the same document data 1 is displayed on the screens of the own terminal 1 and the other terminal 2.
5 is displayed, and the users of the own terminal 1 and the partner terminal 2 can talk with each other by referring to the same document data 15. Document data 1 on each terminal screen
If 5 is the same, it is selected whether to use the own terminal cursor 13 and the partner terminal cursor 14 (step 10
2) If not used, a meeting is held only by dialogue with the document data 15 by telephone (step 103).

Further, in step 102, the own terminal card
When the sol 13 and the partner terminal 14 are used, the cursor operation buttons 16 attached to the respective display portions 6
By pressing (step 104), the cursor operation by the handset 10 with a built-in track ball becomes possible.
At this time, if the key points of the document data 15 of the own terminal 1 are pointed by the own terminal cursor 13 (step 105), the same position of the document data 15 on the screen of the other terminal 2 becomes the point. The designated terminal cursor 13 is displayed (step 106). The same applies when points are designated on the screen of the other party's terminal 2 by the other party's terminal cursor 14, and the other party's terminal cursor 14 is displayed on the screen of the own terminal 1 and the terminal screens 11 and 12 of each other are displayed. There are two types of cars
Sol is displayed. While observing the same document data 15 on the terminal, it is possible to perform a detailed meeting while talking with the other party about important points designated by the two types of cursors (step 107). This terminal system with telephone function can be implemented simply by adding the telephone function to the existing terminal such as a personal computer (PC), workstation (WS), word processor (WP), etc. Suitable for

Although the case where the trackball 17 is provided on the back of the handset has been described above, the trackball 17 may be provided on the side or front of the handset and operated by the thumb. Further, in the above, the example in which the trackball is provided in the handset is shown, but the trackball is not provided in the handset, and other suitable place on the terminal side, for example, a place around the terminal screen that is cheap to operate, or a screen May be provided independently. Although the case of using the trackball has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the trackball, and any other position input device (pointing device) such as a mouse may be used as long as the cursor can be operated. In that case, as the position where the position input device is provided, an optimum place may be selected in consideration of the structure and usability of the position input device.

[0013]

As described above, the terminal system with a telephone function according to the present invention uses the electronic mail to send the document data from the own terminal to the other party's terminal when sufficient information cannot be exchanged only by the telephone conversation. -Transfer the data and use the pointing devices of both terminals (for example, a trackball with a built-in handset) to specify the important points on the document data, respectively.
Information can be exchanged easily and efficiently by designating points with two types of cursors, that is, the own terminal cursor and the other side cursor having different shapes or colors.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a terminal system with a telephone function according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a telephone function-equipped terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of a screen display of a terminal with a telephone function.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a usage example of a handset with a built-in track ball.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining a dialogue operation using the terminal system with a telephone function according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 own terminal 2 other party's terminal 3 telephone line 4 mail line 5 control section 6 display section 7 storage section 8 interface section 9 key board section 10 receiver with built-in track ball 11 own terminal screen section 12 partner Side terminal screen section 13 Own terminal cursor 14 Counterpart terminal cursor 15 Document data 16 Cursol operation button 17 Track ball

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A telephone function-equipped terminal system comprising a plurality of telephone function-equipped terminals connected by a telephone line and a mail line, wherein each of the plurality of telephone function-equipped terminals has at least a display unit in addition to the telephone function. And a position input device (pointing device), and each of the display units can display the same document data by communicating the document data and the cursor data via the mail line. It is possible to simultaneously display two types of cursors, a cursor controlled by the position input device of the self-telephone function-equipped terminal and a cursor controlled by the position input device of the partner telephone function-supplied terminal. Characteristic terminal system with telephone function. 2. The terminal system with telephone function according to claim 1, wherein the terminal with telephone function is a personal computer, a workstation or a word processor. 3. The terminal system with a telephone function according to claim 1, wherein the position input device is a trackball provided in a receiver portion of the telephone. 4. The terminal system with a telephone function according to claim 1, wherein the cursor is controlled by the position input device of the terminal with a telephone function and the position input device of the terminal with a telephone function of the other party. A terminal system with a telephone function, characterized in that the two types of cursors of different types have different shapes or colors.