JPH1115874A - Method and device for adjusting schedule - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a schedule adjusting method and device capable of automatically determining optimum conference setting based on a conference opening request application. SOLUTION: A conference contents receiving part 14 receiving a conference opening request application from a voice guide part 12 refers to a data base 16 and prepares a conference setting rough plan. After obtaining approval from a person in charge of the opening of a conference through the voice guide part 12, a conference setting part 18 analyzes the personal schedules of attendance intending members collected from a data base 16 and matches the schedules based on common free time information to automatically set up an optimum conference. A data network transmission part 19 collects the personal schedules of attendance intending persons from the data base of another group through a data network and executes weighted operation based on the degree of relation of attendance intending members to the conference, so that even when attendance intending members have respective different degrees of relation, a conference allowing many main members to attend can be effectively set up.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a schedule adjustment method and apparatus for adjusting a personal schedule of a prospective attendee in response to a request to hold a conference and setting the conference, and in particular, automatically determines an optimal conference setting. The present invention relates to a schedule adjustment method and a device therefor.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of schedule adjustment method and its apparatus, as described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-85966, character schedules or image data can be added from any external location. Setting of events in personal schedule while exchanging information through various media such as inquiring by user's telephone voice,
Making changes.

[0003] That is, in the schedule adjusting device according to this publication, when setting a conference, a new reservation or schedule change is confirmed to the individual by telephone voice, and when confirmation or approval is obtained, the event is added to the personal schedule of the database. I have registered. However, there is no description on the point of comprehensively matching the personal schedule of the database for setting the conference.

[0004] In schedule adjustments other than the above-mentioned publications, it is fundamental to take out personal schedules from each database and perform matching.

[0005]

In the above-described conventional method and apparatus for adjusting a schedule, it is fundamental to take out an individual schedule from each database and perform matching, so that a plurality of individual schedules of a person who is going to attend a meeting are required. However, there is a problem that an operator is required to obtain necessary personal information from a plurality of databases and to match various kinds of data. In particular, having a wide-area database in one place is dangerous in terms of confidentiality or troubleshooting, and is often distributed to a plurality of bases. Therefore, it is desired to solve the above problem.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to provide a schedule adjusting method and an apparatus therefor which can automatically determine an optimal conference setting based on an application for a conference holding request.

[0007]

In the schedule adjusting method according to the present invention, basically, a device for adjusting a schedule of holding a conference includes a database for recording and storing a personal schedule of an affiliated member, and a telephone call for a person scheduled to attend the conference. A telephone unit for calling via a line, and a voice guidance unit for obtaining data by interacting with a connection destination through the telephone unit by predetermined voice guidance and voice recognition, and receiving a request for holding a conference via the telephone unit. At this time, the voice guidance unit is driven to receive the content of the conference by a predetermined voice guidance and voice recognition dialogue, and based on the content of the conference, the personal schedule of the attendees is referred from the database and at least one conference is held. A setting draft is created, the requester of the conference is called through the telephone unit, and the voice guidance unit is driven. After the consent of the conference setting draft is obtained by voice guidance and voice recognition dialogue, the schedule information of the attendees is obtained from the database. When the call is made, the voice guidance unit is driven to collect personal schedule information by a predetermined voice guidance and voice recognition dialogue. After that, the personal schedule was recorded in the database of the attendees, and each of the conference attendees was sequentially called through the telephone unit, and the voice guidance unit was driven to determine the personal schedule. To convey the conference settings.

In this method, an optimal conference setting is automatically determined by the person in charge of the conference inputting the details of the conference in a predetermined procedure.

In the above schedule adjusting method, the schedule adjusting apparatus further includes a data network transmitting unit for calling an external database having a personal schedule of the non-affiliated member via a data network, and the prospective attendee is a member of the non-affiliated member. In such a case, instead of searching the database, the data network transmitting unit is driven to call the external database, and the personal schedule of the attendee is collected from the external database. Drives the data network transmitting unit to call the external database and record a personal schedule for the attendee.

With this configuration, even for a plurality of databases, schedule information can be obtained by automatically connecting to a database other than the group to which the meeting organizer belongs.

In the above schedule adjusting method, the schedule adjusting device receives the contents of the meeting request including the weight indicating the degree of relevance of each of the prospective attendees to the contents of the meeting, and receives the attendees in the optimum meeting setting. The decision is based on whether or not to attend the meeting
The calculation is performed based on the result of the calculation in consideration of the weighting.

Therefore, even if not all the members can participate in the conference, all the main members can participate as the optimal conference setting.

[0013]

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

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

The schedule adjusting device 10 shown in FIG.
In this example, a key operation unit 11, a voice guidance unit 12, a data input unit 13, a conference content reception unit 14, a telephone unit 15, a database 16, a participant calling unit 17, a conference setting unit 18, and a data network transmission unit 19 are provided. It is assumed that Also,
The schedule adjustment device 10 is connected to a telephone line and a data network, and can automatically call a conference attendee or a scheduled attendee via the telephone line or exchange information with another database via the data network. In this case, the illustration of the general control unit is omitted.

The key operation section 11 outputs data or an operation command to the data input section 13 by an operation. Therefore, the key operation unit 11 can input a conference holding request as well as registering data in the database.

The voice guidance unit 12 is driven by the conference content reception unit 14 or the conference setting unit 18 and generates a data by recognizing a PB (push button) sound or voice responding to a predetermined voice output. Output to the input unit 13. The audio guidance includes meeting contents for receiving the information required for setting up the meeting, attaching the consent of the person to confirm the draft created with the organizer, inquiring about the personal schedule via telephone line, and setting the schedule. There is a conference holding notification that notifies attendees at least of holding the conference.

The data input unit 13 sends data received from the key operation unit 11 or the voice guidance unit 12 to the meeting content receiving unit 14 in the case of a meeting holding request, and sends it to the meeting setting unit 18 in other cases. Shall be.

The meeting content receiving unit 14 is a data input unit 13
When a request to hold a conference is received from the key operation unit 11 or the voice guidance unit 12 via the, the reception of the meeting contents of the voice guidance unit 12 is driven, and the name, contact information, The contents of the meeting, such as the database address, the range of the meeting place, and the range of the holding time, shall be accepted.

Meeting contents receiving unit 1 which receives the contents of the meeting
4 prepares a plurality of conference setting drafts based on the received conference content and the database 16, drives the attendee calling unit 17 with the telephone number of the organizer,
It is assumed that the person in charge of the voice guidance unit 12 is attached and the plurality of conference setting drafts created with the consent of the organizer are sent to the conference setting unit 18.

The telephone unit 15 is connected to a telephone line, regards an incoming call from the telephone line as a request to hold a conference, and drives the voice guidance unit 12 to accept the content of the conference, thereby transmitting the call originating telephone line to the telephone. While connected to the guide unit 12, it is assumed that, when receiving the connection destination dial number via the attendee call unit 17, the connection unit is automatically called to call the connection destination and interconnect with the voice guidance unit 12.

It is assumed that the database 16 has registered personal schedule information of members belonging to the schedule adjusting device 10.

The attendee calling unit 17 is a meeting content receiving unit 14
Alternatively, the telephone set 15 is driven in response to the connection destination dial number from the conference setting section 18, and in cooperation with the telephone section 15, a person in charge of holding, a planned attendee, or a determined attendee based on the dial number is called.

The conference setting unit 18 acquires the personal schedule of the attendees from the database 16 of the conference based on the plurality of conference setting drafts received from the conference content receiving unit 14,
Attendant calling unit 1 if not in own database 16
7 and a schedule inquiry of the voice guidance unit 12 is driven. If the personal schedule of the attendee is in an external database, the data network transmitting unit 19 is accessed, and the data is transmitted based on the corresponding address. Personal schedules are collected from an external database via a network, and the collected results are analyzed and matched.

Further, when the conference setting unit 18 receives the weight information of the prospective attendees from the conference content receiving unit 14 based on the content of the conference, even if all the prospective attendees cannot attend, the main member is absent. Weighting processing is performed so that an optimal conference setting that avoids the above can be performed. For example, a search is made for the free time information common to a plurality of prospective attendees from the collection result, and the sum of data obtained by weighting the individual availability information in the obtained common free time information by the relevance information is calculated for each time. It is calculated for each band, and a vacant time period in which the sum of the data is maximum can be selected as the conference holding time period.

When the optimum conference setting is determined, the conference setting unit 18 determines the database 16 based on the determined conference setting contents, for example, the conference holding time zone, the conference contents, the attendees, the absentees, the venue, and the like. And the external database is written via the data network transmitting unit 19, while the attendant calling unit 17 is driven by the dial numbers of all the attendees and some of the absent persons, and the voice guidance unit 12 It is assumed that the notice of the conference is driven to be notified.

The data network transmitting section 19 obtains an address and necessary information from the conference setting section 18 and interfaces with the data network according to a predetermined protocol.

Next, an example of a main operation procedure will be described with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG.

First, it is assumed that the telephone unit 15 receives a call from the telephone line and receives a conference holding request (step S0).
1). The telephone unit 15 drives the reception of the conference contents of the voice guidance unit 12 to connect the telephone line of the calling source, and the driven voice guidance unit 12 connects to the conference contents reception unit 14 via the data input unit 13. .

Next, the contents of the meeting are accepted by the voice guidance unit 12 through dialogue with the person in charge of the caller, for example, the contents of the meeting, for example, organizer information, time range of the meeting, contents of the meeting, information of the attendees, and the place of the meeting. A voice input such as a range is received (step S02). Since the voice guidance unit 12 forms voice input into data by voice recognition and sends it to the data input unit 13, the conference content reception unit 14 receives these data, and upon completion of the reception, the data input unit 13 and the voice guidance The unit 12 and the telephone unit 15 are released.

The conference content receiving unit 14 refers to the database 16 based on the content of the received conference and creates a plurality of drafts related to the conference setting (step S03). Driving and telephone unit 1
5 calls the organizer via the telephone line (procedure S0
Along with 4), the operator's consent of the voice guidance unit 12 is driven.

When the consent of the voice guidance unit 12 is attached, the conference setting draft created by the dialogue with the organizer is guided by voice (step S05), and the conference content reception unit 14 obtains the consent of the organizer (procedure). (YES in S06), and sends the plurality of conference setting drafts for which consent has been obtained to the conference setting unit 18. If the step S06 is "NO" and consent is not obtained, the procedure returns to the step S02 in which the reception of the meeting contents of the voice guidance unit 12 interacts with the person in charge of holding the caller to receive the contents of the meeting.

Conference setting section 1 receiving a plurality of conference setting drafts
8 examines the individual schedule of each attendee (procedure S07). When the personal schedule exists in the database 16 in the own device (YES in step S08, S0
9: YES), the schedule information is indexed from the database 16, and the data is collected and recorded (step S10).

When all the data has been collected (procedure S1)
(YES in 1), the conference setting unit 18 analyzes the collected data and arranges attendable information (procedure S12), searches for a common free time as described above, and performs a weighting operation using the relevance information (procedure S13). .

For example, when the degree of association is 80%, 40%, and 30% with respect to the attending members A, B, and C, respectively,
The sum of data for "Member A attended, members B and C absent" is larger than "Member A absent, members B and C attended", and as a result the number of attendees is reduced, but the meeting content is enhanced. Can be expected.

In this way, when the optimum conference setting is determined (step S14), the conference setting unit 18 drives the attendee calling unit 17 sequentially for at least all of the attendees and required absent persons. Automatically dials the telephone line, drives the conference holding notification of the voice guidance unit 12, notifies the host of the conference by voice communication with the connection destination, and registers the schedule in the personal schedule in each database (step S15). This ends the procedure.

If the above step S08 is "NO" and there is no personal schedule in the database, the conference setting unit 18 collects schedule information by inquiring of the schedule of the attendant calling unit 17 and the voice guidance unit 12 (step S2).
1), proceed to the above step S11.

If the above procedure S09 is "NO" and there is a personal schedule in the database of the external device, the conference setting unit 18 collects schedule information from the data network via the data network transmission unit 19 (procedure S22).
Proceed to the above step S11.

If the result of the above step S11 is "NO" and data collection still remains, the procedure returns to step S07 to investigate the schedule of the next attendee.

Although the above description has been made with reference to the functional blocks and flowcharts, the configuration can be changed by separating and merging the functions, or by changing the order of the procedures before and after, as long as the above functions are satisfied. Does not limit the invention.

[0041]

As described above, according to the present invention, when a device for adjusting a conference holding schedule receives a request for holding a conference, the content of the conference holding is received by a dialogue with voice guidance, and the content of the conference holding is accepted. Based on the personal schedule of the attendees from the database based on the database, create at least one draft of the conference setting, call the requester of the conference via the telephone unit, obtain the consent of the conference setting draft, and attend from the database It collects, organizes, and analyzes and obtains the schedule information of the individual to determine the optimal meeting settings.

According to this method, an effect is obtained that an optimum conference setting is automatically determined when a person in charge of the conference inputs the content of the conference in a predetermined procedure.

Further, in the above schedule adjusting method, the schedule adjusting device calls an external database having a personal schedule of a member who does not belong to the external database via the data network by the data network transmitting unit, and from this external database, the individual of the attendee who is expected to attend. Gather schedules and determine optimal meeting settings.

With this configuration, even for databases in a plurality of groups, schedule information can be obtained by automatically connecting to databases other than the group to which the meeting organizer belongs.

Further, in the above schedule adjusting method, the schedule adjusting device receives the content of the conference request including the weight indicating the degree of relevance of each prospective attendee to the content of the conference, and determines the attendees in the optimal conference setting. The decision is made based on the result of calculation taking the weighting into account after organizing whether or not to attend the meeting and performing analysis and matching.

Therefore, even when all the members cannot participate in the conference, there is an effect that all the main members can participate as the optimal conference setting.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Schedule adjustment device 11 Key operation part 12 Voice guidance part 13 Data input part 14 Meeting contents reception part 15 Telephone part 16 Database 17 Attendant calling part 18 Meeting setting part 19 Data network transmission part

Claims (6)

[Claims] An apparatus for adjusting a schedule for holding a conference includes a database for recording and storing personal schedules of members belonging to the conference, a telephone unit for calling an attendee of the conference via a telephone line, and a telephone unit via the telephone unit. A voice guidance unit that obtains data by interacting with a connection destination through predetermined voice guidance and voice recognition, and when receiving a request to hold a conference via the telephone unit, drives the voice guidance unit to perform predetermined voice guidance and The content of the conference is received by dialogue by voice recognition, and based on the content of the conference, at least one draft of the conference setting is created by referring to the personal schedule of the attendees from the database, and the conference is held via the telephone unit. Calling the requester and driving the voice guidance unit,
After obtaining the consent of the conference setting draft by a predetermined voice guidance and voice recognition dialogue, the schedule information of the attendees is obtained from the database, while the telephone unit is connected to the attendees not included in the database. In addition, the voice guidance unit was driven and the personal guidance information was collected by a predetermined voice guidance and voice recognition dialogue. Then, the optimal conference setting was determined by organizing whether or not to attend the conference and analyzing and matching. Thereafter, the personal schedule is recorded in a database relating to the attendees, and each of the conference attendees is sequentially called through the telephone unit, and the voice guide unit is driven to perform the predetermined voice guide and voice recognition. A schedule adjustment method characterized by the fact that a conference setting will be held. 2. A data network transmitting unit according to claim 1, further comprising a data network calling unit for calling, via a data network, an external database having a personal schedule of a non-affiliated member,
If the attendee is not a member of the affiliation, instead of searching the database, the data network transmitting unit is driven to call the external database, and the personal schedule of the attendee is collected from the external database.
On the other hand, when an optimal conference setting is determined, a schedule adjustment method is characterized in that a data network transmission unit is driven to call the external database, and a personal schedule for the attendee is recorded. 3. The conference holding request according to claim 1, wherein the content of the meeting held in the meeting holding request includes a weight indicating a degree of relevance of each prospective attendee to the contents of the meeting. A schedule adjustment method characterized in that the schedule adjustment method is performed based on a result calculated by taking into account the weighting after organizing whether or not to attend a meeting and performing analysis and matching. 4. A database for recording and storing personal schedules of members belonging thereto, a telephone unit connected to a telephone line and calling a destination by calling, if necessary, and a telephone set connected via the telephone unit. While recognizing the voice, a voice guidance unit that obtains predetermined data by transmitting and interacting with a predetermined voice, and after receiving a request to hold the conference via the telephone unit, the content of the conference is received by the voice guidance unit. Receiving at least one conference setting draft based on the content of the conference by referring to the personal schedule of the attendees from the database, calling the requester of the conference to the telephone unit, and generating the draft. When a voice guidance for obtaining consent is requested from the voice guidance unit, and the consent of the meeting content receiving unit for obtaining consent and at least one of the conference setting drafts is obtained. The draft of the accepted meeting setting is obtained from the meeting contents receiving unit, and personal schedule information of each prospective attendee is collected and analyzed by at least one of the database and the telephone to match the attendable information, and to determine the optimum meeting setting. After the decision is made, the personal schedule is recorded in a database concerning the attendees, and at least the attendees are successively called through the telephone unit, and the called attendees are given voice guidance on the conference setting contents of the decision. A schedule adjustment device comprising: a conference setting unit that drives the voice guidance unit. 5. A data network transmitting unit according to claim 4, further comprising a data network calling unit for calling an external database having a personal schedule of a member who does not belong to said external database via a data network.
At least the conference setting unit calls the external database by driving the data network transmitting unit instead of searching the database when the prospective attendee is a member who does not belong to the affiliation. Collecting the scheduler's personal schedule, and the conference setting unit,
A schedule adjustment device for driving the data network transmitting unit to call the external database when an optimal conference setting is determined, and recording a personal schedule relating to the attendees; 6. The conference setting unit according to claim 4, wherein the conference setting unit receives weighting information indicating a degree of relevance of each prospective attendee in the conference holding content of the conference holding request to the conference content. A schedule adjustment device, wherein an optimal conference setting is determined by performing calculations in consideration of the weighting when organizing the possibility of attendance and analyzing and matching.