JPH11205860A - Mobile message server system using directory management - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a message exchange that especially utilizes position information effectively in a mobile terminal having a message generating means, a message display means and a position detection means. SOLUTION: A destination script interpretation means 107 extracts a destination in a message sent from a mobile terminal 101, an area information management means 108 specifies an area, a personal information management means 109 specifies a transfer member, acquires the address of a corresponding member and sends them to a message transfer means 106, which sends the message to the returned address.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a message server device for mobile terminals using directory information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a mobile environment, there are many products that emphasize portability, unlike desktops, and are equipped with client applications such as e-mail and Internet WWW (World Wide Web) using a mobile terminal. doing. However, due to the processing capacity, the amount of memory, the power consumption and the limitation of the battery, many of them are often considerably inferior in functionality and performance as compared with the desktop personal computer.

[0003] In addition, there are many people who feel heavy even with such a terminal, and when going out, there are many people who are only mobile phones and pagers.

[0004] In other words, in a mobile environment, there are various types and functions of terminals, and the usage environment such as the radio wave condition at the location changes every moment.

[0005] Under such circumstances, it can be said that there is little conventional technology for a mobile environment. Mobile itself is a result of recent technological innovations, and there has been a tendency to focus on how to apply the desktop environment to the mobile environment. The current situation is not keeping up.

[0006] The greatest characteristic of the mobile is that the position of the terminal can be freely changed.

As the position information, there has been a navigation system up to the present which provides a user with route information and road information for a car stored in a CD-ROM or the like. However, these were limited to cars and could not be generally available information. In addition, the content of the CD-ROM is fixed information, and there is a problem that it is difficult to cope with the fact that information differs from reality depending on time.

In the contents disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-212238, contents are linked to position information and stored in a database, and when a position is designated by a client, information related to the position is searched in a server. By taking the method of outputting to the client, it is possible to obtain the latest location information at any time by connecting the client to the server anywhere.

In recent years, a PHS (Personal Handy Phone System) has been able to roughly detect the position of a user's terminal with a small terminal. Kaihei 9-54
No. 895 is known. However, no means of handling this information has been put to practical use.

According to this, in a PHS (Personal Handy Phone System), a base station ID at which a base station starts is stored, and when a base station ID is transmitted to a server, a database server is located based on the base station ID. And provide the client with information about the surrounding area,
That is.

[0011] Further, with respect to the content disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-153054, a mechanism is provided in which a mobile terminal is provided with a position sensor, image input means, and the like, and information obtained from the sensor is automatically transmitted to a network. In the search server, means for searching for the information and providing the information to the user is shown. According to this, it is possible to automatically transmit the data corresponding to the position information to the database of the server.

Further, as a function of message exchange,
At present, for example, Internet e-mail addresses and mailing lists are sent to static destinations, and the same group cannot cope with mailing lists whose members change dynamically.

[0013] Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-1228308 discloses a known example. According to this, a conditional expression that describes a condition is allowed to be written in a destination of a message, which is interpreted in a server, a corresponding mail address is extracted from a database, and a message is transmitted to the destination. Things.

FIG. 10 shows a conventional configuration. In FIG. 10, the message server unit 1007 is connected to the mobile terminal unit 100 via the network unit 1006.
1 is connected.

When the position is detected in the mobile terminal unit 1001, the message is automatically or created by the user, and the information is transmitted to the message server unit 1002 together with the position information. Then, in the message server unit 1002, data for the designated position is extracted from the data storage unit, transferred to the mobile terminal unit 1001, and presented to the user by the data display unit 1004.

Alternatively, a message with a destination created by the mobile terminal unit 1001 is transferred to the message server unit 10.
02, the message server unit 1002 interprets the destination and transfers the message to the server of the destination user. The message receiver receives the transferred message by the terminal, and refers to it by the data display means 1004.

[0017]

However, the above-mentioned conventional configuration has the following problems. (1) As a characteristic of a mobile terminal, a usage environment of the terminal such as a radio wave condition and a position sometimes changes every moment. In response to such changes, the information sent from the server is always fixed because the server cannot recognize the change, and exactly the same information is transmitted in both mobile and desktop environments under the current mechanism. In addition, a load in a mobile environment (for example, a load on a CPU on a system) tends to be extremely high. Furthermore, in the case of mobile devices, there are many cases where the functions of the terminals are limited, and thus data such as application-specific data used in an intranet or the like may not be received. (2) Among mobile information, in particular, position information used for a navigation system or the like can have only fixed information. Therefore, means for performing dynamic processing related to position information has been provided to date. Absent.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems and provide a mobile terminal having a message creating means, a message displaying means, and a position detecting means, and in particular, to provide a message exchange apparatus for effectively utilizing position information. It is the purpose.

[0019]

In order to solve this problem, the present invention first comprises means for recognizing location information on a mobile terminal (transmitting terminal), and manages the location of the mobile terminal in a message server. Accordingly, a destination script interpreting unit is provided that enables a message to be transmitted to determine a destination by location.

As a result, an effect is obtained that the destination can be dynamically determined according to the current location of the mobile terminal, and the behavior of the message transmission process can be dynamically changed depending on the location.

Secondly, there is provided data conversion means for the attribute and position of the mobile terminal. This makes it possible to dynamically change data to be transmitted from the message server side according to the situation of the mobile terminal that changes from moment to moment, and to transfer data optimal for the mobile terminal.

Thirdly, there is provided a personal script management means which enables a destination of a message to be specified by personal script information. Thereby, for the processing of the static position information, it is possible to dynamically generate the destination based on the position information by having a script for each individual.

Fourth, there is provided a position information interpreting means for loading the position information and the area information to the data stored in the message server. This makes it possible to provide position-dependent information to the mobile terminal by adding information on position information, area information, and personal information to the statically stored data.

[0024]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is an example of a configuration showing a message server device.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 denotes a mobile terminal unit (transmitting terminal) carried by a user; 102, a message transmitting means for transferring a message created on the mobile terminal to a message server; E-mail and FAX input from the terminal of
This indicates FAX data input from a terminal, voice data input from a terminal such as a telephone, and the like, and the message server device controls, transfers, and stores these messages. Reference numeral 103 denotes position detection means for detecting the current location of the mobile terminal by a mechanism such as GPS or PHS;
Reference numeral 4 denotes a message creation unit for creating a message by the user; 105, a message server unit for receiving a message transmitted from the mobile terminal and transferring it to a designated destination; 106, a message transmitted from the mobile terminal. Message transfer means for transferring to a destination, 1
07 is a destination script interpreting means for interpreting a destination described in a message transmitted from the mobile terminal and converting it to an Internet e-mail destination, 108 is an area information managing means for recognizing an area from position information, and 109 is a personal position A personal directory information management means 110 for storing and managing information indicates a network unit for transferring messages and the like.

The operation of the message server configured as described above will be described below.

The message created by the message creating means 104 in the mobile terminal unit 101 is transmitted to the message server unit 105 via the network unit 110. The message transfer unit 106 receives the message once, extracts a destination in the message, and transfers it to the destination script interpreting unit 107. As shown in FIG. 2, the destination script interpreting means determines whether the received destination is a position address, and if not, returns the address to the message transfer means 106 as it is. If the address is a position address, the area is specified by the area information management means 108, the transfer member is further specified by the personal information management means 109, the address of the corresponding member is obtained, and these are transmitted to the message transfer means 106. return. The message transfer means 106 transmits a message to the returned address.

For example, in the mobile terminal 105, when the position detecting means 103 detects the latitude and longitude and automatically transmits them to the message server 105, the area information managing means 108 Based on the latitude information and the longitude information, it is possible to determine where the user is at present in real time based on the latitude / longitude, the place name, the base station name, and the like.
Registered in. Then, a message from a certain user is, for example, “YAMANOTE@MAIL.COMPAN”.
Y. CO. If the location address "JP" is sent as the destination, it is confirmed that there is no user address with the user name of YAMANOTE and the destination information address, and that the destination information address is grammatically correct. Further, the area information management unit 108 determines that the address is a message intended for a person who is in the area shown in FIG. 3, and the user whose location registered in the server is in the area is determined. Is retrieved by the personal directory information management means 109, and the corresponding user is returned to the message transfer means 108.

As described above, in the present embodiment, by designating the position information as the destination of the message, it is possible to transmit the message only to the member at that position.

Further, it is possible to perform more detailed settings by narrowing down the conditions of the destination. For example, "A
DMINGROUP + YAMANOTE @ MAIL. C
OMPANY. CO. By designating the address "JP", it becomes possible to transmit a message only to members in the group of ADMINGROUP which are within the range of the mountain line. By doing so, for example, it is possible to exchange a message without being aware of the information of an urgent meeting which is completely unrelated to a business trip to Osaka.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 4 is an example of a configuration showing a message server device.

In FIG. 4, reference numeral 401 denotes a mobile terminal unit carried by the user; 402, a message transmitting means for transferring a message created on the mobile terminal to a message server; 403, a position detection for detecting the current location of the mobile terminal Means 404, a message creating means for the user to create a message, 405 a message server unit for receiving the message transmitted from the mobile terminal and transferring it to a designated destination, and 406 a message transmitted from the mobile terminal. A message transfer unit 407 for transferring the message to a corresponding destination; a destination script interpreting unit 407 for interpreting a destination described in a message transmitted from the mobile terminal and converting the destination into an Internet e-mail destination;
08 is an area information management means for recognizing an area from the position information, 409 is a personal directory information management means for storing and managing personal position information, 410 is a network unit for transferring a message or the like, and 411 converts content data of the message 2 shows data conversion means.

The operation of the message server configured as described above will be described below.

The message created by the message creating means 404 in the mobile terminal unit 401 is transmitted to the message server unit 405 via the network unit 410. The message transfer unit 406 receives the message once, extracts the destination in the message, and transfers it to the destination script interpreting unit 407. The destination script interpreter determines whether the received destination is a location address,
If it is not the position address, the address is returned to the message transfer means as it is. If it is a location address, the area is specified by the area information management means 408, and the transfer member is further specified by the personal information management means 409.
The address of the corresponding member is obtained, and these are returned to the message transfer means 406. Further, the mobile terminal type information stored in the personal directory information management unit 409 recognizes which data format to send, and the data conversion unit 411 performs data conversion on the message contents as necessary. The message transfer means 406 transmits the converted message content to the returned address.

For example, in a simple mobile terminal that can handle only text, the position detecting means 403 detects position information such as latitude and longitude and automatically transmits it to the message server unit 405 together with terminal type information. In this case, in the area information management unit 408, the location of the user is registered in the personal directory information management unit 409 in real time based on the received latitude information and longitude information. The terminal type used at that time is also registered in the personal directory information management means. Then, a message from a certain user is, for example, “Y
AMANOTE @ MAIL. COMPANY. CO. J
If the address is sent as the destination of the location address "P", it is confirmed that there is no user address with the user name of YAMANOTE and that the address is the destination information address, and that the destination information address is grammatically correct. Further, the area information management means 408 determines that the address is a message intended for a person who is in the area of the mountain line, and manages the user whose user registered in the server is in the area of the mountain line in the personal directory information management. The search is performed by the means 409, and the corresponding user is returned to the message transfer means 406. In this case, the data conversion means 411 recognizes that the type of the terminal used by the user is a terminal that can handle only text information, and converts the data if the data can be converted; otherwise, attaches a statement to that effect. The message content transferred to the message transfer means 406, and the message transfer means 406 transfers the message to the user.

As described above, in the present embodiment, by specifying the position information and the terminal information as the destination of the message, the content of the message transmitted to the other party is dynamically changed,
It can be provided as information that can be referred to by any mobile terminal. The sender of the message can also transmit the message without being aware of the terminal of the message receiver.

If the transmitted message contains a data format that cannot be converted, the receiver is informed that the data format that could not be converted was attached together with the data that could be converted. Send the attached text data. At that time, the sender is notified that the message could not be completely transferred. Notification methods include:
There are notifications by electronic mail and notifications by bulletin boards such as WWW.

(Embodiment 3) FIG. 6 is an example of a configuration showing a message server device.

In FIG. 6, reference numeral 601 denotes a mobile terminal unit carried by the user; 602, a message transmitting means for transferring a message created on the mobile terminal to a message server; and 603, position detection for detecting the current location of the mobile terminal. Means, 604 is a message creating means for the user to create a message, 605 is a message server unit for receiving the message sent from the mobile terminal and transferring it to a designated destination, and 606 is a message server unit for sending the message sent from the mobile terminal. Message transfer means for transferring the message to the corresponding destination; 607, a destination script interpreting means for interpreting the destination described in the message transmitted from the mobile terminal and converting it into an electronic mail address on the Internet;
08 is an area information management means for recognizing an area from the position information, 609 is a personal directory information management means for storing and managing personal position information, 610 is a network unit for transferring messages and the like, and 611 is converting message content data. Data conversion means 612 indicates personal script management means for managing personal scripts.

The operation of the message server configured as described above will be described below. Mobile terminal 6
When the message content is created in the internal 01 message creation means 604, a script can be designated as the destination. The script specified as the destination is sent to the message server unit 605 via the network unit 610.
Is forwarded to

The message transfer means 606 once receives the message, extracts the destination in the message, and transfers it to the destination script interpreting means 607. The destination script interpreting means determines whether the received destination is a script, and if it is a script, transfers the script to the destination script interpreting means 607. The destination script interpreting means interprets the script and, if necessary, interprets the area information managing means 608 and the personal directory information managing means 6.
09 and the destination address are acquired by the personal script management unit 612, and the destination address is set by the personal script management unit 612.

The destination script can be registered, deleted, and changed remotely for each individual. As a method, there are a method of writing and managing a script and a database operation command in the content of an e-mail, a method of operating a GUI using a WWW browser or the like via the Internet, and the like.

FIG. 7 shows the personal script management means 612.
Manage scripts in the format shown in. In the example of FIG. 7, "tokyo-nig" is used as the destination address.
ht ”is specified, first,“ tok
Since “yo-night” is defined as a script, the script is executed. If the time when the server receives is “NIGHT”, “YAM” is used as the address.
ANOTE] is returned. In that case, processing is performed when a destination address “YAMANOTE” is received next as the destination address. If the time zone received by the server is other than “NIGHT”, the processing is suspended until the “NIGHT” time zone, and the personal script is executed again when the “NIGHT” time zone.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the personal message management unit is provided, and the destination script can be set as the destination. It is possible to have a script for each individual while using it.

By providing the position information as a script, the setting of the position information can be dynamically changed according to the situation. As a result, it is possible to dynamically change the area of the position information according to the personal directory information such as the address of the member and the time. For example,
By changing the message sending area during the working hours during the day and the message sending area during the night, messages are sent to members including those who go to business partners in Tokyo during the day, and remain in the company at night. It is also possible to send a message only to people.
Further, similarly to the second embodiment, by having the data conversion means, the content of the message can be dynamically changed from the other party.

(Embodiment 4) FIG. 8 is an example of a configuration showing a message server device.

In FIG. 8, reference numeral 801 denotes a mobile terminal unit;
02 is a data transmitting / receiving means for communicating with the message server, 803 is a position detecting means for detecting the current location of the mobile terminal, 804 is a data display means for displaying data received from the message server unit, and 805 is a mobile terminal unit. A network unit for mediating communication with the message server unit; 806, a message server unit for processing the transmitted message; 807, a data transfer unit for receiving and transmitting data from the mobile terminal; 808, data transmitted from the mobile terminal Position information interpreting means for interpreting the position information described in the request; 809, an area information managing means for recognizing an area from the position information; 810, a personal directory information managing means for storing and managing individual position information;
Is a data storage means in which data output in response to a request from the client is stored in advance,
A data interpretation unit 812 interprets data transmitted from the message server unit and transfers the data to the data display unit.

The operation of the message server configured as described above will be described below. Mobile terminal unit 8
01 issues a data retrieval request to the message server unit via the network unit 805. The message server unit 806 extracts the basic contents from the data storage unit 811 for the data requested to be extracted, and adds position information to the information from the personal directory information management unit 810 and the area information management unit 809. Then, data is transferred from the data transfer unit to the mobile terminal unit 801 via the network unit. In the mobile terminal unit, the transferred data is interpreted by the data interpretation unit 812 and presented to the user by the data display unit 804.

FIG. 9 shows an example of data sent to the mobile terminal unit 801. In the data shown here, the setting of the LOCATION is embedded in the data as area information of the current data by the personal directory information and the area information. The mobile terminal interprets this and outputs data according to the situation. In this case, the current location of the terminal is compared with the area specified in the <location> tag, and if it is determined that the location is within “ServiceArea”, “<p location = ServiceA”
The information specified in the portion from “rea>” to “</ p>” is displayed.

As described above, in the present embodiment, WWW
By utilizing location information in data retrieval methods such as the above, it is possible to provide information utilizing the mobile environment.

The example shown in FIG. 9 corresponds to the HTML (Hyp
er Text Markup Language) format data is extracted.
These can be applied to various data formats such as the HDML format, the SGML format, and a proprietary format.

In the above example, the data including the position information transmitted from the client is interpreted and output to the user. However, the data is interpreted together with the position information in the server, and the data is interpreted. It is also possible to output to the client.

Although the message server device of the present invention has been described for mobile terminals, the present invention is not limited to this, and terminals connected to various networks such as fixed telephones, facsimile machines, pagers, personal computers, and workstations regardless of wired or wireless networks. May be used to send and receive messages.

[0055]

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide data in a data format suitable for the mobile terminal in a mobile terminal where the usage environment of the terminal such as the radio wave condition and the position changes every moment. This has the effect of enabling optimal data exchange with the server depending on the function of the mobile terminal, the bandwidth of the network, and the like.

Further, the position information can be dynamically used by a method such as a script, and the effect that the mobility, which is a characteristic of the mobile terminal, can be utilized can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a message server device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of an address determination process according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of an address setting according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a message server device according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of a database structure according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a message server device according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a personal script according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a message server device according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an example of acquired data according to a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a conventional message server device.

[Description of sign]

 Reference Signs List 101 mobile terminal unit 102 message transmission unit 103 position detection unit 104 message creation unit 105 message server unit 106 message transfer unit 107 destination script interpretation unit 108 area information management unit 109 personal directory information management unit 110 network unit 401 mobile terminal unit 402 message transmission Means 403 Position detection means 404 Message creation means 405 Message server section 406 Message transfer means 407 Destination script interpretation means 408 Area information management means 409 Personal directory information management means 410 Network section 411 Data conversion means 601 Mobile terminal section 602 Message transmission means 603 Position Detecting means 604 Message creating means 605 Message server section 606 Message transfer Step 607 Destination script interpreting means 608 Area information managing means 609 Personal directory information managing means 610 Network section 611 Data converting means 612 Personal script managing means 801 Mobile terminal section 802 Data transmitting / receiving means 803 Position detecting means 804 Data displaying means 805 Network section 806 Message Server unit 807 Data transfer unit 808 Location information interpretation unit 809 Area information management unit 810 Personal directory information management unit 811 Data storage unit 812 Data interpretation unit 1001 Mobile terminal unit 1002 Data transmission / reception unit 1003 Terminal message creation unit 1004 Data display unit 1005 Position detection Means 1006 Network unit 1007 Message server unit 1008 Data transfer unit 1009 Data storage unit

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A message transfer unit for transferring a message transmitted from a transmission terminal to a corresponding destination, a destination script interpreting unit for interpreting a destination described in the message and converting the destination to an Internet e-mail destination, and the transmission First area information management means for recognizing an area based on terminal location information, and first personal directory information management means for storing and managing the location information recognized by the first area information management for each transmission terminal A message server device comprising: 2. The message server device according to claim 1, further comprising data conversion means for converting content data of the message into a data format corresponding to an attribute of the transmitting terminal. 3. The message server device according to claim 1, further comprising personal script management means for managing a destination script for each transmission terminal. 4. A position information interpreting means for interpreting position information described in a data request transmitted from a transmitting terminal, and a second area information management for recognizing an area based on the position information described in the data request. Means, and data transfer means for interpreting and transferring the position information described in the data request to data responding to the data request by the position information interpreting means and the second area information managing means. Message server device. 5. The message server device according to claim 4, further comprising second personal directory information management means for storing and managing the position information described in said data request for each transmission terminal. 6. The message server device according to claim 1, wherein the transmission terminal is a mobile terminal.