JPH1188494A - Telephone book retrieval device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve retrieval precision by setting a first valid character and subsequent characters in a character string constituting opposite destination information stored in a telephone book memory to be a retrieval object. SOLUTION: When data is judged to be stored in the block of a telephone book memory area 13 having the number of the same value as the value of a block pointer, a control part 1 sets '1' to first and second search pointers. A search buffer formed in RAM 10 is cleared and opposite destination information stored in the block of the telephone book memory area 13 having, the number of the same value as the value of the block pointer is read. It is set in the search buffer by moving it to the left. When the character of the stored character string is the invalid character of a blank and parentheses, the value of the first search pointer is increased. Namely, the character string in the search buffer is sequentially searched from the head character and an initial valid character position is detected. The first valid character position of the character string stored in the input buffer is similarly detected.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a telephone directory search device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art At present, one-touch keys and abbreviated dial means are widely used as simple telephone number input means in communication devices such as telephones and facsimile machines. In recent years, communication devices having a so-called electronic telephone directory function that stores a plurality of pairs of telephone numbers and destination information such as names have been increasing.

[0003] Such a telephone directory search method is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 5-30171 (H04M7 / 1).
4), JP-A-7-129516 (G06F15 /
02), JP-A-7-131512 (H04M1 /
274) and JP-A-7-212452 (H04M).
As described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (Kokai) No. 1/274), a general method is to compare the input character with the first character of each piece of destination information stored in the telephone directory and extract the matching destination information. It is.

[0004]

Normally, the telephone number and the destination information of the telephone directory are registered by the user of the communication device having the telephone directory function. It is registered in an easy-to-understand form. Therefore,
Information to be extracted can be extracted with a probability of about 100% by comparing only the first character.

[0005] On the other hand, in order to make registration of this type of telephone directory easier, various methods have been proposed for automatically incorporating information transmitted from the other party into the telephone directory. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H4-134967 (H04N1 / 32) proposes a device for storing a telephone number transmitted by dialing and a received called station identification signal as a pair.

[0006] When the information is automatically registered in this way, since the form of the information is unknown, the extraction probability is lower than when the user registers the destination information in the telephone directory.

[0007] That is, for example, when the user himself / herself registers the name "Watanabe" as the destination information, the user can register the name as it is, so that the search using the character "wa" is possible. In the case where the transmitted information is automatically taken into the telephone directory, extra data such as parentheses may be added to the data transmitted from the other party to form "(Watanabe)". Is "wa"
Will not be searchable.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and stores a plurality of pairs of a telephone number of a destination used for dialing and destination information including a character string such as a name. A telephone directory memory, means for inputting characters for constituting the destination information, and means for searching for destination information in the telephone directory memory based on the characters input by the input means, An apparatus for searching the telephone directory memory based on characters input from the input means,
Inputting characters forming the destination information, detecting the first valid character of the character string forming the destination information in the telephone directory memory, and inputting the first valid character detected by the detection and the input. Comparing the character with the character input by the means.

[0009]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main part of a facsimile apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

The apparatus of this embodiment includes a control unit 1 composed of, for example, a microcomputer. The control unit 1 is connected via a bus 3 based on a control program stored in advance in a ROM 2 composed of, for example, a semiconductor read-only memory. It controls the connected parts. The bus 3 includes a dialer 4, a modem 5, an incoming call detection unit 6, an off-hook detection unit 7, an operation unit 8, a display unit 9, a RAM 10, and a network control unit NCU 11.
Is connected.

The modem 5 is connected to a telephone line via the NCU 11. The NCU 11 has a changeover switch for selectively connecting a telephone line to the modem 5 or the handset 12 under the control of the control unit 1. Also, this N
The incoming call detecting section 6 is connected to the CU 11, and the detecting section 6 detects a call signal transmitted through the telephone line and notifies the control section 1 of the incoming call. Furthermore, the above NCU
A dialer 4 is connected to 11, and under the control of the controller 1, a pulse or tone dial signal output from the dialer 4 is transmitted to a telephone line via the NCU 11.

The off-hook detection section 7 detects the hook state of the handset 12 and notifies the control section 1 of the detection result. The operation unit 8 has function keys for selecting various functions in addition to character keys for inputting numbers, characters, and the like. The display unit 9 includes, for example, a liquid crystal display. Under the control of the control unit 1, in addition to the numbers and characters input by the operation unit 8 and the selected function, data and the like in a telephone directory memory described later are also displayed. indicate.

The RAM 10 has a telephone directory memory storage area 13 formed therein. As shown in FIG. 2, the telephone directory memory area 13 stores a plurality of pairs of a telephone number and destination information indicating the name of the destination specified by the telephone number, and each pair has a block number. Is attached.
Note that the RAM 10 also stores various data necessary for the control operation of the control unit 1.

The apparatus of this embodiment includes a document reading section for optically reading and encoding a transmission document (not shown in FIG. 1) and a print output section for decoding and recording received image data. .

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. This embodiment can transmit and receive facsimile data via the modem 5 and connect the telephone line to the handset 12 in the same manner as the conventional facsimile with telephone. Calls can also be made by switching.

Dialing for the above-mentioned transmission or telephone call is performed by using the dialer 4 to pulse or dial the telephone number input using the keys of the operation unit 8 or the telephone number read from the telephone directory memory area 13 as in the prior art. Convert to a tone signal, N
This is performed by sending the data to the telephone line via the CU 11.
The reading of the telephone number from the telephone directory memory area 13 will be described later in detail.

The telephone number and the destination information are registered in the telephone directory memory area 13 by a method of directly registering a user by a key input from the operation unit 8 (first registration method) or as described in the prior art. There is a method (second registration method) of automatically importing a called station identification signal received in association with a dialed telephone number into a telephone directory.

In the first registration method, the operation mode of the apparatus is changed to the telephone directory memory registration mode by using the function keys of the operation unit 8, and the telephone number and the destination information are used by using the character keys of the operation unit 8. Then, the input data is displayed on the display unit 9, and after the user visually confirms the input data, the user operates a function key for instructing execution of registration of the operation unit 8.
Causes the input telephone number and destination information to be stored in the telephone directory memory area 13 as new data. However, it is determined whether the destination information to be newly registered is the same as the data already stored in the telephone directory memory area 13. If the information is the same, the input is invalidated and no new registration is performed.

This determination is made by comparing each piece of destination information already stored in the telephone directory memory area 13 with destination information newly input by key operation of the operation unit.
At this time, the destination information already stored in the telephone directory memory area 13 does not always consist of only characters for specifying the destination, for example, the third and fourth characters shown in FIG.
There are cases where invalid characters such as parentheses and spaces are added before and after, such as destination information of a block. Therefore, at the time of the comparison, first, the telephone directory memory area 13
An invalid character as described above is removed from the character string constituting the destination information extracted from the above, the character string is formed of only valid characters, and the character string is compared with newly input destination information. Needless to say, all the above operations are performed under the control of the control unit 1.

In a second registration method, a telephone number dialed using the character keys of the operation unit 8 is temporarily stored in the RAM 10.
When the processing associated with the dial transmission is facsimile transmission or polling reception, the called station identification signal received from the other party in accordance with the above processing is stored in the RAM 10 in association with the calling telephone number. And
When the above processing is completed, the calling telephone number and the called station identification signal stored in the RAM 10 are stored in the telephone directory memory area 13 as a new telephone number and destination information.
However, it is determined whether or not the outgoing telephone number to be newly registered is the same as the telephone number already stored in the telephone directory memory area 13. If the telephone number is the same, the new registration is not performed.

This determination is made by comparing the telephone numbers already stored in the telephone directory memory area 13 with the outgoing telephone numbers stored in the RAM 10 one by one. Telephone numbers are not always composed only of numbers, for example, FIG.
In some cases, a hyphen or the like for separating a telephone number is added as shown in FIG. For this reason, at the time of the above comparison, first, the above-mentioned hyphen and the like are removed from the numeral symbol string constituting the telephone number retrieved from the telephone directory memory area 13, and the numeral string consisting of only numerals is compared with the above-mentioned outgoing telephone number. U. Needless to say, all the above operations are performed under the control of the control unit 1.

Next, the search of the telephone directory will be described. As a method, the destination information in the telephone directory memory area 13 and / or the counterpart to the destination information in the telephone directory memory area 13 are sequentially displayed on the display unit 9 in the order of telephone numbers or alphabets. (First search method) and a method of searching for destination information of a desired destination with one or more alphabetic characters (second search method).

In a first search method, when a user instructs a search using a function key of the operation unit 8, the control unit 1 firstly activates the telephone number or destination information stored in the telephone directory memory area 13 of the RAM 10. Phonebook memory area 13 based on
Sort the data in phone number or alphabetical order. Then, the control unit 1 causes the display unit 9 to sequentially display the data in the order in which the data has been rearranged based on the user's scroll instruction using the function keys of the operation unit 8, and visually confirms that the destination to which the user desires to make a call is displayed. The control unit 1 reads out the telephone number of the other party displayed at that time from the telephone directory memory area 13 and makes a dial call from the dialer 4 by detecting that the dial transmission instruction has been performed. The above sorting is performed in the telephone directory memory area 13.
This may be done by actually rewriting the data inside, but doing so increases the load on the control unit 1. Therefore, only the block numbers of each data are simply arranged in the telephone number order or alphabetical order and separately stored. It is preferable to read out and display the data in the telephone directory memory area 13 in the order of storage.

In the second search method, the user uses the character keys of the operation unit 8 to input one or more characters from the beginning of a character string constituting destination information of a desired destination, and then The process is started by instructing a search using the function keys of the operation unit 8. When such a search instruction is issued,
The control unit 1 compares each piece of destination information already stored in the telephone directory memory area 13 with the input character string one by one, and displays only a match on the display unit 9.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the control operation of the control unit 1 for this comparison. First, in step S1, the control unit 1 clears the input character string buffer IB formed in the RAM 10 and sets the input character string left-justified. For example, when the input character string is "AB", the character string is set from the leftmost first digit as shown in FIG. Subsequently, in step S2, the control unit 1 clears the candidate buffer formed in the RAM 10 and sets "1" to the block pointer BP. The value of the BP and the values of the first and second search pointers SP1 and SP2 to be described later are also stored in the RAM 10.

In the following S3 step, the control unit 1 determines whether or not data is stored in the block of the telephone directory memory area 13 having the same number as the value of the block pointer BP, and the data is stored. When it is determined that there is no block, the value of the block pointer BP is incremented in step S4 in order to perform the same determination for the next block. Further, after incrementing the block pointer BP value in step S4, the control unit 1 determines whether or not the determination in step S3 has been performed for all blocks in the telephone directory memory area 13 in step S5. On the other hand, if no determination has been made, the process returns to step S3. On the other hand, if all blocks have been determined, the comparison operation shown in the flowchart of FIG. 3 ends.

Returning to step S3, if it is determined in this step that data is stored in the block of the telephone directory memory area 13 having the same value number as the value of the block pointer BP, the control unit 1 Sets "1" in the first and second search pointers SP1 and SP2 in step S6 and clears the search buffer SB formed in the RAM 10.

In the subsequent step S7, the control section 1 reads out the destination information stored in the block of the telephone directory memory area 13 having the same number as the value of the block pointer BP and reads the destination information into the search buffer SB left-justified. set.
For example, when the value of the block pointer BP is "1", a character string constituting the destination information "ABC. Co" stored in the first block of the telephone directory memory area 13 is searched for as shown in FIG. Set from the leftmost first digit of SB.

Next, in step S8, the control unit 1 determines whether the (SP1) -th character of the character string stored in the search buffer SB is an invalid character such as a space or a parenthesis, and If it is determined in step S9, the value of the first search pointer SP1 is incremented in step S9, and the process returns to step S8. That is, in steps S8 and S9, the character string in the search buffer SB is searched in order from the first character, and the first valid character position is detected. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, the character string constituting the destination information “ABC.Co” stored in the first block of the telephone directory memory area 13 is stored in the search buffer S.
B, the first valid character position is “1”, and the character string constituting the destination information stored in the third or fourth block of the telephone directory memory area 13 is stored in the search buffer SB. When stored, the first valid character position is "2".

When the head position of the valid character is detected in step S8, the control unit 1 similarly detects the first valid character position of the character string stored in the input buffer IB in steps S10 and S11. .

When the head position of a valid character is detected in step S10, the control section 1 proceeds to step S12. In step S12, the control unit 1 compares the character of the (SP1) th digit in the search buffer SB with the character of the (SP2) th digit in the input buffer IB. In the step, the values of the first and second search pointers SP1 and SP2 are respectively incremented. Thereafter, in step S14, the control unit 1
Determines whether or not the last character string constituting the character string stored in the input buffer IB has been compared in step S12. If not, the process proceeds to step S1.
Return to step 2. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S14 that the comparison has been made, the control unit 1 writes the value of the current block pointer BP in the candidate buffer in step S15, and returns the processing to step S4. A plurality of values can be written in this candidate buffer. If it is determined in step S12 that there is no match, the control unit 1 immediately returns the process to step S4.

That is, in the steps S12 to S15, characters less than the effective first character in the character string constituting the destination information stored in the block in the telephone directory memory area 13 having the same number as the value of the block pointer BP It is determined whether or not the column partially matches the character string composed of one or more characters input by the user using the character keys of the operation unit 8. The process returns to step S4 to store the value in the candidate buffer and to compare the value with the destination information of the next block. On the other hand, if they do not match, the process immediately returns to step S4 to compare with the destination information of the next block.

For example, as shown in FIG.
If the character string "AB" input by using the character key of "?" Is set in the input buffer IB,
When two or less steps are processed, destination information in which two characters from the beginning of valid characters match the input character string "AB" is stored only in the first block of the telephone directory memory area 13 as shown in FIG. Therefore, only the block number “1” is written in the candidate buffer.

When the comparison processing shown in FIG. 3 is completed,
The control unit 1 first determines whether or not a block number is stored in the candidate buffer. If the block number is not stored, the control unit 1 displays on the display unit 9 that "there is no matching data". On the other hand, when at least one block number is stored, the data stored in the block in the telephone directory memory area 13 corresponding to the number is displayed on the display unit 9. When the user gives a scroll instruction using the function keys of the operation unit 8 during the display, the control unit 1 sets the blocks in the telephone directory memory area 13 corresponding to the other block numbers stored in the candidate buffer. Are sequentially read out and displayed on the display unit 9. And
As in the first search method, the control unit 1 visually confirms that the destination to which the user desires to make a call is displayed and detects that the user has issued a dial call instruction, so that the control unit 1 is displayed at that time. The telephone number of the other party is read from the telephone directory memory area 13 and dialing is performed from the dialer 4.

In this embodiment, the comparison in the second search method is performed in the order of the block numbers. However, as described above, only the block numbers are arranged in alphabetical order and separately stored, and the comparison is performed in the order of the stored block numbers. May be performed. In addition, by doing so, the comparison process is terminated when one piece of destination information that matches the input character string is found, and the blocks in which the above rearrangement has been performed in accordance with the scroll instruction with the block number at that time as a start point are used. By displaying the data in the order of the numbers, data having a character string that matches the input character string can be sequentially displayed in the same manner as in the case where a plurality of block numbers are stored in the candidate buffer as in the present embodiment. By continuing, data that does not have a character string that matches the input character string can also be displayed in alphabetical order.

The comparison method shown in FIG. 3 can also be applied to the comparison processing in the first registration method described above.

[0037]

According to the present invention, even when invalid characters such as parentheses and blanks are added to data stored in the telephone directory at the time of searching the telephone directory, such invalid characters are added. Is removed and comparison for search is performed, so that search accuracy can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main part of a facsimile apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram for explaining a telephone directory memory area 13 of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the apparatus according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram for explaining an input buffer IB of the apparatus of the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram for explaining a search buffer SB of the apparatus according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Control part 8 Operation part 9 Display part 10 RAM 13 Phonebook memory area

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A telephone directory memory for storing a plurality of pairs of a telephone number of a destination to be used for dialing and destination information comprising a character string such as a name, and inputting characters for constituting the destination information. And a means for searching for the destination information in the telephone directory memory based on the character input by the input unit. A telephone directory search apparatus wherein a search is performed for a character string below the first valid character of a character string constituting the stored destination information. 2. A telephone directory memory for storing a plurality of pairs of a telephone number of a destination to be used for dialing and destination information including a character string such as a name, and inputting characters for constituting the destination information. And a means for searching for the destination information in the telephone directory memory based on the character input by the input unit. If the first character of a character string constituting the stored destination information is an invalid character, the search is made for the next character or less. 3. A telephone directory memory for storing a plurality of pairs of a telephone number of a destination to be used for dialing and destination information including a character string such as a name, and inputting characters for constituting the destination information. And a means for searching for the destination information in the telephone directory memory based on the character input by the input unit. A telephone directory search device wherein only valid characters in a character string constituting stored destination information are to be searched. 4. A telephone directory memory for storing a plurality of pairs of a telephone number of a destination to be used for dialing and destination information comprising a character string such as a name, and inputting characters for constituting the destination information. Means for searching for the destination information in the telephone directory memory based on the character input by the input means, and searching the telephone directory memory based on the character input from the input means. An apparatus, comprising the steps of: inputting characters constituting destination information; detecting the first valid character of a character string constituting destination information in the telephone directory memory; Comparing the valid characters with the characters input by the input means. 5. The telephone directory search device according to claim 1, wherein the destination information in the telephone directory memory is destination information received at the time of an incoming call. 6. A telephone directory memory for storing at least a plurality of data such as telephone numbers of destinations to be used for dialing, a means for inputting data to be compared with data in the telephone directory memory, and the input means And a means for comparing the comparison data input in step 1 with the data in the telephone directory memory, wherein the comparing means constitutes at least data stored in the telephone directory memory. A telephone directory search device wherein only valid characters in a character string are to be compared.