KR101954801B1 - Message service apparatus, and automatic answering service method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention collects and analyzes information related to the current state of a user stored in one or more terminal devices used by a user through different types of applications, generates a message that can generate and provide an appropriate automatic response message A method for automatically responding to a user, comprising the steps of: collecting information related to a user's current status from one or more terminal devices, analyzing the collected information, Generates an automatic response message corresponding to the confirmed current state, and transmits the automatic response message to another user who has sent a message to the user.

Description

[0001] The present invention relates to a message service apparatus and an automatic answering service method thereof,

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a message service including a short message service (SMS), a multimedia message service (MMS) and a messenger service, and more particularly, The present invention relates to a message service apparatus capable of collecting and analyzing information related to a current state and generating and providing an appropriate automatic response message suitable for a user state based on the collected information, and an automatic answering service method thereof.

Recently, due to the remarkable development of information communication technology and semiconductor technology, the spread and use of mobile terminals are rapidly increasing. In particular, recent mobile terminals have achieved a mobile convergence step by upgrading their performance to the area of other terminals without staying in their traditional unique areas.

Typically, the mobile communication terminal may be provided with a TV viewing function (for example, a mobile broadcasting such as DMB (Digital Multimedia Broadcasting) or DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting)), a music playback function (e.g., MP3 MPEG Audio Layer-3), a picture taking function, and an Internet access function.

In addition, recent mobile communication terminals have developed various forms of convenience and amusement through development of smart phones capable of installing various user functions based on an open OS. These smartphones enable easy access to a wide variety of applications that customers want by enabling open markets. With its high performance, smartphones can handle many functions that are handled by PCs.

Various services and functions can be utilized by using such a smart phone. Common services include a messenger service such as a short message service (SMS), a multimedia message service (MMS), an instant messenger or a mobile messenger. There is a message service that can exchange messages.

Such a message service is inexpensive compared to a call service, and its intention or message can be transmitted to the other party more easily than a direct call. Therefore, the message service is very useful. In recent years, a variety of message services And is being developed in the form of an integrated message service that can utilize various additional functions such as file transmission and content sharing.

On the other hand, in the case of the existing call service, in the case where the called party can not receive the telephone, an automatic answering service is provided to provide a guidance message to the calling party on behalf of the called party. However, in the case of the message service, But the automatic response function is not provided in the concept of automatically responding on behalf of the user in a situation where the other party can not respond.

Of course, in the case of a messenger service such as an instant messenger or a mobile messenger, a presence function that provides the user's status to other users in real time is provided, but only the user's status is changed to the online status, offline status, Since it is not possible to know whether or not the actual message response is possible, it is inconvenient that the other party that transmitted the message indefinitely waits for a response to the message transmitted by the user.

Therefore, the present invention collects information related to a user's schedule, location, and status through different types of applications installed in one or more terminal devices used by a user, compares and analyzes a plurality of collected information, A message service apparatus capable of generating and providing an appropriate automatic response message according to an automatic response rule, and an automatic answering service method thereof.

As means for solving the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a communication system comprising: at least one terminal device used by a user for sending and receiving a message; Information about one or more terminal devices used by a user for sending and receiving messages and information related to a user's schedule, status, and location is collected from a plurality of applications installed in one or more terminal devices, and the collected information is compared and analyzed And a message service device for confirming the current state of the user, generating an automatic response message corresponding to the current state according to the automatic response rule set by the user, and transmitting the automatic response message to the counterpart terminal that has sent the message to the user And a message service system for providing an automatic response function.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication system including a communication unit for transmitting / receiving information related to a user using a message transmission / reception and a message service through a communication network; An information collecting unit for collecting information related to at least one of a schedule, a state, and a location of a user from a plurality of applications installed in one or more terminal apparatuses registered by a user; And information on one or more terminal devices used by the user, analyzing the information collected from the registered one or more terminal devices to check the current state of the user, and, in accordance with the automatic response rule set by the user, And a message service controller for generating an automatic response message and transmitting the automatic response message to another user who has transmitted the message to the user.

In the message service apparatus according to the present invention, the message service control unit can further check the period information to which the automatic response is to be applied from the user, and control so that the automatic response message is transmitted only for the period of the confirmation.

Here, the application may include at least one of an application for a messenger, an application for a calendar management, and a application for a note.

In the message service apparatus according to the present invention, the message service control unit sets the automatic response target in advance according to the user's selection, further determines whether another user is included in the set automatic response target, It is possible to control the automatic response message to be transmitted to another user.

In the message service apparatus according to the present invention, the message service control unit judges the priority of the collected information according to the attribute including at least one of the position, time, creator, and application type of the collected information, The current state of the user can be determined based on the previous information.

In the message service apparatus according to the present invention, the message service control unit extracts schedule information, status information, and position information of the current time at which the automatic response message should be transmitted to the counterpart terminal, from among information collected from one or more terminal apparatuses, State, and position are compared with each other, groups of mutually-matching information are grouped, and the number of information and the priority of information are compared for each group to extract the reliability for each group, Lt; / RTI >

Further, the present invention provides, as another means for solving the above-mentioned problems, a communication device for transmitting and receiving data through a communication network; An input unit for generating a user input signal; And transmits the user's message through the communication unit and outputs the message. The automatic response is requested to the message service apparatus according to the input signal of the user, and in response to the collection request from the message service apparatus, A controller for extracting information related to at least one of the at least one of the plurality of messages and transmitting the extracted information to the message service apparatus; And an output unit for outputting a message of the user who has transmitted and received according to the control of the control unit in a form recognizable by the user.

In the terminal device according to the present invention, the control unit receives the automatic response message generated according to the current status of the user from the message service apparatus, and when receiving the message transmitted from another user, An automatic response message generation module for generating an automatic response message according to the current state of the user or information related to the current state and transmitting the generated automatic response message to the remote terminal to which the message is transmitted; An information collection module for extracting information related to at least one of schedule, status, and location from one or more applications and transmitting the extracted information to a message service apparatus.

The automatic response message generation module included in the control unit of the terminal device according to the present invention is characterized in that the automatic response message generation module provided in the control unit of the terminal device comprises: Extracts the information, compares the extracted schedule, state, and positions with each other, groups the information that can be matched to each other, groups the information, compares the number of information and the priority of the information for each group to receive information of the selected group, Can be combined to generate an automatic response message.

In addition, the present invention provides another method for solving the above-mentioned problems, comprising the steps of: registering at least one terminal device that a user selectively uses for a message service; Receiving an automatic response request of a user using a message service; Collecting information related to at least one of a schedule, a state, and a location of a user from a plurality of applications installed in one or more terminal apparatuses in response to an automatic response request; Analyzing the collected information and confirming the current state of the user; Generating an automatic response message in response to a current state according to an automatic response rule set by a user; And transmitting the automatic response message to the other user who has sent the message to the user.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for providing an automatic answering service in a message service apparatus, the method comprising the steps of: setting an automatic response target according to a user's selection; , And if it is set as an automatic response target, it is possible to transmit the automatic response message.

In addition, the present invention provides another method for solving the above-mentioned problems, comprising: requesting an automatic response to a message service device when an input signal of a user requesting an automatic response is generated; Receiving an information collection request from the message service device in response to the request; And extracting information related to at least one of a schedule, a state, and a location of the user through a plurality of applications in response to the information collection request, and transmitting the information to the message service apparatus. to provide.

A method for providing an automatic answering service in a terminal device according to the present invention includes extracting information and transmitting the extracted information to a message service device and thereafter automatically generating an automatic response service corresponding to a current state of the user, Receiving a response message; And when the message is received from another user, transmitting the automatic response message to another user.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for providing an automatic answering service in a terminal device, comprising: receiving current status information of a user based on information received from one or more terminal devices; Generating an automatic response message corresponding to a current state according to an automatic response rule set by a user; And when the message is received from another user, transmitting the automatic response message to another user.

The present invention also provides a computer-readable recording medium on which a program for executing the above-described automatic answering service providing method is recorded.

As described above, the message service system, the message service device, the terminal device, and the automated answering service method according to the present invention can be applied to a user using a message service including a short message service, a multimedia message service, an instant messenger service, The current state of the user stored or recorded in the terminal device from the one or more terminal devices used by the user, for example, a desktop PC, a notebook computer, a tablet PC, a mobile communication terminal, And the like), collects the collected information, accurately determines the current state of the user, generates an automatic response message corresponding to the determined current state, and informs the other user who has sent the message to the user that the user An automatic response message Can be transmitted.

As a result, even if the user can not respond to the message, the present invention provides an excellent response effect to the user, have.

1 is a block diagram schematically illustrating a configuration of a message service system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a message service apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
3 is a block diagram illustrating the configuration of a terminal apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
4 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of a control unit in a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
5 is a flowchart illustrating an automatic answering service method in a message service apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
6 is a flowchart illustrating an automatic answering service method in a terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description and the accompanying drawings, detailed description of well-known functions or constructions that may obscure the subject matter of the present invention will be omitted. It should be noted that the same constituent elements are denoted by the same reference numerals as possible throughout the drawings.

1 is a diagram schematically illustrating a configuration of a message service system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, a message service system according to the present invention includes a message service apparatus 100 and a plurality of terminal apparatuses 200 and 400 communicating with each other through a communication network 300 to provide a message service. Among the plurality of terminal devices 200 and 400, the terminal device 200 is one or more terminal devices used by a user, and the terminal device 400 is a terminal device (hereinafter referred to as a counterpart terminal) .

Here, the terminal devices 200 and 400 are user's information processing terminals having a communication function, and the communication function includes both wired communication as well as wireless communication. For example, the terminal devices 200 and 400 may be a smart phone, a tablet PC, a desktop personal computer, a notebook, a personal digital assistant (PDA), or the like. Also, in the present invention, one or more terminal devices 200 used by a user includes at least one arbitrary application for recording or using information related to a user's current state (including schedule). The application can be, for example, a calendar management or diary application for managing a user's schedule (schedule, anniversary, appointment, etc.), a memo application, and a message service application for displaying presence information of a user . Of course, any other application that processes information related to one or more of the user's schedule, state, and location may be included.

The message service apparatus 100 refers to a server apparatus that supports message services among arbitrary terminal apparatuses 200 and 400 connected through a communication network 300. [ More specifically, the message service apparatus 100 provides a message service to a user, and in response to the user's automatic response request, transmits information associated with one or more of the user's schedule, status, and location to one or more Collects information from a plurality of applications installed in the terminal apparatuses 200 and 201, analyzes the collected information to confirm the current state of the user, generates an automatic response message corresponding to the confirmed current state, And transmits the automatic response message to another user who has transmitted the message, that is, the counterpart terminal 400.

The communication network 300 includes a wired communication method such as the Internet, a wireless communication method including Wi-Fi, and the like, 2G, 3G, 4G, and the like.

At this time, the one or more terminal devices 200 and 201 and 202 used by the user may be, for example, a terminal device set by the user as a multi-device. To this end, 200) (e.g., identification information, connection information, and the like) in accordance with user settings. In particular, the at least one terminal device 200 may be, for example, a personal computer used by a user at home, a business computer used by a user at work, a smart phone carried by a user, a tablet PC, or the like. In this case, the personal schedule of the user can be stored in the personal computer, the business schedule information of the user can be stored in the business computer, and the current position or current status of the user or appointment or presence information Can be stored.

In this case, the message service apparatus 100 collects various information related to at least one of the user's schedule, status and location from the plurality of different terminal apparatuses 200, and combines them to check the current state of the user do. For example, in case of working hours, the current state of the user can be confirmed according to a business schedule stored in the business computer, and after the work, the current state can be confirmed according to the personal schedule stored in the user's personal computer, The present state of the user can be more concretely and accurately determined by combining presence information of the user identified through the phone.

The message service apparatus 100 provides an automatic response message generated in response to the confirmed current state to the counterpart terminal 400 that has transmitted the message to the user, in place of the user. For example, if the user is in working hours and a meeting is held for one hour, an automatic response message such as " I am unable to respond due to a meeting " or " I will contact you in one hour " As another example, if you have a private meeting and you do not want to receive work-related messages, you can send a reply message, "Can I contact you tomorrow?" At this time, the generation rule of the automatic response message can be set by the user. That is, the message service apparatus 100 can generate and provide an automatic response message corresponding to the confirmed current state according to the automatic response rule set by the user. Here, the automatic response rule may be set in a form that defines the content of the corresponding automatic response message for each state of the user. Also, it may be set to generate an automatic response message only when a predetermined condition is satisfied based on at least one of the status, schedule and position of the user.

Next, the configuration and operation of the message service apparatus 100 and the terminal apparatus 200 will be described in more detail.

2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a message service apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

2, the message service apparatus 100 according to the present invention may include a communication unit 110, an information collection unit 120, a message service control unit 130, and a storage unit 140.

The message service apparatus 100 having the above-described configuration provides a message service to the terminal apparatus 200 of the user. Here, the message service basically transmits a message transmitted from the user terminal device 200 to the counterpart terminal 400 or a message transmitted from the counterpart terminal 400 to the user terminal device 200 Lt; / RTI > At this time, the message transmitted from the counterpart terminal 400 may be transmitted to one or all of the user terminal devices 200 and 201 and 202.

Particularly, while providing the message service, the message service apparatus 100 may provide information related to one or more of the schedule, state, and location of the user from a plurality of applications installed in one or more terminal apparatuses 200, And analyzes the collected information to confirm the current state of the user, and then generates an automatic response message corresponding to the confirmed current state according to the automatic response rule set by the user. The generated automatic response message is provided to the counterpart terminal 400 that has transmitted the message to the user terminal 200.

In this message service apparatus 100, the communication unit 110 transmits and receives data for a message service and an automatic answering service among a plurality of terminal apparatuses 200 and 400 through a communication network 300. Specifically, the communication unit 110 transmits a message between a plurality of terminal devices 200 and 400, and transmits / receives information related to at least one of a schedule, a state, and a location of a user using the message service.

The information collecting unit 120 collects information related to at least one of a schedule, a state, and a location of a user using the message service from a plurality of applications installed in one or more terminal apparatuses 200. Here, the one or more terminal devices 200 may be registered according to a user's setting, more specifically storing the identification information and the connection information, and communicating with one or more terminal devices 200 used by the user Thereby collecting information for determining the state of the user.

Here, the plurality of applications may be any application that handles information related to at least one of a schedule, a state, and a location of the user. For example, an e-mail application, an application for a messenger, Applications, and the like. In addition, the information to be collected may include, for example, one or more of the schedule, state, and location of the user.

The message service control unit 130 provides a message service to the user through the communication unit 110. When the automatic response request of the user is received, the message service control unit 130 analyzes the information collected by the information collecting unit 120, And generates an automatic response message corresponding to the confirmed current state and controls the automatic response message to be transmitted to another user who has transmitted the message to the user, i.e., the counterpart terminal 400. [ At this time, the automatic response message may be set according to a predetermined automatic response rule by the user.

Also, the automatic response request may be transmitted from one of the one or more terminal devices 200 available to the user.

Upon receiving the automatic response request, the message service control unit 130 further checks the period information for applying the automatic response from the user, and controls the automatic response message to be transmitted only during the confirmed period. The period information to which the automatic response is to be applied may be set in units of minutes, hours, and days, and the automatic response message is provided to the counterpart terminal 400 that has transmitted the message for a predetermined period from the time of the automatic response request.

In addition, the message service control unit 130 may control the at least one terminal device 200 (201, 202) according to a request of the user at any time before receiving the automatic response request from the user terminal device 200, Can be registered. As described above, the at least one terminal device 200 may be a terminal device based on a wired communication or a wireless communication, and may be a different kind of terminal device. For example, the at least one terminal device 200 may be a personal computer, A business computer used by a user at work, a smartphone and a tablet PC carried by the user, and the like.

In addition, the message service control unit 130 may set an automatic response subject in advance according to the user's selection, further determine whether the other user is included in the set automatic response subject, And transmit the generated automatic response message to the other user. That is, it is possible to designate the party to perform the automatic response based on the acquaintance information registered in the address book of the user before or at the time of the automatic response request. For example, you can specify who needs to respond to a business message, or you can specify a particular contact the user is waiting to contact. To this end, the message service control unit 130 collects the acquaintance information stored in the address book of the one or more terminal devices 200, provides an interface through which the user can select an automatic response state based on the collected information, It is possible to directly receive information on the automatic response partner from one or more terminal devices 200. [

In addition, the message service control unit 130 may be configured to determine the current state of the user based on the collected information, wherein the message service control unit 130 determines the current state of the user according to attributes including at least one of the collected position, time, And determine the current state of the user on the basis of the priority information. For example, when two or more pieces of information are collected, it is possible to reflect which one of the one or more terminal devices 200 (201, 202) has been collected by the priority of the information. That is, priority is given to business computers, smart phones, tablet PCs, and personal computers in the order of user's use time among business computers, personal computers, smart phones, and tablet PCs, The present state of the user can be determined based on the information collected on the business computer having the highest priority. In addition, by applying the concept of time here, by setting the priority of the business computer at the highest priority in the working time and by setting the priority of the personal computer higher than the working time, the working time is based on the information collected from the business computer The current state of the user can be determined, and the current state of the user can be determined based on the information collected from the personal computer other than the working time. In particular, when two or more unmatched pieces of information are collected, the current state of the user can be confirmed using the information having the latest creation date.

In addition, the message service control unit 130 extracts schedule information, status information, and location information of the current time at which the automatic response message should be transmitted to the counterpart terminal 400, from the information collected from the one or more terminal apparatuses 200 The extracted information is compared with the schedule, the state, and the position to collect mutually-matchable information, grouping the information, comparing the number of information and priority of information for each group to extract reliability for each group, And generate the automatic response message in combination. For example, among the information collected from the one or more terminal apparatuses 200, the current position information of the user extracted from the cellular phone held by the user at all times, the schedule information set including the current time, and the like are extracted, From the information, schedule information matching the current position of the user is extracted and grouped with the current position information. The automatic response message may be generated to include the extracted schedule information. For example, if your current location is near your workplace, and you have extracted a schedule related to your work, and you're on a two-hour schedule, you'll see "I can not receive calls during a meeting. A response message can be generated. At this time, the available messages can be set by the user through the automatic response rule.

Meanwhile, in another embodiment of the present invention, the message service control unit 130 may determine whether the current state of the user determined from the collected information and the current state of the user Response message to the terminal 200 of the user so as to generate an automatic response message based on the current state information of the user directly from the terminal 200 of the user, Message to the counterpart terminal 400 directly.

The storage unit 140 stores data necessary for operation of the message service apparatus 100. The storage unit 140 may store various collection information related to the current status of the user requesting the automatic response, And an automatic response message generated from the current state of the user.

The message service controller 130 stores the data generated during its operation in the storage unit 140 or performs an operation according to the present invention based on the data stored in the storage unit 140. [

Next, the configuration and operation of the terminal device 200 according to the present invention will be described more specifically.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a terminal device 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram showing a detailed configuration of a control unit 260 in the terminal device 200 according to the present invention .

3 and 4, the terminal 200 of the present invention includes a communication unit 210, an input unit 220, an audio processing unit 230, an output unit 240, a storage unit 250, As shown in FIG.

The communication unit 210 is a means for transmitting and receiving data related to the message service and the automatic response function according to the present invention through the communication network 300. The communication unit 210 includes at least one of various communication methods for forming a communication channel with the communication network 300 And a communication module according to a communication method. For example, the communication unit 210 may include at least one of communication modules supporting various mobile communication systems such as CDMA, GSM, WCDMA, and OFDMA. Also, the communication unit 210 may be implemented as an IP-based wired / wireless communication module.

The communication unit 210 may transmit a transmission message of a user to the communication network 300 or may receive a message transmitted from the correspondent terminal 400 from the communication network 300, And transmits and receives data for response processing.

The input unit 220 is a means for generating a user input signal to the terminal device 200 and includes input keys and function keys for setting various functions and controlling functions of the terminal 100, . ≪ / RTI > The input unit 220 may be formed of various types of input means such as a keyboard, a keypad, a mouse, a motion sensor, and the like. When the terminal device 200 is manufactured as a touch screen, Key, a separate hot key, a shortcut key, and the like. In the present invention, the input unit 220 may be used by the user to select an automatic response request, or set an automatic response partner and an automatic response period.

The audio processor 230 is responsible for outputting various audio data generated during the operation of the terminal 200 and collecting audio data necessary for supporting the call function of the terminal 200. The audio processor 230 includes a speaker SPK, (MIC). The audio processing unit 230 can output an alarm sound or the like upon transmission / reception of a message service.

The output unit 240 is an output means for displaying the operation status and the operation result of the terminal device 200 or providing predetermined information to the user. The output unit 240 displays various kinds of menus, information input by the user, do. That is, the output unit 240 may provide various screens such as an idle screen, a menu screen, and a message transmission / reception screen according to the use of the terminal device 200. In particular, the output unit 240 may output an interface screen for setting an automatic response request, an automatic response counterpart, and a period.

The output unit 240 may be formed in the form of a flat panel display panel such as a Liquid Crystal Display (OLED) or an Organic Light Emitting Diode (OLED). The output unit 240 may be manufactured in a structure including a display panel and a touch panel according to a manufacturing method.

The storage unit 250 stores programs and data required for the operation of the terminal apparatus 200 and data generated as a result of the operation, and may include a program area and a data area. The storage unit 250 may store various applications such as an audio playback function, a video playback function, an electronic book browsing function, and a server search function, as well as an operating system (OS) of the terminal 200 User data, data to be transmitted and received, and the like. In particular, the storage unit 250 according to the present invention may store a program for a message service, and may include various applications for processing information related to the current state of the user.

The control unit 260 controls the overall operation of the terminal device 100. In the present invention, the control unit 260 transmits and receives the user's message through the communication unit 210, Requests an automatic response to the message service apparatus and extracts information related to the current state of the user created through one or more applications according to the collection request from the message service apparatus 100 and transmits the extracted information to the message service apparatus 100 .

The control unit 260 may include at least one of an automatic response execution module 261, an automatic response message generation module 262, and an information collection module 263, as shown in FIG. The above-described automatic response execution module 261, the automatic response message generation module 262 and the information collection module 263 can be implemented by hardware or software or a combination of hardware and software. same.

The automatic response execution module 261 receives the automatic response message generated according to the current state of the user identified by the message service apparatus 200 and receives a message transmitted from another user, And transmits the message to the other user, that is, the counterpart terminal 400. In another embodiment of the present invention, the automatic response performing module 261 checks the automatic response partner and the automatic response period, as in the message service apparatus 100, An automatic response message can be transmitted.

The automatic response message generation module 262 generates the automatic response message according to the current state of the user identified from the message service apparatus 100 or information related to the current state of the user extracted from the terminal apparatus 200 . That is, when the current status information of the user is received from the message service apparatus 100, the automatic response message is generated based on the current status information of the user. In another case, the current state of the user may be determined based on information related to the current state of the user extracted from the terminal device 200, and the automatic response message may be generated according to the determined current state. More specifically, the automatic response message generation module 262 transmits the automatic response message to the counterpart terminal 400 among the information collected from the one or more terminal devices 200 by the message service device 300 State, and position information of the present time point, comparing the extracted schedule, state, and position, grouping the mutually-matching information, grouping the information, and comparing the number of information and the priority of the information for each group, Group information, and may combine the received information to generate the automatic response message.

Finally, the information collection module 263 extracts information related to the current state of the user using the message service from one or more applications and transmits the extracted information to the message service apparatus 100. The information collection module 263 may operate according to an information collection request from the message service apparatus 100 in response to an automatic response request, or may operate when a user selects an automatic response request.

Next, an automatic response message service process by the message service apparatus 100 and the terminal apparatus 200 configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6. FIG.

5 is a flowchart illustrating an automatic answering service method in a message service apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 5, in step S110, the message service apparatus 100 may register information on one or more terminal devices used by the user in response to the request of the user before providing the automatic answering service. The registration of the one or more terminal devices is performed by receiving information (including identification information and connection information) about the one or more terminal devices 200 through any one of the user terminal devices 200, Or the like.

If the message service apparatus 100 receives the automatic response request of the user using the message service in step S120, the message service apparatus 100 transmits information related to at least one of the schedule, state, and location of the user in step S110, From the plurality of applications installed in the one or more terminal devices 200 used by the user. Information collected here may be information such as schedule, appointment, anniversary, location, etc. of a user extracted from one or more applications installed in each of the one or more terminal devices 200.

In step S140, the message service apparatus 100 analyzes the collected information and confirms the current state of the user. For example, if there is a schedule such as a meeting or a business trip in the collected information, the user is judged to be in a meeting or a business trip. If the collected information includes appointment information with the acquaintances, it is determined that the participant participates in the private meeting. In addition, various information collected from one or more applications may include information that is not mutually matched. To this end, in determining the current state of the user based on the collected information, the message service apparatus 100 may determine whether the current state of the user is present based on the attributes including at least one of the position, time, creator, The priority of the collected information may be determined and the current status of the user may be determined on the basis of the priority information.

If the current state of the user is confirmed, the message service apparatus 100 generates an automatic response message in response to the checked current state in step S150. Here, the message service apparatus 100 may store various automatic response messages corresponding to various situations and states, and may operate in a manner of extracting an automatic response message matched with the confirmed current state. At this time, the automatic response message corresponding to various situations and conditions may be defined by the message service apparatus 100, but it is also possible to receive and store an appropriate automatic response message from each user. In addition, in step S150, information that can be matched with the collected various information is grouped, information of a specific group is selected based on the number of information, priority, and the like among the grouped information, and an automatic response message Lt; / RTI >

In addition, the automatic response message may be generated according to an automatic response rule set by the user. At this time, the automatic response rule may be set to define the contents of the corresponding automatic response message for each state of the user. Also, it may be set to generate an automatic response message only when a predetermined condition is satisfied based on at least one of the status, schedule and position of the user.

If a message is received by the user, that is, if a message is transmitted from the counterpart terminal 400 to the terminal 200 of the user as in step S160, the message service apparatus 100 performs step S170 The automatic response message is transmitted to another user, i.e., the counterpart terminal 400, which has transmitted the message. Accordingly, the counterpart terminal 400 can receive an appropriate response directly related to the user's status, thereby reducing the waiting time of the counterpart or improving the convenience of the counterpart party. In addition, in step S170, the message service apparatus 100 confirms whether the counterpart is included in the automatic response counterpart set at the time of the automatic response request or before the automatic response counterpart, and controls to transmit the automatic response message to the counterpart can do. In this case, since the appropriate response message is transmitted only to the target that the user wants or needs, it is possible to prevent the occurrence of unnecessary messages and waste of excessive communication resources.

The above-described steps S130 through S170 are repeatedly performed during the automatic response period set by the user or before the automatic response request, or until the automatic response cancellation request is received from the user (S180).

6 is a flowchart illustrating an automatic answering service method in the terminal device 200 according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 6, in step S205, the terminal 200 can receive an automatic response request selection by the user through the input unit 210. FIG.

If the automatic response request is selected in step S210, the terminal device 200 first requests an automatic response to the message service apparatus 100. [

If it is determined in step S215 that the information collection request is received from the message service apparatus 100 in response to the automatic response request in step S220, State, and location, and transmits the extracted information to the message service apparatus 200. The message service apparatus 200 receives the message,

The terminal device 200 extracts information related to at least one of the schedule, the state, and the location of the user and transmits the extracted information to the message service device. Then, as in step S225, When receiving the current status information of the user, which is determined based on the information collected in the terminal device 200, the automatic response message may be generated based on the received current status information in step S230. Here, the automatic response message may be generated in the same manner as in the message service apparatus 100. That is, the automatic response message may be generated according to the automatic response rule set by the user, and the automatic response rule may be set to define the contents of the corresponding automatic response message for each state of the user. Also, it may be set to generate an automatic response message only when a predetermined condition is satisfied based on at least one of the status, schedule and position of the user.

In step S230, the terminal device 200 generates an automatic response message in the terminal device 200 or receives an automatic response message generated from the message service device 100 as in step S235 If the message is received from another user, as in step S240, the automatic response message may be transmitted to the other user, i.e., the counterpart terminal 400 that transmitted the message, through step S245.

The above-described steps S220 to S245 may be repeatedly executed until the automatic response request is released through step S250. Here, the automatic response cancellation may be performed in accordance with the expiration of the automatic response period preset by the user or the user's request to cancel the automatic response.

The automated answering service method according to the present invention may be implemented in software form readable by various computer means and recorded in a computer readable recording medium. Here, the recording medium may include program commands, data files, data structures, and the like, alone or in combination. Program instructions to be recorded on a recording medium may be those specially designed and constructed for the present invention or may be available to those skilled in the art of computer software. For example, the recording medium may be an optical recording medium such as a magnetic medium such as a hard disk, a floppy disk and a magnetic tape, a compact disk read only memory (CD-ROM), a digital video disk (DVD) Includes a hardware device that is specially configured to store and execute program instructions such as a magneto-optical medium such as a floppy disk and a ROM, a random access memory (RAM), a flash memory, do. Examples of program instructions may include machine language code such as those generated by a compiler, as well as high-level language code that may be executed by a computer using an interpreter or the like. Such hardware devices may be configured to operate as one or more software modules to perform the operations of the present invention, and vice versa.

As described above, preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described with reference to the present specification and drawings, and although specific terms are used, they are merely used in a general sense to easily describe the technical contents of the present invention and to facilitate understanding of the invention And is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that other modifications based on the technical idea of the present invention may be practiced without departing from the spirit of the invention disclosed herein.

The present invention can be applied to a message service including a short message service, a multimedia message service, an instant messenger service, and the like. The message service system, the message service device, the terminal device, A user who is stored or recorded in the terminal device from one or more terminal devices used by the user, for example, a desktop PC, a notebook computer, a tablet PC, a mobile communication terminal, etc., (E.g., a schedule), collects the collected information, accurately determines the current state of the user, generates an automatic response message corresponding to the determined current state, and transmits a message to the user If the user is referred to another user Thereby providing a response message suitable for the situation of the user, thereby greatly improving the convenience and satisfaction with the use of the message service of the user, even if the user can not respond to the message There is an excellent effect that can be made.

100: message service apparatus 110: communication unit 120: information collecting unit
130: message service control unit 140:
200, 201, 202: terminal device 210: communication unit 220:
230: audio processing unit 240: output unit 250:
260: control unit 400:

Claims (18)

delete A communication unit for transmitting and receiving information related to a current state of a user using a message and a message service through a communication network;
An information collecting unit for collecting information related to at least one of a schedule, a state, and a location of the user through a plurality of applications installed in a plurality of terminal apparatuses used by the user; And
The information about the plurality of terminal devices used by the user is registered and the information collected from each application installed in the plurality of terminal devices is compared and analyzed to confirm the current state of the user, A message service control unit for generating an automatic response message corresponding to the confirmed current state and transmitting the automatic response message to the counterpart terminal that has sent the message to the user;
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The message service control unit
And extracting at least one of a schedule, a state, and a position of a current time point at which an automatic response message should be transmitted to the counterpart terminal from the information collected from the one or more terminal devices, and comparing the extracted schedule, And the automatic response message is generated by grouping information that can be matched to each other, comparing the number of information and priority of information for each group, extracting reliability for each group, and combining information of a group having high reliability. A message service device. delete delete delete ◈ Claim 6 is abandoned due to the registration fee. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the message service control unit
Determining a priority of the collected information according to an attribute including at least one of a location, a time, a creator, and an application type in which information is collected, and determining a current state of the user based on priority information Characterized by a message service device. delete delete delete delete delete delete A method for providing an automatic answering service by a message service apparatus including a communication unit, an information collecting unit, a storage unit, and a message service control unit,
Registering a plurality of terminal devices used by a user in a storage unit of the message service control unit;
Receiving, by the communication unit, an automatic response request of a user using a message service;
Collecting information related to at least one of a schedule, a state, and a location of the user through a plurality of applications installed in the plurality of registered terminal devices according to the automatic response request;
The message service control unit compares and analyzes the collected information to check the current state of the user and generates an automatic response message in response to the confirmed current state according to the automatic response rule set by the user; And
Transmitting the automatic response message to a counterpart terminal to which the communication unit has sent the message to the user;
, ≪ / RTI &
The step of generating the automatic response message may include:
Extracting at least one piece of information of a current state, a state, and a position at which an automatic response message should be transmitted to the counterpart terminal from information collected from the plurality of terminal apparatuses, The reliability of each group is extracted by comparing the number of information and the priority of information for each group, and the automatic response message is generated by combining the information of the group with high reliability Wherein the automatic response service providing method comprises: delete delete delete delete delete

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