KR20060128114A - Method and apparatus for transmitting an instant message - Google Patents

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for transmitting an instant message are provided to preferentially process an important or urgent message when a plurality of messages arrive at a mobile terminal of a user. A transmission terminal(10) transmits an instant message including weight value information. An instant messaging server(40) receives the instant message from the transmission terminal(10), checks whether the instant message has the weight value information, and determines a message transmission order according to the weight value information. A reception terminal(20) displays the instant message received from the instant messaging server(40).

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRANSMITTING AN INSTANT MESSAGE}

1 is a diagram briefly showing a typical IM service system configuration to which the present invention is applied;

2 is a diagram illustrating an instant message transmission process in an IM service system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

3 is a diagram illustrating a process of transmitting an instant message by a transmitting mobile terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a diagram illustrating a process of receiving an instant message transmitted from a transmitting side mobile communication terminal and transmitting the received instant message to a receiving side mobile communication terminal according to an embodiment of the present invention;

5 is a diagram illustrating a process of displaying an instant message in a receiving side mobile communication terminal according to one embodiment of the present invention;

The present invention relates to an instant message processing method and apparatus in an instant messaging service (hereinafter referred to as "IM service"). In general, IM service means a service that integrates functions such as chat and file transmission and reception through a specific program in the Internet environment. Recently, with the development of mobile communication services, personal mobile communication terminals such as mobile phones are also providing IM services capable of real-time communication, which were provided by computers through the Internet.

In the conventional IM service provided by the mobile communication terminal, the IM server processes the instant messages received in the received order. That is, the sender IM mobile communication terminal designates and transmits a message of a content to be sent, and is delivered to an IM server, and the server managing the plurality of mobile communication terminals includes recipient information in the order in which they are received. It serves to transmit a message to the receiving mobile communication terminal.

However, if the IM server received instant messages from multiple users at the same time, the instant messages could not be properly processed. There is also a general delay for instant messages that require urgent time. In addition, when several messages were simultaneously transmitted / received to one user, the server or mobile communication terminal did not know which message should be transmitted or displayed first.

The present invention provides a method and system for a user to set weights according to importance or urgency in an instant message, and an IM server can preferentially process a high-weight instant message over a general instant message according to a weight setting. There is a purpose.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method and a terminal for preferentially processing an important or urgent message when a plurality of messages arrive at a user's mobile communication terminal.

The present invention for achieving the above object, the IM service system according to an embodiment of the present invention, a transmitting side mobile communication terminal for transmitting an instant message through the IM protocol and a receiving side mobile communication terminal for receiving the instant message And an IM server that receives an instant message from the transmitting mobile terminal and delivers the instant message to the receiving mobile terminal.

The present invention also provides a transmitting unit for generating an instant message and information on which weight information indicating importance or urgency of the instant message is set, and a transmitting unit for transmitting the instant message including the weight information. Include.

The present invention also provides that the receiving side mobile communication terminal determines whether the receiving unit receives an instant message, and whether the received instant message includes weight information, and if the weight information is included, the weight information exists. It includes a control unit for controlling to notify.

According to the present invention, the IM server determines whether weight information is included in the instant message received from the transmitting mobile terminal, and if not, sorts the plurality of instant messages received in order and includes them in each message. Performs a signal processing for transmitting to the receiving mobile terminal, and if the weight is included, compares the weights of the already received messages to determine the priority and accordingly performs the signal processing for transmitting to the receiving mobile terminal. It includes more.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the following description and the annexed drawings, detailed descriptions of well-known functions and configurations that may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention will be omitted.

1 is a diagram schematically showing a typical IM service system configuration to which the present invention is applied. Referring to FIG. 1, an IM service system includes an IM server 40, a mobile communication network 30, and a plurality of mobile communication terminals 10 and 20. The mobile communication network supports a general mobile communication service such as a voice call to a mobile communication terminal existing in a service area. The plurality of mobile communication terminals 10 and 20 are first mobile communication terminals (hereinafter referred to as "first terminals") 10 and second mobile communication terminals (hereinafter referred to as "second terminals"). It includes. The first terminal 10 and the second terminal 20 is connected to the mobile communication network 30, performs a mobile communication, it is possible to perform the IM service provided by the IM server 40 in accordance with the present invention Do. In the embodiment of the present invention, the first terminal 10 and the second terminal 20 perform IM communication according to an IM service.

Now, the instant message transmission method according to the present invention in the IM service system will be described in detail with reference to FIG. 2. First, the user includes weight information according to importance in writing an instant message. In general, an instant message may consist of a data structure including message content, MIME type, validity, message origination time, and recipient information. In this case, the method of including the weight information may include a method of including the message header or the body, and may be transmitted as a separate control signal. It may vary depending on the protocol of the IM service system. In addition, the IM service system may be determined by various standard organizations, system implementation companies, and service providers.

For example, IMPS (Instant Message & Presence Services) is a system that can be connected and exchanged messages on a mobile phone such as a messenger service on a computer, and is discussed in the Open Mobile Alliance standardization organization. You can add a Priority.

 Message-Info MessageID or MessageURI, MIME-type, encoding, size, sender and recipient (s) (userID, clientID, screen name, group, contact-list), date and time, Priority, validity

In addition, in the SIMPLE IM for IM system, weight information (Priority element) can be added to the message header. In addition, although not described in detail in the present invention, it is obvious that various information provided by the IM service as well as the message weight information may be included in the message in the above manner.

When the 210 of the transmitting mobile communication terminals 210 to 213 transmits an instant message to the receiving mobile communication terminal 214, the signal flow is as follows. The instant message including the weight information is transmitted to the IM server 250 that controls the signal using the mobile communication network.

The IM server receiving the instant message including the weight by the sender user performs message queue listing to transmit the message to the receiver mobile communication terminal.

The IM server in the IM service system according to the present embodiment provides a queue function. The queue function refers to a function of determining and maintaining a transmission order internally when a plurality of mobile communication terminals participate in an IM service system and receive an instant message transmission request from a plurality of mobile communication terminals at the same time or at a similar time. . Queue list means a job of storing transmission priority according to weight information proposed in the present invention. The instant message 201 transmitted from the terminal 210 performs the queue listing by the signal flow request 208 inside the server (260). At this time, if there are messages to be transmitted already held on the queue at 260, the weight is compared with the message requested at 208.

For example, if an instant message A currently transmitted from terminal 210 and received through 208 has a lower priority than the weight of the message B transmitted from terminal 211 and stored in 260, the instant message A may be used. Is queued out of priority.

On the other hand, if the instant message A has a high priority, the priority is queued higher so that it can be sent before the instant message B.

As described above, the instant message requested by the 210 terminal through the newly determined queue is transmitted to the terminal 214 in step 209.

When there are a large number of instant messages with weights, the same weights are used to queue the instant messages that arrive.

Meanwhile, the receiving mobile terminal 214 receiving the instant message transmitted from the IM server also determines weight information included in the message and displays the weight information on the mobile terminal. That is, since a plurality of sender mobile communication terminals can transmit a message to the receiver mobile communication terminal 214, when a plurality of instant messages arrive at the receiver mobile communication terminal at the same time, it can be indicated according to a weight. Can be added.

3 to 5 are flowcharts illustrating the signal flow by dividing the signal flow into signal processing of a transmitting mobile communication terminal, an IM server, and a receiving mobile communication terminal.

3 illustrates a method of transmitting an instant message by a transmitting mobile terminal according to the present invention. First, if the user wants to send an instant message (301), the mobile communication terminal provides a function to determine whether to include the weight information in the instant message in step 302. Determining whether to set the weight information may be possible at any time before or after writing an instant message.

Although the present invention discloses an embodiment set in the step of creating an instant message, the case in which the decision is made after the creation of an instant message will be the same as in the present invention, in which case step 302 is performed between steps 304 and 305. An example would be possible.

4 is a flowchart illustrating the steps from the IM server to the receiving mobile terminal after receiving the instant message transmitted from the transmitting mobile terminal.

When the instant message transmitted from the transmitting mobile terminal arrives at the server (400), the server determines whether the message includes weight information in step 401. In step 402, the arrival time and the weighting degree of the message are determined to list the queues in order of arrival time when the weights are the same.

In step 403, the new queue is set by determining the message and the weight in the queue list, and in step 405, the message is transmitted to the receiving mobile communication terminal according to the newly set order.

In this case, if the weight information is not included in step 401, the process proceeds directly to step 406 to step 404 to be listed at the end of the current cuelist.

5 is a diagram illustrating a method for displaying an instant message in a receiving mobile communication terminal. When the message arrives at the receiving mobile communication terminal (500), the receiving mobile communication terminal first determines whether the message includes weight information in step 501. If the weight information is included according to the result, the message including the weight information is displayed to the terminal. If the weight information is not included, the message not including the weight information is displayed. In addition, although not shown in detail in the drawing, when a plurality of instant messages arrive at the same time, the priority is determined according to a weighting degree, and the message having high priority is first displayed and processed.

In addition, the weight information may be output as an audio signal that can be recognized by the user.

As described above, specific embodiments of the present invention have been described, but various modifications can be made within the scope of the present invention according to the IM service system. Therefore, modifications predictable by a person of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains may not depart from the technical scope of the present invention.

As described above, the present invention provides a method for transmitting weighted instant messages in an IM service, which may be useful when users want to deliver an important message or urgent content, and when a plurality of messages arrive at the same time. By providing a method of determining the data to be signaled first, it is possible to provide an IM service according to importance.

Claims (18)

       In an instant messaging system A sending terminal for transmitting an instant message including weight information; An instant messaging server that receives the instant message from the transmitting terminal, determines whether the weight information is included, and determines a message transmission order based on the weight information; The system having a receiving-side mobile communication terminal displaying the instant message received from the instant messaging server.        The system of claim 1, wherein the weight information is included in one of an instant message header and a message body.        The system of claim 1, wherein the server determines the transmission order by comparing the weight of the received instant message with the weight of the received instant message. In a method for sending instant messages in an instant messaging system, Transmitting an instant message including weight information from a transmitting terminal; Determining an order of transmission according to the weight information of the received message at an instant messaging server; Transmitting the message to a receiving terminal in the determined order. The method as claimed in claim 4, wherein the weight information is included in one of an instant message header and a message body. The method of claim 4, wherein the determining of the transmission order comprises: determining whether the weight information is included in the receipt of the instant message, and determining the transmission order by comparing with the previously received instant message if the weight information is included. Way 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the method for determining the order of delivery without comparing with the previously received instant message if the received instant message does not include a weight. In a terminal for transmitting an instant message in an instant messaging system, A generator for generating weight information; The terminal comprising a transmitter for transmitting an instant message having the weight information. The terminal as claimed in claim 8, wherein the weight information is set at any one of before, after, and before the instant message is written. The terminal of claim 8, wherein the weight information is inserted in a header or body of the instant message or transmitted in a separate control signal. In a terminal for receiving an instant message in an instant messaging system, A receiver for receiving an instant message, And a control unit which determines whether the weighted information is included in the received instant message, and controls to notify that the weighted information exists when the weighted information is present. The terminal as claimed in claim 11, further comprising a display unit which displays an instant message including fraud weight information when there is weight information. The terminal of claim 11, wherein when the plurality of instant messages are received at the same time, the controller compares the weight information of each message to process a message having a high priority. In the instant messaging system, a mobile communication terminal transmits an instant message, Generating weight information; Sending the instant message with the weight information. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the weight information is set at any time before, after, or before the instant message is written. The method as claimed in claim 14, wherein the weight information is inserted in a header or body of the instant message or transmitted in a separate control signal. In the instant messaging system, a mobile communication terminal receives an instant message, Receiving an instant message, Determining whether the instant message includes weight information, and displaying the message including the weight information. 18. The method of claim 17, further comprising determining the weight information of the plurality of instant messages that arrive at the same time to process the message having the higher weight.

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