WO2007005607A2

WO2007005607A2 - Contact information managing apparatus and method

Info

Publication number: WO2007005607A2
Application number: PCT/US2006/025578
Authority: WO
Inventors: Yoshiyuki Wada; Hirokazu Sawada; Sachihiko Ogushi; Kentaro Kai; Yukihiro Hibino
Original assignee: Microsoft Corporation
Priority date: 2005-06-30
Filing date: 2006-06-29
Publication date: 2007-01-11
Also published as: JP4842572B2; JP2007011777A; WO2007005607A3

Abstract

A contact information managing apparatus which can provide relevance contact information that a user wishes to know is provided. A contact information managing apparatus includes a contact information storage device for storing a plurality of pieces of contact information, a selecting part for receiving selection of one of contact information, a searching part for obtaining other contact information which includes the same value with the contact information selected by the selecting part and a display controlling part for displaying the other contact information obtained by the searching part on a display device. The display controlling part can group the obtained other contact information according to an item which includes the same value with the selected contact information and display it. In addition, the display controlling part can display predetermined items in items included in the obtained other contact information.

Description

CONTACT ENfFORMATION MANAGING APPARATUS AND METHOD

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a contact information managing apparatus and method, and more particularly, to a contact information managing apparatus for maintaining a database in which contacts or information relating to contacts (contact information) are registered and for providing information based on the database, a contact information providing method, a computer program, and a computer-readable storage medium.

DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART

Recent years have seen widespread use of application programs for effectively utilizing information on contacts (persons, companies, and places) that are important in business and used with a high frequency in personal or team operations. Such an application program is a kind of database that manages information on contacts. Registered information is automatically arranged so that information linked with people can be easily understood.

By means of such an application program, it is now possible to routinely communicate contact information described on a business card such as name, organization name and telephone number to someone using electronic mail over the Internet, instead of giving a paper business card, for example. One of well-known data formats for business card information for use in Internet communication is RFC2426-vCard MIME Directory Profile (see http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2426.txt, for example).

Business card information transmitted in the data format contains an image of the business card and character strings for sets of personal information to be superimposed on the image, which is displayed on a display screen of a receiving computer.

However, such a conventional contact information management application program only can simply display individual pieces of contact information inputted. In other words, despite the fact that a contact information management application program is a database, a user cannot view information relating to a particular contact. Thus, the user cannot know how multiple pieces of contact information are linked with each other.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a contact information managing apparatus that is capable of presenting interrelationships among pieces of contact information that a user wants to know, a contact information providing method, a computer program, and a computer-readable storage medium.

The invention also provides a contact information managing apparatus that is capable of displaying interrelationships among pieces of contact information in a manner allowing a user to understand it in a short time, a contact information providing method, a computer program, and a computer-readable storage medium.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a contact information managing apparatus comprising: contact information storing means for storing a plurality of pieces of contact information; selecting means for receiving selection of one piece of contact information; searching means for searching contact information stored in the contact information storing means to obtain other contact information which includes the same value with the contact information selected by the selecting means; and display controlling means for displaying the other contact information obtained by the searching means on a display device.

The display controlling means may group the other contact information obtained by the searching means according to an item which includes the same value with the contact information selected by the selecting means and displays it.

The display controlling means may display the grouped pieces of contact information according to a predetermined precedence order.

The display controlling means may display the grouped pieces of contact information according to predetermined precedence order.

The display controlling means may include: detecting means for detecting positioning of a cursor on one of the other pieces of contact information displayed on the display device; and means for displaying an item that is included in one of the other pieces of contact information to which the positioning of the cursor is detected and has not been displayed.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for providing contact information performed by a computer storing a plurality of pieces of contact information, the method comprising the steps of: receiving selection of one piece of contact information; searching the stored contact information to obtain other contact information which includes the same value with the selected contact information; and displaying the obtained other contact information on a display device.

The step for displaying may include the step of grouping the other contact information obtained in the step for searching according to an item which includes the same value with the contact information selected by the selecting step and displaying it.

The step for displaying may include the step of displaying the grouped pieces of contact information according to a predetermined precedence order.

The step for displaying may include the step of displaying the grouped pieces of contact information according to predetermined precedence order.

The step for displaying may include: detecting positioning of a cursor on one of the other pieces of contact information displayed on the display device; and displaying an item that is included in one of the other pieces of contact information to which the positioning of the cursor is detected and has not been displayed.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer readable medium which stores thereon a computer program for making a computer perform the above method.

According to the invention, it is possible to provide interrelationships among pieces of contact information, which is information otherwise unknown to a user. Consequently, a user can learn a particular person's background clearly.

Also, according to the invention, with display of summarized or grouped pieces of contact information, a user can understand interrelationships among pieces of contact information in a small amount of time. The above and other objects, effects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description of embodiments thereof taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary environment for implementing the invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram generally illustrating a functional configuration of a contact information managing apparatus according to an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 shows an example of a format for contact information;

FIG. 4 shows an example of a format for history information contained in contact information;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a format for events contained in contact information;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a schema that records relationship and the like;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a general procedure of a contact information providing method;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an example of process of searching for other contact information that is executed at step S504;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example of search process executed at step S606;

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a screen layout that is displayed on a display device in an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of layout of individual contact information that is displayed on a display device in an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 12 illustrates items of contact information that are displayed in Name and rows 1 to 4 of FIG. 11;

FIG. 13 is a functional block diagram of a display control part according to an embodiment of the invention; and FIG. 14 illustrates an example of contact information displayed by the display control part.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In the following, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

Exemplary Networking Environment

According to one embodiment of the present invention, although a method described herein can be implemented on a single standalone computer system, typically, it can also be implemented on multiple computer systems interconnected to form a distributed computer network.

An environment 400 to implement the present invention is shown in FIG. 1. The environment 400 has a computer system 410 that is considered as a main computer system. As used herein, the term "computer system" is broadly interpreted, and defined as "one or more devices or machines to execute a program for displaying and operating texts, graphics, symbols, audio, video and/or numbers".

The invention is operable with numerous other general purpose or special purpose computing system environments or configurations. Examples of well known computing systems, environments, and/or configurations that may be suitable for use with the invention include, but are not limited to, personal computers, server computers, hand-held or laptop devices, tablet devices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based systems, set top boxes, programmable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, distributed computing environments that include any of the above systems or devices, and the like.

The invention may be described in the general context of computer-executable instructions, such as program modules, being executed by a computer. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, and so forth, which perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The invention may also be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices that are linked through a communications network. In a distributed computing environment, program modules may be located in both local and remote computer storage media including memory storage devices.

With reference to FIG. 1, an exemplary system for implementing the invention includes a general purpose computing device in the form of a computer 410. Components of the computer 410 may include, but are not limited to, a processing unit 420, a system memory 430, and a system bus 421 that couples various system components including the system memory to the processing unit 420. The system bus 421 may be any of several types of bus structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. By way of example, and not limitation, such architectures include Industry Standard Architecture (ISA) bus, Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) bus, Enhanced ISA (EISA) bus, Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) local bus, Accelerated Graphics Port (AGP) bus, and Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) bus also known as Mezzanine bus.

The computer 410 typically includes a variety of computer-readable media. Computer-readable media can be any available media that can be accessed by the computer 410 and includes both volatile and nonvolatile media, and removable and non-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation, computer-readable media may comprise computer storage media and communication media. Computer storage media includes both volatile and nonvolatile, removable and non-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storage of information such as computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but is not limited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology, CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage, magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store the desired information and which can be accessed by the computer 410. Communication media typically embodies computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules or other data in a modulated data signal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includes any information delivery media. The term modulated data signal means a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communication media includes wired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, and wireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media. Combinations of the any of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

The system memory 430 includes computer storage media in the form of volatile and/or nonvolatile memory such as read only memory (RAM) 431 and random access memory (RAM) 432. A basic input/output system 433 (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within computer 410, such as during start-up, is typically stored in ROM 431. RAM 432 typically contains data and/or program modules that are immediately accessible to and/or presently being operated on by processing unit 420. By way of example, and not limitation, FIG. 1 illustrates operating system 434, file system 435, application programs 436, other program modules 437 and program data 438.

The computer 410 may also include other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media. By way of example only, FIG. 1 illustrates a hard disc drive 441 that reads from or writes to nod-removable, nonvolatile magnetic media, a magnetic disk drive 451 that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile magnetic disk 452, and an optical disk drive 455 that reads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile optical disk 456 such as a CD ROM or other optical media. Other removable/non-removable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media that can be used in the exemplary operating environment include, but are not limited to, magnetic tape cassettes, flash memory cards, digital versatile disks, digital video tape, solid state RAM, solid state ROM, and the like. The hard disk drive 441 is typically connected to the system bus 421 through a non-removable memory interface such as interface 440, and magnetic disk drive 451 and optical disk drive 455 are typically connected to the system bus 421 by a removable memory interface, such as interface 450.

The drives and their associated computer storage media, discussed above and illustrated in FIG. 1, provide storage of computer-readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the computer 410. In FIG. 1, for example, hard disk drive 441 is illustrated as storing operating system 444, application programs 445, other program modules 146 and program data 447. Note that these components can either be the same as or different from operating system 434, application programs 436, other program modules 437, and program data 438. Operating system 444, application programs 445, other program modules 146. and program data 447 are given different numbers herein to illustrate that, at a minimum, they are different copies. A user may enter commands and information into the computer 410 through input devices such as a tablet (electronic digitizer) 464, a microphone 463, a keyboard 462 and pointing device 461, commonly referred to as mouse, trackball or touch pad. Other input devices (not shown) may include a joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner, or the like. These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit 420 through a user input interface 460 that is coupled to the system bus, but may be connected by other interface and bus structures, such as a parallel port, game port or a universal serial bus (USB). A monitor 491 or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus 421 via an interface, such as a video interface 490. The monitor 491 may also be integrated with a touch-screen panel or the like that can input digitized input such as handwriting into the computer system 410 via an interface, such as a touch-screen interface. Note that the monitor and/or touch screen panel can be physically coupled to a housing in which the computing device 410 is incorporated, such as in a tablet-type personal computer, wherein the touch screen panel essentially serves as the tablet 464. In addition, computers such as the computing device 410 may also include other peripheral output devices such as speakers 495 and printer 496, which may be connected through an output peripheral interface 494 or the like.

The computer 410 may operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer 480. The remote computer 480 may be a personal computer, a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described above relative to the computer 410, although only a memory storage device 481 has been illustrated in FIG. 1. The logical connections depicted in FIG. 1 include a local area network (LAN) 471 and a wide area network (WAN) 473, but may also include other networks. Such networking environments are commonplace in offices, enterprise- wide computer networks, intranets and the Internet.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 410 is connected to the LAN 471 through a network interface or adapter 470. When used in a WAN networking environment, the computer 410 typically includes a modem 472 or other means for establishing communications over the WAN 473, such as the Internet. The modem 472, which may be internal or external, may be connected to the system bus 421 via the user input interface 460 or other appropriate mechanism. In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the computer 410, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device. By way of example, and not limitation, FIG. 1 illustrates remote application programs 485 as residing on memory device 481. It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and other means of establishing a communications link between the computers may be used.

With this computer environment in mind, embodiments of the invention will be described in connection with logical operations that are executed for implementing processes that achieve the embodiment (i.e., embodiments realized by functions shown in FIG. 2).

FIG. 2 is a block diagram generally illustrating the functional configuration of a contact information managing apparatus according to an embodiment.

A contact information managing apparatus 200 includes at least a display device 202, a selection part 204, a display control part 206, and a search part 210.

A contact information storage device 208 stores such pieces of information as follows for each contact:

(1) Information to be displayed on an electronic business card

It includes name, company, job title, address, telephone number, facsimile number, e-mail address and so on. A number of pages of electronic business cards may be displayed for one person, and in that case, items included in information to be shown on an electronic business card can be grouped for each page displayed.

(2) Associated information such as creation time and date, type, storage location, and security settings for a created electronic business card (3) Society records relating to contacts

A society record includes communication records such as time and date of reception of an electronic business card, sender's e-mail address, sender's name, time and date of transmission of an electronic business card, recipient's e-mail address, and recipient's name. A society record further includes various society information relating to interaction with others that is input by a user on a keyboard and/or indicated by electronic business cards, as relevant information of the invention.

Society information may be information indicating that someone gave a New Year's card, a Christmas card, or a year-end gift, or information indicating when and where a meeting is going to be held.

(4) An address book that is created based on personal information obtained from electronic business cards

(5) Other contact-related information (e.g., information indicating an event that should be done for a contact)

The selection part 204 and the search part 210 are capable of accessing contact information stored in the contact information storage device 208.

The selection part 204 provides a user interface that is displayed on the display device 202 for receiving selection of contact information.

The search part 210 is for receiving selected contact information from the selection part 204, searching contact information stored in the contact information storage device 208 based on the received information, and retrieving contact information relating to the selected contact information.

The display control part 206 edits information found in a search received from the search part 210 to generate an image, and displays the image on the display device 202.

The display device 202 may be a monitor 491.

Referring to FIGS. 3 to 5, contact information stored in the contact information storage device 208 will be described.

FIG. 3 generally illustrates an exemplary format of contact information. Contact information 300 includes information on a contact ID, a name (name and its phonetic transcriptions in kana), a company name, a department name (department name 1 and department name 2), a job title, a telephone number, type (person/place/company), history, event, and a group the person belongs to.

The department names 1 and 2 can be used for registering a department name corresponding to a level of a hierarchy when a department is hierarchical (e.g., group B under section A).

As will be discussed later, other property files such as an image file containing personal pictures may be associated with contact information.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary format of history information, which is one of items included in the contact information 300. In the example shown in FIG. 4, history information 500 includes information on a person's job history, alma maters and membership. Information on a period included in history information may be registered being included in text or may be registered as a value.

FIG. 5 illustrates examples of events, which is one of items included in the contact information 300. As shown, in event information 600, subject, place, participants, and period are registered being associated with each other. The period of an event may be registered by including in text as shown in FIG. 5 or may be registered as a value. Also, a period consists of a start date and an end date, however, only a start date may be input as shown in FIG. 5 when the event is a one-day event.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a schema that records interrelationships among pieces of contact information and the like. In the schema shown, an ID indicating relationship (relationships 1, 2, ..., n) is associated with a relationship name (e.g., superior and/or subordinate), a contact ID of a target person (a target person ID), a contact ID relating to the target person (a relevant person ID), and a period for which there was relationship.

An ID indicating job history (job histories 1, 2, ..., n) is associated with a type (job change/promotion/personnel change), a contact ID of a target person (a target person ID), and a period.

An ID indicating an alma mater (alma maters 1, 2, ..., n) is associated with a school /faculty, a contact ID of a target person (a target person ID), and a period.

An ID indicating membership (memberships 1, 2, ..., n) is associated with a membership name, a contact ID of a target person (a target person ID), and a period. An ID indicating an event (events 1, 2, ..., n) is associated with an event name, a contact ID of a participant (a participant ID), and a period.

An operator can define interrelationships among persons associated with contacts based on the schema 700. In the example shown in FIG. 6, the operator sets a particular contact ID as a target person ID and a contact ID relevant to the person as a relevant person ID, and sets relationship between the two IDs (e.g., superior and/or subordinate) and a period for which the relationship lasts or lasted. The search part 210 gives a relationship ID (relationship 1, relationship 2, relationship 3, relationship 4, ..., relationship n) to information input by the operator. In this manner, a record for data groups that define relationships is generated.

Also, the operator can give a type (job change/promotion/personnel change) to a career that is identified by "period" of the person's job history. The search part 210 gives a job history ID (job history 1, job history 2, job history 3, job history 4, ..., job history n) to information input by the operator. In this manner, a record for data groups that define job histories is generated.

The search part 210 also retrieves information on job history, alma mater, membership and event such as those shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 which is stored in the contact information storage device 208. And it gives an ID to information in each row shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. In the example shown in FIG. 6, given IDs are shown in the leftmost column.

In such a manner, one record is generated based on the schema 700 and stored in the contact information storage device 208. Hereinafter, this record will be referred to as "a record that records relationship and the like."

(First Embodiment)

Referring to FIGS. 7 to 9, a method of providing contact information that is executed by the contact information managing apparatus 200 according to the first embodiment of the invention will be described.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a general procedure of the contact information providing method. At step S502, the selection part 204 receives a selection of a piece of contact information. The reception of a selection may be made by displaying an object such as a menu and a button for accepting a selection on the display device 202 and choosing the object with operation of an input device. The selection part 204 retrieves the selected contact information from the contact information storage device 208.

Here, a hyperlink can be used as the object displayed on the display device 202. The contact information managing apparatus 200 is capable of displaying an electronic business card on the display device according to the user's instruction through execution of a contact information managing program, and at this point, it may embed a smart tag for specifying display of contact information relating to the displayed electronic business card. In this case, the user selects the smart tag by operating the input device and instructs display of contact information that is relevant to the electronic business card now being displayed.

At step S504, the selection part 204 informs the search part 210 of the selected contact information. The search part 210 searches for other contact information relating to the contact information received from the selection part 204 by referring to a record that records relationship and the like, and stores obtained contact information in a buffer (not shown). Termination of the search is informed to the display control part 206.

At step S506, upon informed of the search termination, the display control part 206 creates a screen based on the contact information stored in the buffer.

At step S508, the display control part 206 displays the created screen on the display device 202.

Turning to the flowchart of FIG. 8, the process of searching for other contact information that is executed by the search part 210 at step S504 will be described.

At step S604, by referring to a record that records relationship and the like, data that is associated with relationships 1 to n and that contains the contact ID of the selected contact information in "target person ID" is determined. Then, contact information corresponding to the "relevant person ID" that is linked with a determined "target person ID" is obtained from the contact information storage device 208.

At step S606, contact information for a person who currently belongs to the same department as the selected contact is retrieved. To be specific, by referring to items "department name 1" and "department name 2" of contact information stored in the contact information storage device 208, other contact information that has the same value as the items "department name 1" or "department name 2" of the selected contact information is obtained.

Then, at step S608, contact information for an employee who works for the company of the selected contact (except for those who belong to the same department) is retrieved. Specifically, by referring to contact information items "company name", "department name 1", and "department name 2" that are stored in the contact information storage device 208, contact information that has the same value as the item "company name" of the selected contact information and that has different values for items "department name 1" and "department name 2" from those of the selected contact information.

Then, at step S610, contact information for a person who has worked for the company of the selected contact is retrieved. Specifically, by referring to "history" item of contact information stored in the contact information storage device 208 and comparing "history" items with the "company name" item in the selected contact information, contact information that includes the same value as "company name" in the selected contact information is obtained.

At step S612, contact information of employees or ex-employees of a company for which the person of the selected contact previously worked is retrieved. Specifically, by referring to "job history" in "history" item of contact information stored in the contact information storage device 208 and comparing "job history" with "history" in the selcted contact information, contact information whose "job history" includes at least one value in "history" in the selected contact information is obtained that has a company which is contained in "history" item of the selected contact information.

Then, at step S614, contact information for a person who is or was in the alma maters of the person of the selected contact is retrieved. Specifically, by referring to a record that records relationship and the like, data that is associated with alma maters 1 to n and that contains the contact ID of the selected contact information in "target person ID" is selected. Then, other data is retrieved that has the same value as the school name/faculty linked with the target person ID. In this manner, a "target person ID" that is contained in the other data retrieved is identified. Then, other contact information corresponding to the identified "target person ID" is obtained.

Subsequently, at step S616, contact information for those who have the same membership information as the person of the selected contact is retrieved. Specifically, by referring to a record that records relationship and the like, data that is associated with membership 1 to membership n and that has the contact ID of the selected contact information in "target person ID" is selected. Then, other data that has the same value as the "membership name" linked with the "target person ID" is obtained. In this manner, a "target person ID" that is contained in other data retrieved is identified. And other contact information corresponding to the identified "target person ID" is obtained.

Then, at step S618, contact information for those who have attended the same events as the person of the selected contact a number of times. Specifically, by referring to a record that records relationship and the like, data that is associated with event 1 to event n and that has the contact ID of the selected contact information in "participant ID" is selected. Then, other data that has the same values as "event name" and "period" linked with this "participant ID" is retrieved. In this manner, a "participant ID" that is contained in other data retrieved is identified. Then, by counting "participant IDs" that have been determined, "participant IDs" of those who attended the same events a number of times are identified. Then, other contact information corresponding to the determined "participant IDs" is obtained from the contact information storage device 208.

Next, at step S620, contact information for those who belong to the same group as the person of the selected contact is retrieved. Specifically, by referring to "group" item of contact information stored in the contact information storage device 208, other contact information that has the same value as any of "group" items of the selected contact information is obtained.

Referring to FIG. 9, search process performed at step S606 will be described as an example.

At step S702, counter value i is defined and 1 is substituted for it. At step S704, for ith contact information in the contact information storage device 208 and contact information selected by the user, matching between items "department name 1" and "department name 2" is performed.

At step S706, it is determined whether the values are the same in the matching. •

If the values were matched, the ith contact information is stored in a buffer area for a group of those who are in the same department.

At step S710, the counter value i is incremented by one.

At step S712, it is determined whether there exists ith data or whether the maximum number of data that can be displayed have been obtained. If there is ith data, process from step S704 will be repeated.

As other steps shown in FIG. 8 can be described similarly to step S606, detailed description on them is omitted. In the process of FIG. 9, if the ith contact information is the selected contact information, it may not be stored in the buffer or that contact information may be omitted when creating a screen.

(Second Embodiment)

In the second embodiment of the invention, multiple pieces of contact information are displayed together at step S706 for each of buffer areas used for grouping contact information.

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a screen layout that is displayed on the display device at step S508 of FIG. 7. In this example, grouping is made for each buffer area, so that relevant contacts, contacts of employees who work for the same company, contacts that have relevant values in history, and contacts of those who belong to the same group are grouped and displayed.

In addition, contacts of employees of the same company are displayed being grouped into contact information for those who belong to the same department and contact information of employees of the same company (except for employees in the same department).

Contacts that have relevant values in history are displayed being grouped into contacts that contain the same value as job history 1, ..., contacts that contain the same value as hob history n, contacts that contain the same value as alma mater 1, ..., contacts that contain the same value as alma mater n, contacts that contain the same value as membership 1, ..., and contacts that contain the same value as membership n.

Further, contacts of those who belong to the same group are grouped into contacts of those who belong to group 1, ..., contacts of those who belong to group n.

Here, priorities may be preset among buffer areas for grouping contact information. In this case, the priorities are set according to degree of relevance to selected contact information: for example, employees that belong to the same department may have higher priority than employees in a different department of the same company. Such processing can enable the display control part 206 to create a screen that arranges pieces of contact information grouped according to priorities among buffer areas and displays it on the display device 202.

(Third Embodiment)

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of layout of other contact information relating to selected contact information that is displayed in the third embodiment of the invention. The contact information managing apparatus 200 stores a frame defining such a layout shown in the figure in advance, and the display control part 206 puts values of certain items contained in individual pieces of contact information into Name and rows 1 to 4 in the frame and displays the same on the display device 202. In the picture field provided in the left on the figure, an image can be laid out and displayed if an image file of a picture is associated with contact information as mentioned above.

Thus, with such limitation of information for display into several rows, there is provided an advantage of a user being able to understand interrelationships among pieces of contact information in a short time.

FIG. 12 illustrates items of contact information that are displayed in Name and rows 1 to 4 of FIG. 11. In FIG. 12, each of the columns corresponds to a contact information group.

The contact information managing apparatus 200 stores the frame of FIG. 11 and information on correspondences shown in FIG. 12. This enables the display control part 206 to display information in certain items that are different among groups when obtained pieces of contact information are grouped for display. Accordingly, what is advantageous is that for an employee of the same company as that for selected contact information, it is possible not to display the company name, or alternatively, to display other items instead of company name.

(Fourth Embodiment)

A user interface may be provided that allows a user to easily view information that are not displayed when limited contact information is displayed as mentioned above.

FIG. 13 illustrates a functional block diagram of the display control part 206 in the fourth embodiment of the invention. The display control part 206 includes a detection part 1202 and a balloon display part 1204. The detection part 1202 of the display control part 206 detects positioning (hovering) of a cursor over a piece of contact information displayed on the display device 202, and the balloon display part 1204 displays additional items that are not displayed contained in the contact information for which positioning of the cursor has been detected. FIG. 14 illustrates an example of contact information displayed by the display control part 206. Out of contact information 1302 and 1304 displayed on the display device 202, for contact information 1302 over which the arrow-shaped cursor is positioned, contact information including items not displayed is shown as balloon 1306 over displayed contact information.

The sequence of execution or performance of the methods illustrated and described in the specification is not essential unless otherwise specified. In other words, it is contemplated by the inventor that elements of these methods may be performed in any order unless otherwise specified and that more or less elements than disclosed in the specification may be included in the methods.

In view of the above, it is to be understood that the objects of the invention are attained and other effective results are realized.

To the configuration and methods described above, various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of embodiments of the invention. Therefore, all contents contained in the above description and illustrated in the accompanying drawings are intended to be construed as illustrative not limitative.

The present invention has been described in detail with respect to preferred embodiments, and it will now be apparent from the foregoing to those skilled in the art that changes and modifications may be made without departing from the invention in its broader aspect, and it is the intention, therefore, in the apparent claims to cover all such changes.

Claims

WHAT IS CLAIMED IS:

1. A contact information managing apparatus comprising: contact information storing means for storing a plurality of pieces of contact information; selecting means for receiving selection of one piece of contact information; searching means for searching contact information stored in the contact information storing means to obtain other contact information which includes the same value with the contact information selected by the selecting means; and display controlling means for displaying the other contact information obtained by the searching means on a display device.

2. The contact information managing apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the display controlling means groups the other contact information obtained by the searching means according to an item which includes the same value with the contact information selected by the selecting means and displays it.

3. The contact information managing apparatus as claimed in claim 2, wherein the display controlling means displays the grouped pieces of contact information according to a predetermined precedence order.

4. The contact information managing apparatus as claimed in any of claims 1 to 3, wherein the display controlling means displays the grouped pieces of contact information according to predetermined precedence order.

5. The contact information managing apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the display controlling means includes: detecting means for detecting positioning of a cursor on one of the other pieces of contact information displayed on the display device; and means for displaying an item that is included in one of the other pieces of contact information to which the positioning of the cursor is detected and has not been displayed.

6. A method for providing contact information performed by a computer storing a plurality of pieces of contact information, the method comprising the steps of: receiving selection of one piece of contact information; searching the stored contact information to obtain other contact information which includes the same value with the selected contact information; and displaying the obtained other contact information on a display device.

7. The method for providing contact information as claimed in claim 6, wherein the step for displaying includes the step of grouping the other contact information obtained in the step for searching according to an item which includes the same value with the contact information selected at the selecting step and displaying it.

8. The method for providing contact information as claimed in claim 7, wherein the step for displaying includes the step of displaying the grouped pieces of contact information according to a predetermined precedence order.

9. The method for providing contact information as claimed in any of claims 6 to 8, wherein the step for displaying includes the step of displaying the grouped pieces of contact information according to predetermined precedence order.

10. The method for providing contact information as claimed in claim 9, wherein the step for displaying includes: detecting positioning of a cursor on one of the other pieces of contact information displayed on the display device; and displaying an item that is included in one of the other pieces of contact information to which the positioning of the cursor is detected and has not been displayed.

11. A computer readable medium which stores thereon a computer program for making a computer perform the method as claimed in Claim 6.