JP2002247107A - Information notice system, information notice method, information notice program, and storage medium with information notice program stored thereon - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information notice system, an information notice method, an information notice program, and a storage medium for storing the information notice program being considered so as not to delay information notice even in the case that the Internet is congested resulting in causing the possibility of a delay in the arrival of mail. SOLUTION: A cause to a delay in mail notice is not mail servers to which final users subscribe but often the congestion in networks leading to the servers. Then the degree of congestion of the networks is investigated by a ping command or the like, when the networks are congested, the information notice system informs users about information by means of a phone call and when the networks are not congested, the information notice system informs users about information by means of electronic mail.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention is intended to prevent information from being delayed even when the Internet is congested and mail arrival may be delayed when using Internet mail as information reporting means. The present invention relates to an information reporting system, an information reporting method, an information reporting program, and a storage medium storing the information reporting program.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As seen in the i-mode service of NTT DoCoMo, the spread of Internet mail is extremely remarkable. Here, Internet mail is a "best effort" service. In other words, in Internet mail, even if information is reported using e-mail, it does not always reach the other party in a predetermined time.

[0003] Consider the i-mode as an example. i
-Mode mobile phone uses the domain name "docomo.
ne. jp "is received from the Internet by a mail server having the address"
The data is finally transmitted to the destination mobile phone via the network inside the oMo company and finally by wireless.

When an e-mail is sent to the i-mode mail server from the outside via the Internet, the e-mail arrives at the portable telephone in a few seconds in most cases. However, a very large delay (for example, about 50 minutes)
May occur. As mentioned above, such a phenomenon should not be blamed because the Internet is a "best effort" service. However, in some cases, such a delay is problematic.

[0005] One example of a service in which delay is a problem is a push-type mail notification service. For example, suppose you want to get on a bus. Close to the stop, but cold in midwinter. In such a case, I would be grateful to be notified by e-mail when the bus leaves the previous stop (one of the bus stops I am trying to get on). You only have to be at the kotatsu at home until the mail arrives. The contents of the e-mail for reporting the approach of the bus are, for example,
The name of the bus stop and the time when the bus left the bus stop. When the bus leaves the previous stop, an e-mail is sent to the bus user (although still at home). There is no problem if the mail arrives immediately. However, if the email is delayed, the passengers will go out to the bus stop after leaving the bus stop in their neighborhood. For such services, "best effort"
Can be an obstacle to service realization.

[0006] The above problems cannot be avoided as long as the Internet is used, because it is a "best effort service". There is only one solution according to the prior art. Using a service other than "best effort" to notify the user of the start of the bus. Examples of bandwidth guarantee services that are not best effort include:
There is a home analog telephone. Via telephone line,
For example, a computer may generate a message saying, "I just left the bus stop. The current time is 7:10 am," and call the user. This is due to the so-called computer telephony technology,
The feasibility can be easily understood by those skilled in the art. As described above, if a telephone line that is not “best effort” and has a guaranteed bandwidth is used, information can be reported unless the bus user is busy (busy). The report destination is not limited to a general subscriber telephone, but may be a mobile telephone held by a bus user. However, in the case of a mobile phone, if the radio wave slot in the area is used up, the mobile phone cannot be called from the base even if the mobile phone is not busy.
However, this is a rare case, and in this specification, a telephone is treated as a portable telephone / PHS as a band-guaranteed reporting means having a real-time function.

However, the use of telephones as described above has a serious problem. It is a matter of expense. Originally, i-mo
It is self-evident that one of the major reasons that de became so popular was its price. For example, if the caller is a mobile phone, the recipient happens to be on that day only,
What about carrying the mobile phone and traveling a long distance? 30 yen, 5 just for a short talkie
It costs 0 yen. In addition, even if you are in the city, calling charges are not cheap as long as you make calls from general subscriber phones. It costs at least 10 yen. Therefore, the method of making a report using a telephone does not know a service that is occasionally used, and there is a problem in application to a service that is used every day. Twice a day, 25 times a month, it costs at least 6,000 yen a year. On the other hand, if it is an e-mail, i-mode costs only 600 yen a year. Some mobile phone companies offer free e-mail reception. In this case, it should be noted that the communication cost for reporting the information is free.

As seen above, Internet mail, which is a best-effort service, has a problem in real-time performance. By the way, a telephone line having no problem in real-time performance has a problem in terms of cost. Neither is a means of realizing an inexpensive push service.

[0009]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the conventional technology and to provide an information reporting system which can be used at low cost while maintaining real-time properties. A method, an information reporting program, and a storage medium storing the information reporting program are provided.

[0010]

An information reporting system (claim 1) according to the present invention comprises: a mail transmitting means for transmitting a mail to a predetermined report destination; and a method of congesting the Internet to a mail server of the report destination. A network congestion degree measuring means for detecting, and a telephone calling means for reporting information to a telephone number corresponding to the report destination, wherein the network congestion degree measuring means determines that the network is not congested. In this method, information is reported using the mail transmitting means, and when it is determined that the information is congested, the information is reported using the telephone calling means.

Further, the information reporting method of the present invention (Claim 2)
A mail transmitting step of transmitting a mail to a predetermined report destination, a network congestion degree measuring step of detecting how the Internet is congested up to the report destination mail server, and a telephone number corresponding to the report destination. And a telephone call step of reporting information.If the network congestion degree measuring step determines that the network is not congested, the mail transmitting step reports information and determines that the network is congested. In this case, the information is reported in the telephone calling step.

Further, the information reporting program of the present invention (claim 3) is a mail transmission process for transmitting a mail to a predetermined report destination, and a network for detecting how the Internet is congested up to the mail server of the report destination. A congestion degree measurement process and a telephone call process for reporting information to a predetermined telephone number associated with the report destination are determined, and the network congestion degree measurement process determines that the network is not congested. In this case, information is reported by the mail transmission process, and when it is determined that the information is congested, a process of reporting the information by the telephone calling process is executed.

[0013] Further, the storage medium storing the information report program of the present invention (claim 4) is a mail transmission process for transmitting a mail to a predetermined report destination, and the Internet congestion to the mail server of the report destination. Network congestion degree measurement processing for detecting the destination and a telephone call processing for reporting information to a predetermined telephone number related to the report destination, and the network is congested by the network congestion degree measurement processing. If it is determined that there is no information, an information report program for executing the information report by the mail transmission process, and if it is determined that it is congested, executing the process of reporting the information by the telephone call process is stored.

[0014]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of an information notification system (claim 1) of the present invention.

The information reporting system 1 of the present invention comprises a mail transmitting means 10 for transmitting a mail to a predetermined report destination.
Network congestion degree measuring means 11 for detecting how the Internet is congested up to the mail server of the report destination;
And a telephone calling unit 12 for reporting information to a telephone number corresponding to the report destination. If the network congestion degree measuring unit 11 determines that the network is not congested, the mail transmitting unit 10 The telephone is used to report information, and when it is determined that the information is congested, the information is reported using the telephone calling means 12.

The mail sending means 10 may be any means as long as it sends out a pre-configured mail to the world of the Internet using the SMTP protocol.
The electronic message of the e-mail is, for example, "08:24, the bus departs from Fujimidai bus stop." Generally, sendmail performs such a function. send
It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that if a computer has mail installed, some commands can be issued at the command level to send an e-mail to a target e-mail address. Commands are embodied as shell script-level command programs.

The network congestion measuring means 11 is a component that plays an important role in the present invention. i-
It is rare in our experience that even in the case where the mail arrival in mode takes 50 minutes, it is congested and delayed in the network inside NTTDoCoMo. The problem is rather the SMT of the mail sender
From a server machine that supports the P protocol, NTT
DoCoMo mail server (for example, docomo.
ne. The problem is that the line up to jp) is too crowded and the packet loss occurs there. In such a case, the email sender sendma
il tries sending several times, but no dialogue with the server (docomo.ne.jp) on the receiving side is established.
For this reason, it is greatly delayed that sendmail actually sends the mail.

The above docomo. ne. The problem of mail delay due to the route to the jp mail server is due to packet loss and communication delay during this time. Therefore, it can be understood by those skilled in the art that if the response time can be examined by, for example, the ping command, the manner of insertion can be determined. For example, the network congestion degree measuring unit 11 continuously issues a ping command to a target mail server. Even if the final mail server refuses ping due to security guard, a ping may be issued to the gateway server such as a provider immediately before searching for the ping. . The ping should be struck continuously and hit 10 or 20 in a row. By this, if
This is because if the ping packet is lost on the Internet line on the way, how many times the ping packet is lost out of 20 times indicates how the network is congested. As described above, the network congestion degree measuring means 11 has a function of calculating a packet loss or measuring a response time by a ping command.

The telephone calling means 12 has a function of calling a voice message generated in advance, such as "The bus has departed at Fujimidai bus stop at 8:23," via a telephone line. Generally speaking, this requires a speech synthesis board, a group of CTI (computer telephony integration) program routines, a PBX board connecting the computer to a telephone line, and the like. A person skilled in the art can construct the method using his / her expert knowledge.

The present invention operates as follows using the above-described mail transmitting means 10, network congestion degree measuring means 11, and telephone calling means 12. First, it is assumed that a message to be notified of information is generated as mail and telephone voice by some external function. Since this method of generating a telegram has no direct relation to the gist of the present invention, it will not be described in detail in this specification. In some cases, these messages may be manually generated and provided to the present invention. When a message is generated and an information notification instruction is issued, first, in the present invention, the network congestion degree measuring unit 1 is used.
1 is activated. Then, if the network congestion degree measuring means 11 determines that the network is congested from a predetermined limit, the telephone calling means 12
To send a voice message to the user. Thus, even if the network is congested, information can be reported while maintaining real-time properties. On the other hand, if the network congestion degree measuring means 11 determines that the network is not too busy, the electronic mail is transmitted using the mail transmitting means 10.

The network is not so crowded that packet loss occurs excessively. Therefore, according to the present invention, in most cases, information can be reported to the user by Internet mail which is almost free of charge. However, in rare cases, users are only called when the network is congested or the network is shut down for some reason. Phones are expensive,
Since chances of using such means are rare, it is possible to report information while maintaining real-time performance while keeping down the total cost.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the information reporting method (claim 2) of the present invention.

The information reporting method 2 of the present invention comprises a mail transmitting step 20 for transmitting a mail to a predetermined report destination.
And a network congestion measuring step 21 for detecting how the Internet is congested up to the mail server of the report destination
And a telephone call step 22 for reporting information to a telephone number corresponding to the report destination. If the network congestion degree measuring step 21 determines that the network is not congested, a mail transmission step 20
, And when it is determined that it is congested, the information is reported in a telephone calling step 22.

The processing contents of the mail transmitting step 20 are as described for the mail transmitting means 10 of FIG. Using the SMTP protocol, pre-configured mail
Anything that launches into the Internet world can be used. The electronic message of the e-mail is, for example, "08:24, the bus departs from Fujimidai bus stop." Generally, those that perform such functions are sendmail
It is. It is obvious to those skilled in the art that if a computer on which sendmail is installed, some commands can be issued at the command level to send an e-mail to a target e-mail address. This series of steps may be programmed and executed as a sequence of script languages.

The network congestion degree measuring step 21 comprises:
This is a step of measuring the degree of congestion up to the mail server of the mail recipient in the same manner as the network congestion degree measuring means 11 in FIG. For example, the mail address of the final recipient is docomo. n
e. jp. In this case, docom
o. ne. The problem of mail delay due to the route to the jp mail server is due to packet loss and communication delay during this time. Therefore, in the network congestion measurement step, a ping command is issued to the target mail server. The ping is continuously struck, and 10 or 20 pings are continuously struck. By this, if ping
If the packet is lost on the Internet line in the middle, how many times the packet is lost out of the 20 times indicates how the network is congested. As described above, the network congestion degree measuring step 21 calculates the packet loss, or
Measure the response time.

The telephone call step 22 is a step for calling a previously generated voice message such as "The bus has departed at Fujimidai bus stop at 8:23" through the telephone line. A function similar to that of the telephone calling means 12 in FIG. 1 is realized. To realize this, a speech synthesis board, a group of CTI program routines, a PBX board connecting a computer to a telephone line, and the like are required. It is a common realization method to store a message as a group of commands for speech synthesis in a file format on a computer. In the telephone calling step 22, a call is made to a predetermined telephone number of the information recipient by the CTI subroutine group. When the on-hook of the other party is detected, the signal of the voice synthesis board is sent to it,
Notify the recipient of the information. In recent years, a speech synthesis board based on speech rule synthesis has been sold. With this type of board, it is sufficient to prepare an electronic message to be synthesized as ordinary Japanese text.

The present invention operates as follows using the above-described mail transmission step 20, network congestion degree measurement step 21, and telephone call step 22. First, it is assumed that a message to be notified of information is generated as mail and telephone voice by some external function. When a message is generated and an information notification instruction is issued, first, in the present invention, a network congestion degree measuring step 21 is started. Then, if the network congestion degree measuring step 21 determines that the network is congested from a predetermined limit, a telephone calling step 22 is used,
Send a voice message to the user. Thus, even if the network is congested, information can be reported while maintaining real-time properties. On the other hand, if the network congestion degree measuring step 21 determines that the network is not too busy, the electronic mail is transmitted using the mail transmitting step 20.

There is not so much network congestion that excessive packet loss occurs. Therefore, according to the present invention, in most cases, information can be reported to the user by Internet mail which is almost free of charge. However, in rare cases, users are only called when the network is congested or the network is shut down for some reason. Phones are expensive,
Since chances of using such means are rare, it is possible to report information while maintaining real-time performance while keeping down the total cost.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the information reporting program (claim 3) of the present invention.

The information reporting program 3 of the present invention includes a mail transmission process 30 for transmitting a mail to a predetermined report destination.
And a network congestion degree measuring process 31 for detecting how the Internet is congested up to the mail server of the report destination;
A telephone call process 32 for reporting information to a telephone number corresponding to the report destination. If the network congestion measurement process 31 determines that the network is not congested, the mail transmission process 30 Information is reported, and when it is determined that the terminal is congested, a function of reporting information is executed by the telephone calling process 32.

The processing content of the mail transmission processing 30 is the same as that of the mail transmission step 20 in FIG. Launch a pre-configured email into the Internet world using the SMTP protocol. The electronic message of the e-mail is, for example, "08:24, the bus departs from Fujimidai bus stop." Generally, those that perform such functions are sendma
il. With a computer on which sendmail is installed, it is possible to send some commands at the command level to send a mail to a target mail address. This series of processing contents may be programmed and executed as a sequence of script languages.

The network congestion degree measuring process 31 is performed in the manner shown in FIG.
This is a process for measuring the congestion level up to the mail server of the mail recipient as in the network congestion level measurement step 21 in FIG. For example, the mail address of the final recipient is docomo. ne. j
Suppose you have p. In this case, docomo. n
e. The problem of mail delay due to the route to the jp mail server is due to packet loss and communication delay during this time. Therefore, in the network congestion degree measurement processing, a ping command is issued to the target mail server.
The ping is continuously struck, and 10 or 20 pings are continuously struck. As a result, if the ping packet is lost on the Internet line on the way, 2
Depending on how many times you lose during the 0 times, you can see how the network is congested. Thus, the network congestion degree measurement processing 31
Calculate packet loss or measure response time.

The telephone calling process 32 is a process for calling a voice message generated in advance, such as "The bus has departed at Fujimidai Bus Stop at 8:23", through a telephone line. This processing is equivalent to the telephone calling step 22 in FIG. To achieve this, a speech synthesis board, CT
An I program routine group, a PBX board for connecting a computer to a telephone line, and the like are required. It is a common realization method to store a message as a group of commands for speech synthesis in a file format on a computer. In the telephone calling process 32, a call is executed to a predetermined telephone number of the information receiver by the CTI subroutine group. When the on-hook of the other party is detected, the signal of the voice synthesizing board is made to flow therethrough to notify the receiver of the information in the form of voice. In recent years, a speech synthesis board based on speech rule synthesis has been sold. With this type of board, it is sufficient to prepare an electronic message to be synthesized as ordinary Japanese text.

Using the above-described mail transmission processing 30, network congestion degree measurement processing 31, and telephone call processing 32, the present invention operates as follows. First, it is assumed that a message to be notified of information is generated as mail and telephone voice by some external function. When a message is generated and an information notification instruction is issued, first, in the present invention, a network congestion degree measurement process 31 is started. Then, if the network congestion degree measurement processing 31 is performed based on a predetermined limit,
When it is determined that the network is congested, a voice message is transmitted to the user using the telephone calling process 32. Thus, even if the network is congested, information can be reported while maintaining real-time properties. On the other hand, when the network congestion degree measurement processing 31 determines that the network is not too busy, the electronic mail is transmitted using the mail transmission processing 30.

The network is not so crowded that packet loss occurs excessively. Therefore, according to the present invention, in most cases, information can be reported to the user by Internet mail which is almost free of charge. However, in rare cases, users are only called when the network is congested or the network is shut down for some reason. Phones are expensive,
Since chances of using such means are rare, it is possible to report information while maintaining real-time performance while keeping down the total cost.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of the information reporting program (claim 4) of the present invention.

The storage medium 4 storing the information report program according to the present invention includes a mail transmission process 40 for transmitting a mail to a predetermined report destination, and a network for detecting how the Internet is congested up to the report destination mail server. A congestion degree measuring process 41 and a telephone calling process 42 for reporting information to a predetermined telephone number related to the report destination, and the network congestion degree measuring process 41 determines that the network is not congested. In this case, an information report program 43 for executing a process of reporting information by the mail transmission process 40 and performing a process of reporting information by the telephone calling process 42 when it is determined that the terminal is congested is stored.

The contents of the mail transmission processing 40 are the same as those of the mail transmission processing 30 shown in FIG. Launch a pre-configured email into the Internet world using the SMTP protocol. For example, if the message of the e-mail is a service that reports the approach of a bus, "08:24,
Departs Fujimidai bus stop. It is the content which said. Generally, those that perform such functions are sendmail
It is. With a computer on which sendmail is installed, it is possible to send some commands at the command level to send a mail to a target mail address. This series of processing contents may be programmed and executed as a sequence of script languages.

The network congestion degree measuring process 41 is performed in the manner shown in FIG.
This is a process for measuring the congestion level up to the mail server of the mail recipient in the same manner as the network congestion level measurement processing 31 in. For example, the mail address of the final recipient is docomo. ne. jp
Suppose you have In this case, docomo. ne.
The problem of mail delay due to the route to the jp mail server is due to packet loss and communication delay during this time.
Therefore, in the network congestion degree measurement processing, a ping command is issued to the target mail server. pi
ng is continuously struck and continuously struck at 10 or 20 ng. As a result, if a ping packet is lost on the Internet line on the way, the network congestion can be determined by the number of times the ping packet is lost out of 20 times.
As described above, the network congestion degree measuring process 41 calculates a packet loss or measures a response time.

The telephone call processing 42 is a processing for calling a previously generated voice message such as "The bus has departed at Fujimidai bus stop at 8:23" through the telephone line. This is the same as the telephone call processing 32 in FIG. To realize this, a speech synthesis board, a group of CTI program routines, a PBX board connecting a computer to a telephone line, and the like are required. It is a common realization method to store a message as a group of commands for speech synthesis in a file format on a computer. In the telephone call processing 32, C
With the TI subroutine group, a call is executed to a telephone number of a predetermined information recipient. When the on-hook of the other party is detected, the signal of the voice synthesizing board is made to flow therethrough to notify the receiver of the information in the form of voice. In recent years, a speech synthesis board based on speech rule synthesis has been sold. With this type of board, it is sufficient to prepare an electronic message to be synthesized as ordinary Japanese text.

Using the above-described mail transmission processing 40, network congestion degree measurement processing 41, and telephone call processing 42, the present invention operates as follows. First, it is assumed that a message to be notified of information is generated as mail and telephone voice by some external function. When a message is generated and an information notification instruction is issued, first, in the present invention, the network congestion degree measurement processing 41 is started. Then, if the network congestion degree measurement processing 41 is based on a predetermined limit,
When it is determined that the network is congested, a voice message is transmitted to the user using the telephone call processing 42. Thus, even if the network is congested, information can be reported while maintaining real-time properties. On the other hand, if the network congestion degree measurement processing 41 determines that the network is not too busy, the electronic mail is transmitted using the mail transmission processing 40. The storage medium 4 of the present invention stores an information notification program 43 that realizes these functions.

The network is not so crowded that excessive packet loss occurs. Therefore, according to the present invention, in most cases, information can be reported to the user by Internet mail which is almost free of charge. However, in rare cases, users are only called when the network is congested or the network is shut down for some reason. Phones are expensive,
Since chances of using such means are rare, it is possible to report information while maintaining real-time performance while keeping down the total cost.

The embodiments of the claims (total of four terms) of the present invention have been described with reference to FIGS. Although the categories in the patent application are different, the functions realized by these inventions are all the same. Specifically, the mail transmitting means 10, the mail transmitting step 20, the mail transmitting process 30, and the mail transmitting process 40 all have the same function. Network congestion degree measuring means 11, network congestion degree measuring step 2
1. The network congestion degree measurement processing 31 and the network congestion degree measurement processing 41 all have the same function. Telephone calling means 12, telephone calling step 22, telephone calling processing 3
2. The telephone call processing 42 has the same function. Therefore, in order to show the technical feasibility of each component,
Mail transmission processing 30, network congestion degree measuring means 3
1. A more specific method of realizing the telephone calling means 32 will be disclosed below. In addition, processing contents for realizing the gist of the invention by linking these three components will be described, and the technical feasibility of the disclosed invention will be clarified.

First, a configuration example of the mail transmission processing 30 will be disclosed. However, the mail transmission processing itself is not a special processing, and it is considered that a person skilled in the art can design another realization method having the same function. The function of the mail transmission process 30 is to transmit a message via the Internet to a predetermined mail address (hereafter, foo@docomo.ne.jp).

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of one implementation example of the mail transmission processing 30. The mail transmission process 5 has a message file 50 separately created in advance and a mail address 51 of a transmission destination. The format and contents of the message file do not directly relate to the gist of the present invention. For example, "08:23
The bus has left the Fujimidai bus stop. " On the other hand, the mail address 51 is a mail address of the other party to which the message is transmitted in advance. For example, it is a file for storing the address “foo@docomo.ne.jp” in a text format.
In the more practical embodiment of the present invention, there may be a plurality of destination e-mail addresses. However, such a configuration is a use of the present invention, and is directly related to the gist of the present invention. do not do.

The mail is actually transmitted by the SMTP.
Software that implements the protocol, for example, s
endmail. However, sendmail is
Because of the well-known software, in this specification,
Further description is omitted. There are various ways to send mail, but the best-known method is to use a mail command. Generally, a mail command is executed by typing "mail mail destination address" at the shell script command level. UN
A person skilled in the art who has at least some experience with IX (registered trademark) shell programming extracts the other mail address in text format from the above mail address 51, creates a script file, and executes the shell script file. I think it's easy to understand that it's easy.

At the command level, "mail foo"
＠Docomo. ne. By entering the command “jp”, the system returns “Subject:”. This requires input of the subject of the mail, as is well known. Further, the mail command requests the input of the message body, to which the contents of the message file 50 are passed. After all, for example, a file for executing a command having the following contents is created as a shell script program, and this is prepared as a transmission command file 52, whereby the mail transmission processing 30 is realized. . The following transmission command file 5
2, the address of the other party is read from the mail address 51, and the telegram is read from the telegram file 50 and inserted. mail foo @ docomo. ne. jp (line feed) BUSDOCO Service (line feed) 08:23 The bus left the Fujimidai bus stop. (new line) . (Line feed) In the above example, characters other than Chinese characters are actually half-width characters. Do this at the script level.

The outgoing call process 32 also realizes the function of making a telephone call, and is not a special process, and it is thought that a person skilled in the art can design another realization method having the same function. The function of the calling process 32 realizes a function of giving a voice notification of a predetermined sentence to a predetermined telephone number (09011112222 in the following example). The telephone number 0901111122 used as an example here
2 is foo @ docomo. ne. jp is a telephone number assigned to the mobile phone having jp. That is, as the gist of the present invention, it is necessary that the mail address and the telephone number are related to the same user (although it is not always necessary to use the same mobile phone number).

Calling a specific number or playing a talkie by a computer program
Today, it is widely used as computer telephony integration (CTI). When a call comes in, it automatically goes on-hook, picks up the handset, plays a pre-recorded audio file, and when it is finished,
Going off-hook is widely practiced. It is also widely used to call a predetermined number from a computer. These CTI programs are:
Tools are available on the market that can be grouped together as components to visually design these control flows. The audio file is created in advance by speech rule synthesis.
What is necessary is just to synthesize as a digitized audio waveform, such as "Hachijinryusampun, Bashafuji Diverstay @ Demashita". From a text file saying "08:23 Bus has left the Fujimidai bus stop", using a voice rule synthesis method to generate a voice file,
This is a technique well known to those skilled in the art.

FIG. 6 schematically shows the above configuration. In the voice file 60, a synthesized message to be reported is stored as a voice signal. How to generate this file is not directly related to the gist of the present invention. A person may generate and record in advance. Also,
The telephone number file 61 contains the telephone number of the report destination. As described above, this telephone number is assumed to be the same recipient as the mail address for the purpose of the present invention. Computer Telephony Integration (CTI) component 62 must be pre-programmed to perform the following procedure. (1) Take out the telephone number from the telephone number file 61 and start calling to the other party, (2) Detect that the other party has gone on-hook, (3) If the other party goes on-hook, send the contents of the voice file 60 to the line, 4) It is detected that the other party has gone off-hook or that the voice message has ended. (5) If the off-hook or the message end of the other party has been detected, this PBX board 63 is detected.
The side also goes off-hook. By these series of processes, 09
On the number 0111122222, the created voice message is reported.

FIG. 8 shows a network congestion degree measuring process 31.
2 shows a specific configuration example. Before explaining FIG. 8, a principle on which congestion degree is measured will be described with reference to FIG. As described above, the delay in the arrival of i-mode Internet mail may, of course, be due to the delay in the internal network of NTT DoCoMo, but in reality, communication between the mail servers is not successful. In our experience it has been a lot. This is because the network is congested, causing packet loss and large delays.
This may be due to a large delay in sending mail after several retries. Therefore, in the present invention, network congestion up to the mail server that causes a mail delay is detected, and a telephone notification is performed only when network congestion that causes a delay is detected. FIG. 7 is an example of execution of a ping command, which is one of means for detecting network congestion. Here, www. ieice. or. jp (this is the URL of the actual homepage of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers).
In FIG. 7, the parameter of the ping command is 10
This indicates that the ping command is to be performed a number of times. Note that the packet is not returned only once in 10 ping commands. ping
By default, if there is no response within 1 second,
Thus, it is recorded as a timeout. Also note that the response times of the other server to the ping command also vary for the other nine times.

FIG. 7 is an experiment when the network is relatively congested (actually, the experiment is performed at midnight from the OCN site). Even so, there is congestion somewhere in the network up to the server of this society, and packet loss has occurred. Since the loss was performed once out of 10 times, it can be said that the loss rate is 10%. As described above, as a method of measuring the congestion degree of the network, for example, (1) ping
When the timeout ratio for the command is equal to or more than a certain value, it is determined that the network is congested.
(2) The average value of the response time to the ping command is
If it is more than a certain level, it is determined that the network is congested. (3) Combine the above (1) and (2).
And the like.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the flow of the network congestion degree measuring process 7 for measuring the network congestion degree by the ping command. First,
First, a ping command is issued (ping command issuance 70). The target server is immediately known from the user's email address. For example, if the target mail address is “foo@docomo.ne.jp”, the mail server name is “docomo.ne.j” after “@”.
p ”. In response, a ping command may be issued. As a result, the route to this server becomes a measurement target. The result of the ping command is as shown in FIG. 7. From this, for example, a packet loss rate can be calculated (packet loss or response time calculation 71). If the result exceeds a predetermined limit value, it is determined that the network is congested (72 in FIG. 8).

FIG. 9 shows the overall process 8 of the present invention.
The present invention is activated by an external trigger. It is assumed that the text of the e-mail for reporting information by e-mail or the telegram by voice for reporting the information by telephone is prepared separately. First, the text to be reported is received in the form of a file or the like (80 in FIG. 9).
Next, a network congestion degree measuring process (or a network congestion degree measuring unit, a network congestion degree measuring step)
Is started (81 in FIG. 9). Thereby, the congestion degree is measured. When it is determined that the congestion degree exceeds a predetermined value (82 in FIG. 9), a telephone calling process (or a telephone calling means, a telephone calling step) is started. On the other hand, when it is determined that the congestion degree is not so large, the mail transmission process (or the mail transmission unit or the mail transmission step) is started.

According to the above operation, when the network is busy, the user is notified by voice that the bus has left Fujimidai at 8:23 by telephone. In a normal case where the network is not crowded, an information report is made by e-mail. E-mail is cheaper than telephone, and even if a user receives this report every day, the cost burden is small. On the other hand, when the network is congested, the user is notified of the information by a real-time telephone, so that the user can surely receive the information regardless of the network state.

[0056]

As described above, according to the information reporting system, the information reporting method, and the information reporting program of the present invention,
Users can use the information reporting service that they use every day,
Low cost burden.

Further, according to the information reporting system, the information reporting method, and the information reporting program of the present invention, the user can surely, almost regardless of whether the network is crowded or not.
It is possible to receive notification of information by satisfying the real-time property.

[0058]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an example of an information reporting system of the present invention (claim 1).

FIG. 2 shows an example of an information reporting method according to the present invention (claim 2).

FIG. 3 shows an example of an information reporting program according to the present invention (claim 3);

FIG. 4 shows an example of a storage medium storing the information notification program of the present invention (claim 4).

FIG. 5 shows an example of a mail transmission process.

FIG. 6 shows an example of telephone call processing

FIG. 7 is a ping command execution example

FIG. 8 shows an example of a network congestion degree measurement process.

FIG. 9 shows the flow of the process of the present invention (overall).

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Information reporting system of the present invention (Claim 1) 2 Information reporting method of the present invention (Claim 2) 3 Information reporting program of the present invention (Claim 3) 4 Stores information reporting program of the present invention (Claim 4) Storage medium 10 mail sending means 11 network congestion degree measuring means 12 telephone calling means 20 mail sending step 21 network congestion degree measuring step 32 telephone calling step 30 mail sending processing 31 network congestion degree measuring processing 32 telephone calling processing 40 mail Transmission processing 41 Network congestion measurement step 42 Telephone call processing 43 Information reporting program

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A mail transmitting means for transmitting a mail to a predetermined report destination, a network congestion degree measuring means for detecting a way of congestion of the Internet to the mail server of the report destination, and a telephone corresponding to the report destination And a telephone calling means for reporting information to the number. If the network congestion degree measuring means determines that the network is not congested, the information is reported using the mail transmitting means and congestion occurs. An information reporting system that uses the telephone calling means to report information when it is determined that the information is transmitted. 2. A mail transmission step of transmitting a mail to a predetermined report destination, a network congestion degree measuring step of detecting how the Internet is congested up to the mail server of the report destination, and a telephone corresponding to the report destination And a telephone call step for reporting information to the number. If it is determined that the network is not congested by the network congestion degree measuring step, the information is reported by the mail transmitting step and the network is congested. An information reporting method for reporting information in the telephone calling step. 3. A mail transmission process for transmitting a mail to a predetermined report destination, a network congestion degree measurement process for detecting how the Internet is congested up to the mail server of the report destination, A telephone call process for reporting information to a predetermined telephone number.If it is determined that the network is not congested by the network congestion degree measurement process, information is reported by the mail transmission process. An information reporting program that executes a process of reporting information by the telephone calling process when it is determined that the terminal is congested. 4. A mail transmission process for transmitting a mail to a predetermined report destination, a network congestion degree measuring process for detecting how the Internet is congested up to the mail server of the report destination, A telephone call process for reporting information to a predetermined telephone number.If it is determined that the network is not congested by the network congestion degree measurement process, information is reported by the mail transmission process. A storage medium storing an information reporting program for executing a process of reporting information by the telephone calling process when it is determined that the terminal is congested.