KR100553880B1 - How to Specify Mail Recipients in Computer and Telephone Integration Systems - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention discloses a mail transmission apparatus and a recipient designation method in a computer and telephone integration system. The mail transmission apparatus according to the present invention in a computer and a telephone integrated system that provides a mail service function that allows a user to access a computer via a telephone and retrieve or transmit mail, at least during the reply, retransmission, and creation of a new mail. When a user selects a desired mail composing method, when resend or composing a new mail is selected in the composing message, a user inputs a recipient using the telephone button key. Mail content that the user has spoken over the telephone for a recipient designator that finds the recipient's e-mail address and specifies the recipient, automatically when the reply is selected in the composing message, or for a recipient specified in the recipient designator Voice recorder and recording wave A transfer and a mail transmission unit for transmitting the attachment to the message.

Description

Mail receiver designating method in computer and telephony integration system

1 is a flowchart for explaining a mail searching method using a general telephone.

2 is a schematic block diagram of a computer and telephone integration system to which the present invention is applied.

3 is a detailed block diagram of the computer and telephone integration system shown in FIG.

4 is a detailed block diagram of the inside of the system shown in FIG.

5 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment of a mail transmission apparatus according to the present invention.

6 is a view showing a telephone button of a typical telephone.

Fig. 7 is a flowchart for explaining a preferred embodiment of the method for designating a recipient according to the present invention at the time of mail transmission.

Fig. 8 is a flowchart for explaining another preferred embodiment of the addressee designation method according to the present invention at the time of mail transmission.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication service of a computer, and more particularly, to a mail transmission device and a method for designating a recipient in a computer and a telephone integration system providing a mail service function.

Recently, computer communication systems provide various communication services to users through communication networks or dedicated communication lines. As a communication service, there is a mail service function for sending and receiving messages between computer users. The mail service function delivers a message by voice as well as text and video. Computer & Telephony Integration (CTI) systems in computer communication systems, in particular, to provide a mail service function that allows the user to retrieve and send mail by voice from the outside over the phone.

1 is a flowchart for explaining a mail searching method using a general telephone.

First, the computer is accessed from the outside by telephone (step 100). That is, the user dials into the telephone number to which the computer is connected by modem through the telephone to access the computer. Here, the telephone may be any type of telephone that can be connected via a modem, for example, a telephone connected to a public telephone, a mobile phone, a general office telephone, a home telephone, a portable computer. Next, the computer receives a call (step 102). When a connection signal is received through a modem, a program for receiving a call is executed by a computer, and a newly arrived mail is received from a mail server connected through a LAN (step 104). Here, the received mail is stored in a predetermined mail storage section of the computer.

Next, the mail list to be read is searched (step 106). In other words, a mail list to be provided to the user is searched. In this case, the mail list corresponds to information of all mails which are not read by the user, including mail received just before and mail previously received. In this case, the mail information generally includes a sender, a received time, whether a file is attached, a type of mail (text, voice, etc.), a title of the mail, and the like.

Finally, according to the user's mail listening request for the retrieved mail list, the mail selected by the user in the mail list is heard (step 108). The user listens to the searched mail list and selects the mail he / she wants to listen to. At this time, the user hears the above-mentioned information of the mail through, for example, a text-to-speech (TTS) conversion program. After listening to the mail list, the user selects the mail by voice or tone-call (button on the phone). When the mail is spoken in step 108, the voice mail is read through the player, and in the case of the text mail, the mail is read to the user using a text-to-speech program.

As described above, the mail searching method using a telephone provided by a conventional computer and telephone integration system enables mail searching and mail reading functions. However, the conventional computer and telephone integration system does not substantially provide a mail transmission function such as a reply to a read mail, retransmission of a mail, and a new mail transmission function. Thus, the user could only search for mail and read mail, but could not compose a new mail or resend it to someone.

In addition, the most troublesome problem in sending mail is that the user designates a recipient from the outside by telephone. In particular, the user cannot designate a recipient by phone when re-sending the mail and sending a new mail.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in an effort to provide an apparatus for transmitting a mail in a computer and a telephone integration system, which enables a user to transmit mail using a telephone by designating an e-mail address of a recipient through a telephone from the outside.

Another technical problem to be solved by the present invention is to designate an e-mail address of a recipient required for a mail transmission using a telephone button key, thereby enabling mail transmission with a high voice recognition rate. The present invention provides a method for specifying a destination at the time of transmission.

In order to achieve the above object, a mail transmission apparatus according to the present invention in a computer and a telephone integration system that provides a mail service function that allows a user to access a computer through a telephone to retrieve or send mail,

The user enters the recipient using the telephone button key, at least when the mail composing option selects the desired composing method during replying, resending, and composing a new mail, resend or composing a new mail is selected in the composing message selection. To the destination designator that finds the e-mail address of the corresponding recipient by referring to the pre-created address book, the destination automatically specified when the reply is selected in the mail composing selection section, or the destination specified by the destination designator. A voice mail recording unit for recording a mail content left by a user through voice over a phone and making a recording file, and a mail transmission unit for attaching a file to a mail to be transmitted and sending the recording file.

In order to achieve the above another object, the address designation method according to the present invention at the time of mail transmission,

(a) selecting a recipient's name to be specified by the user using a telephone button key, and (b) finding an e-mail address corresponding to the selected recipient's name in the address book and specifying a recipient, wherein the address book includes: It is created in advance by the user and includes at least information on the recipient name and its e-mail address.

Moreover, in order to achieve the said another subject, the destination designation method by this invention at the time of an email transmission,

(a) selecting a last name from a recipient name to be specified by a user using a telephone button key, (b) inputting a name by voice in a recipient name by voice, and (c) performing voice recognition of the input name And (d) searching for the e-mail address corresponding to the voice recognized name in step (d) in the address book and specifying a recipient for the last name selected in step (b), wherein the address book is previously created by the user. And at least information about the recipient's name and its e-mail address.

EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings, the structure and operation | movement of a mail transmission apparatus by this invention, and the method of designating a destination at the time of a mail transmission are demonstrated as follows.

A computer and telephone integration system is described to aid in understanding the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of a computer and telephone integration system to which the present invention is applied, and includes a telephone 200, a computer 202 having an ON-NOW function, and a mail server 204. As shown in FIG.

2, a computer 202 having an on-now function is connected to an external telephone 200 through a modem and to a mail server 204 via a network card. When the user dials the telephone number from the outside, the user is connected to the computer 202 through the telephone 200. Computer 202 is turned on and connected to mail server 204 for retrieval and transmission of new mail. At this time, the computer has an on-now function which is always ready for fast booting even when the power is off.

FIG. 3 is a detailed block diagram of the computer and telephone integration system shown in FIG. 2, including telephone 302 and fax 304, computer 310 and LAN for computer communication coupled to a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 300; And a mail server 354 connected to a (LAN) 352. Computer 310 is a fax modem 312 connected to telephone 302 and fax 304 via PSTN 300, a microphone / keyboard 314 illustrated as input, and a speaker / monitor 316 illustrated as output. Network adapter connected to the mail server 354 via a LAN 352 and a communication service provider 320 (in the present invention, DIALOG) for managing communication services between these computer peripherals and a communication network. It consists of 350. Here, the dialog 320 is composed of a modem interface 322, a local interface 324, an information storage database 326 and an application and voice related database 328.

Referring to FIG. 3, a relationship with a computer peripheral device and a location on a communication network of a system to which the present invention is applied may be known based on the dialog 320. The dialog 320 is an application program that is equipped with software capable of recognizing voice commands (C & C: command and control) in a personal computer and inputs a program by voice commands input through a telephone line or a microphone. The dialog 320 is a communication service that is more convenient for a user, for example, by allowing a user to perform commands commonly used in a personal computer and a user-defined command by using a voice input through a microphone in front of the computer or a remote telephone. Provide an environment. That is, the dialog 320 is connected to the telephone 302 and the fax 304 which are communication devices through the PSTN 300, and is an application program inside the computer connected to the mail server 354 through the LAN 352. Exists in the form of.

Looking at the configuration of the dialog 320, the modem interface 322 controls the fax modem 312 to send and receive input or output data and commands via the PSTN (300). The local interface 324 inputs data through a microphone / keyboard 314 connected as a computer peripheral and outputs the processed results through the speaker / monitor 316. That is, the modem interface 322 and the local interface 324 serve to connect various application programs executed in the dialog 320 to the outside. In addition to these interfaces, the dialog 320 manages a network adapter (LAN card) connecting to an external mail server 354 through the LAN 352. The information storage database 326 is used for retrieval and storage of data for processing in an application program. In addition, the dialog 320 has various voice related databases for processing voice commands and synthesizing voices. This will be described with reference to FIG. 4.

4 is a block diagram illustrating the dialog illustrated in FIG. 3 in detail, and includes a modem interface 422, a local interface 424, an application program 428, a text-to-speech (TTS) interface 442, and a speech synthesis engine. 444 and speech recognition module 446. Applications 428 include Personal Information Management System (PIMS) 432, mail 434, fax mailbox 436, and voice mailbox 438.

Referring to FIG. 4, the dialog frequently interacts with the user. This is divided into input and output on the system side and processing in the application program. First, when the input is described, data such as general command, voice command, tone-call (phone button), voice, and fax input by the user are input through the fax modem 412 or the microphone / keyboard 414. Modem interface 422 and local interface 424 are required to control the input and output of such devices. At this time, when data is input through the fax modem 422 (a telephone call or a fax comes), the computer recognizes this and turns on the available state. That is, according to the on-now function, the computer can process data input aperiodically through the fax modem 412.

The data thus input is processed by the speech recognition module 444 having a speech database when speech recognition is required according to the format of the data. The data passing through the interface is input to the application program, and in the case of the mail 434 in the application program, data about the mail is transmitted from the mail server through the network 450. There are a periodic method and a non-periodic method for accessing a mail server through the network 450 and obtaining mail. First, the periodic method is to turn on the computer at predetermined time by using the on-now function of the computer, access the mail server, and receive and store newly arrived mail. In this case, when there is a new mail, the user is notified through a wireless pager or the like, or notified periodically when the computer is turned on by the user. On the other hand, when the computer is turned on aperiodically by a user, a non-periodic method is to access a mail server as needed and retrieve and store newly arrived mail (generally, a method of searching a mail by turning on the computer locally via a telephone). Corresponding to).

The user stores the transmitted data (simple data and data about commands and mails) in the information storage database 426, and sends an output requesting new input to the user in non-periodic cases. do. There are three forms of output. First (1 in Fig. 4), the text is synthesized by voice in the output from the application program and is heard by the user. In this case, the speech is output using the speech synthesis engine 444 through the text-to-speech conversion (TTS) interface 442, which is an application program that speaks a text document to speech. Of course, as with the input, the modem interface 422 or the local interface 424 is controlled and output to the modem 412 and the speaker / monitor 416. Second (2 in FIG. 4), the case in which the TTS interface 442 is not passed through the above-described case. Third (3 in FIG. 4) is a case of sending mail through the network 450 in the case of mail transmission.

As mentioned above, the input and output of a dialog involves frequent interactions while these processes maintain a relationship between the user and other systems. Now, a description will be given of a device according to the present invention for transmitting mail as an application program for mail in a dialog and a method for designating a recipient at the time of mail transmission.

Fig. 5 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment of a mail transmission apparatus according to the present invention. The mail transmission apparatus 530 includes a mail creation selection unit 532, a reply creation unit 534, and a forward creation unit ( 536), a new mail creation unit 538, a destination designation unit 540, a voice mail recording unit 542, and a mail transmission unit 544.

Referring to FIG. 5, a mail transmission device 530 according to the present invention is included in a computer 510 having an on-now function, and provides a mail service function that allows a user to search or send mail through a telephone. And an apparatus for easily transmitting mail through a telephone from a user in a telephone integration system.

In general, a user dials a corresponding telephone number to which computer 510 is connected to a modem via telephone 500 to access computer 510. The mail server 550 connected through the LAN receives the newly transmitted mail, and the received mail is stored in a predetermined mail storage unit (not shown) of the computer. The mail retrieval unit 520 retrieves the mail list to be provided to the user, and listens to the mail selected by the user in the mail list according to the user's listening request. After listening to the mail through the mail search unit 520 by voice, the user may send a reply to the mail directly read through the mail transmission device 530. Alternatively, regardless of the execution of the mail search unit 520, the mail transmission device 530 may be immediately executed to retransmit the existing mail or to transmit a new mail.

In the mail transmission device 530, the mail creation selection unit 530 selects a mail creation method desired by the user from among a plurality of mail creation methods when the user wants to send the mail. When the user selects the reply compose 534, the reply compose 534 prepares for composing the mail without having to specify a recipient. That is, since the reply writing unit 534 is for writing a reply to the mail read by the user, the e-mail address of the sender who sent the mail is automatically designated as the recipient.

On the other hand, when the user selects the resend creation unit 536, the resend creation unit 536 retrieves the mail selected by the user from the mail storage unit (not shown) that stores the existing mail list, and receives the selected mail. Proceeds to the destination designation unit 540 to designate the destination. In addition, when the user selects a new mail creating unit 538, the new mail creating unit 538 proceeds to the destination specifying unit 540 to prepare for preparing a new mail and to designate a recipient to receive the new mail.

The destination designation unit 540 designates a destination for the mail to be transmitted. When a user inputs a recipient or predetermined recipient search information by using a telephone button key, a user can find an e-mail address of a corresponding recipient by referring to a previously prepared address book and designate the recipient. A method for designating a destination using a telephone button key will be described later in more detail.

The voice mail recording unit 542 automatically assigns a recipient necessary for sending a reply, or designates a recipient required for retransmitting an existing mail or sending a new mail through the destination determining unit 540, and then the user calls 500 Record the contents of the mail left by voice through the recorded file. The mail transmission unit 544 attaches the file to the mail to be transmitted, and transmits the recorded file to the mail server 550 through the LAN.

In a computer and telephone call system, when a user wants to send an e-mail by voice from an external telephone, the e-mail contents can be recorded as a wave file and attached to the e-mail to be transmitted. However, recipients to receive mail are not easy to specify by voice.

First, a user's e-mail address must be converted to text before the user speaks it into text, which requires speech recognition. In this case the speech recognition function should be possible for every word unspecified. Therefore, the current technology is not very easy and the recognition rate is not high. Second, the recipient's name or alias spoken by the user's voice can be referred to the address book to find the corresponding e-mail address. To do this, a voice recognition function should be provided, but address book makes it easier to specify a recipient than the first method. However, the more data stored in the address book, the more the rear list that is the object of speech recognition decreases.

The present invention proposes the following addressee designation method to solve the above problems.

6 is a view showing a telephone button of a typical telephone. In FIG. 5, the destination designator 540 inputs predetermined recipient search information from the user by using the telephone button key. Referring to FIG. 6, a Korean consonant is displayed on a phone button. When a user converts an input mode from a number to a Korean consonant and inputs a telephone button key corresponding to the Korean consonant, the computer interprets the telephone button input as a Korean consonant.

Fig. 7 is a flowchart for explaining a preferred embodiment of the method for designating a recipient according to the present invention at the time of mail transmission. This method finds the corresponding e-mail address in the address book just by pressing the phone button.

First, a recipient name to be specified by the user is selected using the telephone button key.

In detail, in order to designate a recipient, the user sequentially selects a telephone button key corresponding to the Hangul initial consonant of each letter of the recipient name (operation 700). When a user connects to a computer from outside and sends a mail, the computer will send a message prompting you to specify a recipient using the Hangul consonant of the telephone button key. For example, when the recipient is 'Kim Young-hwan' and the recipient's e-mail address is yhkim@halla.sec.samsung.co.kr, the user can call 'h', 'ㅇ', 'ㅎ' in the recipient's name. Press the button key.

Next, the name candidate is searched for by referring to the previously prepared address book (step 702). Here, the address book basically includes information about a recipient name and an e-mail address registered in advance by the user. In step 700, for example, when a phone button key corresponding to 'ㄱ', 'ㅇ', 'ㅎ' is pressed, 'ㄱ', 'ㅇ', 'ㅎ' enters the consonant of each letter of the name in the address book. Search for names as candidates for statements.

Next, a serial number is given to the retrieved name candidate and notified to the user (step 704). In step 702, for example, if "Kim Young-hwan" and "Kang Young-hoon" are found, serial numbers are assigned in the form of "Kim Young-hwan" and "Kang Young-hoon" 1 so that the user can select with a telephone button. Next, the user selects a number corresponding to the recipient's name from the serial number (step 706).

If the corresponding number is selected, an e-mail address corresponding to the recipient name of the selected number is searched for in the address book (step 708). Finally, the e-mail address is found and the recipient is designated (step 710).

Fig. 8 is a flowchart for explaining another preferred embodiment of the addressee designation method according to the present invention at the time of mail transmission. This method uses phone button input and speech recognition together to find the e-mail address of the recipient in the address book.

First, the surname is selected from the recipient name to be specified by the user using the telephone button key.

In detail, the user receives the surname of the recipients included in the pre-created address book by serial number and informs the user (operation 800). When a user attempts to send mail by accessing a computer via a telephone from outside, the computer sends a prompt to select the surname of the recipient by the number of telephone buttons. For example, the first number 'kim', the second 'yi', the third 'bak', the number 4 and the like can be informed to the user by serializing the surnames.

Next, the user selects a number corresponding to the desired recipient surname from the serial number by using the telephone button key (step 802). For example, when the recipient to be designated by the user is 'Kim Young Hwan' and the recipient's e-mail address is yhkim@halla.sec.samsung.co.kr, the user selects 'Kim' by the telephone button.

Next, the user inputs a name by voice in the recipient's name (step 804). The computer recognizes the input name by voice (step 806).

In operation 808, an e-mail address corresponding to a voice recognized name of the surname of the selected number is searched for in the address book. The e-mail address is found and the recipient is designated (step 810). This method requires a voice recognition function, but first recognizes the surname of the recipient using the telephone button key, and then recognizes the name of the recipient, thereby reducing the overall speech recognition candidate list to increase the recognition rate.

As described above, the mail transmission device and the recipient designation method in the computer and the telephone integrated system according to the present invention enable the mail transmission using a telephone, and easily support the address designation required for the mail transmission, thereby providing a high recognition rate. Mail delivery, which allows users to handle mail at the same level as in the local environment.

Claims (5)

delete delete delete In a computer and telephone integrated system that provides a mail service function that allows a user to retrieve a mail or transmit mail by accessing a computer from a telephone from outside, (a) selecting a last name from a recipient name to be specified by a user using a telephone button key; (b) a user inputting a name by voice in the recipient name; (c) voice recognition the input name; And (d) providing an e-mail address corresponding to the voice recognized name in step (d) in the address book and specifying a recipient for the last name selected in step (b); And the address book is created in advance by a user, and includes at least a name of the recipient and information about the e-mail address. The method of claim 4, wherein step (a) comprises: (a1) informing a user by serializing a recipient surname included in the address book previously prepared; And and (a2) a user selecting a number corresponding to a desired recipient surname from a serial number by using the telephone button key.

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