JP7615760B2 - Telephone System - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to an email processing technology for notifying users of newly arrived emails at telephone terminals in a telephone system.

Conventionally, for telephone systems such as business phone systems and PBX systems that switch-connect multiple telephone terminals to a telephone network, email processing technology has been proposed that provides users with value-added telephone services by linking with email systems (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
In this type of email control technology, the telephone system periodically accesses the email server based on the user's pre-configured email account, and when new email for that user is stored in the email server, the user's telephone terminal is configured to notify the user of the arrival of new email and the number of new emails.

Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 5-241556

In the conventional technology described above, where the arrival of new email is notified by using an indicator lamp on the telephone terminal, the user can immediately check that new email has arrived on the telephone terminal without having to access the mail server to check the received email. However, the contents of the new email cannot be checked on the telephone terminal. Therefore, when the arrival of new email is notified on the telephone terminal, the user must start a mailer on a PC or smartphone other than the telephone terminal, access the mail server, search for the new email, and check its contents. This creates a problem of a heavy workload.

The present invention is intended to solve these problems, and aims to provide an email processing technology that allows users to easily view the contents of new emails whose arrival has been notified to a telephone terminal with minimal workload.

In order to achieve this object, the telephone system of the present invention comprises a gateway connected to an IP network, and a telephone terminal connected to the gateway via a communication line to establish a voice call via the IP network, the gateway receives and stores specific emails from a mail server of the IP network, among new emails addressed to a pre-set user, which specific emails have passed through a filter corresponding to a pre-set importance of the email, and the telephone terminal displays the arrival status of new emails addressed to the user of the terminal, obtained from the gateway, with an indicator lamp, and displays or outputs audibly the contents of the new email obtained from the gateway in response to operation of an email confirmation key while the arrival of the new email is being displayed.

The telephone system according to the present invention further comprises a gateway connected to an IP network, and a telephone terminal connected to the gateway via a communication line for establishing a voice call via the IP network, the gateway receiving and storing specific emails from a mail server of the IP network that have passed through a filter corresponding to a preset importance level of the emails among new emails addressed to a preset user, the telephone terminal displaying the arrival status of new emails addressed to the user of the terminal at the gateway with an indicator lamp, and displaying or outputting by voice the contents of the new email acquired from the gateway in response to an operation of an email confirmation key while the arrival of the new email is being displayed, and further comprising a telephone control device connected to the gateway and the telephone terminal via the communication line and controlling the telephone terminal to establish a voice call via the IP network by the telephone terminal, the telephone control device being configured to instruct the indicator lamp of the telephone terminal to display the arrival status of the new email acquired from the gateway, and to notify the telephone terminal of the contents of the new email acquired from the gateway in response to an operation of the email confirmation key on the telephone terminal.

In addition, in the above telephone system of the present invention, the email confirmation key is a line key for making and receiving voice calls , and the indicator lamp is a line lamp for indicating the status of the call line used for making and receiving calls.

According to the present invention, it is possible to easily view the contents of new emails whose arrival has been notified to a telephone terminal with minimal work burden.

1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a telephone system according to a first embodiment; FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram showing an email processing operation of the telephone system according to the first embodiment; FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a telephone system according to a second embodiment. FIG. 11 is a sequence diagram showing an email processing operation of the telephone system according to the second embodiment.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[First embodiment]
First, a telephone system 1 according to a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to Fig. 1. Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the telephone system according to the first embodiment.
This telephone system 1 is composed of telephone systems such as a business phone system and a PBX system as a whole, and provides various telephone services to users by switching and connecting multiple telephone terminals 10 to an IP network (IP telephone network) NW such as the Internet via a gateway 30.

[Telephone System]
As shown in FIG. 1, the telephone system 1 according to the present embodiment mainly comprises a plurality of telephone terminals 10 and a gateway 30.

[gateway]
The gateway 30 is generally composed of a VoIP gateway, and is configured to connect to the IP network NW via a communication line L2 and relay the telephone terminal 10 connected via the communication line L1 to the IP network NW.
In addition, the gateway 30 is configured to periodically access a mail server 40 connected to the IP network NW based on the mail account of the user of each telephone terminal 10 that has been preset, automatically receive e-mail addressed to each user, and store the e-mail in a mailbox corresponding to that user.

For emails to be saved, a filter may be set in advance according to the importance of the email, and only specific emails addressed to the user that pass through the filter may be saved. This allows new emails notified to the telephone terminal 10 to be narrowed down to only those with high importance, reducing the burden on the user for checking emails and saving memory resources of the gateway 30. The filter according to the importance of the email may be set in advance to filter new emails according to, for example, the sender address, the subject of the email, or specific keywords contained in the body of the email.

[Telephone terminal]
The telephone terminal 10 is composed of an IP telephone terminal as a whole, and is configured to establish a voice call via the IP network NW based on VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology by exchanging call control messages with a call control server 50 connected to the IP network NW via a gateway 30.
The telephone terminal 10 is also configured to periodically access the gateway 30, refer to a mailbox corresponding to the user of the terminal that has been preset, and check for the arrival of new e-mails. At this time, a general e-mail protocol such as IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol) may be used to refer to the mailbox.

As shown in FIG. 1, the telephone terminal 10 is equipped with an indicator lamp 12 consisting of a display element such as an LED, an email confirmation key 11, and a screen display unit 13 consisting of a screen display device such as an LCD, and is configured to notify the user of the arrival status of new emails by controlling the display state of the indicator lamp 12, to obtain new emails from the gateway 30 in response to pressing of the email confirmation key 11 while the arrival is being displayed, and to display the contents of the new email on the screen display unit 13, or to convert the contents of the new email into sound and output it through the handset or speaker.

Therefore, the user can check the new emails that have been notified of their arrival on the telephone terminal 10 with the extremely simple operation of pressing the email confirmation key 11. In addition, in a typical telephone terminal 10, the line keys used for making and receiving calls are provided with line lamps for displaying the status of the call line, and the display lamp 12 and the email confirmation key 11 may be configured with these line lamps and line keys. In addition, the email confirmation key 11 and the display lamp 12 may be configured with function keys to which pre-prepared functions can be assigned and display lamps provided on those function keys.

As a result, when the indicator lamps 12 and mail confirmation key 11 are configured using these line lamps and line keys, a common line lamp and line key can be used as an interface with the user for receiving and responding to voice calls, and for receiving and checking the contents of new mail. This allows the user to use services related to the arrival and checking the contents of new mail without feeling out of place. Also, there is no need to add new indicator lamps or operation keys for receiving and checking the contents of new mail, and it can be introduced to existing telephone terminals with just a software change.

[Operation of the First Embodiment]
Next, the operation of the telephone system 1 according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to Fig. 2. Fig. 2 is a sequence diagram showing the mail processing operation of the telephone system according to the first embodiment. As shown in Fig. 2, when the mail confirmation timing arrives at time T1, the telephone terminal 10 notifies the gateway 30 via the communication line L1 of a mail confirmation request related to a mailbox corresponding to the user of the terminal that is preset (step S100).

In response to a mail confirmation request from the telephone terminal 10, the gateway 30 checks for new mail in a specified mailbox, and if no new mail has arrived, returns a mail confirmation response indicating that there is no new mail (step S101).
When the gateway 30 returns a mail confirmation response indicating that there is no new mail, the telephone terminal 10 does not display the arrival of the mail on the indicator lamp 12, and waits until the next mail confirmation timing arrives. The case where the gateway 30 returns a mail confirmation response indicating that there is new mail will be described later.

Thereafter, when the time for checking the email arrives at time T2, the gateway 30 notifies the email server 40 of an email checking request for the corresponding mailbox for each pre-defined user via the communication line L2 and the IP network NW (step S110).
In response to the mail confirmation request from the gateway 30, the mail server 40 checks for new mail in the designated mailbox, and if new mail has arrived, returns a mail confirmation response indicating that new mail has arrived (step S111).

When the gateway 30 receives a mail confirmation response from the mail server 40 indicating that new mail has arrived, the gateway 30 notifies the mail server 40 of a mail acquisition request for the corresponding mailbox (step S112).
In response to the mail retrieval request from the gateway 30, the mail server 40 returns a mail retrieval response including the new mail in the specified mailbox (step S113).

The gateway 30 extracts the received email from the email retrieval response returned from the mail server 40, stores it in the corresponding mailbox (step S114), and waits until the next email check timing arrives. Note that if the email retrieval response returned from the mail server 40 does not contain any new email, the gateway 30 waits until the next email check timing arrives.

Thereafter, when the time for checking mail arrives at time T3, the telephone terminal 10 notifies the gateway 30 of a mail checking request for the mailbox corresponding to the user of the terminal that has been preset (step S120).
In response to the mail confirmation request from the telephone terminal 10, the gateway 30 checks for new mail in the designated mailbox, and if new mail has arrived, returns a mail confirmation response indicating that new mail has arrived (step S121).

When the telephone terminal 10 receives a mail confirmation response from the gateway 30 indicating that new mail has arrived, the telephone terminal 10 notifies the user of the arrival of new mail by, for example, flashing the display lamp 12 (step S122).
When the user confirms that new email has arrived and presses the email confirmation key 11 on the telephone terminal 10 (step S123), the telephone terminal 10 notifies the gateway 30 of a request to retrieve email for the corresponding mailbox (step S124).

In response to the mail retrieval request from the telephone terminal 10, the gateway 30 returns a mail retrieval response including information about new mail in the specified mailbox (step S125).
The telephone terminal 10 extracts the new mail from the mail retrieval response returned from the gateway 30, and displays the contents of the new mail on the screen display unit 13, or converts the contents of the new mail into audio and outputs it through the handset or speaker (step S126).

[Advantages of the First Embodiment]
In this manner, in this embodiment, the gateway 30 receives and stores new e-mails addressed to a pre-set user from the mail server 40 of the IP network NW, and the telephone terminal 10 displays the arrival status of new e-mails addressed to the user of the terminal at the gateway 30 using the display lamp 12, and in response to the operation of the mail confirmation key 11 while the arrival of the new e-mail is being displayed, the new e-mail is obtained from the gateway 30 and displayed or output as audio.

As a result, when the display lamp 12 on the telephone terminal 10 indicates that new mail has arrived, the user only needs to operate the mail confirmation key 11, and the contents of the new mail will be displayed or audibly output on the telephone terminal 10 that was operated. Therefore, the user does not need to start a mailer on a PC or smartphone other than the telephone terminal 10 on which the display lamp 12 indicates that new mail has arrived, access a mail server, search for the new mail, and check its contents. With the extremely simple operation of pressing the mail confirmation key 11 on the telephone terminal 10 on which the display lamp 12 indicates that new mail has arrived, the user can check the new mail that has been notified of its arrival on the telephone terminal 10. This makes it possible to easily view the contents of the new mail that has been notified of its arrival on the telephone terminal 10 with an extremely small workload.

In addition, in a typical telephone terminal 10, the line keys for making and receiving calls are provided with line lamps, and in this embodiment, the indicator lamp 12 and mail confirmation key 11 may be configured with these line lamps and line keys. This allows a common line lamp and line key to be used as an interface with the user for receiving and responding to voice calls, and for receiving and checking the contents of new mail. This allows the user to use services related to the arrival and checking the contents of new mail without feeling strange. Also, there is no need to add new indicator lamps or operation keys for receiving and checking the contents of new mail, and it can be introduced to existing telephone terminals with just a software change.

Although the mail protocol used varies depending on the mail server 40, the well-known automatic mail retrieval function that is generally provided in the gateway 30 can accommodate various protocols. Therefore, by utilizing such an automatic mail retrieval function of the gateway 30, the telephone terminal 10 does not need to accommodate these differences in protocols, making it possible to simplify the software of the telephone terminal 10.

In addition, because the telephone terminal 10 periodically checks whether new emails have arrived at the gateway 30, the present invention can be realized even if the gateway 30 uses a common email protocol. Note that if the gateway 30 uses an email protocol such as IMAP that notifies the arrival of new emails one by one via push notification, for example, steps S100 and S120 in FIG. 2 can be omitted, and the processing load on the telephone terminal 10 can be reduced.

[Second embodiment]
Next, a telephone system 1 according to a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to Fig. 3. Fig. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the telephone system according to the second embodiment.

In FIG. 1, a case has been described in which a call control server 50 connected to an IP network NW performs call control for each telephone terminal 10 via the IP network NW and a gateway 30, but this is not limited to this example. In this embodiment, a configuration will be described in which a telephone control device 20 is provided in the telephone system 1, and the call control for each telephone terminal 10 is performed by the telephone control device 20.

[Telephone Control Device]
The telephone control device 20 is composed of a server device that performs call control as a whole, and is configured to exchange call control messages with the IP network NW via the gateway 30 based on a call control protocol such as SIP (Session Initiation Protocol), and to exchange call control messages with the telephone terminals 10 via the communication line L1, thereby switching and connecting each telephone terminal 10 to the IP network NW.

In this embodiment, the telephone control device 20 is configured to periodically access the gateway 30 via the communication line L1 and perform mail processing operations between the gateway 30. Therefore, even if the telephone terminal 10 is not an IP telephone terminal but a dedicated internal telephone terminal (button telephone), the mail processing operations of the first embodiment described above can be executed in the same manner in this embodiment, and similar effects can be obtained.

Figure 4 is a sequence diagram showing the mail processing operation of the telephone system according to the second embodiment. In this embodiment, the telephone control device 20 is provided, so the mail confirmation and mail acquisition process between the gateway 30 in Figure 2 is executed between the telephone control device 20 and the gateway 30 (steps S200, S201, S220, S221, S226, S227), the display lamp of the telephone terminal 10 blinks based on the instruction of the telephone control device 20, and the contents of the new mail notified by the telephone control device 20 are displayed on the telephone terminal 10 (steps S222, S223, S224, S225, S228, S229).

[Extended embodiments]
Although the present invention has been described above with reference to the embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. Various modifications that can be understood by those skilled in the art can be made to the configuration and details of the present invention within the scope of the present invention. In addition, the respective embodiments can be implemented in any combination within a range that does not contradict each other.

1...telephone system, 10...telephone terminal, 11...email confirmation key, 12...indicator lamp, 13...screen display unit, 20...telephone control device, 30...gateway, 40...mail server, 50...call control server, NW...IP network, L1, L2...communication lines.

Claims (2)

A gateway connected to an IP network;
a telephone terminal connected to the gateway via a communication line and configured to establish a voice call via the IP network;
The gateway receives and stores specific e-mails that have passed through a filter according to a preset importance of the e-mails from a mail server of the IP network among new e-mails addressed to preset users, and
The telephone terminal displays the arrival status of new mail addressed to the user of the terminal, which is obtained from the gateway, with an indicator lamp, and displays or outputs audibly the contents of the new mail obtained from the gateway in response to an operation of a mail confirmation key while the arrival of the new mail is being displayed.
The mail confirmation key is a line key for performing operations for making and receiving voice calls, and the display lamp is a line lamp for displaying the status of the call line used for making and receiving voice calls.
A telephone system characterized by: A gateway connected to an IP network;
a telephone terminal connected to the gateway via a communication line and configured to establish a voice call via the IP network;
The gateway receives and stores specific e-mails that have passed through a filter according to a preset importance of the e-mails from a mail server of the IP network among new e-mails addressed to preset users, and
The telephone terminal displays the arrival status of new mail addressed to the user of the terminal at the gateway with an indicator lamp, and displays or outputs audibly the contents of the new mail acquired from the gateway in response to an operation of a mail confirmation key while the arrival of the new mail is being displayed.
1. A telephone system comprising :
a telephone control device that is connected to the gateway and the telephone terminal via the communication line and that establishes a voice call via the IP network by the telephone terminal by performing call control of the telephone terminal;
said telephone control device instructs said telephone terminal to display the arrival status of said new mail acquired from said gateway on said display lamp, and notifies said telephone terminal of the contents of said new mail acquired from said gateway in response to an operation of said mail confirmation key on said telephone terminal ;
The mail confirmation key is a line key for performing operations for making and receiving voice calls, and the display lamp is a line lamp for displaying the status of the call line used for making and receiving voice calls.
A telephone system characterized by:

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