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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for processing
information. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method
and apparatus that allow messages to be exchanged on a real-time basis
between terminals of a plurality of media, such as a mix of computers and
telephones.
2. Description of the Related Art
A telephone exchanges a message in the form of voice on a real-time basis
(converses) with another telephone that is one terminal of the same media.
Recently, some services are available which allow three parties to
participate simultaneously in a telephone conversation.
Available in computer communications field are services that allow chatting
(on-line talk) and a real-time electronic conference. Using such a
service, a text or message is exchanged on a real-time basis among two or
more computers.
While a real-time message exchange is performed on the terminals belonging
to the same media, for example, on a telephone to telephone or computer to
computer link, a real-time message exchange is conventionally difficult
between a telephone and a computer.
It will be advantageous if a real-time message exchange is performed
between a telephone and a computer.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method
and apparatus which allow a real-time message exchange even between
terminals of different media types.
To achieve the above object, the information processing apparatus of the
present invention comprises communications means for communicating with a
terminal of a first media and a terminal of a second media, memory means
for storing terminal information about a plurality of terminals which
transmit and receive messages, converter means for converting a message
received from the first media terminal through the communications means
into data in a data format of the second media terminal, and for
converting a message received from the second media terminal through the
communications means into data in a data format of the first media
terminal, and control means for converting the message transmitted from
one of the first media terminal and the second media terminal, using the
converter means, and for transmitting a message to the other of the first
media terminal and the second media terminal, in the data formats
respectively compatible with the other of the first media terminal and the
second media terminal, based on the terminal information stored in the
memory means.
The message transmitted from the first media terminal and the message
transmitted from the second media terminal are respective voice messages
different in data format, and the converter means converts the voice
message from the first media terminal and the voice message from the
second media terminal into a voice message in the data format of the
second media terminal and a voice format in the data format of the first
media terminal, respectively.
The message transmitted from the first media terminal and the message
transmitted from the second media terminal are a message of text data and
a voice signal, respectively, and the converter means converts the message
of text data from the first media terminal into a message in a voice data
format compatible with the second media terminal while converting the
voice signal from the second media terminal into a message in the text
data format compatible with the first media terminal.
When one of the first media terminal and the second media terminal is
provided with a display device, the control means recognizes, based on the
terminal information stored in the memory means, the number of terminals
which transmit and receive the message, and controls the communication
means to transmit communication status data for presenting on the display
device a screen indicating the number of terminals, to the one of the
first media terminal and the second media terminal having the display
device.
The communication status data comprises character image data representing
the terminal of a user who transmits and receives the message.
The character image is set by the user.
The first media terminal and the second media terminal are a computer and a
telephone, respectively.
An information processing method for performing a process to allow
terminals of a plurality of media types to transmit and receive a message
comprises the steps of storing terminal information about terminals which
transmit and receive a message, converting the messages from the first
media terminal and the second media terminal into messages in data formats
of the second media terminal and the first media terminal, respectively
and, to transmit a message coming from one of the terminals to the other
terminals, transmitting the message in the data formats respectively
compatible with the other terminals, based on the terminal information.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a network system of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a system server 1 of FIG. 1.
FIG. 3 is a flow diagram illustrating the operation of the system server 1
of FIG. 2.
FIG. 4 is a flow diagram illustrating the detail of a step S5 of FIG. 3.
FIG. 5 shows a menu screen and a conference room screen.
FIG. 6 shows a speech screen and a conference room screen.
FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating the detail of the step S5 of FIG. 3.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
FIG. 1 shows the organization of a network system of the present invention.
A system server 1 is connected to a public network (a telephone network,
for example) 7 and a computer network (the Internet, for example) 8,
receives a message sent from any of the terminals that have access to the
public network 7 and the computer network 8, and transmits a message to
all other terminals. A real-time message exchange is thus performed
between terminals. Suppose that the system server 1 transmits or sends a
message from a terminal A to another terminal B. When the terminals A and
B are different in media type from each other, the system server 1
converts a data format of the message from the terminal A into data in
another data format compatible with that of the terminal B media, and then
transmits the message to the terminal B. The exchange of a message between
terminals of different media is performed in this way.
The system server 1 thus offers a chatting service and real-time electronic
conference service that allow messages to be exchanged on a real-time
basis between terminals of a plurality of media types. The chat service or
the real-time electronic conference service provided by the system server
1 is aimed at a meeting that is held through a mix of a plurality of
media, and the service provided according to the method and apparatus for
processing information of the present invention is referred to as a "media
mix meeting service" throughout this specification.
In an embodiment shown in FIG. 1, each of users A, B, C and D accesses the
system server 1 using a personal computer (more simply referred to as a
computer) 2, a telephone 3, portable telephones 4 and 5, respectively,
through the public network 7 and a message exchange among these terminals
(computer 2, telephone 3, portable telephones 4 and 5) is performed. The
system server 1 is accessed by users A and B, at home, and users C and D,
in their respective moving cars.
The computer 2, equipped with a microphone 2B, converts a voice message
into a voice signal as an electrical signal when the user A talks to the
microphone. The computer 2 converts the voice signal into a computer data
format. Specifically, the voice signal is A/D converted into a digital
voice signal (voice data) in the computer 2. The computer 2 further
subjects the voice data to a desired compression process, and then outputs
voice data of computer data format (hereinafter referred to as computer
voice data). The computer voice data is sent to the system server 1 via
the public network 7.
The system server 1 stores terminal information (about the number of
terminals where message exchange is going on, and the type of media of
each terminal) to manage the terminals (the computer 2, telephone 3 and
portable telephones 4 and 5) which transmit and receive message. When the
system server 1 receives a message in the form of the computer voice data
from the computer 2, it recognizes the terminals other than the computer
2, namely, the telephone 3, and the portable telephone 4 and 5 by
referring to the terminal information, and sends the message from the
computer 2 to these terminals.
Since the telephone 3 and the portable telephones 4 and 5 cannot receive
the message in the computer voice data as it is, the system server 1
converts the message in the computer voice data into a message in a
telephone data format. Specifically, the system server 1 subjects the
computer voice data to a decompression process and then a D/A conversion
process. The computer voice data is thus converted into voice data (voice
signal) in the telephone data format (the voice data in the telephone data
format is also referred to as telephone voice data), and then sent to the
telephone 3 and the portable telephones 4 and 5 through the public network
7.
The telephone 3 and the portable telephones 4 and 5 receive and then output
the telephone voice data. The users B through D can hear the sound message
the user A sent using the computer 2.
When the user B speaks, his or her voice is converted to the voice signal
(telephone voice data) by the telephone 3, and is then transmitted to the
system server 1 via the public network 7. When the system server 1
receives the message in the telephone voice data, it recognizes the
terminals other than the telephone 3, namely the computer 2 and the
portable telephones 4 and 5 by referring to the terminal information, and
sends the message from the telephone 3 to these terminals.
In this case, the telephone voice data can be received by the portable
telephones 4 and 5, but not by the computer 2. The system server 1
converts the message in the telephone voice data into a message in the
computer voice data format. Specifically, the system server 1 subjects the
telephone voice data to an A/D conversion process and then to a
predetermined compression process, and then outputs computer voice data.
As a result, the telephone voice data from the telephone 3 is sent to the
portable telephones 4 and 5, and the computer voice data derived from the
telephone voice data is sent to the computer 2, respectively, via the
public network 7.
The computer 2 receives the computer voice data from the system server 1.
In the computer 2, the computer voice data is decompressed, and then D/A
converted into a voice signal. Further in the computer 2, the voice signal
is output through a built-in loudspeaker, and thus the user A can hear the
message in sound the user B talks.
As described above, the system server 1 performs conversion between
computer voice data and telephone voice data. For computer voice data, a
technique under the Internetphone(trademark) of Vocal Tec may be employed.
The portable telephones 4 and 5 receive the telephone voice data from the
system server 1 and output the message in sound. The users C and D thus
hear the message the user B sends.
When the user C speaks, the portable telephone 4 converts the voice message
into a voice signal (telephone voice data), which is then sent to the
system server 1 via the public system 7. Upon receiving the message in the
telephone voice data format from the portable telephone 4, the system
server 1 recognizes the terminals other than the portable telephone 4,
namely the computer 2, the telephone 3 and the portable telephone 5,
referring to the terminal information stored in the system server 1, and
sends the message from the portable telephone 4 to these terminals.
The telephone 3 and the portable telephone 5 can receive the telephone
voice data but the computer 2 cannot. The system server 1 thus converts
the message in the telephone voice data format into a message in the
computer voice data format. The telephone voice data from the portable
telephone 4 is sent to the telephone 3 and the portable telephone 5, and
the computer voice data derived from the telephone voice data is sent to
the computer 2, respectively via the public network 7.
The users A, B and D thus hear the voice message the user C speaks in the
same manner as the preceding cases.
In the same way, the user D speaks a voice message and the portable
telephone 5 converts the voice message into telephone voice data. The
system server 1 works in much the same way the portable telephone 4 gives
the telephone voice data. The users A through C thus hear the voice
message the user D speaks.
The system thus constructed allows a real-time media exchange (also
referred to as media mix meeting) to be performed between terminals of
different types of media through the system server 1.
The system server 1 is provided with a common space (hereinafter referred
to as meeting room) available for a media mix meeting on a theme-by-theme
basis, like an electronic conference room in computer communications. Each
user can enjoy the media mix meeting service for each theme in the meeting
room assigned to a theme of user's interest.
In this embodiment, a message is exchanged in voice, and thus the meeting
room may be called a voice meeting room.
The system server 1 stores, as the terminal information, the number of
terminals that participate in message exchange in each meeting room (voice
meeting room), and recognizes the number of terminals (users) based on the
terminal information. Specifically, the system server 1 is designed to
recognize how many users make access to each meeting room.
In addition to recognizing the number of users who make access to each
meeting room, the system server 1 stores character images (also referred
to as user character) indicative of a user who makes access to the meeting
room, and further stores information indicative of the media type of the
terminal each user employs. The system server 1 thus produces
communication status data indicating the communication status in each
meeting room.
The system server 1 transmits the communication status data to any terminal
which is provided with a display device having information display
capability.
In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the computer 2 has a display device 2A
such a CRT or an LCD, and thus the system server 1 transmits the
communication status data to the computer 2. The communication status data
is received by the computer 2 and then presented on the display device 2A.
The user A thus recognizes the number of users accessing to each meeting
room, and the types of user terminals that participate in the media mix
meeting in each meeting room.
If the telephone 3 and the portable telephones 4 and 5 have their
respective display devices, the communication status data is presented on
screen on these terminals in the same manner as in the computer 2. If the
telephone 3 and the portable telephones 4 and 5 have no display devices,
the system server 1 produces and transmits a voice signal telling the
number of users accessing to each meeting room, as appropriate. Listening
to the voice, the users B through D can know the number of users who
access each meeting room.
In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the display device 2A on the computer 2
presents the communication status data on screen, which includes the
listing of the number of users who access the meeting rooms. As shown,
participating users are 4 persons, 5 persons, 3 persons, and 3 persons for
themes "ski," "music," "movie," and "musical," respectively. The users A
through D are now accessing to the meeting room assigned to the theme
"ski." The communication status screen presents the characters of the
users A through D in the meeting room "ski" and the type of the terminal
("PC" representing a computer and "TEL" representing a telephone) each
user now uses.
In the meeting room with the theme "ski" in the embodiment shown in FIG. 1,
users A and B, both at home, ask users C and D about the conditions of a
ski resort (or its vicinity), and users C and D answer the questions. The
user A and B, at home, can know the actual conditions of the ski resort.
In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the computer 2 is connected to the
public network 7. Alternatively, the computer 2 may be connected to a
computer network 8 without any problem, because data communications
between the system server 1 and the computer 2 is performed in computer
voice data format.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the system server 1 of FIG. 1. When
communications module 11 or 12 is accessed by a terminal, each establishes
a communication link to the terminal, and performs a required control to
carry out a communication with the terminal. The communications 11 and 12
are designed to communicate with their respective predetermined media
terminals. Specifically, the communications 11 and 12 are designed to
communicate with the computer and telephone, respectively. The user A with
the computer 2 (also a user E having a computer 6 to be described later)
accesses the communication module 11, and the users B, C and D having the
telephone 3 and the portable telephones 4 and 5, respectively, access the
communication module 12.
By using different communications modules in response to different types of
media, the system server 1 can recognize the media of each terminal.
A user database 13 stores user information of each user and the ID
(identity) and password cross-referenced to the user.
To use the media mix meeting service through the system server 1, a user
needs to contract with a provider who provides the service, and the
provider issues an ID and password to the user who has contracted. When
the user contracted, the user character to be presented on the
communication status screen is assigned to the user as user information.
The user database 13 stores the above information cross-referenced to the
ID and password.
The user character is image data that symbolizes each user. Several pieces
of image data for user characters are prepared in advance at the system
server 1, and a user selects one of them to register it at the user
database 13. Alternatively, a user may produce a character to his or her
preference using any graphics application, and send it to the system
server 1 to register it at the user database 13. Furthermore, a user's own
picture may be digitized, sends the digitized data to the system server 1
to register it at the user database 13. In other words, the user character
is freely set at the option of the user.
Referring to the user database 13, terminal-information memory 15 and
server-information memory module 17, a control module 14 controls the
communications module 11, 12 and a media converter module 16 to provide
the medeia mix meeting service.
The terminal-information memory 15 stores, as the terminal information of
each terminal participating in message exchange, unique information for
identifying the terminal, the user ID of a user who accesses through the
terminal, the media type information of the terminal (in FIG. 1,
indicating whether the terminal is a computer or a telephone), and the
user character data corresponding to the user ID of the user who owns the
terminal.
When a terminal accesses a meeting room, the control module 14 assigns a
unique number to the terminal, and outputs it as unique information to the
terminal-information memory 15. The control module 14 recognizes or
determines the type of media of the terminal depending on whether the
terminal makes access through the communications module 11 or 12 (in this
embodiment, when the access is performed through the communications module
11 or 12, the media is determined to be a computer or a telephone,
respectively), and outputs its determination result to the
terminal-information memory 15. The control module 14 reads from the user
database 13 the data of the user character corresponding to the user ID of
the terminal of the user who makes access, and outputs it to the
terminal-information memory 15. The terminal-information memory 15 stores
the output of the control module 14 as the terminal information. One
method for converting the media of data in this way is disclosed in
Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 7-105848.
The media converter module 16 converts data under the control of the
control module 14. Specifically, the media converter module 16 performs
conversion between telephone voice data and computer voice data. The media
converter module 16 further converts the terminal information stored in
the terminal-information memory module 15 into the communication status
data and telephone voice data. The media converter module 16 also converts
the information stored in the server-information memory module 17 into the
telephone voice data and computer display data. The media converter module
16 has a voice synthesizing function, and thus when the information stored
in the server-information memory module 17 is sent to the telephone, the
information is converted into telephone voice data through a voice
synthesizing processing.
The server-information memory module 17 stores a message transmitted to a
terminal from the system server 1, such as a guidance for media mix
meeting service, namely, information (server information) required to
provide media mix meeting service.
Referring to a flow diagram shown in FIG. 3, the operation of the system
server is discussed. When the communications module 11 or 12 in the system
server 1 is accessed by a terminal, the communications module 11 or 12
establishes a communication link to the terminal at step S1. The sequence
goes to step S2, where the control module 14 determines the media type of
the terminal based on whether the communications module 11 or 12
established a communication link with the terminal. At step S3, the
control module 14 sends to the terminal a message requesting the user ID
and password through the communications module 11 or 12 depending on the
media type determined at step S2.
When the terminal is a computer, the control module 14 reads, from the
server-information memory module 17, the information of a message
requesting the user ID and password, and converts it into telephone voice
data or display data by controlling the media converter module 16. The
message converted into the telephone voice data or display data is now
transmitted.
The user hears or sees the message transmitted, and enters the user ID and
password assigned at the contract, by operating the terminal. The ID and
password are sent to the system server from the terminal. When the
communications module 11 or 12 receives the ID and password from the
terminal, the control module 14 determines whether the combination of the
ID and password is as registered in the user database 13, at step S4.
At step S4, when the ID and password transmitted from the terminal are
found to be unregistered in the user database 13, namely, when that access
is not the one from a contract user, the sequence goes to step S6. The
control module 14 reads, from the server-information memory module 17, a
message indicating that the ID and password are invalid, and converts it
into a data format compatible with the terminal by means of the media
converter module 16 in the same manner as at step S3. By controlling the
communications module 11 or 12, the control module 14 sends the message to
the terminal and disconnects the link with the terminal to end the
sequence.
At step S4, when the ID and password transmitted from the terminal are
found to be registered in the user database 13, the sequence goes to step
S5. The control module 14 performs control required to provide the media
mix meeting room service according to the media type determined at step
S2. When the control module 14 receives from the terminal a signal
indicating the end of one service session, the sequence goes to step S6,
where the control module 14 disconnects the line with the terminal to end
the sequence.
The processes at step S5 in FIG. 3 for computer terminal and telephone
terminal cases are now separately detailed. Referring to a flow diagram
shown in FIG. 4, the computer terminal case is discussed first.
As already described with reference to FIG. 1, the user A having the
computer 2, the user B having the telephone 3, and the users C and D
having their respective portable telephone 4 and 5 are accessing the
meeting room in connection with "ski (ABC ski resort)" (namely
participating in conversation). Suppose that in the course of
conversation, a user E having a computer 6 with a display device 6A and a
microphone 6B is accessing as shown by a dotted line in FIG. 1.
The control module 14 first reads, from the server-information memory
module 17, the type of meeting room (type of theme) stored as the server
information, and determines the number of users now accessing to each
meeting room referring to the terminal-information memory module 15. From
these pieces of information, the control module 14 produces data that make
up a menu screen that is one of the communication status screens, and
converts these data into display data by controlling the media converter
module 16. At step S1, the menu data in the display data format is sent to
the computer 6 via the communications module 11 (because any access from a
computer is received by the communications module 11).
The computer 6 receives the menu data, and its display device 6A presents,
as shown in FIG. 5A, for example, a menu screen that includes the type of
meeting room (electronic conference room) and the number of users
accessing to this meeting room.
From the menu screen, the user E selects a meeting room in which the user E
wants to participate. The user E, for example, selects the desired meeting
room by clicking anywhere inside the display area of the desired meeting
room, for example, with an unshown mouse. When the user E selects the
meeting room, the selection signal corresponding to the user E's selection
is sent from the computer 6 to the system server 1.
After sending the menu data at step S11, the control module 14 in the
system server 1 determines at step S12 whether the user E selects the
meeting room (conference room). The determination at step S12 shows that
no meeting room is selected, step S12 is repeated. When the determination
at step S12 reveals that the meeting room is selected, namely, when the
communications module 11 receives the selection signal from the computer
6, the sequence goes to step S13. The control module 14 controls the
communications module 11 to send to the computer 6 the data indicative of
the meeting room screen. The data indicative of the meeting room screen is
the communication status data indicative of communication status in the
meeting room (selected by the user E) corresponding to the selection
signal.
The control module 14 recognizes the user who is accessing to the meeting
room corresponding to the selection, referring to the terminal information
stored in the terminal-information memory module 15. The control module 14
reads from the terminal-information memory module 15 the data of the user
character of the user who is accessing to the meeting room corresponding
to the selection signal. Furthermore, the control module 14 reads, out of
the server information stored in the server-information memory module 17,
the information required to make up a conference room screen (for example,
on-screen buttons and image data representing the type of media). The
control module 14 produces the data that make up the conference room
screen, and converts the data into display data by controlling the media
converter module 16. At step S13, the data for the conference room screen
arranged in the display data is transmitted to the computer 6 via the
communications module 11.
The computer 6 receives the data for the conference room screen and
presents it on the display device 6A as shown in FIG. 5B.
The conference room screen shown in FIG. 5B is a screen of a meeting room
in connection with "ABC ski resort." Presented on top of the screen is a
title ".star-solid..star-solid..star-solid..star-solid. ski (ABC ski
resort)" under which a message "now, 4 persons in their rooms" is shown to
indicate that 4 persons (users A through D) are now accessing to the
meeting room. Shown below that message are the user characters of the user
A through D along with their respective images (hereinafter referred to as
terminal characters) indicating their terminals in use (in the embodiment
shown in FIG. 5B, the user character of each user is partitioned from its
terminal character by a dotted line).
In this way, the user E can easily monitor what users (users A through D in
this embodiment) access to the meeting room and what types of media they
are now using.
Available on the conference room screen are a voice button 21, an end
button 22, and a partition 23. The voice button 21 is operated (clicked)
to speak in the meeting room (to transmit a voice message). The end button
22 is operated to leave the meeting room (to disconnect the link from the
system server 1). The partition 23 will be described later.
In the system server 1, the communications modules 11 and 12 receive the
voice message from the terminals (the computer 2, telephone 3 and portable
telephones 4 and 5), and the control module 14 converts the voice message
received through the communications modules 11 or 12 into telephone voice
data or computer voice data, as required, by controlling the media
converter module 16. The control module 14 recognizes the users who are
accessing to the same meeting room, referring to the terminal-information
memory module 15. When receiving a voice message from one of the users or
a voice data in different data format from another user, the control
module 14 controls the communications modules 11 and 12 so that the
received voice message is transmitted to the rest of user terminals. Voice
message exchange is performed in this way mutually among the users A
through D having the computer 2, the telephone 3 and the portable
telephones 4 and 5, respectively.
At step S13, the control module 14 transmits a conference room screen to
the terminal (computer 6) which sent the selection signal for the meeting
room at step S12. Furthermore, the control module 14 causes the
communications module 11 or 12 to send a voice message from a user
terminal which accesses to the selected meeting room in the same manner as
already described. By selecting the meeting room (to which users A through
D access) at step S12, the user E can hear the speech content (voice
message) by users A through D who are accessing to the meeting room.
The computer 6 has the built-in loudspeaker as the computer 2, and outputs
the voice from the system server 1 through the loudspeaker.
The partition 23 shown in FIG. 5B encloses the user character and terminal
character of a user who is just speaking. In this case, the user character
and terminal character of the user A are enclosed by the partition 23, and
thus the user A is now speaking (the user A is a talker). Namely, the
voice output from the loudspeakers is the one of the user A.
The user E operates the voice button 21 when he or she wants to speak in
the meeting room on the conference room screen. A signal in response to
this operation (also referred to as speak signal) is sent to the system
server 1 from the computer 6.
After the system server 1 receives the conference ro | | |
