Abstract:
Disclosed are an electronic business card service system and a method for performing a vCard application of a client terminal. The electronic business card service system includes a presence server for providing presence information regarding at least one mobile terminal, an electronic business card server, a first mobile terminal for reporting change of presence information regarding the first mobile terminal to the presence server through a network, and a second mobile terminal for communicating with the presence server and the electronic business card server through the network, searching for the presence information by connecting to the presence server after displaying electronic business card information regarding other users read from electronic business card database, updating the electronic business card information using the searched presence information, and displaying the updated electronic business card information and the presence information on a screen.

Description:
PRIORITY  
       [0001]     This application claims priority to an application entitled “System and Method for Electronic Business Card Service Based on Presence Information” filed in the Korean Intellectual Property Office on Apr. 9, 2004 and assigned Serial No. 2004-24536, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.  
       BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
       [0002]     1. Field of the Invention  
         [0003]     The present invention relates to an electronic business card (versitcard) (hereinafter called a vCard) service system and a method for performing a vCard application of a client terminal connected to both a presence server and a vCard server through a wire/wireless network.  
         [0004]     2. Description of the Related Art  
         [0005]     The term “vCard” (versitcard) commonly refers to an electronic business card which is used for exchanging a information (e.g., personal information, business information, etc.) based on a conventional business card format. The term vCard also refers to a specification defining how the electronic business card information is exchanged and/or formatted. Hereinafter, the term vCard will refer generally to an electronic business card.  
         [0006]     Generally, a terminal including a vCard service function stores information including addresses, phone numbers, and/or e-mail addresses of the other parties in the terminal&#39;s vCard database and can display this information to a user. The vCard information includes multimedia information and graphics such as pictures, company logos, web addresses, simple letter information, etc.  
         [0007]      FIG. 1  is a flowchart illustrating an operation performed when a vCard application starts in a conventional mobile terminal.  
         [0008]     In step  110 , the mobile terminal reads vCard information regarding another user from a database (not shown) of the mobile terminal. Then, in step  130 , the mobile terminal outputs the read vCard information on a screen.  
         [0009]      FIG. 2  is a flowchart illustrating an operation performed when the vCard application is terminated in the conventional mobile terminal.  
         [0010]     In step  220 , when the mobile terminal intends to terminate the vCard application, the mobile terminal determines whether or not there is vCard information updated until a time point at which the mobile terminal intends to terminate the vCard application. In other words, this step determines whether or not a user updates the vCard information by editing data. If the mobile terminal determines that there is updated vCard information, the mobile terminal records the updated vCard information in its own database in step  240 .  
         [0011]     However, in the vCard application described above, the user must personally access the user&#39;s database and update corresponding information whenever vCard information regarding a certain target (wherein for the purpose of description, the term target as used herein refers to the other party) is changed which can be inconvenient. In addition, since the user cannot immediately recognize that vCard information regarding the other party has changed, the user cannot update the vCard information in real time and exactly determine whether or not current vCard information regarding the other party is the latest information.  
         [0012]     In addition, when one user uses several terminals, it is inconvenient for the user to separately maintain and manage vCard information according to types of terminals. Herein, the terminals include portable phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptops, etc.  
         [0013]     Additionally, displaying only vCard information regarding the other party cannot enable a mobile terminal&#39;s user to easily determine current states (e.g., a communication state, a waiting state, a power off state, etc.) of the other party&#39;s terminal. Therefore, it is difficult for the user to select the most suitable method for communicating with the other party at any given time.  
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
       [0014]     Accordingly, the present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems occurring in the prior art, and an object of the present invention is to provide a vCard service system and a method for performing a vcard application of a client terminal, which can automatically update vCard information regarding another party.  
         [0015]     Another object of the present invention is to provide a vCard service system and a method for performing a vcard application of a client terminal, which can allow a user to properly communicate with another party by informing the user of current states regarding the other party.  
         [0016]     Still another object of the present invention is to provide a vCard service system and a method for performing a vCard application of a client terminal, which can allow different terminals used by an identical user to share identical vCard information by providing server synchronization.  
         [0017]     To accomplish the above and other objects, there is provided an electronic business card service system including a presence server for providing presence information regarding at least one mobile terminal, an electronic business card database server, a first mobile terminal for reporting change of presence information regarding the first mobile terminal to the presence server through a network, and a second mobile terminal for communicating with the presence server and the electronic business card database server through the network, searching for the presence information by connecting to the presence server after displaying electronic business card information regarding other users read from electronic business card database, updating the electronic business card information using the searched presence information, and displaying the updated electronic business card information and the presence information on a screen.  
         [0018]     According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for performing an electronic business card application by a mobile communicating with a presence server and an electronic business card database server through a network, the mobile terminal including an electronic business card database, the method including the steps of displaying electronic business card information regarding other users read from the electronic business card database, after the electronic business card information is displayed, connecting to the presence server so as to search for presence information regarding mobile terminals of the users and updating the electronic business card information based on the searched presence information, and displaying the updated electronic business card information and the presence information on a screen. 
     
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0019]     The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:  
         [0020]      FIG. 1  is a flowchart illustrating an operation performed when a vCard application starts in a conventional mobile terminal;  
         [0021]      FIG. 2  is a flowchart illustrating an operation performed when the vCard application is terminated in a conventional mobile terminal;  
         [0022]      FIG. 3  is a block diagram illustrating a structure of a vCard service system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0023]      FIG. 4  is a flowchart illustrating an operation performed when a vCard application starts in a mobile terminal according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;  
         [0024]      FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating an operation performed when a vCard application is terminated in a mobile terminal according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention; and  
         [0025]      FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating a synchronization requesting process of a vCard application in a mobile terminal according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT  
       [0026]     Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Note that the same or similar components in drawings are designated by the same reference numerals as far as possible although they are shown in different drawings. In the following description of the present invention, a detailed description of known functions and configurations incorporated herein will be omitted when it may make the subject matter of the present invention unclear.  
         [0027]      FIG. 3  is a view illustrating a structure of a vcard service system according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0028]     A presence server  300  (i.e., a “messenger server”) provides presence information regarding at least one mobile terminal. The presence information includes data such as a client identification, a uniform resource identifier (URI), a client state (on-line state or off-line state), e-mail addresses, a client schedule, a business card, etc. corresponding to each client.  
         [0029]     A vCard server  310  is connected with a vCard database  320  and provides vCard services.  
         [0030]     A first mobile terminal  330  reports change of its own presence information to the presence server  300  through a wire/wireless network. As shown in  FIG. 3 , the first mobile terminal corresponds to a terminal  330  of a user B. Reference numeral S 1  represents an operation in which the terminal  330  transmits its own presence information to the presence server  300 . The terminal  330  transmits its the terminal&#39;s presence information as described above when the terminal&#39;s information (e.g., information regarding change from an off-line state into an on-line state or information regarding change of its own schedule) has changed.  
         [0031]     A second mobile terminal communicates with the presence server  300  and the vCard server  310  through the wire/wireless network, displays vCard information regarding another user read from the vCard database  320 , searches for presence information regarding the first mobile terminal by connecting to the presence server  300 , updates the vCard information using the searched presence information, and displays the updated vCard information and the presence information on a screen of the second mobile terminal. In addition, if a termination time point of a vCard application is detected or if user&#39;s synchronization request is detected, the second mobile terminal determines whether vCard information which has been updated until a time point at which the termination time point is detected or a time point at which the user&#39;s synchronization request is detected exists. If the updated vCard information exists, the second mobile terminal requests synchronization to the vCard server  310  so as to allow the vCard server  310  to update the vCard data base  320 . The second mobile terminal corresponds to a first terminal  340  of a user A. Herein, reference numeral S 2  represents an operation in which the presence server  300  transmits the presence information regarding user B to the first terminal  340 . Reference numeral S 3  represents an operation in which the first terminal  340  requests vCard database synchronization to the vCard server  310 . Herein, this vCard database synchronization implies an operation of updating data of the vCard database  320  connected to the vCard server  310 .  
         [0032]     A third mobile terminal requests synchronization to the vCard server  310  so as to update its own database using vCard information received from the vcard server  310 . The third mobile terminal corresponds to a second terminal  350  of the user A. Reference numeral S 4  represents an operation that the vCard server transmits data for vCard database synchronization to the second terminal  350 . This vCard database synchronization refers to an operation of updating data in a database (not shown) of the second terminal  350 .  
         [0033]      FIG. 4  is a flowchart illustrating a starting operation of the vCard application according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0034]     Hereinafter, on the assumption that a mobile terminal corresponds to the first terminal  340  of the user A, and the other party corresponds to the user B using a terminal marked as reference numeral  330 , the embodiment will be described by employing the case shown in  FIG. 1 .  
         [0035]     In step  420 , when the mobile terminal initially executes the vCard application, the mobile terminal reads vCard information regarding the user B from its own database (not shown). In step  425 , the mobile terminal is connected to the presence server  300 . Then, in step  430 , the mobile terminal determines whether presence information regarding the user B exists in the presence server  300 . If the presence information regarding the user B exists in the presence server  300 , the mobile terminal reads the presence information regarding the user B in step  435 . In step  440 , the mobile terminal updates existing vCard information regarding the user B in its own database using the presence information. If the presence information regarding the user B does not exist in the presence server  300  in step  430  or if the update is terminated in step  440 , the mobile terminal displays the updated vCard information and the presence information on a display in step  445 .  
         [0036]     Although a case in which the mobile terminal reads only vCard information regarding the user B as shown in  FIG. 4  is described for the purpose of description, it is envisioned that the mobile terminal can read and subsequently display information regarding a plurality of targets registered in the database at the same time, request corresponding presence information, and update corresponding vCard information. In order to confirm presence information regarding the targets, the mobile terminal transmits server IDs of corresponding targets when making contact with the presence server. This allows the presence server to find and provide presence information regarding a user corresponding to each server ID.  
         [0037]      FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating a terminating operation of the vCard application according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0038]     In step  510 , when the mobile terminal intends to terminate the vCard application, the mobile terminal determines whether updated vCard information exits. If the mobile terminal has performed the operation described with reference to  FIG. 4  then updated vCard information may exist.  
         [0039]     If it is determined that the updated vCard information exists as a result of the determination in step  510 , the mobile terminal requests synchronization to the vCard server  310  in step  520 . Then, the mobile terminal records the updated vCard information in its own database in step  530 .  
         [0040]     If the mobile terminal requests the synchronization to the vCard server  310  so as to make the vCard server  310  update data of the database  310  as described above, and then, if the user A intends to use another terminal (e.g., the second terminal  350  of the user A), the second terminal  350  requests vCard information synchronization to the vCard server  310  so as to automatically update its own database by using the latest vCard information.  
         [0041]      FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating a synchronization requesting process in the vCard application according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.  
         [0042]     On the assumption that the above described mobile terminal performing the operations as described with reference to  FIGS. 4 and 5  will now be referred to as the second mobile terminal for the purpose of description, a mobile terminal performing an operation of  FIG. 6  may become the third mobile terminal. For example, a case of the synchronization request shown in  FIG. 6  may include a case in which the power of a mobile terminal is turned on after the power of the mobile terminal is turned off during a predetermined time interval. If this embodiment employs a case shown in  FIG. 1 , the second mobile terminal corresponds to the first terminal  340  of the user A, and the third mobile terminal corresponds to the second terminal  350  of the user A.  
         [0043]     In step  620 , the third mobile terminal requests synchronization to the vCard server  310 . Herein, this synchronization request is different from that performed in step  520  of  FIG. 5 . In other words, the former synchronization request corresponds to a case in which the vCard server  310  is requested to update presence information regarding the user B stored in the database  320  of the vCard server  310 , and the latter corresponds to a case in which the vCard server  310  is requested to provide the updated presence information regarding the user B. Accordingly, the former synchronization request is named “server synchronization”, and the latter synchronization is named “client synchronization”.  
         [0044]     In step  640 , the second mobile terminal receives vCard information processed through the server synchronization according to step  520  of  FIG. 5  from the server  310  and stores the vCard information in its own database. Herein, the vCard information processed through the server synchronization according to step  520  of  FIG. 5  denotes vCard information updated when the vCard server  310  updates corresponding vCard information according to synchronization request to the vCard server  310  from the third mobile terminal.  
         [0045]     As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to overcome a disadvantage in that a user must personally modify vCard information whenever information regarding the other party is changed. In addition, it is possible to allow the user to select the most suitable communication device (e.g., portable phone, wire telephone, e-mail, IM, etc.) when the user intends to communicate with the other party by showing presence information regarding the other party in addition to vCard information. In addition, when the user has several terminals and when information regarding the other party is changed, it is convenient for the user that the latest vCard information is automatically updated without modification by the user for corresponding information regarding each terminal.  
         [0046]     While the invention has been shown and described with reference to certain preferred embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Consequently, the scope of the invention should not be limited to the embodiments, but should be defined by the appended claims and equivalents thereof.