Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US8090397?dq=6819670
Timestamp: 2016-02-08 00:43:15
Document Index: 98584553

Matched Legal Cases: ['art, 103', 'art, 104', 'art, 105', 'art, 109', 'art, 100', 'art 102', 'art 103', 'art 104', 'art 108', 'art 110']

Patent US8090397 - Group communication method and communication terminal - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign inPatentsA group communication method in which a communication terminal not participating in the group communication can newly participate in the group communication even while the group communication is being carried out is realized. The group communication method has a personal information management step of...http://www.google.com/patents/US8090397?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US8090397 - Group communication method and communication terminalAdvanced Patent SearchPublication numberUS8090397 B2Publication typeGrantApplication numberUS 12/297,191PCT numberPCT/JP2007/056835Publication dateJan 3, 2012Filing dateMar 29, 2007Priority dateApr 13, 2006Fee statusPaidAlso published asCN101444078A, CN101444078B, US20100016006, WO2007119586A1Publication number12297191, 297191, PCT/2007/56835, PCT/JP/2007/056835, PCT/JP/2007/56835, PCT/JP/7/056835, PCT/JP/7/56835, PCT/JP2007/056835, PCT/JP2007/56835, PCT/JP2007056835, PCT/JP200756835, PCT/JP7/056835, PCT/JP7/56835, PCT/JP7056835, PCT/JP756835, US 8090397 B2, US 8090397B2, US-B2-8090397, US8090397 B2, US8090397B2InventorsTomohiro InagakiOriginal AssigneeKyocera CorporationExport CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (11), Non-Patent Citations (2), Referenced by (2), Classifications (11), Legal Events (2) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetGroup communication method and communication terminal
US 8090397 B2Abstract
A group communication method in which a communication terminal not participating in the group communication can newly participate in the group communication even while the group communication is being carried out is realized. The group communication method has a personal information management step of managing personal information, a participation request transmission step, a group communication control step, and an other party updating step, in a case where participation intention in the group communication is received from another communication terminal to which no participation request has been transmitted in a state of “party not participating” in which at least one party among the plurality of terminals of the parties sent the participation requests does not participate in the group communication, deleting the party not participating in the group communication from a member list and registering the other party of the other communication terminal in the member list as a party for engaging in the group communication to thereby allow the other communication terminal to participate in the group communication.
a participation intention reception step of receiving intention to participate in the group communication from another communication terminal to which no participation request has been transmitted, in a state of “party not participating” in which there is at least one communication terminal among the plurality of communication terminals sent the participation requests which will not participate in the group communication; and
in the in-progress communication response judgment step, a state judged as “no response” is judged as the state of “party not participating” in the other party updating step.
wherein, when the communication part receives participation intention in the group communication from another communication terminal to which no participation request has been transmitted in the state of “party not participating” in which at least one communication terminal among the plurality of communication terminals sent the participation requests does not participate in the group communication, the group communication control part deletes the at least one party of communication from the member list and registers the other communication terminal as the communication terminal, to engage in the group communication in the member list and thereby allows the other communication terminal to participate in the group communication.
determines the state judged as “no response” in the in-progress communication response judgment processing as the state of “party not participating” in the other party updating step.
A CROSS REFERENCE OF FOREIGN PRIORITY DOCUMENT
This application has a Japan priority document 2006-110939 filed on Apr. 13, 2006.
The present invention relates to a PTT (push to talk) or other group communication method and a communication terminal.
In recent years, the types of communication of phones have become more diverse. In addition to the conventional speech communication by line switching, phones capable of performing packet communications utilizing an IP (internet protocol) network are widely utilized. For example, “chat mail” where mobile phones trade text in real time for conversion is known (see Patent Document 1). Chat mail is one of the modes of communication called “group communication” where members registered in advance form a group and trade text and other data in real time in the group.
When a plurality of communication terminals capable of group communication by PTT try to start group communication, a representative single communication terminal among the plurality of communication terminals performs processing for starting the group communication. Then, that representative single communication terminal generates a group communication start notification and sends the notification to the other communication terminals registered in that communication terminal. The “group communication start notification” is a notification whereby that representative single communication terminal inquiries to the other communication terminals about their participation in group communication.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 2003-174520 Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Publication (A) No. 2005-522067 DISCLOSURE OF INVENTION
When using communication terminals for group communication, there is an upper limit to the number of communication terminals able to participate in the group communication at one time. However, even if a representative single communication terminal generates a group communication start notification and sends the notification to the same number of communication terminals as the number of communication terminals able to participate in the group communication, all of the communication terminals receiving the notification will not necessarily participate in the group communication.
The present invention provides a group communication method of communication terminals by which a plurality of communication terminals connected to a communication network including a communication server apparatus engage in group communication via the communication server apparatus, having: a personal information management step of managing personal information for communication terminals of a plurality of communicating parties; a participation request transmission step of registering a plurality of communication terminals for engaging in the group communication in a member list, and transmitting participation requests for the group communication to the plurality of communication terminals, when designating a plurality of communication terminals to engage in the group communication based on the plurality of personal information and starting the group communication; a group communication control step of performing processing for the group communication with communication terminals to which responds of participate with respect to the participation requests exist; a participation intention reception step of receiving intention to participate in the group communication from another communication terminal to which no participation request has been transmitted, in a state of “party not participating” in which there is at least one communication terminal among the plurality of communication terminals sent the participation requests which will not participate in the group communication; and an other party updating step of deleting any communication terminal not participating in the group communication from the member list when receiving the participation intentions in the group communication, in the participation intention reception step, and registering the other party of the other communication terminal in the member list as another party for engaging in group communication to enable the other communication terminal to participate in the group communication.
Further preferably, the group communication method of the present invention further has a re-transmission step of re-transmitting a participation request to any communication terminal which did not respond to the participation request in the participation request transmission step and an in-progress communication response judgment step of judging presence/absence of a response with respect to a participation request including one re-transmitted during the group communication, and, in the in-progress communication response judgment step, a state judged as “no response” is judged as the state of “party not participating” in the other party updating step.
Further, the present invention provides a group communication terminal having a communication part for engaging in group communication via a communication server apparatus with a plurality of communication terminals connected to a communication network including the communication server apparatus, having a personal information management part managing personal information of the plurality of communication terminals and a group communication control part registering a plurality of other parties engaging in the group communication in a member list and making the communication part transmit participation requests for group communication to the plurality of communication terminals when designating the plurality of communication terminals to engage in the group communication based on the plurality of personal information and starting the group communication by the communication part, wherein when the communication part receives participation intention in the group communication from another communication terminal to which no participation request has been transmitted in the state of “party not participating” in which at least one communication terminal among the plurality of communication terminals sent the participation requests does not participate in the group communication, the group communication control part deletes the at least one party of communication from the member list and registers the other communication terminal as a communication terminal to engage in the group communication in the member list and thereby allows the other communication terminal to participate in the group communication.
In the group communication method of the present invention, a communication terminal which has not participated in a group communication can newly participate in the group communication even while group communication is being carried out. Further, the communication terminal of the present invention can newly participate in a group communication even when that communication terminal does not first participate in the group communication while the group communication is being carried out.
FIG. 1 shows an example of the configuration of a communication system used in a communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
101 . . . antenna, 102 . . . communication part, 103 . . . key input part, 104 . . . speech processing part, 105 . . . speaker, 106 . . . microphone, 107 . . . display portion, 108 . . . memory part, 109 . . . member list, 110 . . . control part, 100, 100-1 to 100-5 . . . communication terminals, 200 . . . communication server apparatus, and 300 . . . communication network.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of a communication system used in a communication method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
A communication terminal 100-i (i is an integer of 1 to 5) is a wireless communication terminal, for example, a mobile phone, and is connected to a communication network 300 via base stations (300-1, 300-2, 300-3). Further, the communication terminal 100-i performs data communication under the control of the communication server apparatus 200 connected to the communication network 300. In the present embodiment, as an example, PTT (push to talk) group communication (below sometimes called just “group communication”) is carried out. Data transmitted in the group communication includes, for example, speech conversation, images, text, music, and other data.
Among the communication terminals 100-i, a representative one among the plurality of communication terminals 100-i starting the group communication when engaging in the group communication becomes the host device (hereinafter sometimes called the “host communication terminal”), while the others become devices participating in the group communication by receiving the group communication start notification (below sometimes called the “participant communication terminals”).
Next, the communication terminal 100-i transmits the group communication start notification (participation request) to the communication terminals or the other parties. Hereinafter, the communication terminals which are sent this group communication start notification will be called “members of the group communication” or simply “members”.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the communication terminals (100-1 to 100-5) according to an embodiment of the present invention. Below, communication terminals having the configuration shown in FIG. 2 will be sometimes called the “communication terminal 100” all together. The communication terminal 100 shown in FIG. 2 has an antenna 101, a communication part 102, a key input part 103, a speech processing part 104, a speaker 105, a microphone 106, a display portion 107, a memory part 108, and a control part 110.
The communication terminal E has received the request soliciting participation in the group communication, but does not respond that it will participate in the group communication. Namely, the communication terminals to which the communication terminal A transmitted the participation request at step ST102 are the communication terminal B, communication terminal C, communication terminal D, and communication terminal E. However, one of the parties among those communication terminals, that is, the communication terminal E, has become the state of “party not participating” in the group communication. However, the communication terminal E is handled as the standby state in the communication terminal A, therefore sometimes the user of the communication terminal E will intend to participate in the group communication in the middle. Therefore, the communication terminal A re-transmits the request for participation in the group communication to the communication terminal E. In the present example, the communication terminal A re-transmits the SMS to the communication terminal E (step ST106).
When the user of the communication terminal F already receiving the report of group communication in progress from the communication terminal A at step ST108 intends to participate in the group communication in answer to the report, a message indicating the intention of participation is transmitted from the communication terminal F to the communication terminal A. In the present example, the communication terminal F transmits a participation intention SMS to the communication terminal A (step ST109). The processing at step ST109 may be comprised as follows as well. Namely, if a notification of content confirming whether or not the communication terminal F intends to participate in the group communication is received at step ST108, the control part of the communication terminal F displays this confirmation content to prompt the user of the communication terminal F to select intend/not intend. Here, if the control part of the communication terminal F transmits the participation intention SMS to the communication terminal A when “intend” is selected and contacts the communication terminal A that it dose not intend to participate in the group communication when “not intend” is selected, the communication terminal A does not have to perform the following processing, therefore it also becomes possible to allow the communication terminal E to participate in a case where the user changes his mind and no longer participates.
Patent CitationsCited PatentFiling datePublication dateApplicantTitleUS6996414 *Apr 30, 2001Feb 7, 2006Motorola, Inc.System and method of group calling in mobile communicationsUS7277697 *May 24, 2004Oct 2, 2007Adesh DesaiMethod and system for establishing a teleconference over a telephony networkUS7804944 *May 3, 2006Sep 28, 2010Robert PinesCommunication assistance system and methodUS7818020 *Mar 29, 2007Oct 19, 2010Nextel Communications Company L.P.System and method for joining communication groupsUS20030154249Feb 14, 2002Aug 14, 2003Crockett Douglas M.Method and an apparatus for removing a member from an active group call in a group communication networkJP2003174520A Title not availableJP2005522067A Title not availableJPH06141084A Title not availableKR20040077965A Title not availableKR20060014620A Title not availableWO2003069926A1Feb 12, 2003Aug 21, 2003Qualcomm IncA method and an apparatus for removing a member from an active group call in a group communication network* Cited by examinerNon-Patent CitationsReference1English language translation of Korean office action dated Aug. 20, 2010 for corresponding Korean application 1020087027673 lists the references above.2Toriatsukai Setsumeisho FOMA D902i, NTT DoCoMo Group, second edition, Nov. 2005, pp. 91-100.Referenced byCiting PatentFiling datePublication dateApplicantTitleUS8949396 *Jul 28, 2009Feb 3, 2015Nintendo Co., Ltd.Computer-readable storage medium having display control program stored therein, display control device, and display control systemUS20100093442 *Jul 28, 2009Apr 15, 2010Tomoaki YoshinobuComputer-readable storage medium having display control program stored therein, display control device, and display control system* Cited by examinerClassifications U.S. Classification455/518, 455/519, 455/416, 455/517International ClassificationH04B7/00, H04W4/00, H04M3/42Cooperative ClassificationH04W4/08, H04W8/186European ClassificationH04W4/08, H04W8/18GLegal EventsDateCodeEventDescriptionJun 3, 2009ASAssignmentOwner name: KYOCERA CORPORATION,JAPANFree format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:INAGAKI, TOMOHIRO;REEL/FRAME:022777/0046Effective date: 20090601Owner name: KYOCERA CORPORATION, JAPANFree format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNOR:INAGAKI, TOMOHIRO;REEL/FRAME:022777/0046Effective date: 20090601Jun 17, 2015FPAYFee paymentYear of fee payment: 4RotateOriginal ImageGoogle Home - Sitemap - USPTO Bulk Downloads - Privacy Policy - Terms of Service - About Google Patents - Send FeedbackData provided by IFI CLAIMS Patent Services