Registers – Systems controlled by data bearing records
Reexamination Certificate
2000-04-21
2002-07-02
Frech, Karl D. (Department: 2876)
Registers
Systems controlled by data bearing records
C235S380000, C707S793000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06412689
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a communication equipment and method for performing a transmission/reception through a communication network.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
It is a common practice that a user registers its personal information to a communication equipment that the user uses. For example, its name, its address, its phone number, its office name, its school name, the telephone numbers of these places, its electronic mail address and so on are registered. These personal information of the user are called “business card information”.
Although there is a case that the business card information is read from an actual business card by using a reader such as a scanner and the business card information is stored in the equipment, there is another case that the user directly inputs the business card information to the equipment. As an example which embodies an equipment which registers the business card information of the user, there is an equipment called “PDA (Personal Digital Assistant)”. The PDA has a function of managing the personal information of the user (a schedule management, an action item management, an address book management).
Further, the PDA having a communication function is capable of exchanging the preregistered business card information with other PDA and takes in the received information into its own address book.
In this manner, the PDA which functions such that the function of managing address book is correlated with the function of interchanging the business card information with the PDA which others use and the interchanged business card information is taken in the address book has been already known.
As a second example of an equipment which is capable of registering the business card information, a portable personal computer can be named. In general, a software which manages the personal information is called PIM (Personal Information Manger) software and such a software often has a business card interchanging function and an address book management function which is correlated with the former function as in the case of the PDA.
At the time of interchanging the business cards, the user must perform an operation called “business card information transmission”. That is, the business card information can be interchanged only when both user or either one of users perform the “business card information transmission”. Here, the information interchanged and stored is only the business card information.
In the conventional equipment such as the PDA or the like, there has been a problem that even when the PDAs of both parties are in a communicable condition, the user must inevitably perform the operation to designate the business card information transmission.
Further, there has been another problem that in case the user wants to start any communication with the counterpart equipment after the interchange of the business cards, the only way to identify other equipment is to discriminate by the address or the name given to the equipment and hence, only by looking at the address or the name given to the equipment, it is difficult for the user to accurately select the desired counterpart without fail.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Therefore, there is a need for a communication equipment and method for automatically interchanging business card information and displaying the business card information on a display, thus making it unnecessary for a user to perform the operation for interchanging the actual business card.
In accordance with the present invention there is provided a communication equipment comprising business card information transmission means for transmitting business card information including at least a portion of a name of a user of its own communication equipment; business card information reception means for receiving business card information including at least a portion of a name of a user of other communication equipment; business card information display means for displaying the business card information of a user of the other communication equipment received by said business card information reception means; and business card information memory means for storing the business card information of a user of its own communication equipment and the business card information of other communication equipment.
Also in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a communication method comprising transmitting business card information including at least a portion of the name of a user of the user's own communication equipment; receiving business card information including at least a portion of a name of a user of other communication equipment; displaying the business card information of the other communication equipment received in a business card information display; and storing in memory the business card information of the user's own communication equipment and the business card information of the other communication equipment.
Further in accordance with the present invention, there is provided a storage medium for storing a program of a communication method, wherein said program performs transmitting business card information including at least a portion of a name of a user of the user's own communication equipment; receiving business card information including at least a portion of a name of a user of other communication equipment; displaying the received business card information of the other communication equipment; and storing the business card information of the user's own communication equipment and the business card information of the other communication equipment.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The invention according to claim
1
is directed to a communication equipment comprising business card information transmission means for transmitting business card information which includes at least a portion of a name of a user of its own communication equipment, without users operation for transmitting business card information reception means for receiving business card information which includes at least a portion of a name of a user of other communication equipment, business card information display means for displaying the business card information of other communication equipment received by the business card information reception means, and business card information memory means for storing the business card information of its own communication equipment and the business card information of other communication equipment.
The invention according to claim
2
is directed to a communication equipment according to claim
1
, wherein the equipment includes communication equipment detection means which finds out other communication equipment which is communicable with its own communication equipment, the business card information transmission means transmits the business card information of its own communication equipment to other communication equipment detected by the communication equipment detection means, and the business card information display means picks out and displays the business card information corresponding to other communication equipment detected by the communication equipment detection means.
The invention according to claim
3
is directed to a communication equipment according to claim
1
, wherein the business card information memory means stores information on a condition in which the communication equipment is connected to other communication equipment together with the business card information of other communication equipment.
The invention according to claim
4
is directed to a communication equipment according to claim
1
wherein the communication equipment includes image inputting means which photographs an image and converts the image to electronic data, and the business card information transmission means transmits the image information together with the business card information.
The invention according to claim
5
is directed to a communication equipment according to claim
1
, wherein in case the business card information of its own communication equipme
Horiguchi Takeo
Iwamura Kazuaki
Tajika Yosuke
Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner L.L.P.
Frech Karl D.
Kabushiki Kaisha Toshiba
Le Uyen-Chau
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