Communication device and network communication system

• US 8,577,721 B2
• Filed: 06/22/2006
• Issued: 11/05/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/22/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: Aoki, Kazuma, Ohara, Kiyotaka, Matsuda, Makoto
• Primary Examiner(s): Nawaz, Asad
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chu, Wutchung
• Application Number:
  US11/472,444
• Publication Number:
  US 20070071193A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,693 Days
• Field of Search: 370/352, 370/310, 370/338, 370/259, 379/114.13, 379/142.01, 379/201.01, 379/218.01, 379/142.15, 379/221.06, 379/201.05, 709227-229, 455/414.1, 455/403, 4555561-5562, 455/550.1, 455/557, 455/566, 705 141- 1473
• US Class Current: 705/14.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2478 Telephone terminals specially adapted for non-voice services, e.g. email, internet access centralized arrangements where telephones services are combined H04M7/0024; for recording text messages H04M3/5322; for accessing Internet H04M3/4938
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 7/0036 where the data service is an information service

Abstract

There is provided a communication device which has a first communication system that communicates with an external telephone device and a second communication system that communicates with an external computer. The communication device comprises a call unit and a data acquisition unit. The call unit makes a call to a telephone device designated by a user using the first communication system. If a destination of the call unit is decided by the user'"'"'s designation, a data acquisition unit obtains data corresponding to the destination telephone device using the second communication system. By only making a call operation, the user can obtain the data corresponding to the destination telephone device from the communication device through the computer network which is a different kind of network from the telephone line network. That is, the communication device can reduce user'"'"'s operations to access related devices over various kinds of networks.

Claims

1. A communication device, comprising:

a first communication system configured to communicate with a plurality of external telephone devices through a telephone line network;

a second communication system configured to communicate with a plurality of computers on a computer network;

a display device; and

a controller configured to execute processes comprising;

controlling the display device to display a first screen configured to receive a designation of a particular destination in accordance with an input operation;

obtaining particular telephone information identifying a telephone device associated with the particular destination and particular URL information linking to predetermined data associated with the particular destination from a storage device in response to receiving the designation of the particular destination,

wherein the storage device is configured to store a plurality of destination information identifying a plurality of destinations, a plurality of pieces of telephone information associated with respective telephone devices identified by the plurality of destination information, and a plurality of pieces of URL information linking to predetermined data associated with respective destinations identified by the plurality of destination information;

controlling the display device to display a second screen configured to receive an instruction indicating whether a telephone call is to be made to the telephone device associated with the particular destination in response to receiving the designation of the particular destination;

controlling the first communication system to call the telephone device associated with the particular destination using the particular telephone information in response to receiving an instruction to make the telephone call to the telephone device associated with the particular destination;

controlling the display device to automatically display a third screen, without receiving of an additional instruction to display the third screen, in response to initiating the telephone call to the telephone device associated with the particular destination, the third screen configured to receive an instruction indicating whether the predetermined data associated with the particular destination is to be obtained; and

controlling the second communication system to obtain the predetermined data associated with the particular destination from a computer of the plurality of computers on the computer network in response to receiving an instruction to obtain the predetermined data associated with the particular destination, the computer being identified by the particular URL information.

2. The communication device according to claim 1,

wherein the controller is further configured to obtain the particular URL information, which is associated with the particular telephone information, from a database storing address information and the plurality of pieces of telephone information, the database associating the plurality of pieces of telephone information with the address information.

3. The communication device according to claim 2,

wherein the controller is further configured to obtain address information associated with other telephone information associated with another telephone device from the database, and

wherein the address information comprises a potential destination.

4. The communication device according to claim 2,

wherein the controller is further configured to obtain address information, which corresponds to the telephone device associated with the particular destination, from the database in response to receiving the designation of the particular destination, and

wherein the controller is further configured to control the second communication system to obtain the predetermined data associated with the particular destination based on the address information in response to obtaining the address information.

5. The communication device according to claim 1, further comprising:

a data record device configured to record the predetermined data associated with the particular destination in a nonvolatile memory medium.

6. The communication device according to claim 1, further comprising:

an image output device configured to output images based on the predetermined data associated with the particular destination.

7. The communication device according to claim 6,

wherein the image output device is configured to print out images based on the predetermined data associated with the particular destination.

8. The communication device according to claim 2,

wherein the telephone device associated with the particular destination is disposed at a shop, the database storing the particular telephone information, which is at the shop, and the address information, which represents a site from which shop data is obtained.

9. The communication device according to claim 8,

wherein the address information, which represents the site from which the shop data is obtained, further comprises address information of a site from which coupon data representing a coupon associated with the shop is obtained.

10. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to execute processes further comprising:

controlling the display device to display a fourth screen configured to receive another instruction whether a telephone call is to be made to the telephone device associated with the particular destination or the predetermined data associated with the particular destination is to be obtained in accordance with another input operation; and

controlling the first communication system to call the telephone device associated with the particular destination using the particular telephone information in response to receiving another instruction to make the telephone call to the telephone device associated with the particular destination.

11. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the controller is configured to obtain the particular telephone information and the particular URL information from another computer that is different from the computer identified by the particular URL information.

12. A communication device, comprising:

a first communication system configured to communicate with a plurality of external telephone devices through a telephone line network;

a second communication system configured to communicate with a computer plurality of computers on a computer network;

a display device; and

a controller configured to execute processes comprising;

controlling the display device to display a first screen configured to receive a designation of a particular destination in accordance with an input operation;

obtaining particular telephone information identifying a telephone device associated with the particular destination and particular URL information linking to predetermined data associated with the particular destination from a storage device in response to receiving the designation of the particular destination,

wherein the storage device is configured to store a plurality of destination information identifying a plurality of destinations, a plurality of pieces of telephone information associated with respective telephone devices identified by the plurality of destination information, and a plurality of pieces of URL information linking to predetermined data associated with respective destinations identified by the plurality of destination information;

controlling the display device to display a second screen configured to receive an instruction whether the predetermined data associated with the particular destination is to be obtained in response to receiving the designation of the particular destination;

controlling the second communication system to obtain the data associated with the particular destination from a computer of the plurality of the computers on the computer network in response to receiving an instruction to obtain the predetermined data associated with the particular destination, the computer being identified by the particular URL information;

controlling the display device to automatically display a third screen, without receiving of an additional instruction to display the third screen, in response to initiating obtaining the predetermined data associated with the particular destination, the third screen configured to receive an instruction whether a telephone call is to be made to the telephone device associated with the particular destination; and

controlling the first communication system to call the telephone device associated with the particular destination using the particular telephone information in response to receiving an instruction to make the telephone call to the telephone device associated with the particular destination.

13. The communication device according to claim 12,

wherein the controller is further configured to obtain the particular telephone information, which is associated with address information of a site that obtains address information from a database that stores address information in the computer network and that associates the particular telephone information to an address associated with the address information.

14. The communication device according to claim 12, further comprising:

a data record device configured to record the predetermined data associated with the particular destination in a nonvolatile memory medium.

15. The communication device according to claim 12, further comprising:

an image output device configured to output images based on the predetermined data associated with the particular destination.

16. The communication device according to claim 15,

wherein the image output device is configured to print out images based on the predetermined data associated with the particular destination.

17. The communication device according to claim 13,

wherein the telephone device associated with the particular destination is disposed at a shop, the database storing the particular telephone information, which is at the shop, and the address information, which represents a site from which shop data is obtained.

18. The communication device according to claim 17,

wherein the address information, which represents the site from which the shop data is obtained, further comprises address information of a site from which coupon data representing a coupon associated with the shop is obtained.

19. The communication device according to claim 12, wherein the controller is configured to execute processes further comprising:

controlling the display device to display a fourth screen configured to receive another instruction whether a telephone call is to be made to the telephone device associated with the particular destination or the predetermined data associated with the particular destination is to be obtained in accordance with another input operation; and

controlling the second communication system to obtain the data associated with the particular destination from the computer of the plurality of the computers on the computer network in response to receiving another instruction to obtain the predetermined data associated with the particular destination.

20. The communication device according to claim 12, wherein the controller is configured to obtain the particular telephone information and the particular URL information from another computer that is different from the computer identified by the particular URL information.

21. A network communication system, comprising:

a server device, which is connected to a computer network, and which comprises a database configured to store a plurality of destination information identifying a plurality of destinations, a plurality of pieces of telephone information associated with respective telephone devices identified by the plurality of destination information, and a plurality of pieces of URL information linking to predetermined data associated with respective destinations identified by the plurality of destination information, the database associating the plurality of pieces of telephone information with the plurality of pieces of URL information; and

a communication device comprising;

a first communication system configured to communicate with a plurality of external telephone devices through a telephone line network;

a second communication system configured to communicate with a plurality of computers on the computer network;

a display device; and

a controller configured to execute processes comprising;

controlling the display device to display a first screen configured to receive a designation of a particular destination in accordance with an input operation;

obtaining particular telephone information identifying a telephone device associated with the particular destination and particular URL information linking to predetermined data associated with the particular destination from the server device in response to receiving the designation of the particular destination;

controlling the display device to display a second screen configured to receive an instruction indicating whether a telephone call is to be made to the telephone device associated with the particular destination in response to receiving the designation of the particular destination;

controlling the first communication system to call the telephone device associated with the particular destination using the particular telephone information in response to receiving an instruction to make the telephone call to the telephone device associated with the particular destination;

controlling the display device to automatically display a third screen, without receiving an additional instruction to display the third screen, in response to initiating the telephone call to the telephone device associated with the particular destination, the third screen configured to receive an instruction indicating whether the predetermined data associated with the particular destination is to be obtained; and

controlling the second communication system to obtain the predetermined data associated with the particular destination from a computer of the plurality of computers on the computer network in response to receiving an instruction to obtain the predetermined data associated with the particular destination, the computer being identified by the particular URL information.

22. The network communication system according to claim 21,

wherein the server device comprises a shop database storing the particular telephone information identifying the telephone device at a predetermined shop, the shop database obtaining address information representing a site from which shop data is obtained, and the shop database associating the particular telephone information identifying the telephone device at the predetermined shop with the address information representing the site from which the shop data is obtained.

23. The network communication system according to claim 22, further comprising:

another computer of the plurality of computers that is connected to the computer network and configured to store the shop data corresponding to the address information registered in the database.

24. A network communication system, comprising:

a server device, which is connected to a computer network, and which comprises a database configured to store a plurality of destination information identifying a plurality of destinations, a plurality of pieces of telephone information associated with respective telephone devices identified by the plurality of destination information, and a plurality of pieces of URL information linking to predetermined data associated with respective destinations identified by the plurality of destination information, the database associating the plurality of pieces of URL information with the plurality of pieces of telephone information; and

a communication device, comprising;

a first communication system configured to communicate with a plurality of external telephone devices through a telephone line network;

a second communication system configured to communicate with a plurality of computers on the computer network;

a display device; and

a controller configured to execute processes comprising;

controlling the display device to display a first screen configured to receive a designation of a particular destination in accordance with an input operation;

obtaining particular telephone information identifying a telephone device associated with the particular destination and particular URL information linking to predetermined data associated with the particular destination from the server device in response to receiving the designation of the particular destination;

controlling the display device to display a second screen configured to receive an instruction whether the predetermined data associated with the particular destination is to be obtained in response to receiving the designation of the particular destination;

controlling the second communication system to obtain the data associated with the particular destination from a computer of the plurality of the computers on the computer network in response to receiving an instruction to obtain the predetermined data associated with the particular destination, the computer being identified by the particular URL information;

controlling the display device to automatically display a third screen, without receiving an additional instruction to display the third screen, in response to initiating obtaining the predetermined data associated with the particular destination, the third screen configured to receive an instruction whether a telephone call is to be made to the telephone device associated with the particular destination; and

controlling the first communication system to call the telephone device associated with the particular destination using the particular telephone information in response to receiving an instruction to make the telephone call to the telephone device associated with the particular destination.

25. The network communication system according to claim 24,

wherein the server device comprises a shop database storing the particular telephone information identifying the telephone device at a predetermined shop, the shop database obtaining address information representing a site from which shop data is obtained, and the shop database associating the particular telephone information identifying the telephone device at the predetermined shop with the address information representing the site from which the shop data is obtained.

26. The network communication system according to claim 25, further comprising:

another computer of the plurality of computers that is connected to the computer network and stores the shop data corresponding to the address information registered in the database.

27. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-readable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a controller of a computer comprising a display device, a first communication system configured to communicate with a plurality of external telephone devices through a telephone line network, and a second communication system configured to communicate with a plurality of computers on a computer network, instruct the controller to execute processes comprising:

controlling the display device to display a first screen configured to receive a designation of a particular destination in accordance with an input operation;

obtaining particular telephone information identifying a telephone device associated with the particular destination and particular URL information linking to predetermined data associated with the particular destination from a storage device in response to receiving the designation of the particular destination,

wherein the storage device is configured to store a plurality of destination information identifying a plurality of destinations, a plurality of pieces of telephone information associated with respective telephone devices identified by the plurality of destination information, and a plurality of pieces of URL information linking to predetermined data associated with respective destinations identified by the plurality of destination information;

controlling the display device to display a second screen configured to receive an instruction indicating whether a telephone call is to be made to the telephone device associated with the particular destination in response to receiving the designation of the particular destination;

controlling the first communication system to call the telephone device associated with the particular destination using the particular telephone information in response to receiving an instruction to make the telephone call to the telephone device associated with the particular destination;

controlling the display device to automatically display a third screen, without receiving an additional instruction to display the third screen, in response to initiating the telephone call to the telephone device associated with the particular destination, the third screen configured to receive an instruction indicating whether the predetermined data associated with the particular destination is to be obtained; and

controlling the second communication system to obtain the predetermined data associated with the particular destination from another computer of the plurality of computers on the computer network in response to receiving an instruction to obtain the predetermined data associated with the particular destination, the other computer being identified by the particular URL information.

28. A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer-readable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a controller of a computer comprising a display device, a first communication system configured to communicate with a plurality of external telephone devices through a telephone line network, and a second communication system configured to communicate with a plurality of computers on a computer network, instruct the controller to execute process comprising:

controlling the display device to display a first screen configured to receive a designation of a particular destination in accordance with an input operation;

obtaining particular telephone information identifying a telephone device associated with the particular destination and particular URL information linking to predetermined data associated with the particular destination from a storage device in response to receiving the designation of the designated destination,

wherein the storage device is configured to store a plurality of destination information identifying a plurality of destinations, a plurality of pieces of telephone information associated with respective telephone devices identified by the plurality of destination information, and a plurality of pieces of URL information linking to predetermined data associated with respective destinations identified by the plurality of destination information;

controlling the display device to display a second screen configured to receive an instruction whether the predetermined data associated with the particular destination is to be obtained in response to receiving the designation of the particular destination;

controlling the second communication system to obtain the data associated with the particular destination from another computer of the plurality of the computers on the computer network in response to receiving an instruction to obtain the predetermined data associated with the particular destination, the other computer being identified by the particular URL information;

controlling the display device to automatically display a third screen, without receiving an additional instruction to display the third screen, in response to initiating obtaining the predetermined data associated with the particular destination, the third screen configured to receive an instruction whether a telephone call is to be made to the telephone device associated with the particular destination; and

controlling the first communication system to call the telephone device associated with the particular destination using the particular telephone information in response to receiving an instruction to make the telephone call to the telephone device associated with the particular destination.

29. A communication device, comprising:

a first communication system configured to communication with a plurality of external telephone devices through a telephone line network;

a second communication system configured to communicate with a computer on a computer network;

a display device; and

a controller configured to execute processes comprising;

controlling the display device to display a first screen configured to receive a designation of a particular destination in accordance with an input operation;

obtaining particular telephone information identifying a telephone device associated with the particular destination and particular URL information linking to predetermined data associated with the particular destination from a storage device in response to receiving the designation of the particular destination,

wherein the storage device is configured to store a plurality of destination information identifying a plurality of destinations, a plurality of pieces of telephone information associated with respective telephone devices identified by the plurality of destination information, and a plurality of pieces of URL information linking to predetermined data associated with respective destinations identified by the plurality of destination information; and

controlling the display device to display a second screen in response to receiving the designation of the particular destination, the second screen configured to receive an instruction whether a telephone call is to be made to the telephone device associated with the particular destination or the predetermined data associated with the particular destination is to be obtained in response to the designation of the particular destination,

wherein, in response to receiving an instruction to make the telephone call is to the telephone device associated with the particular destination, the controller is configured to execute processes further comprising;

controlling the first communication system to call the telephone device associated with the particular destination using the particular telephone information;

controlling the display device to automatically display a third screen, without receiving an additional instruction to display the third screen, in response to initiating the telephone call to the telephone device associated with the particular destination, the third screen configured to receive an instruction indicating whether the predetermined data associated with the particular destination is to be obtained; and

controlling the second communication system to obtain the predetermined data associated with the particular destination from a computer of the plurality of computers on the computer network in response to receiving an instruction to obtain the predetermined data associated with the particular destination, the computer being identified by the particular URL information, and

wherein, in response to receiving an instruction to obtain the predetermined data associated with the particular destination, the controller is configured to execute processes further comprising;

controlling the second communication system to obtain the data associated with the particular destination from the computer of the plurality of the computers on the computer network in response to receiving an instruction to obtain the predetermined data associated with the particular destination, the computer being identified by the particular URL information;

controlling the display device to automatically display a fourth screen, without receiving an additional instruction to display the fourth screen, in response to initiating obtaining the predetermined data associated with the particular destination, the third screen configured to receive an instruction whether a telephone call is to be made to the telephone device associated with the particular destination; and

controlling the first communication system to call the telephone device associated with the particular destination using the particular telephone information in response to receiving an instruction to make the telephone call to the telephone device associated with the particular destination.

30. The communication device according to claim 29, wherein the controller is configured to obtain the particular telephone information and the particular URL information from another computer that is different from the computer identified by the particular URL information.