JP2010153956A - Apparatus, method, and program for visitor reception - Google Patents

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to reliably transfer visitors to original visitors.
A reception terminal 2 is connected to a visitor reservation database 1510 capable of recording a plurality of visit information related to visits of a visitor, and a microphone 207 for inputting voice information by a visitor's utterance voice; A touch panel 210 for inputting operation information by a manual operation of the visitor, and using voice recognition based on the voice information input by the microphone 207, the first visit information included in the plurality of visit information related to the visit The second visit information included in the plurality of visit information related to the visit is obtained based on the operation information input on the touch panel 210, and the obtained first visit information and the obtained second visit information are obtained. The contents of the plurality of visit information recorded in the visitor reservation database 1510 are collated, and stored in the visitor reservation database 1510 when the collation matches. It notifies the IP phone 60.
[Selection] Figure 14

Description

  The present invention relates to a visitor reception apparatus, a visitor reception method, and a visitor reception program that perform reception processing for visits by visitors.

Conventionally, for example, a visitor reception apparatus for automating reception work for visitors to buildings, companies, and other buildings is known (see, for example, Patent Document 1). In this conventional technology, the utterance content of the visitor is recognized by voice, and the identity of the visitor and the visitee (person in charge) are determined, so that necessary information is communicated to the visitee for intermediation. It is like that.
JP-A-7-234694

  In the above prior art, at the time of receiving a visitor, a visitor and a visit target are specified only by voice recognition of a visitor's utterance. However, in the case of the speech recognition method, in reality, it is inevitable that erroneous recognition (= correctly recognized as a language but erroneously recognized as another word different from the original) will occur with a certain probability. . In this case, there is a possibility that the visitor may be mistakenly transferred to another person who is not the original visit target person. Furthermore, there is a possibility that the utterance of the visitor may not be recognized (= not correctly recognized as a language), and in this case, it is difficult to relay the visitor to the original visitor.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a visitor reception device, a visitor reception method, and a visitor reception program that can reliably transfer a visitor to an original visitor.

  In order to achieve the above object, a first invention is a visitor reception device that performs a reception process for a visitor's visit, wherein the voice input means inputs voice information by the uttered voice of the visitor, and the voice Based on the voice information input by the input means, using voice recognition, primary acquisition means for acquiring first visit information included in the plurality of visit information related to the visit, and operation by manual operation of the visitor An operation means for inputting information, a secondary acquisition means for acquiring second visit information included in the plurality of visit information related to the visit based on the operation information input by the operation means, and the primary acquisition means The information acquisition result in the second acquisition means and the information acquisition result in the secondary acquisition means, the contents of the plurality of visit information recorded in a database capable of recording a plurality of visit information related to the visit of the visitor A first collating unit for collating, and a first notification signal outputting unit for outputting a first notification signal for notifying a notification destination stored in the database when the collation by the first collating unit is matched. It is characterized by having.

  In the first invention of the present application, a plurality of pieces of visit information such as visitor names, visit reservation dates and times, visitee names, etc. are recorded in advance in the database. When the visitor visits, the first acquisition information is acquired by the primary acquisition means based on the voice information input by the visitor from the voice input means, and the secondary acquisition means is acquired based on the operation information input by the visitor from the operation means. Second visit information is acquired, and whether or not the two information acquisition results match the recorded contents of the database is verified by the first verification unit. When it matches, it is regarded as a legitimate visitor who has made a visit reservation in advance, and the first notification signal output means outputs the first notification signal to the notification destination, so that Make a notification.

  In the above description, two different pieces of first visit information and second visit information are acquired by the two means of the primary acquisition means and the secondary acquisition means, and the database is collated based on these two. When the database is inquired with one visit information, it can be distinguished whether or not the visitor has made a reservation. In the first invention of the present application, these two are obtained by acquiring two visit information. It is possible to verify whether or not it is recorded in the database as related to a common visit. As a result, it is possible not only to confirm whether or not there is a reservation, but also to reliably prevent a visitor from being mistakenly relayed to another person who is not the original visit target person. In particular, of the two visit information, the first visit information is obtained by voice recognition, and due to the method, there is a certain probability of misrecognition (= a language that is recognized correctly but is different from the original one) Is erroneously recognized as such), the above-mentioned mis-transmission prevention effect is significant.

  In addition, when two pieces of visit information are obtained in this way, only the first visit information is obtained via voice, and the other second visit information is obtained through a manual operation. Therefore, it is possible to minimize the possibility of inconvenience due to the above-mentioned misrecognition and unrecognition (= not correctly recognized as a language).

  As described above, in the first invention of the present application, a visitor can be reliably transferred to an original visitor.

  Moreover, when acquiring the 1st visit information which is the sound which can be recorded as mentioned above, there exists an effect which can suppress a suspicious person and a useless person visiting mischievously, and can raise security. . In particular, when acquiring visitor names as the first visit information, there is a wide range of people who can be visitors, and there is an extremely large number of name information, unlike the names of target visitors who are naturally restricted to a predetermined number of people. Yes. For this reason, it is practically impossible to enumerate all input candidates as options, and voice input that can input any text content without dictation is more convenient, for example, much faster than manual operation input using a keyboard. There is also an effect that can be input.

  In a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, when the collation by the first collation means does not match, a notification that prompts an operation input of third visit information included in the plurality of visit information related to the visit is provided. A notification signal output means for outputting a notification signal for performing to the notification means; and the third visit based on the operation information input by manual operation of the visitor via the operation means in response to the notification by the notification means. After acquiring the third visit information by the auxiliary acquisition means for acquiring information, and the third visit information acquired by the auxiliary acquisition means, the first visit information acquired by the primary acquisition means, or the Second verification means for verifying whether the second visit information acquired by the secondary acquisition means matches the contents of the plurality of visit information recorded in the database, and the first notification The No. output means corresponds to the third check information corresponding to the case where the check of the third visit information and the first visit information or the check of the third visit information and the second visit information is matched by the second check means. 1 notification signal is output.

  In the second invention of the present application, even if the acquired first visit information and second visit information do not match the contents of the visit information recorded in the database, the third visit information is manually input again to the visitor. And collation is performed by the second collation means. And if these 3rd visit information and 1st visit information are suitable, or 3rd visit information and 2nd visit information are suitable, it will be considered that it is a legitimate visitor who made a visit reservation beforehand. , Notify the corresponding visitors.

  As a result, even if the visitor is a legitimate visitor, but the verification is incompatible due to misrecognition in the primary acquisition means, mistouch or operation error in the secondary acquisition means, etc. It is possible to re-authenticate correctly with only manual operation effort. In this case, the visitor performs three input operations, namely, voice input of the first visit information, manual operation input of the second visit information, and manual operation input of the third visit information, but the same visit information is repeated. It is never required. Therefore, it is possible to correctly perform the brokerage without making the visitor himself / herself aware that the input of the first visit information or the second visit information has failed, without feeling stress.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the present invention, when the verification by the second verification unit does not match, a notification is given to a predetermined person in charge stored in the database and notified when the verification is not performed. It has the 2nd notification signal output means which outputs the 2nd notification signal for doing.

  As a result, even if the first collation means and the second collation means do not match even after the second collation, for example, by delegating to a predetermined person in charge such as a department representative, it is finally possible to visit Can be reliably transferred to.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the second or third aspect of the present invention, the operation unit includes a non-reservation input unit for performing an operation input to the effect that the visitor has no visit reservation, and an operation input by the non-reservation input unit. And a designation input means for operating and inputting visit target designation information for designating the visit target of the visitor.

  In the fourth invention of the present application, even when a visitor who has not made a reservation in advance visits, the non-reservation input means declares that fact, and the designated input means inputs the department name of the other party to visit. As a result, for example, it is possible to relay to a predetermined person in charge such as a department representative, so that it is possible to smoothly respond to a visitor without a reservation.

According to a fifth invention, in any one of the second to fourth inventions, the primary acquisition means is
Based on the voice information, a visitor name as the first visit information recorded in the database is acquired, and the secondary acquisition means stores the second visit information recorded in the database based on the operation information. And a notification signal for informing a plurality of selection branches for the visitor to select and input the visit reservation date and time corresponding to the first time range including the current time. A first selection branch notification signal output means for outputting to the means, wherein the first verification means includes the visitor name acquired by the primary acquisition means, and the visit reservation date and time acquired by the secondary acquisition means; Is compared with the information content recorded in the database, and the first notification signal output means, if the collation by the first collation means is suitable, the visitor name and the visit reservation date and time that are suitable To the notification destination in correspondence with the combination according to the visitors subject name is recorded in the database, and outputs the first notification signal.

  This allows the visitor to input his / her name by voice, manually enter the visit reservation date and time, and if the matching is confirmed and the reservation is confirmed, the visitor is transferred to the visitor for smooth processing. can do. In addition, acquiring the visitor name by voice input using the primary acquisition means has the following significance. That is, when acquiring the names of visitors, unlike the names of target visitors, which are naturally limited to a predetermined number of people, there is a wide range of people who can be visitors, and there can be an extremely large amount of name information. For this reason, voice input that can input any text content without dictation is more convenient, and can be input much more quickly than manual operation input using a keyboard, for example.

  In addition, when a visitor manually inputs the visit reservation date and time after voice input of the visitor's name, it is sufficient to select from the choices informed corresponding to the first time range instead of entering the date and time from scratch. Therefore, the operation labor can be reduced and the convenience can be enhanced. Further, as an option at that time, for example, it is also possible to notify a date other than the originally reserved date. At that time, a database search may be performed using the name of the first entered visitor as a key, and the options including the hit visit reservation date and time may be notified, or a plurality of dates and times may be simply notified without performing a search. You may make it do. Then, by selecting and inputting the reservation date and time among them, it is possible to reliably authenticate that the visitor is a legitimate visitor.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the second to fourth aspects, the primary acquisition unit acquires a visitor name as the first visit information recorded in the database based on the voice information, The secondary acquisition means acquires a visit reservation date and time as the second visit information recorded in the database based on the operation information, and the first verification means determines the secondary check based on the visitor's operation. Matching the second time range including the visit reservation date and time acquired by the acquisition means with the visitor name acquired by the primary acquisition means based on the information content recorded in the database, When the collation by the first collation unit is suitable, the first notification signal output unit associates the name of the visitor with the combination of the visitor name and the visit reservation date and time that are suitable. Against recorded it has been the visit subject, and outputs the first notification signal.

  If the visitor is a legitimate visitor who has made a visit reservation by telephone or other communication in advance, the visitor who normally receives the visit will enter the scheduled date and time of the visit in the database. And arrange for you to be able to follow through smoothly when you visit. At this time, the visit reservation date and time that are actually recognized by each other may be slightly different in time due to the exchange of words over the telephone or misunderstandings.

  The sixth invention of the present application corresponds to such a time recognition shift between the visitor side and the visit target side. That is, the first verification unit does not directly use the visit reservation date and time acquired by the secondary acquisition unit by the manual operation input by the visitor, but uses the predetermined second time range including the visit reservation date and time, Check the compatibility with the name of the visitor who entered the voice. As a result, it is possible to reliably avoid the inconvenience of being a non-matching verification due to the above-described misregistration even though it is a legitimate visitor who has made a prior reservation.

  In order to achieve the above object, the seventh invention is a visitor reception method for performing reception processing for a visitor's visit using a plurality of visit information recorded in a database and related to the visitor's visit. The voice information input step for inputting voice information by the uttered voice of the visitor, and based on the voice information input in the voice information input step, using voice recognition, the plurality of visit information related to the visit Based on the operation information input in the operation information input step, the operation information input step of inputting operation information by the manual operation of the visitor, and the operation information input step, the first acquisition step of acquiring the first visit information included A secondary acquisition step of acquiring second visit information included in the plurality of visit information concerned, an information acquisition result in the primary acquisition step, and the secondary acquisition step; The collation step for collating the information acquisition result in the database with the contents of the plurality of visit information recorded in the database, and when the collation by the collation step is matched, the notification destination stored in the database And a notification signal output step of outputting a notification signal for notifying to.

  A visitor reception program according to an eighth aspect causes a computer to function as various processing means of the visitor reception apparatus according to the first to sixth aspects.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, a visitor can be reliably relayed with respect to the original visitor.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

(A) Basic Configuration of System FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram showing a schematic configuration of the entire configuration of a visitor reception system 1 of the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, a visitor reception system 1 is a system that performs reception work for visitors to buildings, companies, and other buildings, for example. In this example, a case where it is installed in a company will be described as an example.

  The visitor reception system 1 is provided in correspondence with, for example, a reception terminal 20 (visitor reception device) installed near the entrance of a company, a DB server 10 constituted by a well-known personal computer, and each employee of the company. A plurality of IP telephones 60, and an IP-PBX (Internet Protocol Private Branch Exchange) 50, which is a well-known switching apparatus that performs circuit switching of the plurality of IP telephones 60, all of which are connected via a router 40. It is connected.

  The reception terminal 20 includes a terminal main body 20A, and a touch panel 210, a microphone 207, and a speaker 208 connected to the terminal main body 20A.

  The speaker 208 functions as a notification unit (in this example, an auditory notification unit) that converts a voice signal input from the terminal main body 20A into a voice and outputs the voice, and notifies a visitor. The microphone 207 functions as voice input means, converts voice input by a visitor into voice information, and outputs the voice information to the terminal body 20A.

  FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating an example of a detailed external structure of the touch panel 210 and the microphone 207 provided in the reception terminal 20.

  In FIG. 2, the touch panel 210 is supported by an arm 211 with respect to a base 212 installed horizontally in this example, and is in a plane direction so as to be perpendicular to the line of sight of an operator (that is, a visitor in this example). Is facing diagonally upward. The microphone 207 is arranged in a substantially arc shape with the tip thereof facing the visitor side with respect to the base 212.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a display screen on touch panel 210. On this screen, a virtual person M (hereinafter referred to as “virtual receptionist M” as appropriate) who performs reception work, generated by a drawing program described later, is displayed together with an office-like background G. In addition, a sentence L (abbreviated as “***” in the drawing) corresponding to the voice uttered from the speaker 208 is also displayed.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating another example of the display screen on touch panel 210. In this screen, at least one operation button B that is generated by a drawing program described later and that can be operated and input by a visitor touching with a finger is displayed in the background G (in the figure, a display example of a background different from FIG. 3 above). Displayed). The contents of each button B are described (abbreviated as “***” in the figure).

  FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating still another example of the display screen on touch panel 210. On this screen, a so-called software keyboard SB that is generated by a drawing program described later and that can be operated by a visitor touching with a finger is displayed. On the software keyboard SB, there is a kana button SB1 for operating and inputting hiragana 50 characters, a “correction” button SB2 for correcting when there is an error, and a message to that effect when the visitor does not know the name of the person in charge. A “person in charge name unknown” button SB3 for performing operation input, a “decision” button SB4 for confirming the input contents, and a “person in charge name” display field SB5 for displaying the current input contents are provided.

  The touch panel 210 can sequentially switch and display a plurality of screens including the above example in a predetermined order (details will be described later). Accordingly, the touch panel 210 functions as an operation unit that can be manually operated by the visitor, and also functions as a notification unit for the visitor (in this case, a visual notification unit, that is, a display unit).

  In the above configuration, for example, after the reception terminal 20 is turned on, a visitor to the company operates the touch panel 210 in this state, so that the reception terminal 20 recognizes that a visitor has been detected and performs reception processing. To start. That is, based on the audio signal from the terminal body 20A, a predetermined question (details will be described later) about the visitor is uttered from the speaker 208 in a predetermined order. At this time, the touch panel 210 also performs a predetermined display corresponding to the utterance (details will be described later).

  When a visitor utters his / her name or the like in response to the utterance of the speaker 208 or the display of the touch panel 210, the reception terminal 20 inputs corresponding audio information from the microphone 207 and performs voice recognition processing. Further, when a visitor manually operates various buttons (details will be described later) on an appropriate screen of the touch panel 210 in accordance with the utterance of the speaker 208 or the display of the touch panel 210, corresponding operation information is input.

  The reception terminal 20 uses an IP used by a visitor who is a visitor of a company visitor (hereinafter, simply referred to as a person in charge) according to the voice recognition result of the voice information and the input result of the operation information. The telephone 60 is connected via the IP-PBX 50 to perform notification processing to the person in charge. The person in charge instructs the reception terminal 20 to respond according to the notified information regarding the identity of the visitor. In response to this instruction, the reception terminal 20 connects the IP telephone 60 so that the visitor and the person in charge can talk with each other, or responds to the visitor on behalf of the person in charge. In this way, the visitor reception system 1 of the present embodiment can automatically perform reception work in a company.

(B) Detailed Function of Reception Terminal FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram showing a functional configuration of the reception terminal 20.

  In FIG. 6, the terminal body 20 </ b> A of the reception terminal 20 includes a control circuit unit 200, an input / output (I / O) interface 204, and a hard disk device (HDD) 205.

  The control circuit unit 200 includes a CPU 201, a ROM 202 that stores programs necessary for basic operations of the receiving terminal 20 and setting values for the programs, and a RAM 203 that temporarily stores various data. The CPU 201 controls the overall operation of the reception terminal 20 according to programs stored in the ROM 202 and the HDD 205.

  The CPU 201, the hard disk device 205, the touch panel 210, the microphone 207, the speaker 208, and a network (NW) card 206 are connected to the I / O interface 204.

  The HDD 205 includes a plurality of storage areas including a language model storage area 252, a word dictionary storage area 253, a visitor dictionary storage area 254, and a program storage area 256.

  In the language model storage area 252, acceptable sentence patterns to be used for recognition of utterances by visitors are created in advance according to various situations assumed in the dialog between the reception terminal 20 and the visitors, It is stored as a language model (see FIG. 7 described later).

  The language model defines restrictions on word connections, that is, connections between words. As typical language models, there are, for example, a description grammar model that describes the connection between words in grammar (grammar), and a statistical model (for example, word N-gram) that defines the connection between words with probability.

  Among these typical language models, the description grammar model is defined by manually describing an assumed sentence pattern in advance as an acceptable sentence pattern. Therefore, although the number of acceptable sentence patterns to be described is limited, if the utterance corresponds to the defined sentence pattern, high-accuracy speech recognition is possible. In this embodiment, since speech recognition is performed for an utterance in a relatively limited situation such as an utterance of a person who has visited the company, a description grammar model is adopted as a language model. However, the language model is not necessarily a descriptive grammar model, and a statistical model may be used.

  The word dictionary storage area 253 stores a word dictionary 2531 (see FIG. 8 described later) used for speech recognition together with the language model.

  The visitor dictionary storage area 254 stores a visitor dictionary 2541 (see FIG. 9 described later) and the like used for voice recognition for identifying the visitor's identity, in addition to the language model and the word dictionary described above. .

  In the program storage area 256, for example, a plurality of programs for controlling various operations of the reception terminal 20 are stored. Examples of the stored program include a system program that controls basic operations of the reception terminal 20, a communication program that controls communication with the DB server 10, a drawing program that generates an image to be displayed on the touch panel 210, and the above-described programs A speech recognition program for executing speech recognition, a DB collation program for accessing and collating the database of the DB server 10, a speech synthesis program, a dialogue control program, a telephone connection program related to the connection between the IP telephone 60 and the IP-PBX 50, etc. There is.

  Although not shown, the HDD 205 also stores a well-known acoustic model generally used in voice recognition processing, setting values used in various processing, and the like. Although not described in detail, the acoustic model is a statistical model of the acoustic features of speech. For example, for each vowel and consonant, a phoneme corresponding to the acoustic feature (for example, frequency characteristics) It is expressed by.

  The NW card 206 is connected to the router 240 and is an expansion card for enabling data transmission / reception with the DB server 10 or the like.

  FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of the language model 2521 stored in the language model storage area 252.

  In FIG. 7, the language model 2521 in this example shows a sentence pattern that can be accepted as a response to a question regarding the identity of a visitor. A sentence pattern can be defined, for example, by sequentially arranging categories to which words constituting a sentence belong. In this language model 2521, a sentence in which a word belonging to the category “company name and name” and a word belonging to the category “named” are sequentially connected, and a sentence composed only of words belonging to the category “company name and name”. Two types are defined as acceptable sentences.

  FIG. 7 illustrates only the language model 2521 corresponding to the response to the question about the visitor's identity, but the language model storage area 252 also includes, for example, a response to the question about the name of the person in charge. A plurality of language models created in advance corresponding to various scenes such as the above scenes are stored.

  FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing the contents of the word dictionary 2531 stored in the word dictionary storage area 253. In FIG. 8, a word dictionary 2531 describes words belonging to a category and information related to pronunciation of each word for each preset category. FIG. 8 shows an example of a word dictionary corresponding to the category “named”. In FIG. 8, katakana is used as information related to pronunciation in order to simplify the notation, but actually, it is stored as a phoneme string in the word dictionary. For example, the pronunciation corresponding to the word “Da” is described as “Death” in katakana in FIG. 8, but is actually stored as “desu”.

  Although not shown in the figure, the word dictionary storage area 253 stores correspondences between words and pronunciation information in the same manner not only for “named” but also for various other categories. However, for the above-mentioned category “company name and name”, the following visitor dictionary 2541 is separately generated in the course of the visitor reception process, and thus may not necessarily be stored in the word dictionary storage area 253. .

  FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing the contents of the visitor dictionary (visit date / time dictionary in this example) 2541 stored in the visitor dictionary storage area 254.

  In FIG. 9, a visitor dictionary 2541 describes words belonging to the category “company name and name” and information related to pronunciation of each word, and is stored in a visitor reservation DB 1510 (see FIG. 11 described later). Created based on stored reservation data. As in the case of the word dictionary 2531, in order to simplify the notation, katakana are used as information related to pronunciation in FIG. 9, but actually, the visitor dictionary 2541 stores them as phoneme strings.

  This visitor dictionary 2541 is a dictionary created based on the time when the touch panel 210 of the reception terminal 20 is operated by a visitor and the information is received by the reception terminal 20. Called a dictionary. For example, the visit date / time dictionary 2541 according to the present embodiment is created based on reservation data in which an expected visit date / time is within one hour before and after the date / time when the visit of the visitor is accepted.

  The visitor dictionary is not limited to the above visit date / time dictionary, and other dictionaries such as a visit date dictionary, a visit pattern dictionary, and a visit history dictionary may be created and stored.

  When the touch panel 210 of the reception terminal 20 is operated by a visitor for the first time on the day, the visit date dictionary is created based on reservation data having a date and time on the same day as the scheduled date and time of visit. The visit pattern dictionary has a regular relationship between the scheduled visit date and time when the visitor's visit is accepted (for example, the same day of the week, the same when the touch panel 210 of the reception terminal 20 is operated by the visitor for the first time of the day. Date, the same time zone) is created based on the reservation data. The visit history dictionary is created based on reservation data whose visit date / time is within the past month when the touch panel 210 of the reception terminal 20 is operated by a visitor for the first time of the day.

(C) Detailed Function of DB Server FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram showing a functional configuration of the DB server 10.

  As shown in FIG. 10, the DB server 10 includes a CPU 101, a ROM 102 and a RAM 103 connected to the CPU 101, an input / output (I / O) interface 104 connected to the CPU 101, and an I / O interface 104. A mouse controller 106, a key controller 107, a video controller 108, a communication device 109, and a hard disk device (HDD) 150 are connected to each other.

  The ROM 102 stores various programs including the BIOS for operating the DB server 10. The RAM 103 temporarily stores various data. The CPU 101 governs overall control of the DB server 10 according to programs stored in the ROM 102 and an HDD 150 described later.

  A mouse 116, a keyboard 117, and a display 118 are connected to the mouse controller 106, the key controller 107, and the video controller 108, respectively. The communication device 109 is connected to the router 40 and can exchange data with an external device such as the reception terminal 20.

  The HDD 150 includes a plurality of storage areas including a visitor reservation database (DB) storage area 151, an employee database (DB) storage area 155, a department telephone number database (DB) storage area 157, and a program storage area 156.

  The visitor reservation DB storage area 151 stores a visitor reservation DB 1510 that stores visit information related to a scheduled visitor (hereinafter, simply referred to as a visitor).

  FIG. 11 is a conceptual explanatory diagram showing the contents stored in the visitor reservation database 1510. In FIG. 11, the reservation data is created by using the horizontal row in the figure for each prospective visitor at the time when the prospective visitor's visit schedule is determined. In other words, the reservation data shown in each row of the figure includes the visitor company name, the visitor company name Yomi, the visitor name, the visitor name Yomi, the scheduled visit date and time (visit reservation date and time), and the name of the person in charge (visitor name) ), Person name Yomi, person telephone number (TEL), department name, and status. In addition, although illustration is abbreviate | omitted, you may make it include separately the business outline | summary (meeting, negotiations, material carrying-in, goods carrying-out etc.) regarding the said reservation (refer FIG. 14 mentioned later).

  Among the above, the visitor company name, the visitor company name Yomi, the visitor name, and the visitor name Yomi are information on the identity of the prospective visitor, and constitute the first visit information described in each claim. At the same time, it constitutes one piece of visit information regarding visits by visitors.

  The visitor company name is the name of the company or organization to which the prospective visitor belongs, and is stored in normal notation such as hiragana, katakana, kanji, alphabet, and the like. Note that the visitor company name is not necessarily an official name of the company or the like, but may be a name (common name) that is normally used to give an identity as shown in the figure. For example, with respect to “B Co., Ltd.”, only “B transportation” in which “Co.” is omitted can be stored as the visitor company name. The visitor company name Yomi is a reading of the visitor company name, that is, pronunciation, and is stored in katakana.

  The visitor name is a name of a prospective visitor, and in this example, is stored in a normal notation such as hiragana, katakana, kanji, alphabet, and the like. In general, visitors often use only their last name, not their full name, when they identify themselves when visiting other companies. Therefore, as a visitor name, only a last name may be memorized like illustration. The visitor name Yomi is a reading of the visitor name, that is, pronunciation, and is stored in katakana.

  The scheduled visit date and time is the date and time when the visitor is scheduled to visit, and constitutes the second visit information described in each claim and constitutes one of visit information related to the visit of the visitor.

  The name of the person in charge is the name of the person in charge who is in charge of responding to the visitor, and constitutes the third visit information described in each claim and constitutes one of the visit information related to the visit of the visitor. This person-in-charge name is stored in a normal notation such as hiragana, katakana, kanji, and alphabet. In general, visitors often use only their last name instead of their full names when notifying the person in charge when visiting other companies. Therefore, as shown in the drawing, only the last name may be stored as the person in charge as in the case of the visitor name. The person-in-charge name Yomi is a reading of the person-in-charge name, that is, pronunciation, and is stored in katakana.

  The person-in-charge telephone number is the telephone number of the IP telephone 60 used by the person in charge. In addition to the example shown in FIG. 11, the official name of the company, the visitor name, the full name of the person in charge, and the like may be stored. The department name is the name of the department to which the person in charge in charge of responding to the visitor.

  The status is an identifier that indicates whether the visitor has not been handled yet or has been completed. After being recorded as “Unaccepted” as the initial value at the time of creation described above, if the visitor is connected to the IP phone 60 of the person in charge as described above, or if the person in charge of the person in charge responds, Is recorded.

  The employee DB storage area 155 stores an employee DB 1551 that stores personal information of all employees of the company (hereinafter referred to as employee information).

  The department telephone number storage area 157 stores a department telephone number DB 1571 for storing telephone number information of all departments of the company.

  The program storage area 156 stores various programs for causing the DB server 10 to execute various processes such as a system program and a communication program. For example, those programs stored in a CD-ROM are installed via a CD-ROM drive (not shown) and stored in the program storage area 156. Alternatively, a program downloaded from outside the system via an appropriate network may be stored.

  FIG. 12 is a conceptual explanatory diagram showing the contents stored in the employee database 1551. In FIG. 12, employee information is created for each employee, and includes, for example, name, last name, pronunciation information, and telephone number as shown. Among these items, the data regarding the last name and pronunciation information is used as a word dictionary of words belonging to the category “person name” in the speech recognition processing of the person name in charge at the reception terminal 20 described above. In FIG. 12, katakana is used as information related to pronunciation in order to simplify the notation, but actually a phoneme string is stored. In addition to the information shown in FIG. 12, the employee information may include information such as an employee code for identifying each employee and a department to which the employee belongs. In this embodiment, since information equivalent to the employee database 1551 is stored in the visitor reservation database 1510 (the employee also registers his / her information when registering the visitor), the employee database 1551 shown in FIG. 12 is omitted. May be. In the case of a company with a large number of employees, the maintenance of the employee database 1551 causes an increase in costs during operation. Thus, if the employee database 1551 is omitted in this way, there is an effect that the cost can be reduced.

  FIG. 13 is a conceptual explanatory diagram showing the contents stored in the department telephone number database 1571. As shown, the department name and the telephone number (department representative contact number) of the IP telephone 60 corresponding to the department name are included.

(D) Flow of Acceptance Processing The greatest feature of the present embodiment configured as described above is that voice information is acquired from a visitor via the microphone 207, and then operation information is acquired by operating the touch panel 210 of the visitor. These two pieces of information are collated with the contents of the visitor reservation database 1510 to identify the visitor and the person in charge. Hereinafter, the details will be described in order.

  FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram explaining the outline of the reception processing procedure in the present embodiment mainly by screen transition of the touch panel 210.

  In FIG. 14, when a visitor arrives, a standby screen (initial screen) D1 is displayed on the touch panel 210. On this screen D1, a reception start button B1 is displayed to the effect that “please press this button if you want to use it”. When the visitor touches this button B1 with a finger, the display on the touch panel 210 moves to the next screen D2.

  On the screen D2, the above-mentioned virtual receptionist M is displayed, and in addition to this, the speaker 208 asks you "Please come. Please enter your name into the microphone." Is called. Further, as shown in the drawing, the text D2 of the content of the utterance is displayed on the screen D2 as a balloon shape from the virtual receptionist M. When a visitor speaks his / her name to the reception terminal 200 in response to these voice questions and displays, the corresponding voice information is input and recognized by the microphone 207 as described above, and the display on the touch panel 210 is displayed. Move to next screen D3.

  On the screen D3, the virtual acceptor M is continuously displayed, and in addition to this, a voice inquiry “Can you tell me the promised time?” Is made from the speaker 208. Also, as shown in the figure, the text of this utterance “Can you tell me the promised time?” Is displayed on the screen D3 as a balloon shape from the virtual receptionist M, and the visitor can select this as an answer. “10:00 to 11:00” button B3a, “11:00 to 12:00” button B3b, “12: 0 to 13:00” button B3c, “13: 0 to 14:00” button B3d, A “no reservation” button B3e (non-reservation input means), a “forward” button B3f, a return button B3g, etc. are displayed. In this example, four buttons B3a, B3b, B3c, and B3d are used as four ones for four hours from 10:00 to 14:00 as a whole (first time range, which includes the current time). The time zone is displayed as an option, but it is not limited to this, and it may be in finer increments, or the display time itself may be expanded from an earlier time to a later time, or conversely narrowed. Good.

  When a visitor manually operates one of the buttons B3a to B3e on the screen D3 in response to the above voice inquiry or display (or uses the buttons B3f and B3g as appropriate) and inputs his / her reservation time, the operation is performed. Information is acquired at the reception terminal 200. When the utterance of the visitor in the display state of the screen D2 of the touch panel 210 has been recognized by voice, the content of the name of the visitor who has recognized the voice and the reservation time by manual operation on the screen D3 are as described above. It is checked whether or not it matches the “visitor name” and “visit date / time” of any reservation data in the visitor reservation database 1510.

  If the collation results match (there is reservation data for the corresponding visitor name and scheduled visit date and time), the display on the touch panel 210 moves to the screen D4. The screen D4 is a confirmation screen for the reservation data. That is, the reservation content B4c including the corresponding visitor name, person in charge name, and business summary (including the reservation time) is displayed together with the virtual acceptor M. At the same time, the speaker 208 asks the voice “Are you sure?” And, as shown in the figure, the screen D4 displays the text “Are you sure? Is displayed as a balloon shape from the virtual recipient M. Furthermore, a “correction” button B4a, a “decision” button B4b, and the like that can be selected by the visitor as the answer are displayed. In addition, in this confirmation screen D4, you may make it not leak information of a supplier by not displaying a visitor name darely. In this case, for example, the name of the person in charge, the department to which the person in charge belongs, the outline of the business, etc. may be displayed as the reservation content B4c.

  When the visitor confirms that the reservation content B4c is correct on the screen D4, the “determined” button B4b is manually operated, so that the “person in charge telephone number” of the reservation data in the visitor reservation database 1510 is entered. Based on this, the reception terminal 20 connects to the corresponding IP phone 60 of the person in charge, and the intermediary is completed.

  On the other hand, in the screen D4, when the reservation content B4c is different from what the visitor intended (by chance, another visitor with the same or similar pronunciation name as the visitor may have another person in charge at the same time zone. For example, when the visit reservation is made), the display on the touch panel 210 moves to the screen D5 by manually operating the “correction” button B4a.

  On the screen D5, the software keyboard SB shown in FIG. 5 is displayed. At the same time, a voice inquiry “Please enter the name of the person in charge” is made from the speaker 208. In response to this, the visitor inputs the name of the person in charge related to his / her reservation by manually operating the kana button SB1 and the “correction” button SB2, and displays them in the “person in charge” display field SB5. After the input is completed, by pressing the “OK” button SB4, the operation information (name of the person in charge) is acquired at the reception terminal 200. Then, the reservation time by manual operation on the screen D3 of the touch panel 210 and the name of the person in charge input with the software keyboard SB on the screen D5 are the “visit” of any reservation data in the visitor reservation database 1510. It is collated (re-collated) whether it matches the “scheduled date” and “name of person in charge”.

  If the re-verification result is the same (there is reservation data for the scheduled visit date and person in charge), based on the description of “person in charge telephone number” in the reservation data of the visitor reservation database 1510, The reception terminal 20 connects to the corresponding person's IP telephone 60, and the intermediary is completed.

  On the other hand, if the re-verification result is inconsistent (there is no reservation data for the scheduled visit date / time and the name of the person in charge), the confirmation as the reservation data in the visitor reservation database 1510 is also performed by two verifications. Since it was not possible (in the form of giving up direct agency to the person in charge as described later, or in the form of judging that direct agency is inappropriate), the display on the touch panel 210 moves to the screen D6. At this time, the speaker 208 may make a utterance that the reservation confirmation cannot be obtained.

  Screen D6 is the department name list display screen of this company. That is, buttons corresponding to all the department names that can be managed by this company, in this example, “HR section” button D6a, “General Affairs section” button D6b, “Planning section” button D6c, “Development group” button D6d, “Design” A “1st section” button D6e, a “design 2nd section” button D6f, a “material section” button D6g, and an “others” button D6h are displayed. When a visitor manually operates one of the buttons D6a to D6h (designation input means) corresponding to a department name (visit target designation information) intended for agency, the operation information (department name) is received by the receiving terminal 200. Obtained in Then, referring to the stored contents of the department telephone number database 1571 (see FIG. 13), the reception terminal 20 connects to the IP telephone 60 of the corresponding department contact (department representative in this example). Complete.

  On the other hand, after the voice input of the visitor's own name corresponding to the screen D2, in the collation performed based on the operation input of the reservation time on the buttons B3a to B3d of the visitor on the screen D3, they are stored in the visitor reservation database. If it does not match the “visitor name” or “visit scheduled date and time” of any of the reservation data 1510 (there is no reservation data for the corresponding visitor name and scheduled visit date and time), the display on the touch panel 210 is displayed. However, it moves to the above-mentioned screen D5. Since the software keyboard SB is displayed on the screen D5 as described above, when the visitor inputs the name of the person in charge related to his / her reservation in the same manner as described above, the same matching ( Re-collation) is performed. That is, in this case, when a visitor's own name corresponding to the screen D2 is input by voice, erroneous recognition (= recognized correctly as a language but different from the original) Or the reservation time for the visitor's buttons B3a to B3d on the screen D3 may be erroneously input. Therefore, if the name of the person in charge is correctly entered on the software keyboard SB, either the person in charge name and the reservation time or the person in charge name or the name of the visitor is one of the above-mentioned visitor reservation database 1510. There is a high possibility that it matches the reservation data. If they match by the above-mentioned re-verification, they are connected to the IP telephone 60 of the person in charge as described above, and when the re-verification does not match, the department is in accordance with the visitor's department name input on the screen D6 as above. A connection is made to the contact and the brokerage is complete.

  On the other hand, when the voice input of the visitor's own name corresponding to the screen D2 is unrecognizable in the voice recognition processing on the reception terminal 20 side (= not correctly recognized as a language), the subsequent screen D3 After the operation input of the reservation time using the visitor buttons B3a to B3d, the above-described screen D5 is immediately displayed on the touch panel 210 without collating with the reservation data of the visitor reservation database 1510. Then, using the software keyboard SB on the screen D5, the visitor is made to input the person in charge related to his / her reservation in the same manner as described above. As a result, similar verification is performed based on the operation information (name of the person in charge). That is, in this case, if the name of the person in charge is correctly input with the software keyboard SB, the name of the person in charge and the reservation times at the buttons B3a to B3d of the visitor on the screen D3 are the visitor reservation database 1510. Should match the reservation data. If they match by collation, they are connected to the person in charge's IP telephone 60 as described above, and the intermediary is completed. If the collation results do not match, the department contact information is entered according to the visitor's department name input on the screen D6 as described above. The connection is made and the brokerage is complete.

  If the visitor has not made a reservation in advance, the above-mentioned “no reservation” button B3e is operated on the screen D3 after inputting the voice of the visitor's own name corresponding to the screen D2. Thereby, the display of the touch panel 210 moves directly to the above-mentioned screen D6. On the screen D6, the department name list display screen of the company is displayed as described above, and the buttons D6a to D6h corresponding to all the department names are displayed, so that the visitor can select the department name button for the purpose of his / her visit as described above. By inputting the operation, connection to the corresponding department contact is made, and the brokerage is completed.

(E) Control Procedure FIG. 15 is a flowchart showing a control procedure executed by the control circuit unit 200 of the receiving terminal 20 in order to realize the contents described above. The processing shown in this flow is a program group for visitor reception processing stored in the program storage area 256 of the HDD 205 (the aforementioned system program, communication program, drawing program, voice recognition program, DB collation program, telephone connection program). ) Is executed by the CPU 201. This flow is started, for example, when the reception terminal 20 is turned on.

  In FIG. 15, first, in step S10, an unrecognizable flag Fr = 0 indicating that speech recognition is impossible is initialized.

  Thereafter, in step S20, a display signal is output to the touch panel 210 to display a standby screen D1 (see FIG. 14) including the above-described reception start button B1. In step S30, it is determined whether or not the acceptance start button B1 is manually operated. Until it is pressed by the visitor, the determination is not satisfied and the loop waits. When it is pressed, the determination is satisfied, and the process proceeds to step S40.

  In step S40, the visitor dictionary 2541 stored in the visitor dictionary storage area 254 of the HDD 205 is acquired while referring to the visitor reservation database 1510 of the DB server 10 in order to recognize the utterance of the visitor, and the dictionary is updated. Do. That is, as described above, based on the reservation data in which the scheduled visit date / time is within one hour before and after all the reservation data in the visitor reservation database 1510 based on the time when the reception start button B1 is operated in step S30. Get the created dictionary. As described above, the present invention is not limited to the visit date / time dictionary, and a visit date dictionary, a visit pattern dictionary, a visit history dictionary, and the like may be acquired.

  Then, the process proceeds to step S50, where a display signal is output to the touch panel 210 to display the screen D2 (see FIG. 14) including the virtual acceptor M described above, and an audio signal is output to the speaker 208, “Welcome. (Please enter your name into the microphone).

  Thereafter, in step S60, voice information of a visitor who speaks in response to this question is input via the microphone 207, and voice recognition is performed using the visitor dictionary 2541 acquired in step S40. That is, the acoustic model, the language model 2521 (see FIG. 7), the visitor dictionary 2541 (see FIG. 9), and the word dictionary 25318 (see FIG. 8) are stored in the corresponding storage area (language model storage area 252, visitor) of the HDD 205. The user dictionary storage area 254, the word dictionary storage area 253, etc.), and voice recognition is performed using them. That is, for example, after the voice information of the visitor is analyzed and the feature amount is extracted, matching between the acoustic model and the language model 2521 is performed. As a result, the likelihood is obtained for each sentence acceptable by the language model 2521, and the sentence with the highest likelihood is obtained as the recognition result. The language model 2521 refers to the visitor dictionary 2541 and the word dictionary 2531. If the recognition is successful, a recognition result (text) corresponding to each dictionary is obtained. In addition, when the likelihood becomes a value equal to or less than a predetermined threshold, the recognition result cannot be obtained as recognition failure (recognition is impossible).

  Then, the process proceeds to step S70, where it is determined whether or not the input voice information from the visitor has been recognized. If the speech can be recognized as the language, the determination is satisfied, and the routine goes to Step S90. If the speech cannot be recognized as the language, the determination in step S70 is not satisfied, and after the recognition impossibility flag Fr = 1 is set in step S80, the process proceeds to step S90.

  In step S90, the speech recognition result is stored (for example, in the RAM 203) (= function as primary acquisition means). However, when voice recognition cannot be performed, that fact may be saved or may not be saved.

  Then, the process proceeds to step S100, where a display signal is output to the touch panel 210 to display a screen D3 (see FIG. 14) including the virtual acceptor M and the reservation time selection buttons B3a to B3e (= first option notification). A voice signal is output to the speaker 208 together with a function as a signal output means), and a speech that asks for a reservation time such as “Can you tell me the promised time?” Is displayed (text display on the touch panel 210 is also performed. Or just display without uttering).

  Thereafter, in step S105, it is determined whether or not a reservation time selection input has been made (in the above example, other buttons B3a, B3b, B3c, and B3d are operated instead of the “no reservation” button B3e on the screen D3). To do. If the reservation time is input, the determination is satisfied, and the routine goes to Step S110. If the reservation time is not input (in the above example, the “no reservation” button B3e is operated), the determination in step S105 is not satisfied, and the process proceeds to step S280 described later.

  In step S110, the operation information by the button operation of the visitor's reservation time is acquired, and the corresponding reservation time is stored (for example, in the RAM 203) (= function as secondary acquisition means). Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S120.

  In step S120, it is determined whether or not the unrecognizable flag Fr = 1. If speech recognition cannot be performed in step S70 described above and flag Fr = 1 in step S80, the determination in step S120 is satisfied, and the process proceeds to step S210 described later. If voice recognition has been performed in step S70 (however, there is a possibility of erroneous recognition described later), the flag Fr = 0 remains, so the determination in step S120 is not satisfied, and the routine proceeds to step S130.

  In step S130, the visitor reservation database 1510 of the DB server 10 is accessed, and the visitor name acquired by voice recognition of the voice information in step S60 and the reservation time acquired from the operation information in step S100 are the visitors. It is verified whether or not it matches the “visitor name” and “scheduled visit date” in any reservation data in the reservation database 1510 (= function as first verification means). In addition, it is possible to collate whether it is not a perfect match but fit within a range having a certain similarity width and allowable width (see also modified example (1) described later).

  Thereafter, in step S140, it is determined whether or not the collation result in step S130 matches (is matched). If the collation result in step S130 does not match (there is no reservation data for the corresponding visitor name and scheduled visit date and time), the determination is not satisfied, and the routine goes to step S210 described later. If the collation results in step S130 match (there is reservation data for the corresponding visitor name and scheduled visit date and time), the determination in step S140 is satisfied, and the routine goes to step S150.

  In step S150, the contents of the reservation data whose matching result is the same are acquired from the visitor reservation database 1510 and stored in the RAM 203, for example. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S160, where a display signal is output to the touch panel 210 to display the screen D4 (see FIG. 14) including the virtual acceptor M, the reservation content B4c, the “correction” button B4a, the “decision” button B4b, and the like. At the same time, an audio signal is output to the speaker 208, and a speech that asks the final confirmation “Is this content OK?” Is uttered (text display is also performed on the touch panel 210. Note that the display may be performed without performing the utterance. ).

  Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S170, and it is determined whether or not the “OK” button B4b has been operated. If the visitor notices that the reservation content B4c is wrong on the screen D4 and manually operates the “correction” button B4a, the determination is not satisfied, and the routine goes to Step S210 described later. When the visitor confirms that the reservation content B4c is correct on the screen D4 and manually operates the “decision” button B4b, the determination in step S170 is satisfied, and the process proceeds to step S180.

  In step S180, in response to confirming that a legitimate visitor has visited at the correct time, a call is made to the corresponding IP phone 60 (notification destination) of the person in charge. Specifically, a notification sentence to the person in charge is created, the text data of the notice sentence is converted into voice data, and the telephone number of the person in charge specified by the reservation data stored in step S150 is used to create an IP address. -Voice data (first notification signal) is transmitted to the IP telephone 60 used by the person in charge via the PBX 50 (= function as first notification signal output means).

  The voice data of the notification sentence at this time is the case where the visit date / time dictionary is used as the visitor dictionary 2541 as described above (the visitor corresponds to the planned visitor within one hour before and after the time when the visit is accepted) From) “I have a promise from Mr. Emitsu of A Industry, who has a promise in the near future.” In addition, if you use the aforementioned visit day dictionary, it will be like "You are a customer. I think it is Toyokura of E-Chemistry, which is different from the promised time." If you are using a visit pattern dictionary, you would say, “I am a customer. I did n’t hear it well, but I think it ’s probably the B transportation that I ’ve been on Monday.” "I'm a customer. I wasn't able to hear it well, but I think it's probably Mr. Nishizaka from F Industry, who I've been to before." As a result, the person in charge who receives the call can know exactly what kind of person has visited.

  Then, the process proceeds to step S190, and it is determined whether or not there is a response from the person in charge within a predetermined time. If there is no response, the determination is not satisfied and it is regarded as absent and the process proceeds to step S290 described later. If there is a response (the person in charge answers the call), the determination is satisfied, and the routine goes to Step S200. In step S200, the visitor reservation database 1510 of the DB server 10 is accessed, the status of the corresponding reservation data is changed to “accepted” (see FIG. 11), and this flow ends.

  On the other hand, if Fr = 1 in step S120 and the determination is satisfied, if the collation does not match and the determination is not satisfied in step S140, the “correction” button B4a is manually operated in step S170 and the determination is satisfied. If not, the process moves to step S210.

  In step S210, an audio signal is output to the speaker 208, and a speech for asking the name of the person in charge “Please input the person in charge name” is uttered. In step S220, a display signal (notification) is displayed on the touch panel 210 (notification means). Signal) is displayed to display a screen D5 (see FIG. 14) including the above-described software keyboard SB (= function as notification signal output means).

  Thereafter, in step S230, operation information obtained by operating the visitor's software keyboard SB is acquired, and the corresponding person name is stored (for example, in the RAM 203) (= function as auxiliary acquisition means). Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S240.

  In step S240, the visitor reservation database 1510 of the DB server 10 is accessed, the visitor name acquired by voice recognition of the voice information in step S60, the reservation time acquired from the operation information in step S100, and the step S230. Whether or not at least two of the names of persons in charge acquired from the operation information in FIG. 5 match “visitor name”, “visit date / time”, and “person in charge name” of any reservation data in the visitor reservation database 1510. Collate (= function as second collating means). Also at this time, as described above, it is possible to collate whether or not the matching is performed within a range having a certain similarity width and an allowable width instead of a perfect match.

  Thereafter, in step S250, it is determined whether or not the collation result in step S240 matches (matches). If the collation result in step S240 does not match (two of the visitor name, scheduled visit date and time, and the name of the person in charge do not match), the determination is not satisfied, and the routine goes to step S270 described later. If the collation results in step S240 match (visitor name. Two of the scheduled visit date and time and the person in charge match), the determination in step S250 is satisfied, and the flow proceeds to step S260.

  In step S260, the contents of the reservation data whose matching result is the same are acquired from the visitor reservation database 1510 and stored in the RAM 203, for example. Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S180 described above, and the same procedure is performed after the connection to the corresponding person in charge to the IP telephone 60.

  On the other hand, if the determination in step S250 is not satisfied, an audio signal is output to the speaker 208 in step S270, a speech saying “Reservation could not be confirmed” is uttered, and a display signal is displayed on the touch panel 210 in step S280. To display the department name list display screen D6 (see FIG. 14) including the buttons D6a to D6h corresponding to the above-mentioned all signatures.

  Thereafter, in step S285, operation information obtained by operating the buttons D6a to D6h of the visitor is acquired, and the corresponding department name is stored (for example, in the RAM 203). Thereafter, the process proceeds to step S290.

  In step S290, based on the fact that the reservation could not be confirmed (or the reservation itself was not made as described later), a corresponding department contact (in this example, a call is made to the department representative IP telephone 60). Specifically, a corresponding notification sentence is created, the text data of the notification sentence is converted into voice data, and the department representative telephone number identified in step S285 is assigned to the department telephone number database 1571 (see FIG. 13). And the voice data is transmitted to the IP telephone 60 via the IP-PBX 50. The voice data of the notification sentence at this time is an unidentified visit (since the reservation confirmation has not been taken) For example, “You are a customer. Your name could not be heard well”. To.

  On the other hand, the “no reservation” button B3e is operated while the screen D3 including the reservation time selection buttons B3a to B3e is displayed on the touch panel 210 in step S100 described above, and the determination in step S105 is not satisfied. Then, the process proceeds to step S280, and the department name list display screen D6 including the buttons D6a to D6h is displayed on the touch panel 210. In this case, after acquiring the operation information by the operation of the above-mentioned buttons D6a to D6h of the visitor in step S285, in step S290, based on the fact that the reservation itself has not been made, call (call) to the department representative IP telephone 60 is made. (= Function as second notification signal output means). The voice data (second notification signal) of the notification sentence at this time is, for example, “There is a customer who has not been reserved” (because there is no reservation). Then, this flow ends.

  In addition, in the above, step S60 comprises the audio | voice information input step as described in each claim, and step S90 comprises a primary acquisition step. Step S105 constitutes an operation information input step, and step S110 constitutes a secondary acquisition step. Step S130 constitutes a collation step, and step S180 constitutes a notification signal output step.

  As described above, in the reception terminal 2 of this embodiment, a plurality of pieces of visit information such as visitor names, scheduled visit dates and names of persons in charge are recorded in the visitor reservation database 1510 in advance. When the visitor visits, the first visit information (visitor name in the above example) is acquired based on the voice information input through the microphone 207 among the plurality of visit information, and the touch panel 210 is operated manually. Based on the information, the second visit information (scheduled visit date and time in the above example) is acquired, and whether or not the two match the recorded contents of the visitor reservation database 1510 (whether there is matching reservation data) is collated. . If it matches, it is regarded as a legitimate visitor who has made a visit reservation in advance, and is sent to the IP phone 60 of the corresponding person in charge to notify the person in charge.

  Thus, two different visit information (in the above example, visitor name and scheduled visit date and time) are acquired, and the visitor reservation database 1510 is collated based on these two pieces of information. When the database is inquired with one visit information, it is only possible to distinguish whether or not the visitor has made a reservation, but in the present embodiment, by acquiring two visit information, the two are common. It is possible to collate whether or not it is recorded in the visitor reservation database 1510 as one reservation data related to the visit (see step S140). As a result, it is possible not only to confirm whether there is a reservation, but also to reliably prevent a visitor from being mistakenly relayed to another person who is not the original person in charge. In particular, the first visit information (visitor name in the above example) of the two visit information is acquired by voice recognition, and due to the technique, it is erroneously recognized (= recognized correctly as a language). However, it is unavoidable that the word is mistakenly recognized as another word different from the original one), and thus the effect of preventing the misinterpretation is significant.

  In addition, when acquiring two pieces of visit information in this way, the acquisition through the voice is limited to one first visit information (name of visitor in the above example), and the other second visit information ( By acquiring the visit reservation date and time in the above example through a manual operation, the possibility of inconvenience due to the above-described misrecognition or unrecognition (= not correctly recognized as a language) can be minimized.

  As described above, in the reception terminal 20 of the present embodiment, visitors can be reliably transferred to the original person in charge.

  Moreover, when acquiring the 1st visit information which is the audio | voice which can be recorded as mentioned above initially, the effect which can suppress a suspicious person and a useless person visiting a mischief psychologically, and can raise security. There is.

  In the present embodiment, the visitor name is acquired as the first visit information. In this case, unlike the person-in-charge names that are naturally limited to the predetermined number of persons, the range of persons who can be visitors is wide, and there can be a large number of name information. For this reason, voice input that can input any text content without dictation is more convenient, and has an effect that it can be input much more quickly than manual operation input using a keyboard, for example.

  In this embodiment, in particular, when a visit reservation date and time is manually input on the touch panel 210 after voice input of a visitor name, a plurality of options (buttons B3a to B3d) are not entered on the screen D3 instead of inputting the date and time from scratch. Since it is sufficient to select from the above, it is possible to reduce the operation labor and enhance the convenience. In addition, as a choice at that time, the date and time other than the originally reserved date are also displayed (see FIG. 14), and by selecting and inputting the reserved date and time from them, it is surely authenticated as a legitimate visitor. Can do. When displaying the plurality of dates and times, a search is made in the visitor reservation database 1510 using the name of the visitor that was input first as a key, and a plurality of options including the hit visit reservation date and time are displayed. Alternatively, a plurality of dates and times including the current time may be simply displayed as options without performing such a search.

  In particular, in the present embodiment, the acquired first visit information (visitor name in the above example) and second visit information (visit reservation date in the above example) do not match the recorded contents of the visitor reservation database 1510. Even in such a case, the visitor is again manually input the third visit information (name of the person in charge in the above example), and collation is performed (see step S240). And if these 3rd visit information and 1st visit information are suitable, or 3rd visit information and 2nd visit information are suitable, it will be considered that it is a legitimate visitor who made a visit reservation beforehand. The corresponding person in charge is notified (the flow of step S240 → step S250 → step S260 → step S180).

  As a result, even if the visitor is a legitimate visitor, and it is considered to be non-matching due to misrecognition in the voice recognition process, mistouch or misoperation on the touch panel 210, etc., the minimum necessary manual operation labor is required only once again. Just authenticate again. Also, in this case, the visitor has three inputs: voice input of the first visit information using the microphone 207, manual operation input of the second visit information on the touch panel 210, and manual operation input of the third visit information on the touch panel 210. Although the operation is performed, the same visit information is not repeatedly requested. Therefore, it is possible to correctly perform the brokerage without making the visitor himself / herself aware that the input of the first visit information or the second visit information has failed, without feeling stress.

  In the present embodiment, in particular, when the matching in step S240 does not match, notification is made to a predetermined person in charge (department representative in the above example) stored in the predetermined visitor reservation database 1510. To do. Thereby, even if it does not match even by two collations, it can be surely relayed to the corresponding person in charge through the department representative. Also, when a visitor who has not made a reservation in advance visits, he / she is notified using the “no reservation” button B3e on the screen D3 of the touch panel 210, and further wants to visit with the buttons D6a to D6h on the screen D6. Have the partner's department name entered. As a result, it is possible to respond smoothly to visitors without reservations.

  Further, in the present embodiment, even when voice recognition is not possible (flow from step S120 to step S210 and subsequent steps), another visit information is based on the operation information input by the visitor's manual operation on the touch panel 210. (Third visit information. Name of the person in charge in the above example) is acquired, and this third visit information and second visit information (in the above example, the scheduled visit date and time) match the recorded contents of the visitor reservation database 1510. (Matching reservation data exists) is checked.

  That is, even if the first visit information (visitor name in the above example) cannot be recognized by voice, the third visit information (in the above example, the person in charge in the above example) is manually input again to the visitor. Ask for input and verify. If the second visit information and the third visit information match the recorded contents of the visitor reservation database 1510, the visitor is regarded as a legitimate visitor who made the visit reservation in advance, and the corresponding person in charge is notified ( Step S250 → Step S260 → Step S180).

  Even if it is a legitimate visitor, even if the voice information of the first visitor name cannot be recognized due to the habit of pronunciation of the visitor or the accuracy limit of voice recognition, etc. It is possible to re-authenticate correctly with only the minimum necessary manual operation effort. In this case, the visitor performs three input operations, namely, voice input of the first visit information, manual operation input of the second visit information, and manual operation input of the third visit information, but the same visit information is repeated. It is never required. Therefore, it is possible to correctly perform the brokerage without making the visitor himself / herself realize that the voice input of the first visit information has failed and without feeling stress.

  In the present embodiment, in particular, a touch panel 210 that combines an operation function and a notification (display) function is used. As a result, the apparatus configuration can be simplified and the size can be reduced as compared with the case where the operation unit and the notification unit are provided separately. In particular, when a plurality of options are displayed and a visitor selects (specifies) the options, the touch panel 210 is used to allow the visitor to touch the displayed options with a finger as they are. Selection input can be performed. Therefore, it can be easily operated without removing the line of sight from the display, and the operability can be improved.

  In the present embodiment, in particular, when the first visit information is acquired by voice input, voice recognition is performed using a visitor dictionary associated with a visitor's visit by a predetermined association. As the predetermined association, for example, there is a temporal association such as the same time zone, the same day, and the same day of the week when the visitor visits. In the present embodiment, voice recognition is performed using a visitor dictionary including visitor names, person-in-charge names, and the like recorded in the visitor reservation database 1510 with such corresponding visit reservations (see step S40). . As a result, compared to the case of using a general-purpose word dictionary, voice recognition can be performed based on the word dictionary narrowed down the application target and a highly accurate recognition result can be obtained, so that the visit can be specified more accurately. .

  In this case, even if the visitor dictionary includes a visitor name or a person-in-charge name that has a temporal association in the reservation data as described above, the person-in-charge has already responded to the visitor. When the status in the reservation database 1510 is “accepted”, it may be excluded from the use target by subsequent voice recognition (= function as an exclusion processing means). Thereby, since voice recognition can be performed based on the word dictionary further narrowed down the application target, a more accurate recognition result can be obtained.

  The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Hereinafter, such modifications will be described.

(1) When performing verification with a width when collating the scheduled visit date and time In other words, in the above embodiment, in a state where the touch panel 210 displays the screen D3, the visitor presses the buttons B3a, B3b, B3c, B3d. When one of the above is manually operated, the time zone displayed on the button itself is used to collate with the contents of the scheduled visit date and time of the reservation data in the visitor reservation database 1510. However, the present invention is not limited to this, and collation may be performed using a time zone that has a width (second time range) slightly before or after the time zone displayed on the buttons B3a, B3b, B3c, and B3d. Good. According to the above example, when the “10:00 to 11:00” button B3a is operated, for example, a visitor reservation is made in the range of 9:30 to 11:30 with a width of 30 minutes before and after. The database 1510 checks whether there is reservation data by the visitor. Similarly, when the “11:00 to 12:00” button B3b is operated, collation is performed with a width of 10:30 to 12:30, and the “12: 0 to 13:00” button B3c is operated. When the “13: 0 to 14:00” button B3d is operated, the collation is performed with the width of 12:30 to 14:30. The method of giving the second time range is not limited to 30 minutes, and may be an appropriate size, may be either before or after, or the time width may be different from before and after).

  According to this modification, the following effects can be obtained. That is, when a visitor is a legitimate visitor who has made a visit reservation by telephone or other communication in advance, the person in charge who normally visits the visit reservation database 1510 sets the date and time when the visit is scheduled. Enter the scheduled visit date and time so that you can follow along smoothly when you visit. However, at this time, the visit reservation date and time actually recognized by the visitor (scheduled visitor at that time) and the person in charge in the telephone language and misunderstandings, etc. are actually slightly different in time (For example, the person in charge thought that the reservation was just before 10:00, but the visitor recognized that the reservation was past 10:00).

  In this modification, it is possible to cope with such a time recognition shift between the visitor side and the person in charge. That is, at the time of collation, a predetermined second time range including the date and time (30 minutes before and after in the above example) including the date and time is used as it is instead of using the scheduled visit date and time acquired by manual operation input on the touch panel 210 of the visitor. Then, the compatibility with the name of the visitor that has been voiced first is checked. As a result, it is possible to reliably avoid the inconvenience of being a non-matching verification due to the above-described misregistration even though it is a legitimate visitor who has made a prior reservation.

(2) Variation of input order In the above, the visitor has voice-inputted the visitor name as the first visit information, and manually entered the scheduled visit date and time as the second visit information. Other visit information may be used. For example, the visitor may first manually input the name of the person in charge as the second visit information on the touch panel 210 after voice input of the visitor name as the first visit information. In this case, it is checked whether the visitor name acquired first and the person-in-charge name acquired thereafter match the contents of the visitor reservation database 1510. Then, when the collation result is appropriate, notification is made to the IP telephone 60 of the person in charge. Also in this case, as described above, smooth processing can be executed by natural operations in accordance with social conventions.

  At this time, it is also possible to search by accessing the visitor reservation database 1510 using the previously entered visitor name as a key, and finding out the person in charge who has recorded the reservation data with this visitor. is there. As a result, at the time of inputting the person in charge name on the next touch panel 210, candidates can be displayed to the visitor with at least one option including the person in charge name found by the search. In this case, the visitor only has to select (specify) the name of the person in charge who is his / her visiting partner from the options displayed on the touch panel 210, so that the burden of operation labor can be reduced. At this time, as a selection for selecting and inputting the person in charge, for example, a name group other than the person to whom the originally booked partner visits, including a predetermined name group range (for example, names of all the same departments as the person in charge, the same day A plurality of names may be displayed for all employees who have reservations. At that time, the visitor reservation database 1510 may be searched using the name of the visitor input first by voice as a key, and an option including the name of the person in charge hit may be displayed. The name of the person in charge (the names of all potential employees, the names of fictitious persons, etc.) may be displayed as options. Then, by selecting and inputting the person-in-charge name from among them on the touch panel 210, it is possible to reliably authenticate that the person is a legitimate visitor.

(3) Intermediary method other than telephone In the above, the information regarding the visitor to the person in charge was notified by outputting voice data to the IP telephone 60. However, the method for notifying the person in charge is not limited to the method using the IP telephone 60. For example, voice data may be output to a mobile phone or personal computer used by the person in charge, text data of a notification sentence may be output and displayed in a pop-up format, or sent by e-mail. May be. These voice data, text data, and mail all constitute the first notification signal or the second notification signal described in each claim.

(4) Variations in System Configuration In the above-described visitor reception system 1, the reception terminal 20 where the visitor detection and voice input are performed and the DB server 10 are separate devices. However, the present invention is not limited to this. A server equipped with a microphone, a speaker, and operation buttons is installed near the entrance of the company, and only the server performs all of visitor detection, voice input, and visitor reception processing. Also good. Further, information stored in the HDD 150 such as the visitor reservation DB 151 and the employee DB 155 may be stored in the HDD 205 on the reception terminal 20 side, or a separate connection that can be connected to the reception terminal 20 via a network. It is good also as a structure which memorize | stores in a memory | storage device and reads required information during a visitor reception process.

(5) Others Although the presence / absence of a visitor is detected based on the presence / absence of manual operation of the reception start button B1 on the screen D1 in the standby state of the touch panel 210 of the reception terminal 20, the present invention is not limited to this. That is, for example, a visitor's visit may be detected using other detection means such as a well-known human sensor or a camera.

  In the above description, the touch panel 210 serving both as a notification (display) unit and an operation unit is used. However, the present invention is not limited to this. That is, normal operation means such as keys and buttons may be used so that a visitor operates and inputs the scheduled visit date and time (= function as reservation date and time input means). Moreover, you may make it use display means, such as a normal display and a lamp | ramp.

  In addition, in the above, the arrow shown in each figure of FIG. 6, FIG. 10, etc. shows an example of the flow of a signal, and does not limit the flow direction of a signal.

  Further, the flowchart shown in FIG. 15 does not limit the present invention to the procedure shown in the above-described flow, and the procedure may be added / deleted or the order may be changed without departing from the spirit and technical idea of the invention. Good.

  In addition to those already described above, the methods according to the above-described embodiments and modifications may be used in appropriate combination.

  In addition, although not illustrated one by one, the present invention is implemented with various modifications within a range not departing from the gist thereof.

It is a system configuration figure showing the schematic structure of the whole composition of a visitor reception system. It is a perspective view showing an example of the detailed external appearance structure of the touchscreen and the microphone with which the reception terminal of one Embodiment of this invention was equipped. It is a figure showing an example of the display screen in a touch panel. It is a figure showing the other example of the display screen in a touch panel. It is a figure showing the further another example of the display screen in a touch panel. It is a functional block diagram which shows the functional structure of a reception terminal. It is explanatory drawing showing the content of the language model memorize | stored in the language model storage area. It is explanatory drawing showing the content of the word dictionary memorize | stored in the word dictionary memory area. It is explanatory drawing showing the content of the visitor dictionary memorize | stored in the visitor dictionary memory | storage area. It is a functional block diagram showing the functional structure of DB server. It is a conceptual explanatory drawing showing the memory content of a visitor reservation database. It is a conceptual explanatory drawing showing the memory contents of an employee database. It is a conceptual explanatory drawing showing the storage contents of a department telephone number database. It is explanatory drawing which demonstrated the outline | summary of the reception process procedure mainly by the screen transition of a touch panel. It is a flowchart showing the control procedure performed by the control circuit part of a reception terminal.

Explanation of symbols

2 Reception terminal (visitor reception device)
60 IP phone (notification destination)
207 Microphone (voice input means)
210 Touch panel (operation means; notification means)
1510 Visitor reservation database B3e button (non-reservation input means)
D6a-h button (designated input means)

Claims (8)

A visitor reception device that performs reception processing for a visitor's visit,
Voice input means for inputting voice information by the voice of the visitor;
Primary acquisition means for acquiring first visit information included in the plurality of visit information related to the visit using voice recognition based on the voice information input by the voice input means;
Operation means for inputting operation information by manual operation of the visitor;
Secondary acquisition means for acquiring second visit information included in the plurality of visit information related to the visit based on the operation information input by the operation means;
The plurality of pieces of visit information recorded in a database capable of recording a plurality of pieces of visit information related to the visit of the visitor, the information acquisition results of the primary acquisition unit and the information acquisition results of the secondary acquisition unit First collating means for collating with the contents of
And a first notification signal output means for outputting a first notification signal for notifying the notification destination stored in the database when the verification by the first verification means is suitable. Reception device. When the verification by the first verification unit does not match, the notification unit outputs a notification signal for performing notification for prompting the operation input of the third visit information included in the plurality of visit information related to the visit to the notification unit. Notification signal output means;
Auxiliary acquisition means for acquiring the third visit information based on operation information input by manual operation of the visitor via the operation means in response to notification by the notification means;
After acquiring the third visit information by the auxiliary acquisition means, the acquired third visit information, the first visit information acquired by the primary acquisition means, or the second acquisition information acquired by the secondary acquisition means A second collation unit that collates whether or not two visit information matches the contents of the plurality of visit information recorded in the database;
The first notification signal output means includes
When the matching between the third visit information and the first visit information or the third visit information and the second visit information is matched by the second collating means, the corresponding first notification signal is output. The visitor reception apparatus according to claim 1, wherein:   When the verification by the second verification means does not match, a second notification signal stored in the database for notifying a predetermined person in charge of notification when the verification is not performed is output. 3. The visitor reception device according to claim 2, further comprising: 2 notification signal output means. The operation means includes
Non-reservation input means for operation input that the visitor has no visit reservation;
3. A designation input means for operating and inputting visit target designation information for designating a visit target of the visitor when an operation input is made by the non-reservation input means. 3. Visitor acceptance device according to 3. The primary acquisition means includes
Based on the audio information, obtain the visitor name as the first visit information recorded in the database,
The secondary acquisition means includes
Based on the operation information, obtain a visit reservation date and time as the second visit information recorded in the database,
A first selection edge notification that outputs a notification signal for notifying a plurality of selection branches for the visitor to selectively input the visit reservation date and time in correspondence with the first time range including the current time to the notification means. Provide signal output means,
The first verification means includes
The visitor name acquired by the primary acquisition means and the visit reservation date and time acquired by the secondary acquisition means are collated with the information content recorded in the database,
The first notification signal output means includes
If the collation by the first collation means is appropriate, the notification destination related to the visitor whose name is recorded in the database in association with the combination of the visitor name and the visit reservation date and time that are appropriate The visitor reception device according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein the first notification signal is output. The primary acquisition means includes
Based on the audio information, obtain the visitor name as the first visit information recorded in the database,
The secondary acquisition means includes
Based on the operation information, obtain a visit reservation date and time as the second visit information recorded in the database,
The first verification means includes
The compatibility between the second time range including the visit reservation date and time acquired by the secondary acquisition means based on the operation of the visitor and the visitor name acquired by the primary acquisition means is stored in the database. Based on the recorded information content,
The first notification signal output means includes
When the collation by the first collation means is suitable, the first visitor whose name is recorded in the database in association with the combination of the visitor name and the visit reservation date and time that are suitable is matched with the first The visitor reception apparatus according to any one of claims 2 to 4, wherein one notification signal is output. A visitor reception method for performing reception processing for a visit of the visitor using a plurality of visit information related to the visit of the visitor recorded in a database,
A voice information input step of inputting voice information by the voice of the visitor;
A primary acquisition step of acquiring first visit information included in the plurality of visit information related to the visit using speech recognition based on the speech information input in the speech information input step;
An operation information input step for inputting operation information by manual operation of the visitor;
Based on the operation information input in the operation information input step, a secondary acquisition step of acquiring second visit information included in the plurality of visit information related to the visit;
A collation step of collating the information acquisition result in the primary acquisition step and the information acquisition result in the secondary acquisition step with the contents of the plurality of visit information recorded in the database;
And a notification signal output step of outputting a notification signal for notifying to a notification destination stored in the database when the collation in the collation step is matched.   A visitor reception program for causing a computer to function as various processing means of the visitor reception apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

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