Shared Address Book Display Control for Duplicate Contacts
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Solution Overview
Problem
Multifunctional digital image forming apparatuses face confusion when collecting contact data from portable terminal address books due to identical email addresses with different contact names, leading to difficulties in user selection from shared address books.
Innovation Solution
An image processing apparatus with a communicator, contact data obtaining, registration, and display controller that communicates with portable terminals, obtains and registers contact data, and displays contacts by their names, identifying and prioritizing user-specific contacts with identical email addresses to avoid confusion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If contact data is collected from multiple portable terminal address books and registered to a shared address book, then the shared address book contains comprehensive contact data from different users, but contacts with different contact names but identical email addresses are created causing user confusion
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments contact data by associating each contact with user identification information, separating the shared address book into user-specific portions. This allows the system to maintain comprehensive contact data while organizing it in a way that prevents confusion, as each user sees only their own contacts or clearly distinguished contacts from other users.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by displaying different contact information based on the logged-in user. Each user experiences a customized view of the shared address book where contacts are filtered or labeled according to their ownership, ensuring that each user encounters clear, non-confusing contact lists tailored to their needs.
2Quantity of substance
If all contacts from different users are displayed in the shared address book, then complete contact information is available, but users face difficulty making choices due to duplicate email addresses with different contact names
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the contact list by user identification, dividing contacts into distinct groups associated with different users. This segmentation maintains the complete quantity of contact data while making each contact uniquely identifiable through its associated user, thereby resolving the difficulty of detecting and measuring which contact should be selected.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces user identification information as an intermediary element between the contact data and the display. This intermediary allows the system to present complete contact information while using the user ID as a distinguishing marker that helps users accurately identify and select the correct contact among duplicates.
Data Source
AI summary
An image processing apparatus includes a communicator portion that communicates with a portable terminal apparatus having an address book, a contact data obtaining portion that obtains contacts from the address book, the contacts including contact names and addresses, a registration portion that registers the contacts to a shared address book along with user identification information indicating the log-in user, a display, and a display controller that makes the display show the contacts at least by the contact name, the contacts being registered in the shared address book, that judges whether or not the shared address book contains contacts with different contact names but with identical addresses, and that, if it contains contacts with different contact names but with identical addresses, makes the display show any of the contacts by the contact name, the any contact having the user identification information indicating the log-in user.