JP2011081438A - Information terminal, message notification system, and message notification method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To equally provide each user with additional information based on e-mail. <P>SOLUTION: A mobile telephone 1 is provided with: a database 13 for storing a keyword to be described in the text of electronic mail and comments to be presented to a sender in association with each other; a keyword extraction part 14 for extracting a keyword, when the electronic mail generated in a telephone set 1 is transmitted toward a destination, from the text of the electronic mail; a conditional expression group selection part 15 and a comment determination part 16 for reading a message corresponding to the extracted keyword, from the database 13; and an output part 17 for outputting the read message. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information terminal that outputs a message related to electronic mail, a message notification system, and a message notification method.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a technique for presenting additional information to a user based on the content of a received electronic mail (hereinafter simply referred to as “mail”) is known. For example, Patent Document 1 below describes a mobile terminal that selects a specific character string by parsing a character string extracted from the body of a received mail and displays a template image corresponding to the selected character string. Yes.

JP 2006-166157 A

  Although the mail recipient can receive additional information by the above-described technique, such information is not provided to the mail sender. Since there is no guarantee that mail transmission and reception are performed equally for a certain user, additional information cannot be provided equally to each user. For example, for users who send more emails than to receive emails, the number of additional information received will not match the number of email operations.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and provides an information terminal, a message notification system, and a message notification method capable of providing additional information based on electronic mail to each user evenly. Objective.

  The information terminal according to the present invention includes a database that stores a keyword that can be described in the body of an e-mail and a message that is presented to the sender in association with each other, and that an e-mail generated in the terminal is transmitted to a destination. As an opportunity, extraction means for extracting a keyword from the body of the e-mail, message acquisition means for reading a message corresponding to the keyword extracted by the extraction means from the database, and output for outputting the message read by the message acquisition means Means.

  The message notification system of the present invention includes a database that stores a keyword that can be described in the body of an e-mail and a message that is presented to the user of the information terminal that is the sender, and an e-mail generated in the information terminal. Triggered by being sent to the e-mail, an extraction means for extracting a keyword from the body of the e-mail, a message acquisition means for reading a message corresponding to the keyword extracted by the extraction means from the database, and a reading by the message acquisition means Output means for outputting the issued message at the information terminal.

  The message notification method of the present invention is a message notification method executed by a message notification system including an information terminal, and the electronic mail generated in the information terminal is sent to the destination as a trigger. A keyword extracted in the extraction step from an extraction step for extracting a keyword from the body of the mail and a database that stores a keyword that can be described in the body of the e-mail and a message to be presented to the user of the information terminal that is the sender A message acquisition step of reading a message corresponding to the message, and an output step of outputting the message read in the message acquisition step at the information terminal.

  According to such an invention, a keyword is extracted from the body of the mail when an electronic mail is transmitted, and a message corresponding to the keyword is read from the database and output. Accordingly, since the message is presented as additional information to the mail sender, that is, the user who has actively generated the mail, the additional information based on the mail can be provided more evenly to each user.

  The information terminal according to the present invention further includes an extraction number storage unit that stores the number of times the keyword is extracted by the extraction unit, and the message acquisition unit reads the extracted number of extracted keywords from the extraction number storage unit, and the extraction number is a predetermined number. If it is equal to or greater than the threshold value, it is preferable to read a message corresponding to the keyword from the database.

  In this case, since the message is output only for the keyword corresponding to the keyword extracted a certain number of times in the past, the message can be presented by narrowing down the words that the sender has a strong tendency to input.

  The information terminal of the present invention further includes output number storage means for storing the number of output times of the message by the output means, the database stores the keyword, the output number, and the message in association with each other, and the message acquisition means includes the output number storage means. It is preferable to read out the number of times of output from the database and read out a message corresponding to the extracted keyword and the number of times of output from the database.

  In this case, the message to be output will be determined based not only on the keyword but also on the past output count, so if you use the keyword written in the email you sent earlier to create and send the email again, Can make changes.

  In the information terminal of the present invention, it is preferable that the information terminal is a portable terminal, and the output means displays a message when the standby screen is displayed.

  In this case, since the message is displayed when the portable terminal is in the standby screen state, the message can be presented to the user without blocking the user's terminal operation when the user can pay attention to the terminal screen.

  According to such an information terminal, a message notification system, and a message notification method, since a message based on the text of the outgoing mail is output to the sender, additional information based on the mail is provided equally to each user. Can do.

It is a block diagram which shows the function structure of the mobile telephone which concerns on embodiment. It is a figure which shows the hardware constitutions of the mobile telephone shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the word group table shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the comment log | history table shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the conditional expression group table shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the conditional expression group selection table shown in FIG. It is a figure which shows the structure of the comment table shown in FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation of the mobile phone shown in FIG.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In this embodiment, the information terminal according to the present invention is applied to a mobile phone. In the description of the drawings, the same or equivalent elements are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description is omitted.

  First, the function and configuration of the mobile phone 1 according to the embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a functional configuration of the mobile phone 1. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the mobile phone 1. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the configuration of the word group table 131. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the structure of the comment history table 132. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the configuration of the conditional expression group table 133. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the configuration of the conditional expression group selection table 134. FIG. 7 shows the structure of the comment table 135.

  The mobile phone 1 is a mobile terminal having a call function, a mail function, a web browser function, and the like. As functional components, a transmission unit 11, a mail storage unit 12, a database 13, a keyword extraction unit (extraction means, message acquisition means) 14 are provided. , A conditional expression group selection unit (message acquisition unit) 15, a comment determination unit (message acquisition unit) 16, and an output unit (output unit) 17.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the cellular phone 1 includes a CPU 101 that executes an operating system, application programs, and the like, a main storage unit 102 that includes a ROM and a RAM, and an auxiliary storage unit 103 that includes a memory. The communication control unit 104 performs data communication, the display unit 105 includes a liquid crystal monitor, and the operation unit 106 includes input keys. Each function shown in FIG. 1 reads a predetermined program on the CPU 101 and the main storage unit 102 and operates the communication control unit 104, the display unit 105, and the operation unit 106 under the control of the CPU 101, and the main storage unit. This is realized by reading or writing data to 102 or the auxiliary storage unit 103. Data necessary for the database and processing is stored in the main storage unit 102 or the auxiliary storage unit 103.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the transmission unit 11 is means for transmitting an e-mail generated in the mobile phone 1 to a destination based on a mail transmission instruction input by the user.

  The mail storage unit 12 is means for storing an electronic mail (transmitted mail) transmitted by the transmission unit 11.

  The database 13 is a means for storing data necessary for displaying a comment based on the transmitted mail on the display unit 105, and includes a word group table 131, a comment history table (output count storage means) 132, a conditional expression group table (extraction). Number storage means) 133, conditional expression group selection table 134, and comment table 135.

  The word group table 131 is a means for grouping and storing keywords that can be described in the body of an email. Hereinafter, a set of one or more keywords is referred to as a “word group”. Word groups can be identified by serial numbers. In the example of FIG. 3, the three keywords “tired”, “tagged”, and “sniff” belong to the group identified by “WG # 1”. Further, only the keyword “Older brother” belongs to the group identified by “WG # 11”.

  The comment history table 132 is a means for storing the number of comments (messages) displayed on the display unit 105 when mail transmission is triggered. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 4, the comment history table 132 counts and stores the number of issuances (display times) for each comment ID that is a number for managing comments. As will be described later, since a plurality of comments may correspond to one comment ID, it can be said that the number of times of issue is a value managed not for each comment but for each comment group. The number of issuances is increased by incremental processing described later.

  The conditional expression group table 133 is means for storing a plurality of conditional expression groups. The conditional expression group is identified by a group ID and can be expressed in a table format as shown in FIG. In the table of each conditional expression group, the comment ID, the actual number of appearances of each word group (WG count number), and the condition of each WG count number for displaying the comment corresponding to the comment ID (WG condition) Multiple records associated with are stored. From FIG. 5, in order to display the comment corresponding to the comment ID = 10, at least the keyword belonging to the word group “WG # 1” and the keyword belonging to “WG # 2” need to be extracted three times or more. It shows that there is. The WG count is increased by an increment process described later every time a mail including the corresponding keyword is transmitted.

  The conditional expression group selection table 134 is means for storing conditions for selecting the conditional expression group described above. The data stored in this table 134 is a set of the range of the total number of issues in the comment history table 132 and the conditional expression group ID corresponding to the range. According to FIG. 6, for example, if the total number of times of issue is 44, the conditional expression group with group ID = 3 is used.

  The reason why the conditional expression group is determined by the conditional expression group table 133 and its selection table 134 is to change the content of the comment, the style, the wording of the phrase, etc. as the number of times the comment is displayed after mail transmission increases. . As a result, when the user repeatedly sends e-mails, for example, a process of gradually making the expression of the comment more familiar can be realized.

  The comment table 135 is a means for storing comments displayed at the time of mail transmission. As illustrated in FIG. 7, the comment table 135 stores comment data in which a comment ID, one or more comments (messages) corresponding to the ID, and an outline (category) of comments belonging to the ID are associated. The content of the comment is not limited, and for example, not only text but also pictograms may be included.

  In the example of FIG. 7, the comment data indicated by the comment ID = 1 includes a plurality of comments for comforting the sender (user of the mobile phone 1). Further, the comment data indicated by the comment ID = 3 includes only one comment that worries the sender. “<Name>” in the comment corresponding to the comment ID = 2 indicates a variable, and the character string is dynamically determined when the comment is generated. For example, the user name of the mobile phone 1 that is the sender is substituted for “<name>”.

  Thus, the keywords that can be described in the body of the e-mail and the comments (messages) presented to the sender are stored in association with each other in the table group in the database 13.

  The keyword extracting unit 14 is a unit that extracts a keyword from the body of the mail when the e-mail generated in the mobile phone 1 is transmitted to the destination by the transmitting unit 11. The keyword extraction unit 14 actively acquires a mail transmission event by the transmission unit 11 or passively acquires a signal indicating that the mail transmission has been executed from the transmission unit 11 so that the mail is transmitted. Is detected. Subsequently, the keyword extraction unit 14 reads the transmitted electronic mail from the mail storage unit 12 and refers to the word group table 131 to extract a keyword included in the body of the electronic mail.

  Subsequently, the keyword extracting unit 14 specifies the word group to which each keyword appearing in the mail body belongs based on the word group table 131. For example, when the word group table 131 is as shown in FIG. 3 and the keywords “tired”, “sniff”, and “mud” appear in the mail text, the keyword extraction unit 14 uses two word groups “WG # 1”. Specify “WG # 2”. Subsequently, the keyword extraction unit 14 increments the WG count number of the identified word group (the WG count number in the conditional expression group table 133) by one. Here, this increment processing is executed for each record in the table of each group ID. Even if one keyword appears multiple times in the mail text, or multiple keywords belonging to the same word group appear one or more times in the mail text, the corresponding WG count is incremented only by one.

  When executing the above processing, the keyword extraction unit 14 outputs a signal for requesting the next processing to the conditional expression group selection unit 15.

  The conditional expression group selection unit 15 is a means for selecting a conditional expression group used for determining whether to display a comment. When a signal is input from the keyword extraction unit 14, the conditional expression group selection unit 15 calculates the total number of issues in the comment history table 132. Subsequently, the conditional expression group selection unit 15 refers to the conditional expression group selection table 134 and acquires a group ID corresponding to the calculated total value. Subsequently, the conditional expression group selection unit 15 outputs the group ID to the comment determination unit 16. According to FIG. 6, if the calculated total value is 44, the conditional expression group selection unit 15 reads and outputs the group ID = 3.

  The comment determination unit 16 is a means for determining a comment displayed at the time of mail transmission based on the selected group ID. When a group ID is input from the conditional expression group selection unit 15, the comment determination unit 16 reads a table of the group ID from the conditional expression group table 133.

  Subsequently, the comment determination unit 16 determines whether or not each WG count number is equal to or greater than a corresponding WG condition value for each record in the read table. If there is a record satisfying (WG count number)> = (corresponding WG condition value) for all WG count numbers, the comment determination unit 16 acquires the comment ID described in the record. On the other hand, if there is no record that satisfies all the WG conditions, the comment determination unit 16 ends the process. Regarding the table of group ID = 1 in FIG. 5, the record with serial number 1 satisfies the WG condition for the word group “WG # 2”, but does not satisfy the WG condition for the word group “WG # 1”. The determination unit 16 determines that this record does not satisfy the WG condition.

  When the comment ID can be acquired, the comment determination unit 16 reads a comment corresponding to the ID from the comment table 135. At this time, if a plurality of comments are associated with the comment ID, the comment determination unit 16 selects one comment by a predetermined method (for example, random selection). The comment determination unit 16 outputs the selected comment data to the output unit 17. Further, the comment determination unit 16 increments the number of issuances of the comment history table 132 corresponding to the comment ID by 1. According to FIG. 4, when the comment ID = 4 is acquired, the comment determination unit 16 updates the number of issuances from 20 to 21.

  As described above, since the message corresponding to the keyword is obtained by the processing of the keyword extraction unit 14, the conditional expression group selection unit 15, and the comment determination unit 16, these functional components can be said to be message acquisition means.

  The output unit 17 is means for displaying the comment input from the comment determination unit 16 on the display unit 105. The output unit 17 determines whether or not the display unit 105 is in a standby screen state, and if it is a standby screen, immediately displays a comment as additional information. Thereby, the user of the mobile phone 1 as a sender can see a message based on the contents of the mail created by the user. On the other hand, when the standby screen is not displayed because the display unit 105 is hidden by the casing of the mobile phone 1 or some application program is activated, the output unit 17 holds the comment and waits for it. The comment is displayed when the screen is displayed. It is possible to determine whether or not the screen is a standby screen by detecting the state of the terminal casing or the activation state of the application program.

  Next, with reference to FIG. 8, the operation of the mobile phone 1 shown in FIG. 1 will be described and the message notification method according to the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the operation of the mobile phone 1.

  When the transmission unit 11 transmits a mail created by the user of the mobile phone 1 (step S11), the keyword extraction unit 14 reads out the transmission mail from the mail storage unit 12 as a trigger, and refers to the word group table 131. A keyword is extracted from the mail text (step S12, extraction step). Subsequently, the keyword extraction unit 14 increments the WG count corresponding to the extracted keyword by 1 (step S13).

  Subsequently, the conditional expression group selection unit 15 refers to the comment history table 132 and the conditional expression group selection table 134 to select a conditional expression group that matches the total number of times of issuance (step S14). Subsequently, by referring to the table of the selected conditional expression group, the comment determination unit 16 determines whether there is a comment ID that satisfies the WG condition (step S15). Specifically, the comment determination unit 16 searches for a comment ID of a record that satisfies (WG count number)> = (corresponding WG condition value) for all WG count numbers.

  At this time, if such a comment ID is not found, the process ends there (step S15; NO), but if a comment ID is found, the following process is executed (step S15; YES).

  That is, the comment determination unit 16 reads one comment corresponding to the extracted comment ID from the comment table 135 (step S16), and increments the number of issuances corresponding to the ID by 1 (step S17). It can be said that the process from step S13 to S17 is a message acquisition step for acquiring a comment.

  Finally, when the standby screen is displayed (step S18; YES), the output unit 17 displays a comment on the display unit 105 (step S19, output step); otherwise (step S18; NO). Wait for the display to switch to the standby screen while holding the message.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, a keyword is extracted from the body of the mail when an electronic mail is transmitted, and a comment corresponding to the keyword is read from the database 13 and output. Thereby, since the comment is presented as additional information to the mail sender, that is, the user who has actively generated the mail, the additional information based on the mail can be provided more evenly to each user.

  Further, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to present to the person an appropriate comment that matches the sentiment of the sender and the situation placed. Since the body of the received email is written with the subjectivity of the sender, it is difficult to determine whether the text is for the recipient or whether an opinion about the third party is being sent to the recipient. It is. On the other hand, since the sender's text is naturally written by the sender, for example, even if the subject is omitted, the analogy is easy and the context can be grasped more accurately. As a result, an appropriate comment can be presented to the sender.

  In addition, according to the present embodiment, only comments corresponding to keywords that have been extracted a certain number of times in the past are output, so it is possible to present comments by focusing on words that the sender tends to input.

  In addition, according to the present embodiment, the comment to be output is determined not only based on the keyword but also based on the past output count (the total value of the issuance count), so the keyword written in the previously sent mail is used again. You can change the comment when composing and sending an email.

  Further, according to the present embodiment, since the comment is displayed when the mobile phone 1 is in the standby screen state, a message can be sent to the user without interrupting the user's terminal operation when the user can pay attention to the screen of the phone 1. Can present.

  In addition, according to the present embodiment, the number of keyword extractions is counted in units of word groups, and whether or not to display a comment is determined based on the number of times. Therefore, compared with the case where similar processing is performed for each keyword. Thus, it is possible to deal with many keywords while reducing the capacity of the database.

  The present invention has been described in detail based on the embodiments. However, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. The present invention can be variously modified without departing from the gist thereof.

  In the above embodiment, a comment composed of text is displayed, but the message format and output method are not limited to this. For example, a message composed of text and an image (a still image or a moving image) may be displayed, or a message expressed using a light color or a light emission pattern may be output. In addition, a message using voice or sound effects may be output, or a message using vibration by a vibrator may be output. The format of the message data stored in the database (for example, the comment table 135) is determined based on the message configuration and output method.

  The table configuration and record configuration in the database are not limited to those in the above embodiment. For example, keywords and comments may be directly associated without introducing the concept of word groups. In the conditional expression group table 133, a condition establishment period indicating that the WG count must satisfy the WG condition by a predetermined time may be incorporated in each record. For example, data indicating “from the time when the WG count is first recorded in the record until the time T elapses” may be set in advance as the condition establishment period.

  Although it is related to the configuration in the database, a comment corresponding to the extracted keyword may be output unconditionally without introducing the concepts of the number of times of issuance and WG count.

  In the above embodiment, the message is displayed when the mobile phone 1 is in the standby screen state, but the timing of outputting the message is not limited to this. For example, the output means may output a message regardless of whether or not the current screen is a standby screen.

  In the above embodiment, all the functional components necessary for displaying comments are mounted in the mobile phone 1, but the present invention is implemented by a message notification system including a plurality of information processing devices connected by a network, that is, by distributed processing. May be realized. For example, the cellular phone includes an extraction unit, a message acquisition unit, and an output unit, while the server includes a database, and the message acquisition unit acquires the data in the database via the network to execute the same processing as in the above embodiment. May be.

  The present invention can be applied to various information terminals other than mobile phones, regardless of whether they are portable or stationary. For example, the present invention can be applied to a personal digital assistant (PDA), a personal computer (PC), a game machine, an audio visual (AV) device, and the like.

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Mobile telephone (information terminal), 11 ... Transmission part, 12 ... Mail storage part, 13 ... Database, 14 ... Keyword extraction part (extraction means, message acquisition means), 15 ... Conditional expression group selection part (message acquisition means) , 16 ... comment determination unit (message acquisition unit), 17 ... output unit (output unit), 131 ... word group table, 132 ... comment history table (output number storage unit), 133 ... conditional expression group table (extraction number storage unit) 134... Conditional expression group selection table, 135.

Claims (6)

A database that associates and stores keywords that can be described in the body of the email and messages that are presented to the sender;
Extracting means for extracting the keyword from the body of the e-mail triggered by the e-mail generated in the terminal being sent to the destination;
Message acquisition means for reading the message corresponding to the keyword extracted by the extraction means from the database;
Output means for outputting the message read by the message acquisition means;
An information terminal comprising: An extraction number storage means for storing the number of keyword extractions by the extraction means;
The message acquisition means reads out the number of extractions of the extracted keyword from the extraction number storage means, and when the number of extractions is a predetermined threshold or more, reads out the message corresponding to the keyword from the database;
The information terminal according to claim 1. An output number storage means for storing the number of output times of the message by the output means;
The database stores the keyword, the output count, and the message in association with each other;
The message acquisition means reads the output count from the output count storage means, and reads the message corresponding to the extracted keyword and the output count from the database;
The information terminal according to claim 1 or 2. The information terminal is a mobile terminal;
The output means displays the message when a standby screen is displayed;
The information terminal as described in any one of Claims 1-3. A database that associates and stores keywords that can be described in the body of the email and a message that is presented to the user of the information terminal that is the sender;
Extraction means for extracting the keyword from the text of the e-mail triggered by the e-mail generated in the information terminal being transmitted to the destination;
Message acquisition means for reading the message corresponding to the keyword extracted by the extraction means from the database;
Output means for outputting the message read by the message acquisition means at the information terminal;
A message notification system comprising: A message notification method executed by a message notification system including an information terminal,
An extraction step of extracting a keyword from the body of the e-mail triggered by the e-mail generated in the information terminal being transmitted toward the destination;
Message acquisition step of reading out the message corresponding to the keyword extracted in the extraction step from a database that stores the keyword that can be described in the body of the e-mail and the message that is presented to the user of the information terminal that is the sender When,
An output step of outputting the message read in the message acquisition step in the information terminal;
A message notification method comprising:

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