JP4247928B2 - E-mail system - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an e-mail system that connects computers to each other and exchanges messages such as e-mails received from users, and is particularly connected through a narrow-band transmission path such as wireless communication. The present invention relates to a system composed of a server for collecting e-mails and a terminal for receiving e-mails.
[0002]
[Prior art]
There are two types of collection and delivery of electronic mail: a centralized processing method performed at a central center and a distributed processing method performed at a terminal server. In order to read e-mail from a terminal (hereinafter referred to as an e-mail terminal) having a display function other than a central center or a terminal server (hereinafter collectively referred to as an e-mail server), the user usually logs in to the e-mail server. The contents are displayed on the screen of the terminal or the contents of the e-mail are displayed after being transferred to the terminal. In the following, it is referred to as transferring the e-mail in either case.
[0003]
On the other hand, with the advancement of mobile communication technology, communication between a mobile body having a wireless communication function and a general subscriber telephone and communication between mobile bodies have become common. For example, an apparatus as described in JP-A-5-30203 (H04M11 / 00) has been proposed. This prior art includes a communication function unit that transmits and receives by radio waves and communicates via a network, and a telephone function that is connected to the communication function unit and has a button unit, a microphone unit, and a speaker unit and operates as a mobile phone And an electronic notebook function unit that is connected to the communication function unit and has a key input unit, a display unit, a storage unit, and a data control unit, and can transmit and receive voice or data by wireless communication. is there.
[0004]
By the way, in the case of an e-mail terminal that is carried by an individual and carried outside like this prior art, a relatively narrow bandwidth such as a radio or a public telephone line is between the e-mail server and the e-mail terminal. It will be connected by a transmission line. In such a case, if there are a lot of e-mails to be transferred to the e-mail terminal, it takes a long time to transfer all the e-mails, which not only costs communication costs, but also allows users to use them comfortably. Can not be. Therefore, in the conventional e-mail receiving system, only a part of information such as the title is sent first, the user specifies the mail to be read on the spot, and the whole text is sent again. Yes.
[0005]
However, this method has a drawback that it is troublesome for the user and the operation becomes complicated when the user wants to read the mail immediately.
[0006]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
The present invention improves such problems of the prior art, and omits some of the information when transferring a large amount of e-mail from an e-mail server to an e-mail terminal through a narrow bandwidth transmission path. It is intended to prevent the user from having to perform complicated operations.
[0007]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
An e-mail system according to the present invention solves the above-mentioned problems of the prior art. A mail accumulation unit that accumulates e-mails composed of a body and a header part such as a caller name, and a mail accumulation unit. A mail server having a size measuring unit that measures the size of each stored mail, and a transfer control unit that edits the electronic mail accumulated in the mail storage unit and transfers it on a transmission path ; It instructs mail storage unit stored in the e-mail transfer, and is composed of an electronic mail terminal which is connected to the transmission line capable of displaying forwarded e-mail at the electronic mail terminal, a plurality of transfer modes for transferring the edited by the transmission path of the e-mail based on the size of the e-mail that is measured by the size measuring section, I selectable der one or more transfer mode The mail server, and is characterized in that to transfer the e-mail according to the selected transfer mode.
[0008]
In the electronic mail system according to the present invention, in the transfer mode , based on the size of the electronic mail measured by the size measuring unit, only the header part or a part of the header part and the body of the mail is larger than a predetermined size. The other is characterized in that it includes a size restriction mode in which all of the mail is transferred.
[0009]
The electronic mail system according to the present invention may be configured such that, in the transfer mode, the size of the electronic mail measured by the size measuring unit when the total transfer amount of the electronic mail to be transferred exceeds a predetermined size. Based on the above, choose the appropriate number of emails from the larger one, and for these, transfer the header part or header part and part of the body, and for others, transfer the whole mail, It includes a total transfer amount transmission mode in which the total transfer amount of the electronic mail to be transferred is smaller than the predetermined size .
[0010]
In addition, the electronic mail system according to the present invention is classified according to all the electronic mails in the mail server to be transferred or other criteria based on the size of the electronic mail measured by the size measuring unit in the transfer mode. This includes a size classification mode in which all e-mails in a small group are rearranged in ascending order of e-mail size, and e-mails are transferred according to the rearranged order .
Furthermore, in the electronic mail system according to the present invention, the size measuring unit measures the size of each electronic mail by at least one of the number of bits, the number of bytes, the number of words, the information amount unit similar to these, or the number of lines. It is characterized by doing.
[0011]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of an electronic mail system according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, 10 is an electronic mail server, 20 is a network to which the electronic mail server 10 and other terminals 30 and 40 are connected, and 50 is a portable electronic mail terminal.
[0012]
The e-mail server 10 is stored in the network control unit 11 that controls the network 20, the e-mail storage unit 13 that stores e-mails delivered via the e-mail delivery unit 12, and the e-mail storage unit 13. In addition, a size measuring unit 14 that detects the number of bytes of each e-mail and measures the size, and transfers the e-mail according to the number of bytes measured by the size measuring unit 14 and the mode setting designated from the terminal as will be described later. And a modem 16 connected to the network control unit 11. The electronic mail server 10 is also connected to a public line (PSTN / ISDN) 60 via a modem 16.
[0013]
The portable electronic mail terminal 50 includes a communication unit 51 that performs wireless communication via a public base station (not shown) connected to the public line 60, a display unit 52 that displays various types of information and received electronic mail, and electronic mail transfer. And a mode selection unit 54 for selecting a predetermined e-mail reception mode to be described in detail later. This mode selection unit 54 includes a size restriction mode 55 , a size classification mode 56, and a total transfer amount transmission. One of the modes 57 is selected and set.
[0014]
Next, the operation of the electronic mail system according to the present invention will be described. In the present invention, the transfer is performed according to the mode set by the portable electronic mail terminal 50. That is, when the size restriction mode 55 is set, control is performed according to the size of each electronic mail. For example, if the size of an e-mail exceeds a certain size, only a part of information about the e-mail (for example, title, sender, or the first few lines of the title, sender, and body) All other information is transferred for other mails. As a result, an e-mail that is long due to a long sentence or contains image information is not transferred, and a short message is transferred without the need for a transfer instruction. Of course, a large mail that has not been transferred can be forwarded again if necessary.
[0015]
Further, when the size classification mode 56 is set, the transfer of e-mails is rearranged from the smallest according to the size. In this case, the user will first read a short message and later read a long message, but if the user thinks it is not necessary, he can stop forwarding the message. This reordering does not necessarily have to be done for all emails to be transferred, according to other criteria (eg by caller or thread in email reception systems where the content association is managed). ) This may be done inside the classified small group. In this case, if the user gives an instruction to cancel the transfer, the group may be skipped and transferred to the next small group.
[0016]
Furthermore, when the total transfer amount transmission mode 57 is set, the total sum of the sizes of e-mails transferred at one time is limited. In this case, if the total size of the e-mails exceeds a predetermined value, the same information as described above is omitted for an appropriate number of e-mails from the larger size. . Here, the appropriate number is the minimum number so that the total sum of the sizes of e-mails to be transferred does not exceed the predetermined value. Even if information is omitted for all e-mails, if the predetermined value is exceeded, more information will be omitted, or the e-mail of the excess part will not be transferred, or whether it will be transferred even if it exceeds , Etc. can be considered.
[0017]
Two or more of these control modes can be used simultaneously.
[0018]
The size of the e-mail is usually measured in units of information such as the number of bytes, but may be changed by the number of lines. In addition, when the information transferred on the transmission path is compressed, the size of the e-mail at the time of compression is calculated or estimated, and the size of the e-mail can be used for more appropriate control. is there.
[0019]
FIG. 2 is a sequence showing an e-mail receiving operation. First, when an e-mail is received by the portable e-mail terminal 50, the user connects to the e-mail server 10 via the public line 60 and the modem 16, and sends the ID and password to the server 10 for connection. Make a request. When the server 10 determines that the received ID and password are correct, it sends connection confirmation data to the terminal 50.
[0020]
Next, the user requests the server 10 to transfer the e-mail addressed to himself / herself, and the server 10 responds to the e-mail addressed to the user from the e-mail accumulated in the e-mail accumulation unit 13. The presence or absence and the number are notified. In response to this, when the e-mail addressed to the user has arrived, the user designates in which mode the e-mail is to be received. In the mode setting, each of “size limit mode”, “total transfer amount transmission mode”, and “size classification mode” can be set independently, and transfer control as described above is performed according to the set mode. The server 10 measures the size of each mail by the size measuring unit 14 and transfers the e-mail data under the control of the transfer control unit 15 according to the designated mode. When the transfer is completed, a reception confirmation notifying that the reception is normally completed from the terminal 50 is sent to the server 10, and then the communication is disconnected by a disconnection request from the terminal 50. Thereafter, the portable electronic mail terminal 50 displays the received electronic mail on the display unit 52.
[0021]
Note that since the present invention relates to an e-mail receiving system, only the e-mail receiving function is described in the present embodiment, but a function for transmitting e-mail may be added to the present embodiment.
[0022]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, when a large amount of e-mail is transferred from an e-mail server to an e-mail terminal through a narrow bandwidth transmission path, some of the information is omitted and the user needs a complicated operation. It becomes possible not to do.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an electronic mail system according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a sequence of an electronic mail system according to the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 E-mail server 13 E-mail storage part 14 Size measurement part 15 Transfer control part 20 Network 50 Portable e-mail terminal 52 Display part 53 Mode selection part 60 Public line

Claims (5)

A mail accumulating unit for accumulating an e-mail including a body part and a header part such as a sender name; a size measuring unit for measuring the size of each mail accumulated in the mail accumulating unit; and the mail accumulating unit A mail server having a transfer control unit for editing the collected electronic mail and transferring it on the transmission path ;
An electronic mail terminal connected to the transmission path that instructs to transfer the electronic mail stored in the mail storage unit of the mail server and can display the transferred electronic mail;
At the e-mail terminal, a plurality of transfer modes for transferring the edited by the transmission path of the e-mail based on the size of the e-mail that is measured by the size measuring section, Tsu der selectable one or more transfer mode Te, e-mail system the mail server, and wherein the transfer of e-mail according to the selected transfer mode. Based on the size of the e-mail measured by the size measuring unit, only the header part or a part of the header part and the body of the mail is transferred to the transfer mode. The e-mail system according to claim 1, further comprising a size restriction mode for transferring a message. In the transfer mode, when the total transfer amount of the e-mail to be transferred exceeds a predetermined size, based on the size of the e-mail measured by the size measuring unit, from the larger one By selecting the appropriate number of emails, the header part or the header part and part of the body are transferred for these, and by transferring the whole of the others, the total amount of email to be transferred is reduced. The electronic mail system according to claim 1, further comprising a total transfer amount transmission mode in which the transfer amount is smaller than the predetermined size. To the transfer mode, based on the size of the e-mail that is measured by the size measuring section, electronic all e-mail in small groups classified by all e-mail in or other criteria in the mail server to be transferred 2. The e-mail system according to claim 1, further comprising a size classification mode in which e-mails are rearranged in ascending order of mail size and e-mails are transferred in the rearranged order . The size measuring unit measures the size of each e-mail according to any one or more of the number of bits, the number of bytes, the number of words, a unit of information amount similar to these, or the number of lines. 5. The electronic mail system according to any one of items 4 to 4.

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