JPH08251222A - Message communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a message communication system with which a message can be easily transmitted to any specified user interested in it without clearly showing any address. CONSTITUTION: A destination storage part 4 stores the interest of a user and the address of this user while relating them each other. An interest information extraction part 2 extracts the interest information from a transmissive message. A destination selection part 5 selects the address to transmit the message out of the addresses stored in the destination storage part 4 based on the interest information extracted by the interest information extraction part 2.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication system, and more particularly to a message communication system capable of transmitting a message to a party having a particular interest without designating a destination.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there are electronic mails, mailing lists, network news and the like as systems for communicating messages using a communication network. The e-mail specifies the recipient's destination (hereinafter referred to as the address),
The mailing list performs message communication by specifying the list name and the network news by specifying the news group.

[0003]

In electronic mail, the sender sends a message by designating the address of the recipient, so for recipients whose address is not specified,
You must send the message after some way of looking up the address. However, since there is currently no system for retrieving a personal address, it is necessary for each sender to investigate the address. Also,
In order to send the message only to users who are interested in the message to be sent, it is necessary for each sender to manage the address of the user and the interest of the user in association with each other. There is a problem that it is complicated.

Since users with specific interests are registered in the mailing list, even if the address is not managed as described above, only those users who are interested in the message to send will send the message. can do. However, since there is no system for searching mailing lists, it is necessary for each sender to search what kind of mailing list they have. In addition, each sender needs to select which message is to be posted to which mailing list, and the process is complicated.

In network news, there is a problem that a great deal of labor is required for selecting a news group and posting contents.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems of the message communication system.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a message communication system that allows a sender to easily send a message to a user who has a particular interest without explicitly specifying an address.

[0007]

The message communication system of the present invention, when a message is sent from a sender,
It is provided with means for selecting the destination of the message based on the data accumulated for the user.

[0008] Further, destination accumulating means for storing the user's interest and the address (destination) of the user in association with each other, the interest information extracting means for extracting the interest information from the transmitted message, and the interest information extracting means for extracting the interest information. Based on the interest information, destination selecting means for selecting an address to which the message is transmitted from the addresses stored in the destination accumulating means.

The destination storage means stores the interest information extracted from the message sent by the user in the past and the destination of the user in association with each other.

Further, the interest information extracting means comprises a keyword extracting means for extracting a keyword from a message and a frequency accumulating means for storing the number of keywords included in the message.

Further, the above-mentioned interest information extracting means is a context vector extracting means for extracting a context vector from the message.

[0012]

The message communication system according to claim 1,
At the time of message transmission, the destination of the message is selected based on the data regarding the user of this message communication system. Therefore, unlike the conventional case, the sender does not need to specify the destination of the message, which simplifies the sending process.

Further, in the message communication system according to any one of claims 2 to 7, the interest information is extracted from the message to be transmitted, and the address of the user stored in the destination storage means in association with the interest information. Select the destination of the message from the list and send the message. Therefore, the message is sent to users who are interested in the message, even if the sender does not specify the address to send the message. Therefore, it becomes unnecessary for each sender to manage the address of the user as in the conventional case, and the simplification of the transmission process is realized. Also, since the number of people who are not interested in the message to send is reduced,
Communication costs are reduced.

Further, claims 3 and 6 to 7
In the message communication system described in (1), the destination storage means stores the interest information of the message transmitted by the user in the past and the address of the user in association with each other. And
When sending a message from a sender, the destination of the message is automatically selected from the user's addresses stored in the destination storage means. Therefore, it is not necessary to previously store the user's interest and address in the destination accumulating means by manual input or the like, and the process is simplified.

[0015]

【Example】

(First Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the main functional portions of the first embodiment of the present invention. The present invention will be described below with reference to FIG.

The main function section includes a selection information extraction section 1, a destination storage section 4, and a destination selection section 5. The selection information extraction unit 1 includes an interest information extraction unit 2 including a keyword extraction unit 6 and a frequency accumulation unit 7, and a destination extraction unit 3.

The interest information extraction unit 2 extracts a pre-registered word (keyword) from the message sent by the sender and sets it as interest information. Specifically, the keyword extracting unit 6
At, the keyword is extracted by extracting the character string of the content portion of the message to be transmitted and investigating whether or not the character string is a previously registered word. At this time, the frequency storage unit 7 counts and stores how many keywords extracted by the keyword extraction unit 6 appear in the message.

The destination extracting unit 3 extracts the address (destination) of the user who sent the message from the message.

The destination storage unit 4 stores the keyword extracted from the message sent by the user in the past and the address of the user in association with each other by using a technique such as hash, binary, or association. Each time a message is sent to, the keyword extracted from the message and the address of the person who sent the message are stored.

The destination selecting unit 5 selects a destination from among the user addresses stored in the destination storing unit 4 based on the keyword frequency information about the message stored in the frequency storing unit 7. Select the address. This selection method will be described later.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram for explaining the usage of this system. Here, it is assumed that the host computer 20 of FIG. 2 has the above-mentioned main functions. The operation at the time of message transmission will be described below by taking the case where the sender 10 of FIG. 2 sends a message as an example.

First, a message from the sender 10 is input to the host computer 20, and the interest information extraction unit 2 extracts a keyword from the message. At this time,
The frequency storage unit 7 stores the number of keywords included in the message as frequency information.

Next, the destination selecting section 5 determines that the user 11
The destination storage unit 4 that stores the information about the keywords and addresses of the messages sent by the users 14 to 14 is selected, and the address to be the destination is selected based on the frequency information. Then, by the transmission means not shown in FIG.
Send a message.

Further, the destination extracting unit 3 extracts the address of the sender 10 from the transmitted message, and the destination accumulating unit 4 stores the keyword of the message and the address in association with each other. By this operation, the information stored in the destination storage unit 4 is updated every time a new message is transmitted.

As described above, the message communication system of this example extracts a keyword from a message sent by the sender 10 and selects a destination from among users who have sent a message related to the keyword in the past. Therefore, even if the sender 10 does not specify the destination address,
The destination is automatically selected, and the message can be sent to that address. Therefore, as in the past,
It is not necessary to manage the address, and the number of messages sent to those who are not interested in the message is reduced, so that communication costs, distribution processing, message processing after reception, etc. can be rationalized.

Further, in this example, the destination storage unit 4 automatically stores the interest information of the transmitted message and the address of the user who transmitted the message in association with each other. Labor can be reduced.

The destination storage unit 4 may be one that stores the user's interest and address in association with each other. For example, the user's interest and address manually input in advance may be stored. It may be anything. However, in this case, it is necessary to perform complicated processing such as investigation of user's interest and registration / update of interest information.

Further, in FIG. 2, the host computer 2
Although 0 has a destination selection function which is a feature of the present invention, it goes without saying that each user's terminal may have the above function.

The above is the outline of this example. The keyword extraction process, frequency accumulation process, and destination selection process will be described in detail below.

First, the keyword extraction process will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the flow of keyword extraction processing.

First, a message from the sender is input (step S101). Next, one character is cut out from the message (step S102). Subsequently, it is confirmed whether or not one character can be cut out (step S103), and if it cannot be cut out, the processing is ended. If it can be cut out, it is checked whether or not the one character is a kanji (step S
104) If there is a Kanji character, it may be a keyword, so the Kanji string following it is cut out (step S1).
05), and then proceeds to step S110. If it is not a kanji character, it is checked whether or not the above-mentioned one character is katakana (step S106), and if it is katakana, it is possible that it is a keyword, and the following katakana string is cut out (step S107). Move to S110. If it is not katakana, it is checked whether the above one character is an alphabet (step S108). If it is an alphabet, it may be a keyword.
Cut out the alphabet string following it (step S1
09), and then proceeds to step S110. If it is not an alphabet, the process returns to step S102, and the next one character is cut out. In step S110, it is searched whether or not the cut-out character string is registered in a previously registered keyword set (hereinafter referred to as a keyword dictionary). If registered, the character string is extracted as a keyword (step S111), and the process returns to step S102. If not registered, the process directly returns to step S102.

Next, the frequency accumulation process will be described. FIG.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating processing in the frequency accumulating unit 7.
The processing flow will be described below with reference to FIG.

First, the keyword extracted in step S111 of FIG. 3 is input (step S201), and it is determined whether or not the keyword is registered in a table stored in the memory (hereinafter referred to as a keyword table). Check (step S202). If it is registered, the process proceeds to step S204 as it is, and if it is not registered, the frequency of the keyword is set to 0 and the keyword is registered in the keyword table (step S2).
03), and then proceeds to step S204. In step S204, a process of increasing the keyword frequency by 1 is performed. The above processing is performed for all the keywords extracted in step S111 of FIG. 2, and the keywords in the message and the frequency of the keywords are registered in the keyword table.

Next, the destination selection process will be described. There are various methods for selecting an address, and any one of them may be used in this example, but three kinds of selecting methods will be described in detail here as an example. 5 to 7 are flowcharts for explaining the flow of the three types of destination selection processing. The selection method shown in FIG. 5 is a method of selecting all addresses associated with a keyword included in a message to be sent, and the selection method shown in FIG. 6 is most interested in the message to be sent. It is a method of selecting the address of the user who is considered to be the user. The selection method shown in FIG. This is a method of selecting an address associated with

First, the destination selection method of FIG. 5 will be described. When the transmission message is input (step S30
1), the keyword extraction process and the frequency accumulation process described above are performed (step S302). Next, the keywords registered in the keyword table are sorted in descending order of frequency (step S303). Then, the keyword registered at the beginning is taken out (step S304). Next, the address storage unit 4 is used to search for an address associated with this keyword (step S305), and that address is registered in the destination list (step S306). The destination list is a list in which addresses to which messages are sent are registered. Next, the first keyword in the keyword table (the keyword for which the address is searched now) is deleted (step S307), and it is checked whether or not there are any remaining keywords (step S308). If it remains, the process returns to step S304, and if it does not remain, the destination list is output (step S309),
The process ends. Through the above flow, it is possible to select all addresses associated with the keyword included in the message to be sent.

Next, the destination selection method of FIG. 6 will be described. When a message is input (step S401),
The keyword extraction process and the frequency accumulation process described above are performed (step S402). Next, the keywords registered in the keyword table are sorted in descending order of frequency (step S403). Then, the keyword registered at the beginning is extracted (step S404). Next, the address storage unit 4 is used to search for an address associated with this keyword, and that address is registered in the destination list (step S405). Then, it is checked whether or not the address exists in the destination list (step S409),
If it does not exist, the process proceeds to step S410. If it exists, the first keyword in the keyword table (the keyword for which the address is searched now) is deleted (step S411), and it is checked whether or not there are still keywords in the keyword table (step S412). If not, step S413
Move to If it remains, the leading keyword is extracted (step S404), the address accumulating unit 4 is used to search for an address associated with this keyword (step S407), and this address and the destination list (described as an old destination list). ), The common address registered in () is registered as a new destination list (step S408),
The process moves to step S409. In step S410,
A process of considering the old destination list as a destination list for transmitting a message is performed, and then the destination list is output (step S413), and the process ends. Through the above flow, the address of the user who is considered to be most interested in the message to be sent is selected.

Next, the destination selection method of FIG. 7 will be described. When a message is input (step S501),
The keyword extraction process and the frequency accumulation process described above are performed (step S502). Next, one keyword is taken out (step S5034), and the address storage unit 4 is used to search for an address associated with this keyword (step S504). Then, one retrieved address is taken out (step S505), and it is checked whether or not the same address is registered in the destination list (step S506). If not registered, the address is registered in the destination list and the frequency of the keyword is recorded as the frequency information of the address (step S5).
07). If registered, the frequency of the keyword is added to the frequency information of the address (step S50).
8). Next, it is checked whether or not the address remains (step S509). If the address remains, the process returns to step S505. If the address does not remain, it is checked whether or not the keyword remains (step S51).
0). If it is determined that the keyword remains, the process proceeds to step S503, and if it is determined that the keyword does not remain, the address whose frequency information of the address is equal to or more than the specified value is output (step S511). , The process ends. With the above flow, it is possible to select an address whose frequency information is equal to or higher than a specified value.

(Second Embodiment) FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the main functional parts of a second embodiment of the present invention. Since this example uses the context vector extraction unit 8 as the interest information extraction unit 2 of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the same parts as those in FIG. To do.

In this example, the context vector extraction unit 8
The context vector of the content part of the message to be sent is calculated and used as interest information. Then, the destination selection unit 5 selects an address to be a transmission destination from the addresses stored in the destination storage unit 4 in association with the interest information. The context vector is a decentralized expression method of word meanings, in which each word is associated with 100 or more characteristic words. As a method of extracting this context vector, for example, “Science Technical Report, No. AI92-9
9, pp. 73-80 (1990): "Associative search from large-scale document database".
Using the context vector as interest information like this,
Since the interest information suitable for the content can be more accurately extracted from the transmitted message, it is possible to suppress the transmission of the message to the person who is not interested in the message as compared with the first embodiment, the communication cost and the transmission processing. , It becomes possible to further rationalize message processing after reception.

The means for extracting the interest information from the message is not limited to the means (keyword extraction, context vector extraction) described in the first and second embodiments, and other morphological analysis and Means such as statistical processing of characters can be used.

Further, the message communication systems of the first and second embodiments described above select the destination of the message from the user's address stored in association with the interest information of the transmitted message. However, the present invention is not limited to this, as long as the destination of the message is automatically selected based on some data regarding the user.

[0042]

In the message communication system according to the first aspect of the present invention, the destination of the message is automatically selected, so that the processing of the message sender is simplified.

Further, in the message communication system according to any one of claims 2 to 7, the interest information is extracted from the transmitted message, and the destination of the message is selected from the addresses of the users stored in association with the interest information. Since it is selected, there is no need to specify an address and manage a destination when sending a message, and the sending process can be simplified.

Further, since the transmission of the message to the other party who is not interested in the message to be transmitted is suppressed, the communication cost can be reduced and the distribution process and the message process after the reception can be rationalized. .

In the message communication system according to claims 3 and 6 to 7, since the user's interest and address are automatically registered in the destination storage unit, the labor of the user required for message communication is reduced. Will be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing main functional units of a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a usage pattern of the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of keyword extraction processing.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of frequency accumulation processing.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the flow of destination selection processing.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating another example of the flow of destination selection processing.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating still another example of the flow of destination selection processing.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the main functional parts of the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Selection Information Extraction Section 2 Interest Information Extraction Section 3 Destination Extraction Section 4 Destination Storage Section 5 Destination Selection Section 6 Keyword Extraction Section 7 Frequency Storage Section 8 Context Vector Extraction Section

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Minor Takemoto 22-22 Nagaike-cho Naganocho, Abeno-ku, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture Sharp Corporation (72) Ryoichi Sato 22-22 Nagaike-cho, Abeno-ku, Osaka, Osaka Within the corporation

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. In a message communication system for sending and receiving a message using a communication network, when a message is sent from a sender, the message is sent from among the users based on data accumulated about the user. A message communication system comprising means for selecting a destination. 2. In a message communication system for transmitting and receiving a message using a communication network, interest information extraction means for extracting interest information from a message sent from a sender, interest of the user, and destination of the user. And a destination accumulating unit that stores the message, and a destination to which the message is transmitted is selected from the destinations stored in the destination accumulating unit based on the interest information extracted by the interest information extracting unit. A message communication system comprising: 3. The message communication system according to claim 2, wherein the destination accumulating unit stores interest information extracted from a message transmitted by the user in the past and the destination of the user in association with each other. A message communication system, characterized in that it is a means. 4. The message communication system according to claim 2, wherein the interest information extraction means extracts keyword from a message to be transmitted, and frequency accumulation for storing the number of the keywords included in the message. A message communication system comprising: 5. The message communication system according to claim 2, wherein the interest information extracting means is context vector extracting means for extracting a context vector from the message. 6. A message communication system for transmitting and receiving a message using a communication network, a keyword extracting means for extracting a keyword from a message sent by a sender, and a frequency storage for storing the number of the keywords included in the message. Means, a destination accumulating means for storing the keyword extracted from the message sent by the user in the past and the destination of the user in association with each other, and the message stored in the frequency accumulating means at the time of sending the message. And a destination selecting means for selecting a destination to which the message is to be transmitted from the destinations stored in association with the keyword, based on frequency information of the keyword. 7. In a message communication system for transmitting and receiving a message using a communication network, a context vector extracting means for extracting a context vector from a message sent by a sender, and a context vector extracted for a message sent by a user in the past. And the destination of the user are stored in association with each other, and the message is stored from among the destinations stored in association with the context vector extracted from the message when the message is transmitted. A message communication system, comprising: destination selecting means for selecting a destination to be transmitted.