JPH0897852A - Mobile mail system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To make plural users able to share one mobile terminal, a PDA for instance, and to make the user able to automatically obtain an electronic mail from a mail server with optional call termination conditions regardless of time and place. CONSTITUTION: The user stores access permission information to the mail server 1 and mail termination conditions, etc., in the storage area of an IC card 3 provided with secrecy, possesses it and loads it to the PDA (a note-type personal computer or a portable information terminal) 2 at the time of using this system. The PDA 2 reads individual information from the IC card 3, performs authentication and then, freely updatably registers the mail termination conditions in the mail server 1. The mail server 1 monitors the termination of the electronic mail matched with the conditions in a mail termination monitoring part 16 and a condition judgement processing part 125 and automatically transmits the header information to the PDA 2 at the time of the termination. When transfer to a FAX or the like is specified, it is executed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mobile mail system that uses an IC card and a portable information processing device to send and receive electronic mail with a server terminal via a wireless communication device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the diversification of information transmission means, notebook personal computers and portable information terminals (hereinafter referred to as PD
It has been attempted to configure a mobile terminal by combining a portable wireless telephone and the like (abbreviated as A) and the like to access a mail server and send and receive electronic mail without being restricted by the place or time. Further, recently, there is also a mail system in which the incoming condition of an electronic mail is set in advance in a mail reader of a mail server or the like, and only those which meet the condition are read from a mobile terminal.

In this case, the personal information of the user who operates the mobile terminal, such as the user name (user ID) registered in the mail system, the password, and other confidential information, is stored in the PD.
It is normally semi-fixedly stored in a memory such as A, and is normally set so as not to be changed as long as the same user operates it.

Further, in the conventional mail system of this type, the electronic mail is not automatically transmitted from the mail server to each mobile terminal. This is because the charge for the wireless communication line is relatively high compared to the case of using the wired line. Therefore, establishing a wireless communication line at all times will result in an enormous communication charge, and the mobile terminal can always receive a call. This is because it is not always in. Therefore, conventionally, as a means for eliminating such inconvenience, a system has been proposed in which a well-known pager function is used to ring the pager when an electronic mail arrives at a mail server.

[0005]

As described above, various mail systems for connecting a mobile terminal and a mail server via a wireless communication device have been proposed in the past. There was such a problem to be solved.

(1) Since the personal information necessary for accessing the mail server and other confidential information are semi-fixedly stored in the memory of the mobile terminal, each mobile terminal is unique to the user and is shared. Can not do it. Therefore, the cost increases dramatically in a system with a large number of users. (2) The incoming call condition setting realized by the mail reader or the like completely depends on the function supported by the mail server side and cannot be arbitrarily changed by the mobile terminal side. Therefore, there is a problem that the user is forced to receive an email other than the truly required email, resulting in wasteful cost. (3) In a mobile terminal that is a combination of a PDA and a wireless telephone, a user generally uses a wireless telephone to actively access a mail server from the PDA, and the mail server voluntarily receives e-mail received by the user. It is not configured to be transferred automatically. Therefore, even if there is an incoming e-mail, the user cannot know it and there is a problem that the advantage of the e-mail cannot be utilized. On the contrary, there was a waste of the user having to access the mail server even though the electronic mail was not received. Although the mail system using the pager function is effective as a means for solving such a problem, it has been troublesome to always use the three devices of PDA, pager, and wireless telephone together.

An object of the present invention is to solve such a problem, a plurality of users can share one mobile terminal, and a mail server can be used regardless of time and place under an incoming condition arbitrarily determined by the user. It is to provide a mobile mail system configured to automatically obtain an electronic mail from.

[0008]

A mobile mail system of the present invention that achieves the above object is a wireless communication between an IC card, a portable information processing apparatus having an IC card reader / writer, and a portable information processing apparatus. A basic configuration is a mail server that sends and receives electronic messages via a communication device, and personal information including access permission information to the mail server, such as a password, and predetermined mail receiving conditions is stored in a storage area of an IC card. Remember. The mail receiving condition can be set to any condition desired by each user, such as an electronic mail from a specific sender, an electronic mail in a predetermined time period, or an electronic mail with a predetermined message length. It is also possible to include address information of terminal devices with which the wireless communication device connected to the mail server can communicate, and a flag indicating the necessity of transfer to these terminal devices.

The portable information processing apparatus reads the access permission information from the storage area of the IC card housed in the IC card reader / writer and authenticates the validity of the operation, and the authentication means when the authentication result is valid. And a communication control means for establishing a wireless communication line with a mail server and transmitting a message including the mail receiving condition. Further, the mail server stores a message receiving unit for each personal information, and a message analyzing unit that analyzes the message when the message is received from the portable information processing device and extracts at least the mail receiving condition. User information storage means, and mail arrival monitoring means for monitoring the arrival of electronic mail that matches the mail arrival conditions stored in this user information storage means,
A communication control means for establishing a wireless communication line with the portable information processing device when detecting the arrival of the electronic mail, and transmitting the incoming information of the electronic mail, for example, the mail header information or the mail text. It is characterized by having.

The portable information processing device may be configured to have an incoming call condition changing means for changing the incoming mail condition stored in the storage area of the IC card. In this case, the mail server is provided with an incoming call condition updating means for updating the mail incoming condition stored in the user information storage means when the changed electronic mail incoming condition is extracted by the electronic statement analyzing means. In addition, the mail reception conditions set in the storage area of the IC card include address information of terminal devices with which the wireless communication device connected to the mail server can communicate, and a flag indicating whether transfer to these terminal devices is necessary. Can be included. The configuration on the mail server side corresponding to this is that when the flag indicates that transfer is necessary when the incoming information of the electronic mail is transmitted, the communication control means replaces the portable information processing device with the address corresponding to the flag. A wireless communication line is established with the information terminal device to transfer the incoming information of the electronic mail. Further, the mail server is provided with external mail access processing means for accessing the mail storage means of another mail server connected via a communication path to detect the presence or absence of an electronic mail that matches the mail receiving condition. Is also good. When the external mail access processing means detects an electronic mail, the communication control means establishes a wireless communication line with the portable information processing device or the terminal device and transmits the incoming information of the electronic mail.

[0011]

In the mobile mail system of the present invention, personal information including access permission information to the mail server and predetermined mail receiving conditions is stored in the storage area of the IC card having excellent confidentiality for each user and used. When doing this IC
Insert the card into the portable information processing device. When the IC card is inserted, the portable information processing device reads the access permission information from the storage area and checks the validity of the use by the authentication means. If the result of the authentication is legitimate, the communication control means establishes a wireless communication line with the mail server and transmits the electronic message including the personal information.

On the other hand, in the mail server, upon reception of the above-mentioned message, the message analysis unit analyzes the message and extracts at least the mail arrival condition, and the user information storage unit stores this for each personal information, that is, for each user. I'll do it. The mail monitoring means accesses its own mail storage means (mailbox) or the mail storage means of another mail server connected via a communication path to check for incoming emails that match the stored mail arrival conditions. Always monitor. Then, when an incoming call is detected, the communication control means establishes a wireless communication line with the portable information processing device and sends incoming information of the electronic mail, for example, mail header information or mail text. As a result, one portable information processing device can be shared by a plurality of users, and the user obtains the incoming information of the e-mail that matches the required setting conditions at any time regardless of the location. It is possible to build a system that effectively utilizes the advantages of e-mail.

In the case where the mail reception condition includes the address information of another terminal device and the flag indicating the necessity of the transfer as described above, when the flag indicates the transfer necessity, the portable type is used. Instead of the information processing device, a wireless communication line is established with the terminal device having the address information corresponding to the flag, and the incoming information of the electronic mail is transferred. In this way, the user can automatically output the content of the e-mail to his or her own facsimile device, for example.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a mobile mail system according to an embodiment of the present invention. A PD having an IC card reader / writer as a portable information processing device is provided.
A2 shows an example of a system using general-purpose portable wireless phones 6 and 7 having a power saving standby mode as a wireless communication device. In this system, modems 5 and 8 are provided between the mail server and the wireless telephone 6 and between the PDA 2 and the wireless telephone 7 to configure a mobile terminal. General-purpose modems 5 and 8 are sufficient, and the IC card 3 also has a storage area (I
The type does not matter as long as the confidentiality is maintained in (C part).

The mail server 1 includes a wireless communication controller 11,
It has a message processing unit 12, a mail arrival monitoring unit 13, a mailbox access processing unit 14, a user designation processing execution unit 15, an external mail access processing unit 16, and a modem control unit 17, and further, the received e-mail is a mail address. An external storage device 4 for storing a mailbox to be stored for each, a user file to store user-specific information, and the like is connected. Each processing unit in the mail server 1 is a program loaded in a main memory or an auxiliary memory, and input / output of information between each unit is controlled by an operating system (OS) by a well-known method, and a processing abnormality occurs. If so, predetermined error processing is performed.

The wireless communication control section 11 includes a wireless telephone 6 and a P
A wireless communication line is established between the wireless telephone 7 connected to the DA 2 or a terminal such as a facsimile (not shown). And a call connection control processing unit 112 that controls termination, an incoming call waiting processing unit 113 that performs a waiting process when the wireless telephone 6 is in a standby mode, and a message processing unit 1.
The electronic message transmission / reception processing unit 114 performs the transmission / reception processing of the electronic message created in 2.

The message processing unit 12 also includes a message analysis processing unit 121 for analyzing a message received from the PDA 2 and a PD.
A message to be sent to A2, for example, a message creation processing unit 122 for creating a title of an electronic mail, mail header information such as a mail destination and a mail length, an electronic mail text, etc.
The incoming call condition setting processing unit 123 that performs setting registration of the incoming mail condition sent from DA2 or updating of the incoming condition for each user
And a user authentication processing unit 124 for performing user authentication based on the access permission information sent from the PDA 2, and a condition determination for determining the matching between the incoming email and the above-mentioned email receiving condition for each user registered and set. And a processing unit 125.

The mail arrival monitoring unit 13 monitors whether or not an E-mail has arrived, and the mailbox access processing unit 14 writes / reads the E-mail to / from the mailbox stored in the external storage device 4. Is what
The user designation processing unit 15 executes a process designated by the user, such as a transfer instruction, and the external mail access control unit 16 includes, for example, another mail server (not shown) connected to the same LAN as itself. The e-mail addressed to the user is read by accessing the own mailbox.
This will be described later. The modem controller 17 actually uses the modem 5 based on the processing result by the wireless communication controller 11.
It controls the operation of.

Further, the PDA 2 has a wireless communication control unit 21 having the same function as that of the server side, an IC card reader / writer 22 for accommodating the IC card 3 in a removable manner, and a telephone number of the wireless telephone 6 on the mail server side ( Memory 23 for storing (address information), an authentication processing section 24 for authenticating the validity of use based on the user name and password stored in the storage area of the IC card 3, and a desired mail arrival condition in the mail server 1. A server registration processing unit 25 that performs processing for registration, a mail header analysis processing unit 26 that extracts and analyzes a mail header from a message received from the mail server 1, and a display unit that displays mail header information, e-mail text, and the like. It has a message display processing unit 27 to be displayed (not shown). Each processing unit is a program loaded in the main memory or auxiliary memory of the PDA 2, and input / output of information between each unit is controlled by the main control unit such as the OS, and predetermined processing is performed when a processing abnormality occurs. Error handling is performed.

FIG. 2 shows a configuration example of the personal storage area of the IC section 31 provided in the IC card 3. The information stored in the personal storage area can be arbitrarily set according to the application of the system, but in the present embodiment, the user name, password,
Personal information such as e-mail address and address book, and e-mail reception conditions shall be stored. The storage area for mail reception conditions is further provided with a condition setting area and a flag setting area. In the condition setting area, a mail sender-only list for receiving only e-mails from a specific sender, a specific keyword A keyword limited list for receiving only electronic mails including, a mail length limited value for receiving only electronic mails of a specific length, and an incoming time zone setting value are stored. Note that either OR or AND can be selected for these conditions. Also, in the flag setting area, FA
Transfer flag to X and its address, transfer flag to another address wireless telephone and its address, and own P
Store an auto-reply flag to automatically call the DA.

Next, the processing procedure of the mobile system having the above configuration will be specifically described with reference to FIGS. In addition,
In these figures, S represents a processing step.

FIG. 3 is a processing procedure diagram at the time of activation in the PDA 2. First, the IC is triggered by turning on the power (S101).
It is determined whether the card 3 is inserted in the IC card reader / writer 22 (S102). When the IC card 3 is not inserted, a message to that effect is displayed on the display unit (S103), and the subsequent processing is stopped. When the IC card 3 is inserted, the IC card 3 is activated (S104). ), The user name and password are read from the storage area and authentication processing is performed (S105). This authentication processing is performed by requesting the user to input a password (S106) and judging the validity of the input password (S106).
107). If it is not valid, error processing is performed (S10
8) Then, the subsequent processing is stopped. When it is valid, personal information such as mail arrival conditions is read from the storage area of the IC card 3, and after the reading is completed, the IC card 3 is deactivated (S
110).

After that, the modem 5 is initialized and a message including the above personal information is created (S111), and the telephone number of the wireless telephone 6 on the mail server 1 side is read from the memory 23 and a call connection process is performed (S112). , S113:
(Wireless communication line setting), and the above-mentioned message is transmitted to the mail server 1 (S114). It is determined whether or not the confirmation message is received from the mail server 1 (S115), and if the confirmation message is not received even after the elapse of a predetermined time, error processing is performed (S116).
Stop processing. When the confirmation message is received, a call connection end process is performed (S117), and the process at startup is finished. At this time, the wireless telephone 7 enters the power saving standby mode to prepare for a call from the wireless telephone 6 on the mail server 1 side.

FIG. 4 is a processing procedure diagram when the mail server 1 receives an electronic mail. First, it is checked whether the electronic mail has arrived in the mailbox of the external storage device 4 (S).
201). If the incoming call is received, it is checked whether or not the mail incoming condition is set (S202). If the incoming condition is set, it is determined whether or not the incoming electronic mail matches the condition (S203). ). When they match, the mail is extracted from the mailbox and sequentially stored in the memory (S204), and when all the conditions have been checked (S205), the mail reception condition is registered in P.
A confirmation message is sent to the DA (S206), and an instruction from the PDA is waited for. When the instruction is received (S207),
If the instruction is an instruction to immediately send the mail contents, the mail body is sent (S209). If not, the mail is stored in the mailbox (S210) and the next incoming call is awaited. On the other hand, in S203, if the current e-mail does not meet the mail arrival condition, it is confirmed whether or not the user has given a special processing designation, for example, a forwarding designation to another terminal device (S2).
11) If it is designated, the designated processing is executed (S2
12) If not specified, the mail is stored in the mailbox (S210).

FIG. 5 is a processing procedure diagram when the PDA 2 receives incoming call information. When the PDA 2 receives the above mail incoming message from the mail server 1 (S301)
Will now output a menu for choosing whether to indicate a title. Then, it is determined whether or not to display this menu based on the instruction input from the user (S30
2) When displaying, the mail title and mail header information are displayed on the display section (S303). Here, it is determined whether or not the mail to be read by the user has been selected, that is, whether or not a specific mail has been selected when there are a plurality of mails, and whether or not the mail has been selected when there is one mail (S30).
4) If not selected, a message to that effect is sent to the mail server 1 to wait for the next mail incoming message. On the other hand, when the read mail is selected, the number of the mail is transmitted to the mail server 1 (S301), and when the mail text is received from the mail server 1, the content is analyzed (S30).
8) It is displayed on the display unit (S309). At this time,
When the special process is selected, the process is executed (S3).
10, S311). For example, when "Save" is selected, the content of the email is saved in the memory 23 and "Reply"
When is selected, a predetermined response edit screen is displayed. If "end" is selected (S312), the process ends and waits for the next mail incoming message.

Next, the process of changing the mail receiving condition will be described. FIG. 6 shows the server registration processing unit 2 of the PDA 2.
5 is a schematic processing procedure diagram in FIG. Here, first, a function selection menu is displayed (S401), and a message as to whether or not the setting conditions are changed is also displayed. When "changed" is selected, the user is prompted to input new setting conditions, and when the setting conditions are input (S403), the IC
The area of the card 3 is updated (S404). If the changed contents are to be immediately registered in the mail server 1, the process shown in FIG.
The call connection process is performed through the procedure of S111 to S117 shown in (1) to prompt the mail server 1 to perform the registration update process (S40.
6). If it is not necessary to register immediately, the process is terminated and the mail server 1 is prompted to update and register at the next PDA startup. On the other hand, on the mail server 1 side, the incoming call condition setting processing unit 123
At, the mail arrival condition of the user is updated.

FIG. 7 is a processing procedure diagram when the mail arrival monitoring unit 13 and the external mail access processing unit 16 are combined. Here, another mail server connected to the existing mail network such as LAN is automatically accessed, and it is confirmed by the predetermined command processing whether the mail file shown in the figure exists in the mailbox. In addition, the presence or absence of incoming mail addressed to the user is monitored from the file size. In this case, the mail server is accessed at the system administrator level in order to secure the access authority to the mail files of all users.

Specifically, the mail spool directory of the other mail server is searched to check whether the mail file of each user exists therein (S501).
When the existence is confirmed, the size of the mail file of the user is checked (S502). If the size of the mail file is "0", it means that there is no e-mail, and therefore the process returns to the first process. If it is not "0", there is an incoming e-mail and the cutout process is performed (S50).
3). After that, the mail determination processing is performed for all the cut-out electronic mails (S504 and 505), and the processing of one monitoring cycle ends. The mail determination process (S504)
Is the same as S202 to S210 shown in FIG. 4, and the description thereof is omitted.

As described above, in the mobile mail system of this embodiment, the user holds his / her own personal information including the access permission information to the mail server 1 with the confidential IC card 3.
Since it is stored in the storage area of, and is held and is inserted into the PDA2 when the system is used, the PDA2, the wireless telephone 7 and the modem 8 can be shared by a plurality of users, and the cost is greatly reduced. Will be possible. Also, PDA
2 Set the mail receiving condition and set this to the mail server 1
When the mail server 1 receives an e-mail that matches this condition, its header information is automatically transmitted to the PDA 2 or the designated FA is registered.
Since the data is transferred to X or the like, it is possible to solve the conventional problem that the contents of the electronic mail addressed to itself cannot be known unless the user accesses the mail server. Further, since only the e-mail that meets the desired conditions can be received, there is also an advantage that the charges for the wireless telephone 6 and the system can be reduced.

Although the PDA 2, the wireless telephone 7 and the modem 8 are separated in this embodiment, they may be integrated. This makes it more portable and convenient. Further, it goes without saying that another portable information processing device may be used instead of the PDA 2.

[0031]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the IC card storing the personal information of the user including the access permission information to the mail server is simply inserted into the portable information processing device. Since the setting information of the information processing device is unique to the user, the information processing device and the wireless communication device can be shared. In addition, since the user can arbitrarily set or update the mail reception conditions, the necessary e-mail can be received when and where it is needed. In addition to effectively utilizing the advantages of e-mail, communication charges There is an effect that can also be saved. As a result, one mobile terminal can be shared by a plurality of users, and
It is possible to realize a mobile mail system that enables a user to automatically obtain an electronic mail from a mail server under any incoming condition arbitrarily determined regardless of time and place.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a mobile mail system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a storage area of the IC card according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a processing procedure diagram at the time of activation in the PDA of the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a processing procedure diagram when an electronic mail arrives in the mail server of the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a processing procedure diagram when receiving incoming information in the PDA of the present embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a schematic processing procedure diagram in the server registration processing unit of the PDA of the present embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a processing procedure diagram when a mail arrival monitoring unit and an external mail access processing unit are combined in the mail server according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 mail server 11 wireless communication control unit 12 message processing unit 13 mail arrival monitoring unit 14 mailbox access processing unit 15 user designation processing execution unit 16 external mail access processing unit 17 modem control unit 2 PDA (portable information terminal) 21 wireless communication Control unit 22 IC card reader / writer 23 Memory for storing telephone number of mail server 24 Authentication processing unit 25 Server registration processing unit for registering mail reception conditions in the mail server 26 Mail header analysis processing unit 27 Message display processing unit 3 IC card storing personal information unique to the user 31 IC unit having a personal information storage area 4 External storage device for storing mailboxes, user files, etc. 5,8 Modem 6,7 Portable general-purpose wireless telephone

Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Internal reference number FI Technical indication location G06K 17/00 X 19/07 H04L 12/28 H04L 11/00 310 B (72) Inventor Toshiyuki Kimura Tokyo Metropolitan Koto 3-3 Toyosu, Tokusu-ku, NTT DATA Communications Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Tomio Takeda 3-3-3, Toyosu, Koto-ku, Tokyo NTT DATA Communications Corporation

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An IC card, a portable information processing device including an IC card reader / writer, and a mail server for transmitting and receiving electronic messages to and from the portable information processing device via a wireless communication device. A mobile mail system, wherein the IC card stores personal information including access permission information to the mail server including a password and a predetermined mail receiving condition in a storage area thereof, and the portable information processing The device reads out the access permission information from the storage area of the IC card accommodated in the IC card reader / writer and authenticates the validity of the operation,
Communication control means for establishing a wireless communication line with the mail server and transmitting a message including the mail receiving condition when the authentication result by the authentication means is valid, wherein the mail server is the mobile phone. A message analyzing unit that analyzes the message by receiving a message from the portable information processing device and extracts at least the mail receiving condition, and a user information storing unit that stores the extracted mail receiving condition for each of the personal information. A wireless communication is provided between a mail arrival monitoring means for monitoring the arrival of an electronic mail that matches the mail arrival condition stored in the user information storage means and the portable information processing device when the arrival of the electronic mail is detected. A mobile mail system comprising: a communication control means for establishing a communication line and transmitting incoming information of the electronic mail. 2. The portable information processing device has an incoming call condition changing means for changing the incoming mail condition stored in the storage area of the IC card, and the mail server has the changed incoming mail condition. 2. The mobile mail system according to claim 1, further comprising incoming call condition updating means for updating the incoming mail condition stored in the user information storage means when the message analysis means extracts the message. 3. The mail receiving condition set in the storage area of the IC card includes address information of terminal devices with which the wireless communication device connected to the mail server can communicate, and whether transfer to these terminal devices is necessary or not. And a flag indicating that the mail server responds to the flag instead of the portable information processing device when the flag indicates that transfer is required when transmitting the incoming information of the electronic mail. The mobile mail system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein a wireless communication line is established between the address information and a terminal device, and the incoming information of the electronic mail is transferred. 4. The external mail access process, wherein the mail server accesses a mail storage means included in another mail server connected via a communication path to detect the presence or absence of an electronic mail that matches the mail receiving condition. Have means,
When the electronic mail is present, the communication control means establishes a wireless communication line with the portable information processing device or the terminal device to transmit incoming information of the electronic mail. The mobile mail system according to item 3.