JPH10320318A - Multimedia electronic mail transmitter-receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently receives a multimedia electronic mail without consuming memory resources in large quantities by sending any of data which are segmented by an additional information extracting part, a text segmenting part, a voice data segmenting part and a video data segmenting part based on a request from a user. SOLUTION: A mail receiving part 101 preserves a received multimedia electronic mail in a storing part 102. When a request receiving part 103 receives a sending request for data from a user, a request interpreting part 104 reads an electronic mail preserved in the part 102. Here, an additional information extracting part 105 extracts information such as a sending source and a sending destination from a read electronic mail add a text segmenting part 106, an audio data segmenting part 107 and a video data segmenting part 108 separately segment a text part, audio data and video data which are included in the read electronic mail. A data sending part 109 sends any of the segmented data based on the received data from the user.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus that can efficiently receive multimedia electronic mail including audio data and image data without consuming a large amount of memory resources.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, electronic mail has mainly been text data, but in recent years, multimedia electronic mail for transmitting data other than text, such as voice and images, by mail has become widespread. Furthermore, according to the user's usage environment,
A method of receiving and playing multimedia electronic mail has been proposed.

[0003] As a conventional technique, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-66.
No. 830 discloses a "mail system". In the present technology, after a multimedia e-mail is once received by a terminal, if the user's e-mail reception environment supports only voice, image data is removed from the received multimedia e-mail and a text portion is removed. It has been proposed to convert to audio and play it.

Further, in the "e-mail communication system" disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-205042, a management means for holding and managing the types of data that can be processed by the terminal to which the mail is transmitted is provided, and the multimedia e-mail communication It has been proposed to refer to the management means when transmitting a mail, convert the data into data that can be processed by the transmission destination, and then transmit the mail.

[0005]

However, in the method of the "mail system" disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 7-66830, after the mail receiving terminal receives all the data of the multimedia e-mail, it adjusts to the environment of the user. There is a problem that a memory resource for receiving all the multimedia e-mails on the terminal is required to perform the display. Further, in this case, there is a problem that even a terminal that supports only sound receives unnecessary image data.

In the method of the "e-mail communication system" disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-205042, it is necessary to provide a mechanism for managing data that can be processed at the destination of the e-mail, which requires memory resources. There is a problem that is.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and efficiently receives multimedia e-mail including voice data and image data in addition to text, without consuming a large amount of memory resources. It is an object to provide a device that enables the

[0008]

Means for Solving the Problems In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the invention according to claim 1 provides audio data,
A mail receiving unit that receives a multimedia e-mail including image data, a storage unit that stores the multimedia e-mail received by the mail receiving unit, and a request from the user for the multimedia e-mail received by the mail receiving unit A request receiving unit that receives the request, a request interpreting unit that interprets the request from the user received by the request receiving unit, and reads out the multimedia electronic mail stored in the storage unit, and a user interpreted by the request interpreting unit. An additional information extracting unit that extracts additional information such as a sender name from the multimedia e-mail read by the request interpreting unit based on the request, and a request of the user interpreted by the request interpreting unit. A text extraction unit that extracts a text portion from the multimedia email read by the request interpretation unit;
An audio data cutout unit that cuts out an audio data portion from the multimedia email read by the request interpretation unit based on the user's request interpreted by the request interpretation unit; and a user data interpreted by the request interpretation unit. An image data extracting unit for extracting an image data portion from the multimedia email read by the request interpreting unit based on the request; and extracting the additional information based on a request from the user received by the request receiving unit. A data transmitting unit that transmits any of the data cut out by the unit, the text cutout unit, the audio data cutout unit, and the image data cutout unit.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a multimedia e-mail transmitting / receiving apparatus for receiving a multimedia e-mail including voice data and image data in addition to text. A receiving unit, a storage unit for storing the multimedia e-mail received by the mail receiving unit, a request receiving unit for receiving a request from the user for the multimedia e-mail received by the mail receiving unit, and the request receiving unit A request interpreting unit that interprets the request from the user received by the user and reads out the multimedia e-mail stored in the storage unit; and a request interpreting unit that reads out the user's request interpreted by the request interpreting unit. A list generating unit for generating a list of all multimedia e-mails stored in the issued storage unit; An index generation unit that generates an index of additional information, text, audio data, and image data included in the multimedia email read by the request interpretation unit based on the user request interpreted by the request interpretation unit; An additional information extracting unit that extracts additional information such as a sender name from the multimedia email read by the request interpreting unit based on a user request interpreted by the request interpreting unit; A text extracting unit that extracts a specified text portion from the multimedia email read by the request interpreting unit based on the user's request interpreted by the unit; and a user request interpreted by the request interpreting unit. An audio data cutout unit that cuts out a specified audio data portion from the multimedia email read by the request interpretation unit based on the request; An image data cutout unit that cuts out a designated image data portion from the multimedia e-mail read by the request interpretation unit based on the user's request interpreted by the interpretation unit, and a user received by the request reception unit. List of multimedia e-mails generated by the list generation unit based on the request of the above, additional information, text, audio data, image data included in the multimedia e-mails generated by the index generation unit Index, the additional information extracting unit, the text extracting unit, the audio data extracting unit, the image data extracting unit,
And a data transmission unit for transmitting any of the data cut out in the step (a).

[0010] In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a third aspect of the present invention is the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to the first aspect, wherein the mail receives multimedia electronic mail including voice data and image data in addition to text. A receiving unit, a storage unit for storing the multimedia e-mail received by the mail receiving unit, a request receiving unit for receiving a request from the user for the multimedia e-mail received by the mail receiving unit, and the request receiving unit A request interpreting unit that interprets the request from the user received by the user and reads out the multimedia e-mail stored in the storage unit; and a request interpreting unit that reads out the user's request interpreted by the request interpreting unit. An additional information extracting unit for extracting additional information such as a sender name from the output multimedia e-mail; A text extracting unit for extracting a text portion from the multimedia email read by the request interpreting unit based on the requested user request, and the request interpreting unit based on the user request interpreted by the request interpreting unit. An audio data extracting unit for extracting an audio data portion from the multimedia e-mail read by the unit; and a multimedia e-mail read by the request interpreting unit based on a user request interpreted by the request interpreting unit. An image data cutout unit that cuts out an image data portion from the image data, and an additional information extraction unit, a text cutout unit, a voice data cutout unit, and an image data cutout unit that are cut out based on a request from the user received by the request reception unit. A data transmitting unit for transmitting any of the received data, and an audio data receiving unit for receiving the audio data transmitted from the user. A mail generating unit that generates a mail based on the voice data received by the voice data receiving unit and the additional information extracted by the additional information extracting unit; and a mail transmitting unit that transmits the mail generated by the mail generating unit. Prepare.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 101 denotes a mail receiving unit for receiving a multimedia electronic mail; 102, a storage unit for storing the multimedia electronic mail received by the mail receiving unit 101; A request receiving unit 104 that receives a request from the user for the multimedia email that has been received, interprets the request from the user received by the request receiving unit 103, and reads a multimedia email from the storage unit 102.
5 is an additional information extracting unit that extracts additional information such as a sender name from the multimedia e-mail read by the request interpreting unit 104. 106 is a text that extracts a text portion from the multimedia electronic mail read by the request interpreting unit 104. An extraction unit 107 extracts an audio data portion from the multimedia e-mail read by the request interpretation unit 104, and an audio data extraction unit 108 executes the request interpretation unit 104.
An image data extraction unit 109 for extracting an image data portion from the multimedia e-mail read by the user; a supplementary information extraction unit 105, a text extraction unit 106, and audio data based on a request from the user received by the request reception unit 103 A data transmitting unit that transmits any of the data extracted by the extraction unit 107 and the image data extraction unit 108.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing after the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention receives the multimedia electronic mail.

The mail receiving unit 101 receives a multimedia electronic mail (Step 201).

The mail receiving unit 101 stores the received multimedia electronic mail in the storage unit 102 (Step 202).

The request receiving unit 103 waits for a request from a user. Upon receiving a data transmission request from the user, the request interpreting unit 104 is activated, and the process proceeds to step 204 (step 203).

The request interpreter 104 reads the multimedia electronic mail stored in the storage 102 (step 204).

When the request from the user is a request for transmitting additional information, the request interpreting unit 104
5 is started and the process proceeds to step 206, and if the request from the user is not the additional information transmission request, the process proceeds to step 208 (step 205).

The additional information extracting unit 105 includes the request interpreting unit 10
4 extracts additional information such as a source, a destination, and a mail subject from the read multimedia e-mail, activates the data transmission unit 109, and proceeds to step 207 (step 206).

The data transmitting section 109 is provided with the additional information extracting section 1
At step 05, the additional information extracted from the multimedia e-mail is transmitted, and the process proceeds to step 203, where the process again shifts to a state of waiting for a request from the user (step 207).

If the request from the user is a text data transmission request, the request interpreting unit 104 activates the text cutout unit 106 and proceeds to step 209. If the request from the user is not a text data transmission request, the request interpreting unit 104 proceeds to step 211.
Go to (Step 208).

The text extracting section 106 is a request interpreting section 1
If there is a text portion in the multimedia e-mail read by 04, it is cut out, the data transmission unit 109 is started, and the process proceeds to step 207 (step 209).

The data transmission section 109 transmits the text data cut out from the multimedia e-mail by the text cutout section 106, proceeds to step 203, and shifts to a state of waiting for a request from the user again (step 21).
0).

If the request from the user is a voice data transmission request, the request interpreting unit 104 activates the voice data extracting unit 107 and proceeds to step 212. If the request from the user is not a voice data transmission request, the request interpreting unit 104 proceeds to step 214. Go to (Step 211).

If the multimedia data read by the request interpreting unit 104 contains audio data, the audio data extracting unit 107 extracts the audio data, activates the data transmitting unit 109, and proceeds to step 213 (step 212).

The data transmitting unit 109 reproduces and transmits the audio data cut out from the multimedia electronic mail by the audio data extracting unit 107, and proceeds to step 203.
The state shifts again to the state of waiting for a request from the user (step 2
13).

If the request from the user is an image data transmission request, the request interpreting unit 104 activates the image data extracting unit 108 and proceeds to step 215. If the request from the user is not an image data transmission request, the request interpreting unit 104 proceeds to step 203. The process proceeds to the state of waiting for a request from the user again (step 214).

The image data cutout unit 108 cuts out the image data included in the multimedia e-mail read by the request interpreting unit 104 if the image data is included, activates the data transmission unit 109, and proceeds to step 216 (step 215).

The data transmitting unit 109 transmits the image data cut out from the multimedia e-mail by the image data cutting unit 108, proceeds to step 203, and shifts to a state of waiting for a request from the user again (step 216).

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 3, reference numeral 301 denotes a mail receiving unit for receiving a multimedia e-mail; 302, a storage unit for storing the multimedia e-mail received by the mail receiving unit 301; A request receiving unit 304 for receiving a request from the user for the media e-mail, a request interpreting unit 305 for interpreting the request from the user received by the request receiving unit 303 and reading out the multimedia e-mail from the storage unit 302
A list generating unit 306 for generating a list of all multimedia electronic mails stored in the storage unit 302;
Is an index generation unit that generates an index of additional information, text, audio data, image data, and the like included in the multimedia email read by the request interpretation unit 304 based on the user's request. An additional information extracting unit 308 for extracting additional information such as a sender name from the multimedia electronic mail read by the request interpreting unit 304
Is a text cutout unit that cuts out a text portion from the multimedia email read by the request interpretation unit 304;
Reference numeral 309 denotes an audio data cutout unit that cuts out an audio data portion from the multimedia electronic mail read by the request interpretation unit 304; 310, an image data cutout unit that cuts out an image data portion from the multimedia electronic mail read by the request interpretation unit 304; 311 is a list generation unit 305 based on the request from the user received by the request reception unit 303.
, A list of all multimedia e-mails stored in the storage unit 302, an index of the multimedia e-mails generated by the index generation unit 306, an additional information extraction unit 307, and a text extraction unit 30
8, audio data cutout unit 309, image data cutout unit 3
It is a data transmission unit that transmits any of the data cut out in 10.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing after the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention receives the multimedia electronic mail.

The mail receiving section 301 receives a multimedia electronic mail (step 401).

The mail receiving unit 301 stores the received multimedia electronic mail in the storage unit 302 (Step 402).

The request receiving unit 303 receives a request from the user and activates the request interpreting unit 304. Request interpreter 30
If it is determined in step 4 that the request from the user is a mail reading request, the process proceeds to step 404 (step 403).

The request interpreting unit 304 reads out all multimedia electronic mails stored in the storage unit 302,
The list generation unit 305 is activated, and the process proceeds to step 405 (step 404).

The list generation unit 305 includes a request interpretation unit 304
Generates a list of all the multimedia e-mails read out in step 4, activates the data transmission section 311 and executes step 4
Proceed to 06 (step 405).

The data transmitting unit 311 is a list generating unit 305
The list of multimedia e-mails generated in step (1) is transmitted, and the process proceeds to step 407 (step 406).

The request receiving section 303 receives a request from the user and activates the request interpreting section 304. Request interpreter 30
If it is determined in step 4 that the request from the user is to designate a read mail, the process proceeds to step 408 (step 407).

The request interpreting unit 304 reads out the multimedia e-mail specified by the user from the storage unit 302,
The index generation unit 306 is activated, and the process proceeds to step 409 (step 408).

The index generation unit 306 generates an index of the additional information, text, audio data, and image data contained in the multimedia e-mail specified by the user read by the request interpretation unit 304, and outputs the data. 311 is started and the process proceeds to step 410 (step 4
09).

The data transmission unit 311 transmits the multimedia e-mail index generated by the index generation unit 306, and proceeds to step 411 (step 41).
0). The state shifts to a state of waiting for a request from the user (step 411).

The operation after step 411 is the same as the operation after step 203 in the flowchart (FIG. 2) of the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 5, reference numeral 501 denotes a mail receiving unit for receiving a multimedia electronic mail, 502 denotes a storage unit for storing the multimedia electronic mail received by the mail receiving unit 501, and 503 denotes a mail receiving unit 501 for receiving the multimedia electronic mail. A request receiving unit 504 for receiving a request from the user for the multimedia email that has been received, interprets the request from the user received by the request receiving unit 503, and reads a multimedia email from the storage unit 502.
Reference numeral 5 denotes an additional information extraction unit that extracts additional information such as a sender name from the multimedia e-mail read by the request interpretation unit 504. Reference numeral 506 denotes a text that extracts a text portion from the multimedia e-mail read by the request interpretation unit 504. An extraction unit 507 is an audio data extraction unit that extracts an audio data portion from the multimedia email read by the request interpretation unit 504, and 508 is a request interpretation unit 504.
An image data extracting unit 509 for extracting an image data portion from the multimedia e-mail read out by the user, based on a request from the user received by the request receiving unit 503, an additional information extracting unit 505, a text extracting unit 506, audio data A data transmission unit 51 for transmitting any of the data extracted by the extraction unit 507 and the image data extraction unit 508;
0 is a voice data receiving unit that receives voice data sent from the user, and 511 is a mail data based on the voice data received by the voice data receiving unit 510 and the additional information extracted by the additional information extracting unit 505. Mail generation unit to generate, 51
Reference numeral 2 denotes a mail transmission unit that transmits the mail generated by the mail generation unit 511.

FIG. 6 is a flow chart showing the flow of processing in which the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention returns a mail to the received multimedia electronic mail.

The mail receiving section 501 receives a multimedia electronic mail (step 601).

The mail receiving section 501 stores the received multimedia electronic mail in the storage section 502 (Step 602).

The request receiving unit 503 receives the request from the user, activates the request interpreting unit 504, and proceeds to step 604 (step 603).

The request interpreting unit 504 reads the multimedia electronic mail from the storage unit 502, and proceeds to step 605 (step 604).

If the request interpreting unit 504 determines that the request from the user is a mail reply request, it activates the additional information extracting unit 505 and proceeds to step 606. If it is determined that the request from the user is not an e-mail reply request, the process proceeds to step 603, and shifts to a state of waiting for a request from the user again (step 605).

The additional information extraction unit 505
4 to extract additional information such as a reply-to address from the multimedia e-mail read out in step 4.
10 and proceeds to step 607 (step 60).
6).

The voice data receiving section 510 receives the reply content of the mail by voice from the user, and
11 and proceeds to step 608 (step 60).
7).

The mail generation unit 511 generates a reply mail based on the voice from the user received by the voice data reception unit 510 and the additional information extracted by the additional information extraction unit 505. It starts and proceeds to step 609 (step 608). The mail transmission unit 512 transmits the reply mail generated by the mail generation unit 511 to the reply destination address, proceeds to step 603, and shifts to a state of waiting for a request from the user again (step 609).

The operation after step 603 after the mail reply is completed is the same as the operation after step 203 in the flowchart (FIG. 2) of the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 7 shows a configuration diagram of a multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 7, reference numeral 701 denotes a mail receiving unit for receiving a multimedia electronic mail, 702 denotes a storage unit for storing the multimedia electronic mail received by the mail receiving unit 701, and 703 denotes a mail receiving unit for receiving the multimedia electronic mail. A request receiving unit 704 that receives a request from the user for the multimedia email that has been received, interprets the request from the user received by the request receiving unit 703, and reads a multimedia email from the storage unit 702.
Reference numeral 5 denotes a list generating unit which generates a list of all multimedia electronic mails stored in the storage unit 702;
Reference numeral 6 denotes an index generation unit that generates an index of additional information, text, audio data, and image data included in the multimedia e-mail read by the request interpretation unit 704 based on the request of the user. An additional information extracting unit 708 for extracting additional information such as a sender name from the multimedia electronic mail read by the request interpreting unit 704;
Is a text extraction unit that extracts a text portion from the multimedia email read by the request interpretation unit 704;
Reference numeral 709 denotes an audio data extraction unit that extracts an audio data portion from the multimedia electronic mail read by the request interpretation unit 704, 710 denotes an image data extraction unit that extracts an image data portion from the multimedia electronic mail read by the request interpretation unit 704, 711 is a list generating unit 705 based on the request from the user received by the request receiving unit 703.
, A list of all multimedia e-mails stored in the storage unit 702, an index of the multimedia e-mails generated by the index generation unit 706, an additional information extraction unit 707, and a text extraction unit 70
8, audio data cutout unit 709, image data cutout unit 7
10 is a data transmission unit for transmitting any of the data cut out, 712 is a voice data reception unit for receiving voice data sent from the user, 713 is a voice data received by the voice data reception unit 712 and Additional information extraction unit 70
A mail generation unit 714 that generates a mail based on the additional information extracted in 7 is a mail transmission unit that transmits the mail generated by the mail generation unit 713.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a multimedia electronic mail received by the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. Multimedia e-mails include 801 text, 802 image data, 803,
804. Here, it is assumed that the multimedia electronic mail in FIG. 8 is described in the MIME format.

FIG. 9 shows a multimedia electronic mail having the contents shown in FIG. 8 described in the MIME format, and is composed of several parts. Reference numeral 901 denotes a part that describes additional information such as a source, a destination, and a subject of a mail; 902, a part that directly describes the text data 801; 903, a part that describes the image data 802 by compression; A part 905 in which the audio data 803 is compressed and described is a part in which the audio data 804 is compressed and described.

As described in the additional information 901, the sender of this mail is ura @ isl. mei. co. j
p, the destination is someone @ isl. mei. c
o. jp, the subject is the second XX meeting guidance. In the multimedia e-mail transmission / reception device in FIG. 7, the e-mail reception unit 701 receives the multimedia e-mail in FIG. 9 and stores it in the storage unit 702.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram of a terminal device for a user to receive data from the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus of FIG. Reference numeral 1001 denotes a receiving unit that receives data from the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving device;
Is a display unit for displaying text or image data received by the receiving unit 1001, 1003 is an audio reproducing unit for reproducing the audio data received by the receiving unit 1001, 1004
Is a voice input unit that receives voice input from the user,
Reference numeral 005 denotes a transmitting unit that transmits the voice input by the voice input unit 1004 to the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving device. Here, it is assumed that the terminal device (FIG. 10) has a telephone function.

It is assumed that the user starts reading electronic mail by calling the telephone number added to the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus (FIG. 7) from the terminal device (FIG. 10).

When the user calls the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving device, the request receiving unit 703 receives a connection request from the user, and the request interpreting unit 704 determines that the user request is a mail reading request.

The request interpreting unit 704 reads out all the electronic mails stored in the storage unit 702, and
05 is started. At this time, it is assumed that the storage unit 702 stores three e-mails of “2nd XX Meeting Guide” in FIG. 9, “Notice of Joint Morning Meeting”, and “Notice of Power Outage”.

The list generation unit 705 includes the request interpretation unit 70
Based on the e-mail read in step 4, a list of e-mail subjects stored in the storage unit 702 is generated.

FIG. 11 is a list of electronic mails generated by the list generating unit. The list consists of a numerical index and an email subject.
List of e-mails generated by the list generator (Fig. 1
1) is transmitted from the data transmission unit 711 to the terminal device (FIG. 10).

The user operates the display unit 10 of the terminal device (FIG. 10).
From the e-mail list displayed in FIG. 02 (FIG. 11),
Specify the email to read. The designation of the e-mail to be read is performed by inputting the number assigned to the subject of the e-mail with the input button device of the terminal device (FIG. 10). Here, it is assumed that the multimedia e-mail “2nd XX Meeting Guide” is selected by pressing the push button “1”.

The request receiving unit 703 is a terminal device (FIG. 10)
Receives a tone signal generated when the push button "1" is pressed.

The request interpreting unit 704 determines that the request from the user is a read request for the multimedia e-mail “2nd XX Meeting Guide”, and from the storage unit 702, reads the multimedia e-mail “2nd XX meeting guidance ", and activates the index generation unit 706.

The index generation unit 706 generates an index of the additional information, text, voice data, and image data included in the electronic mail from the “2nd XX Meeting Guide” in FIG.

FIG. 12 shows the multimedia electronic mail “second ○” generated by the index generation unit 706.
○ This is an index for "conference information."

As shown in FIG. 12, it is assumed that the index is composed of the subject of the multimedia e-mail and the type of data of each part constituting the multimedia e-mail to which a numerical index is assigned.

The data transmitting section 711 transmits the multimedia electronic mail index (FIG. 12) generated by the index generating section 706 to the terminal device (FIG. 10).

The user operates the display unit 10 of the terminal device (FIG. 10).
02 displayed on the multimedia email "2nd ○
The part to be received is designated in the index of "meeting guidance" (FIG. 12). The designation of the part to be received is performed by inputting the index of the number assigned to each part using the input button device of the terminal device (FIG. 10). When the push button “1” of the terminal device (FIG. 10) is pressed, the request receiving unit 703 receives a tone signal generated when the push button “1” is pressed, and the request interpreting unit 70
4 activates the additional information extraction unit 707.

The additional information extraction unit 707 is
4 from the multimedia e-mail “2nd XX meeting guide” (FIG. 9) read out in FIG.
Is extracted, and the extracted data is transmitted from the data transmission unit 711 to the terminal device (FIG. 10).

When the push button "2" of the terminal device (FIG. 10) is pressed, the request receiving section 703 receives a tone signal generated when the push button "2" is pressed, and the request interpreting section 704 is a text extracting section. 708 is started.

The text extracting section 708 is provided for the request interpreting section 7
From the multimedia e-mail “2nd XX Meeting Guide” (FIG. 9) read out in FIG.
2 is extracted, and the extracted data is transmitted from the data transmission unit 711 to the terminal device (FIG. 10).

When the push button "3" of the apparatus (FIG. 10) is pressed, the request receiving section 703 receives a tone signal generated when the push button "3" is pressed, and the request interpreting section 704 is an image data extracting section. Activate 710.

The image data extracting unit 710 extracts the image data 903 from the multimedia e-mail “2nd XX Meeting Guide” (FIG. 9) read by the request interpreting unit 704, and extracts the extracted data. , Data transmission unit 71
1 to the terminal device (FIG. 10).

When the push button "4" of the terminal device (FIG. 10) is pressed, the request receiving section 703 receives a tone signal generated when the push button "4" is pressed, and the request interpreting section 704 outputs voice data cutout. The unit 709 is started.

The audio data extracting unit 709 extracts the audio data 904 from the multimedia e-mail “2nd XX Conference Guide” (FIG. 9) read by the request interpreting unit 704 and reproduces it. , From the data transmission unit 711 to the terminal device (FIG. 10).

When the push button "5" of the terminal device (FIG. 10) is pressed, the request receiving section 703 receives a tone signal generated when the push button "5" is pressed, and the request interpreting section 704 outputs voice data cutout. The unit 709 is started.

The audio data extracting unit 709 extracts the audio data 905 from the multimedia e-mail “2nd XX Conference Guide” (FIG. 9) read by the request interpreting unit 704 and reproduces it. , From the data transmission unit 711 to the terminal device (FIG. 10).

As described above, the contents of the multimedia electronic mail stored in the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus of the present invention can be referenced using the terminal device.

Next, a case in which the user replies to the received multimedia electronic mail will be described.

When the push button “0” of the terminal device (FIG. 10) is pressed, the request receiving unit 703 receives a tone signal generated when the push button “0” is pressed, and activates the request interpreting unit 704.

The request interpreting unit 704 has a push button “0”.
Is determined to be a reply to the mail, and the additional information extraction unit 707 is activated.

The additional information extraction unit 707
4 from the multimedia e-mail “2nd XX meeting guide” (FIG. 9) read out in FIG.
Is extracted.

The voice data receiving section 712 receives the voice input from the user transmitted from the terminal device (FIG. 10). FIG. 13 shows a voice input from the user received by the voice data receiving unit 712.

The mail generation unit 713 includes the additional information extraction unit 7
A reply mail is generated based on the additional information 901 extracted in 07 and the voice input from the user (FIG. 13) received by the voice data receiving unit 712.

FIG. 14 shows a reply mail in the MIME format generated by the mail generation unit 713. Reference numeral 1401 denotes additional information of the reply mail generated based on the additional information 901 extracted by the additional information extracting unit 707. 1402
Is a compressed voice input (FIG. 13) from the user received by the voice data receiving unit 712.

The reply mail (FIG. 14) generated by mail generating section 713 is transmitted to a transmission destination address in mail transmitting section 714.

As described above, it is possible to generate and send a reply mail in the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus of the present invention only by inputting a reply voice from the terminal device to the electronic mail referred by the user. Becomes

In the embodiment of the present invention, the terminal device is a terminal capable of displaying both text and image data, but may be a terminal capable of displaying only text. In this case, a message indicating that the data cannot be displayed even if the image data is received by the terminal is displayed.

When the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus of the present invention has a mechanism for ascertaining the data type that can be processed by the terminal device, when the multimedia electronic mail index is generated, it cannot be displayed. The index of the type of data may not be included.

Further, in the embodiment of the present invention, the terminal device is a terminal capable of displaying both text and image data. However, in the case of a terminal capable of only a voice call,
Provide a sentence-to-speech conversion mechanism in the multimedia e-mail transmission / reception device, convert the additional information, text, list of multimedia e-mails and multimedia e-mail index in the multimedia e-mail into voice and send it to the terminal Is possible.

Further, in the embodiment of the present invention, the reply voice input from the terminal device is directly incorporated into the reply mail as voice data, but the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving device is provided with a sentence-to-speech conversion mechanism. In such a case, the input voice may be converted into text to generate a reply mail.

In the embodiment of the present invention, a method of designating a request from a user uses a tone signal generated when the input button device of the terminal device is pressed.
When the terminal device generates a certain control signal by pressing a specific button, it is also possible to instruct an input using the control signal.

When the terminal device or the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving device has a device for recognizing the user's voice, it is also possible to give an instruction by the user's voice.

Further, when the terminal device includes a device such as a vibration sensor, it is possible to give an instruction by shaking the terminal device.

[0102]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, additional information, text,
The audio data and the image data can be individually transmitted at the request of the user without transmitting them all to the terminal device from the beginning. Further, since the user himself / herself requests data that can be processed by the terminal, it is not necessary to provide a mechanism for managing data that can be processed by the terminal to which the mail is transmitted. Further, since the extraction and transmission of each data are performed by the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to the present invention, the processing of the electronic mail application on the terminal device side is reduced. This facilitates the implementation of an e-mail application that enables a multimedia e-mail to be displayed on a terminal device with limited memory resources. Further, since data of a type that cannot be displayed on the terminal device or data of a data type having a large data amount is not transmitted to the terminal device from the beginning, the communication bandwidth is not squeezed. For this reason, if the driving paths have the same bandwidth, the number of terminal devices that can be accommodated can be increased, and the practical effect is large.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to efficiently select an electronic mail to be read out by a user from a list out of a plurality of multimedia electronic mails. Further, even when a plurality of data of the same data type is included in the multimedia e-mail, all of the data can be efficiently read out using the index, and the practical effect is large.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, a reply content is input by voice from a terminal device to a multimedia electronic mail referred by a user,
In the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus of the present invention, a reply electronic mail can be generated and returned, and the practical effect is great.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the flow of processing after the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention receives the multimedia electronic mail;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to a second embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing after the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention receives the multimedia electronic mail;

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to claim 3 of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a flow of a process in which the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention returns a mail to the received multimedia electronic mail.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of a multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of the content of a multimedia electronic mail received by the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a structure of a multimedia electronic mail received by the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 10 is a configuration diagram of a terminal device that displays multimedia electronic mail according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of a list of multimedia electronic mails generated by the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention and stored by the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus;

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing an example of an index of each data constituting the multimedia e-mail generated by the multimedia e-mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a diagram showing an example of voice input for reply mail from the user according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of a reply mail assembled by the multimedia electronic mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 101 mail receiving unit 102 storage unit 103 request receiving unit 104 request interpreting unit 105 additional information extracting unit 106 text extracting unit 107 audio data extracting unit 108 image data extracting unit 109 data transmitting unit

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI H04M 11/00 303

Claims (3)

[Claims] An e-mail receiving unit for receiving a multimedia e-mail including voice data and image data in addition to text, a storage unit for storing the multimedia e-mail received by the e-mail receiving unit, and the e-mail receiving unit A request receiving unit for receiving a request from the user for the multimedia e-mail received by the request receiving unit, interpreting the request from the user received by the request receiving unit, and reading the multimedia e-mail stored in the storage unit An additional information extracting unit for extracting additional information such as a sender name from the multimedia e-mail read by the request interpreting unit based on a user request interpreted by the request interpreting unit; The text part is cut from the multimedia email read by the request interpreter based on the user's request interpreted by the interpreter. A text extraction unit, an audio data extraction unit that extracts an audio data portion from the multimedia email read by the request interpretation unit based on a user request interpreted by the request interpretation unit, and the request interpretation unit An image data cutout unit that cuts out an image data portion from the multimedia e-mail read by the request interpretation unit based on the request of the user interpreted by the request reception unit; A multimedia e-mail transmission / reception unit which transmits any of the data extracted by the additional information extraction unit, the text extraction unit, the audio data extraction unit, and the image data extraction unit. apparatus. 2. A mail receiving section for receiving a multimedia electronic mail including voice data and image data in addition to text, a storage section for storing the multimedia electronic mail received by the mail receiving section, and the mail receiving section. A request receiving unit for receiving a request from the user for the multimedia e-mail received by the user, and a request interpretation for interpreting the request from the user received by the request receiving unit and reading the multimedia e-mail stored in the storage unit Generating a list of all multimedia e-mails stored in the storage unit read by the request interpreting unit based on the user's request interpreted by the request interpreting unit And the multimedia email read by the request interpreter based on the user's request interpreted by the request interpreter. An additional information, text, audio data, an index generation unit that generates an index of image data, and a multimedia e-mail read by the request interpretation unit based on a user request interpreted by the request interpretation unit. An additional information extracting unit for extracting additional information such as a sender name, and a text portion specified from the multimedia email read by the request interpreting unit based on the user's request interpreted by the request interpreting unit A text cutout unit that cuts out, a voice data cutout unit that cuts out a specified voice data portion from the multimedia email read by the request interpretation unit based on the user's request interpreted by the request interpretation unit, Designated from the multimedia email read by the request interpretation unit based on the user's request interpreted by the request interpretation unit A list of multimedia e-mails generated by the list generating unit based on the request from the user received by the request receiving unit; Any of the additional information, text, audio data, index of image data, data extracted by the additional information extraction unit, text extraction unit, audio data extraction unit, and image data extraction unit included in the multimedia e-mail. 2. The multimedia e-mail transmission / reception device according to claim 1, further comprising a data transmission unit for transmitting the information. 3. A mail receiving unit for receiving a multimedia electronic mail including voice data and image data in addition to text, a storage unit for storing the multimedia electronic mail received by the mail receiving unit, and the mail receiving unit. A request receiving unit for receiving a request from the user for the multimedia e-mail received by the user, and a request interpretation for interpreting the request from the user received by the request receiving unit and reading the multimedia e-mail stored in the storage unit An additional information extracting unit for extracting additional information such as a sender name from the multimedia e-mail read by the request interpreting unit based on a user request interpreted by the request interpreting unit; The text part is cut from the multimedia email read by the request interpreter based on the user's request interpreted by the interpreter. A text extracting unit, an audio data extracting unit that extracts an audio data portion from the multimedia email read by the request interpreting unit based on a user request interpreted by the request interpreting unit, and the request interpreting unit. An image data cutout unit that cuts out an image data portion from the multimedia e-mail read by the request interpretation unit based on the request of the user interpreted by the request reception unit; A data transmitting unit for transmitting any of the data extracted by the additional information extracting unit, the text extracting unit, the audio data extracting unit, and the image data extracting unit; and receiving the audio data sent from the user. A voice data receiving unit, and generating a mail based on the voice data received by the voice data receiving unit and the additional information extracted by the additional information extracting unit. And e-mail generation unit,
2. The multimedia electronic mail transmission / reception device according to claim 1, further comprising a mail transmission unit for transmitting the mail generated by the mail generation unit.