FR2877793A1 - Message e.g. e-mail, exchanging and accessing system for domestic environment, has ultra-light terminals reactivated at regular time intervals under action of user on one of switches and automatically deactivated in case of non-utilization - Google Patents

Abstract

The system has ultra-light terminals (600i-600k) that are reactivated at regular time intervals under the action of a user on one of switches and automatically deactivated in case of non-utilization. Action on single switch activates recording and transmission of an e-mail with a voice message. The terminals transmit a request, and a local server (330) sends a response containing attributes in a response frame. The local server communicates with remote servers through Internet and with the terminals through a local network (400). Each terminal has a display (660), a microphone (650) and a loudspeaker (640).

Description

The present invention relates to a system of ultra-light terminals

  connected via a wireless LAN to a local server connected to the Internet and

  methods for their implementation offering several modes of exchange of written messages, voice or control, with great ease of use and allowing a compact embodiment, very inexpensive, low power consumption and very high autonomy.

  The deployment of the Internet and broadband access networks like ADSL Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Ling has generalized the use of exchanges of information and digital messages called multimedia, including text, images, sounds, sequences animated images or commands to be executed on the receiving terminal. The exchange of electronic messages (or e-mails in English) is as common today as the phone.

  However, today's fixed or mobile devices allow users to send and receive e-mail messages, such as Personal Computers (PCs), Personal Electronic Assistants (PDAs) or handsets. Next-generation wireless notebooks (smartphones), often remain expensive and complex to use. They also contain personal information (messages, address book, agenda ...) and can hardly be shared by several people. Since personal terminals worn on oneself can not be multiplied, they become versatile, often oversized and expensive, sometimes long to start, noisy and cumbersome, consumers of energy if they remain on, unable to alert the user. user on the arrival of a new message if they are off, and of low autonomy. We can not easily multiply and distribute such terminals in a self-service house and everyone must have his own and carry it on himself if we want to stay informed in real time of the arrival of new messages, which can be very restrictive, expensive and uncomfortable, especially in a home environment.

  - 2. 2877793 Some exchanges of e-mail messages using public mobile networks designed using GSM, GPRS or UMTS technologies are also expensive to use and do not make it possible to take advantage of Internet messaging services which are most often very cheap or free to any subscriber to a service of access to the Internet.

  The present invention proposes a new approach for the exchange of e-mail messages overcoming all these disadvantages and others mentioned later in the text, and particularly well adapted to a domestic environment, using ultra-light, mobile, economic terminals. , easy to use and long-term, connected by a wireless network to a local server connected to the Internet, said terminals being shareable between all users registered in said system.

  The principle of sharing electronic and software means according to a client-server architecture is known from the prior art. Thus, US Patent No. WO03 / 017094 entitled System and method of a thin thin-client server-centric framework describes a client-server system also allowing data exchanges with thin wireless economic terminals whose architecture is partially recovered right here. However, this patent describes a more global system involving a plurality of local servers and the control means of this local server network, in particular when moving the user from one wireless subnet to another, each subset network being built around a local server. The patent cited here by reference is not intended to provide a detailed description of the elements of a wireless sub-network for which it gives only a simple functional description, the client-server architecture of said sub-networks being, moreover, already widely known from the prior art. The present invention provides a set of methods for the storage and exchange of e-mail messages new and not described in the patent referenced.

  A system similar to that used in the present invention and implementing a particular cache module has also been described in the patent application INPI N 0401312 of February 10, 2004. The present invention is complementary to this system and attaches the interactions between the local server and mobile ultra-light terminals, as well as the specificities of operation of said terminals.

  According to the invention, the system comprises at least one local server equipment and one or more ultra-light terminals that can exchange data according to particular methods with said local server through a local wireless network, said local server making it possible to reach remote e-mail e-mail servers through an access router modem and the Internet, said ultra-light terminal (s) providing the interface with the users.

  Still according to the invention, the local server comprises electronic means and software for receiving, storing, processing and sending e-mail messages, for exchanging data with mobile ultra-light terminals through the network without wire and remote system configuration. Said ultra-light terminals comprise peripheral elements, electronic means and software for controlling said peripheral elements, data exchanges with the local server through the wireless local area network and local processing of said data. Said peripheral elements comprise at least one display and contactors allowing the user to navigate among the menus and the displayed text.

  Still according to the invention, the local server executes more particularly the communication functions through the Internet network, receiving, storing, processing and sending e-mail messages, system configuration and controlling the ultra-modern terminals. lightweight mobile devices, said mobile ultra-light terminals being essentially dedicated to interface functions with the user and the environment, through simple embedded peripheral elements, such as a display, a simplified keyboard, an audio interface , an infrared interface.

  Still according to the invention, the local server contains a tree database for storing e-mail messages consisting of a root level, a first user sub-level, a second sub-account and a third sub-level. -level messages, each level with elements at each node. The ultra-light terminals are reactivated at a programmable regular time interval or under the action of the user on one of the contactors and are automatically deactivated in case of non-use, which leads to a very great autonomy of operation which can last a year or two. Once activated, said terminals send to the local server through said wireless local area network requests comprising a pointer to a node of the tree and a command and retrieves from the local server the identifier of the next node reached after execution of the command and state information and attributes associated with this node.

  The data exchanged between the local server and the ultralight terminals must be encrypted to guarantee the security of exchanges and avoid the accidental or malicious connection of an intruder terminal present in the vicinity, which requires the acquisition of an encryption key by said terminals during the operation of pairing with said local server prior to their use. In most existing devices such as in DECT telephone systems on the market, the user must enter a code on a keyboard which can be long and complex and requires the factory preconfigured said code.

  According to a variant of the present invention, the key is computed by a random draw performed by the local server at its first start and broadcast through the wireless network at each startup of said local server by limiting the transmission power. radiofrequency for example below -20 dBm to limit the range to less than one meter for example according to a certain embodiment, said key issue being interrupted after a given period of operation, for example one minute.

  According to another variant of the invention, each ultra-light terminal of the system comprises, in addition to the display, a simplified keyboard comprising exactly five contactors whose action is coupled with the navigation in the database tree on the local server, said contactors being made according to various electromechanical solutions such as pushbuttons differentiated by their position and / or their color and / or their shape and / or their inscription, or a joystick with several degrees of freedom or wheels, said five contactors being necessary and sufficient to perform all the operations offered to the user according to an intuitive, logical and constant operating mode, facilitating the learning and rapid familiarization of the user. A first pair of contactors produces a request to the database that responds with a command to move the window for selecting the message or reading the text either up or down respectively, another pair of contactors produces the displaying a new hierarchical level text either higher or lower respectively, and the last contactor triggers a specific action depending on the context. Such an approach is thus optimized and allows a great saving -: 5 - means for the realization, a great speed of learning and a great flexibility of use.

  According to another variant of the present invention, an ultralight terminal of said system may also include a microphone allowing the user, in response to an initial e-mail message received and displayed on said ultra-light terminal, to record and transmit a voice message which will be attached as a .WAV or .MP3 file to a reply e-mail message sent over the Internet to the sender of the initial message by the local server, with optional sending of a copy the message on the user's email account. The action on a single contactor is sufficient to trigger the recording and sending the e-mail message with voice message attached, which is extremely flexible and fast use and dispenses to use a more complex keyboard.

  According to another variant of the present invention, an ultralight terminal of said system may also include a loudspeaker enabling the user to listen to the audio messages attached to the received, decoded and transmitted by the local server messages to said ultralight terminal . This function is dual of the previous one and has the same flexibility and the same speed of execution.

  According to another variant of the present invention, an ultralight terminal of said system comprising a loudspeaker may emit an audible signal when a new e-mail message has arrived on said local server, said sound signal having a different sound pattern depending on the email that has received the email message. The user is alerted of the arrival of a message at any time and at any place where the ultra-light terminal can be placed.

  According to another variant of the present invention, an ultralight terminal of said system comprising a loudspeaker able to emit a sound signal when a new e-mail message has arrived keeps in memory the identifier of the last user of said terminal identified by the last account of electronic mail used and emits the sound signal only when it was last used by the recipient user of said new e-mail message, to limit the emission of unwanted sound signals on all other terminals. - 6 -

  According to another variant of the present invention, and in order to guarantee the confidentiality of the electronic messages received by the various users of said system, an ultra-light terminal displays at its start a message asking the user to enter a personal code or PIN code. (Personal Indentifrcation Number) using the pair of contactors assigned to the vertical scanning of a displayed text, the first digit of said PIN code being obtained by actuating the number of times corresponding to the first contactor, the second digit being then entered by actuating the number of times corresponding to the other contactor and so on until the last digit, the passage from one digit to the next being controlled by the change of contactor. Experience shows that one can learn and quickly retain such a gesture of entering the PIN code without having to mentally convert the code in its character format, which further facilitates the use without sacrificing the confidentiality of the message consultation. -mails.

  According to another variant of the present invention, the e-mail e-mail address of the sender of an e-mail message displayed on an ultra-light terminal of said system may be selected by the user and sent by the local server. as the sender's address of a particular message on a particular email account subscribed by said user at a service provider, under conditions that are usually very economical, and accessed through the Internet, said e-mail account serving as an audit directory user. This directory consumes virtually no memory space in the system, can be updated and shared very easily, including several systems used by a community of users. This directory is very useful for sending a new voice message according to the variant already described above to a recipient previously registered in said particular e-mail account used in the directory.

  The local server comprises an onboard hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) server software module known from the prior art for this type of equipment allowing its configuration through the local network and / or the Internet network from any equipment equipped with a http client type browser accessing the local server via a local network.

  According to a variant of the present invention, the local server has the means to receive a particular e-mail message containing the system configuration parameters and a password, and to automatically load it into memory instead of the previous configuration. if the password is validated. Thus the system produced according to the invention can be managed remotely by a service provider or by another experienced and authorized person in place of the usual user. This solution puts the system in the hands of inexperienced people who will simply use it, which greatly expands the use.

  According to another variant of the invention, the peripheral elements furthermore comprise an interface circuit emitting infrared signals associated with commands exerted by the user on the five contactors, said infrared signals corresponding to the various commands of a remote control of particular equipment. The terminal can thus be used as a universal infrared remote control reprogrammable at will in near real time and does not require electrical connection to another equipment, the system saving in its memory the infrared signals and commands, said signals and commands being received in an e-mail message from a service provider who has developed it according to the function, the make and model of the equipment to be controlled using said universal remote control function. The ultra-light terminals can thus advantageously replace one or more remote control boxes and thus reduce the ever-increasing number in the homes.

  According to another variant of the invention, the emission of infrared signals on a particular terminal can be activated by the reception by the local server of a particular e-mail message, allowing for example a remote action on a device controlled by infrared at a chosen moment. Many uses can be imagined from this invention, given the number of equipment controlled by infrared remote control in homes. For example, one could imagine deploying an online service that would schedule switching on a given TV channel in advance, or that would produce the automatic TV program change at the beginning of a sequence of unwanted advertisements. and resume the initial program at the end of said sequence According to another variant of the invention, certain commands executed on an ultra-light terminal used as programmable universal remote control as described above can be recorded and converted into a code sent by message e-mail through the Internet to a recipient whose address is pre-configured in the system. Ultra-light terminals used in universal remote control can thus see their application extended to audience measurements or online voting actions embellishing a television program for example.

  The invention will be better understood on reading the description which follows, given solely by way of example and with reference to the appended figures in which: FIG. 1 shows a general view of the system; FIGS. 2 and 3 show a detailed view of the means implemented in the local server and in the ultra-light terminals respectively for the purposes of the present invention. FIG. 4 shows the tree structure of the local server database. FIG. 5 shows the structure of the frames. data exchanged between the local server 15 and ultra-light terminals FIG. 6 gives a detail of the contactors of the ultralight terminals according to one embodiment by pushbuttons FIG. 7 gives an example of screens displayed successively after actions on the different contactors According to the embodiment chosen and as shown in FIG. 1, the system comprises at least: a local server 300 a local network year 400 wire operating in the so-called ISM or RLAN radio bands, one or more ultra-light mobile ultra-light terminals 600i ... k said local server being connected through a local computer network 200 Ethernet type and a modem router access 100 to the Internet 999 to reach remote servers 900m ... n of electronic messages and having as shown in Figure 2 electronic means 310 comprising at least o means of communication 312 through the local network 200 and the Internet 999, wherein a microcontroller circuit having the calculation and interface means necessary for the embodiment described o a particular software program comprising 315p ... r processes ensuring the configuration, the control of said system and the exchange of e-mail messages with said remote servers and their processing by said system of the electronic means of data exchange 311 with the terminals x ultra-light through the wireless LAN 400 a storage memory 313 of the configuration data, - a memory for storing messages containing a database containing said ultra-light terminals 600i ... k including in particular as shown in Figure 3 - peripheral elements comprising at least o a display 660 o a set of five contactors hereinafter designated by C 671, 0 672, U 673, D 674 and S 675 (C for Close, O for Open , U for Up / D for Down and S for Select) that can use various electromechanical solutions, an example of which is given in FIG. 6 and optionally including o a microphone 650 associated with an analog-to-digital converter 620, o a loudspeaker 640 associated with a digital-to-analog converter 630, where an infrared interface 690 of the light-emitting diode type comprises electronic means 610 comprising a microcontroller circuit having computing means and interface required for the described embodiment o data exchange means 611 with the local server 300 through the wireless local area network 400 o a software program including processes 615p .. .r for interfacing with said peripheral elements, for 1, exchanges with the local server 300 through the wireless local area network 400 and for the processing of the information exchanged with the local server In what follows, to lighten the narration el: by convention, the actions described as performed by the local server 300 or one of the ultra-light terminals 600i ... k must be understood as actually made by particular software processes among the processes 315p ... r and 615p ... r respectively acting on the electronic means described and in particular the communications means 312 mentioned above. Similarly, the data exchanges through the wireless local area network 400 must be understood in the following as carried out through the data exchange means 311 and 611 contained in said local server 300 and said ultra-light terminals 600i. .k respectively. i0

  The e-mail messages are stored in 900 ,,, remote servers accessible via the 999 Internet network (following the POP3 Protocol Post Office Protocol Version 3 protocol described by the Internet Engineering Task Force in RFC1939 available on www.ietf .org) allowing the consultation and downloading of e-mails messages to a personal computer 250 equipped with MicrosoftTM OutlookTM e-mail software for example. The user access modem-access router 100 serves as a gateway between the ADSL interconnection link to the Internet network and the local network of the user 200 usually supported by the Ethernet protocol; said network is not necessarily wired and may be wireless type RLAN Radio Local Area Network. The user's personal computer 250 and the local server 300 are connected to this local network 200 without any permanent interaction between them, the presence of a computer being useful only during certain configuration phases of the system that is the subject of the present invention. prior to its use.

  The wireless network 400 used in the exchanges between the local server 300 and the terminals 600; ... k operates in a radio band that complies with each national legislation. For example, the Industrial Scientific Medical radio bands called I.S.M. (433Mhz / 868MHz) are authorized in France as well as the 2.4Ghz frequency of local wireless LANs; other states reserved frequencies 315 and 915 MHz for the same purposes.

  The local server 300 scans according to the method described in the patent application INPI N 0401312 of February 10, 2004 all the remote servers 900m ... n recorded in the system and stores in the database 314 the identifier of all the e-mails in transit in said remote servers to all users since the last scan performed As shown in Figure 4, the database 314 contained in the storage memory e-mail messages of the local server can be represented in the form of a tree whose root is a first node 501 and comprising a first sub-level 510 corresponding to the users, a second sub-level 530 corresponding to the e-mail accounts of each of said users, a corresponding third sub-level 550 e-mails contained in each of these accounts. Each element or node 511i .. j ... k or 531i ... j ... k or 551i .. j ... k is identified by a distinct arbitrary identifier ID chosen by the base, it being understood that the relationship element -identifier is bijective. Only the identifier of the root is a priori known terminals, its value being 0 'for example, no persistence of the data is a priori necessary in ultra-light terminals according to the invention. Each element or node 511i .. j ... k 531i ... j ... k 551i .. j ... k also has a set of attributes 512i .. j ... k 532i .. j .. .k 552i .. j ... k respectively.

  FIG. 5 represents a Client / Server type exchange between a terminal 600i and the local server 300. The complete format of the transmitted frame depends on the radio protocol used, in particular its header 811 and its termination 815 specific to the low transport layers. According to one characteristic of the invention, a request frame 810 contains in its useful part, the NAVIG field 812 and the ID field 813 possibly followed by information 814 specifying the type of attributes to be returned.

  The local server returns a response frame 820 provided with a response state 822 (query executed, impossible, etc.), the ID field 823 resulting from the NAVIG navigation command 812 of the request, and the attribute of the node 824 read in the tree. Note that additional fields may be necessary for the practical realization of data exchange between terminal and local server but are not useful here to the reader.

  According to one characteristic of the invention, the particular field 812 of the frame 810 associated with the request 830 sent by the terminal called NAAVIG, represents the navigation operation to be carried out starting from the identifier ID 813, for example: move and read the current element ID Go to the sub-level linked to the ID node and read the current element ID '- 1 2 - Go to the next node on the same sub level and read it, Go to the previous node on the same sub level and read it, Note that a command go to the previous level would logically be necessary to complete this navigation but in practice, the terminal can save the path to a sheet of the tree so that this command is superfluous when reversing controls.

  On receipt of said request 830, the local server 300 searches for the desired element (for example 531i) and returns a response 840 containing in its frame 820 the attributes 824 characterizing it (532i in this case). If said request can not be made (no successor, no predecessor, no sub-level ...) specific information is returned in the response 840 to the terminal 600i.

  According to another characteristic of the invention and in order to navigate more quickly in this tree during operations of Go to the next node and Go to the previous node, the local server provides the information relating to a sequence of several nodes (and their attributes characterizing them) and concatenates them in the same response frame 820 up to the optimal frame size chosen on the radio link. This optimization is useful since the terminal generally requests several successors or several predecessors in a row.

  A message is read by asking Do not move applied a message node (550) and adding an offset attribute corresponding to an offset in the text relative to the beginning of the message. A read window from this offset is returned to the terminal 600i.

  A terminal 600i can switch to active mode either when the user actuates any of the contactors 671 to 675 or after a programmable duration since the end of the last period of activity. The terminal returns to a sleep state after a preconfigured period of inactivity, for example thirty seconds.

  After its activation and based on the underlying local serverServer exchange modalities described above, the terminal 600i issues a request to which the local server responds with the list of all the names of the users registered in the system, which the terminal displays (710) as shown in Figure 7. The presence of e-mail messages in at least one of the accounts of each user registered in the system is 13 - also indicated by a particular icon (not shown in the figures ). The user can browse the list from top to bottom using the contactors U (673) and D (674) respectively. The current line is displayed in reverse contrast.

  According to another characteristic of the invention, the user selects a name by operating the contactor 0 (672). The terminal displays a screen for entering the PIN code 750. The user actuates the contactors U or D (673 or 674) to increment or decrement the first digit. The transition to the next digits is caused by the change of contactor between U and D (673 and 674) or by an action on contactor 0 (672). The user can return to the previous digit by operating the contactor C (671). The PIN code is sent to the local server 300 with the name of the user selected by an action on the contactor 0 (672) or on the contactor S (675).

  The received PIN code is compared with the PIN stored in the storage memory 313 by said local server. If the received PIN code is incorrect, an error message is sent to the terminal which redisplays the PIN entry screen for the selected user. If the PIN code received is correct, the server transmits to this terminal a response 840 containing the list of e-mail accounts registered for this user, which the terminal displays (720). The presence or absence of e-mail messages in each account may also be indicated by an icon (not shown in the appended figures). By operating the contactor 0 (672), the user produces the sending of a request 830 as previously described associated with the selected e-mail account. Upon receipt of the response 840, the list 730 e-mail messages waiting in this account is displayed, an icon that can indicate whether they have already been read (not shown in the figures attached). By actuating the contactor 0 672 again, the user produces the sending of a request of the identifier of the message to the local server and in return the display 740 of the e-mail message on the terminal, after deletion of the useless characters. to the text mode display. The user can browse the message using the contactors U 673 and D and 674 which produce requests 830, the local server reloading in response the message area to be displayed as the scan.

  By actuating the contactor C 671, the user goes up successively in the display hierarchy from a particular message to the list of messages first, then to the list of accounts of the selected user and finally to the list of registered users.

  According to another characteristic of the invention and to avoid the connection of intruder terminals, during the first start of the local server, one of the processes 315p ... r randomly calculates an encryption key of N bits corresponds to the length of the key and stores it in its storage memory 313. According to the embodiment described, the encryption will be a symmetrical key that is quite conventional and universally used, of the DES type. (Data Encryption Standard) with a 56-bit key. The disadvantage of symmetric key encryption lies in the fact that the key must be known at each end. Therefore, and according to one characteristic (the realization, during this first installation, the local server 300 broadcasts at low power (for example -20 dBm) and for a limited time (for example 1 minute) on the wireless LAN 400 a frame containing this key This operation requires such proximity to the devices between them that it is impossible for a person placed in the immediate vicinity to pair an intruder terminal.

  Note that said encryption key can judiciously be itself already encrypted in an encryption mode and an invariable key predefined in the factory and known ends.

  At each start the terminals scan the presence of this frame sent by the local server and update their encryption key useful for any subsequent exchanges or failing retain the previous key.

  In an alternative embodiment, the local server broadcasts this key in response to an individual request from a terminal, always low power and for a limited time.

  The procedure of first start-up can be recognized, according to the desired level of security, by the ends according to their internal state (initial configuration of factory), the powering up of the devices or, an explicit request made by the operated user on each end.

  According to another characteristic of the invention, during the display of the screen 730 and the selection by the user of a particular e-mail message or during the display of the screen 740 including the selected message , the user wishing to respond with a voice message actuates the contactor S 675. A new menu 760 is called on the local server and is displayed on the terminal screen. The user selects the item to send voice message by moving the covering line using the contactors U and D (673 and 674) then by the contactor 0 672 that keeps it pressed while he dictates his message via the microphone 650. A progress bar displayed on the screen (not shown in the figures) informs it of the progress of the recording.

  The electrical signal from the microphone is amplified, filtered and converted into a succession of digital samples of P bits (for example P = 8) at a preset frequency F for all systems, for example F = 8 kHz, by an analog converter digital 620 (ADC or Analog to Digital Converter) included in the electronic means 610 of the terminal, said samples being stored in a FIFO buffer (first-in-first-out) before being sent to the local server which processes them , reconstructs a file in type.WAV or type.MP3 format and the address through the 999 Internet network using the SMTP protocol (following the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol SMTP protocol recommendation described by the Internet Engineering Task Force in the document RFC2821 available at www.ietf.org) as a file attached to an e-mail message to the sender of the original message.

  According to another characteristic of the invention, during the display of the screen 730 and the selection of a particular e-mail message or during the display of a selected message 740, the user is informed of the presence of a voice file attached by the presence of a particular icon displayed on the screen (not shown in the figures). He can then ask the system to hear the attached voice message by actuating the contactor S 675 calling the menu 760 and selecting the item listen voice message producing a request 830. The voice message samples are then transferred from the local server until to the terminal, loaded into a FIFO buffer, each sample being read at said fixed frequency F pre-set for all systems and converted through a digital-to-analog converter 630 (DAC or Digital-to- Analog Converter) into a signal, said signal then being amplified, filtered and restored on the speaker 640 of the terminal 600i. A progress bar displayed on the screen (not shown in the figures) informs the user of the progress of the playback of the voice message.

  According to another characteristic of the invention, each terminal 600i uses the low-power internal clock usually associated with the electronic means 610 to reactivate the terminal at regular programmable time intervals. The terminal then connects to the local server which instructs it to signal with a signal sound new messages arrived since the last reading by a user. This sound signal is synthesized by the local server under a firm of successive samples transmitted to the activated terminal and converted into an electrical signal by the DAC 630, said signal then being amplified, filtered and restored on the speaker 640 of the terminal.

  According to another characteristic of the invention, this sound signal may have a different profile depending on the user targeted by the new messages.

  This sound signal can also be inhibited by the server during programmable time periods (for example at night) or according to the level of clarity measured by the terminal, by means of a photoresistor or phototransistor-type light sensor which can be added to the peripheral elements present in the terminal.

  According to another characteristic of the invention, the sound signal can also be inhibited in any terminal whose last use was made by a user other than that or those targeted by the new messages. For this, the terminal 600i keeps in memory each use the identifier of the last user. When it receives the response frame 840 containing the sound signal and the identifier of the user associated with said sound signal, it compares said identifier with that stored in memory and inhibits the transmission of the sound signal if the two identifiers are different.

  According to another characteristic of the invention, during the display of the screen 730 and the selection of a particular e-mail message or during the display of the screen 740 comprising the selected message, the user desiring to register the address of the sender in a directory activates the contactor S 675. A new menu 760 is called on the local server and is displayed on the screen of the terminal. The user selects the item register in directory by moving the current line using the contactors U and D (673 and 674) then by action on the contactor 0 672. A request 830 is transferred to the local server that sends a a particular message to a particular e-mail account accessed via the Internet, which account serves as a directory for the user or users.

  The local server having identified an e-mail account acting as a directory can rearrange the database 314 by classifying the messages alphabetically according to the name of the sender.

  According to another characteristic of the invention the address of a particular POP server, the identifier of a particular e-mail account and a particular password can be configured in the local server 300 either at the factory at the same time as the loading of the software program in the local server is from a PC 250 through the local network 200 via the embedded http configurator present in the program. At startup, the local server scans the different accounts and in particular said particular account mentioned above. If this account contains an e-mail message it is scanned and identified as a configuration message by the local server which verifies that the password l0 matches its stored data. In the latter case, the message data stored in a preset order is loaded into memory 313 instead of the data of the current configuration.

  According to another characteristic of the invention, an action on the contactor S 675 after the activation of a terminal 600k produces the display of a particular menu containing an item to switch to infrared remote control mode, a TV according to the example chosen here. In this mode an action on the contactors U 673, D 674, 0 672, and C 673 produces the emission of a prerecorded infrared signal corresponding to the commands PROG +, PROG-, VOL +, VOL- respectively. These commands can be recalled on 1 screen as a reminder. An action on the switch S 675 produces the appearance of a new menu containing the options: MUTE, TV Off, TV On and EXIT. The selected channel is stored in the terminal and the action on the PROG + and PROG- commands increments or decreases the number of the new channel selected transmitted to the TV, in order to keep the channel number in the terminal. selected without risk of desynchronization if an infrared command is lost and not interpreted by the TV.

  Said pre-recorded infrared signals corresponding to all these commands and the display data must first be downloaded via the Internet, all of these data are different depending on the type, brand and model of the equipment referred to. by the universal infrared remote control function according to the present invention. For this purpose, the user or the system requests them from a service provider and receives them in a particular e-mail message. The local server identifies it as containing the configuration data of the infrared remote control and stores said data in the database 314.

  According to another characteristic of the invention, the local server has a particular e-mail address which makes it possible to remotely control it by sending it particular e-mail messages. A particular e-mail message, identified and recorded by the local server, will thus be used to produce an order to send a particular infrared signal in response to the first request sent by one of the ultralight terminals as soon as it is activated.

  According to another characteristic of the invention, the actions exerted on an ultra-light terminal during its use as a universal remote control can be recorded by the local server each time a request is received from said terminal of the said set of e-mail message that can be sent in different ways to a pre-configured e-mail address in the system.

  The system of the present invention described above will be easily connected to any Internet access router and used to read and exchange e-mail messages in many circumstances.

Claims (13)

claims   An economical and easy-to-use distributed electronic messaging and message exchange system, comprising at least: a local server (300) connected to a local area network (200) and making it possible to reach remote e-mail servers; mails (900m ... n) through the Internet network (999), said local server comprising electronic means (310) and software means (315p ... r) for exchanging, processing e-mail messages, for controlling said system and for remotely configuring a wireless local area network (400) operating in the so-called ISM or RLAN radio bands, - one or more ultra-light mobile ultra-light terminals (600i ... k) communicating with the local server using said wireless network (400), said terminals including peripheral elements, electronic means (610) and software means (615p .... r) for controlling said peripheral elements, for exchanges with said local server (300 ) through said wireless local area network and for processing the information exchanged with said local server characterized in that: the local server (300) performs more particularly the communication functions through said local area network (200) and the Internet network ( 999), receiving, storing, processing and sending e-mail messages, configuring the system and controlling the mobile ultra-light terminals (600i ... k) said mobile ultra-light terminals (600i. .. k) more particularly perform interface functions with said local server (300) and with said peripheral elements comprising at least one display (660) and a keyboard with contactors (671 to 675). The local server (300) contains an e-mail message store that contains a tree database (314) containing elements (511i .. j ... k or 5311 .. j ... k or 551i ... j ... k ) and consisting of a root level (501), a first sub-level users (510), a second subnet accounts (530) and a third sub-level messages (550) - said ultra-light terminals (600i ... k) perform through said local network wirelessly (400) requests (830) using a data frame (810) containing a navigation command in the database (812) and the identifier (813) of a database element pointed by said querying said local server (300) returns responses (840) to the received requests (830), said responses using a data frame (820) containing a new identifier (823), a state information (822) and a field ( 824) containing said attributes (5121 .. j ... k 532i .. j ... k 552i .. j ... k) respectively associated with said elements allowing an action by said ultra-light terminal 2. System according to claim 1, characterized in that: the software means (315p ... r) of said local server and the software means (615p ... r) of said ultra-light terminals comprise means for encrypting the exchanged data. through said wireless local area network (400) requiring prior pairing between said local server and said terminals, - for the purposes of said pairing, said local server (300) broadcasts through said wireless local area network (400) the encryption key at all said terminals (600i ... k) located in the immediate vicinity for a limited time after it is started, said operation being performed at very low radio power to limit the range - said electronic means (610) and said software means ( 615p ... r) said ultra-light terminals (600i ... k) comprise means for detecting and storing said encryption key sent by] said local server (300) 3. System according to any one of claims 1 to 2 characterized in that said peripheral elements comprise in addition to the display (660) contactors (671 to 675) hereinafter designated respectively by the letters O, C, U, D and S, said contactors being a sufficient number and sufficient to perform all the operations offered to the user according to a constant operating mode requiring only a quick and rudimentary learning said contactors U (673) and D (674) trigger a query (830) producing the displacement between successive elements of the same hierarchical level and inducing a response (840) from the local server producing a displacement of the selection or the text display window upwards and downwards respectively - 21 - said contactors C (671) and 0 (672) trigger a request (830) inducing a response (840) from the local server producing the display of a new hierarchical level text upper and lower hierarchical level respectively said contactor S (675) triggers a specific action depending on the context 4. System according to claim 3 characterized in that said peripheral elements of said ultra-light terminals (600i ... k) further comprise a microphone (650) connected to an analog-digital converter (620) allowing the user, in response to an e-mail message displayed on one of said terminals (600i) for recording and transmitting on said local server (300) through said wireless local area network (400) a digitized voice message, said voice message being converted to any predefined format audio file attached to a reply e-mail message and automatically sent by said local server (300) over the Internet to the e-mail address of the sender of the message initially received 5. System according to any one of claims 3 or 4 characterized in that the peripheral elements of said ultra-light terminals (600i.   k) furthermore comprise a loudspeaker (640) connected to a digital-to-analog converter (630) making it possible to restore to the user the audio messages attached to the e-mails received, decoded and transmitted by said local server (300) said ultra-light terminals (600i ... k) ... CLMF: 6. System according to any one of claims 3 or 4 characterized in that the peripheral elements of said ultra-light terminals (600i.   k) further comprises a loudspeaker (640) connected to a digital-to-analog converter (630) for producing a sound signal by said ultra-light terminals (600i ... k) upon receipt of a response (840) comprising a control command sent by said local server (300) when a new e-mail message has arrived on: said local server (300), said sound signal having a different sound pattern according to the e-mail account having received said message 7. System according to claim 6 characterized in that each ultra-light terminal (600i) stores in memory the identifier of the last user of said terminal identified by the last counted mail account, -2.2- said sound signal is inhibited on the one or those of said terminals having previously been used by a different user of the recipient user of said new e-mail message ... CLMF: 8. System according to any one of claims 3 to 7 characterized in that it comprises means for entering a personal PIN (Personal Identification Number) on an ultra-light terminal (600i) using said contactors U (673) and D (674), the first digit Ni being grasped by actuating N1 times the contactor U, the second digit N2 being grasped by actuating N2 times the other contactor D, and so on until the last digit , the contactors S (675) or 0 (672) validating the input of said PIN code.   9. System according to any one of claims 3 to 8 characterized in that the address of the sender of an e-mail message can be stored in a directory after selection of said message by the user on an ultra-high terminal. lightweight (600i), said directory being simply constituted of e-mail messages addressed to a particular e-mail account hosted by any server site (900n) accessed via the Internet network (999) by the system, said e-mail messages comprising the directory addresses being stored on said e-mail account.   10. System according to any one of claims 1 to 9 characterized in that said local server (300) receives the parameters of a new configuration by a particular e-mail message whose recipient and object are prerecorded in the configuration. current system, said new configuration being activated either automatically or by a user from an ultra-light terminal (600i).   11. System according to any one of claims 3 to 10 characterized in that the peripheral elements of said ultra-light terminals (600i.   k) further comprise an infra-red signal transmission circuit (690) providing a quasi-real-time programmable universal remote control function by e-mail from the Internet (999) 12. System according to claim 11, characterized in that the infra-red signal transmission can be activated by receiving a particular e-mail message. 13. System according to claim 11 or 12 characterized in that the commands executed on an ultra-light terminal (600i) can be recorded and sent in an e-mail message to a remote site 900j whose address is pre-configured in the system.