JP2002091892A - Data processing method using electronic mail - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To extract necessary items of personal management information from a non-routine electronic mail text and to automatically register the extracted items. SOLUTION: When the data to be inputted to a schedule management program are extracted from a received mail, the mail is analyzed for extracting the necessary items. When the necessary items are deficient, this fact is displayed and the input of data is urged. Then the complementary data if inputted are transferred to a personal information management program.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique for extracting information items such as schedules and TODOs from electronic mail information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the spread of networks, schedules for meetings and trainings are often notified by e-mail.

[0003] When the recipient receives such a notice by e-mail, the corresponding item in the mail text, for example, the name of the conference,
It was necessary to refer to the place indicating the place and time, write it in his / her personal organizer, or register it in his / her own schedule management application. For example, "10
The third part business meeting will be held in the third meeting room from 3:00 pm on March 12th, so please join us. " First, from this document, date information "October 12, 3:00 pm"
Copy the “Third meeting room” as the location information and “Third business meeting” as the event name, and paste them into each item of the schedule management program.
And paste).

[0004]

However, the above operation is complicated. In particular, in the case of a recipient who receives several tens of e-mails a day, it is necessary to quickly extract necessary items from the e-mail text and register them in the schedule management program. Copy and
Paste work must be executed by switching between the email screen and the schedule registration screen many times for each item,
There was a possibility that the input item was wrong.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and provides a technique for extracting necessary items of personal management information from an irregular e-mail text and automatically registering the extracted items.
In addition, it is a technical task to reduce an additional registration work of insufficient data in the registration.

[0006]

According to the present invention, in order to solve the above-mentioned problems, when extracting input data to a personal information management program from a received mail, the received mail is analyzed to extract necessary data. When necessary data is insufficient, the fact that the data is insufficient is displayed to prompt the input, and when the complementary data is input, it is transferred to the personal information management program.

Also, instead of prompting for input of complementary data,
Similar data may be retrieved from past data and used as supplementary data. Further, when there is past generated data, the extracted data is also extracted as supplementary data, so that the convenience of the user after registration in the personal information management program can be improved.

[0008] Further, a mail prompting for supplementary data may be transmitted to the sender of the received mail.

The analysis of the mail can obtain the time, place, contents, subject, method, and the like by pattern matching processing.

[0010] The personal information management program means a schedule management program. The schedule management program has an event format (a format in which a meeting is held at any time in the afternoon and at what time in the month) and an action format. (A format that prepares a report by month and by date).

Further, each processing step of the present invention may be provided by being stored in a medium as a program. Here, the medium means an electric / optical / magnetic recording medium, and includes a volatile memory, a non-volatile memory, a CD-ROM, a floppy (registered trademark) disk, a magnetic disk, a magnetic tape,
Any medium such as an O disk may be used.

Further, the above-mentioned medium in another accessible computer connected to a network may be used.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

[0014]

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

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a network configuration of a mail system according to one embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, a mail server 2 is connected to the network 1 and manages transmission and reception of mail between the terminal devices 3 and 3 'connected to the network 1.

The terminal device 3 is connected to the network 1 via an interface (I / O) 5.
Central processing unit (CPU) 6, hard disk device (HD) 10, CD-ROM drive device 1 by bus 4
1, a display device (DISP) 7 and a keyboard (KBD) 8.

The mail analysis function and the missing information extraction function described later in the present embodiment are provided by a program provided on a CD-ROM medium. The program is transmitted to a hard disk drive (HD) 1 through a CD-ROM drive device 11.
0 is installed in a predetermined area. Then, the programs are sequentially read out and executed by the central processing unit (CPU) 6, whereby both functions are realized on the terminal device 3.

FIG. 6 is a functional block diagram showing a schematic functional configuration of the present embodiment.

The display means 7 is a display device 7,
The keyboard 8 can be used as the user instruction input means 8. The user interface 61 of each of these units functions as an interface between the mail analysis unit 22 and the schedule management program 26 (schedule management function), requests the mail analysis unit 22 to perform analysis, and classifies and analyzes the result. It has a function of extracting and displaying it on the display means 7.

A function for requesting the schedule management program 26 to perform editing processing such as addition, deletion, or updating, and outputting a search result of the related product 33 such as a file attached to a past mail. have.

This schematic function can be explained more specifically with reference to FIG.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the functional units and the flow of processing in this embodiment. Hereinafter, the outline of the processing will be described with reference to FIG.

The received mail 21 is first sent to a mail analyzer 22
Is parsed by At this time, the mail analysis unit 22 performs the shaping process (deletion of the control code and the line feed code) of the received mail 21 and executes the process shown in FIG. This processing is an operation of extracting predetermined information while referring to the pattern dictionary 23. A specific processing method will be described later.

Based on the extracted data 24 extracted by the mail analysis unit 22, a registration process to a schedule management program 26 is executed in a schedule registration unit 25.

Here, the schedule data is in the form of an event (a format such as “business meeting in the second meeting room from year x month x hour x minute”) and in the action format (TODO format). (A business report must be submitted to Mr. XX by the date of XX).

FIG. 7 shows an example of the received mail 21. FIG. 8 shows the extracted data 2 extracted from the received mail.
4 shows an example.

In this example, the "text" of the received mail 21 is analyzed, and "October 20, 1998", which is the submission deadline, is extracted as time information (WHEN). Also,
“XX Application Form” is extracted as the method information (HOW).

FIG. 5A also shows an example of the extracted data 24 (action format). When generating the extracted data 24, the mail analysis unit 22 determines the format document storage unit 29 when the method information (HOW) defines the format of the submission document.
To extract necessary format documents.

When the information is insufficient, the insufficient information extracting unit 27 extracts the insufficient information, displays it on the display device 7, and delivers it to the related information searching unit 32.

The related information search unit 32 searches the past product database 33 to find data that can supplement the missing information. Here, past received mails and created mails are accumulated in the past product database 33, and by searching these, necessary information can be supplemented from past mails of the same type.

For example, as shown in FIG. 5, when a file of an application entry example is not attached to the latest received mail (extracted data 24 'shown in FIG. 5B), the past product database 33 And retrieves the past mail (extracted data 24 shown in FIG. 7A), and retrieves the entry example file 51 attached to this past mail (extracted data 24 in FIG. HOW). The retrieved supplementary data 35 is transferred to the schedule management program 26 through the schedule registration unit 25 in the same manner as described above. As a result, the user can perform processing while referring to the previous entry example file when applying for year-end adjustment.

If the missing information cannot be supplemented by the search result of the related information retrieval unit 32, the supplementary data request mail generation unit 28 sends a mail 3 for training the stored data.
Generate 0 and send it to mailer (mail management program)
Hand over to 31. The mailer 31 requests the stored data by transmitting the mail 30 to the sender.

When the supplementary data 34 is received through the mailer 31, the supplementary data 34 is sent to the schedule registration section 25, and the schedule management program 26 supplements the schedule data.

Next, details of the analysis processing of the mail analysis unit 22 will be described with reference to FIG.

First, the mail analysis unit 22 checks the received mail 2
A character string is cut out from 1 (step 401). At this time, a line feed code (CR + LF) or the like for each line is deleted and the document is shaped.

Next, morphological analysis and syntax analysis are performed on the formed document (step 402). Since these analysis processes are common to Japanese sentence analysis, description thereof is omitted here.

Next, the pattern dictionary 23 is searched for the formatted document, and a keyword having a matching pattern is extracted from the mail. The pattern dictionary 23 specifically has the matching table 23a shown in FIG. 3, and stores time information (WHEN) and location information (WHER).
E), content information (WHAT), subject information (WHO) and method information (HOW) are extracted.

In the extraction of the time information (WHEN), normalization of the relative expression is performed (step 403a). this is,
A task of calculating an abstract time designation such as “this weekend” or “afternoon first” used in the mail from the reception date and time of the received mail 21 and converting it into a specific date and time.

In addition, an operation of specifying a date and time from a keyword or the like specialized for an individual is also performed (step 403b). This means that when a date and time specialized for the individual, such as “before the next tournament”, is specified, the corresponding specific date and time / time zone is extracted from the schedule of the individual.

In this step, a past or future time is also determined (step 403c). That is,
When the extracted time information is related to the past,
Since it is no longer necessary to newly add the information to the schedule management, noise information is not generated at this stage.

In the next location information extraction (WHERE), information such as the location of the conference is extracted (step 404). At this time, if a location specific to the individual (for example, a specification such as "Please come to my seat") is made, the address is converted from the mail sender information to a specific location ( Step 404a).

Next, content information extraction (WHAT) is performed (step 405). This is a process of extracting information on a place, and information on a venue, a conference room, a site, and the like are extracted.

Next, subject information extraction (WHO) is performed (steps 406 and 407). This is a task of specifying a request source and a request destination. In short, who is requested to whom is extracted.

Next, method information (HOW) is extracted (step 408). Here, information such as a document format to be used, items to be brought, and preparations are extracted.

Finally, an event is determined (step 409). Here, it is determined whether an event (a meeting or the like) with a designated date and time or an action such as a task or a TODO (for example, “submit a report by October 3”) is performed. be registered.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the standard processing of the mail analysis unit 22 and the schedule registration unit 25.

In FIG. 5, when a mail is received (step 901), the mail analysis unit 22 performs a process of classifying the received mail (902) and determines whether the received mail is related to a work request. (903). Here, if the mail is a greeting or the like that does not require any operation, the process ends (904).

On the other hand, when the processing is necessary, the mail analyzing section 22 analyzes the mail contents using the pattern dictionary 23 and extracts the item data of the extracted data 24 (90).
5).

Next, the shortage information extracting unit 27, based on the analysis result of the mail analyzing unit 22,
6 (action (TODO) format), it is detected whether there is any missing information (906).

If there is no missing information, the schedule is registered through the schedule registration unit 25 and the process is terminated (909, 901).

On the other hand, if the information is insufficient in step 906, the information is displayed through the display means (display device 7) (907), and the user is prompted to input the supplementary data 34 through the keyboard 8. (908).

FIG. 12 is a display example for notifying lack information displayed on the display device 7. Here, there is a shortage of the template document and the information of the submission destination. When the user complements these items, the cursor is placed on these items and the complement data 34 is input from the keyboard 8 as a character string.

When inquiring the missing information by e-mail, the mailer 31 is activated by pointing the cursor to the "send inquiry mail to sender" button as a button on the screen. A request email for supplementary data is sent.

When the supplementary data 34 is input through the keyboard 8 or the like, it is registered through the schedule registration unit 25 (909).

FIG. 10 is a flowchart in which the function of the related information search unit 32 is added to the flow of FIG.

In the figure, steps 1001 to 1006 correspond to steps 901 to 906 in FIG.

In this flow, if information is insufficient as extracted data when registering with the schedule management (step 1006), the insufficient information extracting unit 27 instructs the related information searching unit 32 to search (1007). The related information search unit 32 searches the past product database 33 and searches for similar data from past received mails, transmitted mails, created documents, and the like (1008). The search for such similar data is as described with reference to FIG. That is,
If the e-mail with the title “Application for year-end adjustment of 1998” (FIG. 5B) is the received mail 21, the past product database 33 is searched and “Application for year-end adjustment of 1997” of the previous year (FIG. 5 (a)).

If there is no similar data, a data shortage is displayed on the display means (display device 7) to prompt the user to input the supplementary data 34 through the keyboard 8 (1).
009).

When the input of the complementary data is completed (101)
2), the complementary data is displayed on the display means (display device 7) to confirm with the user (1013).

FIG. 13 shows a display example at this time. If the user agrees with this supplement,
By pointing the button position of “K” with the cursor, the supplementary data 34 is delivered to the schedule management program 26 through the schedule registration unit 25.

The subsequent steps 1014 to 1016 are the same as steps 908 to 910 in FIG.

FIG. 11 is obtained by adding a related product search process (steps 1109 to 1111) to the flow of FIG. That is, it is characterized in that the similar data of FIG. 5A is searched for the received mail as shown in FIG. 5B and the related product (here, the entry example file 51) is searched. I have.

That is, a similar past received mail is searched for based on the received mail, and a past generated file (here, the entry example file 51 or the format document 2) is searched.
By searching for item 9), the user can efficiently open the related file from the schedule management data without manually searching for past generated files at the stage after registration in the schedule.

The other steps in FIG. 11 are the same as those in FIG.

In the above description, the program that causes the computer to execute the processing of the present invention may be either integral with or separate from the schedule management program.

The present invention is not limited to this embodiment, but is a concept including the following additional matters.

(Supplementary Note 1) A data processing method for extracting input data to a personal information management program from a received mail, and analyzing the received mail to extract data necessary for registration of the personal information management program. Performing a step of displaying that data is insufficient for registration in the personal information management program and prompting input, and a step of transferring the input data to the personal information management program as supplementary data. A data processing method using electronic mail (first means).

(Supplementary Note 2) A data processing method for extracting input data to a personal information management program from a received mail, wherein the received mail is analyzed to extract data necessary for registration of the personal information management program. Extracting the data managed or used by the personal information management program as similar data when there is insufficient data for registration in the personal information management program. Delivering the similar data as supplementary data to a personal information management program (second means).

(Supplementary note 3) The data described in Supplementary note 2, wherein the data managed or used in the personal information management program to be extracted as the similar data is past received mail, outgoing mail or generated data. Data processing method using e-mail.

(Supplementary Note 4) The data processing method using electronic mail according to Supplementary Note 2, further comprising a step of extracting past generated data instead of or in addition to the similar data.

(Supplementary Note 5) A data processing method for extracting input data to a personal information management program from a received mail, analyzing the received mail and extracting data necessary for registration of the personal information management program. And sending an e-mail requesting supplementation of the missing data to the sender of the received e-mail when data is insufficient for registration in the personal information management program. Data processing method (third
Means).

(Supplementary Note 6) A data processing device for extracting input data to a personal information management program from a received mail, analyzing the received mail and extracting data necessary for registration of the personal information management program. Means for displaying the lack of data for registration in the personal information management program to prompt input, and means for delivering the input data as supplementary data to the personal information management program. Data processing device using e-mail (fourth means).

(Supplementary Note 7) A data processing program for extracting input data to a personal information management program from a received mail, analyzing the received mail and extracting data necessary for registration of the personal information management program. Performing a step of displaying that data is insufficient for registration in the personal information management program and prompting input, and a step of delivering the input data to the personal information management program as supplementary data. And a computer-readable recording medium on which a program to be executed is recorded (fifth means).

(Supplementary Note 8) A data processing device for extracting input data to a personal information management program from a received mail, analyzing the received mail and extracting data necessary for registration of the personal information management program. An analyzing unit, and an extracting unit that extracts data managed by the personal information management program or used data as similar data when data is insufficient for registration in the personal information management program, A supplementing unit for delivering the extracted similar data to the personal information management program as supplementary data.

(Supplementary note 9) The data processing device according to supplementary note 8, wherein the extraction unit extracts past received mail, outgoing mail, or generated data as similar data.

(Supplementary note 10) The data processing apparatus according to supplementary note 8, wherein the extraction unit performs a process of extracting past generated data instead of or together with the similar data.

(Supplementary Note 11) A data processing program for extracting input data to the personal information management program from the received mail, and analyzing the received mail to extract data necessary for registration of the personal information management program. Extracting the data managed or used by the personal information management program as similar data when there is insufficient data for registration in the personal information management program. Delivering the similar data as complementary data to a personal information management program.

(Supplementary Note 12) A data processing program for extracting input data to the personal information management program from the received mail, and analyzing the received mail to extract data necessary for registration of the personal information management program. Extracting the data managed or used by the personal information management program as similar data when there is insufficient data for registration in the personal management information program. Transferring the similar data to the personal information management program as supplementary data to a personal information management program.

(Supplementary Note 13) The data managed by the personal information management program to be extracted as the similar data or used data is past received mail, outgoing mail, or generated data. Computer readable recording medium.

(Supplementary note 14) The computer-readable recording medium according to supplementary note 12, further comprising a step of extracting past generated data instead of or together with the similar data.

(Supplementary Note 15) A data processing program for extracting input data to the personal information management program from the received mail, and analyzing the received mail to extract data necessary for registration of the personal information management program. And a step of transmitting, to a sender of the received mail, a mail requesting complementation of the missing data when data is insufficient for registration in the personal information management program. A computer-readable recording medium on which is recorded.

[0083]

According to the present invention, a necessary item of personal management information is extracted from an irregular e-mail text, and a user is requested by supplementing missing data, assisting in input of missing data, and requesting transmission of missing data. The burden of registration work can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a network configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a relation between processing of each functional unit according to the embodiment;

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a description content of a table according to the embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing processing of a mail analyzing unit according to the embodiment;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing data extracted from a received mail according to the embodiment;

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an outline of functions of the embodiment.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram showing the contents of a received mail according to the embodiment;

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing data extracted from a received mail according to the embodiment;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart (1) showing processing of a mail analysis unit and a schedule registration unit according to the embodiment;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart (2) showing processing of a mail analysis unit and a schedule registration unit according to the embodiment;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart (3) showing processing of the mail analysis unit and the schedule registration unit of the embodiment.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory view (1) showing a display example of the display device of the embodiment.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory view (2) showing a display example of the display device of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 network 2 mail server 3 terminal device 4 bus 5 interface (I / O) 6 central processing unit (CPU) 7 display device (display means) 8 keyboard (KBD) 10 hard disk device (HD) 11 CD-ROM device 23a pattern table 24 Extracted data

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A data processing method for extracting input data to a personal information management program from a received mail, comprising the steps of analyzing the received mail and extracting data necessary for registration of the personal information management program. And prompting input by indicating that data is insufficient for registration in the personal information management program; and delivering the input data to the personal information management program as supplementary data. Data processing method using email. 2. A data processing method for extracting input data to a personal information management program from a received mail, wherein the step of analyzing the received mail to extract data necessary for registration of the personal information management program. Extracting data managed by the personal information management program or used data as similar data when data is insufficient for registration in the personal information management program; and Delivering similar data as supplementary data to the personal information management program. 3. A data processing method for extracting input data to a personal information management program from a received mail, the method comprising: analyzing the received mail to extract data necessary for registration of the personal information management program. Sending data to the sender of the received mail when the data is insufficient for registration in the personal information management program, and sending a mail requesting complementation of the missing data to the sender. Processing method. 4. A data processing device for extracting input data to a personal information management program from a received mail, wherein the means analyzes the received mail and extracts data necessary for registration of the personal information management program. An e-mail comprising: means for displaying the lack of data for registration in the personal information management program and prompting input; and means for delivering the input data as supplementary data to the personal information management program. Data processing device using. 5. A data processing program for extracting input data to a personal information management program from a received mail, wherein the step of analyzing the received mail and extracting data necessary for registration of the personal information management program. Executing a step of displaying that data is insufficient for registration in the personal information management program and prompting input, and a step of delivering the input data to the personal information management program as supplementary data to the computer. A computer-readable recording medium on which a program to be recorded is recorded. 6. A data processing program for extracting input data to a personal information management program from a received mail, wherein the step of analyzing the received mail and extracting data necessary for registration of the personal information management program. Executing a step of displaying that data is insufficient for registration in the personal information management program and prompting input, and a step of delivering the input data to the personal information management program as supplementary data to the computer. Program to let. 7. A data processing program for extracting input data to a personal information management program from a received mail, wherein the step of analyzing the received mail and extracting data necessary for registration of the personal information management program. Extracting data managed by the personal information management program or used data as similar data when data is insufficient for registration in the personal information management program; and Delivering similar data as supplementary data to the personal information management program. 8. A data processing program for extracting input data to a personal information management program from a received mail, wherein the step of analyzing the received mail and extracting data necessary for registration of the personal information management program. Extracting data managed by the personal information management program or used data as similar data when data is insufficient for registration in the personal management information program; and Delivering similar data as supplementary data to a personal information management program. 9. A data processing program for extracting input data to a personal information management program from a received mail, wherein the step of analyzing the received mail and extracting data necessary for registration of the personal information management program. And transmitting, to the sender of the received mail, an e-mail requesting supplementation of the missing data when data is insufficient for registration in the personal information management program.