JP2002132664A - Electronic mail system and electronic mail output processing method, and recording medium with its program recorded thereon - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic mail system and an electronic mail output processing method capable of eliminating any workload to apply a picture or a sound to a mail output, and not limited in terminals for transferring an electronic mail and a recording medium with its program recorded thereon. SOLUTION: A specific information indication anything other than a picture or a sound is acquired from the header of an electronic mail received by a receiving part 2. This specific information is compared with comparison information stored in an ROM 8, and the comparison information matched with the specific information is searched. Then, when any comparison information matching with the specific information is present, the picture or sound corresponding to the comparison information is read from an ROM 8, and the picture or sound is outputted to a liquid crystal display device 5 or a speaker 14.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an e-mail system for controlling e-mail output processing including voice and image of e-mail, an e-mail output processing method, and a recording medium on which the program is recorded.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an electronic mail system, there is an electronic mail system which controls the processing of the mail output for the purpose of improving the effect of the mail output.

For example, in an electronic mail system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-122941, the output process of an electronic mail is controlled based on attribute information given in advance by a sender. More specifically, the terminal on the transmitting side adds character information and attribute information relating to voice to the content of the conventional e-mail. Then, the receiving terminal converts the character information into audio information based on the attribute information.

In the electronic mail output processing method disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-66974, a desired date and time is set in a schedule setting section provided in the electronic mail system on the receiving side, and the received date and time is set at that date and time. When the e-mail is displayed, the desired image display and sound reproduction are controlled.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION However, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open
The electronic mail system disclosed in 000-122941 is
Since the sender needs to add attribute information to the e-mail to be transmitted in advance, there is a problem in that the number of operations for adding a staging effect to the e-mail output increases. In addition, by giving the attribute information, the format of the e-mail is also out of the standard. As a result, there is a problem that the terminals that can exchange the e-mail with the attribute information are limited.

In the electronic mail system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-66974, a receiver must set his / her desired date and time in a schedule setting unit in advance.
The work load for adding the effect to the mail output increases.

[0007] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to eliminate a work load for giving a staging effect to mail output,
An object of the present invention is to provide an e-mail system in which terminals capable of exchanging e-mails are not limited, an e-mail output processing method, and a recording medium on which the program is recorded.

[0008]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an electronic mail system according to the present invention comprises a comparison information storing means for storing the same comparison information as specific information itself other than an image or a sound itself; An image or sound storage unit storing an image or sound associated with the comparison information in advance, and the specific information from the header of the received e-mail, and obtaining the specific information and the comparison information. In comparison, when there is comparison information that matches the specific information, output means for reading and outputting an image or sound corresponding to the comparison information from the image or sound storage means is provided. I have.

[0009] According to the above configuration, specific information representing other than the image and the sound itself is acquired from the header of the received e-mail. Next, the specific information is compared with the comparative information stored in the comparative information storage means to search for comparative information that matches the specific information. Then, when there is comparison information that matches the specific information, an image or sound corresponding to the comparison information is read from the image or sound storage means and output. As described above, since the specific information itself other than the image and the sound itself is also used to represent the image and the sound, even if the special information specifying the image and the sound is not added to the e-mail, Images and sounds are read out from the storage means for sounds and sounds and output. Therefore, the sender does not need to add special information designating the image or the sound itself to the e-mail, and can eliminate a work load for giving a staging effect to the e-mail output.

[0010] Further, since the special information designating the image or sound itself is not added to the e-mail, the format of the e-mail does not deviate from the standard. That is, the e-mail is not in a special format. As a result, terminals that can exchange e-mails are not limited.

[0011] Further, in the electronic mail output processing method of the present invention, a step of acquiring specific information representing other than the image and the sound itself from a header of the received electronic mail, and adding an image to the comparison information which is the same information as the specific information. Reading out an image or sound corresponding to the comparison information that matches the acquired specific information from an image or sound storage unit in which the image or sound is stored in advance in association with the specific information.

[0012] In one embodiment, the specific information is at least a part of information indicating a date.

[0013] In one embodiment, the specific information is at least a part of information indicating time.

In one embodiment, the specific information is a character string of a part or all of a mail address of a sender who transmitted the electronic mail.

In one embodiment, the specific information is:
This is a character string of part or all of the subject attached to the e-mail.

Further, the present invention provides a recording medium on which a program for executing the above-mentioned electronic mail output processing method is recorded.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, an electronic mail system according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to an embodiment shown in the drawings. Here, an embodiment of a portable mail terminal which is a small-scale system as an electronic mail system will be described, but the present invention is not limited to this.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the internal configuration of the portable mail terminal. As shown in FIG. 1, the portable mail terminal includes a transmitting unit 6 for transmitting an e-mail using the telephone line 1, an encoder 7 for converting the e-mail into a mail format, and a receiving unit 2 for receiving the e-mail. And a decoder 3 for converting a mail format of the received e-mail into text data, and a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 4 for controlling the transmitting unit 6, the encoder 7, the receiving unit 2 and the decoder 3.

The portable mail terminal has a ROM (Read Only Memory) 8 and a RAM (Random Access Memory) 9. The ROM 8 stores programs and data for operating the CPU 4. The RAM 9 temporarily stores received e-mails or e-mails to be transmitted, and is used as a work memory of the CPU 4. Further, the RAM 9 stores a user ID (Identi- tive ID) for connecting to the mail server.
fication), password, connection destination, and other setting information are also stored. Further, a liquid crystal display device 5 for displaying an image is provided, and a speaker 14 for outputting sound is provided. The liquid crystal display device 5 displays the text of the e-mail input by the keyboard 11 and various setting contents.
An external storage device 12 for reading the recording medium 13 is also provided. In addition, 10 is a clock.

In the present embodiment, the existing information used in the header of the electronic mail, that is, the specific information itself other than the image and the sound itself is also used to represent the image and the sound. The ROM 8 stores the same comparison information as the specific information itself and the images and sounds represented by the comparison information in association with each other. That is, the ROM 8 includes a comparison information storage unit and an image and sound storage unit.
However, the RAM 9 may constitute a comparison information storage unit and a storage unit for images and sounds. In this case, there is an advantage that the comparison information can be changed, and the image and the sound can be changed.

The operation of the electronic mail system will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, when the user presses the ON key in the keyboard 11, an ON signal is input to the CPU 4, and the CPU 4 starts operating (S200).

Then, the user operates the keyboard 11 to receive an e-mail from the server. The electronic mail is temporarily stored in the RAM 8 after passing through the telephone line 1, the receiving unit 2, and the decoder 3 (S201).

Next, a dialog for selecting whether or not the effect is required is opened. If the user has selected that the effect is necessary, the process proceeds to step S203. On the other hand, when the user has selected that no effect is required, the process proceeds to step S206 (S202).

Then, specific information is obtained from the header of the received e-mail. That is, date and time data, for example, 2000/8/25
Is automatically obtained as the specific information from the server (S20)
3).

Subsequently, the acquired specific information, that is, August, is compared with the comparison information shown in Table 1 below, which is previously associated with (attached to) the image or sound material. Then, it is checked whether or not there is comparison information that matches August. If there is comparison information that matches August, the process proceeds to step S205. On the other hand, if there is no comparison information that matches August, the process proceeds to step S206 (S20).
4).

[0027]

[Table 1]

Here, since there is comparison information that coincides with August, an image corresponding to August is displayed on the liquid crystal display device 5 together with the text of the received e-mail, and a sound corresponding to August is also displayed. Output to the speaker 14. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, the background of the sea and the sky and the character wearing a straw hat are displayed on the liquid crystal display device 5 together with the text of the e-mail. Further, a sound effect of a wave is output from the speaker 14 as an acoustic effect (S205).

Finally, the received e-mail data is displayed on the liquid crystal display device 5 as a part of the list, and the output of the e-mail is terminated. That is, after adding the information of the received e-mail to the list displaying the subject and sender name of the received e-mail, the list is displayed on the liquid crystal display device 5, and the output of the e-mail is ended (S206). ).

Here, steps S203, S204, S
An output means is constituted by 205.

As described above, since the image or the sound is output based on the month information in the header of the received e-mail, the image or the sound is output even if the special information for designating the image or the sound is not added to the header information. The sound is output, and the received e-mail automatically becomes highly effective. Therefore, the sender does not have to add special information designating images and sounds to the e-mail, so that there is no need to perform a difficult operation for giving a staging effect to the e-mail output. That is, by using the e-mail output processing method of the present invention, the received e-mail can be easily processed into a realistic one without imposing a burden on the user.

Further, since the special information for designating the image and the sound is not included in the electronic mail, the format of the electronic mail does not deviate from the standard. As a result, terminals that can exchange e-mails are not limited. That is, since the existing header information of the current mail format is used, the terminals that can communicate are not limited.

A program for realizing such an operation of the electronic mail system may be recorded on a recording medium.

Although the comparison information storage means and the image and sound storage means are included in the ROM 8, they may be included in the CPU 4. Further, the comparison information storage unit and the image and sound storage unit may be stored in the recording medium 13. in this case,
The comparison information, the image, and the sound may be read from the recording medium 13 via the external storage device 12 as needed.

Then, in this embodiment, the month information is obtained from the header of the received e-mail, but at least a part of the date information may be obtained. That is, at least one of the year, month, and day information may be acquired. Further, the time as the specific information may be obtained from the header of the received e-mail.

Hereinafter, the case where the time is obtained from the header information of the received e-mail will be described with reference to the flow chart of FIG. 4. Diagrams showing the same processes as those of FIG. explain.

First, as shown in FIG. 4, the processing is started,
Step S200, step S201 and step S
Step 202 is performed sequentially.

Then, in step S303, specific information is obtained from the header of the received e-mail. That is,
Time data is acquired from the date and time field of the header information, for example, 23:00 as specific information from 23:30 (S303).

Next, the acquired specific information, that is, 23:00,
It is previously associated with (attached to) materials that are images and sounds,
Compare with the comparison information shown in Table 2 below. And 23
It is checked whether or not there is comparison information that matches the time.
If there is comparison information that matches the time, step S305
Proceed to. On the other hand, if there is no comparison information that matches 23:00, the process proceeds to step S306 (S304).

[0040]

[Table 2]

Here, since there is comparison information that coincides with 23:00, the image corresponding to 23:00 is displayed on the liquid crystal display device 5 together with the text of the received e-mail, and the sound corresponding to 23:00 is output to the speaker 14. Output. In particular,
As shown in FIG. 5, the background of the moonlit night and the character wearing pajamas are displayed together with the text of the e-mail on the liquid crystal display device 5.
To be displayed. Further, an owl cry is output to the speaker 14 as a sound effect (S305).

Finally, the data of the received e-mail is displayed on the liquid crystal display device 5 as a part of the list, and the output of the e-mail is completed. That is, after adding the information of the received e-mail to the list displaying the subject and the sender's name of the received e-mail, the list is displayed on the liquid crystal display device 5, and the output of the e-mail is ended (S306). ).

Here, steps S303, S304, S
Output means is constituted by 305.

Although a part of the time information, that is, the time information is obtained from the header of the received e-mail, the information of the entire time may be obtained. In short, what is necessary is just to acquire at least part of the information indicating the time. Also, instead of obtaining part of the time information from the header of the received email,
A part or all of the character string of the mail address as the specific information may be obtained from the header of the received e-mail.

Hereinafter, from the header of the received e-mail,
A case where a part of the character string of the mail address of the sender who transmitted the electronic mail will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. It should be noted that the diagrams showing the same processes as those in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted.
Therefore, the description will be started after the processing of steps S200 to S202, that is, from step S403.

First, specific information is obtained from the header of the received e-mail. That is, the sender data from the sender field of the header information, for example, “taro@sharp.c
o.jp "is automatically acquired as the specific information (S403).

Next, the acquired specific information, ie, taro ＠,
It is previously associated with (attached to) materials that are images and sounds,
Compare with the comparative information shown in Table 3 below. And taro
Check if there is comparison information that matches ＠, and
If there is comparison information that matches ＠, step S405
Proceed to. On the other hand, if there is no comparison information that matches taro #, the process proceeds to step S406 (S404).

[0048]

[Table 3]

Here, since there is comparison information that matches taro ＠, the image corresponding to taro ＠ is displayed on the liquid crystal display device 5 together with the text of the received e-mail, and the sound corresponding to taro ＠ is output from the speaker 14. Output to Specifically, FIG.
As shown in the figure, a motorcycle having Taro's hobby and a character having a portrait of Taro are displayed on the liquid crystal display device 5 together with the text of the e-mail on the background. Further, as the sound effect, the text of the e-mail is read aloud with a voice approximated by Taro (S405).

Finally, the data of the received e-mail is displayed on the liquid crystal display device 5 as a part of the list, and the output processing of the e-mail is completed. That is, after adding the information of the received e-mail to a list displaying the subject and the sender name of the received e-mail, the list is displayed on the liquid crystal display device 5.
And the output of the e-mail is terminated (S40).
6).

Here, steps S403, S404, S
Output means is constituted by 405.

Instead of obtaining the entire character string of the sender's e-mail address from the header of the received e-mail, a part or all of the character string of the subject as specific information is obtained from the header of the received e-mail. You may.

Hereinafter, from the header of the received e-mail,
A case where a part of a character string of the subject attached to the body of the electronic mail is acquired will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Here, the diagrams showing the same processes as those in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted. Therefore, the description starts from step S503.

First, specific information is obtained from the header of the received e-mail. That is, from the subject field of the header, subject data, for example, skis as specific information are automatically acquired from ski invitations (S503).

Next, the acquired specific information, ie, ski,
It is previously associated with (attached to) materials that are images and sounds,
Compare with the comparison information described in Table 4 below. Then, it is checked whether or not there is comparison information that matches the ski. If there is comparison information that matches the ski, step S505 is performed.
Proceed to. On the other hand, if there is no comparison information that matches the ski, the process proceeds to step S506 (S504).

[0056]

[Table 4]

Here, since there is comparison information that matches the ski, an image corresponding to the ski is displayed on the liquid crystal display device 5 together with the text of the received e-mail, and a sound corresponding to the ski is output to the speaker 14. . Specifically, FIG.
As shown in the figure, the background of the snowy mountain and the character wearing the skiware are displayed together with the text of the e-mail on the liquid crystal display device 5.
To be displayed. Further, snow and konkon are played as sound effects (S505).

Finally, the data of the received e-mail is displayed on the liquid crystal display device 5 as a part of the list, and the e-mail output process ends. That is, after adding the information of the received e-mail to a list displaying the subject and the sender name of the received e-mail, the list is displayed on the liquid crystal display device 5.
And the output of the e-mail is terminated (S50).
6).

Here, steps S503, S504, S
The output unit 505 constitutes an output unit.

[0060]

As is clear from the above, even if special information for designating an image or sound is not added to the e-mail, the image or sound is output based on the specific information other than the image or sound itself. Therefore, the sender does not need to add special information designating images and sounds to the e-mail, and can eliminate the work load associated with the application of the effect to the e-mail output.

Further, since the special information for designating the image and the sound is not added to the e-mail, the e-mail does not have a special format, and it is possible to prevent a terminal from which the e-mail can be exchanged from being limited.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an internal configuration of a portable mail terminal as an electronic mail system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the electronic mail system.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an output example by the processing of the flowchart in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the electronic mail system.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an output example by the processing of the flowchart of FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the electronic mail system.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an output example by the processing of the flowchart in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation of the electronic mail system.

FIG. 9 is a diagram illustrating an output example by the processing of the flowchart in FIG. 8;

[Explanation of symbols]

 4 CPU 8 ROM 9 RAM 13 Recording medium

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A comparison information storage means for storing comparison information identical to specific information itself other than an image or sound itself, and an image or sound storing an image or sound previously associated with the comparison information. And the storage unit of the above, acquires the specific information from the header of the received e-mail, compares the specific information with the comparison information, and, when there is comparison information that matches the specific information, An e-mail system comprising: an output unit that reads out and outputs an image or a sound corresponding to the comparison information from an image or a sound storage unit. 2. A step of acquiring specific information representing a part other than an image or a sound from a header of a received e-mail, and storing the image and the sound in association with comparison information which is the same information as the specific information in advance. Reading out and outputting an image or sound corresponding to the comparison information that matches the acquired specific information from the stored image or sound storage means. 3. The electronic mail output processing method according to claim 2, wherein the specific information is at least a part of information indicating a date. 4. The electronic mail output processing method according to claim 2, wherein the specific information is at least a part of information indicating a time. 5. The electronic mail output processing method according to claim 2, wherein the specific information is a character string of a part or all of a mail address of a sender who has transmitted the electronic mail. Email output processing method. 6. The e-mail output processing method according to claim 2, wherein the specific information is a character string of a part or all of a subject attached to the e-mail. Method. 7. A recording medium on which a program for executing the electronic mail output processing method according to claim 2 is recorded.