JP2003022240A - Electronic mail - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic mail system having a function for notifying a transmitter of the information of the processing operation of a receiver and a function for efficiently allowing the receiver to recognize information included in an electronic mail. SOLUTION: This electronic mail system allows a transmitter to know the level of attentions or the level of recognition by returning the processing operation of a receiver in response to a transmitted electronic mail, especially, information related with the display time of the electronic mail to the transmitter. Moreover, the received electronic mail is erased after the lapse of a fixed time since the electronic mail is displayed on the screen so that the attentiveness of the receiver to the electronic mail can be enhanced.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail system including a plurality of servers and a plurality of terminal devices, and more specifically, an electronic mail system having a function of informing a sender of information on processing operation of a recipient. TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a mail system and an electronic mail system having a function of allowing a recipient to efficiently recognize information included in electronic mail.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art With the development of computer technology, the opportunity to provide and collect information has increased more and more in recent years due to the networked structure of a plurality of electronic information terminals such as the Internet. In particular, with the development of web technology, various forms that have not been performed until now due to the increase in the amount of information transmitted and received on the web, the increase in communication speed, and the higher performance of electronic mobile terminals such as mobile phones. Information is being provided.

Under such circumstances, in a network system such as the Internet, which is composed of a plurality of servers and a plurality of terminal devices, electronic mails are transmitted and received between electronic information terminals owned by respective users to transmit information. And information is provided from the website. Unlike conventional information transmission systems, e-mail allows users to send information to terminal devices connected to a network at their convenience, and the type of information is not limited to text information, , It is possible to send various types of information such as voice. The recipient can confirm the content of the information at any time by reading the information into the electronic information terminal at a convenient time or temporarily storing the information in the owning terminal device. Furthermore, due to the recent increase in the speed of information, it has become possible to transmit a large amount of data at high speed, and the content of information is diversifying.

In the already used electronic mail system, the recipient who receives the electronic mail including the sender's message displays the information of the electronic mail on the display device connected to the terminal device and confirms the contents. Two-way information communication is performed by newly sending an e-mail including a message of the recipient to the sender.
Further, by the recipient transferring the electronic mail to a third party, it is possible to expand the information transmission range beyond the information transmission between the sender and the recipient.

Further, in order to smoothly carry out the two-way information transmission, a means is provided which allows the sender to confirm that the sent electronic mail is displayed on the display device. The recipient reads the e-mail sent to the mail address registered by the recipient into the terminal device and displays the content of the e-mail on the display device connected to the terminal device of the recipient. At this time, an email notifying that the recipient has displayed the email on a display device is sent to the sender's email address,
The sender can confirm that the email has been read by the recipient.

[0006]

In an e-mail system that returns an e-mail for confirmation of reception, which has already been performed, the electronic data of the e-mail is read by the terminal device on the receiving side and connected to the terminal device. When displayed on the displayed display device, a selection screen as to whether or not to return the reception confirmation e-mail to the sender is displayed, and the reception confirmation e-mail is transmitted by the selection operation selected by the receiver.

However, the information contained in the returned e-mail mainly includes only that the recipient has displayed the e-mail on the display device. In other cases, the recipient displays the electronic data of the e-mail. The time displayed on the device is included. In addition to individual use of electronic mail by each user, companies operating websites often use electronic mail as a means of communication of information regarding advertisements and products. In such a case, it is important to know whether or not the recipient has confirmed the content of the sent email. In addition, when an email containing information about advertisements or products of a company that operates a website is distributed to multiple users,
The degree of attention of each user with respect to the e-mail differs depending on each user, and many users simply display the e-mail on the display device and do not look at the content with caution.

Further, the information contained in the electronic mail sent from the sender to the recipient is not always of high importance to the recipient. For example, advertisements sent from websites are not very important. With respect to the included electronic mail, even if the recipient confirms the content, the recipient only confirms the content in a short time, and the message of the sender is often not sufficiently transmitted. In addition, the sender of the e-mail may confirm the reception again by telephone with the receiver.

Therefore, the sender cannot know the degree of attention of the recipient to the electronic mail only by displaying the electronic mail on the display device, and the information that the sender can obtain is limited. I will be lost. It is also desired to increase the recognition of the information contained in the email by allowing the recipient to carefully check the content of the email. In addition, when the electronic mail is read into the receiving side terminal device, the electronic data of the electronic mail whose content has been confirmed by the recipient may be stored in the storage device of the receiving side terminal device and may be a burden on the receiving side terminal device. .

[0010]

According to the present invention, there is provided an electronic mail system including a plurality of servers and a plurality of terminal devices, the first electronic information including information of a processing operation of a recipient for first electronic data including a message of a sender. (2) Providing an electronic mail system characterized by having a generating means for generating electronic data of No. 2 and a returning means for returning the second electronic data to a sending side terminal, and a sender and a receiver of the electronic mail. It enables smooth two-way communication of information.

Further, according to the present invention, in an electronic mail system including a plurality of servers and a plurality of terminal devices, first electronic data including a message of a sender is stored in a storage device of a terminal on the receiving side of the first electronic data. (EN) An electronic mail system having an erasing means for erasing and a setting means for setting the erasing means at a terminal of a sender of the first electronic data. At the same time, it is possible to avoid the accumulation of e-mails on the receiving side terminal.

In one example of the present invention, the electronic data for recording the display start time and the display end time when the recipient of the electronic mail displays the electronic data of the electronic mail on the display device, and for measuring the display time. CGI execution data (CGI: Common Gateway Inter
face) is transmitted to the receiving side terminal at the same time as the electronic data including the sender's message. Further, when the recipient finishes displaying the electronic data of the electronic mail, a reception confirmation electronic mail is created based on the CGI execution data. The reception confirmation e-mail contains data on the display time and display time of the e-mail. At this time, if the e-mail is displayed on the display screen without the recipient setting the reception confirmation mail on the screen, the reception confirmation mail is created and transmitted to the transmission side terminal. Further, the sender can set the reception confirmation e-mail on the sending side terminal device.

Further, in an example of the present invention, the CGI execution data is transmitted together with the electronic mail, and the time set in advance in the CGI execution data has elapsed since the electronic data of the electronic mail was displayed on the display screen of the recipient. Then, the electronic data of the electronic mail is deleted from the receiving side terminal regardless of the recipient's intention. At this time, on the display screen of the electronic data of the electronic mail, a message notifying that the electronic data will be erased when the set time has elapsed is displayed. The time until the electronic data of the e-mail is deleted can be set by the sending side terminal device. With this function, the interest and attention of the recipient with respect to the electronic mail can be enhanced, and the load on the storage device of the receiving terminal can be reduced.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. In the first embodiment, an e-mail system that returns information on the processing period of the e-mail to the sender to the sender will be described. further,
In the second embodiment, an electronic mail system will be described in which electronic data is erased after a lapse of a certain period of time, so that the recipient's attention to an electronic mail can be increased.

[First Embodiment] A diagram showing a general environment of an electronic mail system according to the present embodiment is shown in FIG. 1, and a flow chart is shown in FIG. The e-mail creation screen and the reception confirmation e-mail display screen will be described with reference to the corresponding drawings at any time. First, the sender activates the mailer of the terminal device 11 and creates the electronic data 2 of the electronic mail 1 including the message on the screen displayed by the mailer (S101). FIG. 3 shows an example of the electronic mail creation screen of this embodiment. The email creation screen 21 displays a message input section 22 from the sender to the recipient and a selection section 23 for setting whether or not to send back a reception confirmation email.
The sender sets the presence or absence of a reply to the reception confirmation e-mail in the selection unit 23 (S102). When the reception confirmation e-mail is set to be returned, the command is converted into electronic data, and the electronic mail 2 is sent together with the sending mail server 12
Sent to. At this time, the electronic data including the command for returning the reception confirmation e-mail 3 is the CGI execution data 4 (CGI: Common Gateway Interface).
face) is transmitted to the mail server on the transmission side (S103). For example, in the case of e-mail sent and received on the Internet, a specified specification (for example, RFC
882, MINE), the mailer prepares the formats of the electronic data 2 and the CGI execution data 4 so as to meet this specification, and then sends them to the mail server 12 for transmission.

Next, electronic data 2 and CGI execution data 4
Is transmitted to the receiving mail server 13 corresponding to the destination mail address (S104). When the reception mail server 13 is directly connected to the Internet, the transmission mail server 12 directly transmits the electronic data 2 and the electronic data including the CGI execution data 4. Here, the electronic data 2 and the CGI execution data 4 that have reached the recipient's mail server 13 are temporarily stored in the mailbox installed in the recipient's mail server 13.

Next, a dial-up connection is made from the recipient's terminal device 14 to the recipient's mail server 13, and the electronic data 2 and CG sent from the recipient's mailbox are sent.
The I execution data 4 is read into the terminal device 14 (S10
5). In addition, the receiving mail server 13 and the terminal device 14
There is a way to read mail even if and are not always connected. For example, there is a method in which the mailer of the terminal device 14 regularly connects to the receiving-side mail server 13 at a time interval set in the receiving-side mail server 13 to read an electronic mail. The electronic data 2 including the sender's message and the CGI execution data 4 are temporarily stored in the terminal device 14, and the electronic mail 1 is displayed in the received electronic mail list of the mailer.
Title, etc. are displayed.

The recipient displays the electronic data 2 including the sender's message on the screen by clicking the title of the electronic mail 1. At this time, when the electronic data 2 is displayed on the screen, at the same time as the electronic data 2, the receiving side terminal device 1
The CGI execution data 4 read in 4 is activated (S1
06). The CGI execution data 4 has a function of recording the display start time and the display end time of the electronic data 2. Further, it has a function of measuring the time from the display start or a function of calculating the display time when the electronic data 2 is displayed on the screen from the display start time and the display end time. When the recipient finishes displaying the electronic data 2 on the screen, C
The GI execution data 4 includes new electronic data 5 as the receiving terminal 1.
4 is created (S107). The new electronic data 5 includes information regarding the processing period for the electronic data 2 of the recipient, and in the case of the present embodiment, the display start time, the display end time, the display time, etc. of the electronic data 2 are included. .

Next, the electronic data 5 created by the receiving side terminal device 14 is used as a reception confirmation e-mail 3 and the receiving side terminal 1
4 to the transmitting side terminal 11 (S108). CGI
The receiving terminal 14 is connected to the receiving mail server 13 by the execution data 4. Therefore, the reception confirmation e-mail 3 is transmitted to the reception-side mail server 13 even when the connection is not always established. Further, even when the connection is disconnected after the electronic data 2 is once fetched in the receiving terminal 14, the electronic data 5 regarding the time when the electronic data 2 is displayed on the image display device is temporarily stored in the receiving terminal 14. (S112) Next, when the computer is connected to the computer network such as the Internet, the electronic data 5 can be transmitted to the receiving mail server 13 based on the data included in the CGI execution data 4 (S1).
13). The electronic data 5 once stored in the receiving mail server 13 is sent to the sending terminal 12 (S10).
9). Here, it may be directly sent to the mail server 12 on the sending side, or may be sent via a plurality of servers.

The electronic data 5 once stored in the sending mail server 12 is sent to the sending terminal 11 (S11).
0) is displayed on the reception display screen of the mailer of the sender terminal 11 (S111). The sender activates the received electronic data 5 of the reception confirmation electronic mail 3 with a mailer and displays the electronic data 5 of the reception confirmation electronic mail 3 on the screen. FIG. 4 shows the reception confirmation electronic mail 3 on the display screen 24. On the display screen 24, a display start time 25, a display end time 26, a display time 27 of the electronic data 2 and an electronic mail address 28 of the recipient are displayed.

Since the reception confirmation e-mail 3 indicates the display time of the e-mail 1 and the like, it is possible to know the degree of attention and understanding of the recipient with respect to the e-mail 1. The sender does not need to send an e-mail for confirmation again, and the information can be exchanged on the assumption that the recipient has confirmed the sent e-mail when sending the e-mail subsequently. it can. Further, the electronic mail creation screen shown in FIG. 3 and the reception confirmation electronic mail display screen shown in FIG. 4 are examples of this embodiment, and in particular, the reception confirmation electronic mail contains information on the processing operation of the recipient. Should be included. The terminal device may be any terminal device that can be connected to a network such as the Internet, and a mobile information terminal such as a mobile phone can also be used.

[Second Embodiment] Next, an electronic mail system capable of increasing the attention of a recipient to an electronic mail will be described. A flow chart of this embodiment is shown in FIG. 5, and the e-mail creation screen and the display screen on the side of the recipient will be described in detail with reference to the corresponding drawings at any time.
Regarding the general environment of the present embodiment, elements common to FIG. 1 will be described using the same reference numerals.

First, the sender activates the mailer on the terminal device 11 on the sending side and creates an electronic mail 41 including a message on the screen displayed by the mailer (S20).
1). As shown in FIG. 6, in the email creation screen,
An input unit 32 for inputting conditions for deleting the e-mail 41 on the recipient side is displayed together with the message input unit 31, and the sender inputs desired conditions in the input unit (S
202). Illustratively, the recipient displays the electronic mail 41 on the display device, and the electronic data 42 of the electronic mail 41 is erased after a lapse of time input in advance in the input unit 32. The time until the electronic data 42 is erased can be set to days, hours, minutes, and seconds, and can be freely set by the sender. The creation screen shown in FIG. 6 is an example, and the condition for erasing the electronic data 42 is not limited to time, but the sender can preset the processing operation for the electronic data 42 by the receiver. The input setting conditions are read in the CGI execution data 44 transmitted at the same time as the electronic data 42.

Electronic data 42 including the sender's message
Then, the CGI execution data 44 for erasing the electronic data 42 by the terminal device 14 on the recipient side is transmitted to the mail server 12 on the transmitting side (S203). In the case of Internet mail, the specified specifications (eg RFC88
Since the format of (2, MINE) is decided,
The electronic data 42 and the CGI execution data 44 are formatted so as to meet the above specifications, and are transmitted to the transmission mail server 12.

Next, the electronic data 42 including the sender's message and the CGI execution data 44 are transmitted to the receiving server 13 corresponding to the destination mail address (S20).
4). When the receiving mail server 13 is directly connected to the Internet, the electronic mail 42 and the electronic data including the CGI execution data 44 are directly sent from the transmitting mail server 12 in this manner. The electronic data 42 and the CGI execution data 44 that have arrived at the recipient's mail server 13 are temporarily stored in the mailbox installed in the mail server 13.

Next, a dial-up connection is made from the recipient's terminal device 14 to the recipient's mail server 13, and the electronic data 42 and C sent from the recipient's mailbox are sent.
The GI execution data 44 is read into the terminal device 14 (S
205). Even when the receiving mail server and the receiving terminal are not always connected, the mailer of the receiving terminal connects to the receiving mail server at the time interval set in the receiving mail server and periodically e-mails. There is a method to read mail. Electronic data 42 including messages
The CGI execution data 44 is temporarily stored in the receiving terminal 14, and the title of the electronic mail 41 including the message is displayed in the received electronic mail list of the mailer.

The recipient displays the electronic data 42 including the sender's message on the screen by clicking the title display of the electronic mail 41. At this time, the CGI execution data 44 read by the receiving terminal 14 is also activated (S206). As shown in FIG. 7, on the display screen of the e-mail 41, a message portion 33 for notifying that the electronic data 42 will be erased when the time set by the sender has passed and a display showing the remaining time until the electronic data 42 are erased. The section 34 is displayed. Further, not only the remaining time until the electronic data 42 is erased is displayed as a numerical value, but also the remaining time is instantly displayed in a form that can be recognized by the receiver (display unit 35).
By doing so, the recipient's attention to the electronic mail can be further enhanced.

When the electronic data 42 is displayed and the time set by the sender at the time of transmission is reached, the CGI execution data 4
4, the electronic data 42 is erased from the terminal device 14 on the recipient side (S207). At this time, the receiver side terminal 1
In some cases, the time when the electronic data 42 is displayed on the display device of No. 4 does not reach the time to erase the data. At this time,
The CGI execution data 44, which started to operate when first displayed on the screen, is continuously operated, and the electronic data 42 is set even if the electronic data 42 is not displayed on the screen and is stored in the receiver side terminal device 14. Electronic data 42
Is deleted from the receiver terminal device 14. The e-mail creation screen shown in FIG. 6 and the e-mail display screen shown in FIG. 7 are examples of this embodiment, and the terminal device may be any terminal device that can be connected to a network such as the Internet, or a mobile phone. It is also possible to use a portable information terminal such as.

[0029]

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION The processing operation of a recipient when sending an e-mail, in particular, in the present invention, the information of the display time of the e-mail on the receiving side terminal is included in the e-mail for confirmation of reception, and the sender terminal device By replying to, the sender can know the degree of recognition of the recipient for the electronic mail. Furthermore, when an electronic mail including an advertisement of a company that operates a website and product information is distributed to a plurality of users, the degree of attention of each user to the electronic mail varies depending on the recipient. As one means of quantifying the degree of attention, the sender can know the degree of attention and recognition of the recipient by including information about the display time of the email in the receipt confirmation email. . Furthermore, by knowing the degree of attention of the recipient to the email,
It is possible to efficiently transmit the information by transmitting an electronic mail including the information of the field desired by the recipient.

Further, since the electronic data of the electronic mail is erased at the time set by the sender after being displayed on the receiving terminal, the capacity of the storage device of the terminal device on the receiving side can be effectively used. it can. Further, when the electronic mail is displayed on the terminal device of the recipient side, it is displayed that the electronic data of the electronic mail is erased at the set time, so that the recipient can be alert to the electronic mail. This is a great effect as a means for making the recipient recognize the information contained in the e-mail.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram showing a general environment of a first embodiment of an electronic mail system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the procedure of the first embodiment of the electronic mail system of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an example of an electronic mail creation screen of the first embodiment of the electronic mail system of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an example of a display screen of a reception confirmation electronic mail according to the first embodiment of the electronic mail system of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a procedure of the second embodiment of the electronic mail system of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is an example of an electronic mail creation screen of the second embodiment of the electronic mail system of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an example of an electronic mail displayed on the display screen of the recipient side of the second embodiment of the electronic mail system of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 Sending terminal device 12 Sending mail server 13 Receiving mail server 14 Receiving side terminal device 22 Message input section 23 Selector 24 display screen 25 Display start time 26 Display end time 27 Display time

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Shigeki Ozaki             82-14 Kashiwa-cho, Asahi-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa F-term (reference) 5K030 HA06 LC18 LD12

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An electronic mail system including a plurality of servers and a plurality of terminal devices, wherein second electronic data including information on a processing period for a recipient for first electronic data including a message of a sender is generated. Generating means,
An e-mail system comprising: a reply unit that returns the second electronic data to a terminal of a sender of the first electronic data. 2. The generating means includes a recording means for recording a display start time and a display end time of the first electronic data on a display device connected to the receiving side terminal. The electronic mail system according to item 1. 3. The electronic mail according to claim 1, wherein the generating means has a measuring means for measuring a display time of the first electronic data on a display device connected to the receiving side terminal. system. 4. An electronic mail system including a plurality of servers and a plurality of terminal devices, and erasing means for erasing first electronic data including a message of a sender from a storage device of a terminal that receives the first electronic data. And an setting means for setting the erasing means on the transmission side terminal of the first electronic data. 5. The first electronic data is erased from a storage device of the receiving side terminal when a time set in the erasing means has elapsed after being displayed on a display device connected to the receiving side terminal. The electronic mail system according to claim 4, wherein: 6. The electronic device according to claim 5, wherein the display device displays that the first electronic data is erased when the set time elapses after being displayed on the display device. Mail system.