JP2003058477A - Mail transfer reading system and its method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To make it possible to read out the contents of an e-mail even when the contents of the e-mail exceed the limited number of characters of mobile communication equipment to which the e-mail is transferred. SOLUTION: When the number of characters of an e-mail exceeds the limited number of characters of a portable telephone set 20, a web mail generation part 12 generates a web mail on the basis of the contents of the read e-mail and stores the web mail in a web mail storage part 14. A mail transmitting part 13 adds a prescribed URL to the original mail read out by a mail reading part 11 and transmits the edited mail to the mail address of the portable telephone set 20. A service user starts an Internet connecting function by specifying the URL added to the head of the mail and reads the web mail sent to the user himself (or herself) and stored in the storage part 14.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mail transfer browsing system and a mail transfer browsing method for transferring an electronic mail sent to a mail server to a mobile phone.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When an electronic mail is transmitted to a specific partner via the Internet, the electronic mail is stored in the partner's mail server. If the commercial provider manages the mail server, users of that provider can read the email addressed to them by accessing the provider's mail server. However, when the user goes out and his / her computer terminal is not at hand, the user cannot read the e-mail sent to him / her.

Therefore, a service has been put into practical use in which the e-mail function of the mobile phone is used to transfer the e-mail that has arrived at the mail server of the provider to the mobile phone of the user. FIG. 7 shows a route that an electronic mail follows when using such a mail transfer service. In FIG. 7, a mail server 50 is a mail server managed by a provider that performs this mail transfer service, and a mail server 51 is a mobile phone that provides a mobile phone owned by a user of the provider. It is a mail server managed by the company.

When the sender of the electronic mail sends the electronic mail to this user via the Internet, the data is first stored in the mail server 50. At the same time, the electronic mail is sent by the mail server 50 to the mobile phone 52 of the user via the mail server 51 of the mobile phone company registered in advance. Therefore, even if the user owns a mobile phone and applies for a service to have the provider forward the e-mail to that mobile phone, even if an emergency call is received by e-mail, for example. , The user can read the e-mail addressed to himself on the display of the mobile phone.

[0005]

By the way, since the mobile phone has to have various functions in a small housing, the performance of each function is limited to some extent even though there are many kinds of functions. Regarding the e-mail function, the number of characters that can be transmitted / received is often limited due to the capacity of the installed memory, the communication speed, or the communication charge.

Therefore, when the number of characters of the electronic mail exceeds such a limited number of characters, the electronic mail transferred to the mobile phone through the route shown in FIG. 7 may receive the portion exceeding the limited number of characters. However, there is a problem that the content of the electronic mail is interrupted on the way as shown in FIG.

The present invention has been made based on such a technical background, and an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic mail even if the content of the electronic mail exceeds the character limit of the transfer destination mobile communication device. It is to be able to read the contents of the mail.

[0008]

To achieve the above object, a mail transfer for transferring an e-mail to a mobile communication device having at least an e-mail receiving function and an internet connection function for accessing a given URL. A browsing system, a mail reading means for reading an electronic mail from a mail server, and a webmail generating means for generating a webmail in a format that can be browsed on the Internet based on the contents of the electronic mail read by the mail reading means. A webmail storing means for storing the webmail in a format that can be browsed via the internet, and an internet of the webmail stored in the webmail storing means in the content of the electronic mail read by the mail reading means. Add the URL above And mail transmission means for transferring the addressed predetermined mobile communication apparatus, the URL via the Internet
And a browsing means for permitting the browsing of the web mail when accessed.

The webmail generating means may generate the webmail only when an email having a number of characters exceeding the predetermined number of characters of the email receiving function of the mobile communication device is sent.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. However, the following description is merely an example of the present invention, and the technical scope of the invention described in the claims is not limited by the following description.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing the mail transfer / browsing system of this embodiment and its surroundings, and FIG. 2 is an electronic mail transmitted via the Internet when the mail transfer / browsing system of this embodiment is used. Is a diagram showing a route to reach the mobile phone, and corresponds to FIG. 7 which describes the conventional technique. The mobile phones used in this embodiment include
It is premised that the mobile phone company has a mail transmission / reception function and an Internet connection function represented by i-mode (registered trademark). At the time of this application, many mobile phones have these features.

In FIG. 1, a mail transfer browsing system 1
0 is a part that plays a central role in providing the mail transfer browsing service of the present embodiment, which enables the mobile phone 20 to read an e-mail that exceeds the limit number of characters of the transfer destination mobile phone 20. . The mail server 30 is a mail server managed by an organization that provides a mail transfer / browsing service (hereinafter referred to as “service provider company”), and the server 40 is for a person who uses a mobile phone company of the mobile phone company. On the other hand, it is a server for performing an e-mail transmission / reception service and an internet connection service.

Mail server 3 via the Internet
If the destination of the e-mail that reaches 0 is a user who has previously applied for a transfer service to the mobile phone (hereinafter referred to as "service user"), the e-mail is normally sent from the mail server 30. The data is sent to the server 40 of the telephone company, and then from there to the mobile telephone 20 using a dedicated line used by the mobile telephone company. However, as described above, if the number of characters of the sent electronic mail exceeds the number of characters of the mobile phone 20, the content of the electronic mail is interrupted and cannot be read to the end (FIG. 8). reference).

On the other hand, in the present embodiment, the service providing company provides the mail transfer / browsing system 10 shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 and executes the mail transfer / browsing service by using the system, whereby the problem is solved. Is solved.

The mail transfer / browsing system 10 is composed of a general computer such as a personal computer or a workstation in terms of hardware and its peripheral devices, and a mail reading unit 11 and a web mail (or "Web mail") are generated therein. The unit 12, the mail transmission unit 13, the web mail storage unit 14, and the like are configured as software.

First, the service user of this embodiment performs a registration procedure for receiving a service at a site operated by a service providing company on the Internet as shown in FIG. In the screen of FIG. 3, the display “Pico mail” at the beginning is an example of the name given to this service by this service providing company. The service user inputs the mail address of the mobile phone 20 he owns on the screen of FIG. After clicking the "Next" button and confirming the email address of the user's mobile phone 20 on the screen shown in Fig. 4 that appears next, click the "Register" button to complete the registration procedure as a service user. . Although not shown in the figure, when performing this procedure, the number of characters of the email that can be processed by the mobile phone 20 owned by the service user is also registered. However, the mail transfer / reading system 10 stores a database of the limited number of characters of major mobile phones in advance, and the service user can automatically know the limited number of characters by entering only the model number of his / her mobile phone. You may stay.

Next, how the electronic mail sent from the sender to the service user via the Internet is processed will be described. When the sender sends an electronic mail to the service user's mail address via the Internet, the electronic mail is sent to the mail server 30.
Stored in. This e-mail is read by the mail reading unit 11 of the mail transfer / browsing system 10,
First, it is determined whether the number of characters exceeds the limit number of characters of the mobile phone 20 of the service user registered in advance.

When the number of characters exceeds this limit, the webmail generation unit 12 generates a webmail based on the read content of the electronic mail and stores it in the webmail storage unit 13. Here, webmail means
It is a mail consisting of HTML format data that can be browsed by a web browser. With such a data format, since the mobile phone 20 has the Internet browsing function, all the contents can be browsed regardless of the number of characters of the original electronic mail.

On the other hand, the mail sending section 14 first processes the original mail read by the mail reading section 11 as shown in FIG. That is, at the beginning of the body of the email,
URLs on the Internet, as indicated by the ellipses
(Uniform Resource Locator) is added. This URL
Is generated by the webmail generation unit 12 described above,
U of the webmail stored in the webmail storage unit 13
It is RL. The mail transmission unit 14 adds this URL to the beginning, and subsequently generates an e-mail composed of characters within the range that can be displayed on the mobile phone 20. Send to your email address. This data is from the mobile phone company's server 40
And is sent from the server 40 to the mobile phone 20 via the dedicated line of the mobile phone company. in this case,
The mobile phone company server 40 functions as a mail server.

When the user of the service looks at the sent electronic mail, it can be seen that the entire text cannot be viewed only by this electronic mail because the URL is added at the beginning. Therefore, the service user can perform a simple operation such as one-click on the mobile phone 20 according to the predetermined model.
Start the Internet connection function by specifying the URL added at the beginning, and through the server 40 of the mobile phone company,
Browse the webmail addressed to you stored in the webmail storage 13. In this case, the mobile phone company's server 4
0 functions as an internet connection server.

By the way, the capacity of the web mail that can be browsed by the mobile phone 20 is generally not limited, or is much larger than the limited number of characters of the electronic mail function.
Even if the number of characters that can be displayed on one screen of the mobile phone 20 is exceeded, as shown in FIG. 6, by scrolling as necessary, the service user can browse the whole. As a result, the service user can read all the contents of the e-mail even if the e-mail exceeds the character limit of the mail sending / receiving function. Note that it is technically easy to limit the users who can view the generated web mail to only the service users, and this makes it possible to transfer and view highly confidential e-mail.

On the other hand, if the number of characters is not exceeded at the time when the mail reading unit 11 reads the electronic mail, the web mail generating unit 12 does not generate the web mail, and the mail transmitting unit 14 causes the mail reading unit 11 to do so. The content of the e-mail read by the user is directly transferred to the service user via the server 40 of the mobile phone company. In this case, since the URL is not added to the beginning of the email, the service user understands that all the contents of the email have been sent.

As is clear from the above description, when the service providing company implements the mail transfer / browsing service of this embodiment, only the mail transfer / browsing system 10 is constructed in addition to the mail server 30. All that is left is to notify potential service users of the existence of the service, and no special action is required such as obtaining permission from the mobile phone company or constructing or adjusting equipment. Also, as a service user, there is an advantage that a convenient service can be immediately used only by performing a simple registration procedure on the Internet shown in FIGS. 3 and 4.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Even if a mobile communication device such as a mobile phone that has an e-mail reception function has a limit on the number of characters of e-mail that it can receive, if the mobile communication device has an Internet connection function, this system sends the e-mail. Convert it to a webmail and store it on the specified URL site,
This U from the mobile communication device via the Internet
By accessing the RL, it is possible to read the entire contents of the email that could not be read originally.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing a mail transfer browsing system according to an embodiment of the present invention and its periphery.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a transfer route of an electronic mail when the mail transfer browsing system according to the embodiment of the present invention is used.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing how a registration procedure for receiving a mail transfer browsing service is performed at a site operated by a service providing company.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing how a registration procedure for receiving a mail transfer browsing service is performed at a site operated by a service providing company.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a state in which the read original mail is processed in a predetermined format.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state where a web mail generated from an original electronic mail is displayed on a mobile phone.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a conventional route until an electronic mail transmitted via the Internet reaches a mobile phone.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a state in which the content is interrupted when an email exceeding the number of characters is displayed on a mobile phone.

[Explanation of symbols]

10 ... Email forwarding browsing system 11 ... Email reading section 12 ... Webmail generation unit 13 ... Webmail storage 14 ... E-mail sending part (Pico mail sending part) 20 ... Mobile phone 30 ... Mail server 40 ... Server (of mobile phone company) 50 ... mail server 51 ... mail server 52 ... Mobile phone

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. An e-mail receiving function and a given UR
A mail transfer browsing system for transferring an electronic mail to a mobile communication device having at least an Internet connection function for accessing L, comprising: mail reading means for reading an electronic mail from a mail server; and mail reading means for reading the mail. A webmail generating means for generating a webmail in a format that can be browsed on the internet based on the content of the email, a webmail storing means for storing the webmail in a format that can be browsed via the internet, and the email reading means. The URL of the web mail stored in the web mail storage means on the Internet is added to the content of the electronic mail read by
And a browsing means for permitting browsing of the webmail when the URL is accessed via the Internet. A mail transfer browsing system. 2. The webmail generation means generates a webmail only when an email having a predetermined number of characters of the email reception function of the mobile communication device is sent. Email forwarding browsing system described. 3. The mail transfer browsing system according to claim 1, wherein the mobile communication device is a mobile phone. 4. An e-mail receiving function and a given UR
A mail transfer browsing method for transferring an electronic mail to a mobile communication device having at least an Internet connection function for accessing L, wherein a mail address associated with an owner of a specific mobile communication device is registered in advance. And a step of reading the email when the email is sent to the email address, a step of generating a webmail in a format that can be browsed on the Internet based on the content of the read email, and a step of generating the email. Storing the read webmail in a storage unit in a format that can be browsed via the Internet; and in the content of the read email, the URL of the Webmail stored in the storage unit on the Internet.
And transferring to the predetermined mobile communication device, and permitting browsing of the web mail when the URL is accessed via the Internet. A method for viewing and forwarding mails characterized by. 5. The mail transfer browsing according to claim 4, wherein the web mail is generated only when an electronic mail having a number of characters exceeding a predetermined number of characters of the electronic mail receiving function of the mobile communication device is sent. Method. 6. The mail transfer browsing method according to claim 4, wherein the mobile communication device is a mobile phone.