JP2003233564A - Communication partner list display method, communication partner list display device and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To increase selecting efficiency of a communication partner, and to reduce labor. <P>SOLUTION: An address book 17 (a communication partner list) used for selecting the partner is displayed in communication made via a communication infrastructure with the optional partner. The address book 17 displays the registered communication partner as a list in order sorted by an evaluation value for expressing affinity of the registered communication partner and a registered person. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication partner list display method, a communication partner list display device, and a recording medium, and more particularly to a personal computer, a mobile information terminal, a mobile phone terminal, etc. equipped with a communication function such as mail and chat. The present invention relates to a communication partner list display method, a communication partner list display device and a recording medium applicable to the above.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, due to the development of communication infrastructure such as the Internet and the spread of communication terminals such as personal computers and personal digital assistants, communication by communication has become popular. For example, e-mail is a typical example of the e-mail, and according to this, it is possible to send a required communication message to a designated communication partner (hereinafter sometimes simply referred to as “partner”), and the partner can use his / her own convenience. In addition to the convenience of existing communication methods such as mail and telephone, it is possible to download and read the message at a good time. In addition, nowadays, mobile phones and PHS (Personal Handy Phone) are available.
It has become possible to send and receive e-mails from systems, etc., and communication by communication has come to be routinely performed under various circumstances regardless of age or sex.

To outline the procedure for sending and receiving electronic mail, first, the sender starts the electronic mail software and opens the mail creation screen. The mail creation screen is provided with a header part for inputting the recipient's address, mail subject, etc., and a body part for inputting the body of the mail. The sender entered the required header information and body information. After that, the sending process is executed to upload to the mail server on the net. When a mail reception request is received from the recipient, the mail server checks whether the incoming mail addressed to the recipient is stored, and if so, sends the mail data to the recipient's terminal. (Download from the terminal side). The recipient opens the mail browsing screen of the electronic mail software, confirms the received contents, and then executes the ending processing of the electronic mail software or the reply processing of the mail as desired.

Here, the destination information (address) of electronic mail is unique on the Internet,
For example, Internet mail (so-called "E-MAI
L ″) is represented by a specific character string (arbitrary character string + @ + mail server domain name or alias name) according to the rules of RFC1034 and RFC1035,
It is also a fact that it is difficult to remember because it is not the name of the other party.

For this reason, as the number of communication partners increases, an accident such as an input error of the address or an accident of sending the address to the wrong partner will occur, and some address management tool is indispensable.

A representative of such address management tools is
It is a so-called address book. The address book manages at least the recipient's name (or nickname) and addresses in a list. You can easily specify the address by displaying the list when sending an email and selecting from the list. Is. The above-mentioned accident can be avoided as long as there is no typo when registering in the address book and as long as the list is selected correctly.

By the way, the number of communication partners registered in the address book cannot be unequivocally determined depending on the person. For example, in the case of a person who has a wide range of friendships and work relationships, several tens, let alone several hundreds. It can be extended. In such a case, it is difficult to find a desired communication partner from the list, and some kind of device is required. As such a device, conventionally, (1) a method of displaying a list by sorting by reading kana, etc., (2) a method of displaying a list by sorting in the order of frequency of use or date of use, and (3 ) It is also known to display a list by performing category classification or flag identification.

[0008]

However, the above known device has the following inconveniences. (1) Items to be sorted and displayed in a list by phonetic kana etc. In addition to the name, it is necessary to input the phonetic kana, which is inconvenient for registering the communication partner. This is because, in general, Kanji is often used as the name and the Kanji itself cannot be specified as a sort item.

(2) A list displayed by sorting in the order of frequency of use and date of use For example, one that counts the number of times of use for each communication partner and sets it as a frequency of use value and uses that frequency of use value as a sort item. is there. According to this, by performing the descending sort, it is possible to position the communication partner with the highest frequency of use at the top of the list. However, this method has an inconvenience that a new communication partner cannot be placed at a higher position in the list unless the usage frequency value of the communication partner has always maintained a high value. Also, the list display in the order of usage date is
Although it is preferable that the latest communication partner (or the communication partner used to send the latest e-mail) can always be placed at the top of the list, it is frequently exchanged near the top and communication that is likely to be used in the future There is an inconvenience that the other party is not always in the upper rank.

(3) Category display or flag identification and list display The category classification is a method of classifying communication partners into categories such as "friends" and "work relations". Further, the flag identification is, for example, to set a flag to a frequently used destination to make a distinction. In either method, it is possible to perform classification management of communication partners by setting appropriate category classification and flag setting, and expect improvement in search efficiency. However, since category and flag setting work and classification work are separately required, there is an inconvenience that it takes considerable time and effort to register the other party.

Therefore, the problem to be solved by the present invention is to improve the friendliness between the registered communication partner and the registrant who has registered the communication partner in order to improve the selection efficiency and the labor of the communication partner. The evaluation value that is considered to represent the degree can be used for the sort item of the communication partner, and if the evaluation value is called the intimacy degree for convenience, the registration values are sorted in the order of the intimacy degree. An object of the present invention is to provide a communication partner list display method, a communication partner list display device, and a recording medium capable of selecting a communication partner having a close relationship from the list of completed communication partners.

[0012]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention displays a communication partner list used for selecting a partner at the time of communication with an arbitrary partner through a communication infrastructure, and the communication is performed. The partner list displays registered communication partners in the order sorted by predetermined items, and the predetermined item represents the degree of familiarity between the registered communication partner and the registrant. It is characterized by being an evaluation value.

In the present invention, the list of communication partners is sorted using the evaluation value which is considered to represent the degree of familiarity between the registered communication partner and the registrant who registered the communication partner.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings by taking application to an electronic mail system as an example. It should be noted that the identification of various details in the following description or examples and examples of numerical values, character strings, and other symbols are merely references for clarifying the idea of the present invention, and may be used by all or a part of them. Obviously, the inventive idea is not limited. In addition, a detailed description of well-known methods, well-known procedures, well-known architectures, well-known circuit configurations, and the like (hereinafter referred to as “well-known matters”) will be omitted, but this is also for the sake of brevity and these well-known matters. It does not intentionally exclude all or part of the matter. Such a well-known matter can be known to those skilled in the art at the time of filing the present invention, and is naturally included in the following description.

First, in order to construct an electronic mail system, generally, two machines, a mail client and a mail server, are required. The client machine is a so-called mail terminal operated by a user of electronic mail, and is used for creating, browsing, and transmitting / receiving mail. On the other hand, the server machine stores e-mails uploaded by each user and provides a service of delivering an incoming mail addressed to the user in response to a request from the user, such as Internet (TCP / IP). ) If the e-mail system supports the protocol, the sending server (S
Also called an MTP server. ) And a receiving server (also called a POP server).

The sending server and the receiving server are provided at least for each domain, and each server has a DNS.
(Domain Name System) A unique host name is assigned that is "name resolved" by the server. For example, a host name “mail.aaa.co.jp” can be assigned to a sending server provided in the domain “aaa.co.jp”, and “pop.aaa.co.jp” can be assigned to the receiving server. You can assign a host name of ".

FIG. 1A shows the domain "aaa.co.
2 is a conceptual diagram of an electronic mail system in jp ″. In the figure, two client machines 1 representatively shown in FIG.
2 are mail client software (MUA:
Mail User Agent) is installed. Also,
Mail server software (MTA: Mail Transport Agent) is installed in each of the sending server 3 and the receiving server 4. Generally, the transmission server 3 is an SM of MTA.
The TP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) service is provided, and the receiving server 4 is an MTA POP (Post Office Pr
otocol) service. In the case of a small electronic mail system, the SMTP service and the POP service may be executed on the same machine.

Here, when the host name of the transmitting server 3 is "mail.aaa.co.jp" and the host name of the receiving server 4 is "pop.aaa.co.jp", the sender side The client machine 1 uses MUA and uses SMTP for the host name “mail.aaa.co.
Log in to the transmission server 3 of "jp" and upload an e-mail of an arbitrary destination (communication partner) to the transmission server 3.

Now, the destination of the e-mail is the arbitrary user "xxx" who belongs to the same domain "aaa.co.jp".
@Aaa. co. jp ”, the uploaded e-mail is sent from the sending server 3 to the host name“ po ”.
p. aaa. co. jp "to the receiving server 4 and is preset in the receiving server 4 for the user's mailbox (" xxx@aaa.co.jp ").
It is stored in a storage area for storing an incoming mail addressed to.

If the operator of the client machine 2 on the receiving side is the user "xxx@aaa.co.jp", this operator is the MU of the client machine 2.
Host name “pop.aaa.c” with POP using A
o. Login to the receiving server 4 of "jp" and the mailbox "xxx@aaa.aaa" of this receiving server 4. co. jp "
Download the email from.

FIG. 1B shows a plurality (4 in the figure for convenience).
FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of an electronic mail system including client machines 5a to 5d (communication partner list display device), each of which has MUA installed.
This corresponds to the transmission side client machine 1 or the reception side client machine 2 in (a). That is, each of the client machines 5a to 5d functions as the client machine 1 when sending a mail, and functions as the client machine 2 when receiving a mail.

The network 6 located between the client machines 5a to 5d collectively includes the transmission server 3 and the reception server 4 of FIG. 1A, a DNS server for name resolution, and a network infrastructure such as a communication line. It is a schematic representation. Now, the users of the respective client machines 5a to 5d are designated as user A, user B, and user C.
And user D, and the name and email address of each user is assumed to be as follows.

<User A> Name = “Abe” E-mail address = “abe@aaa.co.jp” <User B> Name = “Chiba” E-mail address = “chiba@bbb.co.j”
p ”<User C> Name =“ Fujii ”Email address =“ fujii @ ccc. co. j
p ”<user D> Name =“ Doi ”Email address =“ doi @ ddd. co. jp "

For example, when an electronic mail is sent from the user A to the user D (“Doi”), the user A operates the MUA of the client machine 5a to open the mail creation screen, and the address of the user D in the header part thereof. "Doi
@Ddd. co. jp "and the mail subject, and after inputting the mail body in the body part, the MUA is operated to execute the sending process. The e-mail sent from the client machine 5a is sent to a predetermined sending server (user A's MUA). Uploaded to the sending server 3) specified by
After the name is resolved using the e-mail address of the user D as a clue, the receiving server 4 designated by the name resolution
User D's mailbox (“doi@ddd.c
o. Then, when the user D operates the MUA of the client machine 5d at any time to perform the mail receiving operation, the mailbox of the receiving server 4 (“doi@ddd.co.jp”) is received. The incoming mail stored in ") is downloaded to the client machine 5d of the user D.

As described above, in the electronic mail system, electronic mails can be freely exchanged between a large number of mail client machines connected to a common network, and the mail client machines are Equipped with MUA compatible with network protocols, it is possible to exchange e-mail not only with personal computers but also with mobile information terminals such as mobile phones and PHS today, so the number of mail users is increasing. Tend to do. Therefore, support tools such as address books that can efficiently manage many email addresses are indispensable.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a conceptual block configuration of a client machine (client machine 5a in the figure for convenience) used in the electronic mail system. Note that this conceptual diagram does not specify the actual device configuration (device configuration of a personal computer, personal digital assistant, etc.). 1 is a simplified diagram showing the configuration of hardware capable of executing a support tool such as an address book together with MUA.

In FIG. 2, the client machine 5a
Includes a CPU 7 (communication executing means), a program memory 8, a work memory 9, a data memory 10, a display unit 11, an operation unit 12, a communication unit 13, a bus 14, and the like. The CPU 7 executes an application program for realizing functions such as MUA and address book on a predetermined operating system.
The operating system is a general-purpose operating system that supports the network protocol of the electronic mail system (TCP / IP for an electronic mail system on the Internet) or can implement the protocol. This kind of general-purpose operating system uses various APIs (Application Progra
mming Interface), for example, it is possible to provide the MUA with a usage environment of SMTP or POP.

The program memory 8 stores an operating system and various application programs such as MUA and address book. Work memory 9 is CPU
The work space of the CPU 7 is provided by the CPU 7. The CPU 7 loads (loads) an operating system and various application programs into the work memory 9 and executes them. Generally, a high-speed semiconductor memory device is used as the work memory 9. The data memory 10 is an area for storing user-specific data, and stores, for example, data of e-mails sent and received using MUA (send list, received list, etc.) and address book data. It is an area for

It should be noted that the illustrated memory classification is only functional. For example, since many personal computers store programs and user data in hard disks, the program memory 8 and data memory 10 shown in the figure can be read as the program area and the data area in the hard disk, respectively.

The display unit 11 is composed of a display and a display control unit which are integral with or external to the client machine 5a, and outputs a screen for a user interface.
The operation unit 12 is composed of a pointing device such as a keyboard or a mouse which is integral with or external to the client machine 5a and an operation control unit, and inputs information for a user interface. The communication unit 13 inputs / outputs information to / from a network, and particularly inputs / outputs information to / from a network including a transmission server and a reception server compatible with SMTP and POP (see the network 6 in FIG. 1B). It is something to do. When the client machine 5a is used as a telephone (a mobile telephone or PHS), the communication unit 13 supports a telephone function.

The client machine 5a having such a configuration can execute an MUA by the CPU 7 to create an electronic mail, send an electronic mail, receive an incoming mail, and browse. That is, it is possible to create an e-mail, upload the e-mail to the transmission server on the network via the communication unit 13, and download and browse the incoming mail addressed to the reception server.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of the transmission list 15 and the reception list 16 stored in the data memory 10, both of which have an information structure of record unit (hereinafter referred to as “ID”) identified by a unique code (hereinafter referred to as “ID”). Or database structure). Each record in the transmission record 15 includes an ID field 15a, a transmission date / time field 15b, a destination field 15c, a sender field 15d, a title field 15e, a content field 15f, and a mail size field 15g. , ID field 16a, reception date / time field 16b, sender field 16c, destination field 16
d, a title field 16e, a content field 16f and a mail size field 16g.

The transmission date / time field 15b stores the transmission date and time information (Date in the header section) of the transmission mail, and the destination field 15c stores the destination address information (To in the header section) of the transmission mail. Further, the sender field 15d stores the sender address of the sent mail, that is, the address information of the sender (From of the header section), and the title field 15e stores the title information of the sent mail (Subject of the header section). Further, the content field 15f stores the mail text information (body part information) of the sent mail, and the mail size field 15g.
The mail size of the outgoing mail (for example, the number of characters of the body part or the binary data size) is stored in the.

Similarly, the reception date and time field 16b stores the reception date and time information of the received mail (Date in the header part), and the sender field 16c stores the sender address information (header part From) of the received mail. It The destination field 16d stores the destination address of the received mail, that is, its own address information (To in the header section), and the title field 16e stores the title information of the received mail (Subject in the header section). Further, the content field 16f stores the mail text information (body part information) of the received mail, and the mail size field 15
The mail size of the received mail (for example, the number of characters of the body part or the binary data size) is stored in g.

FIG. 4A shows the address book 17 (communication partner list) stored in the data memory 10.
It is a conceptual diagram of. The address book 17 also has an information structure in record units identified by a unique ID, like the transmission list 15 and the reception list 16 described above. Each record has an ID field 17a, a name field 17b, and an address field 17c. And intimacy field 17d
Etc.

The name field 17b stores the name (either a full name or a nickname) of the recipient of the mail, and the address field 17c stores the electronic mail address of the recipient. In the familiarity field 17d, "intimacy" for each transmission partner (definition and description of intimacy will be described later).
Numerical information that represents is stored. For example, in FIG.
It is a figure which shows an example of the information memorize | stored in the address book 17, In a record of ID "1001", name = "Abe", address = "abe@aaa.co.jp", and familiarity = "21". Information is stored, ID "1"
In the record of “002”, name = “Chiba”, address =
"Chiba@bbb.co.jp" and intimacy =
Information of “60” is stored, and in the record of ID “1003”, name = “Fujii”, address = “fuji”.
i @ ccc. co. jp ”and familiarity =“ 100 ”are stored, and in the record with ID“ 1004 ”, name =“ Doi ”, address =“ doi @ ddd. c
o. Information of “jp” and familiarity = “91” is stored.

Now, assuming that the higher the numerical value of the degree of intimacy, the closer the relationship is, the order of intimacy of the four transmission partners in the illustrated example is "Fujii" (100), "Doi" (91),
"Chiba" (60), "Abe" (21) ... If the intimacy field 17d is specified as a sort item and descending sort (sorting from the descending order of the value) is performed, the closest transmission partner (“Fujii” in the above example) is located at the top of the list "Doi", "Chiba", "Abe", ...
Will be arranged in order.

Now, in order to effectively perform the sort by the familiarity, an important key is how to grasp the familiarity and how to calculate the degree. In general, intimacy can be said to be the degree of familiarity, but there is no clear definition of what kind of scale should be used to determine that degree. But for example,
Since it is possible to point out the fact that the number of times e-mails are exchanged (the number of times of transmissions and receptions) with close friends increases, in the present embodiment, intimacy is basically calculated based on this fact.

That is, as shown in FIG.
5 and the intimacy degree calculation processing for each transmission destination based on the storage data of the reception book 16, and the intimacy degree field 17d of the address book 17 is updated using the calculation result, and the intimacy degree field 17d is set as a sort item. A descending sort is designated and executed, and a series of operations of rewriting the address value 17 with the sorted result is executed.

The familiarity calculation processing is basically performed on the basis of the storage data of the transmission list 15 and the reception list 16, but various algorithms shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 can be considered as the algorithm. Appropriate ones may be selected or combined in consideration of the reliability of the intimacy degree calculation result and the processing overhead.

<Simple Type> (See FIG. 6A) As described above, it is a fact that the number of exchanges of electronic mail (the number of transmissions and receptions) of electronic mails increases with close friends.
Therefore, in this simple type, the number of transmissions and the number of receptions for each user are extracted from the transmission list 15 and the reception list 16, and the sum of these transmissions and receptions is calculated by the addition circuit 20, and the calculation result (evaluation value A) Intimacy field 1
Store in 7d.

<Production Operation Type> (See FIG. 6B) However, the number of exchanges of electronic mail (the number of transmissions and receptions) is
It may show a large value even with an unfamiliar partner.
For example, a sender of a harassment email that is frequently sent cannot be a "close relationship". Therefore, in this "product operation type" which is an improvement of the above simple type, the transmission list 1
5 and the reception number 16 for each user, the number of transmissions and the number of receptions for each user are taken out, the product of these number of transmissions and receptions is calculated by the product calculation circuit 21, and the calculation result (evaluation value B) is stored in the familiarity field 17d. . The evaluation value B is, for example,
Even if the frequency of harassment emails that are frequently sent is large, the number of replies to that email (the number of emails sent to the sender of the harassment email)
Is small, it shows a small value. For example, if the number of transmissions is 0, the evaluation value B is also 0. Therefore, the drawbacks of the simple type can be solved.

<Sending / Reception Interval Judgment Type> (See FIG. 6 (c)) For example, like exchanging e-mails many times during work-related meetings, mutual communication and work schedules However, in this type of e-mail usage, the number of times e-mails are sent and received becomes large in a short period of time, and intimateness quickly increases regardless of familiarity. It is not preferable because it will be lost Therefore, in the "transmission / reception interval determination type" which is an improvement of the product operation type, the transmission list 15 and the reception list 1
The number of times of transmission and the number of times of reception for each user are extracted from 6, and the interval between these times of transmission and reception is determined by the transmission / reception interval determination circuit
If the transmission / reception interval is short, the value of the number of times of determination (the number of transmissions or the number of receptions) is converted by the square root or logarithmic conversion circuit 23, and then the conversion value is calculated. Then, the calculation result (evaluation value C) is stored in the intimacy degree field 17d. For example, transmission list 1
Let n be the number of transmissions taken from 5, and round n by square root or logarithmic conversion to obtain n ′ after conversion as n.
> N ′, and the above inconvenience, that is, the problem of unintentional increase in intimacy when mails are frequently exchanged in a short period of time can be solved. Although the conversion method is a square root or logarithm here, it is not limited to this. The point is that any conversion method may be used so that n> n '.

<Elapsed Time Consideration Type> (See FIG. 7A) Consider an old friend (hereinafter “friend A”) and a friend who has recently met (hereinafter “friend B”). Friend B with the sense of the party
If friend B is closer, friend B must be closer than friend A, but all three algorithms (simple type, product operation type, and transmission / reception interval type) must meet this requirement. I can't. Old friend A
This is because the number of times of sending and receiving e-mail is larger than that of friend B. Therefore, in the elapsed time consideration type, a weighting circuit 24 that extracts the number of transmissions and the number of receptions for each user from the transmission list 15 and the reception list 16 and gives a weight value according to the “transmission / reception elapsed time” to these numbers. The number of transmissions Tn and the number of receptions Rn after being provided and weighted are input to the transmission / reception interval type (see FIG. 6C).

Here, the transmission / reception elapsed time means the transmission date / time data D _TX to D _TX stored in the transmission date / time field 15 b of the transmission list 15 when the current date / time is D _{CURRENT.
It refers} to the elapsed time up to _CURRENT (transmission elapsed time) and the elapsed time from the reception date / time data D _RX stored in the reception date / time field 16 b of the reception book 16 to D _CURRENT (reception elapsed time). By giving a small weight value to transmission / reception data having a long transmission / reception elapsed time and a large weight value to transmission / reception data having a short transmission / reception elapsed time, for example, the intimacy degree of the friend B illustrated above can be optimized. .

FIG. 7B is a diagram showing the relationship between the transmission / reception elapsed time and the weight value. Characteristic line 25 that is linearly shown for convenience
Has a characteristic of giving a small weight value to transmission / reception data having a long transmission / reception elapsed time and a large weight value to transmission / reception data having a short transmission / reception elapsed time. It is preferable that the characteristics of FIG. 7B be modified as shown in FIG. 7C. FIG. 7C is also a diagram showing the relationship between the transmission / reception elapsed time and the weight value, which is a characteristic line 26 linearly shown for convenience.
7 is similar to the characteristic line 25 of FIG. 7B in that it has a characteristic of giving a small weight value to transmission / reception data having a long transmission / reception elapsed time and a large weight value to transmission / reception data having a short transmission / reception elapsed time. However, the difference is that the weight value is set to "0" when the transmission / reception elapsed time becomes longer than the predetermined value Ta. By doing so, the weight value applied to old transmission / reception data whose transmission / reception elapsed time is equal to or greater than the predetermined value Ta can be set to “0”, and the existence of the transmission / reception data can be substantially ignored. The friendship of friend B can be further optimized.

As described above, according to the above "simple type", "product operation type", "transmission / reception interval determination type" or "elapsed time consideration type", based on the stored data of the transmission list 15 and the reception list 16. An evaluation value (familiarity) that is considered to represent the degree of familiarity for each transmission partner can be calculated. Therefore, by storing the calculation result (the evaluation value A, B, or C above) in the closeness degree field 17d of the address book 17, and by performing the descending sort by designating the closeness degree field 17d as a sort item, The record data of the address book 17 can be rearranged in descending order of density, and the record of the transmission partner with the highest degree of intimacy can be positioned and displayed at the top of the list. as a result,
A special effect useful for achieving the object of the present invention, that is, it is possible to quickly select a transmission partner having a close relationship without performing an operation such as scrolling, and improve the operability at the time of creating an email. Can be played.

The familiarity calculation process described above can be modified as follows. <Modification 1> In general, the familiarity changes not only in the direction of strengthening (direction of becoming more familiar) but also in the direction of weakening (direction of losing familiarity). It is desirable that the intimacy degree has a tracking characteristic in both directions.
The calculation result (intimacy) of the intimacy calculation processing described above shows a gradual increase tendency that it starts from a small value at first and changes to a large value as the number of exchanges of electronic mail increases. Therefore, focusing on the "acceleration" (or differential value) of this change, if the acceleration is high, the degree of intimacy increases in a short time, while if the acceleration is low, the intimacy gradually increases. Since the degree of intimacy has increased, it can be said that the degree of intimacy calculated by each of the above-mentioned algorithms has an appropriate tracking characteristic for a gradual change in the direction of becoming more intimate.

However, with respect to the change in the opposite direction, that is, the change in the direction in which the friendliness is lost, there is room for improvement in that it does not necessarily have an appropriate tracking characteristic. For example, in the above “elapsed time consideration type”, by giving a small weight value to transmission / reception data with a long transmission / reception elapsed time, the relative intimacy with respect to a user with a short transmission / reception elapsed time is reduced. Since the relationship with the transmission / reception elapsed time is constant (see FIGS. 7 (b) and 7 (c)), it does not follow the "gradual" change in the direction in which the friendliness is lost.

Therefore, in this improved example, in order to provide a correlation between the change in intimacy in the direction of becoming more familiar and the change in intimacy in the opposite direction (direction of losing familiarity), The acceleration value is held, and when the intimacy degree is changed in the decreasing direction, the intimacy degree is calculated using this acceleration value. According to this, the degree of intimacy can be relatively sharply decreased for the degree of intimacy increased in a relatively short time, while the degree of intimacy can be gently decreased for the degree of intimacy gradually increased over time. Therefore, it is possible to obtain the intimacy characteristic that appropriately follows the gradual change in the direction in which the friendship is lost.

<Modification 2> In each of the above-mentioned algorithms, the degree of intimacy is calculated using parameters such as the number of times of transmission / reception, the transmission / reception interval or the transmission / reception elapsed time, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, mail size information (mail size field 15g of the send list 15 or the receive list 16
6 g of stored information) can also be used as a parameter that correlates with the degree of intimacy. This is because the number of characters and the like tends to increase in e-mails that are exchanged in a close relationship, and often files such as images and sounds are attached. However, this method should be used only as an auxiliary means. This is because even if it is just a business contact, the increase in mail size cannot be denied depending on the content. In addition to the size information of the mail, for example, the title information of the mail (the title field 15 of the transmission list 15 and the reception list 16).
e, 16e stored information) and body information (stored information in the content fields 15f, 16f of the transmission record 15 and the reception record 16) can also be used as parameters that correlate with the degree of intimacy.

When the information includes a vocabulary or a wording often used in a close relationship, the degree of familiarity (intimacy) based on the frequency of appearance of the vocabulary or the wording.
Can be calculated. Alternatively, it is also possible to analyze the meaning of the title and contents, extract the vocabulary for emotions and desires, and weight each vocabulary. However, this method requires a dictionary file that contains the standard vocabulary and wording, and requires appropriate processing capacity for vocabulary extraction and semantic analysis, so it is probably realistic to do this on the server side. Yes, if you do it on the client side,
Whether or not to adopt should be decided in consideration of the processing performance of the client machine.

<Modification 3> As described above, in the present embodiment, the list can be displayed in descending order of intimacy,
The merit that the transmission partner having a close relationship can be selected without scrolling or the like is obtained. However, when visually confirming the degree of familiarity of each transmission partner,
It can be confirmed only from the intimacy value (numerical value), and there is room for improvement in terms of the user interface. FIG. 8 is an example of the improvement, in which the degree of intimacy is divided into several levels and a graphical object icon is assigned to each level.

In FIG. 8A, the familiarity object table 27 is composed of a familiarity level field 27a and an object field 27b, and each field is divided into, for example, three levels of high, medium and low. In addition to having a record, the object field 27b stores a high level object 27c having three heart marks, a middle level object 27d having two heart marks, and a low level object 27e having one heart mark. There is.

Here, for convenience, the high level range is set to "1".
00 "to" 67 ", the middle level range is" 66 "to" 3 "
3 ", the low level range is" 32 "to" 0 ", and the intimacy (" 100 ") of each user (" Fujii "," Doi "," Chiba "," Abe ") of the address book 17 is set. ,
If "91", "60", "21") are applied, "Fujii" and "Doi" are high level, "Chiba" is medium level, and "Abe" is low level. Therefore, as shown in the display example of the address list 28 in FIG. 8B, based on these level determination results, together with the information such as the name, the high level object 27c and the middle level object 27 are displayed.
By displaying d and the low-level object 27e together in the address list 28, the level of intimacy can be determined at a glance, and the readability and selectivity of the list can be improved.

<Other Embodiments> In the above embodiments, the so-called client side script environment for realizing the main functions on the mail client machine 5a is taken as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this. As explained below,
It can also be applied to the server side script environment.

FIG. 9 shows a plurality of clients 30a-30.
A server 3 that provides a predetermined communication service to c via a network 31 such as the Internet.
It is a conceptual block diagram of 2. The server 32 has a communication service processing unit 33 (communication executing means) and a database unit 34. In the illustrated overall configuration, the clients 30a to 30c are the user interface layer 35, and the communication processing unit 33 is the data processing layer 3.
6, the database unit 24 is the database layer 37,
It has a so-called three-layer model network service structure. The data processing layer 36 and the database layer 3
7 may be mounted on one server machine or may be mounted on another server machine. When mounted on another machine, the physical installation position of the machine does not matter. It suffices if data communication between both layers is possible.

Here, it is assumed that the communication service processing section 33 provides a chat service for members, for example. That is, the communication service processing unit 33 accepts the login from each of the clients 30a to 30c, and returns the dynamically formed chat screen to the registered client. The chat screen is, for example, HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language).
Written in the language, each client 30a-30c
May have an environment capable of executing browsing software (so-called browser) compatible with HTML documents. In addition,
Chat is a mechanism that allows users who are logged in to enjoy conversations using character strings.

Generally, a chat participant inputs a sentence to be spoken together with his / her nickname (also referred to as a chat name). These input information are transmitted from the browser of the client to the server 32, added to the chat screen together with the nickname by the communication service processing unit 33 of the server 32, and then the chat screen is delivered to the client again. The communication service processing unit 33 executes such chat screen update processing, configures list information of login participants, and provides the screen information to all login clients. The list information displayed in the login client is
Similar to the information in the address book described above, the information is sorted in descending order of intimacy, improving the convenience of list selection.

The calculation of the degree of intimacy in this embodiment is performed in the same way as in the above embodiments. That is, the number of times of writing for a chat participant's speech corresponds to the number of times of sending an e-mail in the above-mentioned embodiment, and the number of times of writing (the number of times of writing) seen from the chat participant is This is equivalent to the number of times the electronic mail is received in this form. The writing interval corresponds to the e-mail transmission / reception interval in the above-described embodiment, and the writing elapsed time corresponds to the e-mail transmission / reception elapsed time in the above-described embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart of the main part of communication service processing in the communication service processing section 33 of the server 32. In this flowchart, first, the login is determined (step S1). If the login is made, the login user is authenticated (step S1).
2) is performed, and if the authentication is NG, the NG message is returned (step S3) and the process returns to the login determination step again. On the other hand, if the authentication is OK, it is determined whether or not the chat message is written (step S4). ).

In the case of writing a chat message, after writing the chat message and updating the chat screen (step S5), the intimacy process (step S6) is executed, and if the chat message is not written. Judges whether it is a login user list request (step S7), and if it is a login user list request, transmits the list information (step S8), and otherwise executes other communication processing. Execute (step S9).

In the familiarity process (step S6), an algorithm similar to the familiarity calculation process in the above-described embodiment (the above-mentioned "simple type", "product operation type", "transmission / reception interval determination type" or "elapsed time") is used. (See "Consideration type"), the degree of intimacy of the message writing partner is calculated (step S6a), and the list display order of the login user is sorted and updated based on the calculation result (step S6).
b).

Therefore, also in this embodiment,
On the screens of chat participants, a list of participants sorted in descending order of intimacy can be displayed, and the advantage is that you can select a chat partner with whom you have a close relationship without scrolling. .

Also in the present embodiment, intimacy is divided into several levels as in the first embodiment,
A graphical object icon may be assigned to each level. That is, the participant list displayed on the screen of the chat participant may be as shown in FIG. This is preferable because the level of intimacy of chat participants can be determined at a glance, and the readability and selectivity of the list can be improved.

The main function of this embodiment is functionally realized by organically combining hardware assets including a microcomputer and software assets such as an operating system and various programs. Since general-purpose assets and operating systems can be used, essential items essential to the present invention are substantially concentrated on the intimacy degree calculation process and its accompanying process (see FIG. 5). I can say that. Therefore, the present invention provides a floppy disk, which stores all or a main part of the programs for the intimacy degree calculation process and its accompanying process.
A recording medium such as an optical disc, a compact disc, a magnetic tape, a hard disk or a semiconductor memory, or a component (a unit product, a completed product or a semi-finished product) including these recording media is included. The above-mentioned recording medium or components include not only those which are themselves on the distribution channel but also those which are provided on the network and only the recorded contents. The above-mentioned familiarity calculation processing can be modified as follows.

<Modification of the present invention using FIR filter> Next, a modification of the present invention using an FIR filter will be described. Although there are various methods of calculating the degree of intimacy as described above, it is also possible to calculate the degree of intimacy by using an FIR filter. For example, the listing is determined by the past history within a predetermined period, and the FIR filter is used for such processing. In that case, for example, there is a weight function that is multiplied according to the time of the mail event, the numerical value specific to the event, and the time, and this operation is performed for all addresses, and processing is performed such that the resulting values (scalar amount) are listed in order. . Here, the filter allows a signal in a certain frequency band to pass and blocks signals other than that. Filters are classified into linear / non-linear, time-invariant / time-variant, etc.
An IR (Finite Impulse Response) filter and an IIR (Infinite Impulse Response) with an infinite impulse response
e) There is a filter. Generally, the input / output relationship of a digital filter is represented by the following equation by an impulse response {h (n)}.

[0067]

[Equation 1]

In the equation, the value of the impulse response is h
When (n) is defined only for 0 ≦ n ≦ N−1 and h (n) = 0 for other n, the linear system determined by the impulse response {h (n)} is FIR.
It is called a filter. N is the duration of the impulse response. The FIR filter has features such as smaller calculation error, better stability, and realization of linear phase characteristic than the IIR filter. The FIR filter can be composed of a digital shift register, an adder, and a multiplier. Therefore, by constructing such an FIR filter with a shift register, an adder, and a multiplier, and designing the characteristics thereof so as to be suitable for the familiarity calculation processing in accordance with the object of the present invention, the above-described modifications 1 to 3 are performed. It can be realized as another type of intimacy calculation system. In that case, it is possible to design something similar to the above-mentioned "simple type", "product operation type", "transmission / reception interval determination type", or "elapsed time consideration type", or a rather complicated system design combining them. The present invention can be realized while giving a variety of intimacy calculation.

[0069]

According to the present invention, the list of communication partners is sorted using the evaluation value which is considered to represent the degree of familiarity between the registered communication partner and the registrant who registered the communication partner. Therefore, if the evaluation value is called intimacy for convenience, it is possible to select a communication partner with a close relationship from the list of registered communication partners sorted in order of intimacy, and the communication partner selection efficiency It is possible to reduce costs and labor.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual diagram of an electronic mail system.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a conceptual block configuration of a client machine used in an electronic mail system.

FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of a transmission list 15 and a reception list 16 stored in a data memory 10.

FIG. 4 is an address book 17 stored in the data memory 10.
FIG. 3 is a conceptual diagram of and an example of information stored in an address book 17.

FIG. 5 is an operation conceptual diagram including intimacy calculation processing in the present embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of a familiarity calculation process (simple type, product operation type, transmission / reception interval determination type).

FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram showing an example of an intimacy degree calculation process (elapsed time consideration type) and a diagram showing a relationship between a transmission / reception elapsed time and a weight value.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an improved example of list display.

FIG. 9 is a configuration diagram of another embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a main part of communication service processing according to another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

7 ... CPU (communication executing means), 17 ...
… Address book (communication partner list), 11
... Display unit (display means), 5a to 5d ... Client machine (communication partner list display device), 3
3 ... Communication service processing unit (communication executing means).

Claims (18)

[Claims] 1. A method for displaying a communication partner list used for selecting a partner when performing communication with an arbitrary partner via a communication infrastructure, wherein the communication partner list is a predetermined one. The registered communication partners are displayed in a list in the order sorted by the item, and the predetermined item is an evaluation value indicating the degree of familiarity between the registered communication partners and the registrant. Communication partner list display method characterized by. 2. A method of displaying a communication partner list used for selecting a partner when performing communication with an arbitrary partner via a communication infrastructure, wherein the communication partner list is a predetermined one. In order to display a list of registered communication partners in the order sorted by the item, and the predetermined item is an evaluation value representing the degree of familiarity between the registered communication partner and the registrant, Furthermore, the communication partner list display method is characterized by displaying an image object for each classification obtained by dividing the evaluation value for each communication partner or a visualization expression object corresponding to the image object. 3. The evaluation value is a sum total value of the number of times of communication transmissions and receptions performed between a communication partner and a registrant, or a value correlated with the sum total value. The communication partner list display method described in crab. 4. The evaluation value is a product value of communication transmission / reception times performed between a communication partner and a registrant or a value correlated with the product value. The communication partner list display method described in crab. 5. The evaluation value according to claim 1, wherein the evaluation value is a value that changes according to the length of a communication transmission / reception interval performed between a communication partner and a registrant. How to display your communication partner list. 6. The evaluation value is a value obtained by weighting the number of times communication is performed between a communication partner and a registrant according to a transmission / reception interval. The communication partner list display method described in crab. 7. The evaluation value according to claim 1, wherein the evaluation value has similar tracking characteristics both when the degree of familiarity is high and when the degree of familiarity is low. How to display the listed communication partner list. 8. The communication partner list display method according to claim 1, wherein the evaluation value is set based on the size of the communication information or the content of the communication information. 9. A communication executing means for executing communication with an arbitrary partner via a communication infrastructure, and a communication partner list used for selecting a communication partner when executing the communication. And a display means, wherein the communication partner list displays registered communication partners in an order sorted by a predetermined item, and the predetermined item is a parent of the registered communication partner and the registrant. A communication partner list display device, characterized in that it is an evaluation value indicating the degree of quality. 10. A communication executing means for executing communication with an arbitrary partner via a communication infrastructure, and a communication partner list used for selecting a communication partner when the communication is executed. And a display means for displaying a list of registered communication partners in an order sorted by a predetermined item, and the predetermined item is a parent of the registered communication partner and the registrant. A communication partner list, which is an evaluation value indicating the degree of similarity, and further displays an image object or a visualization expression object corresponding to each classification obtained by dividing the evaluation value for each communication partner. Display devices. 11. The evaluation value is a sum total value of the number of times of communication transmission and reception performed between a communication partner and a registrant, or a value correlated with the sum total value. The communication partner list display device described in Crab. 12. The evaluation value is a product value of the number of times of communication transmission / reception performed between a communication partner and a registrant or a value correlated with the product value. The communication partner list display device described in Crab. 13. The evaluation value according to claim 9, wherein the evaluation value is a value that changes according to the length of a communication transmission / reception interval performed between a communication partner and a registrant. Communication partner list display device. 14. The evaluation value is a value obtained by weighting the number of times of communication transmission / reception between a communication partner and a registrant according to a transmission / reception interval. The communication partner list display device described in Crab. 15. The evaluation value according to claim 9, wherein the evaluation value has similar tracking characteristics both when the degree of familiarity is high and when the degree of familiarity is low.
4. The communication partner list display device described in any one of 4. 16. The evaluation value is set based on the size of the communication information or the content of the communication information.
The communication partner list display device described in any one. 17. A program for causing a computer to execute a predetermined processing function, the processing function comprising communication execution means for executing communication with an arbitrary partner via a communication infrastructure, and registration. A program comprising: a display means for displaying a list of registered communication partners in an order sorted by an evaluation value indicating the degree of familiarity between the registered communication partners and the registrant. 18. A program for causing a computer to execute a predetermined processing function, the processing function comprising: communication executing means for executing communication with an arbitrary partner via a communication infrastructure; and registration. An image for each division in which the registered communication partners are displayed in a list in the order sorted by the evaluation value indicating the degree of familiarity between the registered communication partner and the registrant, and the evaluation value is divided for each communication partner. A program including a display means for displaying an object or a visualization expression object corresponding to the object.