JP2004080361A - Electronic mail service apparatus, program, and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic mail service apparatus capable of making a reply to electronic mail with an image such as a photo in the case of receiving the electronic mail so as to solve the problem of undelivered return mail. <P>SOLUTION: The service center (electronic mail service apparatus) 20 discriminates whether or not the electronic mail received by a reception means is electronic mail with an image and whether or not its main text describes a telephone number. The service center 20 is provided with an extract means that extracts an address corresponding to the telephone number from a telephone number-address conversion table registered in advance and uses the address as a sender address when the result of discrimination is affirmative. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention particularly relates to an e-mail service device, a program, and a recording medium for distributing an e-mail attached with an image file such as a photograph (hereinafter referred to as “e-mail with image”).
[0002]
[Prior art]
Electronic mail is a common name for electronic message transmission means exchanged via a communication network. Today, e-mail is widely used regardless of age, gender, public or private, with the spread of communication terminals such as personal computers and mobile phones. It is considered to be one of the biggest factors that increased the number of users at once. It should be noted that message transmission means of the same name has been used in closed networks such as personal computer communication for a long time. However, at present, e-mail is a practice that refers to e-mail on the Internet. , In this specification.
[0003]
FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram of a conventionally known e-mail system, in particular, an image diagram of an e-mail with image distribution service. In this figure, the mobile phones 1 and 2 have a function of transmitting and receiving an electronic mail with an image, for example, an i-shot (R) service function provided by NTT DoCoMo, Inc.
[0004]
The procedure for using the i-shot (R) service is as follows.
{Circle around (1)} The sender 3 of the e-mail with image operates his / her mobile phone 1 to create an e-mail attached with an image file such as a photograph (hereinafter simply referred to as “image”), and sends it to the i-shot. (R) The service is transmitted to the service center 4.
{Circle around (2)} The service center 4 takes out the image 5 attached to the e-mail, assigns storage location information (URL: Uniform Resource Locator) to the image 5, and saves it.
{Circle around (3)} Generates a photo storage guidance notification mail (hereinafter, simply referred to as “guidance mail”) including the text of the e-mail (the character string written by the sender 3 of the e-mail with image) and the above-mentioned URL, and transfers the mail 6 to the mobile phone 2 of the other party (receiver 7).
{Circle around (4)} The receiver 7 operates his / her mobile phone 2 and reads the guidance mail.
(5) Then, if desired, access the URL described in the guide mail,
(6) The image 5 stored in the service center 4 is downloaded using the browser software installed in the mobile phone 2 and displayed and browsed.
[0005]
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing the structure of a conventional guide mail. The guide mail 8 includes a mail header section 9 having a sender address and a title and a message body section 10. The message body part 10 is divided into a plurality (three in the figure) of sub-body parts 11 to 13. Although the order is not particularly limited, the middle second sub-body part 12 is a display part of a character string (mail body) written by the sender 3, and the first and second sub-body parts 11, 13 are , A display unit of a predetermined character string added by the service center 4.
[0006]
Here, the “predetermined character string” is a character string including the identification number (that is, telephone number) of the mobile phone 1 of the sender 3 and the URL indicating the storage location of the image 5. In the example shown in the figure, "Mail from 090-9999-9999" is set in the first sub-body part 11, and "http: //www.aaa ..." is set in the third sub-body part 13.・ "Is set. “090-9999-9999” is the telephone number of the mobile phone 1 of the sender 3, and “http://www.aaa...” Is a URL indicating the storage location of the image 5.
[0007]
The recipient 7 that has read the guide mail can take the following two actions as desired.
(B) Image browsing behavior;
That is, the receiver 7 selects the URL (“http://www.aaa...”) Of the third sub-body part 13 and presses a predetermined function button (hereinafter referred to as “click”). By starting the browser software, the image 5 can be downloaded and displayed and browsed.
(B) Conversation behavior with the other party;
That is, the receiver 7 calls the mobile phone 1 of the sender 3 by clicking on the telephone number (“090-9999-9999”) of the first sub-body portion 13 and communicates with the other party (sender 3). Can have a conversation.
[0008]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, the above-described conventional e-mail system has the following disadvantages.
(A) Non-delivery of reply mail;
The sender address of the guide mail 8 is not the address of the sender 3 but the system address set by the service center 4 (for example, “photo-server@docomo.ne.jp” for the i-shot (R) service). . For this reason, if the receiver 7 sends a reply mail to the guide mail 8, the reply mail is sent to the above-mentioned system address, so that the reply mail reaches the original reply destination (the sender 3). There is a problem that there is no (non-delivery).
[0009]
Regarding this problem, in the above-mentioned known e-mail system, it is recommended that a signature or a signature (see reference numeral 14 in FIG. 9) in which the user's mail address is described is put in the mail text. However, creating a signature is particularly troublesome for people who are unfamiliar with the operation of mobile phones. Creating a reply email is not familiar with common reply email operations, and such recommendations are impractical.
[0010]
(B) privacy concerns;
Further, the telephone body of the mobile phone 1 of the sender 3 is described in the message body 10 of the guide mail 8. For this reason, for example, when sending an e-mail with an image to an unknown partner, the telephone number of the user's own mobile phone 1 is known to the partner, which may cause trouble such as a prank call. There is a problem.
[0011]
Therefore, the problem to be solved by the present invention is that when an e-mail with an image such as a photograph is received, it is possible to reply to the e-mail, and to protect the privacy by not informing the other party of their own telephone number. It is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic mail service device, a program, and a recording medium aiming at.
[0012]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a receiving means for receiving an e-mail addressed to an address b transmitted from an address a, and referring to a pre-registered address-address conversion table, the address a An e-mail service device comprising: conversion means for converting an address b into another address a 'and address b'; and transfer means for transferring an e-mail in which the converted address is set.
When it is determined whether the e-mail received by the receiving means is an e-mail with an image and a phone number is described in the body of the e-mail, if the judgment result is affirmative, the e-mail is registered in advance. An address corresponding to the telephone number is extracted from the telephone number-address conversion table, and the address is output to the conversion means so that the address can be used as the address a '(sender address after conversion). And
[0013]
For example, when an e-mail with an image corresponding to the i-shot (R) service is received, the sender address (the above address a) is the system address set by the i-shot (R) service, and is the actual sender address. However, according to the present invention, the actual sender address (the above address a ') is specified from the telephone number (this is the actual sender's terminal number) described in the body of the e-mail, and the system described above is used. The address is replaced with the actual sender address and delivered. Therefore, on the receiving side, a reply mail can be issued by a normal reply operation, and the problem A (return mail non-delivery problem) is solved.
[0014]
In a preferred aspect of the present invention, when the determination result is positive, the transfer unit generates and transfers a guide mail in which the telephone number has been deleted.
In this aspect, since the receiver is not notified of the telephone number of the e-mail sender, the above problem B (the problem of privacy protection) is solved.
Alternatively, in a preferred aspect of the present invention, the storage unit stores the image file by dividing the image file into a plurality of image files.
In this aspect, the browser software of the mobile phone allows a plurality of image files to be displayed and browsed in the correct order, and can be used, for example, on the standby screen of the mobile phone without any intention of the image creator. In this case, it is necessary to combine a plurality of image files and reproduce the combined image files into one image file. Therefore, illegal use of images can be avoided and copyright can be protected.
Further, a more preferable aspect of the present invention further comprises a storage unit for storing an image file attached to the e-mail, and an application unit for adding storage location information to the image file stored in the storage unit, When the determination result is affirmative, the transfer unit generates a guide mail in which the telephone number has been deleted, and transfers the guide mail by describing the storage location information provided by the providing unit in the guide mail. Things.
In this aspect, the receiver is notified of the storage location information (eg, URL) of the image file, and the receiver can download, display, and browse the image file based on the storage location information.
[0015]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the following description, the specification or examples of various details and examples of numerical values, character strings, and other symbols are merely reference for clarifying the idea of the present invention, and all or some of them Obviously, the idea of the invention is not limited. In addition, well-known techniques, well-known procedures, well-known architectures, and well-known circuit configurations (hereinafter, “known matters”) will not be described in detail, but this is also for the purpose of simplifying the description, It does not intentionally exclude all or some of the matters. 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.
[0016]
FIG. 1 is a conceptual system configuration diagram according to the embodiment. In this figure, a service center (e-mail service device) 20 stores an image (for example, a photograph) 24 of an e-mail with image 23 transmitted from a mobile phone 22 of a user 21 as a sender, and stores the image 24 A relay mail distribution service is provided for generating a guide mail 25 describing storage location information (URL) and delivering the guide mail 25 to a mobile phone 27 of a user 26 as a recipient.
[0017]
The service center 20 includes various devices required for the relay delivery service of the electronic mail with images, for example, an image storage server (storage unit, assigning unit) 28, a relay server (receiving unit, conversion unit, transfer unit, extraction unit) 29, A member data server 30 and the like are provided. The functions and roles of each of these devices are as follows.
[0018]
<Image storage server 28>
The image 24 transferred from the relay server 29 is stored openly via a network (not shown), and the storage location information is notified to the relay server 29. Here, the above-mentioned “network” can connect at least between the mobile phone 27 of the user 26 and the storage server 28 in accordance with the Internet general-purpose protocol (TCP / IP). The storage location information is a URL indicating location information of a document on the Internet.
[0019]
<Relay server 29>
The relay server 29 receives the electronic mail 23 with the image, extracts the image 24 attached to the electronic mail 23 with the image, outputs the image 24 to the storage server 28, and outputs the URL of the image 24 notified from the storage server 28. A guide mail 25 including the guide mail (the configuration of which will be described later) is generated and delivered to the mobile phone 27 of the user 26.
[0020]
<Member data server 30>
The member data server 30 registers and stores various information of the distribution service member of the electronic mail with image in the present embodiment. The relay server 29 generates the guide mail 25 while referring to the registration information. For this purpose, the member data server 30 has at least the following two conversion tables or equivalents.
[0021]
The first conversion table includes a member's original e-mail address (hereinafter, referred to as “main address”) and a transfer e-mail address (hereinafter, “sub-address”) used only for the image-attached e-mail distribution service in the present embodiment. ) Is an “address-address conversion table 31” for converting each other. The primary address generally includes the name of the member and the like, and is usually treated as one of the personal information of the member. On the other hand, the secondary address is an electronic mail address dedicated to transfer used in place of the main address, and the relay server 29 receives the electronic mail with image 23 in which the secondary address is set as the destination address. .
[0022]
In the figure, the address-address conversion table 31 typically shows a pair of primary and secondary addresses. That is, “taro@aaa.com” is the main address of a member (Taro for convenience), and “1234@9.mail-com” is the subaddress of the member. The relay server 29 receives the electronic mail with image 23 addressed to Taro with the destination address set to “1234@9.mail-com”, outputs the image 24 to the storage server 28, and outputs the address-address. With reference to the conversion table 31, the main address ("taro@aaa.com") of Taro is extracted, and a guide mail 25 in which the main address is set to the destination address is generated and delivered.
[0023]
By the way, as described at the beginning, in the electronic mail with the image transmitted from the mobile phone supporting the i-shot (R) service, the sender address is not the original sender address but the system address. There was a problem that reply mail could not be sent (return mail non-delivery problem).
[0024]
Therefore, the inventors of the present invention have noticed that the guide mail of the image-attached e-mail includes a "phone number" unique to the original sender, as shown in FIG. The above problem (return mail non-delivery problem) is solved by specifying the original sender's e-mail address from the telephone number, and generating and delivering a guide mail 25 with the e-mail address as the sender address. Was decided.
[0025]
In the figure, a telephone number-address conversion table 32 is an essential element for solving the problem of non-delivery of reply mail, that is, an essential element for specifying the original sender's e-mail address from the telephone number. In the telephone number-address conversion table 32, as an example, the telephone number (“090-9999-9999”) of a member (for convenience, Hanako) and the e-mail address of the member (for example, “hanako @ aaa. com ”) is registered.
[0026]
Now, if the e-mail with image 23 transmitted from the mobile phone 22 of the user 21 (Mr. Hanako) is as shown in FIG. 9, the telephone number (“090 -9999-9999 ") as a clue, extract an e-mail address (" hanako@aaa.com ") from the telephone number-address conversion table 32, and set the e-mail address as the sender address of the guide mail 25. To deliver.
[0027]
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of the guide mail 25 in the present embodiment. The difference between the guide mail 25 and the conventional guide mail (see FIG. 9) is that, first, the sender address of the header portion 25a includes an electronic mail address (“hanako” extracted from the telephone number-address conversion table 32). {Aaa.com ″) is set. Second, the message body 25b has a display 25c for displaying a character string (mail text) written by the user 21, and a display 25d for displaying the URL of the image 24 added by the relay server 29. And there is no portion corresponding to the telephone number display portion (first sub-body portion 11) in the conventional guide mail (see FIG. 9), that is, the telephone number is not described.
[0028]
FIG. 3 is a processing flowchart executed by the relay server 29 when registering a telephone number in the telephone number-address conversion table 32. In this flowchart, the relay server 29 first obtains the telephone number of the mobile phone 22 using the number display function (caller ID notification function) of the mobile phone 22 (step S11). Note that, without using the number display function, for example, a telephone number may be manually input from the numeric keypad of the mobile phone 22. However, since the possibility of an input error cannot be denied, practical use is not possible in terms of the reliability of the registration information. It is desirable to use the number display function.
[0029]
After obtaining the telephone number, a password is requested (step S12). This password is authentication information issued at the time of member registration, and is stored in association with registration information of each member (for example, each record of the address-address conversion table 31).
[0030]
Next, it is determined whether the passwords match (step S13). If the passwords do not match, the process is terminated as it is. If the passwords match, the main address of the member is extracted from the address-address conversion table 31, and The information is registered in the telephone number-address conversion table 32 together with the obtained telephone number (step S14), and the process is terminated.
[0031]
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a transfer time run of electronic mail with an image according to the present embodiment. In this figure, when the service center 20 receives an electronic mail 23 with an image from the mobile phone 22, it executes a predetermined server process described below.
[0032]
FIG. 5 is a flowchart of the server process. In this flowchart, first, the image 24 attached to the electronic mail 23 is extracted and stored in the storage server 28 (step S21). Next, the telephone number described in the body of the mail is extracted (step S22), collated with the telephone number-address conversion table 32 (step S23), and the e-mail address corresponding to the telephone number is converted into the telephone number-address. It is extracted from the conversion table 32 (step S24). Next, a guide mail 25 in which the sender address of the mail is replaced with the extracted e-mail address and the telephone number is deleted is generated (step S25), and finally, the guide mail 25 is delivered (step S26).
[0033]
Again, in FIG. 4, an e-mail address corresponding to the telephone number described in the original e-mail with image 23 is set in the sender address of the guide mail 25 received by the mobile phone 27. This e-mail address is that of the sender of the e-mail with the image.
[0034]
Therefore, the recipient of the guide mail can not only display and browse the image 24 by clicking the URL in the guide mail 25, but also use the reply mail function of the mobile phone 27 in addition to using the reply mail function of the mobile phone 27. With one touch, a reply mail can be sent to the sender of the image-attached e-mail 23, so that the "reply mail non-delivery problem" described at the beginning can be solved. (C) In addition, since the telephone number is not described in the guide mail 25, the personal information is not disclosed to an unfamiliar person, and the "privacy protection problem" described at the beginning can be solved.
[0035]
Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. It goes without saying that various modifications are included within the scope of the concept of the invention.
[0036]
For example, in the above embodiment, the image 24 attached to the e-mail 23 is stored in the server as it is so that the image 24 can be browsed from the browser software of the mobile phone 27. However, in the case of such an image browsing method, there is a possibility that the image 24 is downloaded without permission and used, for example, on a standby screen of the mobile phone 27, so that the image 24 is improved in terms of copyright protection. There is room to do it.
[0037]
Therefore, in the following improved mode, as shown in FIG. 6, the image 24 attached to the e-mail is divided into a plurality of subdivided images (for example, images A to P subdivided into squares). It is stored in the form, arranged in the correct order, and displayed and viewed on the browser of the mobile phone 27.
[0038]
In this way, as shown in FIG. 7, when browsing an image using a browser, the same picture 24a as the original image 24 can be viewed, while when the image is to be used as a standby screen, Since only one subdivided image (for example, subdivided image A) 31a is downloaded to the mobile phone 27 and does not form the original image 24, the copyright of the image 24 can be protected.
[0039]
Note that the shape of the divided image 31 is not limited to the above-described example (square shape). It may be subdivided into strips in the vertical direction or the horizontal direction, or may be subdivided into irregular shapes like jigsaw buzzles.
[0040]
The main functions of this embodiment described above are functionally realized by an organic combination of a hardware asset including a microcomputer and software assets such as an OS and various programs. Since the OS and the general-purpose OS can be used, it can be said that essential items indispensable to the present invention are substantially collected in the server processing program of FIG. Therefore, the present invention provides a recording medium (such as a floppy (registered trademark) disk, MO, CD, hard disk, semiconductor memory, or the like) that stores all or a main part of the server processing program of FIG. Not only those who ride, but also those that provide only the recorded contents on the network) are included.
[0041]
【The invention's effect】
According to the present invention, for example, when an e-mail with an image corresponding to the i-shot (R) service is received, the sender address is the system address set by the i-shot (R) service, and the actual sender address is set. However, according to the present invention, the actual sender address is specified from the telephone number (which is the actual sender terminal number) described in the body of the e-mail, and the above system address is used as the actual sender address. It will be replaced and delivered. Therefore, on the receiving side, a reply mail can be issued by a normal reply operation, and the problem A (return mail non-delivery problem) is solved.
Further, according to a preferred aspect of the present invention, since the guidance mail with the telephone number deleted is generated and transferred, the receiver side is not notified of the telephone number of the e-mail sender, and the above-mentioned problem B (privacy protection) Problem) is solved.
Alternatively, since the image file is divided into a plurality of image files and stored, it is possible to display and browse the plurality of image files in the correct order by using the browser software of the mobile phone, and for example, against the intention of the image creator. If it is attempted to use it on the standby screen of a mobile phone without permission, it will be necessary to combine multiple image files and play them back as a single image file. Protection can be achieved.
According to a more preferred aspect of the present invention, the storage location information (for example, URL) of the image file is notified to the recipient, and the recipient downloads, displays, and browses the image file based on the storage location information. Can be.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a conceptual system configuration diagram in an embodiment.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a guide mail 25 in the present embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a process flowchart executed by the relay server 29 when registering a telephone number in the telephone number-address conversion table 32.
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a transfer time run of an electronic mail with an image in the present embodiment.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a server process.
FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a divided image 31.
FIG. 7 is a display state diagram of a divided image 31.
FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram of a conventionally known electronic mail system.
FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a configuration of a conventional guide mail.
[Explanation of symbols]
20 Service Center (E-mail service device)
23 E-mail with images (e-mail)
24 images (image files)
28 Image storage server (storage means, provision means)
29 relay server (receiving means, converting means, transferring means, extracting means)
31 address-address conversion table 32 telephone number-address conversion table

Claims (6)

Receiving means for receiving an e-mail addressed to address b transmitted from address a;
Conversion means for converting the address a and the address b into another address a 'and an address b' with reference to a previously registered address-address conversion table;
An e-mail service device comprising: a transfer unit that transfers an e-mail in which the converted address is set.
When it is determined whether the e-mail received by the receiving means is an e-mail with an image and a phone number is described in the text thereof,
If the determination result is affirmative, an address corresponding to the telephone number is taken out from a telephone number-address conversion table registered in advance, and the address is used as the address a '(sender address after conversion). An e-mail service device comprising: a retrieval unit that outputs the data to the conversion unit so that the data can be output. 2. The electronic mail service device according to claim 1, wherein the transfer unit generates and transfers a guide mail in which the telephone number is deleted when the determination result is affirmative. Further, storage means for storing an image file attached to the e-mail,
Providing means for providing storage location information to the image file stored in the storage means,
The transfer means, when the determination result is affirmative, generates a guide mail from which the telephone number has been deleted, and transfers the guide mail with the storage location information given by the giving means in the guide mail. The electronic mail service device according to claim 1, wherein: 4. The e-mail service device according to claim 3, wherein the storage unit stores the image file by dividing the image file into a plurality of image files. A program for causing a computer to execute a predetermined processing function,
The processing function includes:
Receiving means for receiving an e-mail addressed to address b transmitted from address a;
Conversion means for converting the address a and the address b into another address a 'and an address b' with reference to a previously registered address-address conversion table;
Transfer means for transferring an e-mail in which the converted address is set,
When it is determined whether the e-mail received by the receiving means is an e-mail with an image and a phone number is described in the text thereof,
If the determination result is affirmative, an address corresponding to the telephone number is taken out from a telephone number-address conversion table registered in advance, and the address is used as the address a '(sender address after conversion). A program for realizing an output unit that outputs the data to the conversion unit so that the data can be output to the conversion unit. A recording medium storing all or a part of the program according to claim 5.

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