JP2004288146A - E-mail generating device and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an e-mail generating device which can efficiently generate an e-mail even in a device with a small number of keys such as a television set, car navigation device and cellular phone. <P>SOLUTION: The e-mail generating device is provided with an e-mail transmission and reception part 17; a dialogue control part 13 which outputs a guide sentence for urging a user to select a model sentence and input e-mail composition information and outputs a model-requesting signal indicating the model sentence thus selected and the e-mail composition information; a voice recognizing device 11 for selecting the model sentence and recognizing the e-mail composition information by means of voices; a voice synthesizing part 12 which synthesizes the guide sentence by voices; a model accumulating part 15 which accumulates a plurality of the model sentences and outputs the model sentence corresponding to the model-requesting signal; and a sentence generating part 14 which combines the model sentence thus outputted with the e-mail composition information to generate the e-mail and outputs the e-mail concerned to the e-mail transmission and reception part. By this, the e-mail can be generated only by orally describing the model request and the e-mail composition information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic mail creating apparatus and an electronic mail creating method for creating an electronic mail, and in particular, for creating an electronic mail by voice input.

  In the conventional e-mail creation device, the operation unit for inputting the text of the e-mail and the like displays a Japanese syllabary table on a screen because a physical keyboard is not attached to the television and the car navigation system. In a soft keyboard and a mobile phone with a limited number of buttons that are operated while being selected by the user, an input method with a very large number of operations is adopted by a combination of a small number of buttons.

  Further, there is a device having a function of preliminarily recording some sentences frequently used for input operation assistance and labor saving as a fixed sentence and selecting a sentence to be inserted from the fixed sentence.

As a method of performing this input operation assisting and use of the labor saving function by voice input, a frequently used fixed phrase is stored in advance, a voice recognition word for calling the fixed phrase is added, and the voice recognition word is input. At times, there is a method of inserting a fixed phrase searched by voice recognition into the body of an e-mail (for example, see Patent Document 1).
JP-A-2001-188669 (page 6, FIG. 2)

  However, in the conventional technology, when creating an e-mail, there are few cases where a fixed phrase can be used without modification, and after inserting the fixed phrase by voice recognition, a television and a television are used so that the fixed phrase meets the purpose. There was a problem that it was necessary to edit with the soft keyboard of the car navigation and the small number of buttons of the mobile phone.

  The present invention solves the conventional problem. In an information terminal including a television, a mobile phone, a car navigation system, and a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant: PDA), there is a physical limitation on a text input unit, and furthermore, a display is performed. An object of the present invention is to provide an e-mail creation device that can easily execute the creation of a text when an e-mail is created by voice input in an environment using a display unit with limited capabilities.

  In order to solve the conventional problem, the electronic mail creation device of the present invention, the dialogue control unit outputs a guide sentence for prompting the user to select an e-mail template sentence and input e-mail configuration information, Further, the template request signal and the e-mail composition information are output, and the text creation unit inserts the e-mail composition information into the selected template text to create an e-mail, thereby saving the time and effort of text creation. Can be reduced.

  According to the electronic mail creation apparatus of the present invention, when an electronic mail is created by voice input in an environment in which a text input means is physically limited and a display unit having a limited display capability is used, the text is input. The creation of an e-mail can be easily executed by the template and the interaction with the user.

  The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention includes a mail transmitting / receiving unit that transmits / receives an e-mail, a selection of a template text of the e-mail, and an input of e-mail configuration information that is information necessary for creating the e-mail. A dialogue control unit that outputs a guide sentence for prompting a user, and outputs a template request signal indicating the selected template sentence and the e-mail configuration information; and the template sentence and the e-mail configuration information from a user's voice. A voice recognition unit for recognizing the above, a voice synthesis unit for voice synthesizing the guide text, a plurality of the template texts are stored in advance, and a template storage unit that outputs the template text corresponding to the template request signal, An e-mail creation device including a sentence creation unit that inserts the e-mail configuration information into the selected template sentence, creates the e-mail, and outputs the e-mail to the e-mail transmission / reception unit. By using a template sentence, the time and effort of creating a sentence can be saved, the user can input e-mail composition information to reduce the number of corrections in the sentence, and furthermore, voice input / output is performed. This has the effect of reducing keyboard and other operations.

  The invention according to claim 2 of the present invention includes a mail transmission / reception unit for transmitting / receiving an e-mail, a selection of a template sentence of the e-mail, and an input of e-mail configuration information which is information necessary for creating the e-mail. A dialogue control unit that outputs a guide sentence for prompting a user, and outputs a template request signal indicating the selected template sentence and the e-mail configuration information; and the form sentence and the e-mail configuration information from a user's voice. A voice recognition unit for recognizing the text, a voice synthesis unit for voice-synthesizing the guide text, a template request transmission / reception unit for transmitting the template request signal and receiving the template text, and An e-mail creation device including a mail creation information unit that inserts mail composition information, creates the e-mail, and outputs the e-mail to the e-mail transmission / reception unit. By inputted from other than the producing apparatus has an effect that it is possible to reduce the hardware resource of the electronic mail creation device.

  The invention according to claim 3 of the present invention further comprises a display unit for displaying the created e-mail, wherein the e-mail configuration information included in the created e-mail is displayed in a display form different from the template text. The electronic mail creation apparatus according to claim 1 or 2 displayed on a section, has an effect that the created electronic mail can be easily visually determined.

  The invention according to claim 4 of the present invention includes a template transmitting / receiving unit that receives a template request signal indicating a template sentence and transmits the template sentence, and a template storage unit that outputs the template sentence indicated by the template request signal. And has an effect that the template text can be stored without depending on the hardware resources of the e-mail creating device.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided the electronic mail creation device according to the second or third aspect, the template storage device according to the fourth aspect, and the electronic mail creation device and the template storage device are connected. This is an e-mail creation system including a network, and can store template sentences without depending on the hardware resources of the e-mail creation device. Further, the e-mail creation device can reduce the hardware resources. Has an action.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, a first step of voice-synthesizing a first guide text for prompting a user to select a template text of an e-mail and outputting a synthesized voice, A second step of selecting the template sentence from a template request signal indicating the selected template sentence, and a second step of prompting the user to input e-mail configuration information that is information necessary for creating the e-mail. A third step of voice-synthesizing the guide text and outputting a synthesized voice; and if the e-mail composition information created by the user's voice to be inserted into the template text is incomplete, the process proceeds to the third step. Step 4 and a fifth step showing the contents of the e-mail to the user by creating the e-mail by inserting the e-mail composition information prepared from the voice of the user into the template sentence. And a sixth step of transmitting the e-mail, wherein the method of selecting a template sentence by the user's voice eliminates the trouble of writing the text, and furthermore, provides the user with the synthesized voice. Prompting the input of the e-mail composition information has the effect of reducing the number of text corrections.

  According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, a first step of voice-synthesizing a first guide text for prompting a user to select a template text of an e-mail, and outputting a synthesized voice, A second step of selecting the template sentence from a template request signal indicating the selected template sentence, and a second step of prompting the user to input e-mail configuration information that is information necessary for creating the e-mail. A third step of voice-synthesizing the guide text and outputting a synthesized voice; and if the e-mail composition information created by the user's voice to be inserted into the template text is incomplete, the process proceeds to the third step. Step 4 and a fifth step showing the contents of the e-mail to the user by creating the e-mail by inserting the e-mail composition information prepared from the voice of the user into the template sentence. And a sixth step of transmitting the e-mail, which is a program to be executed by a computer. By using a template sentence selected by a user's voice, the time and effort of creating a sentence can be reduced. By having the user input the e-mail composition information created by the voice of the user, it is possible to reduce the number of text corrections.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of an electronic mail creation device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

  Here, the mail transmitting and receiving unit 17 transmits and receives an electronic mail, and the interaction control unit 13 performs selection of a template sentence of the electronic mail and input of electronic mail configuration information which is information necessary for creating the electronic mail. It outputs guide texts for prompting the user, and outputs a template request signal indicating the selected template text and e-mail configuration information. The template storage unit 15 stores a plurality of template texts in advance. A template sentence corresponding to the template request signal is output.

  The sentence creating unit 14 inserts electronic mail configuration information into the selected template sentence, creates an e-mail, and outputs the e-mail to the mail transmitting / receiving unit 17. The voice recognition unit 11 recognizes a template sentence and electronic mail composition information from a user's voice, and the display unit 16 displays the generated electronic mail.

  The e-mail creation device 10 is configured to include a speech recognition unit 11, a speech synthesis unit 12, a dialogue control unit 13, a text creation unit 14, a display unit 16, a template storage unit 15, and a mail transmission / reception unit 17.

  Next, an operation of creating an e-mail according to the first embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a process of creating an e-mail according to the first embodiment.

  First, the dialog control unit 13 outputs a first guide sentence for prompting selection of a template sentence, and the speech synthesis unit 12 synthesizes the guide sentence and outputs it as speech. Next, the user utters a word or a sentence representing the content of the e-mail to be created to the speech recognition unit 11. The voice recognition unit 11 performs voice recognition of the generated word or sentence, and outputs the word or the sentence to the dialog control unit 13 (S21).

  Next, the dialog control unit 13 creates a template request signal for selecting a corresponding template sentence from the result of the voice recognition, selects a template sentence from the template storage unit 15, and outputs it to the sentence creation unit 14 (S22). ).

  Next, the text creating unit 14 extracts electronic mail configuration information from the template text and outputs it to the dialog control unit 13. Next, the dialogue control unit 13 outputs the second guide text prompting the input of the e-mail composition information to the speech synthesis unit 12 (S23). Next, the voice synthesizing unit 12 synthesizes the second guide text, and the display unit shows the question template 301 shown in FIG. 3, and waits for the user to input e-mail configuration information by voice.

  Next, the dialogue control unit 13 confirms the input of all the email configuration information, and if the input of the email configuration information is not completed, the process proceeds to S23 (S24).

  Next, the sentence creation unit 14 inserts the e-mail composition information into the template sentence, creates an e-mail, and displays it on the display unit to prompt the user to confirm the contents of the e-mail (S25).

  Next, the mail transmitting / receiving unit 17 transmits the created electronic mail (S26).

  Here, the question template 301 created from the template sentence selected by the user will be described.

  FIG. 3 shows a question template 301 in a case where the sentence or word uttered by the user is “conference invitation”. In addition, the user's answer is inserted into the answer box 302 in the question template.

  The sentence creation unit 14 extracts “schedule”, “start time”, “holding place”, and “participant” as the email composition information because the template sentence is “guidance for holding a meeting”.

  For this reason, the second guide text is “what day?”, “What time?”, “Where is it?”, And “who is the participant?”. The user is guided by the guide text, utters the e-mail composition information, and fills the answer box 302.

  Here, for example, the response from the user to “what day?” Is “March 29, 2002”, and the response to the user “what time?” Is “13:00”. The dialogue control unit 13 determines items in order by dialogue.

  Note that all answer boxes 302 are displayed in advance, but answer boxes 302 that have already been entered are displayed with solid lines, and answer boxes 302 that have not yet been entered are represented by dotted lines. Allows the user to know what to enter.

  FIG. 4 shows a mail body 401 created from information and a model obtained from a user. The information obtained from the user in S23 and S24 is embedded in the template sentence underlined, and the user can check the changed part of the template. It is also possible to change the font, size and color of the character.

  According to such a configuration, the dialog control unit 13 outputs the guide text for prompting the user to select the template text of the e-mail and to input the e-mail configuration information, and further outputs the guide request signal and the e-mail configuration information. Is output, and the sentence creating unit 14 inserts the e-mail composition information into the selected template sentence and creates an e-mail. By using the template sentence, the user can save time and effort in creating the sentence. By inputting the e-mail composition information, the user can reduce the number of text corrections.

Although the e-mail creation device 10 of the present invention is a television having an e-mail creation function, the invention can be similarly applied to an information terminal including a mobile phone, a car navigation, and a PDA.

  Further, the present invention is realized by a program, and is recorded on a recording medium such as a flexible disk and transferred, so that it can be easily implemented by another independent computer system.

  In addition, as a recording medium, an optical disk, an IC card, a ROM cassette, or the like can be used as long as it can record a program.

(Embodiment 2)
FIG. 5 is a schematic configuration diagram of an electronic mail creation device according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the template storage unit is connected to a network.

  The network 70 is connected to various devices and transmits and receives information. The template request transmission / reception unit 51 transmits a template request signal requesting a template text used for creating an e-mail, and further transmits the selected template. This is to receive sentences.

  The template storage unit 62 stores template texts used for e-mail. The template transmission / reception unit 61 receives a template request signal input from the network 70 and stores the corresponding template texts. This is selected from the section 62 and transmitted.

  Here, the e-mail creation device 50 includes a speech recognition unit 11, a speech synthesis unit 12, a dialogue control unit 13, a text creation unit 14, a display unit 16, a mail transmission / reception unit 17, and a template request transmission / reception unit 51.

  The model storage device 60 includes a model transmitting / receiving unit 61 and a model storage unit 62.

  Since the voice recognition unit 11, the voice synthesis unit 12, the dialogue control unit 13, the text creation unit 14, the display unit 16, and the mail transmission / reception unit 17 operate in the same manner as in the first embodiment, the description here will be omitted. Omitted.

  Next, an operation of creating an e-mail according to the second embodiment will be described. FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating an e-mail creation process according to the second embodiment. Here, S21, S23, S24, S25, and S26 are the same as those in the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted. First, the dialog control unit 13 creates a template request signal using the speech recognition result output from the speech recognition unit 11, and the template request transmission / reception unit 51 transmits the template request signal via the network 70 to the template storage device 60. (S61).

  Next, the template transmitting / receiving section 61 selects a template document corresponding to the template request signal received via the network 70, and the template transmitting / receiving section 61 transmits the selected template document via the network 70 to the e-mail creating apparatus 50. (S62).

  Next, the template request transmission / reception unit 51 receives the template text and outputs it to the text creation unit 14 (S63).

  After that, S23 to S26 are processed as in the first embodiment.

Here, the template sentences stored in the template storage unit 62 are automatically selected in accordance with the date and time, time, weather, destination of the e-mail, and the like, and an appropriate e-mail is created. Is also possible.

  For example, the greetings of the weather and the like are stored in a large number of template storing sections 62 according to the date and time, and the greetings of the weather and the like that match the date and time are automatically selected from the date and time when the e-mail is created. By automatically selecting and outputting each greeting in the morning, daytime, evening or night, e-mails starting with the appropriate greetings according to these are created efficiently and automatically can do.

  According to such a configuration, the electronic mail creation device 50 that creates an email and the template storage device 60 that stores the template text and transmits the template text in response to the request are connected via the network 70, and The hardware resources of the mail creation device 50 can be reduced, and an e-mail can be created using various template sentences via the network 70.

  As described above, the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments. However, the present invention is not necessarily limited to the above-described embodiments and examples, and can be modified and implemented within the scope of the technical idea. it can.

  The present invention can be easily implemented by another independent computer system by realizing the program, recording the program on a recording medium such as a flexible disk, and transferring the program.

  In addition, as a recording medium, an optical disk, an IC card, a ROM cassette, or the like can be used as long as it can record a program.

  As described above, the e-mail creation device and the e-mail creation method according to the present invention can easily create an e-mail by creating a sentence template and interacting with a user when creating an e-mail by voice input. It is effective when creating an e-mail in an environment where there is a physical limitation on the means for inputting a sentence and a display unit having a limited display capability is used.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a structure of an electronic mail creation device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. 5 is a flowchart showing a process of creating an e-mail according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The figure which shows the question template by the 1st Embodiment of this invention FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a text of an e-mail according to the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the structures of an electronic mail creation device and a template storage device according to a second embodiment of the present invention. 5 is a flowchart showing processing for creating an e-mail according to the second embodiment of the present invention.

Explanation of reference numerals

10, 50 E-mail creation device 11 Speech recognition unit 12 Speech synthesis unit 13 Dialogue control unit 14 Text creation unit 15, 62 Template storage unit 16 Display unit 17 Mail transmission / reception unit 60 Template storage device 61 Template transmission / reception unit 70 Network

Claims (7)

An e-mail transmitting / receiving unit for transmitting / receiving an e-mail, and outputting and selecting a guide text for prompting a user to select a template sentence of the e-mail and to input e-mail configuration information which is information necessary for creating the e-mail A dialogue control unit that outputs a template request signal indicating the generated template text and the electronic mail configuration information, a voice recognition unit that recognizes the template text and the electronic mail configuration information from a user's voice, and the guide text. A template synthesizing unit for synthesizing the template, a plurality of the template sentences are stored in advance, and a template storage unit that outputs the template sentences corresponding to the template request signal; and An e-mail creating apparatus including a text creating unit that inserts information, creates the e-mail, and outputs the created e-mail to the mail transmitting / receiving unit. An e-mail transmitting / receiving unit for transmitting / receiving an e-mail, and outputting and selecting a guide sentence for prompting a user to select a template sentence of the e-mail and input e-mail configuration information which is information necessary for creating the e-mail A dialogue control unit that outputs a template request signal indicating the template text and the email configuration information, a voice recognition unit that recognizes the template text and the email configuration information from a user's voice, and a guide text. A voice synthesis unit for performing voice synthesis, a template request transmitting / receiving unit that transmits the template request signal, and receives the template text requested by the template request signal, and inserts the electronic mail configuration information into the selected template text. An e-mail creating apparatus that creates the e-mail and outputs the e-mail to the e-mail transmitting / receiving unit. 3. The display according to claim 1, further comprising a display unit for displaying the created e-mail, wherein the e-mail configuration information included in the created e-mail is displayed on the display unit in a display form different from the template text. Email creation device. A template storage device including a template transmitting / receiving unit that receives a template request signal indicating a template document and transmits the template document, and a template storage unit that outputs the template document indicated by the template request signal. An e-mail creation system comprising: the e-mail creation device according to claim 2 or 3; a template storage device according to claim 4; and a network to which the e-mail creation device and the template storage device are connected. A first step of speech-synthesizing a first guide sentence for prompting a user to select a template sentence of an e-mail, and outputting a synthesized speech; and a template request signal indicating the template sentence selected by the user's speech. A second step of selecting the template sentence, and a second guide sentence for prompting a user to input e-mail composition information which is information necessary for creating the e-mail, and a synthesized voice is output. A third step, a fourth step in which the e-mail composition information created from the voice of the user to be inserted into the template sentence is not completed, a fourth step to shift to the third step, and A fifth step of inserting the e-mail composition information created from the voice of the e-mail, creating the e-mail, and showing the contents of the e-mail to the user, and a sixth step of transmitting the e-mail E-mail creation method comprising the step. A first step of speech-synthesizing a first guide sentence for prompting a user to select a template sentence of an e-mail, and outputting a synthesized speech; and a template request signal indicating the template sentence selected by the user's speech. A second step of selecting the template sentence, and a second guide sentence for prompting a user to input e-mail composition information which is information necessary for creating the e-mail, and a synthesized voice is output. A third step, a fourth step in which the e-mail composition information created from the voice of the user to be inserted into the template sentence is not completed, a fourth step to shift to the third step, and A fifth step of inserting the e-mail composition information created from the voice of the e-mail, creating the e-mail, and showing the contents of the e-mail to the user, and a sixth step of transmitting the e-mail Programs to be executed by a computer and a step.

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