JP2004364330A - Multimedia electronic mail system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic mail system in which information of media kinds other than limited media kinds can be also additionally transmitted as so-called multimedia even when a transmitter terminal has only an input means for the limited media kinds. <P>SOLUTION: In the electronic mail system wherein mail information including at least a transmission destination address and a mail body is transmitted from a transmission source terminal, the transmission destination address is analyzed and extracted from the mail information in an electronic mail center to control the delivery of the mail information and the mail information is transmitted to a target transmission destination terminal, the electronic mail system is provided with an additional conversion apparatus for adding additional information relative to the contents of the mail information to the mail information at any position in a path from the transmission source terminal to the transmission destination terminal. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an e-mail system including a terminal having a communication function and an e-mail center, and more particularly to an e-mail system in which information is added to original mail information and delivered to a destination. .

  In recent years, e-mail systems using computer devices and the like have been widely spread. An electronic mail system is an information transmission means that has attracted much attention because it does not need to restrict the time of the other party like a telephone and has more immediacy than a letter.

  Also, with the recent development of digitization technology, multimedia communication terminal devices capable of inputting and outputting information corresponding to a plurality of types of media have been developed. Along with this, attention has been paid to multimedia information transmitted and received by e-mail.

  On the other hand, the spread of personal communication terminal devices has also shown remarkable growth. There are many terminals on the market according to the purpose of the user, such as a pager (pager), a cellular (cellular phone), a PHS, and a portable information communication terminal such as an electronic organizer. An e-mail system that sends and receives e-mails using these personal communication terminal devices has also been constructed. If the personal digital assistant does not have a communication function, an electronic mail that links the personal digital assistant with a telephone A system has also been built.

  FIG. 14A shows a general example of a conventional multimedia electronic mail system. It is assumed that information represented by at least one type of specific medium is transmitted from the personal computer of the transmission source terminal 100 to the personal computer 200 of the transmission destination via the electronic mail center 300 on the computer network.

  When the source terminal 100 transmits a mail, mail information is created using input means such as a keyboard. This mail information is composed of at least a destination address represented by "to" and substantial mail contents. Upon receiving the mail information, the electronic mail center 300 analyzes the transmission destination, determines the delivery destination, and executes the actual transmission procedure.

  In the e-mail center 300, in addition to the destination address input by the source terminal 100, the date and sender information represented by "Date" and "from" are automatically added to the header part. A blank space is provided between the header and the mail body so that mail information is output. However, the information and date of the transmission source terminal may be directly input from the transmission source terminal 100.

  As described above, the e-mail center 300 can analyze the mail information by inputting the mail information input at the transmission source terminal in a predetermined format. Further, the mail body may be composed of only text information, may include image information in the text information, and may further include audio information. The identifier and the corresponding identifier before the voice information are incorporated in the outgoing mail, and the following e-mail center and destination terminal enable analysis.

  The e-mail center 300 receives the e-mail information, extracts a destination address from the e-mail information formatted in a predetermined format as described above, detects a delivery destination, and includes "Date" and "From" in the header. The information such as "" is added and transmitted to the destination terminal 200.

  Thus, at least one specific medium can be transmitted to the personal computer of the destination terminal 200. In this case, since the transmission source terminal 100 is a personal computer, it naturally includes a text input unit 101 (for example, a keyboard) as a unit for creating an e-mail to be transmitted, but a voice input unit 102 (for example, a microphone). It is also possible to cooperate with the image input means 103 (for example, a scanner), and therefore, it is possible to input and transmit at least one of text, voice, and image or a combination thereof as a medium.

  The media input and transmitted by the source terminal 100 in this way are transmitted to the destination terminal 200 via the e-mail center 300 as it is. At this time, when the information transmitted from the transmission source terminal 100 includes, for example, an image and a voice as well as a text, and the transmission destination terminal 200 does not include the voice reproducing unit, the transmitted voice is transmitted. Arrives at the entrance of the destination terminal 200, but is cut here.

  As shown in FIG. 14B, even when the transmission source terminal 100 is a personal computer and the transmission destination terminal 200 is a telephone, a facsimile, or a pager, the electronic mail center 300 is connected to the telephone or the like via a public line network. Communication is possible by connecting to the destination terminal 200. However, in this case, if the source terminal 100 transmits without recognizing the model (telephone, fax, pager, etc.) of the destination terminal 200, the destination terminal 200 may not be able to receive the transmitted information. Therefore, the source terminal 100 needs to recognize the model of the destination terminal 200.

  This recognition is performed, for example, by adding an identifier representing the model of the destination terminal 200 when inputting the destination address at the source terminal 100. For example, when the destination terminal 200 is facsimile, the text information is converted into image data and transmitted in the source terminal 100 by setting [telephone number + @ fax + name of the other party]. When the source terminal 100 is a computer and the destination terminal 200 is a telephone, the telephone can only receive voice, so that the source terminal 100 or the e-mail center 300 can perform voice synthesis based on text information. Can be transmitted only when the information is provided.

  In this example, the media conversion is performed by the source terminal 100. The media conversion function is provided in the email center 300, and the type of the destination terminal 200 is notified from the source terminal 100 to the email center 300. Thus, the e-mail center 300 can convert the information of the specific medium transmitted from the transmission source terminal 100 into a receivable medium of the transmission destination terminal 200 and transmit it.

  Although it is technically possible to transmit to a terminal such as a computer that has many types of receivable media than a terminal that has few types of media that can be input, such as a telephone, there are the following problems at present.

  That is, since there are few media types that can be input to the source terminal 100, even if there are many media that can be input (received) to the destination terminal 200, the capability cannot be utilized. To utilize the receiving capability of the destination terminal, it is necessary to form data of another type of media based on the input specific media data at some point from the source terminal 100 to the destination terminal 200. However, telephones and the like do not have such a function at present.

  Therefore, when transmitting from a terminal having a small number of input media types such as a telephone to a terminal having a large number of input media types such as a computer, there is a disadvantage that the function of the destination terminal cannot be fully utilized. Further, when the media types that can be input are different, such as a telephone and a facsimile, the source terminal can input the media that can be input by the destination terminal (or the specific media that the destination terminal receives). If there is no ability to convert to e-mail, exchange of e-mail is impossible.

  The present invention has been proposed in view of the above conventional circumstances, and even when the transmitting terminal has only a limited media type input means, information of media types other than the limited media type is provided. In addition, an object of the present invention is to provide an electronic mail system capable of transmitting as so-called multimedia, and furthermore, the present invention provides an electronic mail system which has only input means corresponding to mutually different media. However, an object of the present invention is to provide an e-mail system that enables transmission and reception of e-mail.

  The present invention transmits mail information including at least a destination address and a mail body from a source terminal 10, analyzes and extracts a destination address from the mail information in an electronic mail center, and controls delivery of the mail information. The following means are employed on the premise of an e-mail system in which the mail information is transmitted to the intended destination terminal 20.

  That is, the additional conversion device 1 that basically adds the additional information related to the mail information to the mail information is provided at any position on the route from the source terminal 10 to the destination terminal 20. It is.

  The additional conversion device 1 first analyzes the mail information transmitted from the source terminal 10 by the analysis means 132, and determines the source information, the destination address, the mail body and the media type information indicating the media type of the mail body. Form structured data including each mail component. Next, the related information generating means 140 generates related information based on each mail element constituting the structured data formed as described above. Further, the mail composing means 136 composes a transmitted mail having the content of the mail information transmitted from the transmission source terminal 10 and the above-mentioned related information.

  As a result, information related to the mail element included in the mail information from the source terminal 10 can be added, and abundant information can be transmitted to the destination terminal 20 even for a model such as a telephone or a pager having a small input information. It can be transmitted.

  The additional conversion device 1 further includes a judging unit 135 for judging the type of media that can be output from the destination terminal 20, and the mail composing unit 136 determines the contents of the mail and the related The information is converted into a receivable medium of the transmission destination terminal 20 and incorporated into the transmission mail. As a result, a mail of a media type corresponding to the outputable media of the destination terminal 20 can be delivered.

  Further, the source terminal includes an additional information identifier or a program request identifier in the mail information, and the related information generating means generates additional information (program) corresponding to the additional information (program request) identifier to generate a mail structure. Give to the means. As a result, additional information that is not related to the mail content can be transmitted to the destination terminal.

  It is possible to adopt any mode of incorporating the additional conversion device 1 in an electronic mail center, in the transmission source terminal 10, and in the transmission destination terminal 20.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to create and send a multimedia e-mail having a large amount of information even in a terminal such as a telephone that can use only limited media. It becomes. Also, the source terminal of the e-mail can transmit the e-mail without being conscious of the terminal type and the output means of the destination terminal.

  FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of a multimedia electronic mail system according to the present invention. Similar to the case shown in FIG. 14A or FIG. 14B, a state in which the source terminal 10 and the destination terminal 20 are connected to each other via the e-mail center 30 is shown. From 10, mail information input in a predetermined format (a predetermined procedure or a predetermined format) is transmitted to the electronic mail center 30 as described below. The e-mail center 30 controls the delivery of the e-mail information by reading the destination address from the e-mail information in the predetermined format, as in the prior art. Is processed as described below, and is sent to the delivery procedure.

  That is, the electronic mail center 30 includes the communication processing unit 31, and further includes the analysis unit 132, the related information generation unit 140, the output media determination unit 135, and the mail configuration unit that constitute the additional conversion device 1 of the present invention. 136 and media conversion means 137. The related information generating means 140 includes an additional information extracting means 141, a key information extracting means 142, and a database managing means 143.

  First, the mail information D1 transmitted from the source terminal 10 includes, for example, a destination address d2, sender information d3, a mail body d4, and the like as shown in FIG. The communication processing unit 31 has a receiving function of receiving the mail information D1 and a transmitting function of transmitting outgoing mail information D100 formed by a mail composing unit 136 described later to the destination terminal 20.

  Further, the communication processing means 31 performs an incoming call process or an incoming call process when the transmission source terminal 10 or the transmission destination terminal 20 needs connection processing with the e-mail center 30 such as a circuit-switched terminal device such as a telephone. It has a function of performing connection processing such as dial processing.

  When sending and receiving e-mails between packet-switching terminals that do not require the connection processing, the connection processing function is unnecessary. The analyzing means 132 constituting the additional converting means 1 analyzes and extracts the destination address d2, the source information d3 and the mail body d4 from the mail information D1 received by the communication processing means 31, and as shown in FIG. Then, structured data D10 in which the mail information D1 is structured is formed.

  In the structured data D10 shown in FIG. 5B, the header information d11 formed by the analysis means 132, that is, the date when the mail information D1 was created, the overall information length, and the like are written as text information in the top header portion. The destination address d12 and the sender information d13 are written in text information based on the destination address d2 and the sender information d3 included in the mail information D1 transmitted from the source terminal 10 as follows.

  The media type information d14a indicating the media type of the mail content d14 written in the mail content area is code information, but the actual mail body d14b is the same as the media transmitted from the sender, that is, the voice. , Tones, and images are structured as they are.

  Of course, the contents of e-mail sent from the telephone can be both analog voice data and digital voice data, but if it is analog voice data, it should be stored as analog here, or converted digitally. It does not matter what conversion method is used to store the data and further convert it to digital.

  In order to form the above structured data D10, as shown in FIG. 2, the analyzing means 132 can recognize the contents of the mail information transmitted from the source terminal 10 according to the media type (tone, voice, image) of the mail information. A recognition unit 132a is provided. This recognition means 132a is, for example, a voice recognition function for analyzing voice and converting it into text (for example, a voice recognition system already introduced at a ticket counter in a station), a character recognition function for performing pattern recognition on image information and converting it into text, It has a tone signal analysis function for analyzing a tone signal used in a key input of a telephone, a pager or the like, and recognizing a number or a character corresponding to the tone signal and converting it into text.

  Further, the analyzing means 132 is provided with a structuring means 132b, which is structured based on the destination address d12 and the sender information d13 which are converted into texts by the recognizing means 132a as described above, and further based on the mail body d14b which is continuously transmitted. The conversion data D10 is formed.

  The structured data D10 thus obtained is temporarily stored in the memory 132m. The analyzing means 132 is further provided with a control means 132c for recognizing the destination address d2, the sender information d3 and the mail body d4 constituting the mail information D1 transmitted as described above, as the recognizing means 132a and the structuring means 132b. Or used for controlling interactive communication with the source terminal 10 as described later.

  In the present invention, the recognizing means 132a of the analyzing means 132 has all of the voice recognition function, character recognition function, and tone signal analysis function at the same time, and can be switched according to the input medium. It is provided with only a tone signal analysis function corresponding to a tone signal transmitted from a specific type of terminal, for example, a telephone, to provide an electronic mail center 30 dedicated to a telephone, or by recognizing image information transmitted from a fax. An electronic mail center 30 dedicated to faxing may be provided with only a character recognition function for text information.

  The related information generation means 140 extracts necessary data from the database management means 34 based on each mail element of the structured data D10 formed as described above.

  The related information generating unit 140 includes an additional information extracting unit 141 and a key information extracting unit 142 described below. The additional information extraction unit 101 accesses the database management unit 34 based on the destination address d12 and the sender information d13 from the structured data D10, and extracts more detailed information on the destination address d12 and the sender information d13. , To the mail composition means 136. Extraction of specific additional information or a program, which will be described later, is performed in the same manner.

  The key information extraction means 142 constituting the related information generation means 140 is used as key information, for example, information or location indicating time, from the mail body d14b constituting the mail information D10 formed by the analysis means 132. Is extracted and passed to the database management means 143.

  As described above, the database management unit 143 determines whether the additional information extraction unit 141 obtains the destination address d12 obtained from the structured data D10, the information related to the sender information d13, or the key information extraction unit 142 determines whether the key information extraction unit 142 has the mail body d14b. Provide information related to the extracted key information.

  That is, as shown in FIG. 3, the database management means can extract information relating to the user of the source terminal 10 or the destination terminal 20 or information relating to the mail content d14 transmitted from the source terminal 10. 143 is stored in the memory 143m. In FIG. 3, addresses and telephone numbers of the sender and the receiver are stored in text format in advance as information related to the user, and a face photograph of the sender and the receiver and a home map are stored as image information. Has been accumulated. Further, as information relating to the mail content (extracted by the key information extracting means 142), information relating to various lands, shops, and companies, for example, relating to the mail content of ×× company, a × The homepage address of the Internet is stored as text information.

  In this state, when the additional information extracting means 141 obtains the destination address d12 or the sender information d13 from the structured data D10, the sender, the telephone number of the receiver, the photograph of the sender's face, etc. Is output. Further, when the key information extracting means 142 extracts "XX company" as key information, a map, an address around the X company, and an Internet homepage address are extracted from the memory 143m. Note that the information extracted from the database management unit 143 by the related information generation unit 140 as described above may be simply referred to as related information.

  The output media determination unit 135 obtains the destination address d11 from the structured data D10 formed by the analysis unit 132 and accesses the memory 143m to determine the media that can be received by the destination terminal 20. Thereby, as shown in FIG. 6, for example, data in which the destination address d12 is associated with the terminal type d21 and the output (receivable) medium d22 can be obtained.

  The following system is also conceivable as a method in which the output media judging means 135 judges a receivable medium of the destination terminal 20. That is, when the information about the type of media that can be output from the destination terminal 20 is included in the mail information transmitted from the source terminal 10, the output media determination unit 135 can easily output the media that can be output from the received mail information. Can be determined. In addition, for example, as specified in the framework of the IBM Smart Office, prior to the original communication, the communicating parties mutually exchange characteristics with respect to models and functions to be used and determine mutually outputable media. Is also possible.

  The mail composing means 136 incorporates the destination address d12 of the structured data D10, the source information d13, and the mail content d14b of the structured data D10 into the transmitted mail information D100 shown in FIG. The information 141 extracted from the database management means 143 based on the structured data D10 and the information extracted from the database management means 143 by the key information extraction means 142 are incorporated in the transmission mail information D100 in addition to the mail contents d14b. . FIG. 7 will be described later in detail.

  The media conversion unit 137 has a function of converting the mail body d14b and the related information incorporated in the transmission mail information D100 into the receivable media of the transmission destination terminal 20 obtained by the media determination unit 135.

  For example, a voice-recognizable part of the mail information expressed in voice is converted into text information, and a character-recognizable part of the mail information expressed as an image is converted into text information. It has a function of converting mail information expressed in text into image information, and converting voice information expressed in text into voice information by voice synthesis.

  FIG. 4 shows an embodiment of the present invention in a case where a telephone 10A is used as the source terminal 10 and a computer terminal 20A that can output image information and text information is used as the destination terminal 20.

  First, the telephone 10A of the transmission source terminal issues a connection request to the telephone number assigned to the electronic mail center 30. When the electronic mail center 30 receives a connection request from the telephone 10A of the transmission source terminal, the communication processing unit 131 performs a connection process between the telephone 10A of the transmission source terminal and the analysis unit 132.

  After the connection process is completed, the telephone 10A of the transmission source terminal inputs predetermined items. Various methods are conceivable for this input procedure. However, the electronic mail center 30 can analyze only the mail information input in a predetermined format (predetermined procedure) as described above. It consists of codes corresponding to "Date", "to", and "from", a date corresponding to each code, a destination address d2 designating a destination, sender information d3, and a mail body d4 to be transmitted. The mail information D1 is input as a tone signal or voice information as shown in FIG. That is, the destination address d2 and the sender information d3 are input by a tone signal using a key, and the mail body d4 is input by a voice signal. It should be noted that the date information corresponding to "date" is known by the electronic mail center 30 and therefore need not be input from the source terminal 10, but the electronic mail center 30 automatically generates the sender information d3 corresponding to "from". There is a case where it can be recognized and a case where it is not so. That is, if ISDN is used as the line, the exchange transmits the sender information d3 to the e-mail center 30 so that there is no need to input it. However, since the e-mail center 30 cannot know the sender on the normal line, the input is not necessary. There is a need to.

  As an example, a procedure for interactively inputting by voice using a push-button telephone is as follows. First, when the connection processing is completed, the control means 132c of the analysis means 132 shown in FIG. 5B prompts the telephone 10A by voice, "Enter the address of the destination terminal by key, and finally press *." (Corresponding to "to"). " Accordingly, the user of the telephone 10A of the transmission source terminal inputs the transmission destination address d2 according to the instruction. When this input is completed (when the control means 132c confirms the last *), the control means 132c then "keys in your name or telephone number and presses * at the end. (Equivalent to" from ") ) ". The user of the telephone 10A of the transmission source terminal inputs his / her name or telephone number (sender information d3) by keying in accordance with this instruction. Next, the control means 132c issues a notification that "Please speak your requirements slowly. Finally, press *." As a result, the mail content d4 is input by voice from the user. Note that the input of the date, which is information corresponding to “date”, may be automatically input to the transmission source terminal, or may be created on the electronic mail center 30 side.

  Since the input signal from the key is received as a tone signal having a frequency that differs depending on the numerical value by the analyzing means 132, the analyzing means 132 activates the tone signal analyzing function of the recognizing means 132a and outputs the address (address) of the computer terminal 20A. Recognizing the destination address d2) and the information of the source telephone set 10A (sender information d3), obtaining the corresponding text information, and using the following structuring means 132b, the destination address d12 and the sender information d13, respectively. Embedded in the structured data D10. When the sender information d3 corresponding to "from" is not inputted from the telephone 10A (when the ISDN line is used as described above), the control means 132c sets the telephone number of the telephone 10A obtained from the exchange. As the sender information to the structuring unit 132b.

  The mail body d4 is also incorporated into the structured data D10 as the mail body d14b. At this time, the media type information d14a indicating the media type of the mail body d14b and the information length of the mail body are placed at the head. The mail body d14b is incorporated in the structured data D10 as it is in the media (in this case, voice) transmitted by the telephone 10A of the transmission source terminal.

  The structuring unit 132b incorporates the above data into the structured data D10 in the order of the destination address d12, the sender information d13, the media type d14a of the mail content, and the mail body d14b as shown in FIG. At the beginning, a header d11 in which the capacity of the structured data D10 is written is incorporated. The mail information structured in this manner is stored in the memory 132m of the analysis means 132.

  In this manner, the related information generating means 140 operates in a state where the structured data D10 is formed. First, the additional information extraction unit 141 accesses the database management unit 34 based on the destination address d12 and the sender information d13 included in the structured data D10, and further detailed information on the destination address d12 and the sender information d13. Is extracted and transmitted to the mail composition means 136.

  Next, the key information extracting means 142 extracts information that becomes a key from the mail body d14b of the structured data D10 formed as described above. At this time, in the embodiment, since the mail body d14b transmitted from the telephone 10A is structured as voice information, the mail body d14b is converted into text information by the media conversion means 137, temporarily stored in the memory 137m, and then temporarily stored in the memory 137m. 142. The key information extraction unit 142 extracts information corresponding to the search item d15 registered in the memory 143m of the database management unit 143 shown in FIG. 3 from the text-converted information, and includes a numeral. Information, that is, information about date and time is extracted.

  In the examples of FIGS. 5A and 5B, the mail body d14b of the voice information structured by the analysis unit 132, that is, the mail content d14b of “Miyazaki. Then, the key information “× company” registered in the database management means 143 is extracted and passed to the mail composition means 136 described below. Also, “July 7” as day information and “11:00” as time information are extracted as key information and passed to the mail composition means 136.

  When extracting key information, it is not always necessary to go through the above-mentioned text conversion procedure. Assuming that voice data is transmitted from the telephone 10A of the transmission source terminal, the memory 143m is constructed with voice information. The voice information transmitted from the source telephone 10A is compared with voice information registered as a search item d15 in the memory 143m of the database management means 143, and a voice waveform (in the case of analog) and a bit string pattern (digital ) Can be extracted as key information when they match or are similar.

  The database management unit 143 stores the sender information d13 (sender name, sender address, etc.) and the destination address d12 obtained from the structured data D10 by the additional information extracting unit 141 as described above, and further stores the key as described above. The information extraction unit 142 searches for related information corresponding to the key information (search item d15) extracted from the mail body d14b. For example, from the sender information “miyazakixxx” analyzed as shown in FIG. 3, the sender address stored in the memory 143m of the database management unit 143 as text information, and the sender address stored in the memory 143m as image information. The photograph of the sender's face and the like are retrieved and transmitted to the mail construction means 136 described below.

  In addition, in association with the key information of, for example, “× company” extracted from the mail body d14b by the key information extraction unit 142 as described above, the address of the × company, the homepage address, and the image stored in the memory 143m as text information. The search is performed on a × company map and the like stored in the memory 143m as information. The data searched in this way is transmitted to the mail composition unit 136 via the key information extraction unit 142.

  Next, the output media determination unit 135 reads the destination address d12 of the structured data D10 and passes it to the database management unit 132. As a result, the database management unit 143 extracts an outputable medium corresponding to the computer terminal 20A, which is the destination terminal, from the information type d16 shown in FIG. 3, and as a result, as shown in FIG. Thus, the terminal type d21 and the output medium d22 are obtained and transmitted to the transmission mail composing means 136. In this example, the destination computer terminal 20A (address akihiro ＠ xxx.xxxxx.xxx) is a computer terminal according to the terminal type d21, and transmits text information and image information from the output medium d22. You can see that it can be received.

  Subsequently, the outgoing mail composing means 136 includes the related information (destination address d12 and sender information d13) extracted from the database managing means 143 by the additional information extracting means 141 as described above, and the key information extracting means 142 comprises the database managing means 143. The transmitted mail D100 to be transmitted to the destination computer terminal 20A shown in FIG. 7 is configured by using the related information extracted further and the mail content d14b of the structured data D10.

  At this time, the result of the determination by the output media determination means 135 is transmitted to the mail composition means 136, and based on the result, the mail body d14b and the related information transmitted to the outgoing mail composition means 136 are converted into the media information. When necessary, the media is converted into the required media by the media converting means 137.

  In this embodiment, the destination computer terminal 20A is a terminal that can output text and images. For this reason, the media converting means 137 converts the mail body d14b stored as voice information into text information, and the mail forming means 136 forms the outgoing mail. When activated, the mail body d14b is already converted into text information and stored in the memory 137m of the media conversion means 137, so that further conversion into text information is unnecessary.

  FIG. 7 shows the outgoing mail D100 formed by the mail forming means 136. The header information d101, the destination address d102, and the sender information d103 are data that are directly transmitted from the structured data D10 stored in the memory 132m to the mail composition unit 136 by the analysis unit 132, and the header d11 of the structured data. , The transmission destination address d12, and the sender information d13. However, since the size of the outgoing mail D100 is increased by the newly added information amount, the header information d101 is written with an information amount larger by the newly added information amount. Of the mail content d104, the mail body (1b) of the mail content (1) is stored in the memory 137m when the key body extraction unit 142 is operated by converting the mail body d14b of the structured data D10 into text information and operating the key information extraction unit 142. The stored contents are obtained from the media conversion means 137 and incorporated. The mail body (2b) of the mail content (2) is information on the date and time and the location, and incorporates the text information obtained by the key information extraction unit 142 from the database management unit 143. The mail body (3b) of the mail content (3) is the address or the like of the sender, and is text information obtained by the additional information extracting unit 141 from the database managing unit 143 based on the sender information d13 of the structured data D10. . The mail body (4b) of the mail content (4) is a face photograph of the sender, and the image information obtained by the additional information extraction unit 141 from the database management unit 143 based on the sender information d13 of the structured data D10 as described above. It is.

  The mail body (5b) of the mail content (5) shows the address of the XX company and the homepage address in text information, and the key information extraction unit 142 performs the same operation as the mail body (2b) of the mail content (2). This is information obtained from the database management unit 143. The mail body (2b) of the mail content (2) is a map around the XX company, and is image information obtained by the key information extraction unit 142 from the database management unit 143 in the same manner as described above.

  At the head of each mail content (1) to (6), media type information (1a) to (6a) indicating the media type of each mail body (1b) to (6b) is incorporated together with the information length of each mail content. Have been.

  When the outgoing mail composition unit 136 creates the outgoing mail D100 as described above, the communication control unit 31 operates to transmit the outgoing mail D100 to the computer terminal 20A.

  As a result, the destination computer terminal 20A can receive and output an e-mail having a large amount of information while having various media as shown in FIG.

  As described above, a multimedia electronic mail including text information and image information can be easily created and transmitted from a telephone which is an input means only of voice and tone signals. In other words, by realizing the system of the present invention, the telephone 10A of the transmission source terminal inputs a small amount of information using limited input means, and has a large number of media types and rich contents. You can easily create and send multimedia e-mails with a large amount of information. Further, the telephone 10A of the transmission source terminal can create and transmit a multimedia e-mail corresponding to the transmission destination terminal 20 without being conscious of the terminal type and the output means of the transmission destination terminal 20.

  In the above description, only the case of interactive input is described. However, in the case of non-interactive input, for example, # 1 is the destination address, # 2 is the sender information, In the method of inputting necessary information in sequence, the key operation is performed in the order of # 1 input → destination address input → * (end mark) input, with the agreement that the mail body 3 is the main body of the mail. It is also possible to take.

  When the source terminal 10 is a dial-type telephone, basically, an interactive input method by voice is adopted, and the destination address and the sender information are also input by voice as well as the mail contents. Will be. Therefore, the additional conversion device 1 needs to have a voice recognition function as the recognition means 132a. Further, in this case, since a signal indicating the end of the input of each item (corresponding to the * key used in the case of the push type) cannot be input, it is determined that the input has been completed if there is no input for a predetermined time.

  Further, when the source terminal 10 is a fax, the destination address, the sender information, the position on the paper corresponding to each of the mail body, or the leading code attached to the paper are exchanged with the analysis means 132. In advance, it is necessary for the control means 132c of the analysis means 132 to determine the type of information on the basis of which position (or leading code) on the paper the signal is from. In this case, all data from the source terminal 10 is image information. Therefore, the recognition means 132a of the electronic mail center 30 needs to have an image recognition function.

  Further, when the source terminal 10A is a pager, the mail information transmitted to the analyzing means 132 is a tone signal using a speaker of the telephone. Therefore, the recognizing means 132a of the analyzing means 132 needs to be provided with a tone signal recognizing means to analyze the transmission destination address and the sender information included in the mail information and convert them into text. May be analyzed at the same time and incorporated into the text information and into the structured data. Further, since the telephone is used when the source terminal 10 is a pager, the electronic mail center 30 can only know the telephone number even if the line used is ISDN. Therefore, in this case, it is necessary to always input the sender information d3 corresponding to "from" from the source terminal 10.

  Further, when the source terminal 10 is a pager as described above and the interactive input method is employed, the message transmitted from the analysis means 132 is transmitted as text information.

  When the transmission source terminal 10 is a portable information terminal, the mail information transmitted to the analysis unit 132 differs depending on the input unit of the transmission source terminal 10 and may include all of text information, audio information, and image information. . Therefore, the recognizing means 132a of the analyzing means 132 of the e-mail center 30 discriminates the media type of the received mail information and activates the character recognition function, the voice recognition function, and the tone signal analysis function as needed, and After structuring the information, an outgoing mail to be transmitted to the destination terminal 20 is configured through the same procedure as in the present embodiment.

  Further, in the above embodiment, the destination terminal 20 is the computer terminal 20A capable of outputting text information and image information, but has a different output means such as a two-way pager or a facsimile or a portable information terminal. Computer terminal. If the destination terminal 20 is a model having an output means different from the above embodiment, such as a two-way pager, a facsimile, a portable information terminal, etc., the output media type of the destination terminal 20 is determined by the output media determination means 137. The mail composing means 137 composes an outgoing mail corresponding to the output means of the destination terminal 20.

  In the above embodiment, by including the specific additional information identifier in the mail information D1, the source terminal 10 can specify the specific additional information transmitted to the destination terminal 20. FIG. 9 shows an example in which the specific additional information identifier is included in the mail information D1, and FIG. 10 shows the relationship between the specific additional information identifier d18 stored in the memory 143m of the database management means 143 and the corresponding specific additional information. It is shown.

  When the structuring means 132b of the analyzing means 132 of the electronic mail center 30 recognizes the specific additional information identifier d18, the specific additional information identifier d18 is incorporated into the structured data as shown in FIG. 141 extracts the specific additional information corresponding to the specific additional information identifier d18 from the memory 143m of the database management unit 143, and transmits it to the mail composing unit 136. The specific additional information extracted in this manner becomes one of the components of the outgoing mail D100 formed by the mail forming unit 136.

  For example, in the case of the above embodiment in which the telephone 10A of the transmission source terminal transmits an e-mail to the computer terminal 20A of the transmission destination, the telephone 10A of the transmission source terminal uses the tone signal to " Assuming that "123" is input as the specific additional information identifier d18 after pressing # 4 of "Send", "123" of the identifier d17 is converted into the structured data D10 shown in FIG. Be incorporated. Based on the specific additional information identifier d18 incorporated in the structured data D10 as described above, the additional information extracting means 141 accesses the database managing means 143 to obtain the media type d31 and its data contents d32 shown in FIG. That is, the image information d118b of Mt. Fuji and the media type information d118a indicating that the information is image information are passed to the mail composition means 136. As a result, as shown in FIG. 9B, the mail composing means 136 forms a transmission mail D100 in which the state where the image information d118b of Fuji and the media type information d118a are added is incorporated.

  The problem is how to reproduce the transmission mail D100 formed and transmitted as described above on the output means of the destination terminal 20 (reproduction position, reproduction timing, etc.). Therefore, the e-mail center 30 transmits a program whose operation is defined using a script such as TCL or telescript to the destination terminal 20, thereby reproducing a voice message or moving image information of the e-mail output from the destination terminal 20. Timing, drawing position of image information and text information, and the like can be designated.

  At this time, first, the sender gives an instruction that the program is necessary. This instruction is given by turning on a specific key in accordance with the instruction from the analyzing means 132 in the case of the interactive type, and is transmitted by pressing "# 5 during the input procedure when the program is not interactive". It is a requirement. " When the predetermined input is made in this way, the analyzing means 132 forms the structured data d10 with the program request identifier d19 incorporated therein as shown in FIG. Then, the additional information extracting means 141 gives the program request identifier d19 to the database managing means 143, thereby extracting the necessary program d109 and giving it to the mail composing means 136, and as shown in FIG. Will be incorporated.

  The transmission destination terminal 20 analyzes the received program information and outputs mail information in a format (procedure, position) described in the program. In the above embodiment, when the transmission source terminal 10 is a computer, the mail information D1 is already structured, so there is no need to restructure the data by the analysis means, and the input data is used as it is. It is configured to be stored in the memory 132m of the analysis means 132. However, even in this case, when the source information corresponding to “from” is not input at the source terminal 10, the control unit 132 c of the analysis unit 132 needs to recognize the number of the source terminal 10 and incorporate it into the structured data D 10. There is.

  In the above description, the additional conversion device 1 of the present invention is provided in the electronic mail center 30. However, even if it is provided in the transmission source terminal 10 as shown in FIG. 12, the multimedia electronic mail system of the present invention is provided. be able to. That is, the mail information D1 input from the input means 11 (keyboard, mouse, etc.) for inputting the mail information is processed by the additional conversion device 1 of the present invention to obtain the transmission mail D100 shown in FIG. It is supposed to be.

  Further, the additional conversion device 1 of the present invention can be mounted in the destination terminal 20. At this time, the mail information D1 received by the receiving means 21 is processed by the additional device 1 of the present invention to obtain a received mail corresponding to the transmitted mail D100 shown in FIG. 7, and output by the mail output means 28 (display, printer, etc.). It is supposed to be.

  However, in this case, since the mail composing means 136 recognizes the type of media that can be input by itself, the output media judging means 135 need not be provided. In this case, the e-mail center 30 needs to transmit the information from the telephone, the information from the pager, and the information from the facsimile to the destination terminal 20 accurately, but this is not the object of the present invention. Detailed description is omitted. Furthermore, when this configuration is adopted, the input procedure cannot proceed in an interactive manner between the transmission source terminal 10 and the additional conversion apparatus 1, and only information input in a predetermined procedure or format is added. Reception is enabled by the changing means 1.

The figure which shows the example of a structure of the multimedia electronic mail system of this invention. More detailed block diagram after analysis Diagram of data storage example stored in database management means Configuration diagram of an e-mail system according to an embodiment of the present invention Conceptual diagram showing an example of mail information and structured data A conceptual diagram showing an example of accumulation of transmission destination information in the above embodiment. Conceptual diagram showing the configuration of outgoing mail in the above embodiment Conceptual diagram showing an example of mail output from a destination terminal in the above embodiment Conceptual diagram when specific additional information identifier is included in mail information Conceptual diagram of additional information corresponding to specific additional information identifier Conceptual diagram when program information is included in mail information Schematic diagram of another embodiment of the present invention when the additional conversion device is provided in the source terminal Schematic diagram of another embodiment of the present invention when the additional conversion device is provided in the destination terminal Schematic diagram of a conventional multimedia email system

Explanation of reference numerals

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 E-mail transmission source terminal 11 Input means 20 E-mail transmission destination terminal 28 E-mail output means 30 E-mail center 31 Communication processing means 132 Analysis means 135 Output media judgment means 136 E-mail composition means 137 Media conversion means 140 Related information generation means 141 Addition Information extraction means 142 Key information extraction means 143 Database management means

Claims (17)

  The mail information including at least the destination address and the mail body is transmitted from the source terminal, and the e-mail center analyzes and extracts the destination address from the mail information, controls the delivery of the mail information, and sets the desired destination. In an electronic mail system in which the mail information is transmitted to a terminal, an additional conversion for adding additional information related to the contents of the mail information to the mail information at any position on a path from a source terminal to a destination terminal. An e-mail system comprising a device.   The above-mentioned additional conversion device analyzes mail information transmitted from the source terminal, and includes each mail component of the source information, the destination address, the mail body and the media type information indicating the media type of the mail body. Analyzing means for forming encrypted data, related information generating means for generating related information based on the contents of each mail component extracted by the analyzing means, and further adding the related information to the contents of the mail information. 2. The electronic mail system according to claim 1, further comprising a mail composing means for composing a transmitted mail having the specified contents.   The additional conversion unit further includes a media type determination unit that determines an outputable media type of the transmission destination terminal, and the mail configuration unit determines a mail content and related information of the mail information according to a determination result of the determination unit. 3. The electronic mail system according to claim 2, wherein the electronic mail system is converted into a receivable medium of the transmission destination terminal and incorporated into a transmission mail.   3. The electronic device according to claim 2, wherein the source terminal includes the specific additional information identifier in the mail information, and the related information generating means generates specific additional information corresponding to the specific additional information identifier and provides the specific additional information to the mail information means. Mail system.   3. The e-mail system according to claim 2, wherein the source terminal includes a program request identifier in the mail information, and the related information generating means gives a program corresponding to the program request identifier to the mail composition means.   3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the related information generating means further comprises additional information extracting means for extracting information relating to the source information and the destination address from the source information and the destination address from a database managing means. Email system.   7. The electronic mail system according to claim 6, wherein said additional information extracting means further extracts from the database managing means specific additional information corresponding to the specific additional information identifier from the specific additional information identifier included in the mail information.   7. The electronic mail system according to claim 6, wherein the additional information extracting means further extracts a program corresponding to the program request identifier from the database request means from the program request identifier included in the mail information.   3. The electronic mail according to claim 2, wherein the related information generating means further comprises key information extracting means for extracting information related to the specific information from the specific information contained in the mail body from a database managing means. system.   The electronic mail system according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the additional conversion device is built in an electronic mail center.   The electronic mail system according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the additional conversion device is incorporated in a transmission source terminal.   The electronic mail system according to any one of claims 1 to 9, wherein the additional conversion device is built in a destination terminal. Receives mail information including at least the destination address and the mail body transmitted from the source terminal, analyzes and extracts the destination address from the mail information, controls the delivery of the mail information, and sends the mail to the intended destination terminal. In the electronic mail center transmitting the above mail information,
The additional information related to the mail information is added to the mail information, or an additional conversion unit for processing the mail information is provided, and the mail information processed or added with the additional information by the additional conversion unit is transmitted to the transmission destination terminal. An electronic mail center characterized by transmission. Analysis means for analyzing the mail information transmitted from the source terminal,
Related information generating means for generating related information based on the analysis result by the analyzing means;
14. The e-mail center according to claim 13, further comprising a mail composing means for composing a transmission mail having a content obtained by adding the related information to the contents of the mail information.   The additional conversion means further includes a media type determining means for determining a receivable media type of the destination single eye, and the mail composition means includes a mail content of mail information and related information in accordance with a result of the determination by the determining means. The e-mail center according to claim 14, wherein the e-mail center is converted into a receivable medium of the destination terminal and incorporated into the outgoing mail.   15. The electronic mail according to claim 14, wherein the source terminal includes the specific additional information identifier in the mail information, and the related information generating means generates the specific additional information corresponding to the specific additional information identifier and gives the specific additional information to the mail composing means. center. An e-mail center that analyzes and extracts the destination address from the mail information, and controls the distribution of the mail information, and transmits the mail information to a target destination terminal. At the source terminal sending to
A sender, further comprising: additional conversion means for adding additional information related to the mail information to the mail information, wherein the additional conversion means transmits the mail to which the additional information has been added to the electronic mail center. Terminal.

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