JP2006048723A - Device, program and method for assisting in preparing email - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically generate information regarding common terms frequently used with a partner of electronic mail by an email preparation assisting device. <P>SOLUTION: A term extraction means extracts terms from emails stored in a sent/received email storing section 11. A term use frequency calculation means 11 calculates the use frequency of each extracted term, and adds it to the use frequency of the term stored in a term use frequency storing section 14. A common term extraction means 42 calculates the use rate of the term extracted by the term extraction means 12 in past communication with the partner based upon the use frequency calculated by the term use frequency calculation means 13, and the term whose use rate is larger than a specified value is extracted as a common term with the partner from terms extracted by the term extraction means 12. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a user support technique for providing operation support to a user of an information processing apparatus represented by a computer, and particularly belongs to a technique suitable for support for creating an e-mail.

  In recent years, communication communication using character information such as e-mail and electronic chat has become common. In particular, transmission / reception of e-mail using a personal computer or a portable information terminal is indispensable for modern business scenes and information exchange with friends.

  Unlike voice communications such as telephone calls, the user can send information to the other party or receive it for viewing at any time. In addition, there is an advantage that it is not necessary to take notes of information.

  There is an address book function that enhances the convenience of e-mail. By referring to the address book, the user can easily obtain the mail address of the other party to whom the electronic mail is to be transmitted. Further, the information of the other party can be registered in the address book with reference to the contents of the received electronic mail. Conventionally, for the purpose of reducing the burden on the user, a technique has been proposed in which a specific character string representing a telephone number or mail address is automatically extracted from received mail and registered in an address book (for example, patents). Reference 1).

Also, as a way to support the creation of e-mail texts, a technique has been proposed in which a user classifies mail recipients by category in advance and presents a list of sentences appropriate for that category when e-mails are created. (For example, see Patent Document 2).
JP 2000-172587 A JP 2000-148753 A

  Regarding the creation of an e-mail, the user himself / herself needs to input manually while considering the text. For this reason, an input burden on the user is heavy, for example, it is necessary to select an appropriate wording or decoration information according to the partner. In particular, in a small terminal such as a mobile phone, the display screen is small, and the character input method is not convenient.

  In view of the above problems, the present invention provides an apparatus, a computer program, and a method for e-mail creation support that can automatically generate information about words frequently used with an e-mail partner. Objective.

  Means taken by the present invention to solve the above problems is an electronic mail creation support apparatus for supporting creation of an electronic mail, by using a phrase from electronic character data relating to past communication with the other party to send the electronic mail. A phrase extraction means for extracting, a phrase usage frequency calculation means for calculating a usage frequency in the electronic character data for the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction means, and a usage frequency of the phrase calculated by the phrase usage frequency calculation means, It is assumed that each communication partner is provided with a phrase use frequency accumulation unit that accumulates in association with the phrase.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to obtain the frequency of use of words / phrases that have been used so far in communication with the other party to which the electronic mail is to be transmitted. Then, the frequency of use of the phrase can be used as basic information for providing optimum support according to the party to whom the electronic mail is to be transmitted.

  Further, the means provided by the present invention is a phrase extraction means for extracting a phrase from electronic character data related to past communication with a partner to which an email is to be transmitted as an email creation support apparatus for supporting creation of an email. And a phrase usage frequency calculation means for calculating the usage frequency in the electronic character data for the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction means, and the phrase extraction means based on the usage frequency calculated by the phrase usage frequency calculation means. Calculate the usage rate of the extracted word / phrase in the communication with the partner so far, and use the word / phrase extracted by the word / phrase extracting means with the usage rate being a predetermined value or more as a common word / phrase with the partner It is assumed that a common word / phrase extracting unit is provided.

  Specifically, the phrase extracting unit extracts a phrase from an electronic mail that has been transmitted to and received from the partner.

  In addition, the electronic mail creation support apparatus includes an information search unit that searches for information using at least one of the common phrases extracted by the common phrase extraction unit as a search condition, and the information search unit includes the search It is preferable to propose creation of an e-mail for notifying the user of the search result when the information search by the condition is successful.

  In addition, the electronic mail creation support apparatus includes the phrase usage frequency storage unit that stores the phrase usage frequency calculated by the phrase usage frequency calculation unit in association with the phrase for each communication partner, and the common usage It is preferable to include a common phrase storage unit that stores the common phrase extracted by the phrase extraction unit in association with the usage rate calculated by the common phrase extraction unit.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to automatically generate common word / phrase information representing a topic common to the partner from the electronic character data related to the communication with the partner. In addition, by using the common phrase information generated in this way, it is possible to optimally support the information search for the common topic according to the partner to whom the electronic mail is to be transmitted. Further, regarding the conversion to input characters, the conversion accuracy can be improved by reflecting the frequency of use of common words frequently used in communication with the other party. As a result, it is possible to reduce the user burden related to the creation of the e-mail.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(First reference example)
FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an e-mail creation support apparatus according to a first reference example of the present invention. The e-mail creation support apparatus 10 of this reference example includes a transmission / reception mail storage unit 11 that stores transmitted / received e-mails, a phrase extraction unit 12 that extracts words from the e-mail stored in the transmission / reception mail storage unit 11, and a phrase A phrase usage frequency calculation unit 13 that calculates the usage frequency of the phrase extracted by the extraction unit 12; a phrase usage frequency storage unit 14 that stores the usage frequency of the phrase calculated by the phrase usage frequency calculation unit 13; A word / phrase correspondence list 15 in which the human relation basic information and the words / phrases associated with each other are defined by at least one of the scales relating to human relations, human relation information generating means 16 for generating human relation information related to the communication partner, A human relationship information storage unit 17 for storing the human relationship information generated by the human relationship information generation means 16; Note that the phrase extraction unit 12, the phrase usage frequency calculation unit 13, and the human relationship information generation unit 16 can be realized by either hardware or software.

  The transmission / reception mail storage unit 11 stores the electronic mails that have been transmitted and received by the user so far according to the communication partner and transmission / reception. 2, 3, and 4 are examples of information stored in the transmission / reception mail storage unit 11 in Japanese, English, and Chinese, respectively.

  The phrase extraction unit 12 extracts a phrase used in the electronic mail stored in the transmission / reception mail storage unit 11, and the process corresponds to a phrase extraction step. The phrase can be extracted by a general method such as morphological analysis or syntax analysis. Furthermore, it is also possible to extract only words and phrases necessary for creating human relationship information described later by performing filtering using a necessary word dictionary in which specific words and phrases are registered. Phrases here are not necessarily morphemes, but also include phrases composed of two or more words and unique phrases (for example, expressions commonly used in business such as “I always take care of you”). It is a waste.

  The phrase usage frequency calculation unit 13 calculates the usage frequency of the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction unit 12, and accumulates the usage frequency of the word already stored in the phrase usage frequency storage unit 14 for each communication partner and transmission / reception. This process corresponds to the phrase usage frequency calculation step. If there is no usage history of the word, it is newly added. 5 and 6 are examples of information stored in the phrase usage frequency storage unit 14 in Japanese and English, respectively. The frequency of use of each word is a cumulative value from the start of calculation of the frequency of use of the word to the present. Note that the frequency of use of the phrase can be initialized. Thereby, for example, when the human relationship between the user and the communication partner changes, new human relationship information can be constructed from scratch by accumulating and accumulating the frequency of use of new words.

  The human relationship information generating means 16 is based on the phrase usage frequency stored in the phrase usage frequency storage unit 14 and the basic human relationship information associated with the phrases registered in the phrase correspondence list 15 in advance. Create human relationship information for each communication partner. 7 and 8 are examples of the phrase correspondence list 15 in Japanese and English, respectively. Here, it is assumed that the human relationship information is defined by three kinds of scales, that is, the upper and lower degrees, the familiarity, and the business degree.

  The upper and lower degrees indicate that the higher this is, the higher the communication partner is than the user. The closeness indicates that the higher this is, the closer the communication partner and the user are. The business level indicates that the higher this is, the stronger the business partner and the user have a business relationship. These scales are quantified.

  The human relationship information generation means 16 uses the phrase usage frequency stored in the phrase usage frequency storage unit 14 and the phrase correspondence list 15 for each email related to one transmission / reception stored in the transmission / reception mail storage unit 11. The product of the human relation basic information corresponding to the one that matches the word is obtained, and the average value of the product is obtained for each communication partner and transmission / reception. That is, the basic human relationship information corresponding to the extracted word is weighted by the frequency of use of the word, and the average value is obtained for each communication partner and transmission / reception. As for the vertical degree, the difference between the average value of the vertical degree related to transmission with the other party and the average value of the vertical degree related to reception is obtained, and this is set as the vertical degree with respect to the other party. In addition, for the familiarity and the business level, the sum of the average value of the scale related to transmission with the counterpart and the average value of the scale related to reception is obtained, and these are set as the closeness and the business level with the counterpart. As described above, the human relationship information generating unit 16 generates human relationship information. As described above, the processing performed by the human relationship information generation unit 16 corresponds to a weighting step and a human relationship information generation step.

  The human relation information accumulating unit 17 accumulates the human relation information generated by the human relation information generating unit 16 for each partner. 9 and 10 are examples of information stored in the human relationship information storage unit 17 in Japanese and English, respectively. The human relationship information stored in the human relationship information storage unit 17 is updated when new communication is performed with the partner related to the human relationship information. In addition, the human relationship information can be initialized.

  As described above, according to this reference example, it is possible to automatically obtain the human relationship information related to the other party from the transmission / reception history of the e-mail. Thereby, the burden on the user related to the registration of the human relationship information is reduced. In addition, the human relationship information generated in this way can be used as basic information for performing optimal support according to the other party to whom the electronic mail is to be transmitted.

  In this reference example, an e-mail that has been sent and received is targeted. However, even if only a sent mail or only a received mail is targeted, the effect of the present invention is not impaired at all. Further, although e-mails are stored for each communication partner and transmission / reception, they may be stored separately by day of the week or time zone. Furthermore, the information source from which the human relationship information is generated is not limited to e-mail. For example, voice data such as telephone converted into character data, image data such as FAX converted into character data, a service in which participants can talk in real time by computer communication, so-called electronic chat, etc. Any machine-readable digitized character data (electronic character data) may be used.

  Further, regarding the transmission / reception mail storage unit 11, the phrase usage frequency storage unit 14, the phrase correspondence list 15, and the human relationship information storage unit 17, the email creation support apparatus 10 does not necessarily have to include these. These can be configured as external storage devices. Further, the transmission / reception mail storage unit 11, the phrase usage frequency storage unit 14, and the human relationship information storage unit 17 may be omitted. Even without these, it is possible to generate human relationship information with the other party of the e-mail from the e-mail related to one transmission / reception.

  In this reference example, the cumulative number of times of use is used as the frequency of use of the word, but the number of times of use per unit time or the number of times of use per unit amount of mail can be used. Further, as the frequency of use of the phrase, it is possible to use other frequency indicators such as tf · idf (term frequency · inverse document frequency) value instead of the number of times of use.

  Also, in this reference example, three levels of verticality, intimacy, and business level are used as the scales for defining the human relationship information. However, other scales such as a love level indicating the depth of a romantic relationship may be added. Good. In addition, although the scale is digitized, leveling with symbols is possible in addition to numerical values. Furthermore, the human relationship information can be defined by at least one scale, and it is not always necessary to use a plurality of scales.

(Second reference example)
FIG. 11 shows the configuration of an e-mail creation support apparatus according to the second reference example of the present invention. The e-mail creation support apparatus 20 of the present reference example includes a user input / output unit 21 that receives input from the user and displays the user to the e-mail creation support apparatus 10 according to the first reference example, and human relationship information A fixed phrase correspondence list 22 (corresponding to an additional information correspondence list) in which a condition and a fixed phrase are associated with each other, a fixed phrase creation means 23 for creating a fixed phrase, a phrase correspondence list 15, A phrase adequacy determination unit 25 that determines whether a phrase included in the created electronic mail is appropriate, and a decoration information correspondence list 26 in which a condition relating to the human relationship information and decoration information added to the mail are associated with each other. Corresponding to the additional information correspondence list), the decoration information creating means 27 for creating the decoration information to be added to the mail, the human relationship information storage unit 17, and the human relationship information storage unit 17 from the electronic It is obtained by a human relationship information extracting unit 28 for extracting relationships information relating to someone trying to send Lumpur. Among these, the fixed phrase creation means 23, the phrase appropriateness determination means 25, and the decoration information creation means 27 correspond to support means. Further, the fixed phrase creation means 23, the phrase appropriateness determination means 25, the decoration information creation means 27, and the human relationship information extraction means 28 can be realized by either hardware or software.

  The user input / output unit 21 receives an operation related to mail creation from the user. Then, if there is a request for creating a fixed phrase, the fixed phrase creating means 23 is operated, if there is a request for determining a phrase, the word suitability determining means 25 is operated, and if there is a request for creating decoration information, the decoration information The creation means 27 is operated.

  The fixed phrase creating means 23 is based on the human relation information extracted by the human relation information extracting means 28 and the correspondence between the conditions related to the human relation information registered in the fixed phrase correspondence list 22 and the fixed phrases. Create an AutoText entry. The fixed phrase creation means 23 corresponds to additional information proposal means, and the process corresponds to an additional information proposal step. FIG. 12 is an example of the fixed phrase correspondence list 22. “-” In the condition part indicates that an arbitrary value is acceptable. The human relation information storage unit 17 stores the human relation information generated by the e-mail creation support apparatus 10 (specifically, the human relation information generation unit 16 shown in FIG. 1) according to the first reference example. It is a thing. Since this has already been described, the description thereof is omitted here.

  The fixed phrase creation unit 23 extracts a list of fixed phrases that satisfy the conditions in the fixed phrase correspondence list 22 based on the human relationship information of the partner to whom the mail is to be transmitted, extracted by the human relationship information extraction unit 28. For example, when composing an e-mail to communication partner A (vertical degree = 0.12, intimacy = −0.28, business degree = 0.52), thank you ”(Up / down degree> 0, business degree> 0.5) is extracted. On the other hand, when creating an e-mail to the communication partner B (verticality = 0.36, familiarity = 0.22, business degree = 0.08), the fixed phrase “How are you?” (Intimacy> 0 .2. A list containing business degrees <0.1) is retrieved. Then, the fixed phrase creation unit 23 displays a list of fixed phrases to the user through the user input / output unit 21 and inserts the fixed phrase selected by the user into the e-mail being created.

  The phrase adequacy determination unit 25 extracts basic human relationship information associated with each phrase included in the created (including during creation) e-mail from the phrase correspondence list 15. Then, the distance between the extracted human relationship basic information and the human relationship information extracted by the human relationship information extracting means 28 is calculated. Thus, the processing performed by the phrase suitability determination unit 25 corresponds to a phrase suitability determination step and a distance calculation step. Note that the word / phrase correspondence list 15 is the same as that described in the first reference example, and a description thereof will be omitted here.

  In this reference example, the Euclidean distance for each of the three scales of verticality, familiarity, and business degree is used as the distance between the human relationship information. If the calculated distance exceeds a predetermined threshold, it is determined that the phrase included in the created e-mail is not appropriate, and this is displayed to the user through the user input / output unit 21. For example, the communication partner A (vertical degree = 0.12, familiarity = −0.28, business degree = 0.52) is assigned to “you” (vertical degree = −0.2, familiarity = 0.1, business degree. = 0.1), a message that “you” is inappropriate is displayed.

  The decoration information creation means 27 is based on the human relation information extracted by the human relation information extraction means 28 and the correspondence between the condition related to the human relation information registered in the decoration information correspondence list 26 and the decoration information. Create decoration information to be added to e-mail. The decoration information creation unit 27 corresponds to an additional information proposal unit, and the process corresponds to an additional information proposal step. The decoration information is information for enhancing the expressiveness of e-mail, and includes additional information such as still images, moving images, voices, characters, and the like, and information related to decorations such as changing the size and color of characters. Here, an example in which a still image is attached will be described. FIG. 13 shows an example of the decoration information correspondence list 26. The decoration information correspondence list 26 is a list in which conditions relating to the human relationship information are associated with file names of still images as decoration information corresponding thereto. “-” In the condition part indicates that an arbitrary value is acceptable. FIG. 14 shows an example of a corresponding still image.

  The decoration information creation means 27 extracts a list of decoration information that satisfies the condition in the decoration information correspondence list 26 based on the person relation information of the other party to whom the mail is to be transmitted, extracted by the person relation information extraction means 28. For example, when creating an e-mail to the communication partner A (vertical degree = 0.12, familiarity = 0.0.28, business degree = 0.52), additional information “a.gif” (vertical degree> 0. 1, a list including intimacy <0.4, business degree> 0.3) is retrieved. On the other hand, when creating an e-mail to the communication partner B (verticality = 0.36, familiarity = 0.22, business degree = 0.08), additional information “b.gif” (intimacy> 0.4 , A list including business degree <0) is retrieved. Then, the decoration information creation means 27 displays a list of decoration information to the user through the user input / output unit 21, and attaches the decoration information selected by the user to the e-mail being created, or uses the decoration information as an e-mail. Decorate with. The process performed by the human relationship information extraction unit 28 corresponds to a human relationship information extraction step.

  As described above, according to the present reference example, it is possible to perform appropriate e-mail creation support in accordance with the person to whom the e-mail is to be transmitted, based on the human relationship information extracted by the human relationship information extracting unit 28. Thereby, the burden on the user related to the creation of the e-mail is reduced.

  Note that the e-mail creation support apparatus 20 does not necessarily need to include the fixed phrase correspondence list 22, the phrase correspondence list 15, the human relationship information storage unit 17, and the decoration information correspondence list 26. These can be configured as external storage devices.

  Further, in this reference example, two fixed phrases and decoration information have been described as additional information added to an e-mail, but the present invention is not limited to this. Other additional information can be added in the same manner as described above.

  Further, regarding the fixed phrase creation means 23, the phrase suitability determination means 25, and the decoration information creation means 27, the electronic mail creation support apparatus 20 does not necessarily have to include all of them. These can be omitted as appropriate, and even if omitted, the effect of the present invention is not impaired.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 15 shows the configuration of the e-mail creation support apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The e-mail creation support apparatus 30 according to the present embodiment includes a user input / output unit 31 that receives input from a user and displays the user to the e-mail creation support apparatus 10 according to the first reference example, and human relationship information A conversion dictionary correspondence list 32 in which the conditions related to the conversion dictionary are associated with each other, a dictionary selection means 33 for selecting a conversion dictionary registered in the conversion dictionary correspondence list 32 that satisfies a predetermined condition, and an accumulated phrase List 34, input character conversion means 35 for outputting conversion candidates for the input characters, human relationship information storage unit 17, and human relationship related to the other party to whom an email is to be transmitted from human relationship information storage unit 17 It is provided with human relationship information extraction means 28 for extracting information. The dictionary selection means 33 and the input character conversion means 35 can be realized by either hardware or software. The human relationship information extracting unit 28 is the same as that described in the second reference example.

  The user input / output unit 31 receives an operation related to mail creation from the user. When a character is input, the input character conversion means 35 is operated. On the other hand, when the termination request is made, the mail creation work is terminated.

  The dictionary selection unit 33 is input based on the human relationship information extracted by the human relationship information extraction unit 28 and the correspondence between the condition related to the human relationship information registered in the conversion dictionary correspondence list 32 and the conversion dictionary. The conversion dictionary to be used by the character conversion unit 35 is selected and corresponds to the support unit. The processing performed by the dictionary selection unit 33 corresponds to a dictionary selection step. FIG. 16 shows an example of the conversion dictionary correspondence list 32. The conversion dictionary correspondence list 32 is a list in which conditions relating to human relationship information are associated with file names of conversion dictionaries corresponding thereto. “-” In the condition part indicates that an arbitrary value is acceptable.

  The dictionary selection unit 33 selects a conversion dictionary that satisfies the condition in the conversion dictionary correspondence list 32 based on the human relationship information of the partner to whom the mail is to be transmitted, extracted by the human relationship information extraction unit 28. For example, when creating an e-mail to the communication partner A (vertical degree = 0.12, familiarity = −0.28, business degree = 0.52), the conversion dictionary “c.dic” (vertical degree> 0. 1, business degree> 0.5) is selected. On the other hand, when creating an e-mail to the communication partner B (verticality = 0.36, familiarity = 0.22, business degree = 0.08), the conversion dictionary “d.dic” (intimacy> 0.2) , Business degree <0.1) is selected. The human relation information storage unit 17 stores the human relation information generated by the e-mail creation support apparatus 10 (specifically, the human relation information generation unit 16 shown in FIG. 1) according to the first reference example. It is a thing. Since this has already been described, the description thereof is omitted here.

  The input character conversion means 35 converts the character or character string input by the user into a desired character or character string using the conversion dictionary selected by the dictionary selection means 33. That is, when a certain “reading” is given, the input character conversion means 35 performs a so-called input predictive conversion in which a character or a character string matching the head of the “reading” is selected as a conversion candidate. At this time, with respect to the other party of the e-mail being created, the frequency of use of the words stored in the stored word list 34 is reflected, and the words with higher frequency of use are relatively higher in the transmission / reception of mail with the other party. To come to. Then, the user selects a desired conversion candidate from among the conversion candidates displayed through the user input / output unit 31 by the input character conversion means 35, thereby confirming the conversion character string and inserting it into the e-mail being created. be able to. The stored phrase list 34 is the same as the information stored in the phrase usage frequency storage unit (corresponding to the phrase usage frequency storage means) 14 described in the first reference example.

  FIG. 17 is an example of conversion candidates displayed by the input character conversion means 35. In this example, the communication partner A (vertical degree = 0.12, familiarity = −0.28, business degree = 0.52) and communication partner B (vertical degree = 0.0) for the character “yo” input by the user. 36, conversion candidates according to closeness = 0.22 and business degree = 0.08). In the conversion candidate at the time of communication partner A, “Thank you very much” is at the top. On the other hand, in the conversion candidate for the communication partner B, “Yoroshiku” is positioned at the head. Further, words frequently used with the partner are positioned above the conversion candidates related to each partner.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, an optimal conversion dictionary can be selected based on the human relationship information stored in the human relationship information storage unit 17 in accordance with the other party to whom the electronic mail is to be transmitted. In addition, by reflecting the frequency of use of the words stored in the stored word list 34, words that are used more frequently can be made higher in the conversion candidates depending on the party to whom the e-mail is to be transmitted. As a result, the accuracy of character string conversion is improved, and the burden on the user related to the creation of the e-mail, particularly the burden on the user related to character input, is reduced.

  Note that the e-mail creation support apparatus 30 does not necessarily have to include the conversion dictionary correspondence list 32, the human relation information storage unit 17, and the stored word list 34. These can be configured as external storage devices.

  Further, regarding the dictionary selection means 33 and the input character conversion means 35, the e-mail creation support apparatus 30 does not necessarily have to include all of them. These can be omitted as appropriate, and even if omitted, the effects of the present invention are not impaired. Further, the input character conversion means 35 is effective not only when creating an e-mail but also when creating a document relating to a predetermined partner, for example. Further, the communication partner and the conversion dictionary may be associated with each other on a one-to-one basis.

  The e-mail creation support apparatuses 20 and 30 according to the second reference example and the first embodiment have a form in which new components are added to the e-mail creation support apparatus 10 according to the first reference example. However, the components corresponding to the electronic mail creation support apparatus 10 do not have to be particularly provided. That is, the human relationship information stored in the human relationship information storage unit 17 may be generated by a device other than the e-mail creation support apparatus 10, or of course, input by the user himself / herself. Further, the human relationship information may be classified according to items such as “boss” and “friend”.

  Further, the fixed phrase creation means 23, the phrase appropriateness determination means 25, the decoration information creation means 27, and the dictionary selection means 33 described in the second reference example and the first embodiment are extracted by the human relationship information extraction means 28. It is merely given as an example to explain the support means of the present invention for providing support related to creation of an e-mail based on human relationship information. Therefore, the support means of the present invention is not limited to the above means.

(Second Embodiment)
FIG. 18 shows the configuration of an e-mail creation support apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The electronic mail creation support apparatus 40 according to the present embodiment includes a user input / output unit 41 that receives input from a user and displays the input to the user, a transmission / reception mail storage unit 11 that stores transmitted / received emails, and transmission / reception mail storage. Calculated by the phrase extraction means 12 for extracting a phrase from the e-mail stored in the unit 11, the phrase usage frequency calculation means 13 for calculating the usage frequency of the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction means 12, and the phrase usage frequency calculation means 13 A phrase usage frequency storage unit 14 that stores the usage frequency of the phrase that has been generated, a common phrase extraction unit 42 that extracts a common phrase with the communication partner from the usage frequency of the phrase stored in the phrase usage frequency storage unit 14, and a common phrase The common phrase storage unit (corresponding to the common phrase storage unit) 43 that stores the common phrase extracted by the extraction unit 42 and the common phrase storage unit 43 And an information retrieval means 44 for retrieving information stored in the internal or external e-mail creation supporting device 40 using the by phrase. Of these, the common phrase extraction means 42 and the information search means 44 can be realized by either hardware or software. The transmission / reception mail storage unit 11, the phrase extraction unit 12, the phrase extraction unit 13, and the phrase usage frequency storage unit 14 are the same as those in the first reference example, and thus detailed description thereof is omitted here.

  Based on the phrase usage frequency accumulated in the phrase usage frequency storage unit 14, the common phrase extraction unit 42 calculates the usage frequency of the phrase commonly used in the transmission mail and the reception mail for each communication partner, from the transmission mail and the reception. A value obtained by dividing the usage frequency of the word extracted from the mail by the total number is obtained as the usage rate of the word, that is, the common degree. Then, phrases having a common degree equal to or greater than a predetermined value are stored in the common phrase storage unit 43 as common phrases. FIG. 19 is an example of information stored in the common phrase storage unit 43. The process performed by the common phrase extraction unit 42 corresponds to a common phrase extraction step.

  The user input / output unit 41 receives an operation related to mail creation from the user. When the user receives a request for searching for information that the person to whom the e-mail is to be sent will be interested in, the information search means 44 is operated.

  The information search means 44 retrieves a common word / phrase relating to the other party to whom the e-mail is to be transmitted from the common word / phrase accumulating unit 43, and uses one or more combinations of the common words / phrases as a search condition through an external network (not shown). Search news sites. This is because the common word / phrase is a word / phrase frequently used by the user and the other party to whom the electronic mail is to be transmitted, and can be considered to reflect a matter that the other party will be interested in. When the information search unit 44 obtains some information as a result of the search, the information search unit 44 displays the search result to the user via the user input / output unit 41. The process performed by the information search means 44 corresponds to an information search step.

  The user input / output unit 41 operates the information search unit 44 when receiving a normal information search request from the user. In this case, the information search means 44 searches for an external news site through a network (not shown) under the search conditions input by the user. When the information obtained as a result of the search includes a common phrase stored in the common phrase storage unit 43, the information search unit 44 notifies the user who frequently uses the common term. Propose to create an email for. FIG. 20 is a display example when the user input / output unit 41 proposes to create an email. The user can create an e-mail for notifying partner B of the search results by selecting the button “notify Mr. B” shown in FIG. The proposal timing for creating the e-mail may be the timing when the search result is obtained, or may be the timing when the user switches to another screen after obtaining the search result.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to easily obtain information on a common topic from a common word / phrase with a communication to send an e-mail, and further to support creation of an e-mail text utilizing the information. be able to.

  In the present embodiment, the information search range is an external news site, but the present invention is not limited to this. Other information such as recipe information and book information may be searched. Further, a database inside the electronic mail creation support apparatus 50 may be searched instead of outside.

  In the present embodiment, the frequency of use of words / phrases that are commonly used in sent mail and received mail is used as the common word / phrase, but words that frequently appear in either sent mail or received mail are handled as common terms. You may do it. This is because a phrase that frequently appears in one of the transmitted mail and the received mail is a phrase that is frequently seen by the parties that exchange mail, and in that respect, can be considered as a phrase that is common to the parties.

  Moreover, you may consider the response rate and response time from a communication other party in calculation of the common degree of a common word / phrase. For example, when the response rate is taken into account, the higher the response rate and the shorter the response time, the higher the degree of commonality. Thereby, the precision of the common degree of a common phrase can be made higher.

(Third reference example)
FIG. 21 shows the configuration of an e-mail creation support apparatus according to the third reference example of the present invention. The e-mail creation support apparatus 50 of this reference example includes a user input / output unit 51 that receives input from a user and displays the input to the user, a transmission / reception mail storage unit 11 that stores transmitted / received e-mails, and transmission / reception mail storage A unique word / phrase extracting unit 52 for extracting a unique word / phrase that is not registered in the dictionary used by the electronic mail creation support device 50 from the electronic mail stored in the unit 11, and a unique word / phrase extracted by the unique word / phrase extracting unit 52. A unique word / phrase usage frequency calculating unit 53 for calculating the usage frequency, a unique word / phrase usage frequency accumulating unit 54 for accumulating the usage frequency of the word / phrase calculated by the unique word / phrase usage frequency calculating unit 53, and conversion candidates for the input characters. And an input character converting means 55 for outputting. Among these, the unique word / phrase extraction means 52, the unique word / phrase use frequency calculation means 53, and the input character conversion means 55 can be realized by either hardware or software. The transmission / reception mail storage unit 11 is the same as that of the first reference example, and thus detailed description thereof is omitted here.

  The user input / output unit 51 receives an operation related to mail creation from the user. When a character is input, the input character conversion means 55 is operated.

  Unlike the word extraction unit 12 shown in FIG. 1, the unique word / phrase extraction unit 52 is an original email that is not registered in the dictionary used by the email creation support device 50 in the email stored in the transmission / reception mail storage unit 11. Extract words. For example, when extracting a phrase by a general method such as morphological analysis or syntax analysis, the unique phrase is extracted by extracting a phrase that is treated as an undefined word because it does not exist in the analysis dictionary. Note that the processing performed by the unique word / phrase extraction means 52 corresponds to a unique word / phrase extraction step.

  The unique word / phrase usage frequency calculation means 53 calculates the usage frequency of the unique word / phrase extracted by the unique word / phrase extraction means 52 and accumulates the usage frequency of the unique word / phrase already accumulated in the unique word / phrase usage frequency accumulation unit 54. The process corresponds to a unique phrase usage frequency calculation step. If there is no usage history of the unique phrase, it is newly added. FIG. 22 is an example of information stored in the unique word / phrase usage frequency storage unit 54. The usage frequency of each unique phrase is a cumulative value from the start of calculation of the usage frequency of the unique phrase. It should be noted that the usage frequency of the unique phrase can be initialized. Thereby, for example, when the human relationship between the user and the communication partner changes, new unique word / phrase information can be constructed from scratch by accumulating and accumulating the frequency of use of new unique words / phrases.

  The unique word / phrase insertion means 55 refers to the unique word / phrase usage frequency storage unit 54 and converts a character or character string input by the user into a desired character or character string. That is, when a certain “reading” is given, the input character conversion means 55 performs a so-called input predictive conversion in which a character or a character string matching the head of the “reading” is selected as a conversion candidate. At this time, with respect to the other party of the e-mail being created, the unique word / phrase having a relatively high use frequency in the transmission / reception of the mail with the other person is reflected by reflecting the use frequency of the unique word / phrase accumulated in the unique word / phrase use frequency accumulation unit To be relatively higher. Then, the user selects a desired conversion candidate displayed among the conversion candidates displayed through the user input / output unit 51 by the input character conversion means 55, thereby confirming the conversion character string and adding a unique phrase to the e-mail being created. Can be inserted.

  As described above, according to this reference example, the input character conversion in the e-mail creation is not registered in the dictionary, but the unique word / phrase frequently used with the other party to send the e-mail is converted into the conversion candidate. It can be. As a result, it is possible to easily input a unique word / phrase that has conventionally been troublesome.

  The e-mail creation support apparatus according to the present invention can be realized by installing an e-mail creation support program on a computer or the like via a recording medium such as a CD-ROM or a transmission medium such as the Internet. it can.

  In addition, each of the above reference examples and embodiments has been described by taking e-mail communication to one person as an example. However, the e-mail creation support apparatus according to the present invention sends the same contents to many people at once. For example, it can be applied to a guide letter, a New Year's card, direct mail, and the like. In this case, the e-mail creation support apparatus according to the present invention converts the text input by the user into an appropriate style according to the partner. Thereby, the user's effort concerning style conversion can be reduced.

  As described above, the e-mail creation support apparatus, program, and method according to the present invention have the effect of reducing the burden on the user related to e-mail creation, and in particular, cellular phones and portable terminals with low convenience for character input. This is useful when composing emails.

It is a block diagram of the electronic mail preparation assistance apparatus which concerns on the 1st reference example of this invention. This is an example in Japanese of information stored in a transmission / reception mail storage unit. It is an example in English of the information which the transmission / reception mail storage part has stored. It is an example in Chinese of the information which the transmission / reception mail storage part has stored. This is an example of information stored in the phrase usage frequency storage unit in Japanese. This is an example in English of information stored in the phrase usage frequency storage unit. This is an example in Japanese of the phrase correspondence list. It is an example in English of a word corresponding list. This is an example of information stored in the human relation information storage unit in Japanese. This is an example of information stored in the human relationship information storage unit in English. It is a block diagram of the electronic mail preparation assistance apparatus which concerns on the 2nd reference example of this invention. It is an example of a fixed phrase correspondence list. It is an example of a decoration information corresponding list. It is an example of a still picture corresponding to a file name registered in a decoration information correspondence list. It is a block diagram of the electronic mail preparation assistance apparatus which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is an example of a conversion dictionary corresponding list. It is an example of the conversion candidate which an input character conversion means displays. It is a block diagram of the electronic mail preparation assistance apparatus which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is an example of the information which the common word accumulation | storage part accumulate | stores. It is an example of a display at the time of e-mail preparation proposal of a user input / output part. It is a block diagram of the electronic mail preparation assistance apparatus which concerns on the 3rd reference example of this invention. It is an example of the information which the original phrase usage frequency storage part has accumulated.

Explanation of symbols

30, 40 E-mail creation support device 12 Phrase extraction unit 13 Phrase usage frequency calculation unit 14 Phrase usage frequency storage unit (Phrase usage frequency storage unit)
42 common phrase extraction means 43 common phrase storage unit (common phrase storage means)
44 Information retrieval means

Claims (9)

An email creation support apparatus for supporting creation of email,
A phrase extracting means for extracting a phrase from electronic character data related to past communication with a partner who is going to send an e-mail;
A phrase usage frequency calculation unit that calculates a usage frequency in the electronic character data for the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction unit;
An e-mail creation support apparatus, comprising: a phrase usage frequency accumulating unit that accumulates the usage frequency of the phrase calculated by the phrase usage frequency calculating unit in association with the phrase for each communicating party. An email creation support apparatus for supporting creation of email,
A phrase extracting means for extracting a phrase from electronic character data related to past communication with a partner who is going to send an e-mail;
A phrase usage frequency calculation unit that calculates a usage frequency in the electronic character data for the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction unit;
Based on the usage frequency calculated by the phrase usage frequency calculation means, the usage rate in the previous communication with the partner for the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction means is calculated and extracted by the phrase extraction means An e-mail creation support apparatus comprising: a common word / phrase extracting unit that extracts a word / phrase having a usage rate equal to or higher than a predetermined value as a common word / phrase with the partner. The electronic mail creation support apparatus according to claim 2,
2. The e-mail creation support apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the phrase extracting unit extracts a phrase from an e-mail that has been transmitted to and received from the partner. The electronic mail creation support apparatus according to claim 2,
An information search means for searching for information using at least one of the common phrases extracted by the common phrase extraction means as a search condition;
The information search means proposes creation of an e-mail for notifying the user of the search result when the information search by the search condition is successful. Creation support device. The electronic mail creation support apparatus according to claim 2,
A phrase usage frequency accumulating unit for storing the usage frequency of the phrase calculated by the phrase usage frequency calculating unit in association with the phrase for each communicating party;
An e-mail creation support apparatus, comprising: a common phrase storage unit that stores the common phrase extracted by the common phrase extraction unit in association with the usage rate calculated by the common phrase extraction unit. Computer to help create emails,
A phrase extraction means for extracting a phrase from electronic character data related to past communication with a partner who is going to send an e-mail;
A phrase usage frequency calculation unit that calculates a usage frequency in the electronic character data for the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction unit; and
A phrase usage frequency accumulating unit that accumulates the usage frequency of the phrase calculated by the phrase usage frequency calculating unit in association with the phrase for each communicating party;
E-mail creation support program to function as. Computer to help create emails,
A phrase extraction means for extracting a phrase from electronic character data related to past communication with a partner who is going to send an e-mail;
A phrase usage frequency calculation unit that calculates a usage frequency in the electronic character data for the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction unit; and
Based on the usage frequency calculated by the phrase usage frequency calculation means, the usage rate in the previous communication with the partner for the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction means is calculated and extracted by the phrase extraction means A common word / phrase extracting unit that extracts a word / phrase having a usage rate equal to or higher than a predetermined value as a common word / phrase with the partner;
E-mail creation support program to function as. An email creation support method for supporting creation of email,
A phrase extraction step of extracting a phrase from electronic character data related to past communication with the other party to send the e-mail;
A phrase usage frequency calculation step of calculating a usage frequency in the electronic character data for the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction step;
An e-mail creation support method, comprising: a phrase usage frequency storage step of storing the phrase usage frequency calculated in the phrase usage frequency calculation step in association with the phrase for each communication partner. An email creation support method for supporting creation of email,
A phrase extraction step of extracting a phrase from electronic character data related to past communication with the other party to send the e-mail;
A phrase usage frequency calculation step of calculating a usage frequency in the electronic character data for the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction step;
Based on the usage frequency calculated by the phrase usage frequency calculation step, the usage rate in the previous communication with the partner for the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction step is calculated and extracted by the phrase extraction step A method for supporting the creation of an e-mail, comprising: a common word / phrase extraction step for extracting a word / phrase having a usage rate equal to or higher than a predetermined value as a common word / phrase with the partner.

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