JP2009199254A - Electronic mail transmission system, information processor, electronic mail transmission method, program, and recording medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electronic mail transmission system for accurately specifying destination candidates from the written content of a mail text and the data content of an attached file in the case of transmitting electronic mail, and highly precisely checking a mail transmission destination by presenting the destination candidates to a sender. <P>SOLUTION: This electronic mail transmission system is configured of: an information processor for accepting the input of a user, and performing the creation/transmission of electronic mail; and a storage device for storing the data used by the creation/transmission processing. This information processor is provided with: a text conversion means for converting the data of the text of the electronic mail and the attached file into text data; a symbol group conversion means for converting a symbol group including a series of punctuation existing in the text data converted by the text conversion means into blank character data; and a destination candidate extraction means for extracting the destination candidates of the electronic mail from the text data converted by the symbol group conversion means. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an e-mail transmission system, an information processing apparatus, an e-mail transmission method, a program, and a recording medium, and is particularly preferably applied when a transmission destination is to be checked at the time of mail transmission in a communication system using e-mail. Technology.

  Conventionally, when creating an e-mail, an e-mail address of a destination is entered in a mailer's destination field, but an e-mail transmission omission may occur due to an input error or omission. As a technique related to e-mail destination input support for avoiding such a situation, for example, Patent Document 1 discloses a communication apparatus capable of automatically transmitting a destination such as an e-mail without inputting a destination of the other party and transmitting characters. Has been. The communication device extracts a character string that satisfies a condition from text to be transmitted as an email as a candidate for a recipient, and searches for a destination corresponding to the candidate for the recipient with reference to an address book. Then, the searched destination is set as a mail transmission destination, and mail transmission is performed.

Although the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 extracts a mail address candidate from a character string indicating a destination described in a mail text and automatically sets it as a transmission destination, the following problems remain. . That is, when the content described in the mail text is only the main address or “relevant” with the main address, the mail address of the related person cannot be presented as a candidate. Also, an e-mail address cannot be presented when a name that would be a destination candidate is described only in the attached file. Regarding this, for example, Patent Document 2 discloses a technique of extracting text data from an attached file and analyzing it.
JP 2000-115401 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-232304

  By the way, although it is necessary to specify the transmission destination accurately for the transmission of the electronic mail, the accurate specification of the transmission destination includes two meanings. One is to input a correct mail address, and the other is to specify a destination to be transmitted without omission. Especially for the latter, great care must be taken when sending mail to multiple people.

  The technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 extracts a destination from the description content of a mail text and automatically sets a mail transmission destination. However, the mail text alone is not sufficient as a countermeasure for address omission. Further, when the technique according to the cited document 2 is applied to the patent document 1, it is possible to extract the destination from the mail body and the data content of the attached file, but there remains a question from the point of specifying a correct mail address. That is, for example, when the attached file is in the CSV format, a symbol may be included between “last name” and “first name”. In such a case, it is difficult to accurately extract address candidates from the attached file data. .

  Therefore, the present invention accurately specifies a destination candidate from the description content of the mail text and the data content of the attached file when sending an e-mail, and presents the destination candidate to the sender to perform a high-accuracy check of the mail destination. An object of the present invention is to provide an e-mail transmission system that can be used.

  In order to achieve such an object, an e-mail transmission system of the present invention includes an information processing apparatus that accepts user input and performs e-mail creation and transmission processing, a storage device that stores data used in the creation and transmission processing, The information processing apparatus includes: a text conversion unit that converts the text of the email and the attached file data into text data; and the text data converted by the text conversion unit. Symbol group conversion means for converting a symbol group including a series of existing punctuation marks into blank character data, and address candidate extraction means for extracting an e-mail address candidate from text data converted by the symbol group conversion means.

  The information processing apparatus according to the present invention is an information processing apparatus that receives an input from a user and performs an e-mail creation / transmission process. The text conversion unit converts the text of an e-mail and data of an attached file into text data. A symbol group conversion means for converting a symbol group including a series of punctuation marks existing in the text data converted by the text conversion means into blank character data, and an e-mail address candidate from the text data converted by the symbol group conversion means Address candidate extraction means for extracting.

  The e-mail transmission method of the present invention includes an information processing apparatus that receives user input and performs e-mail creation and transmission processing, and a storage device that stores data used in the creation and transmission processing. An e-mail transmission method in an e-mail transmission system, wherein an information processing apparatus converts a text of an e-mail body and data of an attached file into text data, and text data converted by the text conversion step. A symbol group conversion step for converting a symbol group including a series of existing punctuation marks into blank character data; and a candidate address extraction step for extracting an email address candidate from text data converted by the symbol group conversion step.

  The program of the present invention also includes an information processing apparatus that receives an input from a user and performs an email creation and transmission process, and a storage device that stores data used in the creation and transmission process. A program used in the system, in an information processing device, a text conversion function for converting the text of an e-mail and its attached file into text data, and a series of punctuation marks present in the text data converted by the text conversion function The computer is realized with a symbol group conversion function for converting a symbol group including a blank character data and an address candidate extraction function for extracting an e-mail address candidate from text data converted by the symbol group conversion function.

  The recording medium of the present invention is a computer-readable recording medium on which the above program is recorded.

  According to the present invention, when sending an e-mail, a destination candidate is accurately specified from the description content of the mail text and the data content of the attached file, the destination candidate is presented to the sender, and a high-accuracy check of the mail transmission destination It becomes possible.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the e-mail transmission system to which the present invention is applied has an information processing apparatus 2 including a text conversion means 3, a symbol group conversion means 4, and an address candidate extraction means 5, and a storage device 6. Configured. The text conversion means 3 converts the text of the electronic mail and the data of the attached file into single text data. The symbol group conversion unit 4 replaces a symbol group such as a series of punctuation marks included in a single text converted by the text conversion unit 3 with data for one blank character. The address candidate extraction unit 4 extracts an e-mail destination candidate from the text data converted by the symbol group conversion unit 4.

  Specifically, the candidate address book data held in the storage device 6 is collated with the text data after conversion by the symbol group conversion means 4, and the matching one is specified as the destination candidate. The candidate address book is generated as e-mail address data in which last name, first name, and mail address are associated with each other, and is an address book used for address candidate search. The information processing apparatus 2 may be configured to include address candidate presentation means for adding priority to the address candidates extracted by the address candidate extraction means 5 and presenting them to the user. In addition, the candidate address book held in the storage device 6 may be associated with the first name, last name, mail address, and mailing list address.

  In the present invention, for a single text converted by the text conversion means 3, symbols such as punctuation marks are replaced with blank characters by the symbol group conversion means 4, and the address candidate extraction means 5 performs, for example, “last name” + “first name”. The address candidates are accurately extracted by comparing with the candidate address book data for the two types of "Last name" and "Last name". For this reason, it is possible to appropriately extract a destination candidate even if it is a list of first and last names, such as an address book, or an attached file, effectively preventing transmission destination leakage. It becomes possible.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be specifically described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 7.

[Embodiment 1]
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of the e-mail transmission system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The electronic mail transmission system 100 according to the present embodiment includes a user input / output device 10 that exchanges data input / output with a user, a data processing device 20 that operates according to program control, and various data including data related to mail transmission processing. It comprises a storage device 30 to hold and an output device 40 for sending electronic mail.

  The data processing device 20 includes a mail creation means 21, a mail address extraction means 22, a text conversion means 23, a symbol group conversion means 24, a destination candidate extraction means 25, a mail address candidate selection / addition means 26, a mail Transmission means 27. These means generally operate as follows.

  The mail creation means 21 is a mailer means for mailers that are generally used. The mail creation means 21 creates a mail header and body, attaches an attached file as necessary, and stores the data in the mail storage unit 31. To do. The mail address extracting unit 22 extracts a mail address already described from the mail header held in the mail storage unit 31.

  The text conversion unit 23 converts the mail body and attached file stored in the mail storage unit 31 into a single text. The symbol group conversion unit 24 replaces a symbol group including a series of punctuation marks existing in the text converted by the text conversion unit 23 with a single space character. The address candidate extraction means 25 collates the data stored in the candidate address book storage unit 32 with the data generated by the symbol group conversion means 24, and extracts a match as a mail address candidate.

  The mail address candidate selection / addition means 26 presents the candidate address extracted by the address candidate extraction means 25 to the user of the sender and causes the user to select which to add. Then, the mail address corresponding to the address selected by the user is added to the mail header held in the mail storage unit 31. The mail transmission means 27 transmits the electronic mail stored in the mail storage unit 31 completed in a series of flows.

  The recording device 30 includes a mail storage unit 31 and a candidate address book storage unit 32. The mail storage unit 31 is a part that stores an e-mail document to be transmitted. As shown in FIG. 3, the candidate address book storage unit 32 stores a first name and last name of a destination to be a candidate and a list of e-mail addresses that can reach the destination as an address book for address candidate search (candidate address book). Yes. In a general address book, a person's full name and mailing list address are managed as separate data, but in the candidate address book, the mailing list address is included in the mail address that can reach the destination associated with the full name. .

  Next, operations performed in the e-mail transmission system according to this embodiment will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of the mail transmission operation in the present embodiment. First, a mail document is created as in the conventional case (step S1). When step S1 is completed, the user has already created header information including the mail text, attached file, and destination. Further, the mail address already specified as the destination is acquired from the mail header information recorded in the mail storage unit 31 (step S2). Here, for example, it is assumed that the address B is designated.

  Next, a single text document is created to extract address candidates from the mail body and the attached file (step S3), and a symbol group included in the text document is converted into a single blank character (space) ( Step S4). For example, in the text document converted from the text and the attached file, if there is a character string “Tanaka, Hanako” in which the first and last names are separated by commas, the character string is converted to a character string “Tanaka Hanako”. Even if there are a plurality of symbols such as “Tanaka,..., Hanako”, it is converted to a single space and converted to a character string “Tanaka Hanako”.

  Next, in order to extract address candidates, the candidate address book data in the candidate address book storage unit 32 is compared with the converted character string in order from the top in order to search for a match. . The address candidate extraction will be described with reference to FIG. First, “Suzuki” and “Taro” are selected as “last name” and “first name” from the top of the candidate address book (step S5).

  First, using “Taro Suzuki” (with last name and first name) and “Taro Suzuki” (with one blank between the last name) including both “last name” and “first name” as keys, The result, that is, the character string after the symbol group conversion is searched (step S6). If “Taro Suzuki” is found in the converted character string (step S6 / YES), it is added to the address candidate as a candidate with high priority (step S7).

  On the other hand, if it is not found (step S6 / NO), it is determined whether “last name” is included in the converted character string (step S8). That is, a search is performed on the result of step S4 (character string after conversion) using “Suzuki” as a key. If "Suzuki" is found in the converted character string (step S8 / YES), it is added to the address candidate as a candidate with low priority (step S9).

  The address candidate is added by sending a search result (a character string that matches the data in the candidate address book) from the address candidate extraction means 25 to the mail address candidate selection / addition means 26. At this time, data indicating a priority and a flag are added to the address. For example, the high priority may be “1” and the low priority may be “0”, and may be included in the management data for the address. When the user receives the address candidate from the mail address candidate selection / addition means 26, the user can add the mail transmission destination with reference to the priority.

  Then, the same operation as above is performed for all addresses in the candidate address book (step S10 / NO) (steps S5 to S9). In the above example, since “Hanako Tanaka” is included in the converted character string, “Taro Suzuki” is not searched in the candidate address book, and the next “Hanako Tanaka” is extracted as a matching address. . Then, since “last name” and “first name” are also included, they are added as address candidates with high priority. Subsequent “Ishiro Sato”, “Jiro Yamada”, and “Saburo Suzuki” are not searched for matching character strings, and the search for address candidates is completed.

  Thereafter, the first and last names extracted as address candidates by the address candidate extraction means 25 and the corresponding mail addresses and the designated mail addresses extracted by the mail address extraction means 22 as described above are selected and added as mail address candidates. The information is displayed together with the priority by means 26 (step S11). Then, the mail address to be added by the user is designated from the displayed mail address (step S12) and added to the mail header of the mail storage unit 31 (step S13). Finally, the mail for which the addition of the destination address has been completed is sent to the mail sending means 27 to send the mail (step S14).

  As described in the above example, in the candidate address book, “Hanako Tanaka” extracted as the address candidate is associated with “Address B” of the personal address and “Address M” of the mailing list address. For this reason, these two addresses are sent to the user by the mail address candidate selection / addition means 26 together with the address “Hanako Tanaka” as the destination mail address. The user can arbitrarily select one of the presented “address B” and “address M” as a mail transmission destination. Since the address candidate is presented with priority information added, the user can also recognize that the address candidate has a high priority.

  According to the above-described embodiment, not only the mail body but also all attached files are converted into a single text to extract address candidates, so that it is possible to effectively prevent address specification omission. . In addition, in order to search a text document by converting a series of symbols such as a punctuation mark into a single blank, a symbol is included between the first name and last name in the attached file or the like as in a CSV file. In addition, the correct address can be detected.

[Embodiment 2]
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the configuration of an e-mail transmission system according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The e-mail transmission system 101 according to the present embodiment has substantially the same configuration as the system according to the first embodiment, but an external data processing apparatus in which the candidate address book storage unit 51 is connected via the network 60 instead of the storage device 33. 50 is different. Since the candidate address book storage unit 51 is installed in the external data processing device 50, the address candidate extraction means 25 for searching for address candidates accesses the external data processing device 50 via the network 60, and the candidate address book The candidate address book in the storage unit 51 is used. Other functions of each component and mail transmission operation are the same as those in the first embodiment, and thus description thereof is omitted.

  According to the above-described embodiment, the candidate address book storage unit 51 is provided outside without belonging to the address candidate extraction unit 25, so that the candidate address book can be shared by the data processing devices on the network.

[Embodiment 3]
FIG. 6 is a diagram showing the configuration of an e-mail transmission system according to the third embodiment of the present invention. The e-mail transmission system 101 of the present embodiment has substantially the same configuration as the system of the first embodiment, but differs from the first embodiment in the following points. That is, the difference is that the data processing device 28 further includes candidate address book generation means 29 and the storage device 35 further includes a general address book storage unit 36. The candidate address book generation unit 29 generates a candidate address book from the general address book in the general address book storage unit 36 and stores it in the candidate address book storage unit 32. Other functions of each component and mail transmission operation are the same as those in the first embodiment, and thus description thereof is omitted.

  According to the above-described embodiment, when a mail address is changed in a general address book for managing personal data of a user in order to generate a candidate address book from a general address book, the contents of change are also candidate addresses. Thus, data consistency between the general address book and the candidate address book is ensured.

[Embodiment 4]
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the configuration of an e-mail transmission system according to the fourth embodiment of the present invention. The e-mail transmission system of the present embodiment is a combination of the configurations of the second and third embodiments. That is, the data processing unit 28 further includes candidate address book generation means 29, the storage device 33 includes only the mail storage unit 31, and the candidate address book storage unit 51 is connected to the external data processing device 55 together with the general address book storage unit 52. Provided. The candidate address book generating unit 29 accesses the external data processing device 55 via the network 60. Then, a candidate address book is generated from the general address book in the general address book storage unit 52 and stored in the candidate address book storage unit 51. Further, the address candidate extraction means 25 accesses the external data processing device 50 via the network 60, and searches for and extracts address candidates using the candidate address book in the candidate address book storage unit 51.

  According to the above-described embodiment, the candidate address book is generated from the general address book. Therefore, even when the mail address is changed in the general address book for managing the user's personal data, the general address book is used. Data integrity of the candidate address book is ensured. Further, since the candidate address book storage unit 51 is provided in the external device, the candidate address book can be shared by data processing devices on the network.

  The above-described embodiment is a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and the scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment alone, and various modifications are made without departing from the gist of the present invention. Implementation is possible. For example, the present invention can be applied to an information communication apparatus such as a computer or a mobile phone that can check a transmission destination when sending an e-mail.

  Further, the data processing apparatus in the above-described embodiment operates by processing, means, and functions executed by a computer according to program instructions. The program sends a command to each component of the computer, converts the mail body and attached file data into a single text by the predetermined processing and functions as described above, for example, the text conversion means 23, The group conversion means 24 converts a symbol group such as punctuation marks included in a single text into blank character data, and the address candidate extraction means 25 uses the address of the candidate address book in the candidate address book storage unit 32 as a key. The text data after group conversion is searched to perform processing for extracting address candidates. Further, the mail address candidate selection / addition means 26 performs a process of presenting the address and mail address information to the user with the priority added. As described above, the processes and means in the above-described embodiment are realized by specific means in which the program and the computer cooperate.

  Then, for example, a computer (CPU) of the data processing apparatus stores the program code stored in the storage medium via a computer-readable recording medium that records the program code of the software that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment, that is, the storage medium. The object of the present invention is also achieved by executing the reading. Further, the program can be loaded and executed directly on a computer through a communication line without going through a recording medium, and the object of the present invention can be achieved similarly.

  In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium or loaded and executed through the communication line realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment. And the storage medium which memorize | stored the program code comprises this invention.

  Examples of the storage medium for supplying the program code include a floppy (registered trademark) disk, a hard disk, an optical disk, a magneto-optical disk, a CD-ROM, a CD-R, a nonvolatile memory card, a ROM, and a magnetic tape. Can be used.

It is the figure which showed the structure of the electronic mail transmission system with which this invention is applied. It is the figure which showed the structure of the electronic mail transmission system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a figure for demonstrating the candidate address book used by this embodiment. It is the flowchart which showed the flow of the email transmission operation | movement in embodiment of this invention. It is the figure which showed the structure of the electronic mail transmission system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is the figure which showed the structure of the electronic mail transmission system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is the figure which showed the structure of the electronic mail transmission system which concerns on embodiment of this invention.

Explanation of symbols

1,100 to 103 E-mail transmission system 2 Information processing device 3,23 Text conversion means 4,24 Symbol group conversion means 5,25 Address candidate extraction means 6 Storage device 10 User input / output device 20, 28 Data processing device 21 Mail creation Means 22 Mail address extraction means 26 Mail address candidate selection / addition means 27 Mail transmission means 29 Candidate address book generation means 30, 33, 35 Storage device 31 Mail storage section 32, 51 Candidate address book storage section 36, 52 General address book storage Unit 40 Output device 50, 55 External data processing device 60 Network

Claims (17)

An e-mail transmission system configured to include an information processing device that accepts user input and performs e-mail creation and transmission processing, and a storage device that stores data used in the creation and transmission processing,
The information processing apparatus includes:
A text conversion means for converting the body of the email and the data of the attached file into text data;
Symbol group conversion means for converting a symbol group including a series of punctuation marks existing in the text data converted by the text conversion means into blank character data;
Address candidate extraction means for extracting e-mail address candidates from the text data converted by the symbol group conversion means;
An e-mail transmission system comprising:   The e-mail transmission system according to claim 1, wherein the information processing apparatus includes address candidate presentation means for adding priority to the address candidates extracted by the address candidate extraction means and presenting them to the user. A candidate address book storage means for associating a surname, a first name, and a mail address, which are data of an e-mail address, and storing it as an address book for address candidate search;
The address candidate extraction means collates the text data after the conversion by the symbol group conversion means with the data stored by the candidate address book storage means, and extracts a match as an e-mail address candidate. The electronic mail transmission system according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that   4. A candidate address book storage means for associating last name, first name, mail address, and mailing list address, which are data of an e-mail address, and storing as an address book for address candidate search. The e-mail transmission system according to claim 1.   A candidate address book storage means for associating last name, first name, and mail address, which are data of e-mail address, and storing it as an address book for address candidate search is provided in an external information processing apparatus connected to the network. The e-mail transmission system according to claim 1, wherein the e-mail transmission system according to claim 1. A candidate address book storage means for associating a surname, a first name, and an e-mail address as address data of an e-mail and storing them as an address book for address candidate search;
General address book storage means configured from user personal information and stored as an address book for information management;
Candidate address book generating means for generating the address candidate search address book from the address book for information management stored in the general address book storage means;
The e-mail transmission system according to claim 1, comprising: An information processing apparatus that accepts user input and performs e-mail creation and transmission processing,
A text conversion means for converting the body of the email and the data of the attached file into text data;
Symbol group conversion means for converting a symbol group including a series of punctuation marks existing in the text data converted by the text conversion means into blank character data;
Address candidate extraction means for extracting e-mail address candidates from the text data converted by the symbol group conversion means;
An information processing apparatus comprising:   The information processing apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising: address candidate presentation means for adding priority to the address candidates extracted by the address candidate extraction means and presenting them to the user.   The address candidate extraction means includes: address book data for address candidate search associated with last name, first name, and mail address, which are address data of an e-mail; and text data converted by the symbol group conversion means. The information processing apparatus according to claim 7 or 8, wherein collation is performed, and a match is extracted as an e-mail address candidate.   Candidate address book generation means for generating an address book for address candidate search associated with last name, first name, and mail address, which is data of e-mail address, from an address book for information management composed of personal information of the user The information processing apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising: An e-mail transmission method in an e-mail transmission system including an information processing apparatus that accepts user input and performs e-mail creation and transmission processing, and a storage device that stores data used in the creation and transmission processing Because
In the information processing apparatus,
A text conversion step for converting the data of the body of the email and the attached file into text data;
A symbol group conversion step of converting a symbol group including a series of punctuation marks existing in the text data converted by the text conversion step into blank character data;
Address candidate extraction step for extracting address candidates of e-mail from the text data converted by the symbol group conversion step;
An e-mail transmission method comprising:   12. The e-mail transmission method according to claim 11, further comprising: an address candidate presenting step of adding priority to the address candidates extracted by the address candidate extracting step and presenting them to a user. The storage device associates a surname, a first name, and an e-mail address, which are e-mail address data, and stores it as an address book for address candidate search,
In the address candidate extraction step, the text data after the conversion in the symbol group conversion step is compared with the address book data for address candidate search in the storage device. The e-mail transmission method according to claim 11 or 12, wherein the e-mail transmission method is extracted. A program used in an e-mail transmission system including an information processing apparatus that receives user input and performs e-mail creation and transmission processing, and a storage device that stores data used in the creation and transmission processing. And
In the information processing apparatus,
A text conversion function that converts data in the body of the email and the attached file into text data;
A symbol group conversion function for converting a symbol group including a series of punctuation marks existing in the text data converted by the text conversion function into blank character data;
Address candidate extraction function for extracting e-mail address candidates from text data converted by the symbol group conversion function;
A program characterized by causing a computer to realize the above.   15. The program according to claim 14, wherein the information processing apparatus causes a computer to realize a candidate address presentation function for adding a priority to a candidate address extracted by the candidate address extraction function and presenting it to a user. The storage device associates a surname, a first name, and an e-mail address, which are e-mail address data, and stores it as an address book for address candidate search,
The address candidate extraction function collates the text data converted by the symbol group conversion function with the address book data for address candidate search in the storage device, and matches those as the address candidate of the e-mail. The program according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the program is extracted.   A recording medium that records the program according to any one of claims 14 to 16 and is readable by a computer.

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