JP2014017569A - Portable terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a portable terminal where usability is improved in receiving mail by evaluating the importance of mail in keeping with intentions of both of a reception side and a transmission side and controlling ringing according to an evaluation value and the situation of the terminal.SOLUTION: A portable terminal 100 includes: a mail reception unit 104 for receiving mail; an incoming notification unit 106 for notifying a user of the incoming of mail by ringing with sound or vibration; and an address book 110 for storing mail addresses of destinations. The portable terminal includes: an evaluation unit 112 for determining an evaluation value on the basis of information of importance included in mail and whether a transmission source address of the mail is included in the address book or not; and a situation determination unit 114 for determining a threshold of an evaluation value to be notified on the basis of at least whether the terminal is in a sleep state or not. The incoming notification unit avoids ringing concerning incoming notification of mail where an evaluation value does not satisfy a threshold value.

Description

  The present invention relates to a mobile terminal that improves user convenience when receiving mail.

  Conventionally, in mobile terminals such as mobile phones, PHS, and smartphones, it is possible to send and receive mail. Currently, SMS (Short Message Service), MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), and e-mail services are provided as e-mail.

  SMS transmits data using the empty space in the header of an incoming call. SMS is push-type content. MMS is a mechanism in which a terminal acquires data on an http basis from a telecommunications carrier's server, when SMS is received in advance. Although the text of the MMS is acquired by the pull method, since the SMS received in advance is the push method, it may be considered that the MMS is a push method as a whole. For e-mail, a POP3 server is accessed from a terminal to perform reception check and data acquisition. Therefore, e-mail is a pull-type content, but since it is set to automatically perform the process from reception check to body text acquisition in the background on a normal mobile terminal, it is used as a push-type for the user. Has been.

  In this way, the mail operates as push-type content in the mobile terminal, and is received without requiring a user operation. The mobile terminal notifies the user of various incoming notification functions, for example, an incoming call notification, a vibrator vibration, a display display, or a flashing incoming call lamp. In a normal mobile terminal, the user can set which notification function is used for notification. In many cases, the ring tone can be set for melody and volume. Of the above notification functions, notification by sound and / or vibration is referred to as “ringing” in this paper. “Ringing” does not include display indication and blinking of the incoming call lamp.

  As described above, the mail in the mobile terminal automatically arrives as a feature of the operation of the push type content, and the user is notified of the incoming call. Therefore, the incoming notification is always performed suddenly at a timing not intended by the user. Certainly, it is convenient to be notified when a mail is received, however, in fact, there are important mails and unnecessary mails, and some mails are urgent and others are not. For example, even for emails with low importance such as advertisement emails, ringing notifications are performed without restriction even when busy or at bedtime, such as during work or during a lecture.

  Here, if the mail is completely unnecessary and the conditions such as the mail address and the character string included in the subject are known in advance, it can be eliminated using a junk mail filter or the like. However, there is a problem that an unnecessary mail that does not match the filter condition is received and an incoming call notification is performed. In addition, since the user does not see the excluded mail and cannot even know that the mail has been sent, it cannot be filtered when he / she wants to see it when he / she has time.

  Also, if the mobile terminal is set to the manner mode, it can be prevented from ringing by an incoming call notification. However, in this case, since no ringing is performed for any mail, there is a problem that even an important mail is not noticed.

  For these reasons, it is desirable that a mail that is important for the user is notified of ringing and that an unimportant mail is not notified of the ringing.

  By the way, importance can be set as additional information (metadata) in the mail. The header of POP3 is “Importance”, but similar additional information is defined in SMS and MMS. This importance level is used to display the importance level of the mail to the user in the received mail list.

  A technique using importance level information in a portable terminal is related to a voice call. In Patent Document 1, the caller terminal adds a number indicating the priority of the incoming call setting to the telephone number of the callee terminal, and transmits the call to the callee terminal. An incoming call setting communication method and a communication terminal for detecting an incoming call setting priority and executing an incoming call operation according to the priority are disclosed. As a specific example of “incoming operation according to priority”, it is described that the pattern and level (volume) of a ringing tone and the operation of an incoming notification LED are changed according to priority.

JP 2008-141243 A

  However, the importance level information is information arbitrarily added by the user on the transmission side. For this reason, relying only on the importance level information is important for the user on the receiving side, but the sending side does not always send it with a high degree of importance, and unnecessary mail such as advertising mail has a high importance level. It is also assumed that it is sent after being set. That is, the importance level information reflects the intention of the user on the transmission side and does not necessarily meet the desire of the user on the reception side.

  Therefore, the present invention evaluates the importance of the mail reflecting the intentions of both the receiving side and the transmitting side, and controls the ringing according to the evaluation value and the status of the terminal, thereby improving the usability of the user when receiving the mail. An object is to provide an improved portable terminal.

  In order to solve the above problems, a typical configuration of a mobile terminal according to the present invention includes a mail receiving unit that receives mail, an incoming notification unit that notifies a user of an incoming mail by sound or vibration, and a partner In a portable terminal equipped with an address book that stores the previous mail address, the evaluation value is determined based on the importance information included in the mail and whether the sender address of the mail is included in the address book. And a status determination unit that determines a threshold value of an evaluation value to be notified based on whether or not the terminal is in a sleep state, and the incoming call notification unit is configured to receive an email whose evaluation value does not satisfy the threshold value. The incoming call notification is not ringed.

  It is preferable that the situation determination unit further determines the threshold according to the time zone.

  It is preferable that a position measurement unit that measures the position of the terminal is provided, and the situation determination unit further determines a threshold according to whether the terminal is at home or going out.

  It is preferable that a motion detection unit that detects the movement of the terminal is provided, and the situation determination unit further determines a threshold according to whether the terminal is stationary or moving.

  When the threshold determined by the situation determination unit changes, the incoming notification unit does not notify by ringing, and for unread mail, if the evaluation value of the mail satisfies the threshold, the ringing notification is performed. Preferably it is done.

  According to the present invention, ringing notification is not performed for unimportant mail depending on the importance information included in the mail, the presence / absence of registration of the transmission source address (evaluation value), and the status (threshold value) of the mobile phone. To control the ringing of incoming notifications. As a result, the intentions of both the receiving side and the transmitting side can be reflected, and the user is not bothered by low-priority mail such as advertisement mail. Therefore, a mobile terminal that improves user convenience when receiving mail is provided. can do.

It is a block diagram explaining the structure of the portable terminal concerning embodiment. It is a figure explaining the example of the determination method of an evaluation value. It is a figure explaining the example of a threshold value table. It is a figure explaining the operation | movement at the time of mail arrival. It is a figure explaining operation | movement when a threshold value is changed.

  Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. The dimensions, materials, and other specific numerical values shown in the embodiments are merely examples for facilitating understanding of the invention, and do not limit the present invention unless otherwise specified. In the present specification and drawings, elements having substantially the same function and configuration are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description is omitted, and elements not directly related to the present invention are not illustrated. To do.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a mobile terminal 100 according to the present embodiment.

  The main control unit 102 controls basic operations of the entire terminal. The main control unit 102 turns off the screen display as a sleep state when the user is not operating the portable terminal 100, and invalidates the input from the touch panel in the case of a touch panel device.

  The mail receiving unit 104 receives mail from an external server. As the communication path, wireless communication such as 3G or WiFi, wired communication such as Ethernet (registered trademark), or the like is used. SMS, MMS, e-mail, etc. can be used as the mail format.

  The incoming notification unit 106 notifies the user of incoming mail by the notification device 108. Specifically, the notification device 108 is a speaker, a vibrator, a display, or an incoming call lamp. As will be described later, the incoming call notification unit 106 does not ring for incoming mail notifications whose evaluation value does not satisfy the threshold value, and performs ringing notification only when the evaluation value satisfies the threshold value. Note that ringing means sound output from a speaker or vibration of a vibrator.

  The address book 110 is a database provided in the mobile terminal 100 and can register names and e-mail addresses.

  The evaluation unit 112 evaluates the importance of mail. The evaluator 112 acquires the e-mail sender address and the priority information included in the e-mail from the e-mail receiver 104. Then, the evaluation unit 112 searches the address book 110 based on the acquired transmission source address, and determines whether the transmission source address of the mail is included in the address book. Then, the evaluation value is determined based on the importance level information and the presence / absence of registration.

  FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of an evaluation value determination method. In the present embodiment, the importance is assumed to be three levels of high, medium and low. In the case of registration, the evaluation value is assumed to be the same as the importance. If there is no registration, the evaluation value is low regardless of the importance value. Note that this example is merely an example. For example, when there is no registration, the evaluation may be lowered by one rank, and the evaluation may be made such that high, middle and low are set to middle, low and low.

  In this way, by determining the evaluation value based on the importance information included in the email and whether the email address is included in the address book, there is an emergency like an advertisement email first. Even if importance information is included in the email that is not to be sent, the evaluation value can be lowered because the source address is not included in the address book. That is, the intention of the receiver can be reflected regardless of the intention of the sender. On the other hand, when there is a registration, since the importance information given by the sender can be reflected in the evaluation value, the intention of the sender can be reflected.

  Returning to FIG. 1, the situation determination unit 114 acquires the situation (state) of the mobile terminal 100 and determines a threshold value of an evaluation value to be notified of an incoming call. The situation determination unit 114 includes a threshold table 116 in which thresholds are set for the terminal situation.

  FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining an example of the threshold value table 116. The threshold value table 116 is a database that stores threshold values for the status (state) of the mobile terminal 100 acquired by the status determination unit 114. The threshold value is preferably set by the user.

  The situation determination unit 114 acquires whether or not the terminal is in a sleep state from at least the main control unit 102, and determines a threshold based on at least the presence or absence of the sleep state. In the example illustrated in FIG. 3, the threshold is set to “all” when the mobile terminal 100 is being operated, that is, not in the sleep state. This is because if the mobile terminal 100 is being operated, it is unlikely that it will be annoying even if it rings when a mail arrives. When the mobile terminal 100 is in the sleep state, the threshold value is set by further subdividing.

  The situation determination unit 114 acquires the current time from the system clock 120 of the mobile terminal 100 and determines a threshold value according to the time zone. In FIG. 3, the time zone is divided into “morning / daytime” as an activity time zone, “night” as an activity time zone, and “midnight / early morning” as a sleeping time zone.

  In addition, the situation determination unit 114 determines whether the portable terminal 100 is at home or out of the office using a position measurement unit 122 (such as a positioning system using GPS or a base station) provided in the portable terminal 100. Then, a threshold value is determined according to the position of the mobile terminal 100.

  Further, the situation determination unit 114 further acquires whether the terminal is stationary or moving from the motion detection unit 124 included in the mobile terminal 100. Then, the threshold is determined according to whether the terminal is moving / still.

  In the example of the threshold value table 116 shown in FIG. 3, the threshold value can be set according to all conditions of the current time, position, and moving / still state in addition to the sleep state. However, this configuration is merely an example, and some of the current time, position, moving / still state conditions may be used, and none may be used. The threshold value may be determined based on at least the sleep state.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining the operation when a mail is received. As a premise of the flowchart of FIG. 4, it is assumed that the situation determination unit 114 determines a threshold value in advance. First, the mail receiving unit 104 receives a mail (step 200). With this as an opportunity, the evaluation unit 112 determines the evaluation value as described above (step 202).

  The incoming call notification unit 106 acquires the evaluation value from the evaluation unit 112, acquires the threshold value from the situation determination unit 114, and compares the evaluation value with the threshold value (step 204). If the evaluation value is equal to or greater than the threshold value, the notification device 108 is controlled to issue a ringing notification (step 206).

  On the other hand, if the evaluation value does not satisfy the threshold value, it is not ringed (step 208). However, even in this case, notification by a screen display or an incoming call lamp may be performed. Finally, after storing a flag as to whether or not it is ringed at the time of the incoming mail notification (step 210), the operation is terminated.

  FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the operation when the threshold value is changed. The situation determination unit 114 continuously determines the threshold value as described above (step 220). The situation determination unit 114 determines whether or not the threshold value has changed (step 222), and if not, loops to determine the threshold value (step 220). If the threshold value has changed, the incoming notification unit 106 is notified of the changed threshold value (step 224).

  When the incoming notification unit 106 obtains the changed threshold value, the incoming notification unit 106 extracts from the mail receiving unit 104 the mail that has not been issued a ringing notification and has not been read (step 226). Then, the evaluation value of the mail is compared with the threshold value after the change (step 228). If the evaluation value is equal to or greater than the threshold value, a ringing notification is performed (step 230). If the evaluation value does not satisfy the threshold value, the ringing is not performed ( Step 232). It is determined whether or not processing has been performed for all the extracted mails (step 234). If there is any remaining mail, the process returns to the comparison between the evaluation value and the threshold value (step 228). .

  As described above, according to the present invention, according to the importance information included in the email, the presence / absence of the registration of the source address (evaluation value), and the status of the mobile phone (threshold), Control ringing of incoming notifications so that ringing notifications are not performed. The importance level information is information given by the transmitting side, but the other information is information (state or status) on the receiving side. As a result, the intentions of both the receiving side and the transmitting side can be reflected, and the user is not bothered by low-priority mail such as advertisement mail. Therefore, a mobile terminal that improves user convenience when receiving mail is provided. can do.

  As mentioned above, although preferred embodiment of this invention was described referring an accompanying drawing, it cannot be overemphasized that this invention is not limited to the example which concerns. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications can be made within the scope of the claims, and these are naturally within the technical scope of the present invention. Understood.

  INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The present invention can be used for a portable terminal that notifies a user of ringing when receiving a mail.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... Portable terminal, 102 ... Main control part, 104 ... Mail receiving part, 106 ... Incoming notification part, 108 ... Notification device, 110 ... Address book, 112 ... Evaluation part, 114 ... Situation judgment part, 116 ... Threshold table, 120 ... System clock 122 ... Position measurement unit 124 ... Motion detection unit

Claims (5)

A mail receiver for receiving mail;
An incoming call notification unit that notifies the user of an incoming mail by sound or vibration,
In a mobile terminal equipped with an address book that stores the email address of the other party,
An evaluation unit that determines an evaluation value based on the importance information included in the mail and whether or not the source address of the mail is included in the address book;
A situation determination unit that determines a threshold value of an evaluation value to be notified based on at least whether the terminal is in a sleep state;
The mobile terminal is characterized in that the incoming notification unit does not ring an incoming notification of mail whose evaluation value does not satisfy the threshold.   The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the situation determination unit further determines a threshold according to a time zone. A position measuring unit for measuring the position of the terminal,
The mobile terminal according to claim 1, wherein the situation determination unit further determines a threshold value depending on whether the terminal is at home or going out. It has a motion detector that detects the movement of the terminal,
The portable terminal according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the situation determination unit further determines a threshold according to whether the terminal is stationary or moving.   The incoming call notification unit is not notified by ringing when the threshold value determined by the situation determination unit is changed, and for an unread mail, the ringing is performed when the evaluation value of the mail satisfies the threshold value. The mobile terminal according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein notification is performed according to any one of claims 1 to 4.

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