JP2014134935A - Mail transmitting/receiving device, mail transmission/reception method and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve readability of mails frequently exchanged among any opponents without any chore.SOLUTION: A mail transmitting/receiving device (1) comprises the steps of: mail transmission/reception means (3) for transmitting or receiving a mail; storage means (10) for storing a mail transmitted or received in the past; read means (4) for, upon a transmission or reception of the mail performed by the mail transmission/reception means, reading a relevant mail relevant to the mail from the storage means; coupled mail generation means (4) for generating a coupled mail coupled by arranging the relevant mail read by the read means in order of a transmission/reception date and time; and display control means (8) for causing display means to display the coupled mail.

Description

  The present invention relates to a mail transmission / reception apparatus, a mail transmission / reception method, and a program that can be applied to a communication terminal such as a mobile phone having a mail transmission / reception function.

  In recent years, with the spread of communication terminals such as mobile phones, contact by e-mail has been made regardless of public or private. Here, the mail means a text-based message exchanged between communication terminals via a network such as the Internet.

  This message may include image information such as a photograph, and may further include an arbitrary attached file. In addition, mail generally refers to mail (electronic mail) realized by a communication protocol such as POP (Post Office Protocol), SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), or IMAP (Internet Message Access Protocol), but is not limited thereto. . For example, the message may be exchanged using a network service such as SMS (Short Message Service), SNS (Social Networking Service), or chat.

  Since such mail is one of the most frequently used communication means today, a large amount of mail (sent mail and received mail) is accumulated in each user's communication terminal. It has become a lot of work to browse and manage.

  Therefore, there is a need for a technology that can facilitate the browsing and management of emails. For example, such a technology can change the ringtone depending on whether a received email is a return email or a forwarded email, and none of them. In the case of new mail, the ring tone changes depending on whether or not the sender is registered in the address book (see Patent Document 1 below), and the ring tone is sent for each sender or group of received mail. Change (see Patent Document 2 below), change email template when the number of email transmission / reception exceeds the specified number (see Patent Document 3 below), notify that there was an incoming call (see Patent Document below) 4), which collectively displays mails including a character string designated by a user (see Patent Document 5 below).

According to this, it is possible to distinguish whether it is a return mail or a forwarded mail by the ring tone, and in the case of a new mail that is neither, it can be distinguished by the ring tone whether the sender is registered in the address book, Furthermore, since the sender and group of the received mail can be distinguished by the ringtone, it is easy to judge the sender when browsing the mail, and it is not necessary to check the sender one by one.
Further, since the mail template is changed when the number of mail transmission / reception exceeds the specified number of times, it is possible to differentiate from other users who use the same communication terminal.
Furthermore, since mails including character strings designated by the user are displayed together, it is possible to reduce the trouble of reading mails.

JP 2010-282632 A JP 2011-135179 A JP 2011-015884 A JP 2009-088808 A JP 2000-250829 A

However, in the techniques described in the above Patent Documents 1 to 5, although a temporary effect is recognized in that the labor of browsing and managing mail can be reduced, for example, a large amount that is frequently exchanged with a specific partner There is still room for improvement in terms of improving the readability of email.
In this regard, although the above-described Patent Document 5 describes a technique for collectively displaying mails including a character string designated by a user, this technique alone is insufficient. This is because the user must manually input a character string (for example, the mail address or title of the other party), which is inefficient and time-consuming.

  Therefore, an object of the present invention is to improve the readability of mail frequently exchanged with an arbitrary partner without trouble.

The mail transmission / reception apparatus according to the present invention includes a mail transmission / reception unit for transmitting or receiving a mail, a storage unit for storing a mail transmitted or received in the past, and a mail transmission / reception performed by the mail transmission / reception unit. Reading means for reading related mail related to the mail from the storage means, combined mail generating means for generating a combined mail by combining the related mails read by the reading means in order of the date and time of the transmission and reception, And a display control means for displaying the combined mail on the display means.
The mail transmission / reception method of the present invention includes a mail transmission / reception step for transmitting or receiving a mail, a storage step for storing a mail transmitted or received in the past in a storage means, and a transmission / reception of the mail in the mail transmission / reception step. A reading step of reading related mails related to the mail from the storage means when performed, and a combined mail generating step of generating combined mails by combining the related mails read by the reading step in order of date and time of transmission / reception And a display control step of displaying the combined mail on a display means.
The program of the present invention includes a mail transmission / reception function for transmitting / receiving mails to / from a computer, a storage function for storing mails transmitted or received in the past in storage means, and transmission / reception of mails by the mail transmission / reception function. A read function for reading related mails related to the mail from the storage means when it is broken, a combined mail generation function for generating a combined mail by combining the related mails read by the read function in order of the date and time of transmission and reception, and A display control function for displaying the combined mail on a display means is provided.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to improve the readability of mail frequently exchanged with an arbitrary partner without trouble.

It is a functional block diagram of the mail transmission / reception apparatus 1 of embodiment. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of the mail transmission / reception device 1. FIG. It is a structure schematic diagram of DB23 for time series display determination. It is a conceptual diagram (1/2) of the computer software performed by CPU14. It is a conceptual diagram (2/2) of the computer software performed by CPU14. It is a figure which shows an example of a combined mail. It is a mail management conceptual diagram.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of a mail transmitting / receiving apparatus 1 according to the embodiment. The mail transmission / reception device 1 includes a communication unit 2, a mail transmission / reception unit 3, a mail combination processing unit 4, a mail temporary storage control unit 5, a notification control unit 6, a notification unit 7, a display unit 8, and a storage unit 9. The storage unit 9 further includes a mail box 10, a time series display determination DB (database) storage unit 11, a mail temporary storage unit 12, and a notification information storage unit 13.

  FIG. 2 is a hardware configuration diagram of the mail transmitting / receiving apparatus 1. As shown in FIG. 2, the mail transmission / reception device 1 shown in FIG. 1 is a central processing unit CPU 14, a main storage device RAM 15, a non-volatile storage device ROM 16, and an input device. The computer system includes an input device 17 such as a keyboard or a mouse, a display device 18 such as a display, a notification device 19 such as a vibrator or a speaker, a wireless or wired communication device 20, a storage device 21 such as a hard disk or a flash memory. ing.

  Each function described in FIG. 1 is executed under the control of the CPU 14 by reading computer software (also referred to as a control program) stored in the ROM 16 in advance on hardware such as the CPU 14 and the RAM 15 shown in FIG. Thus, the input device 17, the display device 18, the notification device 19, and the communication device 20 are operated, and data is read and written in the RAM 15 and the storage device 21. Hereinafter, each function will be described based on the blocks shown in FIG.

The communication unit 2 performs communication between the mail transmission / reception unit 3 and a communication network 22 configured by a network such as a mobile phone communication network, a public telephone communication network, or the Internet. The mail transmission / reception unit 3 transmits / receives mail via the communication unit 2.
A mail is a message exchanged between communication terminals via a network such as the Internet, and is generally a text-based message, but is not limited thereto. Information other than characters (for example, image information such as photographs) may be included, or information with an attached file may be included. The typical mail is so-called electronic mail, but other than this, for example, a message such as SMS, SNS or chat may be used.

The mail box 10 is a storage area for storing mail transmitted / received by the mail transmitting / receiving unit 3 (hereinafter, transmitted mail / received mail).
The sent mail is a mail created by a user (also referred to as a user) of the mail transmitting / receiving apparatus 1 and transmitted from the mail transmitting / receiving unit 3 to an arbitrary mail address. The received mail is a mail that is created by an arbitrary sender and received by the mail transmitting / receiving unit 3.
Each of these sent and received mails is further divided into a reply mail, a forwarded mail, and other new mails. The new mail is mail that is first created for an arbitrary mail address, and this new mail becomes a new transmitted mail on the transmission side and a new received mail on the reception side. A reply mail is a mail that is returned in response to an arbitrary received mail, and a forward mail is a mail that forwards an arbitrary received mail to another mail address.

  The mail combination processing unit 4 refers to the time series display determination DB stored in the time series display determination DB storage unit 11 at the time of mail transmission / reception, and based on the storage information of this time series display determination DB, It is determined whether or not a predetermined mail combining condition is satisfied, and when the condition is satisfied, a transmission / reception mail (related mail) related to the transmission / reception mail is read from the mailbox 10 and those transmission / reception mails (related mail) are read. Create a combined email that integrates chronologically into one.

  FIG. 3 is a structural schematic diagram of the DB 23 for time series display determination. As shown in this figure, the time-series display determination DB 23 includes a first field 24 for storing a mail address, a second field 25 for storing a previous mail transmission / reception date / time, and a third field 26 for storing a mail transmission start date / time. And a fourth field 27 for storing the mail reception start date and time, a fifth field 28 for storing the number of mail transmission / reception, and a sixth field 29 for storing the time series display mode, for each mail partner. It has a structure.

  For example, the first record of the time-series display determination DB 23 includes a mail address [abc @ aaa. com] as the previous mail transmission / reception date and time [2012/8/15 15:00], as the mail transmission start date and time [2012/8/14 10:00], and as the mail reception start date and time [2012/8/14 11: 30], [5] is stored as the number of times of mail transmission / reception, and [ON] is stored as the time series display mode, and the second record of the time series display determination DB 23 contains the mail address [def @ bbb. com] as the previous mail transmission / reception date and time [2012/8/14 12:00], as the mail transmission start date and time [2012/8/13 09:00], and as the mail reception start date and time [2012/8/13 18: 30], [4] is stored as the number of mail transmission / reception, and [OFF] is stored as the time series display mode.

Therefore, from the stored information of the time-series display determination DB 23, the mail address [abc @ aaa. com], the first mail transmission was performed at [2012/8/14 10:00], the first mail reception was performed at [2012/8/14 11:30], and the last time (that is, The most recent mail transmission / reception was performed at [2012/8/15 15:00], the number of mail transmission / reception from the first mail transmission / reception to the present is [5] (times), and time series display It can be seen that [ON] is stored in the mode.
Email address [def @ bbb. com], the first mail transmission was performed at [2012/8/13 09: 0], the first mail reception was performed at [2012/8/13 08:30], and the previous (that is, The most recent mail transmission / reception was performed at [2012/8/14 12:00], and the number of mail transmission / reception from the first mail transmission / reception to the present is [4] (times). It can be seen that [OFF] is stored in the mode.

  [ON] in the time series display mode is information indicating that the combined mail is generated and displayed, and [OFF] is information indicating that the combined mail is not generated and displayed. Such ON / OFF information is arbitrarily set by the user.

  Returning again to FIG. 1, when the combined mail is generated by the mail combining processing unit 4, the temporary mail storage control unit 5 transfers all related mails related to the combined mail from the mailbox 10 to the temporary mail storage unit 12. Moving. For example, when the combined mail is composed of related mails of mail A, mail B and mail C, the related mails (mail A, mail B and mail C) are moved from the mail box 10 to the mail temporary storage unit 12. At this time, the temporary mail storage control unit 5 deletes all of the related mails (mail A, mail B, and mail C) from the source mailbox 10.

  When the combined mail is generated by the mail combining processing unit 4, the notification control unit 6 determines whether the mail transmitted / received by the mail transmitting / receiving unit 3 is a received mail, and when it is determined that the received mail is a received mail Then, predetermined notification information is read from the notification information storage unit 13, and a voice message, notification sound, or vibration pattern corresponding to the notification information is notified from the notification unit 7. Here, the predetermined notification information is information for prompting the user to create a reply mail corresponding to the received mail, for example, a voice message such as “Please create a reply mail” or other information It may be a specific notification sound that can be distinguished from sound, or a specific vibration pattern that can be distinguished from other vibration patterns.

  The display unit 8 is a display device such as a liquid crystal display panel, an organic liquid crystal panel, an EL panel, or electronic paper that displays the combined mail generated by the mail combining processing unit 4.

Next, the operation of the embodiment will be described.
4 and 5 are conceptual diagrams of computer software executed by the CPU 14. The CPU 14 executes the illustrated computer software when sending or receiving mail. First, the CPU 14 searches the time series display determination DB 23 (see FIG. 3) using the destination mail address of the sent mail or the sender mail address of the received mail as a key, and sets the time series display mode of the record including the mail address. A value is acquired (step S1). For example, the key mail address is [abc @ aaa. com], the time series display mode value ([ON]) of the first record of the time series display determination DB 23 is acquired, or the key mail address is [def @ bbb. com], the time-series display mode value ([OFF]) of the second record in the time-series display determination DB 23 is acquired.

Next, it is determined whether or not the value of the acquired time series display mode is [ON] (step S2). If it is not [ON], the previous mail transmission / reception date and time and mail transmission / reception of the time series display determination DB 23 are determined. The number of times is updated (step S3), and it is determined whether the mail transmission / reception frequency is equal to or higher than a predetermined value (step S4).
The mail transmission / reception frequency refers to the degree to which mail transmission / reception is repeated, and this degree may be, for example, the number of mail transmission / receptions per fixed time. If the mail transmission / reception frequency is not equal to or higher than the predetermined value (NO in step S4), it is determined that the mail is single or exchanged and there is no need to generate a combined mail, and the computer software is terminated as it is. Is greater than or equal to a predetermined value (YES in step S4), it is determined that it is a frequently exchanged mail and that a combined mail needs to be generated, and the time-series display mode of the time-series display determination DB 23 is determined. Is changed from [OFF] to [ON] (step S5), the process proceeds to step S9 in FIG.

  On the other hand, if the determination result in step S2 is YES, that is, if the acquired time-series display mode value is [ON], it is next determined whether the mail transmission / reception interval is equal to or shorter than a predetermined time. (Step S6). The mail transmission / reception interval may be a value obtained by dividing the time from the mail transmission start date / time or the mail reception start date / time to the previous mail transmission date / time by the time series display determination DB 23 by the number of mail transmissions.

  If this mail transmission / reception interval is not less than the predetermined time (NO in step S6), it is determined that the mail is single-shot or exchanged and there is no need to generate a combined mail, and the mail is temporarily stored in the mail temporary storage unit 12. If stored, the mail is moved to the mailbox 10 (returned to the original position) and initialized (step S7), the previous mail transmission / reception date / time, the number of mail transmission / reception, and the time series in the time series display determination DB 23. The display mode is updated (step S8) and the computer software is terminated. If the determination result in step S6 is YES, that is, if the mail transmission / reception interval is equal to or shorter than the predetermined time, the process proceeds to step S9 in FIG. It is determined whether it is an email.

  If it is a received mail, predetermined notification information is read from the notification information storage unit 13, a voice message, a notification sound, or a vibration pattern corresponding to the notification information is notified from the notification unit 7 (step S10). If not, step S10 is omitted. Here, the predetermined notification information is information for prompting the user to create a reply mail corresponding to the received mail, for example, a voice message such as “Please create a reply mail” or other information It may be a specific notification sound that can be distinguished from sound, or a specific vibration pattern that can be distinguished from other vibration patterns.

  Next, mail combining processing is performed (step S11). Mail merge refers to reading from the mailbox 10 a mail (related mail) having the same address as the mail address to be determined in step S9 (sender mail address for received mail, destination mail address for outgoing mail). , It means that those related mails are arranged in time series.

  FIG. 6 shows an example of the combined mail. In this figure, the combined mail 30 is, for example, a plurality of related mails (here, mails 1 to 4) arranged in a time series in accordance with the order of transmission / reception to be combined into one. The order may be from oldest to newest, and vice versa. Or although illustration is abbreviate | omitted, you may provide on the display screen of the combined mail 30 the software button which can change the order of new and old with one touch.

  Returning to FIG. 5 again, when the mail combining process is completed, all the related mails of the combined mail are moved from the mailbox 10 to the temporary mail storage unit 12, and the related mails are transferred from the transfer source mailbox 10. All are deleted (step S12), and the combined mail is displayed on the display device 18 (step S14), and then the computer software is terminated.

According to the above embodiment, the following effects can be obtained.
(1) Since frequently exchanged mails can be combined and displayed, the user can confirm the contents of all related mails in a unified form, and for example, the readability of chat messages can be improved.
(2) When reply mail is required, it can be notified to the user by voice, notification sound, vibration, etc. For example, even when other errands are being done, reply quickly You can know that you have to send an email.
(3) Since the related mail of the combined mail is moved from the mail box 10 to the mail temporary storage unit 12, mail management is facilitated.

  FIG. 7 is a conceptual diagram of mail management. In this figure, as shown in (a), all the mails stored in the mail box 10 (here, mails A to F) can be displayed as a mail list on the screen of the display device 18. When a large amount of mail is stored, this mail list becomes complicated and difficult to manage. On the other hand, in the present embodiment, as shown in (b), the related mails of the combined mail (here, mails B, C, E) are moved to the mail temporary storage unit 12, The mail is not displayed in the mail list, and there is an advantage that the mail list is simplified and easy to manage.

  In the above description, a communication terminal such as a mobile phone is taken as an example, but the present invention is not limited to this. Any electronic device having a mail transmission / reception function can be widely applied regardless of use or type.

The features of the present invention will be described below.
A part or all of the above-described embodiment can be described as in the following supplementary notes, but is not limited thereto.
(Appendix 1)
Appendix 1 includes a mail transmission / reception means for transmitting or receiving mail;
Storage means for storing previously sent or received mail;
Reading means for reading out related mail related to the mail from the storage means when the mail is transmitted or received by the mail transmitting / receiving means;
A combined mail generating means for generating a combined mail in which related mails read by the reading means are arranged and combined in order of date and time of transmission and reception;
A mail transmission / reception apparatus comprising: display control means for displaying the combined mail on a display means.
(Appendix 2)
Appendix 2 is the mail transmission / reception apparatus according to Appendix 1, wherein the reading unit reads an email transmitted or received within a predetermined set time as the related email from the storage unit.
(Appendix 3)
Appendix 3 is the mail transmission / reception apparatus according to Appendix 1, wherein the reading unit reads out mail exchanged over a predetermined number of times as the related mail from the storage unit.
(Appendix 4)
The supplementary note 4 further comprises notification means for performing specific notification to the user when a mail is received by the mail transmission / reception means, according to any one of supplementary notes 1 to 3, It is.
(Appendix 5)
The supplementary note 5 is the mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to any one of supplementary notes 1 to 4, further comprising a moving means for moving the related mail that is the source of the combined mail from the storage means to a temporary storage location. is there.
(Appendix 6)
Appendix 6 includes a mail transmission / reception process for transmitting or receiving mail,
A storage step of storing in the storage means mail that has been transmitted or received in the past;
A reading step of reading related mail related to the mail from the storage means when transmission or reception of the mail is performed in the mail transmission and reception step;
A combined mail generating step for generating a combined mail in which the related mails read out by the reading step are combined in the order of the date and time of transmission and reception;
And a display control step of displaying the combined mail on a display means.
(Appendix 7)
Appendix 7
Mail sending / receiving function to send or receive mail,
A storage function for storing previously transmitted or received mail in the storage means;
A read function for reading related mail related to the mail from the storage means when the mail is transmitted or received by the mail transmission / reception function;
A combined mail generation function for generating a combined mail in which related mails read out by the reading function are arranged and combined in order of date and time of transmission and reception;
And a display control function for displaying the combined mail on a display means.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Mail transmission / reception apparatus 3 Mail transmission / reception part 4 Mail coupling | bonding process part 5 Mail temporary storage control part 6 Notification control part 7 Notification part 8 Display part 10 Mailbox 12 Mail temporary storage part

Claims (7)

An email sending and receiving means for sending or receiving emails;
Storage means for storing previously sent or received mail;
Reading means for reading out related mail related to the mail from the storage means when the mail is transmitted or received by the mail transmitting / receiving means;
A combined mail generating means for generating a combined mail in which related mails read by the reading means are arranged and combined in order of date and time of transmission and reception;
A mail transmission / reception apparatus comprising: display control means for displaying the combined mail on a display means.   2. The mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reading unit reads a mail transmitted or received within a predetermined set time from the storage unit as the related mail.   2. The mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the reading means reads mail exchanged over a predetermined number of times as the related mail from the storage means.   4. The mail transmission / reception apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising notification means for performing specific notification to a user when mail is received by the mail transmission / reception means.   5. The mail transmitting / receiving apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a moving unit that moves the related mail that is the basis of the combined mail from the storage unit to a temporary storage location. An email sending and receiving process for sending or receiving emails;
A storage step of storing in the storage means mail that has been transmitted or received in the past;
A reading step of reading related mail related to the mail from the storage means when transmission or reception of the mail is performed in the mail transmission and reception step;
A combined mail generating step for generating a combined mail in which the related mails read out by the reading step are combined in the order of the date and time of transmission and reception;
And a display control step of displaying the combined mail on a display means. On the computer,
Mail sending / receiving function to send or receive mail,
A storage function for storing previously transmitted or received mail in the storage means;
A read function for reading related mail related to the mail from the storage means when the mail is transmitted or received by the mail transmission / reception function;
A combined mail generation function for generating a combined mail in which related mails read out by the reading function are arranged and combined in order of date and time of transmission and reception;
And a display control function for displaying the combined mail on a display means.

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