JP2014153992A - Information device, search method and program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information device that enables a user to easily understand a content of mail, while alleviating a process load and chores of a user.SOLUTION: The information device comprises: a communication section 51 that receives mail; a storage section 52 that stores transmitted mail serving as mail transmitted; a determination section 53 that determines whether or not received mail is response mail serving as mail responding to the transmitted mail on the basis of the received mail serving as mail received by the communication section 51; and a search section 54 that, when the received mail is the response mail, searches the storage section for the transmitted mail meeting a predetermined search condition out of the transmitted mail as relevant mail relating to the received mail.

Description

  The present invention relates to an information device that searches sent mail.

  Emails such as e-mails and short messages are generally used as communication tools for communication with the other party. E-mail is a convenient tool that enables communication regardless of time and place, such as being able to communicate intentions and information to the other party even in situations where calls are not possible.

  Many information devices such as mobile phones that send and receive mail have a quoting function that quotes the text of the received mail in the reply mail when replying to the received mail. However, quoting the received mail text increases the length of the reply mail text, which can be bothersome or increase the amount of reply mail packets, so the quoting function may not be used.

  However, if the quoting function is not used, the contents of the sent mail sent by the user will not be described in the reply mail from the other party. In some cases, it is difficult to understand the response and it is difficult to understand the contents of the reply mail. In particular, when the user transmits mails having different contents to a plurality of other parties, it is difficult for the user to grasp which contents of the reply mail the reply mail is.

  In this case, the user may be able to infer the contents of the original outgoing mail from the subject of the reply mail, but if the reply of the mail is repeated many times, the subject will contain a long character such as “Re: Re:” A column is added, making it difficult to view the original subject. In addition, when the subject of the mail is blank, it is impossible to infer the content of the original transmitted mail from the subject of the reply mail.

  When it is difficult to understand the contents of the reply mail as described above, a troublesome operation such as searching for a mail related to the reply mail from the folder storing the sent mail has been performed.

  On the other hand, when an e-mail is displayed in Patent Literature 1, a keyword related to the displayed e-mail is stored, and a search target e-mail related to the displayed e-mail is stored based on the keyword. A wireless communication terminal for searching is described. In this wireless communication terminal, the search target electronic mail is automatically searched, so that the user does not have to perform a troublesome operation.

  Further, Patent Document 2 describes a portable terminal that searches and displays other e-mails that meet the conditions when the user performs an operation of designating conditions while the e-mails are displayed. ing. In this portable terminal, the user only needs to perform an operation of specifying a condition, so that the user's trouble can be reduced.

JP 2003-108486 A JP 2004-178294 A

  However, the wireless communication terminal described in Patent Document 1 has a problem that the processing load is large because an electronic mail related to the electronic mail is searched every time the electronic mail is displayed.

  In addition, in the portable terminal described in Patent Document 2, when a user performs an operation for specifying a condition, a search for another e-mail is executed. Therefore, whenever an e-mail is displayed, the e-mail is displayed. Since it is not necessary to search for related emails, the processing load can be reduced. However, since the user has to perform an operation for specifying a condition, the user's trouble cannot be reduced sufficiently.

  An object of the present invention is to provide an information device, a search method, and a program capable of easily understanding the contents of a mail while reducing the processing load and the trouble of a user.

  The information device according to the present invention includes a storage unit that stores a transmitted mail that is a transmitted mail, a communication unit that receives the mail, and a received mail that is a mail received by the communication unit. A determination unit that determines whether or not the response mail is a response mail that is a response to the sent mail, and if the received mail is the response mail, a transmission that matches a predetermined search condition among the sent mail A search unit that searches the storage unit for a completed mail as a related mail related to the received mail.

  The search method according to the present invention stores a sent mail that is a sent mail, receives a mail, and the received mail responds to the sent mail based on the received mail that is the received mail. If the received mail is the response mail, a sent mail that matches a predetermined search condition among the sent mails is related to the received mail. Search as email.

  The program according to the present invention is based on a procedure for storing a sent mail that is a sent mail, a procedure for receiving a mail, and a received mail that is the received mail. A procedure for determining whether or not the response mail is a response mail, and if the received mail is the response mail, the received mail that meets a predetermined search condition among the sent mail is received. And causing a computer to execute a procedure for searching for related mail related to mail.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to easily understand the contents of mail while reducing the processing load and the trouble of the user.

It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the information equipment of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating an example of operation | movement of the information equipment of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows an example of the list of received mail. It is a figure which shows an example of a received mail. It is a figure which shows an example of the list | wrist of the transmitted mail. It is a flowchart for demonstrating the other example of operation | movement of the information equipment of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of a received mail and a transmitted mail. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of the reply mail with respect to a received mail. It is a block diagram which shows the structure of the information equipment of the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating an example of operation | movement of the information equipment of the 3rd Embodiment of this invention.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the following description, components having the same function may be denoted by the same reference numerals and description thereof may be omitted.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an information device according to the first embodiment of this invention. The information device 1 illustrated in FIG. 1 includes a communication unit 11, a storage unit 12, a display unit 13, an input unit 14, and a control unit 15. The information device 1 is, for example, a mobile phone, a smartphone, a game machine, a PC (Personal computer), a PDA (Personal Digital Assistants), a mail server, a digital camera, or a digital TV. Here, the PC includes a notebook PC and a tablet PC.

  The communication unit 11 communicates with an external device (not shown) and transmits / receives various information such as mail.

  The storage unit 12 stores a transmitted mail that is a mail transmitted from the communication unit 11 and a received mail that is a mail received by the communication unit 11.

  The display unit 13 displays various information. The display unit 13 may include a plurality of display screens for displaying information.

  The input unit 14 receives various information from the user of the information device 1. For example, the input unit 14 receives a browsing request for requesting browsing of received mail from the user.

  The control unit 15 communicates with each unit of the information device 1 and controls the entire information device 1. Specifically, the control unit 15 includes a determination unit 21, a search unit 22, and a display control unit 23.

  Based on the received mail received by the communication unit 11, the determination unit 21 determines whether the received mail is a response mail that is a response to the transmitted mail.

  For example, the determination unit 21 determines whether or not the received mail is a response mail by determining whether or not a predetermined character string is included in the subject of the received mail. In this case, when the predetermined character string is included in the subject of the received mail, the determining unit 21 determines that the received mail is a response mail, and the subject of the received mail does not include the predetermined character string , It is determined that the received mail is not a response mail.

  The predetermined character string is a character string indicating that the received mail is a response mail. For example, the predetermined character string is a reply header (for example, “Re:”) indicating that the received mail is a reply mail returned to the sent mail, or a forward mail in which the received mail is a transfer of the sent mail. This is a transfer header (for example, “Fw:”) indicating that

  Further, the determination unit 21 may further determine whether or not the received mail is a quoted mail in which the content of another mail is cited.

  For example, the determination unit 21 determines whether or not the received mail is a quote mail by determining whether or not the received mail includes a predetermined quote mark (for example,>) indicating a quote. In this case, the determination unit 21 determines that the received mail is a quoted mail when the received mail includes a quote mark, and determines that the received mail is not a quoted mail when the received mail does not include the quote mark.

  In addition, since citations of other mails are usually described with a blank line after the contents of the received mail, the determination unit 21 determines whether there are more than a predetermined number of blank lines in the text of the received mail. If there are more than a predetermined number of blank lines, the received mail may be determined as a quoted mail, and if there are no more than a predetermined number of blank lines, it may be determined that the received mail is not a quoted mail.

  Hereinafter, the determination unit 21 determines not only whether the received mail is a response mail but also whether the received mail is a quote mail.

  When the received mail is a response mail and the received mail is not a quote mail, the search unit 22 selects a sent mail that matches a predetermined search condition from the sent mails as a related mail related to the received mail. As a search from the storage unit 12.

  The search condition is, for example, having a keyword related to the received mail. The keywords related to the received mail are, for example, a character string obtained by removing a predetermined character string from the subject of the received mail, a sender address of the received mail, a name, a telephone number, and the like.

  When there are a plurality of keywords, the search condition may include a predetermined number of keywords or more among the plurality of keywords. Further, a place having a keyword may be defined in the search condition. For example, the search condition may include a character string obtained by removing a predetermined character string from the subject of the received mail in the subject.

  For example, when the search condition includes both a character string obtained by removing a predetermined character string from the subject of the received mail and the address of the sender of the received mail, the search unit 22 determines the predetermined from the subject of the received mail. The character string excluding the character string is extracted, and the address is extracted from the sender of the received mail. And the search part 22 searches the transmitted mail which has both the extracted character string and address as a related mail.

  The display control unit 23 displays the received mail and the related mail searched by the search unit 22 in association with each other on the display unit 13. Specifically, when there is one related mail, the display control unit 23 displays the received mail and the related mail together. When there are a plurality of related mails, the display control unit 23 displays the received mail and the list of related mails together.

  Next, the operation of the information device 1 will be described.

  FIG. 2 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the information device 1 when a mail is received.

  First, when receiving a mail, the communication unit 11 of the information device 1 outputs a received mail that is the received mail to the display control unit 23. When receiving the received mail, the display control unit 23 stores the received mail in the storage unit 12, and then generates a list of received mails stored in the storage unit 12 and displays the list on the display unit 13 (step S201). ).

  FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example of a received mail list. In FIG. 3, a received mail list 301 that is a list of received mails is displayed on the display screen 13 </ b> A of the display unit 13. The received mail list 301 is a list of received mail subject and date and time stored in the storage unit 12. The received mail list 301 includes reply mails, forwarded mails, and the like.

  When the received mail list is displayed in step S201, the display control unit 23 notifies the determination unit 21 of the received mail stored in the storage unit 12 in step 201. The determination unit 21 determines whether the notified received mail is a response mail (step S202).

  FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a received mail. FIG. 4 shows a state in which the received mail 401 is displayed on the display screen 13 </ b> A of the display unit 13. The received mail 401 is a mail whose sender (From) is “Tetsu Taro”, and the subject (Subject) includes a predetermined character string “Re:”. Therefore, in the example of FIG. 4, the determination unit 21 determines that the received mail 401 is a response mail.

  If it is determined in step S202 that the received mail is not a response mail, the determination unit 21 ends the process. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S202 that the received mail is a response mail, the determination unit 21 checks the received mail and determines whether the received mail is a quote mail (step S203). For example, in the case of the received mail 401 shown in FIG. 4, since the received mail 401 does not have a quote mark or a blank line, the determination unit 21 determines that the received mail 401 is not a quoted mail.

  If it is determined in step S203 that the received mail is a quote mail, the determination unit 21 determines that the user can confirm the content of the original mail, and ends the process. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S203 that the received mail is not a quoted mail, the determining unit 21 determines that the user cannot confirm the contents of the original mail, and the received mail and the relationship related to the received mail. The search unit 22 is notified of a search request for searching for mail. When receiving the received mail and the search request, the search unit 22 searches the storage unit 12 for a related mail that is a transmitted mail that matches the search condition based on the received mail (step S204).

  For example, it is assumed that the transmitted mail included in the transmitted mail list 501 shown in FIG. FIG. 5 shows a state in which a sent mail list 501 that is a list of sent mails is displayed on the display screen 13A of the display unit 13. The sent mail list 501 is a list of sent mail subject and date / time stored in the storage unit 12. The sent mail list 501 includes reply mails, forwarded mails, and the like.

  Further, it is assumed that the received mail is the received mail 401 shown in FIG. 4 and that the search condition includes a character string obtained by removing a predetermined character string from the subject of the received mail. In this case, the search unit 22 sends the transmission that was sent at 8:40 on the day with the subject “Re: contact!” From the subject “Re: contact!” Of the received mail 401 and the reply header “Re:” as the subject. The completed mail 502 is searched as a related mail.

  When the search for the related mail is completed in step S204, the search unit 22 determines whether there is a related mail (step S205).

If there is no related mail, the search unit 22 ends the process. On the other hand, when there is a related mail, the search unit 22 determines whether there are a plurality of related mails (step S206).
When there is one related mail, the search unit 22 determines that the related mail is the original transmitted mail of the received mail. And the search part 22 matches ID (Identification: identifier) which identifies the related mail with a received mail in the memory | storage part 12 (step S207), and complete | finishes a process.

  On the other hand, when there are a plurality of related mails, the related mails are determined as candidates of the sent mail that is the original of the received mail. Then, the search unit 22 stores each of the IDs specifying the related mails in the storage unit 12 in association with the received mail, and indicates that there are a plurality of original transmitted mail candidates for the received mail. A list display flag is set (step S208), and the process ends.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the information device 1 when browsing the received mail.

  When receiving a browsing request for requesting browsing of received mail, the input unit 14 outputs the browsing request to the display control unit 23 (step S301).

  When the display control unit 23 accepts the browsing request, the display control unit 23 acquires the received mail whose browsing is requested by the browsing request from the storage unit 12 and determines whether the ID of the transmitted mail is attached to the received mail. Then, it is determined whether there is a related mail related to the received mail (step S302).

  If the received mail ID is not attached to the received mail, the display control unit 23 determines that there is no related mail, displays the acquired received mail on the display unit 13 (step S303), and ends the process. .

  On the other hand, when the ID of the sent mail is attached to the received mail, the display control unit 23 determines whether or not a list display flag is set for the acquired received mail (step 304).

  When the list display flag is set, the display control unit 23 displays the related mail that is the transmitted mail specified by the ID attached to the acquired received mail among the transmitted mails stored in the storage unit 12. Confirm and generate a list of related emails. Then, the display control unit 23 displays the received mail and the list of related mails on the display unit 13 (step S305), and ends the process.

  For example, the display control unit 23 displays the received mail and the related mail list side by side. When the display unit 13 has a plurality of display screens, the display control unit 23 may display the received mail on a display screen and display a list of related mails on another display screen.

  On the other hand, when the list display flag is not set, the display control unit 23 acquires the related mail that is the transmitted mail specified by the ID attached to the acquired received mail from the storage unit 12, and acquires the acquired related The mail and the received mail are displayed on the display unit 13 (step S306).

  For example, the display control unit 23 displays received mail and related mail side by side. When the display unit 13 has a plurality of display screens, the display control unit 23 may display the received mail on one display screen and display the related mail on another display screen.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a display example of received mail and related mail when the display unit 13 has two display screens. In the example of FIG. 7, the display unit 13 includes display screens 13A and 13B. Further, the received mail 401 is displayed on the display screen 13A, and the transmitted mail 402, which is a related mail, is displayed on the display screen 13B. In this case, for example, as shown in FIG. 8, the user can create a reply mail 403 for the received mail 401 while confirming the transmitted mail 402.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is determined whether or not the received mail is a response mail. If the received mail is a response mail, a related mail related to the received mail is searched. For this reason, since it is possible to search for related mails only when it is necessary to check the original sent mail of received mails, each time a mail is received or received, the related mail is displayed. No need to search for In addition, the user does not need to specify search conditions. Therefore, it is possible to easily understand the contents of the mail while reducing the processing load and the trouble of the user.

  In this embodiment, when a predetermined character string is included in the subject of the received mail, it is determined that the received mail is a response mail. In this case, if the received mail is a response mail, the subject of the received mail usually includes a predetermined character string such as “Re:”, so it is more reliable to determine whether the received mail is a response mail. Is possible.

  Further, in the present embodiment, when the received mail is a response mail and the received mail is not a quote mail that quotes another mail, the related mail is searched. In this case, since it is not necessary to perform a search in the case of a quoted mail whose contents can be easily grasped even if there is no related mail, the processing load can be further reduced.

  Further, since the received mail and the related mail are displayed in association with each other, it is possible to grasp the contents of the received mail and create a reply mail for the received mail while browsing the related mail. When creating a reply mail, it is possible to easily copy and paste the description in the related mail.

  Therefore, for example, since it is possible to check the contents and list of related emails only when it is necessary to check related emails, every time an email is received or displayed, related emails are searched or received. There is no need to perform operations such as displaying mail and browsing mail simultaneously or alternately. For this reason, in the information apparatus with a small display screen such as a smartphone or a mobile phone, it is not necessary to perform the above operation while looking at the small display screen, so that the convenience of the information apparatus can be improved.

  Next, a second embodiment will be described.

  The configuration of the information device 1 of the present embodiment is the same as the configuration shown in FIG. 1, but the information device 1 has a function for searching for related emails even when the subject of the received email is blank. Yes.

  Specifically, the determination unit 21 further determines whether or not the subject of the received mail is blank. If the subject is blank, the received mail is regarded as a response mail. For example, in the operation described with reference to FIG. 2, between step S202 and step S203, the determination unit 21 determines whether the subject of the received mail is blank. If the subject is blank, the determination unit 21 regards the received mail as a response mail, and proceeds to step S203. If the subject is not blank, the determination unit 21 ends the process. In this case, processing similar to the processing from step S203 and the processing from steps S301 to S306 described with reference to FIG. 6 is performed.

  According to this embodiment, when the subject is blank, the received mail is regarded as a response mail. Therefore, if the received mail is not a quoted mail, the related mail is searched by the search unit 22. Therefore, even when a predetermined character string such as “Re:” is deleted by the communication partner (the sender of the received mail), it is possible to search for the related mail accurately.

  Next, a third embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the information device of this embodiment. The information device 5 illustrated in FIG. 9 includes a communication unit 51, a storage unit 52, a determination unit 53, and a search unit 54.

  The communication unit 51 receives mail.

  The storage unit 52 stores a sent mail that is a sent mail.

  Based on the received mail that is the mail received by the communication unit 51, the determination unit 53 determines whether or not the received mail is a response mail that is a response to the transmitted mail.

  When the received mail is a response mail, the search unit 54 searches the storage unit for a transmitted mail that meets a predetermined search condition among the transmitted mails as a related mail related to the received mail.

  FIG. 10 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the information device 5 of the present embodiment.

  First, when receiving a mail, the communication unit 51 of the information device 5 outputs a received mail that is the received mail to the determination unit 53 (step S1001).

  When receiving the received mail, the determination unit 53 determines whether the received mail is a response mail based on the received mail (step S1002).

  If the received mail is not a response mail, the determination unit 53 ends the process.

  On the other hand, when the received mail is a response mail, the determination unit 53 outputs the received mail to the search unit 54. When receiving the received mail, the search unit 54 searches the storage unit 52 for a related mail of the received mail (step S1003), and ends the process.

  As described above, also in this embodiment, it is determined whether or not the received mail is a response mail. When the received mail is a response mail, a related mail related to the received mail is searched. It is possible to easily understand the contents of the mail while reducing the time and effort.

  In each of the embodiments described above, the illustrated configuration is merely an example, and the present invention is not limited to the configuration.

  For example, the functions of the information devices 1 and 5 are such that a program for realizing the function is recorded on a computer-readable recording medium, and the program recorded on the recording medium is read and executed by the computer. It may be realized.

1, 5 Information device 11, 51 Communication unit 12, 52 Storage unit 13 Display unit 14 Input unit 15 Control unit 21, 53 Judgment unit 22, 54 Search unit 23 Display control unit

Claims (10)

A storage unit for storing a sent mail that is a sent mail;
A communication unit that receives mail;
A determination unit that determines whether the received mail is a response mail that is a response to the sent mail, based on a received mail that is a mail received by the communication unit;
When the received mail is the response mail, a search section that searches the stored section for a transmitted mail that matches a predetermined search condition among the transmitted mails as a related mail related to the received mail. Information equipment.   The determination unit determines that the received mail is the response mail when a predetermined character string is included in the subject of the received mail, and the character string is not included in the subject of the received mail The information device according to claim 1, wherein the received mail is determined not to be the response mail. The determination unit determines whether the received mail is a quoted mail citing another mail;
The information device according to claim 1, wherein the search unit searches for the related mail when the received mail is the response mail and the received mail is not the quote mail.   The determination unit determines that the received mail is the quoted mail when the received mail includes a predetermined quotation mark, and the received mail includes the quotation when the received mail does not include the quotation mark. The information device according to claim 3, wherein the information device is determined not to be mail.   5. The determination unit according to claim 1, wherein the determination unit determines whether or not a subject of the received mail is blank, and if the subject of the received mail is blank, the received mail is regarded as the response mail. Information equipment described. A display unit;
The information device according to claim 1, further comprising: a display control unit that displays the received mail and the related mail in association with each other on the display unit.   The information device according to claim 6, wherein the display control unit displays the received mail and the related mail together when the number of the related mail is one.   The information device according to claim 6 or 7, wherein the display control unit displays the received mail and the list of the related mails together when there are a plurality of the related mails. Memorize sent mail that is already sent,
Receive mail,
Based on the received email that is the received email, determine whether the received email is a response email that is a response to the sent email;
A search method, in which, when the received mail is the response mail, a transmitted mail that matches a predetermined search condition among the transmitted mails is searched as a related mail related to the received mail. A procedure to remember sent emails that have been sent,
How to receive emails,
A procedure for determining whether or not the received mail is a response mail that is a mail in response to the sent mail based on the received mail that is the received mail;
When the received mail is the response mail, a program for causing a computer to execute a procedure for searching a sent mail that matches a predetermined search condition among the sent mails as a related mail related to the received mail. .

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