JP3676684B2 - E-mail processing server, e-mail processing system, and e-mail processing method - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an electronic mail processing server, an electronic mail processing system, and an electronic mail processing method for processing electronic mail from a terminal device such as a mobile phone or a PC (Personal Computer) connectable to a computer network such as the Internet. In particular, the present invention relates to an e-mail processing server, an e-mail processing system, and an e-mail processing method for automatically analyzing the content of an e-mail, performing processing according to the content of the e-mail, and returning the result by e-mail. .
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a computer network (hereinafter simply referred to as “network”) has been constructed in which a plurality of computers are connected by a communication line and the like, and data and programs are stored and exchanged among a plurality of computers and data is shared. ing.
[0003]
As such a network system, an open network system in which computers can be freely connected in principle if they comply with a predetermined communication protocol, etc., and a network managed by a host computer or the like and connected computers, etc. There is a closed network system in which a terminal device is restricted by a certain security or the like so that an unmanaged computer node is not connected to the network.
[0004]
A typical example of the above-described open network system is the Internet. In this Internet, TCP (Transfer Control Protocol) / IP (Internet Protocol) is adopted as a communication protocol. In principle, any computer that complies with this communication protocol can be connected to the network.
[0005]
In recent years, a multimedia environment such as WWW (World Wide Web) has been developed against a background of a free network environment such as the Internet. In particular, recently, information has been frequently transmitted by e-mail communication using the Internet.
[0006]
Recently, various proposals using this e-mail have been made. For example, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 195278, a specific keyword is inserted into a header or the like when an e-mail is created, and an automatic e-mail transmission process is performed using the keyword. Japanese Patent Publication No. 1999232304 relates to the control of outflow of harmful e-mails, and judges the harmfulness of e-mails based on words appearing in the e-mail text and their appearance rate. .
[0007]
In Japanese Patent Publication No. 514843, a comparison process for comparing the contents of an already received e-mail and the newly received e-mail is performed. In Japanese Patent Publication No. 2000-22841, a transmission mail corresponding to the sender of the received mail is automatically transmitted.
[0008]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the e-mail processing as described above, the contents of the received e-mail are automatically analyzed, the process according to the e-mail content is performed, and the result cannot be transmitted as a reply e-mail. .
[0009]
For example, it has been impossible to make inquiries regarding transportation or reservation requests by e-mail, analyze the contents of the e-mail, and return information corresponding to the requested contents as an e-mail.
[0010]
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to automatically analyze the contents of an e-mail, perform processing according to the contents of the e-mail, and return the result by e-mail, an e-mail processing system, and It is to provide an e-mail processing method.
[0011]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to solve the above problems, an e-mail processing server of the present invention is an e-mail processing server connected to a computer network, and includes an e-mail receiving means for receiving e-mail via a computer network, and an e-mail receiving means. A mail analysis unit that analyzes the content of the received email, a mail request execution unit that performs processing according to the mail content analyzed by the mail analysis unit, and a response that generates a processing result of the mail request execution unit as a reply email It is characterized by comprising a mail generation means and a mail transmission means for transmitting the response electronic mail generated by the response mail generation means.
[0012]
Here, it is possible to provide user verification means for verifying the user of the email received by the mail reception means, and further, the mail content analyzed by the mail analysis means and the reply email generated by the reply mail generation means It is also possible to provide analysis information storage means for storing and as history information in association with each other. Furthermore, it is possible to provide a payment processing means for performing a payment process for each user based on the history information stored in the analysis information storage means.
[0013]
Further, the reply mail generation means can generate a reply electronic mail based on the history information stored in the analysis information storage means and the processing result of the mail request execution means.
[0014]
Here, the computer network may be a network to which a TCP / IP communication protocol such as the Internet or an intranet is applied.
[0015]
In order to solve the above problems, an electronic mail processing system according to the present invention includes a terminal device that transmits and receives electronic mail, and an electronic mail processing server that analyzes the electronic mail from the terminal device and performs processing according to the content. And a computer network that connects the terminal device and the electronic mail processing server, wherein the electronic mail processing server is the electronic mail processing server described above, and sends the electronic mail transmitted from the terminal device to the computer network The processing result is transmitted to the terminal device as a reply e-mail via the computer network.
[0016]
Here, the mail request execution means of the electronic mail processing server can cause an externally connected application system to execute processing according to the mail content analyzed by the mail analysis means. In addition, the application system may perform transportation information provision and reservation processing.
[0017]
In addition, the terminal device can prepare a template of an email to be transmitted in advance and create an email to be transmitted by changing a part of the template.
[0018]
In order to solve the above problems, an e-mail processing method of the present invention is an e-mail processing method for processing an e-mail, and (A) receives an e-mail, and (B) analyzes the contents of the e-mail. (C) Processing according to the analyzed mail content is performed, (D) a processing result is generated as a response e-mail, and (E) the generated response e-mail is transmitted.
[0019]
Here, step (A) can comprise verifying the user of the received email. Further, step (D) may include a step of storing the mail contents analyzed in step (B) and the generated reply electronic mail as history information in association with each other. At this time, (F) payment processing for each user can be performed based on the history information stored in step (D).
[0020]
In step (D), a reply e-mail can be generated based on the history information already stored and the processing result in step (C). In step (C), an externally connected application system may be caused to execute processing according to the mail content analyzed in step (B).
[0021]
The above-described application system can perform information provision and reservation processing of transportation facilities.
[0022]
The contents requested by the user can be sent by e-mail, the contents of the e-mail can be automatically analyzed, and processing according to the requested contents can be appropriately performed. Can receive.
[0023]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of an electronic mail processing server, an electronic mail processing system, and an electronic mail processing method according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
[0024]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an embodiment of an e-mail processing system using the e-mail processing server of the present invention. The e-mail processing system transmits an e-mail including a predetermined request and receives the request result by e-mail, such as a terminal device 30 such as a portable terminal 30a or a PC (Personal Computer) 30b, the Internet 40, and a terminal device. Analyzing the e-mail received from the terminal device 30 and the providers 50a and 50b that connect 30 (the portable terminal 30a and the PC 30b) to the Internet 40, perform processing according to the contents, and return the result as an e-mail The electronic mail processing server 10, an application system 70 that executes a predetermined application in response to a processing request from the electronic mail processing server 10, and a computer network that connects the electronic mail processing server 10 and the application system 70 (hereinafter simply “ 60) Eteiru.
[0025]
Here, the network 60 can employ TCP (Transfer Control Protocol) / IP (Internet Protocol) as a communication protocol. In this case, since an existing application or system that conforms to the Internet communication protocol can be used, an electronic mail processing system can be realized at low cost. At this time, the network 60 can be included in the Internet 40. In this case, the application system 70 is connected to the Internet 40.
[0026]
The e-mail server 10 is connected to the Internet 40 or the network 60 and is received by the communication control unit 11 that controls communication, the mail receiving unit 12 that receives an e-mail from the terminal device 30, and the mail receiving unit 12. Received email DB (Data Base) 13 for storing the received email (hereinafter also simply referred to as “received email”), a user verification unit 14 for checking the sender (user) of the received email, and the user email User DB 15 that stores user information such as address, user identification ID, password, and the like, analyzes the contents of the received e-mail, performs processing according to the e-mail request contents, and returns the result as an e-mail for reply The mail processing unit 16 created as simply “response mail”) and the reply mail created by the mail processing unit 16 are stored. Transmission mail DB 20, a mail transmission unit 19 that transmits a reply mail stored in the transmission mail DB 20, a payment processing unit 17 that performs payment processing for each user, and a payment DB 18 that stores payment information. .
[0027]
Here, the mail processing unit 16 analyzes the content of the received mail (natural language) stored in the received mail DB 13 (natural language analysis processing), and the analysis pattern of the sentence used in the mail analyzing unit 16a. Analysis dictionary DB 16d for storing a dictionary for analysis and the like, a mail request execution unit 16b for performing processing according to the request content of the received mail analyzed by the mail analysis unit 16a, and an execution result by the mail request execution unit 16b A reply mail generation unit 16c created as a reply mail and stored in the outgoing mail DB, a request content of the received mail analyzed by the mail analysis unit 16a, an execution result by the mail request execution unit 16b, and generated by the reply mail generation unit 16c And an analysis information DB 16e for storing the response mails as history information in association with each user.
[0028]
Here, the settlement processing unit 17 performs settlement processing based on the history information stored in the analysis information DB 16e. In addition, if a template of an e-mail to be transmitted is prepared in advance in the terminal device 30 and predetermined information is put in the template, an e-mail for transmission can be easily created.
[0029]
In addition, the reply mail generation unit 16c can generate a more appropriate reply mail by taking into account the history information up to the previous time stored in the analysis information DB 16e.
[0030]
FIG. 2 is a diagram specifically showing the application system 70 in the electronic mail processing system shown in FIG. 2, the same components as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals. In FIG. 2, this electronic mail processing system includes a terminal device 30 such as a portable terminal 30a and a PC 30b, the Internet 40, providers 50a and 50b, an electronic mail processing server 10, and a reservation processing request from the electronic mail processing server 10. In response to the information provision request from the e-mail processing server 10 and the reservation system 70a that executes a reservation application for reserving trains, aircraft, ships, accommodation facilities, theaters, movies, etc., transportation information, weather information Maintenance information that provides information on maintenance of transportation facilities and facilities in response to an information provision request from the e-mail processing server 10 and an information system 70b that executes an information provision application for providing information such as sports information Maintenance system 70c for executing application and e-mail processing server In-house management system 70d that executes an in-house management application that performs business trip processing and personnel management processing in response to an in-house management processing request from 0, and settlement that performs settlement processing in response to a settlement processing request from the email processing server 10 A payment system 70e that executes an application, and a network 60 that connects the electronic mail processing server 10 and the application systems 70a to 70e are provided.
[0031]
Next, an e-mail processing method in the e-mail processing system of the present invention shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 will be described.
[0032]
3 and 4 are flowcharts showing the e-mail processing method of the present invention. 1 to 4, first, the user creates an e-mail including a predetermined request at the terminal device 30 (step 301). As an example of the contents of this e-mail, there is a content such as “What is the time of the train at 14:00 on weekdays from Tachikawa Station to Kawasaki on the Nanbu Line?”. At this time, an e-mail template, for example, “What is the time of the train on the xx day and xx hours from the xx station to the xx line?” Is prepared in the terminal device 30 in advance. Can be used to create emails to send. At this time, an identification ID, a password, and the like for executing a processing request included in the email to be transmitted can be included in the email.
[0033]
Next, the terminal device 30 connects to the Internet 40 via the providers 50a and 50b, and transmits an email including the processing request created as described above to the email processing server 10 (step 302).
[0034]
When receiving the e-mail via the communication control unit 11, the mail receiving unit 12 of the e-mail processing server 10 stores (saves) it in the received mail DB 13 (step 303).
[0035]
Next, the mail receiving unit 12 receives information (hereinafter, also simply referred to as “user identification information”) for identifying the user such as the mail address, identification ID, and password of the sender (user) included in the received mail. 14 The user verification unit 14 checks the received user identification information based on user information such as a user's mail address, identification ID, and password stored in the user DB 15 in advance (step 304).
[0036]
As a result of the check, if the e-mail sender is incompatible (step 305), the predetermined received mail is deleted from the received mail DB 13 and an error notification is given to end the processing (step 306).
[0037]
On the other hand, if the result of the check in step 305 is that the e-mail sender is a conformant, the user verification unit 14 notifies the mail analysis unit 16a of the mail processing unit 16 to that effect. In response to this notification, the mail analysis unit 16a reads out the corresponding received mail stored in the received mail DB 13 and analyzes the content (step 307). Specifically, using an analysis pattern or an analysis dictionary stored in the analysis dictionary DB 16e, for example, reception of “What is the time of a train at 14:00 on weekdays from Tachikawa Station toward Kawasaki on the Nanbu Line?” In the case of e-mail, the characteristic particle “kara”, “to”, “he”, etc., and the nouns “station”, “tokidai”, “weekdays (holidays, Saturdays, holidays)” Etc. are extracted and analyzed.
[0038]
The analyzed contents (processing request) are stored in the analysis information DB 16e (step 308). At this time, a user identification ID, a number for managing received mail, and the like are stored in association with each other.
[0039]
Next, the mail request execution unit 16b performs processing according to the content (processing request) stored in the analysis information DB 16e (step 309). For example, for an incoming mail saying “What is the time of a train at 14:00 on weekdays from Tachikawa Station to Kawasaki on the Nanbu Line?” As search keywords “Starting: Tachikawa Station”, “Route Name: Nambu Line, “Direction: Kawasaki”, “Day Type: Weekday”, “Time Zone: 14:00”, “Target Vehicle: Train”, “Target Item: Time”, etc., together with user identification ID and password, communication control The information is transmitted to the information system 70b via the unit 11 and the network 60, and the result is waited for. When the processing result is returned from the information system 70b, the result is associated with the analysis content (processing request) and stored in the analysis information DB 16e. At this time, the above-described user identification ID, a number for managing received mail, or the like may be used.
[0040]
Next, the reply mail generation unit 16c creates a reply electronic mail (reply mail) based on the processing result stored in the analysis information DB 16e (step 310). This reply mail is stored as history information in the analysis information DB 16e in association with the analysis content (processing request) and the processing result. Also here, the above-described user identification ID, a number for managing received mail, and the like can be used. Further, when creating a response mail, it is possible to read out the history information of the user up to the previous time from the analysis information DB 16e and take this into consideration, thereby creating a more appropriate response mail.
[0041]
The response mail generated in step 310 is stored in the transmission mail DB 20 together with the transmission request (transmission reservation) (step 311). Then, in response to the transmission request (transmission reservation), the mail transmission unit 19 receives the reply mail stored in the transmission mail DB 20 at a predetermined timing via the communication control unit 11 and can be received by the terminal device 30. Transmission is made to the mail address (step 312).
[0042]
The user can receive the reply mail by the terminal device 30 and confirm the content (step 313).
[0043]
As described above, according to the e-mail processing server, e-mail processing system, and e-mail processing method of the present invention, a wide range of e-mail services using the e-mail function available on the Internet and the natural language analysis processing function Can be provided.
[0044]
In addition, since e-mail in natural language is used, it is not necessary to prepare a special terminal device and the service contents of the provider are not affected.
[0045]
In addition, since it is not an HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) format (Web page access method) information input by a general browser or server on the Internet, the number of outgoing calls from the user is only one step of sending an e-mail. Mu
[0046]
In addition, since electronic mail is used, security processing is highly versatile, and it is not necessary to consider general system protection mechanisms such as a firewall.
[0047]
Next, settlement processing in the electronic mail processing server, electronic mail processing system, and electronic mail processing method of the present invention will be described.
[0048]
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the settlement process. 1, 2 and 5, the settlement processing unit 17 of the email processing server 10 reads out history information stored in the analysis information DB 16 e at a predetermined timing, for example, once a month on a predetermined day. (Step 501), a usage history for each user is created and stored in the settlement DB 18 (Step 502).
[0049]
Next, the settlement processing unit 17 calculates a charge amount according to the contents and frequency based on the created usage history, and stores it in the settlement DB 18 in association with the usage history (step 503). Here, the payment method can be registered in advance for each user. For example, payment can be selected to be included in the telephone fee, settled with a credit card, or settled with electronic money.
[0050]
The settlement processing unit 17 performs settlement by a predetermined method (step 504). Here, it is also possible to prepare a settlement server 70e for settlement and perform settlement with the settlement server 70e.
[0051]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the electronic mail processing server, the electronic mail processing system, and the electronic mail processing method of the present invention, the content requested by the user is transmitted by electronic mail, and the content of the electronic mail is automatically analyzed. It is now possible to perform processing according to the contents of the e-mail and return the result by e-mail.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of an electronic mail processing system according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an electronic mail processing system according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an example of an e-mail processing method according to the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of an e-mail processing method according to the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a settlement process of the electronic mail processing method of the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
10 Email processing server 11 Communication control unit 12 Mail receiving unit 13 Received mail DB
14 User verification part 15 User DB
16 Mail processing unit 16a Mail analysis unit 16b Mail request execution unit 16c Response mail generation unit 16d Analysis dictionary DB
16e Analysis information DB
17 Settlement processing unit 18 Settlement DB
19 Mail transmission part 20 Transmission mail DB
30 terminal device 30a portable terminal 30b PC
40 Internet 50a, 50b Provider 60 Network 70 Application system 70a Reservation system 70b Information system 70c Maintenance system 70d Internal management system 70e Payment server

Claims (13)

An email processing server connected to a computer network,
Mail receiving means for receiving e-mail over a computer network;
Mail analyzing means for analyzing the content of the e-mail received by the e-mail receiving means in a natural language ;
Mail request execution means for performing processing according to the mail content analyzed by the mail analysis means;
A reply mail generating means for generating a processing result of the mail request executing means as a reply email;
Mail sending means for sending the reply email generated by the reply mail generating means;
Analysis information storage means for storing the mail contents analyzed by the mail analysis means and the reply e-mail generated by the response mail generation means in association with each other and stored as history information;
Bei to give a,
The response mail generation means generates the response email based on the history information stored in the analysis information storage means and the processing result of the mail request execution means.
An e-mail processing server characterized by that.   The e-mail processing server according to claim 1, further comprising user verification means for verifying a user of the e-mail received by the mail receiving means. 3. The e-mail processing server according to claim 1, further comprising payment processing means for performing payment processing for each user based on the history information stored in the analysis information storage means. The computer network, e-mail processing server according to claim 1 to 3, wherein TCP, such as the Internet or an intranet (Transfer Control Protocol) is / IP network with communication protocol (Internet Protocol), characterized in that. A terminal device that transmits and receives electronic mail; an electronic mail processing server that analyzes electronic mail from the terminal device and performs processing according to the content; and a computer network that connects the terminal device and the electronic mail processing server; In an e-mail processing system comprising:
Said electronic mail processing server, the an electronic mail processing server according to claim 1 to 4, wherein the electronic mail transmitted from the terminal device received via the computer network, the processing result, the computer network Send to the terminal measures as a reply email via
An e-mail processing system characterized by that. The mail request execution unit of the electronic mail processing server, the application system that is connected to the outside, to execute the processing corresponding to the mail content analyzed by the mail analysis unit, according to claim 5, wherein the Email processing system. The electronic mail processing system according to claim 6 , wherein the application system performs information provision and reservation processing of transportation facilities. The terminal device in advance to prepare a template for an email to be sent, e-mail of the creating electronic mail sent by changing a part of the template, it claims 5 to 7, wherein Processing system. An email processing method for processing email, comprising:
(A) receive an email,
(B) Analyzing the natural language content of the email,
(C) Perform processing according to the analyzed email content,
(D) a processing result to generate a reply e-mail is stored as history information in association with the mail contents which the parsed in step (B), the generated reply email,
(E) send the generated reply e-mail,
The step (D) generates the reply email based on the history information already stored and the processing result of the step (C).
An e-mail processing method characterized by the above. The e-mail processing method according to claim 9, wherein the step (A) includes a step of verifying a user of the received e-mail. 11. The e-mail processing method according to claim 9 , further comprising: (F) a settlement process for each user is performed based on the history information stored in the step (D). Wherein step (C) is an application system which is connected to the external, the step to execute the processing corresponding to the mail content analyzed in (B), that the e-mail processing in claims 9 to 11, wherein system. 13. The e-mail processing method according to claim 12 , wherein the application system performs transportation information provision and reservation processing.

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