JP3848961B2 - Apparatus, program and method for supporting creation of electronic mail - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a user support technique for providing operation support to a user of an information processing apparatus represented by a computer, and particularly belongs to a technique suitable for support for creating an e-mail.

  In recent years, communication communication using character information such as e-mail and electronic chat has become common. In particular, transmission / reception of e-mail using a personal computer or a portable information terminal is indispensable for modern business scenes and information exchange with friends.

  Unlike voice communications such as telephone calls, the user can send information to the other party or receive it for viewing at any time. In addition, there is an advantage that it is not necessary to take notes of information.

  There is an address book function that enhances the convenience of e-mail. By referring to the address book, the user can easily obtain the mail address of the other party to whom the electronic mail is to be transmitted. Further, the information of the other party can be registered in the address book with reference to the contents of the received electronic mail. Conventionally, in order to reduce the burden on the user, a technique has been proposed in which a specific character string representing a telephone number or an e-mail address is automatically extracted from an incoming e-mail and registered in an address book (for example, a patent) Reference 1).

Also, as a way to support the creation of e-mail texts, a technique has been proposed in which a user classifies mail recipients by category in advance and presents a list of sentences appropriate for that category when e-mails are created. (For example, see Patent Document 2).
JP 2000-172587 A JP 2000-148753 A

  However, it is necessary for the user himself to judge and register information (human relation information) related to human relations such as the hierarchical relationship and intimacy with the other party. The human relationship with the partner changes with time, and the user is forced to update the registered information each time.

  In addition, regarding creation of an e-mail, the user himself / herself needs to manually input a sentence while considering the sentence. For this reason, an input burden on the user is heavy, for example, it is necessary to select an appropriate wording or decoration information according to the partner. In particular, in a small terminal such as a mobile phone, the display screen is small, and the character input method is not convenient.

  According to the technique described in Patent Document 2, it may be possible to reduce the input burden of the user when creating an e-mail, but it is troublesome to register the human relationship for each mail partner. In addition, human relationships are generally not simple enough to be registered, such as whether or not they are supervisors, subordinates, or friends, and the relationship varies depending on each email partner, so it is appropriate for any category. It is difficult to register.

  In view of the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus, a computer program, and a method for supporting creation of an electronic mail that can automatically generate human relationship information with an electronic mail partner. It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus, a computer program, and a method for e-mail creation support that can provide appropriate support according to the party to whom the e-mail is to be transmitted.

  Means taken by the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems is to extract words from electronic character data related to communication with a party to which an e-mail is to be transmitted, as an e-mail preparation support apparatus that supports the creation of an e-mail. A human relation defined by at least one of a phrase extraction means, a phrase usage frequency calculation means for calculating the usage frequency in the electronic character data for the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction means, and a scale related to verticality and other human relations Refers to the phrase correspondence list in which the basic information and the phrase are associated with each other, and uses the human relationship basic information corresponding to the phrase extracted by the phrase extracting unit calculated by the phrase usage frequency calculating unit for the phrase Weighted by frequency, and based on the result of this weighting, And that an information generating means. Here, the phrase usage frequency calculating means, when new communication is performed with the other party, for the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction means from the electronic character data related to the new communication, the electronic character The usage frequency in the data is calculated and added to the previous usage frequency.

  According to the present invention, the frequency of use of words / phrases in electronic character data related to communication with a partner who is going to send an e-mail is calculated, and based on this frequency of use, human relationship information related to the partner is automatically generated. be able to. This eliminates the need for the user to register personal relationship information with the other party, thereby reducing the burden on the user.

  Further, as the communication with the other party is repeated, the human relationship information related to the other party can be updated to a more accurate one.

  Further, the means taken by the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problem is that, as an e-mail creation support apparatus that supports the creation of an e-mail, a phrase is obtained from electronic character data related to communication with the other party to send the e-mail. It is defined by at least one of a phrase extracting means for extracting, a phrase usage frequency calculating means for calculating a usage frequency in the electronic character data for the phrase extracted by the phrase extracting means, and a scale related to the upper and lower degrees and other human relations. With reference to the phrase correspondence list in which the human relation basic information and the phrase are associated with each other, the human relation basic information corresponding to the phrase extracted by the phrase extracting means is calculated by the phrase use frequency calculating means for the phrase. Based on the frequency of use, and based on the result of this weighting, the human relationship information relating to the partner is generated. Inter-relationship information generation means, a phrase usage frequency storage section that stores the phrase usage frequency calculated by the phrase usage frequency calculation means in association with the phrase for each communicating party, and the human relationship information generation means It is assumed that the information processing apparatus includes a human relationship information storage unit that stores the human relationship information generated by the communication partner for each communication partner.

Preferably, each of the e-mail creation support devices described above is the human relationship information generated by the human relationship information generation unit or the human relationship information generated by the human relationship information generation unit and stored for each communication partner. Human relationship information extracting means for extracting human relationship information related to the other party to which the e-mail is to be transmitted from the relationship information, and the e-mail to the other party based on the human relationship information extracted by the human relationship information extracting means It is assumed that a support means for performing support related to creation is provided. Here, the support means refers to the additional information correspondence list in which the condition for at least one of the scales is associated with the fixed phrase, decoration information, and other additional information to be added to the electronic mail, It is assumed that additional information corresponding to the condition that is satisfied by the human relationship information extracted by the relationship information extraction unit is proposed.

  Thus, based on the human relationship information automatically generated and stored by the human relationship information generating means, the support method related to the creation of the e-mail is changed according to the other party who wants to send the e-mail. Appropriate support can be provided.

Preferably, each of the e-mail creation support devices described above is generated by the human relationship information generating unit, the communication partner's human relationship information or the human relationship information generation unit, and stored for each communication partner. Human relationship information extracting means for extracting the human relationship information related to the other party to which the e-mail is to be transmitted from the human relationship information, and the electronic to the other party based on the human relationship information extracted by the human relationship information extracting means. It is assumed that the information processing apparatus includes support means for performing support related to creation of mail. Here, the support means refers to a word / phrase correspondence list in which words / phrases are associated with basic human relationship information defined by at least one of the scales, and corresponds to the words / phrases included in the created e-mail. The distance between the human relationship basic information and the human relationship information extracted by the human relationship information extraction unit is calculated, and the phrase included in the created e-mail is based on the magnitude relationship between the distance and a predetermined threshold It shall be judged whether or not it is appropriate.

  Thus, based on the human relationship information automatically generated and stored by the human relationship information generating means, the support method related to the creation of the e-mail is changed according to the other party who wants to send the e-mail. Appropriate support can be provided.

Specifically, the support means refers to a conversion dictionary correspondence list in which a condition for at least one of the scales and a conversion dictionary are associated with each other, and the human relation extracted by the human relation information extraction means It is assumed that a conversion dictionary corresponding to the condition that the information satisfies is selected .

  Preferably, each means in the electronic mail creation support apparatus according to the present invention functions as an electronic mail creation support program using hardware resources such as a computer.

On the other hand, the means taken by the present invention, as an e-mail creation support method for supporting the creation of e-mail, a phrase extraction step of extracting a phrase from electronic character data related to communication with the other party to send the e-mail; A phrase usage frequency calculation step for calculating a usage frequency in the electronic character data for the phrase extracted in the phrase extraction step, and basic human relationship information and a phrase defined by at least one of a scale related to verticality and other human relationships Weighting is performed by referring to the word / phrase correspondence list in which correspondence is made and weighting the human relationship basic information corresponding to the word extracted by the word / phrase extraction step with the use frequency calculated by the word / phrase use frequency calculation step for the word / phrase. Based on the result of the step and the weighting step. It shall have a human relationship information generating step of generating a human relationship information. Here, in the phrase usage frequency calculation step, when a new communication is performed with the partner, the electronic character is extracted from the electronic character data related to the new communication by the phrase extraction step. The usage frequency in the data is calculated and added to the previous usage frequency .

As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible from an electronic character data related to the communication with the other party, to automatically generate relationships information with the other party. Moreover, in this way by using the generated relationships information, depending on the party to be sent to e-mail, proposal of additional information, it is possible to optimally perform any judgments of appropriateness of using the phrase support. As a result , it is possible to reduce the user burden related to the creation of the e-mail.

  The best mode for carrying out the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 shows the configuration of an e-mail creation support apparatus according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The e-mail creation support apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment includes a transmission / reception mail storage unit 11 that stores transmitted / received e-mails, a phrase extraction unit 12 that extracts words / phrases from the emails stored in the transmission / reception mail storage unit 11, and phrases A phrase usage frequency calculation unit 13 that calculates the usage frequency of the phrase extracted by the extraction unit 12; a phrase usage frequency storage unit 14 that stores the usage frequency of the phrase calculated by the phrase usage frequency calculation unit 13; A word / phrase correspondence list 15 in which the human relation basic information and the words / phrases associated with each other are defined by at least one of the scales relating to human relations, human relation information generating means 16 for generating human relation information related to the communication partner, A human relationship information storage unit 17 for storing the human relationship information generated by the human relationship information generation means 16; Note that the phrase extraction unit 12, the phrase usage frequency calculation unit 13, and the human relationship information generation unit 16 can be realized by either hardware or software.

  The transmission / reception mail storage unit 11 stores the electronic mails that have been transmitted and received by the user so far according to the communication partner and transmission / reception. 2, 3, and 4 are examples of information stored in the transmission / reception mail storage unit 11 in Japanese, English, and Chinese, respectively.

  The phrase extraction unit 12 extracts a phrase used in the electronic mail stored in the transmission / reception mail storage unit 11, and the process corresponds to a phrase extraction step. The phrase can be extracted by a general method such as morphological analysis or syntax analysis. Furthermore, it is also possible to extract only words and phrases necessary for creating human relationship information described later by performing filtering using a necessary word dictionary in which specific words and phrases are registered. Phrases here are not necessarily morphemes, but also include phrases composed of two or more words and unique phrases (for example, expressions commonly used in business such as “I always take care of you”). It is a waste.

  The phrase usage frequency calculation unit 13 calculates the usage frequency of the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction unit 12, and accumulates the usage frequency of the word already stored in the phrase usage frequency storage unit 14 for each communication partner and transmission / reception. This process corresponds to the phrase usage frequency calculation step. If there is no usage history of the word, it is newly added. 5 and 6 are examples of information stored in the phrase usage frequency storage unit 14 in Japanese and English, respectively. The frequency of use of each word is a cumulative value from the start of calculation of the frequency of use of the word to the present. Note that the frequency of use of the phrase can be initialized. Thereby, for example, when the human relationship between the user and the communication partner changes, new human relationship information can be constructed from scratch by accumulating and accumulating the frequency of use of new words.

  The human relationship information generating means 16 is based on the phrase usage frequency stored in the phrase usage frequency storage unit 14 and the basic human relationship information associated with the phrases registered in the phrase correspondence list 15 in advance. Create human relationship information for each communication partner. 7 and 8 are examples of the phrase correspondence list 15 in Japanese and English, respectively. Here, it is assumed that the human relationship information is defined by three kinds of scales, that is, the upper and lower degrees, the familiarity, and the business degree.

  The upper and lower degrees indicate that the higher this is, the higher the communication partner is than the user. The closeness indicates that the higher this is, the closer the communication partner and the user are. The business level indicates that the higher this is, the stronger the business partner and the user have a business relationship. These scales are quantified.

  The human relationship information generation means 16 uses the phrase usage frequency stored in the phrase usage frequency storage unit 14 and the phrase correspondence list 15 for each email related to one transmission / reception stored in the transmission / reception mail storage unit 11. The product of the human relation basic information corresponding to the one that matches the word is obtained, and the average value of the product is obtained for each communication partner and transmission / reception. That is, the basic human relationship information corresponding to the extracted word is weighted by the frequency of use of the word, and the average value is obtained for each communication partner and transmission / reception. As for the vertical degree, the difference between the average value of the vertical degree related to transmission with the other party and the average value of the vertical degree related to reception is obtained, and this is set as the vertical degree with respect to the other party. In addition, for the familiarity and the business level, the sum of the average value of the scale related to transmission with the counterpart and the average value of the scale related to reception is obtained, and these are set as the closeness and the business level with the counterpart. As described above, the human relationship information generating unit 16 generates human relationship information. As described above, the processing performed by the human relationship information generation unit 16 corresponds to a weighting step and a human relationship information generation step.

  The human relation information accumulating unit 17 accumulates the human relation information generated by the human relation information generating unit 16 for each partner. 9 and 10 are examples of information stored in the human relationship information storage unit 17 in Japanese and English, respectively. The human relationship information stored in the human relationship information storage unit 17 is updated when new communication is performed with the partner related to the human relationship information. In addition, the human relationship information can be initialized.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to automatically obtain the human relationship information related to the other party from the e-mail transmission / reception history. Thereby, the burden on the user related to the registration of the human relationship information is reduced. In addition, the human relationship information generated in this way can be used as basic information for performing optimal support according to the other party to whom the electronic mail is to be transmitted.

  In the present embodiment, e-mails that have been sent and received are targeted. However, the effects of the present invention are not impaired even if only sent mail or only received mail is targeted. Further, although e-mails are stored for each communication partner and transmission / reception, they may be stored separately by day of the week or time zone. Furthermore, the information source from which the human relationship information is generated is not limited to e-mail. For example, voice data such as telephone converted into character data, image data such as FAX converted into character data, a service in which participants can talk in real time by computer communication, so-called electronic chat, etc. Any machine-readable digitized character data (electronic character data) may be used.

  Further, regarding the transmission / reception mail storage unit 11, the phrase usage frequency storage unit 14, the phrase correspondence list 15, and the human relationship information storage unit 17, the email creation support apparatus 10 does not necessarily have to include these. These can be configured as external storage devices. Further, the transmission / reception mail storage unit 11, the phrase usage frequency storage unit 14, and the human relationship information storage unit 17 may be omitted. Even without these, it is possible to generate human relationship information with the other party of the e-mail from the e-mail related to one transmission / reception.

  In the present embodiment, the cumulative use count is used as the phrase use frequency, but the use count per unit time or the use count per unit mail amount can be used. Further, as the frequency of use of the phrase, it is possible to use other frequency indicators such as tf · idf (term frequency · inverse document frequency) value instead of the number of times of use.

  In the present embodiment, the three levels of the upper and lower degrees, the intimacy and the business level are used as the scales for defining the human relationship information. However, other scales such as the love level indicating the depth of the romantic relationship may be added. Good. In addition, although the scale is digitized, leveling with symbols is possible in addition to numerical values. Furthermore, the human relationship information can be defined by at least one scale, and it is not always necessary to use a plurality of scales.

(Second Embodiment)
FIG. 11 shows the configuration of an e-mail creation support apparatus according to the second embodiment of the present invention. The e-mail creation support apparatus 20 according to the present embodiment includes a user input / output unit 21 that receives input from a user and displays the user to the e-mail creation support apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment, and human relationship information A fixed phrase correspondence list 22 (corresponding to an additional information correspondence list) in which a condition and a fixed phrase are associated with each other, a fixed phrase creation means 23 for creating a fixed phrase, a phrase correspondence list 15, A phrase adequacy determination unit 25 that determines whether a phrase included in the created electronic mail is appropriate, and a decoration information correspondence list 26 in which a condition relating to the human relationship information and decoration information added to the mail are associated with each other. An additional information correspondence list), decoration information creation means 27 for creating decoration information to be added to the mail, human relationship information storage unit 17, and human relationship information storage unit 17 It is obtained by a human relationship information extracting unit 28 for extracting relationships information relating to the other party to be sent to e-mail. Among these, the fixed phrase creation means 23, the phrase appropriateness determination means 25, and the decoration information creation means 27 correspond to support means. Further, the fixed phrase creation means 23, the phrase appropriateness determination means 25, the decoration information creation means 27, and the human relationship information extraction means 28 can be realized by either hardware or software.

  The user input / output unit 21 receives an operation related to mail creation from the user. Then, if there is a request for creating a fixed phrase, the fixed phrase creating means 23 is operated, if there is a request for determining a phrase, the word suitability determining means 25 is operated, and if there is a request for creating decoration information, the decoration information The creation means 27 is operated.

  The fixed phrase creating means 23 is based on the human relation information extracted by the human relation information extracting means 28 and the correspondence between the conditions related to the human relation information registered in the fixed phrase correspondence list 22 and the fixed phrases. Create an AutoText entry. The fixed phrase creation means 23 corresponds to additional information proposal means, and the process corresponds to an additional information proposal step. FIG. 12 is an example of the fixed phrase correspondence list 22. “-” In the condition part indicates that an arbitrary value is acceptable. The human relationship information storage unit 17 stores the human relationship information generated by the e-mail creation support apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment (specifically, the human relationship information generation means 16 shown in FIG. 1). It is a thing. Since this has already been described, the description thereof is omitted here.

  The fixed phrase creation unit 23 extracts a list of fixed phrases that satisfy the conditions in the fixed phrase correspondence list 22 based on the human relationship information of the partner to whom the mail is to be transmitted, extracted by the human relationship information extraction unit 28. For example, when composing an e-mail to communication partner A (vertical degree = 0.12, intimacy = −0.28, business degree = 0.52), thank you ”(Up / down degree> 0, business degree> 0.5) is extracted. On the other hand, when creating an e-mail to the communication partner B (verticality = 0.36, familiarity = 0.22, business degree = 0.08), the fixed phrase “How are you?” (Intimacy> 0 .2. A list containing business degrees <0.1) is retrieved. Then, the fixed phrase creation unit 23 displays a list of fixed phrases to the user through the user input / output unit 21 and inserts the fixed phrase selected by the user into the e-mail being created.

  The phrase adequacy determination unit 25 extracts basic human relationship information associated with each phrase included in the created (including during creation) e-mail from the phrase correspondence list 15. Then, the distance between the extracted human relationship basic information and the human relationship information extracted by the human relationship information extracting means 28 is calculated. Thus, the processing performed by the phrase suitability determination unit 25 corresponds to a phrase suitability determination step and a distance calculation step. Note that the word / phrase correspondence list 15 is the same as that described in the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted here.

  In the present embodiment, Euclidean distances for each of the three scales of verticality, familiarity, and business degree are used as the distance between the human relationship information. If the calculated distance exceeds a predetermined threshold, it is determined that the phrase included in the created e-mail is not appropriate, and this is displayed to the user through the user input / output unit 21. For example, the communication partner A (vertical degree = 0.12, familiarity = −0.28, business degree = 0.52) is assigned to “you” (vertical degree = −0.2, familiarity = 0.1, business degree. = 0.1), a message that “you” is inappropriate is displayed.

  The decoration information creation means 27 is based on the human relation information extracted by the human relation information extraction means 28 and the correspondence between the condition related to the human relation information registered in the decoration information correspondence list 26 and the decoration information. Create decoration information to be added to e-mail. The decoration information creation unit 27 corresponds to an additional information proposal unit, and the process corresponds to an additional information proposal step. The decoration information is information for enhancing the expressiveness of e-mail, and includes additional information such as still images, moving images, voices, characters, and the like, and information related to decorations such as changing the size and color of characters. Here, an example in which a still image is attached will be described. FIG. 13 shows an example of the decoration information correspondence list 26. The decoration information correspondence list 26 is a list in which conditions relating to the human relationship information are associated with file names of still images as decoration information corresponding thereto. “-” In the condition part indicates that an arbitrary value is acceptable. FIG. 14 shows an example of a corresponding still image.

  The decoration information creation means 27 extracts a list of decoration information that satisfies the condition in the decoration information correspondence list 26 based on the person relation information of the other party to whom the mail is to be transmitted, extracted by the person relation information extraction means 28. For example, when creating an e-mail to the communication partner A (vertical degree = 0.12, familiarity = 0.0.28, business degree = 0.52), additional information “a.gif” (vertical degree> 0. 1, a list including intimacy <0.4, business degree> 0.3) is retrieved. On the other hand, when creating an e-mail to the communication partner B (verticality = 0.36, familiarity = 0.22, business degree = 0.08), additional information “b.gif” (intimacy> 0.4 , A list including business degree <0) is retrieved. Then, the decoration information creation means 27 displays a list of decoration information to the user through the user input / output unit 21, and attaches the decoration information selected by the user to the e-mail being created, or uses the decoration information as an e-mail. Decorate with. The process performed by the human relationship information extraction unit 28 corresponds to a human relationship information extraction step.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, based on the human relationship information extracted by the human relationship information extracting unit 28, appropriate e-mail creation support can be performed according to the other party to whom the e-mail is to be transmitted. Thereby, the burden on the user related to the creation of the e-mail is reduced.

  Note that the e-mail creation support apparatus 20 does not necessarily need to include the fixed phrase correspondence list 22, the phrase correspondence list 15, the human relationship information storage unit 17, and the decoration information correspondence list 26. These can be configured as external storage devices.

  In the present embodiment, two types of fixed phrase and decoration information have been described as additional information added to an e-mail, but the present invention is not limited to this. Other additional information can be added in the same manner as described above.

  Further, regarding the fixed phrase creation means 23, the phrase appropriateness determination means 25, and the decoration information creation means 27, the e-mail creation support apparatus 20 does not necessarily have to include all of them. These can be omitted as appropriate, and even if omitted, the effects of the present invention are not impaired.

(Third embodiment)
FIG. 15 shows the configuration of an e-mail creation support apparatus according to the third embodiment of the present invention. The e-mail creation support apparatus 30 according to the present embodiment includes a user input / output unit 31 that receives input from the user and displays the user to the e-mail creation support apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment, and human relationship information A conversion dictionary correspondence list 32 in which the conditions related to the conversion dictionary are associated with each other, a dictionary selection means 33 for selecting a conversion dictionary registered in the conversion dictionary correspondence list 32 that satisfies a predetermined condition, and an accumulated phrase List 34, input character conversion means 35 for outputting conversion candidates for the input characters, human relationship information storage unit 17, and human relationship related to the other party to whom an email is to be transmitted from human relationship information storage unit 17 It is provided with human relationship information extraction means 28 for extracting information. The dictionary selection means 33 and the input character conversion means 35 can be realized by either hardware or software. The human relationship information extracting unit 28 is the same as that described in the second embodiment.

  The user input / output unit 31 receives an operation related to mail creation from the user. When a character is input, the input character conversion means 35 is operated. On the other hand, when the termination request is made, the mail creation work is terminated.

  The dictionary selection unit 33 is input based on the human relationship information extracted by the human relationship information extraction unit 28 and the correspondence between the condition related to the human relationship information registered in the conversion dictionary correspondence list 32 and the conversion dictionary. A conversion dictionary to be used by the character conversion means 35 is selected and corresponds to support means. The processing performed by the dictionary selection unit 33 corresponds to a dictionary selection step. FIG. 16 shows an example of the conversion dictionary correspondence list 32. The conversion dictionary correspondence list 32 is a list in which conditions relating to human relationship information are associated with file names of conversion dictionaries corresponding thereto. “-” In the condition part indicates that an arbitrary value is acceptable.

  The dictionary selection unit 33 selects a conversion dictionary that satisfies the condition in the conversion dictionary correspondence list 32 based on the human relationship information of the partner to whom the mail is to be transmitted, extracted by the human relationship information extraction unit 28. For example, when creating an e-mail to the communication partner A (vertical degree = 0.12, familiarity = −0.28, business degree = 0.52), the conversion dictionary “c.dic” (vertical degree> 0. 1, business degree> 0.5) is selected. On the other hand, when creating an e-mail to the communication partner B (verticality = 0.36, familiarity = 0.22, business degree = 0.08), the conversion dictionary “d.dic” (intimacy> 0.2) , Business degree <0.1) is selected. The human relationship information storage unit 17 stores the human relationship information generated by the e-mail creation support apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment (specifically, the human relationship information generation means 16 shown in FIG. 1). It is a thing. Since this has already been described, the description thereof is omitted here.

  The input character conversion means 35 converts the character or character string input by the user into a desired character or character string using the conversion dictionary selected by the dictionary selection means 33. That is, when a certain “reading” is given, the input character conversion means 35 performs a so-called input predictive conversion in which a character or a character string matching the head of the “reading” is selected as a conversion candidate. At this time, with respect to the other party of the e-mail being created, the frequency of use of the words stored in the stored word list 34 is reflected, and the words with higher frequency of use are relatively higher in the transmission / reception of mail with the other party. To come to. Then, the user selects a desired conversion candidate from among the conversion candidates displayed through the user input / output unit 31 by the input character conversion means 35, thereby confirming the conversion character string and inserting it into the e-mail being created. be able to. The accumulated phrase list 34 is the same as the information accumulated in the phrase usage frequency accumulation unit 14 described in the first embodiment.

  FIG. 17 is an example of conversion candidates displayed by the input character conversion means 35. In this example, the communication partner A (vertical degree = 0.12, familiarity = −0.28, business degree = 0.52) and communication partner B (vertical degree = 0.0) for the character “yo” input by the user. 36, conversion candidates according to closeness = 0.22 and business degree = 0.08). In the conversion candidate at the time of communication partner A, “Thank you very much” is at the top. On the other hand, in the conversion candidate for the communication partner B, “Yoroshiku” is positioned at the head. Further, words frequently used with the partner are positioned above the conversion candidates related to each partner.

  As described above, according to the present embodiment, an optimal conversion dictionary can be selected based on the human relationship information stored in the human relationship information storage unit 17 in accordance with the other party to whom the electronic mail is to be transmitted. In addition, by reflecting the frequency of use of the words stored in the stored word list 34, words that are used more frequently can be made higher in the conversion candidates depending on the party to whom the e-mail is to be transmitted. As a result, the accuracy of character string conversion is improved, and the burden on the user related to the creation of the e-mail, particularly the burden on the user related to character input, is reduced.

  Note that the e-mail creation support apparatus 30 does not necessarily have to include the conversion dictionary correspondence list 32, the human relation information storage unit 17, and the stored word list 34. These can be configured as external storage devices.

  Further, regarding the dictionary selection means 33 and the input character conversion means 35, the e-mail creation support apparatus 30 does not necessarily have to include all of them. These can be omitted as appropriate, and even if omitted, the effects of the present invention are not impaired. Further, the input character conversion means 35 is effective not only when creating an e-mail but also when creating a document relating to a predetermined partner, for example. Further, the communication partner and the conversion dictionary may be associated with each other on a one-to-one basis.

The electronic mail creation support apparatus 20 and 30 according to the second and third embodiments have the form of adding a new component to the electronic mail creation support apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment, The components corresponding to the e-mail creation support apparatus 10 may not be particularly provided. That is, the human relationship information stored in the human relationship information storage unit 17 may be generated by a device other than the e-mail creation support apparatus 10, or of course, input by the user himself / herself. Further, the human relationship information may be classified according to items such as “boss” and “friend”.

  The fixed phrase creation means 23, the phrase appropriateness determination means 25, the decoration information creation means 27, and the dictionary selection means 33 described in the second and third embodiments are the human relation information extracted by the human relation information extraction means 28. It is merely given as an example to explain the support means of the present invention that performs support related to creation of an e-mail based on the above. Therefore, the support means of the present invention is not limited to the above means.

(First reference example)
FIG. 18 shows the configuration of an e-mail creation support apparatus according to the first reference example of the present invention. The e-mail creation support apparatus 40 of the present reference example includes a user input / output unit 41 that receives input from a user and displays it to the user, a transmission / reception mail storage unit 11 that stores transmitted / received e-mails, and transmission / reception mail storage Calculated by the phrase extraction means 12 for extracting a phrase from the e-mail stored in the unit 11, the phrase usage frequency calculation means 13 for calculating the usage frequency of the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction means 12, and the phrase usage frequency calculation means 13 A phrase usage frequency storage unit 14 that stores the usage frequency of the phrase that has been generated, a common phrase extraction unit 42 that extracts a common phrase with the communication partner from the usage frequency of the phrase stored in the phrase usage frequency storage unit 14, and a common phrase The common phrase storage unit 43 that stores the common phrases extracted by the extraction unit 42 and the electronic mail using the phrases stored in the common phrase storage unit 43. And an information retrieval means 44 for retrieving information stored in the internal or external creation support apparatus 40. Of these, the common phrase extraction means 42 and the information search means 44 can be realized by either hardware or software. The transmission / reception mail storage unit 11, the phrase extraction unit 12, the phrase extraction unit 13, and the phrase usage frequency storage unit 14 are the same as those in the first embodiment, and thus detailed description thereof is omitted here.

  Based on the phrase usage frequency accumulated in the phrase usage frequency storage unit 14, the common phrase extraction unit 42 calculates the usage frequency of the phrase commonly used in the outgoing mail and the incoming mail for each communication partner. A value obtained by dividing the usage frequency of the word extracted from the mail by the total number is obtained as the usage rate of the word, that is, the common degree. Then, phrases having a common degree equal to or greater than a predetermined value are stored in the common phrase storage unit 43 as common phrases. FIG. 19 is an example of information stored in the common phrase storage unit 43. The process performed by the common phrase extraction unit 42 corresponds to a common phrase extraction step.

  The user input / output unit 41 receives an operation related to mail creation from the user. When the user receives a request for searching for information that the person to whom the e-mail is to be sent will be interested in, the information search means 44 is operated.

  The information search means 44 retrieves a common word / phrase relating to the other party to whom the e-mail is to be transmitted from the common word / phrase accumulating unit 43, and uses one or more combinations of the common words / phrases as a search condition through an external network (not shown). Search news sites. This is because the common word / phrase is a word / phrase frequently used by the user and the other party to whom the electronic mail is to be transmitted, and can be considered to reflect a matter that the other party will be interested in. When the information search unit 44 obtains some information as a result of the search, the information search unit 44 displays the search result to the user via the user input / output unit 41. The process performed by the information search means 44 corresponds to an information search step.

  The user input / output unit 41 operates the information search unit 44 when receiving a normal information search request from the user. In this case, the information search means 44 searches for an external news site through a network (not shown) under the search conditions input by the user. When the information obtained as a result of the search includes a common phrase stored in the common phrase storage unit 43, the information search unit 44 notifies the user who frequently uses the common term. Propose to create an email for. FIG. 20 is a display example when the user input / output unit 41 proposes to create an email. The user can create an e-mail for notifying partner B of the search results by selecting the button “notify Mr. B” shown in FIG. The proposal timing for creating the e-mail may be the timing when the search result is obtained, or may be the timing when the user switches to another screen after obtaining the search result.

As described above, according to this reference example , it is possible to easily obtain information on a common topic from a common word / phrase with a communication to send an e-mail, and to support creation of an e-mail text using the information. be able to.

In this reference example , the information search range is an external news site, but the present invention is not limited to this. Other information such as recipe information and book information may be searched. Further, a database inside the electronic mail creation support apparatus 50 may be searched instead of outside.

Also, in this reference example , the frequency of use of words / phrases that are commonly used in sent mail and received mail is used as the common word / phrase, but words that appear frequently in either sent mail or received mail are treated as common terms. You may do it. This is because a phrase that frequently appears in one of the transmitted mail and the received mail is a phrase that is frequently seen by the parties that exchange mail, and in that respect, can be considered as a phrase that is common to the parties.

  Moreover, you may consider the response rate and response time from a communication other party in calculation of the common degree of a common word / phrase. For example, when the response rate is taken into account, the higher the response rate and the shorter the response time, the higher the degree of commonality. Thereby, the precision of the common degree of a common phrase can be made higher.

(Second reference example)
FIG. 21 shows the configuration of an e-mail creation support apparatus according to the second reference example of the present invention. The e-mail creation support apparatus 50 of this reference example includes a user input / output unit 51 that receives input from a user and displays the input to the user, a transmission / reception mail storage unit 11 that stores transmitted / received e-mails, and transmission / reception mail storage A unique word / phrase extracting unit 52 for extracting a unique word / phrase that is not registered in the dictionary used by the electronic mail creation support device 50 from the electronic mail stored in the unit 11, and a unique word / phrase extracted by the unique word / phrase extracting unit 52. A unique word / phrase usage frequency calculating unit 53 for calculating the usage frequency, a unique word / phrase usage frequency accumulating unit 54 for accumulating the usage frequency of the word / phrase calculated by the unique word / phrase usage frequency calculating unit 53, and conversion candidates for the input characters. And an input character converting means 55 for outputting. Among these, the unique word / phrase extraction means 52, the unique word / phrase use frequency calculation means 53, and the input character conversion means 55 can be realized by either hardware or software. The transmission / reception mail storage unit 11 is the same as that of the first embodiment, and a detailed description thereof is omitted here.

  The user input / output unit 51 receives an operation related to mail creation from the user. When a character is input, the input character conversion means 55 is operated.

  Unlike the word extraction unit 12 shown in FIG. 1, the unique word / phrase extraction unit 52 is an original email that is not registered in the dictionary used by the email creation support device 50 in the email stored in the transmission / reception mail storage unit 11. Extract words. For example, when extracting a phrase by a general method such as morphological analysis or syntax analysis, the unique phrase is extracted by extracting a phrase that is treated as an undefined word because it does not exist in the analysis dictionary. Note that the processing performed by the unique word / phrase extraction means 52 corresponds to a unique word / phrase extraction step.

  The unique word / phrase usage frequency calculation means 53 calculates the usage frequency of the unique word / phrase extracted by the unique word / phrase extraction means 52 and accumulates the usage frequency of the unique word / phrase already accumulated in the unique word / phrase usage frequency accumulation unit 54. The process corresponds to a unique phrase usage frequency calculation step. If there is no usage history of the unique phrase, it is newly added. FIG. 22 is an example of information stored in the unique word / phrase usage frequency storage unit 54. The usage frequency of each unique phrase is a cumulative value from the start of calculation of the usage frequency of the unique phrase. It should be noted that the use frequency of the unique words can be initialized. Thereby, for example, when the human relationship between the user and the communication partner changes, new unique word / phrase information can be constructed from scratch by accumulating and accumulating the frequency of use of new unique words / phrases.

  The unique word / phrase insertion means 55 refers to the unique word / phrase usage frequency storage unit 54 and converts a character or character string input by the user into a desired character or character string. That is, when a certain “reading” is given, the input character conversion means 55 performs a so-called input predictive conversion in which a character or a character string matching the head of the “reading” is selected as a conversion candidate. At this time, with respect to the other party of the e-mail being created, the unique word / phrase having a relatively high use frequency in the transmission / reception of the mail with the other person is reflected by reflecting the use frequency of the unique word / phrase accumulated in the unique word / phrase use frequency accumulation unit To be relatively higher. Then, the user selects a desired conversion candidate displayed among the conversion candidates displayed through the user input / output unit 51 by the input character conversion means 55, thereby confirming the conversion character string and adding a unique phrase to the e-mail being created. Can be inserted.

As described above, according to this reference example , the input character conversion in the e-mail creation is not registered in the dictionary, but the unique word / phrase frequently used with the other party to send the e-mail is converted into the conversion candidate. It can be. As a result, it is possible to easily input a unique word / phrase that has conventionally been troublesome.

  The e-mail creation support apparatus according to the present invention can be realized by installing an e-mail creation support program on a computer or the like via a recording medium such as a CD-ROM or a transmission medium such as the Internet. it can.

In addition, although the above embodiments and reference examples have been described by taking e-mail communication to one person as an example, the e-mail creation support apparatus according to the present invention sends the same content to many people at once. For example, it can be applied to a guide letter, a New Year's card, direct mail, and the like. In this case, the e-mail creation support apparatus according to the present invention converts the text input by the user into an appropriate style according to the partner. Thereby, the user's effort concerning style conversion can be reduced.

  As described above, the e-mail creation support apparatus, program, and method according to the present invention have the effect of reducing the burden on the user related to e-mail creation, and in particular, cellular phones and portable terminals with low convenience for character input. This is useful when composing emails.

It is a block diagram of the electronic mail preparation assistance apparatus which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. This is an example in Japanese of information stored in a transmission / reception mail storage unit. It is an example in English of the information which the transmission / reception mail storage part has stored. It is an example in Chinese of the information which the transmission / reception mail storage part has stored. This is an example of information stored in the phrase usage frequency storage unit in Japanese. This is an example in English of information stored in the phrase usage frequency storage unit. This is an example in Japanese of the phrase correspondence list. It is an example in English of a word corresponding list. This is an example of information stored in the human relation information storage unit in Japanese. This is an example of information stored in the human relationship information storage unit in English. It is a block diagram of the electronic mail preparation assistance apparatus which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention. It is an example of a fixed phrase correspondence list. It is an example of a decoration information corresponding list. It is an example of a still picture corresponding to a file name registered in a decoration information correspondence list. It is a block diagram of the electronic mail preparation assistance apparatus which concerns on the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is an example of a conversion dictionary corresponding list. It is an example of the conversion candidate which an input character conversion means displays. It is a block diagram of the electronic mail preparation assistance apparatus which concerns on the 1st reference example of this invention. It is an example of the information which the common word accumulation | storage part accumulate | stores. It is an example of a display at the time of e-mail preparation proposal of a user input / output part. It is a block diagram of the electronic mail preparation assistance apparatus which concerns on the 2nd reference example of this invention. It is an example of the information which the original phrase usage frequency storage part has accumulated.

Explanation of symbols

10, 20, 30, 40, 50 E-mail creation support device 12 Phrase extraction means 13 Phrase usage frequency calculation means 14 Phrase usage frequency storage section 15 Phrase correspondence list 16 Human relation information generation means 17 Human relation information storage section 22 Fixed phrase correspondence List (additional information list)
23 boilerplate creation means (additional information proposal means, support means)
25 Word suitability judging means (supporting means)
26 Decoration Information Correspondence List (Additional Information Correspondence List)
27 Decoration information creation means (additional information proposal means, support means)
28 Human relationship information extraction means 32 Conversion dictionary correspondence list 33 Dictionary selection means (support means)
34 Accumulated word list 35 Input character conversion means 42 Common phrase extraction means 43 Common phrase storage section 44 Information search means 52 Independent phrase extraction means 53 Independent phrase usage frequency calculation means 55 Input character conversion means

Claims (12)

An email creation support apparatus for supporting creation of email,
A phrase extraction means for extracting a phrase from electronic character data related to communication with a partner who intends to send an e-mail;
A phrase usage frequency calculation unit that calculates a usage frequency in the electronic character data for the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction unit;
Human relations corresponding to the words extracted by the word extraction means by referring to the word / phrase correspondence list in which the words / phrases are associated with the basic human relation information defined by at least one of the scales related to the upper and lower degrees and other human relations The basic information is weighted by the usage frequency calculated by the phrase usage frequency calculating means for the word, and based on the result of the weighting, human relation information generating means for generating the human relation information related to the opponent is provided,
The phrase usage frequency calculating means uses, in the electronic character data, a phrase extracted by the phrase extracting means from the electronic character data related to the new communication when a new communication is performed with the partner. An e-mail creation support apparatus characterized by calculating a frequency and adding it to the frequency of use so far. In the e-mail creation support apparatus according to claim 1,
Human relationship information extracting means for extracting human relationship information related to the other party to send an e-mail from the human relationship information of the other party with whom the human relationship information generating means has been communicated;
Based on the human relationship information extracted by the human relationship information extraction unit, and support means for performing support related to the creation of an e-mail to the other party,
The support means refers to the additional information correspondence list in which the condition for at least one of the scales is associated with the fixed phrase, decoration information, and other additional information to be added to the e-mail, and the human relation information extraction is performed An e-mail creation support apparatus that proposes additional information corresponding to the condition satisfied by the human relationship information extracted by the means. In the e-mail creation support apparatus according to claim 1,
Human relationship information extracting means for extracting human relationship information related to the other party to send an e-mail from the human relationship information of the other party with whom the human relationship information generating means has been communicated;
Based on the human relationship information extracted by the human relationship information extraction unit, and support means for performing support related to the creation of an e-mail to the other party,
The support means refers to a word / phrase correspondence list in which a word / phrase is associated with basic human relation information defined by at least one of the scales, and a human relation basic corresponding to the word / phrase included in the created e-mail. The distance between the information and the human relationship information extracted by the human relationship information extracting means is calculated, and the suitability of the word / phrase included in the created e-mail is determined based on the magnitude relationship between the distance and a predetermined threshold value. An e-mail creation support apparatus characterized by being determined. In the e-mail creation support apparatus according to claim 1,
Human relationship information extracting means for extracting human relationship information related to the other party to send an e-mail from the human relationship information of the other party with whom the human relationship information generating means has been communicated;
Based on the human relationship information extracted by the human relationship information extraction unit, and support means for performing support related to the creation of an e-mail to the other party,
The support means refers to the conversion dictionary correspondence list in which the condition for at least one of the scales is associated with the conversion dictionary, and corresponds to the condition satisfied by the human relation information extracted by the human relation information extraction means. An e-mail creation support apparatus that selects a conversion dictionary to be used. An email creation support apparatus for supporting creation of email,
A phrase extraction means for extracting a phrase from electronic character data related to communication with a partner who intends to send an e-mail;
A phrase usage frequency calculation unit that calculates a usage frequency in the electronic character data for the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction unit;
The human relationship corresponding to the phrase extracted by the phrase extracting means by referring to the phrase correspondence list in which the relationship between the basic relationship information and the phrase defined by at least one of the scales related to the upper and lower degrees and other human relationships is referred to Human relation information generating means for weighting the basic information with the use frequency calculated by the phrase use frequency calculating means for the word, and generating human relation information related to the opponent based on the result of the weighting;
A phrase usage frequency accumulating unit that accumulates the usage frequency of the phrase calculated by the phrase usage frequency calculating means in association with the phrase for each communicating party;
An e-mail creation support apparatus, comprising: a human relationship information accumulating unit that accumulates the human relationship information generated by the human relationship information generating means for each communicating party. The electronic mail creation support apparatus according to claim 5,
Human relationship information extracting means for extracting human relationship information relating to a partner to which an e-mail is to be transmitted, from the human relationship information generated by the human relationship information generating means and accumulated for each communicating partner;
Based on the human relationship information extracted by the human relationship information extraction unit, and support means for performing support related to the creation of an e-mail to the other party,
The support means refers to the additional information correspondence list in which the condition for at least one of the scales is associated with the fixed phrase, decoration information, and other additional information to be added to the e-mail, and the human relation information extraction is performed An e-mail creation support apparatus that proposes additional information corresponding to the condition satisfied by the human relationship information extracted by the means. The electronic mail creation support apparatus according to claim 5,
Human relationship information extracting means for extracting human relationship information relating to a partner to which an e-mail is to be transmitted, from the human relationship information generated by the human relationship information generating means and accumulated for each communicating partner;
Based on the human relationship information extracted by the human relationship information extraction unit, and support means for performing support related to the creation of an e-mail to the other party,
The support means refers to a word / phrase correspondence list in which a word / phrase is associated with basic human relation information defined by at least one of the scales, and a human relation basic corresponding to the word / phrase included in the created e-mail. The distance between the information and the human relationship information extracted by the human relationship information extracting means is calculated, and the suitability of the word / phrase included in the created e-mail is determined based on the magnitude relationship between the distance and a predetermined threshold value. An e-mail creation support apparatus characterized by being determined. The electronic mail creation support apparatus according to claim 5,
Human relationship information extracting means for extracting human relationship information relating to a partner to which an e-mail is to be transmitted, from the human relationship information generated by the human relationship information generating means and accumulated for each communicating partner;
Based on the human relationship information extracted by the human relationship information extraction unit, and support means for performing support related to the creation of an e-mail to the other party,
The support means refers to the conversion dictionary correspondence list in which the condition for at least one of the scales is associated with the conversion dictionary, and corresponds to the condition satisfied by the human relation information extracted by the human relation information extraction means. An e-mail creation support apparatus that selects a conversion dictionary to be used. Computer to help create emails,
Phrase extraction means for extracting a phrase from electronic character data related to communication with a partner who is going to send an e-mail;
Basic relationship information and phrases defined by at least one of the phrase usage frequency calculation means for calculating the usage frequency in the electronic character data for the phrases extracted by the phrase extraction means, and the degree of verticality and other human relationships Is referred to, and the human relationship basic information corresponding to the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction unit is weighted by the use frequency calculated by the phrase use frequency calculation unit for the word, Based on the result of this weighting, function as human relationship information generating means for generating human relationship information related to the opponent,
The phrase usage frequency calculating means uses, in the electronic character data, a phrase extracted by the phrase extracting means from the electronic character data related to the new communication when a new communication is performed with the partner. An e-mail creation support program characterized by calculating a frequency and adding it to the frequency of use so far. An email creation support method for supporting creation of email,
A phrase extraction step in which the phrase extraction means extracts a phrase from the electronic character data related to communication with the other party to send the e-mail;
A phrase usage frequency calculating means for calculating a usage frequency in the electronic character data for the phrase extracted in the phrase extracting step;
The human relation information generating means refers to the phrase correspondence list in which the human relation basic information defined by at least one of the scales related to the upper and lower degrees and other human relations is associated with the phrase, and is extracted by the phrase extracting step. Weighting step for weighting the human relationship basic information corresponding to the phrase by the use frequency calculated by the phrase use frequency calculation step for the phrase;
The human relationship information generation means includes a human relationship information generation step of generating human relationship information related to the opponent based on the result of the weighting step;
In the phrase usage frequency calculation step, when new communication is performed with the other party, the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction step from the electronic character data related to the new communication is used in the electronic character data. An e-mail creation support method, characterized in that the frequency is calculated and added to the frequency of use so far. Computer to help create emails,
Phrase extraction means for extracting a phrase from electronic character data related to communication with a partner who is going to send an e-mail;
A phrase usage frequency calculation unit that calculates a usage frequency in the electronic character data for the phrase extracted by the phrase extraction unit;
Human relations corresponding to the words extracted by the word extraction means by referring to the word / phrase correspondence list in which the words / phrases are associated with the basic human relation information defined by at least one of the scales related to the upper and lower degrees and other human relations Human relation information generating means for weighting the basic information with the use frequency calculated by the phrase use frequency calculating means for the word and generating the human relation information related to the opponent based on the result of the weighting;
A phrase usage frequency accumulating unit that accumulates the usage frequency of the phrase calculated by the phrase usage frequency calculating unit in association with the phrase for each communicating party; and
Human relation information storage means for storing the human relation information generated by the human relation information generation means for each communicating party;
E-mail creation support program to function as. An email creation support method for supporting creation of email,
A phrase extraction step in which the phrase extraction means extracts a phrase from the electronic character data related to communication with the other party to send the e-mail;
A phrase usage frequency calculating means for calculating a usage frequency in the electronic character data for the phrase extracted in the phrase extracting step;
The human relation information generating means refers to the phrase correspondence list in which the human relation basic information defined by at least one of the scales related to the upper and lower degrees and other human relations is associated with the phrase, and is extracted by the phrase extracting step. The human relationship basic information corresponding to the phrase is weighted with the use frequency calculated by the phrase use frequency calculation step for the word, and based on the weighting result, the human relationship information for generating the human relationship information related to the partner is generated. An information generation step;
A phrase usage frequency accumulating step in which the phrase usage frequency calculating means stores the phrase usage frequency calculated in the phrase usage frequency calculating step in the phrase usage frequency storage unit in association with the word for each communicating party; ,
The human relationship information generation means includes a human relationship information accumulation step for accumulating the human relationship information generated by the human relationship information generation step in a human relationship information accumulation unit for each communicating party. Email creation support method.

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