JP5626001B2 - E-mail capacity reduction support device, e-mail capacity reduction support method, and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a mail capacity reduction support device, a mail capacity reduction support method, and a program for realizing these, to support the reduction of received electronic mail capacity (hereinafter referred to as “mail capacity”).

  In recent years, the use of e-mail has been increasing, and it has become necessary to efficiently organize a large amount of received e-mails. When a large amount of e-mails are received, the storage capacity (hereinafter referred to as “e-mail capacity”) that must be secured for storing e-mails increases, which may put pressure on the system environment. It has become particularly important.

  The simplest way to reduce email capacity is to delete emails, but deleted emails can't be restored, so you need to decide if you really want to delete them There is. If a large amount of e-mail is stored, this work is a heavy burden on the user.

  For example, Patent Document 1 discloses a method of automatically calculating the importance of an electronic mail and presenting the information to a user. If this method is used, it can be expected that it will be easier for users to decide whether or not to delete e-mails, but the need to decide whether to delete e-mails one by one has not changed. . Accordingly, there is a need for a method that can automatically reduce the mail capacity without requiring the user's judgment, but it is difficult to automatically reduce the mail capacity with the conventional method of deleting an e-mail.

  As a method of reducing the mail capacity other than deleting the e-mail, a method of deleting unnecessary quotes in the e-mail body (hereinafter referred to as “e-mail body”) can be considered. When e-mail is replied and forwarded, quotes from the original e-mail are added to the end of the sentence or in the sentence one after another, and the e-mail tends to be long. There are many e-mails in which the body of the mail is quoted. For this reason, the method of deleting the quote is considered to be effective as a method of reducing the mail capacity.

  For example, Patent Document 2 discloses one method for deleting a quotation. The method disclosed in Patent Document 2 is a method of deleting a quote for the purpose of saving paper used when printing an electronic mail, but this method is considered to be effective as a method for reducing the mail capacity.

  Patent Document 3 discloses another method for deleting a quote. In the method disclosed in Patent Document 3, only quotes whose citation count is equal to or less than the reference count are displayed, and other quotes are deleted.

JP 2002-215543 A JP 2009-129231 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-197030

  However, the method disclosed in Patent Document 2 is roughly divided into the following first and second problems.

[First problem]
The first problem in the method disclosed in Patent Document 2 is that there is a possibility that a quote cannot be correctly identified. Specifically, in the method disclosed in Patent Document 2, the following identification methods 1 to 4 are proposed as methods for identifying a quotation, but each identification method correctly identifies a quotation. There is a problem that it is difficult.

(Identification method 1) In the identification method 1, a “reply symbol” added to the beginning of a quoted sentence when replying or forwarding an e-mail, such as “>” or “>>”, is stored in the system. When the same symbol is present at the beginning of each line of the text, this line is identified as a quoted sentence.
(Identification method 2) The identification method 2 is a method in which a certain threshold value is set, and when the same character is continued at the beginning of the line by the number of the threshold value, the line is identified as a quoted sentence.
(Identification method 3) Identification method 3 is a method of identifying a line in which several characters from the beginning are other than letters and numbers as a quoted sentence.
(Identification method 4) The identification method 4 is, for example, a method in which “Original Massage” is used as a start character string, a user's signature is used as an end character string, and all lines sandwiched between these are identified as quoted sentences. . The signature sentence is a group of character strings that are added to the e-mail so as to clarify the name, affiliation, telephone number, etc. of the e-mail sender when the e-mail is transmitted. The signature text is often added at the bottom of the e-mail, and the contents are almost always fixed.

  In the identification method 1, “>” or “>>” as a reply symbol is processed as one symbol as a group. For this reason, in the identification method 1, when a citation hierarchy becomes deeper as in “>>>>” or “>>>>>>” in a series of e-mail exchanges, a reply symbol is added in advance for that type. Without registration, there is a problem that it is impossible to correctly detect the quotation. Furthermore, depending on the type of mail software or personal settings, various symbols other than “>” may be added at the time of replying and forwarding, so the number of reply symbols to be stored is enormous. There is also a problem that a large storage area is required.

  The identification method 2 has a problem that it does not function when there are two or more types of reply symbols added at the time of reply and transfer. As a specific example, if there are a user who uses “>” as a symbol to be added to a quote when sending a mail and a user who uses “|” in a series of e-mail exchanges, Since the character string is like “> |>”, there is a situation where it is not identified as a quoted sentence although it is actually a quoted sentence. As a result, the above problem occurs.

  Regarding the identification method 3, there is a problem that a sentence that is not a quoted sentence is erroneously recognized as a quoted sentence. For example, in order to distinguish between a mail text and a signature part, a user often inserts a symbol string such as “*******” or “++++++++” between them. At this time, if the identification method 3 is used, the line “*******” or “++++++++” may be erroneously recognized as a quoted sentence.

  As for the identification method 4, as in the first method, the start character string and the end character string may differ depending on the type of mail software or individual settings. There is a problem that the number of

[Second problem]
The second problem in the method disclosed in Patent Document 2 is that even if a quote in the mail text can be normally identified, it is not possible to automatically determine whether or not the quote can be deleted. In addition, since the method disclosed in Patent Document 2 cannot perform automatic determination, basically, all identified citations are deleted, so that the mail text after deletion may be meaningless to the user. Is high.

  However, if the method disclosed in Patent Document 2 is used for the purpose of reducing print paper when an e-mail is printed, the user previews the print image by some means, and the contents mean If you are unsure, you can take the action of printing the full text without deleting the quoted text. Therefore, in this case, the second problem may be unlikely to occur. However, the purpose is to “reducing the mail capacity by automatically deleting the quoted text without causing the user to trouble” Is not appropriate. From the above, in order to solve the second problem, whether or not to delete a quotation based on the definition of a quotation that does not have the same meaning as a quotation that can be understood even if it is deleted There is a need for technology for automatic determination.

  Note that Patent Document 2 mentions that there is a case in which the contents of an e-mail become unclear if a quote is deleted unconditionally. Specifically, “a part of the past mail is quoted in the text, and a reply or answer is described in a line immediately after the quoted part”. And as a countermeasure against this, Patent Document 2 states that “when a line is determined to be a quoted sentence, if the next line is not a quoted sentence, the line corresponding to the previous quoted sentence is not deleted. It may be. "

  However, Patent Document 2 does not show a clear deletion criterion in the above case, and even if there is such a description, it is difficult to solve the second problem. Also, if the above definition is adopted, for example, for an email in which a signature part is added at the end of the email body, the signature part is not a quoted sentence, so a citation that exists above it. No sentence will be deleted.

  Further, in the method disclosed in Patent Document 3, as described above, a quoted sentence is deleted only by a single criterion of the number of citations. For this reason, even in the method disclosed in Patent Document 3, there is a high possibility that the deleted e-mail will be unclear to the user, and there is a second problem similar to the method disclosed in Patent Document 2. I can say that.

  An example of the object of the present invention is to reduce the mail capacity by eliminating the above-mentioned problem and reliably deleting only quotes that can be understood by the user even if the quotes are deleted in the email. To provide a support device, a mail capacity reduction support method, and a program.

In order to achieve the above object, a mail capacity reduction support apparatus according to one aspect of the present invention is an apparatus that supports a reduction in mail capacity of a received electronic mail,
A citation format determination unit that determines whether a citation in the body of the target email is described in a full-text citation format or a partial citation format;
When the quoted text is described in a full-text quoted format, the quoted text and the entire character string of the email whose reception date is older than the target email are compared on a line-by-line basis. A quote match determination unit that determines whether or not the number of is equal to or greater than a set threshold;
As a result of determination by the quote match determination unit, when the number of matching lines is equal to or greater than a set threshold, the quote deletion unit that deletes the quote from the text of the target e-mail;
It is characterized by having.

In order to achieve the above object, a mail capacity reduction support method according to one aspect of the present invention is a method for supporting a reduction in mail capacity of a received electronic mail,
(A) determining whether a quote in the body of the subject email is described in full-text or partial-quote format; and
(B) As a result of the determination in the step (a), when the quoted text is described in a full-text quoted format, the quoted text and the character of the email whose reception date is older than the target email Comparing the entire column by row to determine whether the number of matching rows is greater than or equal to a set threshold; and
(C) as a result of the determination in the step (b), when the number of matching lines is equal to or greater than a set threshold value, the quoted sentence is deleted from the text of the target e-mail; and
It is characterized by having.

Furthermore, in order to achieve the above object, a program according to one aspect of the present invention is a program for supporting reduction of the mail capacity of an e-mail received by a computer.
(A) determining whether a quote in the body of the subject email is described in full-text or partial-quote format; and
(B) As a result of the determination in the step (a), when the quoted text is described in a full-text quoted format, the quoted text and the character of the email whose reception date is older than the target email Comparing the entire column by row to determine whether the number of matching rows is greater than or equal to a set threshold; and
(C) as a result of the determination in the step (b), when the number of matching lines is equal to or greater than a set threshold value, the quoted sentence is deleted from the text of the target e-mail; and
Is executed.

  As described above, according to the mail capacity reduction support device, the mail capacity reduction support method, and the program according to the present invention, the user can grasp the meaning of the e-mail even if the quoted text in the e-mail is deleted. Only quotations can be deleted reliably.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the mail capacity reduction support apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the mail capacity reduction support apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a mail management structure employed in the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of an analysis target mail that is an analysis target in the first embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an example of a reply mail for the mail of FIG. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a reply mail for the mail of FIG. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a state in which a quote is deleted from the mail shown in FIG. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a state in which a quote is deleted from the mail shown in FIG. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a comparison character string group to be analyzed in step S2 shown in FIG. FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing details of the process in step S2-5 shown in FIG. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a preferable range of the stop threshold value used for the analysis of the quotation. FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the operation of the mail capacity reduction support apparatus according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention. FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a computer that implements the mail capacity reduction support apparatus according to Embodiment 1 or 2 of the present invention.

(Summary of Invention)
In the present invention, the first problem (problem of identification method of quotations) described in the column “Problems to be solved by the invention” is improved by the method described below.

  A reply symbol is defined in units of one character such as “>” or “|” and stored in the system. Then, check whether these reply symbols exist at the beginning of each line of the mail text. By doing so, it is not necessary to store a combination such as “>>” or “>> |>” in the system, so that the storage area can be greatly reduced. At the same time, it becomes easy to add a reply symbol later. Further, by checking the number of reply symbols present at the beginning of a line, the number of times that the quoted sentence is quoted can be identified. The present invention proposes a method that takes this “quotation count” into account (described later).

  Further, in the present invention, the second problem (problem in which it is not possible to automatically determine whether a quoted sentence can be deleted) described in the section “Problems to be solved by the invention” is improved by the method described below.

  To prevent the body of the email from becoming unclear even if the quote is deleted, the content of the email (hereinafter referred to as “citation email”) that is the source of the quote that is being deleted is used. It is essential that the user knows or is in a state where the user can immediately refer to the citation mail. Since it is difficult for the system to automatically determine the former, the present invention focuses on the latter.

  In the present invention, “a state in which a user can immediately refer to a citation mail of a certain e-mail” is defined as “a state in which a certain e-mail and the citation mail exist in the same mail folder”. . Then, in the present invention, it is searched whether there is a citation mail in the mail folder of the e-mail (analysis target mail) to be analyzed whether or not to delete the quoted sentence. Preferably, the email quote is deleted.

  Emails related to the same series of exchanges, that is, a series of emails that are repeatedly replied to or forwarded to an email, are generally classified in one email folder, so this search method is It is considered effective. In order to enhance the mail capacity reduction effect of the present invention, it is preferable that the mail folder is classified as appropriately as possible. In the present invention, any mail folder classification method may be used. The user may manually classify the mail folder, or the public folder may be automatically classified.

  Well, in the search of the citation source mail, first of all, it will be saved in the same mail folder as the analysis target mail and the character string of “Email whose citation is deleted (analysis target mail)” The character string “e-mail in the past than the target mail (past mail)” is compared in units of lines. Then, it is determined whether or not the number of matching lines exceeds a certain “stop threshold”.

  As a result of the determination, if it exceeds, the past mail is determined as the citation source mail of the analysis target mail. And even if the quoted text of the email to be analyzed is deleted, the user can refer to both the “mail to be analyzed after deletion of the quoted text” and the “quoted mail” and exchange a series of emails. Since it is thought that it can be understood, the quotation of the analysis target mail is deleted. It should be noted that a character string indicating that the quotation has been deleted is preferably inserted in the portion where the quotation has been deleted.

  On the other hand, if the result of the determination is that it does not exceed, or if no citation mail is found in the past mail, the user will be able to exchange a series of e-mails when the citation of the analysis target mail is deleted. It is thought that it becomes impossible to understand. Therefore, in this case, the quoted sentence is not deleted and the processing is stopped.

  It should be noted that even if the citation source mail is in the same mail folder, there is a case where the e-mail may be unclear when the quote is deleted, and the present invention takes this point into consideration. Specifically, this is a case where a “line where no reply symbol exists at the beginning of the line” is sandwiched between “a line where the reply symbol exists at the beginning of the line” (partial quotation).

  In such a case, it is considered that the user individually replies or describes an answer to a part of the content of the citation source mail. Therefore, in this case, if the corresponding quote is deleted, it becomes impossible to understand which part is the reply or answer, and the e-mail becomes unclear. On the other hand, if the quoted text is a group, there is no problem even if the quoted text is deleted (all quoted text). Whether it is a partial quote sentence or a full quote sentence can be determined by only one character at the beginning of each line, and can be implemented with a smaller processing amount than the character string matching process. For this reason, from the viewpoint of reducing the overall processing amount, it is first determined whether the text is a partial quote or a full quote. Matching process) is executed.

(Embodiment 1)
Hereinafter, a mail capacity reduction support apparatus, a mail capacity reduction support method, and a program according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

[Device configuration]
First, the configuration of the mail capacity reduction support apparatus according to the first embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the mail capacity reduction support apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the mail capacity reduction support apparatus 20 according to the first embodiment is connected to the mail server 10 and stores mail capacity for storing electronic mail transmitted via the mail server 10. To help reduce In the first embodiment, the mail capacity reduction support device 20 is built inside a terminal device, a computer, a mobile phone, a smartphone, or the like that can execute transmission / reception of electronic mail. Hereinafter, the e-mail is simply referred to as “mail”.

  As shown in FIG. 1, the mail capacity reduction support device 20 mainly includes a quote sentence analysis unit 22 and a quote sentence deletion unit 23. The quote sentence analysis unit 22 includes a quote sentence format determination unit 27 and a quote sentence match determination unit 28. With this configuration, the quote sentence in the mail text is deleted for a specific mail existing in the mail folder. Analyzes whether or not to Hereinafter, an email that is subject to analysis on whether or not to delete a quoted sentence is referred to as “analysis subject email”.

  Specifically, the quoted sentence format determination unit 27 determines whether the quoted text in the body of the analysis target email is described in the full-text quoted format or the partial quoted format. When the quoted sentence is described in the full-text quote format, the quoted sentence match determining unit 28 is the entire character string of the quoted sentence and mail (hereinafter referred to as “past mail”) whose reception date and time is older than the analysis target mail. Are compared line by line.

  Then, the quote match determination unit 28 determines whether or not the number of matching lines is equal to or greater than a set threshold (hereinafter referred to as “stop threshold”). Also, the quotation deletion unit 23 deletes the quotation from the analysis target mail when the number of matching lines is equal to or greater than the set threshold as a result of the determination by the quotation match determination unit 28.

  In this way, the mail capacity reduction support device 20 determines whether or not the quoted text is in the full text citation format, and if so, identifies the portion that matches the past mail of the analysis target mail. In addition, the mail capacity reduction support device 20 determines whether the number of lines in the portion identified as matching is equal to or greater than the stop threshold, so that the analysis target mail and the past mail can be converted into a signature sentence and a fixed sentence. The case where it matches only in etc. is excluded. For this reason, according to the mail capacity reduction support device 20, it is possible to reliably delete only quotes that allow the user to grasp the meaning of the email even if the quotes are deleted.

  Here, the configuration of the mail capacity reduction support apparatus 20 will be described more specifically. As shown in FIG. 1, in the first embodiment, the mail capacity reduction support device 20 includes a mail reception unit 21, a mail storage unit 24, a stop, in addition to the quote analysis unit 22 and the quote deletion unit 23. A threshold storage unit 25 and a reply symbol storage unit 26 are provided.

  The mail receiving unit 21 receives mail from the mail server 1 and stores the received mail in the mail storage unit 24. The mail storage unit 24 has a function of managing stored mail using a mail folder. Therefore, when a received mail is viewed from a user who uses the mail capacity reduction support apparatus 20, the received mail is in a state of being sorted for each mail folder.

  In the first embodiment, a series of mail groups in which reply, transfer, and both are repeated for a certain mail are grouped and stored together in the same mail folder. Further, the mail classification to the designated mail folder may be performed by manual processing by the user, for example, by automatic processing using a publicly known technique disclosed by JP 2007-304773 PR. May be.

  Further, in the first embodiment, in the quote analysis unit 22, the quote match determination unit 28 first acquires a parameter “stop threshold” as a process termination condition from the stop threshold storage unit 25. In addition, the quote match determination unit 28 identifies a line to which only one preset reply symbol is added in the quote, and identifies the identified line and the entire character string of the past mail in line units. Compare. Therefore, the quote match determination unit 28 acquires from the reply symbol storage unit 26 a list of “reply symbols” that may be added to the quote at the beginning of each line of the email body when replying or forwarding the email. .

  The quote match determination unit 28 stores the acquired “stop threshold” and “reply symbol”, the text of the analysis target email stored in the email storage unit 24, and the same mail folder as the analysis target email. Refer to the text of the past mail. Then, the quote analysis unit 22 performs analysis based on the referred information, and determines whether or not to delete the quote from the analysis target mail.

  As a result of the determination, when deleting, the quote match determination unit 28 passes the processing contents to the quote deletion unit 23 and causes the quote deletion unit 23 to execute the process. In the first embodiment, in addition to deleting the quoted sentence of the analysis target mail, the quoted sentence deleting unit 23 also executes insertion of a character string indicating that the quoted sentence has been deleted into the deleted part. Further, the quote deletion unit 23 causes the email storage unit 24 to store the analysis target email from which the quote has been deleted.

[Device operation]
Next, the operation of the mail capacity reduction support apparatus 20 in Embodiment 1 of the present invention will be described using FIG. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the mail capacity reduction support apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention. In the following description, FIG. 1 is taken into consideration as appropriate. In the first embodiment, the mail capacity reduction support method is implemented by operating the mail capacity reduction support apparatus 20. Therefore, the description of the mail capacity reduction support method in the first embodiment is replaced with the following description of the operation of the mail capacity reduction support device 20.

  First, prior to the description of the operation shown in FIG. 2, the mail management structure employed in the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a mail management structure employed in the first embodiment of the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 3, all mails stored in the mail storage unit 24 are sorted into any mail folder. When attention is paid to a certain mail folder, a “mail number” is defined for each mail registered in the mail folder. The mail numbers are defined as 1, 2, 3,... When the number of mails registered in the mail folder is N, the mail with mail number 1 is the oldest mail in the mail folder, and the mail with mail number N is the latest mail with the latest reception date. .

  Subsequently, preconditions in each step shown in FIG. 2 will be described. In this embodiment, a search is performed for a mail folder in which “email to be analyzed whether to delete a quote (email to be analyzed)” is stored, and the analysis target is included in this mail folder. It is determined whether the “quoting mail” of the mail exists. As a result of the determination, if it exists, the quoted sentence of the analysis target mail is deleted. The reason for searching the citation mail for the mail folder of the analysis target mail is as follows.

  First, if the quoted mail is classified in the same mail folder, even if the quoted text of the analysis target email is deleted, the user must combine the “parsed email after deleting the quoted text” and the “citation email”. It is because it is thought that a series of mail flows can be understood by referring. On the other hand, if the quoted text of the analysis target email is deleted when the source email is not classified into the same mail folder as the analysis target email, it is considered that the user will not understand the meaning of the email. is there.

  Therefore, in the first embodiment, in order to enhance the implementation effect, as described above, in the same mail folder, a series of exchange mails, that is, reply, transfer, or both are repeated for a certain mail. Assume that a series of mail groups are grouped together.

  In each step shown in FIG. 2, the mail number of the analysis target mail is defined as m. At this time, the search for the citation source mail is executed for mail whose reception date is older than that of mail m, that is, mail (past mail) having a mail number of m−1 or less. All of these emails are stored in the email storage unit 24, and are subject to analysis by the quote analysis unit 22 and deletion by the quote deletion unit 23. The quote sentence analysis unit 22 executes “quoted sentence analysis (first half): step S1” and “quoted sentence analysis (second half): step S2” shown in FIG. 2 described later. The quote deletion unit 23 executes “citation deletion: step S3” shown in FIG.

[Steps S1 to S3]
Subsequently, the operation shown in FIG. 2 will be described step by step. In the following description, FIGS. 3 to 9 are also referred to as appropriate. As shown in FIG. 2, the operation of the mail capacity reduction device 20 is large: “quoted sentence analysis (first half): step S1”, “quoted sentence analysis (second half): step S2”, and “quoted sentence deletion step S3”. ”. Step S1 includes steps S1-1 to S1-3, and step S2 includes steps S2-1 to S2-6.

[Step S1]
“Cited sentence analysis (first half): Step S1” is a step for confirming the preconditions for deleting a quoted sentence. If the condition is not confirmed in Step S1, Step S2 is not executed. The processing in the mail capacity reduction support device 20 ends.

[Step S1-1]
First, in S <b> 1-1, the quote match determination unit 28 of the quote analysis unit 22 acquires the “stop threshold” used in step S <b> 2 from the stop threshold storage unit 25. Also, the quote match determination unit 28 obtains a list of “reply symbols” to be added to the beginning of the quoted sentence from the reply symbol storage unit 26 when replying or forwarding mail.

  The “stop threshold” is a parameter (positive integer) used in the first embodiment, and is an end condition of step S2. The reply symbol storage unit 26 stores symbols such as “>” and “|” in units of characters as reply symbols. The quote match determination unit 28 acquires all stored reply symbols.

  In the following description, it is assumed that only one type of “>” is stored as a reply symbol in order to simplify the description. However, this does not affect the essence of the present invention. In the first embodiment, the mail capacity reduction support device 20 may be configured to be able to add and change the reply symbol and the stop threshold manually by the user.

[Step S1-2]
Next, in S1-2, the quote format determination unit 27 of the quote analysis unit 22 analyzes whether a quote exists in the analysis target mail m. Specifically, the quote format determination unit 27 determines whether or not the reply symbol acquired in step S1-1 exists at the beginning of the line for all lines of the body of the mail m. Here, if there is no line with a reply symbol, it is considered that there is no citation that can be deleted in the mail m, so the processing in the mail capacity reduction support device 20 stops.

  For example, consider the case where step S1-2 is executed for the mail shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of an analysis target mail that is an analysis target in the first embodiment of the present invention. In the mail shown in FIG. 4, since there is no line in which the reply symbol “>” is present at the beginning of the line, the quotation sentence format determination unit 27 determines that there is no quotation sentence, and processing is performed. Stop.

[Step S1-3]
Next, in S1-3, the quotation sentence format determination unit 27 analyzes whether or not the quotation sentence of the mail m is “divided”. Step S1-3 will be described with reference to FIGS. 5 to 8 in addition to FIG. 5 and 6 are diagrams showing examples of reply mails to the mail of FIG. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a state in which a quote is deleted from the mail shown in FIG. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a state in which a quote is deleted from the mail shown in FIG.

  In the example of FIG. 5, the lines having the reply symbol “>” at the beginning of the line are continuous, whereas in the example of FIG. 6, the lines having the reply symbol “>” at the beginning of the line are divided. Here, the former reply mail shown in FIG. 5 is described by “all quotes” in which the entire quoted mail is quoted together and the reply contents are added. On the other hand, the latter reply mail shown in FIG. 6 is described by “partial quotes” in which reply contents are added to each part of the quoted mail.

  Here, if the quote is deleted from the mail shown in FIG. 5, the mail shown in FIG. 7 is obtained. Further, if the quote is deleted from the mail shown in FIG. 6, the mail is shown in FIG. As will be described later, when a quoted sentence is deleted, the quoted sentence deleting unit 23 inserts a character string so that the location where the quoted sentence is deleted can be understood.

  When the citation source mail shown in FIG. 4 and the mail from which the quote text shown in FIG. 7 or FIG. 8 is deleted exist in the same mail folder, the user can refer to both mails together. it is conceivable that. For example, in the case of a combination of the citation source mail shown in FIG. 4 and the mail from which the quote text shown in FIG. 7 is deleted, the user can refer to both mails and the contents of the quote text deleted in FIG. Can be grasped.

  On the other hand, in the case of a combination of the citation source mail shown in FIG. 4 and the mail from which the quote text shown in FIG. 8 is deleted, the quote text in a plurality of places is deleted in the mail shown in FIG. It is difficult to determine which part in FIG. 4 the quoted sentence corresponds to. Therefore, the mail shown in FIG. 8 becomes a mail whose meaning is unknown to the user. That is, it is possible to delete a quoted sentence in the case of a full quoted sentence (FIG. 5), but it is difficult to delete a quoted sentence in the case of a partially quoted sentence (FIG. 6).

  Therefore, in step S1-3, the quotation format determination unit 27 determines whether the quotation of the mail m is described in the full-text quotation format or the partial quotation format as the analysis of the division. . If the analysis target mail m is described in the partial citation format, step S2 is not executed, and the processing in the mail capacity reduction support device 20 ends.

  On the other hand, if the analysis target mail m is described in the full-text citation format as a result of the determination in step S1-3, “quoted sentence analysis (second half): step S2” is executed.

[Step S2]
Hereinafter, “cited sentence analysis (second half) step S2” will be further described with reference to FIG. In “quoted sentence analysis (first half): step S 1”, only the first character of the body of the analysis target mail m is analyzed, but “quoted sentence analysis (second half) step S 2” is different from this. In “quoted sentence analysis (second half) step S2”, the analysis target mail m is classified into a single quote sentence (a line with a single reply symbol added to the beginning of the line) and the same mail folder as the analysis target mail m, and analyzed. The entire character string of mail (past mail) whose reception date and time is older than the target mail is analyzed for each line. FIG. 9 is a diagram showing an example of a comparison character string group to be analyzed in step S2 shown in FIG.

[Step S2-1]
First, in S2-1, the quote match determination unit 28 acquires a character string of a single quote in the analysis target mail m in units of lines. However, at this time, the character string is acquired in a state in which the “reply symbol” existing at the beginning of the line is removed. In addition, the quote match determination unit 28 excludes from the acquisition target a line that includes only a blank character other than the reply symbol. This acquired character string is referred to as “comparison character string group A” (see FIG. 9).

  In the “comparison character string group A” acquired in step S2-1, as shown in FIG. 9, when the number of lines of a single quote is p, the line numbers are 1, 2 in the order in which the character strings are acquired. ,..., P-1, and p.

[Steps S2-2 and S2-3]
Next, in S2-2, the quote match determination unit 28 sets m−1 as the initial value of the variable i for repetition. In S <b> 2-3, the quote match determination unit 28 determines whether i is not smaller than 1. If i is smaller than 1, the processing in the mail capacity reduction support device 20 ends.

  On the other hand, when i is not smaller than 1, the quotation match determination unit 28 subtracts i = m−1, i = m−2,. Steps S2-3 to S2-6 are repeatedly executed. Here, the mail i is a mail corresponding to the “past mail” of the analysis target mail m. In other words, there is a possibility that there is always one mail to be analyzed m, while there are a plurality of past mail i.

[Step S2-4]
In the repetition process using i as a variable for repetition, in step S2-4, the quote match determination unit 28 acquires all the text strings of the past mail i currently focused on in line units. However, at this time, if a reply symbol exists in the first few characters of the line, the quote match determination unit 28 acquires a text string excluding the reply symbol. In addition, the quote match determination unit 28 excludes lines having only blank characters from acquisition targets. This acquired character string is referred to as “comparison character string group B”.

  In the “comparison character string group B” acquired in step S2-4, as shown in FIG. 9, when the number of lines is q, the line numbers are 1, 2,... , Q-1, q.

[Step S2-5]
In S2-5, the quote match determination unit 28 performs character string comparison (matching) on a line-by-line basis for the comparison character string group A and the comparison character string group B, and the number of matching lines is “stop threshold value”. ”Is determined.

  If the number of matching lines exceeds the “stop threshold” as a result of the character string comparison, the quote match determination unit 28 determines that the past mail i currently focused on is the citation mail of the analysis target mail m. to decide. In this case, it is considered that "the user can understand a series of mail exchanges by referring to the past mail i even if the quotation of the analysis target mail m is deleted". Therefore, the quoted sentence matching determination unit 28 terminates the i repetition process and notifies the quoted sentence deleting unit 23 to delete the quoted sentence. Thereby, the quote deletion part 23 performs step S3.

  On the other hand, if the number of matching lines does not exceed the “stop threshold” as a result of the character string comparison, the quote match determination unit 28 determines that the past mail i is not the citation mail of the analysis target mail m. Then, in step S2-6, the quote match determination unit 28 subtracts the value of i, executes step S2-3 and the subsequent steps again, and compares the character strings of the next past mail (repetition processing of i). Continuation).

Note that if there is no citation mail of the analysis target mail m in the past mail, that is, if there is no past mail in which the number of matching lines in the character string exceeds the “stop threshold”, the analysis target mail If m quotes are deleted, the user will not be able to understand a series of email exchanges. Therefore, in this case, although not shown in FIG. 2, the quote deletion by the quote deletion unit 23 described later is not performed, and the processing in the mail capacity reduction support device 20 ends. Details of step S2-5 will be described later.

[Step S3]
In step S <b> 3, the quote deletion unit 23 deletes all quotes of the analysis target mail m and completes the process. At this time, in order to enable the user to understand which quotation in the body of the analysis target mail m has been deleted, the quotation deletion unit 23, as shown in FIG. Insert a string like "Sentence deleted".

[Details of Step S2-5]
Next, referring to FIG. 10, the “process for determining whether the past mail i is the citation source mail of the analysis target mail m (step S2-5)” shown in FIG. These are the flowcharts which show the detail of the process in step S2-5 shown in FIG 2. Moreover, in the following description, FIG.

[Step S2-5-1]
First, in step S2-5-1, the quote match determination unit 28 sets initial values for variables x, y, and s used in the following processing. x is a variable representing the line number of the comparison character string group A shown in FIG. 10, and the initial value of x is set to 1. y is a variable representing the line number of the comparison character string group B shown in FIG. 10, and the initial value of y is also set to 1.

[Steps S2-5-2 to S2-5-9]
As shown below, the quote match determination unit 28 performs the iterative process using the variable x (= 1,..., P) and the variable y in steps S2-5-2 to S2-5-9. A double repetition process with the repetition process using (= 1,... Q) is executed.

  Further, p is the number of lines in the comparison character string group A, and is used as the end condition of the iterative process in S2-5-2. On the other hand, q is the number of lines of the comparison character string group B, and is used as the end condition of the iterative process in S2-5-3. Further, s is a variable that is incremented depending on conditions in a double iterative process using x and y, and the initial value is set to zero.

  In step S2-5-2 to step S2-5-9, there are two conditions, condition 1 and condition 2 below, for exiting the double repetition process of x and y. “Condition 1” is that the value of s reaches the “stop threshold” (the condition of step S2-5-9 is satisfied). “Condition 2” is that the value of s does not reach the stop threshold even if character strings are matched in all combinations of x and y (the condition of step S2-5-2 is not satisfied).

  First, “Condition 1” will be described. As shown in FIG. 10, in step S2-5-4, the quote match determination unit 28 compares the x-th line of the comparison character string group A with the character string of the y-th line of the comparison character string group B. Determine whether the character strings match.

  If the result of determination in step S2-5-4 is that the character strings do not match, the quote match determination unit 28 proceeds to step S2-5-5, increments y, and continues the subsequent iterative processing. On the other hand, as a result of the determination in step S2-5-4, if the character strings match, the quote match determination unit 28 increments s in step S2-5-8, and then proceeds to step S2-5-9. .

  In step S2-5-9, the quotation match determination unit 28 determines whether or not the condition “s = stop threshold” is satisfied. Step S2-5-9 is a determination step for Condition 1.

  As a result of the determination in step S2-5-9, when the value of s satisfies the stop threshold value, that is, when the number of matches of the character string reaches the “stop threshold value”, the quoted sentence match determination unit 28 It is determined that the past mail i is the citation mail of the analysis target mail m. As a result, the quote deletion unit 23 executes step S3 shown in FIG. 2 and deletes the quote of the analysis target mail m.

  On the other hand, as a result of the determination in step S2-5-9, if the value of s does not satisfy the stop threshold, the quotation match determination unit 28 increments x in step S2-5-6, and further, step S2 In -5-7, y is initialized to 1, and then the subsequent iterative process is continued.

  Next, condition 2 will be described. If the comparison in all rows of the comparison character string group A and the comparison character string group B is completed without satisfying the termination condition of the condition 1, the condition 2 is satisfied. That is, in FIG. 10, after step S2-5-6 and step S2-5-7 are executed, when the condition of step S2-5-2 is not satisfied, condition 2 is satisfied. When condition 2 is satisfied, step S2-6 shown in FIG. 2 is executed.

  That is, the state in which the condition 2 is satisfied (the state in which the condition in step S2-5-2 is not satisfied) is a state in which it is determined that the past mail i currently focused on is not the citation mail of the analysis target mail m. is there. Accordingly, after decrementing i, step S2-6 is executed in order to continue the comparison of the character strings of the analysis target mail m and the past mail i again.

  Although not shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 10, “condition 1” is not satisfied for all past mails (all mails with mail number m−1 or less), that is, step S3 shown in FIG. If “Yes” is not obtained, the quoted sentence of the analysis target mail m is not deleted by the quoted sentence deleting unit 23, and instead, the processing in the mail capacity reduction device 20 is stopped.

  Here, the “stop threshold” used in the first embodiment will be described. By setting the stop threshold to an appropriate value, it is possible to prevent erroneous detection of a quoted sentence or adjust the frequency of deleting a quoted sentence.

  First, prevention of erroneous detection of quotes will be described. The sender of mail generally adds his / her name, affiliation, telephone number, etc. as a signature sentence at the bottom of the mail. The signature text is usually composed of several lines, and the same one is almost always added. That is, when the character strings of the analysis target mail and the past mail are compared, there is a possibility that the character strings match for several lines of the signature sentence even if the mails have nothing to do with each other. The same can be said for typical sentences such as "That's it.", "Thank you for taking care of me."

  From the above points, in the first embodiment, the stop threshold is set to a value equal to or greater than “the number of lines that may match even mails that are not related to each other (mails that are not cited or cited)”. And it's better to avoid misdetecting quotes.

Also, as shown in FIG. 9, the smaller the stop threshold, the easier it is to determine that the past mail is the citation source mail, and the higher the possibility that the quoted sentence of the analysis target mail will be deleted. On the other hand, when the stop threshold is large, the possibility that the quoted sentence of the analysis target mail is deleted becomes low. Using these things, it is possible to adjust the deletion frequency of the quoted sentence according to the value of the stop threshold .

  Further, as described above, the stop threshold may be set to a value that can prevent erroneous detection of a quoted sentence, and may be set to any value within this range. For example, if you want to increase the mail capacity reduction effect, you can set the stop threshold to a small value, and if you do not want to delete short quotes for the purpose of preventing legibility deterioration, stop What is necessary is just to make a threshold value large. Note that the value of the stop threshold value may be set to an optimal value as appropriate in accordance with the contents of mail that the user normally exchanges.

  Next, in the first embodiment, the “comparison character string group A” acquired from the analysis target mail m does not target multiple quotes (quotes with an arbitrary number of citations) but single quotes (quotes). Explain the reason for limiting to a single quote). There are two main reasons.

  The first reason is “to reduce the amount of processing”. When creating a reply mail or a forward mail based on a certain original mail, the mail software automatically creates a "mail with a reply symbol added to the beginning of each line of the original mail body". In general, the user adds the reply contents and the reply contents to the mail automatically created by the mail software.

  At this time, since there is usually a “non-quoted sentence (plain text)” in the text of the original email, this automatically created email will contain a single quote unless the user intentionally deletes it. Will exist. Therefore, if this single quotation is used as a material for determining whether or not it is a citation mail, the citation analysis unit 22 can detect the citation mail with a smaller amount of processing than when using multiple citations. Can do.

  If the mail replyer or forwarder intentionally deletes the single quote, the present invention cannot delete the quote. However, single quotes are, so to speak, “quotes from the last exchange”, and are often relatively important, and are considered to be rarely deleted. Therefore, in this sense, the comparison target is limited to single quotes. There seems to be no problem.

  Note that in step S2 shown in FIG. 2, i is repeatedly performed in descending order of i. A single quoting is performed when a mail with a larger mail number i, that is, a mail with a new reception date and time is searched in order. This is because it is considered that past emails with matching sentences can be detected quickly.

  The second reason is “to stably detect the original mail”. As described above, the stop threshold value is preferably set to a value equal to or greater than “the number of lines that may match even mail that is not in a citation relationship or a cited relationship”. In this case, if the target of the comparison character string group A is a multiple quote sentence, there is a high possibility that a signature sentence and a fixed sentence will be included in a plurality of people. Unless the threshold is changed, it is impossible to stably detect the citation mail. On the other hand, if a single quote is used, the signature sentence included in the comparison character string group A is considered to be limited to one place. Therefore, the mail threshold reduction support device 20 is set with a fixed stop threshold value. As a result, stable operation can be expected.

  In the above-described example, an analysis is performed as to whether or not to delete a quote for any mail stored in advance in the mail storage unit 24 shown in FIG. However, Embodiment 1 is not limited to the above example. In the first embodiment, a plurality of mails, for example, all mails in a certain mail folder may be designated at the same time as the mails to be processed.

  In the first embodiment, the processing by the mail capacity reduction device 20 may be started manually by a user or automatically by the device itself. In addition, when starting automatically, the mail capacity reduction device 20 may automatically start processing when a certain period of time has elapsed since the reception of the mail, or automatically whenever a mail is received. You may start.

  When the mail capacity reduction device 20 is configured to automatically start processing, it is considered that it is possible to save the user's trouble. As described above, in the first embodiment, it is preferable that mail groups that have undergone a series of exchanges are grouped together in the same mail folder. For this reason, when the mail capacity reduction device 20 starts processing automatically, it is preferable that the classification into mail folders is also automatically executed.

  The program according to the first embodiment of the present invention may be a program that causes a computer to execute steps S1 to S3 shown in FIG. 2 and steps S2-5-1 to S2-5-9 shown in FIG. By installing and executing this program on a computer, the mail capacity reduction support device 20 and the mail capacity reduction support method according to the first embodiment can be realized. In this case, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) of the computer functions as the mail receiving unit 21, the quote analysis unit 22, and the quote deletion unit 23 to perform processing. A storage device such as a hard disk provided in the computer functions as the mail storage unit 24, the stop threshold storage unit 25, and the reply symbol storage unit 26.

[Effect in Embodiment 1]
The first effect of the first embodiment is that it is possible to automatically delete only quotes that can grasp the meaning of mail from each received mail even if it is deleted. Can be reduced. The reason is not to focus only on the emails to be analyzed, but also on the past emails classified in the same mail folder, and delete the quoted text if there is a source email in the past emails This is because it is clearly defined and processing is performed in accordance with this definition.

  The second effect of the first embodiment is that the processing time can be reduced. The reason is that even if there is a citation source mail in the same mail folder, a citation that cannot be understood when deleted, that is, a citation described in a partial citation format is not processed. That is, in the first embodiment, it is determined whether or not a quotation is described in a partial quotation format. In the case of a quotation described in a partial quotation format, Not subject to processing. As a result, the processing time is reduced because character string comparison processing is not performed for a quote sentence described in a partial citation format, which increases the processing amount.

  A third effect of the first embodiment is that it is possible to prevent erroneous detection of a citation source mail. The reason for this is to set a “stop threshold” as a parameter to determine whether the email is a quoted email, and eliminate the signature or fixed phrase that causes the character string to match even though it is not the quoted email. Because. In the first embodiment, even if the analysis target mail and the past mail match in the signature text or the fixed text, the past mail in this case is not determined to be the citation mail by the stop threshold.

  The fourth effect of the first embodiment is that the frequency of detecting the citation source mail can be adjusted. The reason is that in the first embodiment, the frequency of detecting the citation source mail can be changed by increasing or decreasing the “stop threshold”.

(Embodiment 2)
Next, a mail capacity reduction support device, a mail capacity reduction support method, and a program according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  The mail capacity reduction support apparatus according to the second embodiment has the same configuration as the mail capacity reduction apparatus 20 according to the first embodiment shown in FIG. This is different from the mail capacity reduction device 20 in the first embodiment. In the following description, FIG. 1 is taken into consideration as appropriate.

  In the second embodiment, the quote match determination unit 28 of the quote analysis unit 22 has a function of setting a stop threshold value. That is, in the first embodiment, the stop threshold is stored as a constant (a positive integer) in the stop threshold storage unit 25. However, in the second embodiment, the stop threshold is the body of the analysis target mail m. It is calculated and set each time according to the number of lines.

  As described with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10 in the first embodiment, the maximum value of the variable s for counting the number of matching of the character strings is the comparison character string group A (single quoted sentence of the analysis target mail m). ) Is equal to the total number of rows p. That is, in order to satisfy the condition of step S2-5-9 shown in FIG. 10 and detect a quoted sentence, the stop threshold value must be an integer equal to or less than p. In other words, if the stop threshold is greater than p, there is no progress to step S3.

  At the same time, if “the number of lines that can be matched even in mail not in citation relationship or citation relationship” is g, the stop threshold value may be an integer larger than g. This is because if the stop threshold is smaller than g, there is a possibility that a quoted sentence is erroneously detected. Note that g is a positive constant, and an appropriate value of g is considered to be given as a substantially constant value regardless of what kind of mail the user receives.

  From the above, it is considered that if the stop threshold is set to a value larger than g and smaller than p, it is possible to prevent a detection omission without erroneously detecting a quoted sentence. Here, the setting of the stop period threshold value will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a preferable range of the stop threshold value used for the analysis of the quotation.

  FIG. 11 shows the stop threshold based on the two conditions that (b) the stop threshold is an intermediate value between g and p when (a) p is larger than g. An example of setting is shown. In the example of FIG. 11, the quote match determination unit 28 calculates [(g + p) / 2] as the stop threshold. In the second embodiment, the formula for calculating the stop threshold is not limited to the example of FIG.

  However, since the stop threshold is an integer, when the calculation result does not become an integer, the quote match determination unit 28 sets the stop threshold to an integer, for example, by rounding up the first decimal place. When p is smaller than g, (a) is not satisfied among the above two conditions, and the stop threshold value cannot be calculated. Therefore, the quote match determination unit 28 performs processing before entering the character string comparison process. To stop.

  Next, the operation of the mail capacity reduction support apparatus according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the operation of the mail capacity reduction support apparatus according to Embodiment 2 of the present invention. Also in the second embodiment, the mail capacity reduction support method is implemented by operating the mail capacity reduction support apparatus. Therefore, the description of the mail capacity reduction support method in the second embodiment is replaced with the following description of the operation of the mail capacity reduction support apparatus.

  As shown in FIG. 12, first, in step A1-1, the quote match determination unit 28 acquires the lower limit g of the “stop threshold” used in step A2 from the stop threshold storage unit 25, and further returns a reply. A list of “reply symbols” is acquired from the symbol storage unit 26. Step A1-1 is different from Step S1-1 shown in FIG. 1 in that the lower limit g of the stop threshold is acquired instead of the stop threshold.

  Next, the quote format determination unit 27 executes Step A1-2 and Step A1-3. Step A1-2 and step A1-3 are the same steps as step S1-2 and step S1-3 shown in FIG.

  Next, in step A2-1, the quote match determination unit 28 obtains the single quote text (comparison character string group A) of the analysis target mail m, and at the same time, the number p of single quote sentences is also obtained. get.

  Subsequently, in step A2-2, the quote match determination unit 28 determines whether p is larger than g. As a result of the determination in step A2-2, when p is not larger than g, the process is stopped. Thereby, the processing in the mail capacity reduction support apparatus is completed.

  On the other hand, if p is larger than g as a result of the determination in step A2-2, in step A2-3, the quote match determination unit 28 determines that the quote match determination unit 28 is as shown in FIG. A stop threshold is calculated using p and g.

  Next, the quote match determination unit 28 executes Step A2-4 to Step A2-8. Steps A2-4 to A2-8 are the same steps as steps S2-2 to S2-6 shown in FIG.

  Thereafter, in step A3, the quote deletion unit 23 deletes all the quotes of the analysis target mail m and completes the process. Step A3 is the same as step S3 shown in FIG.

  As described above, according to the second embodiment, the stop threshold can be set to an optimum value according to the number of lines in the body of the analysis target mail, so that the meaning of the mail can be grasped even more reliably. Only possible quotes can be deleted. Also in the second embodiment, the same effect as in the first embodiment can be obtained.

  The program according to the second embodiment of the present invention may be a program that causes a computer to execute steps A1 to A3 shown in FIG. 12 and steps S2-5-1 to S2-5-9 shown in FIG. By installing and executing this program on a computer, the mail capacity reduction support apparatus and mail capacity reduction support method according to the second embodiment can be realized. In this case, the CPU of the computer functions as the mail reception unit 21, the quote analysis unit 22, and the quote deletion unit 23, and performs processing. A storage device such as a hard disk provided in the computer functions as the mail storage unit 24, the stop threshold storage unit 25, and the reply symbol storage unit 26.

  Here, a computer that realizes the mail capacity reduction support apparatus by executing the program according to the first or second embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a computer that implements the mail capacity reduction support apparatus according to Embodiment 1 or 2 of the present invention.

  As shown in FIG. 13, the computer 110 includes a CPU 111, a main memory 112, a storage device 113, an input interface 114, a display controller 115, a data reader / writer 116, and a communication interface 117. These units are connected to each other via a bus 121 so that data communication is possible.

  The CPU 111 performs various calculations by developing the program (code) in the present embodiment stored in the storage device 113 in the main memory 112 and executing them in a predetermined order. The main memory 112 is typically a volatile storage device such as a DRAM (Dynamic Random Access Memory). Further, the program in the present embodiment is provided in a state of being stored in a computer-readable recording medium 120. Note that the program in the present embodiment may be distributed on the Internet connected via the communication interface 117.

  Specific examples of the storage device 113 include a hard disk and a semiconductor storage device such as a flash memory. The input interface 114 mediates data transmission between the CPU 111 and an input device 118 such as a keyboard and a mouse. The display controller 115 is connected to the display device 119 and controls display on the display device 119. The data reader / writer 116 mediates data transmission between the CPU 111 and the recording medium 120, and reads a program from the recording medium 120 and writes a processing result in the computer 110 to the recording medium 120. The communication interface 117 mediates data transmission between the CPU 111 and another computer.

  Specific examples of the recording medium 120 include general-purpose semiconductor storage devices such as CF (Compact Flash) and SD (Secure Digital), magnetic storage media such as a flexible disk, or CD-ROM (Compact Disk). Optical storage media such as Read Only Memory).

  Part or all of the above-described embodiments can be expressed by (Appendix 1) to (Appendix 18) described below, but is not limited to the following description.

(Appendix 1)
A device that helps reduce the mail capacity of received emails,
A citation format determination unit that determines whether a citation in the body of the target email is described in a full-text citation format or a partial citation format;
When the quoted text is described in a full-text quoted format, the quoted text and the entire character string of the email whose reception date is older than the target email are compared on a line-by-line basis. A quote match determination unit that determines whether or not the number of is equal to or greater than a set threshold;
As a result of determination by the quote match determination unit, when the number of matching lines is equal to or greater than a set threshold, the quote deletion unit that deletes the quote from the text of the target e-mail;
An e-mail capacity reduction support device characterized by comprising:

(Appendix 2)
The mail capacity reduction support device according to appendix 1, wherein the target e-mail and an e-mail whose reception date and time is older than the target e-mail are managed by the same mail folder.

(Appendix 3)
The quote match determination unit identifies a line to which only one preset reply symbol is added in the quote, and the received date is older than the identified line and the target email. The mail capacity reduction support device according to appendix 1 or 2, which compares the entire character string of an e-mail line by line.

(Appendix 4)
The mail capacity reduction support device according to appendix 3, wherein the quotation match determination unit sets the threshold to a value smaller than the number of specified lines.

(Appendix 5)
The mail capacity reduction support device according to any one of appendices 1 to 4, wherein the threshold is set based on the number of lines that may match between mails that are not related to each other.

(Appendix 6)
Any one of appendices 1 to 5, wherein the quote deletion unit inserts a character string indicating that the quote has been deleted at a location where the quote has been deleted in the body of the target e-mail. E-mail capacity reduction support device according to the above.

(Appendix 7)
A method for helping to reduce the mail capacity of received emails,
(A) determining whether a quote in the body of the subject email is described in full-text or partial-quote format; and
(B) As a result of the determination in the step (a), when the quoted text is described in a full-text quoted format, the quoted text and the character of the email whose reception date is older than the target email Comparing the entire column by row to determine whether the number of matching rows is greater than or equal to a set threshold; and
(C) as a result of the determination in the step (b), when the number of matching lines is equal to or greater than a set threshold value, the quoted sentence is deleted from the text of the target e-mail; and
A mail capacity reduction support method characterized by comprising:

(Appendix 8)
The mail capacity reduction support method according to appendix 7, wherein the target e-mail and an e-mail whose reception date and time is older than the target e-mail are managed by the same mail folder.

(Appendix 9)
In the step (b), a line to which only one preset reply symbol is added is specified in the quoted sentence, and the received date is older than the specified line and the target e-mail. 9. The mail capacity reduction support method according to appendix 7 or 8, wherein the entire character string of the e-mail is compared in line units.

(Appendix 10)
The mail capacity reduction support method according to appendix 9, wherein, in the step (b), the threshold value is set to a value smaller than the specified number of rows.

(Appendix 11)
The mail capacity reduction support method according to any one of appendices 7 to 10, wherein the threshold is set based on the number of lines that may match between mails that are not related to each other.

(Appendix 12)
In the step (c), a character string indicating that the quoted sentence is deleted is inserted into a place where the quoted sentence is deleted in the text of the target e-mail. The mail capacity reduction support method described in any one of the above.

(Appendix 13)
A program for supporting a reduction in mail capacity of received e-mail by a computer,
In the computer,
(A) determining whether a quote in the body of the subject email is described in full-text or partial-quote format; and
(B) As a result of the determination in the step (a), when the quoted text is described in a full-text quoted format, the quoted text and the character of the email whose reception date is older than the target email Comparing the entire column by row to determine whether the number of matching rows is greater than or equal to a set threshold; and
(C) as a result of the determination in the step (b), when the number of matching lines is equal to or greater than a set threshold value, the quoted sentence is deleted from the text of the target e-mail; and
A program that executes

(Appendix 14)
14. The program according to appendix 13, wherein the target e-mail and an e-mail whose reception date and time is older than the target e-mail are managed by the same mail folder.

(Appendix 15)
In the step (b), a line to which only one preset reply symbol is added is specified in the quoted sentence, and the received date is older than the specified line and the target e-mail. The program according to appendix 13 or 14, which compares the entire character string of an e-mail line by line.

(Appendix 16)
The program according to appendix 15, wherein in the step (b), the threshold value is set to a value smaller than the specified number of rows.

(Appendix 17)
The program according to any one of appendices 13 to 16, wherein the threshold is set based on the number of lines that may match between mails that are not related to each other.

(Appendix 18)
In the step (c), a character string indicating that the quoted sentence is deleted is inserted into the body of the target e-mail in the place where the quoted sentence is deleted. The program according to any one.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to reliably delete only quotes in which the user can grasp the meaning of the email even if the quotes are deleted from the quotes in the email. The present invention can be used on various terminals capable of receiving electronic mail, and is useful in these terminals.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Mail server 20 Mail capacity reduction support apparatus 21 Mail receiving part 22 Quote sentence analysis part 23 Quote sentence deletion part 24 Mail preservation | save part 25 Stop threshold value memory | storage part 26 Reply symbol memory | storage part 27 Quote sentence format determination part 28 Quote sentence match determination part 30 Terminal device 110 Computer 111 CPU
112 Main Memory 113 Storage Device 114 Input Interface 115 Display Controller 116 Data Reader / Writer 117 Communication Interface 118 Input Device 119 Display Device 120 Recording Medium 121 Bus

Claims (8)

A device that helps reduce the mail capacity of received emails,
A citation format determination unit that determines whether a citation in the body of the target email is described in a full-text citation format or a partial citation format;
When the quoted text is described in a full-text quoted format, the quoted text and the entire character string of the email whose reception date is older than the target email are compared on a line-by-line basis. A quote match determination unit that determines whether or not the number of is equal to or greater than a set threshold;
As a result of determination by the quote match determination unit, when the number of matching lines is equal to or greater than a set threshold, the quote deletion unit that deletes the quote from the text of the target e-mail;
An e-mail capacity reduction support device characterized by comprising:   The mail capacity reduction support device according to claim 1, wherein the target e-mail and an e-mail having a reception date and time older than the target e-mail are managed by the same mail folder.   The quote match determination unit identifies a line to which only one preset reply symbol is added in the quote, and the received date is older than the identified line and the target email. The mail capacity reduction support device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the entire character string of the electronic mail is compared in units of lines.   4. The mail capacity reduction support device according to claim 3, wherein the quote match determination unit sets the threshold to a value smaller than the number of specified lines.   The mail capacity reduction support device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the threshold is set based on the number of lines that may match between mails that are not related to each other.   The quoted sentence deletion unit inserts a character string indicating that the quoted sentence has been deleted at a place where the quoted sentence has been deleted in the text of the target e-mail. The mail capacity reduction support device according to any one of the above. A method for helping to reduce the mail capacity of received emails,
(A) determining whether a quote in the body of the subject email is described in full-text or partial-quote format; and
(B) As a result of the determination in the step (a), when the quoted text is described in a full-text quoted format, the quoted text and the character of the email whose reception date is older than the target email Comparing the entire column by row to determine whether the number of matching rows is greater than or equal to a set threshold; and
(C) as a result of the determination in the step (b), when the number of matching lines is equal to or greater than a set threshold value, the quoted sentence is deleted from the text of the target e-mail; and
A mail capacity reduction support method characterized by comprising: A program for supporting a reduction in mail capacity of received e-mail by a computer,
In the computer,
(A) determining whether a quote in the body of the subject email is described in full-text or partial-quote format; and
(B) As a result of the determination in the step (a), when the quoted text is described in a full-text quoted format, the quoted text and the character of the email whose reception date is older than the target email Comparing the entire column by row to determine whether the number of matching rows is greater than or equal to a set threshold; and
(C) as a result of the determination in the step (b), when the number of matching lines is equal to or greater than a set threshold value, the quoted sentence is deleted from the text of the target e-mail; and
A program that executes

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