JPH05211520A - Electronic mail receiver - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To confirm whether or not a recipient reads an electronic mail by providing an electronic mail service history recording means recording the history of the recipient reading an electronic mail on the recipient and referencing the history externally. CONSTITUTION:Upon the receipt of an electronic mail, an electronic mail reception means 2 sends the electronic mail to an electronic mail storage means 3. The means 3 stores the electronic mail in its inside till a service request comes from an electronic mail service means 4 serving the electronic mail to the recipient. Upon the receipt of the service request from the means 4, the means 3 extracts the electronic mail for the relevant recipient and stored in its inside and sends the history of the service of the electronic mail to the recipient to an electronic mail service history storage means 5 recording the history. Upon the receipt of the electronic mail from the means 3, the means 5 records and stores the personal identification number of the electronic mail, its service time and the name of the recipient and sends the history to the means 4, and the means 4 gives the history to the recipient. The service history stored in the means 5 is referenced by an electronic mail service history management equipment 6.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail storage device for recipients of electronic mail exchanged between computer users by a storage type communication method via a computer network.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in an electronic mail system using a computer network, a sender can confirm that an electronic mail message has arrived at a host computer used by a receiver.

FIG. 3 shows an example of a conventional electronic mail receiving apparatus. In FIG. 3, the electronic mail receiving device 11 comprises an electronic mail receiving means 12, an electronic mail storing means 13, and an electronic mail presenting means 14. Of these, the electronic mail receiving means 12 is connected to the computer network, and it is possible to confirm the incoming of the electronic mail by utilizing the communication protocol of the network. The e-mail storage means 13 receives and stores e-mail from the e-mail reception means 12,
Upon receiving the presentation request from the email presenting means 14, the presentation request target email is passed to the email presenting means 14, and the email presenting means 14 presents it to the recipient.

For example, MHS regulated by OSI
In the specification of (Message handling system),
The user agent includes the function of the electronic mail receiving device of FIG. 3, and the function of delivery notification corresponds to the confirmation of the incoming call. In addition, in the e-mail system based on the RFC822 standard used in Unix, sendmail is used.
The (send mail) program includes the function of the electronic mail receiving device of FIG. 3, and the function of the return receipt corresponds to the confirmation of the incoming call.

[0005]

In the conventional example described above, although it can be confirmed that the electronic mail has reached the electronic mail receiving device used by the recipient, it is possible to determine whether or not the recipient has actually read the electronic mail. There is a problem that the person cannot confirm.

[0006]

An electronic mail receiving apparatus of the present invention is an electronic mail receiving means for receiving an electronic mail via a computer network, and an electronic mail for accumulating the electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiving means. Storage means, electronic mail presentation means for presenting the electronic mail stored in the electronic mail storage means to a recipient, and electronic mail presentation history recording means for recording a presentation request from the electronic mail storage means to the electronic mail presentation means It consists of and.

In the above-mentioned electronic mail receiving device, when the electronic mail receiving means can receive the reception confirmation request from the sender, and the electronic mail receiving means receives the reception confirmation request from the sender. The reception confirmation means is activated and checks the presentation history recorded by the e-mail presentation history recording means to confirm reception, and the reception confirmation transmission means for transmitting the confirmation items investigated by the reception confirmation means to the sender. It is characterized by

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of an electronic mail receiving apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, the electronic mail receiving device 1 is composed of an electronic mail receiving means 2, an electronic mail storing means 3, an electronic mail presenting means 4 and an electronic mail presenting history accumulating means 5.

The electronic mail receiving means 2 for receiving electronic mail is connected to a computer network, receives an electronic mail addressed to a recipient who is using the electronic mail receiving apparatus 1 from the computer network, and receives the electronic mail. It is sent to the electronic mail storage means 3 for storage.

The e-mail accumulating means 3 receives the e-mail from the e-mail receiving means 2 and accumulates the e-mail internally until the e-mail presenting means 4 for presenting the e-mail to the recipient requests the presentation.

The electronic mail presenting means 4 receives the electronic mail presenting request from the recipient and transmits the request to the electronic mail accumulating means 3.

Upon receiving the presentation request from the electronic mail presenting means 4, the electronic mail accumulating means 3 takes out the electronic mail for the recipient stored in the electronic mail accumulating means 3 and receives the electronic mail. It is sent to the electronic mail presentation history accumulating unit 5 which records the history of presentation to the person.

When the electronic mail presentation history storage means 5 receives the electronic mail from the electronic mail storage means 3, the electronic mail presentation history storage means 5 records the identification number of the electronic mail, the presentation time, and the recipient's name and stores them internally. Send to.

Upon receiving the electronic mail from the electronic mail presentation history storage means 5, the electronic mail presentation means 4 presents it to the recipient.

The presentation history stored in the e-mail presentation history storage means 5 can be referred to by an external e-mail presentation history management device 6, and the e-mail reference history can be managed by the recipient.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an electronic mail receiving apparatus according to claim 2 of the present invention.

This e-mail receiving device 1'is composed of an e-mail receiving means 2, an e-mail accumulating means 3, an e-mail presenting means 4, an e-mail presenting history accumulating means 5, a reception confirmation means 7, and a reception confirmation transmission means 8. Has been done.

The electronic mail receiving means 2 for receiving the electronic mail is connected to the computer network, receives the electronic mail addressed to the recipient who is using the electronic mail receiving apparatus 1'from the computer network, and receives the electronic mail. Is sent to the e-mail accumulating means 3 for accumulating.

Further, the electronic mail receiving means 2 can also receive a reception confirmation request from an electronic mail sender. Although this reception confirmation request has the same data format as that of the electronic mail, the reception confirmation request is determined by including a special character string in the electronic message. The receipt confirmation request contains the identification number of the email to be confirmed in the message,
It is required to confirm whether the email identified by the identification number has been read by the recipient. Upon receiving such a reception confirmation request, the electronic mail receiving means 2 sends it to the reception confirmation means 7 for confirming the reception of the electronic mail.

The electronic mail accumulating means 3 receives the electronic mail from the electronic mail receiving means 2 and accumulates the electronic mail internally until the electronic mail presenting means 4 for presenting the electronic mail to the recipient makes a presentation request.

The electronic mail presenting means 4 receives the electronic mail presenting request from the recipient and transmits the request to the electronic mail accumulating means 3.

When receiving the presentation request from the electronic mail presenting means 4, the electronic mail accumulating means 3 takes out the electronic mail for the recipient stored in the electronic mail accumulating means 3 and receives the electronic mail. It is sent to the electronic mail presentation history accumulating unit 5 which records the history of presentation to the person.

When the electronic mail presentation history storage means 5 receives the electronic mail from the electronic mail storage means 3, the electronic mail presentation history storage means 5 records the identification number of the electronic mail, the presentation time, and the recipient's name and stores them internally. Send to.

When receiving the electronic mail from the electronic mail presentation history storage means 5, the electronic mail presentation means 4 presents it to the recipient.

The reception confirmation means 7 is an electronic mail reception means 2
When the reception confirmation request is received from, the e-mail presentation history accumulating unit confirms whether or not the presentation history of the e-mail identification number of the reception confirmation target is accumulated. The reception confirmation means 7 constructs a message confirming the reception if the presentation history is accumulated, and a message not confirmed yet if the history is not accumulated, and confirms the reception to the sender of the reception confirmation request. Then, it is sent to the reception confirmation sending means 8.

The reception confirmation transmission means 8 receives the electronic message from the reception confirmation means 7 and sends it to the sender of the reception confirmation request via the computer network.

[0029]

Since the electronic mail receiving apparatus according to the present invention is equipped with the electronic mail presentation history recording means for recording the history of the recipient reading the electronic mail, the electronic mail reception history recording means can be used to receive the history by externally referring to the history. Can see if the person actually read the email.

Further, in the electronic mail receiving apparatus according to claim 2, an electronic mail receiving means capable of further receiving the reception confirmation request from the sender in the form of an electronic mail, and the electronic mail reception means activated by the reception confirmation request, and presenting the electronic mail. Since the reception confirmation means for investigating the history recording means and the reception confirmation transmission means for notifying the sender of the investigation result of the reception confirmation means in the form of electronic mail, the sender is It is possible to confirm whether or not the e-mail has been read by.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an electronic mail receiving device of the present invention according to claim 1 of the claims.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the electronic mail receiving apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an example of a conventional electronic mail receiving apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 1 ′, 11 E-mail receiving device 2, 12 E-mail receiving means 3, 13 E-mail accumulating means 4, 14 E-mail presenting means 5 E-mail presenting history recording means 6 E-mail presenting history management device 7 Reception confirmation means 8 Receiving confirmation sending means

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An electronic mail receiving means for receiving an electronic mail via a computer network, an electronic mail storing means for storing the electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiving means, and an electronic mail stored in the electronic mail storing means. An electronic mail receiving device comprising: electronic mail presenting means for presenting a mail to a recipient; and electronic mail presentation history storage means for recording a presentation request from the electronic mail storage means to the electronic mail presentation means. 2. The electronic mail reception means is capable of receiving a reception confirmation request from a sender, and is activated when the electronic mail reception means receives a reception confirmation request from the sender, and the electronic mail presentation history Reception confirmation means for examining the presentation history recorded by the recording means and confirming reception,
The electronic mail receiving device according to claim 1, further comprising a reception confirmation transmission unit that transmits the confirmation item investigated by the reception confirmation unit to the sender.