JPH09269940A - Device for extracting date or the like - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically extract date information and time information from the composition of a transmitted electronic mail by providing respective means for extracting date information and time information written in the composition of the electronic mail and for displaying the electronic mail and an extraction result, etc. SOLUTION: Data of the electronic mail received through a communication part 101 is stored in a mail recording part 104. An extracting part 105 collates data of the electronic mail stored in the mail recording part 104 with a rule stored in a rule storage part 106 and extracts applying information. The rule storage part 106 stores the rules concerning the respective kinds of date information and time information and the result extracted by the extracting part 105 is stored in a result storage part 107. After that, a display control part 108 executes a processing such as highlighting the extracted place, etc., concerning the display of the extraction result and displays the extraction result of the electronic mail.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a public line network, LA.
N, a device for extracting the date and time from the text of an electronic mail in an electronic mail system that transmits and receives electronic mail through a network such as infrared communication.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an electronic mail that has not been read by using information attached to the header of the electronic mail such as the sender, the time when the electronic mail was sent, the subject, etc. I decided what to read first from among, and decided the classification and importance.

As information for making such a judgment,
There is one that automatically extracts keywords from the sent email. This is to analyze sentences using methods such as morphological analysis to identify words, syntactic analysis to extract grammatical relationships, and semantic analysis to extract semantic structure.
This is to extract words that seem to be important. Also, when there is an item such as date and time, place, and content, such as an email for notifying a meeting, there is one that extracts and displays only this information. Further, Japanese Patent Publication No. 7-76957 discloses a document creation support apparatus having a function of automatically editing and outputting a target fixed-form document by inputting the contents corresponding to the items of the fixed-form document in any order. Has been described.

[0004]

However, it is difficult to judge the content of the electronic mail only by the information attached to the header of the electronic mail, and if the text is not read, the electronic mail is classified and the importance is judged. I couldn't. If you want to automatically extract keywords,
In order to improve the accuracy, it is desirable to use a combination of techniques such as morphological analysis, syntactic analysis, and semantic analysis, which makes the processing heavy and time consuming. Further, there is a disadvantage that the capacity must be increased because a dictionary necessary for each analysis must be provided.

When extracting items such as date / time / place / content, the sender has to input using a prepared format such as “conference guidance”, which is inconvenient for the sender. In addition, these items could not be extracted when an email with a different format arrived. Further, in the apparatus described in Japanese Examined Patent Publication No. 7-76957, it is necessary to specify the type of the standard document, and if the standard document is not possessed in advance, it cannot be automatically edited. Moreover, if the item is described in the sentence, the item cannot be judged.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to be able to automatically extract date information and time information from the text of a sent electronic mail, and to extract important electronic mail from the electronic mail that has not been read yet. An object is to provide a device that can select and classify emails and that extracts the date and time.

Another object of the present invention is to grasp the contents of the electronic mail from the extracted information, to see a lot of electronic mails sent through the network, and to obtain the extraction result. An object is to provide a device for extracting the date and time, which can be displayed in an easy-to-understand manner.

[0008]

According to the present invention, the above-mentioned object is, in an apparatus for transmitting and receiving electronic mail through a communication network, communication means for performing electronic mail communication, and a user's instruction or data to the apparatus. Input means for inputting, a processing means for performing processing according to the data of the electronic mail sent from the communication means and information input by the user, and a mail storage means for storing the data of the electronic mail. , A rule storage means for storing rules relating to date information and time information, and an email text is collated with a rule stored in the rule storage means to match the email text with the rule, Extraction means for extracting date information and time information written in a sentence, result storage means for storing extraction results by the extraction means, and extraction The date and time according to claim 1, further comprising display control means for performing control for displaying the result in correspondence with the text of the electronic mail, and display means for displaying the electronic mail and the extraction result. Etc. is achieved by the device for extracting.

In the device for extracting date and time according to the present invention, the rule storage means points the date information and the time information according to the importance of the date information and the time information together with the rule regarding the date information and the time information. The extraction means calculates the points for the date information and the time information together with matching with the rules for the date information and the time information, and the display control means calculates the points for the extracted date information and the time information. It can be configured to display the extracted date information and time information in the descending order of the points by performing the process of rearranging in the descending order of the points. Judgment rule storage means for storing judgment rules for identification, and extraction of date information and time information based on the judgment rules And further include judgment means for making a decision for the result, the display control unit may be configured to display on the display means to the result of determination by the determination means.

Further, in the device for extracting the date and time of the present invention, rule creating means for creating a rule of the date information or time information from the date information or time information input by the user through the input means, and a rule. It can be configured to further include a rule writing unit that adds the new rule created by the creating unit to the rule storage unit, and a search input unit for a user to input search conditions, and an email text. The display control means may be configured to display the search result on the display means. The search control means further includes a search means for searching the electronic mail based on the extraction result of the date information or the time information written on the display means. .

In the device for extracting the date and time of the present invention, the rule storage means further stores the rules concerning the place information and the matter information together with the rules concerning the date information and the time information, and the extracting means extracts from the text of the electronic mail. , Extracting information that matches each rule stored in the rule storage means,
The display control means may be configured to display the electronic mail and the extraction result on the display means.

Furthermore, the device for extracting the date and time of the present invention is
The schedule determination means for determining whether the email contains the schedule data based on the extraction result from the sent email, and the schedule data in the email determined to include the schedule data by the schedule determination means are stored. The system further includes schedule storage means and schedule input means for a user to input schedule data and instructions to the device.
The display control means can be configured to display the email and schedule data on the display means, and
It is also possible to configure so as to further include a determination standard setting unit for the user to set the determination standard for the schedule data to be determined by the schedule determination unit.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION A first embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

A block diagram of the first embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. In the figure, a communication unit 101 performs communication of electronic mail and connection processing with a network, and an input unit 1
Reference numeral 02 is provided with an input unit that enables a user to input instructions and data to the apparatus. The processing unit 103
Processing such as input processing performed by the user via the input unit 102 and storage of an electronic mail received through the communication unit 101 are performed. Communication unit 101
The data of the electronic mail received through is stored in the mail storage unit 104. The extraction unit 105 is the mail storage unit 1
The electronic mail data stored in 04 and the rules stored in the rule storage unit 106 are collated to extract compatible information. The rule storage unit 106 stores rules regarding each of the date information and the time information, and the result extracted by the extraction unit 105 is stored in the result storage unit 107. Thereafter, the display control unit 108 performs processing such as highlighting the extraction location with respect to the display of the extraction result, and the display unit 109 displays the email data and the extraction result.

Next, the operation of extracting and displaying date information and time information from an electronic mail will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

When an electronic mail is sent from another terminal through the network, first, a line connection is requested. Therefore, in step S1, the communication unit 101
Will connect the line in response to this line connection request. If the line connection is successful, in step S2,
After receiving the e-mail data and receiving all the data, the line is disconnected in step S3. The data of the received e-mail is
It is stored in the mail storage unit 104. At this time, the mail storage unit 104 stores information such as the data of the body of the electronic mail, the sender, the transmission time, and the format.

Here, an example of the text of the electronic mail is shown in FIG. The extraction unit 105 extracts date information and time information from the text of such an email. Although an e-mail having only text data is illustrated in the figure, the same applies to an e-mail having a picture or music attached.

Then, in step S5, the extraction unit 1
Reference numeral 05 collates the text of the electronic mail stored in the mail storage unit 104 with the rule stored in the rule storage unit 106 to match the text of the electronic mail with the rule.

FIG. 10 shows an example of rules stored in the rule storage unit 106. In the figure, the rules are written in regular expressions, YEAR is the number corresponding to the year,
MONTH is defined as the number corresponding to the month, DAY is defined as the number corresponding to the day, and WEEK is defined as the word corresponding to the day of the week. Words with a mark may or may not be extracted. At this time, the rule 1 is "199
It matches the date information displayed such as "October 3-4, 5" or "October 3 (Tue) -4 (Wed)". In the figure, the rule of only the date information is illustrated, but the time information can be similarly expressed by the regular expression.

In step S6, it is determined whether or not the text of the electronic mail matches the rule stored in the rule storage unit 106.

If information matching the rule is found in the text of the electronic mail in step S6, the matching information is stored in the result storage unit 10 in step S7.
Store in 7. At this time, if there are a plurality of matching rules, the longest information is extracted. Alternatively, the user may determine the priority order of the rules and extract them in that order. Subsequently, in step S8, it is determined whether or not the matching processing has been performed on all the rules stored in the rule storage unit 106, and this processing is repeated until the matching processing is performed on all the rules. Be done.

There is also a method of dividing the text of an electronic mail into units such as a number string, an alphabet string, symbols such as ~, and a Chinese character string in advance. An example of this rule is shown in FIG.
Unit information is also given in advance along with the rules. For date information and time information, "year""month""Heisei""hour"
Since each word such as “afternoon” has a meaning, these words are extracted as different units. next,
Perform syntax analysis. The connection method in units that are likely to be date information or time information is stored in advance as a rule, and the arrangement of the units in the electronic mail is collated with the rule to extract a suitable one. For the syntax illustrated in FIG. 11, “Saturday, October 7, 1995” and “95 /
Information such as “10/7” will be relevant. Although a rule of only date information is illustrated in the figure, time information can be similarly expressed. Both are the same as the process of matching the rules and extracting the matching ones. By doing so, the date information and the time information can be extracted even from an electronic mail having a free text whose format is not predetermined.

The extracted result is stored in the result storage unit 107.
When storing in, the position of the character string in the text, the information necessary for controlling the display, and the like are stored together with the extracted character string. Display control unit 108
Divides the extracted results into respective items (here, date and time) and creates a list of candidates in the order of extraction. Also, in order to clarify where the extracted information was extracted from the body of the e-mail, based on the position information of the character string in the body, only the character string is displayed in a different color or highlighted. Is processed. The result thus extracted is displayed on the display unit 109 in step S9.

Here, FIG. 12 shows a display example on the display unit 109. Date information is displayed in red,
There is a method of displaying the time information by changing the color for each item such as blue, and a method of highlighting only the information of interest. If there are multiple extraction results,
There is also a way to display a list of candidates. It is possible to set the list to be displayed only when instructed by the user. Although mail 1 is displayed in the figure,
By clicking the mail 2, the body of the mail 2 and the extraction result of the date information / time information can be immediately displayed. In this way, the pages can be flipped over and displayed.

Various other methods can be applied to the display method. For example, as shown in FIG. 13A, a method of displaying a list of emails that have arrived and displaying the extraction results of the dates side by side, or when emails have arrived as shown in FIG. There is a method of displaying the arrival of the electronic mail to the user and simultaneously displaying the extraction result of the date and time.

In the display method shown in FIG. 13A,
The display control unit 108 divides the items into date / time, creates a list of the extracted results, and displays the list of emails and the list of dates and times on the display unit in association with each other. The date and time information may be kept displayed when one of the e-mail lists is selected and its text is displayed.

In the display method shown in FIG. 13B,
After receiving the electronic mail in the communication unit 101, the processing unit 10
The user 2 notifies the user that the e-mail has arrived. This may be a text message or a picture. At the time of this notification, the extraction result of date and time information is displayed at the same time. Further, the display can be automatically turned off after a certain period of time.

The rule storage unit 106 can also store a rule for giving points to the extraction result according to the importance of date information or time information. For example, the date information following “date:” is regarded as important date information in the sentence, and a high point is given. In addition, when the same date information appears a plurality of times, such as an electronic mail notifying the program of the performance, points are added to these information collectively. Although the date information has been described here, the time information is also similarly pointed. Further, these points are prepared in advance, or can be changed or added by the user. At this time, the extraction unit 105 matches the body of the electronic mail with the rule, calculates points for each of the extracted information, and stores the extraction result and the points in the result storage unit 107. Further, as information used by the display control unit 108, position information in the body of the extracted information and the like are also stored.

When the matching process with all rules is completed, the display control unit 108 divides the extraction result into date information and time information, and rearranges each information in descending order of points. Alternatively, the result storage unit 10
When storing the extraction result in 7, the respective information may be rearranged and stored in descending order of points.

When the date information and the time information are displayed as a list, the list is displayed on the display unit 109 in descending order of points. Furthermore, points may be displayed. When displaying date information and time information one by one, the item with the highest point is displayed. In this way, the user can see the most important items and help to understand the content of the email.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

A block diagram of the second embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. The description of the same parts as those in the above embodiment will be omitted.

The judgment rule storage unit 110 stores judgment rules for judging urgent emails, important emails, and the like. This judgment rule is set in advance. The extraction unit 105 converts the text of the electronic mail stored in the mail storage unit 104 into
The rules relating to the date information and the time information stored in the rule storage unit 106 and the determination rule stored in the determination rule storage unit 110 are collated, and the text of the email and each rule are matched and matched. What is done is stored in the result storage unit 107. The determination unit 111 determines whether the email is important or should be processed urgently based on the preset rule based on the matching result between the extraction result of the date information and the time information and the determination rule. And decide the judgment level.

Next, the process of making a judgment on the received electronic mail will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. Note that the extraction of date information and time information is the same as in FIG.

In step S10, the text of the electronic mail stored in the mail storage unit 104 is compared with the judgment rule stored in the judgment rule storage unit 110, and the text of the electronic mail is matched with the judgment rule. Take In order to shorten the processing time, it is desirable to perform the matching process with the determination rule after extracting the date information and the time information.

Here, an example of the judgment rule, the judgment rule, and the judgment level is shown in FIG. "* Date information *" is an expression to which the rule of date information is applied, such as "October 1, 1995" or "'95 / 10/1".
Such information is relevant. Therefore, the rule "By * date information *" is "By October 1, 1995."
Such information is relevant. The same applies to "* time information *". The user can freely change or add these rules.

Subsequently, in step S11, it is determined whether or not there is matching information between the text of the electronic mail and the determination rule. If information matching the determination rule is found in the text of the e-mail in step S11, the matching information is stored in the result storage unit 107 in step S12, and in step S13,
Set a judgment flag. At this time, along with the extracted information,
The position of the extracted information in the body of the electronic mail is also stored at the same time. In step S14, it is determined whether or not the matching process is performed for all the determination rules stored in the determination rule storage unit 110, and this process is performed until the matching process is performed for all the determination rules. Is repeated. When the matching process for all the judgment rules is completed, the judgment unit 111
Determines in step S15 whether the determination flag is on, and if the determination flag is on, compares it with the determination rule in step S16.

For example, when the character string "By October 1, 1995" is extracted for the judgment rule shown in FIG. 15, the judgment rule indicates the correspondence with the current date. Find out. If the current date is September 31, 1995, this character string satisfies the determination rule, so it is determined that this is an e-mail to be urgently processed. If the current date is October 1, 1995, it is determined that the email is to be processed immediately, and if the current date is October 5, 1995, it is past the date to be processed. It is determined that it is an email. Based on these judgments, the judgment level is determined in step S17.

Here, an example of the judgment level is shown in FIG. In the figure, the decision levels are those that must be processed immediately at level 1, and those that have already passed are at level -1. The same applies to time information,
When the date information and the current date are the same as each other, the time information is used to determine the date information. For example, the current time is 1 for the information “by 3 o'clock”
If it is time, the judgment level is decided by judging that the time is running short. Further, the judgment rule can be set by combining the sender information added to the electronic mail. For example, if the e-mail is sent from a work boss, a judgment rule can be set so that it is judged that the e-mail should be processed immediately from the date 5 days ago. . In this way, the judgment rule can be set by combining the date information and the time information with the information of other electronic mails. In addition, the user can
Rules can be added and amended.

The display control unit 108 controls the display so that the user can easily understand based on such a determination, and displays the determination result on the display unit 109 in step S18. For example, when displaying a list of e-mails, the display control unit 108 controls the display so that the “urgent” mark is displayed larger or blinks as the date is closer to the current date. , Direct the user's attention to the email. Alternatively, the display control unit 108
Controls date and time information that is normally set to be displayed in blue so that it is displayed in red as urgent emails are displayed, and important marks and colors are displayed for important emails. Do what you use. Furthermore, depending on the judgment level, a display method such as rearranging the list so that the e-mails closer to the current date are displayed higher, or displaying the urgent e-mails separately is possible.

Further, when the user opens an e-mail which is judged to be an urgently processed e-mail or an important e-mail by the judgment section 111, the display control section 108 makes clear the reason for the judgment. As described above, the position information stored in the result storage unit 107 is used to change the color of the information that is the basis of the determination and display. As a result, for example, when the judgment unit 111 makes a wrong judgment, the user can easily correct the judgment rule so as to make a correct judgment.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

A block diagram of the third embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. The description of the same parts as those in the above embodiment will be omitted.

The rule creating section 112 receives the information from the user input through the input section 102 and creates a rule for date information or time information. Rule writing unit 11
3 writes the new rule created by the rule creating unit 112 in the rule storage unit 106.

In the above-described first embodiment, when the date information and the time information are extracted, some information may not be extracted. In such a case, the rule creating unit 112
In step 1, a new rule is created so that the information is surely extracted, and the newly created rule is added to the rule stored in the rule storage unit 106 via the rule writing unit 113 to extract the extraction accuracy. Can be improved. Furthermore, it becomes possible to freely create rules according to the user's habits and preferences.

Now, the process of adding a new rule will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

In step S19, date information or time information is input by the user via the input unit 102. As a method of inputting information in the input unit 102, a method of dragging an e-mail sentence with a mouse to select a character string, a method of inputting from a keyboard, or the like is generally used, but the method is not particularly limited. Step S
At 20, the rule creating unit 112 creates a new rule for the input information. At this time,
The user can specify whether to create a rule for date information or a rule for time information.
The designation of the rule creation target may be configured to be performed at the same time when the information is input, or may be configured to be automatically determined from the input information.

For example, in the input unit 102, "199
It is assumed that the date information "6/7, October 5" has been input. At this time, first, it is checked which part each number corresponds to, and the number is changed to a variable to be “(YEAR) year (MONTH) month (DAY) / (DAY) day”.
Here, (YEAR) is used as a macro notation representing a number corresponding to “year”. Others are the same. After replacing with variables in this way, it is converted into the form of rules. FIG.
In the rule shown in, “((YEAR) year)? (M
ONTH) Month (DAY) [/] (DAY) Day (WEE
K)? "become that way. In this way, by previously setting the rules inferred from the date information patterns up to that point, it becomes easy to associate the numbers with the variables. This also applies to the time information.

In step S21, the newly created rule is displayed on the display unit 109 in order to confirm whether the newly created rule is correct. At this time,
If the rule is displayed in macro notation, the user can easily check the new rule.
When the new rule is displayed on the display unit 109, the user waits for input from the user, and in step S22,
Input is made by the user. Here, if the user inputs that the rule is correct, for example, if “OK” is clicked, the rule writing unit 113 adds a new rule to the rule stored in the rule storage unit 106 in step S23. Add rules. When the user inputs the data for correcting the rule, the rule writing unit 113 is executed in step S24.
Adds the corrected rule to the rule stored in the rule storage unit 106. Also, if there is an input from the user to stop adding, for example, "Cancel"
If is clicked, in step S25,
The newly created rule is erased, an error message is displayed on the display unit 109, and the process ends.

By performing the above processing, it becomes possible to create and add a new rule.

Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

A block diagram of the fourth embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIG. The description of the same parts as those in the above embodiment will be omitted.

The search input section 114 enables the user to input search conditions, and the search section 115 stores the search input section 11 in the search input section 11.
The result storage unit 1 with respect to the search condition input via
Based on the extraction result of the date information and the time information stored in 07, the electronic mail stored in the mail storage unit 104 is searched. When the search result is displayed on the display unit 109, the display control unit 108 performs processing such as displaying the search result closer to an electronic mail having closer conditions.

Here, the search process will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

In step S26, the user first inputs search conditions via the search input unit 114. For example, if you want to search for "email written about the meeting on October 3,"
How to enter the keywords "October 3" and "Meeting", click the date or item with the mouse,
There is a method to enter the text as it is. Further, a method of inputting by voice can be applied as the input method of the search condition, and various other input methods can be applied. In step S27, the search unit 115 searches for an electronic mail that matches the conditions input by the user. At this time, the search unit 115 searches the information stored in the result storage unit 107 for the date information and the time information. Simultaneously with this search, the degree of matching with the search condition of each electronic mail is calculated in step S28.
Here, the goodness of fit is a numerical value indicating how well the goodness of fit is with the search condition. The method of calculating the goodness of fit is defined in advance, and for "October 3",
Since “October 2” is close to the search condition, the matching degree is high, while “January 4” is low. Similarly, for the time information, the goodness of fit is quantified. In the case of a keyword, there are various methods such as full-text search and search using a thesaurus, but the method is not limited here.
When there are a plurality of search conditions, the goodness of fit may be obtained for each search condition and displayed as a multidimensional vector. Weight according to importance,
The goodness of fit may be calculated as one numerical value. After the end of the search, in step S29, the results are sorted (sorted) in descending order of suitability.

Subsequently, in step S30, the display control unit 108 performs a process for displaying an electronic mail having a high degree of conformity in an easy-to-understand manner, and displays the search result on the display unit 109. At this time, first, only the search result is displayed on the display unit 109, and if the user gives an instruction to display an email close to the search condition, the email having a high degree of conformity is displayed. If no search result is found, the one with a high degree of conformity is displayed.

For example, in the case of a search result for the keyword "October 3", an electronic mail containing "October 3" in the information is displayed first, and then "October 3".
Display emails with dates close to "day". When displaying the electronic mail, the date is plotted on the horizontal axis, and the center coordinate is set to "October 3", and the electronic mail is displayed at the end as the distance from the search condition increases. If the matching degree does not exceed the preset threshold value, the matching degree with the search condition is low, so the electronic mail is not displayed.
Furthermore, if an e-mail containing "October 3" is not found, the one with a high degree of matching is displayed, and if there are multiple search conditions, the two-dimensional axis is displayed. Use to display.

Next, a fifth embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 5 shows a block diagram of the fifth embodiment of the present invention. The description of the same parts as those in the above embodiment will be omitted.

In this embodiment, the rule storage unit 106
Stores a rule regarding place information and a rule regarding matter information together with a rule regarding date information and time information. The types of information are not limited to the above four types, and rules regarding other information can be stored at the same time. Here, extraction of four pieces of information of date information, time information, place information, and matter information will be described.

The operation until the information is extracted from the e-mail and displayed is the same as that in FIG. 8, and will be described with reference to FIG. The e-mail sent through the communication unit 101 is stored in the mail storage unit 106, and the extraction unit 105
When matching is found between the text of the electronic mail stored in the mail storage unit 106 and each rule, and matching information is found, the information is stored in the result storage unit 107.
Here, the extracted information items and position information are stored. The matching method is similar to the extraction of date information and time information.

Here, an example of a rule of place information is shown in FIG.
Shown in The figure shows rules such as a number string followed by "meeting room" and a number string followed by "room". According to such a rule, place information such as "103 conference room", "room 3", "minami building" can be extracted. Further, by extracting the information after the items such as "place" and "venue", the place information that does not include a fixed word can also be extracted. Further, FIG. 19 shows an example of a rule of matter information. In the figure, rules such as "about" and "matter of" are shown.
It is possible to extract information such as "About evacuation drills". It is also possible to make it possible to extract the information that follows the “purpose” item.

The display control unit 108 creates a list of candidates based on the results stored in the result storage unit 107 by dividing the items into date, time, place, and matter. The matter may be a purpose or content. In addition, the display control unit 108
Displays the results by changing the color so that you can see where each information is extracted from the text.

Also in the first to fourth embodiments of the present invention, the rule storage unit 106 can be configured to store not only date information and time information but also rules for place information and matter information. The function in each embodiment can be processed in the same manner as the date information and the time information, and thus the description thereof will be omitted.

Next, a sixth embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 6 shows a block diagram of the sixth embodiment of the present invention. The description of the same parts as those in the above embodiment will be omitted.

In the figure, the schedule determination unit 116
Determines whether the received e-mail includes schedule data based on the extraction result of the extraction unit 105. The schedule input unit 117 includes means for a user to input instructions and data for schedule data. The schedule control unit 118
With respect to the electronic mail determined to include the schedule data by the schedule determining unit 116, the schedule data is displayed, the data is stored, and the like. The extracted schedule data is stored in the schedule storage unit 119.

Now, the process of registering the schedule data will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

In step S31, information is extracted from the electronic mail received through the communication section 101 according to the process shown in FIG. At this time, the extracted result is stored in the result storage unit 107. Then, in step S32, the schedule determination unit 116
It is determined whether the schedule data is included. As schedule data, items such as date and time, place, content, partner, etc. can be considered, but here, if any other information is extracted in addition to date information and time information,
It is determined that the schedule data is included. Alternatively, when the information is extracted for all the items set by the user, it is possible to set the determination criterion so as to determine that the schedule is included. Here, the criterion is set in advance.

Next, in step S33, the extraction result is displayed. This process is the same as in the first embodiment of the present invention. At this time, in step S34,
It is confirmed whether or not the electronic mail to be displayed is determined to include the schedule data, and the electronic mail including the schedule data is displayed with the schedule data in step S35. Schedule data is displayed when the extraction result is displayed or when the user reads an email. By doing so, the user can immediately check the accuracy of the schedule data from the body of the email. Also,
The display may be performed only when specified by the user. For example, when applied to an application in which a program that reads an email and a program that manages a schedule are linked to each other and can be launched, when an email containing schedule data is received and the user views the email, It can also be configured to display the schedule data at the same time. Further, when the user opens the schedule input screen, the schedule data item of the received e-mail can be configured to be already input by default.

Next, an example of the display on the display unit 109 is shown in FIG.
It is shown in FIG. Information on each item is extracted by the extraction unit 105.
It was automatically extracted by. At this time, if the user determines that the displayed schedule data may be registered in the schedule, it is necessary to press the “Register” button in the input box from the schedule input unit 117 to register the schedule data in the schedule. If it is determined that there is not, the "Cancel" button in the input box is pressed. Further, the user may directly input an instruction that the schedule may be registered or an instruction that it is not necessary to register the schedule.

In step S36, it is determined whether the schedule needs to be registered. Here, it is determined whether or not the "register" button in the input box has been pressed.
Here, when the input from the user is “register”,
In step S37, the schedule control unit 118
Registers the schedule data in the schedule storage unit 119. If the input from the user is not “registration”, the process ends without performing registration. By performing the above-described processing, the user can immediately grasp the content of the electronic mail and automatically register the schedule.

Next, a seventh embodiment of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 7 shows a block diagram of the seventh embodiment of the present invention. The description of the same parts as those in the above embodiment will be omitted.

In the figure, the judgment standard setting unit 120
The schedule determination unit 116 allows a user to set a determination standard for performing determination on schedule data. Various determination criteria can be applied when determining whether or not the electronic mail includes schedule data by using the result of information extraction performed from the sent electronic mail. As an example of the determination criteria, for example, a method of determining the schedule data when any other information other than the date information and the time information is extracted, the user selects the necessary item, and the item , It is determined as schedule data when all are extracted, the method that is determined as schedule data when the most important date information or time information is extracted, date information or time information If it can be extracted, there is a method of determining it as schedule data and immediately registering it. Further, here, not only the determination but also the process in the schedule control unit 118 can be set, so that the schedule data is displayed or not displayed, the registration is automatically performed, and the confirmation is always performed. It is possible to set such as.

The user selects from among these criteria.
An appropriate criterion is selected through the schedule input section 117. In the judgment criterion setting unit 120, the judgment criterion is set, and the e-mail sent next is judged according to the new judgment criterion.

[0077]

According to the invention described in claim 1, since the date information and the time information can be automatically extracted from the text of the sent electronic mail, the user can write all the text of the electronic mail. You can immediately see only the date and time information without reading. This allows you to select and classify important emails from among the emails you have not read. In addition, many e-mails sent through the network can be seen in a flutter, and the extraction result can be displayed in a user-friendly manner.

According to the second aspect of the invention, the user, when a plurality of date information and time information is extracted,
It can display the most important information and helps you understand the content of the email.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, it is possible to automatically determine an urgent e-mail or an important e-mail from a plurality of e-mails, and the user gives priority to the e-mail. Can be processed as desired. Also,
By setting a level for an e-mail that should be read immediately or an important e-mail, it can be used as a standard for determining which e-mail should be processed.

According to the invention described in claim 4, a new rule can be created and added to date information and time information that could not be extracted by the rule stored in advance. It is possible to improve the extraction accuracy of information and time information, and it is also possible to create rules according to the user's habits and preferences. That is,
You can add rules that are commonly used by users or in emails sent to them as rules.

According to the invention of claim 5, the date information and the time information written in the text of the electronic mail are used to
The e-mail can be searched, and as a result, the user can search for the e-mail from the content in the text such as "email written about the three-day meeting". Also, by displaying the ones that have a high degree of conformity with the search conditions nearby, even if there is no exact three-day date, the dates before and after that date are displayed, so that the search can be performed efficiently. .

According to the invention described in claim 6, not only date information and time information but also various information such as place information and matter information can be automatically extracted, and the user can read the text of the email. Without reading, you can get not only the date and time but also the place and things. It can also be used for automatic classification and summary of e-mail.

According to the invention described in claim 7, the schedule data can be automatically extracted from the electronic mail and registered in the schedule data storage unit as a schedule. If you want to save it, you can save yourself the trouble of entering data again.

According to the invention described in claim 8, since the user can set the judgment standard for judging the schedule data, the user can freely set what he wants to judge as the schedule data. be able to. Further, it is possible to set to automatically register as a schedule in the schedule data storage unit for an electronic mail that is desired to be automatically registered as a schedule, such as notification of a meeting.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram in a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a third embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram of a fourth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a fifth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a sixth embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a configuration diagram of a seventh embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating an operation in the first exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a text of an electronic mail.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of rules stored in a rule storage unit of the present invention.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of rules stored in a rule storage unit of the present invention.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example on the display unit of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a display method on the display unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of making a judgment about an electronic mail according to the present invention.

FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a judgment rule, a judgment rule, and a judgment level according to the present invention.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of adding a new rule according to the present invention.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of a search process according to the present invention.

FIG. 18 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a rule regarding location information according to the present invention.

FIG. 19 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a rule relating to matter information according to the present invention.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of registering schedule data according to the present invention.

FIG. 21 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of display on the display unit according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101, communication unit 102, input unit 103, processing unit 104, mail storage unit 105, extraction unit 106, rule storage unit 107, result storage unit 108, display control unit 109, display unit 110, determination rule storage unit 111, determination unit 112, rule creation unit 113, rule writing unit 114, search input unit 115, search unit 116, schedule determination unit 117, schedule input unit 118, schedule control unit 119, schedule storage unit 120, determination reference setting unit

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. An apparatus for transmitting and receiving electronic mail through a communication network, a communication unit for performing electronic mail communication, an input unit for a user to input an instruction or data to the apparatus, and a communication unit for transmitting data from the communication unit. Processing means for performing processing according to the received electronic mail data and information input by the user, a mail storage means for storing the electronic mail data, and a rule for storing date information and time information The rule storage means and the text of the email are compared with the rules stored in the rule storage means to match the text of the email with the rules, and the date information and the time information written in the text of the email are extracted. Extraction means, a result storage means for storing the extraction result by the extraction means, and the extraction result paired with the text of the e-mail. An apparatus for extracting date and time, characterized in that it includes display control means for performing control for corresponding display and display means for displaying electronic mail and extraction results. 2. The rule storage means stores a rule for date information and time information, and a rule for scoring the date information and time information according to the importance of the date information and time information. The extraction means calculates a point for the date information and the time information together with matching with the rule regarding the date information and the time information, and the display control means operates for the extracted date information and time information. 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sorting process is performed in the descending order of the points, and the extracted date information and time information are displayed on the display unit in descending order of the points. 3. Judgment rule storing means for storing judgment rules for identifying urgently read e-mails and important e-mails, and judgment for judging extraction results of date information and time information based on the judgment rules. 3. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means, wherein the display control means displays the determination result by the determination means on the display means. 4. A rule creating means for creating a rule of the date information or time information from the date information or time information input by the user through the input means, and a new rule created by the rule creating means for the rule. 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a rule writing unit added to the storage unit. 5. The system further includes search input means for a user to input search conditions, and search means for searching the electronic mail based on the extraction result of date information or time information written in the text of the electronic mail. 5. The display control means performs control for displaying the search result by the search means, and displays the search result on the display means. The device according to. 6. The rule storage means is configured to store rules relating to location information and matter information together with rules relating to date information and time information, and the extraction means stores the rule storage from the text of an electronic mail. 6. The information matching each rule stored in the means is extracted, and the display control means displays the electronic mail and the extraction result on the display means. The described device. 7. A schedule determination means for determining whether the electronic mail includes schedule data based on the extraction result from the sent electronic mail, and an electronic device determined to include the schedule data by the schedule determination means. The display control means further includes schedule storage means for storing schedule data in the mail, and schedule input means for the user to input schedule data and an instruction to the apparatus, and the display control means displays the electronic mail and the schedule data in the display. 7. A device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that it is displayed on the means. 8. The apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising a determination standard setting unit for a user to set a determination standard for the schedule determination unit to make a determination on the schedule data.