JPH1069472A - Document processor and storage medium storing document processing program - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a document processor for performing presentation from the document of a high emergency degree and a storage medium storing a document processing program. SOLUTION: One electronic mail is taken out from a document data base (S1302), an operation for extracting time limit information by the pattern of 'please respond by what day and what time' or the like is performed (S1303) and the operation is repeated until no more unprocessed electronic mail is present. When no more un-processed electronic mail is present, the electronic mails are sorted in the order of time limits (S1307) and the kinds and the time limits of the sorted electronic mails are displayed at a display part.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to document processing.
In particular, the present invention relates to document processing for displaying or reading out a document such as an e-mail according to a written term.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The volume of electronic documents has been increasing due to the increase in capacity of storage media, reduction in price, and the spread of word processors. Further, with the development of networks, the amount of digitized documents that reach users via media such as electronic mail and electronic news is increasing. For this reason, the so-called “information flood”, which causes a document to exceed the amount that can be processed by the user, has become a problem. Recently, in order to mitigate the "information flood", a technique of "information filtering" for selecting a document necessary for a user has been developed. By utilizing this, it is possible to select only documents that match the interests of the user.

[0003] Recently, with the progress of speech synthesis technology,
A new application has been developed in which information stored in a host computer of the user is retrieved from a remote place using a remote device such as a telephone. At present, an environment in which a document such as an e-mail can be read no matter where it is located has not yet been prepared in many cases, so it is useful to use a telephone or the like to listen to the contents of the document from outside.

[0004]

However, since all e-mails arriving at an individual must be read in principle, unnecessary documents cannot be excluded by the "information filtering" technique. Also, for other documents,
You can look through it when you have time, but you can't look through it when you don't have time.

In general, it takes more time to hear and understand the contents of a document than to read it by eyes. When transmitting the contents of a document such as an e-mail by voice synthesis,
As the number of documents increases, information transmission takes a considerable amount of time. In practice, it is often not necessary to convey all documents by voice. Non-urgent documents do not have to be communicated by voice, since the documents can be read by returning to the terminal with the display device. To solve this problem, some devices are designed to read out the title one by one and select whether to read out the text so that the necessary documents can be selected. It takes time to check the title of

[0006] The conventional apparatus has the above problems.

The present invention has been made under such circumstances, and has as its object to provide a document processing apparatus for presenting to a user from a document having a high degree of urgency and a recording medium storing a document processing program. Things.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a document processing apparatus includes the following (1) to (15).
And the storage medium storing the document processing program is configured as in (16) below.

(1) Document holding means for holding a document, time limit extracting means for extracting a time limit for causing an action on the document from each document held in the document holding means, A document processing apparatus, comprising: a document sorting unit that sorts each of the documents in order of a deadline based on a deadline; and a display unit that displays required information of the documents sorted by the document sorting unit.

(2) The document processing apparatus according to (1), wherein the time limit extracting means converts the time limit information in the document to the relative display when the time limit information is relative display, and then extracts the time limit.

(3) The term extracting means extracts term information by pattern matching using a preset term information pattern, and extracts the term from the term information.
Document processing device as described.

(4) The document processing apparatus according to the above (1), wherein the required information is the type of the document and the time limit.

(5) The document processing apparatus according to (1), wherein the documents whose expiration date could not be extracted by the expiration date extracting means are separated from the sorted documents whose expiration date can be extracted and displayed on the display means.

(6) Document holding means for holding a document, browsable time setting means for setting a browsable time of the document, and an action for the document from a document held in the document holding means. A document comprising: a time limit extracting means for extracting a time limit; and a classifying means for classifying a document to be viewed from each of the documents by comparing the time limit extracted by the time limit extracting means with a time set by the viewable time setting means. Processing equipment.

(7) The document processing apparatus according to (6), wherein the sorting means sorts documents that need to be browsed and sorts them in order of time.

(8) The document processing apparatus according to (6) or (7), further comprising a notifying means for notifying the document divided by the dividing means to a required place.

(9) The document processing apparatus according to the above (8), wherein the notifying means notifies by a synthesized voice.

(10) The document processing apparatus according to (8), wherein the required location is a user's telephone.

(11) The browsable time setting means can be set from outside via a line.
(9) The document processing device according to any one of (10) and (10).

(12) The notifying means interrupts the notification in response to a user's instruction to stop, as described in (8), (9),
(10) The document processing apparatus according to (10).

(13) The document processing apparatus according to the above (8), wherein the notifying means automatically notifies a document in which the remaining time until the deadline is less than a predetermined time.

(14) The classifying means, when classifying a document which needs to be browsed, adds or subtracts a predetermined adjustment time to or from the time limit extracted by the time limit extracting means to classify the document. 9) The document processing device according to any one of (10) and (10).

(15) The document processing apparatus according to (14), wherein the adjustment time can be set for each sender.

(16) The central processing unit (1)
A storage medium storing a document processing program for realizing the document processing apparatus according to any one of (15) to (15).

[0025]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to embodiments of a "document processing apparatus".

[0026]

【Example】

(Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a "document processing apparatus" of Embodiment 1.

Referring to FIG. 11, reference numeral 1101 denotes a document database in which documents are stored; 1102, a document sorting unit for sorting documents according to deadline time; 1103, a deadline information analyzing unit for extracting information on a deadline for causing an action on the document; Is a relative date and time conversion unit that converts a relative date and time expression into an absolute date and time expression, and 1106 is a document that has been sorted by the document sorting unit 1102. A document display unit for displaying a document.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of the above-described document processing apparatus.

2, reference numeral 201 denotes a control memory for storing the control procedure shown in FIG. This may be a ROM or a RAM. 202 is a memory,
The term information pattern holding unit 1104 is realized. Reference numeral 203 denotes a central processing unit that performs processing according to a control procedure stored in the control memory 201. Reference numeral 204 denotes a disk, which implements the document database 1101. Reference numeral 205 denotes an input unit such as a mouse and a keyboard. An output unit 206 implements the document display unit 1106. This is a CRT,
Any device such as a liquid crystal display may be used. 2
Reference numeral 07 denotes a bus for connecting each component.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of the operation in the apparatus shown in FIG. The operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In this embodiment, an electronic mail is handled as a document. The processing of this flow is performed by the central processing unit 2
03.

In step S1301, it is checked whether an unprocessed e-mail remains in the document database 1101. If there are, go to step S1302,
If not, the process proceeds to step S1307.

In step S1302, one unprocessed electronic mail is extracted from the document database 1101.

In step S1303, the time limit information analysis unit 1103 extracts time limit information for the extracted electronic mail.

In step S1304, step S13
At 03, it is checked whether or not the term information can be extracted. If the e-mail cannot be extracted, the process returns to step S1301 to move to the next e-mail. If extraction is successful, step S1
Proceed to 305.

In step S1305, it is checked whether or not the deadline time included in the extracted deadline information is an absolute date and time expression. The absolute date and time expression indicates an expression of date and time such as “February 29, 12:00”. Anything that is not an absolute date / time expression is a relative date / time expression, which is "Next Friday",
It refers to something like "17:00 tomorrow." If the expression is an absolute date and time expression, the process returns to step S1301. If it is a relative date and time expression, the flow advances to step S1306.

In step S1306, the relative date / time conversion unit 1105 converts the relative date / time expression into an absolute date / time expression. Here, the absolute date and time expression is generated from the relative date and time expression based on the date and time when the e-mail was transmitted. For example,
If the transmission date and time is Friday, January 26, the expression "17:00 on next Wednesday" is converted to the expression "17:00 on January 31". For an ambiguous expression such as “urgent”, a corresponding time is determined in advance, and the date and time obtained by adding the time to the transmission date and time is set as the expiration time.

The above operation is repeated until there is no unprocessed e-mail. When there are no unprocessed e-mails, the process proceeds to step S1307 as described above.

In step S1307, the document sorting unit 1
At 102, the e-mails are sorted in the order of the extracted deadline time. At this time, e-mails from which the term information could not be extracted are excluded from sorting.

In step S1308, the sorted e-mails are displayed on document display unit 1106, and the process ends. Here, the e-mails for which the period information could not be extracted are displayed separately.

Next, the time limit information extraction processing in step S1303 will be described in detail with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, in step S1401, one sentence is extracted from the body of the electronic mail.

In step S1402, it is determined whether the sentence matches the term information pattern. A pattern relating to the term information is prepared in the term information pattern holding unit 1104, and the pattern is checked by pattern matching with the pattern. The pattern is, for example, a collection of expressions related to time limit information as shown in FIG. If it matches the term information pattern, the process advances to step S1403. If not, the process advances to step S1404.

In step S1403, the expiration time is extracted. The deadline time matches the deadline time expression in the deadline information pattern. After the expiration time is extracted, the process ends.

If it does not match the term information pattern in step S1402, it is checked in step S1404 whether a sentence remains. Step S if remaining
Returning to step 1401, the next sentence is processed. If no statement remains, the process is terminated assuming that the term information cannot be extracted.

Next, the present embodiment will be further described with reference to an actual example. Of the three mails shown in FIG. 6, (a),
In (c), the expiration time is expressed as an absolute date and time, which are "February 2 17:00" and "January 30 12:00", respectively. In (b), the deadline time is “Wednesday, next week at 17:00” and the transmission date and time is Wednesday, January 24, so that when converted to an absolute date and time expression, it becomes “17:00 on January 31”. When these are sorted and displayed by due time,
As shown in FIG. The user can select a necessary e-mail from this screen and display the contents. Instead of displaying the type and time limit of the email as shown in FIG. 7, the content of the email may be directly displayed.

As described above, according to this embodiment,
Since the e-mails are sorted and displayed in the order of the absolute date and time, the e-mails with the highest urgency can be sequentially presented to the user.

(Embodiment 2) FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a "document processing apparatus" of Embodiment 2.

Referring to FIG. 2, reference numeral 2101 denotes a document database in which documents are stored; 2102, a document selection unit for selecting a document to be read; 2103, a clock; 2104, a time at which the next document can be read on the display device; A browsable time setting unit 2105 to be set is a browsable time holding unit that holds the time set by the browsable time setting unit 2104, and a term information analysis unit 2107 that extracts information on a term for causing an action on the document. Is a relative date / time conversion unit that holds a pattern describing information about the date / time, 2108 is a relative date / time conversion unit that converts a relative date / time expression into an absolute date / time expression, and 2109 is selected by the document selection unit 2102 A reading document holding unit 2110 that holds a document is a synthesized sound of the document held in the reading document holding unit 2109. Speech synthesis unit that generates, 2111 is an audio output unit for outputting a sound generated by the voice synthesis unit 2110. The synthesized voice output from the voice output unit 2111 is output to a remote device such as a telephone (not shown) via a modulation device such as a modem.

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of the above-described document processing apparatus.

In FIG. 10, reference numeral 901 denotes a control memory for storing the control procedure shown in FIG. This may be a ROM or a RAM. Reference numeral 902 denotes a memory, which implements a browsable time holding unit 2105, a term information pattern holding unit 2107, and a reading document holding unit 2109. 9
Reference numeral 03 denotes a central processing unit that performs processing according to a control procedure stored in the control memory 901. Reference numeral 904 denotes a disk, which implements the document database 2101. 90
Reference numeral 5 denotes an input unit such as a mouse and a keyboard, which realizes a browsable time setting unit 2104. Reference numeral 906 denotes a voice output unit that implements a voice output unit 2111 that generates and outputs voice based on a synthesized voice signal and provides the user with a synthesized voice via a modulation device or the like. Reference numeral 907 denotes a bus for connecting each component.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of the operation in the apparatus shown in FIG. The operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In this embodiment, an electronic mail is handled as a document. The processing of this flow is performed by the central processing unit 903. The browsable time is set in advance by the user.

In step S 2301, it is checked whether an unprocessed e-mail remains in the document database 2101. If not, the process ends. If it remains, the process proceeds to step S2302.

In step S2302, one unprocessed e-mail is extracted from the document database 2101.

In step S 2303, the term information analyzing unit 2106 extracts term information from the extracted electronic mail. This can be realized by the same processing as in the first embodiment shown in FIG.

In step S2304, step S23
At 03, it is checked whether or not the term information can be extracted. If it cannot be extracted, the process returns to step S2301 to move to the next e-mail processing. If extraction was successful, step S2
Proceed to 305.

In step S2305, it is checked whether or not the deadline time included in the extracted deadline information is an absolute date and time expression. The absolute date and time expression refers to an expression of date and time such as “February 29, 12:00”. Anything that is not an absolute date / time expression is a relative date / time expression, which is "Next Friday",
It refers to something like "17:00 tomorrow." If the expression is an absolute date and time expression, the flow advances to step S2307. If the expression is a relative date and time expression, the process advances to step S2306.

In step S2306, the relative date / time conversion unit 2108 converts the relative date / time expression into an absolute date / time expression. Here, the absolute date and time expression is generated from the relative date and time expression based on the date and time when the e-mail was transmitted. For example,
If the transmission date and time is Friday, January 26, the expression "17:00 on next Wednesday" is converted to the expression "17:00 on January 31". For an ambiguous expression such as “urgent”, a corresponding time is determined in advance, and the date and time obtained by adding the time to the transmission date and time is set as the expiration time.

In step S2307, the browsable time stored in the browsable time storage unit 2105 is compared with the expiration time, and it is determined whether the expiration time is earlier (past) than the browsable time. If not before, step S230
Then, the process returns to 1 and the process proceeds to the next e-mail. If it is before, the process advances to step S2308.

In step S 2308, the electronic mail is stored in read-aloud document storage unit 2109, and voice synthesis unit 2110 is stored.
Generates synthesized speech.

In step S2309, the speech synthesizer 211
0 is output from the voice output unit 2111. The synthesized voice output from the voice output unit 2111 is output to a remote device such as a telephone via a modulation device such as a modem. The above operation is repeated until there is no unprocessed e-mail. When there are no unprocessed e-mails, the process ends as described above.

Next, the present embodiment will be further described with reference to an actual example. It is assumed that the browsable time is set to “9:00 on February 1”. Of the three e-mails shown in FIG. 6, (a) is not read out because the expiration time is “February 2 17:00”. (B) shows the deadline “Wednesday 1 next week”
7:00 ", which is" January 31, 17:00 "when converted to an absolute date and time expression. This e-mail is read aloud because the deadline is earlier. (C) Since the time limit is “12:00 on January 30”, this is also read aloud.

As described above, according to this embodiment,
Since the browsable time can be set, an e-mail with high urgency can be presented at the convenience of the user.

(Modification of Embodiment) In the first and second embodiments, the expiration date information is checked at the time of displaying / reading out an e-mail. You may do so.

In the second embodiment, similarly to the first embodiment,
The e-mails may be sorted and stored in order of the expiration time. If browsable time is set from the beginning,
Only e-mails before the expiration time can be kept for reading.

In the second embodiment, the permissible viewing time is set in advance, but it may be set using a telephone button when a call is made.

In the second embodiment, only the e-mail whose expiration time is earlier than the browsable time is read out, but all e-mails are read out in order of the expiration time, and the reading is stopped when the user instructs interruption. It may be.

In the second embodiment, the time extracted from the electronic mail is used as it is as the expiration time, but a time obtained by adding a certain time to the time or a time obtained by subtracting the time may be used. Also, the time for this adjustment may be set separately for each sender.

In the second embodiment, the e-mail is read aloud when the user makes a call. However, for an e-mail whose remaining time is less than a fixed time until the deadline, the user is automatically called. The contents may be transmitted.

In the first and second embodiments, an e-mail is used as an example of a document. However, the present invention can be similarly implemented as long as contents relating to personal actions are written. For example, a conference application in electronic news.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of one device. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can be implemented in a form in which a program is supplied to a system or an apparatus from a storage medium storing the above-described document processing program.

[0071]

As described above, according to the present invention,
It is possible to provide a storage medium storing a document processing device and a document processing program, which is presented from a document having a high degree of urgency, and can efficiently transmit information to a user within a limited time.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration according to a first embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the first embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of term information extraction.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a term information pattern.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of term information;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a sorting result.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a configuration of a second embodiment.

FIG. 9 illustrates a hardware configuration according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1101 Document database 1102 Document sorting unit 1103 Expiration information pattern holding unit 1106 Document display unit

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Yuji Ikeda Canon Inc. 3- 30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo

Claims (16)

[Claims] 1. A document holding means for holding a document, a time limit extracting means for extracting a time limit for causing an action on the document from each document held in the document holding means, and a time limit extracted by the time limit extracting means. A document processing apparatus comprising: a document sorting unit that sorts each of the documents in order of term based on the document; and a display unit that displays required information of the documents sorted by the document sorting unit. 2. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the time limit extracting means extracts the time limit after converting the time limit information in the document into a relative display to an absolute display. 3. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the term extraction unit extracts term information by pattern matching using a preset term information pattern, and extracts a term from the term information. 4. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the required information is a type of the document and a term. 5. A document whose expiration date could not be extracted by the expiration date extracting means is classified as a document whose expiration date can be extracted and sorted,
2. The document processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the document is displayed on a display unit. 6. A document holding unit for holding a document, a browsable time setting unit for setting a browsable time of the document, and a time limit for initiating an action on the document from each document stored in the document holding unit. And a classifying unit for classifying documents that need to be browsed from the documents by comparing the period extracted by the period extracting unit with the time set by the browsable time setting unit. Characteristic document processing device. 7. The document processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the sorting means sorts documents that need to be browsed and sorts them in order of time. 8. The document processing apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising a notifying means for notifying the document divided by the dividing means to a required place. 9. The document processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the notifying means notifies by a synthesized voice. 10. The document processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the required location is a user's telephone. 11. The document processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the browsable time setting means can be set externally via a line. 12. The document processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the notification means interrupts the notification in response to a user's instruction to interrupt. 13. The document processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the notifying means automatically notifies a document in which the remaining time before the deadline is less than a predetermined time. 14. The method according to claim 1, wherein the classifying unit is configured to add or subtract a predetermined adjustment time to or from the time limit extracted by the time limit extracting unit when classifying the documents that need to be browsed. The document processing device according to claim 8. 15. The document processing apparatus according to claim 14, wherein the adjustment time can be set for each sender. 16. A storage medium storing a document processing program for realizing the document processing device according to claim 1 by a central processing unit.