JPH11252156A - Electronic mail reception system and reception method for electronic mail - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide reception technology of an electronic mail by which the electronic mail is received timely without charging a useless communication fare. SOLUTION: A user makes dial-up connection by using a computer 1 to receive electronic mails. A device 6 with a caller telephone number detection function detects a user telephone number. Then, a host computer 7 confirms the presence/absence of an electronic mail corresponding to the telephone number, based on the detected telephone number, and outputs a connection instruction to connect a call by a caller when the presence of the electronic mail is confirmed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an e-mail receiving technique, and more particularly to an e-mail receiving technique for reducing unnecessary communication charges.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the rise of electronic mail, various electronic mail services have appeared. For example, the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Sho 62-268253 discloses that when a mail arrives in a subscriber's mailbox, after a preset time or at a certain time, the incoming mail is transmitted to the subscriber. This is a technology that automatically notifies the existence.

[0003] The technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 5-327762 also notifies a subscriber of the presence of an incoming mail. However, all of the above techniques are techniques for notifying the subscriber of the presence of an electronic mail from the mail server side.

[0004]

When an electronic mail is to be positively received from the subscriber side, the electronic mail is connected to the host computer through a dial-up connection, and the electronic mail is received after the connection. However, such an e-mail receiving method is inefficient because a communication fee is charged regardless of the presence or absence of the e-mail. In addition, timely electronic mail cannot be received in order to suppress unnecessary communication charges.

Therefore, the present invention uses a telephone number notification service to confirm the presence or absence of an e-mail from a subscriber's telephone number, thereby enabling timely reception of an e-mail without incurring unnecessary communication charges. The purpose of the present invention is to provide an e-mail receiving technique.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic mail receiving system using a telephone number notification service, wherein a telephone number detecting means for detecting a telephone number of a caller;
Based on the detected telephone number, a confirmation unit for confirming the presence or absence of an e-mail corresponding to the telephone number, and a connection unit for connecting a call of the caller when the presence of the e-mail is confirmed by the confirmation unit. It is characterized by having.

[0007] The confirmation means comprises, for each user, a first storage means in which a telephone number of the user and an e-mail address corresponding to the telephone number are stored in association with each other;
The second electronic mail address is stored in association with the presence or absence of an electronic mail addressed to the electronic mail address.
Storage means, a first search means for searching the first storage means for an e-mail address corresponding to the detected telephone number, and the presence / absence of an e-mail addressed to the searched e-mail address. And a second search unit that searches from the second storage unit and notifies the result.

[0008] Preferably, the connection means is configured to connect the subscriber's call when the telephone number cannot be detected. A second invention is a method for receiving an e-mail using a telephone number notification service, and for each user, storing a presence / absence of an e-mail addressed to the user in association with the telephone number of the user. And a detection step of detecting the telephone number of the user when the user requests transmission of the e-mail by dial-up connection,
A step of searching for the detected telephone number from the stored telephone numbers, and confirming whether or not there is an e-mail corresponding to the searched telephone number; and And a connection step for connecting a call.

[0009] In the detecting step, the connecting step includes:
Preferably, the method further comprises the step of connecting the user's call when the telephone number cannot be detected. Third
The present invention is a method for receiving an e-mail using a telephone number notification service, wherein a telephone number of the user and an e-mail address of the user are associated with each other in advance for each user. And when an e-mail addressed to an arbitrary e-mail address arrives, storing the e-mail address in the second table in association with the existence of the e-mail, and dialing from the user. A detecting step of detecting a telephone number from the user's call when the user's call is originated by the up connection; and transmitting the e-mail address corresponding to the detected telephone number to the first
And the presence or absence of an e-mail addressed to the searched e-mail address is determined by the second
And a step of connecting the call of the user if there is an e-mail addressed to the e-mail address according to the search result, and not connecting the call of the user if there is no e-mail And characterized in that:

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described.
Note that the present invention is based on the telephone number notification (display) service of Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, but the telephone number notification (display) service has already been implemented, so a detailed description of this service will be omitted.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the present embodiment.
In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a computer of a user who uses electronic mail, and reference numeral 2 denotes a modem. 3 is a public exchange, and 4 and 5 are telephone lines. Reference numeral 6 denotes a device having a function of detecting a caller telephone number on the mail server side, and reference numeral 7 denotes a host computer.

The device 6 with a caller telephone number detecting function includes:
A caller telephone number detector 8 is provided. When a call is received, the caller telephone number detecting unit 8 detects the telephone number of the caller of the call and sends the detection result to the host computer 7. In addition, the line of the caller is received or disconnected by an AT command transmitted from the host computer 7.

The host computer 7 includes an e-mail address search unit 9, an e-mail search unit 10, and a communication control unit 11. The e-mail address search unit 9 searches the e-mail address of the caller from the telephone number transmitted from the caller telephone number detection unit 8. And
The e-mail address is transmitted to the e-mail search unit 10. When the caller is set not to notify the telephone number, a result without a telephone number is transmitted from the caller telephone number detecting unit 8, and the result is transferred to the communication control unit 11.

The electronic mail search unit 10 searches the electronic mail address transmitted from the electronic mail address search unit 9 for the presence or absence of an electronic mail of the sender. Then, the result of the presence or absence is transmitted to the communication control unit 11. Communication control unit 11
When there is an e-mail based on the presence / absence of the e-mail transmitted from the e-mail search unit 10, the e-mail server issues an incoming instruction to the device 6 with the caller telephone number detection function and connects the line. Also, when a result without a telephone number is transmitted from the e-mail address search unit 9, a call receiving instruction is similarly issued to the device 6 with a caller telephone number detection function to connect the line. On the other hand, if there is no e-mail, a command to disconnect the line is issued to the device 6 with the caller telephone number detecting function without receiving the incoming command.

Next, the electronic mail address searching section 9 and the electronic mail searching section 10 will be described in more detail. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the e-mail address search unit 9 and the e-mail search unit 10. First, the e-mail address search unit 9 will be described. Email address search section 9
Is composed of an email address storage unit 21 and a search unit 22.

The e-mail address storage unit 21 stores a telephone number and information of an e-mail address corresponding to the telephone number in association with each other. For example, in FIG. 2, when the telephone number is “000 / ** + = * / −”, “aaa” is used as the e-mail address corresponding to the telephone number.

Bbb. or. jp ”is stored. The search unit 22 searches the e-mail address storage unit 21 for the e-mail address of the caller from the telephone number transmitted from the caller telephone number detection unit 8. Then, the e-mail address is entered into the e-mail search unit 10.
Send to For example, if the telephone number transmitted from the caller telephone number detecting unit 8 is “000 / * + = * / −”, the e-mail address “aaa” corresponding to this telephone number

Bbb. or. jp ”is retrieved from the e-mail address storage unit 21. Then, the search result e-mail address "aaa"

Bbb. or. jp ”to the electronic mail search unit 10. When a result without a telephone number is transmitted from the caller telephone number detection unit 8, the result is transferred to the communication control unit 11. Next, the e-mail search unit 1
0 will be described. The e-mail search unit 10 includes an e-mail storage unit 23 and a search unit 24.

The e-mail storage unit 23 associates the e-mail address with the number of e-mails corresponding to the e-mail address, that is, the number of e-mails stored in the mail server and addressed to the e-mail address. Is remembered. For example, in FIG. 2, the e-mail address is "aaa

Bbb. or. jp ", the e-mail address" aaa "

Bbb. or. jp ”is 1
This indicates that the number is zero. The number of e-mails is counted up every time an e-mail arrives, and the count value is reset to 0 when all the e-mails are taken out.
The search unit 24 searches the email storage unit 21 for the presence or absence of the sender's email from the email address transmitted from the email search unit 10. Then, the result is transmitted to the communication control unit 11. For example, in FIG. 2, the e-mail address transmitted from the e-mail search unit 10 is "aa"
a

Bbb. or. jp ", the e-mail address" aaa "

Bbb. or. jp ”is searched from the electronic mail storage unit 21 for the presence or absence of an electronic mail. If the number of e-mails is one or more, the e-mail address “aaa”

Bbb. or. jp ”is recognized as being present, and the result of the presence of the electronic mail is transmitted to the communication control unit 11.
Send to If the number of e-mails is 0, the e-mail address “aaa”

Bbb. or. jp ”, there is no e-mail, and the result of no e-mail is transmitted to the communication control unit 11.
Send to Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the operation.

First, the user makes a dial-up connection with the computer 1 and makes a call (Step 300). If the other party cannot connect due to reasons such as a busy call (Step
301), the modem 2 detects a busy tone and goes off-hook (Step 302). On the other hand, if the call is not in progress, the device 6 with the caller telephone number detection function detects the telephone number and notifies the host computer 7 of the detection result (Step 303).

If the telephone number of the caller is not notified due to the setting of the caller, the host computer issues an incoming call command to the device 6 with the caller telephone number detection function (Step 30).
6). When the telephone number is notified, the host computer 1
Searches for an e-mail address from a telephone number (Step
p304). At this time, if the e-mail address is not retrieved from the telephone number, an incoming call instruction is issued to the device with the caller telephone number detection function (Step 306).

If the e-mail address is found, it is checked whether there is an e-mail addressed to the found e-mail address (Step 305). When there is an e-mail to the retrieved e-mail address, the host computer issues an incoming call command to the device 6 with the caller telephone number detection function and causes the device to have an incoming call (Step 306). On the other hand, if there is no e-mail addressed to the retrieved e-mail address, the line is disconnected without issuing an incoming instruction to the device 6 with the caller telephone number detection function (Step 307).

As described above, since a line is connected only when an electronic mail is present, unnecessary communication costs are not generated.
In the above-described embodiment, after obtaining the telephone number of the caller, an e-mail address is searched from this telephone number to confirm whether or not there is an e-mail addressed to this address. A storage unit for storing in advance the telephone number of the caller who is present may be provided.

In this case, after obtaining the telephone number of the caller,
Since the telephone number and the presence / absence of an e-mail are stored in advance in association with each other, it is only necessary to search for the telephone number of the caller, so that the processing is accelerated by that much.

[0032]

[Effect] The present invention utilizes the telephone number notification service,
By confirming the presence or absence of an e-mail from the caller's telephone number, it is possible to receive the e-mail in a timely manner without incurring unnecessary communication charges.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the present embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an electronic mail address search unit 9 and an electronic mail search unit 10;

FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 computer 2 modem 3 public exchange 4,5 telephone line 6 device with caller telephone number detection function 7 host computer 8 caller telephone number detection unit 9 e-mail address search unit 10 e-mail search unit 11 communication control unit 21 e-mail Address storage unit 22, 24 Search unit 23 E-mail storage unit

[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] March 2, 1998

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0016

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

The electronic mail address storage unit 21 stores a telephone number.
Information and the email address corresponding to this phone number.
And information are stored in association with each other. For example, in FIG.
Means that if the phone number is "000 / ** + = * /-"
"Aaa" as the e-mail address corresponding to the telephone number
{Bbb. or. jp "is stored
I have. Search unit 22 transmits from caller telephone number detection unit 8
E-mail address of the caller from the telephone number
Search from the mail address storage unit 21. And that
Send the e-mail address to the e-mail search unit 10
You. For example, the telephone number transmitted from the caller telephone number detector 8
If the talk number is "000 / * + = * /-", this phone number
E-mail address "aaa@bbb.o"
r. jp ”from the e-mail address storage unit 21
You. Then, the search result e-mail address "aaa @
bbb. or. jp ”to the electronic mail search unit 10
You. It should be noted that the caller's telephone number detector 8 sends a result without a telephone number.
When the result is transmitted, the result is transmitted to the communication control unit 11.
Transfer the fruits. Next, the e-mail search unit 10 will be described.
I will tell. The e-mail search unit 10 includes the e-mail storage unit 2
3 and a search unit 24.

[Procedure amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0017

[Correction method] Deleted

[Procedure amendment 3]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0018

[Correction method] Deleted

[Procedure amendment 4]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0019

[Correction method] Deleted

[Procedure amendment 5]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0020

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

The e-mail storage unit 23 stores an e-mail address
Email and the email corresponding to this email address
The number of emails stored in the mail server.
The number of emails addressed to the email address
It is remembered. For example, in FIG. 2, the e-mail address
Is “aaa@bbb.or.jp”, this email
To the address "aaa@bbb.or.jp"
This indicates that there are 10 e-mails. In addition, electronic mail
Each time an email arrives, the number of
Count up the e-mail address,
When all mail has been retrieved, the count value is reset to 0.
To The search unit 24 transmits from the e-mail search unit 10
The sender's e-mail from the e-mail address
The e-mail storage unit 21 is searched for nothing. And that
The result is transmitted to the communication control unit 11. For example, in FIG.
E-mail address sent from child mail search unit 10
Is “aaa@bbb.or.jp”, this email
Address "aaa@bbb.or.jp"
The presence or absence of an e-mail from the e-mail storage unit 21
You. If the number of e-mails is 1 or more,
A mail addressed to the e-mail address "aaa@bbb.or.jp"
Recognizes that there is a child mail and sends the result
To the communication control unit 11. Also, if the number of emails is 0
If so, the e-mail address "aaa@bbb.or.
jp ”, there is no e-mail, and no e-mail
The result is transmitted to the communication control unit 11. Next, in this embodiment,
The operation will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the operation.

[Procedure amendment 6]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0021

[Correction method] Deleted

[Procedure amendment 7]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0022

[Correction method] Deleted

[Procedure amendment 8]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0023

[Correction method] Deleted

[Procedure amendment 9]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0024

[Correction method] Deleted

[Procedure amendment 10]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0025

[Correction method] Deleted

[Procedure amendment 11]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0026

[Correction method] Deleted

[Submission date] March 2, 1999

[Procedure amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] Claims

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[Claims] ]

[Submission date] March 2, 1999

[Procedure amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0006

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

[0006]

In order to achieve the object of the present onset to achieve the above purpose
Akira received an e-mail using the telephone number notification service
A telephone number that detects the caller's telephone number in the system
Number detection means, and for each user, the user's telephone number and
The e-mail address corresponding to the telephone number is associated
First storage means stored and stored, and an e-mail address
And whether an email addressed to this email address exists
Second storing means for bets are stored in association with the detection
Enter the e-mail address corresponding to the telephone number
A first retrieving means for retrieving from the first memory means is retrieved
The presence or absence of an e-mail addressed to the e-mail address
A second storage means for searching from the second storage means and notifying the result;
Search means and the second search means for the presence of an e-mail.
Primary connection to connect caller's call if confirmed
Means for detecting a telephone number by the telephone number detecting means.
And the first search means
More email addresses could not be searched
If, and a second connecting means for connecting the call originator
It is characterized by the following.

[Submission date] March 2, 1999

[Procedure amendment 3]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0007

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

Further, the present invention for achieving the above object is a telephone number
Email receiving system using the
The telephone number of the sender who sent the e-mail
Remembering storage means and phone to detect caller's phone number
Based on the number detecting means and the detected telephone number,
The presence or absence of an e-mail corresponding to the telephone number
Confirmation means for confirming from the e-mail
Hand to connect the caller's call if the presence of
And a step . Also achieve the above objective
The present invention provides an electronic mail system utilizing a telephone number notification service.
Email receiving system and the sender of the email
Storage means in which the telephone number of the caller is stored in advance, and the telephone number of the caller
Telephone number detecting means for detecting the number, and the detected telephone number
The e-mail corresponding to this phone number based on the
And confirmation means for confirming the free from said storage means, said confirmation hand
If the presence of an email is confirmed by the step, or
The telephone number can be detected by the telephone number detection means.
Having a connection means for connecting the caller's call in case there was no
It is characterized by that.

[Submission date] March 2, 1999

[Procedure amendment 4]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0008

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

Further , the present invention for achieving the above object provides a telephone number
This is a method for receiving e-mail using the
In advance, for each user, the telephone number of the user and the
First table in correspondence with the e-mail address of the person
And the electronic mail to any e-mail address
When an email arrives, the email address and the previous
Record in the second table in association with the presence of the
Remembering process and using dial-up connection
When a user's call is placed, the telephone number is
A detecting step of detecting a telephone number.
Look up the corresponding email address from the first table.
E-mail address searching step for searching;
Check if there is an e-mail addressed to the e-mail address
Searching from the second table and according to the search result
When there is an e-mail addressed to the e-mail address
Connect the user's call to
The step of not connecting the call of the user and the step of detecting
If the telephone number cannot be detected in
E-mail in the e-mail address searching step
If the address cannot be found, connect the user's call
And a step of performing

[Submission date] March 2, 1999

[Procedure amendment 5]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0009

[Correction method] Change

[Correction contents]

Further , the present invention for achieving the above object is a telephone number
This is a method for receiving e-mail using the
To determine if there is an e-mail to the user in advance.
A storage step of storing in a storage unit in association with a number, and a user
Requests to send email via dial-up connection
A detecting step of detecting the telephone number of the user when performed
And searching for the detected telephone number from the storage unit,
Check if there is an e-mail corresponding to the searched phone number
Confirmation process to be performed and if the presence of the email is confirmed
JP, further comprising a connecting step of connecting a call of the user
Sign. In addition, the present invention that achieves the above object is a telephone number
How to receive e-mail using the notification service
To determine if there is an e-mail to the user in advance.
A storage step of storing in a storage unit in association with a number, and a user
Requests to send email via dial-up connection
A detecting step of detecting the telephone number of the user when performed
The telephone number can be detected in the detecting step.
A connection step for connecting the call of the user when the call is not received
And the telephone number detected in the detection step.
Searched from phone numbers stored in storage unit
Confirmation work to check if there is an e-mail corresponding to the phone number
And the existence of the e-mail is confirmed by the confirmation process.
And a connection step of connecting a call of the user when the
It is characterized by the following.

Claims (6)

[Claims] An electronic mail receiving system using a telephone number notification service, comprising: a telephone number detecting means for detecting a telephone number of a caller; and an electronic mail corresponding to the telephone number based on the detected telephone number. An e-mail receiving system comprising: a confirmation unit for confirming presence / absence of mail; and a connection unit for connecting a call of a caller when the presence of the e-mail is confirmed by the confirmation unit. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said checking means comprises: a first storage means for storing, for each user, a telephone number of the user and an e-mail address corresponding to the telephone number; The second stored in association with the presence or absence of an e-mail addressed to this e-mail address
A first search means for searching the first storage means for an e-mail address corresponding to the detected telephone number; and determining whether or not there is an e-mail addressed to the searched e-mail address. 2. The electronic mail receiving system according to claim 1, further comprising a second search unit that searches from the second storage unit and notifies a result of the search. 3. The electronic mail receiving system according to claim 1, wherein said connection means connects the call of the subscriber when the telephone number cannot be detected. 4. A method for receiving an e-mail using a telephone number notification service, comprising: storing a presence or absence of an e-mail addressed to a user for each user in association with the user's telephone number; A detecting step of detecting the telephone number of the user when the user requests transmission of an e-mail by dial-up connection; searching the detected telephone number from a stored telephone number; And a connection step for connecting the call of the user when the presence of the e-mail is confirmed. . 5. The receiving of the electronic mail according to claim 4, wherein the connecting step further includes a step of connecting a call of the user when the telephone number cannot be detected in the detecting step. Method. 6. A method for receiving an e-mail using a telephone number notification service, comprising: associating a telephone number of a user with an e-mail address of the user in advance for each user; Storing in a second table, when an e-mail addressed to an arbitrary e-mail address arrives, storing the e-mail address and the existence of the e-mail in a second table; A detection step of detecting a telephone number from a call of the user when a call of the user is made through a dial-up connection; and searching the first table for an e-mail address corresponding to the detected telephone number. A step of searching the second table for the presence / absence of an e-mail addressed to the searched e-mail address; A step of connecting the call of the user when there is an electronic mail addressed to the dress, and not connecting the call of the user when there is no electronic mail.