Patent Application
20050234914
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mail arrival notice system that operates in conjunction with a computer and a database, and upon receipt of mail, reports the arrival of the mail to a user of transmission destination of the mail, and a mail delivery device used in the system.
2. Description the Prior Art
In recent years, the miniaturization of computers and the development of mobile communication means have enabled the transmission and reception of electronic mail (hereinafter simply referred to as mail) by use of mail dedicated terminals and cellular phones on the road. In normal mail systems, when mail arrives in a provider, it is stored in a mail server. At this time, since the arrival of the mail is not reported to a user, to recognize the arrival of new mail, the user must access the mail server by himself (herself) and obtain the mail. However, since this forces the user to consciously and frequently check for the existence of new mail, there is an increasing demand for the service that reports the arrival of mail to users upon its arrival in providers. Presently, mail arrival notice service is already implemented which, when mail arrives, reports its arrival to terminal adapters of users and pagers, using ISDN User information.
Known technologies on conventional mail arrival notice service are described in Japanese Patent Disclosure Nos. Hei 10-247936, Hei 11-252159, and Hei 11-252160.
Hereinafter, a mail arrival notice system of the prior art will be described with reference to
However, the above-described conventional mail arrival notice system has means for retransmitting failed mail arrival notice, and if mail arrival notice occurs continuously for a same user, all failed mail arrival notices are retransmitted. As a result, a processing amount increases, posing a first problem for the mail arrival notice system. Also, when plural pieces of mail arrive, mail arrival notice and retransmission may take place at the same time. In the case where information indicating arrival notice is obtained as in the caller number notice service conveying only the arrival of a call, upon receiving the arrival notice, users immediately take out mail from a mail server, with the result that simultaneous plural notices bring about little effectiveness. In some cases, after arrival notice for certain mail fails, arrival notice for other mail directed to the same user succeeds, and after a user obtains the mail, mail arrival notice for the former mail is retransmitted. This results in retransmitting mail already obtained, increasing meaningless transmission.
Even in the case where the above mail arrival notice succeeds, direct transmission of arriving mail heavily loads terminals and causes the processing capability and storage capacity of the terminals to be exceeded if the mail contains high volumes of data. Moreover, in the cases where video data is transmitted to terminals having the capability to receive only character data, even if arrival notice is issued to transmit mail contents, the terminals can receive not all of the data.
A second problem is that elaborate actions cannot be taken according to user settings and reasons for failure in transmission, so that different actions cannot be taken between a mail arrival notice system and users that are responsible for transmission failure. When terminals are busy or out of the communication-capable area, the terminals will probably become receivable by waiting for retransmission, while, when there is a problem in the mail arrival notice system, the possibility that transmission succeeds changes little even by waiting for retransmission, and the effect of waiting cannot be expected. Consequently, unconditional retransmissions for all transmission failures would involve unnecessary ones.
A first object of the present invention is to provide a mail arrival notice system and a mail delivery device that can efficiently perform mail arrival notice, with the mail delivery device reduced in processing and memory capacity.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a mail arrival notice system and a mail delivery device that can appropriately and efficiently perform mail arrival notice according to standby statuses of terminals and terminal types.
A third object of the present invention is to provide a mail arrival notice system and a mail delivery device that can transfer mail to terminals other than terminals of mail arrival destination according to terminal settings or requests from terminals.
The present invention comprises a mail delivery device for delivering mail received through the Internet to terminals; and terminals for requesting arrival notice of receive mail under conditions set in advance for the mail delivery device, wherein, when mail arrival notice to the terminals from the mail delivery device fails, the mail arrival notice data is stored, and the mail arrival notice is transmitted to the terminals again after a predetermined time elapses, while, when the mail arrival notice is successfully transmitted, the stored mail arrival notice data is deleted from the mail delivery device. With this configuration, the mail delivery device can be reduced in processing and memory capacity.
The present invention is characterized in that, when the mail delivery device, after storing the mail arrival notice data, receives other mail directed to the terminals, it temporarily stops transmission of the stored mail arrival notice data, and releases the transmission temporarily stopped when arrival notice of the other mail fails. When arrival notice of the other mail received later succeeds, since arrival notice of the previous mail becomes unnecessary, by temporarily stopping transmission of the previous mail at the time of reception of the other mail, the mail delivery device can be reduced in processing and memory capacity.
The present invention is characterized in that, when the mail delivery device, after storing the mail arrival notice data, receives other mail directed to the terminals, it deletes the stored mail arrival notice data. When arrival notice of the other mail received later succeeds, since arrival notice of the previous mail becomes unnecessary, by deleting a request to transmit the previous mail at the time of reception of the other mail, the mail delivery device can be reduced in processing and memory capacity.
The present invention is characterized in that the mail delivery device can set any number of retransmissions of mail arrival notice. Thereby, the mail delivery device can be reduced in processing and memory capacity.
The present invention is characterized in that the mail delivery device changes conditions for transmitting mail arrival notice to the terminals, based on reasons for failure in transmission. Elaborate mail arrival notice is made according to standby statuses of terminals to reduce failures in mail arrival by lengthening a retransmission interval when the terminals are out of communication-capable area, and shortening a retransmission interval when the terminals are busy.
The present invention is characterized in that users of the terminals have plural terminals of different types, and the mail delivery device, at the time of the mail arrival, assigns priorities to the plural terminals according to mail contents, notice conditions, or terminal capabilities and transmits mail arrival notice. Elaborate mail arrival notice is made according to whether the terminals are cellular phones, PHS, or PDA. This makes it possible to reduce cases where data whose arrival is reported cannot be downloaded or received for lack of the capability of the terminals.
The present invention is characterized in that users of the terminals have plural terminals of different types, and the mail delivery device, at the time of the mail arrival, converts mail arrival notice or mail text into a format meeting mail contents, notice conditions, or terminal capabilities. Mail arrival notice or mail transmission is performed in an appropriate format according to whether the terminals are cellular phones, PHS, or PDA, and the mail can be read in a terminal format as closely to the original as possible.
The present invention provides a mail transfer instruction function for terminals to transfer mail to, wherein, upon receipt of mail arrival notice, the terminals make a request to transfer the mail, and upon receipt of the transfer request, mail arrival notice means transmits arriving mail to a terminal of transfer destinations. Thereby, the terminals can, without an increase in load, receive mail using terminals of specified transfer destinations.
The present invention registers plural pieces of terminal information of users in the user data storage means, registers terminal information of transfer destinations and transfer instructions in at least some of terminals, wherein the mail arrival notice means reports mail arrival to the some of terminals and automatically transfers arriving mail to a terminal of transfer destination. Thereby, without users' special operations, the terminals can, without an increase in load, receive mail using a terminal of a specified transfer destination.
The above-described objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the description of embodiments described below with reference to the drawings.
Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The following description assumes that mail to identical terminals has identical notice conditions. The present invention is not limited to these embodiments and may be embodied in various forms without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described.
FIGS. 5 to 9 show the structures of data used in a mail arrival notice system 202. These data structures, which show items containing data, have the same effect regardless of a structure change from a table to list structure.
In
The mail arrival notice creation means 201 creates mail arrival notice. Based on the mail arrival notice, the notice transmission means 202 create transmission data, stores it in the transmission data storage means 109, and requests the network connection control means 203 to transmit mail arrival notice. The network connection control means 203 converts the request into a format interpretable to the network connection means 110 before outputting it to the network connection means 110. After termination of the above processing, the network connection means 110 outputs a first redispatch request 803 to transmit mail arrival notice to the public network 112. However, since the terminal 113 is not ready for reception, the public network 112 returns first connection failure notice 804 to the network connection means 110. The contents of the first connection failure notice 804 are as shown in the transmission result notice of
Next, if the second mail for the user go-inkyo arrives at the same time (806), since the terminal 113 cannot receive mail arrival notice, the same processing as between 801 and 805 is performed between 806 and 810. As a result, data on the second mail is added to the retransmission data storage means 206. This state is 902 of
When the third mail 811 for user hachi arrives at 13:00, the notice transmission means 202 adds data to the transmission data storage means 109; this is a state indicated by 903. At this time, the notice transmission means 202 sets the retransmission suppression flag 505 to indicate temporary stop of retransmission of data of the first mail for the same user hachi as the destination of the third mail in the retransmission data storage means 206 and retransmission queue is marked with x mark as shown in 904. This is because the retransmission of the previous mail arrival notice is unnecessary as long as mail arrival notice for the third mail is attempted. Other processing on transmission is the same as for the first mail; the mail arrival notice means 108 outputs a third redispatch request 812 for the third mail to the network connection means 110, which outputs a third redispatch request 813 to the public network 112.
On the other hand, the notice transmission means 202 obtains time from the timer management means 107 to compare with data within the retransmission data storage means 206. The obtained data is 13:00, which is scheduled retransmission time of data of both hachi and go-inkyo. However, since the retransmission queue of data for the first mail of hachi is marked with x mark, the data is not retransmitted. Accordingly, only for retransmission data for the second mail for go-inkyo with the retransmission queue marked with an O mark, the mail arrival notice means 108 outputs a second retransmission request 814 to the network connection means 110, which outputs a second redispatch request 815 to the public network 112. Thereby, the data for the second mail in the retransmission data storage means 206 is deleted by the retransmission data deletion means 205.
Since the terminal 113 cannot still receive mail arrival notice for this while, third connection failure notice 816 for a third transmission request 812 is returned from the public network 112, and a third transmission error 817 is returned to the mail arrival notice means 108 from the network connection means 110. Processing for the third transmission error 817 is the same as at the return of a first transmission error 804 for the first transmission request 802. Since this makes transmission processing for hachi unnecessary, the retransmission suppression flag 505 goes off and retransmission queue becomes an O mark. As a result, the transmission data storage means 109 becomes empty of data as shown in 907, and the retransmission data storage means 206 is stored with two pieces of data for hachi as shown in 908.
For the second retransmission request 814, since the terminal 113 is not ready for reception, second connection re-failure notice 818 is returned to the network connection means 110 from the public network 112, and a second retransmission error 819 is returned to the mail arrival notice means 108 from the network connection means 110. Processing for this is the same as at the return of a first transmission error 804 for the first transmission request 802. However, in this case, since retransmission is performed only once, the processing for the second mail terminates at this point, and data of the second retransmission request 814 is not stored in the retransmission data storage means 206. As a result, data of the transmission data storage means 109 and the retransmission data storage means 206 is unchanged.
Next, a first retransmission request 820 to retransmit the first mail delayed because of reception of the third mail is outputted to the network connection means 110. Data of the first mail is deleted from the retransmission data storage means 206 by the retransmission data deletion means 205, and only data for the third mail remains in the retransmission data storage means 206, as shown in 910. The network connection means 110 outputs a first redispatch request 821 to the public network 112, which performs first mail arrival 822 for the terminal 113. For the first mail arrival 822, since the terminal 113 is ready for reception, mail arrival notice from the mail delivery device 111 arrives successfully. The public network 112 outputs first connection success notice 823 to the network connection means 110, which outputs first transmission success notice 824 to the mail arrival notice means 108. Upon receipt of the first transmission success notice 824, the notice transmission means 202 uses the retransmission data deletion means 205 to delete all hachi data within the retransmission data storage means 206. As a result, the retransmission data storage means 206 becomes empty as shown in 912. The terminal 113 dials the mail delivery device 111 from a caller number contained in the received mail arrival notice and thereby can obtain mail text from the mail transmitting means 104.
As described above, in the first embodiment, setting of the retransmission suppression flag for retransmission data within the retransmission data storage means 206 produces the effect of avoiding redundant processing and redundant use of lines caused by the concurrent execution of transmission of mail arrival notice and data retransmission for the same user. The retransmission data deletion means 205 is provided to delete all retransmission data not yet transformed to a same terminal when transmission succeeds, thereby producing the effect of avoiding redundant processing, redundant use of lines, and redundant use of memory caused by the retransmission of arrival notice of mail already obtained by users.
In the present embodiment, the notice transmission means 202 obtains time of the timer management means 107 and determines whether to perform retransmission. The same effect is obtained by recording scheduled retransmission time in the timer management means 107 and notifying the notice transmission means 202 when the scheduled retransmission time is reached, to start transmission.
Although, in the present embodiment, the retransmission suppression flag has only the two states of being set and being not set, by use of the retransmission suppression flag as a flag for determining the number of mail arrival notices to the same user under transmission processing, it will be easily understood that not only the same effect is obtained, but also transmission processing for concurrent arrival of plural pieces of mail can be supported.
By providing a transmission suppression flag as well as the retransmission suppression flag for the transmission data storage means 109 and setting the flag for data having the same notice destination as data being transmitted to avoid processing for the data, it will be easily understood that the effect of avoiding concurrent transmission of plural mail arrival notices to the same user is obtained.
In the present embodiment, there is shown a case where, after transmission of mail arrival notice succeeds, all retransmission data for the same terminal is deleted. However, the same effect will be obtained by providing the retransmission data storage means 206 and the retransmission data deletion means 205 and/or the transmission data storage means 109 and a transmission data deletion means for it to delete all transmission data for a same terminal after transmission of mail arrival notice succeeds.
Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described. Since the second embodiment uses the same configurations shown in
Next, when second mail 1006 arrives, the mail delivery device 111 transmits mail arrival notice as described below in the same way as for the first mail. First, the mail receiving means 102 receives the first mail and stores it in the mail storing means 103. Next, the notice determination means 105 obtains user information from the user data storage means 106 and determines whether to report the arrival of the first mail, according to notice conditions. The mail arrival notice means 108 creates mail arrival notice and makes a request for mail arrival notice. The following processing is performed within the mail arrival notice means 108.
The mail arrival notice creation means 201 creates mail arrival notice. The notice transmission means 202 stores transmission data in the transmission data storage means 109, and requests the network connection control means 203 to transmit the notice. The network connection control means 203 converts the request into a format interpretable to the network connection means 110 before outputting the request to the network connection means 110. The retransmission data deletion means 205 deletes hachi data having the same notice destination as the transmission destination hachi of the second mail from the retransmission data storage means 206. Data of the first mail is deleted at this time. Processing in 1007 to 1010 is the same as that in 802 to 805 of the first embodiment. Since only hachi data for the second mail remains in the retransmission data storage means 206, a second retransmission request 1011, which is a retransmission request for the second mail, is transmitted. Processing for a second redispatch request 1012 and mail arrival 1013 is the same as that for the first redispatch request 821 and the first mail arrival 822 in the first embodiment.
As described above, in the second embodiment, when arrival notice of the first mail fails, retransmission data of the first mail is stored in the retransmission data storage means 1106, and when second mail for the same transmission destination as the first mail arrives, retransmission data of the first mail within the retransmission data storage means 1106 is deleted. This produces the effect of decreasing the number of transmissions of mail arrival notice and the amount of memory used.
Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described. An overall configuration of a mail arrival notice system in the third embodiment is the same as that in the first embodiment as shown in
As described above, in the third embodiment, by providing the retransmission control table 1107 storing the causes of failure in transmission of mail arrival notice and retransmission processing corresponding to the causes, retransmission processing can be appropriately performed for each of the causes of failure in transmission of mail arrival notice.
Although, in the third embodiment, retransmission count is used as a counter, the same effect is obtained by use of the retransmission in the form of a remaining retransmission point. Specifically, in the example of the third embodiment, when retransmission data is stored, 100 is given as an initial point, the retransmission point is decreased for each occurrence of errors, such as −100 for “out of the communication-capable area”, −34 for “busy”, immediate data discard for terminal attribute mismatch, and −2 for network connection means errors, and when the given point becomes 0 or less, the data is discarded.
Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described.
Priorities are decided as described below, for example. There are different cases, depending on mail contents.
(1) When Only Characters are Contained in the Mail
Since all terminals can transmit, decreasing priorities are assigned to the terminal 1, terminal 2, and terminal 3 in that order. As a result, when transmission fails, transmission destinations change in the order of terminal 1, terminal 2, and terminal 3.
(2) When Only an Image File is Contained in the Mail
Since cellular phones having the highest priority cannot output images, decreasing priorities are assigned to the terminal 2, terminal 3, and terminal 1 in that order. As a result, when transmission fails, transmission destinations change in the order of terminal 2, terminal 3, and terminal 1.
(3) When a Document File and an Image File are Contained in the Mail
In the order in which more information can be displayed, decreasing priorities are assigned to the terminal 3, terminal 2, and terminal 1 in that order. As a result, when transmission fails, transmission destinations change in the order of terminal 3, terminal 2, and terminal 1.
In the present embodiment, the operation of the system in the case (1) of the mail containing only characters will be described. Also for the cases (2) and (3), in the same way, mail arrival notice can be transmitted according to priorities. In this case, decreasing priorities are assigned to the terminal 1 (1412), terminal 2 (1413), and terminal 3 (1414) in that order. Therefore, the notice transmission means 202, according to data of mail arrival notice information, outputs a request to report mail arrival to the terminal 1 having the highest priority to the network connection control means 203, and the network connection control means 204 outputs a first transmission request 1902 to the network connection means 110 in a format converted so as to be interpretable to the network connection means 110. The network connection means 110 outputs a first dispatch request 1903 to the public network, whereby the mail arrival notice can be transmitted to a desired terminal via the public network 112. The first transmission request 1902 and the first dispatch request 1903 are transmitted through phone call, ISDN, short messages and mail for mobile communications, and HTTP requests.
However, in the fourth embodiment, since the terminal 1 is not ready for reception (due to out of communication-capable area, no response from terminal, etc.), in response to the first dispatch request 1903, the public network 1411 outputs first connection failure notice 1904 to the network connection means 110. The network connection means 110, in response to the first connection failure notice 1904, outputs a first transmission error 1905 to the mail arrival notice means 108.
The mail arrival notice means 108 performs retransmission in the order of terminal priorities decided in the above processing. For the terminal 2, the mail arrival notice means 108 retransmits mail arrival notice.
Specifically, when the network connection means 110 receives the first transmission error 1905, the mail arrival notice means 108 obtains terminal priorities of a user to transmit the mail arrival notice to from the user data storage means 106, creates a second transmission request 1907 to output the mail arrival notice to the terminal 2, and outputs the request to the network connection means 110. The network connection means 110 outputs a second dispatch request 1908 to the public network 1403. However, since the terminal 2 is also not ready for reception like mail arrival notice to the terminal 1, a second connection failure notice 1909 is transmitted to the network connection means 110 from the public network 1403, and a second transmission error 1910 is transmitted to the mail arrival notice means 108 from the network connection means 110.
Next, the mail delivery device performs retransmission for the terminal 3. The mail delivery device 1402 operates as in the retransmission for the terminal 2, the mail arrival notice means 108 outputs a third transmission request 1911 to the network connection means 110, and the network connection means 110 outputs a third dispatch request 1912 to the public network 1403. Since the terminal 3 is ready for reception, mail arrival notice 1913 is made to the terminal 3.
It is assumed in the present embodiment that, upon receipt of mail arrival notice, the terminal 3 automatically obtains the mail. In this case, upon receipt of mail arrival notice, the terminal 3 outputs a mail text acquisition request 1914 to the mail delivery device 1402 via the public network 1403. The mail transmitting means 104 within the mail delivery device 1402, in response to the mail text acquisition request 1914, obtains mail from the mail storing means 103. Next, the mail transmitting means 104 obtains information of the terminal 3 from the user data storage means 106, and converts mail contents according to information thereof. Examples of conversion include image enlargement and reduction, tone reduction and image format conversion, and cutting of mail text length to a limit. Mail text is transmitted to the terminal 3 by mail text response 1915. As a result, the terminal 3 can automatically receive not only mail arrival notice but also mail text. The terminal capabilities of the terminal 3 may be specified in the mail text acquisition request so that the mail delivery device 1402 can easily convert mail contents as described above according to the specification.
As described above, in the fourth embodiment, by registering plural pieces of terminal information in the user data storage means and deciding a terminal of transmission destination from mail contents, notice conditions, and terminal capabilities when mail arrives, mail arrival notice can be made to a terminal in which obtained mail can be read in a format closest to the original.
In the fourth embodiment, if a table of correspondences between carriers of phone numbers and phone numbers of transmission destinations, and communication charges is provided and the mail arrival notice creation means assigns the highest priority to a terminal having the lowest communication charge, the effect of reducing communication charges for mail arrival notice can be obtained.
The same effect can be obtained by deciding priorities from one or more of the order of registrations by users, terminal capabilities, records of success rates and the like of past mail arrival notices, satisfied notice conditions, terminals recently used, and communication charges.
The same effect can also be obtained in the case where detailed information of mail arrival notice can be changed by terminal capabilities of transmission destinations.
When mail arrival notice is retransmitted to a terminal different from a previous terminal of transmission destination, if the notice transmission means transmits mail arrival notice information to the mail arrival notice means, and the mail arrival notice creation means creates different mail arrival notice, optimum notice for each of terminals can be transmitted.
Even if operation for acquiring mail text is not performed, mail arrival notice can be made. Also in the case where no terminal capabilities are specified in a mail text acquisition request, if the user's terminal capability information is obtained from the user data storage means and mail text is converted according to the information, mail of a format suited for a terminal can be created and transmitted to the terminal without the terminal doing anything.
When mail arrival notice 1913 is made to the terminal 3 capable of reception as described above, in the case where the load of the terminal 3 would increase if the terminal 3 received mail text because incoming data is attached with a file, the terminal 3 can output a request to transfer the mail to other terminal having a relation with the terminal 3.
Hereinafter, the operation of the system in the fifth embodiment will be described with reference to the sequence diagram of
In the fifth embodiment, the terminal 3 has a mail transfer instruction function, and upon receipt of mail arrival notice, requests mail transfer. In this case, upon receipt of mail arrival notice, the terminal 3 outputs a mail transfer request 1916 to the mail delivery device 1402 through the public network 1403. The mail transfer request contains the terminal ID of the terminal 3 itself and the phone number of a terminal of transfer destination as data. For the mail transfer request 1916, the mail transmitting means 104 within the mail delivery device 1402 obtains mail from the mail storing means 103. The mail transmitting means 104 transmits mail text to a specified terminal by mail text transfer 1917. As a result, since mail text that would be initially transmitted to the terminal 3 can be transmitted to the specified terminal without being transmitted to the terminal 3, the terminal 3 does not suffer an increased load due to reception data, and can receive the mail, using the terminal of a specified transfer destination.
The mail transfer request 1916 can be not only made in the terminal 3 but also transmitted through the terminal 1 or 2. If a terminal specified in the mail text transfer request 1916 is a terminal registered in the user data storage means 106 shown in
As a variant of the fifth embodiment, instead of outputting the mail transfer request 1916, when mail receiving terminals 1, 2, and 3 are registered in the user data storage means 106, instructions to transfer arriving mail to at least part of the terminals, and data about a transfer destination terminal together are also stored, and when mail arrives in a terminal of interest (e.g., terminal 3), the mail may, without being transmitted to the terminal in which the mail arrives, be transferred to the transfer destination terminal. The instructions to be transferred to the user data storage means 106 is registered as one type of notice conditions. This enables the terminal 3 to receive mail using a specified transfer destination terminal, without suffering an increased load due to reception data. Especially, if registration of data about a transfer destination terminal is set for a terminal (e.g., terminal 3) having the lowest priority, when mail arrival notice is successively made to terminals with descending order of priority, the possibility that the mail arrival notice fails for the terminal having the lowest priority can be reduced, and a success rate of mail arrival can be increased.
As described in the fourth embodiment, in the case where priorities change among the terminals 1, 2, and 3, depending on the attribute of reception data, the following may be performed. That is, a dummy terminal (terminal 4) is additionally registered in the user data storage means 106 as a terminal having the lowest priority, the terminal 4 is registered with a transfer destination terminal specified, and mail arrival notice is made to the terminal 4 at the last stage of mail arrival notice processing so that mail is transferred to the transfer destination terminal.
The present invention has been described based on preferred embodiments shown in the drawings. It is apparent that those skilled in the art can change or modify the embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. The present invention includes such variants.
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind | 371c Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP02/03533 | 4/9/2002 | WO | 4/13/2005 |
