JP3477654B2 - E-mail matching method and device - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information search system in a communication network, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for providing an information search service in a communication network such as the Internet where electronic mail can be used.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional information retrieval system, a world wide web (World
Wide Web) servers (hereinafter referred to as information retrieval WWW servers) are well known.

The information retrieval WWW server provides the user with information from various information providers who have opened a so-called home page as an information retrieval target. On the other hand, the user searches for the above-mentioned information provided on the Internet using the information search WWW server, for example, via a WWW browser.

[0004]

However, in the case of the conventional information retrieval WWW server described above, it is not always easy, in terms of time and cost, to open a home page or the like for providing information to be retrieved by an individual user. , It is difficult for many individuals to have a home page. Therefore, since the search target provided by the information search WWW server is limited to the information provided by some individuals or corporations, it is not convenient.

Further, in order for the user to retrieve information,
Since the information retrieval WWW server needs to be actively accessed, even if new information is added to the information retrieval WWW server, new information is provided to the user unless the user newly accesses the information retrieval server. There is a problem that it is inconvenient because it does not happen.

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems in the prior art, the present invention enables an individual user to easily register and retrieve information, and information provided by the individual user and information required by the individual user. It is an object of the present invention to provide an information retrieval system in which the latest information that is optimally matched and registered is immediately provided to the user without requiring active access by the user.

It is another object of the present invention to provide an information retrieval system that can be used by a user to confirm the safety of the user in the event of a disaster.

[0008]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of the principle of an electronic mail matching method of the present invention for achieving the above-mentioned object of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the method of matching an electronic mail according to the present invention in a server system for sending and receiving electronic mail includes a step of storing the received electronic mail as a stored mail (step 1) and a newly received electronic mail. The step of matching the new mail, which is an electronic mail, with the saved mail, and extracting the electronic mail having a high degree of matching with the new mail from the saved mail as a compatible mail (step 2); A first e-mail including the content and sender information of the conforming mail is transmitted to the sender of the new mail, and a second e-mail including the content of the new mail and sender information of the new mail is conformed to The step (step 3) of sending to the sender of the mail is included.

The electronic mail matching method of the present invention is that information is registered and searched by electronic mail, and a new mail from a certain user is saved as a saved mail and can be sent from another user as it is. Since it will be searched for new mail of,
The feature is that the latest search target is always provided.

Therefore, according to the present invention, it is possible for an individual user to easily register and retrieve information. In addition, the user can send a new mail once, and then an email indicating matching between the new mail and the saved mail, that is,
You just have to passively wait until you receive the conformance notification email. In addition, every time new information is added, all stored emails (that is, emails received in the past and kept as they are) are matched, and only when the match is established, the user can Since the notification is made by mail, the user does not need to actively check the latest information frequently, but may passively wait until the search result e-mail is received.

[0011]

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the principle of an electronic mail matching apparatus according to the present invention. As shown in the figure, an electronic mail matching device 1 of the present invention in a server system for transmitting and receiving electronic mail includes a receiving means 10 for newly receiving electronic mail, and the newly received electronic mail. The mail database means 30 stores a certain new mail for a predetermined period. As a result, the information is registered by saving the e-mail as a saved mail.

The e-mail matching device 1 obtains the conformity between at least a part of the new mail from the receiving means 10 and the stored mail which is the e-mail already stored in the mail database means 30 in order to obtain a natural sentence. Matching is performed, and from the saved emails, the emails in which the result of the matching satisfies the condition of the predetermined conformance is determined as the conforming email, and the entire text of the conforming email,
It further has a mail search means 20 for outputting the mail header and the above-mentioned conformity. Therefore, since the information retrieval is realized by matching the newly received new mail and the stored mail, it is possible to optimally match the information provided by the individual user with the information required by the individual user.

Further, the electronic mail matching device 1 is provided.
Is a mail generating means 40 for combining the new mail from the receiving means 10 and the matching mail from the mail searching means 30 to generate a matching notification mail, and a sender of the matching notification mail for the new mail. And a sending means 50 for sending to the sender of the conforming mail. Therefore, the latest registered information is immediately provided to the user without requiring active access by the user.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A safety confirmation system of the first embodiment of the present invention using the electronic mail matching device 1 will be described below. Here, the safety confirmation system is, for example, when a user sends an e-mail showing the safety information in which his / her “name” and “situation” are entered in the event of a disaster, so that other users can select from a huge amount of safety information. This is a system for easily acquiring only the necessary safety information.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the safety confirmation system according to the first embodiment of the present invention. Figure 4
FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a new mail and a saved mail in the safety confirmation system. In the safety confirmation system, the receiving unit 10 receives the electronic mail representing the safety information transmitted from the user A via the Internet or the like, and sends it to the mail searching unit 20 (step 10). FIG. 4A shows an example of such a new mail. According to this new email,
It can be seen that the user A wants to know "there is no abnormality" and "want to know the safety of the user B".

The mail search unit 20 inputs the new mail and acquires a stored mail from the mail database unit 30 (step 12). FIG. 4B shows, for example, an electronic mail from user B that the safety confirmation system has already received and saved in the mail database unit 30. Hereinafter, the operation of the safety confirmation system will be described by taking the stored mail shown in FIG. 4B as an example.

The mail search unit 20 performs natural sentence matching of the contents of both mails in order to obtain the matching degree between the new mail from the user A and the saved mail from the user B.
The matching degree between the new mail and the stored mail can be realized by using a conventionally known matching method that inputs two natural sentences and outputs the similarity between the natural sentences. More specifically, what is natural sentence matching?
This is a matching method for measuring the similarity between the natural sentence A and the natural sentence B. For example, the words included in the natural sentence A and the words included in the natural sentence B are respectively extracted, and the number of words included in common is the natural sentence. The degree of similarity between A and natural sentence B is shown. The goodness of fit is, for example, an index obtained by normalizing the above-mentioned similarity over the entire natural sentence that is the target of matching.

When natural text matching is performed between the new mail shown in FIG. 4A and the stored mail shown in FIG. 4B, the common words are "user A", "user B" and "user B". "Safety" is detected, and, for example, a goodness of fit of 80% is obtained. Next, in step 14, it is determined that the new mail from the user A and the saved mail from the user B match, that is, the saved mail from the user B is a matched mail (step 14). Therefore, since there is a conforming mail, the process proceeds to step 18 (step 16).

The mail generation unit 40 receives a new mail of the user A from the reception unit 10, receives the above-mentioned matching mail from the mail searching unit 20, and combines both mails to generate a matching notification mail (step 18). FIG. 5 shows the conformance notification mail thus generated.

The transmitting unit 50 transmits the conformity notification mail to the users A and B (step 20). Further, the new mail from the user A is stored in the mail database unit 30 (step 22). Incidentally, step 14
If there is no conforming mail, the process proceeds to step 22 and a new mail is saved. In this way, the operation of the safety confirmation system when receiving a new mail is completed.

As described above, according to the first embodiment of the present invention, it is possible to quickly obtain only the information required by the user from among a large number of registered information, and the users are urgent. A safety confirmation system suitable for use in situations where people are in contact with each other is realized.

According to the safety confirmation system of the first embodiment of the present invention, when the users can confirm the safety of each other and the contact information of the other party is unknown in an emergency, that is, the mail address of the other party. If you don't know, or
It is possible to confirm the safety of each other even in a situation where they cannot contact each other directly, such as when their own email addresses are unavailable.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a mail matching system according to a second embodiment of the present invention in which a user registers information in a mail matching server by electronic mail via the Internet and obtains necessary information by electronic mail. is there. The user A, the user B, and the user Z send / receive mails to / from the mail matching server 2 via the Internet by the mail sending / receiving terminals 100, 101, and 102, respectively.

The mail matching server 2 has a receiving unit 10 that performs the same function as the electronic mail matching device 1 of the safety confirmation system according to the first embodiment of the present invention.
The mail search unit 20, the mail database unit 30, the mail generation unit 40, and the transmission unit 50.

The mail generation unit 40 of the mail matching server 2 has means for combining information consisting of text, for example, a character advertisement when combining the new mail 3 and the matching mail 22, and the new mail 3 , Conformity email 22
And a matching notice mail 4 in which the text advertisement and the text advertisement are combined.

The mail matching server 2 obtains the matching degree of the advertisement database unit 70 that stores a plurality of character advertisements 72, at least a part of the new mail 3 from the receiving unit 10, and the character advertisement 72 from the advertisement database unit 70. Therefore, it further includes an advertisement search unit 60 that performs matching of natural sentences and supplies a character advertisement determined to be matched from the above-mentioned character advertisement to the mail generation unit 40 as a compatible character advertisement.

The mail database section 30 has a function of deleting the saved mail 32 when a predetermined period of time has elapsed after the saved mail 32 was saved. The server administrator or the like may manually set the predetermined period for the stored mail 32 in the mail database unit 30 in advance. Alternatively, the mail database 32 may use the numerical value written in the first specific portion of the new mail as the predetermined period.

The mail search unit 20 can obtain a condition of a predetermined suitability based on the numerical value written in the second specific portion of the new mail 3 and the saved mail 32. For example, the mail search unit 20. Obtains the larger numerical value of the numerical values written in the second specific portions of the new mail 3 and the saved mail 32 as the lower limit value of the goodness of fit.

FIG. 7 is a processing flowchart for explaining the operation of the mail matching system according to the second embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 7, the new mail A sent by user A and the past mail by user B are sent. The matching notification mail AB is transmitted to both the user A and the user B by matching the stored mail B transmitted to the user.

The case where the mails already transmitted by the users B and Z are stored in the mail database section 32 as the saved mail B and the saved mail Z will be described below. FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a mail and a character advertisement used in the above example, and the saved mail B and the saved mail Z are shown in (b1) and (b2) of FIG. 8, respectively. Further, it is assumed that the character advertisement 1 and the character advertisement 2 as shown in (c1) and (c2) of the same figure are stored in the advertisement database unit 70.

Further, the predetermined storage period of the new mail is entered in the first line of the body of the mail, and the lower limit of the predetermined suitability is entered in the second line of the mail body. First, the user A creates a new mail A describing his or her wish as shown in FIG. 8A and sends it to the mail matching server 2 (step 30). The new mail created by the user A has a desired storage period, for example, 360 days in this example, written in the first line of the text, and the lower limit fitness indicating the lower limit of the desired fitness in the second line of the text, For example,
80% is entered, and the wishes of user A are described in natural sentences on the third and subsequent lines of the text.

Next, the receiver 10 of the mail matching server 2 receives the new mail A (step 32). The receiving unit 10 that has received the new mail A is the mail search unit 20.
Then, the new mail A is input to the advertisement search unit 60 (step 34). The mail search unit 20 receives the new mail A received.
Is used as a search condition to perform natural sentence matching with the saved mail B and the saved mail Z in the mail database unit 30 (step 36). In step 36, the mail search unit 20 sends the matching mail 22 to the mail generating unit 40 together with the matching degree, if there is a matching mail 22. If there is no conforming mail 22, the operation is skipped to step 50.

According to the example of the mail shown in FIG. 8, the desired lower limit conformity of the new mail A is 80%, and the saved mail B is
The desired lower limit conformity of the above is 83%, and the desired lower limit conformance of the saved mail Z is 30%. Therefore, the condition for the saved mail B to be a conforming mail is 83% or more, which is the greater of the lower limit conformity of 80% and 83%, and the condition for the saved mail Z to be a conforming mail, is that the conformity is 80% or more. There will be.

In the case of the above example, the matching degree of the result of the natural sentence matching between the new mail A and the saved mail B is 85%,
The matching degree of the natural text matching result between the new mail A and the saved mail Z is 50%, only the saved mail B is selected as the matched mail 22 and is transmitted to the mail generation unit 40 together with the matching degree 85%.

Similar to the mail search unit 20, the advertisement search unit 6
0 performs natural sentence matching with the character advertisement 1 and the character advertisement 2 in the advertisement database unit 70 using the received new mail A as a search condition, and, for example, the character advertisement with the highest matching degree is generated as the matched character advertisement 62 by mail generation. It is transmitted to the section 40 (step 38). In the case of the above example, the matching degree of the result of the natural sentence matching between the new mail A and the character advertisement 1 is 70%,
The matching degree of the result of the natural sentence matching between the new mail A and the character advertisement 2 is 10%, and the character advertisement 1 is the matching character advertisement 62.
And is sent to the mail generation unit 40.

Next, the receiver 10 transmits the new mail A to the mail generator 40 (step 40). The mail generation unit 40 receives the new mail A from the reception unit 10, the matched mail 22 from the mail search unit 20 (save mail B in this example), and the matched character advertisement 62 from the advertisement search unit 60 (in this example). , The text advertisement 1) is used to generate the matching notification mail AB as shown in FIG. 9 and input it to the transmission unit 50 (step 42). At this time, both the user A who is the sender of the new mail 3 and the user B who is the sender of the matching mail 22 are designated as the destinations of the matching notification mail AB.

The transmitting unit 50 receives the conformance notification mail A
B is a user A and a user B, that is, the mail transmission / reception terminal 1
00 and 101 (step 44), the user A receives the conformity notification mail AB (step 46), and similarly, the user B receives the conformity notification mail AB (step 48). As a result, both the user A and the user B can know the mail address of the other party who matches their wishes and the content of the mail. Furthermore, user A and user B can obtain advertisements that match their wishes.

In this way, the user B can obtain the latest information that matches the new mail sent in the past, that is, the matching notification mail AB without performing any active operation. On the other hand, the receiving unit 10 of the mail matching server 2 operates to store the new mail A in the mail database unit 30 (step 50).

Since the new mail A is stored in the mail database unit 30 as the stored mail 32 for the number of days entered in the first line of the text, 360 days in this example, during the storage period, It is treated as a search target for other new mail. As a result, the user A receives the matching notification mail 4 from the mail matching server 2 each time the new mail A saved matches the other new mail during the above saving period, and thus always obtains the latest matching information. be able to.

Finally, the mail database unit 30 inspects the retention period of the stored retention mail 32 and deletes the retention mail for which the retention period has elapsed from the database (step 52). In this way, the new mail A from the user A matches the saved mail B from the user B, and both the user A and the user B receive the matching notification mail AB.
Ends a series of actions

[0041]

As described above, according to the present invention, since information can be registered and searched only by using the mechanism of electronic mail, even an individual user can easily register and search information. Become.

Furthermore, since the user only needs to send a new mail once and then passively wait until receiving the conformity notification mail, the time and cost required for frequent information retrieval. It is possible to obtain the advantage that the physical burden or stress is reduced. Moreover, every time new information is added, it will be matched with all new emails received in the past, and the matching notification email will notify the user only when the matching is established,
The user can obtain the latest conformance information without actively checking the latest information frequently.

On the other hand, since additional information such as advertisement can be inserted into the electronic mail to the user, the operator of the electronic mail matching system can obtain the advertising income. Furthermore, since an advertisement suitable for the user's request is added, the advertiser can make an accurate PR and the user can efficiently acquire information.

Furthermore, at the time of a disaster or the like, the user can quickly obtain the safety information about the person he / she wants from a huge amount of safety information by sending a new mail with the name entered, for example. There are advantages.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating the principle of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a principle configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of the safety confirmation system according to the first embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a new mail and a saved mail in the safety information system.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a conformance notification mail in the safety information system.

FIG. 6 is a configuration diagram of a mail matching system according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is an operation explanatory diagram of the mail matching system according to the second embodiment of this invention.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of an email and a text advertisement used in the email matching system.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of a matching notification mail used in the mail matching system.

[Explanation of symbols] 1 E-mail matching device 10 Receiving means 20 Mail search method 30 mail database means 40 Email generation means 50 means of transmission

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Claims (9)

(57) [Claims] 1. A server system for sending and receiving electronic mail.
At Saving received emails as saved mail
When, New emails that are newly received emails and the above
Match existing emails and select from the emails saved above
The result of the above matching satisfies the condition of the predetermined goodness of fit.Electric
Extracting child mail as conforming mail,Combine the new mail with the conforming mail and combine
To generate the The conformity notification email is sent to the sender of the new email and the above
Sending to the sender of the conforming email, E-mail
Matching method. 2. In a server system for transmitting and receiving electronic mail, receiving means for newly receiving electronic mail, and mail database means for storing new mail which is the newly received electronic mail for a predetermined period. At least a part of the new mail from the receiving means and natural text matching is performed to obtain the matching degree between the saved mail which is the electronic mail already saved in the mail database means, and the matching result from the saved mail. Judges the e-mail that satisfies the condition of the prescribed conformity as conforming e-mail, and outputs the full text of the conforming e-mail, the mail header and the conformance, the new mail from the receiving means, and the e-mail. A mail generator that combines the above conformance emails from the search means and generates a conformance notification email When, the compliance notification mail comprising a transmission means for transmitting to the sender of the sender and the fit-mail of the new mail, e-mail matching apparatus. 3. The electronic mail matching device according to claim 2, wherein said mail generating means has means for combining information consisting of text when combining said new mail and said matching mail. 4. A text information database means for storing a plurality of the information, at least a part of the new mail received from the receiving means, and a matching degree of the stored information from the text information database means. The electronic mail matching device according to claim 3, further comprising: a text information search unit that performs matching of natural sentences to obtain the matching information and supplies matching information determined to be matched from the information to the mail generation unit. 5. The electronic mail according to claim 2, wherein the mail database means deletes the stored mail when the predetermined period of time has passed after the stored mail has been stored. Matching device. 6. The electronic mail matching device according to claim 5, wherein the mail database means has means for presetting the predetermined period for the stored mail. 7. The electronic mail matching device according to claim 5, wherein the mail database means has means for obtaining a numerical value written in a first specific portion of the new mail as the predetermined period. 8. The mail search means according to claim 2, wherein the mail search means has means for obtaining the condition of the predetermined suitability based on the data written in the second specific portion of the new mail and the saved mail. An e-mail matching device according to any one of the items. 9. The means for obtaining the condition of the predetermined conformity includes:
9. The matching of electronic mail according to claim 8, wherein the larger one of the numerical values written in the second specific portion of the new mail and the stored mail is obtained as the lower limit value representing the condition of the predetermined suitability. apparatus.