JPH11122294A - Email system - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] [PROBLEMS] To provide an e-mail system that automatically receives and stores e-mail information and is efficiently used by a recipient who is released from the burden of an access operation. SOLUTION: Each of the computer terminals 2A to 2C is provided with receiving boxes 5a to 5c for automatically receiving and storing electronic mail information, and the computer terminals 2A to 2C operate personal computers 2a to 2c, 3 and confirms reception of the e-mail, there is no need to take in the e-mail information in the access processing, and the reception of the e-mail and the transmission source specified in the time period of the lighting of the reception indicator lamps of the reception boxes 5a to 5c. The number of unread e-mail information can be detected on the display of the number display 10, and the reading of the e-mail information can be determined according to the frequency of use by the user. E-mail information can be read efficiently, without having to read the e-mail information in a confidential state by operating the password of the recipient of the destination name It will work.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to an electronic mail system in which a plurality of computer terminals are connected to an Internet network to which a provider is connected, and electronic mail information is transmitted to the computer terminals via the provider.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An electronic mail system in which a plurality of computer terminals are connected to an Internet network to which a provider is connected, and electronic mail information is transmitted to the computer terminals via the provider, has been developed for use in intra-company communication and inter-company communication. Used as part of OA.

[0003]

In a conventional e-mail system, a personal computer of a computer terminal is operated to perform a connection process with a provider.
After confirming receipt of the e-mail information, it is necessary to read the received e-mail information. The access operation for confirming whether or not the e-mail information has been received and taking in the e-mail information can be performed by an operator who frequently uses e-mail or by an operator who occasionally uses e-mail. This is a burden, especially for operators who use e-mail infrequently, which may delay the reception of e-mail of important urgent messages.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of the current state of the electronic mail system as described above, and its object is to provide:
An object of the present invention is to provide an e-mail system that automatically receives and stores e-mail information and is efficiently used by a recipient who is free from the burden of an access operation.

[0005]

According to the present invention, a plurality of computer terminals are connected to an Internet network to which a provider is connected, and electronic mail information is transmitted to the computer terminals via the provider. An e-mail system transmitted to the plurality of computer terminals, a receiving box for automatically receiving and storing the e-mail information is connected to the Internet network, and the e-mail information is transmitted to the Internet network. Automatic receiving means for automatically receiving, incoming display means for displaying reception of the automatic receiving means, storing means for storing e-mail information received by the automatic receiving means, and the e-mail read from the storing means Information display means for displaying information is provided in the reception box.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS One embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the present embodiment, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the external configuration of the receiving box of the present embodiment, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the receiving box of the present embodiment. .

In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 1, computer terminals 2A, 2B, and 2C registered in the electronic mail system are connected to the Internet network 1, and each computer is connected to the Internet network 1. Terminal 2A
2C, a provider 3 for controlling the transmission and reception of e-mail is connected to the provider 3. The provider 3 sends e-mail information from a pre-designated source to a designated computer terminal. Priority transmission means for transmitting data preferentially is provided. In the present embodiment, each of the computer terminals 2A to 2C is provided with a personal computer 2a to 2c and a reception box 5a to 5c for automatically receiving and storing electronic mail information, which are connected to the Internet 1 respectively. The receiving boxes 5a to 5c are connected to the corresponding microcomputers 2a to 2c, respectively. These receiving boxes 5a to 5c can be installed together with a telephone using a telephone line.

FIG. 1 shows the appearance of the receiving box 5a from the receiving boxes 5a to 5c having the same structure, as shown in FIG. 2. The receiving box 5a is provided at the lower front part of the receiving box 5a. An operation unit 7 for performing the operation of the above operation is provided, and a liquid crystal display panel 6 for displaying received electronic mail information is provided substantially at the center of the front of the reception box 5a, and on the side of the front of the reception box 5a. Is an incoming call indicator 8 for notifying the arrival of e-mail information, a number display 10 for displaying the number of e-mail information that has not been read out, and a memory card insertion slot 1.
1 is provided.

As shown in FIG. 3, the receiving box 5a is provided with a CPU 13 for controlling the entire operation, and the CPU 13 has an interface circuit 1 for performing an interface operation with the Internet 1 via a bus B.
4, an operation unit 7 for performing various operations, a liquid crystal display panel 6 for displaying e-mail information, a RAM 15 for recording and reading various data during operation, a ROM 16 for storing a control program, and a personal computer 2. An interface circuit 17 that performs an interface operation with the Internet is connected, and the Internet network 1 and the personal computer 2 are connected to the interface circuits 14 and 17, respectively.

Similarly, the CPU 13 stores, via the bus B, the memory 1 in which the received electronic mail information is stored.
8. A judgment circuit 20 for judging the e-mail information to be received from the e-mail information to be transmitted, and a memory card mounting unit 21 for mounting a memory card in which the received e-mail information is written in case of a power failure are connected. ing.

In the present embodiment, when receiving the e-mail information, the CPU 13 returns a acknowledgment message to the provider 3 when receiving the e-mail information, and when reading the e-mail information, the receiver name and title of the e-mail information are displayed. Is provided on the liquid crystal display panel 6, and the operation unit 7
Is provided with a password setting means for setting a password and displaying electronic mail information on the liquid crystal display panel 6.

The operation of this embodiment having such a configuration will be described. In the present embodiment, each of the computer terminals 2 </ b> A to 2 </ b> A
In 2C, reception boxes 5a to 5c
A memory card is mounted in the memory card mounting section 21 of
Unless necessary, the personal computers 2a to 2c are in a non-operating state and are on standby. On the other hand, the provider 3 constantly monitors the mailboxes of each of the computer terminals 2A to 2C, and when detecting that electronic mail information from a preset transmission source is stored, the electronic mail information is immediately transmitted. An ID (identification label) of the transmission destination is attached, and the transmission is preferentially transmitted to the transmission destination computer terminal, for example, the computer terminal 2A via the Internet network 1. Then, the e-mail information other than the e-mail information from the transmission source set in advance is read out from the mailbox at a predetermined transmission time once a day, and the IDs of the transmission destinations are added together. Is transmitted to the destination personal computer 2A.

In this manner, the e-mail information transmitted from the provider 3 passes through the Internet 1
The ID is received by the interface circuit 14 of the receiving box 5a, and the ID given to the electronic mail information is determined by the determining circuit 20 in accordance with a command from the CPU 13, and if the electronic mail information is the electronic mail information to which the computer terminal 2A is the destination. When confirmed, the received e-mail information is stored in the memory 18 and at the same time is stored in the memory card mounted on the memory card mounting unit 21.

Next, when the CPU 13 confirms that the received electronic mail information is stored in the memory 18, the CPU 1
In response to the instruction of 3, the incoming call display lamp 8 is turned on and “1” is displayed on the number display 10. The display of the number display 10 is incremented and updated every time the electronic mail information is received. At the same time, the reply means of the CPU 13 is activated, and a message signal “Automatically received” is sent to the provider 3 via the Internet 1 as a confirmation signal of the reception of the e-mail information.
Sent to. Then, according to a command from the CPU 13, the recipient name and title of the e-mail information stored from the memory 18 are displayed on the liquid crystal display panel 6.

The recipient belonging to the computer terminal 2A is:
Check the lighting of the incoming call indicator lamp 8 outside the regular transmission time,
The incoming of e-mail information from a preset sender is quickly detected, and the receiver of the e-mail information displayed on the liquid crystal display panel 6 is notified, and the receiver sets a password in the operation unit 7. Then, when the reading operation is performed, the e-mail information is displayed on the liquid crystal display panel 6, and the recipient reads the e-mail information addressed to himself in a confidential state. And
When the recipient who has read the e-mail information performs an operation of terminating the reading on the operation unit 7, the number displayed on the number display 10 is decremented by one. Since the recipient and the title of the mail information are displayed on the liquid crystal display panel 6, the e-mail information is read in the same manner by a read operation in which the displayed password of the recipient is set. Are read by the respective recipients.

On the other hand, e-mail information other than the e-mail information from the transmission source set in advance is transmitted collectively from the provider 3 at a prescribed transmission time once a day, and similarly, each recipient Is read by

When reading such e-mail information, if a power failure occurs between the reception and the reading of the e-mail information and the information stored in the memory 18 is lost, a memory card is inserted. The e-mail information is read from the memory card mounted on the unit 21.

In this way, when the recipient of the computer terminal 2A that has read the electronic mail information from the provider 3 replies to the received electronic mail, the personal computer 2a is operated and the memory 1
E-mail information is taken in from 8 as needed, reply e-mail information is created, the provider 3 is called, and a necessary reply signal is transmitted by designating the transmission source of the e-mail information as the transmission destination. In this case, when using the memory card mounted on the memory card mounting unit 21, the memory card is mounted on the personal computer 2a,
E-mail information is captured.

On the other hand, the provider 3 centrally records the state of incoming e-mail from each of the computer terminals 2A to 2C, and this record is transmitted to each of the computer terminals 2A to 2C at predetermined intervals, and based on this record. A communication fee is charged.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, each of the computer terminals 2A to 2C operates the personal computers 2a to 2c to connect to the provider 3 and check the e-mail information to be received. And
There is no need to perform the access process and take in the e-mail information, and the recipients of the computer terminals 2A to 2C can determine whether to transmit from the transmission source specified in advance according to the time period of the lighting of the incoming call indicator lamp 8 of the reception boxes 5a to 5c. The number of unread e-mail information is detected by the display of the number display 10 to read the e-mail information.
According to the frequency of use of the user, it is possible to perform the operation efficiently without burden on the operation. In addition, the reading of the e-mail information is performed by operating the password of the recipient of the destination name.
It is always possible to perform in a confidential state.

[0021]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a plurality of computer terminals are connected to the Internet network to which the provider is connected, and corresponding to the plurality of computer terminals, the Internet network is connected to the Internet network by the provider. A receiving box for automatically receiving and storing e-mail information is connected and arranged. In this receiving box, the e-mail information is automatically received by the automatic receiving means, and the received e-mail information is stored in the storing means. The reception display means displays the reception of the e-mail information, and the operator who has confirmed the reception can read the e-mail information from the storage means and display it on the information display means. Even if you don't have the The operator can perform the reading and reading operation to display and read the received e-mail information on the information display means, and the operator can efficiently read the e-mail information at any time while being released from the operational burden. Will be possible.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effect obtained by the first aspect of the present invention, the provider specifies the e-mail information from the previously specified transmission source by the priority transmission means. Since the transmission is preferentially performed to the computer terminal, the transmission of the necessary and important e-mail information is preferentially received, and the processing of the e-mail information can be performed efficiently.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effect obtained by the first or second aspect of the present invention, the electronic mail information which has not been read out of the received electronic mail information by the number display means. Is displayed, so you can always keep track of the number of email information that needs to be processed,
It is possible to set up a process, and when e-mail information is received, the return means notifies the provider of the reception confirmation. Therefore, it is not necessary to report the reception confirmation from the computer terminal. Is reduced.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, in addition to the effect obtained by the first aspect of the present invention, when the electronic mail information is received, the electronic mail information is displayed by the display control means. Is displayed on the information display means, and when the recipient operates the password setting means, the contents of the corresponding e-mail information are displayed, so that transmission can be performed in a confidential state at all times. become.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an external configuration of a receiving box of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a reception box according to the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Internet network, 2A-2C ... Computer terminal, 2a-2c ... Personal computer, 3 ... Provider, 5a-5c ... Reception box, 6 ... Liquid crystal display panel, 7 ... Operation part, 8 ... Reception display lamp, 10 ... Number Display, 11: memory card slot, 13: CPU, 18 ...
Memory, 20 ... determination circuit.

Claims (4)

[Claims] An electronic mail system in which a plurality of computer terminals are connected to an Internet network to which a provider is connected, and electronic mail information is transmitted to the computer terminals via the provider. Correspondingly, a receiving box for automatically receiving and storing the e-mail information is connected to the Internet network, an automatic receiving means for automatically receiving the e-mail information, and displaying the reception of the automatic receiving means. Receiving means for displaying incoming e-mail information, storing means for storing e-mail information received by the automatic receiving means, and information displaying means for displaying the e-mail information read from the storing means, provided in the receiving box. An e-mail system characterized in that: 2. The electronic mail system according to claim 1, wherein the priority transmission means for transmitting electronic mail information from a transmission source designated in advance to the designated computer terminal preferentially includes the provider. An e-mail system provided in the e-mail system. 3. An electronic mail system according to claim 1, wherein: a number display means for displaying the number of unread electronic mail information in the received electronic mail information; An e-mail system comprising: a reply unit for notifying the provider of a reception confirmation upon reception. 4. The electronic mail system according to claim 1, wherein at the time of reading the electronic mail information, a recipient name and a title of the electronic mail information are displayed on the information display means. An electronic mail system comprising: display control means for displaying; and password setting means corresponding to the recipient name used for displaying received electronic mail information on the information display means.