JP2000222302A - Electronic mail incoming communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To attain an efficient operation without any waste as a whole electronic mail system by reducing the load of incoming communication processing by decreasing the frequency of incoming communication when a user is operating any work other than electronic mail processing, or the user is present in a remote place. SOLUTION: This efficient electronic mail communication system under the consideration of the frequency of the electronic mail operation of a user is provided with an operating time storing means 109 for storing a time when an operation request is issued from a user 103 in an operating time table 201 and an incoming communication interval deciding means 110 for reading the operating time table 201, and for calculating an incoming communication interval. When a user is frequently operating electronic mail processing, it is judged that the user is engaging in the electronic mail processing work, and a new electronic mail arriving at a mail box can be successively communicated to the user.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an incoming e-mail notification system, and more particularly to an efficient incoming e-mail notification system in consideration of the frequency of e-mail operations by a user.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional e-mail arrival notification system checks a mailbox at a time interval set by a user, notifies a user's mail client when a new mail has arrived, and changes the color of an icon on a screen. Or a notification sound is given to the user.

[0003] However, in the above-mentioned prior art, there is a problem that a user is alerted every time an e-mail is received, and the original work is interrupted more than necessary.

Therefore, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-90249 discloses that
By monitoring the keyboard and pointing device and judging the busyness of the work from the operation status of the user's console, switching between permitting and prohibiting the notification of incoming e-mails can interrupt the original work due to the arrival of the e-mail. We are trying to decrease.

[0005]

However, according to the above-mentioned prior art, even when the user is performing an operation for e-mail processing, the operation of the keyboard or the pointing device is detected. In this case, the conventional system determines that the user's work is busy, and as a result, the delivery of electronic mail is prohibited, and the user is not notified even if a new electronic mail arrives. From the viewpoint of improving the work efficiency, it is better to perform the notification while the user is performing the e-mail processing operation rather than suppressing the incoming notification.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned problems in the conventional type, it is an object of the present invention to increase the frequency of incoming notification and promptly notify the presence of newly arrived e-mail while the user is performing e-mail processing. When the user is performing work other than e-mail processing or is away from the terminal, the frequency of incoming notification is reduced and the load of incoming notification processing is reduced, so that the entire e-mail system is efficient and efficient. An object of the present invention is to provide an e-mail arrival notification system that can be operated.

[0007]

To achieve the above object, the invention according to claim 1 has a mailbox of each user and a received mail confirming means for confirming a newly arrived e-mail in the mailbox. An e-mail system, comprising: operation time recording means for recording an operation time of e-mail processing in a user terminal; and an incoming notification interval determining means for determining an incoming notification interval based on the operation time. And

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, a ratio of a fixed time interval set by a user or an e-mail system administrator and a contribution ratio of the fixed time interval are determined in determining the incoming call notification interval. It is characterized by using a fixed time contribution rate.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a configuration example of a system according to the first embodiment. In this figure,
Reference numeral 101 denotes a mail server in a client-server type electronic mail system, and reference numeral 102 denotes a mail client. Reference numeral 103 denotes a user who performs an e-mail processing operation. The mail server 101 includes a mailbox 104 in which a user's received mail is stored, a mailbox operation unit 105 for extracting a list of mails and a text from the mailbox, and a mailbox 104.
If there is a newly arrived mail, the received mail confirmation means 106 notifies the user.

The mail client 102 includes a mailbox operation requesting unit 107 and an incoming notification requesting unit 10.
8, an operation time recording unit 109 and an incoming call notification interval determining unit 110. The mailbox operation request unit 107 transmits a mailbox operation request from the user 103 to the mailbox operation unit 105 of the mail server 101 using a communication line or the like. The incoming notification request means 108 is called at the notification interval determined by the incoming notification interval determining means 110, calls the received mail confirmation means 106 of the mail server 101 using a communication line or the like. Notify 103. Reference numeral 109 denotes an operation time recording unit.
3 receives an operation request, the time is stored in the operation time table 2
01 is stored. Numeral 110 denotes an incoming notification interval determining means which reads the operation time table 201 and calculates an incoming notification interval.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the operation time table 201. The time at which the user 103 requested the operation is stored in each element for the last five operations. FIG. 3 shows a processing procedure for storing the operation time at the time of the operation request in the operation time table 201.
First, in step 301, it is checked whether there is an empty element in the table. If there is an empty element, an element for storing the current time is added to the table in step 303 as it is.
If there is no free element, the element storing the oldest time is deleted in step 302. Then, in step 303, the current time is added to the table.

FIG. 4 shows a processing procedure for the notification of the arrival of a newly arrived mail. First, in step 401, the operation time table 201 is read, and an incoming notification interval is calculated from each time element read in step 402. In the calculation method, an operation interval is obtained from a difference between adjacent time elements, an average operation interval is calculated from an average thereof, and an incoming notification interval is calculated based on the average operation interval. In FIG. 2, the average operation interval is 51.5 seconds from the last five operation times, and 103 seconds, which is twice this, is set as the incoming call notification interval.

In step 403, the process waits for the time (103 seconds) of the incoming call notification interval calculated in 402. Thereafter, in step 404, the presence of the mail newly arriving in the mailbox 104 is confirmed through the received mail confirmation means 106, and if there is a new mail, the fact is notified to the terminal of the user 103 in step 405. . Then, the process returns to 401 and the above processing is repeated.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described.

In FIG. 5 showing the configuration of the present embodiment, similarly to the above embodiment, 101 is a mail server in a client-server type electronic mail system, and 102 is a mail client. The configuration is different from that of the above-described embodiment.
However, in the present embodiment, the mail server 101 has both means.

When a new received mail is confirmed by the received mail confirmation means 106, an incoming notification is reported from the mail server 101 to the incoming notification receiving means 501 of the mail client 102, and the user 103 is notified. Since the processing procedure is the same as that of the above-described embodiment, the description is omitted here.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described.

In this embodiment, a fixed time interval (Ts) and a fixed time contribution rate (α) are used for determining the incoming call notification interval by the incoming call notification interval determining means 110 in the first and second embodiments.

This embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.

Reference numeral 601 denotes an incoming notification setting screen of the electronic mail incoming notification system according to the present embodiment, which is used by the user when the present embodiment is applied to the first embodiment, and is controlled by the electronic mail system when applied to the second embodiment. Makes settings. The incoming call notification interval determining means 110 reads the fixed time interval Ts of 602 and the fixed time contribution rate α of 603 set on the incoming call notification setting screen 601 at the time of calculating the incoming call notification interval.

Further, using the incoming notification interval Td calculated in 402 of FIG. 4, the incoming notification interval is set to (1−α) × Td + αx
Calculate as Ts. Specifically, the fixed time interval Ts is 10
Since the minute and fixed time contribution rate α is 50% and the incoming notification interval in the above embodiment is 103 seconds, the incoming notification interval in this embodiment is calculated to be 351.5 seconds.

Although three embodiments of the present invention have been described above, the client-server type e-mail system in the above-mentioned embodiment is a host type e-mail system or a file sharing type e-mail system. Is also good.

The mail client 102 in all embodiments is not limited to a system on a terminal directly used by the user 103. For example, the mail client 102 may be an agent program for monitoring a mailbox, a mail server and a mail client on a user terminal. It may be a system such as a proxy or a gateway that exists in between.

In the first embodiment, the last five operation times are recorded in the operation time table 201. However, any number of times may be recorded according to the size of the table. The operation interval from the previous operation may be directly recorded.

Further, the time information of the operation log of the user 103 who performs the e-mail processing may be used without preparing a new operation time table.

Further, in the calculation 402 of the incoming call notification interval in the processing procedure in the first embodiment, a constant multiple of the average operation interval is used as the incoming call notification interval. However, the calculation method is not limited. The incoming notification interval may be calculated from the data using a linear prediction method or the like.

[0027]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the present invention, when a user frequently performs an e-mail processing operation, it is determined that the user is engaged in an e-mail processing operation, and New e-mails arriving at the box can be sequentially notified to the user. Also, when the user is performing work other than e-mail processing or is away from the terminal, the number of incoming notifications is reduced, the number of interruptions of the user's original work is reduced, and the computer load due to unnecessary incoming notifications is reduced. can do.

Further, it is possible to control the effect of the incoming call notification interval in the first aspect of the present invention, thereby suppressing a large fluctuation of the incoming call notification interval and controlling the computer load.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of an operation time table used in the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure for storing an operation time in an operation time table.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of an incoming call notification according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a system configuration diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of an incoming call notification setting screen according to a third embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

101: mail server, 102: mail client,
103: user, 104: mailbox, 105: mailbox operation procedure, 106: received mail confirmation means,
107: mailbox operation requesting means, 108: incoming notification requesting means, 109: operation time recording means, 110: incoming notification interval determining means, 201: operation time table, 501
... Incoming call notification receiving means.

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Keita Asakura 5030 Totsukacho, Totsuka-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa Prefecture F-term in the Software Division, Hitachi, Ltd. 5B089 GA11 GA21 GB02 JA31 KA04 KB11 KC36 KC43 LA12 LA17 MC06 5K030 GA00 HA06 HB15 KA21 LD13

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An electronic mail system having a mailbox of each user and a received mail confirming means for confirming an electronic mail newly arriving at the mailbox, wherein an operation time of an electronic mail process at a user terminal is recorded. An e-mail incoming notification system, comprising: an operation time recording unit; and an incoming notification interval determining unit that determines an incoming notification interval based on the operation time. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein a fixed time interval set by a user or an e-mail system administrator and a fixed time contribution rate representing a contribution ratio of the fixed time interval are used in determining the incoming call notification interval. The electronic mail arrival notification system according to claim 1, wherein