JP2005222408A - Email reception device, email display method, and program for executing the method on computer - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enable the quick extraction of email attached with an image file from a list of attribute information about the email. <P>SOLUTION: An email reception device comprises a receiving means 2 for receiving arbitrary email, a displaying means 7 for displaying attribute information about the email received by the receiving means 2, a determining means 61 for determining whether the email whose attribute information is displayed by the displaying means 7 is attached with an image file or not, a thumbnail image generating means 4 for generating a thumbnail image from the image file about the email that is determined to be attached with the image file by the determining means 61, and a display control means 62 for controlling the operation of the displaying means 7 so as to list the thumbnail image generated by the thumbnail image generating means 4 together with the attribute information. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an e-mail receiving apparatus, an e-mail display method, and a program for causing a computer to execute the method, and more particularly to a reduced image generated from an image file attached to an e-mail, and the reduced image and e-mail. The present invention relates to an e-mail receiving apparatus, an e-mail display method, and a program for causing a computer to execute the e-mail receiving apparatus that can quickly extract e-mails attached with image files by displaying a list of attribute information.

  In recent years, in information communication networks such as the Internet and Intranet, the speed of communication has been increased, so the opportunity to send and receive e-mails with attached image files for displaying still images or moving images has increased rapidly. ing.

  By providing means for creating a reduced image (thumbnail) from an image file attached to such an e-mail, the contents of the e-mail attached with the image file can be received without opening the image file. A technique related to an e-mail receiving apparatus and an e-mail receiving method configured to be able to confirm the above is disclosed (see Patent Document 1).

  According to the e-mail receiving apparatus and e-mail receiving method described in Patent Document 1, the contents of the image file attached to the received e-mail can be quickly and easily recognized, which is convenient for e-mail users. Has the effect of increasing.

JP 2001-75892 A

  However, the e-mail receiving device and e-mail receiving method described in Patent Document 1 are configured to display thumbnails created from attached files in the body of an e-mail. It was not possible to quickly extract e-mails with attached image files from the attribute information list display. Therefore, for example, by using a preview list or the like and selecting e-mails posted in the received e-mail list one after another and checking the e-mail text, the e-mail attached with the image file must be searched for. There wasn't. For this reason, there is a problem that it takes time and effort to search for an e-mail to which a target image file is attached.

  The present invention solves such a problem, and an e-mail receiving apparatus, an e-mail display method, and a method thereof capable of quickly extracting e-mails attached with image files from a list of attribute information related to e-mails. An object of the present invention is to provide a program to be executed.

  In order to solve the above problems, an e-mail receiving apparatus according to the present invention includes a receiving unit that receives an arbitrary e-mail, a display unit that displays attribute information about the e-mail received by the receiving unit, and the display Determining means for determining whether an image file is attached to an e-mail displaying attribute information, and reduced image generation for generating a reduced image from the image file for the e-mail determined to be attached by the determining means And display control means for controlling the operation of the display means so as to display a list of reduced images generated by the reduced image generating means together with attribute information.

  With the electronic mail receiving apparatus according to the present invention, when an arbitrary electronic mail is received by the receiving means, it is determined by the determining means whether an image file is attached to the electronic mail. Here, a reduced image is generated from the image file by the reduced image generation means for the electronic mail that is determined to have an image file attached. Then, the operation of the display unit is controlled by the display control unit so that the reduced image generated here and the attribute information related to the e-mail are displayed as a list by the display unit.

  Therefore, it is possible to quickly extract an e-mail attached with an image file from a list of attribute information related to the e-mail, and to immediately obtain an overview of the image file by simply viewing the reduced image without checking the body of the e-mail. Be able to recognize.

  An e-mail display method according to the present invention is a method for displaying attribute information relating to an arbitrary e-mail, wherein an e-mail to which an image file is attached in advance is determined, and the e-mail determined here is reduced from the image file. An image is generated, and the reduced images generated here are displayed in a list together with attribute information.

  In addition, a program for causing a computer to execute the e-mail display method according to the present invention discriminates an e-mail with an image file attached in advance in order to display attribute information regarding an arbitrary e-mail. For the e-mail, a reduced image is generated from an image file, and the generated reduced image is displayed in a list together with attribute information.

  According to the e-mail display method and the program for causing a computer to execute the method according to the present invention, it is possible to quickly extract an e-mail attached with an image file from a list of attribute information related to the e-mail, and the body of the e-mail Even without confirming, it is possible to immediately recognize the outline of the image file by merely viewing the reduced image.

  The electronic mail receiving apparatus according to the present invention includes reduced image generation means for generating a reduced image from an image file attached to the electronic mail, and display means for displaying the reduced image as a list together with attribute information regarding the electronic mail. It controls the operation.

  Further, according to the e-mail display method and the program for causing a computer to execute the method according to the present invention, a reduced image is generated from an image file attached in advance to an arbitrary e-mail, and the reduced image generated here Are displayed together with the attribute information regarding the electronic mail.

  Therefore, it is possible to quickly extract an e-mail attached with an image file from a list of attribute information related to the e-mail, and to immediately obtain an overview of the image file by simply viewing the reduced image without checking the body of the e-mail. Can be recognized. For this reason, since the contents of the e-mail can be easily grasped from the outline of the image file, the target e-mail can be quickly searched from the list display of attribute information such as the subject of the e-mail. become.

  Moreover, since the contents of the image file can be confirmed by a reduced image without opening the image file attached to the e-mail, it is troublesome to open the image file by operating the attached image icon linked to the image file. Can be omitted. Therefore, the operability when checking the e-mail is also improved.

  DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of an electronic mail receiving apparatus, an electronic mail display method, and a program for causing a computer to execute the method according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  In the present embodiment, a reduced image generation unit that generates a reduced image from an image file attached to an e-mail is provided, and the operation of the display unit is controlled so that the reduced image is displayed in a list together with attribute information about the e-mail. This makes it possible to quickly extract e-mails with attached image files from a list of attribute information related to e-mails, and instantly view the outline of an image file by simply viewing a reduced image without checking the body of the e-mail. It is intended to be able to recognize.

  FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration example of an electronic mail receiving apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment. The e-mail receiving apparatus 100 includes an e-mail transmitting unit 1, an e-mail receiving unit 2, an e-mail editing unit 3, a reduced image generating unit 4, a storage unit 5, a control unit 6 and a display unit 7, as shown in the figure. The control unit 6 further includes a determination unit 61 and a display control unit 62, and these units are connected to each other via a bus 50.

  The e-mail transmission unit 1 transmits the e-mail created or edited by the e-mail editing unit 3 to the outside under the control of the control unit 6. The e-mail receiving unit 2 receives e-mail distributed from the outside. The e-mail editing unit 3 creates a new mail or edits an existing mail.

  The reduced image generation unit 4 generates a reduced image from an image file attached to an arbitrary e-mail. The storage unit 5 stores the reduced image generated by the reduced image generation unit 4 in association with the electronic mail.

  The control unit 6 controls the overall operation of the electronic mail receiving apparatus 100 by controlling the other units via the bus 50.

  The discriminating unit 61 discriminates whether or not an image file is attached to the electronic mail whose display unit 7 displays the attribute information. At this time, the discriminating unit 61 only uses an image file in a well-known image format such as JPEG (Joint Photographic Coding Experts Group) format, BMP (Bitmap) format, GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) format, and TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) format. Even if the file is in the EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) format or the PDF (Portable Document Format) format, if it is a file format capable of generating a reduced image, it is determined that an image file is attached.

  Therefore, the reduced image generation unit 4 generates a reduced image from the attached file for the e-mail that is determined by the determination unit 61 as having an attached file in a file format that can generate a reduced image.

  The display control unit 62 is connected to the display unit 7 and controls the operation of the display unit 7 so as to display a list of reduced images generated by the reduced image generation unit 4 together with attribute information related to electronic mail. Therefore, the display unit 7 displays a list of attribute information related to the e-mail received by the e-mail receiving unit 2, that is, header information of the received mail and reduced images generated from the image file attached to the e-mail. indicate. The header information displayed here includes the subject of the received mail (Subject), the date of mail transmission / reception, the name of the mail sender, the mail address of the sender, and the like.

  For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the hardware configuration of the electronic mail receiving device 100 configured as described above includes a network interface (hereinafter referred to as NWI / F) 11, a display device 12, a hard disk drive (HDD: Hard). Examples include a disk drive) 13, an input device 14, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 15, a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 16, and a RAM (Random Access Memory) 17.

  Here, the relationship between the functional block diagram shown in FIG. 1 and the block diagram shown in FIG. 2 will be described. In the electronic mail receiving apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment, the NWI / F 11 is responsible for the functions of the electronic mail transmitting unit 1 and the electronic mail receiving unit 2, the display device 12 is responsible for the function of the display unit 7, and the HDD 13 is a storage device. It assumes the function of part 5.

  The ROM 15 stores a program according to the present invention in advance, and the CPU 16 executes the program stored in the ROM 15 while using the RAM 17 as a work area, whereby the e-mail editing unit 3 and the reduced image generation unit 4 are executed. The functions of the determination unit 61 and the display control unit 62 are shared. The ROM 15, CPU 16 and RAM 17 can be realized by a known computer system.

  The NWI / F 11 includes an IEEE 802.3-compliant e-support (Ether Port) and IEEE 802.11b, 802.11g, and 802.11a-compliant wireless LAN ports. It is connected to an information communication network such as an area network so that bidirectional communication is possible.

  The display device 12 is a display device having an image display function such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), for example, and displays a mail application screen for executing editing and transmission / reception of electronic mail. In addition, the display device 12 displays a list of e-mail attribute information, for example, the subject given to the e-mail, the date and time when the e-mail was transmitted / received, the sender / receiver name, the e-mail address of the sender / receiver, etc. In addition, when an image file is attached to the e-mail, a reduced image (thumbnail: Thumbnail) generated from the image file is displayed on the same screen as the attribute information of the e-mail.

  The HDD 13 is a well-known magnetic recording medium, and stores an electronic mail transmitted / received via the NWI / F 11 together with an attached file.

  The input device 14 is, for example, a transparent touch panel integrally formed on the screen of the display device 12 and a pointing device such as a mouse, and functions as a user interface in the e-mail receiving device 100.

  In the electronic mail receiving device 100 configured as described above, when the input device 14 is operated to start a mail application and an input operation is performed so as to instruct transmission / reception of mail, for example, as shown in FIG. For the transmission mail M1 with image attachment edited in step 3, the attached image file is encoded by the process P1 and transmitted by the process P2. This outgoing mail M1 is distributed by the mail server 200 to a designated transmission address.

  On the other hand, the mail server 200 distributes a received mail M2 with an image attached transmitted from the outside to a mail address registered in advance in the electronic mail receiving apparatus 100, and this image file is decoded in the process P3. It is held in the storage unit 5. Then, in the process P4, for example, a reduced image resized to 32 pixels is displayed as a minimal thumbnail by the mail display device 12 from the decoded image file.

  FIG. 4 shows a display example of a reduced image by the electronic mail receiving apparatus 100. On the received mail display screen D by the display device 12, for example, as shown in the figure, a mail preview list (Preview List) L, a scroll bar B for scrolling the preview list L, and the reception selected in the preview list L are displayed. A preview frame (Preview Pane) PV for displaying the mail M2 is displayed.

  In the preview list L, the name of the mail sender, the date and time of reception, and the subject are listed as attribute information related to the received mail, and the attribute information display column of the received mail M2 to which the image file is attached is displayed. The reduced image Th resized to the minimum 32 pixel size generated from this image file is displayed. Accordingly, the received mail M2 to which the image file is attached can be quickly extracted from the preview list L.

  From the preview list L, for example, when the received mail M2 having the subject line “It is autumn!” And displaying the minimum thumbnail Th of the autumnal ginkgo row of trees is selected, the mail of this received mail M2 is displayed in the preview frame PV. The text is “How are you? The ginkgo tree was beautifully colored in the meantime and I took a picture because it was beautiful. How is it?” And attached to this received mail M2 below the preview frame PV The attached image icon I linked to the image file F is displayed.

  As described above, according to the e-mail receiving apparatus 100 according to the present embodiment, the outline of the image file F can be grasped from the minimal thumbnail Th displayed in the preview list L, so that the contents of the received mail M2 can be easily estimated. become. On the other hand, when an attached file exists, but the saving format of the attached file is a format incapable of generating a reduced image, an icon indicating the existence of the attached file is displayed as a clip-type icon C, for example. The Therefore, the electronic mail receiving apparatus 100 can quickly search for a target received mail from the preview list L.

  Next, as an embodiment of an e-mail display method according to the present invention and a program for causing a computer to execute the method, the e-mail display operation by the e-mail receiving device 100 described above is shown in the flowcharts shown in FIGS. Will be described with reference to FIG.

  In this embodiment, a mail application including a program for causing a computer to execute the e-mail display method according to the present invention is stored in the ROM 15 in advance, and the CPU 16 starts up this mail application. It is assumed that the electronic mail display method according to the invention is executed.

  On the premise of this, when the input device 14 of the electronic mail receiving device 100 is operated and input is made so as to select the mail application from the index screen related to the initial screen, the CPU 16 starts the mail application, and the steps of the flowchart shown in FIG. In S1, a mail application screen is displayed on the display device 12, and an input from the input device 14 is awaited.

  If it is determined in step S2 that there is no instruction for mail transmission / reception, the process proceeds to step S3. If there is an input for editing the mail, the process proceeds to step S4, mail editing is performed, and the process returns to step S2.

  If there is an instruction to execute mail transmission / reception in step S2, the process proceeds to step S5 to execute mail transmission / reception. If there is a newly received mail (hereinafter referred to as a new mail) in step S6, the process proceeds to the flowchart shown in FIG.

  In step S8 of this flowchart, the new mail is stored in the HDD 13, and in step S9, it is determined whether or not an image file is attached to the new mail in order to display attribute information related to the new mail. If there is no image file attached to the newly arrived mail, the process proceeds to step S10, the attribute information regarding the newly arrived mail is additionally displayed in the preview list L, and the process returns to step S3 of the flowchart shown in FIG.

  If it is determined in step S9 that an e-mail with an attached image file is detected, the process proceeds to step S11, and the image file F is decoded for the newly arrived mail M2 determined to be attached. In step S12, the decoded image is decoded. A reduced image Th is generated from the file F. In the next step S13, the reduced image Th is displayed in a list in the preview list L together with attribute information related to the new mail M2, and the process returns to step S3 in the flowchart shown in FIG.

  If there is no instruction to execute mail editing in step S3, the process proceeds to step S7, and the process ends according to the mail application end instruction via the input device 14.

  As described above, according to the e-mail display method according to the present embodiment, it is possible to confirm in advance the image attached to the new mail at the stage of displaying the preview list of the new mail. Further, since it becomes possible to quickly recognize the text (context: Context) of the e-mail from the reduced image Th displayed in the preview list L, the search of the e-mail can be speeded up using the reduced image Th as a search box (index). be able to.

  Moreover, since the contents of the image file F can be confirmed by the reduced image Th without opening the image file F attached to the e-mail, the attached image icon I linked to the image file F is operated. The trouble of opening the image file F can also be saved. Therefore, the operability when checking the e-mail is also improved.

  As described above, the electronic mail receiving apparatus, the electronic mail display method and the program for causing the computer to execute the method according to the present invention have been described in detail for the best mode and the effect thereof. The present invention is not limited to the above-described configuration, and a configuration capable of achieving the functions provided by the configuration of the above-described embodiment without departing from the scope of application of the present invention defined by the scope of claims attached to the application of this application. Anything can be applied.

  In the above-described embodiment, an example in which a reduced image is displayed in the received mail preview list has been described. However, the display of the reduced image is not particularly limited to the preview list, and reception is performed like a so-called inbox, transmission box, and arrangement box. Even a mail list, a transmission mail list, a mail list being edited, and the like can be applied.

  The present invention is extremely suitable when applied to an information communication device having an electronic mail display function.

It is a functional block diagram which shows the structural example of the electronic mail receiver which concerns on this invention. It is a block diagram which shows the hardware structural example of the electronic mail receiver which concerns on this invention. It is a figure explaining operation | movement of the electronic mail receiver which concerns on this invention. It is a figure which shows the example of a display of the reduction image by the electronic mail receiver which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart (the 1) which shows the electronic mail display method which concerns on this invention. It is a flowchart (the 2) which shows the electronic mail display method which concerns on this invention.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 ... E-mail receiver, 1 ... E-mail transmission part, 2 ... E-mail reception part, 3 ... E-mail edit part, 4 ... Reduced image generation part, 5 ... Memory | storage 6, control unit 61, discrimination unit 62, display control unit, 7 display unit, 11 network I / F, 12 mail display device, 13. ..HDD, 14 ... input device, 15 ... ROM, 16 ... CPU, 17 ... RAM, 200 ... mail server

Claims (4)

Receiving means for receiving any e-mail;
Display means for displaying attribute information relating to the e-mail received by the receiving means;
Determining means for determining whether or not an image file is attached to the electronic mail in which the display means displays the attribute information;
Reduced image generating means for generating a reduced image from the image file for the email determined to be attached by the determining means;
An e-mail receiving apparatus comprising: display control means for controlling the operation of the display means so as to display a list of the reduced images generated by the reduced image generation means together with the attribute information.   2. The electronic mail receiving apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising storage means for storing the reduced image generated by the reduced image generating means in association with the electronic mail. A method for displaying attribute information about an arbitrary email,
Determine the email with the image file attached in advance,
Generating a reduced image from the image file for the identified email;
A list of the generated reduced images together with the attribute information is displayed. To display attribute information about any email,
Determine the email with the image file attached in advance,
Generating a reduced image from the image file for the identified email;
A program for causing a computer to execute an e-mail display method, wherein the generated reduced image is displayed in a list together with the attribute information.

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