Telephone with electronic mail management function, electronic mail management method, and storage medium storing electronic mail management program

• US 6,917,670 B2
• Filed: 08/27/1998
• Issued: 07/12/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 03/03/1998
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: Isomura, Hiroshi
• Primary Examiner(s): Eng, George
• Application Number:
  US09/141,318
• Publication Number:
  US 20010012341A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,511 Days
• Field of Search: 379/90.01, 379/93.02, 379/93.05, 379/93.24, 379/100.08, 379/110.01, 379 8811- 8815, 379/88.19, 379 8822- 8825, 379/100.06, 709/204, 709/206, 709/207, 709/219, 455/556.1, 455/557, 455/556, 358/402, 358/407
• US Class Current: 379/93.24
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/066 Format adaptation, e.g. format conversion or compression
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/226 Delivery according to priorities
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/42 Mailbox-related aspects, e.g. synchronisation of mailboxes
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/2478 Telephone terminals specially adapted for non-voice services, e.g. email, internet access centralized arrangements where telephones services are combined H04M7/0024; for recording text messages H04M3/5322; for accessing Internet H04M3/4938
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6505 storing speech in digital form
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/725 Cordless telephones user interfaces specially adapted therefor H04M1/724
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/737 Characterised by transmission of electromagnetic waves other than radio waves, e.g. infrared waves

Abstract

The present invention introduces that E-mails are managed effectively without imposing a burden on a mail server. A memory is provided in a telephone, whereby an E-mail from the mail server can be down-loaded. When this telephone is accessed from plural terminal devices, the mail status is stored in order to be capable of recognizing that a E-mail is down-loaded to which terminal device. With this system, when E-mails are transmitted and received with plural terminal device, it is possible to manage E-mails integratedly by accessing not a mail server but a telephone.

Claims

1. A telephone with an electronic mail managing function, said telephone capable of connecting with at least a mail server and a plurality of electronic devices, said telephone comprising:

an access unit accessing to the mail server;

a mail memory storing an electronic mail which is sent to one user downloaded from the mail server through the access unit;

a mail status memory storing each state of the electronic mail stored in the mail memory so as to correspond to each of the electronic devices, wherein each state stored in said status memory indicates whether or not the electronic mail is down-loaded to each of the electronic devices from the telephone; and

a transmission unit transmitting the electronic mail stored in the mail memory to one of the plurality of electronic devices, wherein the electronic mail managing function is provided logically between the mail server and the plurality of electronic devices, and wherein the electronic mail managing function integratedly manages the electronic mail based on the state of the electronic mail corresponding to each of the electronic devices.

2. A telephone with an electronic mail managing function according to claim 1, said telephone further comprising:

a process table storing a process to be applied to the electronic mail after the electronic mail is down-loaded to each of the electronic devices from the telephone.

3. A telephone with an electronic mail managing function according to claim 2, said process to be applied to the electronic mail includes deleting the electronic mail and keeping the electronic mail.

4. A telephone with an electronic mail managing function according to claim 1, said telephone further comprising:

an emergency process unit judging whether or not a priority process is necessary based on the electronic mail received from each of the electronic devices and for executing an access to the mail server when the priority process is executed.

5. A telephone with an electronic mail managing function according to claim 1, said telephone further comprising:

an identifier memory storing an identifier of an electronic device to be connected, permits an access from the electronic device in case that the identifier coincides with the stored identifier.

6. A mail managing method in a mail managing apparatus capable of transmitting/receiving mail data to/from at least a mail server and a plurality of electronic devices, said method comprising:

a reading process of reading mail which is sent to one user stored in the mail server;

a storing process of storing the mail read in the reading process;

a display process of displaying a state of the mail stored in the storing process for each of the electronic devices, wherein said state includes whether or not the electronic mail is down-loaded to each of the electronic devices from a telephone; and

a transmission process of transmitting the mail stored in the storing process to one of the electronic devices, wherein the mail managing apparatus is provided logically between the mail server and the plurality of electronic devices, and wherein the mail managing method integratedly manages the mail based on a state of the mail corresponding to each of the electronic devices.

7. A storage medium storing a program executed by a mail managing apparatus capable of transmitting/receiving mail data to/from at least a mail server and a plurality of electronic devices, said program when executed by the mail managing apparatus executing the processes comprising:

a reading process of reading a mail which is sent to one user stored in the mail server;

a storing process of storing the mail read in the reading process;

a display process of displaying a state of the mail stored in the storing process for each of the electronic devices, wherein said state includes whether or not the electronic mail is down-loaded to each of the electronic devices from a telephone; and

a transmission process of transmitting the mail stored in the storing process to one of the electronic devices, wherein the mail managing apparatus is provided logically between the mail server and the plurality of electronic devices, and wherein the mail managing apparatus integratedly manages the mail server based on the state of the mail corresponding to each of the electronic devices.

8. An electronic mail managing apparatus capable of communicating with a mail server which stores therein an electronic mail sent to an address, comprising:

a receiving unit receiving from the mail server an electronic mail addressed to one predetermined address;

a mail memory unit storing the received electronic mail;

a mail status memory storing each state of the electronic mail stored in the mail memory unit so as to correspond to each of a plurality of the electronic devices, wherein the each state of the mail status memory unit indicates whether or not the electronic mail received by the electronic mail managing apparatus for each electronic device has been transmitted to the electronic device from a telephone,

wherein the electronic mail managing apparatus is capable of communicating with the plurality of electronic devices; and

a transmitting unit transmitting the electronic mail stored in the mail memory unit and received thereof from the mail server to one of the plurality of electronic devices in response to an access made by one of the plurality of electronic devices, wherein the electronic mail managing apparatus is provided logically between the mail server and the plurality of electronic devices, and wherein the electronic mail managing apparatus integratedly manages the electronic mail based on the electronic mail state corresponding to each of the electronic devices.

9. An electronic mail managing apparatus according to claim 8 further comprising:

a process specifying unit for specifying, for each electronic device, how the electronic mail transmitted to the electronic device should be processed.

10. An electronic mail managing apparatus according to claim 9 further comprising:

a unit for receiving the electronic mail from each electronic device; and

a unit for transmitting the received electronic mail to the mail server.

11. An electronic mail managing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein said electronic managing apparatus is emergency processing unit for judging whether or not a preference process is necessary based on the received electronic mail and, if judged to be affirmative, executing access to the mail server.

12. An electronic mail managing apparatus according to claim 11 further comprising:

an identifier memory storing therein identifiers of the plurality of electronic devices, and permitting access from the electronic device corresponding to the stored identifier.

13. An electronic mail managing apparatus according to claim 8 wherein the electronic mail managing apparatus is provided in a telephone.

14. An electronic mail managing method in an electronic mail managing apparatus capable of communicating with a mail server which stores therein an electronic mail sent to an address, comprising:

receiving from the mail server an electronic mail addressed to one predetermined address;

storing the received electronic mail in a memory unit;

storing in a status memory unit each state of the electronic mail stored in the mail memory unit so as to correspond to each of a plurality of the electronic devices, wherein each state of the status memory unit indicates whether or not the electronic mail received by the electronic mail managing apparatus for each electronic devices has been transmitted to the associated electronic device from a telephone; and

wherein the electronic mail managing apparatus is capable of communicating with the plurality of electronic device, and transmitting the electronic mail stored in the mail memory unit and received thereof from the mail server to one of the plurality of electronic devices in response to an access made by said electronic device, wherein the electronic mail managing apparatus is provided logically between the mail server and the plurality of electronic devices, and wherein the electronic mail managing method integratedly manages the electronic mail based on the electronic mail state corresponding to each of the electronic devices.

15. An electronic mail managing method according to claim 14 further comprising:

processing the received electronic mail based on a process specifying information specifying for each electronic device how the electronic mail transmitted to the respective electronic devices should be processed.

16. An electronic mail managing method according to claim 14 further comprising:

receiving the electronic mail from each electronic device; and

transmitting the received electronic mail to the mail server.

17. An electronic mail managing method according to claim 16 further comprising:

judging whether or not a preference process is necessary based on the received electronic mail; and

executing access to the mail server, if judged to be affirmative.

18. An electronic mail managing method according to claim 14 further comprising:

permitting access from the terminal device corresponding to a stored identifier, based on the information of an identifier memory unit which stores therein identifiers of the plurality of electronic devices.

19. A storage medium storing a program executing electronic mail management in an information processing apparatus capable of communicating with a plurality of electronic devices, the program when executed by the information processing apparatus executing the functions comprising:

receiving an electronic mail sent to one predetermined address from a mail server which stores therein the electronic mail addressed to an address;

storing the received electronic mail in a memory unit;

storing in a status memory unit each state of the electronic mail stored in the mail memory unit so as to correspond to each of the plurality of the electronic devices, wherein each state indicates whether or not the electronic mail received by the electronic mail management for each electronic devices has been transmitted to the associated electronic device from a telephone; and

transmitting the electronic mail stored in the memory unit and received thereof from the mail server to one of the plurality of electronic devices in response to an access made by said one of the plurality of electronic devices, wherein the electronic mail management is provided logically between the mail server and the plurality of electronic devices and wherein the electronic mail management integratedly manages the electronic mail based on the electronic mail state corresponding to each of the electronic devices.

20. A program of the storage medium according to claim 19 further comprising:

processing the received electronic mail based on a process specifying information specifying for each electronic device how the electronic mail transmitted to the electronic device should be processed.

21. A program of the storage medium according to claim 19 further comprising:

receiving the electronic mail from each electronic device; and

transmitting the received electronic mail to the mail server.

22. A program of the storage medium according to claim 21 further comprising:

judging whether or not a preference process is necessary based on the received electronic mail; and

executing access to the mail server, if judged to be affirmative.

23. A program of the storage medium according to claim 19 further comprising:

permitting access from the electronic device corresponding to a stored identifier, based on the information of an identifier memory unit which stores therein identifiers of the plurality of electronic devices.

24. An electronic mail managing system comprising:

an electronic mail managing apparatus capable of communicating with a mail server which stores therein an electronic mail sent to an address; and

a plurality of electronic devices capable of communicating with the electronic mail managing apparatus; and

wherein the electronic mail managing apparatus comprising;

a receiving unit receiving from the mail server an electronic mail addressed to one predetermined address;

a mail memory unit storing therein the received electronic mail;

a mail status memory storing each state of the electronic mail stored in the mail memory unit so as to correspond to each of the plurality of the electronic devices, wherein each state of the mail status memory unit indicates whether or not the electronic mail received by the electronic mail managing apparatus for each electronic device has been transmitted to the associated electronic device from the mail managing apparatus; and

a transmitting unit transmitting the electronic mail stored in the mail memory unit and received thereof from the mail server to one of the plurality of electronic devices in response to an access made by said electronic device, wherein the electronic mail managing apparatus is provided logically between the mail server and the plurality of electronic devices and wherein the electronic mail management apparatus integratedly manages the electronic mail based on the electronic mail state corresponding to each of the electronic devices.

25. An electronic mail managing system according to claim 24, wherein the electronic mail managing apparatus further comprising:

a process specifying unit specifying, for each electronic device, how the electronic mail transmitted to the respective electronic devices should be processed.

26. An electronic mail managing system according to claim 24, wherein the electronic mail managing apparatus further comprising:

a unit for receiving the electronic mail from each electronic device; and

a unit for transmitting the received electronic mail to the mail server.

27. An electronic mail managing system according to claim 24, wherein the electronic managing apparatus further comprising:

an emergency processing unit for judging whether or not a preference process is necessary based on the received electronic mail and, if judged to be affirmative, executing access to the mail server.

28. An electronic mail managing system according to claim 24, wherein the electronic mail managing apparatus further comprising:

an identifier memory storing therein identifiers of the plurality of electronic devices, and permitting access from the electronic device corresponding to the stored identifier.

29. An electronic mail managing system according to claim 24, wherein the electronic mail managing apparatus is a telephone.