Electronic mail determination method and system and storage...

Details Electronic mail determination method and system and storage... Electronic mail determination method and system and storage...

1998-06-23

2001-03-06

Maung, Zarni (Department: 2758)

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: multicomput

Computer conferencing

Demand based messaging

C379S093010, C709S204000, C709S206000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06199103

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an electronic mail determination method and system and a storage medium.
With a conventional electronic mail reception unit, the receiving person must check the contents of all received electronic mail and select necessary electronic mail. However, in recent years, information not requested by the receiving persons, such as direct mail, has been increasing. The storage capacity and output of the receiving unit are wasted on the unnecessary information, and the receiving person must spend most of the time in selecting received information and may miss or discard useful received information when selecting from the received information.
Then, to efficiently handle received electronic mail, the receiving person needs to handle electronic mail in response to the electronic mail contents in a different manner such that unnecessary electronic mail is deleted as it is received or that if the receiving person reads the electronic mail, he or she does this when he or she has some free time. Therefore, an electronic mail determination system for determining whether or not received electronic mail is unnecessary junk electronic mail becomes an important element.
As in a conventional electronic mail determination system, for example, character strings appearing in header fields and texts in junk electronic mail are previously stored as determination conditions, and when determining s whether nor not received electronic mail deserves to be read, a check is made to see if the character strings exist in the header field or text in the electronic mail.
However, in the conventional system, the work of extracting the conditions for determining electronic mail to be junk from the junk electronic mail must be executed by human hands. Therefore, determination performance cannot be maintained unless the receiving person executes the work each time a new type of junk electronic mail is sent.
An extremely large number of types of junk electronic mail exist and further a new type is created one after another and sent to receiving persons. Thus, the receiving person must spend much time in adding and maintaining the determination conditions.
The essence of the problems lies in that the determination conditions need to be prepared by human hands and that although electronic mail having the contents completely matching one determination condition can be determined junk, electronic mail having contents not completely matching one determination condition, but similar thereto cannot be determined junk.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide an electronic mail determination method and system and a storage medium having an exemplification learning function of automatically generating and storing a junk electronic mail determination condition by specifying at least one junk electronic mail example and a capability of using the junk electronic mail determination condition to determine whether or not received electronic mail is junk, thereby solving the problems.
To this end, according to the invention, there is provided an electronic mail determination method comprising the steps of determining whether or not a given electronic mail piece is junk based on a determination condition stored in a junk electronic mail determination condition storage section, if the electronic mail piece is determined junk, storing it in an estimated junk electronic mail storage section, reading the electronic mail piece stored in the estimated junk electronic mail storage section and analyzing content information of the electronic mail piece for extracting the feature amount to determine that electronic mail is junk, and adding the extracted feature amount to the junk electronic mail determination condition storage section as a junk electronic mail determination condition. (claim
1
)
The determining step can adopt any one of various methods; for example, it can determine whether or not the determination condition is similar to the feature amount extracted from the given electronic mail piece. (claim
2
) As the determination condition format for determining similar junk electronic mail, a method of using a keyword vector extracted from the junk electronic mail piece or the like can be adopted.
On the other hand, the electronic mail determination method may further comprise the steps of storing an electronic mail piece determined non-junk at the determining step in an estimated junk electronic mail storage section, reading the electronic mail piece stored in the estimated non-junk electronic mail storage section and analyzing content information of the electronic mail piece for extracting the feature amount to determine that electronic mail is non-junk, and adding the extracted feature amount to the non-junk electronic mail determination condition storage section as a non-junk electronic mail determination condition. The determining step may determine whether or not the given electronic mail piece is junk based on the determination condition stored in the junk electronic mail determination condition storage section and the determination condition stored in the non-junk electronic mail determination condition storage section. (claim
3
)
Electronic mail stored in the estimated junk electronic mail storage section after the expiration of a predetermined time interval from the determining step time may be automatically deleted. (claim
4
)
The electronic mail determination method may further comprise the steps of extracting the feature amount of the electronic mail piece stored in the estimated non-junk electronic mail storage section, storing the extracted feature amount in a non-junk electronic mail feature amount storage section, and subtracting the feature amount stored in the non-junk electronic mail feature amount storage section from the feature amount generated based on junk electronic mail stored in the junk electronic mail storage section and storing the resultant feature amount in the junk electronic mail determination condition storage section as a junk electronic mail determination condition. (claim
5
)
A system for carrying out the method can comprise a junk electronic mail determination condition storage section for storing a determination condition to determine whether or not electronic mail is junk, a junk electronic mail determination processing section for determining whether or not a given electronic mail piece is junk based on the determination condition stored in the junk electronic mail determination condition storage section, an estimated junk electronic mail storage section for storing the electronic mail piece if the electronic mail piece is determined junk by the junk electronic mail determination processing section, and a junk electronic mail exemplification learning section for analyzing content information of the electronic mail piece stored in the estimated junk electronic mail storage section for extracting the feature amount to determine that electronic mail is junk and adding the extracted feature amount to the junk electronic mail determination condition storage section as a junk electronic mail determination condition. (claim
6
) The system is provided by the first embodiment of the invention.
The junk electronic mail exemplification learning section may generate a determination condition to determine a similar junk electronic mail piece and the junk electronic mail determination processing section may determine whether or not the determination condition is similar to the feature amount extracted from the given electronic mail piece. (claim
7
) As the determination condition format for determining similar junk electronic mail, for example, a method of using a keyword vector extracted from the junk electronic mail piece or the like can be adopted.
The system may further include an estimated non-junk electronic mail storage section for storing the electronic mail piece determined non-junk by the junk electronic mail determination processing section, and a non-junk electronic mail exemplification learning se

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