Tv mail system

Claim 2

A TV mail system comprising: a plurality of televisions (10) each having a receiving function capable of receiving broadcasting radio waves and displaying a program; and a mail server (20, 30) to which said televisions (10) are connected through communication lines, is characterized in that said television (10) has a mail sending function (12, 14) for displaying a mail sending screen and accepting destination telephone number and a mail body to make mail data so as to output the mail data to said mail server (20, 30), and a mail receiving function for receiving mail data transmitted from said mail server (20, 30) to meet a mail receiving request to display a mail receipt screen on the basis of the contents of mail data, and said mail server (20, 30) has a database (35) in which authentication information including user identifier of users of said televisions (10) are registered, a receiving mail box (36) for storing received mail data, mail boxes (37) for receivers, name analysis means (38) which retrieves said authentication database (35) in accordance with destination telephone number of mail data stored in said receiving mail box (36) to acquire information for specifying said mail box (37) of a destined receiver, mail distribution means (39) for storing mail data stored in said receiving mail box (36) in said mail box (37) in accordance with information for specifying said mail box (37), and transfer means (33) which takes out mail information from the corresponding mail box (37) to meet a mail receiving request from said television (10) to make mail data so as to output the mail data to said televisions (10) of the receiver who has made the mail receiving request.

Claim 3

A TV mail system according to claim 1 or 2, is characterized in that said authentication database (35) has a region in which receiving information is written and receiving information is brought to an receiving state when mail data has been received and is brought to a non-receiving state when the mail receiving request has been made.

Claim 4

A TV mail system comprising: a plurality of televisions (10) each having a receiving function capable of receiving broadcasting radio waves and displaying a program; a plurality of local mail servers (20) to which said televisions (10) are connected through communication lines in each predetermined area and which are connected to one another on a network; and a center mail server (30) to which said local servers (20) are connected through said communication lines, is characterized in that said television (10) has a mail sending function (12, 14) which makes mail including at least destination information and the body of a mail to output the mail data to said local mail server (20), and a mail receiving function (12, 14) for displaying a received mail on the basis of the contents of mail data received from said local server (20), said center mail server (30) has a database (35) in which authentication information of users are registered and name analysis means (38) which acquires, from said authentication database (35), authentication information of a receiver, analysis of which has been requested by said local servers (20), to output the authentication information to said local server (20) from which the request has been made, and said local mail server (20) has a receiving mail box (26) for storing received mail data, mail boxes (29) for receivers, interchange means (24) which makes mail routing data formed by adding authentication information with respect to analysis request responded from said center mail server (30) so as to interchange mail routing data to said receiving-side local mail servers (20), distribution means (28) for storing mail routing data interchanged from said sending-side local mail servers (20) to a mail box (29) for the receiver in accordance with authentication information, and transfer means (23) which makes mail data from mail information distributed to said mail box (29) so as to output the mail data to said televisions (10) for the receiver.

Claim 5

A TV mail system according to claim 4, is characterized in that said mail box (29) for the receiver has a region in which receiving information is written, receiving information is brought to an receiving state when mail routing data has been received from said sending-side local mail servers (20) and is brought to a non-receiving state when the mail receiving request has been made.

Claim 6

A TV mail system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, is characterized in that said television (10) has replay mail making means which accepts a reply mail to the received mail when a received mail is displayed and which makes mail data for a reply mail in which telephone number of the sender provided for the received mail is automatically set as destined telephone number when a request to make the reply mail has been made.

Claim 7

A TV mail system according to any one claims 1 to 6, is characterized in that said television (10) has forward mail making means which accepts a forward request of a received mail when the received mail is displayed and which makes mail data for transference in which the address of the sender provided for the received mail is automatically set as the address of an original sender when a request to forward the received mail has been made.

Claim 8

A TV mail system according to any one of claims 1 to 7, is characterized in that any one of said mail server (20, 30), said center mail server (30) or said local mail servers (20) has a sending history box prepared for each user, means for storing mail data in said receiving mail box (36) when said server has received mail data and storing mail data in a sending history box for the user and means which takes out the sending history from said sending history box for the user when a sending history request has been received to make sending history data so as to output the sending history data to said television (10) from which the request has been made, and said television (10) has means which accepts sending history request on the mail service screen to output the sending history request data to the server provided with said sending history box and means (13) for displaying a list of sending history of the user on the basis of sending history data transmitted from said server to correspond to said sending history request.

Claim 9

A TV mail system according to any one of claims 1 to 8, is characterized in that said television (10) has classification selection means for causing a classification list of typical bodies to cause a user to select a classification of the typical bodies from the classification list, typical body selection means for causing a list of the typical bodies belonging to the classification of the typical bodies selected by said classification selection means to cause the user to select a typical body and input support means for supporting writing of a mail by inserting one or a plurality of the typical bodies selected by said typical body selection means into a mail body which is being written.

Claim 10

A TV mail system according to any one of claims 1 to 9, is characterized in that said television (10) has printing means (17) for reading contents of screen data which is being displayed on the screen and printing screen data and means (12) for requesting said printing means (17) to print the contents by recognizing a print command issued from a user.

Claim 11

A TV mail system according to claim 10, is characterized in that said television (10) has means for adding, to mail data, a print permission flag indicating whether or not the mail can be printed and means for checking the print permission flag added to mail data received by said television (10) to determine whether or not printing is permitted.

Claim 12

A TV mail system according to any one claims 1 to 11, is characterized in that any one of said mail server (20, 30), said center mail server (30) or said local mail servers (20) has a screen database for storing screen data relating to a mail service which is displayed by said television (10) so that required screen data taken out from said screen database is forwarded to said television (10) which has made a request.

Claim 13

A TV mail system according to any one of claims 1 to 11, is characterized in that said television (10) has means (19) for extracting, from received broadcasting radio waves transmitted from a broadcast station, a script in which procedures for mail transmission and receipt, a variety of required screen data items corresponding to the contents of the mail service and control consents of screen display are described and a memory (15) for storing the script extracted by said extracting means.

Claim 14

A TV mail system according to claim 13, is characterized in that said television (10) has means for accepting a script update request supplied from a user and script update means for storing a corresponding script in said memory to update the script when the script has been extracted from the received broadcasting radio waves in a state where the script update request supplied to said acceptance means is effective.