JP2002218147A - Facsimile terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a facsimile terminal that can transmit image data in various file forms depending on a receiver side. SOLUTION: When a file form in cross-reference with a mail address of a transmission destination is registered in a transmission destination information registration area set to an information storage section 14, a CPU 11 converts image data generated by a scanner 17 into an image file of the file form and generates electronic mail data to which the image file is attached as an attached file and transmits the resulting electronic mail data.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001] The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus for transmitting image data as attached data of an electronic mail via a computer network such as the Internet.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a method of communicating an image with a remote place,
PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) and I
A facsimile apparatus using an SDN (Integrated Services Digital Network) is generally used. This type of facsimile machine is widely used not only in the business field but also in homes because it is easy to operate and can convey a task even when no partner is present.

A facsimile communication standard using PSTN or ISDN is based on ITU (International Telecommunications).
ion Union) as standard recommendations for G3 facsimile and G4 facsimile.

The advantages of such a conventional facsimile are as follows.
The ability to transfer data at the fastest communication speed allowed by the bandwidth of the communication line by securing a communication line with the facsimile on the direct receiving side. Being able to confirm that data has been transmitted reliably by communicating directly with the other party. Alternatively, in order to perform capability negotiation for confirming whether a file format to be transmitted is an acceptable format on the receiving side, data can be transmitted without fail.

On the other hand, with the generalization of the Internet, services using the Internet instead of the conventional circuit-switched network have become popular.

In particular, when the transmission distance and the data amount are large, transmission over the Internet can reduce the communication cost. Therefore, a function of transmitting and receiving images via the Internet is provided by a normal facsimile apparatus. A facsimile machine equipped in addition to the functions of the FAX has appeared.

[0007] This type of facsimile apparatus generally transmits image data on the Internet as an attached file of electronic mail. The file format of the image data for attaching the image data to the electronic mail is defined in the TIFF format.

On the side receiving image data transmitted by this type of facsimile apparatus, an image based on the image data is reproduced with its own color attribute.

[0009]

As described above, conventionally,
Since the file format used for transmitting the image data is limited to the TIFF format, communication can be performed between the same type of facsimile apparatuses, but the receiving side is another type of apparatus such as a computer terminal and the like.
If it does not support the FF format, communication could not be performed. In recent years, image data compression coding technology has been developed and there are coding methods capable of high compression. However, it is not possible to transmit an image file in a file format using such a coding method. Could not communicate well.

Further, since the receiving side reproduces the image based on the image data with its own attribute, the image reproduced on the receiving side has a different color tone or the like from the original image transmitted. There was a problem of getting it.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and a first object of the present invention is to provide a facsimile capable of transmitting image data in various file formats according to a receiving side. It is to provide a device.

The second object of the present invention is to
An object of the present invention is to provide a facsimile apparatus capable of reproducing an image having the same color tone as a transmitted original image on a receiving side.

[0013]

In order to achieve the first object, the present invention is directed to a reading means such as a scanner for reading an original to generate image data and a plurality of predetermined file formats. For converting image data generated by the reading unit into an image file of an arbitrary file format of these plural types of file formats, for example, a converting unit realized by software processing of a CPU, and a transmission destination of the image data. Storage means for storing a file format corresponding to a candidate destination in association with the candidate destination; for example, a destination information registration area set in an information storage unit; If the file format is stored in the storage means in association with the image file, the image file of the file format is previously stored. To perform conversion of the image data generated by the reading means to said converting means, for example, a CPU
Conversion control means realized by software processing of
Sending, to a predetermined computer network, e-mail data to which the destination is the destination and to which an image file obtained by the conversion means is attached as an attachment file under the control of the conversion control means; And transmission means realized by:

By taking such means, e-mail data with an image file obtained by converting image data in the file format stored in the storage means in association with the transmission destination as an attached file is transmitted. You. Therefore, a plurality of types of file formats can be arbitrarily used depending on the transmission destination.

Further, in order to achieve the second object, the present invention provides a reading means such as a scanner for reading an original to generate image data, a destination addressed to a predetermined transmission destination, and an image data generated by the reading means. A transmission unit implemented by software processing of a CPU, for example, transmitting e-mail data attached with an image file indicating the image data as an attached file to a predetermined computer network; And an attribute data adding unit for adding attribute data indicating a color attribute used when the reading unit generates the image data, for example, realized by software processing of a CPU.

[0016] By adopting such means, the color attribute used when the reading means generates the image data is added to the e-mail data to which the attribute data indicating the color attribute is attached. It is transmitted together with the image data. Therefore, the receiving side can know the color attribute in reading the received image data.

[0017]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a facsimile apparatus according to this embodiment.

In this figure, the portion denoted by reference numeral 1 is the facsimile apparatus of the present embodiment. The facsimile apparatus 1 has a CPU 11, a ROM 12, an R
AM 13, information storage unit 14, image storage unit 15, encoding /
Decoding unit 16, scanner 17, printer 18, modem 1
9, NCU 20, telephone control unit 21, line signal detection unit 2
2, a LAN interface 23, an operation / display unit 24, and a clock unit 25.

Then, CPU 11, ROM 12, RAM
13, information storage unit 14, image storage unit 15, encoding / decoding unit 16, scanner 17, printer 18, modem 19,
The NCU 20, the line signal detector 22, the LAN interface 23, the operation / display unit 24, and the clock unit 25 are connected to each other via a system bus 26. Also NCU
A modem 19 and a telephone control unit 21 are connected to 20, and a line signal detection unit 22 is connected to the telephone control unit 21, respectively.

The CPU 11 realizes an operation as a facsimile apparatus by performing control processing for comprehensively controlling each unit based on a control program stored in the ROM 12.

The ROM 12 stores a control program for the CPU 11 and the like.

The RAM 13 is used to store various information required for the CPU 11 to perform various processes.

The information storage unit 14 uses, for example, a flash memory, and stores various setting information and other information. A part of the storage area of the information storage unit 14 is associated with the ID number assigned to the transmission destination,
As shown in FIG. 2, it is set in a destination information registration area for storing the “mail address”, “resolution”, “file format”, and “image size” of the destination.

The image storage unit 15 includes, for example, a large-capacity DRA.
M, a hard disk device, or the like, and temporarily stores received image data and image data waiting to be transmitted.

The encoding / decoding unit 16 performs encoding processing for redundancy compression on image data and decodes image data that has been encoded for redundancy compression. is there.

The scanner 17 reads a transmission original and generates image data indicating the transmission original. The scanner 17 can perform color reading under a fixed or arbitrarily changeable color attribute.

The printer 18 prints an image indicated by the image data on a recording sheet.

The modem 19 modulates image data to generate a facsimile transmission signal, or modulates a command given from the CPU 11 to generate a command transmission signal. The modem 19 transmits these transmission signals to the PSTN via the NCU 20. Sends out to subscriber line 2. The modem 19
The facsimile transmission data arriving via the PSTN subscriber line 2 and given via the NCU 20 is demodulated to reproduce image data, or the command transmission signal is demodulated to reproduce a command.

The NCU 20 is connected to the PSTN subscriber line 2 housed in the PSTN 3. And NCU2
0 performs status monitoring, transmission processing to a network, and the like for the connected PSTN subscriber line 2. In addition, NCU20
Performs equalization of a facsimile transmission signal transmitted to the PSTN subscriber line 2 and sets a level.

The external telephone 4 is connected to the telephone control unit 21 as needed. Then, the telephone control unit 21 performs a known control process for enabling a telephone call via the PSTN subscriber line 2 using the connected external telephone 4.

Line signal detecting section 22 receives a signal arriving via PSTN subscriber line 2 via NCU 20 and telephone control section 21 and detects the arrival of a predetermined signal.

The Internet 7 is connected to the LAN interface 23 via the LAN line 5 and the mail server 6. And the LAN interface 23
Data transmission via the Internet 7 is performed.

The operation / display unit 24 is provided by a user CPU.
A key input unit for receiving various instruction inputs to the CPU 11 and various information to be notified to the user
It has a display unit and the like for displaying under the control of Eleven.

The clock unit 25 always performs a clocking operation and outputs current time information indicating the current time.

The control means realized by the operation of the CPU 11 based on the control program stored in the ROM 12 includes a conversion means, a conversion control means, and a transmission means in addition to well-known general means in a facsimile machine. Means, format data adding means and attribute data adding means.

Here, the conversion means is a TIFF (Tagged Ima
ge File Format), PDF (Portable Document Forma)
t), JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Grou
p), GIF (Graphics Interchange Format), PS
(Post Script) and PCL (Printer Control Language)
It supports various file formats, such as PDL (Page Description Language), and archive formats such as Zip and LZH, and converts image data into image files of these formats.

The conversion control means transmits data via facsimile via LAN 5 or the Internet 7 (hereinafter referred to as mail F).
At this time, if the file format is stored in the destination information registration area of the information storage unit 14 in association with the destination, the image data is converted to the file format by the conversion unit. Let

The sending means creates e-mail data with the designated destination as the destination and the image file generated by the converting means attached as an attached file when sending the mail facsimile.
And send it to LAN5.

The format data adding means adds format data indicating the file format of the image file to be attached to the header of the e-mail data generated by the transmitting means.

The attribute data adding means adds the scanner 1 to the header of the e-mail data generated by the transmitting means.
7 adds color attribute data indicating a color attribute used when generating image data.

Next, the operation of the facsimile apparatus configured as described above will be described. The functions realized by a conventional facsimile apparatus, such as facsimile communication via the PSTN 3, can be realized by the same operation as the conventional one, but the description is omitted, and here is a characteristic operation according to the present invention. The operation in mail FAX transmission will be described in detail.

When a document is set on the scanner 17 in the standby state, the CPU 11 starts a process as shown in FIG.

In this process, first, the CPU 11 waits until a destination setting button provided on the operation / display unit 24 is pressed or another predetermined button (for example, a copy start button) is pressed (see FIG. 4). Step ST1 and step ST2). If a predetermined button other than the destination setting button is pressed, C
The PU 11 proceeds to a process such as a copy process (step ST3) according to the pressed button.

On the other hand, if the destination setting button is pressed in the standby state in steps ST1 and ST2, the CPU 11 subsequently accepts designation of a transmission destination (step ST4). The designation of the transmission destination may be in any of various forms such as one-touch key press, abbreviated number designation, ID number designation, telephone number designation, e-mail address designation, or telephone directory selection,
Finally, the telephone number and the mail address are determined by referring to the database.

Then, if the destination is specified by the user, it is confirmed whether or not the destination is a mail address (step ST5). If the transmission destination is not a mail address but a telephone number in PSTN 3, CPU 11 shifts to a well-known facsimile transmission process via PSTN 3 (step ST6).

If the destination is a mail address, the CPU 11 proceeds to a mail FAX transmission process as described below.

In this mail FAX transmission process, the CPU
11 makes the scanner 17 read a document first (step ST7). In response, the scanner 17 reads the set document to generate image data.

Subsequently, the CPU 11 checks whether or not a file format is registered in the destination information registration area of the information storage unit 14 in association with the destination mail address (step ST8). If the file format is registered, the CPU 11 converts the image data obtained in step ST7 into an image file in the registered file format (step ST9). However, if the file format is not registered, the CPU 11
The image data obtained in step ST7 is converted to an IFF format image file (step ST1).
0).

When the image file is generated as described above, the CPU 11 creates electronic mail data (step ST11). The e-mail data created here uses the destination e-mail address specified in step ST4 as the destination address.
9 or the image file generated in step ST10 is attached as an attached file. The format data indicating the file format of the attached image file and the color attribute data indicating the color attribute in reading the original in step ST7 are inserted into the header.

Subsequently, the CPU 11 sends the e-mail data created in this manner to the LAN
The mail is transmitted to the AN 5 (step ST12), and the CPU 11 ends the current mail FAX transmission processing.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, if the image data is registered in the file format with respect to the transmission destination, the image data is transmitted as an image file of the registered file format attached to the electronic mail. Therefore, it is possible to transmit the image data using not only a specific file format such as the TIFF format but also various file formats. This makes it possible to send image data to various terminals other than the same type of facsimile machine. That is, for example, it is possible to transmit image data to a computer connected to the LAN 5, and in this case, it is possible to perform an operation as if it were a network scanner. Further, by using an appropriate file format according to the terminal on the receiving side, it is possible to improve convenience on the receiving side or to efficiently transmit image data.

Further, according to the present embodiment, the color attribute data indicating the color attribute in reading the original is transmitted, so that the color adjustment processing is performed on the receiving side based on the color attribute data when reproducing the image. By doing so, it is possible to reproduce an image having the same color tone as the original image.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, in the above embodiment, the format data and the color attribute data are inserted into the header portion and transmitted, but may be inserted into the body portion or transmitted as an attached file.

In the above embodiment, the TIFF format is fixedly used when the file format is not registered. However, a specific file format other than the TIFF format or a file specified in advance by the user is used. The format may be fixed, or a user specification may be received each time transmission is performed, and the specified format may be used.

In addition, various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention.

[0057]

According to the present invention, electronic mail data with an image file obtained by converting image data in the file format stored in the storage means in association with the transmission destination as an attached file is transmitted. Because
It is possible to arbitrarily use a plurality of types of file formats depending on the transmission destination. As a result, a facsimile apparatus capable of transmitting image data in various file formats according to the receiving side is obtained.

According to the present invention, the color attribute used when the reading means generates the image data is added to the attribute data indicating the color attribute to the e-mail data to which the image data is attached, and transmitted together with the image data. Facsimile, which enables the receiving side to know the color attribute in reading the received image data, and enables the receiving side to reproduce an image having the same color tone as the transmitted original image. Device.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically illustrating a configuration of a destination information registration area set in an information storage unit 14 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure by a CPU 11 in FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Facsimile apparatus 2 ... PSTN subscriber line 3 ... PSTN 4 ... External telephone 5 ... LAN line 6 ... Mail server 7 ... Internet 11 ... CPU 12 ... ROM 13 ... RAM 15 ... Image storage unit 16 ... Encoding / decoding unit DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 17 ... Scanner 18 ... Printer 19 ... Modem 20 ... NCU 21 ... Telephone control part 22 ... Line signal detection part 23 ... LAN interface 24 ... Operation / display part 25 ... Clock part 26 ... System bus

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A reading means for reading an original to generate image data, and a reading means corresponding to a plurality of predetermined file formats and generating an image file of any of the plurality of file formats by the reading means. Conversion means for converting the image data to be converted, storage means for storing a file format corresponding to the destination as a candidate for the destination of the image data, and transmitting the image data. If a file format is stored in the storage unit in association with the transmission destination, conversion control for causing the conversion unit to convert the image data generated by the reading unit into an image file in the file format Means, the destination being the destination, and an image obtained by the conversion means under the control of the conversion control means. Facsimile apparatus characterized by the electronic mail data with attached Airu as an attachment to a transmitting means for transmitting to a predetermined computer network. 2. The facsimile according to claim 1, further comprising a format data adding unit for adding predetermined format data indicating a file format of the image file to the e-mail data transmitted by the transmitting unit. apparatus. 3. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the format data adding unit adds the format data to a header of the electronic mail data. 4. Reading means for reading an original to generate image data, and e-mail data addressed to a predetermined destination and attached as an attached file with an image file indicating the image data generated by the reading means. Transmitting means for transmitting the image data to a predetermined computer network; and attribute data adding attribute data indicating a color attribute used when the reading means generates the image data to the e-mail data transmitted by the transmitting means. A facsimile apparatus comprising: 5. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the attribute data adding unit adds the attribute data to a header of the e-mail data.