JPH0522340A - Facsimile mail system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To designate a destination and a service class even when an inexpensive standard terminal equipment or a terminal equipment of any manufacturer is in use in the facsimile mail system employing a store and forward exchange. CONSTITUTION:Plural facsimile terminal equipments 1-1, 1-2 and a store and forward exchange 2 are connected to a packet network 10. The store and forward exchange 2 is provided with a picture converter 4 in addition to an external storage device 3 for picture data storage. The user sends format paper 21 on which the destination or the like is described from the terminal equipment 1-1 together with a mail original 22. The store and forward exchange 2 stores the received picture data to the external storage device 3 and gives a picture data 23 such as a destination to the converter 4. The converter 4 converts the destination or the like in the picture data into a code data and returns the result to the store and forward exchange 2. The store and forward exchange 2 distributes the picture data 24 of the content of the mail to the terminal equipment 1-2 according to it.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile mail system, and more particularly to a facsimile mail system which allows a facsimile terminal to specify a destination address and a service type in a facsimile mail system using a storage / exchange device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a facsimile mail system using a conventional store and exchange apparatus, in the case of a G4 facsimile terminal, only a store and exchange apparatus for direct communication can be designated as a destination in the standard protocol.
It was not possible to specify the service type such as the delivery time. Therefore, when the service type and the destination address are designated from the G4 facsimile terminal, the MHS (message handling system) defined by CCIP or the protocol unique to each company is added to the facsimile terminal. Further, in the case of the G3 facsimile terminal, it is realized by dialing from the telephone.

[0003]

In the above prior art, G
In the case of 4 facsimile terminals, since a special G4 facsimile terminal to which MHS or a protocol unique to each company is added must be used, there is a problem that the usable facsimile terminal is more expensive than the standard G4 facsimile terminal. Further, it is difficult to connect a G4 facsimile terminal provided by a plurality of manufacturers to the facsimile mail system. In the case of a G3 facsimile terminal, particularly when performing broadcast transmission to a plurality of destinations, there is a problem in that a tens-digit number or the like must be input, resulting in erroneous delivery due to erroneous input.

An object of the present invention is to connect an inexpensive standard facsimile terminal to a facsimile mail system so that a facsimile terminal of any manufacturer can specify a destination address and a service type.

Another object of the present invention is to improve the operability of designation of a destination address and designation of a service type from a facsimile terminal and eliminate erroneous operations to improve reliability.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the invention of claim 1, a plurality of facsimile terminals,
In a facsimile mail system including a storage / exchange device that controls storage / delivery of facsimile mails and a communication network that connects these devices, the storage / exchange device is provided with image conversion means for converting image data into code data, and a facsimile terminal sends mails. The destination is sent as image data to the storage / exchange device together with the contents, and in the storage / exchange device, the destination of the image data is converted into the corresponding code data by the image conversion means, and the mail content is sent to the designated facsimile terminal. Is to be delivered.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the facsimile terminal transmits the service type as image data together with the mail content to the storage / exchange apparatus, and the storage / exchange apparatus transmits the image data by the image conversion means. Convert the destination and service type of to the corresponding code data,
This is to deliver the mail content to the designated destination facsimile terminal in the designated service mode.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the facsimile terminal reads the format paper in which the destination and the service type are written in a predetermined format in the preprinted frame, and the image data of the destination and the service type is accumulated. That is, the information is transmitted to the exchange.

[0009]

The user inserts the format sheet in which the destination and the service type are entered into the facsimile terminal together with the original document of the rule content to be transmitted, and transmits it to the storage exchange apparatus. In the storage exchange device, the image data of the formatted paper is transferred from the received image data to the image conversion means. The image conversion means analyzes the image data, converts the contents of the destination and the service type into code data, and returns the code data to the storage exchange device. As a result, the storage exchange apparatus receives the destination information and the service type information from the standard specification facsimile terminal as the image data similar to the mail content, and sends it to the destination specified in the service mode specified by the same without any trouble. It becomes possible to deliver mail. Further, by writing the destination and the service type in a predetermined format on a preprinted format sheet, it is possible to prevent erroneous delivery due to erroneous input.

[0010]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the system configuration of an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a plurality of facsimile terminals (for example, standard G4 facsimile terminals) 1 and a storage switching device 2 are connected via a packet communication network 10.
The storage / exchange device 2 controls the exchange of facsimile mails between facsimile terminals, and includes an external storage device 3 for storing facsimile mails. The storage exchange device 2 further includes an image conversion device 4. This image conversion device 4 is provided according to the present invention, and receives image data of a fixed format included in a received facsimile mail from the storage exchange device 2 and discriminates a destination and a service type designated by the image data. It is converted into code data and returned to the storage and exchange device 2.

The operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG.
In FIG. 2, 1-1 is a sending facsimile terminal, 1-
2 is the receiving side facsimile terminal. The user stores the mail manuscript 22 from the facsimile terminal 1-1 by the storage exchange device 2
When sending to, the format paper 21 in which the address and service type (confidential, mailbox transmission, etc.) are entered is sent together with the mail original 22 as the first page (). The format paper 21 will be described later. Storage and exchange device 2
Then, after the received image data 23 and 24 are once stored in the external storage device 3 (), the image data (address and service type) 23 of the first page is transferred to the image conversion device 4 (). The image conversion device 4 temporarily stores the image data received from the storage / exchange device 2 in an internal memory, analyzes it to determine the destination and the service type, converts it into predetermined code data, and returns it to the storage / exchange device 2. To (). In the storage exchange device 2, the image data (mail content) 24 stored in the external storage device 3 is stored based on the destination information and the service type information converted into the code data by the image conversion device 4.
Is read and delivered to the facsimile terminal 1-2 ().

FIG. 3A shows an example of the format paper 21. This shows OCR-based format paper, where 210 is a service type column and 220 is a destination column. The service type column 210 further includes a delivery type column 211.
And the priority transmission designation column 212. Delivery type column 211
An example of the entry is shown in FIG. 3 (b). The priority transmission designation column 212 is filled in when, for example, priority transmission is designated. Destination field 22
In 0, the telephone number of the destination of the mail is entered in the format of FIG. 3 (c).

In the image conversion device 4, first, the mark state of the service type column 210 is analyzed and a predetermined code is assigned. For example, if the upper mark of the distribution type column 211 is black, the lower mark is white, and the mark of the priority transmission designation column 212 is black,
Assign a confidential transmission code and a priority transmission designation code. Next, the image data in the destination field 220 is read, and the corresponding number,
Convert to symbol code. After that, the image conversion device 4
The service type code and the destination telephone number code data of the processing result are returned to the storage and exchange device 2.

Although FIG. 3 is an example of OCR-based format paper, it is also possible to use OMR-based format paper.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the storage exchange device 2 may also function as the image conversion device 4 in the configuration of FIG. 1, for example. Further, the destination field of the format paper can be used to specify the delivery time as well as the other party's telephone number. Further, in some cases, the format paper may be a simple one having only the destination field of the other party.

[0017]

According to the first and second aspects of the present invention, since the information on the destination and the service type can be transmitted from the facsimile terminal as image data similar to the mail content, an inexpensive standard facsimile terminal can be connected to the facsimile system, There is an effect that a destination and a service type can be designated by using a facsimile terminal of any manufacturer.

Further, according to the invention of claim 3, the destination and the service type may be entered in a predetermined format on a preprinted format sheet.
It is possible to improve operability, prevent erroneous distribution due to erroneous input, and improve reliability.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation explanatory diagram of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of format paper used in the present invention and an example of entry thereof.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Facsimile terminal 2 Storage switch 3 external storage 4 Image conversion device 10 Packet communication network 21 format paper 22 Email manuscript

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A facsimile mail system comprising a plurality of facsimile terminals, a storage / exchange device for controlling storage / delivery of facsimile mails, and a communication network connecting these, wherein image data is converted into code data in the storage / exchange device. The image conversion means is provided, and the destination is sent as image data from the facsimile terminal together with the mail contents to the storage and exchange apparatus. In the storage and exchange apparatus, the image conversion means converts the destination of the image data into the corresponding code data. , A facsimile mail method characterized by delivering mail contents to a designated facsimile terminal. 2. The facsimile terminal transmits the service type as image data together with the mail contents to the storage / exchange apparatus, and the storage / exchange apparatus uses the image conversion means to specify the destination and service type of the image data, respectively. 2. The facsimile mail system according to claim 1, wherein the contents of the mail are converted into corresponding code data, and the mail contents are delivered to a facsimile terminal of a specified destination in a specified service mode. 3. The image data of the destination and the service type is transmitted by reading the format paper in which the destination and the service type are written in a predetermined format in a preprinted frame with a facsimile terminal. Facsimile mail method according to item 1 or 2.