JPH1093800A - Communication equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow a receiving side to surely answer by informing a user of the reception and suppress completing the receiving state of the message, until giving the answer at the time of receiving a communication message requesting an answer. SOLUTION: When an answer is required for a transmitted message, the answer request key of an input part 2 is depressed to turn on an answering function to transmit the message. The receiving side receives the facsimile message from a line 10 by a transmission control part 8 and temporarily stores the message processed by an image-processing part 4 in a memory 5. Then the receiving side first judges the presence/absence of the answer request with respect to the received message and when it exists, informs the user of the presence by sound/speech, flickering light, etc. The user inputs the answer or inputs a symbol, etc., from a keyboard, a touch panel by using the editing means of an editing part 3, etc., to prepare the answer on a received message or a message for an answer to transmit to a transmission source, while watching the message displayed on a display.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication apparatus such as a facsimile apparatus or an electronic mail apparatus which sends a reply request to a receiving side, notifies the receiving side of the reply request, and always returns a reply.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a communication apparatus such as a facsimile apparatus or an electronic mail apparatus, a transmitting side transmits a transmission message by designating a telephone number or an electronic mail address. If a reply from the sending party is required, it shall be noted in the sending message. However, a response from the transmission partner may or may not return depending on the circumstances of the partner. When it comes back, it may be a telephone response, facsimile or email. In particular, when a reply is required, it is sometimes unclear what the facsimile or e-mail is for, such as prompting the sender to call.

[0003]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional communication device, the receiving side sometimes forgets the response once the receiving side has received it. In the case of a reply,
In many cases, the answer is provided in the received document, and once output to paper like a facsimile, the answer is entered,
In addition, it is read by a reading device and transmitted, which is very troublesome.

The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned conventional problems,
It is an object of the present invention to provide a communication device which makes a request for a reply to a document transmitted by the method described above to a receiving side and reliably returns a reply on the receiving side.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a means for transmitting a communication message, a means for receiving a communication message, and reading or internally creating a communication message. Message input means, output means for printing the received communication message, display means for the received communication message,
A message editing means for replying to the received communication message, a reply request means to the transmission partner, and a notifying means for notifying the reply request that the communication message has been received. In addition to notifying the user to that effect, the communication device is configured to indicate the procedure for reply to the user so that the receiving state of the message is not completed until the reply is made.

According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a communication device that makes a request for a reply to a document transmitted by facsimile or the like to the receiving side and surely returns the reply on the receiving side.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS According to the first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a means for transmitting a communication message through a communication line, a means for receiving a communication message through a communication line, reading a communication message from the outside, or internally reading the communication message. Message input means for creating, output means for printing the received communication message, display means for displaying the received communication message, and editing means for editing the message for a response to the received communication message, Reply request means for generating a request signal indicating a reply request to the transmission partner, notifying means for notifying the reply request, and reply means for surely replying to the user while indicating the procedure for the reply. The communication device is provided with an operation of reliably responding to a communication message requiring a response.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the communication apparatus according to the first aspect, the reply means suppresses output to an output device such as a printer until a reply is made. This has the effect of suppressing the received telegram from being printed until the response is performed, and preventing the receiving side from forgetting that there is something that needs a reply.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the communication apparatus according to the first aspect, when there is no reply to the reply request for a predetermined time, the communication side is automatically replied to the transmitting side that there is no reply. This has the effect of measuring a certain time for a reply and, if no reply is made during that time, automatically replying to the transmitting side that no reply can be obtained.

[0010] According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the communication device according to the first aspect, an electronic mail is used as a reply message. Has a function of making a reply by e-mail.

An embodiment of a communication device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. (Embodiment 1) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a communication apparatus according to Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, the communication apparatus comprises a CPU 1 for overall control, a keyboard for inputting a transmission message, a scanner for inputting an image image, a transmission start key,
An input unit 2 having a response request key, a response transmission key, etc., a keyboard, a pointing device such as a mouse, a touch panel or the like for writing a response to the received electronic message on the electronic message, and an editing unit 3 such as a touch panel. An image processing unit 4 for processing an image signal; a display unit 6 such as a display for displaying a received message; and an output unit 7 for printing the received message.
And a transmission control unit 8 to which a line 10 is connected and controls transmission.

Further, the communication apparatus stores information necessary for return, such as its own telephone number, its own e-mail address, the telephone number of the receiving party, and the other party's e-mail address, and saves unreturned messages. And a memory 5 for managing. Reference numeral 9 in the figure is a bus.

Next, the operation for sending a reply request message will be described. In this embodiment, facsimile communication will be described as an example. FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure for transmitting a facsimile message.

In FIG. 2, when the communication device shown in FIG. 1 is used as a transmitting side and a reply request is made, first, the input unit 2
A transmission message is input using a scanner (step 10).

Next, it is determined whether or not this transmission message requires a reply (step 11). If a reply is required, the reply request key of the input section is pressed to turn on the reply function (step 12). Further, using the keyboard of the input unit, the user inputs the telephone number of the other party to which the facsimile is to be transmitted (step 13), reads out his own telephone number in the memory 5, and presses the transmission start key (step 14). Is transmitted (step 15).

In the case of facsimile transmission, ITU-T Recommendation T.30 is used. The own telephone number is notified by the TSI signal which is the transmission control procedure in 30. Also,
The reply request signal is similarly transmitted using the NSS signal.
The control of these operations and operations is performed by the CPU 1. When transmitting a message, the message is processed in the image processing unit 4 and transmitted through the transmission control unit 8.

Next, the operation of the reply request for the received message will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the procedure of the reception process.

1 and 3, a facsimile message from the line 10 is received by the transmission control unit 8, and the message processed by the image processing unit 4 is temporarily stored in the memory 5.
In the case of facsimile, ITU-T Recommendation T. The telephone number of the transmitting side notified by TSI, which is the transmission control procedure in 30, is also stored in the memory 5. Further, whether or not there is a reply request by the NSS signal may be stored in the memory 5 as the management information method.

First, it is determined whether there is a response request to the received message (step 21). If there is no reply request, the same processing as in normal facsimile reception is performed, and generally, printing is performed by the output unit (step 2).
7). If there is a response request, the notification is first sent to the user (step 22).

The notification method may be a buzzer attached to the communication device, a sound / voice notification by a voice synthesizer, or a blinking light. In this case, the type can be changed according to the importance of the response, or the notification can be prevented. The message is displayed on a display device such as a display by a user operation or automatically (step 23).

In replying, monitoring is performed for a certain period of time for a certain number of times so that the memory of the communication device does not overflow and the reply is not waited forever (step 2).
4). While viewing the message displayed on the display, the user uses the editing means of the editing unit 3 to input a response using a keyboard, or input "O" or "X" from the touch panel, and responds to the received message or Create on the response document. By pressing the reply key of the input unit 2, the end of the reply input is detected (step 25). Thereafter, a reply message is returned to the transmission source (step 26). At this time,
The telephone number of the transmission side stored in the memory 5 at the time of reception is referred to, dialing is performed automatically, and facsimile transmission is performed. Subsequent operations are the same as those at the time of transmission, and a description thereof will be omitted.

The text input from the keyboard may be directly transmitted as an electronic mail as the return document. In that case, it can be realized by setting an electronic mail address in the TSI or NSS signal from the transmitting side.

[0024]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the communication apparatus of the present invention, the receiving side can always reply to a message requiring a reply, and the operation is simple and practical. Is useful.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a communication device according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of message transmission in the communication device.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for receiving a message in the communication device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 CPU 2 Input part 3 Editing part 4 Image processing part 5 Memory 6 Display part 7 Output part 8 Transmission control part 9 Bus 10 lines

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A means for transmitting a communication message through a communication line, a means for receiving a communication message through a communication line, a message input means for reading a communication message from outside or internally creating the communication message, Output means for printing;
Display means for displaying the received communication message, editing means for editing the message for reply to the received communication message,
Reply request means for generating a request signal indicating a reply request to the transmission partner, notifying means for notifying the reply request, and reply means for surely replying to the user while indicating the procedure for the reply. A communication device, comprising: 2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said reply means suppresses output to an output device such as a printer until a reply is made.
The communication device as described. 3. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein if there is no reply for a predetermined period of time to the reply request, the communication side is automatically replied to the transmitting side that there is no reply. 4. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein an electronic mail is used as the reply message.