JP2000184114A - System for distributing picture - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To judge the necessity or unnecessity of a picture data distribution by a distribution destination device by permitting a picture server to distribute the picture data to each destination device when one of plural transmission source devices designates a distribution destination group to the picture server and transmits the picture data. SOLUTION: A picture managing means 126 issues picture ID including the machine ID of digital composite equipment 120 and stores picture data stored in a buffer 124 in a storage means 128. A picture ID encoding means 123b generates ID mark picture data corresponding to the picture ID and gives it to an ID mark synthesizing means 123a. The means 123a generates picture data with the ID mark in the prescribed position of first page picture data, which are obtained by synthesizing ID mark image data. The means 126 transmits the picture data with the ID mark to the picture server 110. The server 110 extracts a distribution destination domain and distributes picture data with the ID mark.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image distribution system for distributing image data to each destination device constituting a destination group, and more particularly to a destination device which can determine whether or not image data distribution is necessary. The present invention relates to an image distribution system described above.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art The configuration of an image distribution system proposed by the present applicant in Japanese Patent Application No. 10-202334 will be described below with reference to the drawings. [Configuration] Network Configuration FIG. 2 is an example of a network configuration of the image distribution system. For example, the corporate LAN 100 (the digital multifunction peripherals 120, 130, 140, the image server 110, and the personal computer 160 are connected) and Osaka. Branch office L
The AN 300 (to which the digital MFPs 310 and 320 and the personal computer 340 are connected) is connected to the AN 200 via the gateways 150 and 330 via the Internet 200.

Image Server The image server 110 includes a large-capacity storage device 113 (see FIG. 1) such as a hard disk, for example. The storage device 113 stores a plurality of distribution destination group files 113b indicating distribution destination group information. And a correspondence table 113c between distribution destination group names and distribution destination group files (FIG. 13).
See).

FIG. 9, FIG. 10, FIG. 11, and FIG.
Are “all.rec”, “eigyou_all.rec”,
It is a figure which shows the content of the distribution destination group file 113b of the file name of "eigyou_syo.rec" and "develop.rec", and these distribution destination group files 113b are described according to the following rules.

[0005] That is, a line starting with "#" is a comment line, the first comment line describes the distribution destination group name, and the second comment line describes the file name of the distribution destination group file 113b. . Each line other than the comment line (the third and subsequent lines) describes information corresponding to one image communication device (one distribution destination device) to be a distribution destination, and its configuration is “distribution destination domain name; Delivery name ”. The distribution destination domain name is information for specifying an image communication apparatus to be a distribution destination (hereinafter, referred to as a “distribution destination apparatus”) on a network.
P address; destination name ”.

[0006] Here, the "all.rec" file shown in FIG. 9 is used for the case where all image communication apparatuses managed in the present image distribution system are to be distributed, and "eigyou_all.rec" shown in FIG.
The “rec” file is for the case where all the sales-related departments are the distribution destinations, and the “eigyou_syo.rec” file shown in FIG. 11 is for the case where all the business offices are the distribution destinations, and “develop.re” shown in FIG.
The "c" file is described assuming that the product development-related department is the distribution destination.

[0007] These distribution destination group files 1
13b is created using a text editor or the like operating on the image server 110 and stored in a predetermined directory.

Digital MFP The digital MFP described above is a device for realizing space saving by integrating digital image equipment, and is a device equipped with a facsimile function and a network printer function based on a digital copying machine. is there.

The digital multifunction peripheral employed in the image distribution system has an image data storage function described below in addition to the above functions.

That is, as shown in FIG. 1, image data input from an image input means 122a such as a scanner is attached to a file name corresponding to an image ID for specifying the image data and stored in a storage means such as a hard disk. 128
And stores the image ID as ID mark image data (for example, barcode image data), and stores the ID mark image data in the first page of the image data (hereinafter, “first page”). The image data with an ID mark synthesized at a predetermined position of “image data”) is output to an image output unit 1 such as a printer.
Printing is performed by using the printer 21a (FIG. 15 shows a printing result). When the image file 128b stored in the storage unit 128 is taken out (printed), the ID mark image data included in the ID-marked image data input from the image input unit 122a is stored in the image I
D, and the target image data is specified based on the image ID. The combination of the ID mark image data is not limited to the first page of the image data, but may be a page having a characteristic image of the image data, for example. [Distribution Operation] Hereinafter, in the image distribution system configured as described above, image data is distributed from the digital multifunction peripheral (transmission source device) 120 at the head office to the digital multifunction peripheral (delivery destination device) 320 at the Osaka branch via the image server 110. The operation will be described with reference to FIG.

First, with a user ID input screen (see FIG. 4) displayed on a control panel 125b (comprising an LCD display with a touch panel and a plurality of numeric keys) of the digital multifunction peripheral 120, a user ID registered in advance is displayed. When the start key S included in the control panel 125b is pressed after the password is input, the panel control means 125a displays a mode selection screen (see FIG. 5) on the control panel 125b.

Next, when "other" is selected on the mode selection screen, the panel control means 125a displays a distribution mode selection screen (FIG. 6) on the control panel 125b.
Is displayed, and when “document distribution” is selected on this distribution mode selection screen, the image server 110 is requested to return the distribution destination group information to the image server 110 via the communication processing unit 127. The description of the operation in the case where a selection other than "others" is selected on the mode selection screen and the operation in the case where a selection other than "document distribution" is selected on the distribution mode selection screen will be omitted.

The distribution management means 112 of the image server 110 receiving the above request refers to the correspondence table 113c, and a plurality of distribution destination group names “all distribution destinations”, “all business related”, The “all business offices” and “product development related departments” are returned to the panel control means 125a of the digital multifunction peripheral 120 via the communication processing means 111, and the panel control means 125a having received the distribution destination group name sends the distribution destination group name. A distribution destination selection screen based on the group name (see FIG. 7) is displayed on the control panel 125b.

Here, a distribution destination group number is input using a numeric keypad in a state where a distribution document is set on an automatic document feeder (hereinafter, referred to as “ADF”) provided in the image input unit 122a of the digital multifunction peripheral 120 (see FIG. 1). This input can be made a plurality of times for different distribution destination groups.) When this input information is held in the panel control means 125a, and then the start key S is pressed, the panel control means 125a Image input means 122
A request to read the distribution document is issued to the image input control unit 122b that controls the driving of the control unit a, and the input information is passed to the image management unit 126.

The image input control means 122b, which has received the read request, instructs the image input means 122a to read the distribution document.
Reference numeral 22a feeds a plurality of delivery documents set on the ADF one by one onto a document table (not shown), and sequentially stores them in the buffer 124 as digitally converted image data.

On the other hand, upon receiving the input information, the image management means 126 sets an image I, which is a unique number for each image data.
D (for example, “0001”), the image data stored in the buffer 124 as described above is stored in the image file 1.
The attribute information of the image file 128b (composed of “image ID”, “number of pages”, “image size”, etc.) is registered in the attribute table 128a of the storage unit 128. An image ID can be used as the file name of the image file 128b. For example, the image file 12b having the image ID “0001” can be used.
The file name of 8b is "0001.tif" or the like.

When the above operation is repeated and storage of all pages of the distribution document is completed, the image management means 126 sets the distribution group name and image data (corresponding to the distribution group number selected on the distribution destination selection screen). Image server 128 together with the distribution request.
0, and when this transmission is completed, the storage means 1
The image file 128b on the file 28 is deleted.

Upon receiving the distribution request, the distribution management means 112 of the image server 110 first stores the image data in the storage device 113 as an image file 113a, and then searches the correspondence table 113c to obtain the distribution destination group. A distribution destination group file name corresponding to the name is specified, and a distribution destination domain name is extracted from the distribution destination group file 113b of the distribution destination group file name.

The distribution management means 112, which has extracted the distribution destination domain name, transmits the image file 113a to the distribution destination device corresponding to the distribution destination domain. 113a is printed by the image output means.

When the above operation is completed for all the distribution destination devices belonging to the distribution destination group, the distribution management means 11
2 deletes the image file 113a on the storage device 113.

[0021]

Here, in the above-mentioned conventional image distribution system, image data is unilaterally distributed to all distribution destination devices. However, depending on the distribution destination, the image data is distributed as described above. In some cases, the image data to be obtained is unnecessary.

However, there is no way in the above-mentioned conventional image distribution system to reject image data reception at the destination.
Therefore, there is a problem that unnecessary paper consumption and device occupation are performed at a distribution destination that receives unnecessary image data.

The present invention has been proposed based on the above-described conventional circumstances, and has as its object to provide an image distribution system which enables a distribution destination device to determine whether or not image data distribution is necessary. is there.

[0024]

The present invention has the following features to attain the object mentioned above. That is, according to the present invention, as shown in FIG. 2, one of a plurality of transmission source devices (here, the transmission source device 120) designates a distribution destination group to the image server 110 and transmits image data. When transmitted, the image server 11 that has received this image data
0 is based on an image distribution system that distributes the image data to each of the distribution destination devices (here, distribution destination devices 310 and 320) constituting the distribution destination group.

In the image distribution system, the image server 110 distributes information for specifying the image data to the distribution destination devices 310 and 320 instead of the image data, and distributes the information for specifying the image data, for example. When the image data is received from the destination device 320, the image data specified by the information is returned to the destination device 320. In this way, each distribution destination device 31 constituting the distribution destination group
Since it is possible to determine the necessity of image data distribution at 0/320, it is possible to prevent unnecessary image data distribution.

Here, as the information for specifying the image data, image data with an ID mark is employed. That is, the transmission source device 120 generates the ID-marked image data that specifies the image data, and then transmits the ID-marked image data to the image server 110 together with the image data by specifying a distribution destination group. The image server 110 having received this prints the image data with the ID mark instead of the image data.
320. Since the first page (or a page having a characteristic image) of the image data is used as the image data with the ID mark, the user at the distribution destination device 310/320 can use the image data with the ID mark. By obtaining the above, it is possible to easily determine whether or not the distribution of the image data is necessary.

When the distribution destination device 320 decodes the image data with the ID mark into an image ID and transmits the image ID to the image server 110, the image server 110 that has received the image ID receives the image ID. The image data specified by the image ID is returned to the distribution destination device 320. As described above, if the mode using the image data with the ID mark is used, each of the distribution destination devices 3 forming the distribution destination group 3
The user at 10.320 can request image data distribution by a simple operation.

Here, the generation of the image data with the ID mark and the decoding of the image ID may be performed on the image server 110 side. That is, the image server 110
When image data is received from the transmission source device 120, image data with an ID mark for specifying the image data is generated, and then the image data with the ID mark is distributed to the destination devices 310 and 320 instead of the image data. In addition, when the image data with the ID mark is received from, for example, the distribution destination device 320, the image data with the ID mark is decoded into an image ID, and then the image data specified by the image ID is returned to the distribution destination device 320. You may do so. According to this configuration, the present invention can be applied to an image communication apparatus that cannot generate image data with an ID mark.

In order to make it easier to determine the necessity of distributing the image data, the image data with the ID mark is replaced with the attribute information of the image data specified by the image data with the ID mark and the reduced image. It may be included.

Further, a personal computer that transmits image data of a document created by the document creation software to the image server 110 may be adopted instead of the transmission source device 120.

Further, the image server 110 may distribute an electronic mail including an image ID for specifying the image data to the personal computers constituting the distribution destination group instead of the image data.

[0032]

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

FIG. 1 is a schematic functional block diagram of the image distribution system of the present invention. Hereinafter, the configuration of the present invention will be described only on the points different from the above-mentioned conventional configuration. Note that the network configuration of the image distribution system and the basic configuration of the image server / digital multi-function peripheral are the same as those of the above-described conventional configuration (the functions are different), and therefore the description will be made using the same reference numerals as in FIG. [Distribution Operation] The operation of distributing image data from the digital multifunction peripheral (transmission source device) 120 at the head office to the digital multifunction peripheral (delivery destination device) 320 at the Osaka branch office via the image server 110 will be described below with reference to FIG. .

First, a user ID input screen is displayed on the control panel 125b of the digital MFP 120 (see FIG. 4).
Is displayed, when the start key S included in the control panel 125b is pressed after the user ID and the password are key-input, the panel control means 125
a displays a mode selection screen (see FIG. 5) on the control panel 125b. Next, the panel control means 125a
When "others" is selected on the mode selection screen, a distribution mode selection screen (see FIG. 6) is displayed on the control panel 125b, and when "original distribution" is selected on the distribution mode selection screen, the distribution is performed. Request the image server 110 to return the destination group information (FIG. 3,
(1)).

The distribution management means 112 of the image server 110 receiving the above request refers to the correspondence table 113c, and a plurality of distribution destination group names "all distribution destinations", "all business related", The "all business offices" and "product development related departments" are returned to the digital multifunction peripheral 120 via the communication processing means 111 (FIG. 3, (2)), and the panel of the digital multifunction peripheral 120 receiving the distribution destination group name is received. Control means 12
5a displays a distribution destination selection screen (see FIG. 7) based on the distribution destination group name on the control panel 125b. Here, the image input unit 1 of the digital multifunction peripheral 120
When the number of the distribution destination group is input using the numeric keypad in a state where the distribution original is set on the ADF provided in the ADF 22a, this input information is held in the panel control means 125a, and then when the start key S is pressed down. The panel control unit 125a issues a distribution document reading request to the image input control unit 122b and passes the input information to the image management unit 126.

The image input control means 122b, which has received the read request, instructs the image input means 122a to read the distribution document.
Reference numeral 22a feeds a plurality of delivery documents set on the ADF one by one onto a document table, and sequentially stores them in the buffer 124 as digitally converted image data. on the other hand,
Upon receiving the input information, the image management unit 126 sets an image ID (eg, “01200001”) including a machine ID (eg, “0120”) that is a unique number for each digital multifunction peripheral.
Is issued, the image data stored in the buffer 124 as described above is stored in the storage unit 1 as an image file 128b.
28 (FIG. 3, (3)), and the attribute information of the image file 128b is registered in the attribute table 128a (see FIG. 14) on the storage means 128. The image I
D is configured to include the machine ID in order to make the image ID a unique number for every image data on the network.

Here, the image management means 126 sets the first page of the image data stored in the buffer 124 to I
Hand over the image ID to the D mark
Is passed to the image ID encoding means 123b, and the image I
The image ID encoding unit 123b receiving the D generates (encodes) ID mark image data corresponding to the image ID, and passes the generated ID mark image data to the ID mark combining unit 123a. Upon receiving the first page image data and the ID mark image data, the ID mark synthesizing unit 123a outputs the image data (image data with ID mark) obtained by synthesizing the ID mark image data at a predetermined position of the first page image data. Is generated (FIG. 3, (4) → (5)).

When the image data with the ID mark is generated as described above, the image management means 126 determines the image data with the ID mark and the distribution destination corresponding to the number of the distribution destination group selected on the distribution destination selection screen. The group name, the image file 128b and the attribute information of the image file 128b are transmitted to the image server 110 together with the distribution request (FIG. 3, (6)). 128b is erased (FIG. 3, (8)).

Upon receiving the distribution request, the distribution management means 112 of the image server 110 first
b is stored in the storage device 113 as an image file 113a (FIG. 3, (7)), and the attribute information is stored in the storage device 1.
13 is registered in an attribute table (not shown) (the configuration is the same as the attribute table 128a), and then the correspondence table 11
By searching 3c, a distribution destination group file name corresponding to the distribution destination group name is specified. And
The distribution destination domain name is extracted from the distribution destination group file 113b of the distribution destination group file name, and the image data with the ID mark is distributed to the distribution destination domain (FIG. 3, (9) → (10)).

As a result, the document with the ID mark (see FIG. 15) is printed from the image output means 321a of the distribution destination domain (for example, the digital multifunction peripheral 320) (FIG. 3, (11)). Looking at the document with the ID mark, the user of the distribution destination determines whether or not the distribution of the image data is necessary.

Hereinafter, the user of the digital multi-function peripheral 320 determines that the distribution of the image data is necessary, and
The operation when the image file 113a is taken out using a marked document will be described.

First, when "document extraction" is selected on the mode selection screen (see FIG. 5) in a state where the document with the ID mark is set on the ADF provided in the image input means 322a of the digital multifunction peripheral 320, The panel control unit 325a sends an ID to the image input control unit 322b.
A read request for the marked document is issued, and an image retrieval request is issued to the image management unit 126.
The operation up to the display of the mode selection screen is as described above.

The image input control means 322b having received the read request instructs the image input means 322a to read the document with the ID mark, and the image input means 322a which has received the instruction makes the ID set in the ADF. The marked document is fed onto a document table and stored in the buffer 324 as digitally converted image data with an ID mark (FIG. 3, (12)). On the other hand, upon receiving the image retrieval request, the image management unit 326 transmits the buffer 32 as described above.
4 instructs the image ID decoding means 323c to perform decoding processing on the image data with the ID mark stored in the image ID decoding means 323c.
Performs a decoding process on a predetermined position of the image data with the ID mark (the predetermined position corresponds to a position where the ID mark image data is synthesized by the ID mark synthesizing unit 123a) (FIG. 3, (13) )), The image ID obtained by this decoding process is passed to the image management means 326.

Image management means 326 receiving the image ID
Transmits the image ID to the image server 110 via the communication processing unit 327, and the distribution management unit 112 of the image server 110 that has received the image ID searches the attribute table on the storage device 113 to retrieve the image ID. After specifying the image file 113a corresponding to the ID, the image file 113a is transmitted to the digital MFP 320 (FIG. 3, (14)).

As a result, a document is printed from the image output means 321a of the digital multifunction peripheral 320 (FIG. 3, (1)
5)) When such a distribution operation is completed for all distribution destination devices, the distribution management means 112 deletes the image file 113a on the storage device 113.

In the above description, the first page of the image data (or a page having a characteristic image) is used as the image data with the ID mark. In order to make it possible to judge the image data, the image data with the ID mark includes attribute information of the image data (number of pages, registration date, user ID, etc.) and reduced images (for example, from the first page to the fourth page). May be included.

In this case, the digital multifunction peripheral 120
A scanner is exemplified as the image input unit 122a of the first embodiment, and a printer is exemplified as the image output unit 121a of the digital MFP 120. However, the present invention is not limited to this.
For example, a fax receiving unit (not shown) is connected to the image input unit 1
22a and a fax transmission unit (not shown) may be used as the image output unit 121a. [Configuration of Handling Image Data with ID Mark on Image Server 110] In the above description, generation processing (including encoding of image ID) of image data with ID mark is performed by the digital multifunction peripheral 120 of the transmission source, and image ID The decoding process is performed by the digital MFP 320 of the distribution destination, but these processes may be performed by the image server 110 side. That is, the ID mark synthesizing means 123a.
The image server 11 in place of the digital multifunction peripheral in place of the image ID encoding unit 123b and the image ID decoding unit 123c
0, and the distribution operation in such a configuration will be described below.

That is, the source digital multifunction peripheral 12
0 transmits the distribution destination group name, the image file 128b, and the attribute information of the image file 128b together with the distribution request to the image server 110, and the ID mark image data corresponding to the image ID of the image file 128b is transmitted to the image server. The image data with the ID mark generated by the image ID encoding means (not shown) of 110 and the ID mark image data combined with the image data of the first page is obtained by the ID mark combining means (not shown) of the image server 110. The generated image data with the ID mark is distributed to the digital multifunction peripheral 320 or the like by the distribution management unit 112 of the image server 110.

As a result, a document with an ID mark is sent from the image output means 321a of the digital multifunction peripheral 320 (FIG. 15).
Hereinafter, an operation in the case where the user of the digital multi-function peripheral 320 determines that distribution of image data is necessary and takes out the image file 113a using the above-mentioned document with the ID mark will be described. I do.

That is, a mode selection screen (see FIG. 5) in a state where the document with the ID mark is set on the ADF provided in the image input means 322a of the digital MFP 320.
Is selected, the document with the ID mark is transmitted to the image server 110 as digitally converted image data with the ID mark. The image data with the ID mark is stored in the image server 11.
0 by the image ID decoding means (not shown)
D, and the image data specified by the image ID is returned to the digital MFP 320 by the distribution management unit 112 of the image server 110. According to such a configuration, generation of image data with an ID mark or ID
The present invention can also be applied to a digital multifunction peripheral that cannot decode marked image data. [Configuration Using Personal Computer] In the above description, the configuration of the image distribution system employing the digital multifunction peripheral has been described. However, the present invention relates to an image distribution system employing a personal computer instead of the digital multifunction peripheral. Can also be applied.

Hereinafter, when a document created by document creation software such as a word processor operating on a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as “PC”) 160 shown in FIG. 2 is distributed to the PC 340 via the image server 110. The operation will be described. In the following description, PC1
It is assumed that software (for example, a printer driver or the like) having a document image distribution function is installed in advance at 60.

First, when document printing is instructed from the document creation software of the PC 160, the printer driver receiving this instruction requests the image server 110 to return the distribution destination group information. Display means (for example, display etc.) upon receiving
Displays a distribution destination designation screen (see FIG. 8).

Here, if the "OK" button B1 is pressed after the destination is selected from the destination list L shown in the dialog box of the destination specification screen, the printer driver is created by the document creation software. The converted document is converted into bitmap data, and the bitmap data is stored as an image file in a storage unit (for example, a hard disk) and transmitted to the image server 110.

The subsequent operations on the image server 110 side are the same as described above, and thus description thereof will be omitted. Hereinafter, the operation on the PC 340 side that receives image data from the image server 110 will be described. In the following description, software having a distribution image receiving function (hereinafter referred to as “distribution image receiving software”) is a PC 34.
0 is assumed to be operating.

First, the distribution image receiving software on the PC 340, which has received the image data from the image server 110, displays a selection screen (not shown) for asking whether to display the received image data. It is output to the display means together with a message indicating that the operation has been performed.

Next, when there is an instruction to display the received image data, the PC 340 outputs the image data to the display means by using the image browsing software. It should be noted that the image browsing software may be commonly used software.

Here, by specifying a printer connected directly to the PC 340 or via a network and instructing printing of image data, the image output to the display means can be printed as described above.

Although the distribution operation for a document created by the document creation software operating on the transmission source PC 160 has been described here, the image file stored in the storage means of the PC 160 and the scanner connected to the PC 160 Alternatively, image data captured from a facsimile apparatus can be distributed in the same manner as described above.

Here, instead of the image data, the ID
The operation of distributing the marked image data has been described, but the information distributed by the image server 110 for specifying the image data is not limited to the ID marked image data. For example, the image server 110 may distribute an electronic mail including an image ID for specifying the image data to the distribution destination PC instead of the image data. In this case, the image data is distributed in the same manner as described above by instructing the image ID from a keyboard or the like on the distribution destination PC.

Further, in the above description, the image server 110
Does not refer to the editing form of the distribution destination group file 113b stored in the storage device 113, but in order to edit the distribution destination group file 113b, the distribution destination group file 113b of the image server 110 is required.
b may be directly modified, but WWW (WWW is a mechanism for publishing various information scattered on a network as information that can be accessed by anyone, and details are described in RFC2068 / 1945 and the like. ) Is preferably used. That is, in the present invention, the web server program is operated on the image server 110 or a PC connected to the image server 110 via a network,
From the device (PC etc.) on which the WEB browser operates, the above W
The distribution destination group file 113b is edited via a CGI program that operates in conjunction with the EB server program.

[0061]

As described above, according to the present invention, information for specifying the image data (image data with an ID mark) is distributed instead of the image data. The necessity of distribution can be determined, and therefore, unnecessary distribution of image data can be prevented.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic functional block diagram of an image distribution system of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a network configuration diagram of the image distribution system.

FIG. 3 is a sequence diagram of image data distribution in the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a state diagram of a control panel when a user ID input screen is displayed.

FIG. 5 is a state diagram of the control panel when a mode selection screen is displayed.

FIG. 6 is a state diagram of the control panel when a distribution mode selection screen is displayed.

FIG. 7 is a state diagram of the control panel when a distribution destination selection screen is displayed.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of a distribution destination designation screen in the personal computer.

FIG. 9 is an explanatory diagram of an “all.rec” file.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram of an “eigyou_all.rec” file.

FIG. 11 is an explanatory diagram of an “eigyou_syo.rec” file.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram of a “develop.rec” file.

FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram of a correspondence table between distribution destination group names and distribution destination group files.

FIG. 14 is a diagram showing the contents of an attribute table.

FIG. 15 is an external view of a document with an ID mark.

FIG. 16 is a schematic functional block diagram of a conventional image distribution system.

[Explanation of symbols]

110 Image server 112 Distribution management means 113 Storage device 113a Image file on image server 113b Destination group file 113c Correspondence table 120/320 Digital multifunction peripheral (source device /
Delivery destination device) 123a / 323a ID mark combining means 123b / 323b Image ID encoding means 123c / 323c Image ID decoding means 125b / 325b Control panel 126/326 Image management means 128/328 Storage means 128a / 328a Attribute table 128b / 328b Digital Image file on MFP

Claims (9)

[Claims] When one of a plurality of transmission source devices transmits image data by designating a distribution destination group to an image server, the image server transmits the image data to each distribution destination device constituting the distribution destination group. In the image distribution system for distributing the image data, when any one of the plurality of transmission source devices transmits the image data by designating the distribution destination group to the image server, the image server replaces the image data. Distributes the information specifying the image data to each distribution destination device, and returns the image data specified by the information to the distribution destination device when the information specifying the image data is received from the distribution destination device. An image distribution system, comprising: 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transmission source device generates image data with an ID mark for specifying the image data, and designates a distribution destination group and transmits the image data with the ID mark together with the image data to an image server. The image distribution system according to claim 1, wherein the image server distributes the image data with the ID mark to each distribution destination device instead of the image data. 3. The distribution destination device decodes the ID-marked image data into an image ID, and then transmits the image ID to an image server. The image server transmits the image ID from the distribution destination device. 3. The image distribution system according to claim 2, wherein upon reception, the image data specified by the image ID is returned to the distribution destination device. 4. When the image server receives image data from a transmission source device, the image server generates image data with an ID mark for specifying the image data, and replaces the image data with an ID mark with the image data. The image distribution system according to claim 1, wherein the image is distributed to each distribution destination device. 5. When the image server receives the ID-marked image data from the distribution destination device, the image server decodes the ID-marked image data into an image ID, and then converts the image data specified by the image ID into the image data. The image distribution system according to claim 4, wherein the image distribution system returns the image to a distribution destination device. 6. The image distribution system according to claim 2, wherein the image data with the ID mark includes attribute information of the image data specified by the image data with the ID mark. 7. The image distribution system according to claim 2, wherein the image data with the ID mark includes a reduced image of the image data specified by the image data with the ID mark. 8. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transmission source device is a personal computer that transmits image data of a document created by document creation software to an image server.
The image distribution system according to 1. 9. The image according to claim 1, wherein the image server distributes an e-mail including an image ID for specifying the image data instead of the image data to a personal computer constituting a distribution destination group. Delivery system.