JP2000253198A - Communication terminal equipment with electronic mail functions - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide communication terminal equipment with an electronic mail function which can function in the same way as a conversation reserving function in general facsimile equipment, even at using of an electronic mail. SOLUTION: Both image data and a voice message at a transmission side are converted into data in an electronic mail-attached file format by a main control part 1 and transmitted as an electronic main to the destination of a prescribed address. At this time, information indicating the presence of the voice message is added to the image data at the transmission side. When the image data and the voice message are transmitted as the electronic mail, the information indicating the presence of the voice message is added to the image data at a reception side, and printed by a recording part 3.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication terminal device such as a facsimile device having a function of transmitting image data by electronic mail.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a computer communication network for communicating e-mail via the Internet or the like, which is further connected to a local computer communication network via a communication line, has become widespread. The computer communication network has excellent error correction capability, and can communicate with computers not only in Japan but also abroad simply by paying the communication cost to the nearest provider (connection company to the computer communication network).

[0003] The communication procedure and communication system of the conventional G3 facsimile apparatus are different from those of the computer communication network, and therefore cannot be directly connected to the computer communication network. However, even image data such as a transmission original can be transmitted to a computer communication network by converting the image data into an electronic mail format.

[0004]

Even such a facsimile apparatus with an electronic mail function has a conversation reservation function (a function of transmitting a voice message at the time of image data communication) like a general facsimile apparatus. There is a demand to make it. However, current facsimile machines with an e-mail function do not have such a function.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and a voice message is treated as an e-mail similarly to image data, so that even when an e-mail is used, a conversation reservation function in a general facsimile apparatus can be realized. It is an object of the present invention to provide a communication terminal device with an e-mail function that can realize the same function.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication terminal device having an electronic mail function, which has a function of transmitting and receiving image data by facsimile and an electronic mail communication function. Means for converting a voice message to data in an e-mail format, and means for transmitting both data converted to an e-mail format to a predetermined address as an e-mail. .

In the communication terminal device with an e-mail function of the first invention, the image data and the voice message are converted into e-mail format data, and both converted data are transmitted to a predetermined address as one e-mail. I do. Therefore, a voice message can be handled as an electronic mail like image data, and a function equivalent to a conversation reservation function in a general facsimile apparatus can be used even when an electronic mail is used.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the communication terminal device with an electronic mail function according to the first aspect, before the image data is converted into the data of the electronic mail format, information indicating that a voice message is present is added to the image data. It is characterized by further comprising means for performing.

In the communication terminal device with an e-mail function according to the second invention, information indicating that a voice message is present is added to the image data on the transmitting side. Therefore,
The association between the image data and the voice message can be easily determined on the receiving side.

The communication terminal device with an electronic mail function according to the third invention is the communication terminal device with the electronic data function according to the first invention, wherein, upon receiving both data converted into the electronic mail format, the image data receiving information indicating that a voice message is present. It is characterized by further comprising means for adding to.

[0011] In the communication terminal device with an e-mail function according to the third invention, information indicating that a voice message is present is added to the image data on the receiving side, and the image data is printed. Therefore, the correspondence between the image data and the voice message can be easily recognized.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings showing the embodiments. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a facsimile apparatus with an electronic mail function of the present invention. In the embodiments of the present invention described below, the Internet is used as a computer communication network, and the facsimile apparatus with an e-mail function of the present invention provides Internet communication in addition to a conventional facsimile communication function such as the G3 system. Has possible functions.

In FIG. 1, a main control unit 1 is specifically constituted by a CPU, and is connected to hardware units described below via a bus 20 to control them and to perform various operations. Perform software-like functions. For example, the main control unit 1 executes a software function of converting transmitted image data and a recorded voice message into an e-mail attached file format, a software function of transmitting an e-mail to a predetermined address, and the like. .

The reading section 2 reads an original by a scanner using, for example, a CCD, and outputs image data of a black and white binary original. The recording unit 3 is a printer device of an electrophotographic system or the like, and prints out image data received from another facsimile device by facsimile communication and image data received by Internet communication as a hard copy and records them.

The display unit 4 is a display device such as a liquid crystal display device or a CRT display, and displays an operation state of the facsimile device, and displays image data of a document to be transmitted or received image data. The operation unit 5 includes character keys, numeric keys, speed dial keys, one-touch dial keys, various function keys, and the like necessary for operating the facsimile machine. By using the touch panel type as the display unit 4, some or all of the various keys of the operation unit 5 can be substituted.

The ROM 6 stores various software programs necessary for the operation of the facsimile machine in advance. The RAM 7 is configured by an SRAM, a flash memory, or the like, and stores temporary data generated when executing software. The image memory 8 includes a DRAM or the like, and stores image data to be transmitted or received image data.

The voice recorder 9 has a microphone or the like, and records voice uttered by the user as an analog voice signal. The voice data recording unit 10 records the voice signal recorded by the voice recorder 9 or the transmitted voice message as voice data in digital format. Audio player 11
Has a speaker or the like, and reproduces a sound corresponding to the sound data recorded in the sound data recording unit 10. The data converter 12 performs a process of converting an analog voice signal into digital voice data, and a process of converting digital voice data into an analog voice signal.

The modem 13 has a function for facsimile communication of image data and a function for data communication for communicating, for example, image data and voice data of a document converted into an electronic mail format via the Internet. It is a modem. The modem 13 is connected to an NCU 14 for closing and opening the analog line L. The LAN I / F 15 is configured to be connected to a LAN, and is capable of sending and receiving e-mail on the Internet via the LAN and a mail server.

The facsimile apparatus with an e-mail function according to the present invention has the above-described hardware configuration, and has a facsimile communication function such as a normal G3 system and an image mainly in TIFF (Tagged Image File Format). It has a function of attaching data and audio data converted to a file format such as wav or RealAudio to an e-mail and transmitting / receiving the data via the Internet. In other words, the original image data to be transmitted by facsimile is converted to TIFF, encoded by MIME, base64, etc., and the audio data is converted to an e-mail file format.
It can be transmitted and received as e-mail via the Internet. Note that functions for this are stored in the ROM 6 as software programs.

Next, the operation will be described. In the facsimile apparatus with an e-mail function of the present invention, not only the image data on the transmission side but also the voice message is converted into data in the form of an attached file of the e-mail, and transmitted to a predetermined address as an e-mail. At this time, the transmitting side adds information indicating that a voice message exists to the image data. On the other hand, when the image data and the voice message are transmitted as an electronic mail, the receiving side adds information indicating that the voice message exists to the image data and prints the image data.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the processing operation on the transmitting side of the facsimile apparatus with an electronic mail function according to the present invention.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, an original is read by the reading section 2, and image data to be transmitted is obtained and stored in the image memory 8 (step S1). Then, it is determined whether to attach a voice message to the image data (step S2). If the voice message is not attached (S2: NO), the image data is converted into an attached file format of an e-mail and transmitted to a predetermined address as an e-mail (step S8).

On the other hand, if a voice message is to be attached (S2: YES), the voice uttered by the sender is recorded by the voice recorder 9 and the analog voice signal is converted into digital voice data by the voice data converter 12. Convert to audio data recording unit 10
(Step S3). Then, it is determined whether information indicating that a voice message is present is set to be added to the image data (step S4). If it has been set (S4: YES), information indicating that a voice message is present, for example, an identifier, is added to the image data (step S5).

Then, the stored image data is converted into an electronic mail attachment file format (step S6), and the recorded audio data is converted into an electronic mail attachment file format (step S7). These converted data are transmitted as a single e-mail to a predetermined address (step S8).

Next, the processing operation on the receiving side of the facsimile apparatus with an electronic mail function of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, an e-mail is received (step S
11). After the electronic mail is converted into the original data format, the separated audio data is recorded in the audio data recording unit 10 (step S12), and the separated image data is stored in the image memory 8 (step S13).

Then, it is determined whether information indicating that a voice message is present is set to be added to the image data (step S14). If it is set (S14: YES), information indicating that there is a voice message and information that associates the content of the image data with the content of the voice message are added to the image data (step S15).

The image data is printed as a hard copy in the recording unit 3 (step S16). Then, by the operation of the receiver, the sound reproducer 11 reproduces the sound corresponding to the sound data recorded in the sound data recording unit 10 (step S17).

In the voice message on the transmitting side, the recipient's name or the recipient's e-mail address itself is
If it is inserted, the receiving side can analyze the voice part to recognize the address destination, and can automatically deliver the voice message and / or the image data to the recognized address destination.

[0030]

As described above, in the communication terminal device with the electronic mail function of the present invention, the image data and the voice message are converted into the data of the electronic mail format, and the converted data are converted into one.
Since it is sent as one e-mail, voice messages can be handled as e-mails like image data, and the same function as the conversation reservation function in general facsimile machines can be used when using e-mail It is possible.

In the communication terminal device with an e-mail function of the present invention, information indicating that a voice message is present is added to the image data on the transmitting side. The association can be easily determined on the receiving side.

Further, in the communication terminal device with an e-mail function of the present invention, information indicating that a voice message is present is added to the image data and the image data is printed on the receiving side. It is possible to easily recognize the association with the voice message.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a facsimile apparatus with an electronic mail function of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure on the transmission side in the facsimile apparatus with an electronic mail function of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure on the receiving side in the facsimile apparatus with an e-mail function of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main control part 6 ROM 8 Image memory 9 Voice recorder 10 Voice data recorder 11 Voice player 13 Modem

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Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A communication terminal device having a function of facsimile transmitting and receiving image data and a function of e-mail communication, means for converting image data into data in e-mail format, and converting a voice message into data in e-mail format. A communication terminal device with an e-mail function, comprising: means for converting; and means for transmitting both data converted into an e-mail format to a predetermined address as e-mail. 2. The communication terminal with an e-mail function according to claim 1, further comprising means for adding information indicating that a voice message is present to the image data before converting the image data into e-mail format data. apparatus. 3. An electronic mail function according to claim 1, further comprising means for adding information indicating that a voice message is present to the received image data when receiving both data converted into the electronic mail format. Communication terminal device.