JP2000339243A - Communication system and communicating method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image communication system capable of performing image communication without making a transmitter of an image be conscious about a fact that a user of a computer transfers a group even when the user of the computer transfers the group in the image communication system in which plural groups consisting of one pieces of image communication equipment and plural computers to use the equipment exist. SOLUTION: An electronic mail is transmitted to an image communication server 101 by attaching a read image file by the image communication equipment 102. Image communication equipment 103 which is used by the user is discriminated from a mail address of a receiver of the image file embedded in the electronic mail from the image communication equipment 102 (a user of the computer 103) and the received electronic mail is transferred to the image communication equipment 103 in the image communication server 101. The electronic mail in which location information of an image file is embedded to the mail address embedded in the transferred electronic mail is created in the image communication equipment 103.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail system on the Internet and a WWW (World Wide Web).
b) An image communication system capable of exchanging image data using a system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, with the remarkable spread of the Internet, a WWW (World Wide Web) system has attracted attention. The WWW system is a client / server system based on a communication protocol called TCP / IP, similar to Internet applications such as e-mail, and has a GUI (Graphical User Interface) called a WWW browser and a WWW server application. Between
It has been developed as an information search / browsing system realized by communicating not only image information but also data handled on a computer such as texts, voices, and moving images. A number of various systems using this WWW system have been proposed. Have been.

As an example, a WWW system and an image communication system using electronic mail will be described with reference to a system diagram of FIG. FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of this system. In the figure, reference numerals 601 to 603 denote image communication devices, each having an image input and image output function, a communication function via a network, a WWW server function, and an e-mail transmission / reception function. 606 and 6
Reference numeral 07 denotes computer terminals (including a CPU unit, a memory, a display unit, and the like), which are connected to a network and have a WWW client function and an e-mail transmission / reception function. Mail servers 604 and 605 provide an electronic mail service to each terminal connected to the network. Further, the user of the computer terminal 606 belongs to the group A, uses the image communication device 602 for transmitting and receiving image data, and the user of the computer terminal 607 belongs to the group B, and uses the image communication device 60 for transmitting and receiving image data.
3 shall be used. In this image communication system, when image data is transmitted from the image communication device 601 to the computer terminal 606, the following operation is performed. First, in the image communication device 601, the transmission original is set in the image input unit, and the recipient of the image designates the e-mail address of the image communication device 602 to be used and gives a transmission instruction. The image data obtained is temporarily stored in a file. Next, an electronic mail in which destination information of a recipient and information of a transmission source are embedded and an image data file is attached is transmitted to the image communication device 602. The transmitted e-mail is delivered to the image communication device 602 via the mail server 604 and the mail server 605. Image communication device 602
Analyzes the received e-mail, stores the attached image file in the storage unit, and embeds the display layout of the image data in HTML (HyperText Markup Language).
e) is saved as a file described in (e.g., registered in the WWW server), and the location of this HTML file is
It is represented by L (Uniform Resource Locator).

[0004] Next, the transmission destination embedded in the received e-mail is identified, and the URL indicating the location of the image data is transmitted to the destination (e-mail address) of the transmission destination together with the source information. Send as an e-mail transmission document. The e-mail transmitted from the image communication device 602 is distributed via the mail server 605 to the computer terminal 606 used by the transmission partner. Here, the URL represents information resources on the Internet in a unified manner, and is represented as "resource_type: //host.domain/path". Here, resource_type represents the protocol or service to be used, and is usually http (HyperText Tran
sfer Protocol). Other, gopher, ftp, nn
tp etc. are specified. Further, host.domain indicates the address of the server to be accessed on the Internet, and is specified in the form of an IP address or a domain name.

[0005] Further, path indicates the location of the file on the server, and is described as "http: // Server_ip_address / @
The location of the HTML file is represented by a notation such as “Δ △ / xxx.html”. Next, the computer terminal 107 that has received the e-mail indicates the location of the HTML file from the information added to the e-mail. Read the URL,
The WWW browser of its own terminal uses the WWW browser of the image communication device 602 to
Load an HTML file containing image data on the WW server. The downloaded HTML file can be displayed on the display unit of the computer terminal 606, and can instruct the image communication device 602 to output image data. As described above, in an organization such as a company, one image communication device is installed for each group such as a workplace, and an image communication system is configured such that users of computers in the group share the image communication device. There are many.

[0006]

However, in the conventional image communication system, the sender of the image communication device 601 in FIG. 6 must always remember the correspondence between the image communication device and the user. was there. Further, if Mr. A, who is the user of the computer 606, moves from Group A to Group B and uses the computer 607, and as a result, when Mr. A uses the image communication device 603, A person who transmits an image from the image communication device 601 cannot transmit image data to Mr. A without knowing the destination of the image communication device 603. For this reason, there has been a problem that it is necessary to notify each time that the group has been moved or the like.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems. In an image communication system in which a plurality of groups each including one image communication apparatus and a plurality of computers using the same exist, the present invention relates to a computer. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image communication system capable of performing image communication without making a sender of an image aware even when a user moves a group.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication system having a communication server and a plurality of communication devices on a network.
First obtaining means for obtaining user identification information embedded in a received electronic mail, determining means for determining a communication device corresponding to the user identification information obtained by the first obtaining means, and determining means Transfer means for transferring the electronic mail addressed to the communication device obtained by
The communication device includes: a second obtaining unit that obtains user identification information embedded in a received electronic mail; and stores the attached data of the received electronic mail in a predetermined position of a data storage unit. Management means for managing, and transmission means for transmitting an e-mail including the location information to a user of the user identification information acquired by the second acquisition means when the e-mail is received. I do.

In a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the communication server stores the user identification information in the network and the communication device corresponding thereto in association with each other. Wherein the determining means outputs a communication device stored in the management table in accordance with the acquired user identification information.

A third invention of the present application is the communication device according to the first invention of the present application, wherein the communication device further includes a unit for managing user identification information of the own device, and the determination unit is provided in the network. The communication device outputs an affirmative response as a result of inquiring of the communication device whether or not the acquired user identification information is managed.

[0011] Further, according to a fourth invention of the present application, in any one of the first to third inventions of the present application, the communication device responds to a processing request with location information from a terminal on the network. The process is performed on data specified by the location information.

Further, a fifth invention of the present application is characterized in that in any one of the first to fourth inventions of the present application, the user identification information is a mail address.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an acquisition unit for acquiring user identification information embedded in a received electronic mail, and communication on a network corresponding to the user identification information acquired by the acquisition unit. And a transfer unit for transferring the electronic mail to a communication device obtained by the determination unit.

A seventh invention of the present application is the sixth invention of the present application, further comprising a management table in which the user identification information in the network is stored in association with a communication device corresponding thereto. The determining means outputs the communication device stored in the management table in accordance with the acquired user identification information.

According to an eighth invention of the present application, in the sixth invention of the present application, the determination means determines whether or not the acquired user identification information is managed for a communication device in the network. Is output as a communication device that returns a positive response as a result of the inquiry.

According to a ninth invention of the present application, in any one of the sixth to eighth inventions of the present application, the user identification information is a mail address.

According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an acquiring means for acquiring user identification information embedded in a received e-mail, and storing the attached data of the received e-mail at a predetermined position in a data storage unit. And management means for managing the location information together with the location information, and transmission means for transmitting an email containing the location information to a user of the user identification information acquired by the acquisition means when an email is received. It is characterized by.

According to an eleventh aspect of the present invention, in the tenth aspect of the present invention, the data specified by the location information is received by a processing request with the location information from a terminal via a network. The processing is performed.

According to a twelfth invention of the present application, in any one of the tenth and eleventh inventions of the present application, the user identification information is a mail address.

According to a thirteenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an acquisition step of acquiring user identification information embedded in a received electronic mail, and communication on a network corresponding to the user identification information acquired in the acquisition step. And a transfer step of transferring the electronic mail to the communication device determined in the determination step.

The fourteenth invention of the present application, according to the thirteenth invention of the present application, further comprises a management table storing user identification information in the network and a communication device corresponding to the user identification information, The determining step is to output a communication device stored in the management table in accordance with the acquired user identification information.

According to a fifteenth invention of the present application, in the thirteenth invention of the present application, the determining step includes determining whether or not the acquired user identification information is managed for a communication device in the network. Is output as a communication device that returns a positive response as a result of the inquiry.

According to a sixteenth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the thirteenth to fifteenth aspects of the present invention, the user identification information is a mail address.

According to a seventeenth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an obtaining step of obtaining user identification information embedded in a received e-mail, and storing the attached data of the received e-mail at a predetermined position in a data storage unit. A management step of managing the location information together with the location information; and a transmission step of, when receiving the email, transmitting an email including the location information to a user of the user identification information acquired in the acquisition step. It is characterized by.

The eighteenth invention of the present application is the invention according to the seventeenth invention of the present application, wherein data specified by the location information is received by a processing request accompanied by location information from a terminal via a network. A step of executing the processing.

According to a nineteenth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the seventeenth and eighteenth aspects of the present invention, the user identification information is a mail address.

According to a twentieth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer-readable storage medium storing a program code for executing each of the steps described in any one of the thirteenth to sixteenth aspects of the present invention.

According to a twenty-first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an acquiring step for acquiring user identification information embedded in a received e-mail, and storing the attached data of the received e-mail at a predetermined position in a data storage unit. And performing a management step of managing the location information together with the location information, and a transmission step of transmitting an email including the location information to a user of the user identification information acquired in the acquisition step when the email is received. It is a computer-readable storage medium storing a program code.

[0029]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. First, a system configuration according to the present embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a system configuration diagram illustrating the image communication system according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 1, reference numerals 102 to 104 denote image communication devices having an image input and image output function, a communication function via a network, a WWW server function, and an e-mail transmission / reception function. 107 and 108 are computer terminals (including a CPU unit, a memory, a display unit, etc.) connected to a network and having a WWW client function and an e-mail transmission / reception function. Hereinafter, for the sake of simplicity, this computer terminal is referred to as a computer. Mail servers 105 and 106 provide an electronic mail service to each terminal connected to the network. 101 is an e-mail transmission / reception function,
An image communication server having a search function for searching for an image communication device used by a recipient from destination information of a received e-mail and representing a plurality of image communication devices connected to a network. 109 and 110 are LAN (Loca
l Area Network) and is connected via the Internet 111. In this system, each computer uses a predetermined image communication device, and a plurality of computers using the same image communication device form one user group. Each image communication device receives and stores an image file addressed to a computer in the group, and sends a reception notification by mail to the destination computer. Further, image files are transferred and printed in response to a request from the destination computer. In this embodiment, the computer 107 belongs to the group A, uses the image communication device 103 for transmitting and receiving image data,
The computer 108 belongs to the group B and uses the image communication device 104 for transmitting and receiving image data.

In such a system, an outline of the flow until the image read by the image communication device 102 reaches the computer 107 is as follows. First, the image communication device
At 102, the read image is transmitted by designating the e-mail address (hereinafter, simply referred to as an address) of the image communication server 101 and the address of the user of the computer 107 to which the image is to be transmitted. Then, an e-mail addressed to the image communication device is created, and the e-mail is included in the computer 10.
The address of the user 7 is embedded, and the read image is attached. The e-mail is transmitted to the image communication device 101 via the mail server 105 and the mail server 106.
The image communication server 101 determines the image communication device 103 from the address of the recipient (user of the computer 107) of the image embedded in the received electronic mail, and
Forward e-mails received to Image communication device 10
At 3, the image attached to the transferred e-mail is stored, and a reception notification is transmitted to the computer 107 by e-mail. Information (URL) for browsing an image is embedded in the reception notification.
In step 7, an image is displayed based on the information. An existing e-mail protocol such as SMTP or POP is used for transmission and reception of e-mail.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the image communication apparatus according to the present embodiment. In FIG.
Denotes a CPU unit which controls each unit of the apparatus. Reference numeral 702 denotes a display unit for performing various displays such as a display for prompting an operation to the operator and operation of the operator. Reference numeral 703 denotes an operation unit for inputting an instruction from the operator in accordance with the display on the display unit 702. It consists of. 704
Is a storage unit for storing data such as input images as a file. A communication control unit 705 controls connection with a network outside the apparatus. The image input unit 708 and the image output unit 709 are connected to the image input control unit 707,
It is controlled according to the instruction of the PU unit 701. Further, the image conversion unit 706 performs conversion of image quality such as resolution. 71
Reference numeral 0 denotes a memory unit, which stores a program to be read and executed by the CPU unit 701, and variables necessary for executing the program.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the image communication server according to the present embodiment. In FIG. 8, 80
Reference numeral 1 denotes a CPU unit which controls each unit of the apparatus. Reference numeral 802 denotes a display unit for performing various displays such as a display for urging the operator to perform an operation of the apparatus, and 803 denotes an operation unit for inputting an instruction from the operator in accordance with the display on the display unit 802. It consists of. 80
Reference numeral 4 denotes a storage unit which stores files such as image data and a CPU unit.
Various programs to be executed by the 801 are stored, and are configured by, for example, a hard disk device. A communication control unit 805 controls connection with a network outside the apparatus. Reference numeral 806 denotes a memory unit, a program in the storage unit 804 is appropriately loaded, and the CPU unit 801 reads and executes the program. Also, variables necessary when executing the program are stored.

Hereinafter, the image transmission operation of the image communication system having the above-described configuration will be described in detail with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. The following description will be made on the assumption that image data input by the image communication device 102 is transmitted to the user of the computer 107.

First, the operation of transmitting the input image data to the image communication server 101 in the image communication apparatus 102 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation in which the image communication device 102 transmits image data to the image communication server 101. The CPU unit 701 reads out a program based on the flowchart from the memory unit 710 and executes the program. First, in step S201,
The destination information is set according to the guide of the display unit 702. The destination information includes the computer 10 which is the final destination.
7 is set, and the address of the image communication server 101 which is a representative destination of the LAN 110 is set. Next, in step S202, transmission source information (in this case, information of the image communication apparatus 102) is set in the same manner. At this time, it is also possible to add a fixed phrase or comment prepared in advance. In step S203, the transmission original is sent to the image input unit.
In step S204, the read image data is temporarily stored in the storage unit 704 as an image file and displayed on the display unit 702. Here, the caller confirms the image data to be transmitted on the display unit 702, and when an operation for not transmitting the image data is performed by the operation unit 703, the process returns to step S203 to read the document again. If an operation to start transmission has been performed, the process proceeds to step S206, and the destination information and transmission source information set in steps S201 and S202 are created as an e-mail document. The address of the image communication server 101 which is a representative destination of the LAN 101 is set as the destination of the e-mail, and the address of the user of the computer 107 which is the final destination is embedded in the e-mail. Further, the image file stored in step S204 is attached to the electronic mail. In step S207, an e-mail transmission function is used to send a message to the image communication server 101 in step S206.
Send the e-mail created in.

Next, FIG. 10 shows an example of a format of an electronic mail transmitted from the image communication apparatus 102. In the figure, reference numerals 1001 to 1004 denote header portions of a mail, 1001 denotes a mail address of the image distribution server 101,
1002 denotes the sender's mail address, 1003 denotes the title of the transmission content, and 1004 denotes the attached transmission image file. Reference numerals 1005 to 1007 denote mail texts, and reference numeral 1005 denotes an image communication server 101 or an image communication device 103
Is instruction information for identifying that the e-mail is an image transfer, 1006 is the mail address of the recipient (user of the computer 107) of the embedded image data, and 1007 is comment information. Image communication server 10
1 confirms that it is an e-mail for image transfer from the first instruction information 1005 of the mail body, determines the image communication device used by the recipient from the embedded address 1006, and sends the e-mail to the image communication device. Forward e-mail. Further, the image communication device that has received this mail confirms that the mail is an image transfer mail from the instruction information 1005, and sends an image reception notification mail including comment information 1007 from the embedded address 1006 to the recipient. .

Next, the operation in which the image communication server 101 receives an e-mail attached with image data from the image communication device 102 and transfers the e-mail to the image communication device 103 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. explain. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a process from the reception of the e-mail by the image communication server 101 to the transfer of the e-mail.
The U unit 801 reads a program based on this flowchart from the memory unit 806 and executes it. First, in step S301, the image communication server analyzes the content of the received e-mail, and obtains the address of the recipient (user of the computer 107) of the image, which is the final destination embedded in the document. Next, in step S302, the image communication device used by the recipient of the image (the user of the computer 107) is determined from the address acquired in step S301. To determine the image communication device used by the recipient of the image, a management table storing the correspondence between the address of the computer user on the LAN 110 and the image communication device used by each computer is stored in the storage unit 804. The target image communication device is determined based on the management table.
FIG. 9 shows an example of the data structure of the management table. In the figure, the correspondence between the address 901 of the user who owns the mail account on the LAN 110 and the address 802 of the image communication apparatus is stored, and in the example of the figure, the mail address “ZZZ @
It can be determined that the user of “XXX.XXX” is using the image communication device 103. The management table is stored in the operation unit 803 of the communication server 101 or the computer 107 or 108.
For example, even if a computer user moves from group A to group B, the address of the image communication device 104 corresponding to the user is displayed in the management table. What is necessary is just to change it so that it may be memorized. As another method, each image communication device is provided with a user table storing the addresses of users in its own group, and the image communication server 101 notifies each image communication device of the address of the computer user and notifies the image communication device of the address. It may be configured to inquire whether the address is within the group. Next, step S
In step 303, the address of the image communication apparatus 103 acquired in step S302 is set as the destination to which the received e-mail is to be transferred. In step S304, the e-mail attached with the image file is sent to the image recipient (computer).
The image data is transferred to the image communication device used by the user 107 (the image communication device 103 in this case).

Next, the image communication apparatus 103 is connected to the image communication server 1
An operation of receiving an e-mail from 01 and transmitting the reception notification to the computer 107 used by the recipient of the image will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation in which the image communication apparatus receives an e-mail and transmits a reception notification to a computer used by a recipient of the image. The CPU unit 701 stores a program based on the flowchart in the memory unit 710.
And execute it. First, in step S401, the content of the received e-mail is analyzed to confirm that an image file is attached. In step S402, WW
The image communication apparatus 103 having the W server function stores the image file attached to the received e-mail in the storage unit 704, generates an HTML file describing the display layout information of the transmission image, and sends the HTML file to the WWW server. register. In step S403, a URL indicating the location of the HTML file and transmission source information are created as an electronic mail document. In step S404, the electronic mail is transmitted to the address of the recipient of the image embedded in the received electronic mail (the address of the user of the computer 107). Here, since the mail addressed to the user of the computer 107 is set to be transmitted to the computer 107 in the LAN 110, the e-mail reaches the computer 107 and can be viewed by the recipient of the image.

Next, the operation of transferring and printing image data in response to a request from the computer 107 in the image communication apparatus 103 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an operation in which the image communication device transfers an image or the like in response to a request from a computer. The CPU unit 801 reads out a program based on the flowchart from the memory unit 806 and executes it. First,
The recipient using the computer 107 determines whether or not step S in FIG.
From the content of the e-mail received in the process of 404, it is confirmed that the image data addressed to the user has arrived at the image communication apparatus 103. Then, the recipient confirms the description of the URL indicating the location of the image data from the received e-mail, and requests the image communication device 103 for the image file on the WWW server by the WWW browser application. Hereinafter, the operation proceeds to the operation of the image communication apparatus 103, and in step S501, a request from the computer 107 is received. The request includes a URL indicating the location of the image file. In step S502, the designated HTML
The file is transferred to the computer 107. As a result, the recipient of the e-mail can check the image file transmitted from the image communication device 103 on the display screen by the viewer software. Here, when the recipient issues a print instruction for the displayed image file, the print instruction is received from the computer 107 in step S503, and it is also possible to instruct the image output unit to output image data in step S504. is there. The print instruction from the computer 107 can be realized, for example, by using the function of the WWW browser. In the WWW system,
CG for transmitting the input from the client (WWW browser) to the server and processing this with an external program
There is a mechanism called I (Common Gateway Interface).
For example, an object for instructing printing of a print image is embedded in an HTML document displayed on a WWW browser, and when the object is selected, a prepared instruction is transmitted to the server. The server can analyze the received instruction and activate a program for executing printing. Of course, the method is not limited to the method using the CGI, and any method may be used as long as an application executable between the server and the client can similarly issue a print instruction.

In the system described above, the receiver of image data (here, Mr. A) moves from group A to group B, and the computer 107 has been used until now. It is assumed that the image communication device 108 and the image communication device 104 are used.
In this case, in the LAN 110, the mail addressed to Mr. A is set to be transmitted to the computer 108, and the table of the image distribution server 101 is changed. That is, the contents of the table are changed so that the electronic mail address of Mr. A and the image communication device 104 are associated with each other. Thereby, as described above, the image communication server performs step S in FIG.
At 302, since the image communication device 104 is determined from the electronic mail address of Mr. A, the image is correctly transmitted to the image communication device used by Mr. A. Then, even if the sender of the image does not know the fact of the movement within the LAN 110, but knows only the e-mail address of the image communication server 101 and the e-mail address of A, the sender of A Images can be transmitted.

Even if the present invention is applied to a system including a plurality of devices (eg, a host computer, a scanner, a printer, etc.), an apparatus including a single device (eg, a copier, a facsimile machine, etc.) May be applied.

It is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to a case where the present invention is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus. In that case, the program code for achieving the present invention stored in the storage medium is transferred to the computer (CPU or MPU) of the system or the apparatus.
The object of the present invention is achieved by executing the reading.

When the computer executes the readout program code, it goes without saying that an OS (Operating System) running on the computer may perform a part of the processing.

[0043]

As described above, the first of the present application,
According to the inventions of claims 6, 10, 13, and 17, in an image communication system in which there are a plurality of groups each including one image communication device and a plurality of computers using the same, the image sender can use the image communication device. Even if the correspondence between the user and the destination user is not remembered, if the mail address of the representative image communication server and the mail address of the destination user are known, the image can be correctly transmitted to the destination user. Then, even if the image communication device used by the destination user is changed, it is not necessary to contact the image sender.

According to the second and seventh and fourteenth aspects of the present application, and further according to the eleventh and twenty-second aspects of the present application, the image communication server has a management table and user information of the image communication apparatus. By doing so, centralized management can be performed and maintenance becomes easy.

According to the third and eighth and fifteenth inventions of the present application, and further according to the twelfth and twenty-third inventions of the present application, the inquiry and the user information of the image communication device are transmitted to each image communication device. By providing this, the user information can be managed in a group unit centering on each image device, and a user can be added or deleted in a group unit.

The fourth and eleventh and eighteenth aspects of the present application
According to the invention, it becomes possible to perform processing such as transfer of image data to the terminal and printing in response to a request from the terminal on the network.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram illustrating a configuration of an image communication system according to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an e-mail transmission operation of the image communication apparatus according to the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an e-mail transfer operation of the image communication server according to the embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an e-mail receiving operation of the image communication apparatus according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of transferring and printing an attached image of the image communication apparatus according to the embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a conventional image communication system.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image communication device according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of an image communication server according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram illustrating a data structure of a management table in the embodiment.

FIG. 10 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an example of an electronic mail document according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 image communication server 102 image communication device 103 image communication device 104 image communication device 105 mail server 106 mail server 107 computer terminal 108 computer terminal 109 LAN 110 LAN 111 Internet

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 5B089 GA11 GA21 GB09 HA10 JA21 JA31 KA01 KA04 KB06 KC23 KC27 KC53 KH03 LA08 5C062 AA02 AA05 AA13 AB43 AC22 AC28 AC35 AC43 AE08 AF02

Claims (21)

[Claims] 1. A communication system having a communication server and a plurality of communication devices on a network, wherein the communication server obtains user identification information embedded in a received e-mail; A communication unit that determines a communication device corresponding to the user identification information obtained by the first obtaining unit; and a transfer unit that transfers the electronic mail to a communication device obtained by the determination unit. Means for acquiring user identification information embedded in the received e-mail, and management for storing the attached data of the received e-mail at a predetermined position in the data storage unit and managing the data together with the location information. Means, and when the e-mail is received, the location information is addressed to a user of the user identification information obtained by the second obtaining means. Transmission means for transmitting an e-mail including: 2. The communication server further comprises a management table storing user identification information in the network in association with a communication device corresponding to the user identification information, wherein the determination unit corresponds to the acquired user identification information. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein the communication device outputs a communication device stored in the management table. 3. The communication device further includes a unit that manages user identification information of the own device, and the determination unit determines whether the acquired user identification information is managed for a communication device in the network. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein the communication device outputs a communication device that returns an acknowledgment as a result of the inquiry. 4. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein the communication device executes the processing on data specified by the location information in response to a processing request accompanied by location information from a terminal on the network. The communication system according to any one of claims 1 to 3. 5. The communication system according to claim 1, wherein the user identification information is a mail address. 6. An acquiring unit for acquiring user identification information embedded in a received e-mail, a determining unit for identifying a communication device on a network corresponding to the user identification information acquired by the acquiring unit, A communication unit for transferring the electronic mail to a communication device obtained by the determination unit. 7. A management table storing user identification information in the network and a communication device corresponding to the user identification information, wherein the determination unit stores the user identification information in the management table in correspondence with the acquired user identification information. 7. The communication server according to claim 6, wherein the communication server outputs the communication device that has been set. 8. The determination means outputs a communication device that returns a positive response as a result of inquiring of a communication device in the network whether or not the acquired user identification information is managed. The communication server according to claim 6, wherein: 9. The communication server according to claim 6, wherein the user identification information is a mail address. 10. An acquisition means for acquiring user identification information embedded in a received e-mail, and management for storing attached data of the received e-mail at a predetermined position in a data storage unit and managing the data together with the location information. Means for transmitting an electronic mail including the location information to a user of the user identification information obtained by the obtaining means when receiving the electronic mail. 11. The communication apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the processing is performed on data specified by the location information in response to a processing request with location information from a terminal via a network. . 12. The communication device according to claim 10, wherein the user identification information is a mail address. An acquisition step of acquiring user identification information embedded in the received e-mail; a determination step of determining a communication device on a network corresponding to the user identification information acquired in the acquisition step; A transfer step of transferring the electronic mail to the communication device determined in the determination step. 14. A management table storing user identification information in the network and a communication device corresponding thereto in association with each other, wherein the determining step stores the user identification information in the management table in correspondence with the acquired user identification information. 14. The communication method according to claim 13, wherein the communication device outputs the communication device that has been used. 15. The determination step includes outputting a communication device that returns a positive response as a result of inquiring of a communication device in the network whether or not the acquired user identification information is managed. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein
3. The communication method according to 3. 16. The communication method according to claim 13, wherein the user identification information is a mail address. 17. An acquisition step for acquiring user identification information embedded in a received e-mail, and management for storing data attached to the received e-mail in a predetermined position of a data storage unit and managing the data together with the location information. A communication method, comprising: transmitting an electronic mail including the location information to a user of the user identification information obtained in the obtaining step when receiving the electronic mail. 18. The method according to claim 17, further comprising the step of executing the processing on data specified by the location information in response to a processing request with location information from a terminal via a network. The communication method described. 19. The communication method according to claim 17, wherein the user identification information is a mail address. 20. A computer-readable storage medium storing a program code for executing each of the steps according to claim 13. 21. An acquiring step of acquiring user identification information embedded in a received e-mail, and storing the attached data of the received e-mail in a predetermined position of a data storage unit and managing the data together with the location information. A computer readable program code for storing a program code for executing an electronic mail including the location information to the user of the user identification information obtained in the obtaining step when receiving the electronic mail. Storage medium.