JP2001005749A - Communication equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a communication equipment like a facsimile server which can transmit the image data of a read original as an electronic mail and an original without increasing the time and effort of the operation of an external device side, especially even in the case of broadcast communication in which an opposite transmission party corresponding to a facsimile and an opposite transmission party corresponding to an electronic mail coexist. SOLUTION: A client 2 of a LAN 3 gives read set information about original reading, a scanner 18 reads an original on the basis of the given read set information and facsimile transmission is performed while a message given from the client 2 is attached to the image data of the read original as a cover page. Meanwhile, the image data of the read original is converted into an electronic mail format by attaching the image data of the read original to an electronic mail, and the content in the same form as the content transmitted by facsimile is transmitted as an electronic mail by inserting the message into the text of the electronic mail.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication apparatus such as a LAN facsimile server which reads a document in response to an instruction from a LAN client.
In particular, the present invention relates to a communication device having an e-mail transmission function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various communication devices compatible with a LAN have been developed. In particular, a facsimile server, which is a server having a facsimile communication function, is connected to a plurality of client computers (hereinafter simply referred to as clients) of a LAN to which the facsimile server is connected, for example, from outside the LAN via a public telephone line network. It is used as a gateway device for transmitting and receiving a document by interposing between a typical facsimile device.

[0003] When facsimile transmission is performed from a client to a facsimile apparatus outside the above-described LAN via such a facsimile server, an original is created on the client using an editor program or the like provided in the client. An original is read from a scanner provided in a client or from a network scanner connected to a LAN, and the telephone number of a transmission destination (here, a facsimile apparatus outside the LAN) is sent together with the created original or the read original to a facsimile server. Send to The facsimile server makes a call to a facsimile machine outside the LAN based on the telephone number received from the client, modulates the original received from the client so as to be compatible with the public telephone network, and transmits it.

On the other hand, when reading and transmitting a document from a scanner provided in the facsimile server, the document is set on the scanner and the operation unit of the facsimile server is operated or in response to an instruction from a client. The original is read, and the read original is temporarily stored in the image memory and temporarily transferred to the client. Then, after editing the original using an editor program or the like on the client, the document is transferred again to the facsimile server,
Transmission is performed in the same procedure as described above.

[0005]

However, in the conventional facsimile server having the above-described configuration, even if the original can be read by the facsimile server in accordance with the instruction of the client and the image data of the read original can be transmitted by facsimile. , Could not be sent as email.

Accordingly, when the contents of such a document are transmitted by e-mail, the image data of the document read by the facsimile server is polled to the client side, and an e-mail editor program or the like provided on the client side is provided. Attaching image data of a manuscript to an e-mail using the Internet, and transmitting the e-mail by an Internet server different from the facsimile server, separately from the facsimile transmission. For this reason, in particular,
In the case of broadcast transmission in which a document having the same content is transmitted to a transmission destination corresponding to an e-mail, there is a problem that operation on the client side becomes complicated.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and setting information relating to reading of a document is provided from an external device such as a client, and the reading of the document is performed based on the provided setting information. By converting the image data of the manuscript to the e-mail format and sending it, the scanned image data of the manuscript can be sent as e-mail, especially for facsimile compatible e-mail recipients and e-mail compatible It is an object of the present invention to provide a communication device such as a facsimile server which can transmit a document without increasing the operation of the external device even in the case of the broadcast transmission in which the document is mixed.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication apparatus for reading a document based on setting information related to reading of the document, which is provided from an external device, and for reading the document read by the reading means. It is characterized by comprising a conversion unit for converting the image data into an e-mail format, and a first transmission unit for transmitting a conversion result by the conversion unit.

A communication device according to a second invention is characterized in that, in the communication device according to the first invention, the conversion means converts the image data of the document by attaching the image data to an electronic mail.

The communication device according to a third aspect of the present invention is the communication device according to the second aspect, wherein the conversion unit includes information provided from the external device in a body portion of the electronic mail, while including the information in a cover page. A second facsimile transmission of the cover page and the image data of the original.
It is characterized by further comprising transmitting means.

According to the communication apparatus of the first aspect, setting information (reading setting information) relating to reading of a document is provided from an external device such as a client, and the document is read based on the provided reading setting information. The image data of the scanned document is converted to the e-mail format and transmitted, so the image data of the scanned document can be transmitted as e-mail. Even in the case of broadcast transmission in which the transmission destination is mixed, the original can be transmitted without increasing the operation of the external device.

When the communication device according to the present invention is configured as a facsimile server, as will be described in detail in an embodiment described later, in addition to the read setting information, predetermined transmission setting information (transmission destination information) May be stored, and a document read based on the transmission setting information is transmitted.

According to the communication apparatus of the second aspect, the above-described conversion is performed by attaching the image data of the document to the e-mail, so that the processing conventionally performed manually by the client is performed, for example, by facsimile. It is possible for the server to do this.

According to the communication apparatus of the third aspect, the information provided from the external device is included in the body of the e-mail provided with the image data of the manuscript in the attached format as described above. The part can be used like a cover page in normal facsimile transmission. Therefore, by creating a template (fixed form document) of this text portion on the client side in advance, it is very easy to create such an e-mail.

Since the cover page contains the information given from the external device as described above and the image data of the cover page and the original is transmitted by facsimile, in particular, the transmission destination corresponding to the facsimile and the e-mail compatible In the case of a broadcast transmission in which both the transmission destinations are mixed, not only can these two types of transmission destinations receive the same form, but also, for example, when the external device is configured as a plurality of clients. In addition, it becomes possible to add an individual cover page for each client and to display a transmission source.

[0016]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings showing the embodiments. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration in which a communication device according to the present invention is a facsimile server (hereinafter, referred to as a facsimile server).

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a facsimile server,
FAX server 1 includes CPU 10, ROM 11, NCU 1
2, a modem 13, a hard disk drive (hereinafter referred to as HDD) 14, a RAM 15, a LAN interface (hereinafter referred to as LAN I / F) 16, a printer 17, a scanner 18, and the like.

The CPU 10 controls not only the hardware of the FAX server 1 but also the ROM 1 via a bus.
Encoding / decoding, based on the computer program stored in 1, the encoding / decoding of the image data of the original by an encoding method such as MH, MR, and MMR;
In addition to executing a computer program for facsimile communication such as modem control and communication procedures, it also converts the image data of the original into an e-mail as an attached format, transmits the e-mailed original, and receives such an e-mail. Execute a computer program for Internet communication.

The ROM 11 stores various computer programs necessary for the operation of the FAX server 1 in advance.

The modem 13 is connected to a bus, and comprises a data fax modem capable of facsimile communication and Internet communication. Also, modem 1
3 is an NCU (Network Control) similarly connected to the bus.
l Unit) 12. NCU12
Is hardware for closing and opening a line with an analog public telephone network (PSTN), and connects the modem 13 to the public telephone network as necessary.

Note that a DSU (Digital Service Unit: subscriber line termination unit) may be provided to connect to a digital network (ISDN) of a baseband transmission system.

The HDD 14 is replaced with an RO
It is possible to store the computer program stored in the M11, and to store information about the client 2 such as a sub-address (or user ID) and a password assigned to each client 2 using the FAX server 1. I have. Also, the HDD 14 stores various kinds of read setting information when the scanner 18 reads an original,
It is configured to store job setting information such as various transmission setting information when transmitting a document via the U12 and the modem 13.

The RAM 15 includes an SRAM, a DRAM, and the like, and stores temporary data generated when a computer program is executed, and also stores image data such as a document to be transmitted or a received document. In addition, HD
It may be configured to store various setting information and the like stored in D14.

The LAN I / F 16 transmits a fax
Server 1 is connected to one node of LAN 3.

The printer 17 is an electrophotographic printing device, and prints out image data of an original or the like stored in the RAM 15 and data stored in the HDD 14.

The scanner 18 reads an original with a scanner using a CCD and outputs dot image data.

Note that input devices such as a keyboard and a mouse,
A configuration including a display device such as a liquid crystal display device (LCD) or a CRT display, or a configuration including a display device of a touch panel type instead of these devices is also possible.

Each client 2 is composed of a personal computer or the like, and includes a CPU 20, a ROM 21,
An HDD 24, a RAM 25, a LAN I / F 26, a display 27, a keyboard 28 and the like are provided.

The CPU 20 not only controls each part of the hardware of the client 2 through the bus, but also
On the basis of the computer program stored in the FAX server 1, a computer program for setting / editing a job, displaying data transferred from the FAX server 1, and the like, which will be described later, is executed.

The ROM 21 stores in advance various computer programs necessary for the operation of the client 2, such as an editor program for creating and editing e-mails and an editor program for editing manuscripts. Facsimile communication and e-mail transmission / reception with the FAX server 1
Facsimile communication with other facsimile machines inside and outside the LAN 3 and transmission / reception of e-mail via the FAX server 1 are enabled.

The HDD 24 is replaced with an RO 21
It is also possible to store the computer program stored in M21.

The RAM 25 includes an SRAM, a DRAM, and the like, and stores temporary data generated when a computer program is executed, and also stores a document to be transferred to the FAX server 1 or a document transferred from the FAX server 1. Store the image data.

The LAN I / F 26 connects the client 2 to one node of the LAN 3 via this.

The display 27 is a liquid crystal display (LC)
D) or a display device such as a CRT display;
The information and the like transferred from the X server 1 are displayed.

The keyboard 28 is an input device necessary for operating the client 2, and may have a mouse in addition to the input device. In addition, when the display 27 as described above is of a touch panel type, some or all of the various keys of the keyboard 28 can be substituted.

The facsimile server 1 and the client 2 as communication devices according to the present invention each have the above-described hardware configuration, and perform various kinds of read setting information and transmission setting information (job setting information) executed by the facsimile server 1. ) From the client 2, for example, and the FAX server 1 assigns a job number as identification information to the given series of job setting information via the LAN 3, and notifies the client 2 of the job number. In this way, the user of the client 2 goes to the location of the FAX server 1 and
After the original is set on the feeder of the scanner 18, the process returns to the client 2, the job number set by the client 2 is designated via the LAN 3, the read original is read, and the image data of the read original is read. Is transmitted by facsimile or the Internet.

When it is necessary to edit the image data of the read original on the client 2 side, information to that effect is included in the setting information in advance,
The FAX server 1 polls the client 2 for image data of the read original, as in the conventional configuration.

Further, the FAX server 1, as described above,
In addition to facsimile transmission of scanned original image data, it is also possible to convert the original image data to an e-mail format by attaching it to an e-mail at the time of transmission, and to send e-mail as a conversion result It is configured. It is also possible to convert the image data of the manuscript into an e-mail format after reading, not at the time of transmission, and to have the client 2 edit the image data in this state.
It is also possible to create an e-mail from scratch using an e-mail editor program provided in each client 2.

Further, the facsimile server 1 is configured so that, in the case of facsimile transmission, a cover page designated by the client 2 can be attached to the image data of the read document.
Individual source information and the like can be included for each client 2. When the image data of the read document is transmitted by e-mail, the body of the e-mail attached with the image data of the document can be used like the cover page described above. Such a configuration can be specified from the client 2 as the job setting information, or may be a configuration provided in advance in the FAX server 1 as a standard function.

The setting information that can be specified from each client 2 to the FAX server 1 can be the following items, but the present invention is not limited to the following setting information. Absent.

In this embodiment, the client 2
The setting information items corresponding to the transmission destination (either the telephone number or the e-mail address) specified by (1) are prepared. First, common items that are not limited to the transmission destination will be described. 1) Designation of a transmission destination (destination) such as a telephone number, an e-mail address, and a sub address (or a user ID of the client 2). 2) Designation of enlargement / reduction ratio (or reading size) when reading a document. 3) Designation of the reading resolution in the main scanning direction and / or the sub-scanning direction. 4) Designation of gradation, number of colors, etc. (for color originals). 5) MH, MR, MMR, JBIG (Joint Bi-level I)
mage Group), JPEG and other encoding (compression) methods. Note that JBIG is a progressive binary image encoding format defined in the ITU-T recommendation (T.85). 6) Designation of transmission priority. 7) Specify the date and time of transmission. 8) Specifying whether or not notification is required when transmission is completed. 9) Specification of necessity of redial (retry) at the time of occurrence of transmission error, and specification of an interval and the number of times associated with the redial (retry).

Next, the items of setting information when the destination is a telephone number and facsimile transmission is performed will be described. 1) Designation of necessity of confidential transmission function such as F code. 2) Specification of the necessity of adding a sender name, and the specification of the content of the sender name accompanying the addition. 3) BFT (Binary File Transfer) transmission instruction and designation of various extended functions accompanying the instruction. 4) Designation of necessity of transmission certificate, receipt certificate, etc.

Lastly, the setting information items when the transmission destination is an e-mail address and Internet transmission is performed will be described. 1) Specification of the necessity of a delivery confirmation request by DSN (Data Source Name). 2) Specifying the necessity of a read confirmation request by MDN (Message Disposition Notification). 3) Specifying the destination e-mail address when a reply mail or non-delivery notice is sent. 4) Designation of an encoding method (MIME, UENCODE, Q encoding, etc.) when converting the read original into an electronic mail format. 5) Specifying whether to create an e-mail header of "SUBJECT" and the body of the e-mail. 6) Specification of the contents of the e-mail header such as "TO", "CC", "BCC". 7) Specification of necessity of encryption, electronic signature, etc.

FIG. 2 shows that the client 2 is a facsimile server 1
C of client 2 when setting a job for
4 is a flowchart illustrating processing contents of a PU 20. First, the CPU 20 waits for the user to detect a selection operation of the job setting process from the keyboard 28 (step 11), and if no selection operation is detected, repeats the step 11 at a predetermined time period. On the other hand, when the selection operation is detected, the CPU 20 displays a job setting screen (step 12) and accepts the job setting (step 13).

Then, the CPU 20 confirms whether or not the setting is to input the body part of the e-mail to be the cover page (step 14). An input operation of a message to be described is received by the keyboard 28 (step 1)
5). For example, a fixed document as a cover page as described above is described as this message.

After step 15 or when it is not set to input the text portion in step 14, the CP
U20 checks whether or not the operation of terminating the setting of the job using the keyboard 28 has been performed (step 16). If the operation of terminating the setting has not been performed, the process proceeds to step 13
Is repeated. On the other hand, when the operation of terminating the setting is performed, the CPU 20 transmits the setting information and the message of the set job to the FAX server 1 via the LAN 3.
(Step 17), and receives and displays a job setting information reception notification, a job number, and the like sent from the FAX server 1 (step 18), and terminates the processing. This process is configured to be repeatedly executed.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a process performed when the client 2 causes the FAX server 1 to execute the job set as shown in FIG.
5 is a flowchart illustrating processing contents of a CPU 10 of the AX server 1; First, the CPU 10 waits for detection of a signal (step 21), and when no signal is detected, repeats step 21 at a predetermined time period. On the other hand, if a signal is detected, the CPU 10 checks whether or not a document set on the feeder provided in the scanner 18 is detected (step 22). It is confirmed whether or not there is (step 23).

If the job number is designated, the CP
U10 checks whether the transmission destination (destination) transmitted from the client 2 together with the designation of the job number is an e-mail address (step 24). If the destination is an e-mail address, the CPU 10
The message already set in this job is converted into an e-mail text by inserting it into a newly created e-mail (step 25). On the other hand, if the destination is a telephone number or a sub address, the CPU 10 converts the message already set in this job into image data for facsimile transmission (step 26).

After step 25 or 26, the CPU 10
Executes the reading and / or transmitting process based on the setting information of the designated job (step 27), and ends the process.

If no original is detected in step 22 or if no job number is specified in step 23, the CPU 10 determines that the processing is other than the processing shown here, Is executed (step 28), and this processing ends. This process is configured to be repeatedly executed.

[0051]

As described in detail above, in the communication device according to the present invention, setting information (reading setting information) relating to reading of a document is given from an external device such as a client, and the document is read based on the given reading setting information. Scans and converts the scanned image data into e-mail format and sends it, so the image data of the scanned document can be sent as e-mail, especially with facsimile compatible destinations. Also, in the case of the broadcast transmission in which the transmission destination compatible with the e-mail is mixed, the original can be transmitted without increasing the trouble of the operation on the external device side.

Further, since the above-described conversion is performed by attaching the image data of the document to the e-mail, it is possible to cause the facsimile server to perform the processing conventionally performed manually by the client. .

Further, as described above, since the information provided from an external device is included in the body of the e-mail provided with the image data of the manuscript in the attached format, the body of the e-mail is covered by a cover page in a normal facsimile transmission. It can be used as follows. Therefore, by creating a template (fixed form document) of this text portion on the client side in advance, it is very easy to create such an e-mail.

Furthermore, since the information given from the external device as described above is included in the cover page and the image data of the cover page and the document is transmitted by facsimile, the transmission destination corresponding to the facsimile and the electronic mail In the case of a broadcast transmission in which both the transmission destinations are mixed, not only can these two types of transmission destinations receive the same form, but also, for example, when the external device is configured as a plurality of clients. In addition, the present invention has an excellent effect, for example, it is also possible to add an individual cover page for each client and to display a transmission source.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration in which a communication device according to the present invention is a facsimile server (FAX server).

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating processing performed by a client CPU when the client sets a job in a FAX server.

FIG. 3 shows a CP of the FAX server when the FAX server executes a job set by the client as shown in FIG. 2;
9 is a flowchart showing the processing contents of U.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Facsimile server (FAX server) 2 Client 10 CPU 12 NCU 13 Modem 16 LAN interface (LAN I / F) 18 Scanner

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat II (Reference) H04N 1/00 H04M 1/56 5K036 107 H04L 11/00 310D 5K101 1/32 11/20 101B // H04M 1 / 56F Term (Reference) 5B089 GA15 GA21 GA26 GB04 HA01 HA06 JA05 JA31 JB03 KA01 KB06 KH13 LA01 LA05 LA09 5C062 AA02 AA13 AA35 AB16 AB17 AB38 AC24 AC29 AE15 BA00 BC01 BD00 5C075 AB90 CA90 DD03 DD07 FF90 5K030 GA17 KA01 KA01 HA03B DA13 DB12 5K036 AA13 AA15 BB01 DD40 EE01 EE11 FF02 JJ13 KK18 5K101 KK01 KK02 LL01 LL03 LL05 NN03 NN18 TT06 UU19

Claims (3)

[Claims] A reading unit configured to read an original based on setting information regarding reading of the original provided from an external device; a converting unit configured to convert image data of the original read by the reading unit into an electronic mail format; A communication device comprising: a first transmission unit that transmits a conversion result by the conversion unit. 2. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said converting means converts the image data of the document by attaching the image data to an electronic mail. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the converting unit includes information provided from the external device in a body portion of the electronic mail,
3. The communication apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising a second transmitting unit that includes the information in a cover page and facsimile-transmits the image data of the cover page and the document.