JP2001285566A - Image reader and image data transfer system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image reader that is used in common by client devices and can smoothly read an image, without the need for a buffer memory of a high capacity and without causing deterioration in network transmission efficiency and to provide an image data transfer system. SOLUTION: The image reader 101 connected to a network 110 allows a transfer destination designation section 1018 to discriminate whether image data are to be transferred directly to a designated transfer destination client device as a transfer destination client device, to which the image data are to be transferred. When the transfer destination designation section 1018 discriminates that the image data have not been transferred directly to the designated transfer destination client device, the image reader adds an identifier, such as an IP address denoting the designated transfer destination client device to the image data, and transfers once the resulting image data to a server, which re-transfers the image data to the transfer destination client device.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an image reading apparatus for reading an original image and generating image data, and an image data transfer system for transferring the generated image data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a plurality of personal computers (hereinafter referred to as "PC") have been connected via a network such as a LAN.
That. ) And an image reading device such as an image reader, and the image reading device is commonly used by a plurality of client devices.

[0003] In the case of this type of use, it is necessary to transfer image data generated by reading a document image in a shared image reading device to a desired client device via a network. Conventionally, in order to perform image data transfer, a client device as a transfer destination is specified before an image reading device reads an original image, and a connection is established between the image reading device and the specified client device. In many cases, image data is directly transferred from the image reading device to the client device.

However, when image data is directly transferred from the image reading device to the client device, the relationship between the network transmission speed and the image data generation speed of the image reading device (or the original image reading speed) becomes a problem. In particular, when the image data generation speed in the image reading device is higher and the transmission speed of the network cannot keep up with the speed, the image reading operation may need to be interrupted until the transfer of the generated image data ends.

In order to cope with such a situation, the conventional image reading apparatus is usually provided with a buffer memory for temporarily storing the generated image data so that the image reading operation is not interrupted as much as possible. When the buffer memory is full (hereinafter referred to as "memory full state"), such as when the number of original images to be read is large, the image reading operation can no longer be continued, and the buffer memory cannot be mounted. Increasing the amount to prepare for reading a large number of documents increases the manufacturing cost of the image reading apparatus.

On the other hand, in recent years, the transmission speed of a network has been increased, and for example, the transmission speed is 100 kbps.
No. 100BASE-T has been widely put to practical use. When the transmission speed of the network becomes high in this way, the transfer of image data from the buffer memory is also performed at high speed.
Although the problem of the interruption of the image reading operation as described above is less likely to occur, some users of the network environment use a new high-speed network while using the conventional low-speed network as it is. In many cases, an environment in which a plurality of networks having different transmission speeds are connected to each other using a connection device such as a bridge or a router is also used.

In such an environment, when image data is transferred to a client device connected to a network having a high transmission speed, even if the image reading operation can be performed without interruption, a network having a low transmission speed may be used. In the case where image data is transferred to a client device connected to the server, there is a high possibility that an image reading operation will still be interrupted. Therefore, for example, a server for storing the generated image data is provided in a network to which the image reading device is connected, and the image data from the image reading device is once transferred to the server and then transferred to the client again. Alternatively, a method of smoothly performing the image reading operation may be considered.

[0008]

However, if all the image data is transferred to the server, the transfer of the image data between the image reading device and the server may be duplicated, and the transmission efficiency of the network may be reduced. There is a problem that it may be invited.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and when an image reading device is shared by a plurality of client devices, an image can be read without increasing the amount of mounted buffer memory. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image reading apparatus and an image data transfer system capable of efficiently performing a reading operation and suppressing a decrease in network transmission efficiency.

[0010]

To achieve the above object, an image reading apparatus according to the present invention reads an original image in an image reading apparatus which is connected to a network and transfers image data via the network. Reading means for generating image data, receiving means for receiving designation of a transfer destination to which the image data generated by the reading means is to be transferred, and transferring the image data directly to the designated transfer destination via the receiving means Determining means for determining whether or not the image data is directly transferred by the determining means, transferring the image data directly to the designated transfer destination, and transferring the image data directly by the determining means If it is determined that the image data is not to be transferred, the transfer unit that transfers the image data to another device, and the transfer unit transfers the image data to another device. When transferring the data it is characterized by comprising adding means for adding an identifier indicating a destination that is the specified image data.

According to this configuration, the destination of the image data is selected based on the determination by the determining means, and if the image data is not to be directly transmitted to the specified destination, the specified destination of the image data is not transmitted. Give an identifier indicating the destination,
This makes it possible to re-transfer the image data once transferred to another device to the specified transfer destination. Therefore, it is not necessary to increase the mounting amount of the buffer memory, and it is possible to smoothly perform the image reading operation and to suppress a decrease in the transmission efficiency of the network. Note that the image data generation processing by the reading unit may include compression processing of the image data.

More specifically, the determining means includes a transfer speed obtaining means for obtaining a transfer speed when transferring the image data to the designated transfer destination, and the transfer rate obtained by the transfer speed obtaining means. Based on the speed, it can be determined whether or not to directly transfer the image data to the designated destination. The transfer rate may be obtained by actually sending some data to the network and monitoring the transfer rate, or by storing data representing the empirical transfer rate and referring to it. Conceivable.

[0013] Further, the determining means includes a transfer speed obtaining means for obtaining a transfer speed when transferring the image data to the designated transfer destination, and an image data generating means for obtaining a generation speed of the image data by the reading means. A speed acquisition unit, and a comparison unit that compares the transfer speed acquired by the transfer speed acquisition unit with the generation speed of the image data acquired by the image data generation speed acquisition unit;
It is also possible to determine whether to directly transfer the image data to the designated destination based on the result of comparison by the comparing means. For example, as a result of the comparison by the comparing means, if the transfer speed is faster than the generation speed or if both are equal, the image reading operation will not be interrupted even if the image data is directly transferred to the designated destination. It is because it can be judged that there is not.

[0014] Further, the image reading device includes a buffer memory capable of temporarily storing either the image data generated by the reading means or transmitting the stored image data to a network;
When sending image data from the buffer memory to the network, comprising: a stop time obtaining unit that obtains a time when image data generation by the reading unit is stopped; and the determination unit includes the stop time obtaining unit. It is also possible to determine whether or not to directly transfer the image data to the specified transfer destination based on the stop time obtained by the above. This configuration is effective when using a type of buffer memory that cannot write and read data in parallel.

[0015] In this case, the judging means transfers the image data directly to the designated transfer destination depending on whether or not the stop time obtained by the stop time obtaining means is longer than a predetermined time. It is preferable that the image reading device further includes a setting unit that receives setting of the predetermined time by an operator.

The reading means may resume reading the original image and generating the image data when the transmission of the image data from the buffer memory to the network is completed.

Further, when the transfer means determines that the image data is not to be directly transferred by the determination means,
The image data may be transferred to the server.

The image reading apparatus further includes server connection determining means for determining whether or not a connection to the server has been established, and the transfer means determines whether the connection to the server has been established by the server connection determining means. If it is determined that the image data cannot be established, it is preferable to directly transfer the image data to the specified destination. This is because it is preferable to take measures when a failure occurs in the server.

An image data transfer system according to the present invention is an image data transfer system for transferring image data generated by reading an original image by an image reading device to a transfer destination client device via a network. The image reading device is a reading unit that reads an original image to generate image data, a transfer speed obtaining unit that obtains a transfer speed when transferring data generated by the reading unit to a transfer destination client device,
Based on the transfer speed acquired by the transfer speed acquisition unit, a selection unit for selecting whether to directly transfer the image data to the client device or to temporarily transfer the image data to the server; And an adding unit for adding an identifier indicating the client device of the transfer destination to the image data when it is selected to transfer the image data to the server. The server detects the identifier added by the adding unit. And a retransfer unit for transferring image data to a client device indicated by the identifier detected by the identifier detection unit.

Here, it is preferable that the transmission speed of the network to which the image reading device and the server are connected does not fall below the transmission speed of the network to which the client device of the transfer destination is connected.
Thereby, the image data generated by the image reading device can be quickly transmitted to the network, and the image reading operation can be smoothly performed.

[0021]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of an image reading apparatus and an image data transfer system according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

(1) Overall Configuration of Image Data Transfer System FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of an image data transfer system according to an embodiment of the present invention. The image data transfer system according to the present embodiment includes a high-speed network 110 using, for example, 100BASE-T and a 10BASE-T.
A low-speed network 111 whose transmission speed is lower than the high-speed network 110, such as -T, is connected by a connection device 120 such as a bridge or a router.

The high-speed network 110 includes an image reading device 101, a server 102, and a client device 103.
Is connected. The client device 104 is connected to the low-speed network 111. In addition,
In addition to the ones shown in the figure, other networks can be connected to each other, and it is also possible to connect a larger number of client devices to each network, but illustration in the figure is omitted. are doing. The configuration is such that the image reading device 101 can be used from any client device connected to both networks.

The image reading device 101 reads an original image to generate image data. The detailed configuration of the image reading apparatus 101 according to the present embodiment will be described later.

The server 102 includes the image reading device 10
The image data generated in 1 is transferred as needed,
It is stored in a storage device such as an image memory or a hard disk drive in the server 102.

The image data generated by the image reading device 101 is transferred to a desired client device via the server 102, or
The point of the present invention is to control whether image data is transferred directly from the client to a desired client device. The configuration of the server 102 in the present embodiment will also be described later in detail.

Each of the client devices 103 and 104 is a device that uses the image data generated by the image reading device 101. Specifically, in addition to the PC, an image forming apparatus such as a digital copying machine or a printer can be connected as a client device. Server 10
2. An identifier such as an IP address, which is identifiable on the network, is assigned to each of the client devices 103 and 104, and the destination of the image data can be designated using the identifier. There is no particular limitation on the transfer protocol of the image data on each network, and various protocols can be used.

(2) Configuration of Image Reading Apparatus 101 Next, the configuration of the image reading apparatus 101 according to the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 2 shows the image reading device 10.
1 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration of No. 1. As shown in FIG. 1, the image reading device 101 includes an image reading unit 1.
011, an image processing unit 1012, an image memory 1013, a memory amount detection unit 1014, a transmission / reception control unit 1015, a transfer speed detection unit 1016, an address information addition unit 1017, and a transfer destination designation unit 1018.

The image reading section 1011 irradiates the original with light and detects reflected light from the original to generate image data. The generated image data undergoes various known image processing in the image processing unit 1012, and is stored in the image memory 1013. Since these components are the same as those of a conventional image reading device such as an image reader, a detailed description thereof will be omitted. Note that the image data may be compressed before being stored in the image memory 1013.

The memory amount detection unit 1014 detects the capacity of the image memory 1013 mounted on the image reading device 101. If the capacity of the image memory 1013 is fixed and cannot be added, the memory amount detection unit 1014
Is unnecessary, but in recent years, most of the image memories 1013 can be added. Therefore, a means for detecting the capacity of the mounted image memory is provided. However, the image memory amount need not be detected so frequently, and may be detected, for example, when the power is turned on or when the apparatus is started.

The transmission / reception control unit 1015 includes the image memory 10
13 is stored in the high-speed network 1
10, the server 102 and the client device 103,
The control of the process of transferring the data to the device 104 or the like is performed.

The transfer speed detecting unit 1016 detects a transfer speed when transferring image data to another device via a network. Specifically, the transfer rate may be detected, for example, by installing a monitor program and transmitting data in a test manner to detect the actual transfer rate, or may be determined empirically. The transfer speed may be stored in a storage unit such as a memory in advance, and the transfer speed may be obtained by referring to the stored data. Based on the transfer speed detected here, the transmission / reception control unit 1015 performs control such as switching the transfer destination of the image data.

The address information adding unit 1017 receives the designation of the transfer destination client device input from the transfer destination specifying unit 1018, and sends it to the transmission / reception control unit 1015 to add the address of the specified client device to the image data. When the image data is directly transferred to the client device 103 or the like, the transmission / reception control unit 1015 establishes a connection with the transfer destination client device specified by the address sent from the address information adding unit 1017, and directly transfers the image data. I do.

On the other hand, if the transfer rate detected by the transfer rate detection section 1016 satisfies a predetermined requirement, the transmission / reception control section 1015 performs control such that image data is temporarily transferred to the server 102. This predetermined requirement will be described later in detail. Since the image data transferred to the server 102 needs to be transferred to the client device at the final transfer destination, the transmission / reception control unit 1015 sets the address information so that the server 102 can determine the transfer destination. The server 10 adds the address of the transfer destination client device sent from the adding unit 1017 to the image data.
Transfer to 2. The address of the transfer destination client device may be included in the image data and sent to the server 102, or may be added to the header and sent as long as the server 102 can detect the address.

(3) Configuration of Server 102 Next, the configuration of the server 102 will be described. FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the server 102. As shown in FIG.
1, a transmission / reception control unit 1022, an address detection unit 1023,
An address information adding unit 1024 is included.

The image memory 1021 temporarily stores image data transferred from the image reading apparatus 101. As the image memory 1021, a RAM, a hard disk drive, or other storage means can be used.

The transmission / reception control unit 1022 controls transmission of data to the high-speed network 110 and reception of data.

The address detection unit 1023 detects an address indicating the final transfer destination client device of the image data included in the image data transferred from the image reading device 101 as described above, and stores the address information. Send to addition section 1024. The address information adding unit 1024 includes:
When the image data is finally transferred to the transfer destination client device, the transfer destination address is added to the image data.

As described above, the server 10 according to the present embodiment
2 receives image data including the identifier (IP address or the like) of the final transfer destination client device from the image reading device 101 and identifies the address of the final transfer destination client device. Then, once the image memory 1
The image data stored in 021 is added to the address of the final transfer destination client device and transmitted to the network 110. Thereby, the image data can be transferred to the final transfer destination.

(4) Processing Contents of Image Reading Apparatus 101 Next, processing contents of the image reading apparatus 101 will be described. FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing contents of the image reading apparatus 101.

The image reading device 101 first performs an image reading process (S101). This image reading process is specifically performed by, for example, the transfer destination specifying unit 10 by the user.
This is a process of receiving the designation of the transfer destination client device using 18, reading the document image, generating the image data, and storing it in the image memory 103 via the image processing unit 102. Since these processes are the same as those of the known process, detailed description will be omitted. Note that, as described above, this processing may include compression processing of the generated image data.

Next, connection confirmation processing for the designated transfer destination client device is performed (S102). This connection confirmation process sends a control signal to the high-speed network 110 to which the image reading device 101 is connected, and confirms whether or not a connection can be established with the client device designated as the transfer destination, If the connection is possible, this is the process of actually establishing the connection. Here, when the connection cannot be established, for example, when the power of the client device designated as the transfer destination is turned off, the image data is always transferred to the server 102 (not shown in FIG. 4). Alternatively, the image data generated as being untransferable may be cleared. Here, the description is continued assuming that the connection with the transfer destination client device has been established.

After establishing a connection with the transfer destination client device, a transfer speed detection process is performed (S103). In the present embodiment, a method is adopted in which, after establishing a connection with the transfer destination client device, the test data is actually transferred to detect the transfer speed. Specifically, methods such as using a monitor program or measuring the amount of data actually transferred per unit time can be considered, but other methods,
For example, as described above, it is also possible to use a transfer speed empirically determined. The method using empirical values in this way has a problem that it is somewhat inaccurate in that it does not reflect the actual state of the network,
There is also an advantage that it is not always necessary to establish a connection with the transfer destination client device in step S102.

When the transfer speed detection processing is completed as described above, it is determined whether the transfer speed is insufficient (S10).
4) Control is performed to select the transfer destination of the image data based on the determination result. Specifically, if the transfer speed is not insufficient (S104: No), the image reading apparatus 101
Since it can be determined that the reading operation of the original image is not interrupted, the image data is directly transferred to the transfer destination client device (S105). The determination as to whether or not the transfer speed is insufficient may be made based on, for example, whether or not the detected transfer speed exceeds a predetermined transfer speed, the image reading speed in the image reading unit 1011, It may be determined whether the transfer speed is faster than the image data generation speed.
If the image data is compressed, the transfer speed may be compared with that of the image data.

On the other hand, when the transfer speed is insufficient (S10
4: Yes), if the image data is directly transferred to the transfer destination client apparatus, the transfer of the image data may not catch up with the generation of the image data in the image reading apparatus 101, and the image reading operation may be interrupted. . Therefore, in the present embodiment, when it is determined that the transfer speed is insufficient, the transfer of the image data to the server 102 is attempted.

Specifically, first, the image reading device 10
1 and the server 102 perform connection confirmation processing (S10
6) If connection with the server 102 is possible (S
107: Yes), the address information of the transfer destination client device is added to the generated image data as described above (S108), and the image data is transferred to the server 102 (S10).
9). This prevents the image memory 1013, which is a buffer memory mounted on the image reading apparatus 101, from becoming full, thereby enabling the image reading operation to be performed smoothly.

However, it is conceivable that the data cannot be transferred to the server 102, for example, when the power of the server 102 is turned off or when a failure occurs in the server 102. If the connection cannot be made (S107: No), the image data is directly transferred to the transfer destination client device (S105). By performing such processing, it is possible to cope with a case where a failure occurs in the server 102.

As described above, the image reading apparatus 101 according to the present embodiment determines whether to directly transfer image data to the destination client apparatus or temporarily transfers the image data to the server 102, and determines Since an appropriate transfer destination is selected, it is possible to suppress a decrease in the transmission efficiency of the network without increasing the capacity of the buffer memory of the image reading apparatus 101 and smoothing the image reading operation.

(5) Processing Contents of Server 102 Next, processing contents of the server 102 will be described. FIG.
9 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing contents of the server 102 when image data is received. As shown in the figure, upon receiving the image data, the server 102 first performs the final destination client device determination process (S201). As described above, since the address information of the final destination client device is added to the image data transferred to the server 102, by detecting the address of the added portion, the destination client device becomes Can be determined.

Next, a final connection confirmation process with the transfer destination client device is performed (S202), and the image data is transferred to the transfer destination client device (S203). Server 1
02, by performing the above processing, it becomes possible to transfer the image data to the transfer destination client device, so that the buffer memory mounted on the image reading device can be quickly opened, Therefore, it is possible to suppress a decrease in the transfer efficiency of the network while smoothly performing the image reading operation without increasing the mounting amount of the buffer memory.

As described above, according to the image reading device or the image data transfer system of the present embodiment, it is determined that it is not preferable to directly transfer image data to the final destination client device. In
Once the image data is transferred to the server and the image data may be directly transferred to the destination client device, the image data is transferred directly to the destination client device.
A reduction in network transmission efficiency can be suppressed while avoiding an increase in cost due to an increase in the capacity of the buffer memory mounted on the image reading device, and performing the image reading operation smoothly.

<Modifications> Although the present invention has been described based on the embodiments, it goes without saying that the contents of the present invention are not limited to the specific examples shown in the above embodiments.
For example, the following modifications can be considered.

(1) That is, in the above embodiment, the case where a plurality of networks having different transmission speeds are connected by the connection device has been described. However, the scope of the present invention is not limited to such an environment. The present invention can be applied to a case where a single network is used or an environment including only a high-speed network. That is, the gist of the present invention is to determine whether or not image data generated by an image reading device is directly transferred to a destination client device. Particularly, the present invention is connected to a network having a low transmission speed. It is conceivable that a greater effect will be obtained when trying to transfer image data to the client device. However, even if the transmission speed is not particularly slow, depending on the settings of the client device and other factors, it is better to transfer the image data to the server once This is because the present invention can be applied to such a case.

(2) In the above-described embodiment, a case where a memory of a type capable of writing and reading image data in parallel is used as the image memory 1013 which is a buffer memory mounted on the image reading apparatus 101. As described above, the present invention can be applied to a case where a type of memory in which writing and reading cannot be performed in parallel is used. However, in this case, once the image memory 1013 becomes full, the reading operation must be interrupted and the image data must be sent out. Specifically, it is preferable to slightly change the specific method of the determination in step S104 of the flowchart of FIG.

That is, the amount of time in which reading of the document image must be interrupted is calculated from the amount of the image memory 1013 installed, the transfer speed of the image data to the transfer destination client device, and the like. If it is determined that the time is longer than the predetermined time, the image data may be temporarily transferred to the server 102, otherwise, the image data may be directly transferred to the destination client device. Can be

It is preferable that the predetermined time can be specified by an operator via, for example, an operation panel (not shown) of the image reading apparatus 101. Further, it is preferable that the image reading operation by the image reading unit 1011 is restarted by detecting that all the image data stored in the image memory 1013 has been sent out onto the network.

(3) Further, when the present invention is applied to an environment where a plurality of networks having different transmission speeds are connected, the image reading apparatus 101 and the server 102 are configured to be connected to the network having the highest transmission speed. Is preferred. This is because the image memory 1013 of the image reading apparatus 101 is quickly opened, and the image reading operation can be performed more smoothly.

(4) In the above embodiment, all the image data is transferred to the server 102 when the image data is not directly transferred to the destination client device. By installing the program on another client device, the client device can be used as a server. For example, when a failure occurs in the server 102, the other client device may be used as a server. Then, the image data may be transferred.

A program for realizing the server 102 can be distributed by being stored in a large-capacity recording medium such as a CD-ROM or a DVD or a medium such as a floppy (registered trademark) disk. The program can be transmitted via a network, and the functions of the server 102 can be realized by installing the program in an information processing apparatus such as the PC.

[0060]

As described above, the image reading apparatus according to the present invention determines whether or not image data is directly transferred to a designated transfer destination. Since the image data is transferred to another device by adding the identifier indicating the designated transfer destination to the above, interruption of the image reading operation can be prevented, and when the image reading device is shared by a plurality of client devices, ,
There is an effect that it is possible to avoid an increase in cost due to an increase in the capacity of the buffer memory, and to suppress a decrease in the transmission efficiency of the network while smoothly performing the image reading operation.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of an image data transfer system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of the image reading apparatus 101.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating a configuration of a server 102.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing contents of the image reading apparatus 101.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart illustrating an example of processing performed by a server when image data is received.

[Explanation of symbols]

 101 image reading device 1011 image reading unit 1012 image processing unit 1013 image memory 1014 memory amount detection unit 1015 transmission / reception control unit 1016 transfer speed detection unit 1017 address information addition unit 1018 transfer destination designation unit 102 server 1021 image memory 1022 transmission / reception control unit 1023 address Detecting unit 1024 Address information adding unit 103, 104 Client device 110 High-speed network 111 Low-speed network 120 Connection device

Claims (10)

[Claims] 1. An image reading apparatus connected to a network for transferring image data via the network, comprising: reading means for reading a document image to generate image data; and transferring the image data generated by the reading means. Receiving means for receiving the designation of the transfer destination to be transferred; determining means for determining whether to directly transfer the image data to the transfer destination specified via the receiving means; determining that the image data is transferred directly by the determining means Transfer means for transferring image data directly to the designated transfer destination, and transferring the image data to another device if the determination means determines that the image data is not to be directly transferred. When the transfer means transfers the image data to another device, an identification indicating the designated transfer destination is included in the image data. Image reading apparatus characterized by comprising adding means for adding. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determining unit includes a transfer speed obtaining unit that obtains a transfer speed when transferring the image data to the designated transfer destination, based on the transfer speed obtained by the transfer speed obtaining unit. 2. The image reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein it is determined whether the image data is directly transferred to the designated transfer destination. 3. The transfer device according to claim 2, wherein the determination unit obtains a transfer speed for transferring the image data to the designated transfer destination, and an image data generation unit obtains an image data generation speed by the reading unit. A speed acquisition unit, and a comparison unit that compares the transfer speed acquired by the transfer speed acquisition unit with the generation speed of the image data acquired by the image data generation speed acquisition unit. 2. The image reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein it is determined whether or not the image data is directly transferred to the designated transfer destination based on a result. 4. The image reading device stores image data generated by the reading unit,
Or a buffer memory capable of executing one of transmission of the stored image data to the network at a time, and transmitting the image data from the buffer memory to the network when the image data is transmitted from the buffer memory to the network. A stop time obtaining unit for obtaining a time at which generation is stopped, wherein the determining unit transfers the image data directly to the designated transfer destination based on the stop time obtained by the stop time obtaining unit. The image reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein it is determined whether or not the image reading is performed. 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determining unit determines whether the image data is directly transferred to the designated destination by determining whether the stop time obtained by the stop time obtaining unit is longer than a predetermined time. 5. The image reading device according to claim 4, wherein the image reading device further includes a setting unit configured to receive setting of the predetermined time by an operator. 6. 6. The image processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the reading unit restarts reading the original image and generating the image data when the transmission of the image data from the buffer memory to the network is completed.
An image reading device according to claim 1. 7. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transfer unit transfers the image data to a server when the determination unit determines that the image data is not directly transferred. Image reading device. 8. The image reading apparatus further includes a server connection determining unit that determines whether a connection to the server has been established. The transfer unit determines that the connection to the server has been established by the server connection determining unit. 8. The image reading apparatus according to claim 7, wherein when it is determined that the image data cannot be established, the image data is directly transferred to the designated transfer destination. 9. An image data transfer system for transferring image data generated by reading a document image by an image reading device to a transfer destination client device via a network, wherein the image reading device reads the document image. A transfer unit that obtains a transfer speed when transferring data generated by the read unit to a transfer destination client device; and a transfer that is obtained by the transfer speed obtainment unit. A selection unit for selecting whether to directly transfer the image data to the client device or to temporarily transfer the image data to the server, based on the speed; and a selection unit that temporarily transfers the image data to the server. In this case, the image data is added with an identifier indicating the client device of the transfer destination. And a server, wherein the server comprises: an identifier detecting means for detecting the identifier added by the adding means; and a re-transfer means for transferring image data to a client device indicated by the identifier detected by the identifier detecting means. An image data transfer system, comprising: 10. The transmission speed of the network to which the image reading device and the server are connected is not lower than the transmission speed of the network to which the transfer destination client device is connected. The image data transfer system according to the above.