JP2001313764A - Internet facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an Internet facsimile equipment which can confirm whether the facsimile documents are received by an Internet provider and also can confirm the dates of reception, the transmitters and the number of received items of the documents, even when the abnormality occurs. SOLUTION: When a designated time of POP passed for confirming whether a provider has its received facsimile documents in an idle state and also in an abnormal state of a receiving system(YES in S1), the connection is secured to the provider (S2) to confirm whether the provider has received documents (S3). When the provider has no received facsimile documents (NO in S3), the connection is cut to the provider (NO of S5 and S6) and an idle state is reset. When the provider has received facsimile documents (YES in S3), the data on the transmitters, dates of reception, etc., of the documents are retrieved and read from the data of the provider (S4). Then the connection is cut to the provider (S5). When the read data are confirmed (YES in S6), these data are stored in a memory (S7) and 'presence of FAX, number of items' are displayed (S8). Then an idle state is reset.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to an Internet facsimile apparatus, and more particularly, to an Internet facsimile apparatus capable of dial-up connection.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional Internet facsimile apparatus compatible with dial-up connection, for example,
If a failure (abnormality) occurs in the printing system of your own facsimile machine and the memory of the alternate reception becomes full, the function of not receiving the data by dial-up connection will check whether the facsimile document has arrived at the provider. There was an inconvenience of not knowing.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned circumstances, and (1) abnormalities (failures).
Even if a facsimile document has arrived, check if there is a facsimile document that has arrived at the Internet provider, check the reception date and time, the sender, and the number of received messages. (2) Connect to the provider periodically to check if there is a facsimile document, the sender, Even if the number of received faxes can be ascertained, communication costs will be incurred each time a connection is made to the provider, and if the number of received facsimile documents is large, the connection time will be lengthened and costs will increase. To save the
(3) Further, even if the reception of the facsimile document via the Internet is confirmed, since the facsimile apparatus itself cannot receive the data due to the abnormality, there is a problem that the communication cost is simply generated. The purpose of the present invention is to provide an Internet facsimile apparatus capable of notifying when an abnormality has occurred.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, there is provided a facsimile reception abnormality detecting means for detecting an abnormality in a printing system or a memory system relating to facsimile reception in an Internet facsimile apparatus capable of dial-up connection. Abnormality notification means for notifying the user of the abnormality, access means for accessing an Internet provider, facsimile document confirmation means for confirming whether a facsimile document has reached the Internet provider, and facsimile reception abnormality detection means for detecting the abnormality. Facsimile document capturing means for not capturing the facsimile document if detected
When it is confirmed that the facsimile document has arrived at the Internet provider, the facsimile document has display means for displaying information such as a reception date and time, a transmission source, and the number of receptions. Even when the abnormality is detected, the dial-up connection is made to the Internet provider to check whether the facsimile document has reached the Internet provider.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the dial-up connection is made to the Internet provider periodically until it is confirmed that the facsimile document has reached the Internet provider. The receipt date of the facsimile document is displayed on the display means when it is confirmed that the facsimile document has arrived, and thereafter, the dial-up connection to the Internet provider is not performed.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, when the facsimile reception abnormality detecting means detects the abnormality, the dial-up connection to the Internet provider is forcibly stopped, and the display means displays It is characterized by displaying the date and time when the abnormality was detected.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a main block diagram for explaining an embodiment of an Internet facsimile apparatus according to the present invention, in which 1 is a system control section, 2 is a system memory, and 3 is an image memory. 4 is a facsimile reception abnormality detection unit, 5 is an abnormality notification unit, 6 is a scanner, 7 is an input image processing unit, 8 is a facsimile document capture unit, 9 is a facsimile document confirmation unit, 10 is an access unit, and 11 is encoding. A decoding unit, 12 is an operation display unit, 13 is a public network, 14 is an Internet provider, and 15 is an internal bus.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, a system control unit 1 controls each unit of the Internet facsimile apparatus. The system memory 2 stores a control processing program to be executed by the system control unit 1 and various data necessary for executing the processing program, and constitutes a work area of the system control unit 1. The image memory 3 is used at the time of encoding compression and decoding and decompression of image information, and stores a large number of image information in a state of being encoded and compressed.

The facsimile reception abnormality detection unit 4 detects a printing system or memory system abnormality relating to facsimile reception, and the abnormality notification unit 5 notifies the user of the abnormality detected by the facsimile reception abnormality detection unit 4. Scanner 6
Is for reading a document image. The input image processing unit 7 processes a document image reading signal from the scanner 6 to create a transmission image file. The facsimile document taking-in section 8 takes in a facsimile document which has arrived at the Internet provider 14. If the facsimile reception abnormality detecting section 4 detects an abnormality in a printing system or a memory system related to facsimile reception, the facsimile document is taken. Is not taken in.

The facsimile document confirming section 9 confirms whether or not a facsimile document has reached the Internet provider 14. When the facsimile reception abnormality detecting section 4 detects an abnormality in a printing system or a memory system related to facsimile reception. But that confirmation is performed. The access unit 10 accesses the Internet provider 14 through a public line network 13 through a dial-up connection. The encoding / decoding unit 11 encodes and compresses the image signal, and decodes and expands the encoded and compressed image information into the original image signal.

The operation display unit 12 operates the Internet facsimile apparatus, and is composed of various operation keys and various display devices.
If it is confirmed that the facsimile document has arrived at the facsimile document, information such as the date and time of reception of the facsimile document, the source and the number of received faxes is displayed, and the facsimile reception abnormality detection unit 4 performs printing and memory related to facsimile reception. If an abnormality is detected, the date and time is displayed.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a display on the operation display unit of the Internet facsimile apparatus shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 2A shows a facsimile document transmitted via the Internet when a facsimile document cannot be received due to an abnormality. FIG. 2B is a diagram showing the display of the presence or absence, and FIG. 2B is a diagram showing the display when a facsimile document is being received. For an Internet provider (ISP), basically, a facsimile document is checked periodically (every certain time interval). Therefore, as shown in FIG. If it has been received, the number increases (A-1, A-2, A-3). By pressing the screen scroll key, information such as the source and the date and time of reception of each facsimile document can be displayed in ascending or descending order of the number (B-1, B-2, B).
-3), the received facsimile document can be confirmed.

Embodiment 1 FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining an embodiment of the operation of the Internet facsimile apparatus according to the present invention, and shows the operation after detecting an abnormality relating to the receiving system of the own device. 1). In the idle state of the facsimile apparatus, when a designated time of POP for confirming whether or not the provider has a received facsimile document has passed while an abnormality is detected in the receiving system (S
(1) (YES), call and connect to the provider (ISP) (S2), and confirm whether there is a received facsimile document (S3). If not (NO in S3), disconnect (S5, S
(NO in 6), return to the idle state. If there is a received facsimile document (YES in S3), the source,
Data such as the reception date and time is searched and read (S4), and disconnected (S5). The facsimile machine checks whether there is read data (S6), and if there is data (S6).
YES), the data is stored in the memory (S7), and "FA
X is displayed (S8), and the process returns to the idle state. When the next reception data confirmation time elapses, the above is repeated, and if the number of received facsimile documents increases, the number of cases is increased by the number of cases.

[Embodiment 2] FIG. 4 is a flow chart for explaining another embodiment of the operation of the Internet facsimile apparatus according to the present invention. Item 2). In the facsimile apparatus in the idle state, when a designated time of POP for confirming whether or not the provider has a received facsimile document has elapsed in a state where an abnormality is detected in the receiving system (YES in S11), a call is made to the provider. And connect (S
12) Check whether there is a received facsimile document (S)
13). If not (NO in S13), disconnect (S15,
(NO in S16), the process returns to the idle state.

When there is a received facsimile document (S13)
YES), the data such as the transmission source and the reception date and time is searched and read from the data (S14) and disconnected (S15).
The facsimile apparatus checks whether there is read data (S16), and if there is data (YES in S16).
The data is stored in the memory (S17), "FAX available" is displayed (S18), and the confirmation of the received facsimile document to the regular provider is prohibited (S19), and the process returns to the idle state. As a result, if it is confirmed that at least one of the providers has a received facsimile document, the facsimile documents stored in those providers can be taken out from a PC or the like connected to the data modem.

[Embodiment 3] Claim 3 will be described.
When the facsimile apparatus detects an abnormality in its own receiving system, it does not respond to an incoming call from a normal general line. Also,
When receiving a facsimile document via the Internet, a call is periodically made to the provider at set time intervals to check whether there is a received facsimile document. Since there is an abnormality in the receiving system, a facsimile document cannot be received, and communication costs for calling and connecting to the provider are added. Therefore, according to the invention of claim 3, when the facsimile apparatus detects an abnormality in its own receiving system, the facsimile apparatus is forcibly set so that periodic calls to the provider are not performed and the date and time when the abnormality is detected is set. Is displayed on the display unit.

[0017]

(1) Effects of the invention of claim 1 Even if the facsimile apparatus is abnormal, it is possible to confirm the presence / absence of a facsimile document via the Internet, the reception date / time, the transmission source, and the number of receptions by dial-up connection. , Facsimile documents can be received using other means.

(2) Effects of the Second Embodiment Even if the facsimile apparatus is abnormal, it is possible to confirm reception of a facsimile document via the Internet and to reduce communication costs.

(3) Effect of the invention of claim 3 Saving of communication cost and abnormality detection date and time (from when the abnormality occurs)
You can know.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a principal block diagram for explaining an embodiment of an Internet facsimile apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a display on an operation display unit of the Internet facsimile apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating an embodiment of the operation of the Internet facsimile apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating another embodiment of the operation of the Internet facsimile apparatus according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... System control part, 2 ... System memory, 3 ... Image memory, 4 ... Facsimile reception abnormality detection part, 5 ... Abnormality notification part, 6 ... Scanner, 7 ... Input image processing part, 8 ... Facsimile document capture part, 9 … Facsimile document confirmation unit, 10…
Access unit, 11: encoding / decoding unit, 12: operation display unit, 13: public line network, 14: Internet provider, 15: internal bus.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An Internet facsimile apparatus capable of dial-up connection, comprising: facsimile reception abnormality detecting means for detecting an abnormality in a printing system or a memory system relating to facsimile reception; and abnormality notifying means for notifying a user of the detected abnormality. Access means for accessing an Internet provider, facsimile document confirmation means for confirming whether a facsimile document has arrived at the Internet provider, and the facsimile document when the abnormality is detected by the facsimile reception abnormality detection means. A facsimile document capturing means for preventing the facsimile document from being captured, and a display means for displaying information such as the reception date and time of the facsimile document, the transmission source and the number of received data when it is confirmed that the facsimile document has reached the Internet provider. A step of performing a dial-up connection to the Internet provider to check whether the facsimile document has reached the Internet provider, even when the facsimile reception abnormality detection unit detects the abnormality. Internet facsimile machine. 2. The Internet facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the dial-up connection is made to the Internet provider periodically until it is confirmed that the facsimile document has reached the Internet provider, and the Internet provider is connected to the Internet provider. An Internet facsimile apparatus, wherein the reception date and time of the facsimile document is displayed on the display unit when it is confirmed that the facsimile document has arrived, and thereafter, dial-up connection to the Internet provider is not performed. 3. The Internet facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the facsimile reception abnormality detection means detects the abnormality, the dial-up connection to the Internet provider is forcibly stopped, and the display means displays the abnormality. An Internet facsimile apparatus, which displays the date and time when the Internet facsimile was detected.