JP2002215549A - Network scanner - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To obtain a network scanner equipped with an easier-to-use Scan-to- Email function. SOLUTION: This network scanner 101 which is connected to terminal devices through a network and attaches a scanned image to electronic mail and sends them to the terminal devices is equipped with an electronic mail receiving means which receives electronic mail from the terminal devices, an electronic mail analyzing means which analyzes electronic mail data received by the electronic mail receiving means, an electronic mail managing means which manages the result of the electronic mail analyzed by the electronic mail analyzing means, a means which generates the electronic mail with the attached scanned image according to the data managed by the electronic mail managing means, and an electronic mail transmitting means which sends the generated electronic mail to a specified recipient.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a network scanner, and more particularly, to a network scanner provided on a computer network and having an e-mail function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, networking of office equipment including an information processing apparatus such as a PC and the Internet have rapidly progressed, and scanners and facsimile products using the network and the Internet have been developed. For example, a technology called Scan to Email is known as a conventional technology relating to a scanner device using the Internet. According to this conventional technique, in a scanner device connected to the Internet (to a network), scanned document image data is converted to create an attached file for e-mail, and the attached e-mail is attached to an e-mail on the Internet. This is to transmit to the destination (host device). Also, in the field of FAX, as described in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-151887, an Internet FAX apparatus that transmits an image scanned by the FAX apparatus to an address (a host apparatus or a FAX apparatus) on the Internet. What is called is known.

[0003]

The above-described Scan to Email according to the prior art is a simple one which simply specifies the destination of an e-mail from an image processing apparatus. The stored boilerplate is automatically assigned, the information cannot be created and assigned as desired by the user, and the image sender conveys detailed information to the image receiver. There is a problem that it is not possible. In addition, the above-mentioned prior art is:
Even if the image receiver receives the e-mail with the image file attached, the sender's address is the e-mail address unique to the scanner device, and there is no information on the attached file. Also has the problem that it is inconvenient.

FIG. 7 is a view for explaining an example of an electronic mail transmitted by Scan to Email according to the prior art.

[0005] As shown in FIG. 7, an example of this e-mail can be set by inputting a destination address with a scanner or selecting an address from an address book.
The sender address is an e-mail address specific to the scanner device.In the example shown, the sender address is "scanner @ xx, yy.zz". Since the name is also a fixed one stored in the device, it is not possible to transmit information about the attached file to the recipient.

In the prior art described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-161887, the title of an e-mail can be individually registered in advance, and a scanned image is transmitted using the registered title. , On the recipient side,
From the title, the contents of the attached file can be generally interpreted.

[0007] However, this prior art does not disclose editing the body of an e-mail or transmitting a more detailed explanation of an attached file to a recipient, and the address of the sender is also disclosed in the apparatus. Address.
There is a problem that the receiver does not know who the sender is. Furthermore, in this prior art, the title is created on the device, so in order to create more detailed e-mail contents and the like on the device body, limited operation keys and a small display panel on the device are required. However, there is a problem that e-mail creation is troublesome and inconvenient.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, to create information such as the title, body, destination, and sender of an e-mail in a host device and to use the e-mail to send the information to a scanner device. By registering in advance and sending the scanned image using the registered e-mail,
An object of the present invention is to provide a network scanner device having an easier-to-use Scan to Email function.

[0009]

According to the present invention, the object is to be connected to a plurality of terminal devices via a network,
In a network scanner device that performs transmission processing by attaching an image scanned to the terminal device to an e-mail,
E-mail receiving means for receiving e-mail from the terminal device, e-mail analyzing means for analyzing e-mail data received by the e-mail receiving means, and managing results of the e-mail analyzed by the e-mail analyzing means E-mail managing means for creating, e-mail attaching a scanned image based on data managed by the e-mail managing means, and e-mail transmitting the created e-mail to a designated destination. This is achieved by providing mail sending means.

[0010] In addition, the object is that if the e-mail creating means cannot analyze the e-mail received by the e-mail receiving means by the e-mail analyzing means, the format of the e-mail is inappropriate. This is achieved by creating an e-mail notifying that there is an e-mail, and transmitting the e-mail notifying that the format of the generated e-mail is inappropriate to the sender of the e-mail.

The object is further provided with an input unit for receiving an instruction from a user, and a display unit for displaying an operation content of the network scanner device and an operation content of the input unit. By displaying the managed e-mail list on the display means and allowing the input means to select an e-mail to be transmitted from the e-mail list, at this time, a password is input and the received e-mail is described in the received e-mail. This is achieved by further including a password checking unit that checks the password thus set and the password input at the time of selection.

Further, the above object is attained by the electronic mail managing means deleting the received electronic mail corresponding to the electronic mail of which transmission completion has been confirmed and the electronic mail of the embodiment after a predetermined time has passed.

[0013] Further, the object is that the electronic mail management means manages the transmission electronic mail together with the transmission date and time designated by the user, and the electronic mail transmission means transmits the electronic mail when the transmission date and time comes. By this, when the transmission of the e-mail is completed, the e-mail creating means creates an e-mail notifying the sender of the completion of the transmission, and the e-mail transmitting means generates the e-mail notifying the completion of the transmission. Achieved by sending to the sender.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, embodiments of the network scanner according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a network including a network scanner according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, 101 is a network scanner device, 102 is a personal computer, 103 is a network, 104 is an explanation unit, 105 is a scanner unit, 106 is an image memory unit, 107 is an operation / display unit, 108 is a timer unit, and 109 is a LAN interface. Unit, 110 is a password collating unit, 111 is an e-mail receiving unit, 112 is an e-mail managing unit, 113 is an e-mail data analyzing unit, 11
Reference numeral 4 denotes an e-mail creation unit, and 115 denotes an e-mail transmission unit.

The network scanner 101 according to the embodiment of the present invention is connected to a network 103 together with a plurality of personal computers 102, is assigned a unique e-mail address, and is connected to the personal computer 102 as a terminal device connected to the network 103. Can send and receive e-mails. The personal computer 102 has a function as a host machine to be described later in the embodiment of the present invention and a function to transmit and receive e-mail as a terminal device, and communicates with the network scanner 101 connected to the network 103 and other personal computers. Mail can be sent and received, and if an attached file is attached to the received electronic mail, the attached image data can be displayed on a display or output by a printer.

The network scanner device 101 includes a control unit 104 for controlling the entire device, a scanner unit 105 for optically reading an image of a document, an image memory unit 106 for storing image data captured by the scanner unit 105,
An operation / display unit 107 for displaying on an operation panel (not shown) of the scanner device; a timer unit 108 for measuring time; a LAN interface unit 109 for connecting the network scanner device 101 to the network 103; A password collating unit 110 for comparing and collating the received password, an e-mail receiving unit 111 for receiving an e-mail from the personal computer 102 or the like via the LAN interface unit 109, and an e-mail managing unit 112 for managing the received e-mail. An email data analyzing unit 113 for analyzing the text of the received email, and an email creating unit 114 for creating an email based on the analysis by the email data analyzing unit 113
And an e-mail transmission unit 1 for transmitting an e-mail to the personal computer 102 or the like via the LAN interface unit 109
15 is provided.

The above-described network scanner device 101
In the configuration of the above, the operation / display unit 107 performs processing such as execution of scanning, selection of an e-mail, input of a password, and the like in accordance with a user's operation on an operation panel of the scanner device. , Such as displaying a list of information such as passwords and displaying the contents of the selected e-mail. In addition, the timer unit 108 deletes an e-mail that has passed a predetermined time after receiving the e-mail from the received e-mail list, prevents unnecessary e-mails from being accumulated in the received e-mail list, and specifies a transmission date and time. In this case, the e-mail is used to confirm the transmission date and time of each e-mail of the e-mail management unit 112 at regular intervals in order to transmit the e-mail at the designated date and time.

If a password is required for extracting the transmission format of the e-mail managed by the e-mail management unit 112, the user inputs the password from the operation panel of the scanner. This is for comparing the password with the password set in the received e-mail. Note that the password set for the received e-mail is
It is described in the body of the received e-mail. The e-mail management unit 112 deletes e-mails that have passed a predetermined time after reception, e-mails that have been transmitted, and e-mails that have an inappropriate format.

Further, the e-mail data analysis unit 113
Cuts out the information (sender, destination, title, text, attached file name, password) described in the body of the received e-mail, and the e-mail creation unit 114 extracts the image data stored in the image memory unit 106 Convert to create image files as email attachments,
An electronic mail is created based on the analysis by the electronic mail data analysis unit 113 while attaching the image file.

FIG. 2 illustrates a method in which the e-mail creating section of the scanner device creates an e-mail to be actually transmitted from the scanner device based on the description of the e-mail sent from the host machine to the network scanner device. This is a diagram and will be described below.

FIG. 2A shows an example of an e-mail transmitted from the host machine to the network scanner apparatus 101 in advance and received by the e-mail receiving unit 111. The e-mail is composed of the sender, destination, title, and text. As in the illustrated example. Then, in the text, the sender (A-1) and the destination (A
-2), title (A-3), text (A-4), attached file name (A-5) and the like are described.

E-mail creating section 1 of scanner device 101
14 creates an e-mail based on the contents of the e-mail from the host machine having the above-described configuration, and transmits the e-mail from the e-mail transmission unit 115. FIG. 2B shows an example of an e-mail created and transmitted at that time. This e-mail is converted by the e-mail creating unit 114 into (A-1) → (B-1), (A-2) → (B-
2), (A-3) → (B-3), (A-4) → (B-
4), (A-5) → (B-5) Created by setting the information of the e-mail received from the host machine in the e-mail to be created.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining a method of managing received e-mails in the e-mail management section of the network scanner device, which will be described below.

The above-described information of the e-mail received from the host machine is managed by the e-mail management unit 112. The received e-mail is, as shown in FIG.
It is managed as a received e-mail list. That is, the e-mail received by the e-mail reception unit 111 is analyzed by the e-mail data analysis unit 113, and information of a sender, a destination, a title, a text, an attached file, and a password is cut out from the e-mail, and the e-mail management unit 112. The e-mail management unit 112 manages the information of these received e-mails as shown in FIG. The e-mail management unit 112 transmits the transmitted e-mail,
FIG. 3A shows an e-mail that has passed a predetermined time after receiving it.
Delete from the received e-mail list shown in.

When the transmission date and time of the received e-mail is specified, the e-mail management unit 112 deletes the e-mail from the received e-mail list shown in FIG. Move it to the e-mail list waiting to be sent as shown and manage it. Then, in order to transmit the e-mail at the designated date and time, the timer unit 108 performs
The transmission date and time of each e-mail in the transmission waiting e-mail list shown in (b) is confirmed, and when the transmission date and time comes, the e-mail transmission unit 116 is instructed to transmit the e-mail. After the e-mail is transmitted at the designated date and time, the e-mail management unit 112 deletes the transmitted e-mail from the e-mail waiting list.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of Scan to Email using the network scanner according to the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a view showing an example of a display screen displayed to the user during the processing operation in FIG. Yes, the operation of Scan to Email will be described below with reference to these figures. S
The operation of can to Email is such that information such as the text and destination of the e-mail is registered in advance from the host machine such as the personal computer 102 to the network scanner apparatus 101 using the e-mail, and the scanner apparatus performs the registration based on the information. Creates an e-mail and creates a network scanner device 1
01 is an operation of transmitting the captured image data as an attached file.

(1) The user has already described the electronic mail information (sender, destination, title, text, attached file name, password) to be registered in the scanner device in accordance with the prescribed format in FIG. And sent from the personal computer 102 as the host machine to the network scanner apparatus 101 (step 201).

(2) Network scanner device 101
Receives the e-mail transmitted from the personal computer 102 in step 201 via the LAN interface unit 109 and the e-mail receiving unit 111 (step 20).
2).

(3) The e-mail data analysis unit 113
The received email is analyzed and the information described in the body of the received email (sender, destination, title, body,
Attachment file name, password) are extracted, and the extracted data is analyzed (step 203).

(4) At the time of analyzing the data in step 203, it is checked whether the description of the text of the received e-mail conforms to a prescribed format. If the format is not appropriate, the e-mail transmission unit 115 An e-mail having an inappropriate e-mail format is transmitted to the sender via the LAN interface unit 109, the received e-mail is deleted, and the process is terminated (steps 204 to 206).

(5) If it is determined in step 204 that the text of the received e-mail is described in accordance with a prescribed format, after the e-mail data analysis unit 113 completes the data analysis, the received e-mail is described above. It is stored in the email management unit 112 in the format shown in FIG. 3A (step 207).

(6) When the user requests a list display of received e-mails from the operation panel of the scanner device 101, a list of received e-mails is displayed on the operation panel of the scanner device 101 by the operation / display unit 107. At this time, a list of received e-mails displayed on the operation panel of the scanner device by the operation / display unit 107 is as shown in FIG. 5A. The user selects an e-mail to be transmitted from the list (step 208).

(7) The electronic mail data analysis unit 113
Check if a password has been set for the selected e-mail, and if a password has been set,
Perform password processing. The password processing will be described later in detail (steps 209 and 210).

(8) If no password is set in the selected e-mail in the check in step 209, or if the password input by the user is determined to be correct in the password processing in step 210,
The operation / display unit 107 displays the content of the selected e-mail on the operation panel of the scanner device as shown in FIG. 5B, and allows the user to confirm the content. If the content of the displayed e-mail is different from the one requested by the user, the process returns to step 208, and the e-mail to be transmitted is selected again from the list display (step 219).

(9) If the contents of the displayed e-mail match the request in the confirmation at step 219, the user causes the scanner unit 105 to scan the original image and optically read the original image. The image document read by this scan is, for example, as shown in FIG. 5C (i) (step 211).

(10) The image data captured by the scanner unit 105 is stored in the image memory unit 106. And
The e-mail creating unit 115 converts the image data in the image memory unit 106,
A certain format (for example, TIFF format, GIF format, PD
Create an image file in F format, bitmap format, etc.). Further, the e-mail creating unit 115 creates an e-mail in which the created image file is attached to the information (sender, destination, title, body, attached file name) cut out by the e-mail data analyzing unit 113 (step 21).
2).

(11) Thereafter, the operation / display unit displays the e-mail creating unit 11 on the operation panel of the scanner device.
5 is displayed as shown in FIG. 5D, and the user is asked to confirm the content. At this time, although not shown, a display asking whether to specify the date and time of transmission of the created e-mail is displayed and input (step 213).

(12) If the user does not specify the transmission date and time in step 213, the user requests transmission from the operation panel of the scanner device, and the electronic mail transmitting unit 115 sends the electronic mail via the LAN interface unit 109. Is transmitted (step 214).

(13) If the user specifies the transmission date and time in step 213, the user sets the transmission date and time from the operation panel of the scanner device. The e-mail transmission unit 115 transmits the e-mail at the designated date and time via the LAN interface unit 109, and transmits an e-mail indicating that the transmission is completed to the sender (steps 215 to 217). (14) Step 21
When the transmission of the e-mail is completed in the processing of 4 or 217, the e-mail corresponding to the transmitted e-mail is deleted from the received e-mail list registered in the e-mail management unit 112, and the processing ends (step 218). .

In the above-described processing, although not shown in the flow, the deletion of the e-mail from the received e-mail list registered in the e-mail management unit 112 includes not only the completed e-mail but also unnecessary e-mails. In order to prevent mail from being stored in the e-mail list, an e-mail receiving unit 11
The e-mail that has passed for a predetermined time since it was received in step 1 is also deleted. For this reason, the timer unit 108 measures the elapsed time from the reception of each received e-mail, and the e-mail management unit 112, which has been notified of the existence of the e-mail having passed the predetermined time, responds from the received e-mail list. Delete incoming e-mail.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the details of the password processing operation in step 210 in the flow shown in FIG. 4. This will be described below. This password processing is performed when the selected e-mail has a password setting, as described above.

(1) The user inputs a password from the operation panel of the scanner. (Step 301) (2) The password verification unit 110 checks the password described in the received mail (already the e-mail data analysis unit 113).
It is determined whether or not the input password matches the input password. If the passwords match, the password processing ends, and step 219 already described.
(Step 302).

(3) If the passwords do not match in the determination at step 302, the operation / display unit 107 displays that the password is incorrect on the operation panel of the scanner device, and returns to the processing at step 301. The user is re-entered the password from the operation panel of the scanner (step 303).

According to the above-described embodiment of the present invention, when the image data captured by the network scanner device is to be distributed by e-mail from the scanner device, information such as the text and destination of the e-mail is registered in the scanner device in advance. In advance, an electronic mail to be attached can be selected on the scanner device, and the image data captured by the network scanner can be transmitted as an attached file. At this time, since the information such as the title, body, destination, sender, and attached file name of the e-mail is created on the host machine, it is not necessary to perform detailed operations for creating the e-mail on the main body of the scanner device, thereby improving operability. be able to.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, it is determined whether or not the format of the body of the e-mail is inappropriate by analyzing the data of the e-mail conveying information such as the body and destination of the e-mail registered in the scanner device in advance. It checks and informs the sender that the body of the email is in an inappropriate format, so the sender can confirm the error and send the email again with the correct format .

Further, according to the embodiment of the present invention, the user can select an e-mail to be transmitted from a plurality of received e-mails, so that the operability can be improved and the password can be set. Therefore, the registered mail is not used by others, and the confidentiality can be improved.

Further, according to the embodiment of the present invention, since the received e-mail corresponding to the e-mail whose transmission has been completed and the received e-mail which has passed a predetermined time after reception are deleted, unnecessary e-mails are deleted. Since it is possible to prevent accumulation in the received e-mail list, improve the efficiency of memory usage, and specify the date and time you want to send, and send an e-mail notifying that to the sender after transmission,
The sender can confirm whether or not the data was actually transmitted on the designated date and time.

[0049]

As described above, according to the present invention, information such as the title, body, destination, and sender of an e-mail is created in the host device, and the information is registered in the scanner device in advance using the e-mail. Easier to use by sending the scanned image using its registered email
Scan to Email function can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a network including a network scanner device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a method in which an email creation unit of the scanner device creates an email to be actually sent from the scanner device based on the description of the email sent from the host machine to the network scanner device. is there.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a method for managing received e-mail in an e-mail management unit of the network scanner device.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of Scan to Email using the network scanner device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

5 is a diagram showing an example of a display screen displayed to a user during the processing operation in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating details of an operation of a password process in step 210 in the flow shown in FIG. 4;

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of an electronic mail transmitted by Scan to Email according to the related art.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Network scanner apparatus 102 Personal computer 103 Network 104 Explanation part 105 Scanner part 106 Image memory part 107 Operation / display part 108 Timer part 109 LAN interface part 110 Password collation part 111 E-mail reception part 112 E-mail management part 113 E-mail data analysis part 114 E-mail creation unit 115 E-mail transmission unit

Claims (8)

[Claims] 1. A network scanner device connected to a plurality of terminal devices via a network to attach an image scanned by the terminal device to an electronic mail and to perform a transmission process, wherein the electronic scanner receives an electronic mail from the terminal device. An e-mail receiving unit, an e-mail analyzing unit for analyzing e-mail data received by the e-mail receiving unit, an e-mail managing unit for managing a result of the e-mail analyzed by the e-mail analyzing unit, and the e-mail Means for creating an e-mail with the scanned image attached based on data managed by the management means;
An e-mail transmitting means for transmitting the generated e-mail to a designated destination. 2. The electronic mail creating means, when it is impossible for the electronic mail analyzing means to analyze the electronic mail received by the electronic mail receiving means, notifies that the electronic mail format is inappropriate. 2. The e-mail transmitting unit according to claim 1, wherein the e-mail transmitting unit transmits an e-mail notifying that the format of the generated e-mail is inappropriate to the sender of the e-mail. Network scanner device. 3. An input unit for receiving an instruction from a user, and a display unit for displaying an operation content of the network scanner device and an operation content of the input unit,
3. The electronic mail management unit according to claim 1, wherein the electronic mail list is displayed on the display unit, and the input unit selects an electronic mail to be transmitted from the electronic mail list. Network scanner device. 4. A password collating means for inputting a password when selecting an e-mail to be transmitted from the e-mail list, and collating a password described in the received e-mail with a password entered at the time of selection. 4. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:
The network scanner device as described in the above. 5. The network scanner according to claim 1, wherein the electronic mail management unit deletes a received electronic mail corresponding to the electronic mail for which the transmission end is confirmed. 6. The network scanner according to claim 1, wherein said e-mail management means deletes the e-mail which has passed a predetermined time after receiving the e-mail. 7. The electronic mail management means manages a transmission electronic mail together with a transmission date and time designated by a user, and the electronic mail transmission means transmits the electronic mail when the transmission date and time has come. Claims 1 to 6
A network scanner according to any one of the above. 8. The electronic mail creating means, when the transmission of the electronic mail is completed, creates an electronic mail notifying the sender of the completion of the transmission, and the electronic mail transmitting means generates the electronic mail indicating the completion of the transmission. 8. The network scanner according to claim 7, wherein the network scanner is transmitted to a sender.