JP2003060772A - Facsimile machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent registration of an inappropriate telephone number for which a facsimile communication is not possible in a telephone directory. SOLUTION: When a CPU 11 copies telephone directory data from a different facsimile machine, the CPU 11 attempts to transmits to a PSTN(public switched telephone networks) 3 with respect to each telephone number included in the telephone directory data to confirm whether or not the opposite party can be communicated by a facsimile based on a response condition of the opposite party. Then, the CPU 11 stores a telephone number the opposite party of which can be confirmed to be a facsimile terminal that can be communicated in a telephone directory storage area of an information storing part 14.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile machine having a telephone directory registration function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, when newly registering a telephone number or mail address in a telephone directory, a designated telephone number or mail address is registered as it is.

Therefore, even if the user specifies a wrong telephone number or mail address, the wrong telephone number or mail address is registered as it is. In particular, when copying the data of the telephone book registered in another facsimile machine, the telephone number or mail address that is old and cannot be used may remain registered. I was also copying and registering such inappropriate telephone numbers and email addresses.

[0004]

When an inappropriate telephone number or mail address is registered in this way, there is a risk that facsimile transmission will be repeated using the inappropriate telephone number or mail address as it is. was there.

The present invention has been made in consideration of such circumstances, and an object thereof is to call an inappropriate telephone number or mail address such that the other party is a terminal incapable of facsimile communication. It is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile device capable of preventing registration in a book.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the first aspect of the present invention performs facsimile communication via a public communication network, and stores the telephone number of the other party in the storage means. In a facsimile apparatus having a function of making a call using a telephone number stored in the storage means, a call is made to a telephone number requested to be stored in the storage means,
Confirmation means for confirming whether or not the destination of the telephone number is a terminal capable of facsimile communication, and the telephone number confirmed by the confirmation means to be a terminal capable of facsimile communication in the storage means. And a storage control means for storing.

When the storage of the telephone number in the storage means is requested by taking such a means, a call to the telephone number is attempted and the destination of the telephone number is a terminal capable of facsimile communication. After confirming whether or not the telephone number is, the telephone number for which it is confirmed that the other party is a terminal capable of facsimile communication is stored in the storage means. Therefore,
Even if a request is made to store a telephone number to which a terminal capable of facsimile communication is not connected, the telephone number is not stored in the storage means.

In order to achieve the above object, the second aspect of the present invention performs facsimile communication using an electronic mail via a computer network, and stores the mail address of the other party in a storage means. In a facsimile apparatus having a function of performing facsimile transmission using the mail address stored in the storage means, a test transmission means for transmitting a predetermined test mail to the mail address requested to be stored in the storage means. A confirmation means for confirming whether or not the destination is a terminal capable of facsimile communication based on the arrival status and content of a delivery confirmation mail from the destination for the test mail transmitted by the test transmission means, and this confirmation The email address confirmed by the means that the recipient is a terminal capable of facsimile communication And a storage control means for storing the serial storage means.

When the storage of the mail address in the storage means is requested by taking such a measure, an attempt is made to send a test mail to the mail address, and the other party to the test mail sends the test mail. Based on the arrival status and contents of the delivery confirmation email of, it is confirmed whether the recipient is a terminal capable of facsimile communication, and then the email address confirmed to be the terminal capable of facsimile communication. Is stored in the storage means. Therefore, even if storage of a mail address to which a terminal capable of facsimile communication is not connected is requested, the mail address is not stored in the storage means.

Further, in order to achieve the above object, the third aspect of the present invention is, in addition to the first aspect or the second aspect of the present invention, wherein when it is confirmed that the other party is not a terminal capable of facsimile communication. The correction requesting means for requesting the user to correct the telephone number or the mail address to be stored in the storage means, and the confirmation means and the processing for the telephone number or the mail address corrected in response to the request of the correction requesting means The storage control means is provided with a correction registration control means.

By taking such a means, if an inappropriate telephone number or mail address which is not a terminal capable of facsimile communication is to be stored in the storage means, the correction is accepted. Then, with respect to the corrected telephone number or mail address, the processing by the confirmation means and the storage control means is performed again. Therefore,
If the storage means cannot be stored because only a part of the telephone number or the mail address to be stored in the storage means is incorrect, the user only needs to correct the incorrect part. You can register the correct phone number and email address.

[0012]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a facsimile apparatus according to this embodiment.

In this figure, the portion indicated by reference numeral 1 is the facsimile apparatus of this embodiment. The facsimile machine 1 includes a CPU 11, a ROM 12 and an R
AM 13, information storage unit 14, image storage unit 15, encoding /
Decoding unit 16, scanner 17, printer 18, modem 1
9, NCU 20, telephone control unit 21, line signal detection unit 2
2, a LAN interface 23, an operation / display unit 24, and a clock unit 25.

Then, the CPU 11, the ROM 12 and the RAM
13, information storage unit 14, image storage unit 15, encoding / decoding unit 16, scanner 17, printer 18, modem 19,
The NCU 20, the line signal detection unit 22, the LAN interface 23, the operation / display unit 24, and the clock unit 25 are connected to each other via a system bus 26. Also NCU
A modem 19 and a telephone controller 21 are connected to the telephone 20, and a line signal detector 22 is connected to the telephone controller 21.

The CPU 11 realizes an operation as a facsimile apparatus by performing a control process for comprehensively controlling each part based on a control program stored in the ROM 12.

The ROM 12 stores a control program for the CPU 11 and the like.

The RAM 13 is used as a work area for storing various kinds of information required for the CPU 11 to perform various kinds of processing.

The information storage unit 14 is made of, for example, a flash memory, and stores various kinds of setting information and other information. A part of the storage area of the information storage unit 14 is set as a telephone book storage area for storing telephone book information. Thus, the information storage unit 14 functions as a storage means.

The image storage unit 15 is, for example, a large capacity DRA.
M or a hard disk device is used to temporarily store the received image data and the image data waiting to be transmitted.

The encoding / decoding unit 16 performs an encoding process for redundancy compression on the image data, and also decodes image data that has been encoded for redundancy compression. is there.

The scanner 17 scans a transmission document and generates image data showing the transmission document.

The printer 18 prints the image represented by the image data on a recording sheet.

The modem 19 modulates image data to generate a facsimile transmission signal, and modulates a command given from the CPU 11 to generate a command transmission signal. These transmission signals are transmitted to the PS via the NCU 20.
It is sent to the TN subscriber line 2. The modem 19 is a PS
Facsimile transmission data that arrives via the TN subscriber line 2 and is given via the NCU 20 is demodulated to reproduce image data, or a command transmission signal is demodulated to reproduce a command.

The NCU 20 has a PS as a public communication network.
The PSTN subscriber line 2 accommodated in the TN 3 is connected. Then, the NCU 20 monitors the status of the connected PSTN subscriber line 2 and performs a call processing to the network. The NCU 20 also equalizes the facsimile transmission signal transmitted to the PSTN subscriber line 2 and sets the level.

An external telephone 4 is connected to the telephone controller 21 as needed. Then, the telephone control unit 21 performs a well-known control process for enabling a telephone call via the PSTN subscriber line 2 using the connected external telephone 4.

The line signal detection section 22 receives a signal coming through the PSTN subscriber line 2 through the NCU 20 and the telephone control section 21, and detects the arrival of a predetermined signal.

The Internet 7 is connected to the LAN interface 23 via the LAN line 5 and the mail server 6. And the LAN interface 23 is
Data transmission is performed via the LAN line 5 or the Internet 7. That is, in the present embodiment, the LAN including the LAN line 5 and the Internet 7 correspond to a computer network, respectively.

The operation / display unit 24 is a CPU operated by the user.
The key input unit for accepting various instruction inputs to the CPU 11 and various information to be notified to the CPU
It has a display unit for displaying under the control of 11.

The clock unit 25 constantly performs a timekeeping operation and outputs current time information indicating the current time.

By the CPU 11 operating based on the control program stored in the ROM 12, the test transmitting means, the confirming means, the storage controlling means and the correction request are provided in addition to the well-known general controlling means in the facsimile machine. It operates as a means and a correction registration control means.

Here, the test sending means sends a predetermined test mail to the mail address to be registered in the telephone directory.

The confirming means is a telephone to be registered in the telephone book, based on the response status of the destination when the telephone number to be registered in the telephone book is called and the arrival status of the delivery confirmation mail for the test mail transmitted by the test transmitting means. Check whether the recipient of the number or email address is a terminal that can communicate by facsimile.

The storage control means causes the telephone number storage area of the information storage section 14 to store only the telephone number and the mail address for which the other party has confirmed that the other party is a terminal capable of facsimile communication.

The correction requesting means requests the user to correct the telephone number or mail address confirmed by the confirmation means that the destination is not a terminal capable of facsimile communication.

Then, the modification registration control means causes the confirmation means and the storage control means to perform the processing relating to the telephone number and the mail address modified in response to the request of the modification requesting means.

Next, the operation of the facsimile apparatus configured as described above will be described. Note that the well-known general operation of a facsimile machine such as facsimile communication is the same as that of an existing facsimile machine, and therefore its explanation is omitted. Then, here, the operation in the case of copying and registering the data of the telephone directory from another facsimile apparatus will be described in detail.

When the user gives an instruction to start the telephone book copy, the CPU 11 starts the telephone book copy processing shown in FIG.

In this telephone directory copy processing, the CPU 11
First, for example, the data for telephone directory transmission sent from another facsimile machine via the LAN line 5 is received, and R
It is temporarily stored in the AM 13 (step ST1).
The telephone directory transmission data is obtained by converting the telephone directory data in a predetermined network transmission format. Then, the CPU 11 converts the received telephone directory transmission data into the original telephone directory data and temporarily stores it in the RAM 13 (step ST2).

Next, the CPU 11 selects one piece of unprocessed destination data included in the telephone directory data obtained in step ST2 (step ST3). Then, the CPU 11 confirms whether the selected destination data indicates a telephone number or a mail address (step S).
T4).

If it is confirmed that the telephone number is shown in the selected destination data, the CPU 11 makes a call to the PSTN 3 by the telephone number (step ST5). The destination responds to this call, and I
TU-T Recommendation T. It is confirmed whether or not the DIS specified in 30 is sent (step ST6). DIS is P
If it is confirmed that the call has arrived via the STN subscriber line 2, the CPU 11 determines in step ST5 that the destination terminal is a facsimile machine, and stores the selected destination data in the telephone directory of the information storage unit 14. The data is stored in the area (step ST7). On the other hand, if it is confirmed that the DIS has not arrived, the CPU 11 determines in step ST5 that the destination terminal is not the facsimile machine, and the selected destination data is the telephone directory storage area of the information storage unit 14. The data is set as the correction target data without being stored in (step ST8).

On the other hand, if it is confirmed in step ST4 that the mail address is shown in the selected destination data, the CPU 11 sends a test mail prepared in advance to the LAN line 5 with the mail address as the destination. Yes (step ST9). The test mail conforms to the Internet facsimile standard and requires the recipient to send a delivery confirmation mail. Then, the CPU 11 confirms whether or not the delivery confirmation mail sent from the other party in response to the transmission of this test mail is received (step ST10). When the delivery confirmation mail is received, the CPU 11 further confirms from the contents of the delivery confirmation mail whether or not the other party is a communicable terminal (step ST11). If it is confirmed in step ST11 that the other party is a communicable terminal, C
The PU 11 determines that the destination of the test mail in step ST9 is a facsimile machine, and stores the selected destination data in the telephone directory storage area of the information storage unit 14 in step ST7. On the other hand, when it is confirmed in step ST10 that the delivery confirmation mail is not received, or in step S10 that the destination is not a communicable terminal.
If confirmed in T11, the CPU 11 determines in step ST9.
In step ST8, it is determined that the destination of the test mail is not the facsimile machine, and the selected destination data is set as the correction target data in step ST8 without being stored in the telephone directory storage area of the information storage unit 14.

If the processing of step ST7 or step ST8 is completed, the CPU 11 continues to step ST
It is confirmed whether or not there is any unprocessed destination data included in the telephone directory data obtained in 2 (step ST12). Then, the CPU 11 repeats the processing from step ST3 until it can confirm that there is no unprocessed one.

Then, with respect to all the destination data included in the telephone directory data obtained in step ST2, step ST
After performing the processing from step 3 to step ST11, the CP
U11 confirms in step ST12 that there is no unprocessed destination data included in the telephone directory data obtained in step ST2.
Therefore, in this case, the CPU 11 subsequently confirms whether the destination data set as the correction target data exists (step ST13).

If it is confirmed that the destination data set in the correction target data exists, the CPU 11 accepts the correction of the correction target data (step ST1).
4). Specifically, for example, the telephone number or mail address included in the destination data is displayed on the operation / display unit 24, and the correction of the telephone number or mail address is accepted. When the correction is instructed, the corrected telephone number or mail address is adopted as the corresponding destination data.

Subsequently, the CPU 11 sets only the corrected destination data as unprocessed data (step ST1).
5). If there is destination data that has not been modified here, the destination data is discarded as it is. Then, after this, the CPU 11 repeats the processing from step ST3. Thus, with respect to each of the corrected destination data, it is confirmed whether or not the destination is a facsimile device, and only the destination data in which the destination is a facsimile device is stored in the telephone directory storage area.

If it is confirmed in step ST13 that there is no data to be corrected, the CPU 11 terminates the current telephone directory copy process. If all the data to be corrected are not corrected in step ST14, all of them are discarded and the current telephone directory copy process is immediately terminated.

Thus, according to the present embodiment, an attempt is made to make an outgoing call for each of the telephone numbers indicated in the destination data to be copied, and an attempt is made to send a test email to each of the email addresses. It is confirmed whether or not the destination is a facsimile device, and only the destination data regarding the destination, which is a facsimile device, is registered in the telephone directory. Therefore, even if destination data of the other party who cannot perform facsimile communication is included in the telephone directory data to be copied, such destination data is not registered in the telephone directory. Therefore, inadequate destination data due to old circumstances or the like will not be registered in the telephone directory.

By the way, most of the telephone numbers and mail addresses assigned to the facsimile apparatus are common and only some of them may be changed. In addition, the user may erroneously enter only a part of the initial registration. In the present embodiment, the telephone number or mail address that is determined not to be the facsimile machine is not discarded as it is, but
Since the correction by the user is accepted, it is possible to register the telephone number or mail address that is inappropriate due to the above-mentioned circumstances as a correct telephone number or mail address by a simple user operation.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the facsimile device capable of performing both the facsimile communication via the PSTN 3 and the facsimile communication via the LAN line 5 and the Internet 7 is exemplified. However, the facsimile device performing only one of the facsimile communication The present invention can be applied to a device.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, it is confirmed that the other party whose telephone number is indicated in the destination data is the facsimile apparatus based on whether the DIS arrives or not. It is also possible to check the data in another way, such as trying to send the data and seeing if it can be completed successfully.

In the above embodiment, the PSTN3 is applied as the public communication network, but the present invention can be applied to other types of networks such as ISDN.

Further, in the above embodiment, the correction of the telephone number or the mail address which is judged not to be the facsimile machine is accepted, but this is not carried out, but the address judged to be not the facsimile machine is received. The information may be immediately discarded. However, in this case, it is desirable to notify the user of which destination information has been discarded by, for example, displaying on the operation / display unit 24 or printing a list by the printer 18.

Further, in the above embodiment, the present invention is applied when the telephone directory data is copied, but the present invention is also applied when the ordinary telephone directory is registered one by one or when the registered information is corrected. It can be targeted.

Besides, various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[0056]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when storage of a telephone number in the storage means is requested, a call to the telephone number is attempted and the destination of the telephone number is a terminal capable of facsimile communication. After confirming whether or not the destination is a terminal capable of facsimile communication, the telephone number which is confirmed to be a terminal capable of facsimile communication is stored in the storage means. Therefore, the terminal capable of facsimile communication is not connected. Even if the storage of the telephone number is requested, the telephone number is not stored in the storage means, and as a result, an inappropriate telephone number is registered in the telephone book such that the other party is a terminal incapable of facsimile communication. The facsimile device can prevent the occurrence of such a mistake.

Further, according to the second aspect of the present invention, when the storage of the mail address in the storage means is requested, an attempt is made to send a test mail addressed to the mail address, and the other party responds to the test mail. Based on the arrival status of the delivery confirmation mail and its contents, it is confirmed whether or not the other party is a terminal capable of facsimile communication, and the storage means stores the mail address confirming that the other party is a terminal capable of facsimile communication. Since it is stored in the storage device, even if a request is made to store an e-mail address to which a terminal capable of facsimile communication is not connected, the e-mail address is not stored in the storage means. A fax machine that can prevent the registration of inappropriate e-mail addresses such as possible terminals in the phone book. To become.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, in addition to the first or second aspect of the present invention, an inappropriate telephone number or mail address, which is not a terminal capable of facsimile communication, should be stored in the storage means. If the phone number or mail address is corrected, the confirmation means and the storage control means perform the processing again for the corrected telephone number or mail address. If the storage means is not stored because only part of the e-mail address is incorrect, the user can register the correct phone number or e-mail address by correcting only the part that is incorrect. And as a result of this,
While it is possible to prevent the recipient from registering an inappropriate email address such as a terminal that is not capable of facsimile communication with the phonebook, depending on the phone number or email address for which the phonebook registration was rejected. In addition, the facsimile device can reduce the burden on the user for specifying the correct telephone number and mail address and improve the convenience.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure for telephone book copy processing by a CPU 11 in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Facsimile machine 2 ... PSTN subscriber line 4 ... External telephone 5 ... LAN line 6 ... Mail server 7 ... Internet 11 ... CPU 12 ... ROM 13 ... RAM 14 ... Information storage unit 15 ... Image storage unit 16 ... Encoding / decoding section 17 ... Scanner 18 ... Printer 19 ... Modem 21 ... Telephone control unit 22 ... Line signal detector 23 ... LAN interface 24 ... Operation / display

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A facsimile communication is performed through a public communication network, and has a function of storing a telephone number of a destination in a storage means and making a call using the telephone number stored in the storage means. In the facsimile device, a confirmation means for making a call to the telephone number requested to be stored in the storage means and confirming whether the destination of the telephone number is a terminal capable of facsimile communication, A facsimile apparatus, comprising: a storage control unit for storing in the storage unit a telephone number confirmed to be a terminal capable of facsimile communication. 2. The correction requesting means for requesting the user to correct the telephone number to be stored in the storage means when the confirmation means confirms that the other party is not a terminal capable of facsimile communication. 2. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a correction registration control unit that causes the confirmation unit and the storage control unit to perform a process related to the telephone number corrected in response to the request of the correction request unit. 3. Facsimile communication using electronic mail via a computer network, the mail address of the other party is stored in storage means, and the facsimile is carried out using the mail address stored in this storage means. In a facsimile apparatus having a function of transmitting, a test sending unit for sending a predetermined test mail to the mail address requested to be stored in the storage unit, and a partner for the test mail sent by the test sending unit. Confirmation means for confirming whether or not the recipient is a terminal capable of facsimile communication based on the arrival status and content of the delivery confirmation mail from the destination, and that the recipient is a terminal capable of facsimile communication by this confirmation means. Storage control means for storing the e-mail address confirmed in the storage means in the storage means. A facsimile machine characterized by being provided. 4. Correction requesting means for requesting the user to correct the mail address to be stored in the storage means when it is confirmed by the checking means that the destination is not a terminal capable of facsimile communication. 4. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising a correction registration control unit that causes the confirmation unit and the storage control unit to perform a process related to the mail address corrected according to the request of the correction request unit.