JP2005094705A - Image data transfer device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image data transfer device capable of identifying and recovering lost image data, and of retransmitting the data easily by a request. <P>SOLUTION: A received image data is appended a serial management number for each transfer destination, and the management number of the image data is filled in a Subject or a From fields during mail transfer. When an e-mail requesting resending from an e-mail terminal of a transfer destination is received, a From address or a Reply-To address of the e-mail is retrieved from the transfer destination registered beforehand, and the image data of the management number specified by the transfer destination is transferred again to the registered transfer destination. When an e-mail requesting a list of transmitted image data from an e-mail terminal of a transfer destination is received, a From address or a Reply-To address of the e-mail is retrieved from the transfer destination registered beforehand, and the list of image data transferred to the transfer destination is transmitted to the registered transfer destination. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an image data transfer apparatus for transferring image data received from a facsimile apparatus to a mail terminal.

Conventionally, a technique has been proposed in which image data received from a facsimile apparatus is distributed using a network, and further distributed again upon request.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-133867 discloses automatic distribution of facsimile data, and discloses an apparatus that distributes image data received from a facsimile apparatus to an information processing apparatus based on identification information via a LAN.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-228561 discloses an apparatus that distributes image data received from a facsimile apparatus and distributed via a LAN again upon request.
JP-A-6-261164 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 8-293389

However, conventionally, there is a device for transferring image data received from a facsimile machine by e-mail, and in case of loss of the transferred image data due to a failure of a mail terminal, a server, a network, etc., provisions have been made. Absent.
That is, Patent Document 1 has a function of distributing image data received from a facsimile apparatus via a LAN, but does not consider a case where image data is lost during distribution.
Also. In Patent Document 2, there is a function of distributing image data once distributed upon request, but the procedure for acquiring retransmission and transmission is complicated, and no specific implementation means is mentioned, so it cannot be put into practical use as it is. There is a problem.
The present invention has been made in view of the above, and it is an object of the present invention to provide an image data transfer apparatus that can confirm and restore lost image data, and can easily and again deliver upon request. And

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems and achieve the object, the invention according to claim 1 transfers the image data received from the facsimile apparatus to the mail terminal as mail and receives the image from the transfer destination mail terminal by mail. In a device capable of confirming and retransmitting data transfer, a consecutive management number is assigned to the received image data for each transfer destination, and the image data management number is placed in the Subject field or From field during mail transfer. It has the means.
The invention according to claim 2 can transfer the image data received from the facsimile apparatus to the mail terminal as mail, and can confirm and retransmit the transfer of the image data received by mail from the destination mail terminal. When a mail requesting resending is received from a forwarding mail terminal, the From address or Reply-To address of the mail is searched from the forwarding addresses registered in advance, and the corresponding forwarding address is specified. The image data having the management number is transferred to the transfer destination registered again.
The invention according to claim 3 can transfer the image data received from the facsimile apparatus to the mail terminal as mail, and can confirm and retransmit the transfer of the image data received by mail from the destination mail terminal. When a mail requesting a list of transferred image data is received from a forwarding mail terminal, the corresponding address is searched from the mail's From address or Reply-To address and the forwarding address registered in advance. It is characterized by having means for transmitting the list information of the image data transferred to the transfer destination to the registered transfer destination.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the image data transfer apparatus according to the third aspect, the list information of the transferred image data is automatically transmitted.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the image data transfer apparatus according to the third aspect, a mail address for requesting retransmission is placed on the list information of the transferred image data.

  According to the invention of the present invention, it is possible not only to transfer image data but also to confirm it, and when the transferred image data is lost, no special device is required on the mail terminal side. It becomes possible to know that it has been lost by operation, and it is possible to acquire lost image data.

Exemplary embodiments of an image data transfer apparatus according to the present invention will be explained below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
(Embodiment)
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an image data transfer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, the image data transfer apparatus includes an operation unit 1, a LAN communication control unit 2, a facsimile (FAX) communication control unit 4, and a storage unit 5 with a system control unit 3 as a center. Here, the operation unit 1 performs registration necessary for the operation of the apparatus, such as registration of addresses necessary for LAN communication and facsimile communication, and registration of e-mail addresses to be transferred when received from the facsimile apparatus. It is a device to perform. The LAN communication control unit 2 controls transmission of e-mail to a mail server, and controls reception of e-mail from the mail server. The system control unit 3 controls the operation unit 1 to accept the setting of the distribution condition registered in the operation unit 1 and store the content of the set distribution condition in the storage unit 5. The system control unit 3 communicates with the G3 / G4 facsimile through the facsimile communication control unit 4 and stores the received image data in the storage unit 5. The facsimile communication control unit controls facsimile communication via a telephone line (analog / ISDN) or PBX, and may be constituted by one line or plural lines. The storage unit 5 temporarily stores the image data received from the facsimile apparatus as described above, and stores registration necessary for the operation of the apparatus input from the operation unit 1.
In addition, this apparatus needs to be registered so that it can be recognized as one of the mail servers from the mail server of the connected network. Generally, it is necessary to register in the MX record of the DNS server.

In the block configuration shown in FIG. 1, the system control unit 3 stores the transfer destination address of the image data designated by the operation unit 1 and the transfer condition in the storage unit 5. That is, the transfer destination is registered. In this case, the following items are generally used as conditions for transfer, as shown in part in the relationship diagram of FIG. 2 as “type of transfer condition”, “transfer condition”, and “transfer destination”. .
TSI notified from the telephone number sender of the sender notified from the line
PB signal dial-in information sub-address notified from the F-code source notified from the transmission source In this case, when transferring received image data to a plurality of addresses as shown in FIG. It may be registered as a group, and the group may be registered at the transfer destination.

  Next, reception from the facsimile and transfer processing will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In FIG. 4, when image data is received from the facsimile apparatus through the facsimile communication control unit 4 (step 41), the system control unit 3 stores this data in the storage unit 5. Next, the system control unit 3 searches for a transfer destination that matches the conditions from pre-registered transfer destinations. If there is a transfer destination that matches, the system control unit 3 determines the transfer destination and assigns a management number (step 42). The transfer destination information and the management number are stored in the storage unit 5 together with the image data to be transferred. If there are multiple registrations that match the conditions, only the first matching registration is processed. In this case, the management number of the image data is assigned and managed independently for each address and group registered as the transfer destination, and is a continuous number for each address and group. Thereafter, the system control unit 3 transmits the stored image data as mail through the LAN communication control unit 2 to the transfer destination stored together with the image data (step 43). At this time, the management number stored together with the image data is added to the Subject field or From field. When the forwarding destination is a group, a character for identifying the group is added to the management number added to Subject or From so that the mail terminal can identify the forwarding destination. In a mail terminal, the contents of the Subject field and the From field are displayed in the received mail list, and the list can often be sorted according to the display contents. Since the management numbers are consecutive numbers, it can be expected that sorting of the mail list according to the management number display makes it easy to confirm whether there is any omission in the transfer of received image data.

Reception of a retransmission request from a mail terminal will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.
When the system control unit 3 receives a retransmission request mail through the LAN communication control unit 2 (step 51), the system control unit 3 acquires the request source mail address from the From address or Reply-To address of the mail. . In this case, the following method can be considered as a management number designation method at the time of retransmission request by mail.
Specify the management number of the image data to be retransmitted in the subject Specify the management number of the image data to be retransmitted in the specified text Specify the management number of the image data to be retransmitted to the specified destination And the system control unit 3 has registered the request source email address in advance Search from the transfer destination (step 52). However, if the specified management number is the group management number and the request source email address is included in the specified management number group, the group with the specified management number is searched from the pre-registered forwarding destination. To do. When there is a corresponding transfer destination, the system control unit 3 transfers the image data of the designated management number to the request source mail address through the LAN communication control unit 2 (step 53). At this time, as in the first transfer, the management number stored together with the image data is set in the Subject field or From field. When it is desired to distinguish between the first transfer and retransmission, not only the management number but also a character indicating retransmission can be added to the Subject or From.

The reception processing of the image data list request from the mail terminal will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The system control unit 3 receives the image data list request mail through the LAN communication control unit 2 (step 61). The system control unit 3 acquires the request source email address from the From address or Reply-To address of the email. In this case, the following method can be considered as a method for requesting a list by e-mail.
A specific character string indicating a list request is specified in the subject. A specific character string indicating the list request is specified in the body. A mail address dedicated to the list request is specified in the destination. And the system control unit 3 is registered in advance with the request source mail address. Search from the transfer destination (step 62). When there is a corresponding transfer destination, the system control unit 3 transmits a list of image data transferred to the corresponding transfer destination to the request source mail address through the LAN communication control unit 2 (step 63). When the request source mail address is included in a group registered as a transfer destination, a list of image data transferred to all groups including the request source mail address is also transmitted simultaneously. Even if the request source mail address is not registered as a transfer destination, if it is included in a group registered as a transfer destination, a list of image data transferred to the corresponding group is transmitted. At the time of transmitting the list information, the number of image data and the range of management numbers of image data described in the list can be described in the Subject.

As contents to be notified as image data list information, the following contents can be considered.
Image data management number sender information (telephone number, TSI, etc.)
Number of received date / time pages Further, the following may be considered as a range to be notified as list information.
Image data transferred on the requested date Image data transferred to the specified range of image data transferred after the previous list transmission The list of already transferred image data is automatically transmitted under the following conditions. Operations other than the automatic transmission of the list of image data are the same as the transmission of the list of image data.

The list automatic transmission processing at the set time will be described with reference to FIG.
When the preset time is reached (step 71), the system control unit 3 uses all of the addresses registered as the transfer destination and the addresses included in the group registered as the transfer destination as the request source mail address. The list is transmitted (step 72).
The automatic transmission when the set number of transfers has occurred will be described with reference to FIG.
The system control unit manages the number of transfers for each mail address to which image data has been transferred.
After transferring the image data, the system control unit transmits a list of image data using a mail address that has reached a preset number of transfers as a request source mail address.
In FIG. 8, steps 81 to 83 are the same as those in FIG.
After step 84, it is determined whether or not the number of transfers has reached the set number of times, when the set number of times has been reached, transmission of the transferred image data (step 85) and processing are complete (step 86).
A process for placing a mail address for requesting retransmission on the list information of transferred image data will be described.
In this case, although it is the same as the nuclear processing of FIG. 5, a method of designating as a destination is used as a management number designating method at the time of a retransmission request from the mail terminal. Here, a mail address for retransmission request is added to the contents notified as a list of image data. Many mail terminals have a function of transmitting to a selected mail address simply by selecting a mail address in the text, so that a resending request can be easily and definitely made.

  As described above, the image data transfer apparatus according to the present invention is useful for restoring image data, and is particularly suitable for image data transfer of a facsimile apparatus.

It is a functional configuration block diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a relationship figure which shows the setting of a transfer destination. It is a relationship diagram of group setting. It is a delivery processing flowchart of image data. It is a resending request reception process flowchart. It is a list request reception process flowchart. It is a list automatic transmission process flowchart. It is a list automatic transmission process flowchart.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Operation part 2 LAN communication control part 3 System control part 4 Facsimile communication control part 5 Memory | storage part

Claims (5)

In an apparatus capable of transferring image data received from a facsimile apparatus to a mail terminal as e-mail and confirming and retransmitting image data received by e-mail from a destination mail terminal,
An image data transfer apparatus comprising means for assigning a continuous management number for each transfer destination to received image data and placing the management number of the image data in a Subject field or From field at the time of mail transfer. In an apparatus capable of transferring image data received from a facsimile apparatus to a mail terminal as e-mail and confirming and retransmitting image data received by e-mail from a destination mail terminal,
When an email requesting resending is received from the forwarding mail terminal, the mail's From address or Reply-To address is searched from the forwarding addresses registered in advance, and the specified management number of the corresponding forwarding address is specified. An image data transfer apparatus comprising means for transferring image data to a registered transfer destination again. In an apparatus capable of transferring image data received from a facsimile apparatus to a mail terminal as e-mail and confirming and retransmitting image data received by e-mail from a destination mail terminal,
When an email requesting a list of transferred image data is received from the destination email terminal, the email is searched from the From address or Reply-To address of the email and the forwarding destination registered in advance, and forwarded to the relevant forwarding destination. An image data transfer apparatus comprising means for transmitting the list information of the processed image data to a registered transfer destination.   4. The image data transfer apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the list information of the transferred image data is automatically transmitted.   4. The image data transfer apparatus according to claim 3, wherein a mail address for requesting retransmission is placed in the list information of the transferred image data.

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