JP2006268537A - Information transmission system and method - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an information transmission system capable of easily transmitting high-quality information by using print data describing information to be attached to an electronic mail by a page description language. <P>SOLUTION: A personal computer 101 attaches print data described by a printer description language directly recognizable by an image information device 103 to the electronic mail to send it to an image formation device 103. The image formation device 103 extracts the print data attached to the received electronic mail to carry out printing. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an information transmission system and method for transmitting information using e-mail, and in particular, easily transmits high-quality information by using print data in which information attached to an e-mail is described in a page description language. The present invention relates to an information transmission system and method that can be used.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a technique called iFAX (internet FAX) has been known, which can use e-mail using the Internet to attach an image to an e-mail and send the image to a destination.

  This technique called iFAX is different from a fax using a conventional public line in that the destination is not a FAX number but an e-mail address, and an e-mail attached with a transmission image is sent to an image forming apparatus that has acquired the e-mail address. By printing the e-mail received by the image forming apparatus, the image can be transmitted using the e-mail using the Internet.

  Therefore, the communication fee is constant regardless of the distance to the destination, and the communication fee can be reduced compared with the fax using the conventional public line, and it is stored as an electronic file on the transmission side. Since the image data stored as an electronic file can be directly transmitted to the destination without printing the image data once on paper and transmitting it with a conventional fax machine, there are advantages such as saving resources.

  Patent Document 1 proposes a facsimile function device that can convert an e-mail received via the Internet into G3 data and print it.

Further, in Patent Document 2, print information included in an e-mail transmitted to a printing apparatus is printed by the printing apparatus, and based on the contents of a print processing result transmitted from the printing apparatus, a delivery notification or non-delivery is performed. An e-mail processing apparatus and a remote print processing method using e-mail have been proposed in which an e-mail sender can easily check the result of the printing process by creating a notification of notification and notifying the sender.
JP 09-247335 A Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 08-130554

  Recently, an increasing number of image forming apparatuses are capable of directly receiving and printing JPEG, TIFF files, etc., and combining such image forming apparatuses with an e-mail receiving function to attach attached JPEG, TIFF files, etc. However, since the capacity of image files is generally large, when using e-mail, the mail server generally has a capacity limit for sending and receiving e-mails. In transmission using an electronic mail for transmitting an image such as a large-capacity TIFF file, there is a problem that depending on the mail server on the receiving side, it cannot be received due to the capacity limitation of the mail server.

  Therefore, in order to solve the problem of the capacity limitation of the mail server, the Word file data owned by the sender as an electronic file is printed on paper, rasterized to JPEG, TIFF file, etc. by scanning etc. and sent. The Word file itself that the sender owns as an electronic file may be sent as an attachment to the e-mail without being sent, but in that case, the application that develops the Word file in the image forming apparatus of the receiving destination Therefore, the cost of the image forming apparatus increases.

  Accordingly, the present invention provides high-quality information by using print data in which information attached to an e-mail is described in a page description language so that the image forming apparatus can transmit information without having application software for reading a specific file. An object of the present invention is to provide an information transmission system and method capable of easily transmitting information.

  In order to achieve the above object, an invention according to claim 1 is an information transmission system in which transmission information is attached to an e-mail and transmitted from a transmission terminal to a reception terminal. The transmission terminal transmits the transmission information to a printer description. Conversion means for converting into print data described in a language; and transmission means for attaching the print data converted by the conversion means to the e-mail and transmitting the e-mail to the receiving terminal. The side terminal includes extraction means for extracting print data attached to the electronic mail when the electronic mail transmitted by the transmission means is received.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the invention, the receiving terminal includes a printing unit that transfers the print data extracted by the extraction unit to a printing apparatus and prints it.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information transmission method in which transmission information is attached to an e-mail and transmitted from a transmission-side terminal to a reception-side terminal. The print data is converted to the described print data, the print data converted by the conversion means is attached to the e-mail, and the e-mail is transmitted to the reception side terminal by the transmission means. The reception side terminal is transmitted by the transmission means. When receiving the transmitted e-mail, the print data attached to the e-mail is extracted by an extraction unit, and the print data extracted by the extraction unit is transferred to a printing apparatus for printing.

  According to the information transmission system and method of the present invention, the transmission side terminal converts the transmission information into print data described in the printer description language, and attaches the print data converted by the conversion unit to the e-mail. Transmitting means for transmitting the e-mail to the receiving terminal, and the receiving terminal includes extracting means for extracting print data attached to the e-mail when receiving the e-mail transmitted by the transmitting means. With this configuration, it is possible to easily transmit high-quality information by using print data in which information attached to an e-mail is described in a page description language.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of an information transmission system and method according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram showing an outline of an information transmission system 100 according to the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, this information transmission system 100 connects a personal computer 101 (referred to as PC 101 in FIG. 1) having an electronic mail transmission / reception function and an image forming apparatus 103 having an electronic mail transmission / reception function via the Internet 102. Has been.

  In the personal computer 101, image data to be transmitted to the image forming apparatus 103 is converted into a page description language such as PCL, LIPS, PS, etc., which can be directly understood by the image forming apparatus 103, and filed so that it can be attached to an e-mail. The

  Then, the filed file is attached to an e-mail and transmitted to the image forming apparatus 103 as an e-mail through the Internet.

  A technique for converting image data to be transmitted in the personal computer 101 into a page description language that can be directly understood by the image forming apparatus 103 is conventionally performed by a printer driver when a print job is transmitted from the personal computer to the printer. Known in the art.

  Note that the personal computer 101 and the image forming apparatus 103 do not have to be connected via the Internet 102. If the personal computer 101 can send an e-mail to the image forming apparatus 103, a LAN (Local Area Network) is possible. An environment connected by a network such as

  Next, the internal configuration of the image forming apparatus 103 will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an outline of the internal configuration of the image forming apparatus 103.

  In FIG. 2, the image forming apparatus 103 can directly understand the network interface 201, the POP unit 202 that receives an e-mail, the decoding unit 203 that decodes the received e-mail including an attached file, and the attached file. A determination unit 204 that determines whether or not the file is described in a page description language. If the attached file is not written in a page description language that the image forming apparatus 103 can directly understand, the personal computer 101 that is the transmission source of the e-mail The SMTP unit 205 that sends an e-mail describing the fact that printing could not be performed, interprets the page description language that can be directly understood by the image forming apparatus 103, and renders the contents described in the file according to the page description language command. PDL interpreter 206 for instructing, PDL interpreter In response to an instruction from the applicator 206, the character is converted into a print image, or the image is converted into a print image by performing processing such as binarization, enlargement, reduction, rotation, etc. as necessary, or a line, rectangle, circle, A drawing unit 207 that performs processing for converting a figure such as a polygon into a print image, the print image output by the drawing unit 207 is output to the printer engine 209, and the printer engine 209 is instructed to select a paper, start printing, etc. An output control unit 208 that performs control necessary for printing, a printer engine 209 that performs printing in accordance with instructions from the output control unit 208, and a print server 210 are included.

  In the decoding unit 203, when the determination unit 204 determines that the attached file of the received e-mail is not written in a page description language that can be directly understood by the image forming apparatus 103, the decoding unit 203 assembles text indicating that the printing could not be performed, The electronic mail is transmitted as an electronic mail via the SMTP unit 205 to the personal computer 101 that is the transmission source of the electronic mail.

  Next, processing performed in the image forming apparatus 103 will be described with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing flow performed in the image forming apparatus 103.

  First, in the image forming apparatus 103, the POP unit 202 periodically checks whether a mail addressed to the image forming apparatus 103 has arrived at a mail server (not shown) connected via the network interface unit 201. If it has arrived, an e-mail including an attached file is received (YES in step 302).

  The received mail is decoded by the decoding unit 203 including the attached file. If the print data is attached to the mail, the print data is extracted and sent to the determination unit 204.

  The determination unit 204 determines whether the attached file is described in a page description language that can be directly understood by the image forming apparatus 103 (step 304). As a result of the determination, the attached file is converted by the image forming apparatus 103 or the like. If the file is described in a page description language that can be directly understood without performing the above process (YES in step 304), the PDL interpreter 206 interprets the content described in the page description language in the attached file, and the drawing unit In 207, drawing of a character or bitmap or drawing of a vector graphic is performed, and the print image output from the drawing unit 207 is sent to the printer engine 209 by the output control unit 208 to perform printing (step 305).

  If the received attached file is not a file described in the page description language in step 304 (NO in step 304), a text indicating that printing could not be performed is assembled in the decoding unit, and the SMTP unit 205 is passed through. Then, it is transmitted as an e-mail to the personal computer 101 that is the e-mail transmission source (step 306).

  As described above, the information transmission system 100 can transmit image data, which is high-quality information, using electronic mail, and therefore uses an iFAX that has a lower communication fee than a FAX using a conventional public line. Image data can be transmitted.

  In this embodiment, the image forming apparatus 103 may be set to print the text of the received e-mail regardless of whether the attached file of the received e-mail can be printed. .

  The personal computer 101 does not transmit a file in which the image data to be transmitted is described in the page description language by attaching it to the e-mail, but the image data to be transmitted has a specific identifier as the e-mail subject. An e-mail in which the content described in the description language is described in the body of the mail is transmitted to the image forming apparatus 103. The image forming apparatus 103 determines whether the body is described in the page description language from the subject of the received e-mail. The determination unit 204 may determine, and the PDL interpreter 206 may interpret the contents described in the page description language of the mail body and print the image data.

  In this embodiment, when an attached file of an e-mail received by the image forming apparatus is not described in a page description language that can be directly understood by the image forming apparatus, an e-mail is sent to a nearby personal computer designated by the image forming apparatus. An information transmission system in which an attached file is expanded in a personal computer that has received the transfer, and a print job is transmitted from the personal computer that has received the transfer to the image forming apparatus to print the expanded attached file. The description will be given with reference to FIG.

  FIG. 4 shows an example in which the image forming apparatus 103 that has received the e-mail receives a personal computer 104 (in FIG. 4, PC 104 in the vicinity) specified when the attached file is not in a page description language that the image forming apparatus 103 can directly understand. 2 is a system configuration diagram illustrating a configuration of an information transmission system 110 in which a received electronic mail is transferred and a print job is transmitted from the personal computer 104 to the image forming apparatus 103.

  In FIG. 4, a personal computer 101 that transmits an e-mail and an image forming apparatus 103 are connected to the Internet 102, and various standard applications (MS-Word, Adobe-Acrobat) are connected in the vicinity of the image forming apparatus 103. , MS-Paint etc.) is connected.

  The positional relationship between the image forming apparatus 103 and the personal computer 104 is a positional relationship that allows the operator of the personal computer 104 to easily obtain the sheet output from the image forming apparatus 103. For example, the positional relationship between the image forming apparatus 103 and the personal computer 104 is as follows. This is the case when the personal computer 104 is in the same room or in the same building.

  Note that the personal computer 101 and the image forming apparatus 103 are not connected via the Internet 102, but can be transmitted from the personal computer 101 to the image forming apparatus 103 in an environment where an e-mail can be transmitted. An environment connected by a network such as

  Since the function of the personal computer 101 is the same as that described in the first embodiment, the description is omitted to avoid duplication.

  The internal configuration of the image forming apparatus 103 is substantially the same as the internal configuration described in the first embodiment, and thus description thereof is omitted except for differences in order to avoid duplication.

  The difference is that in this embodiment, the decoding unit 203 of the image forming apparatus 103 determines that the attached file of the received e-mail is not written in a page description language that can be directly understood by the image forming apparatus 103. Is added to the body of the received e-mail, and the e-mail received via the SMTP unit 205 is attached to the designated personal computer 104 together with the attached file. It is a point to transfer.

  Next, processing performed by the image forming apparatus 103 and the personal computer 104 in the information transmission system 110 will be described with reference to FIG.

  Also in this embodiment, as in the first embodiment, an e-mail is received (step 302), the received e-mail is decoded (step 303), and a file attached to the e-mail is received by the image forming apparatus 103. It is determined whether the page description language can be directly understood (step 304). If the page description language can be directly understood by the image forming apparatus 103, printing is performed (step 305).

  However, if the file attached to the received e-mail is not a file described in a page description language that can be directly understood by the image forming apparatus 103, for example, a file described in MS-Word, the determination unit 204 However, it is determined that the page description language is not directly understandable by the image forming apparatus 103 (NO in step 304), and as described above, the decoding unit 203 adds a text indicating that printing could not be performed to the body of the received e-mail. Then, the received electronic mail is transferred to the personal computer 104 designated in advance together with the attached file via the SMTP unit 205 (step 306).

  Then, the operator of the personal computer 104 that has received the e-mail transferred from the image forming apparatus 103 reads the text added to the body of the e-mail, and the image forming apparatus 103 prints the file attached to the e-mail. Understand that it was not possible.

  The personal computer 104 is provided with standard applications such as MS-Word, Adobe-Acrobat, MS-Paint, and the like, and is provided with a printer driver for the image forming apparatus 103. The person develops the Word file attached to the transferred e-mail using the MS-Word application, and transmits a print job for executing printing of the developed Word file to the image forming apparatus 103.

  When the image forming apparatus 103 receives a print job from the personal computer 104 (YES in step 301), the image forming apparatus 103 outputs the print job to the PDL interpreter 206 and performs printing by the printer engine 209 through the drawing unit 207 and the output control unit 208. (Step 305).

  As described above, in the information transmission system 110, image data that is high-quality information can be transmitted using electronic mail. Therefore, iFAX, which has a lower communication fee than FAX using a conventional public line, is used. Image data can be transmitted.

  In this embodiment, the image forming apparatus 103 may be set to print the text of the received e-mail regardless of whether the attached file of the received e-mail can be printed. .

  The present invention can be used in an information transmission system that transmits information using electronic mail.

  According to the present invention, high-quality information can be easily transmitted by using print data in which information attached to an e-mail is described in a page description language.

1 is a configuration diagram showing an outline of an information transmission system 100 according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an outline of an internal configuration of the image forming apparatus 103. 5 is a flowchart showing a processing flow performed in the image forming apparatus 103. FIG. 3 is a system configuration diagram illustrating a configuration of an information transmission system 110 in which an image forming apparatus 103 that has received an e-mail transfers the received e-mail to a personal computer 104 and receives a print job from the personal computer 104.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Information transmission system 101 Personal computer 102 Internet 103 Image forming apparatus 104 Personal computer 110 Information transmission system

Claims (3)

In an information transmission system for sending transmission information to an e-mail and transmitting it from a sending terminal to a receiving terminal,
The transmitting terminal is
Conversion means for converting the transmission information into print data described in a printer description language;
Sending means for attaching the print data converted by the conversion means to the e-mail and sending the e-mail to the receiving terminal;
The receiving terminal is
An information transmission system comprising: extraction means for extracting print data attached to the e-mail when the e-mail transmitted by the transmission means is received. The receiving terminal is
The information transmission system according to claim 1, further comprising: a printing unit that transfers the print data extracted by the extraction unit to a printing apparatus and prints it. In an information transmission method for transmitting transmission information to an e-mail and transmitting from a transmitting terminal to a receiving terminal,
The transmission side terminal converts the transmission information into print data described in a printer description language by a conversion unit;
The print data converted by the conversion means is attached to the e-mail, and the e-mail is sent to the receiving terminal by the sending means,
The reception side terminal extracts the print data attached to the e-mail by the extraction unit when receiving the e-mail transmitted by the transmission unit,
An information transmission method, wherein the print data extracted by the extraction means is transferred to a printing apparatus for printing.

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