JP2007049445A - Facsimile machine - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a facsimile machine capable of estimating contents of a faxed original on the basis of a communication management table. <P>SOLUTION: When the facsimile machine attaches a cover page to image data of the original read by a scanner and transmits the resulting image data in the faxing, the facsimile machine allows a user to enter a subject of the cover page. The facsimile machine displays the contents entered by the user as the subject of the cover page on a "subject" column 71 of the communication management table. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus having a function of creating a communication management table including a communication record of facsimile communication.

  In facsimile transmission, it is customary to send a document to be transmitted with a cover page added as a document sending guide.

  Therefore, conventionally, a function is provided in which cover page data is stored in the facsimile apparatus, and when the facsimile transmission is performed, the stored cover page data is added to the original data read from the scanner and transmitted. A facsimile machine has been proposed.

  In addition, a technique for adding a cover page according to various communication modes such as facsimile communication via a public line or electronic mail communication via a network has been proposed (see Patent Document 1).

  On the other hand, conventionally, there has been proposed a facsimile apparatus having a function of creating a communication management table including a communication record of facsimile communication performed in the apparatus so that the user can grasp the usage status of the facsimile apparatus. .

JP 2002-101233 A

  However, from the conventional communication management table, although formal information regarding communication such as communication destination, communication time, communication time, number of communicated originals, communication result, etc. can be obtained, from there, the communication performed Substantial information, that is, information that can directly guess what kind of document was transmitted could not be obtained.

  Also, in a normal facsimile machine, when the facsimile transmission is completed without error, the transmitted document data is also erased from the memory in the machine, so the information about the contents of the sent document is completely erased from the machine. As a result, it was difficult to guess the contents of the transmitted manuscript later.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a facsimile apparatus capable of estimating the contents of a document transmitted by facsimile from a communication management table.

  According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a facsimile apparatus for facsimile transmission of a document and a cover page via a communication line, cover page creation means for creating the cover page according to the contents of the document, and communication recording of the facsimile transmission. Communication management table creating means for creating a communication management table including the information on the cover page transmitted in the facsimile transmission as the communication record of the facsimile transmission.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the facsimile apparatus according to the first aspect, a title for classifying the contents of the document is described on the cover page, and the communication management table includes the communication record of the facsimile communication as the communication record. Contains the subject.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the facsimile apparatus according to the second aspect, the cover page creating means includes subject input means for allowing the user to input the subject.

  A fourth aspect of the present invention is the facsimile apparatus according to any one of the first to third aspects, further comprising image forming means capable of printing out the communication management table on a recording sheet.

  According to the first to fourth aspects of the present invention, since the communication record includes information on the cover page created according to the content of the document transmitted by facsimile, the content of the document transmitted by facsimile from the communication management table is stored. It becomes possible to guess.

  In particular, according to the invention described in claim 2, since the information described as the subject on the cover page is included as the communication record, that is, the information that directly represents the content of the document transmitted by facsimile is included as the communication record. It is possible to easily and accurately infer the contents of a document transmitted by facsimile from the communication management table.

<1. Digital MFP>
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a digital multi-function peripheral 1 in which a function corresponding to a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is incorporated.

  Please refer to FIG. The digital multi-function peripheral 1 is configured as a multi-function peripheral (MFP apparatus) having a plurality of functions such as a FAX function, a copy function, a scan function, and a print function.

  The digital multifunction peripheral 1 includes a control unit 11, a RAM 12, a ROM 13, an operation unit 14, a display unit 15, an image processing unit 16, an image reading unit 17, an image recording unit 18, and an image memory 19. The large-capacity storage unit 20, the communication management table memory 21, the communication management table creation unit 22, the cover page creation unit 23, and the communication-related functional units 24 to 27 are electrically connected via the bus line 28. It has become the composition.

  The control unit 11 is composed of a CPU. The control unit 11 controls each of the above hardware units based on a program stored in the ROM 13 and realizes the function of the digital multi-function peripheral 1.

  The RAM 12 is a storage device that can be read and written, and temporarily stores various data that are temporarily stored such as image data, FAX numbers, and mail addresses, and data that is generated during arithmetic processing by the control unit 11. Remember me. In addition, image data serving as a template for the cover page is stored. The RAM 12 is configured by SRAM, flash memory, or the like.

  The ROM 13 is a read-only storage device that stores programs and data necessary for controlling the digital multifunction device 1 in advance.

  The operation unit 14 includes various keys such as character keys, numeric keys, and function keys, and accepts user operations such as input of commands and text data. The user operation received by the operation unit 14 is input to the control unit 11 as a signal. The control unit 11 controls the operation of each unit based on a user operation.

  The display unit 15 is a display device that displays the operation state of the digital multi-function peripheral 1 and image data. The display unit 15 is configured by a display device such as a liquid crystal display. Various keys provided on the operation unit 14 may be realized by a touch panel provided on the display screen of the display unit 15.

  The image processing unit 16 is a processing unit that performs various processes such as A / D conversion, color system conversion, color adjustment, and image synthesis on the received image data and the image data acquired from the image reading unit 17. is there.

  The image reading unit 17 is a scanner that reads an image on a document with a reading element such as a CCD line sensor. The image reading unit 17 may be a scanner of a type in which a reading element scans the surface of a document placed on a glass table and reads an image. The image reading unit 17 scans the surface of a document conveyed by an ADF (Auto Document Feeder). A scanner of a type that scans with a stationary reading element and reads an image may be used.

  The image recording unit 18 is a printer that records image data stored in the image memory 19 and a communication management table stored in the communication management table memory 21 on a recording sheet. As the image recording unit 18, for example, an electrophotographic printer can be employed.

  The image memory 19 temporarily stores image data received from the external devices 4, 5, 6 through the LAN I / F 26 and the NCU 27, image data acquired by the image reading unit 17, image data processed by the image processing unit 16, and the like. Is a storage device. The image memory 19 includes a memory such as a DRAM that can be read and written.

  The large capacity storage unit 20 is configured by a hard disk or the like. The large capacity storage unit 20 can store the image data processed by the image reading unit 17.

  The communication management table memory 21 is a storage device for storing the communication management table 7 (see FIG. 4) created by the communication management table creation unit 22. The communication management table memory 21 is configured by a memory such as a DRAM capable of reading and writing.

  The communication management table creation unit 22 is a processing unit that creates a communication management table 7 (see FIG. 4) configured from communication records of FAX communication performed in the digital multi-function peripheral 1. The communication record is various information related to communication such as a communication destination and a communication result, which will be described in detail later.

  The cover page creation unit 23 is a processing unit that creates image data of a cover page. The cover page is an image that functions as a FAX transmission guide. In the cover page creation unit 23, data specific to each FAX transmission is added to image data (which is stored in the RAM 12 in advance as described above) as a model of the cover page, and the cover page creation unit 23 responds to the document to be transmitted. A predetermined process for creating image data of the cover page is performed.

  Further, the digital multifunction device 1 includes a codec (CODEC) 24 that encodes / decodes image data and the like corresponding to a plurality of protocols, and a modem 25 that modulates and demodulates transmission / reception data as communication-related functional units. A LAN I / F 26 corresponding to an interface with a LAN (Local Area Network) 100 and an NCU 27 that controls opening / closing of a telephone line are electrically connected via a bus line 28.

  Next, the communication environment of the digital multifunction device 1 will be described. The digital multifunction device 1 is connected to the LAN 100. A mail server 3 and an external terminal 4 are connected to the LAN 100. The LAN 100 is connected to the Internet 200 via the router 2 or the like. With such a configuration, the digital multi-function peripheral 1 can perform e-mail communication with the external terminal 4 connected via the LAN 100 and the external terminal 5 connected via the Internet 200. Further, the digital multi-function peripheral 1 is connected to a PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) 300 that is a data communication network for analog lines. Thus, the digital multi-function peripheral 1 can communicate with the external terminal 6 connected via the PSTN 300. The external terminals 4, 5, and 6 are a personal computer connected with a modem, a device similar to the digital multi-function peripheral 1, a fixed phone, a mobile phone, and a FAX dedicated machine.

  The digital multi-function peripheral 1 can also function as a facsimile server that distributes data to external terminals 4, 5, and 6 connected via a network or the like.

<2. Cover page>
As will be described in detail later, the digital multi-functional peripheral 1 according to this embodiment has a function of adding a cover page to image data of a document read from a scanner and transmitting it by FAX transmission. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of the cover page C added in the digital multi-function peripheral 1 according to this embodiment.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the cover page C is provided with a “subject” column I in addition to each item column such as “transmission date and time”, “transmission destination”, “transmission source”, and “number of transmissions”. The user can display arbitrary characters in the place of the “subject” field I by inputting text data from the operation unit 14. Further, a “message” column M may be further provided as a place where the user can display an arbitrary character. In addition, it is good also as displaying the character which the user input also about each other item column.

<3. Fax transmission processing>
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing operation related to FAX transmission in the digital multi-function peripheral 1 according to this embodiment. Unless otherwise specified, the following operations are automatically performed under the control of the control unit 11.

  If it is determined that there is a FAX transmission instruction (step S1), first, a transmission destination and a transmission original are read (step S2). That is, when the user issues a FAX transmission instruction from the operation unit 14, the FAX transmission process is started in response to the instruction. First, the FAX number of the transmission destination input by the user from the operation unit 14 is read. When the user designates the transmission destination by the abbreviated number, the FAX number corresponding to the entered abbreviated number is read with reference to a previously registered address table. Subsequently, the image reading unit 17 reads the transmitted document. Further, the image processing unit 16 converts the image data of the read original into a data format that can be transmitted by FAX.

  When the process of step S2 ends, it is subsequently determined whether or not to add a cover page C (step S3). That is, it is determined whether or not the user has given an instruction to add a cover page C for the FAX transmission from the operation unit 14, and if an addition instruction has been given, it is determined that the cover page C is to be added.

  If it is determined in step S3 that the cover page C is to be added, then the subject of the cover page C is read (step S4). More specifically, first, a message for prompting the user to input the subject of the cover page C is displayed on the display unit 15. When the user inputs a subject from the operation unit 14 in response to the message, the input text data is read as subject text data.

  Here, a process of reading a message to be added to the cover page C may be further provided. Also in this case, a message prompting the user to input a message to be added to the cover page C is first displayed on the display unit 15. When the user inputs a message from the operation unit 14 in response to the message, the input text data is read as message text data. Note that the user may input text data such as a subject and a message from a touch panel provided on the display unit 15.

  When the process of step S4 is completed, the cover page creation unit 23 creates image data of the cover page C (step S5).

  More specifically, first, image data serving as a template for the cover page C is read from the RAM 12. However, the template image data is the image data of the cover page in a state that does not include content specific to each FAX transmission.

  Subsequently, contents specific to FAX transmission are added to the template image data, and image data of cover page C corresponding to the document to be transmitted is created. That is, the subject text data read in step S4 is converted into a bitmap font or an outline font, and is read into a predetermined position of the template data (that is, the “subject” column I in FIG. 2). If message text data is read in addition to the subject text data in step S4, a similar conversion process is performed on the message text data to obtain a predetermined position (ie, the “message” column in FIG. 2). M). Further, appropriate data is read into each item column such as “transmission date and time”, “transmission destination”, “transmission source”, and “transmission number”. When predetermined information is added to all the item fields, the image data creation process for cover page C is completed.

  When the process of step S5 is completed, the image data of the cover page C created in step S5 is transmitted to the destination read in step S2 (step S6).

  Subsequently, the image data of the transmission original read in step S2 is transmitted to the same destination (step S7).

  If it is determined in step S3 that the cover page C is not added, the processing related to the cover page C (steps S4 to S6) is skipped, and the image data of the transmission original read in step S2 is immediately stepped. It is transmitted to the destination read in S2 (step S7).

  When the processing of step S7 is completed, the communication management table creation unit 22 adds a communication record for the FAX transmission to the communication management table 7 (see FIG. 4) (step S8).

  That is, the transmission destination read in step S2, various information related to the transmission processing performed in step S7 (for example, the mode in which the transmission was executed, the date and time when transmission started, the time required for transmission, the transmitted original The number of sheets and the transmission result are added to the communication management table 7 as communication records in the form of text data (see FIG. 4).

  If it is determined in step S3 that the cover page C is to be added, the subject text data of the cover page C read in step S4 is communicated as a communication record (more specifically, “subject” 71). Added to the management table 7 (see FIG. 4).

  When a predetermined communication record is added to the communication management table 7, the communication management table 7 is stored in the communication management table memory 21.

  This completes the FAX transmission process.

<4. Communication management table>
Next, the communication management table 7 created in the communication management table creation unit 22 will be further described. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of the communication management table 7.

  As shown in FIG. 4, in the communication management table 7, predetermined communication records for each FAX transmission are managed in each field using “transmission number” given as an index for each FAX transmission in an index. ing.

  Specific items of the communication record include “transmission destination” (for example, transmission destination name and FAX number), “transmission mode”, “transmission start date / time”, “transmission time”, “number of transmissions”, “transmission result”, and “transmission result”. “Subject” 71 is included. However, the information included in the communication management table 7 as the “subject” 71 is the content input by the user as the subject of the cover page C, that is, the subject text data read in step S4 of FIG.

  In this embodiment, the communication management table 7 stored in the communication management table memory 21 according to a predetermined instruction given by the user from the operation unit 14 is recorded on the recording paper in the image recording unit 18 as a communication management report. It can be printed out. Further, when the digital multi-function peripheral 1 in this embodiment functions as a facsimile server, the communication management table 7 can be displayed on the display unit 15 as a list display of transmission contents, and further printed on recording paper. .

  The user can grasp the usage status of the digital multi-function peripheral 1 from the communication record included in the communication management report. In particular, from the contents displayed in the “Subject” 71 column, the user can send the document sent in each FAX transmission. The contents can be guessed. Here, as information to be added to the communication management table 7, text data corresponding to the content displayed in the “subject” column I of the cover page C of the transmitted document is not used as image data of the transmitted document. Adopted. Accordingly, it is possible to estimate the contents of a document that is efficiently transmitted with a small data capacity.

<5. Modification>
In this embodiment, the communication management table 7 is configured to be printed out by the image recording unit 18, but may be configured to be displayed on the display unit 15. Moreover, it is good also as a structure displayed on the display screen of the personal computer connected via LAN or the internet.

  In this embodiment, the text data such as the subject and message of the cover page C is input from the operation unit 14 (see step S4 in FIG. 3). It may be performed from a personal computer connected via the network.

  In this embodiment, the user inputs an arbitrary character string as the subject of the cover page C from the operation unit 14 or the like. Among the plural types of subject candidates that are stored in the ROM 13 in advance. The subject may be designated by causing the user to select one of them. In this case, the “subject” 71 in the communication management table 7 includes the one selected by the user as the subject of the cover page C.

  In this embodiment, the communication management table 7 includes the data entered by the user as the subject of the cover page C as the “subject” 71. Further, the user entered the message as the message of the cover page C. For example, the data may be included as “remarks”.

1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a digital multifunction machine 1 according to this embodiment. 4 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a cover page C. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing processing operations related to FAX transmission in the digital multi-function peripheral 1 according to the embodiment. It is a figure which shows the structural example of a communication management table.

Explanation of symbols

1 Digital MFP 7 Communication Management Table 21 Communication Management Table Memory 22 Communication Management Table Creation Unit 23 Cover Page Creation Unit C Cover Page

Claims (4)

In a facsimile apparatus for facsimile transmission of a document and a cover page via a communication line,
Cover page creating means for creating the cover page according to the content of the document;
Communication management table creating means for creating a communication management table including a communication record of the facsimile transmission;
With
A facsimile apparatus characterized in that information relating to the cover page transmitted in the facsimile transmission is included as a communication record of the facsimile transmission. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1,
On the cover page, a subject for classifying the content of the manuscript is described,
The facsimile apparatus, wherein the subject is included in the communication management table as a communication record of the facsimile communication. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 2,
The cover page creating means
Subject input means for allowing the user to input the subject,
A facsimile apparatus comprising: The facsimile apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
Image forming means capable of printing out the communication management table on recording paper;
A facsimile apparatus comprising:

Images