JP2011130512A - Communication device and method, control program therefor, and storage medium - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a communication device and method for efficiently handling various types of information, to provide a control program therefor, and to provide a storage medium. <P>SOLUTION: Electronic mail is received (S201), and it is determined whether the electronic mail is related to image information or related to character information (S202). If related to character information, the electronic mail is temporarily stored in a DRAM in text format (S204). Further, text data are converted into image data of a format recordable on a recording sheet (S206). The image data produced are stored in the DRAM (S207) and on the basis of the image data stored in the DRAM, an image is output to the recording sheet (S208). <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a communication device, a communication method, a control program thereof, and a storage medium.

  Conventionally, there is a communication device that transmits and receives data such as electronic mail. Such a communication apparatus includes, for example, a so-called Internet FAX.

  Currently, MIME (RFC 2046/2045) is generally used as an e-mail format. In the MIME format, it is possible to mix image information and character information for one mail and collectively perform as one communication. However, binary data such as image information is attached to an e-mail. In the case of transmission, a method is adopted in which the data is encoded after being encoded (data conversion) and then transmitted, and the recipient restores the original binary file.

  In a FAX having a mail receiving function such as an Internet FAX, a received electronic mail can be output in the same manner as when the FAX is received. In this case, when the received text data represents image information, it is converted to image data and then output to the recording paper.

  However, in the conventional Internet FAX, only text data representing image information is received and recorded, and other types of data are handled as data that cannot be output.

  That is, in the conventional Internet FAX, an e-mail receiving process flow as shown in FIG. When the e-mail is received in step S401, it is temporarily stored in the text format in the memory in step S402. Next, in step S403, the image data is converted into the text format for the text data as one file included in the e-mail. It is determined whether or not the data has been converted, that is, whether or not the text data represents image information. If it is text data representing image information, it is decoded in step S405 and returned to binary image data. The image data generated in step S405 is stored in the memory in step S406. In step S407, the image is output to a recording sheet based on the image data stored in the memory. In step S408, the image data is stored in the memory in step S402. The deleted text data is deleted, and the process proceeds to step S409. If the received text data does not represent image information in step S403, the process proceeds directly to step S409 as data that cannot be handled. In step S409, it is determined whether other data remains in the e-mail. If other data remains, the process returns to step S403, the same analysis process is performed on the data, and if there is no other data, the process ends.

  In the conventional method, when receiving e-mail data sent from a personal computer or the like, character information received together with image information is not automatically saved on a recording sheet. For this reason, communication data information has been lost.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems of the prior art, and an object thereof is to provide a communication device, a communication method, a control program, and a storage medium that can handle various types of information. It is in.

In order to achieve the above object, an apparatus according to the present invention provides:
Receiving means for receiving text data;
Determining means for determining whether the content of the text data is character information;
When it is determined that the content of the text data is character information, conversion means for converting the text data into image data for visually representing characters included in the character information;
A recording unit that automatically records an image on a recording material based on the image data converted by the conversion unit when text data is received by the receiving unit;
Operation means for allowing a user to set a notation method when recording an image on a recording material in the recording means,
The converting means converts the text data into the image data in accordance with the notation method set by the operating means.

In order to achieve the above object, a communication method according to the present invention comprises:
A receiving process for receiving text data;
A determination step of determining whether the content of the text data is character information;
When it is determined that the content of the text data is character information, a conversion step of converting the image data to visually represent characters included in the character information;
A recording step of automatically recording an image on a recording material based on the image data converted in the conversion step when text data is received in the reception step;
In the conversion step, the text data is converted into the image data in accordance with a notation method set by a user.

In order to achieve the above object, a control program according to the present invention provides:
A control program for controlling a receiving device having a processor,
In the processor,
A receiving process for receiving text data;
A determination step of determining whether the content of the text data is character information;
When it is determined that the content of the text data is character information, a conversion step of converting the image data to visually represent characters included in the character information;
When the text data is received in the reception step, based on the image data converted in the conversion step, a recording step of automatically recording an image on a recording material,
In the conversion step, the text data is converted into the image data in accordance with a notation method set by a user.

  In order to achieve the above object, a storage medium according to the present invention stores the above control program.

  ADVANTAGE OF THE INVENTION According to this invention, the communication apparatus which can handle various information, a communication method, its control program, and a storage medium can be provided.

It is the figure which showed the hardware constitutions of the internet FAX which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the text data reception process of the internet FAX which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure explaining parameter setting operation of the Internet FAX concerning a 1st embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure explaining parameter setting operation of the Internet FAX concerning a 1st embodiment of the present invention. It is a flowchart which shows the data conversion process of the internet FAX which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart which shows the text data reception process of the conventional communication apparatus.

  Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the relative arrangement of components, the display screen, and the like described in this embodiment are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention only to those unless otherwise specified. In this specification, character information is information having meaning by a combination of characters, and image information is digital data such as photo data and illustrations that makes sense only when visually expressed. To do.

(First embodiment)
An Internet FAX as a first embodiment of a communication apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the Internet FAX. In FIG. 1, a CPU 101 is a system control unit and controls the entire apparatus. The ROM 102 is a memory for storing a CPU control program. The SRAM 103 is a memory for storing setting values registered by the operator, device management data, and various work buffers. The DRAM 104 is a memory for storing program control variables and the like. It also stores image data and text data. The reading unit 105 includes a device that optically reads an image on a document and converts it into binary data. The recording unit 106 is a device that outputs the image data stored in the DRAM to recording paper. The network communication control unit 107 is an interface for communicating with a network outside the FAX. The operation unit 108 includes a numeric keypad, a one-touch key, a mode key, a set key, and the like, and acquires setting data from the operator. The CODEC 109 includes a device that performs encoding processing and decoding processing of input image data. Further, the reduction / enlargement processing of the image is also performed here.

  Next, text data reception processing by Internet FAX according to the present embodiment will be described. FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the flow of text data reception processing on the Internet FAX according to the present embodiment.

  First, in step S201, a processing request event for receiving from the network occurs in the CPU 101, and an email is received in the MIME format.

  Next, in step S202, it is determined from the header of the email whether the email is related to image information. Specifically, the Content-Type of the MIME format is examined. If Content-Type is described as text, it is determined as text information, and if it is described as image, it is determined as image information.

  If it is related to image information, in step S203, the encoded text data is decoded and returned to binary image data, and the process proceeds to step S207.

  If it is not related to image information, in step S204, it is stored in the DRAM 104 as it is in the text format for the time being. Next, in step S205, it is determined whether or not the text data is character information. If it is character information, the process proceeds to step S206, where it is converted into image data in a format that can be recorded on recording paper, and the process proceeds to step S207. If it is not text data of character information, the process proceeds to step S209 as it is.

  In step S207, the image data generated in step S203 or step S206 is stored in the DRAM 104, and in step S208, an image is output to a recording sheet based on the image data stored in the DRAM 104.

  In step S209, it is determined whether or not e-mail data to be received next exists, and if it exists, the process returns to step S202 to process the next data.

  Next, the conversion process performed in step S206 will be described in detail.

  Since the received text data is text code data, it has only information indicating the type of character, and has no information such as font, size, bold, and inclination. In other words, it is necessary to set these parameters when converting text data into image data. In the present embodiment, an output as desired by the user can be obtained in step S208 by adopting a configuration in which any of these parameters can be freely set by the user.

  In addition, in the case of text data received in an e-mail format, an e-mail address or subject may be described in the header at the time of printing. Good.

  That is, as shown in FIG. 3, when a predetermined operation is performed on the FAX operation unit 108, a parameter selection screen of various display formats is displayed on the panel 108a. The figure shows an example of a screen for selecting a name <aaa @ bbb>, <aaa @ bbb> (name), or aaa @ bbb as a mail address notation method.

  When recording on the recording paper 301, the data is output in the display format selected on this screen. In other words, since the name <aaa @ bbb> is selected here, in the header's to and from fields, Yamada Ichiro <yamada@abcdef.co.jp> and Suzuki Hanako <hanako@zzz.com> The As processing within the apparatus, the content selected from the panel 108a is registered in a memory such as the DRAM 104, and is read from the memory and referred to when text data is converted into image data.

  FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an output format of character information and its setting parameters. By displaying the mail header part at the top, information such as the destination, source, arrival date / time, and title of the received data is clarified. In the middle, mail text data is placed, and the text information you want to convey by mail is written. At the end, add a footer and put page information.

  When the user operates the operation unit 108, the display content, display position, and display format can be freely set. As a result, it is possible to arrange the information necessary for the user in an easy-to-view format at an easy-to-see position.

  Here, (1) E-mail address notation method, (2) To / from, date, subject, etc. display / hide, (3) Text output font, (4) Automatic line feed number of text, (5) Footer However, the present invention is not limited to this, although the other parameters are fixed at default values.

  Further, the present embodiment is configured to automatically change the print size when outputting to recording paper.

  FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the processing content of step S206.

  If it is determined that certain text data is related to character information and the process proceeds to step S206, it is first checked in step S501 whether other received data in the same mail contains image information. If no image information is attached, in step S502, the paper size set as a default in the apparatus is set. On the other hand, if image data is attached, the same paper size as that of the attached image is set in step S503.

  In step S504, the text data is converted into image data in accordance with the set paper size.

  As described above, since the print size is adjusted to the size of the image information, the information received by the same e-mail can be output with the same print size, and the print handling becomes convenient. The size of the image information is described in, for example, the header portion of the image sent in the TIFF format. As a result, the size of the image information can be known, so that a paper size suitable for recording the image information can be selected, and the same paper size can be selected for the character information.

  Note that the present invention can be applied to a system including a plurality of devices (for example, a host computer, an interface device, a reader, and a printer), and a device (for example, a copying machine and a facsimile device) including a single device. You may apply to.

  Another object of the present invention is to supply a storage medium (or recording medium) in which a program code of software that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments is recorded to a system or apparatus, and the computer (or CPU or CPU) of the system or apparatus. Needless to say, this can also be achieved by the MPU) reading and executing the program code stored in the storage medium. In this case, the program code itself read from the storage medium realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments, and the storage medium storing the program code constitutes the present invention. Further, by executing the program code read by the computer, not only the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized, but also an operating system (OS) running on the computer based on the instruction of the program code. It goes without saying that a case where the function of the above-described embodiment is realized by performing part or all of the actual processing and the processing is included.

  Furthermore, after the program code read from the storage medium is written into a memory provided in a function expansion card inserted into the computer or a function expansion unit connected to the computer, the function is determined based on the instruction of the program code. It goes without saying that the CPU or the like provided in the expansion card or the function expansion unit performs part or all of the actual processing and the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the processing.

  When the present invention is applied to the above-described storage medium, the storage medium stores program codes corresponding to the flowcharts described above (shown in FIGS. 2 and / or 5).

Claims (10)

Receiving means for receiving text data;
Determining means for determining whether the content of the text data is character information;
When it is determined that the content of the text data is character information, conversion means for converting the text data into image data for visually representing characters included in the character information;
A recording unit that automatically records an image on a recording material based on the image data converted by the conversion unit when text data is received by the receiving unit;
Operation means for allowing a user to set a notation method when recording an image on a recording material in the recording means,
The communication device is characterized in that the conversion means converts the text data into the image data in accordance with a notation method set by the operation means.   The said notation method includes at least one of a size, a font, the number of characters of one line, or the number of lines of one page of characters included in the character information. Communication equipment. The receiving means is means for receiving an e-mail as the text data;
The operation means can set at least one of a notation method of an email address, whether to record a subject, or whether to record a reception date as the notation method. The communication device according to claim 1. A receiving process for receiving text data;
A determination step of determining whether the content of the text data is character information;
When it is determined that the content of the text data is character information, a conversion step of converting the image data to visually represent characters included in the character information;
A recording step of automatically recording an image on a recording material based on the image data converted in the conversion step when text data is received in the reception step;
In the converting step, the text data is converted into the image data in accordance with a notation method set by a user.   5. The notation method includes at least one of a size, a font, the number of characters per line, or the number of lines per page of characters included in the character information. Communication method. The receiving step is a step of receiving an e-mail as the text data,
5. The method according to claim 4, wherein at least one of a notation method of an e-mail address, whether to record a subject, or whether to record a reception date is set as the notation method. The communication method described. A control program for controlling a receiving device having a processor,
In the processor,
A receiving process for receiving text data;
A determination step of determining whether the content of the text data is character information;
When it is determined that the content of the text data is character information, a conversion step of converting the image data to visually represent characters included in the character information;
When the text data is received in the reception step, based on the image data converted in the conversion step, a recording step of automatically recording an image on a recording material,
In the conversion step, the text data is converted into the image data in accordance with a notation method set by a user.   8. The notation method includes at least one of a size, a font, a number of characters of one line, or a number of lines of one page of characters included in the character information. Control program. The receiving step is a step of receiving an e-mail as the text data,
8. The notation method according to claim 7, wherein at least one of a notation method of an e-mail address, whether to record a subject, or whether to record a reception date is set. The control program described.   A storage medium storing the control program according to any one of claims 7 to 9.

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