JP2016095554A - Reading device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automate input of header information of an electronic mail transmitted with manuscript data attached.SOLUTION: A reading device comprises: an authentication section authenticating a user; a schedule information acquisition section acquiring schedule information of an authenticated user from a server on the basis of identification information of the authenticated the user; a reading section reading a manuscript and generating manuscript data representing the manuscript; a setting section setting header information of an electronic mail on the basis of the schedule information acquired; and a transmission section transmitting the electronic mail including the manuscript data generated and being set with the header information.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a reader.

Conventionally, meeting minutes and memos recorded on whiteboards, papers, and the like are read with a scanner or camera and transmitted by e-mail to improve information sharing efficiency. The e-mail address of the attendee of the meeting is set as the e-mail destination. Further, since the number of e-mails is increasing year by year, it is necessary to give the e-mail a subject that makes it easy for the recipient to understand the contents of the e-mail.

Patent Document 1 discloses a technique for acquiring a conference body name from an information management server based on user identification information and setting the acquired conference body name as attribute information of scan data.

JP 2006-331387 A JP 2012-213021 A

However, a special-purpose information processing device such as a scanner has a simplified user interface for text input compared to a PC (Personal Computer), which is a general-purpose information processing device. There is a problem that the task of inputting the subject one character at a time becomes very complicated.

An object of the present invention is to provide a reading device that is easy to operate for transmitting original data of a read original by e-mail.

(1) A reading device for achieving the above object includes an authentication unit that authenticates a user, and a schedule information acquisition unit that acquires schedule information of the authenticated user from a server based on identification information of the authenticated user. A reading unit that reads a document and generates document data representing the document; a setting unit that sets header information of an e-mail based on the acquired schedule information; and the header information that includes the generated document data is set in the header information And a transmission unit for transmitting the received electronic mail.

Here, the schedule information is information including at least a scheduled date and time and a subject for each schedule such as a meeting and a business trip. Schedule information includes participants ’names, email addresses,
It may also include a description of the location or schedule. The document is information displayed on a recording medium such as a whiteboard or paper. The document data may be image data or text data generated by character recognition of the image data. The header information of the e-mail includes destination (To, Cc, Bcc), sender (Sender, From), and subject (Subject).
Etc. The conference manager is used to include a person who has the authority to edit the schedule of the meeting as schedule information and a person who has the authority to hold the meeting itself. The conference attendee means a conference attendee as schedule information, and includes a scheduled attendee who does not attend an actual conference.
According to the present invention, when document data representing a document is transmitted by electronic mail, the electronic mail header information can be simply set and the electronic mail can be transmitted.

Note that the function of each means described in the claims is realized by hardware resources whose function is specified by the configuration itself, hardware resources whose function is specified by a program, or a combination thereof. The functions of these means are not limited to those realized by hardware resources that are physically independent of each other. Furthermore, the present invention can be realized as a method invention, a computer program invention, or a computer program recording medium. Of course, the recording medium for the computer program may be a magnetic recording medium, a magneto-optical recording medium, or any recording medium developed in the future.

The schematic diagram concerning embodiment of this invention. The block diagram concerning embodiment of this invention. The flowchart concerning embodiment of this invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. In addition, the same code | symbol is attached | subjected to the corresponding component in each figure, and the overlapping description is abbreviate | omitted.

1. Overview As shown in FIG. 1, a multi-function device 1 as an embodiment of a reading apparatus according to the present invention is connected to a groupware server 2 via a LAN (Local Area Network), the Internet, or the like. The multifunction device 1 has an image reading function and an e-mail transmission function.
The user causes the multifunction device 1 to read a document D recorded on paper or film, such as minutes, memos, and photographs, and attaches document data G, which is image data representing the document, from the multifunction device 1 to the e-mail M. Can be sent. The multi-function device 1 authenticates the user, acquires the authenticated user's schedule information from the groupware server 2, and sets header information such as the subject, destination, and sender of the e-mail based on the schedule information. For this reason, by using the multifunction device 1, it is possible to reduce the trouble of inputting header information of the e-mail when information such as minutes and memos is shared with others by e-mail.

2. Configuration As shown in FIG. 2, the MFP 1 includes a reading unit 11, an operation unit 12, a control unit 13, and a communication unit 1.
4 is provided. The reading unit 11 includes a linear image sensor, an optical system such as a lens, and an AD converter. The operation unit 12 includes a touch panel display. The operation unit 12 may be composed of a flat panel display and a plurality of switches. The control unit 13 is a computer that includes a processor, a main memory composed of a DRAM, an input / output mechanism (I / O), and an external memory composed of a nonvolatile memory. The communication unit 14 includes Ethernet (registered trademark), Wi
It is configured so as to conform to a communication protocol such as Fi, and executes transmission / reception of communication data between the multifunction device 1 and another information processing apparatus.

The control unit 13 reads the computer program from the external storage into the main memory and executes it by the processor, whereby the authentication unit 131, the reading control unit 132, the setting unit 133, and the transmission unit 13 are executed.
4. Functions as a recognition unit 135 and a schedule information acquisition unit 136.

The authentication unit 131 acquires the user ID and passphrase that the user inputs using the operation unit 12 from the operation unit 12, and authenticates the user based on the acquired user ID and passphrase. The reading control unit 132 controls the reading unit 11 based on a user instruction received by the operation unit 12, and generates document data that is image data based on data acquired from the reading unit 11. The recognizing unit 135 performs character recognition on the document data, and extracts the date and time when the document is estimated to be created from the document data. The schedule information acquisition unit 136 transmits the authenticated user ID, passphrase, and date / time to the groupware server 2 via the communication unit 14,
Schedule information corresponding to the user ID and date / time is received from the groupware server 2 via the communication unit 14. The setting unit 133 obtains the schedule subject and the email address of the attendee from the schedule information, uses the schedule subject as the subject of the email and the file name of the manuscript data, and sends the emails of attendees other than the authenticated user. The address is set as the e-mail destination, and the e-mail address of the authenticated user is set as the e-mail sender. The transmission unit 134 is an electronic mail client (Mail User Agent) also called a mailer.

The groupware server 2 is a computer having a processor, a main memory, an input / output mechanism, and an external memory. The groupware server 2 stores a user ID, a password, an e-mail address, and a group ID for each user, and manages the schedule of the user storing the user ID as schedule information. In other words, the groupware server 2 associates the user ID with the schedule and stores the schedule as schedule information, and transmits the schedule information to users belonging to the same group as the participant. HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) is a protocol that accepts schedule information registration and inquiries from the user and sends the inquired schedule information to the user.
Is used. For each schedule, the user registers at least the subject, the start date / time and the end date / time as the schedule date / time, the user ID of the participant, and the user ID of the manager who has the authority to manage the schedule. In each schedule, the location such as the venue and the destination, the contents of the schedule, etc. can be registered. The groupware server 2 stores an email address associated with a user ID of an attendee or the like registered for each schedule in association with the schedule, and manages the stored email address as schedule information. In the present embodiment, the groupware server 2 will be described as managing the user ID and email address of the user in two different fields.
You may manage as D.

3. Information Sharing Method Next, an information sharing method using the multifunction device 1 described above will be described with reference to FIG.
The information sharing method described below is used when a memo or drawing created by one participant in a meeting where a plurality of participants are present is shared with other participants using electronic mail. Here, as shown in FIG. 1, the schedule of the meeting attended by Mr. A, Mr. B, Mr. C, and Mr. D is registered in advance in the groupware server 2 as schedule information. A description will be given of an example in which document data G obtained by reading a memo as document D is transmitted to all other participants by e-mail. When the user performs a predetermined operation on the operation unit 12 of the multifunction machine 1 and calls a function for transmitting the read document data by e-mail, the following processing can be executed.

First, the authentication unit 131 causes the user to input a user ID and a passphrase using the operation unit 12 (S10). Here, the combination of the user ID and the passphrase input by the user needs to match the user ID and password for using the groupware server 2.

Next, the authentication unit 131 requests the groupware server 2 for authentication by transmitting the input user ID and password to the groupware server 2, and the user is authenticated based on the authentication result acquired from the groupware server 2. Authenticate. That is, if the combination of the user ID and password entered by the user matches the combination of the user ID and password registered in advance in the groupware server 2, the groupware server 2 has registered the multifunction device 1 in advance. Authenticate that the device is a user terminal,
Authenticates the user as a user registered in advance in the groupware server 2. If the combination of the user ID and password does not match, the authentication unit 131 requests the user to re-enter the user ID and password.

Next, the schedule information acquisition unit 136 acquires the schedule information of the authenticated user from the groupware server 2 (S30). Specifically, the schedule information acquisition unit 13
6 transmits a transmission request for schedule information associated with the authenticated user to the groupware server 2. The groupware server 2 then authenticates the authenticated user I
Schedule information including all schedules associated with the user ID is transmitted to the multi function device 1 using D as a key. At this time, the schedule information acquisition unit 136 indicates that the authenticated user is a mandatory participant, the authenticated user is an administrator, the schedule that is open to the authenticated user, the past schedule among them, etc. Alternatively, schedule information may be specified to request the groupware server 2 for schedule information. When the groupware server 2 receives a request for schedule information, the groupware server 2 may extract a schedule that matches a predetermined condition and send it to the multifunction device 1 as schedule information. The scheduled extraction condition in the groupware server 2 may be registered in advance using, for example, a web page.

Next, the reading control unit 132 receives a reading instruction from the user, causes the reading unit 11 to read the document D, and generates document data G that is image data representing the document D (S40).

Next, the schedule information acquisition unit 136 acquires the date and time (S50). The date and time here includes at least the date and is the date and time or the current date and time when the document is estimated to be created.
The schedule information acquisition unit 136 can select the schedule information based on the date and time when it can acquire the date and time when the document is estimated to be created, and can select the schedule information based on the current date and time when it cannot be acquired. . The estimated date and time that the manuscript was created is
It can be obtained by character recognition for the document data G. For example, when taking a memo of a meeting, the date and time of the meeting is usually described, and the date and time at the time of copying is recorded in a copy of the whiteboard used in the meeting. Therefore, it is possible to analyze the document data G and extract characters having a predetermined regularity as the date and time. The predetermined regularity here is, for example, a four-digit number, one character of “year” or “/” or “.”, One or two-digit number, “month” or “/”. Alternatively, one character “.”, One or two digits, and one character “day” or “/” or “.” Are included in this order. Specifically, the schedule information acquisition unit 136 causes the recognition unit 135 to perform character analysis on the document data G, so that the document data G
The date and time extracted from the recognition unit 135 is acquired. And the schedule information acquisition part 136
If the recognition unit 135 cannot extract the date and time from the document data G, it acquires the current date and time.

Next, the schedule information acquisition unit 136 causes the operation unit 12 to display a schedule included in the acquired schedule information, and causes the user to select one of the displayed schedules (S70). Specifically, the operation unit 12 displays a plurality of schedules so that any one can be selected. Operation unit 12
Displays a scheduled date and time and a subject for each schedule so that the user can specify a schedule related to the document data G. In addition, when displaying a plurality of schedules, the operation unit 12 displays the schedules in the order of the scheduled date and time to the acquired date and time. Note that the number of cases to be displayed on the operation unit 12 is determined in advance,
You may control not to display on the operation part 12 about a plan far in plan date from the acquired date. As described above, the schedule related to the document data G is selected by selecting the schedule of the schedule information to be displayed based on the date and time acquired by the multifunction device 1 and controlling the display order of the schedule of the schedule information to be displayed. Makes it easier for users to select.

Next, the setting unit 133 causes the operation unit 12 to display a subject for the selected schedule, and accepts editing and confirmation by the user (S80). At this time, the scheduled subject is displayed on the operation unit 12 as a candidate for the subject of the e-mail and the file name of the document data G. When the displayed subject is appropriate as the subject of the e-mail and the file name of the manuscript data G, the user can confirm the displayed subject as the subject of the e-mail and the file name of the manuscript data G. 12 is instructed to the setting unit 133. When the displayed subject is not appropriate as the subject of the email and the file name of the manuscript data G, the user operates the operation unit 12 to edit the displayed subject, and then sends the edited subject to the email. The operation unit 12 is operated to instruct the setting unit 133 so as to determine the subject name and the file name of the document data G.

Next, the setting unit 133 sets the confirmed subject as the subject of the email, the email address of the selected scheduled attendee as the email destination, and the email address of the authenticated user as the email sender. (S90). Specifically, the e-mail address of the required attendee of the selected schedule is set to To of the header information of the e-mail, and the e-mail address of the optional attendee of the selected schedule is set to Cc of the e-mail header information. Set and set the authenticated user's email address as the sender of the email header information. The attendee's email address may be obtained from the groupware server 2 in this step. As for which of the destination fields each attendee of the selected schedule is to be set, for example, the email addresses of all attendees are set to To and the administrator's email address is set to Cc. Also good. In addition, the e-mail addresses of the scheduled attendees and managers may be displayed on the operation unit 12 to allow the user to select e-mail addresses for each of To, Cc, and Bcc.

Next, the setting unit 133 causes the transmission unit 134 to transmit an e-mail in which the scheduled content is described in the text and the document data G is attached (S110). As a result, the e-mail attached with the document data G is transmitted to the e-mail address set as the destination in step S90.

Participants of the meeting who have received the e-mail sent from the multifunction device 1 confirm that the e-mail and the attached file are related to the meeting in which they attended, according to the subject of the e-mail and the file name of the attached file. It can be easily recognized. Then, the user who causes the multifunction device 1 to read the original D is set only by selecting the schedule displayed on the operation unit 12 without inputting characters one by one. can do. Further, the user who causes the multifunction device 1 to read the document D can set the e-mail address of the attendee by simply selecting the schedule displayed on the operation unit 12 without inputting the e-mail address of the attendee one by one. Can do. Furthermore, if the user who causes the multifunction device 1 to read the document D inputs the user ID and passphrase to the multifunction device 1, in addition to the email address, subject, and file name of the attached file, the user's own email The address can be easily set to the sender without inputting the characters one by one. As described above, since the multifunction device 1 can automate the input of header information of an e-mail that is transmitted with the original data attached, the work of sharing the original data using the e-mail becomes easy.

4). Other Embodiments The technical scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, and it goes without saying that various modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

For example, in the embodiment described above, the e-mail address and subject set in the header information of the e-mail have been described as being extracted step by step by the schedule information acquisition unit 136 and the setting unit 133. However, the schedule information acquisition unit 136 It may be extracted only by the setting unit 133 or may be extracted only by the setting unit 133. The schedule information acquisition unit 136 and the setting unit 1
Even in the case of extracting step by step 33, the order of narrowing down the schedule and the e-mail address to what level and where to narrow down can be appropriately modified.

For example, when authenticating a user, the user ID and the passphrase stored in I
A C card may be used. Specifically, the reader may be provided with a card reader for communicating with or without contact with an IC card, and user authentication may be performed using a user ID and passphrase acquired from the IC card.

For example, there is no particular limitation on the data structure of the schedule information and the type of data field. Various modifications can be made to which data field of the schedule information is set to which data field of the e-mail. For example, the user name of the scheduled participant may be set in the body of the email, or the email address of the scheduled participant may be set in the From field of the email. Moreover, although the plurality of data fields of the schedule information are set to the plurality of data fields of the e-mail, for example, the e-mail addresses of all the conference participants may be set to To of the header information. Only the email address may be set to To.

Further, the present invention can be applied to various information processing apparatuses having a document reading function in addition to a multifunction peripheral. For example, the present invention may be applied to a digital camera or a smartphone with a communication function that reads an original using an area image sensor. The file format of the document data representing the document may be any general-purpose format such as JPEG, PNG, or PDF.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... MFP, 2 ... Groupware server, 11 ... Reading part, 12 ... Operation part, 13 ... Control part, 14 ... Communication part, 131 ... Authentication part, 132 ... Control part, 133 ... Setting part, 134 ... Transmission part ,
135: Recognition unit, 136: Schedule information acquisition unit, D: Document, G: Document data

Claims (10)

An authenticator that authenticates the user;
A schedule information acquisition unit that acquires schedule information of the authenticated user from a server based on the identification information of the authenticated user;
A reading unit that reads a document and generates document data representing the document;
A setting unit for setting header information of the email based on the acquired schedule information;
A transmission unit that transmits the e-mail including the generated document data and the header information set;
A reading apparatus comprising: The setting unit sets the destination of the email in the header information based on the schedule information.
The reading device according to claim 1. The setting unit sets the subject of the email in the header information based on the schedule information.
The reading device according to claim 1. The setting unit acquires an email address of the authenticated user from the server, and sets the acquired email address as the sender of the email in the header information.
The reading device according to any one of claims 1 to 3. The setting unit acquires an email address of a meeting attendee whose manager is the authenticated user based on the schedule information, and uses the acquired email address as the email destination in the header information. Set,
The reading device according to any one of claims 1 to 4. The setting unit acquires an email address of an attendee of the meeting in which the authenticated user is an attendee based on the schedule information, and uses the acquired email address as the destination of the email in the header information. Set,
The reading device according to any one of claims 1 to 5. The setting unit sets a file name of the document data based on the schedule information;
The reading device according to any one of claims 1 to 6. The schedule information acquisition unit acquires the schedule information based on date / time information indicating a current date / time or a date / time when the document was recorded.
The reading device according to any one of claims 1 to 7. The schedule information includes information indicating the scheduled date and time of the schedule,
The schedule information acquisition unit acquires the schedule information corresponding to the scheduled date and time in the date and time of the date and time information.
The reading device according to claim 8. A recognition unit for recognizing date and time information on which the document included in the document data is recorded;
The schedule information acquisition unit acquires, from the server, the schedule information corresponding to the scheduled date and time corresponding to the date and time information acquired from the recognition unit.
The reading device according to claim 8 or 9.

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