JP2875792B2 - Email device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail apparatus, and more particularly to an electronic mail apparatus capable of processing data and storing or transmitting the data according to the type of a terminal device of a mail receiver.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In communication using a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as personal computer communication), an electronic mail service is provided for the convenience of users.
As a conventional example of such e-mail technology for personal computer communication, see JP-A-63-46843 or FIG.
There is something like that shown in

In FIG. 5, reference numeral 1 denotes a system control unit which has a built-in CPU and controls the operation of the whole apparatus, 2 denotes a line connected to a partner terminal device, and 3 denotes a data A communication control unit 4 for controlling reception and transmission operations, an ID search processing unit 4 for searching whether the member ID input from the terminal device is registered, and a storage unit 5 for storing the received character mail , A character mail memory for storing character mail, and a character mail read control unit for controlling a character mail reading operation.

In the electronic mail apparatus having such a configuration, when data (character mail data) is received through the communication line 2 and the communication control unit 3, the received data is controlled by the character mail storage control unit 5. It is sent to character mail memory 6 and stored here. The mail receiver searches the mailbox to check whether there is an incoming electronic mail by sending the ID number to the electronic mail device. When the mail has arrived, a request for receipt is sent to the e-mail device, and the system control unit 1 accesses the ID search processing unit 4 to perform a search. When the e-mail arrives, the character mail read control unit 7 Under the control operation described above, data is read from the character mail memory 7 and sent out to the communication line 2.

[0005]

However, in such a conventional e-mail device, it is assumed that both the device on the mail sending side and the device on the receiving side are personal computers, and as a recipient, There was a problem that mail could not be received unless a request was made to the e-mail device.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to enable a recipient to send a mail to a large number of recipients irrespective of the type of terminal device of the recipient of the mail. It is to provide an electronic mail device capable of.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a terminal registration means for registering the type of a terminal device of a mail receiver, and a terminal device type from an ID number designated as a mail receiver. Terminal identifying means for identifying, memory means for storing mail data, converting means for converting mail data to facsimile data, and determining whether or not to convert the mail data to facsimile data based on the ID number If the mail receiver terminal device is a device other than facsimile, the mail data is stored in a non-converted state, and if the mail receiver terminal device is a facsimile, the mail data is converted to facsimile data and stored. It is provided with a configuration of control means.

With this configuration, the electronic mail service of the personal computer communication can be used in the form of a mixture of the personal computer and the facsimile. That is, the sender of the e-mail sends the e-mail irrespective of whether the recipient's terminal is a personal computer or a facsimile.
Then, in the e-mail device, the terminal search means identifies the type of the terminal device from the ID number designated as the mail recipient. On the basis of this identification result, when the mail receiver terminal device is a device other than a facsimile, the control unit stores the mail data in the memory means without conversion, and the mail receiver terminal device is a facsimile. In this case, the converting means is operated to convert the mail data into facsimile data and store it in the memory means.

[0009]

1 to 4 show an embodiment of an electronic mail device according to the present invention.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 11 denotes a system control unit which has a built-in CPU and controls the operation of the whole apparatus, 12 denotes a communication line connected to a partner terminal device, and 13 denotes a data line to and from the line 12. And a communication control unit 14 for controlling the receiving and transmitting operations of the destination I.
A terminal registration memory for registering the type of the terminal device corresponding to D, 15 searches whether or not the member ID input from the terminal device is registered and the type of the terminal device corresponding to the registered ID ID search processing unit, 16 is a character mail storage control unit used to store received character mail, 17 is a character mail memory as first memory means for storing character mail, and 18 is a character mail reading operation. This is a character mail reading control unit to be controlled. Reference numeral 19 denotes a facsimile data conversion processing unit for converting character data into facsimile data, reference numeral 20 denotes a facsimile mail storage control unit for temporarily storing mail converted to facsimile data, and reference numeral 21 stores facsimile mail. A facsimile memory 22 as a second memory means is a facsimile mail read control unit for performing control for reading a facsimile mail.

The operation of the electronic mail apparatus having such a configuration will be described below. FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 are flowcharts showing the mail receiving operation in the present embodiment. When the electronic mail device according to this embodiment is connected to a terminal device such as a sender's personal computer via the communication line 12, the system control unit 11 starts a logon procedure and inputs a member ID to the sender's terminal. To send a message. Then, when the member ID is received from the terminal device in step ST301, the ID search processing unit 15 searches whether or not the received ID has been registered, and notifies the system control unit 11 of the result. System control unit 1
In step ST302, if the search result has been registered, the terminal device 1 prompts the terminal device to input the ID of the destination of the mail, and receives the destination ID (step ST30).
3). The ID search processing unit 15 searches whether or not the destination ID has been registered, and notifies the system control unit 11 of the result. If the result is not registered in step ST304, the system control unit 11 transmits a message to that effect to the terminal device (step ST320), and sends the destination ID
(Step ST303).

In step ST304, if the result is registered, a search operation of the registered terminal (step ST3)
05). In searching for a registered terminal, the type of the terminal used at the destination registered in the terminal registration memory 14 is searched for the member ID based on the destination ID, and the ID search processing unit 15 notifies the system control unit 11. . The system control unit 11 checks whether or not the terminal device is a facsimile (ST306). If the terminal device is a facsimile, the facsimile mail storage is instructed to the facsimile mail storage control unit 20 by attaching a destination ID (step ST306). S
T307). If the terminal device is a device other than a facsimile in step ST306, the character mail storage control section 16 is attached with a destination ID and instructs the mail storage (step ST308). Next, system control unit 11 checks whether or not the reception of the destination ID has been completed (step ST309), and determines from step ST303 to step ST309 until the reception of the destination ID is detected.
Is repeated. During this time, the sender does not need to be aware of the facsimile or personal computer as a destination.

When the reception of the destination ID is completed, the electronic mail device receives the electronic mail data (step ST3).
The operation of 10) is started. The data being received is temporarily stored in a buffer memory built in the system control unit 11. If facsimile is included in the destination terminal device after the reception is completed (step ST312), the system control unit 1
1 sends the data stored in the buffer memory to the facsimile data conversion processing unit 19, and converts the data into facsimile data (step ST313). The converted facsimile data is sent to the facsimile mail accumulation control unit 20 and is controlled to accumulate in the mailbox for each ID in the facsimile mail memory 21 corresponding to the destination ID instructed to communicate first (step ST314). If it is determined in step ST312 that there is no facsimile transmission, or if it is determined in step ST315 that there is a character mail, the system control unit 1
1 sends the data in the buffer memory to the character mail storage control unit 16 and controls the data to be stored in the mailbox for each ID in the character mail memory 17 corresponding to the destination ID (step ST319).

The error processing in the receiving operation will be described. The system control unit 11 determines in step ST30
In the ID registration check operation of No. 2, if the result has not been registered, it is checked in step ST311 whether the number of errors has reached a predetermined numerical value N. If the number of errors has not reached N, caller ID reception (step ST311) ST301)
Return to the operation of. On the other hand, if it is determined in step ST311 that the number of errors has reached N, the process proceeds to step ST318 to perform error processing, and thereafter ends the receiving operation.

Next, the operation of sending a mail will be described.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the processing procedure of this transmission operation.

First, regarding character mail,
The reception of the member ID (step ST401), the ID search processing (step ST402), and the error processing (steps ST409 and ST410) are the same as the above-described operations in the mail reception. If the member ID is registered, the process proceeds to a mail search process (step ST403). The system control unit 11 sends the member ID to the character mail read control unit 22, and the character mail read control unit 18 sends the member ID
Is checked to see if there is any mail (step ST404). If there is a mail, a mail summary such as the member ID of the sender, the date and time of the call, and the title is read out and sent to the system control unit 11 (step ST404). ST4
05). Next, in step ST406, it is checked whether or not there is a mail transmission request, and if there is no transmission request, the transmission operation ends. On the other hand, if there is a mail transmission request here, the system control unit 11 reads out the mail corresponding to the identification number of the requested mail and stores it in the buffer memory installed in the system control unit 11. The data is transferred (step ST407). At the same time, the system control unit 11 transmits data to the terminal device while receiving these data in the buffer memory (step ST408).

The facsimile mail is activated by a time element by specifying immediate transmission, timer transmission, or the like, and all the mail in the target mailbox is transmitted using the facsimile read control unit 22.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention, whether the destination terminal is a facsimile or a normal e-mail receiving character data is registered in advance by an ID number, By determining whether or not to convert the mail data based on the ID number and storing it in the memory means, the sender can change the form of the e-mail without being aware of facsimile data, character data, etc.
An easy-to-use electronic mail device can be realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of an electronic mail device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an example of a processing procedure of a receiving operation in the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the latter half of the processing procedure shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of a calling operation in the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional electronic mail device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 System control part 12 Communication line 14 Terminal registration memory 15 ID search processing part 16 Character mail storage control part 17 Character mail memory 18 Character mail reading control part 19 Facsimile data conversion processing part 20 Facsimile mail storage control part 21 Facsimile mail memory 22 Facsimile Mail reading control unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ identification code FI H04N 1/00 107 H04L 11/20 101A 1/32 (58) Fields investigated (Int.Cl. ⁶ , DB name) H04L 29 / 06 H04L 12/54 H04L 12/58

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A terminal registration means for registering a type of a terminal device of a mail recipient, and an ID designated as a mail recipient.
Terminal identification means for identifying the type of terminal device from the number, memory means for storing mail data, conversion means for converting mail data to facsimile data, and conversion of the mail data to facsimile data based on the ID number And if the mail receiver terminal device is a non-facsimile device, the mail data is stored in an unconverted state, and if the mail receiver terminal device is a facsimile, the mail data is stored in the facsimile device. An electronic mail device comprising: control means for converting data into data and storing the converted data.