JP3027943B2 - Facsimile transmission / reception system and facsimile machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile transmission / reception system and a facsimile apparatus, and more particularly to a facsimile transmission / reception system and a facsimile apparatus suitable for preventing leakage of security.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a facsimile apparatus of this type, for example, the following method has been adopted in order to prevent leakage of confidentiality of a transmitted original. One is a method in which a security code (recipient name, password, etc.) of a recipient is designated for a transmission original, and the received image information is taken out by inputting a security code on the recipient side. One is a method in which a higher-level device for management is connected to the facsimile device, and the higher-level device performs confidentiality management.

As a concrete implementation of these methods, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-72961 discloses a method in which a recipient's security code is designated at the time of transmission and transmitted. When a security code is specified, the security code is stored in an external storage device so that printing is not performed on the spot, and when there is a reception request specifying the security code from another facsimile device, or when a stored facsimile is received. There has been proposed a facsimile apparatus which is capable of performing printing from a facsimile apparatus which has made a reception request when a security code is directly specified for the apparatus.

Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 192839/1992 discloses that in a group environment where a plurality of personal computers sharing a facsimile apparatus are connected via a file server, users and groups in the group environment are recognized and managed. There has been proposed a data exchange method in which image information is transmitted to a specific person or only a person belonging to a specific group can view the image information by ID management means in a file server.

[0005]

However, in the conventional method as described above, since a security code must be specified for confidentiality, a specific operator who knows the security code is not an unspecified number of operators. There is a problem that only facsimile transmission can be performed.

Further, in the conventional method as described above, it is necessary to input a security code in addition to the facsimile number on the receiving side to make a call, and to perform facsimile transmission unless one is familiar with the operation method of the facsimile apparatus. Therefore, there is a problem that it takes time and effort for an operator to perform facsimile transmission.

Further, in the above-mentioned conventional method, since it is necessary to provide a higher-level device for management and the like, there is a problem that construction and maintenance of a system including a facsimile device are costly.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile transmission / reception system and a facsimile apparatus which improve operability in facsimile transmission / reception while maintaining confidentiality of image information. I do.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a facsimile transmission / reception system according to the present invention comprises a means for recognizing a dedicated sending slip added to a document and transmitted, and a method for recognizing image information of the dedicated sending slip. Means for recognizing contained data;
Means for adding a security code to the image information of the document and storing it in a storage device when it is determined from the recognized data that the document must be kept confidential.
Look, that further have the following features.

That is, in the facsimile transmission / reception method of the present invention, when it is determined from the recognized data that confidentiality of the document is required, it is further determined whether a security code corresponding to the destination of the document exists. If the security code does not exist, a comment indicating that the recipient is unknown is added to the image information of the dedicated sending slip attached to the original and transmitted, and the image of the received original is output. It is characterized by discarding information.

The dedicated sending slip includes a field for entering a destination (telephone number, recipient name, etc.) of facsimile transmission, and a field for entering a transmission mode indicating whether security transmission is secured transmission or normal transmission (security check). Fields, etc.) and
It is preferable that the facsimile sender fills in the necessary items in each column and then adds the necessary items to the head of the document to perform facsimile transmission.

As described above, according to the present invention, by providing a dedicated facsimile transmission form, it is possible to perform security transmission by the same operation as ordinary facsimile transmission only by checking a security mark, etc.
Operability can be improved.

Further, according to the present invention, since a special upper-level device is not particularly required unlike the above-described conventional method, facility costs and maintenance costs of a system including a facsimile device can be eliminated.

[0014]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

Referring to FIG. 1, in the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a transmitting facsimile apparatus 1 and a receiving facsimile apparatus 2 are connected via a communication network such as a telephone network 3 and a receiving facsimile apparatus. Reference numeral 2 denotes a facsimile receiving unit 2-111 which receives image information via a communication network such as a telephone network 3 and stores the received image information in a reception data memory 2-3, and a facsimile receiving unit 2-111. A decoding unit 2-112 for decoding the decoded image information;
An image memory 2-2 for storing the image information decoded by the decoding unit 2-111, and a transmission form recognition unit for recognizing whether the image information stored in the image memory 2-2 is a dedicated transmission form. 2-121, a character recognizing unit 2-122 for recognizing data included in the image information recognized as a dedicated transmission form by the transmission form recognizing unit 2-121, and a correspondence between a recipient name of the image information and a security code. A security table 2-5 to be attached and stored, and a security transmission in which the image information stored in the image memory 2-2 is not a dedicated delivery slip, and / or is a dedicated delivery slip but the dedicated delivery slip ensures confidentiality. Is not specified, the image memory 2-
An image output unit 2-6 that outputs image information stored in the image output unit 2;
An external storage device for storing image information to which a security code corresponding to a recipient of the image information is added when the dedicated transmission form specifies security transmission with security kept confidential.

When the security code corresponding to the recipient of the image information does not exist in the security table 2-5, the receiving-side facsimile machine 2 adds a comment to the effect that the recipient is unknown in the image information of the dedicated sending slip. In addition to the output, the received image information is discarded.

[0017]

Next, in order to more specifically describe the above-described embodiment of the present invention, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining one embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, in this embodiment, a transmitting facsimile apparatus 1 for transmitting image information, a receiving facsimile apparatus 2 for receiving image information, a transmitting facsimile apparatus 1 and a receiving side And a telephone network 3 for connecting to the facsimile apparatus 2.

The transmitting-side facsimile machine 1 includes an image input unit 1-1 and a control unit 1-2. Image input unit 1-1
Is used to input image information a to be transmitted. The control unit 1-2 performs control and transmission operations for facsimile transmitting the image information a input from the image input unit 1-1 via the telephone network 3.

The receiving-side facsimile apparatus 2 includes a control unit 2-
1, an image memory 2-2, and a reception data memory 2-3.
, External storage device 2-4, security table 2-
5, an image output unit 2-6, and a key input unit 2-7.

The control unit 2-1 performs control and reception operations for facsimile reception of the image information b received via the telephone network 3, and includes a reception unit 2-11 and a recognition unit 2
-12.

The receiving unit 2-11 includes a facsimile receiving unit 2
-111 and a decoding unit 2-112. The facsimile receiving unit 2-111 receives the image information b via the telephone network 3, and stores the received image information b in the reception data memory 2-3. The decoding unit 2-112 performs a decoding process on the image information c received by the facsimile receiving unit 2-111 and converts the image information c into image information d.

The image memory 2-2 has a decoding unit 2-112.
And temporarily stores the image information d that has been subjected to the decoding processing.

The recognizing unit 2-12 includes a sending form recognizing unit 2-12.
1 and a character recognition unit 2-122. The sending form recognition unit 2-121 is configured to store the image information e stored in the image memory 2-2.
For the special sending slip. The character recognizing unit 2-122 performs character recognition on the data included in the image information recognized as the dedicated sending slip by the sending slip recognition unit 2-121.

The reception data memory 2-3 temporarily stores the image information g received by the facsimile receiving section 2-111, and outputs it as image information h as needed.

The external storage device 2-4 stores the image information h output from the reception data memory 2-3.

The security table 2-5 stores the recipient name of the image information and the security code in association with each other, and is referred to when the character recognizing unit 2-122 performs character recognition.

The image output unit 2-6 includes an external storage device 2-4.
The image information h stored in is output. Key input section 2-7
Is used to input a security code when the image information h stored in the external storage device 2-4 is output from the image output unit 2-6.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. FIG.
FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically illustrating an example of a dedicated sending slip used in the present embodiment. Hereinafter, the operation of the present embodiment will be described separately for the transmitting side and the receiving side with reference to FIG. 1 and FIG.

First, the operation on the transmitting side will be described. First, on the transmission side, the destination (telephone number, recipient name) of the transmission original and the facsimile that secures the normal facsimile transmission by handwriting, word processing, etc. on the dedicated transmission slip as shown in FIG. And a transmission mode indicating whether the transmission is performed.

Thereafter, a special delivery slip in which these addresses and the transmission mode are entered is added to the head of the transmission original, and the image input unit 1-1 of the transmission-side facsimile apparatus 1 sends the control unit 1--1.
2 is input as image information a. The control unit 1-2 includes:
By the same procedure or method as in the case of facsimile transmission performed by a well-known facsimile machine, the operator directly dials the telephone number of the transmission destination or utilizes the automatic dialing function of the facsimile machine 1 on the transmission side. When dialing is performed, the image information a is encoded in the control unit 1-2 and transmitted to the telephone network 3 as image information b.

Next, the operation on the receiving side will be described.
First, the facsimile receiving unit 2-111 of the receiving-side facsimile apparatus 2 transmits the image information b received via the telephone network 3 to the decoding unit 2-112 and the reception data memory 2-3, respectively, to the image information c and the image information. Deliver as g. At this time, no processing is applied to the image information.

The received data memory 2-3 stores therein the image information g delivered from the facsimile receiving section 2-111. On the other hand, the decoding unit 2-112 performs a decoding process on the image information c passed from the facsimile receiving unit 2-111, and stores it as image information d in the image memory 2-2.

Image information e stored in the image memory 2-2
Is recognized by the sending slip recognition unit 2-121 as to whether it is a dedicated sending slip. As a result, the sending form recognition unit 2-121
, The control unit 2-1 notifies the control unit 2-1 of the fact, and the image information e is transmitted to the image output unit 2 under the control of the control unit 2-1 in the same manner as in normal facsimile reception. After outputting from -6, the process ends.

On the other hand, when the sending slip recognition section 2-121 recognizes that the sending slip is a dedicated sending slip, the image information f of the dedicated sending slip is output to the character recognizing section 2-122. The character recognizing unit 2-122 recognizes the transmission mode from the data included in the image information f of the input dedicated delivery slip. As a result, when the character recognition unit 2-122 recognizes that the transmission mode is the normal mode, it notifies the control unit 2-1 of the fact and controls the control unit 2-1 to perform normal facsimile reception. After outputting the image information e from the image output unit 2-6 as in the case described above, the process ends.

As a result of performing the above-described two-stage determination, if it is determined that the transmission mode is the dedicated transmission slip and the transmission mode is the security mode, the character recognition unit 2-122 further recognizes the recipient name. And the following processing is performed with reference to the security table 2-5.

That is, when the recipient name recognized by the character recognizing unit 2-122 is not registered in the security table 2-5, the image information stored in the image memory 2-2 is determined to be unknown. A comment (character) indicating that the recipient is unknown is embedded in e, and the image information e stored in the image memory 2-2 is output from the image output unit 2-6 to the control unit 2-1. The image information b received by the facsimile receiving unit 2-111, the image information e stored in the image memory 2-2, and the received data memory 2
-3 is discarded.

On the other hand, when the recipient name recognized by the character recognizing unit 2-122 is registered in the security table 2-5, the security code registered in the security table 2-5 is added. The image information h stored in the reception data memory 2-3 is output to the external storage device 2-4.

When outputting the image information h stored in the external storage device 2-4, a security code is input from the key input unit 2-7 in the same manner as in a procedure performed by a well-known facsimile machine. After that, the security code is determined to match / mismatch, and then output from the image output unit 2-6.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to such an embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention. Of course. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the transmitting side and the receiving side are realized by using a facsimile apparatus, but such transmission and reception may be realized by another apparatus having a facsimile function such as a personal computer or an electronic filing system. Needless to say, this may be done.

[0042]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The sender only needs to fill in the address and transmission mode on the special delivery slip, and the receiver can retrieve the image information by the same operation as before, so that anyone who wants to maintain security can send the document as before In addition to the above-mentioned operation, the image information with security can be taken out on the receiving side by the conventional operation, and the operability can be remarkably improved.

According to the present invention, even if facsimile transmission is performed to a recipient who is not registered on the receiving side, the received image information is discarded without being output. But security can be maintained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically illustrating an example of a dedicated sending slip used in one embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Sending side facsimile apparatus 1-1 Image input part 1-2 Control part 2 Receiving side facsimile apparatus 2-1 Control part 2-11 Receiving part 2-111 Facsimile receiving part 2-112 Decoding part 2-12 Recognition part 2- 121 Sending slip recognition unit 2-122 Character recognition unit 2-2 Image memory 2-3 Receive data memory 2-4 External storage device 2-5 Security table 2-6 Image output unit 2-7 Key input unit 3 Telephone network

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 1/32-1/34 H04N 1/44

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A means for recognizing a dedicated sending slip added to a document to be transmitted, a means for recognizing data included in image information of the dedicated sending slip, and maintaining confidentiality of the document based on the recognized data. when it is determined that it is necessary, in the facsimile transmitting and receiving system comprising, means for storing in the storage unit by adding the security code to the image information of the document, the confidentiality of the document from the recognized data Necessary
If it is determined that there is, further correspond to the destination of the original
Judge whether there is a security code to
If there is no security code,
The recipient information is not included in the image information of the dedicated
Output with a comment that the
A facsimile transmission / reception method for discarding image information of a transmitted original. 2. A facsimile receiving section for receiving image information via a communication network and storing the received image information in a reception data memory, and a decoding section for decoding the image information received by the facsimile receiving section. An image memory for storing the image information decoded by the decoding unit, a transmission form recognition unit for recognizing whether or not the image information stored in the image memory is a dedicated transmission form; A character recognition unit for recognizing data included in the image information recognized as a dedicated sending slip by the unit, a security table for storing a recipient name of the image information and a security code in association with each other, and a security table stored in the image memory. If the image information is not a dedicated sending slip and / or is a dedicated sending slip but the dedicated sending slip does not specify secure transmission with confidentiality, An image output unit for outputting image information stored in an image memory; and a security code corresponding to a recipient of the image information is added when the dedicated transmission form specifies security transmission with confidentiality. in the facsimile apparatus comprising an external storage device, the storing the image information corresponding to the recipient of the image information to said security table
When there is no security code to execute,
A comment stating that the recipient is unknown is added to the image information on the
Output, and discard received image information.
And a facsimile machine .