JP3166680B2 - Communication terminal device with e-mail function - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication terminal device such as a facsimile device having a function of connecting to electronic mail.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a computer communication network which connects a local computer communication network with a communication line and distributes e-mail via a networked Internet or the like has become widespread. The computer communication network has an excellent error correction function, and can communicate with computers not only in Japan but also abroad simply by paying the communication cost to the nearest provider (a connection company to the computer communication network).

[0003] The communication procedure and communication system of the conventional G3 facsimile apparatus are different from those of the computer communication network.
Cannot directly connect to computer communication network. However, even image data such as a transmission original can be transmitted to a computer communication network by converting the image data into an electronic mail format.

When sending an e-mail from a facsimile apparatus having an e-mail communication function, call the nearest provider, send out a pre-registered ID and password, and log in to a network mail service. Send an email. The transmitted e-mail is stored in a hard disk of a mail server on a network, in a mailbox assigned with an area for each mail address. The destination device calls the nearest provider, checks the mailbox, and downloads any receivable mail.

By the way, the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) -T recommendation defines the facsimile apparatus encoding as follows. That is, the G3 machine has a standard vertical scanning line density of 3.85 lines / mm, optional high resolution scanning line densities of 7.7 lines / mm and 15.6 lines / mm, and the G4 machine has a 200, 240, 300, 400 lines /
Defined in inches and defined in inches.

In a facsimile machine, the recording paper width is limited.
There are A4 devices, B4 and A3 devices, etc. Furthermore, the facsimile apparatus has a compression coding scheme of MH (modified Huffman), MR (Modified READ), MMR (modified modified
READ) system, etc., and which compression coding system to use is left to the choice of the device manufacturer.

[0007] In ITU-T Recommendation T.30, communication procedures include call setup (phase A), pre-message procedure (phase B) for identifying and selecting required functions, message transmission (phase C), and message transmission. Post-message procedure (Phase D), including termination and confirmation of multiple manuscript transmission procedures
It is described by five phases of call release (phase E).

[0008] Among them, the DIS signal (digital identification) transmitted from the called machine in phase B contains information on the receiving capability such as the compression coding method, recording paper width, and scanning line density of the called machine. The calling device identifies the receiving capability of the called device from the DIS signal. In G4 communication, the partner function is identified in the same manner as in G3 communication.

As a result of identifying the receiving ability, for example, when transmitting a B4 size document to a partner apparatus having a recording paper width of A4, the image data is reduced to A4 size, and the G4 machine is transferred to the G3 machine. In the case of transmitting a document, it is possible to transmit image data according to the receiving capability of the partner device by converting the linear density from an inch system to a millimeter system.

[0010]

However, as described above, when facsimile image data is transmitted by e-mail, the transmitting facsimile apparatus communicates with the provider, but does not directly communicate with the partner apparatus. The receiving capability of the partner device cannot be identified by the DIS signal transmitted from the partner device.

For this reason, if the partner device uses a recording sheet having a width smaller than that of the transmitting side, the image protrudes from the recording sheet even if the image data of the transmitted e-mail is restored and recorded. . Also, in the case of an electronic mail of an image encoded by the compression encoding method that cannot be decoded by the partner device, the electronic mail cannot be decoded from the mailbox because the electronic mail cannot be decoded by the encoding method of the partner device. Further, if the other device supports only a lower scanning line density than the transmitting side, the other device restores and records the image data of the transmitted e-mail with its own scanning line density and records the image data. May not be able to restore the original image.

The present invention has been made in order to solve such a problem, and sends an e-mail requesting reception capability information of a partner device to the partner device before transmitting the electronic mail. Also, by sending the e-mail requesting the reception capability information including the reception capability information of the own device and further storing the reception capability information of the partner device included in the e-mail in association with the mail address of the partner device, An e-mail according to the receiving capability of the partner device can be sent to the partner device whose mail address is known but its receiving capability is unknown, and the e-mail including the receiving capability information is exchanged once. After that, it is possible to exchange e-mails with the partner device according to the mutual receiving capability without inquiring each other's receiving capability. And an object thereof is to provide a terminal device.

[0013]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication terminal having an e-mail function, comprising: a communication terminal having an e-mail communication function; For sending to the sending means, and a command key for instructing the sending means to send.
Means, means for receiving an e-mail including reception capability information of the partner device, and storage of the reception capability information of the partner device included in the e-mail in association with the mail address of the partner device
And means for performing the operation. Second invention electron
The communication terminal device with a mail function according to the first aspect,
Reception of partner device included in e-mail received from device
Send an e-mail according to the ability to the partner device
Means are provided. E-mail of the third invention
In the first aspect of the present invention, the communication terminal device with the function is a communication terminal
The e-mail requesting the reception capability information contains
It is characterized in that it is intended to be sent including information.

[0014] In the first, second invention, co email requesting reception capability information of the partner device before sending the e-mail
An e-mail including the reception capability information of the partner device is transmitted to the partner device by operating the command key, and an e-mail corresponding to the reception capability of the partner device is transmitted to the partner device. Therefore, an e-mail corresponding to the receiving capability of the partner device can be transmitted to the partner device whose mail address is known but its receiving capability is unknown.

[0015]

In the third invention, an e-mail requesting the reception capability information is transmitted including the reception capability information of the own device. Therefore, an e-mail corresponding to the receiving capability of the own device can be received from the partner device.

[0017]

[0018]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a facsimile apparatus as a communication terminal apparatus with an electronic mail function according to the present invention. In the embodiment of the present invention, the Internet is used as a computer communication network. The main control unit 1 not only controls each component of the hardware of the apparatus through a bus, but also converts the image data of the original into MH, MR, MMR based on the software stored in the ROM 6.
Communication procedures including encoding / decoding to encode or decode according to encoding methods such as image (TIFF) conversion, binary text conversion, mail editing, modem switching, RS232C control by AT command, etc. Run the software.

In this embodiment, the main control unit 1 transmits an e-mail if the receiving capability of the partner device is not registered in a table of a RAM 7 described later when the user instructs the transmission of the e-mail. A function request e-mail (see FIG. 4) for requesting the reception capability information of the partner device is sent to the partner device before, and a function response e-mail (see FIG. 4) including the reception capability information of the partner device is received. Then, an e-mail corresponding to the receiving capability of the partner device is sent to the partner device. Further, the main control unit 1 sends out the e-mail requesting the reception capability information including the reception capability information of the own device. Further, when the received electronic mail is a functional response electronic mail, the main control unit 1 associates the reception capability information of the partner device included in the electronic mail with the mail address of the partner device.
It is stored in the RAM 7 table.

In image conversion, G3 format image data is converted into TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) which is a general image format used in computers at the time of transmission, and TIFF to G3 format image data is received at the time of reception. Convert to TIFF is published by Adobe Systems, and defines various classes that handle not only black and white binary but also black and white multi-valued, full color, and the like. One of them, CLASS F, defines G3 format image data, which is image data of a document in which image data of the document is encoded by an encoding method such as MH, MR, MMR or the like. Therefore,
It can be converted to TIFF by adding TIFF header information of CLASS F to the head of G3 format image data.

In the binary text conversion, binary data is converted to text data at the time of transmission, and text data is converted to binary data at the time of reception. There are computers on the Internet that cannot handle binary data e-mail. When transmitting binary data such as TIFF image data, the data is first converted to text data so that the e-mail reaches the destination. Text data handled on the Internet
It is defined as a 7-bit code in RFC (Request For Comments) 822, a document issued by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force).

Then, conversion is performed using the MIME base64 or the like. According to this, 6-bit binary data is 64
Character (uppercase and lowercase alphabets, numbers, +, /) and can be converted to text data. MIME is specified in RFC1521.

In the mail editing, at the time of transmission, mail header information is added to the TIFF image data converted into text data to edit the data into an e-mail format. At the time of reception, the mail header information is removed from the e-mail format data, Extracts only TIFF image data converted to data. Since it is specified that predetermined header information is added to e-mail on the Internet as e-mail management information, the "From: (user's Internet e-mail address) ) ”,“ To: (Internet e-mail address of the other party) ”,“ Subject: (title) ”, etc.

The reading section 2 reads an original by using a CCD or the like and outputs image data of a black and white binary original. The recording unit 3 includes an electrophotographic printer or the like, and records image data of a document received from another G3 facsimile apparatus or the Internet. The display unit 4 includes a display such as a liquid crystal display (abbreviated as LCD), and displays an operation state of the apparatus, image data of a document, and the like.

The operation unit 5 includes ten keys, one-touch keys, program one-touch keys,
Various function keys for input mode switching and the like are provided, and character data can be input by switching input modes of one-touch keys and program one-touch keys. A function request e-mail is sent to the operation unit 5.
Command key for the user to enter commands
The device creates a feature request email when given
To the other device.

The ROM 6 stores software necessary for the operation of the facsimile machine. The RAM 7 is composed of an SRAM, a flash memory, or the like, and stores temporary data generated when executing software. As shown in FIG. 2, the RAM 7 stores a telephone number, a mail address, an encoding method,
A table is provided for registering reception capability information such as recording paper width and linear density for each destination.

The image memory 8 is composed of a DRAM or the like, and stores image data of a document or the like. The modem 9 is a modem for performing facsimile communication of image data of a document read by the reading unit 2 and has no data communication function. The data modem 10 is, for example, a modem for data communication that communicates image data of a document converted into an electronic mail via the Internet, and includes, for example, an external telephone terminal provided on a chip of the NCU 11 and a telephone. Connected with a cable for
An external I / F 12 for connection to a personal computer, etc.
It is connected by a serial port and RS232C. NC
U11 closes and opens the analog line.

Next, the operation of the communication terminal device with an electronic mail function of the present invention at the time of transmitting an electronic mail will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In the present invention, if the mail address of the partner device is known, but the receiving capability information of the partner device is unknown, for example, because it is not registered in the table of the RAM 7, the operation unit 5 is required to transmit the e-mail . Ko
By operating the command key to send an e-mail for a function request to confirm the function of the partner device and to inform the receiving capability of the own device, the e-mail for the function request is transmitted including the receiving capability information of the own device. .

When the user instructs an electronic mail transmission from the operation unit 5 of the device A to the partner device, the device A refers to the table of the RAM 7 and the reception capability of the partner device is registered in this table. Sends an e-mail according to the registered receiving ability. However, if the receiving capability of the partner device is not registered in the table of the RAM 7 at this time, the device A indicates the receiving capability information of its own device, the mail address, the telephone number, etc., and the receiving capability of the partner device (device B). An e-mail requesting information is created (see FIG. 4) and transmitted to the e-mail address of the device B.

Device B receives the subject of the received e-mail.
Check the function code and the contents in the column, and if this e-mail is determined to be a function request mail, register the receiving capability of the partner device (device A) in the text in the table of the RAM 7 and receive the receiving capability information of the own device. , An electronic mail (see FIG. 4) of the function response indicating the mail address, the telephone number, etc., is created and transmitted to the mail address of the device A. The device A that has received the e-mail checks the function code and contents in the Subject column of the received e-mail, and determines that this e-mail is a function response mail, and determines that the The reception capability information of the device (device B) is registered in the table of the RAM 7.

As described above, after exchanging the e-mail of the reception capability information and storing the reception capability information in the table, the devices A and B exchange e-mails according to the mutual reception capability. be able to.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a function request mail and a function response mail. In the header, for example, in the Subject column, a function request (Request o
f Machine Function) mail or a function response (Response of Machine Function) mail that responds to the function information of the machine in response to an inquiry from the partner device.
And a function identification code ("F136Z" in this example) indicating that this mail is a function request or function response mail. In the body of the function request mail and the function response mail, the reception function information (recording paper size, supported encoding method, linear density) of the own device is described, and the result is transmitted to the request destination and response destination devices.

[0033]

[0034]

The communication terminal device with an e-mail function of the present invention sends an e-mail requesting reception capability information of a partner device to the partner device before sending the e-mail, and receives the reception capability information of the partner device. Is received, and an e-mail corresponding to the receiving capability of the partner device is sent to the partner device. Therefore, even for a partner device whose mail address is known but its receiving capability is unknown, Ru can send an e-mail in response to the reception capability of the remote device. In addition, electronic mail
The receiving capability information of the partner device included in the
Is stored in association with the e-mail address of
After exchanging e-mails containing trustworthiness information,
Without querying the communication capability
E-mail can be exchanged according to the receiving ability of

Furthermore, since the e-mail requesting the reception capability information is transmitted together with the reception capability information of the own device, an excellent effect that an e-mail corresponding to the reception capability of the own device can be received from the partner device is obtained.

[0036]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication terminal device with an e-mail function of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a conceptual diagram of a table.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an operation of the communication device with an e-mail function according to the present invention when transmitting a mail.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a function request mail and a function response mail of the communication device with an electronic mail function of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Main control unit 2 Reading unit 6 ROM 7 RAM 10 Data modem 12 External I / F

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 1/00-1/00 108 G06F 13/00 351-357

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A communication terminal device having an e-mail communication function, means for sending an e-mail requesting reception capability information of a communication partner device to the partner device, and instructing the sending unit to send the electronic mail. Command key means
If, means for receiving an e-mail including the received capability information of the partner device, a reception capability information of the partner apparatus included in the e-mail destination
Means for storing the information in correspondence with the mail address of the device. 2. Included in the e-mail received from the partner device
Email corresponding to the receiving capability of the other device
E-mail function-equipped communication terminal apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means you sent to location. 3. An electronic requesting reception capability information of phase hand device
The communication terminal device with an e-mail function according to claim 1 , wherein the communication terminal device is adapted to transmit the mail including the reception capability information of the own device.