JP3239811B2 - 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 an improvement in a communication terminal device having an electronic mail function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Computer communication networks such as the Internet tend to be used more and more, and recently, the number of people who use them also in general homes is increasing. Therefore, at present, various communication terminal devices capable of connecting to a computer communication network have been developed. One of them, a facsimile device with an e-mail function, reads and scans a document image.
The data can be transmitted to the other party's facsimile machine or personal computer by facsimile transmission or electronic mail transmission.

That is, when facsimile transmission is selected at the time of transmitting image data, the image data is transmitted directly using a telephone network or the like. On the other hand, when electronic mail transmission is selected, the image data is converted into an electronic mail format, and this data is stored in a mailbox on the network. Many of the receiving parties connect the computer communication network via a telephone line at an appropriate time by dial-up connection, and take out the image data from the mailbox if an electronic mail has arrived.

[0004]

However, in the above-mentioned conventional communication terminal device with an e-mail function, in order to correspond to a communication terminal which can only handle text data among personal computers and the like, image data of an image read by the own device is used. Is transmitted after converting it to text data, but when the received e-mail is image data, it is not converted to text data. Could not transfer to a terminal that can only handle text data.

[0005] The present invention has been proposed in view of such circumstances, and provides a communication terminal device with an e-mail function capable of transferring a received e-mail by converting a data format. It is an object.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, the above object is achieved.
E-mail function communication of the present invention proposed to achieve
The communication terminal device receives the power received via the computer communication network.
Search for the text part of the child mail, and
Detecting means for detecting the destination and the data format handled by the destination
And forward the received e-mail to this detected forwarding destination
And the data format of the received e-mail
Key for converting text data to image data
Character generator and received e-mail data
Convert the format from image data to text data
And a character recognizing unit for transmitting data.
When a child mail is received, the detection means detects
Determine the data format of the transfer destination and receive the e-mail
Into the data format of the determined transfer destination, and
It is characterized in that it is transferred to a destination.

The computer communication network includes the Internet and NIFTY-S which is a personal computer communication service.
erve (registered trademark), PC-VAN (registered trademark)
The communication terminal device of the present invention can use an e-mail service which is one of the services of these communication networks.

[0008]

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the internal configuration of a communication terminal device with an electronic mail function of the present invention. Here, a configuration example of a facsimile apparatus with an e-mail function F which is one of the communication terminal apparatuses of the present invention will be described.
The invention is not limited to this, and may be a personal computer or the like having a data communication function.

The facsimile apparatus F has a communication function via a computer communication network in addition to the conventional G3 and G4 facsimile communication functions via a public line network. As one of the
A case where the Internet is used and an electronic mail (e-mail) service is used on the Internet will be described.

The main controller 1 comprises a detecting means and a transfer means of the present invention with a CPU or the like, and not only controls each part of the facsimile apparatus F, but also performs encoding and decoding, which will be described later.
Performs various processes such as image conversion, binary / text conversion, and mail editing. The NCU 2 closes and opens the communication line L1 (analog line). The modem 3 modulates and demodulates a signal for facsimile communication. The data modem 4 modulates and demodulates a signal to transmit and receive an electronic mail. The external interface 5 is for connecting another terminal device such as a personal computer, and enables facsimile communication and e-mail transmission and reception by the connected personal computer and the like. In digital communication such as G4 facsimile communication, communication is performed via the DSU 9 and the ISDN line L2.

The image memory 6 is composed of a DRAM or the like, and temporarily stores image data to be transmitted and received. The RAM 7 constitutes storage means of the present invention, and stores temporary data generated during execution of processing, as well as a user ID for logging in to the Internet, an e-mail address of each user,
The e-mail address and facsimile number of the other party are registered. The ROM 8 stores a device control program and the like necessary for the operation of the facsimile machine F.

The display unit 10 includes a liquid crystal display device and the like, and displays the operation state of the facsimile machine F and image data. The operation unit 11 includes various keys such as numeric keys, and performs various input settings for the facsimile machine F. The reading unit 12 reads an original with a CCD or the like,
Outputs the image data of the value. The recording unit 13 includes a printer of an electrophotographic system or the like, and records (prints and outputs) data received from another facsimile apparatus or via the Internet as image data.

The character generator 14 converts text data into image data. Character recognition unit 15 is O
A CR function is provided. The image data is compared with reference character data stored in advance (pattern matching) to recognize a character and convert the character data into a character code (text data). FIG.
5 schematically shows the flow of data in the facsimile machine F shown in FIG. Each part in FIG.
, But is processed by the main controller 1 based on a program stored in the ROM 8.

The encoding / decoding section 1a encodes the image data read by the reading section 12 by an encoding method such as MH, MR, MMR or the like, or decodes the encoded data for printing out by the recording section 13. Become Hereinafter, the encoded data is referred to as “encoded data”. The image conversion unit 1b converts encoded data into a tagged image file format (TIFF), which is a general image format used in a computer, at the time of sending an e-mail, and converts the encoded data from the TIFF at the time of reception. Convert to

TIFF is published by adobe, and defines various Classes that handle not only binary black and white but also multi-valued black and white, full color, and the like. One of them defines a Class F that handles facsimile images.
If FF header information is added, it can be converted to TIFF. Hereinafter, the encoded data to which the Class F TIFF header information is added is referred to as “TIFF data”.

The text mail terminal since the e-mail sent from the (terminal only handles e-mail text data), consists of a text code JIS7 unit code and 7 bits ASCII code, binary text conversion part 1c Converts text data into image data using the character generator 14. Further, in order to transfer the received mail to the text mail terminal, the image data is converted into text data using the character recognition unit 15.

Further, the binary / text converter 1c includes:
At the time of sending an e-mail, the function of converting the binary data into text data is performed, and at the time of receiving, the function of converting the text data into binary data. In some cases, computers that cannot handle binary data e-mails are connected to the Internet. To ensure that e-mails reach the recipient, TIFF
Binary data such as data must be converted to text data at the time of transmission.

Text data handled on the Internet is:
Documents issued by IETF (Internet Engineering Task Fore), RFC (Request For Comments) 82
2, it is defined as a 7-bit code, but MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension)
If base64 or the like in s) is used, binary data can be converted to text data. It should be noted that base64 is 8 bits x 3 bytes of binary data of 6 bits x
This is an encoding method in which binary data is converted into text data by regarding each byte as a character code and assigning a character code to each byte.

That is, the binary / text converter 1c
Has a function of mutually converting text data and image data and a function of mutually converting binary data such as TIFF and a pseudo text code. The mail editing unit 1d adds mail header information to TIFF data or the like converted to text data and edits the data into an e-mail format when sending the e-mail, and converts the mail header information into e-mail format when receiving the e-mail. To make TIFF data of text data or the like.

Here, the mail header information refers to predetermined header information of an electronic mail on the Internet.
"From:", "To:", "Subjec"
It is stipulated that items such as t: "," cc: "," Date: ", etc. are added. However, when facsimile communication is performed, the communication is performed via the encoding / decoding unit 1a and the image memory 6.

In the present invention, the main control unit 1 detects a transfer destination from a text portion of an electronic mail received via a computer communication network, and stores the data of the received electronic mail in the detected transfer destination. To transfer. Thereby, the operation unit 11
Thus, the e-mail can be automatically transferred without having to input the transfer destination again. Of course, RAM7
In addition, the received mail can be transferred to a transfer destination registered corresponding to the transmission source.

When the received e-mail data is image data, the data format of the transfer destination is
If the data is text data, it is converted to text data and then transferred. As a result, image data can be converted to text data and transferred to a terminal that can only handle text data. Therefore, in the transfer destination personal computer, etc., the received data can be freely edited, such as writing, and the returned data can be promptly returned. In addition, since there is no need to print out the image data once, the recording paper can be saved. .

[0024]

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation described above. When the mail is received and the transfer destination address is taken out of the mail (100 to 102), the data format stored in correspondence with the transfer destination address and the data format of the received mail are referred to with reference to the table shown in FIG. Then, it is determined whether the received data is to be converted to the original format or converted, and then transferred (103 to 110).

That is, the transfer destination is a terminal that handles image data. If the received data is also image data, it is transferred as it is (106). If the received data is text data, it is converted into image data and then transferred (10).
7). At this time, the binary / text converter 1c
After performing data conversion using the character generator 14, the mail editing unit 1d transmits a mail with the destination set as the transfer destination address.

On the other hand, the transfer destination is a terminal that handles text data. If the received data is also text data, it is transferred as it is (110). If the received data is image data, it is converted into text data and then transferred (109). ).
At this time, after the binary / text conversion unit 1c performs data conversion using the character recognition unit 15, the mail editing unit 1d sends the mail with the destination as the transfer destination address.

Next, the extraction of the transfer destination address (operation of the detecting means of the main control unit 1) in step 101 of FIG. 4 will be described. The received data is image data (encoded facsimile communication data is encoded by TIFF / MIME). 5), the header part can be searched, and FIG.
If the format is a mixture of text and image, as shown in (1) , search for the text part and transfer to the destination address (arrow
(A) and the data format (arrow b) handled by the transfer destination
Take out. As in the latter case, the destination
If the configuration includes the data and the conversion data format,
Data conversion is not required,
E-mail transfer that can be performed manually can be realized. If the received data is in the text format, a transfer destination address which is text data may be searched from the data.

Further, when transferring data received by facsimile via a telephone network or the like instead of received electronic mail by electronic mail, the transfer destination may be extracted from a non-standard frame transmitted / received in the facsimile communication procedure. At this time, if the transfer destination can handle only text data, the image data (encoded data) is converted into text data and then transferred.

[0030]

As can be understood from the above description,
According to the communication terminal device with an e-mail function of the invention,
Text part of e-mail received via computer communication network
Detects the transfer destination and information indicating the data format of the transfer destination from the minutes
The received e-mail data to the destination data
The format can be automatically changed and transferred .

[0031]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of an internal configuration of a communication terminal device with an e-mail function according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a data flow in the communication terminal device of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a configuration example of a correspondence table between a transfer destination address and a data format.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a basic operation of the communication terminal device of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating an example of data of a received e-mail.

[Explanation of symbols]

 F: Facsimile machine with electronic mail function 1: Main control unit 1c: Binary / text conversion unit 6: Image memory 7: RAM 14: Character generator 15: Character recognition unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) G06F 13/00 H04L 12/58 H04N 1/00-1/00 108 H04N 1/32-1/34

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An electronic device received via a computer communication network.
Search for the text part of the email, The transfer destination included therein and the data format handled by the transfer destination
Detecting means for detecting; Forward the received e-mail to this detected destination
Transfer means; If the data format of the received e-mail is text data
Character generator for converting image data to image data
Data and If the data format of the received e-mail is image data
Character recognition unit for converting text data to text data.
e, When the transfer means receives the e-mail, the transfer means
The data format of the transfer destination detected by the detection means is determined, and the
Converts the received e-mail to the determined destination data format.
And transfer the data to the transfer destination.
Communication terminal device with child mail function.