JP3444956B2 - 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 machine, and more particularly to an interface (I / I) connectable to a LAN.
The present invention relates to a facsimile machine equipped with F).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a facsimile machine which can be connected to a LAN, an L which is a receiving destination of a received document from a communication line.
When the received document is distributed to an AN terminal, the received document is conventionally stored on a LAN file server and a notification that the received document has arrived is sent to a predetermined LAN.
This was done using the e-mail function by manual operation from the terminal.

[0003]

However, the above-mentioned conventional example has a drawback that the operability of the facsimile apparatus connected to the LAN system is poor because the following manual operation is involved.

(1) It is necessary to regularly check whether there is a reception from a communication line.

(2) L serving as a delivery destination based on the received information
It is necessary to guess the AN terminal.

(3) It is necessary to e-mail the receipt notification to the LAN terminal of the delivery destination.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional example, and an object thereof is to provide a facsimile apparatus which is excellent in operability and can be connected to a LAN.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, a facsimile apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, a facsimile device which is connected to a communication line and a LAN and is capable of delivering image data received through the communication line to a device connected to the LAN, the first image data and the first image data being transmitted from the communication line. The first
Receiving means for receiving the second image data including the additional information of the image data, storage means for storing the first and second image data received by the receiving means, and receiving means for receiving the receiving means. Corresponding to the destination based on the information of the destination included in the additional information extracted by analyzing the second image data and the information of the destination extracted by the extracting unit. Based on the notification means for notifying the device connected to the LAN that the image data has been received, and the first information received by the communication line based on the destination information extracted by the extraction means. And a relay unit that relays image data to a device other than a device connected to the LAN through the communication line.

[0009]

With the above-described structure, the present invention analyzes and extracts the information of the destination included in the additional information of the received image data, and responds to the destination based on the information of the extracted destination. The device connected to the LAN is notified that the image data is received, and the image data received by the communication line is transmitted to the LAN through the communication line.
It operates to relay to a device other than the device connected to.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a LAN system 100 commonly used in some of the following embodiments. LAN system 100 is Ethernet
It is assumed that a LAN is adopted, TCP / IP is used as a communication protocol between various devices connected to the system, and the devices in the LAN system can exchange information by e-mail.

In the LAN system 100, various devices are connected to the LAN common transmission line 101. In FIG. 1, 102 is a file server that integrally manages the LAN system 100 and also functions as a mail server that controls an electronic mail function, 103 is a workstation that serves as a client terminal, and 104 is a personal computer that serves as a client terminal ( Reference numeral 110 is a personal computer), and 110 is a facsimile machine (hereinafter referred to as LAN fax) which is also connected to the LAN common transmission line 101 and a communication line to transmit and receive image data.

[First Embodiment] FIG. 2 shows an LA according to this embodiment.
3 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of an N fax 110. FIG. The LAN fax 110 includes a keypad 1 having a numeric keypad operated by an operator and other switches, a display unit 2 such as an LCD for displaying the status of the apparatus to the operator, and an I / O controller for controlling the keypad 1 and the display unit 2. 3. Optical equipment and CC for reading transmitted originals
A reading unit (scanner) 4 including a D line sensor,
A printer 5 for printing out a received document, a scanner 4 and an I / O controller 6 for controlling the printer 5,
A line control unit (NCU) 7 that controls communication with a communication line 8 such as ISDN or a general public telephone line, an image memory 13 that temporarily stores received image data and the like, an OCR analysis that performs OCR analysis of the received image data. The unit 12, the ROM 10 for storing a control program and a processing program for controlling the processing described later and the entire apparatus, and the RA used as a work area for executing the control program and the processing program.
M11, a microprocessor (CPU) 9 that executes various programs stored in the ROM 10 to control the entire apparatus and perform specific processing described later, and a LAN common transmission line 10
1, a network interface card (NIC) 14 serving as an interface with the CPU 1, and a CPU bus 15 that connects the respective components to each other.

Therefore, the LAN fax 11 of this embodiment is
No. 0 can perform facsimile communication according to the G4 or G3 protocol when using the ISDN line and according to the G3 protocol when using a general public telephone line.

The LAN fax 110 having the above configuration is
It operates between the LAN system 100 to which it is connected and the communication line 8 and operates as follows.

That is, when an incoming call is detected from the communication line 8, the facsimile receiving operation is started and the received image data is stored in the image memory 13. After the reception is completed, the LAN terminal (for example, the workstation 103 or the personal computer 104) corresponding to the network address recognized by the OCR analysis of the received image data is notified of the reception. The notification is made by e-mail from the LAN fax 110. The received image data is transferred to the file server 102 and stored in a predetermined memory in the file server 102.

Next, with reference to the example of entry on the OCR sheet shown in FIG. 3 and the flow chart shown in FIG. 4, the automatic reception notification process to the LAN terminal at the time of image data reception, which is a characteristic process of this embodiment, will be described To do. In the processing described below, in the facsimile apparatus on the transmission side, an OCR sheet in which information about the transmission source and the transmission destination as shown in FIG. 3 is added is received at the head (that is, the first page) of the transmission image original and received. It is supposed to be sent to the original LAN fax 110.

First, in step S10, the LAN fax 110 detects an incoming call from the communication line 8, and in step S10.
At 20, the image data is stored in the image memory 13. Next, when the reception end of the image data is detected in step S30, the first page of the received image data is OCR in step S40.
OCR analysis is performed by the analysis unit 12.

On the OCR sheet S0 shown in FIG. 3, a mark S1 indicating the position of the analysis reference is drawn. The user of the sending facsimile machine is required to select the source address field S2.
Enter the telephone number S4 of the own facsimile device in. Further, in the transmission destination address field S3, the network address S8 of the LAN terminal (hereinafter, referred to as a destination LAN terminal) desired to be the destination of the transmission image, and the telephone number S6 of the relay transmission destination whose communication partner is the relay station. Fill in.

In the first character of each line of the destination address field S3, the address identification information (S5, S7) for identifying whether the value thereafter is a network address or a relay destination. Fill in. In FIG. 3, when the value of the address identification information is “0”, it means the relay transmission destination (S5) and “8”.
Means that it is a network address (S7). According to the address identification information, the receiving side device (LAN fax 110 in this embodiment) indicates whether the network address means the MAC address (physical address) of the destination LAN terminal, the IP address (logical address), or the user name. (Name of user registered in LAN system) can be determined. In the case of the present embodiment, when the value of the address identification information is "8", it means an IP address. The facsimile machine on the transmission side transmits this OCR sheet as the first transmission image. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, when a plurality of destinations (two or more) are entered as the relay transmission destinations, it means that the broadcast transmission request is made to the relay transmission device.

Now, the analysis result in step S40 is
Check in step S50. Here, if an analysis error occurs due to image distortion, OCR sheet format error, or the like, the process is regarded as an analysis error, and the process proceeds to step S60.
The received image data of all pages including the first page is transferred to the file server 102. And the file server 1
02 stores the transferred data in a predetermined area of its own storage device. In this embodiment, the analysis error is OCR.
It is assumed that the telephone number S4 of the transmission source facsimile machine entered in the transmission source address field S2 of the sheet S0 cannot be analyzed and extracted. If such analysis errors occur frequently, image data of unknown destination will be accumulated in the file server 102.
The operation manager of the system 100 needs to regularly monitor and grasp the usage status of the storage device of the file server.

On the other hand, if the analysis result is normal, the process proceeds to step S70 to inquire of the file server 102 whether the recognized network address exists in the LAN system 100. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, "8" is entered in the address identification information (S7) of the OCR sheet, so that an IP address is considered as the network address.

If it is determined in step S70 that the network address does not exist, the process proceeds to step S75, and the fact is temporarily stored in the RAM 11.

On the other hand, if it is determined that the network address exists, the process proceeds to step S80, and the received image data excluding the OCR sheet of the first page subjected to the OCR analysis is received by the file server 102. Transfer to. The file server 102 stores the transferred data in a predetermined area of its own storage device. Next, the process proceeds to step S90, and the LAN terminal corresponding to the recognized IP address is notified of the received information by e-mail.
The contents of the e-mail include the file server 102
The file name of the corresponding received image data stored in
It includes information such as information on the source communication partner terminal that can be recognized by the communication procedure.

In this embodiment, the IP address is considered as the network address as described above, but this is the MA address.
It may be a C address or a user name. When the network address is a MAC address, when the e-mail is sent, the L indicated by the MAC address is displayed as with the IP address.
The AN terminal is determined as the destination LAN terminal, and the existence of the electronic mail is notified to the terminal. When the network address is the user name, the LAN terminal logged in by the user name is determined as the destination LAN terminal, and the existence of the electronic mail is notified to the terminal. The LAN terminal user who has received the notification of the e-mail reception sends the image data of the notified file name to the file server 10
By reading from the specified area of the second storage device,
The received image data can be referred to.

Next, even if the process of step S75 is executed, or if the process of step S90 is executed, after the completion of these processes, the process proceeds to step S9.
Go to 5. Then, in step S95, it is checked whether or not an instruction to relay the LAN fax of this embodiment to the other facsimile apparatus through the communication line is written on the OCR sheet. This is O shown in FIG.
This is performed by checking whether the value of the address identification information (S5) of the CR sheet is "0" and the telephone number of the relay transmission destination is entered in the telephone number entry field (S6) following it. In the entry example shown in FIG. 3, “0448888222” is entered as the relay transmission destination.
Here, if it is determined that the instruction of the relay transmission destination is correctly given, the process proceeds to step S100, and the relay transmission is executed to the entered telephone number destination. At this time, if a plurality of telephone numbers are entered as the relay transmission destination, the broadcast transmission is performed. When the transmission is completed, the process proceeds to step S110. On the other hand, if the instruction of the relay transmission destination is not in the OCR sheet or is not correctly entered, the process proceeds to step S110.

Finally, in step S110, the relay transmission result and the error content temporarily stored in the RAM 13 are developed as image data, and the transmission source facsimile apparatus is notified of the processing result based on the OCR analysis result. in this case,
The destination of the facsimile device is the source address (S) recognized by the OCR analysis in step S40.
4) is used.

Therefore, according to the present embodiment, when the facsimile image is received, the received image except the first page is transmitted to the file server, and the LAN system under the OCR sheet which is the first page of the received image is under the control of the LAN system. The address can be analyzed, and the fact that the LAN terminal corresponding to the analyzed address has a received image can be notified by e-mail.

In this embodiment, no processing other than transferring the received image to the file server is performed as a countermeasure when an analysis error occurs during OCR analysis, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, when such an analysis error occurs, it is possible to notify by e-mail that all terminals under the LAN system have a facsimile reception image with an unknown destination and issue a warning.

In the present embodiment, the OCR analysis is executed after the image data is received, but the present invention is not limited to this, and it may be executed during the facsimile reception depending on the processing capability of the LAN fax.

Further, in the present embodiment, the content of the notification of the processing result based on the OCR analysis result is expanded into image data and then transmitted to the transmission source facsimile apparatus, but the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, , The line used is ISD
If the facsimile communication on the N line complies with the G4 protocol, it may be sent not as image data but as a well-known CD (controller document) referred to by the G4 protocol.

Furthermore, in the present embodiment, the destination to which the notification of the processing result based on the OCR analysis result is sent is the transmission source destination recognized by the OCR analysis. However, the present invention is not limited to this. You may use the dial number of the partner terminal that can be recognized from the communication protocol.

[Second Embodiment] In the above-described first embodiment, the transmission source device adds an OCR sheet in which transmission destination information is written at the beginning of a transmission image original, and the OCR sheet is written in the reception side LAN fax machine. An example has been described in which the transmitted destination information is read by being analyzed and a reception notification is sent to the destination LAN terminal by e-mail. In the present embodiment, an example will be described in which the destination of the received image is not analyzed from the OCR sheet in which the destination is entered, but is identified from UUI (User User Information) used in communication using the ISDN line. Therefore, the communication line referred to in this embodiment is an ISDN line, and the LAN fax 110 according to this embodiment is a G4 dedicated to the ISDN line.
Facsimile communication according to the protocol will be performed.

FIG. 5 shows a LAN fax machine 1 according to this embodiment.
It is a block diagram which shows the detailed structure of 10. Note that FIG.
2, the same components as those of the apparatus shown in FIG. 2 are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted. Here, only the characteristic features of this embodiment will be described. In FIG. 5, 16 is a UUI for analyzing the UUI from the communication line 8.
A ROM that stores an analysis program and a fax control program that performs the characteristic control of this embodiment. This ROM may be composed of a one-chip ROM or a plurality of chips.

Next, regarding the process of identifying the destination of the received image based on UUI, which is the characteristic control and process of the present embodiment, and the process of delivering the received image accompanying it, the transmission source device shown in FIG. 7 shows a time chart showing a conceptual communication control procedure between the LAN fax 110 and the file server 102, a UUI logical structure diagram shown in FIG. 7, an image reception shown in FIG. 8 and a reception notification process to a LAN terminal. This will be described with reference to the flowchart. The process steps common to those described in the first embodiment are designated by the same step reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.

First, when the facsimile receiving operation is started by detecting an incoming call from the ISDN line in step S10, the process proceeds to step S115 in which the UUI (61 in FIG. 6) in the SETUP signal sent from the transmission source device through the D channel. ) Is analyzed. In FIG. 6, signal names transmitted and received in the communication between the transmission source device and the LAN fax are described, but since these are known signal names according to the G4 protocol, description thereof will be omitted here.

The UUI is, as shown in FIG. 7, a user / user information element identifier 71 and a user / user content length 72.
And a protocol identifier 73 and user information 74. A predetermined value is set in the user / user information element identifier 71, a value for identifying the effective length of the user information 74 is set in the user / user content length 72,
Information for identifying the attribute of the user information is set in the protocol identifier 73, and information dependent on the user is set in the user information 74 because it is an area that can be uniquely used by the user.

In the case of this embodiment, the protocol identifier 73 has a reservation number "00" which means "user specific protocol".
“H (hexadecimal display)” is set. Further, the user information 74 is set with a network address for identifying each terminal of the LAN system. As shown in FIG.
At the beginning of the user information 74, network address identification information 75 indicating that a network address is set is set, and immediately after that, a network address 76 is set. In the network address identification information 75, the following network address 76 is represented by a MAC address, an IP address, or a user name (LAN system 1
The information for identifying whether it is expressed by the user name registered in 00) is set. Therefore, in this embodiment, by analyzing the contents of the network address identification information 75 and the network address 76,
The LAN terminal that is the destination of the received image data can be identified.

Next, in step S120, it is checked whether the network address can be determined as a result of the UUI analysis in step S115. Here, if the network address cannot be determined, the process proceeds to step S130, and it is considered that the UUI received is something other than the network address transmission, and the UU
The I is stored in the RAM 11. Further processing is step S1.
In step 35, the image data is received through the B channel and stored in the image memory 13 (63 in FIG. 6). Then, in step S60, the image data is transferred to the file server (64 in FIG. 6), and then the process ends.

If the network address is determined in step S120, the process proceeds to step S120.
140, the network address is actually the LA
It is checked whether or not it exists in the N system 100 by inquiring to the file server 102 (62 in FIG. 6). Here, if the network address does not exist in the LAN system 100, the process proceeds to step S150, the communication is interrupted, and the process ends. In contrast, the network address is LAN
If it is confirmed that it exists in the system 100, the process proceeds to step S160, and the image data is received through the B channel and stored in the image memory 13 (6 in FIG. 6).
3). Then, in step S80, the image data is transferred to the file server (64 in FIG. 6).

Next, in step S170, the LAN terminal corresponding to the analyzed network address is notified by e-mail that the image has been received (65 in FIG. 6). Here, the content of the notified e-mail includes communication information such as the file name attached to the received image stored in the file server 102 and the terminal id of the transmission source device that can be recognized according to the G4 protocol. .

The user of the LAN terminal, which has been notified by the electronic mail that there is a received image, can read the received image from the file server 102 and refer to it based on the notified file name.

Therefore, according to this embodiment, when receiving a facsimile image using the ISDN line, by analyzing the received UUI, information indicating the address of the terminal under the LAN system which is the image transmission destination is obtained and received. The image can be transmitted to the file server, and the corresponding LAN terminal can be notified by e-mail that there is a received image based on the obtained information.

In this embodiment, the communication is unconditionally interrupted when the network address recognized from the UUI does not exist in the LAN system, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, a process of notifying the source device without interrupting the communication may be performed.

In this embodiment, the UUI analysis is performed before the image data is received, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, it may be performed during the image data reception or after the image data reception.

Further, in this embodiment, the SET received through the D channel to detect the network address.
Although the UP message is used, the present invention is not limited to this, and it goes without saying that another message can be used.

In the first and second embodiments, Ethernet is used as the LAN and TCP / IP is used as the communication protocol in the LAN system, but the present invention is not limited to this. For example, LA such as token ring
It is also possible to use a protocol such as N system or NetWare.

Further, in the first and second embodiments, the storage destination of the received document is the predetermined area of the storage device of the file server of the LAN system, but the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, other The data may be stored in an arbitrary area of the storage device of the LAN terminal or an area reserved for storing received documents in advance.

Further, in the first and second embodiments, the timing for starting the transfer of the received document to the file server is set after the end of the facsimile image receiving operation, but the present invention is not limited to this, and for example, Depending on the performance of the LAN fax machine, the facsimile image reception and the received image transfer may be performed in parallel.

Furthermore, in the first and second embodiments, the MAC address, the IP address, and the user name are used as the network address to be the reception notification destination, but the present invention is not limited to this, and, for example, Other information that can identify the LAN terminal that is the notification destination may be used.

Furthermore, in the first and second embodiments, the user of the LAN terminal, which has received the notification of receipt by electronic mail, manually reads the received document and refers to it, but the present invention is not limited to this. The operation may be automated, for example.

The present invention may be applied to a system composed of a plurality of devices or an apparatus composed of one device. Further, it goes without saying that the present invention can be applied to the case where it is achieved by supplying a program to a system or an apparatus.

[0053]

As described above, according to the present invention, the information of the destination included in the received additional information is extracted, and the destination is dealt with based on the information of the extracted destination. Since the device connected to the LAN is notified that the image data has been received, it is not necessary to manually check that the image has been received from the communication line, and the reception notification is sent to the device of the LAN. As described above, there is an effect that it is possible to realize a system having higher operability with respect to facsimile data transmission to a specific device of a LAN that is not directly connected by a communication line.

[0054]

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a LAN system 100.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of a LAN fax machine 110 according to the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an entry example of an OCR sheet.

FIG. 4 is an image receiving process using an OCR sheet and a LAN.
It is a flowchart which shows the reception notification process to a terminal.

FIG. 5 is a LAN fax machine 1 according to a second embodiment of the present invention.
It is a block diagram which shows the detailed structure of 10.

FIG. 6 is a sender device, a LAN fax machine 1 of the second embodiment.
10 is a time chart conceptually showing a communication control procedure with the file server 102.

FIG. 7 is a logical structural diagram of UUI.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing image reception using UUI and reception notification processing to a LAN terminal.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 keypad 2 Display 3, 6 I / O controller 4 scanner 5 printers 7 Line control unit (NCU) 8 communication lines 9 CPU 10, 16 ROM 11 RAM 12 OCR analysis section 13 Image memory 14 NIC 15 CPU bus 100 LAN system 101 LAN common transmission line 102 file server 103 workstation 104 personal computer 110 LAN fax

Front page continued (72) Inventor Masaya Kondo 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (72) Inventor Kazutaka Matsueda 3-30-2 Shimomaruko, Ota-ku, Tokyo Canon Inc. (56) References JP-A-5-199345 (JP, A) JP-A-3-57346 (JP, A) JP-A-5-207204 (JP, A) JP-A-6-98137 (JP, A) Kaihei 4-265040 (JP, A) JP-A-2-311043 (JP, A) JP-A-7-95339 (JP, A) JP-A-5-347682 (JP, A) JP-A-4-223656 ( JP, A) JP 5-122492 (JP, A) JP 5-268450 (JP, A) JP 6-113063 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 1/00-1/00 108 H04N 1/32-1/36 H04N 1/42-1/44

Claims (15)

(57) [Claims] 1. A facsimile apparatus which is connected to a communication line and a LAN and can transfer image data received through the communication line to a device connected to the LAN, the facsimile device comprising : storing a receiving means for receiving the second image data, the first and second image <br/> image data received by said receiving means including said image data additional information of the first image data A storage unit for storing the destination information included in the additional information received by the receiving unit, and analyzing the second image data.
Notifying means for notifying the extracting means further extracts, based on the information of the destination extracted by the extraction means, the fact that there is image data received for the LAN connected equipment corresponding to the destination If, based on the destination of the information extracted by said extraction means
The first image data received by the communication line.
Data is connected to the LAN through the communication line.
A facsimile machine having a relay means for relaying to a device other than a device. 2. The transmitting side, wherein the receiving means writes the additional information in a predetermined format on the first page of the image data transmitted from the transmitting side device through an ISDN line or a general public telephone line. the additional pages that record information about the device and the information related to the transmission destination apparatus
The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the facsimile apparatus receives the image data as second image data . 3. The extracting means has a reading means for analyzing and reading information regarding the transmission side device and information regarding the transmission destination device from the additional page received by the receiving means. The facsimile apparatus according to Item 2. 4. The information about the destination device includes a physical address, a logical address, or a user name of the device which is a device connected to the LAN and is a destination of the image data. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 3, wherein: 5. The receiving means transmits the image data to the ISDN through a D channel of an ISDN line of a UUI in which information regarding a destination device of the image data transmitted from the transmitting side device as the additional information is set. 2. Receiving through the B channel of the line.
Facsimile apparatus described in 1. 6. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the extraction unit has an analysis unit that analyzes the contents of the UUI and extracts information about the transmission destination device. 7. The information regarding the destination device includes a physical address, a logical address, or a user name of the device which is a device connected to the LAN and is a destination of the image data. 7. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 6, wherein: 8. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a transfer unit that transfers the image data stored in the storage unit to a predetermined device of the LAN. 9. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the predetermined device is a device in the LAN that functions as a file server. 10. The transfer protocol of the transfer means is T.
9. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 8, which uses a CP / IP protocol. 11. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the notification means uses an electronic mail function provided in the LAN. 12. The method of claim wherein the relay means is characterized in that it comprises a broadcast relay means for performing a broadcast relay for relaying said first image data into a plurality of devices by the communication line 1
Facsimile apparatus described in 1. 13. The same image data received by the receiving means is relayed to a device other than a device connected to the LAN by the relay means, and the LAN is also used.
The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the facsimile apparatus can be delivered to a device connected to the. 14. Whether or not there is a relay instruction to the relay means can be determined by analyzing and reading information entered in a predetermined format as the additional information sent from the transmitting side device. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein: 15. When the extracting means cannot extract the information for specifying the device of the LAN from the information on the destination device, the extracting means further transmits the information to the transmitting device. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising: