JP3447611B2 - Facsimile electronic mail apparatus and facsimile electronic mail output control method - 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 type electronic mail for transmitting and receiving image information using an electronic mail mechanism.
And a facsimile type electronic mail output control method .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a device such as a personal computer that receives and browses electronic mail, a receiving node stores all received data in its own secondary storage device, etc. It was output after checking the contents.

Further, at that time, the error mail and the delivery confirmation mail are not distinguished from ordinary mail, and the user browses the contents to distinguish them.

On the other hand, in recent years, a facsimile type electronic mail apparatus for transmitting and receiving data using an electronic mail mechanism has been put into practical use. This device is configured to convert image information into a text format and send it by attaching it to an electronic mail, and the receiving side expands the attached file, if any, in the electronic mail and outputs it by facsimile. That is,
Instead of outputting the data received by the user after browsing, the user sequentially browses the received data and outputs the output data.

In the conventional facsimile type electronic mail apparatus, all the header information, the document information and the image information included in the data are output without distinguishing the type of the received data.

[0006]

However, depending on the type of electronic mail, there are cases in which meaningless data to be output as a facsimile is included.

For example, when the received e-mail is an error mail, the image information is still converted to the text format, and if this is output without being distinguished from a normal e-mail, the conversion recipient does not understand the meaning and is unnecessary. Information is output in large quantities. In this case, the original document cannot be discriminated and resources such as recording paper are wasted.

If the received e-mail is a delivery confirmation mail, it is received in the same format as a normal e-mail, so if it is output without being distinguished from a normal e-mail, it will be included in the delivery confirmation e-mail. All the image information of the original document is output. This also wastes resources such as recording paper.

[0009] Furthermore, due to the structure of normal e-mail, there is a case that it contains information that does not need to be output to a facsimile. If this is output, resources such as recording paper are wasted. become.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and extracts only necessary information from the received data according to the type and structure of the received electronic mail data, edits these, and outputs them. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image communication device that operates.

[0011]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention includes image information converted into a text format.
If you receive an email, ask the user to confirm it.
Facsimile electronic mail that prints on recording paper without printing
Device, the body part of the received e-mail data
Whether there is document information in the
If it is determined that there is information, a facsimile electronic
If the device sends the e-mail,
The document standard message added to the call information is the document information.
Identify whether or not the document
In the case of
Only the image information of the formula is extracted, and the extracted image information is faxed.
The format is converted to Simili data and the converted file
X-millimeter data is output on recording paper, while the document standard
If there are no messages
Facsimile type electronic mail device characterized by printing
Provide the storage. Or, the invention converts to text format
If you receive an e-mail containing the image information
The file that is output to the chart paper without making the contents
Kushimil type email output control method
Determine whether there is document information in the body of the email data
If it is determined that there is document information in the body part,
The same type of facsimile e-mail device
Is added to the document information only when sending
Identifies whether a type message is in the document information,
If there is the document fixed message, the received electronic
Extract only text format image information from the mail data,
Format the extracted image information into facsimile data.
Converted and the converted facsimile data on recording paper
On the other hand, if there is no document standard message while outputting
Printing all the received e-mails
A facsimile type e-mail output control method is provided.

[0012]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION A first aspect of the present invention is to provide an identification means for identifying whether or not received electronic mail data is an error mail, and the received data if the received data is an error mail. Extracting means for extracting specific information including image information, converting means for converting the format of the extracted specific information into facsimile data, editing means for editing the converted facsimile data, and outputting the edited facsimile data. And a configuration including output means.

The extraction means is a filter that determines the extraction of the specific information based on whether the received data contains a specific code. Further, the editing means performs data editing such that data normally output to another page is integrated into one page, or a part of information over a plurality of pages is deleted so that the data is contained in one page.

With this configuration, it is possible to distinguish whether the received electronic mail data is an error mail or a normal mail, and when it is an error mail, the image information can be converted in format and output. In some cases, you can determine which email caused the error. Further, since only necessary data can be extracted, edited and output, recording paper can be saved.

A second aspect is an identification means for identifying whether or not the received electronic mail data is a delivery confirmation mail,
When the received data is a delivery confirmation mail, an extracting unit that extracts specific information including image information from the received data, a converting unit that formats-converts the extracted specific information into facsimile data, and the converted facsimile data And an output means for outputting the edited facsimile data.

With this configuration, it is possible to distinguish whether the received e-mail data is a delivery confirmation mail or a normal mail, and if it is a delivery confirmation mail, only the necessary data can be extracted, edited, and output. , You can save the recording paper.

A third aspect comprises an adding means for adding a message that can be recognized as a delivery confirmation email to the delivery confirmation email when the delivery confirmation email is sent to the facsimile type electronic mail apparatus of the second aspect. Adopt a configuration that does.

With this configuration, the facsimile electronic mail device on the receiving side recognizes the delivery confirmation message, so that the delivery confirmation mail received in the same format as the normal electronic mail can be easily converted to the normal electronic mail. It becomes possible to distinguish.

A fourth aspect is a data structure recognition means for recognizing a structure of received electronic mail data, an extraction means for extracting only image information from the received data when the received data has no document information, and an extraction means. The above-mentioned image information is converted into facsimile data by a conversion means, and the converted facsimile data is output by an output means.

With this configuration, the received electronic mail data is composed only of header information and image information, and when there is no document information, the header information is not output but only the image information is output, and a normal facsimile apparatus is used. It becomes possible to operate in the same manner as, and the recording paper can be saved.

In a fifth aspect, a document standard message identifying means for identifying whether or not the received electronic mail data has a document standard message, and when there is a document standard message, only image information is extracted from the received data. A configuration is provided that includes an extraction unit, a conversion unit that converts the format of the extracted image information into facsimile data, and an output unit that outputs the converted facsimile data.

The document standard message is a unique message added to the document information only when the same type of facsimile electronic mail device transmits electronic mail data.

With this configuration, in the case of reception from the same type of facsimile type electronic mail apparatus, even if the received electronic mail data includes document information in addition to image information, the document information is only a standard message. Therefore, it is not necessary to output the image information. By outputting only the image information, it is possible to operate the same as a normal facsimile apparatus. Further, since the header section is not output every time, recording paper can be saved.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described more specifically with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a network configuration diagram when performing data communication by a facsimile type electronic mail apparatus in an embodiment of the image communication apparatus of the present invention. In FIG. 1, an electronic mail sent from the facsimile electronic mail device 11 or the personal computer 12 passes through the Internet and is sent to the facsimile electronic mail device 1
Sent to 3. While passing through the Internet, the document information of the e-mail is converted into a text format. In this case, the image information read by the facsimile type electronic mail device is also converted into a text format and transmitted / received as an attachment file of the document information. Facsimile type electronic mail device 13
Converts the format of the received e-mail into facsimile data and outputs it on recording paper.

Next, the basic structure of the facsimile type electronic mail apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the basic configuration of the network facsimile apparatus according to this embodiment. In FIG. 2, the network facsimile apparatus includes a control unit 21 that controls data recognition and discrimination, and a ROM that stores a program.
22 and a RAM used as a data area of the program
23, an interface unit 24 that executes a procedure necessary for transmitting and receiving data by e-mail, a data storage unit 25 that temporarily stores received data, a format conversion unit 26 that converts the format of the received data,
A facsimile unit 27 that reads a document and outputs received data, and a modem 28 that performs a modulation / demodulation process when transmitting / receiving data between a telephone line and a LAN are provided.

Next, the function of the control unit 21 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing the main configuration of the facsimile electronic mail apparatus according to this embodiment.

The control unit 21, as shown in FIG.
An error mail identification unit 31 for identifying whether the received and accumulated email data (hereinafter referred to as "received data") is an error email, and a delivery confirmation email identification for identifying whether the received data is a delivery confirmation email. Part 32
A data structure recognizing unit 33 for recognizing the data structure of the received data, and a document fixed message identifying unit 34 for identifying whether or not the document information includes a document fixed message.
A specific information extraction unit 35 that extracts necessary information from the received data, and a data editing unit 3 that edits the extracted data
It is mainly composed of 6 and 6.

An electronic mail transmitted from a personal computer or another facsimile type electronic mail apparatus is received by the interface section 24 via the Internet and temporarily stored in the data storage section 25. Then, depending on the type and configuration of the electronic mail, the following output operation is executed.

First, the output operation when the received data is an error mail will be described.

The error mail identifying section 31 identifies the received data as an error mail. Here, the error mail has the same structure as a normal electronic mail, and it is difficult to judge whether the received data is the error mail or the normal electronic mail only from the structure. Therefore, the received data is compared with the data of the transmitted mail stored in the transmitted data storage unit 37 of the RAM 23.

FIG. 4 shows a schematic diagram of a transmission mail from the facsimile type electronic mail device in this collation, and FIG. 5 shows a schematic diagram of an error mail received by the facsimile type electronic mail device.

As shown in FIG. 4, the header portion of the outgoing mail contains a constant fixed message (hereinafter, referred to as "header fixed message") such as [Mailer: Internet FAX]. In addition, in the document information of the body part, [Image data in TIFF format is attached to this email. ] And the like always include a fixed message (hereinafter, referred to as “document fixed message”).
In addition, [SUqk. ． ． ] A fixed constant code (hereinafter, referred to as “image information fixed code”) is included.

Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the body part of the error mail includes information about the error, the header part of the sent mail and the body part of the mail in error. It also includes messages, document boilerplate messages and image information boilerplate codes.

The error mail identification unit 31 collates the header fixed message, the document fixed message, and the image information fixed code with each other, and if all match, the received data is identified as an error mail.

If it is identified as an error mail, the specific information extraction unit 35 extracts the error information and the image information of the original document in the text format from the received data. The extracted data is converted into facsimile data by the format conversion unit 26. The converted facsimile data is edited by the data editing unit 38 so as to fit within one page, and the edited data is modulated by the modem 28 and output from the facsimile unit 27.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of an error mail output from the facsimile electronic mail device in the above embodiment. By editing the error information and the original document on one page and outputting them, the recording paper is not wasted, and the receiver can know which document caused by what error the transmission failed.

Secondly, the output operation when the received data is a delivery confirmation mail will be described.

The identification of the received data as the delivery confirmation mail includes the same delivery confirmation message stored in the delivery confirmation message table 38 of the RAM 23 in the received data in the delivery confirmation mail identifying section 32. It is done depending on whether it is done.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of the delivery confirmation mail in the above embodiment. As shown in FIG. 7, the delivery confirmation mail is composed of a header part and a body part which are converted into a text format, and the body part has information regarding success or failure of communication,
It consists of the header part of the original mail and the body part of the original mail.

However, the delivery confirmation mail has the same structure as a normal electronic mail, and it is difficult to judge from the structure only whether the received data is the delivery confirmation mail or the normal electronic mail. Therefore, on the side that sends the delivery confirmation email, [X-Confirmation:
A delivery confirmation message indicating that the received data is a delivery confirmation mail (hereinafter, "delivery confirmation message").
")" Is added to the header part.

The delivery confirmation mail identifying section 32 collates the delivery confirmation message and if the delivery confirmation message table 38 of the RAM 23 contains the same one, the received data is identified as a delivery confirmation email. .

When the received data is identified as the delivery confirmation mail, the specific information extraction unit 35 extracts the information regarding the success or failure of delivery and the image information of the original document in the text format from the received data. The format conversion unit 26 converts the extracted data into facsimile data. The converted facsimile data is edited by the data editing unit 38 so as to fit within one page, and the edited data is modulated by the modem 28 and output from the facsimile unit 27.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a delivery confirmation mail output from the facsimile electronic mail device according to the above embodiment. By editing the information on the success or failure of delivery and the original manuscript into one page and outputting it, the recording paper is not wasted,
The recipient can know the success or failure of the delivery of each manuscript.

Thirdly, the output operation when a normal electronic mail is received will be described.

First, the data structure recognition unit 33 recognizes the data structure of the received data, for example, the structure based on the header information, the document information, the image information and the like.

If the received data does not include the document information, it is a waste of the recording paper to output only the header part separately from the subsequent image information. Therefore, the specific information extraction part 35 converts it to the text format. Only the image information of the original document is extracted.
The extracted data is converted into facsimile data by the format conversion unit 26. The converted facsimile data is output from the facsimile unit 27. By outputting only image information, the same operation as a normal facsimile can be performed.

Further, if the received data includes the document information, the document fixed message identification unit 34 identifies whether the collection information of the received data includes the document fixed message.

Here, in the case of transmitting image information by e-mail, the facsimile type electronic mail device adds a message as a document notifying that the image information is attached before the image information and transmits it. There is. Since it is difficult to change this message according to the image information to be transmitted, the above-mentioned document standard message is used. In this case, since the document information is only the document fixed message and does not need to be output, it is a waste of recording paper to output this.

Therefore, when the text fixed message is included in the collection information of the received data, the specific information extraction unit 35 extracts only the image information. The extracted data is converted into facsimile data by the format conversion unit 26. The converted facsimile data is output from the facsimile unit 27. By outputting only image information, the same operation as a normal facsimile can be performed.

On the other hand, if the collection information of the received data does not include the document fixed message, the entire format of the received data is converted into the facsimile data by the format conversion unit 26. The converted facsimile data is output from the facsimile unit.

Next, the flow of the operation of outputting the data received by the facsimile type electronic mail apparatus according to this embodiment will be described.

First, the flow of the output operation when the transmitted contents are not delivered and an error mail is sent to the facsimile type electronic mail apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 9 is a flow chart for outputting an error mail from the facsimile type electronic mail device in the above embodiment.

First, the facsimile type electronic mail device
When the electronic mail is received from the interface unit 24 and stored in the data storage unit 25 (ST901), the error mail identification unit compares the received data with the transmission data stored in the transmission data storage unit 37, and To
It is determined whether or not there is a header fixed message (ST90
2) If there is a header fixed message, it is determined whether or not there is a document fixed message (ST903), and if there is a document fixed message, it is determined whether or not there is an image information fixed code. (ST904).

When the received data does not include any of the header fixed message, the document fixed message and the image information fixed code, it is judged that the received data is not an error mail (ST905).

If the received data includes the header fixed message, the document fixed message, and the image information fixed code, it is determined that the received data is an error mail, and the following processing is executed.

The error information in the received data is converted into facsimile data (ST906), and the image information of the original document converted into the text format is converted into facsimile data by the format conversion unit 26 (ST907) and converted. The error information and the image information of the original document are combined on one page of recording paper (ST908) and output from the facsimile unit 27 (ST909).

Second, the flow of the output operation when the transmission contents are delivered and the delivery confirmation mail is sent to the facsimile type electronic mail apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 10 is a flow chart for outputting a delivery confirmation mail from the facsimile electronic mail device according to the above embodiment.

First, the facsimile type electronic mail device
When the electronic mail is received from the interface unit 24 and stored in the data storage unit 25 (ST1001), the delivery confirmation mail recognition unit 32 collates the received data with the data stored in the delivery confirmation message table, and the received data is stored in the received data. , Determines whether there is a delivery confirmation message (ST1
002), if there is no delivery confirmation message, it is determined that the received data is not a delivery confirmation mail (ST100).
3), another process is executed.

If the received data includes a delivery confirmation message, the received data is determined to be a delivery confirmation mail, and the following processing is executed.

Information regarding the success or failure of delivery of the received data is converted into facsimile data by the format conversion unit 26 (ST1004), and the image information of the original document converted into the text format is converted into facsimile data by the format conversion unit 26. Then, (ST1005), the converted information regarding the success or failure of delivery and a part of the image information of the original document are edited on one page of recording paper (ST1006) and output from the facsimile unit 27 (ST1007).

Thirdly, the flow of the output operation for changing the output contents according to the structure of the received data when a normal electronic mail is received will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 11 shows
FIG. 7 is a flow chart for outputting an electronic mail received by the facsimile electronic mail apparatus in the above embodiment.

First, the facsimile type electronic mail device
When the electronic mail is received from the interface section 24 and stored in the data storage section 25 (ST1101), it is determined whether or not there is document information in the body section of the received data (ST.
1102). If there is no document information, the header part of the received data is not output and only the image information is output (ST110).
3).

If there is document information, it is judged whether or not there is a document fixed message in the document information (ST11).
04). If there is no document fixed message, all the received data are output (ST1105).

If there is a document fixed message,
Of the received data, the header part and the document information are not output, but only the image information is output (ST1103).

[0066]

As described above, according to the present invention, only the necessary information can be extracted from the received data according to the type and structure of the received electronic mail data, and these can be edited and output. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a network configuration diagram when data communication is performed by a facsimile electronic mail apparatus in an embodiment of an image communication apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the basic configuration of a network facsimile apparatus according to this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a main configuration of a facsimile electronic mail apparatus according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a normal electronic mail transmitted by the facsimile electronic mail apparatus according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of an error mail received by the facsimile electronic mail apparatus according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of an error mail output from the facsimile electronic mail device according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a delivery confirmation mail format received by the facsimile electronic mail apparatus according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of a delivery confirmation mail output from the facsimile electronic mail device according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart for outputting an error mail from the facsimile electronic mail device according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 10 is a flow chart for outputting a delivery confirmation mail from the facsimile type electronic mail device according to the present embodiment.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart for outputting an electronic mail by the facsimile electronic mail apparatus according to the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 Facsimile type electronic mail device 12 personal computers 13 Facsimile type electronic mail device 21 Control unit 22 ROM 23 RAM 24 Interface section 25 Data storage 26 Format Converter 27 FAX department 28 modem

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    (72) Inventor Kiyoshi Toyota               2-3-8 Matsu, Shimomeguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo               Shimodensen System Co., Ltd.                (56) References JP-A-8-242326 (JP, A)                 JP-A-9-121274 (JP, A)                 JP-A-9-116728 (JP, A)                 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-217069 (JP, A)                 JP-A-4-282934 (JP, A)                 JP-A-5-110595 (JP, A)

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A facsimile type electronic mail apparatus which, when receiving an electronic mail containing image information converted into a text format, outputs the electronic mail on a recording sheet without asking the user to confirm the content, If it is determined whether or not there is document information in the body portion, and if it is determined that there is document information in the body portion, it is added to the document information only when the same type of facsimile electronic mail device sends the email. Identifies whether a document template message is in the document information, and when the document template message is present, extracts only text-format image information from the received email data,
The facsimile is characterized in that the format of the extracted image information is converted into facsimile data, the converted facsimile data is output to a recording sheet, and all the received e-mails are printed when there is no document fixed message. Type e-mail device. 2. The facsimile type electronic mail apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the document fixed message is a message notifying that image information is attached to the electronic mail. 3. A facsimile type electronic mail output control method for outputting an electronic mail including image information converted into a text format to a recording sheet without prompting the user to confirm the content, the received electronic mail If it is determined whether there is document information in the body part of the mail data, and if it is determined that there is document information in the body part, the document information is added only when the same type of facsimile electronic mail device sends the e-mail. Identify whether or not the document fixed message to be added is in the document information, and if there is the document fixed message, extract only image information in text format from the received electronic mail data,
The facsimile is characterized in that the format of the extracted image information is converted into facsimile data, the converted facsimile data is output to a recording sheet, and all the received e-mails are printed when there is no document fixed message. Type email output control method. 4. The facsimile type e-mail output control method according to claim 3, wherein the document standard message is a message notifying that image information is attached to the e-mail.