JP3509506B2 - Communication terminal device with e-mail function and recording medium - 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 with an electronic mail function such as a facsimile device having a function of connecting to an electronic mail and a recording medium readable by this device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a computer communication network has become widespread in which a local computer communication network is connected by a communication line and an electronic mail is delivered via the Internet, which is further networked. The computer communication network has an excellent error correction function, and the user only has to bear the communication cost (line usage fee and connection cost to the provider) to the nearest provider (connection provider to the computer communication network) in Japan. Not only can it communicate with computers around the world.

By the way, since the conventional facsimile communication procedure is different from that of the computer communication using the computer communication network as described above, it is impossible to directly communicate from the facsimile apparatus to the computer communication network. However, even image data such as a transmission document that is normally transmitted and received by facsimile communication is converted into an e-mail format, specifically by being converted into text,
It can be transmitted and received via a computer communication network.

Under these circumstances, it is possible to send and receive a facsimile message as an electronic mail by Internet communication, and a communication terminal device with an electronic mail function, particularly a facsimile device, used for such purpose has been developed. .

When a facsimile machine having an e-mail communication function receives an e-mail, it logs in to the network and checks the mailboxes assigned to each mail address in the mail server that stores the sent mail. If there is an e-mail such as a facsimile message that can be received, download it.

[0006]

By the way, the electronic mail distributed via the Internet is all text data as described above, and this text data has a format such as voice, application, JPEG and the like. It also includes binary data such as images converted to text using encoding methods such as MIME and uuencode generally used on the Internet. The facsimile machine as described above is not provided with a function for decoding the binary data converted into text in this way, and the user should understand the meaning even if printed out like ordinary text data. I can't. Therefore, not only is there a possibility that a large amount of image memory is used to receive these unreadable emails and other emails may not be received, and communication costs are unnecessarily increased. .

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and when the electronic mail is received, the encoding system of the electronic mail is confirmed, and the encoding system can be decoded by this device. A communication terminal device with an e-mail function, such as a facsimile device, which receives a user-readable e-mail containing text data as a document and which does not use much of the image memory for reception. Another object of the present invention is to provide a recording medium readable by this device.

[0008]

A communication terminal device with an electronic mail function according to a first aspect of the present invention receives first identification information indicating an encoding method of an electronic mail and identification information of an electronic mail including an electronic mail body. Means, and a selecting means for selecting an electronic mail of a predetermined encoding method based on the identification information,
A communication terminal device with an electronic mail function, comprising: second receiving means for receiving the selected electronic mail body;
1 Receiving means adds the identification information to the e-mail
Means for receiving a header, and further the predetermined encoding
Decryption of the e-mail in the header of non-method e-mail
Adding means for adding information indicating that the addition is impossible, and adding
And output means for outputting the result .

A recording medium according to the second invention is an electronic mail machine.
It is necessary to identify the e-mail encoding method on the communication terminal device with capability.
Identification information of e-mail including other information and e-mail body
And a predetermined code based on the identification information.
Of emails that are classified into
Write a program that includes the means to receive the child mail body.
It can be read by a communication terminal device characterized by being recorded.
Received the identification information of the e-mail on the recording medium.
Causing means is means which makes receiving the header of the e-mail in addition to the identification information, the additional information indicating that further the email to the predetermined encoding scheme other than the e-mail header is undecodable means for causing, it has recorded a program and means for causing output additional results
Is characterized by.

[0010]

According to the communication terminal device with the electronic mail function and the recording medium according to the first and second aspects of the present invention, the identification information indicating the encoding system of the electronic mail, such as MIME (Multipurpose Int.
ernet Mail Extensions) format email, "Content-Description", "Content-Type", "Con
First, the identification information indicating the encoding method such as "tent-Transfer-Encoding" is received, the encoding method is determined based on this identification information, and an e-mail of a predetermined encoding method, for example, "Con
"Base64" in the header line of "tent-Transfer-Encoding"
Only the e-mail coded with Base64 described as is selected and received . This makes it possible to receive only e-mail in a user-readable format that can be decrypted by this device, and a large amount of image memory is used to receive e-mail that the user cannot read. There is no fear that other e-mails cannot be received, and the communication cost can be suppressed.

[0012]

[0013] Also, the e-mail other than the predetermined encoding method, for example, RFC (Request For Comments) 822
"Date:", "From:", "To:", as specified in
Receives only the mail header consisting of items such as "Subject:" and "Cc:", adds the information that the e-mail cannot be decrypted to this mail header, and sends it to the display device, printer, etc. With the output configuration, it is possible to notify the user of the existence of the electronic mail that cannot be received. From the above
In the Ming, in the email using the Internet
The example applied to sending and receiving was given, but it is not limited to this.
For example, use the Internet via PC communication
E-mails sent or electronic using only personal computer communication
It goes without saying that it can be applied to sending and receiving mail.

[0014]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings showing the embodiments thereof. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a facsimile device (hereinafter, referred to as the device of the present invention) as a communication terminal device with an electronic mail function according to the present invention.

The main control unit 1 is composed of an MPU, and controls not only the hardware units of the device of the present invention through the bus 13 but also the image data of the original document based on the software stored in the ROM 6. Includes encoding / decoding that encodes or decodes by encoding methods such as MR, MR, MMR, image (TIFF) conversion described later, binary text conversion, mail editing, modem switching, RS232C control by AT command, etc. Execute software such as communication procedures.

In the present embodiment, the main control unit 1 determines the encoding system of the electronic mail from the header of the electronic mail and the additional information of the message body when receiving the electronic mail,
Only the electronic mail of the encoding method desired by the user can be received.

The reading unit 2 reads an original with a scanner using a CCD or the like, and outputs dot image data converted into binary black and white. The recording unit 3 includes a printer device such as an electrophotographic system, and prints out and records image data received by facsimile communication from another facsimile device and image data or text data received by internet communication.

The display unit 4 is a liquid crystal display (LCD) or CR.
A display device such as a T display, which displays the operating state of the device of the present invention, image data of an original to be transmitted,
Displays the received image data, text data, etc.

The operation unit 5 is provided with character keys, ten keys (numerical keys), speed dial keys, one-touch dial keys, various function keys and the like necessary for operating the apparatus of the present invention. It is also possible to substitute some or all of the various keys of the operation section 5 by using the touch panel method for the display section 4 described above.

The ROM 6 stores in advance various software programs necessary for the operation of the device of the present invention. RAM 7
Is composed of SRAM, flash memory, or the like, and stores temporary data generated when software is executed. If a flash memory is used as the RAM 7, the stored contents will not be lost even when the power is cut off due to a power failure, movement of the device of the present invention, or the like.

The RAM 7 is provided with a user table capable of registering user ID and password settings for each user code given to a plurality of users of the device of the present invention. Further, this user table can be set so as to receive only e-mails including TIFF format image data by internet communication. By setting a predetermined position of the user table to “1” or “0” in advance, respectively. The reception setting can be set to "ON" or "OFF".

The image memory 8 is composed of a DRAM or the like and stores data such as image data to be transmitted and received image data.

The modem 9 is for normal facsimile communication.
It is a fax modem. The data modem 10 is a data communication modem for performing internet communication, and
It is connected to the bus 13 via the I / F 12. NCU (Network
The control unit) 11 is hardware that performs the operation of closing and opening the analog line L, and connects the modem 9 or the data modem 10 to the analog line L as necessary.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral M is a flexible disk as a recording medium, and reference numeral 16 is an external storage reading unit such as a flexible disk drive, and is recorded on the flexible disk M when it is inserted. Read computer program RA
It is possible to store in M7.

DSU (subscriber line termination device: Digital
A service unit) may be provided to connect to a digital circuit of a baseband transmission system.

The device of the present invention has the hardware configuration as described above, and of course has a general facsimile communication function such as the G3 system, and, for example, MI via the Internet.
In addition to having the function of sending and receiving e-mail as image data encoded (encoded) in ME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) format, it also receives e-mail as documents created by word processors, personal computers, etc. It has a function to do. However, since the function therefor is stored in the ROM 6 as a software program, such a function will be described below.

The image data to be transmitted via the Internet is read as dot data by the reading unit 2 in units of one sheet, in other words, in units of pages, and MH, MR, MMR etc. defined by the standard of facsimile communication. The coded image data is converted into coded image data by software in accordance with the coding method, and conversely, the coded image data received from the outside is also decoded into dot data by software and output from the recording unit 3 as a hard copy. The image memory 8 stores encoded image data as necessary,
On the contrary, the stored encoded image data is output as needed.

Further, the encoded image data is converted by software into a TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) format which is a general image format used in a computer at the time of transmission, and from the TIFF format by the software at the time of reception. Converted to encoded image data in G3 format. Note that the TIFF specifications are published by Adobe System, Inc. in the United States, and not only black and white binary but also black and white multivalued,
Classes corresponding to each are defined to handle various data such as full color. CLASS which is one of them
F defines G3 format encoded image data.
Therefore, the encoded image data in G3 format is
It can be converted to TIFF format by relatively easy processing such as adding TIFF header information of CLASS F.

Since the TIFF image data thus obtained is binary data, it must be converted into text data by software at the time of transmission, and vice versa, that is, the text data must be converted into binary data at the time of reception. There is. This is because computers connected to the Internet that cannot handle binary data e-mail are also connected. Therefore, in order to make sure that the e-mail reaches the recipient, when transmitting binary data such as TIFF image data, it is converted into text data and then transmitted. The text data handled on the Internet is IE
It is specified as a 7-bit code in RFC (Request For Comments) 822, which is a document issued by TF (Internet Engineering Task Force).

Therefore, as an example, when conversion into text data is performed using Base64 which is one of the MIME encoding types, binary data is expressed in 6-bit units.
It is converted to text data by replacing it with one of 64 types of characters (upper and lower case alphabets, numbers, +, /). For MIME, RFC1
It is specified in 521. For example, in addition to the above Base64, "7
Encoding types such as "bit", "8bit", "binary" are defined.

The file of text data in the MIME format to be transmitted (hereinafter referred to as "MIME data") obtained as described above is added by the software to the communication management information (mail header) as a main body of the electronic mail. The electronic mail that has been edited in the appearance and received, on the contrary, is separated by the software into the main body, that is, the MIME data and the mail header, and only the MIME data is taken out.

The mail editing process by such software is essential because it is necessary to add a predetermined mail header to the electronic mail on the Internet and send it together with the text. Specifically, at the beginning of TIFF image data at the time of transmission, “Date:” (e-mail sending date and time), “From:” (e-mail sender), “To:” (electronic E-mail address), “Subject:”
(Additional information such as the title of the email), "Cc:" (address of email copy, carbon copy), and other email headers are added, and these email headers are separated when received.

In a facsimile apparatus such as the apparatus of the present invention, when transmitting a facsimile via the Internet, the content of the item "Subject:" is a code "IF" indicating that the facsimile transmission is using the Internet.
AX ”is set.

Also, when an electronic mail as a document created by a word processor, a personal computer or the like is received, it is received as text data encoded in a character defined by Base64 in the same manner as described above.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of a MIME format electronic mail. According to RFC822, MIME data is a blank line (CRLF: ASCII code consecutive "CR" and "L
F ”) followed by a“ header line ”and a“ message body. ”MIME adds the following header
Expanded the definition of RFC822.

"MIME-Version" indicates the version number of MIME such as "1.0". "Content-Description" is
Provide additional instructions that the user can read. ”Cont
"ent-Type" specifies the type of data included in the message. "Content-Transfer-Encoding" is "Ba
Specify the method to encode data into 7-bit text code, such as "se64" and "uuencode".

In MIME, "Content-Type" and "Content-
"Transfer-Encoding", it is defined to specify the format of the message body by dividing it into three layers, the first
Layers are rough types that identify common types of data: "text", "audio", "image", "video".
"," Application "," message "," multipart "
Specify with. The second layer specifies the exact type of data in the message in addition to the type specified in the first layer, "text / plai
n ”,“ audio / basic ”,“ image / tiff ”,“ video / mpe
Specify with "g", "application / octet-stream", etc. When the second layer is "text / plain", for example, the type of character code is "us-ascii (alphabet)", "
Specify with "iso-2022-jp (Japanese)", "Latin / Hebrew (Latin / Hebrew)", etc.

Using the "multipart" type of the first layer,
It is possible to compose a plurality of data of different formats as one message. The most common "mu of this type"
“Ltipart / mixed” consists of multiple parts, each of which has its own Content-Type header line. Each part is a character string defined by a boundary (“boundary”) Separated by two), the end of the message is indicated by "-" following "-(boundary string)".

In the figure, an electronic mail using the Internet shows a multipart message including two data of text data (Japanese) and data encoded by uuencode. , For example, in the case of electronic mail using the Internet via PC communication, a mail header for PC communication is added before the mail header specified by RFC822, and after the mail header specified by RFC822. Is added with a blank line. In addition, in the case of electronic mail using only personal computer communication, only the mail header for personal computer communication is used, and the mail header specified by RFC822 is not added.

Next, in the operation of the device of the present invention having the above-described configuration, the control procedure by the main control unit 1 when the device of the present invention receives an electronic mail will be described with reference to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. It will be described with reference to FIG.

First, the control procedure associated with the mail check will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. RAM 7
Log in to the network using the user ID and password registered in the user table (step 1). A list of emails that have arrived at your mailbox and are addressed to your machine (“Date:”, “From:”, “To:
"," Subject: "," Cc: ", etc.) is sent to the network by sending a predetermined command (step 2) and the existence of the received mail is confirmed (step 3). If there is no received mail, the network If there is a received mail in step 3, on the other hand, from the top e-mail of the mail list, click "Dat
e: ”,” From: ”,” To: ”,” Subject: ”,” Cc:
A character string (mail header) conforming to RFC822 such as "is received (step 4).

In the case of electronic mail using only personal computer communication, a personal computer communication header is used instead of the RFC822 mail header, for example, "sender", "ID", "title", "in NIFTY-Serve. Following the "date" and a blank line, a mail message encoded by an encoding method such as uuencode is received. In the case of electronic mail using the Internet via personal computer communication, the MIME header is received after the personal computer communication mail header, blank line, RFC822 mail header, and blank line.

Then, TI using Internet communication
Check the user setting that indicates whether to receive only the FF file (step 5). If the user setting is "OFF", enter "" in the "Subject:" line of the received mail header.
If there is "IFAX", that is, whether it is facsimile communication using Internet communication (step 6), and if "IFAX" exists, this e-mail is transmitted by facsimile communication using Internet communication. If it is determined to be downloaded (step 7), the process is repeated from step 3 to move to the process of the next e-mail. If there is no "IFAX", the process is moved to the process of the next e-mail. The process from 3 is repeated.

On the other hand, if the user setting is "ON", as in step 6, it is confirmed whether "IFAX" is present in the "Subject:" line of the received mail header ( If there is "IFAX" in step 8), it is judged that this e-mail is facsimile communication using internet communication, and after step 7 is executed to download it, the process moves to the next e-mail. Therefore, the processing from step 3 is repeated. If "IFAX" does not exist, it is determined that this e-mail is an e-mail other than facsimile communication using Internet communication, and the "text mail reception processing subroutine" is performed (step 9), and the next e-mail is sent. Step 3 to shift to processing
Repeat the process from.

Next, the control procedure involved in the text mail receiving process will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 4 and 5. First, in order to ignore the mail header of personal computer communication, an electronic mail is received line by line and a continuous blank line (CRLF) is detected (step 901), and this is repeated until it is detected. When CRLF is detected, the process moves to the next line (step 902). If the e-mail does not go through personal computer communication, step 901 is omitted. Then, again to ignore the PC communication mail header
CRLF is detected (step 903).

Steps 902 to 904 (described next) are procedures for detecting the mail header of RFC822. If the blank line (CRLF) cannot be detected and a blank line (CRLF) is detected, the step 903 is executed. Move to "YES".

If CRLF is not detected in step 903, "Date:", "From:", "To:", "Subjec"
Character strings (mail headers) conforming to RFC822 such as t: ”,“ Cc: ”are detected in order (step 904), and CRLF is detected again after all mail headers are detected (step 905). , Repeat until this is detected CRLF
Is detected, the process moves to the next line (step 906), and it is confirmed whether or not there is a MIME header in this line (step 9).
07). If the personal computer communication is not used, step 905 is omitted.

If there is a MIME header in this line, the process moves to the next line (step 908), the character string containing "Content-Type:" is detected (step 909), and "Content-
If the string following "Type:" is "multipart", the string containing "boundary =" is detected (step 910), and at the time of detection, the boundary that is the string following "boundary =" is detected. The code is stored in a table provided in the RAM 7 in advance (step 911).

After step 911, or step 909
If the character string following "Content-Type:" is "text / plain", it is usually "charset" following "text / plain".
Is detected (step 912), and when "charset" is detected, it is further confirmed whether the character indicating the subtype following "charset" is "us-ascii" (step 9).
13), if it is not "us-ascii", then "charset"
The character that indicates the subtype following "is" iso-2022-jp "
Check (step 914) and select “iso-2022-j
If p ”, download the entire mail message as plain text containing the Japanese character set (step 915).

Then, it is checked again whether or not it is "multipart" (step 916). If it is "multipart", the character string of the boundary code stored in the table in step 911 is detected (step 917). ). It is detected whether or not there is "-" following the detected boundary code (step 918). If "-" is present or if it is not "multipart" in step 916, return to the main routine. To do. If "-" is not found in step 918, the process returns to step 908 and the next part (multipart
Process the mail message divided by.

When CRLF is detected in step 903, it is confirmed whether it is "uuencode" (step 9
19), if it is not "uuencode", further check the user environment (step 920). If the user does not support Japanese in step 920 and only supports "us-ascii", the entire email message is
Download as text data of "us-ascii" (step 921) and jump to step 916. If there is no MIME header in step 907, "c" in step 912
If no harset is detected, then in step 913 use "us-asci
Even in the case of i ", step 921 is executed to download as the text data of" us-ascii ", and then the process jumps to step 916.

If it is “uuencode” in step 919, it is not “iso-2022-jp” in step 914, or the character following “Content-Type:” in step 909 is “au”.
In case of Content-Type such as "dio", the message "Unreadable" is added after the mail header and the e-mail is printed out (step 92).
2), jump to step 916.

[0053] In addition, in the case where the user has to support the Japanese in step 920, in order to download the entire e-mail message as Japanese text data, jumps to step 915.

Steps 901 to 908 are reception steps for evaluating a mail header (including a mail header for personal computer communication). These steps and steps other than step 915 and step 921 are MIME steps. The receiving step (first receiving step) for evaluating the header, and the step 915 and the step 921 surrounded by double lines in FIG. 5 are the receiving step (second step) for evaluating the mail message as the body of the email. It is the receiving stage).

After downloading the e-mail, a command is sent to the network to delete the e-mail from the mailbox, or an e-mail that has not been downloaded says "Your mail was not accepted. It is also possible to have a configuration in which an e-mail message such as "Please resend in plain text format" is returned to the sender.

In addition, an electronic mail in a form that can be received is
The present invention is not limited to the one shown in the present embodiment, but it is also possible to convert it into text data that can be read by the user by providing a conversion program corresponding to, for example, "uuencode". In this case, step 919 Is omitted.

Also, the configuration is such that the user-identifiable electronic mail format is automatically recognized according to the user environment and the MIME header. However, for example, the user does not recognize the description of each MIME header such as "Content-Type:". The type of text data to be received can be set individually.

[0058]

As described above in detail, according to the communication terminal device with the electronic mail function and the recording medium readable by the device according to the present invention, the identification information indicating the encoding system of the electronic mail to be received, for example, the MIME. (Multipurpose Internet Ma
il Extensions) format email,
Content-Description ”,“ Content-Type ”,“ Conten
The encoding method is determined based on the identification information indicating the encoding method described in the header line such as "t-Transfer-Encoding",
E-mail of a predetermined encoding method, for example, "Content-Tran
By selecting and receiving only the Base64-encoded E-mail described as "Base64" in the header line of "sfer-Encoding", a user-readable electronic format that can be decoded by this device. It is possible to receive only emails, and there is no risk that a large amount of image memory will be used to receive emails that the user cannot read and other emails will not be able to be received, and communication costs will be suppressed. You can

Regarding electronic mails other than the predetermined encoding method, for example, RFC (Request For Comments) 822 is used.
“Date:”, “From:”, “T as specified in
Only the mail header consisting of items such as o: ”,“ Subject: ”,“ Cc: ”is received, and information indicating that the e-mail cannot be decrypted is added to this mail header, and the display device,
The present invention has an excellent effect such that the user can be notified of the existence of an electronic mail that cannot be received by outputting the information to a printing device or the like.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a facsimile device as a communication terminal device with an electronic mail function according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an example of a MIME-type electronic mail.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a control procedure by a main control unit when the device of the present invention receives an electronic mail (main routine).

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a control procedure by the main control unit when the device of the present invention receives an electronic mail (text mail reception processing subroutine).

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a control procedure by the main control unit when the device of the present invention receives an electronic mail (text mail reception processing subroutine).

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Main control unit 2 reading section 3 recording section 6 ROM 7 RAM 8 image memory 10 data modem 12 External I / F 16 External memory reader M flexible disk

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (56) Reference JP-A-6-164638 (JP, A) JP-A-8-116336 (JP, A) JP-A-8-23345 (JP, A) JP-A-4- 105447 (JP, A) JP 5-120335 (JP, A) JP 5-63847 (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 G06F 13/00 351-357

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A first receiving means for receiving identification information indicating an encoding method of an email and identification information of the email including an email body, and an email of a predetermined encoding method based on the identification information. In a communication terminal device with an electronic mail function, which comprises a selecting means for selecting and a second receiving means for receiving the selected electronic mail body , the first receiving means includes the electronic mail in addition to the identification information.
A means for receiving a header of Lumpur, further wherein the predetermined encoding method other than e-mail header
Attach information indicating that the email cannot be decrypted
And adding means for pressurizing, e-mail function-equipped communication terminal apparatus and an outputting means for outputting the added results. 2. A communication terminal device with an electronic mail function,
Identification information indicating the mail encoding method and the body of the email
Means for receiving the identification information of the email including the email and an email of a predetermined encoding method based on the identification information.
A communication terminal characterized by recording a program including means for selecting and means for receiving the selected email body.
In-readable recording medium in the apparatus, means for receiving the identification information of the electronic mail, the a hand <br/> stage in addition to the identification information causes receives the header of the electronic mail, and even the predetermined coding A communication terminal characterized in that a program including a means for adding information indicating that the electronic mail cannot be decrypted to a header of an electronic mail other than the method and a means for outputting the addition result is recorded.
A recording medium that can be read by a device.