JP3521701B2 - Communication terminal device with e-mail function - Google Patents

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

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

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a computer communication network 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 you can communicate with computers not only in Japan but also overseas by only paying the communication cost to the nearest access point of the provider (connector to the computer communication network). .

Since the communication procedure and communication method of the conventional G3 facsimile apparatus are different from those of the computer communication network,
Cannot directly connect to computer communication network. However, even image data of a transmission original or the like can be transmitted to a computer communication network by converting it into an electronic mail format.

When a facsimile machine having an electronic mail communication function receives a mail, the network is accessed to log in to the mail service, and the mail assigned to each hard disk of the hard disk of the mail server for storing outgoing mail. Check the mailbox for the fax machine in the box and download any mail that can be received.

In the case of a dial-up IP connection, the charge system of the provider is a pay-as-you-go system that is charged according to the usage time of the line, a fixed charge system in which the monthly charge is fixed regardless of the usage time of the line, There is a fixed amount of usage time and there is a combined usage system with more than that. In the case of a leased line, a fixed line usage amount is charged regardless of the usage time. Further, a flat-rate service is provided in which a fixed fee is charged regardless of the usage time of the line for communication with a partner whose telephone number is registered in advance in a communication service company in a predetermined time period.

[0006]

As described above, depending on the provider with which the user has a contract and the contents of the contract, a fixed fee may be charged regardless of the usage time of the line. On the other hand, when sending and receiving mail and checking mail, it is necessary to connect to the provider each time, but it may be difficult to connect depending on the provider and the time of day.

Therefore, in the case of a provider whose usage time of the line is irrelevant to the charge, or in the case of a contract, the line once connected can be left connected to send and receive mail without waiting for connection to the provider. Mail checking can be done smoothly, but in the past it was not taken.

The present invention has been made in order to solve such a problem, and the telephone number of the access point is used as a communication service as a provider who has a fixed fee contract or as a partner of a flat-rate service. When you connect to the line by e-mail communication, remember the conditions such as the identification information of the provider registered in the company and the time period when the flat-rate service charges a fixed fee. If this condition is satisfied, by continuing the line connection, you can send and receive e-mail and check e-mail quickly without waiting for the connection with the provider, without incurring extra expense, and using e-mail such as a fax machine. It is intended to provide a communication terminal device with a function.

[0009]

A communication terminal device with an electronic mail function according to the first aspect of the present invention is a communication terminal device having an electronic mail communication function, and is a condition under which a line connected for electronic mail communication can be continuously connected. means for storing, e Bei means for determining whether to satisfy the condition when connected to該回line by e-mail communication, when satisfying the conditions and means for continuing the connection of the line , The condition is
It is characterized in that the fee for e-mail communication is fixed .

In the communication terminal device with an electronic mail function of the second invention, in the first invention , the condition is that the electronic mail communication is performed.
The provider who connected the line for communication has a fixed-rate contract.
It is characterized by being a provider who is making a contract . Third
A communication terminal device with an electronic mail function of the invention is the first invention.
And the above conditions require a line for the email communication.
The connected provider uses the service as a partner of the flat-rate service.
Provide the service number for the access point of the rovida.
Characterized by being a provider registered with the company
To do .

In the first to third inventions, when a line is connected to a provider for e-mail communication, the provider has a fixed fee contract, or the access point of the access point as a partner of a flat-rate service. In the case of a provider who has registered a telephone number with a communication service company, and when the conditions for continuation of line connection are satisfied, such as when the time period is a fixed fee for a flat-rate service, the line Stay connected. Therefore,
You can quickly send and receive emails and check emails without waiting for connection with a provider without extra expense.

A communication terminal device with an electronic mail function according to a fourth aspect of the present invention is the communication terminal device according to any one of the first to third aspects, which has a plurality of lines.
If one of the multiple lines is dedicated to e-mail communication,
Characterized by comprising a means to connect to.

According to the fourth aspect of the invention, when the first line of the plurality of lines is dedicated to the electronic mail communication and the first line is connected to the provider for the electronic mail communication, the provider makes a contract for a fixed fee system. Service provider, or a provider who has registered the telephone number of the access point with the communication service company as a partner of the flat-rate service, or when the time period is a fixed fee for the flat-rate service. When the condition for continuing the connection is satisfied, the connection of the first line is continued. Therefore,
You can quickly send and receive e-mail and check e-mail without waiting for connection with the provider without extra expense, and connect the other line even while the first line is connected to perform facsimile communication. It can be carried out.

[0014]

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

In this embodiment, the main control unit 1 will be described later when the line is connected to the provider for electronic mail communication.
If the provider refers to the table in RAM 7 and has a fixed-fee contract, or the provider has registered the access point's telephone number with the communication service company as a partner of the flat-rate service, In addition, if the condition that the line connection can be continued is satisfied, such as the time period when the flat rate service has a fixed fee, the line connection is continued.

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

In the binary text conversion, binary data is converted into text data at the time of transmission, and text data is converted into binary data at the time of reception. There are computers on the Internet that cannot handle emails with binary data. If you want to send binary data such as TIFF image data so that the e-mail can be delivered to the recipient, convert it to text data. Text data handled on the Internet
It is specified as a 7-bit code in RFC (Request For Comments) 822, which is a document issued by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force).

Therefore, MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mai)
Perform conversion using base64 etc. of l Extensions). According to this, 6-bit binary data has 64 characters (uppercase letters, lowercase letters, numbers, +, /)
Can be converted into text data. MIME is specified in RFC1521 and others.

In the mail editing, at the time of sending, the mail header information is added to the TIFF image data converted into the text data to edit it into the electronic mail format, and at the time of receiving, the mail header information is removed from the electronic mail format data to obtain the text. Takes out only the TIFF image data converted to data. Since it is stipulated that predetermined header information be added to e-mails on the Internet as management information for e-mails, at the beginning of TIFF image data, "From: (Internet e-mail address of user ) ”,“ To: (Internet e-mail address of the other party) ”,“ Subject: (title) ”and other items.

The reading unit 2 reads a document with a CCD or the like and outputs image data of a binary document of black and white. The recording unit 3 includes a printer such as an electrophotographic system, and records image data such as an original received from another G3 facsimile apparatus or the Internet, a list in which each mail of a mail list extracted from the network is numbered, and the like. The display unit 4 is provided with a display such as a liquid crystal display (abbreviated as LCD), and displays the operating state of the apparatus, the image data of the original document, a list in which each mail of the mail list extracted from the network is numbered, and the like. To do.

The operation unit 5 is provided with various function keys such as a numeric keypad, a one-touch key, a program one-touch key, etc. necessary for operating the apparatus. ROM 6
Stores software necessary for the operation of the facsimile machine. The RAM 7 is configured by SRAM, flash memory, or the like, and stores temporary data generated when software is executed.

In the RAM 7, in addition to user IDs and passwords, contract provider names, etc. for each user code given to a plurality of users of this device, periodical mail check, automatic mail reception, and automatic reception of received mail are performed. A user table is provided in which the necessity of setting a function such as copying can be registered. In RAM 7, the name of the provider who has a contract with a fixed fee system, or the name of the provider who registered the access point's telephone number with the communication service company as the partner of the flat-rate service, or the fixed-rate service. A table is provided for registering time zones and other charges.

The image memory 8 is composed of a DRAM or the like, and stores image data of a document. The modem 9 is a modem for performing facsimile communication of the image data of the document read by the reading unit 2 and has no data communication function.

The data modem 10 is a modem for data communication for communicating image data of an original converted into e-mail via the Internet, and is provided in the chip of the NCU 11 for external telephones, for example. The terminal is connected with a telephone cable, and is also connected with a serial port of an external I / F 12 for connection with a personal computer or the like by RS232C. NCU 11 closes and opens the first and second analog lines.

Next, the operation of the communication terminal device with an electronic mail function of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In this example, the first line of the two lines is used for mail communication. It is monitored whether or not there is a mail communication command from the user (step S1), and if the mail communication command is issued, it is determined whether or not the first line for mail communication is connected (step S2). If the first line is not connected, a process for calling the access point designated by the user is performed (step S3).

It is judged whether or not the user has already logged in (step S4), and since the first time immediately after making a call to the access point is not logged in, the user ID and password registered in the user table of the RAM 7, for example, are used. To perform login processing (step S5). When the login process is completed, a mail transmission / reception process for the network is performed (step S6).

When the mail transmission / reception processing is completed, the table connected to the RAM 7 is referred to
Whether you are a provider with a fixed-price contract, or a provider who has registered the access point's telephone number with a communication service company as a partner of a flat-rate service, or a fixed charge for a flat-rate service It is determined whether or not the conditions such as the time zone allow continuation of the line connection are met (step S7).

If these conditions are not met, logout processing is executed (step S8) and the line is disconnected (step S8).
S9), other processing such as automatic copying of received mail is executed and the process returns to step S1 to wait until the next mail communication command or facsimile communication command is issued.

On the other hand, if the registration condition of the table is met, the process for continuing the connection of the first line is executed (step S10). The connection continuation process is a process of sending a simple command supported by the network, for example, a process of periodically sending a mail check command. As a result, the provider does not disconnect the connection with the terminal due to a timeout that monitors that a command has not arrived for a predetermined period.

If there is no mail communication command from the user as a result of the judgment in step S1, it is monitored whether or not it is facsimile communication (step S12), and if it is facsimile communication, a call is made to the destination through the second line (step S12). S13), and facsimile communication is performed (step S14).

When the mail communication command is issued while the connection with the first line is being continued by the connection continuation process in step S10 (YES in step S1), the connection with the first line is being established (step S2). YES), since the user has already logged in (YES in step S3), the mail transmission / reception process is executed without waiting the line connection with the provider (step S).
6).

In this example, one of the first and second analog lines is used for mail communication, but the line is not limited to the analog line, and either the B1 or B2 channel in the ISDN line is used. It is also possible to use a configuration for mail communication. In this example, the data modem 10 is connected through the external I / F 12, but the data modem function may be built into the modem 9 so that the data modem function and the facsimile modem function can be simultaneously processed.

[0033]

The communication terminal device with the electronic mail function according to the first to third inventions, when a line is connected to the provider for the electronic mail communication, the provider has a fixed fee contract, or In the case of a provider who has registered the telephone number of the access point with a communication service company as a partner of the flat-rate service, and when the time period is a fixed rate for the flat-rate service, the line connection is continued. If you meet the conditions to obtain,
Since the connection of the line is continued, there is an excellent effect that the mail can be transmitted and received and the mail can be checked quickly without waiting for connection with the provider without extra expense.

In the communication terminal device with an electronic mail function of the fourth invention, the first line of the plurality of lines is dedicated to the electronic mail communication,
When the first line is connected to a provider for e-mail communication, the provider has a fixed fee contract, or the telephone number of the access point is registered with the communication service company as a partner of the flat-rate service. In the case of the provider which has been set up, and when the conditions for continuing the line connection are satisfied, such as the time period when the flat rate service has a fixed fee, the connection of the first line is continued. , Without extra expense
Sending and receiving mail without waiting for connection with the provider,
This has an excellent effect that the mail check can be performed quickly and the facsimile communication can be performed by connecting the other line while the first line is connected.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the operation of the communication terminal device with an electronic mail function of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Main control unit 6 ROM 7 RAM 10 data modem 12 External I / F

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. A communication terminal device having an electronic mail communication function, means for storing conditions for continuing connection of a line connected for electronic mail communication, and a case of connecting to the line by electronic mail communication. means for determining whether to satisfy the condition, when satisfying the condition e Bei and means for continuing the connection of the line, the condition, conditions of the price for the e-mail communication is fixed
A communication terminal device with an e-mail function, which is characterized in that 2. The conditions are for the e-mail communication.
The provider who connected the line to the
2. The communication terminal device with an electronic mail function according to claim 1, wherein the communication terminal device is a provider . 3. The conditions are for the e-mail communication.
The provider who connected the line to the
And access the provider's access point phone number.
Being a provider registered with the credit service company
E-mail function-equipped communication terminal apparatus according to claim 1 Symbol mounting characterized. 4. When a plurality of lines are provided, a plurality of lines
A means to connect one of these lines exclusively for e-mail communication
The electronic mail according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising:
Communication terminal device with a call function.