JP3612942B2 - Communication terminal device with e-mail function - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a communication terminal apparatus with an electronic mail function, for example, a communication terminal apparatus such as a facsimile apparatus capable of transmitting and receiving electronic mail by connecting to a computer communication network such as the Internet.
[0002]
[Prior art]
In recent years, computer communication networks such as the Internet have become widespread. The reason is that the computer communication network is excellent in error correction function, and the user bears the communication cost (line usage fee and provider cost) with the nearest contract provider (connector to the computer communication network). It is possible to communicate with computers not only in Japan but also all over the world.
[0003]
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 not possible to directly communicate from the facsimile apparatus to the computer communication network. However, even image data normally transmitted / received by facsimile communication is converted to data in a format that can be transmitted / received as an e-mail such as TIFF (Tagged Image File Format), for example, via a computer communication network. It can be transmitted and received by a facsimile machine.
[0004]
Under such circumstances, it is possible to send and receive a facsimile message as an e-mail by Internet communication, and a communication terminal device with an e-mail function used for such a purpose, particularly a facsimile device has been developed.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, the original image that should be sent by facsimile data Is sent to the computer network in the form of e-mail as described above, there is a problem that there is no record that can be confirmed on the transmission side whether or not the e-mail is actually transmitted. Met.
[0006]
In addition, as described above, an image of a document that should originally be transmitted by facsimile. data Is converted to data in a format that can be sent and received as e-mail such as TIFF format, and the amount of e-mail data is often limited to a certain amount, so there are multiple pages of a document. May be split into emails. For this reason, the number of e-mails that were actually divided and sent could not be notified from the sending side to the receiving side, nor could the receiving side know.
[0007]
The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances. When image data that should originally be transmitted by facsimile communication is transmitted as an e-mail, the e-mail is transmitted to the computer network on the transmission side. It is possible to notify the receiver of what kind of e-mail has been sent, and to know how many e-mails have been sent by the receiver. An object of the present invention is to provide a communication terminal device with an electronic mail function that can be used.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The communication terminal device with an electronic mail function according to the present invention encodes image data of a transmission original, divides each page of the original into a predetermined amount, and transmits the electronic mail to the network. And after the transmission is complete Includes information to that effect and the serial number of the sent manuscript, the number of manuscripts, and the number after division It is characterized in that transmission information is printed out from itself.
[0009]
In such a communication terminal device with an electronic mail function according to the present invention, transmission is completed when a transmission original that should be transmitted by facsimile communication is converted into electronic mail and transmitted. And the serial number of the sent manuscript, number of manuscripts, number after division Prints from itself Be done .
[0010]
The communication terminal device with an electronic mail function according to the present invention encodes image data of a transmission original, divides each page of the original into a predetermined amount, and transmits the electronic mail to the network. After the transmission is complete Includes information to that effect and the serial number of the sent manuscript, the number of manuscripts, and the number after division It is characterized in that transmission information is converted into image data and transmitted to a communication partner by facsimile.
[0011]
In such a communication terminal device with an electronic mail function according to the present invention, transmission is completed when a transmission original that should be transmitted by facsimile communication is converted into electronic mail and transmitted. And the serial number of the sent manuscript, number of manuscripts, number after division Sent to the other device via facsimile communication Be done .
[0014]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings illustrating embodiments thereof. However, in the embodiment of the present invention described below, the present invention is applied to a communication terminal apparatus such as a facsimile apparatus that is configured to transmit image data (image data of a transmission original) that should be originally facsimile communication as an e-mail. The invention is applied, and the Internet is used as a computer communication network.
[0015]
First, the hardware configuration of a communication terminal device with an electronic mail function of the present invention (hereinafter referred to as the present invention device) will be described with reference to FIG. The apparatus of the present invention has a function capable of internet communication in addition to a conventional facsimile communication function such as the G3 system.
[0016]
The main control unit 1 is specifically composed of a CPU, and is connected to the following hardware units via the bus 13 to control them, and executes various software functions to be described later.
[0017]
The reading unit 2 reads a document with a scanner using a CCD or the like, and outputs dot image data converted into black and white binary. The recording unit 3 is an electrophotographic printer or the like, and prints out and records image data received from another facsimile apparatus by facsimile communication or image data received by Internet communication as a hard copy.
[0018]
The display unit 4 is a display device such as a liquid crystal display device (LCD) or a CRT display, and displays the operating state of the device of the present invention and displays image data of a document to be transmitted and received image data.
[0019]
The operation unit 5 includes character keys, numeric keys (numeric keys), abbreviated dial keys, one-touch dial keys, various function keys and the like necessary for operating the device of the present invention. In addition, it is also possible to substitute a part or all of the various keys of the operation unit 5 by using the above-described display unit 4 as a touch panel system.
[0020]
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a specific example of the configuration of the operation unit 5. As described above, the operation unit 5 is a numeric keypad 50 for inputting numbers one by one as in a normal telephone, and a one-touch dial key for inputting a preset telephone number by operating only one key. 51, a speed dial key 52 for inputting a preset telephone number by operating together with the numeric keypad 50, a facsimile key 53 for instructing facsimile communication, a copy key 54 for instructing copying, and an instruction for inputting the number of copies A copy key 540, a broadcast key 55 for instructing broadcast communication, a cancel key 56 for canceling input, a transmission certificate issuance mode key 57 for issuing a communication certificate from its own device, and a transmission certificate to a communication partner device. A transmission certificate transmission mode key 58 and the like for transmission are arranged.
[0021]
The ROM 6 stores in advance various software programs necessary for the operation of the apparatus of the present invention. The RAM 7 is composed of SRAM, flash memory, or the like, stores temporary data generated when the software is executed, a partner table 70 described later is set in an appropriate area, and a transmission certificate issuance mode flag 71. And a transmission certificate transmission mode flag 72 are allocated to appropriate bits. When a flash memory is used for the RAM 7, the stored contents are not lost even when the power is cut off due to a power failure, movement of the device, or the like.
[0022]
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the contents of the destination table 70. In this destination table 70, destination names, Internet e-mail addresses, facsimile numbers, and facsimile types (G3, G4, etc.) corresponding to speed dial keys and one-touch dial keys are registered in advance.
[0023]
The image memory 8 is composed of a DRAM or the like, and stores image data to be transmitted or received image data.
[0024]
The modem 10 is a FAX modem for normal facsimile communication. The data modem 12 is a data communication modem for performing Internet communication, and is connected to the bus 13 via the external interface 9. An NCU (Network Control Unit) 11 is hardware for closing and opening the analog line L, and connects the modem 10 or the data modem 12 to the analog line L as necessary.
[0025]
In FIG. 1, reference numeral FD indicates a flexible disk as a recording medium, and reference numeral 14 indicates a recording medium reading unit. The recording medium reading unit 14 is specifically a flexible disk driver. When the flexible disk FD is inserted, the computer program recorded thereon can be read and stored in the RAM 7.
[0026]
In addition, you may make it connect to the digital line of a baseband transmission system by providing DSU (Subscriber Line Terminating Device: Digital Service Unit).
[0027]
The device of the present invention has the hardware configuration as described above, and has a function of transmitting and receiving mainly TIFF file image data as an e-mail as well as a general G3 facsimile communication function. ing. In other words, it is possible to convert image data of a document that should originally be facsimile-communicated into a TIFF file and transmit / receive it as an electronic mail via the Internet. However, since the function for that purpose is stored in the ROM 6 as a software program, such a function will be briefly described below.
[0028]
A document to be transmitted (transmitted document) is read as dot data by the reading unit 2 in units of one sheet, in other words, in units of pages, and is in accordance with an encoding method such as MH, MR, MMR, etc. defined in the facsimile communication standard. The encoded image data is converted into encoded image data by software, and conversely, encoded 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 the encoded image data as necessary, and conversely outputs the stored encoded image data as necessary.
[0029]
Also, the encoded image data is converted by software into a TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) format, which is a general image format used by a computer at the time of transmission, and converted from TIFF format to encoded image data by the software at the time of reception. The The specification of TIFF is published by Adobe Systems, and classes corresponding to various data such as black and white binary as well as black and white multi-value and full color are defined. CLASS F, one of them, defines G3 format facsimile encoded image data. Accordingly, the G3 format facsimile encoded image data can be converted to the TIFF format by performing relatively easy processing such as adding CLASS F TIFF header information to the head thereof. Hereinafter, the facsimile encoded image data to which the CLASS F TIFF header information is added is referred to as “TIFF image data”.
[0030]
Since the TIFF image data obtained in this way is binary data, it is necessary to convert it to text data by software at the time of transmission and vice versa by software at the time of reception, that is, to convert the text data to binary data. This is because a computer that cannot handle binary data e-mail is also connected to the Internet. For this reason, when transmitting binary data such as TIFF image data, in order to ensure that the e-mail reaches the other party, it is once converted into text data and transmitted. Note that text data handled on the Internet is defined as a 7-bit code in RFC (Request For Comments) 822, which is a document issued by IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force).
[0031]
Therefore, as an example, when converting to text data using base64, which is one of the encoding types of MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions), binary data has 64 types of characters (uppercase and lowercase alphabets). It is converted to text data by being replaced with one of, number, +, /). Note that MIME is defined by the aforementioned RFC. For example, in addition to the above-described base 64, encoding types such as “7 bit”, “8 bit”, and “binary” are defined.
[0032]
The file of text data with the MIME header to be transmitted (hereinafter referred to as MIME data) obtained as described above is added with communication management information (mail header) as a main body by software, and is added to the appearance of e-mail. On the contrary, the received e-mail is separated from the main body, that is, MIME data and communication management information (mail header) by software, and only TIFF image data is extracted from the MIME data.
[0033]
Such mail editing processing by software is indispensable because it is necessary to add predetermined header information to an Internet e-mail and transmit it together with the text. Specifically, at the time of transmission, as shown in the schematic diagram of FIG. 4, “Date:” (date and time of sending the e-mail), “From:” (the sender of the e-mail) at the beginning of the TIFF image data ), “To:” (the recipient of the email), “Subject:” (additional information such as the title of the email), “Cc:” (the recipient of the copy of the email), etc. Header information is added, and the header information is separated upon reception.
[0034]
Therefore, in the device of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 4, as the contents of the “Subject:” item, the code “IFAX”, which indicates facsimile transmission using the Internet, the transmitting device (“From”), That is, the code “F-120” for specifying the apparatus of the present invention itself, the code “001” for specifying the facsimile message (“JOB”) as one unit of transmission original, and the page (“JOB”) in the same facsimile message (“JOB”) After a code “001” specifying “PAGE” and a code “001” specifying a block (“BLOCK”) in the same page are set, a facsimile message is transmitted by e-mail.
[0035]
FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the data state when the facsimile message is converted into an e-mail as described above. As shown in FIG. 5, when a facsimile message is transmitted as an e-mail, the original e-mail header 101 is first, the MIME header 102 described above, and then one page. Is followed by MIME data 103 of the facsimile message. One page of the facsimile message is communicated over the Internet as an e-mail with one unit of data composed of the mail header 101, MIME header 102, and MIME data 103.
[0036]
Next, the operation of the apparatus of the present invention configured as described above, specifically, the operation when receiving an e-mail will be described below with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 6 and 7 showing the operation procedure.
[0037]
Prior to communication, whether or not to issue a transmission certificate and whether or not to transmit to the other party is selected in advance by the user depending on whether or not the transmission certificate issuance mode key 57 and the transmission certificate transmission mode key 58 are operated. It shall be. When the user operates the certificate issuing mode key 57 to select the certificate issuing mode, the certificate issuing mode flag 71 is set to “1”, and the certificate transmitting mode is selected to select the certificate transmitting mode. When the key 58 is operated, the transmission certificate transmission mode flag 72 is set to “1”.
[0038]
When the transmission certificate issuance mode key 57 is operated in a state where the transmission certificate issuance mode is selected, the transmission certificate issuance mode is canceled, and in the state where the transmission certificate transmission mode is selected, the transmission certificate transmission mode is selected. When the key 58 is operated, the transmission certificate transmission mode is canceled. Further, the transmission certificate issuance mode and the transmission certificate transmission mode can be individually selected. Of course, only one of them can function or both can function together.
[0039]
When facsimile communication is instructed, the main control unit 1 initializes both the page number counter “P” and the block number counter “B” to “1” (step S10). When a document to be transmitted by facsimile communication is set by the user in the reading unit 2 (step S11), the image of the first page of the document is read as binary data by the reading unit 2, and the facsimile encoding method, For example, it is encoded by the MMR method and sequentially stored in the image memory 8 (step S12).
[0040]
Meanwhile, during that time, the user designates the transmission destination of the document (step S13). In this case, when the user operates a one-touch dial key generally provided in the operation unit 5 of the facsimile apparatus, the other party's telephone number and e-mail address registered in advance in the key are stored in the other party in the RAM 7. Read from table 70.
[0041]
Next, the user performs an operation for logging in to the network. However, this operation is automatically performed by a one-touch operation of a predetermined key of the operation unit 5 by registering a provider's telephone number, password, user name, etc. in the apparatus of the present invention in advance. As a result, when the main control unit 1 controls the NCU 11, the device of the present invention connects to the provider's server via the analog line L and logs into the network (step S14).
[0042]
Since the e-mail can be transmitted by the above operation, first, the first page of the transmission original is converted into TIFF image data and converted into MIME data. As described above, the amount of e-mail data is as follows. Is limited to 64 kbytes, so when the MIME data of the conversion result reaches 64 kbytes, it is transmitted as one e-mail (step S15). Then, the header is transmitted (step S16). Since the page number counter “P” and the block number counter “B” are both “1” at this time, the code of the page in the “Subject:” of the header is transmitted. (“PAGE”) is “001”, and the code of the block (“BLOCK”) is “001”.
[0043]
At this point, the block number counter “B” is incremented by “1” (step S20) until all the TIFF image data for one page of the transmission document is converted to MIME data (“NO” in step S17). The process returns to step S15, and conversion and transmission of the TIFF image data to MIME data are performed again until the next 64k bytes of MIME data is generated (step S15). Then, the header is transmitted again (step S16). At this point, the page number counter “P” remains “1”, but the block number counter “B” is “2”. The code (“PAGE”) of the page in the “Subject:” of the header is “001”, and the code of the block (“BLOCK”) is “002”.
[0044]
Hereinafter, when the first page of the transmission original is converted to MIME data until all the TIFF image data for the first page of the transmission original is converted to MIME data and transmitted ("YES" in step S17). Are sent as e-mails in 64-kbyte units, and the "Subject:" item in each header has the same code that identifies the facsimile message ("JOB"), and the code that identifies the page ("PAGE") of the sent document Is also "001" and identifies the block ("BLOCK") in which the same page of the sent document is divided as an email Do The code is incremented sequentially from "001".
[0045]
In this way, the first page of the transmitted document But When transmission as an e-mail is completed (“YES” in step S17), the main control unit 1 increments the page number counter “P” by “1” (step S18), and whether there is a next page in the transmission document or not. Is determined (step S19). If there is a next page in the transmission document, the process returns to step S15, and the next page of the transmission document is converted into TIFF image data, converted to MIME data, and transmitted as an e-mail. In this case, the “Subject:” item in the header has the same code that identifies the facsimile message (“JOB”), the code that identifies the page (“PAGE”) of the sent document is “002”, and Identifies the block ("BLOCK") where the same page was split as an email Do The code is incremented sequentially from “001” as in the case of transmission of the first page of the transmission original.
[0046]
When all of the second page of the transmission document is transmitted as an e-mail as described above, the page number counter “P” is incremented from “002” to “003”, the third page is transmitted, and so on. When all pages of the transmission document are transmitted ("NO" in step S19), the main control unit 1 controls the NCU 11 to disconnect the line and log out from the network (step S21).
[0047]
When neither the transmission certificate issuance mode nor the transmission certificate transmission mode is selected, that is, when both the transmission certificate issuance mode flag 71 and the transmission certificate transmission mode flag 72 are in the reset (“0”) state (step S22). And S24 and “NO”), the main control unit 1 ends this processing.
[0048]
However, when the transmission certificate issuance mode is selected, that is, when the transmission certificate issuance mode flag 71 is set (“1”) (“YES” in step S22), the main control unit 1 determines the transmission certificate. The contents are printed on the recording unit 3 (step S23). When the transmission certificate transmission mode is selected, that is, when the transmission certificate transmission mode flag 72 is set (“1”) (“YES” in step S24), the main control unit 1 determines the transmission document. The destination telephone number is read from the RAM 7 and the NCU 11 is controlled to make a call (step S25). The contents of the transmission certificate are converted into facsimile code data by the codec 12 and transmitted (step S26).
[0049]
In the above-described embodiment, the main control unit 1 executes the control of each step shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 according to the software program recorded in the ROM 6 in advance. Even if the software program is recorded on the flexible disk FD shown in FIG. 1 and read from the recording medium reading unit 14 and stored in the RAM 7 as needed, the apparatus of the present invention can perform the same operation as described above. is there. Such a method of reading the software program recorded on the flexible disk FD into the RAM 7 and using it for the control by the main control unit 1 is effective when the apparatus of the present invention is a personal computer capable of facsimile communication.
[0050]
FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the contents of the above-mentioned transmission certificate. First of all, a certificate of transmission is clearly shown at the top of the paper P, and “From:”, “To:”, “DATE:”, “TIME:” are basically the same as the header of the email at the bottom. , “Subject:” are described. However, the contents of “J”, “P”, and “B” in the “Subject:” item are not codes that specify jobs, pages, and blocks, but information about the transmitted electronic mail. Specifically, “J” is the number of transmission originals transmitted as an e-mail (in this example, “0001”, ie, one), and “P” is the number of transmission original pages (“003” in this example). In other words, “B” indicates the number of transmitted blocks (in this example, “007”, ie, 7 blocks, in other words, 7 e-mails).
[0051]
Further below that, information on the transmitted facsimile document, that is, in this example, there is one transmitted document ("J0001"), and the first page ("P001") has two blocks ("B01 /" 02 ”and“ B 01/02 ”) and the second page (“ P 002 ”) is divided into three blocks (“ B 01/03 ”,“ B 02/03 ”and“ B 03/03 ”) The third page (“P 003”) is divided into two blocks (“B 01/02” and “B 01/02”).
[0052]
In step S23 in the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, a transmission certificate as shown in FIG. 8 is printed by the recording unit 3 of the transmission side apparatus. Therefore, the user on the transmission side can confirm that the transmission original is transmitted to the network as an electronic mail.
[0053]
In step S26 of the flowchart shown in FIGS. FIG. A transmission certificate as shown in FIG. 5 is transmitted from the transmission side apparatus by facsimile communication and printed by the recording unit 3 of the reception side apparatus. Therefore, the user on the receiving side can confirm that the facsimile original has arrived as an e-mail, and the number of e-mails, the number of pages of the original transmission original, and the like.
[0054]
【The invention's effect】
As described above in detail, according to the communication terminal device with an e-mail function of the present invention, transmission is completed when a transmission original that should be transmitted by facsimile communication is converted into an e-mail and transmitted. And the serial number of the transmitted document, the number of documents, and the number after the division are the transmission information. Since it is printed out from itself, it is possible to confirm transmission as an e-mail.
[0055]
According to the communication terminal device with an electronic mail function of the present invention, transmission is completed when a transmission original that should be transmitted by facsimile communication is converted into electronic mail and transmitted. And the serial number of the sent document, the number of documents, and the number after division are the transmission information. Since the data is transmitted to the communication partner device by facsimile communication, the communication partner can confirm the reception without confirming the reception of the e-mail.
[0056]
Therefore According to the communication terminal device with an electronic mail function of the invention, when a transmission original that should be transmitted by facsimile communication is converted into an electronic mail and transmitted, The transmission is complete and The serial number of the transmitted document, the number of documents, and the number after division are printed out as transmission information from itself, and are transmitted to the communication partner apparatus by facsimile communication, so it is possible to confirm the transmission state of the transmitted document on both sides. It becomes possible.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of a communication terminal device with an electronic mail function according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a specific example of a configuration of an operation unit of the communication terminal device with an electronic mail function according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the contents of a destination table of a communication terminal device with an electronic mail function according to the present invention.
FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of contents of header information of an electronic mail received by the communication terminal device with an electronic mail function of the present invention.
FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a data state when a facsimile message is converted into an electronic mail in the communication terminal device with an electronic mail function of the present invention.
FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure at the time of e-mail transmission of the communication terminal device with an e-mail function of the present invention.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure at the time of e-mail transmission of the communication terminal device with an e-mail function of the present invention.
FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing an example of contents of a transmission certificate issued and / or transmitted by the communication terminal device with an electronic mail function according to the present invention.
[Explanation of symbols]
1 Main control unit
3 Recording section
5 Operation part
6 ROM
7 RAM
8 Image memory
10 Modem
11 NCU
12 Data modem
57 Certificate issued mode key
58 TX certificate transmission mode key
70 Counterpart table
71 Certificate issued mode flag
72 Transmission certificate transmission mode flag

Claims (2)

In a communication terminal device with an electronic mail function capable of encoding image data of a transmission original and dividing each page of the original into a predetermined amount and transmitting the electronic mail to a network, information indicating that and A communication terminal device with an electronic mail function, wherein transmission information including a serial number of a transmitted document, the number of documents, and a number after division is printed out from itself. In a communication terminal device with an electronic mail function capable of encoding image data of a transmission original and dividing each page of the original into a predetermined amount and transmitting the electronic mail to a network, information indicating that and A communication terminal device with an electronic mail function, wherein transmission information including a serial number of a transmitted document, the number of documents, and a number after division is converted into image data and transmitted to a communication partner by facsimile.

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