JPH05151279A - Image information transmission system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To automatically obtain image information stored in an optical disk device from a requester's facsimile equipment (FAX) only by sending a transmission request from a remote place. CONSTITUTION:A transmission request processing means 5 in a host computer 4 receives an image information transmission request inputted from a work station 2 in an image information requesting/receiving system 1 and forms image information transmitting information including an image information index key and the telephone number of a transmitted FAX and a control means 10 transfers the formed information to an image information transmitting processing means 14 in an image information managing/transmitting system 11. The means 14 acquires image information corresponding to the image information index key from an optical disk device 16 by means of an optical disk file accessing tool 15 and transmits the acquired information to a FAX 20 having the telephone number included in the image information transmitting information by means of a FAX control unit 18.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image information transmission system, and more particularly to an image information transmission system for transmitting image information stored in an optical disk device to a facsimile installed at a remote place via a public telephone line.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, image information stored in an optical disk device has been transmitted to a facsimile device installed at a remote place.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a conventional image information transmission system. In FIG. 2, 2
An image information management system 2 is composed of an office processor 23 having an office electronic filing system 24, an optical disk device 25, a workstation 26, and a facsimile control unit 27. Further, 21 is an image information receiving system provided with a facsimile device 29, and the facsimile device 29 is a facsimile control unit 27 of the image information management system 22 via a public telephone line 28.
Connected with.

In the conventional example shown in FIG. 2, the image information stored in the optical disk device 25 of the image information management system 22 is transferred to the image information receiving system 21.
When sending to the facsimile device 29 of the office, the workstation 26 sends the data to the office electronic filing system 24.
Is started, the corresponding optical disk file in the optical disk device 25 is searched, the corresponding original is read, and the public telephone line 2 is read using the facsimile control unit 27.
The image information is sent to 8. All of these operations are performed by instructions from a person operating the workstation 26 of the image information management system 22.

[0005]

As described above, in the conventional image information transmission system, when transmitting image information, the workstation under the office processor in which the optical disk device is installed is operated by the office of the office processor. The electronic filing system had to be operated, and there was a problem that it took manpower. Also,
Receiving image information Since the image information receiving system does not have a function for directly requesting transmission, request the operator of the image information management system to transmit the image information using another communication means such as a telephone, and have it sent. There was a problem that it was necessary.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and an object of the present invention is to make a requester at a remote place when transmitting image information to a facsimile apparatus installed at a remote place. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image information transmission method in which image information is automatically transmitted to the facsimile device without requiring human intervention by simply making a transmission request.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an image information request / reception system, an image information management / transmission system, the image information request / reception system and the image information management / reception system. The image information request / reception system includes a host computer to which a transmission system is connected, and the image information request / reception system sends a workstation to input the image information transmission request and the image information transmission request input from the workstation to the host computer. The image information management / transmission system has an office processor and a facsimile device for receiving image information, and the image information management / transmission system is an optical disc device for storing image information, a facsimile control unit for transferring image information, and the optical disc device. I'm sorry An office processor having image information transmission processing means for executing image information transmission processing for reading information and transferring the information to a facsimile apparatus by using the facsimile control unit; and the host computer from the image information request / reception system. Transmission request processing means for processing the transmitted image information transmission request to create image information transmission information, and image information transmission information created by the transmission request processing means in an office processor of the image information management / transmission system And a control means for executing the image information transmission processing by passing it to the image information transmission processing means.

[0008]

When an image information transmission request is input from the workstation of the image information request / reception system and sent to the host computer through the office processor, the transmission request processing means of the host computer processes the image information transmission request and processes the image information. The information transmission information is created, and the control means passes the image information transmission information created by the transmission request processing means to the image information transmission processing means provided in the office processor of the image information management / transmission system to execute the image information transmission processing. Let The image information transmission processing means reads the image information from the optical disk device based on the image information transmission information passed from the control means of the host computer, and transfers it to the facsimile device using the facsimile control unit.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a computer network to which the image information transmission system of the present invention is applied.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an image information request / reception system, which includes a work station 2, an office processor 3 to which the work station 2 is connected, and a facsimile machine 20 provided near the work station 2. Has been.

Reference numeral 11 denotes an image information management / transmission system. The image information management / transmission system 11 includes an office processor 12 having a communication utility 13, an image information transmission processing means 14 and an optical disk file access tool 15, and an office processor 12. An optical disk device 16 to be connected, a workstation 17,
A facsimile control unit 18 is included. The image information transmission processing means 14 can be realized by a distributed application program operating on the office processor 12, for example.

Reference numeral 4 denotes an abstract database 6, a logical terminal file 7, a FAX queuing file 8 and a FAX.
A host computer having a busy file 9, a transmission request processing means 5, and a control means 10. The host computer 4 includes an office processor 3 of an image information request / reception system 1 and an office processor of an image information management / transmission system 11. 12 and 12 are connected.
The transmission request processing means 5 and the control means 10 can be realized by, for example, an information retrieval processing transaction processing program and a distributed application processing program control transaction processing program which operate on the host computer 4. There is one or a plurality of image information request / reception systems 1, each of which is connected to the host computer 4.

Reference numeral 19 is a public telephone line, and the facsimile device 20 and the facsimile control unit 18 are connected via the public telephone line 19.

Next, the operation of the present embodiment configured as described above will be described in detail together with the functional description of each part.

When the user of the image information request / reception system 1 wants to transfer the image information stored in the optical disk device 16 of the image information management / transmission system 11 to the facsimile device 20, during the image information transmission request. Optical disk device 1 to obtain index keys to include
When it is desired to know the abstract of the image information stored in 6, the workstation 2 first requests a search for the abstract including the order number serving as the index key of the abstract database 6.

When this search request is input from the workstation 2, the request is transmitted to the transmission request processing means 5 of the host computer 4 via the office processor 3.

The abstract database 6 of the host computer 4 stores abstracts including index keys of image information stored in the optical disk device 16. When the transmission request processing means 5 receives a search request, the abstracts are received in accordance with the request. The database 6 is searched, and the search contents are passed to the image information request / reception system 1. Then, the office processor 3 having received the information displays the retrieved content on the screen of the workstation 2.

Next, the image information request / reception system 1
The user of the facsimile machine 20 uses the index key in the search content of the screen displayed on the workstation 2.
When the image information transmission request including the index key of the image information to be transferred to is issued, the request is transmitted to the office processor 3.
Is sent to the transmission request processing means 5 of the host computer 4.

In the logical terminal file 7 of the host computer 4, the work station ID and the telephone number of the facsimile machine adjacent to the work station are stored in correspondence with each other, and the transmission request processing means 5 that has received the image information transmission request , The logical terminal file 7 is searched based on the workstation ID of the workstation 2 to obtain the telephone number of the destination facsimile machine 20, and the image information is obtained from the telephone number and the index key in the image information transmission request. The transmission information is created and written as one history in the FAX queuing file 8 storing the image information transmission request history, and then the control means 10 is activated.

When the control means 10 is activated, it searches the FAX queuing file 8 and passes the image information transmission information to the office processor 12 provided in the image information management / transmission system 11. Office processor 1
In 2, the communication utility 13 receives it and passes it to the image information transmission processing means 14.

Upon receiving the image information transmission information, the image information transmission processing means 14 uses the optical disc file access tool 15 to output the image information corresponding to the index key of the image information included in the image information transmission information from the optical disc device 16. get. Then, using the facsimile control unit 18, the acquired image information is transmitted to the facsimile device 20 having the telephone number included in the image information transmission information via the public telephone line 19.

The progress of these facsimile transmission processes is sequentially displayed on the workstation 17 under the office processor 12.

When the transmission of image information to the facsimile device 20 using the facsimile control unit 18 is completed normally, the image information transmission processing means 14 notifies the host computer 4 via the communication utility 13 of the fact, and the host computer 4 The control means 10 of the computer 4 writes that fact in the history of the corresponding image information transmission information of the FAX queuing file 8.

On the other hand, when the image information cannot be transmitted using the facsimile control unit 18 due to FAX busy or the like, the image information transmission processing means 14
Returns the image information transmission information to the control means 10 of the host computer 4 via the communication utility 13, and the control means 10 stores this in the FAX busy file 9.
Then, the control unit 10 sends the FAX after a certain time elapses, for example.
The image information transmission information is taken out from the busy file 9 and sent again to the image information management / transmission system 11.

In this way, if the image information transmission request is input from the workstation 2 under the office processor 3 connected to the host computer 4,
The requested image information is automatically transmitted to the facsimile device 20 installed in the vicinity of the workstation 2 which issued the transmission request.

[0027]

As described above, according to the image information transmission system of the present invention, the image information request / reception system workstation connected to the host computer connected to the image information management / transmission system operates. By simply inputting a request to send image information, the image information is automatically sent to the facsimile machine installed near the workstation that issued the request. Therefore, compared to the conventional method in which the operation of transmitting the image information has to be performed manually from the workstation under the office processor where the optical disk device storing the image information is deployed, it is possible to save the labor and to operate from a remote location. However, there is an effect that it is possible to directly request transmission of image information.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of an embodiment to which an image information transmission system of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example to which a conventional image information transmission method is applied.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... Image information request / reception system 2, 17 ... Workstations 3, 12 ... Office processor 4 ... Host computer 5 ... Transmission request processing means 6 ... Abstract database 7 ... Logical terminal file 8 ... FAX queuing file 9 ... FAX busy file 10 ... Control means 11 ... Image information management / transmission system 13 ... Communication utility 14 ... Image information transmission processing means 15 ... Optical disk file access tool 16 ... Optical disk device 18 ... Facsimile control unit 19 ... Public line 20 ... Facsimile device

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An image information request / reception system, an image information management / transmission system, a host computer to which the image information request / reception system and the image information management / transmission system are connected, the image information request / A reception system has a workstation for inputting an image information transmission request, an office processor for transmitting the image information transmission request input from the workstation to the host computer, and a facsimile device for receiving the image information, The image information management / transmission system includes an optical disc device that stores image information, a facsimile control unit that transfers the image information, and the facsimile control unit that reads the image information stored in the optical disc device. And an office processor having an image information transmission processing means for executing an image information transmission processing for transmitting the image information to a facsimile apparatus by using a computer, the host computer having the image information transmitted from the image information request / reception system. Transmission request processing means for processing a transmission request to create image information transmission information; and the image information provided in the office processor of the image information management / transmission system for the image information transmission information created by the transmission request processing means. An image information transmission method, comprising: a control means for passing the image information transmission processing to a transmission processing means. 2. The host computer comprises an abstract database, the transmission request processing means searches the abstract database in accordance with an abstract search request from a workstation of the image information request / reception system, and searches the abstract results for the abstract search. Image information request that sent the request /
The image information transmitting method according to claim 1, wherein the image information is displayed on a workstation of the receiving system. 3. The host computer comprises a logical terminal file, and the transmission request processing means is based on the workstation ID of the workstation of the image information request / reception system which has sent the image information transmission request, and the terminal logic. 3. The image information transmitting system according to claim 1, wherein the file is searched to obtain the telephone number of the facsimile device to which the image information is transmitted.