JPH0630125A - Facsimile mail system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To effectively utilize the resource by sending information stored in a facsimile forward and store device to a desired user in voice. CONSTITUTION:A character recognition section 8 extracts a header, a voice conversion section of a facsimile control unit(FCU) 7 converts the header into a voice signal and sends the converted signal to a telephone line. That is, when extraction of a mail addressed to a designated user from an application processor(AP) 1 to a file processor(FP) 3 based on the system control is on request, an ESDI controller 5 reads a relevant mail from a hard disk drive(HDD) 6, extracts the header and sends it to the FCU 7. The header information in terms of character codes is converted into a voice signal by an internal voice conversion section and sent to a communication opposite party via a telephone line.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile mail system, and more particularly, to a facsimile having a function of connecting a large number of facsimiles in a network form and delivering various inputted data to the above facsimiles. The present invention relates to a mail system in which a part of information to be distributed or a designated part is converted into voice and transmitted.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a facsimile device capable of transmitting or receiving arbitrary characters and various data is used as a communication terminal device and connected in a network form via a storage conversion device, and information transmitted from other terminals or by itself. A system has been constructed in which various input information is stored and is delivered to a target communication terminal in response to a request or automatically. This system is based on a storage process in which the communication network temporarily stores information and then delivers it to each terminal device rather than direct communication between communication terminals such as facsimiles. Communication between them, or various storage services by means of large-capacity information storage means, and further communication between facsimile and computer by media conversion such as mutual conversion of data and facsimile signals. . Similarly, by connecting a facsimile or personal computer in a network form, and by further connecting a digital exchange and a voice / character data converter, information between arbitrary voice terminals and character data terminal devices can be obtained. A so-called electronic message board system that enables exchanges has also been constructed. Furthermore, a means for automatically calling the partner terminal based on the recipient identification information and notifying the presence of information to be delivered by voice is also proposed. According to this means, the receiver can quickly know that there is information addressed to him / herself, so that there is an effect that information can be transmitted quickly.

However, in the conventional system, only the presence of the information to be distributed is notified, so that there is a drawback that the unnecessary information must be received. That is, a wide variety of information is transmitted through the facsimile storage device, but the information that the recipient really needs is only a part of the information, and the other information is relatively or completely insignificant. There were many things. Therefore, as a result of printing all the unnecessary information on the paper, many resources including the paper are wasted.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the problems relating to the conventional facsimile mail system as described above, and makes it possible to selectively receive only the information necessary for the recipient. It is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile mail service which enables effective use of resources by preventing printing on useless paper.

[0005]

To achieve the above object, the first invention of the present application is a facsimile mail system which has information storage means and transmits information addressed to a user through a communication line. Means for converting a portion into voice, means for extracting character data of a header portion such as a sender name or transmission time attached to the information and transferring it to the voice converting means, and a signal for converting the voice into a required portion. And a means for transmitting and outputting to. A second invention of the present application is a facsimile mail system having information storage means for transmitting information addressed to a user through a communication line, and means for converting a character data portion of information into voice, and the information. And a means for transmitting the signal converted into the voice to a required portion and outputting the signal converted to the voice. In the third invention of the present application, further, in each of the above inventions, a means for asking a facsimile or other communication terminal device belonging to the system about the necessity of voice conversion by voice, and a response from the user side are provided. Means for receiving a push button signal.

Hereinafter, the facsimile mail system of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the illustrated embodiment.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a facsimile information storage device used in the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 is an application processor, which executes a plurality of processes at the center of the apparatus and is connected to other blocks, which will be described later, via a VME bus line 2, for example. A file processor 3 controls a storage device connected by a VMX bus line 4, an ESDI (ESDI controller) 5 is connected to the VMX bus line, and an HDD (hard disk drive). )
6 is connected. Reference numeral 7 denotes an FCU (facsimile control unit), which has a built-in facsimile interface module such as a modem, an NCU, and a voice conversion circuit as will be described later. Further, 8 is a character recognition section, which has a function of identifying a character code portion in the information and transferring it to the FCU 7.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the internal configuration of the FCU 7. The data compression / decompression unit 72, a digital signal is converted into a tone signal, and the tone signal is converted into a digital signal. Modem 7 to convert to signal
3, a voice conversion unit 74 for converting the character code transferred from the character recognition unit 8 via the bus line into a voice signal, a program necessary for storing required information or operating a CPU, and the like. A stored memory unit 75, an I / O unit 76 for interfacing with an external device,
An NCU (telephone network control unit) 77 for connecting to a telephone line is a constituent element, and these are connected by an internal bus line 78.

To explain the functions of the main blocks among these, the compression / expansion unit 72 for performing data compression / expansion is for performing code conversion of data to be transmitted so as to conform to the G3 or G4 format, and G4 is generally data. It has a function of adapting to higher and higher speed facsimile communication using a network or a digital network. Although there are various conversion methods in the audio conversion unit 74, a current input signal is predicted from a past input signal, and the difference between the current input signal and the current input signal is quantized by a complex bit number and then encoded. ADPCM (Adaptive differ-ential PCM) is generally used because it can perform conversion with good sound quality.

The facsimile storage device configured as described above is controlled as follows. First, in the first example, generally, in a facsimile mail service, a portion corresponding to the address writing of an envelope, such as the name of the sender, the sending time, the recipient, etc., is added to the information to be transmitted. . Although this portion is usually called a header, in the present invention, the header portion is extracted by the character recognition unit 8, converted into a voice signal by the voice conversion unit of the FCU 7 and controlled to be transmitted to the telephone line. .

That is, when the AP1 requests the FP3 to retrieve the mail addressed to the specified user under the control of the system, the ESDI5 reads the corresponding mail from the HDD6 and the header thereof. Extract the part, FC
Transmit to U7. As described above, this header information is converted from the character code into a voice signal by the internal voice conversion unit 74 and transmitted to the communication partner via the telephone line. If this means is provided, the user concerned can be requested at the request of the user.
Since the header information such as the sender and the sending time of the mail addressed to the user can be heard as voice, it is possible to know the contents without printing out on paper each time.
As a result, with respect to the information to the extent that the user who has heard the header portion information does not need to print, by adding a means such as inputting a transmission unnecessary instruction, the paper is not wasted, and A communication cost saving effect can be obtained.

If the contents cannot be understood only by listening to the above header part information, a part of the mail may be requested to be transmitted. Therefore, in the present invention, this can be dealt with by deforming as follows. When the user requests to send a part of the mail addressed to himself, AP1 issues a command to that effect to FP3 in the same manner as above, but at this time, the designated part is sent to the HDD6.
Read from the character part of the specified part, and FCU
7 is converted to voice and transmitted to the other party via the NCU. Generally, a part of a mail is transmitted in a predetermined area from the beginning of a sentence in general, so this example may be followed. However, if the user so desires, further conversion of the voice may be carried out for transmission. Is. According to this method, the contents of the mail can be easily understood and the necessity of printing on the paper is reduced.

In carrying out the above control, if the system allows the user to select whether to send the header part information or a part of the mail, the function is further improved. Can bring Then, when there is a transmission request from the user, it asks by voice whether it is the above-mentioned header part transmission or part of the mail transmission, and the user presses the key of the touch-tone telephone to send the DTMF signal. Send it back. Which button is to be pressed may be appropriately set, and a voice guidance may be provided to that effect. By this means, communication time and communication cost are saved for a user who does not need both the header and partial mail transmission.

The present invention can be further modified as follows. FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing a modified embodiment of the present invention. In the control procedure shown in this figure, at the start, first, the user is asked whether he / she wishes to perform voice conversion transmission (ST1). When voice conversion is selected, a question is asked as to whether it is header information or mail information (ST2). When the response to this question is header information, the header part is converted into voice by the above-mentioned procedure and transmitted (ST
3) Further, a question is asked as to whether or not a voice transmission of a part of the mail information is desired (ST4). In response to this question, if there is a request for mail transmission, the process proceeds to ST5. ST5 is the above ST2
In the control step in the case where the user selects mail transmission in (1), a part of the mail information is converted into voice and transmitted. The next step is a control step at the time of negative response in ST5 and ST4 described above. The user is inquired about the necessity of voice conversion of some other part of the mail information (ST6), and if there is no request. Although the control is ended, if there is a request, the designated portion is extracted (ST7), the portion is voice-converted and transmitted (ST8).

Although the partial conversion of the mail information is illustrated in ST6 to ST8 of this example, the conversion may be a full text conversion, and in this case, the other part of the mail information is notified to the user. Or the whole sentence. According to this control, the user
It is possible to provide detailed services according to the user's wishes, and the contents of the mail addressed to him can be known from any telephone that can access the system.

[0015]

As described above, according to the present invention, the information stored in the facsimile storage device is transmitted by voice to a desired user, so that unnecessary information is not printed on a sheet. , Has a remarkable effect on effective use of resources. Further, since a desired portion of the user is selectively converted into a voice and transmitted as needed, an excellent effect can be obtained in improving the service for the user.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a storage device in a facsimile mail system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a detailed configuration of one block, specifically, an FCU (facsimile control unit) in the above embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flow chart showing another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 application processor, 2 VME bus line, 3 file processor, 4 VMX bus line, 5 ESDI, 6 HDD (hard disk drive) 7 FCU (facsimile control unit) 8 character recognition unit, 71 CPU, 72 compression / expansion Department,
73 modem, 74 voice conversion section, 75 memory section, 76 I / O section, 77 NCU

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display location H04N 1/00 104 Z 7046-5C

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A facsimile mail system having information storage means for transmitting information addressed to a user via a communication line, and means for converting a character data portion of information into voice, and the means attached to the information. And a means for extracting character data in the header portion such as a sender name or a transmission time and transferring it to the voice converting means, and a means for transmitting and outputting the signal converted into the voice to a required portion. Facsimile mail system. 2. A facsimile mail system having information storage means for transmitting information addressed to a user through a communication line, means for converting a character data portion of information into voice, and a required portion of the information. And a means for transmitting the signal converted to the voice to a required portion and outputting the signal to a required part. 3. A means for asking a facsimile or other communication terminal device belonging to the system by voice to inquire about the necessity of voice conversion, and a means for receiving the response by a push button signal on the user side. The facsimile mail system according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising: 4. A facsimile mail system comprising information storage means for transmitting information addressed to a user via a communication line, and means for converting a character data portion of information into voice, and all of the information. A facsimile mail system comprising: means for extracting character data from the voice data and transferring it to the voice converting means; and means for transmitting and outputting the signal converted into the voice to a required portion.