JPH09298669A - Facsimile transmission reception system and facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a facsimile transmission reception system and a facsimile equipment in which security transmission is attained by the same operation as that of conventional facsimile transmission by allowing a transmitter side to describe a destination and a transmission mode to an exclusive transmission slip and allowing a receiver side to recognize whether or not a slip is the exclusive transmission slip and the transmission mode. SOLUTION: A transmitter side facsimile equipment 1 sends a transmission original whose head part has an exclusive transmission slip in which a destination and a transmission mode are described. When a transmission slip recognition section 2-121 of a receiver side facsimile equipment 2 discriminates a received slip to be an exclusive transmission slip, a character recognition section 2-122 recognize the transmission mode, and when the transmission mode is the security mode, the character recognition section 2-122 recognizes a name of a recipient. When the name of the recipient is registered in a security table, the registered security code is added to received data in a reception data memory 2-3 and the resulting data are stored in an external storage device 2-4. Thus, the security transmission is attained by the same operation as that of conventional facsimile transmission.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile transmission / reception system and a facsimile device, and more particularly to a facsimile transmission / reception system and a facsimile device suitable for preventing leakage of confidential information.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a facsimile apparatus of this type, for example, the following method has been adopted in order to prevent confidentiality leakage of a transmission document. One is a method in which the recipient's security code (recipient's name, password, etc.) is specified for the transmitted manuscript, and the recipient receives the security code to retrieve the received image information. One is a method in which a higher-level device for management is connected to the facsimile machine and the higher-level device performs confidentiality management.

As a concrete implementation of these methods, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 4-72961, a security code of a recipient is designated at the time of transmission, and in contrast to this, in a receiving facsimile apparatus. , When a security code is specified, it is stored in an external storage device so that printing is not performed on the spot, and when there is a request to receive a security code specified by another fax machine, or when the stored fax is stored. There has been proposed a facsimile apparatus that enables a facsimile machine to make a printing request when the reception request directly specifies a security code to the apparatus.

Further, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-192938, in a group environment in which a plurality of personal computers sharing a facsimile machine are connected via a file server, users and groups in the group environment are recognized and managed. There has been proposed a data exchange method in which the ID management means in the file server sends image information to a specific person or allows only a person belonging to a specific group to see the image information.

[0005]

However, in the conventional method as described above, the security code must be designated for maintaining confidentiality, so that a specific operator who knows the security code is not an unspecified number. There is a problem that only the facsimile transmission can be performed.

Further, in the conventional method as described above, it is necessary to input the security code in addition to the facsimile number on the receiving side to make a transmission, and the facsimile transmission is performed unless the operating method of the facsimile apparatus is well known. Therefore, there is a problem that it takes time and effort for the operator to perform the facsimile transmission.

Further, in the above-mentioned conventional method, since it is necessary to provide an upper device for management, etc., there is a problem in that construction and maintenance of a system including a facsimile device is expensive.

Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a facsimile transmission / reception system and a facsimile apparatus which improve operability in facsimile transmission / reception in which confidentiality of image information is secured. To do.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides means for recognizing a dedicated delivery slip added to an original and transmitted, and data included in the image information of the dedicated delivery slip. Recognizing means and means for adding a security code to the image information of the original document and storing it in a storage device when it is determined from the recognized data that the confidentiality of the original document is required The present invention provides a facsimile transmission / reception system characterized by.

Further, according to the facsimile transmission / reception method of the present invention, when it is judged from the recognized data that the confidentiality of the original document is required, whether or not the security code corresponding to the destination of the original document exists. If the security code does not exist, a comment stating that the recipient is unknown is added to the image information of the dedicated delivery slip added to the original document and transmitted, and the received original document is The feature is that the image information is discarded.

The dedicated delivery slip has a field for entering a destination (telephone number, recipient name, etc.) for facsimile transmission, and a field for entering a transmission mode indicating secure transmission or normal transmission with confidentiality (check). Columns, etc.) and
It is advisable that the facsimile sender should be able to perform facsimile transmission by adding the necessary information to each column and then adding it to the beginning of the manuscript.

As described above, according to the present invention, by providing the dedicated facsimile transmission slip, it becomes possible to perform the security transmission by the same operation as the normal facsimile transmission only by checking the security mark and the like.
Operability can be improved.

Further, according to the present invention, there is no need for a special high-order apparatus as in the above-mentioned conventional method, and therefore the equipment costs and maintenance costs of the system including the facsimile apparatus can be eliminated.

[0014]

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

Referring to FIG. 1, in the best mode for carrying out the present invention, a transmitting side facsimile apparatus 1 and a receiving side facsimile apparatus 2 are connected via a communication network such as a telephone network 3, and a receiving side facsimile apparatus. 2 receives image information via a communication network such as a telephone network 3 and stores the received image information in a reception data memory 2-3 by a facsimile receiving unit 2-111 and a facsimile receiving unit 2-111. A decoding unit 2-112 for decoding the image information
An image memory 2-2 that stores the image information decoded by the decoding unit 2-111, and a sending slip recognition unit that recognizes whether the image information stored in the image memory 2-2 is a dedicated sending slip 2-121, the character recognition unit 2-122 for recognizing the data included in the image information recognized as the dedicated transmission slip by the transmission slip recognition unit 2-121, the recipient name of the image information, and the security code When the security table 2-5 to be additionally stored and the image information stored in the image memory 2-2 are not the exclusive sending slips, and / or the dedicated sending slips, the dedicated sending slips secure the security transmission. Image memory 2-
An image output unit 2-6 for outputting the image information stored in 2;
An external storage device 2-4 for storing the image information to which the security code corresponding to the recipient of the image information is added when the dedicated delivery slip designates a security transmission that secures confidentiality.

If the security code corresponding to the recipient of the image information does not exist in the security table 2-5, the receiving side facsimile device 2 makes a comment in the image information of the dedicated sending slip that the recipient is unknown. The added image information is output and the received image information is discarded.

[0017]

Next, in order to more specifically describe the above-described embodiment of the present invention, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, in this embodiment, a transmitting side facsimile apparatus 1 for transmitting image information, a receiving side facsimile apparatus 2 for receiving image information, a transmitting side facsimile apparatus 1 and a receiving side. The telephone network 3 is connected to the facsimile device 2.

The transmission side facsimile apparatus 1 includes an image input section 1-1 and a control section 1-2. Image input section 1-1
Is used to input the image information a to be transmitted. The control unit 1-2 performs control and transmission operations for facsimile transmission of the image information a input from the image input unit 1-1 via the telephone network 3.

The receiving side facsimile apparatus 2 has a control unit 2-
1, image memory 2-2, and received data memory 2-3
, External storage device 2-4, and security table 2-
5, an image output unit 2-6, and a key input unit 2-7.

The control unit 2-1 controls and receives the image information b received via the telephone network 3 by facsimile, and includes a receiving unit 2-11 and a recognizing unit 2.
-12 and included.

The receiving section 2-11 is a facsimile receiving section 2
-111 and the decoding part 2-112 are included. The facsimile receiving unit 2-111 receives the image information b via the telephone network 3 and stores the received image information b in the reception data memory 2-3. The decoding unit 2-112 performs a decoding process on the image information c received by the facsimile receiving unit 2-111 and converts the image information c into image information d.

The image memory 2-2 includes a decoding unit 2-112.
The image information d subjected to the decoding process is temporarily stored.

The recognition unit 2-12 is a sending slip recognition unit 2-12.
1 and a character recognition unit 2-122. The sending slip recognition unit 2-121 uses the image information e stored in the image memory 2-2.
A recognition process for whether or not it is a dedicated delivery slip is performed. The character recognition unit 2-122 performs character recognition on the data included in the image information recognized as the dedicated delivery slip by the delivery slip recognition unit 2-121.

The reception data memory 2-3 temporarily stores the image information g received by the facsimile receiving section 2-111, and outputs it as the image information h if necessary.

The external storage device 2-4 stores the image information h output from the received data memory 2-3.

The security table 2-5 stores the recipient name of the image information and the security code in association with each other, and is referred to when the character recognition unit 2-122 performs character recognition.

The image output section 2-6 has an external storage device 2-4.
The image information h stored in is output. Key input section 2-7
Is used to input the security code when the image information h stored in the external storage device 2-4 is output from the image output unit 2-6.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. FIG.
FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing an example of a dedicated delivery slip used in this embodiment. Hereinafter, the operation of this embodiment will be described separately for the transmission side and the reception side with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

First, the operation on the transmitting side will be described. First, on the sending side, the destination (telephone number, recipient's name) of the original to be sent and handwriting or word processing, etc. on the dedicated sending slip as shown in FIG. And a transmission mode indicating whether the transmission is performed or not.

Thereafter, a dedicated delivery slip in which the destination and the transmission mode are entered is added to the beginning of the transmission original, and the image input unit 1-1 to the control unit 1-of the transmission side facsimile apparatus 1 are added.
2 is input as image information a. The control unit 1-2
The operator directly dials the telephone number of the transmission destination or uses the automatic dialing function of the transmission side facsimile apparatus 1 by the same procedure or method as in the case of the facsimile transmission performed by the known facsimile apparatus. At the time of dialing, the image information a is encoded in the control unit 1-2 and sent to the telephone network 3 as the image information b.

Next, the operation on the receiving side will be described.
First, in the facsimile receiving unit 2-111 of the receiving side facsimile apparatus 2, the image information b received via the telephone network 3 is transferred to the decoding unit 2-112 and the received data memory 2-3, respectively. Deliver as g. At this time, no processing is added to the image information.

The reception data memory 2-3 stores therein the image information g delivered from the facsimile receiving section 2-111. On the other hand, the decoding unit 2-112 performs a decoding process on the image information c delivered from the facsimile receiving unit 2-111, and stores it as image information d in the image memory 2-2.

Image information e stored in the image memory 2-2
Is recognized by the sending slip recognition unit 2-121 as to whether it is a dedicated sending slip. As a result, the sending slip recognition unit 2-121
If it is recognized by the control unit 2-1 that it is not a dedicated delivery slip, the control unit 2-1 controls the control unit 2-1 to transfer the image information e to the image output unit 2 as in the case of normal facsimile reception. After outputting from -6, the process ends.

On the other hand, when the sending slip recognizing unit 2-121 recognizes that the sending slip is a dedicated sending slip, the image information f of the dedicated sending slip is output to the character recognizing unit 2-122. The character recognition unit 2-122 recognizes the transmission mode from the data included in the input image information f of the dedicated delivery slip. As a result, when the character recognition unit 2-122 recognizes that the transmission mode is the normal mode, it notifies the control unit 2-1 to that effect, and the control unit 2-1 controls the normal facsimile reception. Similar to the case, the image information e is output from the image output unit 2-6, and then the process ends.

As a result of the above-described two-step judgment, when it is judged that it is the exclusive sending slip and the sending mode is the security mode, the character recognizing unit 2-122 further recognizes the recipient name. Then, the following processing is performed with reference to the security table 2-5.

That is, when the recipient name recognized by the character recognizing unit 2-122 is not registered in the security table 2-5, the image information stored in the image memory 2-2 as the recipient is unknown. A comment (character) that the recipient is unknown is embedded in e, and the image information e stored in the image memory 2-2 is output from the image output unit 2-6 to the control unit 2-1. Then, the image information b received by the facsimile receiving unit 2-111, the image information e stored in the image memory 2-2, and the received data memory 2
Notify that all the image information g stored in -3 should be discarded.

On the other hand, when the recipient name recognized by the character recognition unit 2-122 is registered in the security table 2-5, the security code registered in the security table 2-5 is added. The image information h stored in the reception data memory 2-3 is output to the external storage device 2-4.

When the image information h stored in the external storage device 2-4 is output, the security code is input from the key input unit 2-7 in the same manner as the procedure performed by a known facsimile device. After that, the image output unit 2-6 outputs after determining whether the security codes match or mismatch.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to such an embodiment, and various modifications can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Of course. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the transmitting side and the receiving side are realized by using a facsimile machine, but such transmission / reception may be realized by another apparatus having a facsimile function such as a personal computer or an electronic filing system. Of course, you can do that.

[0042]

As described above, according to the present invention,
On the sending side, all you have to do is to enter the destination and sending mode in the dedicated sending slip, and on the receiving side, you can retrieve image information by the same operation as before, so you can send documents that you want to keep security to anyone In addition to the above operation, the security side image information can be taken out on the receiving side by the conventional operation, and the operability can be significantly improved.

Further, according to the present invention, even if a facsimile transmission is performed to a recipient not registered on the receiving side, the received image information is discarded without being output, so that the facsimile transmission is erroneously performed. But you can keep security.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram for explaining an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing an example of a dedicated delivery slip used in an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Sending side facsimile apparatus 1-1 Image input section 1-2 Control section 2 Receiving side facsimile apparatus 2-1 Control section 2-11 Receiving section 2-111 Fax receiving section 2-112 Decoding section 2-12 Recognizing section 2- 121 sending slip recognition unit 2-122 character recognition unit 2-2 image memory 2-3 received data memory 2-4 external storage device 2-5 security table 2-6 image output unit 2-7 key input unit 3 telephone network

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A means for recognizing a dedicated delivery slip added to an original and transmitted, a means for recognizing data included in image information of the dedicated delivery slip, and a confidentiality protection of the original from the recognized data. And a means for adding a security code to the image information of the original document and storing it in a storage device when it is determined that the facsimile transmission / reception method is required. 2. When it is determined from the recognized data that confidentiality of the original document is necessary, it is further determined whether or not a security code corresponding to the destination of the original document exists, and the security code is determined. If there is not, the comment is added to the image information of the dedicated sending slip added to the original document and sent, and the image information of the received original document is discarded. The facsimile transmission / reception system according to claim 1. 3. A facsimile receiving unit for receiving image information via a communication network and storing the received image information in a reception data memory, and a decoding unit for decoding the image information received by the facsimile receiving unit. An image memory for storing the image information decoded by the decoding unit, a sending slip recognition unit for recognizing whether the image information stored in the image memory is a dedicated sending slip, and the sending slip recognition The character recognition unit that recognizes the data included in the image information that is recognized as a dedicated sending slip by the department, the security table that stores the recipient name of the image information and the security code in association with each other, and the security table If the image information is not a dedicated delivery slip, and / or if it is a dedicated delivery slip but the dedicated delivery slip does not specify security transmission that ensures confidentiality, An image output unit for outputting the image information stored in the image memory, and a security code corresponding to the recipient of the image information is added when the dedicated sending slip specifies a security transmission that secures confidentiality. An external storage device for storing the captured image information, and a facsimile device. 4. When a security code corresponding to the recipient of the image information does not exist in the security table, a comment to the effect that the recipient is unknown is added to the image information of the dedicated delivery slip and output. 4. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the received image information is discarded. 5. The dedicated delivery slip includes a field for entering a destination of a facsimile transmission, and a field for entering a transmission mode indicating secure transmission or normal transmission in which confidentiality is ensured. The facsimile apparatus according to Item 3 or 4.