JPH10107837A - Communication terminal equipment and communication method - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically receive an electronic mail addressed to a plurality of users successively while a line is connected to a server being the destination of the electronic mail. SOLUTION: A mail address table is provided in a 1st storage area 7a of a RAN 7. A plurality of user identification information sets (mail address, password) are stored in the mail address table. While the line is connected to the server being a destination of the electronic mail, an electronic mail corresponding to each identification information stored in the mail address table is sequentially received. Furthermore, information relating to the reception result of an electronic mail is stored in a 2nd storage area 7b of the RAM 7. The result of reception in the 2nd storage area 7b is given to a recording section 3, in which the result is printed out on recording paper.

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 and a communication method connectable to a computer communication network such as the Internet.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, computer communication networks such as the Internet have become widespread. If this computer communication network is used, it is possible to communicate with communication terminals not only in Japan but also abroad simply by paying the communication cost to the nearest contract provider (connection company to the computer communication network). For this reason, communication using a computer communication network is rapidly developing.

To receive an electronic mail, a communication terminal device is connected to a provider, and the mail addressed to the provider is taken out. At this time, it is necessary to transmit an e-mail address and a password, which are identification information for each user, to the provider before receiving the e-mail to confirm the e-mail recipient. On the other hand, the provider
The receiver is determined based on the received mail address and password, and the corresponding mail is transmitted to the receiver.

[0004]

However, when a plurality of users share a communication terminal device having a function for performing e-mail communication, the following troubles are required. That is, since the e-mail address and the password are different for each user of the communication terminal device, it is necessary to sequentially perform the operation of inputting the e-mail addresses and the passwords of all the users when retrieving the e-mails of all the users reaching the provider. there were. Therefore, the input operation of the e-mail address and the password is complicated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide an e-mail addressed to a plurality of users in a state where a line to a server which receives e-mail is connected. And a communication method capable of automatically and sequentially receiving a communication terminal.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the first aspect of the present invention, in a communication terminal device capable of e-mail communication to a computer communication network, identification information of a plurality of users is transmitted. A mail for sequentially receiving e-mails corresponding to each piece of identification information stored in the first storage means in a state where a line is connected between the first storage means for storing and a server which is a recipient of the e-mail. Receiving means.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, a second storage means for storing a reception result by the mail receiving means, and a reception result stored in the second storage means. Output means for outputting.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, the identification information of the plurality of users stored in the first storage means of the communication terminal device in a state where the line with the server which receives the e-mail is connected. , An e-mail corresponding to each piece of identification information is sequentially received.

Therefore, according to the first or third aspect of the present invention, the first storage means stores identification information (for example, mail addresses and passwords) of a plurality of users. Then, the electronic mail corresponding to each identification information stored in the first storage means is sequentially received in a state where the line with the server which is the destination of the electronic mail is connected.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, the first aspect is provided.
In addition to the effect of the invention described in the above, the reception result of the e-mail is stored in the second storage means, and the reception result stored in the second storage means is output.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

(First Embodiment) Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. The communication terminal device T of the present embodiment transmits image data obtained by reading a document as electronic mail, and prints the received electronic mail as image data on recording paper. The Internet is used as a computer communication network.

As shown in FIG. 1, the communication terminal device T is G3
And a function for communicating with the Internet in addition to the G4 facsimile communication function. The CPU 1 controls each unit of the communication terminal device T via the bus 12, and performs an encoding process, a decoding process, an image conversion process, which will be described later.
Executes software for binary / text conversion processing, mail editing processing, communication procedure processing, etc.

The reading unit 2 includes a charge coupled device (CCD).
The image on the document is read by ice) or the like, and binary black and white image data is output. The recording unit 3 as an output unit includes a printer of an electrophotographic system or the like, and records data received from another G3 or G4 facsimile apparatus or the Internet on recording paper.

A display unit 4 such as an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) displays the operating state of the communication terminal device T and image data. The operation unit 5 includes ten keys, speed dial keys, one-touch dial keys, various function keys, and the like necessary for operating the communication terminal device T. The numeric keypad or one-touch dial key also has a function for inputting characters such as alphabets.

A ROM (Read Only Memory) 6 stores software necessary for the operation of the communication terminal device T.
A rewritable RAM (Random Access Memory) 7
SRAM (Static Random Access Memory) or Flash Memory (Flash EEPROM; Flash Electr)
erasable programmable read only memory) and stores temporary data generated during execution of software. The RAM 7 has a first storage area 7a as first storage means and a second storage area 7b as second storage means. The first storage area 7a stores a mail address table T1 (see FIG. 3) described later. In the second storage area 7b, information on the reception result of the e-mail is stored.

The image memory 8 is a DRAM (Dynamic
A “G3 format image data” to be transmitted or received, which will be described later, is temporarily stored.

DSU (Data Line Terminator; Digital Se
rvice Unit) 9 is connected to the digital line L1. Data transmitted on the digital line L1 is transmitted according to a baseband transmission method. For this reason, DSU
Numeral 9 converts the transmission data as a digital signal into a change in voltage and sends it to the digital line L1, and converts the voltage change on the digital line L1 into a digital signal as reception data. The DSU 9 also has a function of generating and detecting various facsimile control signals.

The modem 10 modulates and demodulates transmission / reception data, and has a data modem function in addition to a conventional FAX modem function. NCU (Network Control
l Unit) 11 has a function of closing and opening the analog line L2 and detecting the transmission and reception of dial pulses corresponding to the fax number of the other party.

In this embodiment, the CPU 1, ROM 6, R
The AM 7, the DSU 9, the modem 10, and the NCU 11 constitute a mail receiving unit. FIG. 2 schematically shows the flow of data in the communication terminal device T according to the present embodiment. In the figure, the encoding / decoding unit 21, the image conversion unit 22, the binary / text conversion unit 23, the mail editing unit 24, and the auto dialer 25
U1 shows a function executed based on software stored in the ROM 6.

The encoding / decoding section 21 converts the image data into an MH (Modified Huffman) system and an MR (Modified REA).
D) Encoding or decoding is performed by an encoding method such as a method or an MMR (Modified MR) method. Hereinafter, the image data encoded by these encoding methods is referred to as “G3 format image data”. The image memory 8 stores the G3 format image data.

At the time of transmission, the image conversion unit 22 converts the G3 format image data into TIFF (Tag Image File For) which is a general image format used by a computer.
mat), and from TIFF to G3 format image data upon reception. Here, TIFF is the United States
This is a standard format for image files proposed by Aldus (currently merged with Adobe Systems). Instead of specifying a standard data format, TAG is used for image data attributes.
The feature is that it is defined as (tag) information. For this reason, in the case of the TIFF format, the data format can be recognized by reading the standardized tag information described in the first several hundred bytes of the image file.

TIFF is not limited to black and white binary,
Various Classes that handle monochrome multi-valued, full color, etc. are defined. One of them, Class F, defines G3 format image data. Therefore, the image data can be converted to TIFF by adding TIFF header information of Class F to the head of the G3 format image data. Hereinafter, the G3 format image data to which the Class F TIFF header information is added is referred to as “TIFF image data”.

The binary / text converter 23 converts binary data to text data at the time of transmission, and converts text data to binary data at the time of reception. Since there are computers on the Internet that cannot handle binary data e-mails, when sending binary data such as TIFF image data, text data must be sent once to ensure that the e-mail reaches the destination. Need to be converted to Text data handled on the Internet is IETF (Internet Engineering T
RFC (Req), a document issued by ask Force)
uest For Comments) 822, as a 7-bit code.

Therefore, the binary / text converter 23
Is MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension)
Data conversion is performed using base64 or the like in s).
According to this base64, 6-bit binary data is composed of 64 characters (uppercase, lowercase alphabet,
It can be replaced with one of numbers, +, /) and padding (=), and can be converted to text data. MIME is defined by RFC1521 (definition of MIME header), RFC1522, and RFC1590.

The mail editing unit 24 adds the mail header information to the TIFF image data converted to text data at the time of transmission to edit the data into an electronic mail format, removes the mail header information from the data of the electronic mail format at the time of reception, Only the TIFF image data converted into data is extracted. Since it is specified that predetermined header information be added to Internet e-mail, "Fr" is added at the beginning of TIFF image data at the time of transmission.
Information such as "om:" (sender), "To:" (destination), "Subject:" (title), "Cc:" (copied distribution), and "Date:" (date) are added.

The auto dialer 25 calls the telephone number read from the mail address T1 in the RAM 7,
The telephone number data of the other party is sent to the DSU 9, the modem 10 or the NCU 11.

Next, the mail address table T1 stored in the RAM 7 will be described with reference to FIG.
As shown in FIG. 3, the mail address table T1 includes
Data indicating a provider name, a user ID of the communication terminal device T, a password of the device T, an e-mail address of a user who uses the communication terminal device T, a password of the user, telephone number data of the provider, Data indicating the type of telephone line of the provider is registered in advance. Note that a different user ID and password of the communication terminal device T can be registered for each provider. Also, for one provider, e-mail addresses and passwords of a plurality of users can be registered.

Next, the login procedure will be described. As shown in FIG. 4, when a line with a computer of a provider (hereinafter, referred to as a server) is set, the communication terminal device T, for example, receives a PAP (Password Authentication Protocol).
ol), the user sends the user ID and password of the communication terminal device T from the mail address table T1 registered in the RAM 7 from the provider to “ACK” (Acknowledge;
Acknowledgment) or "NAK" (Negative Acknowledge;
Transmission continues until a negative acknowledgment is received. When "NAK" is received, retries are performed the number of times set by the protocol. If all of them are "NAK", the line is opened once and then redialed. Upon receiving “ACK”, login to the server is completed.

After the login to the server is completed, an e-mail is transmitted by SMTP as shown in FIG. Note that S
MTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is TC
This is one of the P / IP application protocols and is a protocol for transmitting a text-format electronic mail. That is, first, the communication terminal device T makes an SMTP connection request to the server. If the server can be connected, the server returns a response code “220” (server preparation completed) to the communication terminal device T. Further, when the communication terminal device T sets “HEL
When the server recognizes the domain name of the communication terminal device T, the server returns the response code "250" (the requested command ends normally) and the domain name of the server. Thereafter, the communication terminal device T transmits the mail, and when the transmission is completed, "Q
"UIT" command. In response, the server responds with the response code “221” (connection closed (QU
When the response to the IT)) is returned, the SMTP ends.
After the transmission of the e-mail is completed, the communication terminal device T logs off from the server and opens the line.

Next, POP (Post Office Protocol) will be described. The SMTP is a protocol for transmitting an e-mail, and the POP is a protocol for reading an e-mail from a server. POP
The basic communication procedure can be roughly divided into three phases. The first is a phase for connecting to the server and confirming the user, the second is for reading the mailbox, and the last is a phase for updating the status of the mailbox. Here, the state of the mailbox is information such as the number of received mails and the read state (read / unread) of each mail.

Next, the operation of receiving an e-mail will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. This operation is performed based on software stored in the ROM 6 based on the CP.
Executed by U1.

As shown in FIG. 6, the user selects a desired provider from the mail address table T1 registered in the RAM 7 (S1). Next, dial-up is performed for the selected provider based on the telephone number in the mail address table T1 (S2). At the time of this dial-up, the line type (analog / digital line) of the provider to be called is determined by referring to the mail address table T1. Here, if the provider is an analog line, the modem 10 is set, and if the provider is a digital line, the DSU 9 is set.

When a line with the provider is established,
The user ID and password of the communication terminal device T itself are transmitted according to the PAP described above, and the user logs in (S3). After that, the mail address and password of one user are selected and transmitted from the identification information of the plurality of users (that is, the mail address and password) in the mail address table T1 (S4). Subsequently, it is determined whether or not there is an e-mail (specifically, an e-mail sent to the e-mail address previously transmitted) reaching the provider according to the POP.
When the e-mail has arrived, the e-mail is received, and the e-mail is converted into G3 format image data and stored in the image memory 8 (S
6), proceed to S7. If the e-mail has not arrived at the provider, the process proceeds to S7. In S7, information on the reception result of the electronic mail, for example, information such as the presence or absence of the electronic mail for the mail address transmitted from the communication terminal device T and the number of the electronic mails is stored in the second storage area 7b of the RAM 7.

Subsequently, based on the mail address table T1, it is determined whether there is a next mail address that is not used for receiving an electronic mail (S8). If there is a next e-mail address, return to S4,
An unused e-mail address and e-mail password are transmitted based on the e-mail address table T1.
If there is no next e-mail address, in other words, if the e-mail receiving operation is performed using all the e-mail addresses in the e-mail address table T1, the line is opened (S9). Thereafter, the e-mail stored in the image memory 8 in S6 is printed on recording paper by the recording unit 3 (S10). Subsequently, the reception result information stored in the second storage area 7b of the RAM 7 in S7 is printed on recording paper by the recording unit 3 (S11), and this processing ends.

As described above, in the first embodiment, the following effects can be obtained. (1) In a state where the line with the provider is connected, e-mails corresponding to each e-mail address are automatically and sequentially received based on a plurality of e-mail addresses stored in the e-mail address table T1. Therefore, even when extracting e-mails for a plurality of users, it is not necessary to sequentially input the e-mail addresses and passwords of the respective users, and the complexity of the input operation can be eliminated. In addition, e-mails to a plurality of users can be received while the line with the provider remains connected. In other words, there is no need to open the line with the provider and then reconnect each time an electronic mail for each user with a different mail address is received. For this reason, the line time with the provider can be reduced as much as possible, and the communication cost can be reduced.

(2) Since the reception result is printed out, information such as how many e-mails have been delivered to which e-mail address can be easily known. (Second Embodiment) In the second embodiment, NIFTY-Serve, which is one of the personal computer communications, is used. The description of the second embodiment will focus on the differences from the first embodiment.

In the second embodiment, in FIG. 6 shown in the first embodiment, following YES in S8,
After the process of “transmission of LOG” (S12) is performed, S4
To return to. In other words, in NIFTY-Serve, when "LOG" is transmitted, the server that provides the connection service to the computer communication network prompts for "Enter User-ID" and "Enter Password". In S4, when the e-mail address and the password are transmitted based on the e-mail address table T1, the e-mail reaching the server is received. Therefore, S
By repeating the processes from S4 to S8 and S12, e-mails corresponding to all e-mail addresses in the e-mail address table T1 can be sequentially received.

As described above, the same effects as those of the first embodiment can be obtained in the second embodiment. In addition,
The above embodiment may be modified as follows, and even in such a case, at least the same operation and effect as those of the above embodiment can be obtained.

(A) TI as a data format of electronic mail
Instead of FF format, BMP (Bitmap) format, JPEG (Jo
int Photograhic Experts Group) format, GIF format,
An EPS format, an IFF format, a PICT format, or the like may be used.

(B) Timer 1 indicated by a two-dot chain line in FIG.
3 to automatically receive an e-mail every time a predetermined time elapses. (C) Dial-up to all providers or a plurality of providers arbitrarily selected in the mail address table T1 and automatically receive e-mails from the plurality of providers.

(D) Use on a computer communication network other than the Internet or NIFTY-Serve. (E) The communication terminal device T is embodied by a normal personal computer or the like that does not have a facsimile communication function.

(F) In S6 of FIG. 6, if there is an e-mail to be transmitted after receiving the e-mail, the e-mail is transmitted in accordance with the SMTP.

(G) In S6 of FIG. 6, immediately after receiving the e-mail, the recording section 3 prints the e-mail on the recording paper. (H) A configuration in which a plurality of mail addresses can be arbitrarily selected from the mail addresses stored in the mail address table T1 to receive a mail.

(I) The recording unit 3 prints on a recording paper before the received electronic mail exceeds the storage capacity of the image memory 8. (J) The reception execution result may be arbitrarily printed or displayed on the display unit 4 by a key operation provided on the operation unit 5. That is, outputting the reception result includes printing and displaying.

Further, technical ideas other than the claims grasped from the above embodiment will be described below together with their effects. (1) The communication terminal device according to claim 1 or 2, further comprising selection means (1, 5, 6, 7) for selecting identification information stored in the storage means.

According to this configuration, the receiving process using the identification information that does not need to receive the e-mail is not performed, so that the e-mail can be received efficiently. (2) The communication terminal device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the identification information includes at least a mail address and a password.

With this configuration, the same effect as in the above embodiment can be obtained.

[0048]

Since the present invention is configured as described above, it has the following effects. According to the first or third aspect of the present invention, electronic mail addressed to a plurality of users can be automatically and sequentially received in a state in which the line to the server that receives the electronic mail is connected. .

According to the invention described in claim 2, according to claim 1
In addition to the effects of the invention described in (1), since the reception result can be stored and output, it is easy to know how many e-mails have been received for the identification information, for example.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication terminal device according to a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a data flow in the communication terminal device.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory view showing a mail address table similarly stored in a RAM.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing a procedure for logging in to a server.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view showing a procedure for transmitting an e-mail to a server.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the operation of the communication terminal device T;

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... CPU constituting mail receiving means, 3 ... recording section as output means, 6 ... ROM constituting mail receiving means,
7 RAM constituting mail receiving means, 7a first storage area as first storing means, 7b second storing area as second storing means, 9 DS constituting mail receiving means
U, 10: Modem constituting mail receiving means, 11: NCU constituting mail receiving means.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A communication terminal device capable of e-mail communication with a computer communication network, wherein a line is connected between a first storage means for storing identification information of a plurality of users and a server which is a recipient of the e-mail. And a mail receiving unit for sequentially receiving electronic mails corresponding to the respective pieces of identification information stored in the first storage unit in a state. 2. The communication terminal device according to claim 1, further comprising: a second storage unit configured to store a reception result of the mail reception unit; and an output unit configured to output the reception result stored in the second storage unit. . 3. In a state where a line with a server to which an electronic mail is received is connected, identification information of a plurality of users stored in a first storage means of a communication terminal device is used for each identification information. A communication method for sequentially receiving corresponding e-mails.