JPH10133969A - Method and device for transmitting and receiving attached information - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To change the design of a transmittal page (cover page) when delivering facsimile information by adding cover page information corresponding to the electronic mail address of a previously registered sender and delivering an electronic mail. SOLUTION: To a gateway system 10, a sender's terminal 20, a FAX 30, a general telephone set 40, and an additional document storage part 50 are connected through a network. Then this gateway system 10 receives a cover page registered electronic mail from the sender and registers the electronic mail address of the sender of the received electronic mail or cover page information corresponding to a host name. Once a facsimile output request electronic mail sent from a terminal is received, the cover page information corresponding to the electronic mail address of the previously registered sender is added and delivered at the time of the delivery of information on the electronic mail to a destination facsimile terminal.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving attached information, and more particularly, to converting an electronic mail transmitted from a terminal such as a personal computer into facsimile information and transmitting the electronic mail to a facsimile machine. When delivering facsimile information to the telephone number of the facsimile terminal specified in a part of the e-mail, the facsimile information must be attached with a cover page and delivered, and the result of delivering the facsimile information and voice information must be sent to the e-mail. And a method and apparatus for transmitting / receiving attached information for notifying the sender's e-mail address requested in (1).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An e-mail transmitted from a terminal such as a personal computer is converted into facsimile information, and the destination, body, etc. of the e-mail are converted to the telephone number of a facsimile terminal designated as a part of the e-mail. In the gateway system to deliver, using the form of the cover page uniquely specified in the whole system, extract the information necessary for the form from the information of the transmitted e-mail, and insert the information in the form The method of outputting is adopted.

[0003] In a gateway system, a facsimile terminal or a general telephone number designated as a part of the e-mail, such as the destination of the e-mail or the body, delivers facsimile information and voice to the destination. The result of delivery to the facsimile terminal or general telephone is returned to the sender's e-mail address.

[0004]

However, when the user accommodated in the above-mentioned conventional gateway system is composed of a plurality of departments or the like, the usual facsimile transmission is designed for each individual or each department. However, since the transmission is performed using a uniformly defined transmission form, there is a problem that even if there is information to be further inserted into the transmission form or information such as an index to be particularly noticed, it cannot be inserted.

[0005] Further, in the conventional case where the requested output result is returned by e-mail, only the necessary information for returning the result is returned. There is no means for disseminating the information to all users, and there is a problem that even in such a situation, the user of the requesting terminal cannot acquire such information.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and enables the design of a transmission form (cover page) to be changed at the time of facsimile information delivery. It can be sent back with a facsimile information and voice information output from the gateway system as an e-mail. It is an object of the present invention to provide an attached information transmission / reception method and apparatus capable of performing the same.

[0007]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a first principle of the present invention. According to a first aspect, in a gateway system, an e-mail transmitted from a terminal including a personal computer is converted into facsimile information, and a cover page of the facsimile information is added to a telephone number of the facsimile terminal designated as a part of the e-mail. In the attached information transmission / reception method of giving and delivering, the gateway system receives a cover page registration e-mail from the sender (step 1), and covers page information corresponding to the e-mail address or host name of the sender of the received e-mail. Is registered (step 2),
Upon receiving the facsimile output request e-mail transmitted from the terminal (step 3), when delivering the e-mail information to the destination facsimile terminal, cover page information corresponding to the pre-registered e-mail address of the sender Is added (step 4) and delivered (step 5).

Further, according to the present invention, when the sender's e-mail address of an e-mail is an e-mail composed of a domain name and a user name such as an Internet e-mail address, a cover page to be registered is registered for each domain name. It is possible to register for each name. Further, according to the present invention, when a sender wants to stop giving a cover page, information indicating cover page suppression is set in a part of an e-mail to be transmitted.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the second principle of the present invention. According to a second aspect of the present invention, in a gateway system, an e-mail transmitted from a terminal including a personal computer is converted into facsimile information and voice, and the facsimile information designated as a part of the e-mail and the facsimile information In the attached information transmitting / receiving method for returning a notification e-mail for notifying the result of the delivery of the voice information to the e-mail address of the sender of the e-mail, a message is registered in advance as additional information (step 10), and registered in advance. If there is a message, the message is added to a notification e-mail for notifying the result of the delivery (step 11), and the message is transmitted (step 12).

Further, according to the present invention, the message added to the notification e-mail is transmitted by e-mail to a mailbox determined by the gateway system, and if there is a message in the mailbox, the message is added to the notification e-mail. to add.

According to the present invention, when a message in a mailbox is changed, the change message is transferred from the gateway system to the mailbox by e-mail. FIG. 3 is a first principle configuration diagram of the present invention. According to a third aspect of the present invention, a conversion means 2 for converting an electronic mail transmitted from a terminal including a personal computer into facsimile information, and a destination of the electronic mail, a part specified in a part of the electronic mail including a text. An attached information transmitting / receiving device of a gateway system having a delivery means for delivering a facsimile terminal with a cover page information added to facsimile information and corresponding to an e-mail address or a host name of a sender of an e-mail received in advance. Cover page information storage means 5 for storing cover page information to be transmitted, and the sender's e-mail address with reference to the cover page information storage means 5 when delivering e-mail information transmitted from the terminal to the destination facsimile terminal. Information obtained by converting the cover page information corresponding to A cover page information adding means 21 for adding.

The cover page information storage means 5 described above.
Means for storing cover page information to be registered for each domain name and for each user name when the sender's email address of the email is an email composed of a domain name and a user name, such as an Internet mail address. including.

The cover page information storage means 5 described above.
Includes means for storing information indicating cover page suppression in a part of an e-mail sent by the sender. FIG. 4 is a second principle configuration diagram of the present invention.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a reception result obtaining means for obtaining a reception result transmitted from a facsimile terminal or a general telephone, and a reception result obtained by the reception result obtaining means for transmitting an e-mail of the sender of the e-mail. A return message storage means for holding a message to be given when notifying a delivery result, and a return message storage means in an attached information transmitting / receiving apparatus in a gateway system having a return means 1 for returning a notification e-mail notifying an address; With reference to 50, when there is a message registered in advance, a return message attaching means 8 for adding the message to the notification e-mail is provided.

Further, the present invention further includes return message registration means for transmitting a return message by e-mail to a mailbox determined by the gateway system and registering the return message in the return message storage means. In the present invention,
The return message assigning means 8 includes a means for referring to the return message storage means 50 and adding a message to the notification e-mail when there is a message in the mailbox.

Further, the present invention includes a change message transfer means for transferring a change message from the gateway system to the mailbox by electronic mail. as mentioned above,
According to the present invention, in a gateway system, cover page information for each individual and each host is stored, an e-mail is received from a user, a user name of the e-mail is extracted, and the user name of the sender is corresponded. Check if there is cover page information to be sent, and if so, convert the e-mail information to facsimile information, add the cover page information and embedded information to the facsimile information, and specify Since it is possible to send the information to a facsimile terminal, only the cover page information designed for each user is registered, and information unique to each user or required by the user's department has been added. A cover page can be attached to facsimile information.

When specific information (cover page addition suppression) is added to the e-mail from the sender, a cover page is added or a new cover page is added. Various changes can be made as desired. Further, according to the present invention, when returning facsimile information or e-mail notifying that the voice information has been delivered from the gateway system to the terminal of the caller, a notification message held in the gateway system in advance is notified. It can be added to the e-mail and sent to the originating terminal.

Further, when changing the notification message, the gateway system can easily change the message to be added as the notification message only by transferring the change message to the mailbox. Various messages can be registered according to the situation in which the message has occurred.

[0019]

FIG. 5 shows the configuration of a gateway system according to the present invention. The gateway system 10
A sender terminal 20 that sends an e-mail and obtains a delivery result for a request from the gateway system 10;
A FAX 30 for receiving the contents of the e-mail sent from the sender terminal 20 via the gateway system 10, a general telephone 40 for obtaining voice information, and an additional document storage unit (mail box) 50 are connected via a network (not shown). Connected.

The gateway system 10 shown in FIG.
It comprises an e-mail transmission / reception unit 1, an e-mail-FAX conversion processing unit 2, a facsimile / voice output unit 3, a cover page information storage management unit 4, a cover page information storage unit 5, a signal reception unit 6, and a delivery result processing unit 8. You.

The electronic mail transmitting / receiving unit 1 includes a sender terminal 20
, A facsimile output request / voice output request mail, or an e-mail for registering cover page information, and a notification e-mail for notifying the sender terminal 20 of the delivery result from the gateway system 10.

When the cover page information is sent from the sender terminal 20 by e-mail, the cover page information is transferred to the cover page information storage management unit 4. Also,
The e-mail transmitting / receiving unit 1 receives an additional document update request e-mail from the system administrator. Thus, the e-mail transmitting / receiving unit 1 classifies the received mail as an additional document update request mail, a facsimile output request / voice output request mail, or a cover page information registration mail as a sender, and sends the additional document update request. In the case of a mail, the content of the mail is registered (overwritten) in the additional document storage unit 50, and in the case of a facsimile output request / voice output request mail,
The e-mail with the cover page is output to the destination terminal. In the case of the cover page information registration e-mail, the contents are registered (overwritten) in the cover page information storage unit 5.

When an e-mail for cover page information registration is received, the e-mail transmitting / receiving unit 1 outputs information on the output contents of the cover page, and a sender, a destination, and a cover page suppression to be output to the cover page. Extract information such as specific characters for In addition, the extraction method uses the existing method of extracting internal information from ordinary e-mail,
Here, the method is not particularly limited.

The e-mail / FAX conversion processing unit 2 converts the contents of the e-mail received from the sender terminal 20 into facsimile information, which is image information that can be output to a facsimile terminal, in order to output the contents to a designated terminal. . The conversion method here uses an existing method of converting ordinary data into facsimile image information, and the present invention does not particularly define the method. Further, when the page suppression designation is transferred from the e-mail transmission / reception unit 1, the e-mail / FAX conversion processing unit 2 accesses the cover page information storage management unit 4 based on the sender name (sender address). ,
The cover page information of the sender is obtained and added to the converted facsimile information.

The cover page information storage management unit 4 stores the cover page information transferred from the e-mail transmitting / receiving unit 1 and transferred from the caller terminal 20 for each user (for each caller terminal, for each domain name, for each user name). ) Is stored in the cover page information storage unit 5. The facsimile / voice output unit 3 outputs the information obtained from the e-mail / FAX conversion processing unit 2 to the facsimile terminal number extracted by the e-mail transmission / reception unit 1. Note that the facsimile output method here uses an existing method of outputting using a modem device compatible with the facsimile procedure, and is not particularly described here.

The cover page information storage management section 4 stores the cover page information in the cover page information storage 5. In the cover page information, the address of the caller, the name of the destination required for embedding the cover page, the source facsimile terminal number, and the like are set. In response to these settings, the e-mail / FAX conversion processing unit 2 checks whether the managed cover page information storage unit 5 stores cover page information corresponding to the user address of the received e-mail. If it is stored, that information is used. If it is not stored, it is checked whether cover page information corresponding to the host name of the user address is stored, and if it is stored, the information is used. If neither is registered, the cover page information specified for the entire system will be
The data is transferred to the FAX conversion processing unit 2. Thus, the e-mail-FAX conversion processing unit 2 processes the transmission cover image together with the embedding position information in the facsimile information that is set at the same time as the selected cover page information, creates the transmission slip image, and converts the transmission slip image. F along with facsimile information
The data is transferred to the AX / voice output unit 3. The method of synthesizing the transmission form image and the facsimile information uses an existing method of synthesizing ordinary text and image information, and is not particularly described here.

The cover page information storage section 5 also stores cover page information for each user passed from the cover page information storage management section 4 and position information on facsimile information for setting the cover page information. Signal receiver 6
Receives a reception confirmation signal from the FAX terminal 30 or the general telephone 40 and transfers it to the delivery result processing unit 8.

The delivery result processing unit 8 includes the facsimile terminal 3
0 (or the general telephone 40), the result of the output processing is converted into an e-mail format, and this information and the processing result of the processing result stored in the additional document storage unit 50 (mail box) in the gateway system 10 in advance. With reference to the message, the message is added to the information of the return e-mail, and transferred to the e-mail transmitting / receiving unit 1.

Next, the operation of a series of gateway systems in the above configuration will be described. FIG. 6 is a sequence chart of the cover page sending process and the notification message process of the present invention. Step 101) An output request e-mail a is transmitted from the sender terminal 20 to the gateway system 10. In the e-mail a, a sender name and transmission contents are described. The e-mail transmitting / receiving unit 1 determines whether the e-mail a is a cover page information registration request or a facsimile output request. If the e-mail a is a facsimile output request, the process proceeds to step 101. Also,
If the request is for a cover page information registration request, the sender a (sender address), cover page information, item information to be inserted into the cover page, position information, etc. are extracted from the e-mail a, and the cover page information is stored. Transfer to the management unit 4. The cover page information storage management unit 4 stores the information in the cover page information storage unit 5 for each sender.

Step 102) Upon receiving the e-mail a, the gateway system 10 transmits the e-mail-
The FAX conversion processing unit 2 converts the content of the e-mail a into image information for facsimile, and accesses the cover page information storage management unit 4 based on the sender name of the e-mail a. As a result, the cover page information storage management unit 4 searches whether the cover page corresponding to the sender name is stored in the cover page storage unit 5 and transfers the searched information to the e-mail-FAX conversion processing unit 2. .

Step 103) The e-mail / FAX conversion processing section 2 adds the transferred cover page information to the converted facsimile information and outputs the FAX / voice output section 3
Transfer to Thereby, the FAX / voice output unit 3 first outputs the cover page to the FAX terminal 30 of the transmission destination specified by the e-mail a.

Step 104) Next, the facsimile / voice output unit 3 sequentially outputs the converted facsimile information to the facsimile terminal 30. Step 105) Facsimile information is output until the end. After the output is completed, when the signal receiving unit 6 acquires a reception confirmation signal from the FAX terminal 30 or the general telephone 40, the signal reception unit 6 transfers the reception signal to the delivery result processing unit 8.

Step 106) The delivery result processing section 8
The message for the state corresponding to the reception confirmation signal and the additional document in the additional document storage unit 50 are searched, and the additional document is added to the return e-mail information. Step 107) The electronic mail to which the additional document is added is transferred from the electronic mail transmitting / receiving unit 1 to the sender terminal 20.

[0034]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the following embodiments, the description will be made on the assumption that the gateway system 10 is connected to an electronic mail network and the FAX terminal 30 is connected to a telephone network.

First, a case where the gateway system 10 receives a cover page information registration request from the caller terminal 20 will be described. The caller terminal 20

[0036]

(Equation 1)

Then, the image information of the cover page is transferred to the gateway system 10. Thereby, the e-mail transmitting / receiving unit 1 acquires the cover page information, extracts the user sender name (address) of the cover page information, whether or not the cover page is inhibited, and the destination FAX number, and extracts the image information of the cover page. With cover page information storage management unit 4
Transfer to

The cover page information storage management unit 4 acquires the information, and uses the user originator name (address) as a key to store the cover page information in the cover page information storage unit 5 in “〜”.
/ Jp / co / domain / hosut1 / use
r ”. Next, gateway system 1
It is assumed that an e-mail requesting output to the facsimile terminal 30 has been input from a user having the following sender name at 0. At this time, it is assumed that the above contents are stored in the carver page information storage unit 5.

[0039]

(Equation 2)

At this time, the cover page information storage management unit 4
Then, the storage location in the cover page information storage unit 5 where the cover page information should be set is specified by converting the user sender name input from the electronic mail transmitting / receiving unit 1. If a file is set in the management area, the information and the image information of the cover page are transferred to the e-mail / FAX conversion processing unit 2. If the file does not exist, the cover page image information file “~ / jp / co / do” of the host name in the same management area
main / host1 / ALLOWHOST ". If the information is set in the area, the information is referred to. If the information is not set, the information set in the entire system is referred.

The e-mail / FAX conversion processing unit 2 combines the information obtained from the cover page information storage management unit 4 with the facsimile information obtained by converting the received e-mail, and
The data is transferred to the AX / voice output unit 3. FAX / voice output unit 3
Transmits the cover page information to the facsimile number “03-1111-1111” of the destination information, and then transmits the facsimile information converted in order.

Next, it is assumed that the gateway system is connected to the Internet, and an output request to a facsimile is issued from a user having the following user caller name.

[0043]

(Equation 3)

Thus, the facsimile information is output to the facsimile terminal corresponding to the output request by the method described above. Thereby, the signal receiving unit 6 sets the FA
The reception confirmation signal is received from the X terminal 30. At this time, it is assumed that the following documents are stored in the additional document storage unit 50.

"The system will be stopped on the following schedule.
Questions and inquiries should be directed to the system administrator. From August 10, 1996 to August 12, 1996 ”In this way, the delivery result processing unit 8 of the gateway system 10 generates a document as shown in FIG. I do. Therefore, the caller terminal 20
Receives a document as shown in FIG. 7 by e-mail.

It should be noted that the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be variously modified and applied within the scope of the claims.

[0047]

As described above, according to the present invention, an e-mail transmitted from a terminal such as a personal computer is converted into facsimile information, and the facsimile terminal designated as a part of the destination, body, etc. of the e-mail. Manages the design of a cover page specified for each user or domain name in an e-mail address, and outputs a facsimile transmission slip (cover page) with the corresponding design. In addition, since the output of the cover page can be suppressed, different designs can be designated by different departments or users, and the convenience in using the same system is improved.

Further, according to the present invention, in a facsimile terminal of an e-mail destination or a gateway system for returning a notification e-mail to a sender e-mail address requesting the result of delivery to a general telephone by e-mail, By attaching a preset document at the end of the notification return, it is possible to add information such as system operation information and cautionary information, thereby improving the convenience of the system administrator. Can be done.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining a first principle of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a second principle of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a first principle configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a second principle configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a configuration diagram of a gateway system of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a sequence chart of a cover page sending process and a notification message process of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating an example of a notification e-mail according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

REFERENCE SIGNS LIST 1 e-mail transmission / reception unit, return means 2 e-mail-FAX conversion processing unit, conversion means 3 FAX / voice output unit, delivery means 4 cover page information storage management unit 5 cover page information storage unit, cover page information storage means 6 signal reception Unit, reception result acquisition unit 8 delivery result processing unit, return message attaching unit 10 gateway system 20 sender terminal 21 cover page information adding unit 30 FAX terminal 40 general telephone 50 additional document storage unit, return message storage unit

Claims (13)

[Claims] In a gateway system, an e-mail transmitted from a terminal including a personal computer is converted into facsimile information, and a cover page is added to the facsimile information to a telephone number of the facsimile terminal designated as a part of the e-mail. In the method of transmitting and receiving attached information, the gateway system registers in advance cover page information corresponding to an e-mail address or a host name of a sender of the received e-mail, and transmits the e-mail transmitted from the terminal. And transmitting the attached information to the destination facsimile terminal by adding cover page information corresponding to the pre-registered e-mail address of the sender to the facsimile information. . 2. When the sender's e-mail address of the e-mail is an e-mail composed of a domain name and a user name, such as an Internet mail address, a cover page to be registered is registered for each domain name and for each user name. 2. The method for transmitting and receiving attached information according to claim 1, wherein the method enables registration. 3. The attached information transmission / reception method according to claim 1, wherein when the sender wants to stop giving the cover page, information indicating cover page suppression is set in a part of the e-mail to be transmitted. 4. In a gateway system, an e-mail transmitted from a terminal including a personal computer is converted into facsimile information and voice, and the facsimile information and voice specified in a part of the e-mail are transmitted to a facsimile or a general telephone number. In the attached information transmitting / receiving method for returning a notification e-mail for transmitting a result of delivering information to an e-mail address of a sender of the e-mail, arbitrary additional information is registered in advance in the gateway system, and If there is any additional information, the additional information is added to the notification e-mail and transmitted to the sender's e-mail address. 5. The additional information added to the notification e-mail is transmitted by e-mail to a mailbox determined by the gateway system. If the mailbox has additional information, the additional information is transmitted to the mailbox. 5. The method for transmitting and receiving attached information according to claim 4, wherein the method is added to the notification e-mail. 6. When the additional information of the mailbox is changed, the gateway system transfers the changed additional information to the mailbox by e-mail.
The attached information transmission / reception method described. 7. A conversion means for converting an e-mail transmitted from a terminal including a personal computer into facsimile information, a cover page information added to the facsimile information, and a telephone number of the facsimile terminal designated as a part of the e-mail. An attachment information transmitting / receiving device of a gateway system having a delivery means for delivering to a cover page information storage means for holding cover page information corresponding to an email address or a host name of an e-mail sender; When delivering the information of the e-mail transmitted from the terminal of the caller to the destination facsimile terminal, the cover page information storage means is referred to and the cover page information corresponding to the e-mail address of the caller is converted to the conversion means. Cover page to be added to the facsimile information converted by The attachment receiving apparatus characterized by having a multi-address adding means. 8. The cover page information storage means, wherein when the sender's e-mail address of the e-mail is an e-mail composed of a domain name and a user name, such as an Internet e-mail address, the cover page information to be registered 8. The attached information transmitting and receiving apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising means for storing a URL for each domain name and each user name. 9. The attached information transmitting and receiving apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said cover page information storage means includes means for storing information indicating a cover page inhibition in a part of an e-mail to be transmitted given by said sender. . 10. A receiving result obtaining means for obtaining a receiving result transmitted from a facsimile terminal or a general telephone, and a notification electronic for notifying the receiving result obtained by the receiving result obtaining means to an electronic mail address of a sender of the electronic mail. In the attached information transmitting / receiving device in the gateway system having the return means for returning the mail, the return message storage means for holding additional information to be added when notifying the delivery result, and referring to the return message storage means, If there is additional information registered in advance, the notification e-mail
An attached information transmitting / receiving apparatus, comprising: a return message adding means for adding the additional information. 11. The additional information is transmitted by e-mail to a mailbox determined by the gateway system,
11. The attached information transmitting / receiving apparatus according to claim 10, further comprising a return message registration unit for registering the return message in the return message storage unit. 12. The return message adding unit includes a unit that refers to the return message storage unit and, when there is additional information in the mailbox, adds the additional information to the notification e-mail. The attached information transmitting and receiving device described. 13. The attached information transmitting and receiving apparatus according to claim 12, further comprising a change message transfer unit for transferring change additional information from said gateway system to said mailbox by electronic mail.