JPH10320320A - Communication terminal having electronic mail receiving function - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To generate an electronic mail that needs confidential handling without needing a special procedure by displaying and outputting only communication management information to which sending source and destination information and optional information are added when prescribed information is included in a received electronic mail that encodes facsimile image data. SOLUTION: The addresses of the other parties that need confidential handling are preliminarily registered on a confidential table 70 that is set in an area in RAM 7. When an electronic mail that consists of a body that encodes facsimile image data of a sending document and communication management information that can add information showing a sending source and a sending destination and optional information is reserved, a controlling part 1 outputs only the communication management information to a display part 4 when prescribed character information which means that optional information of a received electronic mail needs confidential handling is included. Even when an address of a From item coincides with an internet E mail address registered on the table 70, it outputs only the communication management information to the part 4.

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 having an e-mail receiving function, such as a facsimile device capable of receiving an e-mail by connecting 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. The reason is that the computer network is excellent in error correction function, and the user bears the communication cost (line usage fee and provider's cost) with the nearest contract provider (connection company to the computer network). It is possible to perform communication not only with Japan but also with computers all over the world.

[0003] Since the conventional facsimile communication procedure is different from that of the computer communication using the computer communication network as described above, it is impossible to directly communicate from the facsimile apparatus to the computer communication network.
However, even if image data is normally transmitted and received in facsimile communication, for example, TIFF (Tagged Image FileFo
The data can be transmitted and received by a facsimile apparatus via a computer communication network if the data is converted into e-mail format data such as rmat) format.

[0004] Under such circumstances, facsimile messages can be transmitted and received as e-mail via Internet communication, and communication terminal devices having an e-mail reception function used for such purposes, especially facsimile devices, have been developed. ing.

[0005]

In a conventional facsimile apparatus, a received facsimile message is generally printed out immediately. Therefore,
Even when a facsimile device as a communication terminal device receives an electronic mail, it is generally printed out immediately. However, there are cases where the side that has transmitted such a message does not want the contents to be viewed by anyone other than the designated recipient, and there are also messages that need to be kept confidential at business establishments and the like.

On the other hand, in a normal facsimile apparatus, a function called a so-called confidential function has been put to practical use.
This confidential function is that, when a facsimile message is transmitted from the transmitting device, a confidential designation is performed, so that the receiving device displays or prints out only that the message has been received, and stores the content itself in, for example, a memory. Function to prevent printing out. Of course, it is needless to say that the contents of the message can be displayed or printed out by an operation such as inputting the password by the person designated as the recipient thereafter.

[0007] The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and even in a communication terminal device having an e-mail receiving function, it is possible to solve the above-described problems by adding a confidential function. With the goal.

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided a communication terminal apparatus having an e-mail receiving function, comprising: a main body encoding facsimile image data of a transmission original; information indicating a transmission source and a transmission destination; When receiving an e-mail composed of communication management information that can be added with a message, if the given information is included in any information of the received e-mail, only the communication management information is displayed and output. It is characterized by what it does.

In such a communication terminal device having an e-mail receiving function of the present invention, if any information in the communication management information of the received e-mail includes predetermined information, only the communication management information is included. Display is output and the main body is not output.

Further, the communication terminal device having an e-mail receiving function according to the present invention can add a main body encoding facsimile image data of a transmission original, information indicating a transmission source and a transmission destination, and arbitrary information. When an e-mail composed of possible communication management information is received, if information indicating the source of the received e-mail is registered in advance, only the communication management information should be displayed and output. It is characterized by.

In such a communication terminal device having an e-mail receiving function of the present invention, only the communication management information is displayed when the information indicating the transmission source in the communication management information of the received e-mail is registered in advance. It is output and the body is not output.

Further, a communication terminal device having an e-mail receiving function according to the present invention is characterized in that the main body of the e-mail is stored in a memory when only the communication management information is displayed and output.

In the communication terminal device having the e-mail receiving function according to the present invention, when any information in the communication management information of the received e-mail includes predetermined information or the information indicating the transmission source is not transmitted. If the information is registered in advance, only the communication management information is displayed and output, and the main body is stored in the memory.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings showing the embodiments. However, in the embodiment of the present invention described below, the present invention is applied to a communication terminal device configured to transmit image data to be transmitted by facsimile as electronic mail. Use the Internet.

First, a hardware configuration of a communication terminal device having an electronic mail receiving function of the present invention (hereinafter, referred to as the present device) will be described with reference to FIG. The device of the present invention has a function of enabling Internet communication in addition to a conventional facsimile communication function such as the G3 system.

The main control unit 1 is specifically composed of a CPU, is connected to the following hardware units via a bus 13, controls them, and executes various software functions to be described later. .

The reading section 2 reads an original with a scanner using a CCD or the like, and outputs dot image data converted into black and white binary. The recording unit 3 is a printer device of an electrophotographic system or the like, and prints out image data received from another facsimile device by facsimile communication or image data received by Internet communication as a hard copy and records it.

The display unit 4 is a liquid crystal display (LCD) or C
A display device such as an RT display for displaying the operation state of the present invention device, image data of a document to be transmitted,
The received image data is displayed.

The operation unit 5 includes character keys, numeric keys (numerical keys), speed dial keys, one-touch dial keys, various function keys, and the like necessary for operating the apparatus of the present invention. In addition, by using the touch panel type as the display unit 4, some or all of the various keys of the operation unit 5 can be substituted.

The ROM 6 stores in advance various software programs necessary for the operation of the apparatus of the present invention. RAM7
Is configured by an SRAM or a flash memory, and stores temporary data generated when executing software, and a confidential table 70 described later is set in an appropriate area. When executing the confidential function, which is a feature of the apparatus of the present invention, the received data is stored. If a flash memory is used as the RAM 7, the contents of the confidential table 70 will not be lost even when the power is cut off due to a power failure, device movement, or the like. The image memory 8 is composed of a DRAM or the like, and stores image data to be transmitted or received image data.

The modem 10 is an F for normal facsimile communication.
AX modem. The data modem 12 is a data communication modem for performing Internet communication, and is connected to the bus 13 via the external interface 9. NCU (Ne
A twork control unit (11) is hardware for closing and opening the analog line L, and connects the modem 10 or the data modem 12 to the analog line L as necessary.

A DSU (Digital Subscriber Line Termination Device: Digital Se
rvice unit) to connect to a digital line of the baseband transmission system.

The apparatus of the present invention has the above-described hardware configuration, and has a function of mainly transmitting and receiving image data converted into a TIFF file as electronic mail, as well as a normal facsimile communication function of the G3 system or the like. Have. In other words, it is possible to convert the original image data of a document to be transmitted by facsimile into a TIFF file and transmit / receive it by e-mail via the Internet. However, the function for this is implemented as a software program
Such functions are described briefly below because they are stored in M6.

The dot image data read by the reading unit 2 is defined by M according to the standard of facsimile communication.
The data is encoded by software according to an encoding method such as H, MR, MMR or the like. Conversely, encoded data received from outside is also decoded into image data by software and output from the recording unit 3 as a hard copy. The image memory 8 stores the image data as needed, and outputs the stored image data as needed.

The image data is a general image format used by a computer at the time of transmission.
The data is converted by software into a TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) format, and is converted from the TIFF format into image data by the software upon reception. The TIFF specification is
Published by Adobe Systems, a class corresponding to each type of data is defined for handling various data such as black-and-white binary, multi-valued black-and-white, and full color.
CLASS F, one of them, defines facsimile image data in G3 format. Therefore, facsimile image data in G3 format is preceded by TI of CLASS F.
It is possible to convert to the TIFF format by performing relatively easy processing such as adding FF header information. Hereinafter, the image data to which the CLASSF TIFF header information is added is referred to as “TIFF image data”.

Since the TIFF image data obtained in this way is binary data, it is necessary to convert it to text data by software at the time of transmission, and vice versa, ie, convert text data to binary data at the time of reception. . This is because computers that cannot handle binary data e-mails are also connected to the Internet. For this reason, to ensure that e-mails reach the recipient, TIFF
When transmitting binary data such as image data, it is once converted into text data and transmitted. In addition,
Text data handled on the Internet is IETF (Internet
It is specified as a 7-bit code in RFC (Request For Comments) 822, a document issued by the Engineering Task Force.

Therefore, as an example, MIME (Multipurpose In
When converting to text data using base64, which is one of the encoding types of Internet Mail Extensions, binary data is converted into 64 types of characters (upper and lower case alphabets, numbers,
By being replaced with one of +, /), it is converted to text data. Note that MIME is described in RFC
For example, besides the above base64, "7bi
Encoding types such as “t”, “8bit”, and “binary” are specified.

MIME to be transmitted obtained as described above
Communication data (mail header) for text data files with headers
Is added to the format of the e-mail, and the received e-mail is separated from the main body and the communication management information by software, and only the TIFF image data as the main body is extracted. Specifically, at the time of transmission, a mail header and a MIME header as communication management information are added to the TIFF image data converted to text data with a MIME header and edited into an e-mail format. Only the TIFF image data in which the mail header is separated from the data and converted into text data is extracted.

The mail editing processing by such software is indispensable because it is necessary to add predetermined header information to the electronic mail on the Internet and to transmit it together with the text. Specifically, at the time of transmission, “Date:” is added to the head of the TIFF image data as shown in the schematic diagram of FIG.
(The date and time the email was sent), "From:" (the sender of the email), "To:" (the destination of the email), "Subjec
t: "(additional information such as the title of the e-mail) and" Cc: "(address of the copy of the e-mail) are added, and the header information is separated when receiving. You.

Although the details will be described later, in the apparatus of the present invention, upon reception, the main control unit 1 determines the header information separated from the electronic mail, which means that the header information is treated as confidential in the "Subject:" item. It is determined whether or not predetermined character information is included and whether or not the “From:” item includes a destination registered in confidential table 70.

Here, the confidential table 70 will be described. As described above, the confidential table 70 is set in an appropriate area of the RAM 7 of the apparatus of the present invention, and as shown in the schematic diagram of FIG. Register your Internet e-mail address. When the main control unit 1 receives an e-mail having the Internet e-mail address registered in the confidential table 70 in the item "From:", the electronic mail is treated as confidential.
In the example shown in FIG. 3, the table address "
0 as Internet e-mail address "ABC@XX.J
P ”is the Internet e-ma for the table address“ 1 ”.
“SSS@yy.JP” is registered as the il address.

Also, predetermined character information (for example, "Shinten", "Confiden") meaning "confidential" is added to the "Subject:" item.
main control unit 1 also treats the electronic mail as confidential.

Next, the operation of the apparatus of the present invention having the above configuration, specifically, the operation at the time of receiving an e-mail will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the user performs an operation for logging in to the network. However, this operation is automatically performed by a one-touch operation of a predetermined key of the operation unit 5 by previously registering the telephone number, password, user name, and the like of the provider in the apparatus of the present invention. As a result, the main control unit 1 controls the NCU 11, whereby the apparatus of the present invention connects to the server of the provider via the analog line L and logs in (step S11). When the analog line L is connected to the server, the main controller 1 checks whether or not there is a received mail (step S12). If there is no received mail (step S12
Is "NO"), this process ends. If there is a received mail ("YES" in step S12), the main control unit 1 receives the data of the electronic mail from the bus 13 via the analog line L, the NCU 11, the data modem 12, and the external interface 9 ( Step S13).

When the electronic mail is received in this way, the main control unit 1 of the apparatus of the present invention separates the header part and the body by the above-described software processing and reads out the header information (step S14). The item "From:" is determined (step S15). Specifically, the main control unit 1 sequentially compares the contents of the item “From:” in the header information with the registered contents of the confidential table 70, and checks whether there is any matching data. As a result, if the content of the item “From:” in the header information of the received e-mail matches any of the registered contents of the confidential table 70 (“YE” in step S15)
S "), the main control unit 1 converts the entire data of the e-mail into an RA.
The information is stored in M7 (step S17), and at the same time, only the header information is printed out on the recording unit 3 (step S18), and the receiving process is terminated.

The result of the determination in step S15 is "NO"
If so, the main control unit 1 determines the item of "Subject:" (step S16). Specifically, the main control unit 1 determines whether “Shinten” is included in the content of the item “Subject:” in the header information. As a result, if “Shinten” is included in the content of the “Subject:” item in the header information of the received e-mail (step S16
The main control unit 1 stores the entire data of the e-mail in the RAM 7 in the same manner as when the result of the determination in step S15 is "YES" (step S17), as well as the header information. Only print out to recording unit 3
(Step S18), the receiving process ends.

The result of the determination in step S18 is "NO"
If not, the main control unit 1 converts the received e-mail data into dot data without storing it in the RAM 7 and immediately prints it out in the recording unit 3 (step S19), and terminates the reception processing. I do. If there is another received mail, the same processing as described above is repeated.

It should be noted that for an e-mail in which only the header information is printed out, it is possible for the user to recognize the arrival of the e-mail by viewing the header information. Accordingly, the user can print out the whole by operating the operation unit 5 and inputting a predetermined password at the time when the user receives the incoming e-mail or at a convenient time later.

In the above embodiment, the confidential designation is performed using the character "Shinten". However, this is an example, and the communication terminal device on the transmission side and the communication terminal device on the reception side are used. Of course, other characters can be used if they are determined in advance.

In the above description of the operation, the entire e-mail designated as confidential is temporarily stored in the RAM 7 of the apparatus of the present invention, and then only the header information is printed out. At this point, the reception of the e-mail from the server may be stopped, and only the header information may be received and printed out.
In this case, the confidentiality of the e-mail text is stored in the server and not stored in the RAM 7 of the apparatus of the present invention, so that the confidentiality is further improved.

[0041]

As described above in detail, according to the communication terminal device having the e-mail receiving function of the present invention, the main body encoding the facsimile image data of the transmission original and the information indicating the transmission source and the transmission destination When receiving an e-mail composed of a message and communication management information to which arbitrary information can be added, if any information of the received e-mail includes predetermined information, communication management is performed. Since only information is displayed and output, if any information in the communication management information of the received e-mail includes predetermined information, only the communication management information is displayed and output, and the main body is not output. . Therefore, when creating an e-mail, for example, "Shint
Only by inputting character information such as "en" which is determined in advance on both the transmitting and receiving sides as header information, it is possible to create an electronic mail treated as confidential without requiring a special procedure.

According to the communication terminal device having an e-mail receiving function according to the present invention, a main body encoding facsimile image data of a transmission original, information indicating a transmission source and a transmission destination, and arbitrary information are added. When receiving an e-mail composed of communication management information that can be received, if information indicating the transmission source of the received e-mail is registered in advance, only the communication management information is displayed and output. Therefore, when information indicating the transmission source in the communication management information of the received e-mail is registered in advance, only the communication management information is displayed and output, and the main body is not output. Therefore, the e-mail is automatically treated as confidential on the receiving side according to the Internet e-mail address of the transmitting side, which is usually entered when creating an e-mail, so no e-mail from any sender is required on the receiving side without any special procedure. Mail can be treated as confidential.

Further, according to the communication terminal device having an e-mail receiving function according to the present invention, when displaying only the communication management information, the main body of the e-mail is stored in the memory. If the predetermined information is included in any information in the communication management information of the mail or if the information indicating the sender is registered in advance, only the communication management information is displayed and output, and the main body is stored in the memory. Is stored. Therefore, the receiving side can read the main body of the electronic mail stored in the memory at an arbitrary time.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of a communication terminal device having an electronic mail receiving function according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the content of header information of an e-mail received by a communication terminal device having an e-mail reception function according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of the contents of a confidential table of a communication terminal device having an e-mail receiving function according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure of the communication terminal device having an electronic mail receiving function of the present invention when receiving an electronic mail.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Main control unit 5 Operation unit 6 ROM 7 RAM 8 Image memory 10 Modem 11 NCU 12 Data modem 70 Confidential table

Claims (3)

[Claims] An electronic mail comprising a main body encoding facsimile image data of a transmission original, and communication management information to which information indicating a transmission source and a transmission destination and arbitrary information can be added. When the predetermined information is included in the arbitrary information of the received e-mail, only the communication management information is displayed and output, and the communication having the e-mail reception function is performed. Terminal device. 2. Receiving an e-mail composed of a main body encoding facsimile image data of a transmission original, and communication management information to which information indicating a transmission source and a transmission destination and arbitrary information can be added. A communication terminal having an e-mail receiving function, wherein when the information indicating the transmission source of the received e-mail is registered in advance, only the communication management information is displayed and output. apparatus. 3. The communication having an e-mail reception function according to claim 1, wherein when only the communication management information is displayed and output, the main body of the e-mail is stored in a memory. Terminal device.