JPH10336232A - Communication terminal equipment with electronic mail function - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To recognize so-called RETURNED MAIL and to report it to a user by regeneratively outputting a non-arrival message and the image of transmission original from a network when transmitted electronic mail is returned because of the unknown destination. SOLUTION: A main control part 1 receives electronic mail from a bus 13 through an analog line L, NCU 11, data modem 12 and external interface 9. The main control part 1 separates the part of mail header and the part of MIME data and discriminates the presence/absence of the character code of Subject in the MIME data. When such a character code exists, that electronic mail is RETURNED MAIL. The main control part 1 prints out the mail header of received mail, the report of no arrival, the header of original transmitted electronic mail and the leading part of text in the original transmitted electronic mail through a recording part 3 onto one piece of paper as much as possible.

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 electronic mail function, for example, a communication terminal device such as a facsimile device capable of transmitting and receiving electronic 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 electronic mail via Internet communication, and communication terminals with an electronic mail function, particularly facsimile apparatuses, used for such purposes have been developed. .

[0005]

In a conventional facsimile apparatus, when an unused telephone number is transmitted as a destination, the telephone line itself is not connected, and a message notifying the fact is sent from the exchange. However, in the case of e-mail, even if a non-existent e-mail address is mistakenly sent as a destination, the e-mail is sent to the provider's server at least once and then returned to the user's mailbox as "RETURNED MAIL". Therefore, it is necessary for the user to find “RETURNED MAIL” in the list of e-mails that have arrived in the mailbox by connecting to the server of the provider next time. The email will not be sent to the other party forever.

In a conventional facsimile machine,
The received facsimile message was generally printed out immediately. Therefore, even in a facsimile apparatus as a communication terminal apparatus with an electronic mail function, when an electronic mail is received from a server of a provider, it is generally printed out immediately. For this reason, when "RETURNED MAIL" as described above is received, all the contents are printed out. However, it is sufficient for the user that when receiving "RETURNED MAIL" it is possible to determine whether it is "RETURNED MAIL" or whether it is an e-mail sent by the user. Not all of the "RETURNED MAIL" need be printed out.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and in a communication terminal device with an electronic mail function, a communication terminal capable of automatically recognizing a so-called “RETURNED MAIL” and notifying a user of the same. The purpose is to provide the device.

[0008]

A communication terminal device with an e-mail function according to the present invention is capable of transmitting / receiving an e-mail composed of a main body encoding image data of a transmission original and communication management information to / from a network. It is possible that if an e-mail sent by the user is returned with an unknown address, a non-delivery message from the network indicating that fact and an image of the transmitted original sent by the user are reproduced and output. Features.

In the communication terminal device with the electronic mail function according to the present invention, when the electronic mail transmitted to the network is returned from the network with unknown destination,
A message indicating the fact and a non-delivery message from the network and the image of the transmitted original transmitted by itself are reproduced and output to notify that it is a so-called "RETURNED MAIL".

In the communication terminal device with an e-mail function according to the present invention, at the time of transmitting an e-mail, page information indicating a page number of a transmission original corresponding to the main body of each e-mail is included in the communication management information, When an e-mail is received, the main body of each e-mail is recognized so as to recognize which page of the transmission original corresponds to the page information included in the e-mail.

In such a communication terminal device with an e-mail function of the present invention, when a so-called "RETURNED MAIL" is received, the main body of each e-mail corresponds to any page of the transmission original according to the page information contained therein. Can be recognized, so that only necessary pages can be reproduced and output.

Further, the communication terminal device with an e-mail function according to the present invention has a function of reproducing and outputting at least a non-delivery message and a part of an image of a transmitted original transmitted by itself on one sheet of paper. I do.

In such a communication terminal device with an e-mail function of the present invention, at least a non-delivery message and a part of the image of the transmitted original transmitted by itself are reproduced and output on one sheet of paper. The existence and specification of the so-called “RETURNED MAIL” can be determined only by the reproduction output to the paper.

[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, the hardware configuration of a communication terminal device with an e-mail 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
In addition to facsimile communication functions such as the G3 system, it has a function that allows Internet communication.

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 at the time of executing the software. In addition, a “non-delivery mail single print mode” flag 70 described later is set in an appropriate area. If a flash memory is used as the RAM 7, the contents of the "non-delivery mail one sheet print mode" flag 70 will not be lost even if the power is cut off due to a power failure, movement of the apparatus, 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.

Here, "non-delivery mail single print mode"
The flag 70 will be described. The "non-delivery mail single print mode" flag 70 is assigned to an appropriate bit of the RAM 7 as described above, and is normally set to, for example, "0" and the "non-delivery mail single print mode" is selected. I remember the state that was not done. However, when the user of the apparatus of the present invention operates a predetermined key of the operation unit 5, the "non-delivery mail single print mode" flag 70 is set to "
1 "and the state in which the" single mail delivery mode "is selected.

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 Equipment: Digital Se
rvice unit) to connect to a digital line of the baseband transmission system.

The apparatus of the present invention has the above-mentioned 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 image data of a document to be transmitted by facsimile into a TIFF file and transmit / receive it as e-mail via the Internet.
However, the function for that is implemented as a software program.
Since such functions are stored in the ROM 6, such functions will be briefly described below.

The document to be transmitted is read as dot data by the reading unit 2 in units of one sheet, in other words, in units of pages, and the MH, stipulated by the standard of facsimile communication is used.
In accordance with an encoding method such as MR, MMR, etc., the image data is converted into encoded image data by software, and conversely, the encoded image data received from the outside is also decoded into dot data by software and output from the recording unit 3 as a hard copy. . The image memory 8 stores the encoded image data as needed, and outputs the stored encoded image data as needed.

The encoded image data is converted by software into a TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) format which is a general image format used by a computer at the time of transmission, and is converted by a software at the time of reception.
Converted from FF format to encoded image data. In addition,
The TIFF specification is published by Adobe Systems, and defines classes corresponding to various types of data, such as not only black and white binary, but also black and white multi-valued and full color. One of them, CLASS F, defines facsimile coded image data in G3 format. Therefore, the G3 format facsimile-coded image data can be converted to the TIFF format by performing relatively easy processing such as adding CLASS F TIFF header information to the head thereof. Hereinafter, the facsimile-coded image data to which the TIFF header information of CLASS F is added is referred to as “TIFF image data”.

Since the TIFF image data thus obtained is binary data, it must be converted into text data by software at the time of transmission, and vice versa, ie, converted from text data to binary data by software 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 which is 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
A file of text data with a header (hereinafter referred to as MIME data) is edited by the software in the form of an e-mail with communication management information (e-mail header) added to the main body by the software. , The MIME data and communication management information
(Mail header) and only TIFF image data is extracted from the MIME data.

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 send 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 details will be described later, at the time of reception of the present invention, it is determined whether or not the item of "Subject:" exists in the remaining MIME data portion obtained by separating the mail header from the electronic mail. If it exists, it is determined based on the content whether or not the mail is "RETURNEDMAIL", what page it is, etc.

Therefore, in the apparatus of the present invention, as shown in FIG. 2, a code "IFAX" indicating that the transmission is a facsimile transmission using the Internet, a transmission apparatus ("From"),
That is, the code "F-120" for specifying the apparatus of the present invention itself, the code "001" for specifying the facsimile message ("JOB"), and the page ("PAGE") in the same facsimile message ("JOB").
A facsimile message is sent by e-mail after the code "001" specifying the "" is set as the content of the "Subject:" item.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a state of data when a facsimile message is converted into an electronic mail as described above. As shown in FIG. 3 (a), when a facsimile message is transmitted as an e-mail, first the original e-mail header 101 of the e-mail, then the aforementioned MIME header 102, and then the MIME data 103 of a facsimile message for one page follows. Such mail header 101, MIME header 102, MIME data 103
One page of a facsimile message is transmitted via the Internet as electronic mail using one unit of data composed of the following.

When the electronic mail in the data state as shown in FIG. 3A becomes "RETURNED MAIL", for example, as shown in FIG. A new mail header 201 is created by the server, a non-delivery notification 202 indicating that the e-mail could not be sent because the destination of the e-mail was unknown, and the original e-mail shown in FIG. Whole (reference numerals 101, 102 and 10
3) is converted into MIME data again, becomes the body 204 of the e-mail, and the MIME header 203 is also added.

Therefore, when the "RETURNED MAIL" as shown in FIG. 3B is received, the MIME header 204 of the mail header 101 at the time of transmission is included in the MIME data 204 below the mail header 201. A code that determines the existence of Subject: ", more specifically, the presence or absence of a character code, and if present, identifies itself in its content (in the example shown in FIG. 2," F-12
If “0”) is present, it may be determined that the e-mail is “RETURNEDMAIL” of the e-mail sent from itself. In this case, information for specifying the facsimile message and information for specifying the page number can also be obtained from the content of the "Subject:" item.

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 controller 1 receives an e-mail from the bus 13 via the analog line L, NCU 11, data modem 12, and external interface 9 (step S13). ).

When an electronic mail is received in this way, the main control unit 1 of the apparatus of the present invention separates the mail header part and the MIME data part below the mail header part by the above-described software processing, and The presence or absence of the character code of "Subject:" is determined (step S14), and if so, the content is read (step S14). Step S14
If the determination result is "NO", the e-mail is not "RETURNED MAIL", so the main control unit 1 converts the whole received e-mail into dot data and immediately sends it to the recording unit 3. The printout is performed (step S15), and the process of receiving one e-mail is completed. However, if there is another e-mail ("YES" in step S18),
The process returns to step S13.

If the result of the determination in step S14 is "YES"
", The code identifying itself is included in the content of the" Subject: "column (in this case," F shown in FIG. 2
-120 ") is determined (step S20), and if the determination result is" NO ", the above-described step S14 is performed.
Is processed as if it were not "RETURNED MAIL" as in the case of "NO".

If the decision result in the step S20 is "YES", it means that the e-mail is "RETURNED MAIL" of the e-mail transmitted from the apparatus of the present invention. The unit 1 reads out the page information (“PAGE 001” in the example shown in FIG. 2) included in the content of the “Subject:” item, and determines whether or not it indicates the first page. Yes (step S21). If the page is the first page ("YES" in step S21), the main control unit 1 next determines whether or not the "single non-delivery mail print mode" is selected. It is determined from the state of the “mode” flag 70 (step S22). When the “single bounce mail print mode” is selected (“YES” in step S22), the main control unit 1 sends the mail header of the received mail, a bounce notification, and the original e-mail sent. The recording unit 3 prints out the header and the first part of the body of the transmitted original e-mail (the first page of the facsimile message) on one sheet of paper (step S23), and terminates the receiving process. I do. However, if there is another received mail ("YES" in step S18), the process returns to step S13.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the result of the printout in step S23 described above. In this case, since the “non-delivery mail one sheet print mode” is selected, the mail header 201 and the non-delivery notification 202 of “RETURNED MAIL” are sequentially printed on one A4 sheet (1/1) in order from the top. Next, the MIME header 203 is printed, the mail header 101 of the e-mail sent from the apparatus of the present invention is printed, and then the MIME header 102 is printed. Finally, the head of the first page of the original facsimile message is printed. Prints are printed on paper as much as possible.

By the way, since the mail header 201 and the non-delivery notice 202 shown in FIG. 5 are in English, it is unclear for users who cannot understand English, and it is generally difficult to understand. It is a fact. Therefore, as shown in the schematic diagram of FIG. 6, if a Japanese display such as "Returned due to unknown address" is added in large characters to the upper end of the paper, Is easy to “RETURNED
MAIL "can be understood.

If the result of the determination in step S22 is "NO"
In other words, if the “single mail delivery mode” is not selected, the main control unit 1 copies the mail header of the received mail and the header of the original electronic mail sent. Print out on the recording unit 3
(Step S24) Further, the first page of the body of the transmitted original e-mail is printed out on the recording unit 3 on one sheet of paper (Step S25), and the receiving process ends. However, if there is another received mail ("N" in step S18)
O ”), the process returns to step S13.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing the result of the printout in the above-described steps S24 and S25. In this case, since the "One-page mail delivery mode" has not been selected, the first (1/2) sheets of two A4 sheets are sequentially printed from the top.
"RETURNED MAIL" mail header 201 and non-delivery notice 20
2, the MIME header 203 is printed, the mail header 101 of the e-mail sent from the apparatus of the present invention is printed, and the MIME header 102 is printed next. And
The entire first page of the original facsimile message is printed on the first sheet (2/2) of two A4 sheets.

As shown in the schematic diagram of FIG. 8, the user can easily add “RETURNED MAIL” by adding Japanese characters in large characters as shown in FIG.
It is possible to understand that.

If the result of the determination in step S21 is "NO", in other words, if the received e-mail is "RETURNED MAIL" but it is not the first page of the facsimile message, The process directly proceeds to step S18 without doing anything else, and checks whether there is any other e-mail to be received.
If not, the process is terminated.

By repeating the above processing,
E-mails other than "RETURNED MAIL" among e-mails arriving at the provider's mailbox are all printed out by the processing in steps S13, S14, S15, and S18. As for “RETURNED MAIL”, steps S13, S14, S20, S21, S22, S23 (or S24, S2
By the processing of 5), the first of the original facsimile message
The page is printed out, and the second and subsequent pages are ignored in step S21.

In the above-described embodiment, “RETURNED M
In the display of "AIL", only the first page of the facsimile message transmitted for the purpose of saving paper is reproduced and displayed. However, it is needless to say that all the pages may be reproduced and displayed. May be configured such that only the first page or the previous page can be displayed and reproduced.

Even if the destination is set correctly when sending an e-mail, the e-mail after the middle page of the transmitted facsimile message may not be sent due to various causes, for example, overflow of the memory capacity of the receiving server. In some cases, it may be "RETURNED MAIL". In such a case, "JO" in the "Subject:" item
The main body of the e-mail with the smallest page number in the same facsimile message may be reproduced and displayed by referring to the parts "B" and "PAGE".

For example, when the fifth page and subsequent pages of the transmitted e-mail are “RETURNED MAIL” due to overflow of the receiving server, the contents of “JOB” in the “Subject:” item are the same. "PAGE 005", "PAGE 006",
"PAGE 007" ... multiple e-mails to "RETURNED MA
Therefore, only the e-mail of "PAGE 005", which is the smallest page number among them, needs to be reproduced and displayed.

[0051]

As described above in detail, according to the communication terminal device with an e-mail function of the present invention, when an e-mail transmitted to the network is returned from the network with an unknown destination, this fact is notified. Since the unreachable message from the network and the image of the transmitted original transmitted by itself are reproduced and output, it is possible to automatically notify the user when a so-called “RETURNED MAIL” exists.

Further, according to the communication terminal device with an e-mail function according to the present invention, when a so-called “RETURNED MAIL” is received, the main body of each e-mail corresponds to any page of the transmission original according to the page information contained therein. Can be recognized, so only the necessary pages, for example,
Only the page can be reproduced and output, and the user alone can recognize which message has not been delivered.

Further, according to the communication terminal device with an e-mail function according to the present invention, at least the non-delivery message and a part of the image of the transmission original transmitted by the user are reproduced and output on one sheet. The existence and specification of the so-called “RETURNED MAIL” can be determined only by the reproduction output to paper.
It is possible to recognize a message that has not been delivered without wasting paper.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of a communication terminal device with an e-mail function of the present invention.

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

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a state of data when a facsimile message is converted into an electronic mail in the communication terminal device with an electronic mail function of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an operation procedure of the communication terminal device with an e-mail function according to the present invention when transmitting an e-mail.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing a result of printout by the communication terminal device with an e-mail function of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing a result of printout by the communication terminal device with an e-mail function of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram showing a result of printout by the communication terminal device with an e-mail function of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing a result of printout by the communication terminal device with an e-mail function of the present invention.

[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 "Single non-delivery mail print mode" flag

Claims (3)

[Claims] An electronic mail composed of a main body encoding image data of a transmission original and communication management information can be transmitted to and received from a network, and an electronic mail transmitted by itself is returned with unknown destination. In this case, a communication terminal device with an e-mail function is adapted to reproduce and display a non-delivery message from the network indicating the fact and an image of a transmission original transmitted by the communication terminal. 2. A method according to claim 1, wherein, when transmitting the electronic mail, page information indicating a page number of a transmission original corresponding to the body of each electronic mail is included in the communication management information. 2. The communication terminal device with an e-mail function according to claim 1, wherein the main body of each e-mail is recognized to correspond to which page of the transmission original according to the information. 3. The electronic mail function according to claim 1, further comprising a function of reproducing and outputting at least the non-delivery message and a part of the image of the transmitted original transmitted by the user on one sheet of paper. Communication terminal device.