JPH1084432A - Document-reading mail equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow anyone to easily send document font information via an electric mail by converting a font document, such as book or newspaper into a file in a text document form as it is and automatically sending a file and/or an image file of the text document form to a prescribed mail address which is set in advance via a network. SOLUTION: The equipment is configured with a personal computer having a display device 101 as a base, with a font reader 103, a character input device 102, a communication modem 104, an electronic mail application software corresponding to an internet connected to an ISDN line 105 or the like. First, an opposite party to which an electronic mail is desired to be sent is selected among destinations listed on a menu of the display device 101. Then the font information of a transmission object document is read from the font reader 103. Then the font information of the document is read automatically converted into a text document file and the text document, and the image information of the font document are sent to a selected mail address.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an electronic mail transmission method, and more particularly to an electronic mail transmission interface technology for transmitting text information of a document in a text format.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional transmission system using a facsimile apparatus (referred to as "FAX apparatus"), character information such as type information in a document can be transmitted only as an image.
For this reason, this type information cannot be processed, and the information cannot be effectively used as electronic media. On the other hand, if the type information can be converted into a text format and communicated by e-mail or the like on the Internet or the like, it can be effectively used as multimedia information.

[0003]

As described above, in the conventional method, the facsimile apparatus prints out the transmitted type information on paper by the receiving side apparatus and outputs it.
There is a problem that this type information cannot be converted into a text document file and transmitted as an e-mail.

Further, in order to transmit type information as a text document file as an electronic mail, the procedure for the transmission operation or the like is complicated in a predetermined device or the like, rather than as easy as the operation of a conventional facsimile machine. Is a problem.

[0005] The reason is that in a conventional e-mail system, sending an e-mail requires some knowledge of how to operate a computer such as handling commands in order to be executed on a personal computer or a UNIX machine. That's why.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and has as its object to easily transmit print type information of a document to an e-mail as easily as operation of a facsimile machine. It is an object of the present invention to provide a system that enables the above.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, a document reading mail apparatus of the present invention converts a printed document such as a book or a newspaper into a text document format file as it is, and converts the text document format file and / or A means is provided for automatically sending an image file to a predetermined mail address via a network by mail automatically.

Further, the mail apparatus according to the present invention comprises means for reading character information in a document, and means for mailing the character information in the document to a predetermined destination in a text document file format. It is characterized by having.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below. The present invention, in its preferred embodiment, as an interface for sending e-mail,
Type information is input from a type reading device (103 in FIG. 1). Based on this information, the printer converts the printed image into a text document file format, and automatically sends the file to an e-mail address specified in advance from an e-mail system built into the device. is there.

The destination of the e-mail is determined by selecting an address registered in advance.

Further, in the embodiment of the present invention,
Several patterns are also prepared for comments to be added to the transmission document, and a desired comment or the like can be selected from the patterns.

As described above, in the embodiment of the present invention, even if the operator does not have special knowledge of the e-mail system, the operator can easily send a document by using a conventional facsimile machine. Can be sent.

In the embodiment of the present invention,
Since the document is transmitted in a text file format, paper is not required for transmitting the document as in the case of using a facsimile machine, and paperless operation is promoted and paper resources are saved.

Further, in the embodiment of the present invention,
By transmitting the printed type information in a text document format, it can be used as various types of multimedia information.

[0015]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of one embodiment of the present invention.

Referring to FIG. 1, the present embodiment is based on a personal computer having a display 101 and the like as predetermined peripheral devices, and is based on a character reading device 103, a character input device such as a keyboard 102, a communication modem 104, and a communication modem 104.
It is composed of Internet-compatible e-mail application software such as an SDN line 105 connection. In addition, a predetermined basic OS is installed in a personal computer provided with a CPU and a storage device (not shown) mounted in the main body.

Next, the operation of the embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.

A partner who wants to send an e-mail is selected from destinations displayed on the screen of the display 101.

The type information of the document to be transmitted is read from the type reading device 103.

After completion of the above operations and the above, the type information of the document is automatically read and, for example, the image information is converted into a code of the corresponding character information by a character recognizing means, thereby being converted into a text document file. The image information of the text document and the print document is transmitted to the selected mail address.

An example of the embodiment of the present invention will be described more specifically below. In this embodiment, the device shown in FIG. 1 is a personal computer (CPU Pentium 1).
00 MHz, memory 20 MB), a type reader 103, a modem (28800 bps) 10
4. A display (15 inches) 101 is provided as a peripheral device. Software is communication driver and WIN
DOWS95 / AP (application program) for e-mail communication is installed.

As a precondition, an environment in which the Internet can be used is assumed.

An example of a specific operation of this embodiment will be described below.

It is assumed that an article published in a certain magazine is sent by e-mail to the Tokyo head office. As shown in FIG. 2, the operator first selects "Tokyo Head Office" as the destination from the screen of the display 101.

Next, the magazine to be transmitted is placed on the type reader 103 and the type is read.

After that, it is automatically converted into a text document file, and a mail is transmitted to the Tokyo head office.

The mail receiver can process information based on the sent document file.

Also, according to the present invention, a text file or an image file stored in a floppy disk or the like is read instead of reading a document from the type reading device 103 and converting it to a text file as in the above-described embodiment. Needless to say, a configuration may be provided that has a means for performing a switching operation so as to directly transmit the electronic mail as it is.

[0029]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The following effects are obtained.

(1) The first effect of the present invention is that the operability is simplified as in a facsimile apparatus, and as a result, even a person who does not have specialized knowledge of a computer can easily send an e-mail. ,That's what it means.

The reason is that, in the present invention, the operation can be performed with a man-machine interface similar to a facsimile machine.

(2) A second effect of the present invention is that the received information can be processed and can be used as multimedia information.

The reason is that the present invention does not employ an information providing method that does not allow information processing such as a facsimile apparatus, and transmits the information to a destination in a text document that can be processed. This is because it can be effectively utilized such as processing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the appearance of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram schematically showing an operation procedure of one embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 101 Display 102 Keyboard 103 Print device 104 Modem 105 ISDN line 106 Main body

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A text document such as a book or a newspaper is converted into a text document format file as it is, and the text document format file and / or image file is transmitted to a predetermined mail address via a network. A document reading mail device comprising means for automatically sending a mail. 2. A means for reading character information in a document, a means for converting the character information in the document into a text document file format and sending the mail to a predetermined destination,
A mail device comprising: 3. An operation in which a destination of a mail transmission registered in advance is displayed on a display means, and an operation in which an operator selects a destination on a display screen and an operation in which document information to be transmitted is read by the reading means. 3. The mail apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the document is transmitted to the selected destination by mail. 4. The mail apparatus according to claim 2, further comprising means for reading a file in a text document format stored in the storage medium and sending the read file to a predetermined destination by mail.