JPH11122416A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To improve operability by reducing the load of a user related with address book registration. SOLUTION: An address extracting means 12a extracts the electronic mail address of the other party from the header of transmitted and received electronic mail data. When the extracted electronic mail address is not registered, an address registering means 12b allows an address book 13 to store it for operating automatic registration. An update communication date writing means 12c and a number of times of communication updating means 12d update the already registered electronic mail address and the stored update communication date and number of times of communication count value each time communication with the other party having the electronic mail address is operated for managing the update communication date and number of times of communication. When any empty capacity is not present in the address book 13 at the time of registering a new electronic mail address, an address eliminating means 12e selects an electronic mail address whose validity is low based on the managed update communication date and number of times of communication, and eliminates it from the address book 13.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus for transmitting and receiving images in an e-mail format via a computer network such as the Internet, and more particularly to a method for registering an e-mail address in an address book.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional facsimile apparatus transmits image data via a telephone line in accordance with a facsimile procedure specified by an international standard.

[0003] In this case, since a telephone system in a public telephone network or the like adopts a fee system in which the communicable time per unit fee is shortened according to the distance, the communication fee becomes larger as the distance becomes longer. come.

[0004] In order to reduce the communication cost, for example, as proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-242326,
A facsimile apparatus has been proposed in which an image is represented by e-mail format data and communicated by e-mail via the Internet.

[0005] In the Internet, there is no communication cost for clients for data transmission between providers (internet connection companies). That is, the communication cost for the client is only the communication cost for data transmission between the client and the provider, regardless of the distance to the final data transmission destination. Therefore, the cost merit increases as the distance becomes longer.

FIG. 6 shows the configuration of a facsimile apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-242326.

This facsimile apparatus is, as shown in the figure,
It has a CPU 1, a ROM 2, a RAM 3, an external storage unit 4, a format conversion unit 5, a format reverse conversion unit 6, a scanner unit 7, a panel unit 8, a compression / decompression unit 9, a LAN control unit 10, and a printer unit 11.

In this facsimile apparatus, a facsimile document is set on the scanner unit 7 and the panel unit 8
The transmission procedure is started in response to the input of the destination e-mail address and the pressing of the start button. In this transmission procedure, the facsimile document is read by the scanner unit 7 to generate image data. After the image data is compressed by the compression / decompression unit 9, the binary compressed data obtained by the compression is temporarily stored in the external storage unit 4 such as a hard disk device.

After that, the format conversion unit 5 converts the binary compressed data into character code data composed of a combination of 7-bit character codes, and adds a destination e-mail address, a source e-mail address, A header describing a data format, a character code conversion method, and the like is added, and the data is converted to e-mail data in an e-mail format. The e-mail format is, for example, MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) which is a standard of e-mail.
Shall be followed.

[0010] Then, in the LAN control unit 10, for example, SMT
Using an e-mail transfer protocol such as P (Simple Mall Transfer Protocol), the e-mail data obtained by the format converter 5 is transmitted to a computer network such as the Internet.

An electronic mail server (not shown) for managing electronic mail is connected to the computer network. Upon receiving the e-mail data sent as described above, the e-mail server transfers the e-mail to the destination address indicated in the header.

On the other hand, this facsimile machine periodically requests the electronic mail server to transfer electronic mail data addressed to itself. If there is e-mail data addressed to itself, the e-mail data is transferred from the e-mail server. Thus, the e-mail data is received and temporarily stored in the external storage unit 4.

Thereafter, the format reverse conversion unit 6 converts the character code data into binary compressed data,
The image data is reproduced by being decompressed by the compression / decompression unit 9, and the image data is temporarily stored in the external storage unit 4.

The image data stored in the external storage unit 4 is supplied to the printer unit 11, and an image corresponding to the image data is printed.

In a conventional facsimile apparatus which transmits and receives images via a computer network, the image transmission method is different from that of a general facsimile apparatus using only a telephone network. The operation is almost the same. However, the destination must be specified not by a telephone number consisting of only numbers, but by an e-mail address consisting of a combination of alphanumeric characters and symbols.

In general, an e-mail address is more complicated than a telephone number, so that the user must perform a complicated operation in specifying the e-mail address, and must perform a more careful operation to specify the e-mail address without error. For this reason,
A conventional facsimile apparatus using a computer network has lower operability than a general facsimile apparatus using only a telephone network.

Therefore, an address book for storing the e-mail addresses registered by the user is prepared, and when one of the e-mail addresses stored in the address book is selected and designated, By accepting email addresses as recipients,
It is conceivable to suppress the decrease in operability.

As a method of registering an e-mail address in an address book, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 8-242326 discloses a method for registering an address book in a format uniquely determined in advance by a user, which is transmitted from a personal computer or the like to the facsimile apparatus. Is shown in FIG.

FIG. 7 shows an example of the format of the e-mail data for registering the address book.

As shown in FIG. 1, electronic mail data is roughly divided into a header and a text, and the data format of the text is determined by the header. “Content-type: text / plain in header
The character string "" indicates that the body is character code data. The registration process in the address book requires that the body be character code data. "Subject: !! $" in the header The character string "" indicates that the text is an instruction for performing a registration process in the address book.
The subject of this e-mail is usually placed after the character string "Subject:", but the character string "!! $" is a special character string and can be distinguished from the title. An e-mail address to be registered is described in the text, and a character string "! LIST" is defined at the beginning.

The facsimile apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-242326 recognizes that, when receiving the e-mail data in the above format, the facsimile command is a command for performing a registration process from the subject part of the header to the address book. And
The body is analyzed and the e-mail address described here is registered in the address book.

[0022]

As described above, the conventional facsimile apparatus performs the registration processing in the address book using the e-mail data in a special format. You must know the format to specify. Even if the user knows this format, it is necessary to create e-mail data for registering the address book according to this format without error, and the operation is troublesome. Furthermore, in spite of registering the address book with the facsimile machine at hand, the e-mail data for registering the address book is transmitted to the e-mail server and the e-mail data for registering the address book is transmitted to the e-mail server. Communication costs for receiving from the server are incurred.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a facsimile apparatus with good operability, which reduces the burden on the user for registering an address book.

[0024]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an address storage means such as an address book for storing an electronic mail address, and an electronic mail data of a communication partner at the time of communication. Address acquisition means for acquiring the e-mail address acquired by the address acquisition means when the e-mail address acquired by the address acquisition means is not stored in the address storage means. For each of the address storage control means and the e-mail address stored in the address storage means, at least the latest timing at which the e-mail data was transmitted to the other party corresponding to the e-mail address (for example, the latest communication ), Such as the latest communication date and time writing means and The latest communication timing management means comprising a contact list and the e-mail addresses stored in the address storage means at least within a predetermined period of time to a partner corresponding to the e-mail address (for example, from the time of registration to the present) Counting and managing the number of transmissions of the e-mail data in, for example, a communication frequency management means comprising a communication frequency value updating means and an address book; and the address storage means when the address storage control means intends to store an e-mail address. When there is no free area, the e-mail address stored in the address storage means based on the latest communication timing managed by the latest communication timing management means and the number of communication times managed by the communication number management means. Address to select and erase one of And a peripheral means.

By taking such means, when e-mail data is received, the e-mail data is extracted, for example, because the e-mail address of the transmission source is indicated in the header, and is sent to the address storage means. It is memorized. The e-mail address specified as the destination by the destination address receiving means is stored in the address storage means. Therefore, if the e-mail data is transmitted using the e-mail address stored in the address storage means, the user can select the destination e-mail address from the e-mail addresses stored in the address storage means. Just select.

If there is no free space in the address storage unit when the electronic mail address is to be stored in the address storage unit, the latest communication timing and communication count management unit managed by the latest communication timing management unit manages the electronic mail address. When one of the e-mail addresses stored in the address storage means is selected and deleted based on the number of times of communication performed, an area for storing a new e-mail address is secured, and the new e-mail address is secured. An email address can be stored.

[0027]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a main configuration of a facsimile apparatus according to this embodiment. The same parts as those in FIG. 6 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

As shown in FIG. 1, the facsimile apparatus of the present embodiment includes a CPU 1, a ROM 2, a RAM 3, an external storage unit 4, a format conversion unit 5, a format reverse conversion unit 6, a scanner unit 7, a panel unit 8, a compression / decompression unit. Part 9, LA
N control unit 10, printer unit 11, address book management unit 1
2. It has an address book 13 and a clock section 14.

The CPU 1 operates based on an operation program stored in the ROM 2, and realizes an operation as a facsimile apparatus by totally controlling each part of the facsimile apparatus.

The ROM 2 stores an operation program for the CPU 1 to control each section, various kinds of preset setting data, and the like.

The RAM 3 temporarily stores various data necessary for the CPU 1 to perform various processes.

The external storage unit 4 uses a hard disk device or the like, and stores image data and electronic mail data.

The format converter 5 converts the binary compressed data obtained by compressing the image data into electronic mail data of a predetermined electronic mail format. This e-mail data is converted into character code data obtained by converting binary compressed data into character code data composed of a combination of 7-bit character codes, and includes a destination e-mail address, a source e-mail address, a data format, a character It is assumed that a header describing a conversion method to a code is added.

The format reverse conversion unit 6 extracts binary compressed data from electronic mail data configured by converting binary compressed data.

The scanner unit 7 reads a facsimile document and generates image data.

The panel unit 8 has, for example, a key switch group, an operation unit for the user to input various instructions to the facsimile apparatus, and a liquid crystal display, for example, and displays various information for the user. And a display unit for performing.

The compression / decompression section 9 compresses the image data to obtain binary compressed data. The compression / decompression unit 9
Reproduces image data by expanding binary compressed data.

The LAN control unit 10 performs transmission / reception processing of e-mail data via a computer network.

The printer section 11 prints an image indicated by the image data.

The address book management unit 12 stores the address book 13
Performs management processing related to the e-mail address registered in.

The address book 13 is a RAM or an EEPROM.
The e-mail address registered in the address book is stored.

The clock section 14 performs a timing operation and presents the current date and time (year, month, day, day of the week, time, etc.).

By the way, the address book management unit 12 performs processing for displaying known e-mail addresses registered in the address book 13 and notifying the CPU 1 of the selected e-mail address as a destination e-mail address. In addition, it has an address extracting unit 12a, an address registering unit 12b, a registration date and time writing unit 12c, a communication count updating unit 12d, and an address deleting unit 12e.

Here, the address extracting means 12a, when receiving the e-mail data, receives the e-mail address of the transmission source indicated in the header of the e-mail data and the e-mail data for registering the address book. Is performed, an e-mail address indicated to be registered in the e-mail data or an e-mail address directly input on the panel unit 8 is extracted. The address registration unit 12b registers the e-mail address extracted by the address extraction unit 12a in the address book 13 when the e-mail address has not been registered in the address book 13 yet. The latest communication date and time writing means 12c
When communication is performed, the date and time at that time are determined, and this is stored in the address book 13 in association with the e-mail address of the communication partner as the latest communication date and time. When communication with a partner corresponding to the e-mail address stored in the address book 13 is performed, the communication count value updating unit 12d stores the communication count value in the address book 13 in association with the e-mail address of the partner. The count value of the number of times of communication is increased by one. The address erasing means 12e stores the e-mail address in the address book 13 by the address registering means 12b.
If there is no free space in the address book 13 when trying to register in the address book, an e-mail address with low usefulness is selected based on the latest communication date and time and the number of communication counts stored in the address book 13, From the address book 13.

Next, the operation of the facsimile apparatus configured as described above will be described. The operation of transmitting and receiving an image via a computer network in the facsimile apparatus is the same as that of the conventional one, so that the description is omitted, and the operation relating to the address book registration by the address book management unit 12 will be described here.

The address book management unit 12 executes an address registration process as shown in FIG. 2 when the facsimile apparatus transmits and receives electronic mail data other than the electronic mail data for registering the address book.

In the address registration process at this time, first, the address book management unit 12 determines whether or not what is to be performed is transmission of electronic mail data (step ST).
1). Then, if the transmission of the e-mail data is performed, the address book management unit 12 analyzes the header in the transmitted e-mail data and extracts the e-mail address of the transmission destination (step ST2). On the other hand, if the e-mail data has been received, the address book management unit 12 analyzes the header of the received e-mail data and extracts the e-mail address of the transmission source (step ST3). . Note that the processing in steps ST2 and ST3 is performed by the address extracting means 12a.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of the header. The character string “aaa@zzzz.co.” Shown after “From:”
“jp” indicates the source e-mail address, and the character string “bbb@xxxx.co.jp” after “To:” indicates the destination e-mail address. The format of the header shown is defined as a standard for Internet mail, so that the sender and the sender's e-mail address can be always extracted from any e-mail. Since only the "From:" and "To:" fields are required to extract the destination e-mail address, the address book management unit 12 needs to analyze other fields and information of the mail body. No, that is, "Cont
ent-type: text / plain ”is not required (for e-mail with facsimile image attached,“ Content-typ
e: multipart / mixed ”).

Subsequently, the address book management unit 12 causes the address registration means 12b to execute step ST2 or step S2.
The e-mail address extracted in T3 is compared with all the e-mail addresses stored in the address book 13 to check whether the e-mail address extracted in step ST2 or ST3 is registered in the address book 13 ( Step ST4).

Then, step ST2 or step S
If the e-mail address extracted in T3 is not registered in the address book 13, the address book management unit 12
Then determines whether there is free space in the address book 13 to register a new e-mail address (step ST5).

If there is free space in the address book 13 for registering a new e-mail address, the address book management unit 12 determines whether the e-mail address extracted in step ST2 or ST3 and the clock unit 14 The current date and time (latest communication date and time) and the number of times of communication count value "1" are registered in the address book 13 in association with each other as shown in FIG. 4 (step ST6). This processing is performed by the address registration unit 12b, the latest communication date and time writing unit 12c, and the communication count value updating unit 12d.

In many cases, the name of the sender is described in addition to the electronic mail address of the sender. Therefore, in such a case, the name may be registered together with the e-mail address. This is convenient because the user can select an e-mail address by referring to the name when specifying the transmission destination.

Incidentally, the e-mail address extracted in step ST2 or ST3 is stored in the address book 13
Is already registered in the address book management unit 12
Updates the latest communication date and time associated with the e-mail address extracted in step ST2 or step ST3 in the address book 13 to the current date and time indicated by the clock unit 14 and increases the communication count value by one. (Step ST7). This processing is performed by the latest communication date / time writing unit 12c and the communication count value updating unit 12d.

As described above, the e-mail address of the partner who has transmitted / received the e-mail data is stored in the address book 13.
And the latest date and time of communication with the other party and the number of times of communication are managed.

When such operations are continued for a long period of time, the number of e-mail addresses registered in the address book 13 increases. Since the storage capacity of the address book 13 is limited, the address book 13 may eventually become full. In such a state, even if e-mail data is transmitted / received to / from a new partner, there is no free space in the address book to register the e-mail address of the new partner.

In such a case, the address book management unit 12 determines in step ST5 that there is no free area. In this case, the address book management unit 12
Searches the address book 13 for the e-mail address with the oldest communication date and time (step ST8), and determines whether or not the communication count value associated with the e-mail address is equal to or less than a predetermined value (step ST8). Step ST
9).

Here, if the count value of the number of times of communication associated with the e-mail address retrieved in step ST8 exceeds a predetermined value, transmission / reception of e-mail data to / from the other party having the e-mail address is performed to some extent. The e-mail address is not deleted because e-mail data may be transmitted to the other party in the future. Then, in this case, the address book management unit 12 searches for an e-mail address with the next latest communication date and time (step ST10), and the communication count value associated with the e-mail address searched by this is equal to or less than a predetermined value. Is determined in step ST9.

The address book management unit 12 repeats this processing until an e-mail address whose communication count value is equal to or less than the predetermined value is searched, so that the number of communication times after the registration is equal to or less than the predetermined number, and Search for the e-mail address of the partner whose elapsed time since the latest communication was performed is the longest.

An e-mail address that satisfies this condition is searched, and if it is determined in step ST9 that the communication count value is equal to or smaller than a predetermined value, the address book management unit 1
2 deletes the e-mail address from the address book 13 and secures a free space for registering a new e-mail address (step ST11). Note that the processing in steps ST8 to ST11 is performed by the address deleting unit 12e.

After that, the address book management section 12 proceeds to step ST6 or step ST2 or step ST2.
The e-mail address extracted in step 3, the current date and time (latest communication date and time) indicated by the clock unit 14, and the communication count value "1" are registered in the address book 13 in association with each other.

On the other hand, in order for the user to artificially register the e-mail address in the address book 13, the e-mail data for registering the address book as shown in FIG. Sent from a computer.

The character string "Subject:! Registration" in the header of the e-mail data indicates that the body is a command for performing registration processing in the address book. The subject of this e-mail is usually placed after the string "Subject:", but the string "! Registration" is a special string and can be distinguished from the subject. The e-mail address you want to register is written in the body of the message.
The character string "T" is defined.

Therefore, when the facsimile apparatus receives such e-mail data for registering the address book,
The PU 1 determines from the character string “Subject:! Registration” that the electronic mail data is for registering an address book, and instructs the address book management unit 12 to execute an address registration process.

In response, the address book management unit 12 executes an address registration process as shown in FIG.

In the address registration process at this time, the address book management unit 12 first analyzes the body of the received mail,
One of the e-mail addresses to be registered is extracted (step ST21).

Thereafter, the address book management section 12 performs the above-described processing of steps ST4 to ST11 on the extracted e-mail address.

Then, step ST6 or step S
When the processing in T7 is completed, it is determined whether or not the processing in steps ST4 to ST11 has been performed for all the e-mail addresses to be registered indicated in the body of the received mail data (step ST22). Here, if there is an e-mail address that has not been processed yet, by repeating the processing after step ST21,
Step ST described above for other e-mail addresses
4 to step ST11 are performed.

In this way, the source e-mail address when receiving the e-mail data and the destination e-mail address when transmitting the e-mail data are automatically registered in the address book 13. Also, the e-mail address indicated in the body of the e-mail data for registering the address book is automatically registered in the address book 13.

On the other hand, for each of the e-mail addresses registered in the address book 13, the latest date and time when communication with the partner having the e-mail address was performed and the date and time from when the e-mail address was registered are set. The number of communications is managed. If there is no free space in the address book 13 when attempting to automatically register an e-mail address in the address book 13, the e-mail address considered to be of low usefulness from the latest communication date and time and the number of communication times And deletes the e-mail address from the address book 13 to secure a free space.

When a display instruction of the registered information of the address book 13 is given by a predetermined instruction operation on the panel unit 8, the address book management unit 12 reads out the e-mail address registered in the address book 13, and Is generated and displayed on the panel unit 8.

For example, a one-touch key is associated with each of the displayed e-mail addresses, and the e-mail address corresponding to the pressed one-touch key is accepted as the destination e-mail address.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the e-mail addresses of the other parties who have communicated in the past are automatically registered in the address book 13. Therefore, there is no need to artificially perform such work for registering the other party's e-mail address in the address book, and the burden on the user is reduced. When a facsimile original is to be transmitted to the source of previously received e-mail data or to a person having an e-mail address directly input in the past, the corresponding e-mail address registered in the address book 13 is selected. The destination can be specified with a simple operation of only.

Since no transmission / reception of electronic mail data for registering an electronic mail address is performed, no unnecessary communication cost is incurred.

In addition, the address book 13
Even if the number of e-mail addresses registered in the address book 13 has increased and the storage capacity of the address book 13 has become full, the e-mail addresses that are estimated to have low usefulness are deleted from the address book 13 to reduce the free space. As a result, a new e-mail address can be reliably registered in the address book 13.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment. For example, in the above embodiment, the latest communication date and time is assumed to be composed of year, month, day, day of the week, hour, minute, and second. The latest communication timing can also be managed.

In the above-described embodiment, the latest communication date and time writing means 12c uses the date and time presented by the clock unit 14. For example, the character string after the character string "Date:" in the header of the e-mail data is The date and time shown may be used.

In the above embodiment, the latest communication timing is the latest transmission or reception timing, but the e-mail address registered in the address book 13 is used for transmission. Therefore, only the latest transmission timing can be used as a material for determining its usefulness. Therefore, only the latest transmission timing may be managed as the latest communication timing.

In the above embodiment, the number of transmissions and the number of receptions are managed as the number of times of communication. However, the e-mail address registered in the address book 13 is used at the time of transmission. However, it can be used as a material for judging its usefulness, so that only the number of transmissions may be managed.

In the above embodiment, the number of times of communication is the number of times of communication from the time of registration of the corresponding e-mail address to the present. In this case, since the counting period of the number of times of communication differs for each e-mail address, the number of times of communication between the present and a certain period is managed, and the number of times of communication at each e-mail address is managed. The counting period may be unified.

In the above embodiment, the condition for determining the e-mail address to be deleted is such that the number of communication times is equal to or less than a predetermined value and the latest communication date and time is the oldest. Before the above, and the number of times of communication is the least ".

When the electronic mail data is transmitted, the destination electronic mail address indicated in the header is specified by directly inputting each character forming a character string indicating the electronic mail address. There is also.
Therefore, if the destination e-mail address is unconditionally registered in the address book 13 as in the above-described embodiment, if an erroneous input is made, the erroneous e-mail address is registered, which is preferable. Absent. Therefore, it is preferable that the e-mail address is registered in the address book 13 only when the transmission is normally performed.

In addition, various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[0084]

According to the present invention, there are provided an address storage means for storing an e-mail address, an address obtaining means for obtaining e-mail data of a communication partner at the time of communication, and an electronic mail obtained by the address obtaining means. When the mail address is not stored in the address storage means,
Address storage control means for storing the e-mail address in the address storage means; and for each of the e-mail addresses stored in the address storage means, at least the transmission of e-mail data to the party corresponding to the e-mail address. Latest communication timing management means for managing the latest timing at which the transmission was performed, and each of the e-mail addresses stored in the address storage means, at least within a predetermined period of time to a partner corresponding to the e-mail address Communication number management means for counting and managing the number of transmissions of the e-mail data; and the latest communication timing management when the address storage control means is trying to store an e-mail address and there is no free space in the address storage means. Controlled by means Address deletion means for selecting and deleting one of the e-mail addresses stored in the address storage means based on the new communication timing and the number of communication times managed by the communication number management means. Thus, a user-friendly facsimile apparatus with reduced burden on the user regarding the address book registration can be obtained.

Further, according to the present invention, even if the address storage means is full, an e-mail address which is already stored in the address storage means and which is deemed to be less useful is selected and deleted. Thus, since a free space for storing a new e-mail address is secured, the facsimile apparatus can reliably register the e-mail address when a new e-mail address can be obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a main configuration of a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure of an address book management unit in an address registration process when e-mail data other than e-mail data for registering an address book is transmitted and received.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a header in electronic mail data.

FIG. 4 is a diagram schematically showing a registration status of an e-mail address, a latest communication time and a communication count value in an address book.

FIG. 5 is a view showing an example of a format of electronic mail data for registering an address book in the facsimile apparatus shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure of an address book management unit in address registration processing when e-mail data for address book registration is received.

FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram showing a configuration example of a conventional facsimile machine.

FIG. 8 is a view showing an example of a format of electronic mail data for registering an address book in the facsimile apparatus shown in FIG. 7;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... CPU 2 ... ROM 3 ... RAM 4 ... External storage part 5 ... Format conversion part 6 ... Format reverse conversion part 7 ... Scanner part 8 ... Panel part 9 ... Compression / decompression part 10 ... LAN control part 11 ... Printer part 12 ... Address book management unit 12a Address extraction unit 12b Address registration unit 12c Registration date and time writing unit 12e Communication count updating unit 12d Address deletion unit 13 Address book 14 Clock unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A facsimile apparatus for transmitting and receiving an image in the form of e-mail data in a predetermined e-mail format via a predetermined computer network, comprising: an address storage means for storing an e-mail address; Address acquisition means for acquiring e-mail data of a communication partner; and when the e-mail address acquired by the address acquisition means is not stored in the address storage means, the e-mail address is stored in the address storage means. Address storage control means; and for each of the e-mail addresses stored in the address storage means, at least the latest timing for managing the latest timing at which the e-mail data was transmitted to the other party corresponding to the e-mail address Communication timing management means; For each of the e-mail addresses stored in the dress storage means, a communication number management means for counting and managing at least the number of transmissions of the e-mail data to a party corresponding to the e-mail address within a predetermined period; When there is no free space in the address storage unit when the control unit is trying to store the e-mail address, the latest communication timing managed by the latest communication timing management unit and the latest communication timing managed by the communication count management unit A facsimile apparatus comprising: an address deleting means for selecting and deleting one of the e-mail addresses stored in the address storage means based on the number of times of communication.