JPH11239263A - Equipment and method for communication - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To eliminate disadvantage to the owner of equipment caused by the use of the equipment by an unspecified third person by detecting a password in electronic mail data and performing facsimile transfer when that password is judged right. SOLUTION: A CPU 1 performs the control of equipment. A ROM 2 stores a program. A RAM 3 is used for the data of the program. A format transforming part 4 transforms image data to the format of electronic mail. An inverse format transforming part 5 transforms the data of electronic mail to image data to be handled by a facsimile. An instruction for transmission is given on a panel part 7. A compression/extension part 8 compresses or extends the image data. A LAN control part 9 controls the transmission of data to a LAN or the reception of data from the LAN. Then, the password in the received electronic mail data is detected and when this password is judged right, facsimile transfer is performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of transmitting image data using an e-mail capable of transmitting and receiving image data by the same simple operation as a facsimile, and a facsimile-type e-mail apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, there has been a growing tendency to connect office devices to a LAN (local network) to improve the efficiency of business. One of the uses is to connect a facsimile to a LAN and use it as a printer, or to send a document created by a personal computer to a destination facsimile via the LAN. JP-A-7-143309
Has proposed a device for sending a text document created by electronic mail on a personal computer to a destination facsimile machine via a LAN.

FIG. 19 is a schematic block diagram of a conventional facsimile apparatus using electronic mail. 101 is a CPU
And controls the device. A ROM 102 stores a program. A RAM 103 is used for program data. Reference numeral 107 denotes a panel unit that issues a transmission instruction. 108 is a compression / expansion unit,
Compress or decompress image data. 109 is LA
An N control unit controls transmission of data to the LAN or reception of data from the LAN. A printer unit 110 prints data. 111 is a scanner unit,
Read the original. A fax communication unit 113 transmits or receives compressed image data to or from a telephone line. Reference numeral 120 denotes a character / image conversion unit, which is a LAN
Converts the text of the email received from to image data.

[0004] The operation from receiving an electronic mail to transmitting it to a facsimile will be described below. LAN unit 10
9 receives the e-mail from the character / image converter 12
0 to convert email text to image data,
Further, the image data is compressed by the compression / decompression unit 108. The facsimile communication unit 113 transmits the compressed image data to the facsimile number described in the destination of the e-mail.

[0005]

However, in the above conventional configuration, anyone can use this device as a repeater,
It can be sent to a facsimile, and the owner of the device must pay for the communication to the facsimile, which is disadvantageous.

[0006]

The present invention has the following arrangement to solve the above-mentioned problems.

[0007] The communication apparatus according to the first aspect of the present invention includes a receiving unit for receiving an e-mail, a detecting unit for detecting a password in the received e-mail data, and a password detected by the detecting unit. Facsimile transfer means for performing facsimile transfer when it is determined that

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the communication device according to the first aspect, the detecting means detects a password, a transfer instruction and a transfer destination, detects the transfer instruction, and detects that the password is correct. If it is determined that the transfer is to be performed, facsimile transfer is performed to the detected transfer destination.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the communication apparatus according to the second aspect, there is provided a decryption means for decrypting the encrypted password based on a predetermined portion of the received information.
If it is determined that the decrypted password is correct, facsimile transfer processing is performed.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the received information is image data, and a predetermined bit in the image data is extracted.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the communication device according to the fourth aspect, the received information is header information, and a password registered in the header information is extracted.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the communication device according to any one of the first to fifth aspects, when a communication error occurs in facsimile transfer, an electronic mail indicating the error is returned to the transmission source.

According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in the communication device according to any one of the first to sixth aspects, when it is determined that the passwords do not match, an electronic mail indicating an error is returned to the transmission source.

[0014] The communication apparatus according to claim 8, wherein the encryption means for encrypting the password based on the transmission data;
Transmission means for transmitting transmission data as an e-mail together with the encrypted password.

According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, the transmitting side encrypts the password using a part of the received information in the received e-mail, and transmits the encrypted password together with the transmission data using the e-mail. Send and receive,
The encrypted password is decrypted based on the received information, and if the password is correct, the transmission data is transmitted by facsimile to a predetermined destination.

With these configurations, when a received e-mail is forwarded by facsimile, a third party cannot use it without permission by providing a password.
Further, by encrypting the password using a part of the transmission image data, the password is not leaked to other parts, and communication with higher confidentiality can be performed.

[0017]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS According to the present invention, when image data that has been read is converted to an e-mail format and then transmitted, when receiving the data, the e-mail format is converted to a facsimile format and then printed by a printer. I do. More specifically, the transmitting side adds attribute information including the size and resolution of the image data to the read image data, converts the image data into a format of an e-mail format, transmits the format by e-mail, and the receiving side transmits the e-mail. Based on the attribute information of the image data received by e-mail, the image data is converted so that it can be handled by the user's own machine, and the print processing is performed. With this configuration, communication can be performed between communication devices having different paper sizes and resolutions.

Hereinafter, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a system conceptual diagram showing an environment in which the present apparatus operates. The device operates in an environment where e-mail on the Internet can be used. That is, the mail gateway is connected to the Internet,
All e-mails in the LAN communicate with the Internet via this mail gateway. The e-mail protocol is exchanged by SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol), but POP (Post Office Protocol) can also be used. This device can send and receive e-mail with both PCs (personal computers) and devices with the same configuration as this device.
In the following embodiments, communication between the present apparatuses is assumed, except for the seventh embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram for reducing the image size on the receiving side. Reference numeral 1 denotes a CPU, which controls the apparatus. A ROM 2 stores a program.
A RAM 3 is used for program data. A format conversion unit 4 converts the image data into an e-mail format. Reference numeral 5 denotes a format reverse conversion unit which converts e-mail data into image data handled by facsimile. Reference numeral 7 denotes a panel unit for instructing transmission. A compression / decompression unit 8 compresses or decompresses image data. Reference numeral 9 denotes a LAN control unit which controls transmission of data to the LAN or reception of data from the LAN. A printer unit 10 prints data. A scanner unit 11 reads a document.

FIG. 3 shows a flowchart for performing image reduction on the receiving side. In step s1, the e-mail is received. The received e-mail is transmitted by e-mail with the size and resolution of the image data added to the image data read by the transmitting device as described later.

In step s2, the format of the electronic mail is inversely converted into image data. Format conversion and inverse conversion will be described later. The paper size and the resolution are obtained from the image data (data composed of an attribute area and binary data, which will be described later) that has been format-inverted in s3. Needless to say, this data is generated and transmitted on the transmission side. The procedure for generating the transmission data will be described later in detail with reference to FIG.

The image data compressed in s4 is expanded. In s5, the paper size and resolution of the image data are compared with the paper size and resolution that can be handled by this apparatus. If it is found in s6 that the capability of the apparatus is lower, the image data is reduced to a paper size that can be handled by the apparatus in s7, and printed in s8. Here, by obtaining both information by associating the paper size with the resolution, it is possible to process the image into a more legible image. For example, when the resolution is high, such as 200 DPI, and the paper size is small, it can be adjusted to a small paper size by thinning out.

FIG. 4 shows the flow of the conversion to the electronic mail format and the reverse conversion, and the concept thereof.

Format conversion refers to converting image data read by a scanner or the like and having attribute information added thereto into a text code, adding a header, and converting the data into electronic mail data.

[0025] Format reverse conversion refers to converting text-coded image data in electronic mail data into original image data.

This image data is a pair of attribute information such as a paper size, a resolution, the number of bytes for one page, a pointer to a next page (an address on a memory), and the compressed binary image data of the page. Is lined up on multiple pages. The e-mail is in a format in which a header is added to a text image converted from binary image data. Since SMTP, which is an electronic mail protocol, cannot handle binary data, image data (attribute area and binary data area) is converted into text code according to a predetermined algorithm. Although the format of the e-mail is smaller in FIG. 4, the format of the e-mail is larger as the information because, in actuality, the conversion to the text code has a larger amount of information.

The transmitting device reads the image data from a scanner or the like and converts the image data to which the attribute information has been added into electronic mail data by format conversion.

The receiving device converts the received e-mail into image data by performing a format reverse conversion, thereby obtaining attribute information.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a mail header. The first line of MIME is the email standard Multipurpose Internet
Mail Extensions indicates that this email can handle not only text but also images and sounds. -----
The first part is the text part, and the second part is the image part. Image data is added last.

More specifically, “Con” shown in FIG.
tent-Type: Text / plain: char
As can be seen from “set = ISO-2022-jp”, the transmission data includes text data. Also,
"Content-Transfer-Encondi
ng: base64 ", the image data is converted into text data using base64. In addition, "Conten
As can be seen from "t-Type: Image / tiff", the transmission data includes image data, and the image data is in the form of a tiff file. The header information of these MIMEs is the same as that conventionally used in electronic mail of a personal computer or the like.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, the difference in the paper size capability that can be handled by the transmission side and the reception side when image data is transmitted and received as an electronic mail is described.
The problem is solved by reducing the image data on the receiving side.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to a schematic block diagram for reducing the image size on the transmitting side in FIG. In the present embodiment, a reduction unit 6 is added to the configuration of the first embodiment shown in FIG. 2, and an optical reduction unit 12 that optically reduces the size when reading an image from a scanner is added. Since the document is optically reduced, there is a possibility that the quality of the result of the reduction may be improved as compared with the first embodiment.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart for communicating with a destination before transmission and performing image reduction on the transmission side. At s11, a sheet is set on the scanner unit 11, and the destination is designated at the panel unit 7. In step S12, the apparatus communicates with the destination apparatus on the Internet to obtain a paper size and resolution that can be handled by the destination apparatus. For this communication, it is sufficient that the device can establish a one-to-one connection, but if there is a firewall in between and the connection is not established, an e-mail using the TCP protocol may be used. However, with e-mail, it takes time to gain the ability of the other party. If the other party's device is lower in performance than this apparatus in s13, the original is reduced by the optical reduction unit 12 according to the other device when reading the original from the scanner unit 11. In s14, the image is compressed by the compression / decompression unit 8, and the format conversion unit 4 converts the image into an e-mail format. In step s15, an e-mail is transmitted from the LAN control unit 9.

As described above, according to the second embodiment, the destination paper size can be known before transmission.
The original can be optically reduced, and there is a possibility that the quality of the reduced result will be better than in the first embodiment.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to a flowchart of FIG. The block diagram is similar to FIG. In this embodiment, it takes time to acquire the capability of the destination device by e-mail. Therefore, the capability of the destination is acquired at the time of shortened registration, and the time for communicating with the destination by e-mail when actually transmitting is saved. It was what was.

In step s21, the short registration of the destination is designated from the panel unit 7. In step S22, communication with the destination by e-mail is performed to obtain a paper size and resolution that can be handled by the destination device. In step S33, the capacity such as the paper size and resolution that can be handled by the destination is registered in the destination abbreviated number. This data is stored in the RAM 3 and backed up by a battery. The transmission is performed according to the flowchart for reducing the image according to the paper size registered in the abbreviated number in FIG. Scanner unit 11 in s31
Is set, and the abbreviated number of the destination is designated from the panel unit 7. In s31, the paper size and resolution that can be handled by the destination device registered in the abbreviated number are acquired, and if the original is smaller than the original to be read, the original is optically reduced when the original is read from the scanner in s33. The image is converted into an e-mail format in s34, and the e-mail is transmitted from the LAN control unit 9 in s35.

As described above, according to the third embodiment, the capability of the destination is acquired at the time of shortened registration, so that the time for communicating with the destination by e-mail at the time of actual transmission can be saved. .

Next, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to a schematic block diagram for relaying to a facsimile in FIG. The present invention is provided with a relay function for receiving an electronic mail having image data and transmitting it to a facsimile. At this time, a password is provided to the repeater so that an unspecified third party does not use the device to bring disadvantage to the owner of the device. In this embodiment, a facsimile communication unit 13 for controlling communication with a facsimile and an encryption / decryption unit 14 for encrypting and decrypting a password of a repeater are added to the configuration of the first embodiment shown in FIG. Things.

FIG. 11 shows a flowchart for transmission to the relay device. At s41, a document is set on the scanner unit 11,
The relay device and the destination are designated from the panel unit 7. In s42, a character string instructing facsimile transmission is added to the electronic mail. In s43, the password corresponding to the relay device is searched from the relay device list in FIG. 12, encrypted, and added to the electronic mail. The repeater list in FIG. 12 is registered in advance by the owner of the apparatus. The character string instructing facsimile transmission and the encrypted password are shown in Fig. 5 from the top of the mail header.
It is added to the sixth line. The e-mail is transmitted in s44.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart for analyzing a character string in the relay device. At s51, an electronic mail to which a character string instructing facsimile transmission is added is received. When the character string added to the e-mail is analyzed in s52 and a character string "relay" is found on the fifth line in FIG. 5, this e-mail is interpreted as instructing transmission to a facsimile.
If it is determined in step S53 that facsimile transmission has been instructed, in step s55, the encrypted password on the sixth line in FIG. 5 is decrypted. If the password decrypted in s56 matches the password registered by the owner of the apparatus in advance in the apparatus, the format of the e-mail is inversely converted to a facsimile number following relay in the fifth line of FIG. 5 in s57. The fax is transmitted from the facsimile communication unit 13. If it is determined in step S53 that the transmission is not facsimile transmission, the format of the electronic mail is inversely converted in step s54 and printed from the printer unit 10. If the passwords do not match in s56, s5
At step 8, an error message is sent to the sender of the e-mail by e-mail.

As described above, according to the fourth embodiment, a relay function is provided in the first embodiment, so that communication costs can be reduced as compared with normal facsimile communication (using the Internet with a fixed monthly fee system). Wherever you are). Also,
Since the password of the repeater is encrypted and added to the e-mail, an unspecified third party can use the device to bring disadvantage to the owner of the device while using the conventional e-mail mechanism. There is no.

Next, a fifth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 14 and encryption using image data as a key. When the password is encrypted and added to the e-mail as a character string, the character string can be read by a third party. The encrypted password can be added to the e-mail using a personal computer or the like to exploit the repeater. Therefore, the present invention encrypts a password using image data that is a part of transmission information of an e-mail, and even if an encrypted password is read by another person, the encrypted password is transmitted for each original to be transmitted. Changed, so that this device could not be used as a repeater. The block diagram is the same as FIG.

In FIG. 14, for example, the data at the 5, 50, and 100th bytes from the end of the image data is used as an encryption key. Which data to select is determined when setting up the device. If the password is “123ABC”, the code (ASCII code) is “313233414243”. Assuming that the encryption keys are 01, 7E, and 10, respectively, this data is repeated to match the length of the password (repeated twice in the figure). Next, the password data where the encryption key bit is 1 is bit-inverted. The result is "304C2340
3C53 ". When decrypting, the original password can be obtained by inverting the bits based on the encryption key. FIG. 15 shows details of the inversion processing. In the figure, when the encryption key is expanded into a binary number, "01" becomes "000000".
01 ". Similarly, the password “31” is changed to “001”.
10001 ". Here, the encryption key of the digit represented by “1” in the password is inverted (0 → 1, 1 → 0)
Then, it becomes "00110000", which becomes 30 when converted into an ASCII code. When such inversion processing is performed, the result described above is obtained.

As the encryption key, not the image data but a variable one of information to be transmitted such as date and time added to the electronic mail may be used.

As described above, according to the fifth embodiment, by encrypting the password using the image data which is a part of the transmission information of the e-mail, the encrypted password is read by another person. However, since the encrypted password changes for each document to be transmitted, a third party who does not know the password cannot use the apparatus as a repeater.

Next, a sixth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 16 when an error occurs in facsimile transmission. The block diagram of the device is similar to FIG. The present invention enables a sender of an e-mail to know a transmission error when an e-mail of image data is received and transmitted to a facsimile.

The process from receiving the e-mail from the LAN control unit 9 in s51 in FIG. 16 to transmitting it to the destination facsimile in s57 is the same as in the fourth embodiment. When an error occurs in facsimile transmission in s61, the transmission source described in the header of the e-mail is notified by e-mail of the error in s62.

As described above, according to the sixth embodiment, the sender of the e-mail can know by the e-mail that the relay machine has failed in facsimile transmission.

Next, a seventh embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to a schematic block diagram for receiving a print instruction and transmitting by facsimile in FIG. FIG. 17 shows a schematic block diagram for relaying data to a facsimile machine shown in FIG. 10 except for a format conversion unit 5 and a format inverse conversion unit 6 in which a print data analysis unit 20 for analyzing print data received from the LAN control unit 9 is added. is there.

A program for inserting a facsimile transmission destination and an e-mail address of an error notification destination into the print data is installed in the terminal (personal computer) for outputting the print data in advance. When the user of the personal computer gives a print instruction from an application such as a word processor, the program is started, and the user is prompted to input a destination to be transmitted by facsimile. When a destination is input, print data obtained by converting data of an application such as a word processor into image data is transmitted to the apparatus via the LAN. The e-mail address of the error notification destination is registered in advance by starting this program.

FIG. 18 shows a flowchart for receiving a print instruction and performing facsimile transmission. LPD at s71
Print data is received by a protocol (print protocol for LAN). Next, the print data received in s72 is analyzed by the print data analysis unit 20, and the facsimile number of the destination is extracted. If an error occurs in facsimile transmission in s73, the print data analysis unit 20 extracts the e-mail address of the error notification destination from the print data, and notifies the e-mail address of the error.

As described above, according to the seventh embodiment, data can be transmitted to a destination facsimile in response to a print instruction from a personal computer. The error can be known through e-mail.

[0053]

According to the present invention, a relay function is provided.
Since communication costs can be reduced compared to normal facsimile communication, and the password of the repeater is encrypted and added to the e-mail, an unspecified third party can use the conventional e-mail mechanism to connect the device. It does not cause any disadvantage to the owner of the device.

Further, by encrypting the password using image data which is a part of the transmission information of the e-mail, even if the encrypted password is read by another person, the encrypted password is encrypted for each original to be transmitted. Since the password changed, a third party who does not know the password cannot use the apparatus as a repeater.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a system conceptual diagram showing an environment in which the present apparatus operates.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram for reducing the image size on the receiving side.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for performing image reduction on the receiving side.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing conversion to an e-mail format and reverse conversion.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an e-mail header.

FIG. 6 is a schematic block diagram for reducing the image size on the transmission side.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart for communicating with a destination and reducing an image on a transmission side before transmission.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart for registering a destination paper size and resolution by abbreviated registration;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart for performing image reduction according to the paper size registered in the abbreviated number;

FIG. 10 is a schematic block diagram for relaying to a facsimile;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart for transmission to a relay device.

FIG. 12 is an explanatory diagram of a repeater list.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart for analyzing a character string in the relay device.

FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram of encryption using image data as a key;

FIG. 15 is an explanatory diagram illustrating inversion of encryption using image data as a key;

FIG. 16 is a flowchart when facsimile transmission has an error.

FIG. 17 is a schematic block diagram of receiving a print instruction and transmitting it by facsimile.

FIG. 18 is a flowchart for receiving a print instruction and transmitting it by facsimile.

FIG. 19 is a schematic block diagram of a conventional facsimile apparatus using electronic mail.

[Explanation of symbols]

 4 format conversion unit 5 format inverse conversion unit 6 reduction unit 9 LAN control unit 20 print data analysis unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification symbol FI H04M 11/00 302 H04L 11/00 310Z H04N 1/00 107 11/20 101B 1/44

Claims (9)

[Claims] 1. A receiving means for receiving an e-mail, a detecting means for detecting a password in the received e-mail data, and a facsimile transfer when it is determined that the password detected by the detecting means is correct. A communication device comprising facsimile transfer means. 2. The detecting means detects a password, a transfer instruction, and a transfer destination, and detects the transfer instruction, and when it determines that the password is correct,
2. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein facsimile transfer is performed to the detected transfer destination. 3. A decrypting means for decrypting the encrypted password based on a predetermined part of the received information, wherein if it is determined that the decrypted password is correct, facsimile transfer processing is performed. The communication device according to claim 2, wherein 4. The reception information is image data,
The communication device according to claim 3, wherein predetermined bits in the image data are extracted. 5. The communication device according to claim 4, wherein the received information is header information, and a password registered in the header information is extracted. 6. The communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when a communication error occurs in facsimile transfer, an electronic mail indicating the error is returned to the transmission source. 7. The communication device according to claim 1, wherein when it is determined that the passwords do not match, an electronic mail indicating an error is returned to the transmission source. 8. A communication apparatus comprising: an encryption unit that encrypts a password based on transmission data; and a transmission unit that transmits the transmission data as an electronic mail together with the encrypted password. 9. The transmitting side encrypts a password using a part of the received information in the received e-mail, transmits the encrypted password together with the transmission data using an e-mail, and the receiving side encrypts the password. A communication method for decrypting a given password based on received information and, if the password is correct, transmitting facsimile transmission data to a predetermined destination.