JPH11331475A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform electronic mail transmission and reception for not increasing the cost of a system and not lowering communication efficiency by inquiring the composite ability of an opposite equipment by electronic mail at the time of transmitting image data by the electronic mail. SOLUTION: A mail procedure control part 26 operates a mail analysis part 24 and a mail editing part 25 and controls the electronic mail transmission and reception. At the time of facsimile image data transmission, the electronic mail of the inquiry of the composite ability is transmitted to a receiver, and at the time of receiving the electronic mail of a response to the inquiry of the composite ability, the list of the composite ability of the receiver is acquired from the electronic mail and outputted to an encoding system judgement part 28. At the time of reception, when the electronic mail of the inquiry of the composite ability is received, an encoding system table 27 is referred to, the list of encoding systems processable by the present equipment is prepared and the electronic mail of the response to the inquiry of the composite ability is formed and transmitted to a transmitter. In the encoding system table 27, the respective encoding systems processable by the present equipment are set beforehand.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus capable of sending and receiving electronic mail via a computer communication network such as the Internet or a LAN.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A facsimile apparatus is an apparatus for transmitting and receiving image data to and from another facsimile apparatus or terminal via an analog public line network or an ISDN network. However, with the spread of computer communication networks such as the Internet and LAN, facsimile apparatuses having an e-mail transmission / reception function capable of transmitting and receiving image data by e-mail via the computer communication network have been proposed.
According to the e-mail via the Internet, the user only has to pay the communication cost to the nearest access point of the contract provider, and the communication cost can be reduced.

However, when the image data is transmitted by e-mail and the encoding method of the image data in the e-mail is an encoding method that cannot be handled by the own apparatus, the e-mail is received. However, an image cannot be printed on recording paper.

As a facsimile apparatus which solves such a problem, there is a facsimile apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-28217. The facsimile apparatus transmits an e-mail composed of a mail body obtained by encoding image data and communication management information (header information) including at least information on the encoding method. When the facsimile apparatus that has received the e-mail knows from the header information that the mail body is encoded by an encoding method that can be handled by the facsimile apparatus, the facsimile apparatus prints the contents of the mail body as an image. However, when it is found that the mail body is encoded by an encoding system that cannot be handled by the own device, the electronic mail is transferred to another communication terminal to request processing.

[0005] According to such a facsimile apparatus, the transmitted image data of the electronic mail is processed by any of the processable communication terminals, so that the transmission is not invalidated at all.

[0006]

However, such a system requires a communication terminal having a high processing capability capable of supporting various coding systems and a plurality of communication terminals capable of supporting various coding systems as a whole in a system. A terminal is required. But,
A communication terminal with high processing capability is not always close to the facsimile machine to which the e-mail is sent. Since it is not practical to transfer an e-mail to a remote communication terminal and request processing, it may be necessary to newly install a communication terminal having a high processing capability.

[0007] Therefore, if the facsimile apparatus as described above is introduced to realize transmission and reception of image data by e-mail, the cost of the entire system increases. In order to prevent an increase in the cost of the entire system, it is conceivable to encode image data to be transmitted by e-mail using an encoding method which is considered to be applied to many facsimile apparatuses. However, such an encoding method is generally a low-efficiency method, and when an encoding method considered to be applied to many facsimile apparatuses is used, communication efficiency is reduced.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a facsimile apparatus capable of transmitting and receiving electronic mail without increasing the cost of the system and without causing a decrease in communication efficiency.

[0009]

A facsimile apparatus according to the present invention is a facsimile apparatus having an e-mail transmission / reception function. When transmitting image data by e-mail, the facsimile apparatus inquires the decoding capability of the partner machine by e-mail. It has a capability inquiry means. The facsimile apparatus further includes a capability responding unit that, when receiving the e-mail inquiring about the decoding capability, transmits an e-mail that responds with the encoding method that can be processed by the facsimile as the decoding capability. Further, when the facsimile apparatus receives the e-mail responding with the decoding capability, the facsimile device compares the encoding capability of the facsimile device with the decoding capability of the other device, and selects the most efficient encoding method. Is provided. The facsimile apparatus further includes an image mail transmitting unit that transmits an electronic mail including image data encoded by the encoding method selected by the encoding method selecting unit.

The electronic mail for inquiring about the decryption capability may include only the header information, and the electronic mail including the image data may include the header information and the body. Further, the facsimile apparatus according to the present invention selects the most efficient coding method by comparing the decoding capability of the partner device obtained by the facsimile communication procedure with the coding capability of the own device, and selects the selected coding method. A configuration may be provided that includes an image mail transmitting unit that transmits an electronic mail including the image data encoded in.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a facsimile apparatus according to the present invention and a system including the facsimile apparatus. In the example shown in FIG. 1, the facsimile 100 is connected to the LAN 400 via the LAN line 401.
To the public network 300 via the analog line 301
It is connected to the. Here, Ethernet is taken as an example of the LAN line 401.
Expressed as 1. The system shown in FIG.
It is connected to the Internet via N400.

In the facsimile apparatus 100, a reading section 1 reads the contents of a document and outputs image data converted into digital data. The recording unit 2 includes a printer, and prints image data received from another facsimile machine or image data received by e-mail. The image memory 3 stores the image data of the document output from the reading unit 1 and stores the image data sent from the encoding / decoding unit 4 and sends it to the recording unit 2.

The encoding / decoding section 4 encodes the image data of the original stored in the image memory 3 by an encoding method such as MH, MR, MMR, JBIG or the like defined by the standard of facsimile communication. And decodes the encoded data received from the image memory 3 and sends it to the image memory 3. The modem 5 converts the digital signal and the analog signal on the analog line 301, and the NCU 6
1 such as closing and opening.

A LAN interface (LAN I / F)
Unit) 21 is physically connected to the Ethernet 401 and
It manages the interface with AN400. The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model provides physical layer and data link layer functions. That is, conversion is performed between an electric signal and a bit pattern, a bit string transmission function is constructed, and control is performed so that accurate data transfer is performed between adjacent devices.

The LAN protocol control unit 22 uses a function provided by the LAN interface unit 21 to perform TCP / I
Implement the P protocol. The OSI reference model provides network layer and transport layer functions.
That is, the portion corresponding to the network layer controls the Internet Protocol (IP) and provides a service of transferring an IP datagram from a transmission source to a reception source.
An IP datagram is a basic unit of information transferred in a TCP / IP network. In a portion corresponding to the transport layer, a transmission control protocol (TCP) is controlled using an IP datagram transfer function, and a highly reliable data stream service is provided to the mail protocol control unit 23.

The mail protocol control unit 23 uses, for example, an SMTP (Si)
mpleMail Transfer Protocol) and other e-mail sending and receiving functions.

The facsimile apparatus 100 is an electronic mail having only header information or header information and a TIFF (Tagg).
ed Image File Format) Sends and receives e-mails composed of the body of image text data. Hereinafter, the header information and the TIFF image will be described.

It is stipulated that predetermined header information is added to an electronic mail on the Internet. The e-mail includes "Date (date and time of e-mail transmission)" and "From
(E-mail sender) "," To (E-mail destination) "," Subject (E-mail title) "," Cc (E-mail copy destination) " In the facsimile apparatus 100, information exchanged between the transmitter and the receiver is placed in the "Subject" item.

TIFF is a standard format of an image file proposed by Adobe Systems, Inc., and its specifications are disclosed by the company. TIFF is characterized in that it does not define a standard data format, but defines an attribute of image data as tag information. Therefore, in the case of the TIFF format, the format of the data can be recognized by reading the standardized tag information described in the first few hundred bytes of the image file. In the tag information, the class corresponding to each of the various image data formats (Class
) Is defined. CLASS F defines G3 format image data. Therefore, the G3 format image data can be converted to the TIFF format by relatively simple processing such as adding the CLASS F TIFF header information to the head of the G3 format image data.

When the mail analyzing unit 24 receives the electronic mail by operating the mail protocol control unit 23, the mail analyzing unit 24 separates the header part and the body of the electronic mail. Then, information required by the facsimile apparatus is extracted from the header portion, and the extracted information is notified to the mail procedure control unit 26. Also, when the mail procedure control unit 26 instructs the transfer of the e-mail including the text,
Only the TIFF image text data of the text is extracted and transferred to the binary / text converter 30.

The mail editing unit 25 operates the mail protocol control unit 23 to convert the information notified from the mail procedure control unit 26 into header information and send it out as an electronic mail. In addition, the information notified from the mail procedure control unit 26 is converted into header information, and header information is added before the TIFF image text data sent from the binary / text conversion unit 30 to be transmitted as an electronic mail.

The mail procedure control unit 26 includes the mail analysis unit 2
4 and the mail editing unit 25 are operated to control transmission and reception of electronic mail. At the time of facsimile image data transmission, an e-mail for the inquiry about the decoding ability is transmitted to the receiver, and when an e-mail for the response to the inquiry about the decoding ability is received, a list of the decoding ability of the receiver is obtained from the e-mail and the encoding method Output to the determination unit 28. At the time of reception, when an e-mail requesting a decoding capability is received, a list of encoding methods that can be processed by the own device is created with reference to the encoding system table 27, and an e-mail response to the inquiry about the decoding capability is formed. Control to transmit to the transmitter. In the coding method table 27, each coding method that can be processed by the own apparatus is set in advance.

The encoding system determination unit 28 compares the list of decoding systems of the receiver notified from the mail procedure control unit 26 with the encoding system table 27 and determines the most efficient encoding system that can be transmitted and received. Is determined, and the encoding / decoding unit 4 is instructed to execute the encoding using the encoding method. The image conversion unit 29 converts the G3 format image data into a T
Convert to binary data in IFF format, TI
FF format binary data is converted into G3 format image data.

The binary / text converter 30 converts the TIFF-format binary data output from the image converter 29 into text data at the time of transmission to create TIFF image text data, and converts the TIFF image text data at the time of reception. Convert to TIFF format binary data. Therefore, the body of the e-mail is text format TIFF image text data. Although communication terminals that cannot handle binary data e-mails are also connected to the Internet, by transmitting image data as TIFF image text data, all communication terminals on the network can handle e-mails received. .

Referring to FIG. 1, another facsimile apparatus 200
However, the facsimile apparatus 200 also has the same function as the facsimile apparatus 100. In this embodiment, it is assumed that facsimile apparatus 200 has the same configuration as facsimile apparatus 100 except for the coding capability. Hereinafter, a case where the facsimile apparatus 100 serves as a transmitter and the facsimile apparatus 200 serves as a receiver to perform transmission and reception will be described as an example. Therefore, hereinafter, the facsimile machine 1
00 as a transmitter 100 and a facsimile apparatus 200
May be expressed as the receiver 200.

The capability inquiry means is realized by the mail procedure control unit 26 and the mail editing unit 25. The capability response means is realized by the mail procedure control unit 26, the mail editing unit 25, and the mail analysis unit 24. The coding method selection means is realized by the coding method table 27 and the coding method determination unit 28. The image mail transmitting means includes an image conversion unit 29, a binary / text conversion unit 3
0 and the mail editing unit 25.

FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram schematically showing the flow of electronic mail. As shown in the figure, when image data is transmitted by e-mail, the mail procedure control unit 26 of the transmitter 100 performs control to transmit an e-mail for inquiring about decoding capability to the receiver 200 through the mail editing unit 25. When the mail procedure control unit 26 of the receiver 200 receives the e-mail for the inquiry about the decryption ability, the mail analysis unit 24 analyzes the e-mail. As a result of the analysis, if it is found that the e-mail is a mail intended to inquire of the decoding capability, the mail procedure control unit 26 refers to the encoding system table 27 to list the decoding capability of the own device (processing capability). (A list in which encoding methods are described). Then, control is performed through the mail editing unit 25 to transmit an e-mail response to the inquiry about the decryption capability to the transmitter 100.

When the transmitter 100 receives the response e-mail, the mail analyzer 24 of the transmitter 100 analyzes the e-mail. As a result of the analysis, if it is found that this e-mail is a response to the inquiry about the decryption ability,

Next, the operation will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 3 and 4 are flowcharts showing processing on the transmitting side, and FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing processing on the receiving side.

At the time of transmission, the user sets a document to be transmitted on a document setting table (not shown) of the facsimile machine 100 (step S1), and operates an input device (not shown) such as an operation panel to operate the destination. Enter the address of
A start key provided on an operation panel or the like is pressed (step S2). The reading section 1 reads the contents of the transmission document, and temporarily stores the image data converted into digital data in the image data memory 3 (step S).
3).

If the destination address entered by the user is a telephone number, facsimile apparatus 100 performs facsimile communication via public network 300 (step S).
4, S5). If the destination address is composed of only numbers 0 to 9 and #, *, and-, it is determined that the destination address is a telephone number. When facsimile communication is performed via the public network 300, a facsimile procedure signal is exchanged with a partner machine via the modem 5 and the NCU 6, and thereafter, the image data in the image memory 3 is encoded by the encoding / decoding unit 4 and Becomes image data,
The data is transmitted to the partner device via the modem 5 and the NCU 6.

If the destination address entered by the user is not a telephone number, the facsimile apparatus 100 first
An e-mail for inquiring about the decryption capability of the partner device is transmitted (step S6). That is, the mail procedure control unit 26 generates a character string “Request FAX CODEC Ability” meaning “decryption capability inquiry request”, and transfers it to the mail editing unit 25 together with the destination address (mail address).

The mail editing unit 25 constructs header information. That is, the current time is acquired, "Date: ~" is generated, "To: ~" is generated from the mail address input from the mail procedure control unit 26, and "From: ~" is generated from the mail address of the own device. Generate. Also, the mail procedure control unit 2
From the character string input from Step 6, "Subject: Request FAX
CODEC Ability "is formed. The constructed header information is transferred to the mail protocol control unit 23.

The mail protocol control unit 23 has a
It implements mail protocol control such as. And
Via the LAN protocol control unit 22 and the LAN interface unit 21, an e-mail including only the header information is transmitted to the destination machine indicated by the destination mail address.

In the facsimile apparatus 200 on the receiving side, the mail protocol control unit 23 constantly monitors the reception of electronic mail via the LAN interface unit 21 and the LAN protocol control unit 22 (step S3).
0). When the e-mail is received, the contents are transferred to the e-mail analysis unit 24. When the contents of the e-mail are input, the mail analysis unit 24 enters the “Subject” in the header information.
: ~ "Is analyzed. And" Subject: ~ "
Is detected as "Subject: Request FAX CODEC Ability", a process for transmitting the decoding capability of the own device to the other device (transmitter) is performed (step S3).
1). First, the mail analysis unit 24 checks “Fr” in the header information.
om: ~ "to detect the sender's email address,
The “decryption capability inquiry request” is transferred to the mail procedure control unit 26 together with the mail address of the transmission source.

The mail procedure control unit 26, upon input of the "decoding capability inquiry request", obtains the decoding capability of its own device by referring to the contents of the encoding table 27. Here, it is assumed that MH, MR, and MMR are provided as encoding methods that can be processed. Further, a character string “Confirmation FAX CODEC Ability” meaning “response to decoding capability inquiry” is generated. Then, the list of the decryption capabilities of the own device is transmitted to the sender's e-mail address and the character string “Confirmation FAX COD
It is transferred to the mail editing unit 25 together with “EC Ability”.

The mail editing unit 25 constructs header information. That is, the current time is acquired, "Date: ~" is generated, "To: ~" is generated from the mail address input from the mail procedure control unit 26, and "From: ~" is generated from the mail address of the own device. Generate. Also, the mail procedure control unit 2
A part "Subject: ~" is formed from the list of the decoding capability of the own device and the character string input from 6. Here, "Subject: Confirmation FAX CODEC Ability: M
H + MR + MMR "is formed. Then, the constructed header information is transferred to the mail protocol control unit 23.

The mail protocol control unit 23 includes a LAN protocol control unit 22 and a LAN interface unit 21.
Then, an e-mail including only the header information is transmitted to the destination machine indicated by the destination mail address, that is, the facsimile apparatus 100 (step S33).

In the facsimile apparatus 100, the mail protocol control unit 23 includes a LAN interface unit 21
Also, reception of an e-mail is monitored via the LAN protocol control unit 22 (step S7). When the e-mail is received, the contents are transferred to the e-mail analysis unit 24. When the contents of the e-mail are input, the mail analysis unit 24 analyzes the "Subject:" portion in the header information. And "Subject: ~" is replaced with "Subject:
Confirmation FAX CODEC Ability: When it is detected that "is" (step S8), the decoding capability part of the partner device is extracted to create a decryption capability list of the partner device (step S9). The list is [MH
+ MR + MMR].

The mail analysis unit 24 transfers the “decryption capability inquiry response” to which the decryption capability list has been added to the mail procedure control unit 26 together with the destination mail address. When the “decoding capability inquiry response” is input, the mail procedure control unit 26 outputs a decoding capability list to the encoding method determination unit 28. Further, the coding method determination unit 28 acquires a list of coding methods of the own apparatus from the coding method table 27. Here, the facsimile apparatus 100 is
It is assumed that H, MR, MMR and JBIG encoding processes can be performed. Therefore, the list of encoding methods is [MH + MR
+ MMR + JBIG].

Then, the coding method judging section 28 compares the decoding capability list with the coding method list and determines the most efficient coding method among the coding methods that can be processed by both the transmitter and the receiver. The method is determined (step S10). In this example, the decoding capability list is [MH + MR + MMR], and the encoding method list is [MH + MR + MMR + J].
BIG], the most efficient coding scheme is MM
R is determined.

Therefore, the encoding method judging section 28 sets the MMR
To the encoding / decoding section 4. The encoding / decoding unit 4 encodes the image data stored in the image memory 3 by MMR (Step S11). Then, it outputs the MMR code to the image conversion unit 29. Since encoded data in the G3 format cannot be directly transmitted on the Internet, the image conversion unit 29 converts the encoded data in the G3 format into a format that can be transmitted by electronic mail. That is, G
TIFF header information of CLASS F is added to the head of the encoded data of the three formats to convert the data into binary data of the TIFF format (step S12). Then, the TIFF format binary data is output to the binary / text converter 30.

The binary / text converter 30 is provided with a TIF
Convert F format binary data to text data and
Generate IFF image text data (step S
13). Then, it outputs the TIFF image text data to the mail editing unit 25.

The mail editing unit 25 adds header information to the TIFF image text data. That is, the current time is acquired, "Date: ~" is generated, "To: ~" is generated from the mail address input from the mail procedure control unit 26, and "From: ~" is generated from the mail address of the own device. Generate. Also, “Subject: TIFF: G3” is generated. The header information thus generated is added to the TIFF image text data to create an e-mail (step S
14). Then, the constructed header information is transferred to the mail protocol control unit 23.

The mail protocol control unit 23 includes a LAN protocol control unit 22 and a LAN interface unit 21.
The e-mail including the header information and the TIFF image text data is transmitted to the destination machine indicated by the destination mail address, that is, the facsimile apparatus 200 which is the receiver (step S15).

In facsimile apparatus 200 as a receiver, mail protocol control section 23 receives an electronic mail via LAN interface section 21 and LAN protocol control section 22. Then, the mail protocol control unit 23 transfers the contents to the mail analysis unit 24.
Upon input of the content of the e-mail, the mail analysis unit 24
Analyze the "Subject: ~" part in the header information. And "Subject: ~" is replaced by "Subject: TIFF: G
When it is detected that it is 3 ", it is recognized that the sent e-mail contains image data (step S3).
2).

The mail analysis section 24 separates the header information and the text, and transfers the text data of the text to the binary / text conversion section 30 (step S34). The binary / text converter 30 converts the input text data into binary data (Step S35). And
The binary data is transferred to the image conversion unit 29. The image conversion unit 29 separates the input binary data into TIFF header information of TIFF CLASS F and image data of G3 format (step S36). The TIFF header information of CLASS F contains information indicating the encoding method. Therefore, the image conversion unit 29 extracts the encoding method from the TIFF header information, instructs the encoding / decoding unit 4, and
The image data in three formats is output to the encoding / decoding unit 4.

The encoding / decoding unit 4 decodes the G3 format image data (step S37) and temporarily stores the data in the image memory 3. The image data stored in the image memory 3 is printed by the recording unit 2 (Step S38).

As described above, in this embodiment, when the transmitter 100 transmits G3 format image data by e-mail, first, the e-mail consisting of only the header information for inquiring the partner machine about the decoding capability is transmitted. Send Receiving the inquiry about the decoding ability, the receiver 200 responds by e-mail with an encoding method which can be processed by the receiver 200. Then, the transmitter 100 compares the decoding capability of the receiver 200 included in the response with the encoding capability of its own device (transmitter), encodes the image data using the most efficient encoding method, and transmits the e-mail. Include in the text. Therefore, the image data transmitted by e-mail is always displayed and printed on the partner device, so that processing such as transferring the e-mail to a device having another high capability unlike the conventional device is not performed. Further, it is guaranteed that the image data transmitted by e-mail is encoded by the most efficient encoding method between the transmitter and the receiver.

In this embodiment, an example in which two facsimile apparatuses 100 and 200 exist in the system has been described. However, when there are more facsimile apparatuses and communication terminal apparatuses capable of receiving facsimile, the present invention It is valid. For example, when the transmitter A, the receiver B, and the receiver C are present, it is assumed that they have the following coding capabilities. Transmitter A: MH + MR + MMR + JBIG Receiver B: MH + MR + MMR Receiver C: MH

When transmitting image data by e-mail, if the transmitter A does not know the decoding capability of the receiver B and the receiver C, that is, in the conventional transmitter, the coding that the other party can process reliably can be performed. It is necessary to transmit the image data encoded by the method, that is, MH. In that case, since the receiver B can actually process the MMR, it is useless to transmit the image data encoded by the MH. This example
This is an example in which there are three devices. If there are an unspecified number of facsimile devices and communication terminal devices capable of facsimile reception, the conventional transmitter processes all devices when transmitting to each device. Encoding must be performed using the least efficient encoding method that is considered possible. However, according to the present invention, when transmitting image data to any other party, each transmitter can perform encoding using the encoding method that is most efficient at that time.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the facsimile apparatus according to the present invention. The facsimile apparatus 101 of this embodiment is obtained by removing the mail editing unit 25 and the mail procedure control unit 26 from the facsimile apparatus 100 shown in FIG. Also, the decoding capability of the other party is obtained through a facsimile communication procedure. And
There is an information path from the modem 5 to the coding method determination unit 28.

In FIG. 6, another facsimile apparatus 201
However, the facsimile apparatus 201 also has the same function as the facsimile apparatus 101. In this embodiment, it is assumed that the facsimile apparatus 201 has the same configuration as the facsimile apparatus 101 except for the coding capability. Hereinafter, a case where the facsimile apparatus 101 functions as a transmitter and the facsimile apparatus 201 functions as a receiver to perform transmission and reception will be described as an example. Therefore, hereinafter, the facsimile machine 1
01 may be expressed as a transmitter, and the facsimile apparatus 201 may be expressed as a receiver.

Next, the operation will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. At the time of transmission, the user sets a transmission document on a document setting table (not shown) of the facsimile apparatus 101 (step S1), and operates an input device (not shown) such as an operation panel to change the address of the destination. Then, the user presses a start key provided on the operation panel or the like (step S2). The reading section 1 reads the contents of the transmission document, and temporarily stores the image data converted into digital data in the image data memory 3 (step S3).

The facsimile apparatus 101 has a modem 5, N
The facsimile apparatus 201 exchanges a facsimile communication procedure with the facsimile apparatus 201 via the CU 6 and the public network 300. Then, the obtained decoding capability of the facsimile apparatus 201 is transferred to the encoding scheme determination unit 28 (step S
41). In the receiver, the encoding method table 2
7 is transmitted to the transmitter by a facsimile communication procedure. In this example, the decoding capability list is [MH + MR + M
MR].

Further, the encoding method judging section 28 acquires a list of encoding methods possessed by its own device from the encoding method table 27. Here, the facsimile apparatus 101 is
It is assumed that H, MR, MMR and JBIG encoding processes can be performed. Therefore, the list of encoding methods is [MH + MR
+ MMR + JBIG].

[0057] Then, the coding method judging section 28 compares the decoding capability list with the coding method list and determines the most efficient coding method among the coding methods that can be processed by both the transmitter and the receiver. The method is determined (step S42). In this example, the decoding capability list is [MH + MR + MMR], and the encoding method list is [MH + MR + MMR + J].
BIG], the most efficient coding scheme is MM
R is determined.

Therefore, the encoding method determining section 28 determines whether the MMR
To the encoding / decoding section 4. The encoding / decoding unit 4 encodes the image data stored in the image memory 3 by MMR (Step S11). Then, it outputs the MMR code to the image conversion unit 29. The image conversion unit 29 adds a CLASSF to the head of the encoded data in the G3 format.
Is converted to binary data in TIFF format by adding the TIFF header information (step S12). And TI
The binary data in the FF format is output to the binary / text converter 30.

The binary / text conversion unit 30 has a TIF
Convert F format binary data to text data and
Generate IFF image text data (step S
13). Then, it outputs the TIFF image text data to the mail editing unit 25.

The mail editing unit 25 adds header information to the TIFF image text data. That is, the current time is acquired, "Date: ~" is generated, "To: ~" is generated from the mail address input from the mail procedure control unit 26, and "From: ~" is generated from the mail address of the own device. Generate. Also, “Subject: TIFF: G3” is generated. The header information thus generated is added to the TIFF image text data to create an e-mail (step S
14). Then, the constructed header information is transferred to the mail protocol control unit 23.

The mail protocol control unit 23 includes a LAN protocol control unit 22 and a LAN interface unit 21.
The e-mail including the header information and the TIFF image text data is transmitted to the destination machine indicated by the destination mail address, that is, the facsimile apparatus 200 which is the receiver (step S15).

The receiver 201 also performs the processing shown in FIG. In the received e-mail, the "Subject: ~" part is "Subject: TIFF: G3" (step S
30, S31, S31), the mail analysis unit 24 separates the header information and the text, and transfers the text data of the text to the binary / text conversion unit 30 (step S3).
4).

The binary / text converter 30 converts the input text data into binary data (step S35). Then, the binary data is converted to the image
Transfer to The image conversion unit 29 separates the input binary data into TIFF header information of TIFF CLASS F and image data of G3 format (step S36). CLAS
The TIFF header information of the SF includes information indicating the encoding method. Therefore, the image conversion unit 29
The encoding system is extracted from the header information and instructed to the encoding / decoding unit 4, and the G3 format image data is output to the encoding / decoding unit 4.

The encoding / decoding section 4 decodes the G3 format image data (step S37) and temporarily stores the data in the image memory 3. The image data stored in the image memory 3 is printed by the recording unit 2 (Step S38).

Also in this embodiment, when the transmitter transmits image data in the G3 format by e-mail, first, the decoding capability is collected from the partner device. Then, the transmitter compares the decoding capability of the partner device included in the response with the encoding capability of its own device (transmitter), encodes the image data with the most efficient encoding method, and adds the encoded image data to the body of the e-mail. include. Therefore,
The image data transmitted by e-mail is always displayed and printed on the partner machine. Further, it is guaranteed that the image data transmitted by e-mail is encoded by the most efficient encoding method between the transmitter and the receiver. Further, in this embodiment, since the decoding capability of the partner machine is collected by the facsimile communication procedure, the device configuration is simplified.

[0066]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the facsimile apparatus is configured to inquire by e-mail about the decoding capability of the other party when transmitting image data by e-mail, the image data is transmitted by e-mail. Is transmitted, there is an effect that image data encoded by the most efficient encoding method can be transmitted between the transmitter and the receiver.

When an e-mail for inquiring about the decoding capability is received, an e-mail responding as a decoding capability with each of the encoding systems which can be processed by the own device is transmitted. There is an effect that an encoding method can be selected.

When an e-mail responding to the decoding ability is received, the coding efficiency of the own apparatus is compared with the decoding ability of the other device to select the most efficient coding method. There is an effect that image data is encoded by the most efficient encoding method among them.

When the electronic mail including the image data encoded by the encoding method selected by the encoding method selecting means is configured to be transmitted, the image data can be displayed and printed at the other party without fail. In addition, there is an effect that image data encoded by the most efficient encoding method is transmitted between the transmitter and the receiver.

Further, by comparing the decoding capability of the partner machine obtained by the facsimile communication procedure with the encoding capability of the own device, the most efficient encoding system is selected, and the encoding is performed by the selected encoding system. When the electronic mail including the image data including the image data is transmitted, there is an effect that the device configuration is simplified.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a facsimile apparatus according to the present invention and a system including the facsimile apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram schematically showing a flow of electronic mail.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a process on a transmission side.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a process on the transmission side.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing processing on the receiving side.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing another embodiment of the facsimile apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing processing on the transmission side of the facsimile apparatus shown in FIG. 6;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Reading part 2 Recording part 3 Image memory 4 Encoding / decoding part 5 Modem 6 NCU 21 LAN interface part 22 LAN protocol control part 23 Mail protocol control part 24 Mail analysis part 25 Mail editing part 26 Mail procedure control part 27 Coding method table 28 Coding method determination unit 29 Image conversion unit 30 Binary / text conversion unit 100, 200 Facsimile device 101, 201 Facsimile device 300 Public network 400 LAN

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI H04N 1/413

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A facsimile apparatus having an e-mail transmission / reception function, wherein the facsimile apparatus includes a capability inquiry means for inquiring, by e-mail, of a decoding capability of a partner machine when image data is transmitted by e-mail. . 2. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a capability responding unit that, when receiving an e-mail inquiring about the decoding capability, transmits an e-mail responding as a decoding capability with each of the encoding schemes that can be processed by the own device. 3. An encoding system selecting means for comparing the encoding capability of the own device with the decoding capability when receiving an e-mail responding to the decoding capability and selecting the most efficient encoding system. Item 3. A facsimile apparatus according to item 2. 4. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 3, further comprising image mail transmitting means for transmitting an electronic mail including image data encoded by the encoding method selected by the encoding method selecting means. 5. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the e-mail for inquiring the decoding capability includes only the header information, and the e-mail including the image data includes the header information and the body. 6. A facsimile apparatus having an electronic mail transmission / reception function, wherein the most efficient coding method is selected by comparing the decoding ability of a partner machine obtained by a facsimile communication procedure with its own coding ability. A facsimile apparatus comprising image mail transmitting means for transmitting an electronic mail including image data encoded by a selected encoding method.