JPH1139235A - Communication terminal equipment having electronic mail function - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To permit an operator not to confirm the reception of an electronic mail by phone by transmitting the data together with the mail to request a confirmation message to the receiver side. SOLUTION: Two users (originators) A and B transmit the electronic mails to a user X via a facsimile equipment 41. These transmitted mails are stored in a mail box 45a of a server 45. A facsimile equipment 42 occasionally accesses to the box 45a of users registered in its own equipment to gather the electronic mails. Then the equipment 42 confirms that the electronic mails originated from both users A and B are received by the box 45a. No receipt is issued to the electronic mail received from the user A, and a receipt is required for the electronic mail received from the user B. Thus, the electronic mail of the user B is normally printed and a receipt is issued to this mail.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication terminal device such as a facsimile device with an e-mail function, and more particularly to a communication terminal device with an e-mail function for easily confirming receipt of an e-mail.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, a wide range of computer communication networks configured by connecting a LAN or individual personal computers to a communication line such as a telephone line has become widespread. The computer communication network includes the Internet and a personal computer communication service network. The PC communication service network has NI
FTY-Serve (hereinafter referred to as Nifty), PC-
VAN and the like. Hereinafter, each of these computer communication networks is referred to as a network type. Communication between heterogeneous networks having different network types is also possible.

In the case of using a computer communication network, there are a plurality of providers (providers) that provide services such as connection to a computer communication network, rather than directly communicating from a user to a destination. The person communicates via the computer (server) of this provider. In the personal computer communication service network, there is a host that controls the service, and the user communicates via the host computer of the host. When using a computer communication network, a user connects a line to an access point of a provider or a host, and then performs a procedure called login in order to be authenticated as a subscriber. For login, it is necessary to input a user name (user ID) and a password known only to the user. By this login, the own communication terminal device is logically connected to the computer communication network.

[0004] There are various contents of the service. Here, electronic mail on the Internet will be described. The user stores data to be communicated in an e-mail having a predetermined format and transmits the e-mail. The e-mail includes the e-mail address (e-mai) of the sending user.
l address) and the electronic mail address of the destination. These e-mail addresses include information indicating each provider. The e-mail is stored in the mailbox of the provider contracted by the other user. The recipient user, who is the recipient, can retrieve the electronic mail from this mailbox in a timely manner. Note that a user name (user ID) represented by a character string based on a domain name system (DNS) is used for the e-mail address instead of an IP (Internet Protocol) address represented only by a numerical value.

An advantage of the computer communication network is that it employs a communication system having an excellent error correction function, and allows a user to pay a communication fee to a nearest contract provider or access point and to communicate with a remote partner. Communication is possible.

On the other hand, facsimile communication for communicating image data using a telephone line has been widely used.
Communication procedures and communication methods for this have been established. Since the communication procedure and communication method of facsimile communication are different from those of a computer communication network, a conventional facsimile device cannot be connected to the computer communication network. Accordingly, the present applicant has proposed a facsimile apparatus with an e-mail function in which a facsimile apparatus has a function of converting image data into an e-mail format and performing communication.

[0007]

By the way, when a facsimile apparatus with an e-mail function transmits an e-mail,
In this facsimile apparatus (transmitting apparatus), it is unknown whether or not the receiving apparatus has received the e-mail, and it cannot be confirmed unless the operator of the receiving apparatus sends a confirmation to the user by telephone or e-mail. .

[0008] A similar problem arises not only in a facsimile apparatus but also in a communication terminal apparatus with an e-mail function that is used jointly.

An object of the present invention is to provide a communication terminal device with an e-mail function which solves the above-mentioned problems and makes it easy to confirm receipt of an e-mail.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, when an electronic mail is transmitted, data for requesting a receiving side apparatus for a confirmation message that the electronic mail has been received is transmitted to the receiving apparatus. This is included in the e-mail and sent.

When the e-mail is received and data for requesting a confirmation message is detected from the e-mail, the e-mail including the confirmation message is transmitted to the sender of the e-mail.

The e-mail including the confirmation message is
The received e-mail may be transmitted after being normally printed.

[0013]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In this embodiment, the communication terminal device is a facsimile device with an e-mail function having a G3, G4 facsimile communication function and an e-mail function. FIG. 1 shows a flow of a transmission operation of the facsimile apparatus. FIG. 2 shows a flow of the receiving operation of the facsimile apparatus. FIG. 3 shows a circuit configuration of the facsimile apparatus.

As shown in FIG. 3, the facsimile apparatus includes a main control unit 1, a reading unit 2, a recording unit 3, a display unit 4, an operation unit 5, an external storage reading unit 6, a ROM 7, a RAM 8, an image memory 9, It comprises a modem 10, an NCU 11, and a data modem 12.

The main control unit (CPU) 1 controls each unit of the hardware through a bus 13 and encodes / demultiplexes the data.
Software (program) such as image (TIFF) conversion, binary text conversion, mail editing, and auto dialer communication procedures can be executed. Further, the program for the transmission operation and the reception operation according to the present invention can be executed.

The reading section 2 can read an original with an image pickup device such as a CCD and generate black and white binary image data.

The recording unit 3 includes a printer of an electrophotographic system or the like, and can record (print out) image data received by facsimile communication from another G3 or G4 facsimile apparatus or image data obtained by e-mail. .

The display unit 4 includes a display such as an LCD display, and operates the facsimile apparatus, image data, and the like.
It is possible to display registered contents, operation instructions, and the like.

The operation unit 5 includes numeric keys for inputting numbers, speed dial keys for speed dial operation, one touch keys for one touch operation, various function keys, start keys, and the like. The function keys have functions such as setting a telephone number / e-mail address registration mode and selecting a communication method. The numeric keys, speed dial keys, and one-touch keys also have a function of inputting characters such as alphabets.

The ROM 7 stores a program executed by the main control unit for operating the facsimile apparatus, that is, a program recording medium.

The RAM 8 is composed of an SRAM, a flash memory, and the like, and stores temporary data generated when a program is executed, and also stores various registered data in a table format.

The image memory 9 comprises a DRAM and stores image data.

The modem 10 has a fax modem function and is used when performing facsimile communication of image data.

An NCU (Network Control Unit) 11 can close and open an analog line. In G4 communication, I via a DSU (data line terminating device) not shown
Connected to SDN line.

The data modem 12 has a data modem function and is used when communicating image data by electronic mail. The data modem 12 is connected to an external telephone terminal of the NCU, and is connected to a serial port of the external interface 15 by RS232C.

Next, a program executed by the main control unit will be described.

In encoding / decoding, image data is
Encoding and decoding are performed by encoding methods such as H, MR, and MMR. Hereinafter, the image data encoded by these encoding methods will be referred to as G3 format image data. The image memory stores the G3 format image data.

In image conversion, at the time of transmission, G3 format image data is converted to a TIFF format used by a general computer.
(Tagged Image File Format)
At the time of reception, it converts the TIFF image data into G3 format image data. In addition, TIFF is Adobe System
It is a format released by the company, black and white binary,
Various CLASSes that handle black and white multivalued, full color, and the like are defined. CLASS F, one of them
Defines G3 format image data, which is image data of a document encoded by an encoding method such as MH, MR, or MMR. Therefore, the image data in G3 format can be converted into TIFF image data by adding TIFF header information of CLASS F to the head of the image data.

In the binary text conversion, at the time of transmission,
Converts binary data to text data, and upon reception,
Convert text data to binary data. There are computers on the Internet that cannot handle binary data e-mail. When transmitting binary data such as TIFF image data so as to ensure that the e-mail reaches the destination, the data is temporarily converted to text data. The text data handled on the Internet is RFC (Request For Comments) which is a document issued by the IETF (Intenet Engineering Task Force).
822, it is defined as a 7-bit code. Here, MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail)
Extensions) using base64 or the like. According to this, 6-bit binary data consists of 64 characters (upper and lower case alphabets, numbers,
+, /) And converted to text data. MIME is specified in RFC1521, etc.

In the mail editing, at the time of transmission, mail header information is added to the TIFF image data converted to text data to edit the data into an e-mail format. At the time of reception, the mail header information is removed from the data in the e-mail format, Only the TIFF image data converted into data is extracted. Since it is specified that predetermined header information is added to electronic mail on the Internet as management information of the electronic mail, at the time of transmission, "F" is added to the head of the TIFF image data converted to text data.
rom: (user address) "," To: (destination address) "," Subject: (title) ", etc. In the present invention, the confirmation message is added to the e-mail to be transmitted. Write the requested data and, if it becomes the recipient, edit the email containing the confirmation message.

The auto dialer sends telephone number data to the NCU to call the telephone number read from the table.

The data stored in the RAM 8 in the form of a table includes a user code number, a user's user ID and password, a network type, a destination name, a destination e-mail address, a network type, and an access point telephone number. , User's personal name, destination abbreviated number, destination one-touch, facsimile telephone number, facsimile type, provider name, and the like.

Next, the transmission operation will be described with reference to FIG.
However, this flowchart does not prescribe the processing order of header creation and code conversion, but shows the processing for including the data requesting the confirmation message to the receiving side in the electronic mail so as to be easily understood.

First, a header for the Internet or personal computer communication is created. Here, an RFC header is created (S1). Next, it is determined whether the receipt request function is on or off (S2). The on / off of the receipt request function may be registered in a table or the like by the user operating the operation unit in advance. If the receipt request function is on, a MIME header area used by MIME is secured in the user area following the RFC header area. For example, "X" is set in this MIME header area according to a non-standard type designation format. -Write a character string of "RCR: ON". This character string is data for requesting a confirmation message to the receiving side, and is hereinafter referred to as a receipt request identifier (S3). If the receipt request function is off, for example,
Write the character string “X-RCR: OFF”. This character string is a negative expression of the receipt request identifier. Alternatively, a negative may be indicated by not writing the receipt request identifier (S4).

Thus, the RFC header and the MIM
When the E header is formed, these headers are transmitted (S5). Next, the image data is MMR
-MH code conversion, MH-TIFF conversion, TIFF-MI
ME conversion is performed and the data is transmitted in a text data format (S6).
The conversion and transmission are repeated until transmission of one mail is completed. The header and text may be edited into one e-mail and then sent.

Next, the receiving operation will be described with reference to FIG.

First, the presence / absence of the received mail in the mailbox is determined, and if there is the received mail, the received mail is taken out. The received mail includes an electronic mail which is originally text data and an image data converted into the text data. With e-mail. Here, the header “Subject
By the image data identifier described in the column of “t:”,
The electronic mail of the image data is determined, the received electronic mail is determined, and the download from the mailbox to the facsimile apparatus is started (S7). At this time, the receipt request identifier is extracted from the downloaded electronic mail. If “X-RCR: ON” is stored as the receipt request identifier, the address of the sender is extracted from the “From:” column and stored. Then, the receipt issuance flag is turned on (S8). The receipt issuance flag is
This indicates whether a receipt is issued for the received electronic mail. If the receipt request identifier does not exist or “X-RCR: OFF” is stored, the receipt issuance flag is turned off (S9). When the reception of the mail is completed due to the end of the download, in this embodiment, a receipt is not immediately issued, but it is checked whether or not the same electronic mail remains in the mailbox. That is, an electronic mail having the same image data identifier as the electronic mail having the same JOB number and the same sender as the electronic mail whose download has been completed is searched for (S
10). Here, the JOB number is such that the same JOB number is added when the sender successively sends an e-mail that treats the receipt request in the same manner (FIG. 1).
Not shown). Therefore, the receiving side can judge that the same JOB number and the same sender's e-mail are the same regarding the receipt request. If there is an e-mail with the same treatment for such a receipt request, the e-mail to be received is determined and downloaded. This is repeated until no more e-mails are handled.

Next, the receipt issuing flag is determined (S
11). If the receipt issuance flag is off, there is no need to issue a receipt, and the process returns to the beginning to process the next received mail. If the receipt issuance flag is on, a receipt must be issued. By the way, the description of the printing of the downloaded e-mail is omitted, but it is assumed that, for example, the printing is started in the middle of or after the downloading in parallel. Therefore, it is checked whether or not the printing of the e-mail for which the receipt must be issued has been completed normally (S12). For example, a flag indicating abnormal termination of printing is set by a jam detection or a power-off detection performed by the recording unit 3 during printing. The reception operation program determines from this flag whether or not printing has been normally completed. If the printing is not completed normally, the receipt is not issued and the next received mail is processed. If the printing is completed normally, a receipt is issued. The receipt is transmitted as an e-mail including a confirmation message (S1).
3).

Next, a specific example will be described. As shown in FIG.
1, 42, and 43, which can mutually transmit and receive facsimile data through a telephone line. The facsimile device 41,
42 is connected to the Internet 46 via servers 44 and 45, and the facsimile machines 41 and 43 are connected to a personal computer communication service network 47. 44a, 45a, 4
7a is a mailbox. Facsimile machine 41
Is available to users A and B. It is assumed that the user A has registered the receipt request function off and the user B has registered the receipt request function on. User A,
The two senders B send the user X from the facsimile machine 41
Suppose you send an e-mail to. These e-mails are stored in a mail box 45a of the server 45. The facsimile device 42 accesses the user's mailbox 45a registered with the facsimile device at appropriate times,
Suck up email. The facsimile device 42 recognizes that an e-mail with the user A as the sender and an e-mail with the user B as the sender have reached the mailbox 45a. No receipt is issued for the email from User A. Since it is necessary to issue a receipt for the electronic mail from the user B, the receipt is issued after the electronic mail is normally printed.

Here, the e-mail constituting the receipt is:
As shown in FIG. 5, it is composed of an RFC header 51, a confirmation message 52, and return image data 53. RFC
The header 51 includes “To: (destination address)”, “Fr
om: (user address) "," Date (date) ",
It has items such as “Subject: (title)”. The confirmation message 52 is a character string registered in advance, such as "Received correctly." Return image data 53
Is a part of the received image data (such as the beginning). When a plurality of pages are received, a part of the first page or a reduced image of the first page may be used.

User B accesses mailbox 45a or 47a and retrieves the e-mail from user X. If the retrieved e-mail is a receipt, the confirmation message is included, so that it is possible to confirm that the e-mail previously transmitted to the user X has been received and that the printing has been correctly completed. In addition, since a part of the body of the e-mail sent by the user B is added, in the case where a plurality of e-mails are sent, the receipt of the e-mail is visually determined without reading the characters. Can be determined.
On the other hand, the user X on the receiving side does not need to make a call or send an e-mail.

In the above embodiment, the receipt request identifier is arranged in the MIME header.
For example, the present invention can be implemented by writing and arranging in “Subject:”.

[0043]

The present invention exhibits the following excellent effects.

(1) Since the data required for the confirmation message is transmitted to the receiving side by being included in the e-mail, the operator does not need to call the confirmation separately.

(2) On the receiving side, the apparatus automatically sends an e-mail including a confirmation message, so that the operator does not need to make a separate confirmation call or the like.

(3) The e-mail including the confirmation message is transmitted after the received e-mail is normally printed, so that it can be confirmed that the printing has been correctly completed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart of an e-mail transmission operation according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of an e-mail receiving operation according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a circuit configuration diagram of the facsimile apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram in which the facsimile apparatus according to the present invention is connected to a computer communication network.

FIG. 5 is a format diagram of a receipt issued according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Main control part 2 Reading part 3 Recording part 4 Display part 5 Operation part 7 ROM 8 RAM 9 Image memory 10 Modem 11 NCU 12 Data modem S2 Step to judge whether the receipt request function is ON or OFF S3 Data requesting a confirmation message Is included in the e-mail S8 Step of turning on the receipt issuance flag S11 Step of determining the receipt issuance flag S12 Step of checking for normal completion S13 Step of sending the receipt e-mail

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An e-mail function, wherein when transmitting an e-mail, data for requesting a receiving side apparatus for a confirmation message that the e-mail has been received is included in the e-mail and transmitted. Communication terminal device. 2. When an e-mail is received, if data requesting a confirmation message is detected from the e-mail, an e-mail including the confirmation message is transmitted to a sender of the e-mail. Communication terminal device with an e-mail function. 3. The communication terminal device with an electronic mail function according to claim 2, wherein the electronic mail including the confirmation message is transmitted after the received electronic mail is normally printed.