JPH1188635A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide convenient facsimile equipment by providing a means for notifying the abnormal state of output disable of an image to a prescribed mail address and/or telephone number, when an abnormal state is detected. SOLUTION: When abnormality occurs at any part of facsimile equipment and there is electronic mail, a main control part 1 receives electronic mail and transmits the electronic mail showing the impossibility of reception to the mail address of a communicating party. When there is no electronic mail, the mail address and/or telephone number stored in a notice destination storage area 17 inside a RAM 7 is read out, and the occurrence of abnormality is notified to that mail address through internet communication and/or to that telephone number through facsimile communication. Then, information concerning the spot or time of abnormality occurrence is displayed on a display part 4 or printed out to a hard copy by a recording part 3.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus which is connected to a computer communication network such as the Internet or the like, and which receives an e-mail whose message is image data and outputs an image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, computer communication networks such as the Internet have become widespread. The reason is that the computer network is excellent in error correction, and the user bears the communication cost (line usage fee and provider's cost) with the nearest contract provider (connection company to the computer network). It is possible to perform communication not only with Japan but also with computers all over the world.

Incidentally, the conventional facsimile communication procedure is different from the above-described computer communication procedure using a computer communication network, so that it is not possible to perform direct communication from the facsimile apparatus to the computer communication network.
However, even if image data is normally transmitted and received in facsimile communication, for example, TIFF (Tagged Image Fil
If the data is converted into e-mail format data such as e-format, the data can be transmitted and received by a facsimile apparatus via a computer communication network.

[0004] Under such circumstances, facsimile messages can be transmitted and received as electronic mail through Internet communication, and facsimile apparatuses with an electronic mail function used for such purposes have been developed.

[0005]

In such a facsimile apparatus with an e-mail function, an abnormal state occurs in which the memory for storing the facsimile message is full or there is no recording paper. Therefore, a facsimile message may not be received. In such a case, there is a problem that the communication partner who has transmitted the facsimile message as an e-mail and the user of the facsimile apparatus that is not near the facsimile apparatus cannot know the occurrence of this abnormal state, which is inconvenient. .

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and when an abnormality occurs, a communication partner of a transmission source and / or
Another object of the present invention is to provide a user-friendly facsimile apparatus which can notify a user of the apparatus of the occurrence of an abnormality.

[0007]

A facsimile apparatus according to the present invention is a facsimile apparatus for receiving an e-mail containing image data and outputting an image, for detecting an abnormal state where the image cannot be output, A means for registering a predetermined mail address and / or telephone number; and a means for notifying the predetermined mail address and / or telephone number of the abnormal state when the abnormal state is detected. And

In the facsimile apparatus of the present invention, when an abnormal state where an image corresponding to the image data sent by e-mail cannot be output is detected, a mail address and / or a pre-registered computer communication are detected. Alternatively, the fact that an abnormal state has occurred is notified to a telephone number in facsimile communication. Therefore, when an abnormality occurs, the fact is promptly notified, so that appropriate measures can be taken immediately.

A facsimile apparatus according to the present invention is a facsimile apparatus for receiving an e-mail containing image data and outputting an image, wherein a means for detecting an abnormal state where the image cannot be output, and a mail address of a transmission source are provided. It is characterized by comprising means for extracting from an e-mail, and means for notifying the extracted mail address of the abnormal state when the abnormal state is detected.

In such a facsimile apparatus of the present invention, when an abnormal state where an image corresponding to the image data sent by e-mail cannot be output is detected, a mail address of a transmission source is extracted from the e-mail, The extracted mail address is notified that an abnormal state has occurred. Therefore, when an abnormality occurs, the fact is immediately notified to the communication partner of the transmission source, and the convenience is high.

Further, a facsimile apparatus according to the present invention comprises:
In the facsimile apparatus described above, the predetermined mail address and telephone number are a mail address and a telephone number for specifying a location of an administrator who manages the facsimile device and / or a specific communication partner. It is characterized by.

In the facsimile apparatus of the present invention, when an abnormal state is detected, a user managing the facsimile apparatus and / or a specific communication partner such as a customer is notified of the occurrence of the abnormality. Since the user can immediately recognize the occurrence of the abnormality even when not at the site, the user can quickly take measures to restore the normal state. In addition, since a notification is sent to a specific communication partner, useless transmission processing on the communication partner side can be prevented.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings showing the embodiments. However, in the embodiment of the present invention described below, the Internet is used as a computer communication network. First, a hardware configuration of a facsimile apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The facsimile apparatus of the present invention has a function capable of Internet communication in addition to a conventional facsimile communication function such as the G3 system.

In FIG. 1, the main control unit 1
It is composed of a PU, and is connected to each of the hardware units described below via a bus 13 to control them to manage whether there is an abnormality and to execute various software functions. The reading unit 2 reads a document using a scanner using, for example, a CCD, and outputs dot image data converted into binary black and white. The recording unit 3 is a printer device of an electrophotographic system or the like, and prints out image data received from another facsimile device by facsimile communication and image data received by Internet communication as a hard copy and records them.

The display unit 4 is a display device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) or a CRT display, and displays image data of a document to be transmitted and received image data for displaying the operation state of the facsimile apparatus of the present invention. I do. When an error occurs in the facsimile machine, the display unit 4 displays the location of the error. The operation unit 5
It is provided with character keys, numeric keys (numerical keys), speed dial keys, one-touch dial keys, various function keys, etc. necessary for operating the facsimile apparatus of the present invention. By using the touch panel type as the display unit 4, some or all of the various keys of the operation unit 5 can be substituted.

The ROM 6 stores in advance various software programs necessary for the operation of the facsimile apparatus of the present invention. The RAM 7 is configured by an SRAM, a flash memory, or the like, and stores temporary data generated when executing software. Further, the RAM 7 has a notification destination storage area 17 for storing a mail address in Internet communication and / or a telephone number in facsimile communication indicating a notification destination for notifying the occurrence of an abnormality. The image memory 8 is composed of a DRAM or the like, and stores image data to be transmitted or received image data.

The modem 10 is a facsimile modem for normal facsimile communication. The data modem 12 is a data communication modem for performing Internet communication, and is connected to the bus 13 via the external interface 9. An NCU (Network Control Unit) 11 is hardware that performs operations for connecting and disconnecting the analog line L, and connects the modem 10 or the data modem 12 to the analog line L as necessary.

A DSU (Digital Subscriber Line Termination Equipment: Digita)
l Service Unit) to connect to a digital line of the baseband transmission system.

The facsimile apparatus of the present invention has the above-described hardware configuration, and transmits and receives image data mainly converted into a TIFF file as electronic mail, as well as a normal facsimile communication function such as the G3 system. Has a function. In other words, it is possible to convert the image data of a document to be originally transmitted by facsimile into a TIFF file and transmit / receive it as an electronic mail via the Internet. However, the function for that is stored in the ROM 6 as a software program.

Next, the operation will be described. In the facsimile apparatus of the present invention, when any abnormality occurs, a user who is away from the facsimile apparatus, a specific communication partner, and a transmission source that sent the e-mail are automatically notified of the occurrence. You can be notified. The cause of the abnormality is that image data is already stored in the full capacity of the image memory 8 and further data cannot be stored, or the recording unit 3 runs out of paper and printing is impossible. There is.

Hereinafter, the processing operation of the facsimile apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, it is determined whether an abnormality has occurred in any part of the facsimile machine (step S).
1). If no error has occurred (S1: NO), the routine of the following abnormal processing is not performed, and the processing is terminated as it is to perform another processing routine. On the other hand, if it has occurred (S1: YES), a dial-up connection is made to the provider (step S2), and it is determined whether there is an e-mail containing a facsimile image addressed to itself (step S2).
3).

If there is an e-mail (S3: NO),
The e-mail is received (step S4), and the mail address of the communication partner that is the transmission source is extracted from the header information (step S5). Then, an e-mail to the effect that reception is not possible is transmitted to the extracted e-mail address (step S6). For example, "The facsimile mail you sent earlier could not be received due to a mechanical failure.
□□ − △△△△ Please send a facsimile separately. "
Send a message like

Then, the received electronic mail is discarded (step S7). This is a process for dealing with an abnormal state in which the storage capacity of the image memory 8 becomes full. It is determined whether or not another e-mail containing the facsimile image remains (step S8).
8: YES), and repeats steps S4 to S7 described above.

If there is no e-mail containing a facsimile image in step S4 (S3: NO), and
If it is determined in step S8 that the processing for all the received e-mails has been completed (S8: NO), the RA
The mail address and / or telephone number stored in the notification destination storage area 17 in M7 is read, and the fact that an abnormality has occurred is notified to the mail address by Internet communication and / or the telephone number by facsimile communication. (Step S9). For example, if the user of the facsimile machine is not nearby, contact the location where the user is located. As a specific example, when the user is returning from the company or office where the facsimile machine is installed, the user is notified of the occurrence of an abnormality to his home. Also,
The occurrence of an abnormality is notified to the mail address and / or telephone number of a communication partner such as a customer who frequently communicates stored in the notification destination storage area 17.

Then, the line with the provider is disconnected (step S10). Information about the abnormality, such as the location of the abnormality and the time of occurrence, is displayed on the display unit 4 or printed out in a hard copy in the recording unit 3, and the process ends.

[0027]

As described above, in the facsimile apparatus of the present invention, when an abnormal state where an image corresponding to the image data sent by e-mail cannot be output is detected, a mail registered by computer communication registered in advance is used. An address and / or telephone number for facsimile communication is notified that an abnormal condition has occurred. If an abnormal condition occurs, that fact can be promptly notified and appropriate measures can be taken immediately. it can.

Further, in the facsimile apparatus of the present invention, when detecting an abnormal state in which an image corresponding to the image data sent by e-mail cannot be output, a mail address of a transmission source is extracted from the e-mail, and the extraction is performed. The fact that an abnormal state has occurred is notified to the e-mail address that has been set. Therefore, when an abnormality occurs, the fact is promptly notified to the transmission source, which is convenient.

Further, in the facsimile apparatus of the present invention, when an abnormal state is detected, a user managing the facsimile apparatus and / or a specific communication partner is notified of the occurrence of the abnormality. Even if not at the site, the occurrence of an abnormality can be immediately recognized, and measures can be taken promptly to recover to the normal state, and unnecessary transmission processing can be avoided for a specific communication partner.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of a facsimile apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure in the facsimile apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 Main control unit 3 Recording unit 4 Display unit 5 Operation unit 6 ROM 7 RAM 8 Image memory 10 Modem 11 NCU 12 Data modem 17 Notification storage area

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A facsimile apparatus for receiving an e-mail containing image data and outputting an image, comprising means for detecting an abnormal state where the image cannot be output, and registering a predetermined mail address and / or telephone number. A facsimile apparatus, comprising: means for notifying the predetermined mail address and / or telephone number of the abnormal state when the abnormal state is detected. 2. A facsimile apparatus for receiving an e-mail containing image data and outputting an image, means for detecting an abnormal state in which the image cannot be output, and means for extracting a mail address of a transmission source from the e-mail. And a means for notifying the extracted mail address of the abnormal state when the abnormal state is detected. 3. The predetermined mail address and telephone number are a mail address and a telephone number for specifying a location of an administrator who manages the facsimile machine and / or a specific communication partner. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1.