KR20070082694A - Printer for faxing through internet and method therefor - Google Patents

Abstract

A printer equipped with an Internet facsimile function and a facsimile transferring method using the same are provided to transfer the facsimile at a high speed, to reduce expense for transferring the facsimile to a long distance by transferring the facsimile through the Internet, and improve quality and speed of a result matter by outputting the received facsimile in the printer. An address information transmitter(103) transmits the ID information stored in an ID information storing part(101) and address information, which is assigned when the Internet is connected, to a server providing Internet address information assigned to the printer. A data receiver(105) receives facsimile data received through the Internet. An output part(107) outputs the received facsimile data received. An input part(102) receives the ID information of a target printer. An address information receiver(104) receives the Internet address information of the target printer from the server by transmitting the received ID information to the server. A scanning part(108) scans a document to be transferred. A data transmitter(106) transmits scanning data to the target printer by using the received address information.

Description

Printers equipped with a fax function via the Internet and a fax transmission method using the printer {Printer for faxing through internet and method therefor}

1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the concept of the present invention

2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of the present invention.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of receiving a fax using the printer of the present invention.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of transmitting a fax using the printer of the present invention.

The present invention relates to a printer having a fax function and a fax transmission method using the same, and more particularly, to a printer capable of sending a fax using the Internet and a method of transmitting a fax via the Internet using the same.

In order to send a fax, the user accesses the other party's fax machine through the fax machine and transmits the scanned document to the other party's fax machine through the telephone line.

However, since the transmission speed of data is limited due to the use of telephone lines, the transmission speed of the data becomes very slow even when using a high-performance fax machine.

In addition, if you send a fax, you will be charged a telephone fee. Depending on the distance, the telephone fee will be charged differently. There is a drawback of cost.

In order to solve the above problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a printer with a fax function capable of transmitting a fax via the Internet.

In order to solve the above problem, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for transmitting a fax over the Internet.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an identification information storage unit for storing unique identification information; An address information transmitting unit for transmitting the identification information stored in the identification information storage unit and the address information allocated when accessing the Internet to a predetermined server providing Internet address information allocated to the printer corresponding to each identification information for each identification information; A data receiver for receiving predetermined fax data transmitted through the Internet; And an output unit for outputting the received fax data to the data receiving unit; provides a printer with a fax function, characterized in that it comprises a.

Here, the printer with the fax function includes an input unit for receiving the identification information of the target printer to be the receiving object of the fax; An address information receiver for transmitting the identification information input to the input unit to the server to receive Internet address information connected to the printer corresponding to the input identification information from the server; A scanning unit for scanning a document to be faxed; And a data transmitter for transmitting the scanned data to the destination printer using the address information received from the address information receiver.

On the other hand, in order to achieve the above object, the present invention has a unique identification information, and in the fax transmission and reception method using a printer equipped with a fax function through the Internet, assigned to the printer corresponding to each identification information for each identification information Transmitting identification information of the printer and address information allocated when the printer is connected to the Internet to a predetermined server providing the Internet address information; Receiving predetermined fax data transmitted over the Internet; And outputting the received fax data; provides a fax transmission and reception method comprising the Internet.

Here, the method for receiving and sending a fax through the Internet may include receiving identification information of a target printer, which is a reception target of a fax; Transmitting the input identification information to the server to receive Internet address information accessed by a printer corresponding to the input identification information from the server; Scanning a document to be faxed; And transmitting the scanned data to the destination printer using the received address information of the destination printer.

On the other hand, in order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a computer readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for realizing the above method.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the concept of the present invention.

The printer 100 of the present invention is provided with a function for connecting to the Internet, and unique identification information is assigned.

The server 200 receives the identification information of each printer 100 and the Internet address information assigned to each printer 100 from each printer 100 and provides them to other printers.

When the printer 100 accesses the Internet, a dynamic IP (Internet Protocol) address is assigned unless it is connected through a dedicated line, and the dynamic IP address is different each time the Internet is accessed.

The printer 100 connects to the server 200 and provides the assigned dynamic IP address to the server 200 with its own unique identification information, and in case of sending a fax to another printer, the printer serving as the purpose of the server 200. By transmitting the identification information of the can be inquired how the address assigned to the printer corresponding to the identification information.

When the printer 100-1 transmits a fax to the printer 100-2, the printer 100-1 transmits identification information of the printer 100-2 to the server 200 to the printer 100-2. The assigned address information is queried, and data to be faxed is transmitted to the printer 100-2 in a peer-to-peer (P2P) manner.

The detailed configuration of the printer 100 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the printer 100 of the present invention.

The printer 100 having a fax function of the present invention includes an identification information storage unit 101, an input unit 102, an address information transmitter 103, an address information receiver 104, a data receiver 105, and a data transmitter 106. ), An output unit 107, and a scan unit 108.

The printer 100 equipped with the fax function of the present invention may be used to output data transmitted from a computer connected to another computer or may be used to perform only a fax function.

The configuration in the case where the printer 100 equipped with the fax function of the present invention is used as an output device of a computer connected thereto or a configuration for accessing the Internet is a general technology, and thus, a detailed description thereof will be omitted, and the fax function which is a feature of the present invention is omitted here. This section focuses only on functions related to.

The identification information storage unit 101 stores unique identification information given to each printer 100.

This identification information may be information stored in the production of the printer, or may be information input after the user purchases.

When a user purchases the printer 100 equipped with the fax function of the present invention and then inputs identification information to the printer 100, the user accesses the server 200 to inquire whether the same identification information exists and then inputs the identification information. It is preferable.

Identification information of each printer is required to be known to the user first, as if the telephone number. This identification information is like a telephone number and should not be duplicated with identification information of other printers, and the user can freely designate it as long as there is no duplication.

On the other hand, the identification information of the printer does not necessarily have to be made of only numbers, such as a telephone number, and the length of the printer is not particularly limited unless it is duplicated. Therefore, the user can use identification information that is easy to memorize using more various combinations. have.

When the printer 100 is connected to the Internet, the address information transmitter 103 transmits the identification information and the allocated address information stored in the identification information storage unit 101 to the server 200.

The address information transmitter 103 connects to the server 200 as soon as the printer 100 is turned on or access to the Internet, and transmits the identification information stored in the identification information storage unit 101 and the assigned address information. Alternatively, the operation may be performed only when the user inputs the command.

The data receiver 105 receives data from another printer when it is received through the Internet.

The received data may be transmitted from a printer equipped with a fax function of the present invention, but is not necessarily limited thereto. That is, as long as it has a data format that can be received and output by a printer equipped with a fax function of the present invention, data transmitted by a terminal other than the printer of the present invention (for example, a general computer) can also be received. .

At this time, if it is determined that the output of the received data is possible, the data receiver 105 stores the received data until the output of the received data is possible or transmits the data. It is advisable to send a message to the printer indicating that printing is not possible. The data transmitted through the Internet includes both the sender's address information and the recipient's address information, so that the address information of the printer that sent the data can be known automatically. It becomes possible.

The output unit 107 outputs the received data to a predetermined sheet when data is received by the data receiving unit 105. Since a general function of outputting data is the same as that of a general printer, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

On the other hand, when sending a document using a printer equipped with a fax function of the present invention may be set by sending the document grade to the transmitted data, in this case the output unit 106 is a document received from the data receiving unit 105 Depending on the grade of the output can be determined.

For example, in the case of data about a document of a general grade, the data is output as soon as it is transmitted, and in the case of data about a secret document requiring security, the output unit 106 or the data receiving unit 105 is provided. The data may be stored in a predetermined memory (not shown), and then outputted after the user inputs his / her password.

In the case of a general fax machine, since a document is output as soon as it is received, the secret document cannot be prevented from being seen by other people. This has the effect of making the document invisible.

The input unit 102 receives identification information of a destination printer for sending a fax from the user when the user sends a fax. The input unit 102 only needs to receive a desired content such as a keypad and a touch screen, and there is no limitation in the type thereof.

The input unit 102 may also receive various commands for driving the printer 100 such as a fax transmission start and stop command and a job cancel command.

The address information receiver 104 transmits the identification information of the target printer input through the input unit 102 to the server 200 and requests an inquiry of address information corresponding to the identification information transmitted from the server 200. The server 200 receives the address information assigned to the destination printer.

At this time, if the target printer is not connected to the Internet and the address information inquiry through the server 200 is not possible, the address information receiving unit 104 notifies the user so that the transmission of the fax can be stopped. It is preferable.

The scanning unit 108 scans the information to be sent by fax and processes it into digital data. Since the function of the scan unit 108 is the same as that of a general scanner, further description thereof will be omitted.

The data transmitter 106 transmits the transmission data scanned and generated by the scan unit 108 to the printer of the address obtained by the address information receiver 104 via the wired or wireless Internet.

When sending a fax, the data transmitter 106 may send a fax to only one counterpart or simultaneously send a fax to several people. When a user inputs a plurality of identification information of a printer of a counterpart to send a fax, the data transmitter 106 transmits the scanned data to all printers corresponding to the input identification information.

In the case of a general fax machine, when sending a fax to multiple people, the scanned data is transmitted after inputting a telephone number every time, but the scanned data is transmitted through the Internet. There is an advantage that can be sent to the other party.

Meanwhile, before transmitting data, the data transmitter 106 may receive a grade of a document to be transmitted from a user and include it in the transmitted data. As described above, when the level of the transmitted document is set to a level that requires security, it is not output until the receiving user receives information for releasing the security such as a password. It is possible to solve the disadvantage that all the documents transmitted during the transmission of the public to others.

Information about the security level of the document may be included in a predetermined position of the data to be transmitted. The exact location will be determined according to the protocol between the manufacturers of the printer equipped with the fax function of the present invention.

On the other hand, before transmitting data, the data transmitting unit 106 receives the data by sending the data for checking whether the destination printer can receive the data to the destination printer and receiving the response data Ack. You can check if this is possible.

If it is determined that the destination printer cannot receive data due to the Internet connection disconnection or network failure of the destination printer, the data transmission unit 106 may notify the user and cause the fax transmission to be stopped, or store the scanned data. It may be possible to attempt to resend the fax every predetermined period.

A specific method of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 3 and 4.

3 is a flowchart illustrating a method of receiving a fax using the printer 100 of the present invention.

First, when the user turns on the printer 100 of the present invention and is automatically connected to the Internet, or if the Internet connection function of the printer 100 is turned on (301), the address information transmitter 103 identifies identification information of each printer. Is connected to a server 200 providing identification information and address information corresponding thereto, and address information such as identification information of the printer 100 stored in the identification information storage unit 101 and a floating IP address assigned when accessing the Internet. Send 302.

If the data receiving unit 105 waits in the standby state and confirms that the fax data is received through the Internet (303), the data receiving unit 105 provides the output unit 107 to output it (304).

At this time, if it is determined that the output of the data through the output unit 107 is difficult, the data receiving unit 105 may store the received fax data, it may transmit a message that the output is impossible to the printer that sent the fax data As we have already seen.

In addition, when the received document is a document that maintains security among the received data, and the information regarding the security level is included, the output unit 107 does not output the received information for input of security release from the user. You can print the document as you saw earlier.

4 is a flowchart illustrating a method of transmitting a fax using the printer 100 of the present invention.

When the user requests to fax a predetermined document (401), the user inputs identification information of the target printer to be faxed through the input unit 102 (402).

At this time, if there are a plurality of destination printers to be sent, that is, to send a fax to a plurality of recipients, the user inputs all identification information of each destination printer.

The address information receiver 104 transmits the identification information of the target printer input through the input unit 102 to the server 200 and requests an inquiry of address information corresponding to the identification information transmitted from the server 200. The server 200 receives address information allocated to the destination printer to be transmitted (403).

At this time, if the target printer is not connected to the Internet and the address information inquiry through the server 200 is not possible, the address information receiving unit 104 may notify the user so that the transmission of the fax may be stopped. As we saw earlier.

Meanwhile, the scan unit 108 generates data for scanning and faxing a document to be transmitted by the user separately from the above operation (404).

When the fax data is generated by scanning the document and the address information of the target printer is inquired, the data transmitter 106 transmits the scanned fax data to the target printer through the wired / wireless Internet (405).

At this time, if it is determined that the destination printer cannot receive the data, the data transmission unit 106 may notify the user and cause the fax transmission to be stopped, or store the scanned data and attempt to resend the fax every predetermined period. You can do that as we've seen before.

In addition, as described above, the data transmitter 106 may simultaneously transmit or sequentially scan the generated data to the respective target printers corresponding to the identification information input by the user when the user inputs a plurality of identification information. same.

In addition, as described above, when the user determines the security level of the document, information about the document may be included in the transmitted data.

The method of the present invention can also be embodied as computer readable code on a computer readable recording medium. The computer-readable recording medium includes all kinds of recording devices in which data that can be read by a computer system is stored. Examples of computer-readable recording media include ROM, RAM, CD-ROM, magnetic tape, floppy disk, optical data storage, and the like, and may also be implemented in the form of a carrier wave (for example, transmission over the Internet). Include. The computer readable recording medium can also be distributed over network coupled computer systems so that the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributed fashion.

As described above, according to the present invention, since the fax can be transmitted using the Internet, there is an advantage that the data transmission speed is high. In addition, the use of the Internet has been able to solve the disadvantage that the fee is expensive as the existing fax is farther away.

In addition, by using a printer to output the quality of the output is higher, the output speed also has the advantage.

Claims (11)

An identification information storage unit for storing unique identification information; An address information transmitting unit for transmitting the identification information stored in the identification information storage unit and the address information allocated when accessing the Internet to a predetermined server providing Internet address information allocated to the printer corresponding to each identification information for each identification information; A data receiver for receiving predetermined fax data transmitted through the Internet; And And an output unit for outputting the received fax data to the data receiving unit. The printer of claim 1, wherein the printer is provided with a fax function. An input unit for receiving identification information of a target printer, which is a reception target of a fax; An address information receiver for transmitting the identification information input to the input unit to the server to receive Internet address information connected to the printer corresponding to the input identification information from the server; A scanning unit for scanning a document to be faxed; And And a data transmitter for transmitting the scanned data to the destination printer by using the address information received from the address information receiver. The printer with a fax function according to claim 2, wherein the data transmitter retransmits the data every predetermined period when it is determined that the target printer cannot receive the transmitted data. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the input unit may receive identification information of a plurality of destination printers. And the data transmission unit transmits the scanned data to respective destination printers corresponding to the plurality of input identification information. The method of claim 1, wherein the received fax data includes security information indicating a security level, The output unit is provided with a fax function through the Internet, characterized in that when the predetermined information for the release of the security is input, if the security information indicates that the grade that requires security, the fax function via the Internet printer. In the method of sending and receiving a fax using a printer having unique identification information and equipped with a fax function through the Internet, Transmitting identification information of the printer and address information assigned when the printer is connected to the Internet to a predetermined server providing Internet address information allocated to the printer corresponding to each identification information for each identification information; Receiving predetermined fax data transmitted over the Internet; And Outputting the received fax data; fax transmission and reception method through the Internet, characterized in that it comprises a. The method of claim 6, wherein the fax transmission and reception method through the Internet is Receiving identification information of a target printer, which is a reception target of a fax; Transmitting the input identification information to the server to receive Internet address information accessed by a printer corresponding to the input identification information from the server; Scanning a document to be faxed; And And transmitting the scanned data to the destination printer by using the received address information of the destination printer. 8. The method of claim 7, wherein the step of transmitting the scanned data to the target printer is characterized in that the data is retransmitted every predetermined period when it is determined that the target printer cannot receive the transmitted data. Send and receive faxes via e-mail. The method of claim 7, wherein the receiving of the identification information of the destination printer may include identification information of a plurality of destination printers. The transmitting of the scanned data to the destination printer may include transmitting the scanned data to each destination printer corresponding to the input plurality of identification information. The method of claim 6, wherein the received fax data includes security information indicating a security level, The outputting of the received data may include: outputting the received fax data when predetermined information for releasing the security is input when the security information indicates that the security information is a level requiring security. How to receive and send faxes. A computer-readable recording medium having recorded thereon a program for realizing the method of transmitting or receiving a fax through the Internet according to any one of claims 6 to 10.

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