JPH10126600A - Communication terminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow an adapted data transmission means to automatically send data by registering a logic address of a transmission destination and a data transmission means in cross reference with each other, referencing a storage means in the case of designation of the logic address of the transmission destination and using the data transmission means corresponding to the designated logic address. SOLUTION: A logic address of a transmission destination and a data transmission means are registered to a destination table T3 in cross reference with each other. G3 or G4 mode facsimile transmission or electronic mail transmission is set to each data transmission means and when an operation section selects a logic address of the destination, the table T3 is referenced and a data transmission means corresponding to the selected logic address sends data to each destination. An abbreviation dial, a one-touch dial, and a multiple address communication name or the like are adopted for the logic address and a corresponding physical address is used and data are sent automatically to each physical address.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an improvement in a communication terminal device such as a facsimile device having a plurality of data transmission means.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Computer communication networks such as the Internet tend to be used more and more, and recently, the number of people who use them also in general homes is increasing. The use of such a computer communication network requires the user to pay only the communication cost from a personal computer or the like to the nearest contract provider (a connection company to the computer communication network). It can also be made cheaper.

[0003] In view of such circumstances, communication terminal devices such as facsimile devices capable of connecting to a computer communication network have been developed at present. Facsimile transmission,
Alternatively, it can be transmitted to the other party's communication terminal device by any of e-mail transmission. That is, when facsimile transmission is selected when transmitting image data, the image data is directly transmitted using a telephone network or the like. On the other hand, when electronic mail transmission is selected, the image data is converted into an electronic mail format, and the converted data is stored in a mailbox on the network. Many of the recipients connect the computer network via a telephone line at an appropriate time via a dial-up connection, confirm that an e-mail has been sent, and read image data from the mailbox. .

[0004]

In the communication terminal device as described above, the communication terminal device of the transmission destination is associated with a logical address such as a speed dial number or a one-touch dial number and registered with a physical address such as a dial number. And
When a logical address is selected, a corresponding physical address is automatically set and data transmission can be started.

However, in such a registration format, since data transmission means is not registered, it has been necessary to set in advance whether to perform facsimile transmission or e-mail transmission by key operation or the like. The present invention has been proposed in view of the above circumstances, and provides a communication terminal device capable of automatically determining a data transmission means and transmitting data by selecting a logical address of a transmission destination. It is an object.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication terminal device having a storage unit in which a logical address of a transmission destination is registered in correspondence with a data transmission unit. When a logical address of a transmission destination is specified, data is transmitted to the transmission destination by a data transmission unit corresponding to the specified logical address by referring to the storage unit.

Here, the logical address corresponds to a speed dial number, a one-touch dial number, a group dial number for broadcast transmission, etc. assigned to the transmission destination, and the data transmission means has a transmission mode of G3 or G4. Facsimile transmission, e-mail transmission, and other data communication. Normally, a physical address such as a dial number or an e-mail address is registered in correspondence with each logical address. If a logical address is selected, data corresponding to the logical address is transmitted to the physical address. Send. Incidentally, the e-mail address is added to the transmission data as header information in order to identify the destination of the data.

As described above, the communication terminal device according to the present invention includes a plurality of data transmission means, and a facsimile device with an e-mail function capable of connecting to a computer communication network, and a personal computer having a data communication function. Etc. correspond to this. It should be noted that the computer communication network includes the Internet and N, a personal computer communication service.
There are IFTY-Serv, PC-VAN, and the like, and an e-mail service is implemented as one of the services.

In the communication terminal device according to the second aspect, the storage means according to the first aspect registers a plurality of other logical addresses corresponding to the logical address of the transmission destination, and stores the logical address of the transmission destination. When an address is designated, the storage means is referred to, and each data transmission means registered corresponding to the other plurality of logical addresses performs broadcast transmission to each transmission destination.

In other words, when performing broadcast transmission, a plurality of dial numbers are registered in advance for one group dial number which is a logical address, and other group dial numbers are registered for one group dial number. If a logical address (abbreviated dial number, one-touch dial number, group dial number, etc.) is registered, operation can be performed according to the data transmission means and physical address registered corresponding to the other logical addresses.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the communication terminal device according to the first or second aspect, the data transmission means registered in the storage means is facsimile transmission or electronic mail transmission. These data transmission means can use either an analog line or a digital line.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the internal configuration of the communication terminal device of the present invention. here,
A configuration of a facsimile apparatus with an e-mail function will be described as one of the communication terminal apparatuses according to the present invention. That is, this facsimile apparatus has a communication function via a computer communication network in addition to the conventional G3 and G4 facsimile communication functions. The computer communication network uses the Internet, and uses an electronic mail (e-mail) service on the Internet.

The CPU 1 not only controls each unit of the facsimile apparatus through the bus 12, but also executes each processing such as encoding / decoding, image conversion, binary / text conversion, mail editing, and communication procedure control, which will be described later. I do. The reading unit 2 reads a document with a CCD or the like and outputs black and white binary image data. The recording unit 3 includes a printer of an electrophotographic system or the like, and records (prints and outputs) image data received from another G3 or G4 facsimile machine or via the Internet. The display unit 4 includes a liquid crystal display device and the like, and displays an operation state of the facsimile apparatus and image data. The operation unit 5 is a numeric keypad,
Equipped with speed dial keys, one-touch dial keys, group dial keys, various function keys, etc.
Various input settings are made for the facsimile machine.

The ROM 6 stores software necessary for the operation of the facsimile machine. The RAM 7 stores temporary data generated during execution of the software, and also stores various tables T1 to T3 described later.
The image memory 8 is composed of a DRAM or the like, and stores image data. DSU (Data line terminator: Digi
The tal service unit 9 converts transmission / reception data and voltage so that the digital line L1 using the baseband transmission method can be connected. The modem 10 is a conventional FA
It has a data modem function in addition to the X modem function. N
A CU (Network Control Unit) 11 closes and opens the analog line L2.

FIG. 2 schematically shows a data flow in the facsimile apparatus shown in FIG. In this figure, parts corresponding to those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals. Although an e-mail conversion unit 20, an encoding / decoding unit 21, and an auto dialer 25, which will be described later, do not exist in FIG.
6 is processed by the CPU 1 based on the software stored in the CPU 6.

The e-mail converter 20 comprises an image converter 22, a binary / text converter 23, and an e-mail editor 24. The e-mail converter 20 is provided in a conventional facsimile machine. In addition to facsimile communication, it enables access to the Internet and use of e-mail services. The encoding / decoding unit 21 encodes or decodes image data according to an encoding method such as MH, MR, and MMR. Less than,
Image data encoded by these encoding methods is referred to as “encoded image data”. The image data memory 8 stores the encoded image data.

The image conversion unit 22 converts the encoded image data into a TIFF (Tagged) image, which is a general image format used in computers, at the time of sending an e-mail.
ImageFile format), while receiving, T
Convert from IFF to encoded image data. TIFF
Is published by adobe company and handles not only black and white binary but also various Cl
ass is defined. One of them defines Class F for handling facsimile images. If the TIFF header information of Class F is added to the head of encoded image data, it can be converted to TIFF. Less than,
The encoded image data to which the Class F TIFF header information is added is referred to as “TIFF image data”.

The binary / text converter 23 converts binary data into text data when sending an electronic mail, and converts text data into binary data when receiving an electronic mail. In some cases, computers that cannot handle binary data e-mails are connected to the Internet. To ensure that e-mails reach the recipient, binary data such as TIFF image data must be used. Need to be converted to text data upon transmission.

Text data handled on the Internet is:
Documents issued by IETF (Internet Engineering Task Fore), RFC (Request For Comments) 82
2, it is defined as a 7-bit code, but MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension)
If base64 or the like in s) is used, binary data can be converted to text data. It should be noted that base64 is 8 bits x 3 bytes of binary data of 6 bits x
This is an encoding method in which binary data is converted into text data by regarding each byte as a character code and assigning a character code to each byte.

The mail editing section 24 adds mail header information to the TIFF image data converted to text data and edits the data into an electronic mail format when transmitting the electronic mail. Remove mail header information and TIFF of text data
Assume image data. Here, the mail header information refers to predetermined header information of an electronic mail on the Internet, and "From:", "To:", "Subject:", "cc:" at the beginning of the TIFF image data to be transmitted. It is stipulated that items such as "," Date: "are added.

The auto dialer 25 automatically sends the dial number read from the provider table T2 and the destination table T3 to the DSU 9, modem 10 or N
Send dial number data to CU11. Next, the configuration of each of the tables T1 to T3 will be described with reference to FIG. In the user table T1 of FIG. 3A, a user ID and a password for logging in to the Internet, an e-mail address, and a provider type are registered for each user who uses the facsimile apparatus. This corresponds to the provider type in the provider table T2 of (b).

In the provider table T2 of FIG. 3B, the provider name, the line type (analog or digital), and the dial number (telephone number) of the provider used when connecting to the Internet are associated with the provider type. I have registered. This allows you to identify and execute different login procedures for each provider,
Even if one user uses a plurality of providers or the provider has a plurality of lines, it is possible to cope with the setting of the table T2.

The destination table T3 shown in FIG. 3C contains data transmission means for each of the logical addresses, ie, the speed dial number, the one-touch dial number, and the group dial number.
A dial number or an e-mail address, which is a physical address, and a destination name are registered. As described above, the present invention is characterized in that the logical address of the transmission destination and the data transmission unit are registered in the destination table T3 as the storage unit in association with each other.

Here, the data transmission means includes facsimile transmission (G3 FAX) in which the transmission mode is G3,
Either facsimile transmission (G4FAX) or e-mail transmission (E-MAIL) is set. With such a setting, when the operation unit 5 is operated to select a destination logical address, the table T3 is referred to, and the data transmission means corresponding to the selected logical address transmits data to each destination. You can send.

The logical address corresponds to a physical address such as a dial number or an electronic mail address.
For speed dials and one-touch dials, one by one,
In the case of group dialing (broadcast transmission), since a plurality is registered, if a logical address is selected, data transmission can be automatically performed to each physical address by the data transmission means corresponding to the logical address.

In the destination table T3, a plurality of other logical addresses can be registered corresponding to the logical address of the transmission destination. In the figure, the group dial number "G
03 ”, other group dial number“ G01 ”
And “G02” are registered. If the group dial "G03" is operated in such registered contents, the same data is transmitted by facsimile to the "first office" and the "second office" registered corresponding to "G01" ( G
3) At the same time, the e-mail is sent to the “Technical Section 1” and the “Technical Section 2” registered corresponding to “G02”, and a total of 4
A broadcast can be sent to a location.

The above-described tables T1 to T3 are:
The setting contents excluding secrets such as passwords are stored in the recording unit 3.
Also, a list can be output from the display unit 4 or the display unit 4, so that setting, changing, and checking work of each of the tables T1 to T3 by the user or the administrator can be simplified. Next, FIG. 4 shows a configuration of a computer communication network provided with the facsimile apparatus. Here, the operation will be described below assuming that F in the figure corresponds to this facsimile apparatus with an e-mail function, but the communication terminal apparatus of the present invention is an apparatus provided with a plurality of data transmitting means. For example, if a personal computer PC connected by a dedicated line is used as the communication terminal device of the present invention, data can be transmitted in real time.

When transmitting an e-mail from the facsimile machine F to a facsimile machine Fa with an e-mail function or a personal computer PCa, the telephone station P
, And connects to the computer communication network N to transmit the scanned and scanned image data (route 〜). The other party's facsimile machine Fa and computer PCa connect to the computer communication network N via the telephone station Pa at any time and receive an e-mail addressed to their own addresses (routes ~, ~).

If the computer communication network N is used in such a form, both the transmission side and the reception side need only pay the communication cost up to the contract provider, and perform ordinary facsimile communication (routes ~~, ~~,
According to (1) to (4), much communication cost is not required as in the case of directly transmitting and receiving image data. Fb in the figure
Is a normal facsimile machine without an e-mail function.

A computer PC is connected to the computer communication network N by a dedicated line connection.
Since the other network Na is connected by connection or the like, an e-mail can be transmitted from the facsimile machine F to the computer PC connected to the dedicated line or the network Na connected to the LAN (routes ~~, ~~).
).

Next, the basic operation of the communication terminal apparatus (facsimile apparatus with an e-mail function) of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, the user sets a document to be transmitted on a document table (not shown) (S1), and selects a transmission destination by operating a speed dial key of the operation unit 5 (S2). Then, the originals set on the original platen are read one by one (S3), and all pages are temporarily converted into encoded image data of the MMR system or the like by the encoding / decoding unit 21 (S4) and stored in the image memory 8. Do (S
5).

Subsequently, the destination table T3 is referred to (S
6) If the data transmission means is e-mail transmission, S8
To S19, and if facsimile transmission, S
The processing from 20 to S28 is performed (S7). In Internet e-mail transmission, the encoded image data cannot be transmitted as it is, so it is converted to TIFF image data by the image conversion unit 22 (S8), and converted to text data by the binary / text conversion unit 23 (S9). An email header is added by the email editing unit 24 to make the email format (S10).

Here, the e-mail header includes at least items of “From:”, “To:”, and “Subject:”.
"From:" is its own e-mail address registered in the user table T1, "To:" is the e-mail address of the destination registered in the destination table T3, and "Subject:" is an image in TIFF format Set "TIFF (G3)" to indicate that the email contains data.

Subsequently, in order to make a dial-up connection to the Internet, the line type is read from the provider table T2 (S11).
Is set (S12), and if it is a digital line, DSU9 is set (S13). Thereafter, a call is made to the dial number of the provider (S14), and if there is an incoming call (S15), an e-mail is transmitted (S17). Here, when the key operated in the selection of the destination in S2 is the group dial key and the broadcast transmission is performed, the e-mail address of the next destination is set in the e-mail header from the destination table T3 (S16). , Continue sending e-mail.

The transmission of the e-mail includes a protocol such as PAP (Password Authentication Protocol).
ol) and log in using SMTP (Simple Mail Tr
ansfer Protocol). And
When all data transmission is completed (S18), log off and the line is released (S19). On the other hand, in facsimile transmission, according to the contents of the data transmission means registered in the destination table T3 (S20), the modem 10 is set for G3 facsimile (S21), and the DSU 9 is set for G4 facsimile (S20). S22), a dial number is set and a call is made (S23, S24). On the other hand, when there is an incoming call (S25), facsimile transmission of the document image data is performed (S26), and when the transmission is completed, the line is released (S27).

When the key operated in the selection of the transmission destination in S2 is the group dial key and the broadcast transmission is to be performed, the destination table T3 is referred to and a call is made to the dial number of the next transmission destination (S23). , S24), facsimile transmission is sequentially performed. Here, the case where the broadcast transmission includes both facsimile transmission and electronic mail transmission is omitted. Before selecting a transmission destination in S2, it is necessary to select a user ID of the user from the user table T1.

The present invention can take embodiments other than those described above, and data to be transmitted in the computer communication network N may be data such as voice and moving picture in addition to image data (for example, WWW on the Internet). Alternatively, a computer communication network other than the Internet (e.g., NIFTY-Serve) may be used to transmit the e-mail.

[0038]

As can be understood from the above description, according to the communication terminal device of the first aspect of the present invention, the logical address of the transmission destination is registered in correspondence with the data transmission means. If a destination logical address is specified with a speed dial key, a one-touch dial key, a group dial key, or the like, the data transmission means corresponding to each logical address is automatically determined, and one or more data transmission means are accordingly determined. Data transmission can be performed to the transmission destination.

According to the communication terminal device of the second aspect,
Since a plurality of other logical addresses can be registered in correspondence with the logical address of the transmission destination, for example, a plurality of speed dials can be registered for one group dial number and broadcast transmission can be performed. I can do it. Therefore, when making a dial-up connection for sending e-mail,
At the time of broadcast transmission, it is possible to omit the line connection time and greatly reduce the transmission time.

According to the communication terminal device of the third aspect,
If a destination logical address is selected, either facsimile transmission or e-mail transmission registered in advance can be automatically determined and operated, which is particularly useful in a facsimile apparatus with an e-mail function. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of an internal configuration of a communication terminal device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a flow of data in a communication terminal device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of a configuration of a table stored in a communication terminal device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of a computer communication network.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a basic operation of the communication terminal device according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 20 e-mail converter 22 image converter 23 binary / text converter 24 e-mail editor T1 user table T2 provider table T3 destination Table N: Computer communication network F: Facsimile machine with e-mail function

Claims (3)

[Claims] A storage unit for registering a logical address of a transmission destination and a data transmission unit in correspondence with each other, and when the logical address of the transmission destination is designated, the storage unit is referred to and the designated logical address is referred to. A communication terminal device for transmitting data to a transmission destination by a corresponding data transmission unit. 2. The storage means registers a plurality of other logical addresses corresponding to the logical address of the transmission destination. When the logical address of the transmission destination is designated, the storage means refers to the storage means, The communication terminal device according to claim 1, wherein each of the data transmission means registered corresponding to the plurality of other logical addresses performs broadcast transmission to each transmission destination. 3. The communication terminal device according to claim 1, wherein the data transmission means registered in the storage means is facsimile transmission or electronic mail transmission.