JPH11168614A - Control method for network facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To effectively utilize the function of an electric mail and to efficiently perform image information communication by using a batch broadcast electronic mail, which sets sending image information to text information and performing broadcast transmission of the sending image information. SOLUTION: When all address retrievals are finished, a mail address of a transmission address of batch broadcast transmission which is acquired until that time is set to a 'To' field and also, a batch broadcast transmission electronic mail that is arranged to MIME information, which is made by exchanging facsimile image information that is accumulated in an image accumulating device is produced to text information. The batch broadcast transmission electronic mail is sent to a mail server device SM, and the existence of residual sending addresses is checked. Further, a batch broadcast transmission electronic mail (or a normal electric mail that has one address) about sending addresses which are acquired by then is produced and sent. Thus, image information is by one electronic mail and is transmitted in batch.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention has a function of exchanging facsimile image information on a local area network using electronic mail and a function of exchanging facsimile data by a facsimile transmission procedure performed via a public network. The present invention relates to a method for controlling a network facsimile apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a network facsimile having a function of exchanging facsimile image information on a local area network using electronic mail and a function of exchanging facsimile data by a facsimile transmission procedure performed through a public network. The device is in practical use.

[0003] When such a network facsimile apparatus is used, a work station apparatus or the like connected to a local area network and a public network (ISDN or PSN) are used.
This is very convenient because image information can be exchanged with a facsimile machine connected to the TN).
Naturally, the network facsimile machine may function as a final destination, and image information may be transmitted from the network facsimile machine to a workstation or the like connected to a local area network.

[0004]

Therefore, when such a network facsimile apparatus is used, there is a demand for effectively utilizing an e-mail function when exchanging facsimile image information via a local area network. .

For example, in the case of performing a so-called broadcast transmission in which the same image information is transmitted from a network facsimile apparatus to users of a plurality of workstation apparatuses, if the same operation as that of a conventional facsimile apparatus is performed, electronic mail to each destination user is performed. And send it,
It cannot be said that the e-mail function has been used effectively.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides a method of controlling a network facsimile apparatus capable of effectively utilizing an e-mail function and performing efficient image information communication. The purpose is.

[0007]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention provides a function of exchanging facsimile image information on a local area network using electronic mail and a function of exchanging facsimile data by a facsimile transmission procedure performed via a public network. In the method of controlling a network facsimile apparatus provided with, when transmitting image information, if there are a plurality of destinations specified using the mail addresses on the local area network, the mail addresses of the plurality of destinations are set as the transmission destinations. A batch broadcast e-mail in which transmission image information is set in the body information is created, and the transmission image information is broadcasted by using the batch broadcast e-mail.

Further, the number of destinations set as the transmission destination can be limited to a predetermined number. Further, among the plurality of destinations, a destination in which the transmission mode of processing the transmission image information is set may not be included in the destination of the batch broadcast e-mail.

[0010] Further, control of a network facsimile apparatus having a function of exchanging facsimile image information on a local area network using electronic mail and a function of exchanging facsimile data by a facsimile transmission procedure performed through a public network. In the method, when transmitting image information, if there are a plurality of destinations specified using the mail address on the local area network, the mail addresses of the plurality of destinations are set as the transmission destination, and the transmission image information is included in the body information. Is created, and the broadcast image information is broadcasted using the batch broadcast e-mail, while the communication history information of the broadcast transmission includes the number of batch broadcast destinations. The communication management report that outputs a list of history information includes the above In which was to include. Further, in the display of the destination information of the communication management report, any one of the plurality of destinations may be arranged as a representative destination, and the number of batch broadcast destinations may be added to the destination.

[0010]

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG.
An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail.

FIG. 1 shows a network system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a local area network LAN includes a plurality of workstations WS1 to WS1.
WSn, the mail server device SM, and the network facsimile device FX are connected. The local area network LAN is connected to the Internet via a router device RT, and can exchange various data with a host device or the like connected to another local area network or the like.

Here, the mail server device SM collects electronic mail (described later) for users using the workstation devices WS1 to WSn connected to the local area network LAN and for the network facsimile device FX. It provides distribution services.

The workstation devices WS1 to WSW
Sn includes application software for exchanging various data via the local area network LAN (e-mail transmission / reception processing, etc.), application software for processing image information included in e-mail received from the network facsimile machine FX, and the like. Are introduced, and are used by specific users. Here, the specific user is
There may be one or more users.

Further, a network facsimile machine FX
Is an e-mail transmission / reception function in a local area network LAN, a local area network LAN
A predetermined information communication function according to a predetermined point-to-point transmission procedure between the workstation devices WS1 to WSn connected to the public network and a public network (PSTN), and using the public network as a transmission path. It has various transmission (communication) functions such as a transmission function for transmitting image information according to a group 3 facsimile transmission procedure. Further, transmission of facsimile image information from the network facsimile machine FX to (the user of) the workstation apparatuses WS1 to WSn is performed using electronic mail.

In this embodiment, basically, data exchange between terminals connected to the local area network LAN is performed by so-called TCP / IP.
This is performed by applying a combination (a so-called protocol suite) of a transmission protocol up to a transport layer called a transport layer and a communication protocol of a higher layer than that. For example, in the exchange of e-mail data, SMTP (Simple) is used as the upper layer communication protocol.
A communication protocol called Mail Transfer Protocol is applied.

A protocol that each terminal applies to the mail server device SM for confirming the receipt of an e-mail addressed to the user and for requesting transmission is a so-called POP.
(Post Office Protocol) or the like can be applied.

Communication protocols such as TCP / IP, SMTP, and POP, and data formats and data structures of e-mails are described in IETF (In).
ternet Engineering Task F
orce), an RFC (Request) issued by an organization that summarizes technical content related to the Internet.
st For Comments) document. For example, TCP is RFC793, IP is RFC
793, SMTP is RFC821, E-mail format is RFC822, RFC1521, RFC1522
(MIME (Multi Purpose Mail
Extension) format).

Then, the network facsimile apparatus F
X transmits the read document image to another group 3 facsimile apparatus via the public network PSTN, or a local area network LAN (further, the Internet)
To the users of the workstation devices WS1 to WSn via the public network PSTN, and the image information received from another group 3 facsimile device via the public network PSTN to the user corresponding to the sub-address specified at that time. Transfer using e-mail, or workstation WS of local area network LAN
It has a transfer service function for transferring the received image information to a group 3 facsimile apparatus of the public network PSTN corresponding to the designated speed dial.

[0020] With respect to an e-mail received to the terminal itself, image information arranged in the body information is extracted and recorded and output.

Here, the facsimile image information is binary data, and the electronic mail cannot directly include the binary data. Therefore, a predetermined conversion method (for example,
After being converted into readable information (7-bit character code) by applying the Base64 encoding method, it is included in the electronic mail. Such a format of the body information of the electronic mail is called a MIME format.

FIG. 2 shows a network facsimile apparatus F
3 shows an example of the configuration of X.

In FIG. 1, a system control unit 1 performs various control processes such as a control process of each unit of the network facsimile apparatus and a facsimile transmission control procedure process. The control facsimile apparatus stores a control processing program to be executed, various data necessary for executing the processing program, and the like, and forms a work area of the system control unit 1. The parameter memory 3 is provided in the network facsimile apparatus. The clock circuit 4 is for storing various kinds of unique information, and outputs current time information.

The scanner 5 is for reading an original image at a predetermined resolution, the plotter 6 is for recording and outputting an image at a predetermined resolution, and the operation display unit 7 is a network facsimile apparatus. , And comprises various operation keys and various display devices.

The encoding / decoding section 8 encodes and compresses the image signal and decodes the encoded and compressed image information into the original image signal.
This is for storing a large number of image information in a coded and compressed state.

The group 3 facsimile modem 10 is for realizing a group 3 facsimile modem function. The group 3 facsimile modem 10 has a low speed modem function (V.21 modem) for exchanging transmission procedure signals, and mainly exchanges image information. High-speed modem function (V.17 modem,
V. 34 modem, V.34. 29 modem, V.29. 27ter modem etc.).

The network control unit 11 is for connecting the facsimile apparatus to a public network (PSTN) and has an automatic transmission / reception function.

The local area network interface circuit 12 is used to connect the Internet facsimile apparatus to the local area network LAN.
3 is a communication control process (e-mail transmission / reception process or point-to-point communication process) of various predetermined protocol suites for exchanging various data with other data terminal devices via the local area network LAN. Etc.).

The system control unit 1, system memory 2, parameter memory 3, clock circuit 4, scanner 5, plotter 6, operation display unit 7, encoding / decoding unit 8, image storage device 9, group 3 facsimile modem The network controller 10, the network controller 11, and the local area network transmission controller 13 are connected to an internal bus 14. Data exchange between these elements is mainly performed via the internal bus 14. I have.

Data exchange between the network controller 11 and the group 3 facsimile modem 10 is directly performed.

Further, the network facsimile machine FX
Creates communication history information as shown in FIG. 3 every time a transmission / reception operation is performed, and saves it in a communication history table (not shown) formed in the parameter memory 3.

The communication history information includes a communication date and time, a communication mode (G3 or Mail; in the case of G3, transmission / reception / sequence communication / confidential / relay / polling / storage transmission / reception / time designation transmission / memory transfer / ECM / Line density (resolution) / reduction / remote relay / information service / extension information, etc.), communication time indicating the time required for communication, number of images transmitted and received, communication result, communication fee, user specified at transmission , The file number assigned to the transmitted / received image information file, the number of destinations, and the destination name of each destination.

In the present embodiment, when there are a plurality of destinations specified at the time of transmitting image information and the destinations include a plurality of mail addresses, a plurality of destinations are set in one e-mail and transmitted collectively. I am trying to do it. FIG. 4 shows an example of the batch broadcast e-mail used at this time.

The body information of the e-mail is in a MIME format in which facsimile image information is converted into MIME information and arranged, and two mail addresses “user1 @ *” are set in a “To” field indicating a destination. **. C
o. jp, user2 @ **. co. jp ”is set.

Therefore, when this e-mail is transmitted to the mail server device SM, the e-mail having the same contents is
"User1@**.co.jp" and "user2 @
***. co. jp ”to the two users.

When a predetermined number of pieces of communication history information are stored in the communication history table, or when a user requests output of a communication management report, the network facsimile machine FX stores the communication history information in the communication history table. A communication management report as shown in FIG. 5 is created based on the plurality of pieces of communication management information, and the plotter 6 records and outputs the communication management report.

Here, of the contents of the communication management report relating to the transmission, if the image information is transmitted by the above-mentioned batch transmission e-mail, the representative user's mail is displayed in the display field of the destination name. Following the address and a colon (":"), a numerical display of the number of destinations is placed. Here, as the mail address of the representative user, the first destination name # 1 stored in the communication history information can be used. Alternatively, the user may specify the information.

Thus, the user can know that the transmission operation is a simultaneous broadcast transmission.

That is, when a plurality of transmission destinations are specified as transmission destinations of the batch transmission e-mail, if all the transmission destinations are displayed in the communication management report, only the display column of the transmission destination becomes longer, and other transmission destinations become longer. The display content of the communication operation cannot be balanced. So, as mentioned above,
By adding the number of destinations to the mail address of the representative user, the user can recognize the batch transmission operation and the number of destinations.

FIGS. 6 and 7 show an example of an operation process of the network facsimile machine FX when a transmission operation is instructed.

When a document to be transmitted is set on the scanner 5,
The user is caused to perform a transmission destination input operation (Process 1
01). In this transmission destination input operation, it is possible to specify a transmission destination by a telephone number or a mail address, and to specify image data to be processed when transmitting the image information to the destination. This image information processing is performed, for example, by adding a destination user name at a predetermined position at the head of a transmission image, and by inserting a destination user's department name (group name) at a predetermined position at the head of the transmission image. Is added, and "source record" is added to add the name of the source user at a predetermined position at the head of the transmission image.

When the input operation is completed for one transmission destination, it is checked whether or not the specification of the transmission destination is completed (decision 102). When the specification of the transmission destination is not completed, and when the result of the determination 102 is NO, , The process returns to the process 101, and the next transmission destination is designated.

Judgment 1 when the designation of the transmission destination is completed
When the result of Step 02 is YES, the image of the transmission original set on the scanner 5 is read (Step 10).
3) The image data obtained by reading is encoded and compressed by the encoding / decoding unit 8 (process 104), and the image information obtained thereby is stored in the image storage device 9 (process 105).

Then, one transmission destination designated at that time is selected (step 106), and it is checked whether or not the selected transmission destination is a facsimile machine (decision 10).
7). Here, the determination as to whether the transmission destination is a facsimile apparatus can employ a method of determining whether the specified destination information is a telephone number or a mail address.

If the transmission destination selected at that time is a facsimile machine and the result of determination 107 is YES, a call is made to the transmission destination selected at that time and the image information stored in the image storage device 9 is transmitted. A predetermined group 3 facsimile transmission process is executed (process 108). At this time, if the processing of the image information is specified for the transmission destination, the processing according to the specification is executed.

When the transmission of the image information is completed, the communication history information as described above for the transmission operation at that time is created and stored in the communication history table of the parameter memory 3 (step 109).

At this time, it is checked whether or not the transmission operation for all transmission destinations has been completed (decision 11).
0), when there are remaining transmission destinations, and when the result of the determination 110 is NO, the process returns to the processing 106 and the transmission operation is performed for the next transmission destination.

When the transmission operation for all transmission destinations is completed and the result of determination 110 is NO, the image information stored in the image storage device 9 is deleted (process 111), and this transmission operation is performed. To end.

If the selected transmission destination is not a facsimile machine and the result of determination 107 is NO,
It is checked whether batch transmission can be performed for the transmission destination (decision 121). The determination as to whether this batch transmission can be performed is performed as follows. That is, if processing of image information is specified for the transmission destination, it is determined that batch transmission cannot be performed. If processing of image information is not specified for the transmission destination, batch transmission is performed. Judge that you can do it.

When it is determined that batch transmission can be performed for the transmission destination, the result of determination 121 is YES.
Is reached, the destination specified by the mail address is searched from the remaining transmission destinations (process 122).

If there is a destination of another mail address (the result of decision 123 is YES), it is checked whether or not batch transmission can be performed for the transmission destination (decision 12).
4). If it is determined that batch transmission can be performed on the transmission destination, and the result of determination 124 is YES, the transmission destination selected at that time is added to the transmission destination of batch broadcast (step 125).

If it is determined that batch transmission cannot be performed for the transmission destination and the result of determination 124 is NO, the process 125 is not executed and the transmission destination selected at that time is broadcast Do not add to the transmission destination of the transmission.

Next, it is checked whether or not the number of transmission destinations of the collective broadcast acquired up to that time exceeds a predetermined limit value (decision 126). The reason why such a limit value is provided is that the number of destinations that can be set in an e-mail is unlimited in principle, but an MTA (Mail Transfer Agent) that sequentially transfers e-mails
This is because it can be assumed that some of the mail server devices SM configuring t) have a limited number of destinations that can be set for one e-mail. So this limit is
It can be determined empirically or set to a virtually unlimited value (eg, 50, 100, 200...).

Here, if the number of transmission destinations of the collective broadcast acquired up to that time does not exceed the predetermined limit value, and if the result of the determination 126 is NO, all the destinations It is checked whether the search has been completed (decision 127). If all the address searches have not been completed and the result of the determination 127 is NO, the processing 1
The process returns to step S22 to search for the remaining destinations.

When all the address searches are completed,
When the result of the determination 127 is YES, the mail address of the transmission destination of the collective broadcast acquired up to that point is set in the “To” field, and the body information includes the facsimile image stored in the image storage device 9. A batch broadcast e-mail arranged in the MIME information obtained by converting the information is created (process 128). Here, the image format of the facsimile image information sent by e-mail is
If it is not the facsimile image information itself, the image format is once converted and then converted to MIME information.

Then, the batch broadcast transmission e-mail is transmitted to the mail server device SM (process 129), and the flow shifts to decision 110 to check whether there is any remaining transmission destination.

If the selected transmission destination cannot be transmitted collectively, and the result of the determination 121 is NO, the destination specified by the mail address is searched from the remaining transmission destinations. If the result of the determination 123 is NO because no is found, and if the number of transmission destinations of the batch broadcast acquired up to that time exceeds a predetermined limit value, the result of the determination 126 If the answer is YES, the process proceeds to processing 128 at that time, and a batch broadcast e-mail (or a normal e-mail with one destination) is created and transmitted for the transmission destinations acquired so far. .

When an e-mail is created for one transmission destination, and processing of image information is specified for the transmission destination, an image obtained by executing the processing according to the specification is processed. Create text information for

As described above, in this embodiment, when a plurality of mail addresses are specified as transmission destinations in the same image information, the image information processing is not specified for those transmission destinations and the same image If you can send
Since image information is transmitted collectively by two e-mails, an efficient image information transmission operation can be performed.

Further, in the communication management report, for the image information transmitted by the batch broadcast e-mail, the number of destinations is displayed in the display column of the destination name, following the mail address of the representative user. Therefore, the user can know that the transmission operation is a batch transmission.

Further, since the number of destinations that can be transmitted by batch broadcast e-mail is limited, a mail server with a limited number of destinations that can be set for one e-mail is interposed on the e-mail delivery route. However, the electronic mail can be appropriately delivered to all the transmission destinations, and the image information can be reliably transmitted.

In the above embodiment, the PSTN is used as the public network. However, the present invention can be similarly applied to a case where the ISDN is used as the public network.

[0063]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When multiple e-mail addresses are specified as transmission destinations in the same image information, if processing of image information is not specified for those transmission destinations and the same image can be transmitted, one e-mail Then, the image information is transmitted, so that an effect that an efficient image information transmitting operation can be performed is obtained.

In the communication management report, when the image information is transmitted by the batch broadcast e-mail, the number of destinations is displayed in the display column of the destination name, following the mail address of the representative user. Therefore, there is also obtained an effect that the user can know that the transmission operation has been performed by the simultaneous broadcast transmission.

Also, since the number of destinations that can be transmitted by batch broadcast e-mail is limited, a mail server with a limited number of destinations that can be set for one e-mail is interposed on the e-mail delivery route. In this case, the electronic mail can be appropriately delivered to all transmission destinations, and the image information can be transmitted reliably.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a network system according to one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a network facsimile machine FX.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing an example of communication history information.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a batch transmission e-mail.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a communication management report.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart illustrating a part of an example of an operation process of the network facsimile apparatus FX when a transmission operation is instructed;

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the remaining part of an example of the operation processing of the network facsimile apparatus FX when a transmission operation is instructed;

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A network facsimile apparatus having a function of exchanging facsimile image information on a local area network using electronic mail and a function of exchanging facsimile data by a facsimile transmission procedure performed through a public network. In the method, when transmitting image information, if there are a plurality of destinations specified by using an e-mail address on the local area network,
A mail address of the plurality of destinations is set as a transmission destination, a batch broadcast e-mail in which transmission image information is set in the body information is created, and the transmission image information is broadcasted using the batch broadcast e-mail. A method for controlling a network facsimile apparatus. 2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the number of destinations set as the transmission destination is limited to a predetermined number. 3. The one of the plurality of destinations, for which a transmission mode of processing transmission image information is set, is not included in the destination of the batch broadcast e-mail. A method for controlling a network facsimile apparatus according to claim 2. 4. Control of a network facsimile machine having a function of exchanging facsimile image information on a local area network using electronic mail and a function of exchanging facsimile data by a facsimile transmission procedure performed through a public network. In the method, when transmitting image information, if there are a plurality of destinations specified by using an e-mail address on the local area network,
A mail address of the plurality of destinations is set as a transmission destination, a batch broadcast e-mail in which transmission image information is set in the body information is created, and the transmission image information is broadcasted using the batch broadcast e-mail. On the other hand, as the communication history information of the broadcast transmission, the number of batch broadcast destinations is included, and the communication management report for outputting a list of the communication history information is characterized in that the above-mentioned batch broadcast destination number is included in the display of the destination information. For controlling a network facsimile machine. 5. The display of the destination information of the communication management report may be such that any one of the plurality of destinations is arranged as a representative destination, and the number of batch destinations is added thereto. The method for controlling a network facsimile apparatus according to claim 4, wherein