JP2004140551A - Network image communication device - Google Patents

Abstract

An object of the present invention is to provide a network image communication device that can easily assign a file name of transmission image data.
Since a file name is created by reading graphic characters recorded in a predetermined area of a transmission original, for example, it is possible to automatically use the file name given when the original original was created. It is very convenient.
[Selection] Fig. 2

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a network image communication device that connects to a network and communicates image data obtained by reading through the network.
[0002]
[Prior art]
2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, network image communication apparatuses such as a network facsimile apparatus that communicates image data obtained by reading and connecting to a network have been used.
[0003]
In such a network image communication device, for example, when transmitting image data using an e-mail, the image data is handled as a form of an attached file of the e-mail, and the file name is appropriately given by the user. .
[0004]
As described above, it is troublesome for a user to manually assign a file name. For example, an automatic file name assignment method in a computer system has been proposed (see Patent Document 1).
[0005]
[Patent Document 1]
JP-A-5-151052
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, in the above-described related art, the process of generating a file name is considerably complicated, and there is a possibility that a problem such as an increase in cost may occur when applied to a network facsimile apparatus or the like.
[0007]
The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and has as its object to provide a network image communication device that can easily assign a file name of transmission image data.
[0008]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
The present invention relates to a network image communication device that connects to a network and communicates image data obtained by reading through a network, wherein a file name that recognizes a character recorded in a predetermined area of the read image data as a file name. The image data is transmitted by using a file name recognized by the file name recognizing means as a file name of the transmission image data.
[0009]
Further, the file name recognized by the file name recognition means is displayed.
[0010]
The voice synthesizing means for synthesizing and outputting a voice message is further provided, and a voice message corresponding to the file name recognized by the file name recognizing means is output by the voice synthesizing means.
[0011]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.
[0012]
FIG. 1 shows a network system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0013]
In the figure, a plurality of workstation devices WS1 to WSn, a mail server device SM, and a network facsimile device FX are connected to a local area network LAN, and also connected to the Internet via a router device RT. . Therefore, the workstation devices WS1 to WSn, the mail server device SM, and the network facsimile device FX can exchange data with other appropriate terminal devices via the Internet.
[0014]
Here, the mail server device SM provides a well-known electronic mail collection and distribution service to users using the workstation devices WS1 to WSn connected to the local area network LAN and to the network network facsimile device FX. Is provided.
[0015]
The local area network LAN is connected to the Internet via the router device RT, whereby the workstation devices WS1 to WSn, the mail server device SM, and the network facsimile device FX are connected to another local area network or the like. Various types of data can be exchanged with a host device or the like connected to the server.
[0016]
The workstation devices WS1 to WSn include various programs such as facsimile application software for creating and displaying facsimile image information and various software for exchanging various data via a local area network LAN. Have been introduced and are used by specific users. Here, the specific user may be one or more users.
[0017]
The network facsimile apparatus FX is connected to an analog public telephone network PSTN for exchanging image information and various reports as electronic mail, and is connected to a group 3 facsimile using this public network as a transmission path. A transmission function for transmitting image information according to a transmission procedure is provided.
[0018]
FIG. 2 shows a configuration example of the network facsimile machine FX.
[0019]
In FIG. 1, a system control unit 1 performs various control processes such as a control process of each unit of the network facsimile machine FX and a facsimile transmission control procedure process. The parameter memory 3 stores a control processing program to be executed and various data necessary for executing the processing program, and constitutes a work area of the system control unit 1. The parameter memory 3 is unique to the network facsimile machine FX. The clock circuit 4 outputs current time information.
[0020]
The scanner 5 is for reading a document 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 operates the network facsimile machine FX. And consists of various operation keys and various indicators.
[0021]
The encoding / decoding unit 8 encodes and compresses the image signal and decodes the encoded and compressed image information into the original image signal. The image storage device 9 encodes and compresses the image signal. This is for storing a large number of image information in the closed state.
[0022]
The group 3 facsimile modem 10 is for realizing a group 3 facsimile modem function, and is a low-speed modem function (V.21 modem) for exchanging transmission procedure signals, and mainly for exchanging image information. It has a high-speed modem function (V.17 modem, V.34 modem, V.29 modem, V.27ter modem, etc.).
[0023]
The network control device 11 is for connecting the network facsimile machine FX to the analog public switched telephone network PSTN, and has an automatic transmission / reception function.
[0024]
The OCR processing unit 12 performs an OCR process for recognizing a recorded graphic character based on the content of a predetermined area of the image data obtained by reading by the scanner 5. A voice message corresponding to the data is generated for each word, and the speaker 14 is for outputting a voice message output from the voice response processing unit 13 as sound.
[0025]
The local area network interface circuit 15 is for connecting the network facsimile machine FX to the local area network LAN. The local area network transmission control unit 16 communicates with other data terminal devices via the local area network LAN. It is for executing communication control processing of various predetermined protocol suites for exchanging various kinds of data between them.
[0026]
These are a system control unit 1, a system memory 2, a parameter memory 3, a clock circuit 4, a scanner 5, a plotter 6, an operation display unit 7, an encoding / decoding unit 8, an image storage device 9, a group 3 facsimile modem 10, a network The control device 11, the OCR processing unit 12, the voice response processing unit 13, and the local area network transmission control unit 16 are connected to an internal bus 17, and the exchange of data between these elements mainly depends on the internal bus. This is performed via the bus 14.
[0027]
Data exchange between the network control device 11 and the group 3 facsimile modem 10 is directly performed.
[0028]
Here, in the present embodiment, basically, data exchange between terminals connected to the local area network LAN is performed by a transmission protocol up to a transport layer called TCP / IP, and a further protocol. This is performed by applying a combination with a communication protocol of an upper layer (so-called protocol suite). For example, when exchanging e-mail data, a communication protocol called SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) is applied as a communication protocol of an upper layer.
[0029]
Further, as a protocol applied by each terminal to the mail server device SM for confirming reception of an e-mail addressed to the user and for requesting acquisition, an POP (Post Office Protocol) or the like can be applied.
[0030]
Communication protocols such as TCP / IP, SMTP, and POP, and the data format and data structure of electronic mail are specified by RFC documents issued by the IETF. For example, TCP is RFC793, IP is RFC793, SMTP is RFC821, and the format of the e-mail is RFC822, RFC1521, RFC1522 (MIME (Multi-Purpose).
Mail Extension) format.
[0031]
The network facsimile machine FX sends the read document image to another group 3 facsimile machine via the analog public switched telephone network PSTN, or the workstation devices WS1 to WSn via the local area network LAN (further, the Internet). The image information received from the other group 3 facsimile apparatuses via the analog public switched telephone network PSTN is transmitted to the user corresponding to the sub-address specified at that time. Transfer using electronic mail or transfer image information received from the workstation WS of the local area network LAN (by electronic mail) to the designated analog public telephone network PSTN group 3 facsimile apparatus It has a-bis function, and the like.
[0032]
Further, with respect to the electronic mail received to the own terminal, the image information arranged in the body information is extracted, recorded and output.
[0033]
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, a Base64 encoding method) is applied to the readable information (7-bit data). After being converted to a character code, it is included in an e-mail as an attached file. Such a format of the body information of the electronic mail is called a MIME format.
[0034]
Further, as a data format of the image data attached to the e-mail, an appropriate image data format such as bitmap (BMP), TIFF, PDF, JPEG or the like can be applied.
[0035]
In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 3, it is assumed that a file name is displayed at the upper end of the transmission original DP. This is because, for example, a document created and recorded and output using word processing software usually has a file name recorded at the upper end portion of the document.
[0036]
Further, in this embodiment, when one transmission file is composed of a plurality of transmission originals, the file name recorded at the upper end portion of the transmission original of the first page is recognized, and the transmission file of the transmission file is recognized. It is treated as a file name.
[0037]
FIG. 4 shows an example of the processing of the network facsimile machine FX when transmitting image data using electronic mail.
[0038]
The user sets a document to be transmitted on the scanner 5 (process 101), inputs address information by appropriately operating the operation display unit 7 (process 102), and operates a start key (not shown) to start a transmission operation. (The result of determination 103 is YES), the system control unit 1 operates the scanner 5 to read the image of the transmission original in page units, and converts the image data of each page obtained by the predetermined encoding method. The image information obtained thereby is stored in the image storage device 9 (process 104).
[0039]
Next, the data of the upper end portion of the image data of the first page is extracted, the OCR processing of the OCR processing unit 12 is applied to the image data of the extracted area, and the recorded graphic characters are recognized. The obtained character code data string is stored as a file name (processing 105, 106).
[0040]
Next, the file name stored at that time is displayed and output on the operation display unit 7 (process 107), and the file name is output to the voice response processing unit 13 to be output as a voice message (process 108). At this time, a predetermined word recognition process is performed on the character code string of the file name, and voice message data is synthesized and output in word units corresponding to the word code obtained thereby.
[0041]
Next, header information of the e-mail is created (step 109), and text information of the e-mail is created by applying the image information data accumulated in the step 104 and the file name recognized in the step 106 (step 110). The e-mail composed of the header information created in step (1) and the body information created in step 110 is transmitted to the mail server device SM (step 111), and the process ends.
[0042]
In this manner, in the present embodiment, the graphic characters recorded on the upper end portion of the transmission original are read to create the file name. For example, the file name given when the original original was created is automatically converted. It is very convenient to use.
[0043]
In addition, since the recognized file name is displayed or output as a voice message, the user can be clearly notified of the file name.
[0044]
Note that the image area for recognizing the file name may be the lower end portion or the like instead of the upper end portion of the document described above.
[0045]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, according to the present invention, a file name is created by reading graphic characters recorded in a predetermined area of a transmission original. Can be automatically used, which is very convenient.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a network system according to an 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 a transmission original.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a process of the network facsimile machine FX when transmitting image data using an electronic mail.
[Explanation of symbols]
FX Network facsimile machine SM Mail server device 1 System control unit 2 System memory 3 Parameter memory 12 OCR processing unit 13 Voice response processing unit

Claims (3)

In a network image communication device that connects to a network and reads and obtains image data, and communicates via the network,
A file name recognizing unit that recognizes a character recorded in a predetermined area of the read image data as a file name,
A network image communication apparatus for transmitting image data using a file name recognized by the file name recognition means as a file name of transmission image data. 2. The network image communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the file name recognized by the file name recognition means is displayed. 3. A voice synthesizing unit for synthesizing and outputting a voice message, wherein the voice synthesizing unit outputs a voice message corresponding to the file name recognized by the file name recognizing unit. Network image communication device.

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