JP2018005790A - Image reading device, program, and information communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

An image reading apparatus, a program, and an information communication system are provided that can specify a transmission destination of image information without a user operating an operation display unit to register the transmission destination of the image information. Communication is performed between an image reading unit that reads an image formed on a recording medium and acquires image information, an adding unit that adds identification information to the acquired image information, and an external terminal device. A control unit that controls to transmit the image information corresponding to the identification information included in the reception information to the transmission destination included in the reception information when receiving a transmission request for requesting transmission of the image information by the communication unit that performs An image reading apparatus is provided. [Selection] Figure 5

Description

  The present invention relates to an image reading apparatus, a program, and an information communication system.

  Conventionally, a technique for transmitting image information acquired by an image reading apparatus to a terminal device via a communication network is known. When image information is transmitted as attached data of an e-mail, the user operates the operation display unit of the image reading apparatus and inputs a mail address of a transmission destination for transmitting the image information. Further, a technique has been proposed in which a mail address is extracted from a received electronic mail, and a mail address and an ID thereof are registered in advance in an image reading apparatus, thereby omitting a user's mail address input operation.

  For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses an image reading apparatus in an image communication system in which an image reading apparatus that reads a document image and a client terminal that requests the apparatus to transmit a read image are connected via a network. A destination information receiving unit that receives destination information indicating a destination of image data from a client terminal via a network, a destination information storage unit that stores the received destination information, and a transmission of read original image data. The destination information selecting means for selecting the destination information of the client terminal corresponding to the transmission destination of the image data from the destination information storage means, and the image data for transmitting the image data to the destination indicated by the selected destination information An image reading apparatus comprising: a transmission unit.

  Patent Document 2 discloses a network image processing system connected to a network. When an e-mail for destination registration is received, the sender address of the e-mail is extracted and the address is set as the destination. Registration means for registering in the transmission destination list and input of the transmission destination for the predetermined transmission information are accepted. If the input transmission destination is not registered in the transmission destination list, transmission of the transmission information is suspended. And a network image processing system including a control unit.

JP 2002-32303 A JP 2007-122492 A

  However, when transmitting image information from the image reading apparatus, the user must register the transmission destination by operating the operation display unit of the image reading apparatus.

  Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an image reading apparatus, a program, and an information communication system that can specify a transmission destination of image information without a user operating the operation display unit to register a transmission destination of image information. It is to provide.

  In order to achieve the above object, an invention according to claim 1 includes an image reading unit that reads an image formed on a recording medium to acquire image information, and an adding unit that adds identification information to the acquired image information. When a transmission request for requesting transmission of image information is received by a communication unit that communicates with an external terminal device, image information corresponding to identification information included in the reception information is transmitted to a transmission destination included in the reception information. And a control unit that controls to transmit to the image reading apparatus.

  The invention according to claim 2 further includes a display unit that displays information, and the control unit displays the identification information given to the image information when the image information is acquired. The image reading apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image reading apparatus controls the unit.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, the communication unit has a function of transmitting and receiving an electronic mail, and the control unit receives a transmission request mail for requesting transmission of image information from an external terminal device by the communication unit. 3. The image reading according to claim 1, wherein control is performed so that a reply mail attached with image information corresponding to identification information included in the received information is transmitted to a mail address of a transmission source of the transmission request mail. Device.

  The invention according to claim 4 is the image according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the control unit discards image information for which a storage period has expired and information corresponding to the image information. It is a reading device.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the control unit discards image information that has already been transmitted and information corresponding to the image information in response to the received transmission request. The image reading apparatus according to the item.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, when the control unit displays the identification information, the control unit controls the display unit to display a setting screen for accepting a password setting, and the password is set from the setting screen. The image reading apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the image information acquired using the set password is controlled to be encrypted and compressed.

  According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, when the control unit receives a transmission request for requesting transmission of image information from an external terminal device, the control unit includes the received information when authentication by a password included in the received information is successful. The image reading apparatus according to claim 6, wherein the image information corresponding to the identification information to be transmitted is controlled to be transmitted to a transmission destination included in the reception information.

  The invention according to claim 8 is the image reading apparatus according to claim 7, wherein the control unit performs control so as to reject reception of a transmission request from a transmission destination that has failed authentication by the password a plurality of times. .

  According to the ninth aspect of the present invention, the computer reads an image formed on a recording medium and adds identification information to the image information and gives a transmission request for requesting transmission of the image information from an external terminal device. When received, this is a program that functions as control means for controlling image information corresponding to identification information included in the received information to be transmitted to a transmission destination included in the received information.

  The invention according to claim 10 is the image reading device according to any one of claims 1 to 8, at least one terminal device connected to the image reading device via a communication network, Is an information communication system.

  According to the first, ninth, and tenth aspects of the invention, the user can specify the transmission destination of the image information without registering the transmission destination of the image information by operating the operation display unit.

  According to invention of Claim 2, identification information is alert | reported to a user.

  According to the invention described in claim 3, the image information is transmitted as an attached file of the reply mail.

  According to the invention described in claim 4, the image information is acquired any number of times within the storage period.

  According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, it is possible to avoid leaving image information.

  According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, the security is improved as compared with the case where the password is not encrypted and compressed.

  According to the seventh aspect of the present invention, security is enhanced as compared with the case where authentication is not performed using a password.

  According to the eighth aspect of the present invention, security is enhanced as compared with the case of responding to a transmission request from a transmission destination that repeatedly fails authentication.

It is a block diagram which shows an example of a structure of the information communication system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of an image reading apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a block diagram which shows an example of a structure of the terminal device which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is a functional block diagram which shows an example of the function of the image reading apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. (A) And (B) is the schematic which shows an example of the communication sequence of the information communication system which concerns on embodiment of this invention. (A) is a flowchart which shows an example of the procedure of the "image information management process" concerning 1st Embodiment, (B) and (C) are examples of the procedure of the "identification information provision process" which is a subroutine. It is a flowchart to show. It is a figure which shows an example of a structure of the "image information management list" concerning 1st Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the procedure of the "periodic inspection process" concerning 1st Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the procedure of the "image information acquisition process" which concerns on 1st Embodiment. 12 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a procedure of “image information compression processing” according to the second embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of a structure of the "image information management list" concerning 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the procedure of the "image information acquisition process" concerning 2nd Embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of a structure of the "authentication process failure list" concerning 2nd Embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of a structure of the "reception refusal list" concerning 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the procedure of the "image information acquisition process by authentication" which concerns on 2nd Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows an example of the procedure of "the process at the time of an authentication failure" concerning 2nd Embodiment.

  Hereinafter, an example of an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

<First Embodiment>
(Configuration of information communication system)
First, the overall configuration of the information communication system will be described.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of an information communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the information communication system 10 according to the present embodiment includes an image reading device 12, a terminal device 14 ₁ , a terminal device 14 ₂ , and a terminal device 14 ₃ . Each of the image reading device 12, the terminal device 14 ₁ , the terminal device 14 ₂ , and the terminal device 14 ₃ is connected via a wired or wireless communication network 16, for example, via a communication network 16 such as a LAN or the Internet. Exchange information.

Note that at least one terminal device is sufficient, and the number of terminal devices is not limited to three. Moreover, when it is not necessary to distinguish each of the terminal device 14 ₁ , the terminal device 14 ₂ , and the terminal device 14 ₃ , they are collectively referred to as the terminal device 14.

  In the present embodiment, the image reading device 12 reads an image formed on a recording medium to acquire image information, and assigns the acquired image information as identification information. Further, when receiving a transmission request for requesting transmission of image information from the terminal device 14, the image reading device 12 transmits image information corresponding to identification information included in the reception information to a transmission destination included in the reception information. A specific communication sequence will be described later.

(Configuration of image reading apparatus)
Next, the configuration of the image reading apparatus will be described.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the image reading apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 2, the image reading apparatus 12 according to the present embodiment includes a control unit 20, an operation display unit 22, an image reading unit 24, a communication unit 26, and a storage unit 28. The control unit 20 is configured as a computer that controls the entire apparatus and performs various calculations.

  That is, the control unit 20 includes a CPU 20A, a ROM 20B that stores various programs, a RAM 20C that is used as a work area when executing the programs, a non-volatile memory 20D that stores various information, and an input / output interface (I / O) 20E. I have. Each of the CPU 20A, ROM 20B, RAM 20C, memory 20D, and I / O 20E is connected to each other via a bus 20F.

  In the present embodiment, control programs such as “image information management processing” and “image information acquisition processing” described later are stored in the ROM 20B in advance. The control program stored in advance is read from the ROM 20B by the CPU 20A and executed using the RAM 20C as a work area.

  Each unit of the operation display unit 22, the image reading unit 24, the communication unit 26, and the storage unit 28 is connected to the I / O 20 </ b> E of the control unit 20. The control unit 20 exchanges information with each unit, and controls each unit of the operation display unit 22, the image reading unit 24, the communication unit 26, and the storage unit 28.

  The operation display unit 22 includes a display screen that accepts operations such as a touch panel, and is controlled to display various screens to the user. The operation display unit 22 accepts user operations from the various screens and acquires various types of information. The operation display unit 22 may include various buttons such as a numeric keypad outside the display screen.

  The image reading unit 24 reads an image formed on the recording medium and acquires image information. The communication unit 26 is an interface for communicating with an external device via a wired or wireless communication line. The storage unit 28 includes a storage device such as an HDD, and stores various types of information.

  In the present embodiment, the image information acquired by the image reading unit 24 and the identification information given to the image information are stored and managed in the memory 20D or the storage unit 28. The image information may be managed so as to be searchable from the identification information, and the image information or the like may be stored in an external memory for management. The identification information given to the image information is displayed on the display screen of the operation display unit 22 when the image information is acquired. Thereby, the identification information given to the image information is notified to the user who has read the image.

  Various drives may be connected to the control unit 20. Each type of drive is a device that reads data from a computer-readable portable recording medium such as a flexible disk, a magneto-optical disk, or a CD-ROM, and writes data to the recording medium. When various types of drives are provided, a control program may be recorded on a portable recording medium, and this may be read and executed by a corresponding drive.

(Configuration of terminal device)
Next, the configuration of the terminal device will be described.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the terminal device according to the embodiment of the present invention. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the terminal device 14 according to the present embodiment includes a control unit 30, a display unit 32, an operation unit 34, a communication unit 36, and a storage unit 38. The control unit 30 is configured as a computer that controls the entire apparatus and performs various calculations.

  That is, the control unit 30 includes a CPU 30A, a ROM 30B that stores various programs, a RAM 30C that is used as a work area when the programs are executed, a non-volatile memory 30D that stores various information, and an input / output interface (I / O) 30E. I have. Each of the CPU 30A, ROM 30B, RAM 30C, memory 30D, and I / O 30E is connected to each other via a bus 30F.

  Each unit of the display unit 32, the operation unit 34, the communication unit 36, and the storage unit 38 is connected to the I / O 30 </ b> E of the control unit 30. The control unit 30 exchanges information with each unit, and controls each unit of the display unit 32, the operation unit 34, the communication unit 36, and the storage unit 38.

  The display unit 32 includes a display device such as a display and displays various types of information to the user. The operation unit 34 includes an input device such as a mouse and a keyboard, and accepts an operation from a user. The communication unit 36 is an interface for communicating with an external device via a wired or wireless communication line. The storage unit 38 includes a storage device such as an HDD and stores various information.

  In the present embodiment, the terminal device 14 is a terminal device used by a user who has read an image with the image reading device 12. By a user operation, a transmission request for requesting transmission of image information is transmitted from the terminal device 14 to the image reading device 12. The transmission request includes the notified identification information and the transmission destination of the image information. For example, when communicating by electronic mail, the identification information may be included in the title of the electronic mail or in the text. The transmission destination of the image information is a mail address when an electronic mail is transmitted from the terminal device 14. The image information is transmitted as an attached file of a reply mail from the image reading device 12 to the terminal device 14.

(Function of image reading device)
Next, functions of the image reading apparatus will be described.
FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram showing an example of functions of the image reading apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. As illustrated in FIG. 4, the image reading device 12 acquires image information in response to an image information management unit 40 that manages image information acquired by the image reading device 12 and a transmission request for image information from the terminal device 14. And an image information acquisition unit 50 that transmits the information.

  The image information management unit 40 includes an identification information generation unit 42 and an information management unit 44. For example, when receiving the notification that the image reading is completed from the image reading unit 24, the identification information generating unit 42 generates (applies) identification information for the acquired image information, and the operation display unit 22 and the information management unit 44. Output identification information to each. The operation display unit 22 displays identification information to the user. The information management unit 44 stores the image information acquired from the image reading unit 24 in association with the assigned identification information. Thus, the image information acquired by the image reading device 12 is managed in the “image information management list” so as to be searched from the identification information.

  The image information acquisition unit 50 includes a reception information analysis unit 52, an image information search unit 54, and a reply generation unit 56. The reception information analysis unit 52 analyzes the transmission request (reception information) of the image information received by the communication unit 26, and extracts the identification information and the transmission destination of the image information. The identification information extracted from the reception information is output to the image information search unit 54, and the transmission destination extracted from the reception information is output to the reply generation unit 56.

  The image information search unit 54 searches for image information based on the identification information acquired from the reception information analysis unit 52. The information management unit 44 is searched, image information corresponding to the identification information is acquired, and output to the reply generation unit 56. The reply generation unit 56 generates transmission information so as to transmit the image information acquired from the image information search unit 54 to the transmission destination acquired from the reception information analysis unit 52 in a form of replying to the transmission request for image information. The generated transmission information is output to the communication unit 26.

(Communication sequence)
Next, a communication sequence of the information communication system 10 will be described.
5 (A) and 5 (B) are schematic diagrams showing an example of a communication sequence of the information communication system according to the embodiment of the present invention. The part shown in FIG. 5A corresponds to the image information management process of the image reading apparatus 12, and the part shown in FIG. 5B corresponds to the image information acquisition process of the image reading apparatus 12. In the portion shown in FIG. 5A, communication between the image reading device 12 and the terminal device 14 is not performed, but in order to explain the relationship between the image reading device 12 and the terminal device 14 and the user. Also written.

  As shown in FIG. 5A, the user operates the image reading device 12. The image reading device 12 receives a reading start instruction from the user via the operation display unit 22 (S10), reads an image formed on the recording medium, acquires image information (S12), and acquires the acquired information. Identification information is generated for the image information and added to the image information (S14), and the identification information is displayed on the operation display unit 22 (S16). Identification information given to the image information is notified to the user. Subsequently, the image reading device 12 compresses the acquired image information (S18), stores the image information in association with the assigned identification information, and manages the image information (S20).

  As shown in FIG. 5B, the user is operating the terminal device 14 away from the image reading device 12. The terminal device 14 receives a request transmission instruction from the user via the operation unit 34 (S21), and transmits a transmission request for image information including identification information to the image reading device 12 (S23). That is, the user operates the terminal device 14 to transmit the identification information notified at the time of image reading to the image reading device 12 by including it in the image information transmission request.

  When receiving the image information transmission request (S22), the image reading device 12 analyzes the received information and extracts the identification information and the transmission destination of the image information (S24). For example, when a reply is made to the transmission request, the “transmission source” information becomes the “transmission destination” information. Subsequently, the image reading device 12 searches the image information based on the identification information, and acquires image information corresponding to the identification information (S26). When a plurality of pieces of identification information are extracted from the received information, a plurality of pieces of image information corresponding to each piece of identification information are acquired. Subsequently, the image reading device 12 generates a reply to the image information transmission request (S28), and attaches the acquired image information to the reply and transmits the reply to the transmission destination (S30). The image information is transmitted in a compressed state. Further, the transmission destination is not limited to the transmission source. When a plurality of transmission destinations are extracted from the reception information, the image information is transmitted to each transmission destination. For example, when transmitting a transmission request, the user may include other transmission destinations as copy destinations such as CC and BCC, or may specify other transmission destinations in the title or communication text.

  As described above, since the transmission destination of the image information is acquired from the reception information received from the terminal device 14, the user himself / herself operates the operation display unit 22 of the image reading apparatus 12 to register the transmission destination without registering the transmission destination. Is specified. Thereby, erroneous transmission due to an erroneous operation on the operation display unit 22 is also eliminated. When receiving the reply from the image reading device 12 (S25), the terminal device 14 decompresses the image information attached to the reply (S27). Finally, the image reading device 12 deletes the transmitted image information from the management target (S32).

(Image information management process)
Next, the “image information management process” will be described.
FIG. 6A is a flowchart illustrating an example of a procedure of “image information management processing” according to the first embodiment. FIGS. 6B and 6C are flowcharts showing an example of the procedure of “identification information adding process” which is a subroutine. The “image information management process” is executed by the CPU 20 </ b> A of the control unit 20 of the image reading device 12. The “image information management process” is started when a recording medium (original) on which an image is formed is set in the image reading unit 24 and the user instructs to start reading.

  As shown in FIG. 6A, first, in step 100, reading of an image formed on a recording medium is started. Next, in step 102, it is determined whether the image reading has been completed. When the image reading is completed, the process proceeds to step 104 where “identification information adding process” is executed in step 104.

As shown in FIG. 6B, in the “identification information adding process”, first, in step 120, it is determined whether or not the number of identification information in use (the number of uses) exceeds a threshold value. For example, there is an upper limit threshold for the number of identification information generated, such as only “10 ⁴ ” is generated with a 4-digit number such as “3357”. The number of identification information used is the number of image information managed in an “image information management list” described below.

  When the number of uses is equal to or greater than the threshold, identification information that does not overlap is not generated. Therefore, the identification information is not generated and the processing routine is terminated. In this case, identification information is not given. If the number of uses is less than the threshold, the process proceeds to step 122, where identification information is generated.

  Next, in step 124, it is determined whether or not the generated identification information overlaps with the identification information in use. If they overlap, the process returns to step 122 and identification information is generated again. On the other hand, if the identification information does not overlap, the process proceeds to step 126. In step 126, identification information is added to the image information, and the processing routine is terminated.

  Here, the description returns to FIG. Next, in step 106, it is determined whether or not identification information is given. When the identification information is given, the process proceeds to step 108, and when the identification information is not given, the process proceeds to step 116. In step 116, an error is displayed on the operation display unit 22, and the process proceeds to step 114.

  Next, in step 108, the identification information given to the image information is displayed on the operation display unit 22. Thereby, the identification information given to the image information of the image read by the image reading unit 24 is notified to the user. The user stores the notified identification information until the image information transmission request is made, for example, by storing the identification information or taking a memo. On the other hand, in step 116, an error is displayed on the operation display unit 22, and the process proceeds to step 114.

  Next, in step 110, the acquired image information is compressed. Although compression processing is not essential, it is preferable to manage in a compressed state because the volume of image information is large. In subsequent step 112, the image information is stored in association with the identification information. Here, the acquisition time for acquiring the image information may also be stored. For example, the image information, the identification information, and the acquisition time are stored in association with each other in a format to be added to an “image information management list” described below.

  Finally, in step 114, it is determined whether or not there is no next image reading. If there is no next image reading, the processing routine is terminated. On the other hand, when there is the next image reading, the processing returns to step 100 and the processing from step 100 to step 114 is repeated.

  In the above “identification information adding process”, whether or not the number of identification information used is equal to or greater than the upper limit threshold of the number of identification information generation is used as a criterion for determining whether or not to generate identification information. It is not limited to the method. Even if the number of pieces of identification information used is less than the upper limit threshold of the number of pieces of identification information generated, duplication of identification information occurs. Therefore, first, identification information is generated, and when the generated identification information is duplicated, “a criterion for determining whether or not to generate the identification information again” may be provided.

  FIG. 6C is a flowchart illustrating an example of a procedure of “identification information adding process” different from that in FIG. As shown in FIG. 6C, in the “identification information adding process”, identification information is first generated in step 130. Next, in Step 132, it is determined whether or not the generated identification information overlaps with the identification information being used. If the identification information is not duplicated, the process proceeds to step 134. In step 134, the number of identification information generations is incremented by one. In subsequent step 136, identification information is added to the image information, and the processing routine is terminated.

  On the other hand, if the identification information is duplicated, the process proceeds to step 138. In step 138, it is determined whether or not the number of generations of identification information exceeds the “threshold value”. The “threshold value” is a number equal to or less than the upper threshold value of the number of identification information generations. If the number of generations of the identification information is equal to or less than the “threshold”, the process returns to step 130 to generate the identification information again. If the number of generations of the identification information exceeds the “threshold”, the process is performed without adding the identification information. End the routine.

  Since there is identification information deleted after generation, the number of generations of identification information is greater than the number of uses of identification information. Accordingly, when the identification information is generated again when the number of generations of the identification information is equal to or less than the “threshold”, the probability that the identification information is duplicated is lower than the previous time. It is assumed that the number of generations of identification information is reset when the number of generations of identification information reaches the upper limit threshold of the number of generations of identification information.

(Image information management list)
Next, the “image information management list” will be described.
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the “image information management list” according to the first embodiment. The “image information management list” is composed of four-digit “identification number” as identification information, “save time” as acquisition time, and “image information (file name)” as image information. For example, the image information acquired by the image reading device 12 is assigned an identification number “5379”, a file name “5379_2015_11_25_1431.zip” after compression, and a storage time “2015.11.25 14:31:24 To be saved. A new set of “identification number”, “save time”, and “image information (file name)” is added to the “image information management list”.

(Regular inspection process)
Next, the “periodic inspection process” will be described.
FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an example of the procedure of “periodic inspection processing” according to the first embodiment. The “periodic inspection process” is executed by the CPU 20 </ b> A of the control unit 20 of the image reading device 12. Further, the “periodic inspection process” may be performed periodically, or may be performed as necessary (for example, according to a user instruction).

  As shown in FIG. 8, first, in step 150, the storage time of the first image information in the image information management list is acquired. In the present embodiment, the image information and the related information are arranged in the image information management list in the order in which they are stored. Therefore, the first image information in the image information management list has been stored for a long time.

  Next, in step 152, it is determined whether or not the storage time limit has elapsed from the acquired storage time. The storage time limit is a predetermined time such as one day after the storage time. The storage period may be set according to the frequency of use of the image reading device 12, the capacity of the memory for storing image information, and the like.

  If the storage time limit has passed, the process proceeds to step 154 to delete the image information and related information from the image information management list, and the processing routine is terminated. For example, in the example illustrated in FIG. 7, the first set of the identification number “0846”, the storage time “2015.11.25 8:53:27”, and the image information “0846_2015_11_25_0853.zip” is deleted. On the other hand, if the storage time limit has not elapsed, the processing routine is terminated without deleting.

  As will be described later, in this embodiment, an example in which image information that has already been transmitted is deleted from the image information management list in response to a transmission request so that the transmitted image information is not left will be described. It is not necessary to delete image information or the like immediately after the operation. By periodically deleting image information and the like whose storage deadline has passed through the “periodic inspection process” described above, the image information can be acquired any number of times within the storage deadline. In addition, by periodically deleting image information and the like whose storage period has expired, image information and the like that have been left without being requested for transmission are wiped out. Furthermore, duplication of identification information is avoided by delaying the time for discarding identification information from the time for discarding image information.

(Image information acquisition process)
Next, the “image information acquisition process” will be described.
FIG. 9 is a flowchart illustrating an example of the procedure of “image information acquisition processing” according to the first embodiment. The “image information acquisition process” is executed by the CPU 20 </ b> A of the control unit 20 of the image reading device 12. The “image information acquisition process” is started when a transmission request for requesting transmission of image information is received from the terminal device 14.

  First, in step 200, received information is analyzed, and identification information and a transmission destination are extracted from the received information. In subsequent step 202, image information associated with the identification information is searched from the extracted identification information. The user operates the terminal device 14 to transmit the identification information notified at the time of image reading to the image reading device 12 in the image information transmission request. Therefore, if there is no error in the identification information, image information corresponding to the identification information is acquired.

  Next, in step 204, it is determined whether there is image information corresponding to the identification information. If there is image information corresponding to the identification information, the process proceeds to step 206. In step 206, a reply to the image information transmission request is generated, and in step 208, the acquired image information is combined with this reply. In step 210, a reply including the image information is transmitted to the transmission destination. When replying to a transmission request, the “transmission source” information becomes the “transmission destination” information. Therefore, the received information includes information on the “transmission source” that transmitted the image information transmission request.

  Next, in step 212, it is determined whether or not the setting is to delete transmitted image information and the like. In the case of setting to delete the transmitted image information and the like, the process proceeds to step 214, the transmitted image information and the like that have already been transmitted in response to the transmission request are deleted from the image information management list, and the processing routine is ended. If it is not set to delete transmitted image information or the like, the processing routine ends. As described above, it is not necessary to delete the image information or the like immediately after transmitting the image information, so the user may set whether to delete the transmitted image information or the like. In addition, it may be explicitly instructed to discard the image information regardless of whether or not the transmission has been completed.

  If there is no image information corresponding to the identification information in step 204, the process proceeds to step 216. If the identification information is incorrect, or if the image information or the like has been deleted after the expiration date, the image information corresponding to the identification information cannot be found. In step 216, an error notification is transmitted to the transmission destination as a reply to the image information transmission request, and the processing routine is terminated. In this embodiment, an example in which an error notification is transmitted when there is no image information corresponding to the identification information will be described. However, as in the second embodiment to be described later, a reply to an image information transmission request is returned. Instead, in step 216, the received information may be discarded and the processing routine may be terminated.

<Second Embodiment>
In the second embodiment, a password is set when notifying the user of the identification information, and the image information is encrypted and compressed with the set password. Security is improved by performing authentication using a password. Since other configurations and operations are the same as those of the information communication system and the image reading apparatus according to the first embodiment, description of the same parts will be omitted and differences will be described.

(Image information management process)
The procedure of “image information management processing” is substantially the same as the procedure of “image information management processing” according to the first embodiment shown in FIG. In “image information compression processing”, normal compression that is not encryption compression is performed in the first embodiment, but encryption compression is performed in the second embodiment. Here, “image information compression processing” according to the second embodiment will be described. FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a procedure of “image information compression processing” according to the second embodiment. As shown in FIG. 10, first, in step 300, a password setting screen is displayed on the operation display unit 22. Subsequently, in step 302, it is determined whether or not a password has been set.

  The user may set a password or may not set a password. If a password has been set, the process proceeds to step 304. In step 304, the image information is encrypted and compressed with the set password, and the processing routine ends. If no password is set, the process proceeds to step 306. In step 306, the image information is compressed by a normal method, and the processing routine is terminated. When image information is encrypted and compressed with a password, a password is required to decompress the image information, and the security is higher than when the image information is not compressed and compressed.

(Image information management list)
If a password is set, the password is also associated with the image information. FIG. 11 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of an “image information management list” according to the second embodiment. The “image information management list” includes items of “identification number” as identification information, “save time” as acquisition time, “image information (file name)” as image information, and “password”. For example, for the image information “0846_2015_11_25_0853.zip” acquired by the image reading device 12 and encrypted and compressed, an identification number “0846” is assigned, a password “sj * 3Gsn” is set, and the storage time “ 2015.11.25 8:53:27 "is remembered.

(Image information acquisition process)
The procedure of “image information acquisition process” is quite different from the procedure of “image information acquisition process” according to the first embodiment shown in FIG. FIG. 12 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a procedure of “image information acquisition processing” according to the second embodiment. The “image information acquisition process” is executed by the CPU 20 </ b> A of the control unit 20 of the image reading device 12. The “image information acquisition process” is started when a transmission request for requesting transmission of image information is received from the terminal device 14.

  First, in step 400, received information is analyzed, and identification information and a transmission destination are extracted from the received information. If the received information includes a password, the password is also extracted. In subsequent step 402, “image information acquisition processing by authentication” is performed. The user operates the terminal device 14 to transmit the identification information notified at the time of image reading and the set password to the image reading device 12 in the image information transmission request. Therefore, if authentication is successful or authentication is not required, image information corresponding to the identification information is acquired. The “image information acquisition process by authentication” will be described later.

  Next, in step 404, it is determined whether image information has been acquired. If no image information is acquired in step 404, the process proceeds to step 416. In step 416, “authentication failure processing” is executed, and the processing routine is terminated. On the other hand, if image information has been acquired, the process proceeds to step 406. The procedure from step 406 to step 414 is the same as the procedure from step 206 to step 214 in FIG.

  In step 406, a reply to the image information transmission request is generated, and in step 408, the acquired image information is combined with this reply. In step 410, a reply including the image information is transmitted to the transmission destination. Next, in step 412, it is determined whether or not the setting is to delete transmitted image information and the like. In the case of setting to delete the transmitted image information or the like, the process proceeds to step 414, and the transmitted image information or the like that has already been transmitted in response to the transmission request is deleted from the image information management list, and the processing routine ends. If it is not set to delete transmitted image information or the like, the processing routine ends.

(Authentication processing failure list)
Next, the “authentication processing failure list” and the “reception rejection list” will be described.
FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating an example of a configuration of an “authentication processing failure list” according to the second exemplary embodiment. The “authentication processing failure list” is a list of “transmission destinations” that have failed in authentication among the “transmission destinations” related to the image information transmission request. The “authentication processing failure list” includes items of “transmission destination (mail address)” as a transmission destination, “registration time” in the list, and “number of times” of authentication failure.

  FIG. 14 is a diagram showing an example of the configuration of the “reception refusal list” according to the second embodiment. The “reception refusal list” is a list of “transmission destinations” for refusing to receive image information transmission requests. The “reception refusal list” includes items of “No.” which is a registration order and “transmission destination (mail address)” which is a transmission destination.

  As shown in FIG. 13, for example, when authentication fails for the first time, the destination email address “abc@hoo.bar.com” and the registration time “2015.11.25 10:03: 24 ”and the number of times“ 1 ”that the transmission destination has failed in authentication are added to the“ authentication processing failure list ”. If authentication fails twice or more, the registration time is updated for the destination mail address “abc@hoo.bar.com” already in the “authentication processing failure list”, and the number of failures increases by one.

  When the number of failures exceeds the upper limit threshold, the destination mail address is deleted from the “authentication processing failure list” and registered in the “reception rejection list”. For example, if the upper limit threshold of the number of failures is “5 times”, the email address “foo@bar.com” of the destination that failed in “6 times” authentication is deleted from the “authentication processing failure list”, and “ It is registered in the “reception refusal list”. As shown in FIG. 14, the destination mail address “foo@bar.com” is newly registered in the “reception refusal list”.

(Image information acquisition process by authentication)
Here, the “image information acquisition process by authentication” executed in step 402 in FIG. 12 will be described. FIG. 15 is a flowchart illustrating an example of a procedure of “image information acquisition processing by authentication” according to the second embodiment.

  First, in step 500, it is determined whether or not the transmission destination extracted from the reception information is in the “reception refusal list”. If the destination is in the “reception refusal list”, the processing routine is terminated. If the transmission destination is not in the “reception refusal list”, the process proceeds to step 502. In step 502, image information associated with the identification information is searched from the extracted identification information.

  Next, in step 504, it is determined whether there is image information corresponding to the identification information. If there is no image information corresponding to the identification information, the processing routine is terminated. If there is image information corresponding to the identification information, the process proceeds to step 506. In step 506, it is determined whether a password is set for the image information. If no password is set, the process proceeds to step 510 to acquire image information, and the processing routine ends. Whether or not a password is set for the image information can be known from the “image information management list” shown in FIG.

  If a password has been set, the process proceeds to step 508. In step 508, it is determined whether the password extracted from the received information matches the set password. If the passwords match, authentication is successful, and the process proceeds to step 510 to acquire image information, and the processing routine ends. If the passwords do not match, the authentication is unsuccessful, and the processing routine is terminated without acquiring image information. That is, when a password is set, image information is not acquired unless authentication is successful. Therefore, security is strengthened by performing authentication using a password.

(Processing at the time of authentication failure)
Here, the “authentication failure process” executed in step 416 of FIG. 12 will be described. FIG. 16 is a flowchart showing an example of a procedure of “authentication failure processing” according to the second exemplary embodiment.

  First, in step 600, it is determined whether or not the transmission destination extracted from the received information is in the “authentication processing failure list”. When the transmission destination is not in the “authentication processing failure list”, this is the case where the authentication has failed for the first time, and the process proceeds to step 602. To be added. On the other hand, if the transmission destination is in the “authentication processing failure list”, the process proceeds to step 604, and the number of failures is increased by one for the transmission destination already in the “authentication processing failure list”, and the registration time is updated.

  Next, in step 606, it is determined whether the number of authentication failures has exceeded an upper limit threshold value. In the examples of FIGS. 13 and 14, the upper limit threshold is set to 5 times, but may be a plurality of times, and the upper limit threshold is not limited to this value. For example, the threshold is set lower than 5 when security is more strict, and the threshold is set higher than 5 when security is relaxed.

  If the number of authentication failures exceeds the upper threshold, the process proceeds to step 608. In step 608, the transmission destination (mail address) is deleted from the “authentication processing failure list” and added to the “reception refusal list”. In subsequent step 610, the received information is discarded and the processing routine is terminated. If the number of authentication failures does not exceed the upper limit threshold value, the process proceeds to step 610, where the received information is discarded and the processing routine is terminated. That is, when there is no image information corresponding to the identification information and when authentication fails, no reply is made to the image information transmission request. As a result, security is enhanced as compared with the case of responding to a transmission request from a transmission destination that repeatedly fails authentication.

  Note that the configurations of the image reading apparatus, the program, and the information communication system described in the above embodiments are merely examples, and it goes without saying that the configurations may be changed without departing from the gist of the present invention. For example, the order of the steps in the flowchart may be changed.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Information communication system 12 Image reader 14 Terminal device 16 Communication network 20 Control part 22 Operation display part 24 Image reading part 26 Communication part 28 Storage part 30 Control part 32 Display part 34 Operation part 36 Communication part 38 Storage part 40 Image information management Unit 42 identification information generation unit 44 information management unit 50 image information acquisition unit 52 reception information analysis unit 54 image information search unit 56 reply generation unit

Claims (10)

An image reading unit that reads an image formed on a recording medium and acquires image information;
An assigning unit for giving identification information to the acquired image information;
When a communication unit that communicates with an external terminal device receives a transmission request for requesting transmission of image information, the image information corresponding to the identification information included in the reception information is transmitted to the transmission destination included in the reception information. A control unit for controlling to
An image reading apparatus comprising: A display unit for displaying information;
The control unit controls the display unit to display the identification information given to the image information when the image information is acquired.
The image reading apparatus according to claim 1. The communication unit has a function of sending and receiving e-mail,
When the control unit receives a transmission request mail requesting transmission of image information from an external terminal device by the communication unit, a reply mail attached with image information corresponding to the identification information included in the reception information is sent to the transmission request. Control to send to the email address of the email sender,
The image reading apparatus according to claim 1. The control unit discards image information for which the storage period has passed and information corresponding to the image information.
The image reading apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3. The control unit discards image information already transmitted in response to the received transmission request and information corresponding to the image information.
The image reading apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3. When the control unit displays the identification information, the control unit controls the display unit to display a setting screen for accepting a password setting. When the password is set from the setting screen, the set password is set. Control to encrypt and compress the image information acquired using
The image reading apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the image reading apparatus is an image reading apparatus. When the control unit receives a transmission request for requesting transmission of image information from an external terminal device, the authentication unit obtains image information corresponding to the identification information included in the reception information when authentication using the password included in the reception information is successful. , Control to send to the destination included in the received information,
The image reading apparatus according to claim 6. The control unit controls to reject reception of a transmission request from a transmission destination that has failed to authenticate with the password a plurality of times;
The image reading apparatus according to claim 7. Computer
A granting unit that reads an image formed on a recording medium and adds identification information to the image information;
Control means for controlling to transmit the image information corresponding to the identification information included in the received information to the transmission destination included in the received information upon receiving a transmission request for requesting transmission of the image information from an external terminal device;
Program to function as. An image reading apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 8,
At least one terminal device connected to the image reading device via a communication network;
An information communication system.