JPH11146101A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow a receiving person to recognize and properly cope with a time lag between transmission and reception by inserting the transmission time and reception time of an electronic mail into facsimile information so as to compose and display picture data. SOLUTION: After dial-up-connecting to a provider to receive electronic mail containing image data and to storing it in a picture memory 8, the time obtained from the clock circuit for the receiving time. Next, the transmission time and the opposite party address of header information of the received mail are extracted and when the opposite party address is registered in a name/ address table 17 within RAM 7, the address is replaced with the name of the opposite party. The obtained transmission time, the receiving time and the opposite party address are added to generate image data of TTI and a picture obtained by composing this image data and data on the sent facsimile message is printed out by a printer 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus which is connected to a computer communication network such as the Internet or the like, and which receives an e-mail whose message is image data and outputs an image.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, computer communication networks such as the Internet have become widespread. The reason is that the computer network is excellent in error correction, and the user bears the communication cost (line usage fee and provider's cost) with the nearest contract provider (connection company to the computer network). It is possible to perform communication not only with Japan but also with computers all over the world.

Incidentally, the conventional facsimile communication procedure is different from the above-described computer communication procedure using a computer communication network, so that it is not possible to perform direct communication from the facsimile apparatus to the computer communication network.
However, even if image data is normally transmitted and received in facsimile communication, for example, TIFF (Tagged Image Fil
If the data is converted into e-mail format data such as e-format, the data can be transmitted and received by a facsimile apparatus via a computer communication network.

[0004] Under such circumstances, facsimile messages can be transmitted and received as electronic mail through Internet communication, and facsimile apparatuses with an electronic mail function used for such purposes have been developed.

[0005]

In such a facsimile apparatus with an e-mail function, communication is performed via a provider, so that the facsimile apparatus has a function similar to a general facsimile apparatus directly connected between a sender and a receiver. There is a problem that lacks immediateness. Therefore, a relatively large time lag occurs between the transmission time and the reception time in the facsimile apparatus with the e-mail function. Information such as the transmission time is described in the header of the electronic mail, but such information is not described in the facsimile manuscript itself. Therefore, there is a problem that the recipient who has received the facsimile manuscript does not know how long ago the facsimile manuscript was transmitted and cannot take appropriate measures.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and in a facsimile apparatus with an electronic mail function, a receiver can recognize a time lag between transmission and reception, and can take appropriate measures. An object of the present invention is to provide a facsimile machine.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a facsimile apparatus capable of easily specifying a destination simply by looking at facsimile information printed out.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A facsimile apparatus according to the present invention is a facsimile apparatus that receives an e-mail containing facsimile image data and outputs an image. It is characterized by comprising generating means for generating, and output means for synthesizing the received facsimile image data with the image data of the transmission time and the reception time and outputting an image.

In the facsimile apparatus of the present invention, the transmission time and the reception time of the electronic mail are inserted at appropriate positions in the facsimile information. Therefore, the receiver can recognize a time lag between transmission and reception, and can take appropriate measures.

Further, a facsimile apparatus according to the present invention comprises:
In the above-described facsimile apparatus, the generation unit also generates image data of a source e-mail address, and the output unit is configured to output an image by also combining the image data of the source e-mail address. It is characterized by having done.

In such a facsimile apparatus of the present invention, the electronic mail address of the destination is included in the facsimile information in addition to the information of the transmission time and the reception time. Therefore, the transmission partner can be confirmed only by looking at the facsimile information.

Further, the facsimile apparatus according to the present invention comprises:
The facsimile machine described above further comprises a registration table for registering the correspondence between the e-mail address and the name, and means for specifying the name of the transmission source from the address of the received e-mail based on the registration table. The generating means also generates image data of the name of the transmission source, and the output means combines the image data of the name of the transmission source to output an image.

In such a facsimile apparatus of the present invention, the name of the transmission destination and the name of the transmission destination are included in the facsimile information in addition to the information of the transmission time and the reception time. Therefore, the transmission partner can be confirmed more easily.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings showing the embodiments. However, in the embodiment of the present invention described below, the present invention is applied to a facsimile apparatus configured to transmit image data that should be facsimile communication as e-mail,
The Internet is used as a computer communication network.

First, the hardware configuration of a facsimile apparatus according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The facsimile apparatus of the present invention has a function capable of Internet communication in addition to a conventional facsimile communication function such as the G3 system.

In FIG. 1, the main control unit 1 is specifically a CP
U, which is connected to hardware units described below via a bus 15 to control them and execute various software functions. The scanner 2 reads an original using, for example, a CCD, and outputs compressed image data converted to black and white binary via a codec unit 3.

The printer 4 is a printer device of, for example, an electrophotographic system, and prints out image data input via the codec 5 as a hard copy. The image data includes image data received from another facsimile machine by facsimile communication and image data received by Internet communication. In the present invention, as described later, the transmission time and the transmission time are added to the image data from another facsimile machine.
Data such as the reception time, the mail address of the destination, and the name of the destination are added.

The ROM 6 stores in advance various software programs necessary for the operation of the facsimile apparatus of the present invention. The RAM 7 is composed of an SRAM or a flash memory, and stores temporary data generated at the time of executing software, and a name / address table 17 indicating a correspondence between an e-mail address and a name is set in an appropriate area. ing.

The image memory 8 is composed of a DRAM or the like, and stores image data to be transmitted or received image data. The operation panel 9 includes character keys, numeric keys (numerical keys), speed dial keys, one-touch dial keys, various function keys, and the like necessary for operating the facsimile apparatus of the present invention. Clock circuit 10
Has a timekeeping function and outputs time information.

The modem 12 is a facsimile modem for normal facsimile communication. The data modem 14 is a data communication modem for performing Internet communication, and is connected to the bus 15 via the external interface 11. An NCU (Network Control Unit) 13 is hardware that performs operations for closing and opening the analog line L, and connects the modem 12 or the data modem 14 to the analog line L as necessary.

A DSU (Digital Subscriber Line Terminator: Digita)
l Service Unit) to connect to a digital line of the baseband transmission system.

The facsimile apparatus of the present invention has the above-described hardware configuration, and transmits and receives image data mainly converted to a TIFF file as electronic mail, as well as a normal facsimile communication function of the G3 system or the like. Has a function. In other words, it is possible to convert the image data of a document to be originally transmitted by facsimile into a TIFF file and transmit / receive it as an electronic mail via the Internet. However, the function for that is stored in the ROM 6 as a software program.

Next, the operation will be described. As described above, in the facsimile apparatus of the present invention, a facsimile message generally transmitted and received by facsimile communication can be converted into an e-mail format such as the TIFF format and then transmitted and received by Internet communication. However, the transmission time and the reception time of the e-mail are inserted into the image data, and the transmission time and the reception time are printed out together with the image data.

In this case, the transmission time is extracted from the header information of the electronic mail. Regarding the reception time, (1)
There are two types of reception time at the provider and (2) reception time at the user terminal. In the case of (1), similarly to the transmission time, the reception time is obtained from the header information of the e-mail at the user terminal. In the case of (2), the reception time is fetched from the clock circuit 10 of the user terminal. In the case of a LAN connection, when the mailer application is running, the reception times of (1) and (2) are almost the same, so (1) or (2) is used. In the case of a dial-up connection, (2) Use

It is also possible to insert the mail address of the other party into the image data and print out the same at the same time. If the correspondence between the name and the address is registered, the address is replaced with the name. The name, or the name in addition to the address, can be simultaneously printed out in accordance with the image data and the transmission / reception time.

The operation of receiving image data as e-mail will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 2 showing the procedure. The flowchart in FIG. 2 shows a case of dial-up connection, and employs the reception time of (2) above.

First, it is determined whether or not the connection timing has come (step S1). When the connection timing comes (S
1: YES), dial-up connection to the provider (step S2), an e-mail containing image data as a content is received, and the content is stored in the image memory 8 (step S2).
3) After that, disconnect the line with the provider (step S)
4).

Then, the time at that time is taken in from the clock circuit 10 as a reception time (step S5). Further, the transmission time and the destination address are extracted from the header information of the received e-mail (step S6).

Next, with reference to the name / address table 17 in the RAM 7, it is determined whether or not the extracted address is registered in the name / address table 17 (step S7). If it is registered (S7: YES), the address is replaced with the name of the destination (step S7).
8) The process proceeds to step S9, and if not registered (S7: NO), the process proceeds directly to step S9.

Then, TTI image data is generated by combining the obtained transmission time, reception time, and destination address (or destination name) (step S9), and the image data and the data of the transmitted facsimile message are generated. Is printed by the printer 4 (step S10).

In the example described above, the address is replaced with the name in step S9, but it is also possible to add both the address and the name to the image data.

FIG. 3 is a view showing a print example of one page printed out. In this example, a destination address is displayed. As in the case of normal facsimile communication, in the margin of the area where the image data of the received document is displayed,
In this example, a transmission time A, a reception time B, and a destination address C are described at positions where a normal TTI is entered in facsimile communication of the G3 system.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation procedure at the time of reception when (1) (reception time at the provider) is adopted as the reception time. It is determined whether the mailer application has been started (step S
11) If it is started up (S11: YES), an e-mail containing image data is received and the contents are stored in the image memory 8 (step S12), and then the line with the provider is disconnected (step S13). ).

Then, the transmission time, the reception time, and the destination address are extracted from the header information of the received electronic mail (step S14). Next, with reference to the name / address table 17 in the RAM 7, it is determined whether or not the extracted address is registered in the name / address table 17 (step S15). If it is registered (S15:
(YES), the address is replaced with the name of the other party (step S16), and the process proceeds to step S17. If not registered (S15: NO), the process proceeds to step S17 as it is.

Then, TTI image data is generated by combining the obtained transmission time, reception time and destination address (or destination name) (step S17), and the image data and the data of the transmitted facsimile message are generated. Is printed by the printer 4 (step S
18). Although the address is replaced with the name in step S16, both the address and the name can be added to the image data.

[0036]

As described above, in the facsimile apparatus of the present invention, the transmission time and the reception time of the e-mail are entered at the appropriate positions of the facsimile image. Can be easily recognized as to whether there is a time lag, and appropriate measures can be taken.

In the facsimile apparatus of the present invention, the destination address is also included in the facsimile image.
The transmission partner can be confirmed only by looking at the facsimile image.

Further, in the facsimile apparatus of the present invention, the name of the transmission destination is included in the facsimile image.
It is possible to more easily confirm the transmission partner.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of a facsimile apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an example of an operation procedure at the time of reception in the facsimile apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a print example of one printed page.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing another example of the operation procedure at the time of reception in the facsimile apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 CPU 4 Printer 6 ROM 7 RAM 13 NCU 14 Data Modem 17 Name / Address Table

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A facsimile apparatus for receiving an e-mail having facsimile image data as a content and outputting an image, generating means for generating image data of the transmission time and reception time of the e-mail, A facsimile apparatus comprising: output means for combining the image data at the transmission time and the reception time and outputting an image. 2. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the generating unit also generates image data of a source e-mail address, and the output unit combines the image data of the source e-mail address to output an image. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1. 3. A registration table for registering a correspondence between an e-mail address and a name, and means for specifying a name of a transmission source from an address of the received e-mail based on the registration table, 3. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said generating means also generates image data of a transmission source name, and said output means is configured to output an image by also combining image data of said transmission source name. .