JPH10190768A - Communication terminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To perform communication in a desired communication system regardless of the communication system set beforehand by performing the communication with a specified opposite party based on the information corresponding to the specified communication system of the specified opposite party. SOLUTION: Whether to transmit an original by an electronic mail or to transmit it by facsimile is inquired to a user. The user specifies the communication system by the function key of an operation part 5 and specifies the opposite party by a single step key further. A CPU 1 refers to a table T and checks whether or not the communication by the specified system is possible in 511 the specified opposite parties. As the result of judgement, in the case where the communication by the specified system is possible in the specified opposite party or in the case that the user permits the communication by the other system for inquiry, the address of the electronic mail of the opposite party is taken out from the table T of a RAM 7 if the specified system is the electronic mail and the facsimile telephone number of the opposite party is taken out if it is the facsimile.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication terminal device capable of communicating with a destination by a plurality of communication methods such as facsimile communication and computer communication.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventional facsimile machines include a G3 machine connected to an analog line and a G4 machine connected to a digital line.
Machine and is widely used. 2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, computer communication networks for distributing electronic mail via the Internet, in which a local computer communication network connected by a communication line is further networked, are becoming popular. The computer communication network has an excellent error correction function, and can communicate with computers not only in Japan but also abroad simply by paying the communication cost to the nearest contract provider (connection company to the computer communication network).

The communication procedure and communication method of the conventional G3 and G4 facsimile are different from those of computer communication, and therefore cannot be directly connected to a computer communication network. However, even image data such as a transmission original can be transmitted to a computer communication network by converting the image data into an electronic mail format.

When transmitting image data converted into an e-mail format to such a computer communication network, a destination is specified by an e-mail destination different from a telephone number in facsimile communication, for example, "aaaa@bbbb.co. jp ”
Specify the destination with an address like

[0005]

By the way, the cost of e-mail is low even when a large amount of information is communicated with a distant place. However, since e-mail passes through a large number of routers, it takes a facsimile time to reach the destination. Longer than communication. Also, information is not transmitted until the other user turns on the computer and retrieves the e-mail from the mailbox.
On the other hand, in facsimile communication, the information transmitted via the communication line directly connected to the other party is printed immediately, so the time until the information is transmitted is faster than e-mail, but a large amount of Communication of information is more expensive than e-mail.

However, for example, in a communication terminal device capable of performing communication by facsimile communication and computer communication, generally, any communication method set in advance as a standard of the device without a user's special designation. Is set to be preferentially selected.

The present invention has been made in order to solve such a problem. By providing a function capable of designating any of a plurality of communication systems such as facsimile communication and computer communication, for example, the data amount is reduced. Regardless of the communication method that is preset as a device standard, information that is small but that you want to transmit to the other party quickly is by facsimile communication, and information that is not urgently transmitted but that has a large amount of data is computer communication, etc. It is another object of the present invention to provide a communication terminal device capable of communicating with a destination in a communication method desired by a user.

[0008]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication terminal device capable of communicating with a destination by a plurality of communication methods, wherein information for specifying the destination in each of the plurality of communication methods is provided. Means for storing, a means for receiving the designation of the communication method and the destination, and means for communicating with the specified destination based on the information corresponding to the specified communication method of the specified destination. It is characterized by the following.

In the communication terminal device of the first invention, for example, a telephone number in facsimile communication and a mail address in computer communication are stored for each destination, and the facsimile communication is specified as the communication method together with the specification of the destination. If so, facsimile data is transmitted to the destination based on the telephone number of the destination. Also, with the designation of the destination,
If computer communication is selected as the communication method,
An e-mail is transmitted to the other party based on the mail address of the other party.

A communication terminal device according to a second aspect of the present invention is a communication terminal device capable of communicating with a destination by a plurality of communication methods, wherein: means for storing information for specifying the destination in each of the plurality of communication methods; Means for receiving designation of one communication method and a plurality of destinations to be broadcast by the communication method; and communication with the plurality of destinations based on the information corresponding to the specified communication method of the specified destination. And means for performing the operation.

[0011] The communication terminal device of the second invention stores, for example, a telephone number in facsimile communication and a mail address in computer communication for each destination, and specifies a plurality of destinations to perform broadcast communication. When facsimile communication is specified as the communication method, facsimile data is broadcast to a plurality of destinations based on the telephone numbers of the plurality of destinations. When computer communication is selected as the communication method together with the designation of the destination, an electronic mail is transmitted to the destination based on the mail addresses of the plurality of destinations.

[0012] Therefore, the user has pre-set standards such as facsimile communication for information that is small in data amount but wants to be transmitted to the other party quickly, and computer communication for information that is not rushed but large data amount. Regardless of the set communication method, communication with the other party can be performed in a desired communication method.

[0013] The communication terminal device according to a third aspect of the present invention comprises the first or the second
In addition to the invention, when the information corresponding to the specified communication method is not stored, based on the stored information corresponding to another communication method, means for communicating with a specified destination is provided. It is characterized by having.

The communication terminal device according to the third aspect of the present invention does not store a telephone number or an e-mail address corresponding to the specified communication system, and when the specified destination does not have the specified communication system, It communicates with the other party based on the stored telephone number or mail address by the communication method of the other party.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS In the embodiment of the present invention, image data is transmitted as electronic mail, and the Internet is used as a computer communication network. The hardware configuration of the communication terminal device according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The communication terminal device shown schematically has a function for communicating with the Internet in addition to the conventional G3 and G4 facsimile communication functions. CPU1
Not only controls the hardware components of the communication terminal device through the bus 12, but also executes software such as encoding / decoding, image (TIFF) conversion, binary / text conversion, mail editing, and communication procedures, which will be described later.

The reading section 2 reads an original with a CCD or the like,
Outputs black and white binary image data. The recording unit 3 includes a printer of an electrophotographic system or the like, and records image data received from another G3, G4 facsimile machine, the Internet, or the like. The display unit 4 includes a liquid crystal display device and the like, and displays an operation state of the communication terminal device and image data.

The operation unit 5 includes various function keys such as ten keys, speed dial, one-touch key, telephone number / e-mail address registration mode setting, communication mode selection, and the like necessary for operating the communication terminal device. I have.
The ROM 6 stores software necessary for the operation of the communication terminal device. The RAM 7 is composed of an SRAM or a flash memory or the like, and stores temporary data generated at the time of executing software, and also stores a table T of a name, a facsimile telephone number, an e-mail address, and a communication method type of each registered destination. I remember. The image memory 8 is composed of a DRAM or the like, and stores image data.

As shown in FIG. 3, the table T includes one-touch dial numbers, destination names, facsimile telephone numbers, Internet e-mai1 addresses,
Communication methods (G3, G4, e-mail, etc.) are registered. In addition to the table T, a user ID and password for logging in to the Internet, a telephone number of a contracted provider, a line type (analog or digital), and a provider type (for identifying a different login procedure for each provider) Are stored in the RAM 7.

In the case where a plurality of users share one communication terminal device in an office or the like, it is also possible to provide a table in which the above-mentioned data is registered for each user and select the data at the time of transmission. Furthermore, when one provider has a plurality of telephone lines, or when a plurality of providers are used, it is possible to register for each telephone number and select it at the time of transmission.

DSU (Data line terminator: Digital Se
The rvice unit 9 converts transmission / reception data and voltage so that the digital line L1 using the baseband transmission method can be connected. The modem 10 has a data modem function in addition to a conventional fax modem function. NCU1
1 closes and opens the analog line L2.

FIG. 2 schematically shows the flow of data in the communication terminal device of the present invention. Parts corresponding to those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals. Encoding / decoding unit 2 described later
1, image converter 22, binary / text converter 23,
The mail editing unit 24 and the auto dialer 25 are processed by the CPU 1 based on the software stored in the ROM 6 although the corresponding reference numerals do not exist in FIG.

The encoding / decoding unit 21 encodes or decodes the image data according to an encoding system such as MH, MR, MMR or the like. Hereinafter, the image data encoded by these encoding methods is referred to as “G3 format image data”. The image memory 8 stores G3 format image data.

At the time of transmission, the image conversion unit 22 converts G3 format image data into TIFF (Tagged Image File), which is a general image format used in computers.
Format), and at the time of reception, the data is converted from TIFF to G3 format image data. TIFF is Adobe Syste
Published by ms, various classes that handle not only black and white binary but also black and white multi-valued, full color, etc. are defined. One of them, CLASS F, defines G3 format image data. Therefore, the file can be converted to TIFF by embedding the CLASS F Tag in the G3 format file. Below, Ta of CLASS F
g3 embedded image data in "TIF
F image data ".

The binary / text converter 23 converts binary data into text data when transmitting, and converts text data into binary data when receiving.
There are computers on the Internet that cannot handle binary data e-mail. When transmitting binary data such as TIFF image data to ensure that the e-mail reaches the destination, the data is once converted to text data. Text data handled on the Internet is IETF (Internet Engineering TaskForce)
RFC (Request For Com
ments) 822 is specified as a 7-bit code.

Therefore, MIME (Multipurpose Internet)
Conversion is performed using base64 of Mail Extensions). According to this, 6-bit binary data is 64 characters (uppercase, lowercase alphabet,
It is replaced with one of the numbers, +, /), and can be converted to text data. MIME is specified in RFC.

The mail editing section 24 adds mail header information to the TIFF image data converted to text data at the time of transmission to edit the data into an electronic mail format, and removes the mail header information from the data of the electronic mail format at the time of reception. , And extracts only the TIFF image data converted to text data. Since it is specified that predetermined header information is added to Internet e-mails, at the time of transmission, the header of TIFF image data has
“From: (Internet e-mail address of sender)”, “To: (Internet e-mail address of destination)
",“ Subject: (title) ”,
Add items such as "cc: (indicating that a copy of the letter will also be sent to the address specified on this line)", "Date: (date and time of transmission)".

The auto dialer 25 calls the DSU 9 and the modem 10 to call the telephone number read from the table T.
Alternatively, the destination telephone number data is sent to the NCU 11.

Next, the operation of the communication terminal device of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
A description will be given based on the flowchart of FIG. First, the user sets a document to be transmitted on a transmitting table (not shown) (S1).
. Next, the user is inquired whether the original is to be transmitted by e-mail or facsimile (S2). In response to this inquiry, the user specifies the communication method using, for example, the function keys of the operation unit 5, and further specifies the destination using the one-touch key (S3, S4). At this time, regardless of whether the telephone number or the e-mail address is registered in the table T, or whether only one of them is registered, the user can specify a plurality of destinations.

The CPU 1 refers to the table T to check whether communication in the specified mode is possible at all specified destinations (S5).
If A, C, and E do not have the designated communication method among the other parties of C, D, and E, "A, C, and E have no designated method. Communication may be performed by another method. ? "(S6). In response to this inquiry
If the user selects permission / non-permission of communication in another mode (S7), if the permission is not granted, the process returns to step S2 to inquire the user whether the original is to be transmitted by e-mail or facsimile.

If the result of determination in step S5 is that communication in the designated system is possible at all designated destinations, or in response to the inquiry in step S6, the user will be able to communicate in another system. If the permission is granted, if the designated method is e-mail, the e-mail address of the other party, or if facsimile, the facsimile telephone number of the other party
It is extracted from the table T of AM7 (S8).

The communication terminal device reads the document on the platen one by one, and once encodes all the pages by the encoding / decoding unit 21 using the MMR.
The image data is encoded by a system and stored in the image memory 8 as G3 format image data. The CPU 1 checks whether or not the data of the other party retrieved from the table T of the RAM 7 is an e-mail address (S9). If the retrieved data is not an e-mail address, the CPU 1 calls the telephone number of the transmission destination. (S10), normal facsimile transmission is performed (S11), and the line is disconnected (S12).

If the data of the destination retrieved from the table T of the RAM 7 is an e-mail address, the retrieved e-mail address is temporarily stored in a predetermined area of the RAM 7 as an untransmitted address, and the data of the next destination is stored in the RAM 7.
From the table T. Steps S8 to S1 above
2 is repeated for all destinations for which facsimile communication is specified.

When the facsimile communication with all the destinations for which the facsimile communication is designated is completed, the e-mail address to be taken out as the unsent address is stored in the RAM.
7 is stored in the predetermined area (S
14) If no unsent address to be taken out is stored, the process ends. If an e-mail address is stored as the unsent address, the mail editing unit 24
Adds an e-mail header including an e-mail address to the TIFF image data converted to text data (S15). This header contains at least “Fro
m: ”,“ To: ”, and“ Subject: ”.
"" Indicates the source Internet e-mail address, and "To:" indicates the destination Internet e-mail.
One address (list if there are multiple destinations), "Subj
In this example, “TIFF (G3)” is set to “ect:” to indicate that the electronic mail includes TIFF image data.

Since the G3 format image data cannot be transmitted directly on the Internet, the image data is converted into an e-mail format as follows (S16).
The image conversion unit 22 embeds a tag called CLASS F of TIFF into a file of image data in G3 format,
Since the FF image data is created and the TIFF image data is binary data, the binary / text converter 23 converts this into text data.

When the data in the e-mail format is completed, a dial-up connection to the Internet is made. If the line type (analog / digital) of the provider contracted by the user is an analog line, the modem 10 is set. If the line type is a digital line, the DSU 9 is set, and a call is made to the telephone number of the provider. After waiting for a response and setting the telephone line with the provider, the user logs in according to the PAP described below (S17). The e-mail is transmitted by SMTP (S18), and after the transmission is completed, the user logs out, opens the telephone line (S19), and ends the processing.

A procedure for transmitting an electronic mail to the Internet will be described. The protocol used in Table 1 is used in each layer of the OSI reference modem.

[0037]

[Table 1]

First, the login procedure will be described. When a line with a computer of a provider (hereinafter, referred to as a server) is set, the communication terminal device, for example, PAP (P
assword Authentication Protocol)
Keep sending D and password until you receive an Ack or Nack from your provider. When Nack is received, the line is released and redialed. Upon receiving the Ack, login to the server is completed.

After the login to the server is completed, an e-mail is transmitted by SMTP. First, the communication terminal device makes an SMTP connection request to the server. If the server can be connected, the server returns a response code 220 to the communication terminal device. Further, the communication terminal device transmits its own domain name by a “HELO” command, and if the server can recognize the domain name of the communication terminal device, it returns a response code 250 and the domain name of the server. Thereafter, the communication terminal device transmits the mail, and upon completion, transmits a "QUIT" command.
In response, when the server returns the response code 221, S
MTP ends. After the e-mail transmission is completed, log in from the server and open the line.

As described above, the communication terminal device of the present invention
In communication to multiple destinations, if the communication method by email is mixed with the specified communication method, or if the destinations that do not have the specified communication method but have the communication method by email are mixed, The e-mail addresses of the destinations by e-mail are listed below "To:", and there is an effect that e-mails can be transmitted to a plurality of destinations by connecting to the provider only once.

In the embodiment of the present invention, the case where the Internet is used as the computer communication network has been described. However, the computer communication network is not limited to the Internet, but may be another computer communication network. The same effect as the invention can be obtained.

[0042]

The communication terminal device according to the first aspect of the present invention uses facsimile communication for information that has a small amount of data but is desired to be transmitted to the other party quickly, and uses computer communication for information that is not swiftly transmitted but has a large amount of data. Regardless of the communication method set in advance as a standard of the device, communication with the other party can be performed in a desired communication method.

The communication terminal device according to the second aspect of the present invention communicates with a plurality of destinations by facsimile communication or computer communication only by specifying a communication method once without specifying a communication method for each of the plurality of destinations. it can.

According to the communication terminal device of the third invention, when the communication method is specified, even if the telephone number or the mail address corresponding to the specified communication method is not stored, the communication method held by the other party can be used. Can communicate with the other party.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication terminal device of the present invention.

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

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a table stored in the communication terminal device of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the operation of the communication terminal device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 CPU 5 Operation unit 6 ROM 7 RAM

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A communication terminal device capable of communicating with a destination by a plurality of communication methods, means for storing information for specifying the destination in each of the plurality of communication methods, and specifying the communication method and the destination. Means for accepting, based on the information corresponding to the specified communication method of the specified destination,
A communication terminal device comprising: means for communicating with a designated destination. 2. A communication terminal device capable of communicating with a partner by a plurality of communication systems, means for storing information for specifying a partner in each of the plurality of communication systems, one communication system, and the communication system Means for receiving designation of a plurality of destinations to be broadcasted in, and means for communicating with the plurality of destinations based on the information corresponding to the specified communication method of the specified destination. A communication terminal device characterized by the above-mentioned. 3. If the information corresponding to a specified communication method is not stored, a means for communicating with a specified destination based on the stored information corresponding to another communication method is provided. The communication terminal device according to claim 1, further comprising: