JP2007028683A - Data transmitter - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a data transmitter capable of automatically storing image data. <P>SOLUTION: An MFP 100 is connected to a LAN environment and transmits input image data to a specified transmitting destination. The MFP 100 transmits image data from the LAN environment to the outside, automatically transfers the image data to a file server 200 and stores them therein. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a data transmission device, and more particularly to a data transmission device capable of transmitting input image data to a designated transmission destination.

  With the advance of network functions, alternative functions are increasing in conventional facsimile machines. As a result, the number of originals that are electronic data has increased.

  In the conventional facsimile apparatus, when the transmitted document is managed, work such as filing the transmitted sheet has been performed. In order to manage electronic data manuscripts centrally, they can be printed out separately or converted / copied and stored in accordance with predetermined rules, while paper manuscripts are It was necessary to read data with a scanner and save it as data.

  These methods are troublesome and inefficient, and there is a problem that management is insufficient if the manager is not conscious of it.

  The present invention has been made to solve the above-described problems, and an object thereof is to provide a data transmitting apparatus capable of automatically storing an image.

  In order to achieve the above object, according to one aspect of the present invention, a data transmission device includes an input unit that inputs image data, a transmission unit that transmits image data input by the input unit to a designated transmission destination, and a transmission And a transfer means for automatically transferring the image data to a file server and storing it after transmission to the destination specified by the means.

  Preferably, the transfer means automatically transfers to the file server after confirming reception of transmission to the destination designated by the transmission means.

  Preferably, the transfer means converts the image data into a PDF format and transfers it to the file server.

  Preferably, the data transmission device includes a designation unit for manually designating a file format of the image data to be transferred to the file server by the transfer unit.

  Preferably, the file name of the image data transferred and stored by the transfer unit to the file server is the same as the file name of the image data transmitted to the transmission destination designated by the transmission unit.

  Preferably, the data transmission device has a transmission history display screen for displaying a transmission history transmitted to the destination designated by the transmission means and a transmission history automatically transferred to the file server by the transfer means. Prepare.

  FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of an image data transmission system according to one embodiment of the present invention. Referring to the figure, the image data transmission system includes an MFP (Multi Function Peripheral) 100 connected in a LAN (Local Area Network) environment, a file server 200 for storing image data, and user personal computers 300a to 300c. I have. In addition, the MFP 100 can be connected to the Internet fax 400 a and the destination personal computer 500 via the Internet 600. Further, the MFP can be connected to the facsimile apparatus 400b via the general public line 650.

  The MFP 100 includes a scanner unit and a print engine, and can read image data read by reading the document D by the scanner unit using the print engine, and can transmit the read image data to an external device. It is. It is also possible to receive original data in the form of electronic data and print it with a print engine or transfer it to an external device.

  In FIG. 1, (1) shows a data path when a document D is read by the MFP and an image is output by the remote facsimile apparatus 400a via the Internet 600. Such a function for transferring image data via the Internet 600 is called an Internet fax. Also, (2) in the figure is a path when the document 100 is read by the MFP 100 and an image is output by the facsimile apparatus 400b which is a remote apparatus via the general public line 650. Such a function of transferring image data using a general public line is called a normal facsimile function.

  In the figure, (3) is a data path when image data is transmitted from the user personal computer 300a connected to the LAN environment via the Internet 600 using the MFP 100 as a gateway. Such a function of transmitting an image from the user personal computer via the MFP 100 and the Internet 600 is called a PC Internet facsimile function (or PC Internet fax, Internet print function). (4) in the figure is a path when image data is transmitted from the user personal computer 300c connected to the LAN environment to the external facsimile apparatus 400b via the general public line 650 using the MFP 100 as a gateway. The function of transmitting image data from the user personal computer through the MFP 100 and the general public line 650 is called a PC facsimile function (or PC fax).

  In the figure, (5) is a path for reading the document D in the MFP 100 and taking the image into the user personal computer 300b via the LAN.

  As described above, the MFP has a print function by the print engine. Based on a print instruction from within the LAN environment, the MFP can print without transferring the image data or print the read original as it is ( Normal copying) is also possible.

  Note that image data exchange within the LAN may be performed using a general-purpose protocol represented by FTP, SMTP, or the like, or a local protocol between the MFP 100 and a personal computer driver.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of MFP 100 in FIG. Referring to the figure, MFP 100 is necessary for the user, CPU 101 for controlling the entire apparatus, modem 103 for connection to general public line 650, LAN card 105 for connection to Internet 600 or LAN, and user. A display unit 107 for displaying various information, an input unit 109 configured by keys for inputting information necessary for the operation of the apparatus from a user, a hard disk drive 111 for storing image data, and a program are stored. A ROM 115 for temporarily storing data, a RAM 115 for temporarily storing data, a scanner 117 for reading a document, an ADF 119 as an automatic document feeder, and a print engine 121 for printing image data.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing one hardware configuration of the user personal computer.
Referring to the figure, a user personal computer includes a CPU 301 that controls the entire apparatus, a display unit 303, a LAN card 305 for connecting to a LAN, an input unit 307 configured with a keyboard, a mouse, and the like, and a flexible disk. A drive 309, a CD-ROM drive 311, a hard disk drive 313, a ROM 315, and a RAM 317 are provided.

  The flexible disk drive 309 can read image data and programs recorded on the flexible disk (F1), and the CD-ROM drive 311 reads image data and programs recorded on the CD-ROM (C1). It is possible.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the file server 200 of FIG.
Referring to the figure, a file server 200 includes a CPU 201 that controls the entire apparatus, a display unit 203, an input unit 205 including a mouse and a keyboard, a LAN card 207 for connecting to a LAN, a flexible A disk drive 209, a CD-ROM drive 211, a hard disk drive 213, a ROM 215, and a RAM 217 are provided.

  Similar to the user personal computer of FIG. 3, image data and programs recorded on the flexible disk (F2) can be read by the flexible disk drive 209, and the CD-ROM (C2) can be read by the CD-ROM drive 211. It is possible to read recorded image data and programs.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of MFP 100.
Referring to the figure, initialization is performed in step S20, and mode initialization processing is performed in step S21. In step S22, an internal timer is started.

  In step S23, image input processing in MFP 100 is performed. In step S24, the input image is output. In step S25, other processing is performed. In step S26, the process waits until the internal timer elapses. If completed, the process returns to step S22.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the contents of the image input process performed in step S23 of FIG.

  Referring to the figure, an input mode analysis process is performed in step S30. This input mode analysis process is a process for determining the format of the output image by analyzing the output method of the input image data.

  In step S31, input image analysis processing is performed. This input image analysis processing is processing for analyzing input image data.

  7 and 8 are flowcharts showing the contents of the input mode analysis process (step S30) of FIG.

  Referring to the figure, the number N set as the distribution destination of the image data is acquired in step S500. Then, N is substituted for the number n of transmission jobs. Also, “1” is substituted into the number m of determined jobs (initialization). Also, N is substituted for variable L (number of output instructions).

  In step S501, it is determined whether the condition N> 0 is satisfied. If NO, the process returns to the main routine. If YES, the m-th data output method is acquired in step S502.

  If the output method is “copy” in step S503, the output image format is set to “copy” in step S504. If the output method is “print” in step S505, the output image format is set to “print” in step S506. If the output method is “FTP transmission” in step S507, the output image format is set to “scanner” in step S508.

  In the processing in steps S503 to S507, if the output method is “copy”, “print”, or “FTP transmission”, the MFP performs an operation in accordance with the output method, but the image data to be processed Are not recorded in the file server 200. This is because there is no need to store image data in the file server 200 because image data is not sent to the outside (for example, outside the company) when data is exchanged in a LAN environment or when copying is performed by a simple MFP. Judgment.

  If it is determined in step S509 that the output method is “FAX”, or if it is determined in step S510 that the output method is “PC FAX”, the output image format is set to “FAX” in step S512. And go to step S518.

  If it is determined in step S513 that the output method is “Internet fax”, or if it is determined in step S514 that the output method is “PC Internet fax”, the output image format is set to “ "Internet fax" is selected, and the process proceeds to step S518.

  If it is determined in step S516 that the output method is “Internet print”, the output image format is set to “Internet print” in step S517, and the process proceeds to step S518.

  In step S518, transmission destination determination processing is performed. This transmission destination determination processing is processing for determining whether or not to record the image data in the file server 200 by determining the transmission destination of the image data.

  If NO in step S516, or if the transmission destination determination process in step S518 ends, it is determined in step S519 whether the condition m <N is satisfied. If YES, the value of m is incremented by 1 in step S520, and the process returns to step S502.

If NO in step S519, the process returns to the main routine.
If the image data output method is “fax”, “PC fax”, “Internet fax”, “PC Internet fax”, or “Internet print” by the processing in steps S509 to S518, depending on the destination The image data is stored in the file server 200. Thus, when image data is transmitted to the outside from the LAN environment, the image data can be recorded in the file server 200, and image transmission management can be performed.

  FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing processing in the transmission destination determination processing (step S518) in FIG.

  Referring to the figure, it is determined in step S60 whether the transmission destination of the image data matches the registered condition. This is to determine whether or not the transmission destination is within a predetermined transmission range. Specifically, by determining the domain of the mail address, the specific digit of the IP address, the work group, and the like, what is included in the specific transmission range is regarded as internal image data transmission, and the file server 200 Do not record image data. That is, if “YES” in the step S60, the image data is not recorded in the file server 200, and the process returns to the main lumen as it is. On the other hand, if “NO” in the step S60, the process after the step S61 is performed in order to record the image data in the file server 200.

  In step S61, the value of L is incremented by 1 to increase the number of jobs for transmitting image data to the file server 200. In step S62, the destination of the increased job is set in the file server 200. In step S63, processing for determining the file format of the image data to be transmitted to the file server 200 is performed. This file format determination process will be described later.

  In step S64, “FTP transmission” is set as the output method of the job, and the process returns to the main routine.

  Hereinafter, the file format determination process performed in step S63 will be described. In determining the file format, the determination may be made automatically based on the conditions, or may be made in accordance with the user's selection.

  FIG. 10 is a diagram showing processing when the file format is automatically determined in step S63 of FIG. Referring to the figure, priorities are assigned in the order of 1 to 4 in determining the file format. First, the priority “1” is selected, and if the condition is not satisfied, the next-ranked file format is selected.

  Specifically, first, the remaining capacity of the hard disk drive of the file server 200 is checked at the priority “1”, and if the image data to be stored does not fit in the remaining capacity of the file server, monochrome is selected as the image format. The If the condition of the priority “1” is not satisfied, it is determined whether the remaining capacity of the hard disk of the file server 200 is small in the priority “2”. If YES, JPG2000 is selected as the image format.

  If the condition of the priority “2” is not satisfied, it is determined whether the data size of the image data is large at the priority “3”. If YES, PDF is selected as the image format.

  When the condition of the priority “3” is not satisfied, the selection is made based on the contents in which the default file format is set in the priority “4”.

  FIG. 11 is a diagram showing a screen when the user manually determines the file format in step S63 of FIG. Referring to the figure, the screen shown in FIG. 11 is displayed on display unit 107 of MFP 100 and prompts the user to specify the file format to be stored in the file server. In this designation, “JPEG”, “JPEG2000”, “PNG”, “TIFF”, “PDF”, or “custom” can be set.

  If the user specifies the file format to be stored in the file server in this way, the user can save the file in a desired format, which is convenient.

  The screen shown in FIG. 11 may be displayed on the MFP, or may be displayed on a user personal computer or a file server.

  FIG. 12 is a flowchart showing the contents of the image output process (step S24) of FIG.

  Referring to the figure, it is determined in step S40 whether the condition of output instruction number L> 0 is satisfied. If NO, the process returns to the main routine. If YES, “0” is substituted for variable n in step S41.

  In step S42, it is determined whether the condition of n ≦ N is satisfied, or whether the transmission of the transmitted image data is confirmed. If YES, the output condition of the nth data is acquired in step S43.

  Based on the output condition acquired in step S44, the image data is converted, and the image data is output to the destination specified by the output method acquired in step S45.

  In step S46, the variable n is incremented by 1. In step S47, it is determined whether the relationship of the number of output instructions L> n is satisfied. If YES, the process returns to step S42, and if NO, the process returns to the main routine.

  FIG. 13 is a diagram illustrating a specific example of a transmission history display screen displayed on the display unit 107 of the MFP 100.

  Referring to the figure, on the transmission history display screen, a delivery method, a file name, the number of documents, a registration time, an end time, and a transmission destination are displayed in order from the image data that has been transmitted recently. The

  For example, the transmission indicated by the number “1” in FIG. 13 is transmission by inetFax (Internet fax), and is transmitted from the LAN to the external company A. As a result, the job indicated by the number “2” is automatically generated by the processing shown in FIG. 9 and transmitted to the file server 200. Further, the file name of the image data sent to the file server 200 is automatically derived and assigned from the document number (file name) of Internet fax.

  The FTP transmissions with the numbers “3” and “5” are made directly from the user PC in the LAN to the user PC in the LAN, and a job for recording the image data in the file server 200 has been created. Absent. In the “transmission destination” fields of the numbers “3” and “5”, link information to the transmission destination of the image data is held.

  The user can select the display of “transmission destination” on the transmission history display screen in FIG. 13 to acquire an image of the transmission destination and display or confirm it. That is, as shown in FIG. 13, if the image data storage destination is recorded as link information as the “transmission destination”, it is convenient because the user can directly confirm the image storage destination from the transmission history.

  The transmission history display screen shown in FIG. 13 may be displayed on a file server or a user personal computer.

  Note that the file name of the data stored in the file server may be the same as or different from the file name of the transmitted original image data. Further, the file name may be automatically generated in association with the document number assigned to the transmission document, or may be manually input by the user.

  Further, not only image data but also data such as a transmission destination and a transmission result may be assigned to the file server and stored.

  Further, when the reception of the transmitted image data is confirmed after the reception of the transmitted image data is confirmed so that the image data is stored in the file server when the reception is completed in step S42 in FIG. It is possible to prevent image data that has not been recorded from being recorded on the file server, thereby improving usability. In addition, the storage in the file server may be performed only when the transmission server is normally terminated as a result of the reception confirmation of transmission.

  In the above embodiment, the format of the file recorded in the file server is arbitrarily changed as shown in FIGS. 10 and 11, but it may be recorded in a predetermined unified format. Good.

  Further, in FIG. 9, it is determined whether or not the transmission destination matches the registered condition in step S60, and the image data is recorded in the file server only when NO, but the determination in step S60. In step S518, all image data may be recorded in the file server.

  The processing in the above-described embodiment may be performed by software or may be performed using a hardware circuit.

  In addition, a program for executing the processing of the flowchart in the above-described embodiment can be provided, and the program can be recorded on a recording medium such as a CD-ROM, a flexible disk, a hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a memory card, and the like. You may decide to provide it. Further, the program may be downloaded to the apparatus via a communication line such as the Internet.

  In the above-described embodiment, the MFP is given as a specific example of the data transmission device. However, any device having a data transmission function can be used instead of the MFP.

The following can be considered as another configuration example of the present invention.
(1) An input step for inputting image data;
A transmission step of transmitting the image data input in the input step to a specified transmission destination;
A data transmission method comprising: a transfer step of automatically transferring and storing image data satisfying a predetermined transmission condition to a file server.

(2) an input step for inputting image data;
A transmission step of transmitting the image data input in the input step to a specified transmission destination;
A data transmission program for causing a computer to execute a transfer step of automatically transferring and storing image data satisfying a predetermined transmission condition to a file server.

  (3) A computer-readable recording medium on which the data transmission program of (2) is recorded.

  The embodiment disclosed this time should be considered as illustrative in all points and not restrictive. The scope of the present invention is defined by the terms of the claims, rather than the description above, and is intended to include any modifications within the scope and meaning equivalent to the terms of the claims.

It is a figure which shows the structure of the image data transmission system in one of embodiment of this invention. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a circuit configuration of the MFP. FIG. It is a block diagram which shows the circuit structure of a user personal computer. It is a block diagram which shows the circuit structure of a file server. 3 is a flowchart showing processing performed in the MFP. It is a flowchart which shows the process by the image input process (S23) of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the content of the input mode analysis process (S30) of FIG. It is a flowchart following FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the content of the transmission destination judgment process (S518) of FIG. It is a figure which shows the process performed by the file format determination process (S63) of FIG. It is a figure which shows the user's selection screen displayed by the file format determination process (S63) of FIG. It is a flowchart which shows the content of the image output process (S24) of FIG. It is a figure which shows a transmission history display screen.

Explanation of symbols

  100 MFP, 200 file server, 300a-300c user personal computer, 400a, 400b fax, 500 destination personal computer.

Claims (6)

Input means for inputting image data;
Transmitting means for transmitting the image data input by the input means to a specified destination;
A data transmission apparatus comprising: a transfer unit that automatically transmits the image data to a file server after being transmitted to a destination specified by the transmission unit, and stores the image data.   The data transmission apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transfer unit automatically transfers to the file server after confirming reception of transmission to the transmission destination designated by the transmission unit.   The data transmission apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transfer unit converts the image data into a PDF format and transfers the converted image data to the file server.   The data transmission apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a designation unit for manually designating a file format of the image data to be transferred to the file server by the transfer unit.   The file name of the image data transferred and stored by the transfer unit to the file server is the same as the file name of the image data transmitted to the transmission destination designated by the transmission unit. The data transmission device described in 1.   A transmission history display screen for displaying a transmission history transmitted to a destination designated by the transmission means and a transmission history automatically transferred to a file server by the transfer means. The data transmission apparatus of 1-5.

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