JPH10336251A - Data transfer device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To allow the device to transfer facsimile data or voice data (to be converted into character data) received through a public line network to an optional opposite party as an electronic mail. SOLUTION: A subscriber circuit interface section 10 of the data transfer device 4 receives data from a public line network 3 and a voice data character processing section 12 converts the voice data into character data when the data are the voice data, and an electronic mail address generating section 14 generates a mail address. A character data voice processing section 13 makes announcement for confirmation based on the mail address from the electronic mail address generating section 14. An electronic mail generating section 18 generates an electronic mail based on any of a character data file from the voice data character processing section 12, a voice data file from a voice data reception section 16, and an image data file from a facsimile reception section 15 and a mail address from the electronic mail address generating section 14 and transmits the electronic mail to a LAN 7 via a LAN interface section 19.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data transfer apparatus, and more particularly to a data transfer apparatus for editing voice data or image data received via a public telephone network into an electronic mail and transferring the edited data to an arbitrary terminal capable of using the electronic mail. Related to the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, the number of workplaces for constructing a local area network (hereinafter referred to as LAN) has been increasing. Further, a facsimile for transferring a document as image data is also widely used at the same time, and a form in which a LAN and a facsimile apparatus are connected is generally used.

As one of the connection forms, there is a configuration in which a facsimile server is shared, and a fax modem which is connected to a telephone line on a telephone line side and connected to a facsimile server on a computer side has been widely used. The facsimile server is connected to a LAN or another e-mail system.

In this embodiment, each terminal on the LAN is connected to the LAN.
It is possible to exchange data with an external facsimile machine via the facsimile server connected above. Various schemes have been devised for efficient transmission of facsimile data from a facsimile apparatus to a terminal on a LAN. For example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 3-2867.
According to the technology described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 56-56, it is proposed that when a facsimile sender transmits a facsimile to a predetermined terminal on a LAN via a public line network, a personal identification number is transmitted together with the facsimile image data. ing. Also,
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 8-256235 proposes transmitting a facsimile to a predetermined terminal by associating a dial-in number with an electronic mail address in an environment supporting a dial-in function.

[0005] Regarding voice data by telephone, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. Hei 6-31529 proposes adding voice data to an electronic mail and transmitting it to a predetermined terminal.

[0006]

A first problem is that, in the prior art, when data from a transmission side is transferred as an e-mail to a terminal on the reception side, the mail address of the reception side is registered in advance. It is necessary to keep. The reason is that there is no means for directly specifying an e-mail address from the public line network.

The second problem is that in the prior art,
When voice data from a transmitting side is transferred to a terminal on the receiving side as an e-mail, in order for the receiving side to confirm the contents of the e-mail, a device for reproducing the voice data on the receiving side is required. The reason is that there is no means for converting the voice data into characters and attaching it to an electronic mail.

[0008] The third problem is that in the prior art,
When data is transmitted as e-mail from the transmission side, the number of users is limited to one. The reason is that the sender has no means for arbitrarily specifying the mail address of the sender at the time of data transfer.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to combine facsimile data or voice data (which can be converted into characters) transmitted using a public line network into an electronic mail, edit the data, and transfer the edited data to an arbitrary party. I do.

[0010]

The first data transfer apparatus of the present invention comprises: (a) a subscriber circuit interface unit connected to a public line network for transmitting transmission data and receiving reception data; A voice data characterizing unit for converting voice data included in the received data into characters and converting the data into character data and a character data file; and (c) the received data from the subscription interface unit or the character data from the voice data characterizing unit. An e-mail address generation unit for generating a mail address based on the data, and (d) character data voice reproduction for reproducing the mail address from the e-mail address generation unit as voice data and outputting it as transmission data to the subscription circuit interface unit And (e) facsimile data, which is data received from the joining circuit interface, or An e-mail generation unit that generates an e-mail by combining voice data or one of the character data files from the voice data transcription unit with a mail address from the e-mail mail address generation unit; A local area interface unit for sending the electronic mail generated by the electronic mail generation unit onto a local area network.

[0011] The second data transfer device of the present invention is the first data transfer device, wherein the audio data receiving unit for converting audio data from the subscription circuit interface unit into an audio data file; A facsimile receiving unit that converts facsimile data from the interface unit to an image data file, and the character data file from the audio data characterizing unit or the audio data file from the audio data receiving unit or the audio data file from the facsimile receiving unit. A data storage unit for storing an image data file; and creating an e-mail from the character data file or the audio data file or the image data file from the data file storage unit and the e-mail address from the e-mail address generation unit. The mail And a generation unit.

A third data transfer device according to the present invention is the first or second data transfer device, wherein a method of designating a recipient selects a personal identification number or voice by pressing a button from a telephone. A character data voice conversion unit for creating what can be performed as the transmission data;

A fourth data transfer device according to the present invention is the first, second or third data transfer device, wherein voice data and voice data are transcribed as data to be transmitted on the local area network. One can be selected from the selected data and facsimile data.

A fifth data transfer device of the present invention is the first, second, third, or fourth data transfer device, wherein the electronic mail address generation unit includes a predetermined identifier and a mail address. Create an e-mail address by referring to the address table including the pair.

[Operation] The mail address can be obtained by voice guidance and voice data characterizing means. Note that the voice guidance message is obtained by reproducing message data registered in advance into voice using a voice synthesis circuit. Thereafter, the characterized data is reproduced as voice by the character data voice conversion means, and prompting the sender to confirm the e-mail address allows the correct mail address to be specified. Therefore, the data sent via the public network,
It is possible to fuse with an e-mail specifying an arbitrary destination.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 shows FIG.
1 is a block diagram illustrating a communication system to which an embodiment of the present invention is applied. Referring to FIG. 2, this communication system includes a public line network 3, a facsimile apparatus 1 connected to the public line network 3, and a telephone 2 also connected to the public line network 3.
And a data transfer device 4 for connecting the public line network 3 and the LAN 7 to transfer data to each other by connecting the LAN 7 as a local area network. Also, L
The AN 7 is connected to a plurality of mail clients 6, a file server (e-mail post office) 5, and the like.

Referring to FIG. 1, a data transfer apparatus 4 according to the present invention is connected to a public line network 3 and has a subscription circuit interface section 10 for receiving data transmitted via the public line network 3, An address table unit 11 for a mail address list that has been defined, a voice data characterizing unit 12 for converting voice data to text and converting it to a text file, a character data voice converting unit 13 for converting characters to voice data, and an address table An e-mail address generation unit 14 for generating an e-mail address by voice from the unit 11 or the sender, a facsimile reception unit 15 for storing image data received by facsimile in the data file storage unit 17, and voice data from the sender Voice data receiving unit 16 for receiving as it is or converting it to characters
A data file storage unit 17 for temporarily storing image data received by facsimile, audio data from the sender, or a file obtained by converting audio data from the sender into characters, for editing in an e-mail format; It comprises an e-mail generation unit 18 for editing the e-mail address and data transmitted from the sender into e-mail, and a LAN interface unit 19 connected to the LAN 7 and transmitting the e-mail to the LAN 7.

Next, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
This will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of designating the mail address in FIG.
FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing the contents of the address table.
First, in step 50, the process is started by receiving a telephone call. In steps 51 and 52, the e-mail address generation unit 14 obtains the respective e-mail addresses of the sender and the receiver. Details of both steps will be described with reference to FIG.

At step 71, the sender is made to select a mail address designation method by voice announcement. This selection is made by the sender using a key (button) of the telephone. There are two methods for designating a mail address: designation by voice and designation by an address table. When the sender selects an input from voice, the sender specifies a mail address by voice. Further, when an input from a key (button) or the like is selected, it is designated that the address is stored in the address table by the key (button) or the like.

The address table is, as shown in FIG.
It consists of an email address and an identifier and must be defined in advance.

When the mail address is specified by voice,
In step 72, the voice data (mail address) is received by the voice data receiving unit 16 from the sender, and the voice data characterizing unit 12 converts the voice data from the voice data receiving unit 16 into character data. Thereafter, in step 73, based on the mail address from the e-mail address generation unit, the character data voicing unit 13 announces confirmation of the designated mail address via the subscription circuit interface unit 10, and confirms with the sender. I do. After confirmation,
The specified e-mail address is confirmed.

If the mail address is specified by the address table (that is, input from a key or the like), the corresponding mail is referred to in step 74 by referring to the address table unit 11 based on the address table identifier specified by the sender. The address is searched and the specified e-mail address is determined. The sender and recipient mail addresses specified in this way are notified to the e-mail generator 18.

After the mail addresses of the sender and the receiver are determined, the type of data is confirmed in step 53.
The data type includes voice data, data obtained by converting voice data into characters, and FAX data. In accordance with the designated type, in steps 56, 57 and 58, the data is converted into a file format that can be attached to an electronic mail.

When the data type is audio data, the audio data receiving unit 16 converts the audio data into a file, and stores it in the data file storage unit 17.

When the data type is voice data converted into characters, the voice data received by the voice data receiving unit 16 is converted into characters by the voice data character conversion unit 12 and stored in the data file storage unit 17.

When the data type is facsimile data, the facsimile receiving unit 15 converts the facsimile data into image data and stores it in the image data file storage unit 17.

After the data has been stored, the communication with the transmitting side is terminated in step 59.

The sender mail address obtained in step 51, the receiver mail address obtained in step 52,
Based on the data stored in steps 56, 57 and 58, the electronic mail is edited by the electronic mail generator 18 in step 60.

At step 61, the edited e-mail is
The file is transferred to the file server 5 through the AN interface unit 19 and the LAN 7. Each client 6 can refer to the mail delivered to itself by accessing the file server 5.

[0030]

A first effect of the present invention is that an electronic mail can be transmitted from a place where the user is away from home without preparing the electronic device. The reason is that voice data or image data can be transmitted to any party who can use e-mail from an environment where only a telephone or a facsimile machine can be used.

The second effect is that valid data can be transmitted to a terminal that does not have a device for reproducing voice data into voice. The reason is that, from an environment where only a telephone can be used, a voice can be converted into a text image and an electronic mail can be transmitted.

A third effect is that a plurality of users can send e-mails by telephone. The reason is that the sender can arbitrarily set his / her mail address.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a communication system to which the embodiment of FIG. 1 is applied;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation of designating a mail address in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing contents of an address table.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Facsimile apparatus 2 Telephone 3 Public line network 4 Data transfer apparatus 5 File server 6 Client 7 LAN 10 Subscription circuit interface section 11 Address table section 12 Voice data transcript section 13 Character data vocoder section 14 Email address generation section 15 Facsimile Receiving unit 16 Voice data receiving unit 17 Data file saving unit 18 E-mail generating unit 19 LAN interface unit

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification code FI H04N 1/00 107

Claims (5)

[Claims] (A) a subscriber circuit interface unit connected to a public line network for transmitting transmission data and receiving reception data; and (b) characterizing voice data included in the reception data into character data and characters. (C) an e-mail address generation unit that generates a mail address based on the received data from the subscription interface unit or the character data from the audio data transcript unit; (D) a character data voicing unit that reproduces the mail address from the electronic mail address generating unit as voice data and outputs it as transmission data to the subscription circuit interface unit; and (e) reception data from the subscription circuit interface unit. Facsimile data or voice data or a sentence from the voice data characterizing unit An e-mail generation unit that generates an e-mail by combining one of the data files with an e-mail address from the e-mail address generation unit; and (f) the e-mail generated by the e-mail generation unit. And a local area interface unit for transmitting the data to a local area network. 2. An audio data receiving unit for converting audio data from the joining circuit interface unit into an audio data file, a facsimile receiving unit for converting facsimile data from the joining circuit interface unit into an image data file, A data storage unit for holding the character data file from the data characterizing unit or the audio data file from the audio data receiving unit or the image data file from the facsimile receiving unit; and 2. The data transfer according to claim 1, further comprising: a mail generation unit that generates an electronic mail from a character data file, the audio data file, the image data file, and the mail address from the electronic mail address generation unit. apparatus. 3. A method according to claim 1, further comprising: a character data voicing unit for generating, as the transmission data, a selection of a personal identification number or a voice by pressing a button from a telephone. Or the data transfer device according to 2. 4. The data to be transmitted over the local area network, wherein one of voice data, voice data of voice data, and facsimile data can be selected.
A data transfer device according to claim 1. 5. The electronic mail address generating unit according to claim 1, wherein the electronic mail address generating unit generates a mail address by referring to an address table including a pair of a preset identifier and a mail address. Or 4
A data transfer device according to claim 1.