Facsimile and static presentation processing – Static presentation processing – Communication
Reexamination Certificate
1998-10-16
2004-03-02
Coles, Edward (Department: 2622)
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Static presentation processing
Communication
C358S402000, C358S407000, C379S100090, C379S100120, C709S239000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06700674
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the invention
The invention relates to a facsimile apparatus capable of transmitting data through a communication route via an internet and/or a public communication switched network not via an internet.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the case of transmission of an urgent matter to a receiver having a terminal apparatus capable of receiving a transmission via the internet and a facsimile apparatus that receives a transmission through a public communication switched network, the transmission to the facsimile apparatus can immediately reach the receiving person, provided that the receiver is near the facsimile apparatus at the time of transmission. Similarly, the e-mail transmission via the internet can immediately reach the receiver, provided that the receiver is near the terminal apparatus at the moment.
Therefore, the sender must transmit the data of the urgent matter to the receiver by both facsimile transmission and e-mail, that is, by transmitting the data via one of the two communication routes, and switching to the other communication route after confirming the completion of transmission through the first communication route, and then transmitting the same data via the other communication route, according to the conventional art.
However, to transmit data from a conventional facsimile apparatus serially through two communication routes as described above, the conventional facsimile apparatus (such as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publications Nos. 8-242326 and 9-149189) requires the sender to manually switch from one communication route to the other. Therefore, the sender cannot leave the facsimile apparatus before switching the communication routes subsequent to the end of the transmission through the first communication route. The conventional facsimile apparatus thus requires a considerable amount of time and labor of the sender to send a message via both routes.
Thus, although the memory format of the address information disclosed in
FIGS. 1 and 5
of the Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 9-149189, has a structure to register a telephone number or e-mail address for every address, when the same address is capable of performing fax communication by using either route, i.e., via the public line network or an internet, there is a problem in that the designation of the phone number and the e-mail address had to be operated separately for the same addressee as discussed above.
A further problem in the conventional apparatus is that when a telephone number is provided for the addressee and facsimile transmission is performed, when the facsimile transmission cannot be carried out even though redialing is repeated the number of times established for the country in which the facsimile apparatus is installed, the redialing ends, and the operator must again initiate an operation for facsimile transmission.
Additionally, when performing a facsimile transmission via the internet, when facsimile information, that has been converted to electronic mail, does not arrive at the receiver for some reason, a non-delivery notification is returned as electronic mail. In this case, too, the sender must repeat the operation for the facsimile transmission.
Further, when performing facsimile transmission via the internet, when the facsimile apparatus is connected to the internet via a specified server, the user must confirm whether the electronic mail indicating non-delivery has arrived at the server and, if non-delivery is the case, the operator must repeat the transmission operation.
Additionally, when facsimile transmission is to be performed via the internet and the transmission does not arrive at the receiver or addressee, even if the device is provided with a retry function that automatically retransmits, the number of retries is determined by the number of redials set when using the public communication switched network.
Thus, in a conventional facsimile apparatus that corresponds via the internet, when the image information does not arrive at the receiver due to some kind of trouble in the transmission method that is initially chosen, the sender must perform an operation necessary to retransmit the information. Moreover, since there are limits to the number of retries, the rate of image information arriving at the receiver cannot be improved.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A solution to the problem of requiring the operator to sequentially send the data via facsimile using the telephone number and the Internet using the e-mail address is to use a one-touch button or buttons.
However, there may be a problem in that an operation of selecting whether the data transmission is to be performed as a facsimile to the telephone number or via the Internet to the e-mail address only when the addressee has been designated by the one-touch button. For example, when the message is urgent it may be desirable to transmit the data via both routes, however, when sending a confidential document it may be desired to limit the selection of the transmission route to the public communication switched network. In such a case, an automatic one-touch button is inappropriate.
To address these problems and provide a facsimile apparatus that provides the greatest flexibility to the operator, the invention provides the capability of setting a priority for the communication route, provides for automatic switching to the second communication route when the first, or priority, route is unsuccessful, or provides for transmission over both communication routes should it be essential the receiver, or addressee, receives the message as soon as possible. These capabilities may be chosen and used individually or in combination.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a facsimile apparatus that facilitates the operations necessary for a user to perform in order to transmit image information read from a document by an image reading device through the two communication routes.
According to a first aspect of the invention there is provided a facsimile apparatus including a public line facsimile transmission means that executes a facsimile transmission via a public communication switched network when a telephone number is designated as an address, an internet facsimile transmission means that executes a facsimile transmission via the internet when an e-mail address is designated as an address, an address information registration means that is structured so that the telephone number and the e-mail address for an addressee can be registered for a plurality of addressees, and which, when registering the telephone number and e-mail address of an addressee, also registers a priority order unique to each addressee that determines which communication route is the priority route when the addressee is selected as the facsimile receiving party, an addressee selecting means that selects a desired addressee among the plurality of addressees that are registered by the address information registration means, and a transmission route determining means that determines whether to perform a facsimile transmission by using the public communication switched network or by using the internet facsimile transmission means in accordance with the priority order of the addressee that is selected by the addressee selecting means.
Thus, when performing the address registration, in addition to the telephone number and the e-mail address, it is possible to register information identifying which of the telephone number or the e-mail address of an addressee is the priority communication route. Therefore, when a facsimile transmission using the public communication switched network is the normal way of communicating with an addressee, that communication route will be automatically selected by the transmission route determining means in accordance with the registration content of the unique priority order, and the facsimile sent to the addressee. Conversely, if the e-mail address is the priority address, then selection of the addressee will automatically result in selection and sending th
Matsushita Satoshi
Minamizawa Fumihiro
Otsuka Shuji
Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
Coles Edward
Pokrzywa Joseph R.
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