Patent Application
20070016644
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a multi-function peripheral device, and particularly to a system and method for excluding certain email recipients from receiving an attachment sent from a multi-function peripheral device.
2. Description of the Related Technology Recently, multi-function peripheral (MFP) devices (or “all in one” devices), which have multiple functions, have been widely used. Typically, MFP devices can act as a printer, a scanner, a fax machine and a photocopier. These devices are becoming a popular option for small office/home office (SOHO) users because they are less expensive than buying three or four separate devices. MFP devices are also known as multifunction printers.
Most MPF devices can be used as standalone devices for faxing and copying. However, in many situations, they are connected to a computer and/or a network to provide various functions such as color scannings, page printing, scanning and emailing, and additional fax management options.
One aspect of the invention provides a method of communicating data between a multi-function peripheral (MFP) device and at least one computing device. In one embodiment, the method comprises: i) providing, at an MFP device, the list of a plurality of email recipients, wherein the list includes a first list of the email recipients which will receive an attachment and a second list of the email recipients which will not receive the attachment, ii) receiving, at the MFP device, a document which will be sent as the attachment, and iii) sending an email, associated with the document, to the plurality of recipients based on the list such that the document is attached to the email sent to the recipients of the first list, wherein the recipients of the second list are excluded from receiving the document.
Another aspect of the invention provides a method of communicating data between a multi-function peripheral (MFP) device and at least one computing device. In one embodiment, the method comprises: i) providing, at an MFP device, the list of a plurality of email recipients, wherein the list includes a first list of the email recipients which will receive an attachment and a second list of the email recipients which will not receive the attachment, ii) receiving, at the MFP device, a document which will be sent as the attachment, iii) creating first and second emails, associated with the first and second lists, respectively, iv) sending the first email, which includes the attachment, to the recipients of the first list, and v) sending the second email, which does not include the document, to the recipients of the second list, wherein the second email includes a message that the attachment has been sent to the email recipients of the first list.
Another aspect of the invention provides a method of communicating data between a multi-function peripheral (MFP) device and at least one computing device. In one embodiment, the method comprises: i) providing, at an MFP device, the list of a plurality of email recipients, wherein the list includes a first list of the email recipients which will receive an attachment and a second list of the email recipients which will not receive the attachment, ii) scanning, at the MFP device, a document which will be sent as the attachment, iii) transmitting the scanned document and the list of the plurality of email recipients to an external computing device, wherein the external computing device is in data communication with the MFP device, iv) creating first and second emails, associated with the first and second lists, respectively, v) sending the first email, which includes the attachment, to the recipients of the first list, vi) creating a message indicating that the attachment has been sent to the email recipients of the first list, and vii) sending the second email, which does not include the attachment but includes the message, to the recipients of the second list.
Still another aspect of the invention provides a method of communicating data with a multi-function peripheral (MFP) device and at least one computing device. In one embodiment, the method comprises: i) receiving, from an MFP device, the list of a plurality of email recipients, wherein the list includes a first list of the email recipients which will receive an attachment and a second list of the email recipients which will not receive the attachment, and a document which will be sent as the attachment, ii) creating first and second emails, associated with the first and second lists, respectively, iii) sending the first email, which includes the attachment, to the recipients of the first list, and iv) sending the second email, which does not include the document, to the recipients of the second list, wherein the second email includes a message indicating that the attachment has been sent to the email recipients of the first list.
Yet another aspect of the invention provides a system for communicating data with at least one computing device. In one embodiment, the system comprises: a multi-function peripheral (MFP) device configured to: i) receive the list of a plurality of email recipients, wherein the list includes a first list of the email recipients which will receive an attachment and a second list of the email recipients which will not receive the attachment and ii) receive a document which will be sent as the attachment. The system is configured to send email data, associated with the document, to the plurality of recipients based on the list such that the document is attached to the email data sent to the recipients of the first list, and wherein the recipients of the second list are excluded from receiving the document.
The foregoing and other features of the invention will become more fully apparent from the following description and appended claims taken in conjunction with the following drawings, in which like reference numerals indicate identical or functionally similar elements.
In the
One aspect of the invention provides a method and system for excluding certain email recipients from receiving an attachment sent from a multi-function peripheral device. In one embodiment, only recipients who need the attachment will receive it, whereas the rest of the recipients in the email will be excluded from receiving such an attachment. In another embodiment, only recipients who need the attachment will receive it, whereas the rest of the recipients will not receive such an attachment but merely a message indicating, for example, that the attachment was sent to the recipients that need it.
Thereafter, two emails are created based on the designation and sent to the respective recipient of each group. In one embodiment, the above emailing procedure can be performed in a server computer which does not belong to the MFP device 200 as illustrated in
In those embodiments where the above emailing procedure is not performed in the MFP device 200, both the computing device and server computer are in data communication with the MFP device 200 with the use of either a known (public) communication protocol, for example, TCP/IP, or a proprietary communication protocol. In one embodiment, the MFP device 200 includes, for example, SCX-6320F available from Samsung Electronics.
The emails, associated with the scanned document, are sent to the first and second groups of recipients. The first group of email recipients 210-230 receive an email with the attachment whereas the second group of email recipients 240-260 do not receive the attachment. In one embodiment, the email that the second group of email recipients 240-260 receive can include a message indicating, for example, that the email was sent along with the scanned document to the first group of recipients 210-230.
In one embodiment, each of the email transmission procedures shown in
In another embodiment, at least one of the MFP device 200 and the server computer 300 comprises a processor (not shown) configured to or programmed to perform the email transmission procedures. The program may be stored in the processor or a memory of the MFP device 200 or the server computer 300. In various embodiments, the processor may have a configuration based on Intel Corporation's family of microprocessors, such as the Pentium family and Microsoft Corporation's windows operating systems such as WINDOWS 95, WINDOWS 98, WINDOWS 2000 or WINDOWS NT. In one embodiment, the processor is implemented with a variety of computer platforms using a single chip or multichip microprocessors, digital signal processors, embedded microprocessors, microcontrollers, etc. In another embodiment, the processor is implemented with a wide range of operating systems such as Unix, Linux, Microsoft DOS, Microsoft Windows 2000/9x/ME/XP, Macintosh OS, OS/2 and the like. In another embodiment, the email transmission procedure can be implemented with an embedded software.
A user selects a “sending an email (or scan)” function at the control panel (not shown) of the MFP device 200 (310). The first group (or list) of email recipients (ABC) that will receive a scanned document as an attachment is provided to the MFP device 200 (310, 320). Furthermore, the second group (list) of email recipients (XYZ) that will not receive the attachment is provided to the MFP device 200 (330). This can be done by providing, for example, via the control panel, the user with a specified field in which he can enter (or type in) those email addresses.
In state 340, the user can type in a subject or any email message that he would like to add as in a regular Microsoft Outlook system. In one embodiment, this state 340 can be omitted in certain situations, for example, if the MFP device 200 does not support the typing in of an email message.
A document (or an image) to be attached is scanned (350). The data (360), including i) the scanned image and ii) the list of the first and second group recipients (ABC and XYZ), is sent to the server computer 300.
The server computer 300 parses the recipient list into two lists: those (ABC) who will receive the attachment and those (XYZ) who will not receive the attachment (370). Then, the server computer 300 creates and sends two emails to the respective group according to the parsing. Email 1, which includes the attachment, is sent to the recipients (ABC) (380) and Email 2, which does not include the attachment, is sent to the recipients (XYZ) (390). In one embodiment, as illustrated in
In this embodiment, the user selects recipients from a list of people, for example, from an address book, stored on the MFP device 200. In state 420, the MFP selection menu allows the user to select all of the email recipients (A and C) which he wants to send to. In state 430, the MFP selection menu allows the user to mark the email recipient(s) (C) that will receive the attachment. In one embodiment, the selection and marking states 420 and 430 can be incorporated into a single state. The selected but unmarked recipient (A) will be excluded from receiving the attachment. As discussed above, in one embodiment, the recipient (A) will not receive the attachment but merely receive an email message indicating that the email was sent to the recipient (C) along with the attachment.
After selecting all of the email recipients (A, C) in state 520, the MFP selection menu allows the user to mark the email recipient(s) (C) that will not receive the attachment (530). In one embodiment, the selection and marking states 520 and 530 can be incorporated into a single state. The selected but unmarked recipient (A) will receive the attachment. The selected and marked recipient (C) will be excluded from receiving the attachment. As discussed above, in one embodiment, the recipient (C) will not receive the attachment but merely receive an acknowledgement message.
A user selects a “sending an email (or scan)” function at the control panel (not shown) of the MFP device 200 (610). The list of the recipients (ABC) that will receive the attachment and the list of the recipients (XYZ) that will not receive the attachment are provided to the MFP device 200 using one of the three ways described in
In state 630, the MFP device 200 prompts the user (sender) to select if he or she wants to receive a copy of the email (without attachment) sent to the recipients (ABC and XYZ). In state 640, the MFP device 200 also asks the user to select if they wish to receive a copy of the attachment sent to the recipients (ABC). In one embodiment, the states 630 and 640 can be incorporated in one state. In one embodiment, the states 630 and 640 can be performed by providing, for example, pop-up menus or static fields on the control panel of the MFP device 200.
After creating the subject in state 650, the image to be attached is scanned (660). The scanned image is sent to the server computer 300 along with the list of i) the first group recipients (ABC; receiving the attachment) and ii) the second group recipients (XYZ; not receiving the attachment). Furthermore, if the user (sender) specified that they wish to receive a copy of the email sent, with or without the attachment, this information is also included in the list as shown in
The server computer 300 parses the recipient list into two lists: those (ABC) who will receive the attachment and those (XYZ) who will not receive the attachment (680). Then, the server computer 300 sends two emails (Emails 1 and 2) to the respective recipient according to the parsing (690, 700). If the server computer 300 finds information regarding the sender's copy request information as shown in state 670, a third email (Email 3) is sent to the user after Email 2 (710). In state 710, the server computer 300 creates a “Message Body” indicating, for example, that the message was sent to the recipients (ABC) with the attachment and the message was sent to the recipients (XYZ) without the attachment. Furthermore, if the sender requested a copy of the attachment, it is included in Email 3 as well.
According to various embodiments of the invention, only recipients who need an attachment will receive it, whereas the rest of the recipients in the email will receive only a message without the unnecessary attachment. One embodiment removes the burden of opening the attachment, oftentimes a big attachment, from those recipients who do not need the attachment, and can provide users with an efficient memory usage of their computing devices.
While the above description has pointed out novel features of the invention as applied to various embodiments, the skilled person will understand that various omissions, substitutions, and changes in the form and details of the device or process illustrated may be made without departing from the scope of the invention. Therefore, the scope of the invention is defined by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description. All variations coming within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are embraced within their scope.
