Patent ID: 6850972
Filing Date: 2005-02-01
Classification: H04N

Abstract:
1. An image transfer method for an image transfer system wherein one or more terminal equipments and one or more facsimile apparatus are interconnected by a network, comprising the steps of: outputting image data coded in accordance with a unique coding method by and stored in any of said facsimile apparatus to an arbitrary one of said terminal equipments; and outputting a decoding program for decoding image data coded in, accordance with the coding method to the terminal equipment in response to a request from the terminal equipment, wherein any of said terminal equipments executes: an operation instruction inputting step of inputting an operation instruction to initiate a WWW browser; a program initiation step of initiating a program for the WWW browser in response to the operation instruction inputted by the operation instruction inputting step; a WWW browser display step of displaying the WWW browser initiated by the program initiation step; a URL discrimination step of discriminating whether or not a URL of any of said facsimile apparatus is inputted; a HTML document data acquisition request notification step of sending, when it is discriminated by the URL discrimination step that a URL is inputted, a notification of an acquisition request for HTML document data to that one of said facsimile apparatus which has the URL through said network; a HTML document data reception step of receiving the HTML document data transmitted from the facsimile apparatus in response to the notification of the acquisition request by the HTML document data acquisition request notification step; a HTML document data display step of displaying the HTML document data received by the HTML document data reception step; a program execution description discrimination step of discriminating whether or not a program execution description is present in the HTML document data displayed by the HTML document data display step; a decoding program acquisition request notification step of sending when it is discriminated by the program execution description discrimination step that the program execution description is present, a notification of an acquisition request for a decoding program to the facsimile apparatus; a decoding program reception step of receiving the decoding program transmitted from the facsimile apparatus in response to the acquisition request notification by the decoding program acquisition request notification step; a decoding program execution step of executing the decoding program received by the decoding program reception step; an image data acquisition request notification step of sending a notification of an acquisition request for image data to the facsimile apparatus; an image data reception step of receiving the image data transmitted from the facsimile apparatus in response to the acquisition request by the image data acquisition request notification step; an image data decoding step of decoding the image data received by the image data reception step based on the decoding program executed by the decoding program execution step; and an image data display step of displaying the image data decoded by the image data decoding step.