An electronic mail on which a control command is interpolated is transmitted through a public line, received by a modem section of a gateway, converted to digital data, and supplied to a control section. A CPU of the control section stores the received electronic mail in a RAM, and extracts the control...http://www.google.com/patents/US6374406?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US6374406 - Reception method, reception device, transmission method, transmission device, transmission/reception method, transmission/reception device