JP2003087474A - Image communication equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide image communication equipment for outputting information in itself as report data and of which the capacity of a memory for storing report information being an object of a report output can be decreased. SOLUTION: In the image communication equipment for outputting the information of itself as report data, when the report information being an output object of the report is stored in the memory, the report image data are stored as ASCII data.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image communication device such as a facsimile device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Among conventional facsimile machines, there is a machine having a function of outputting information in the facsimile machine as report data.

That is, there is a facsimile device having a function of printing various registration data registered in the facsimile device and a function of outputting information indicating whether or not communication is normally performed as a communication management report. There is.

[0004]

When the information in the facsimile device is output as report data, the report information (registered data in the device, communication management data, etc.) to be output as a report is converted into an ASCII character string. Substituting, the font data corresponding to the replaced ASCII character string is expanded into bitmap data, and this expanded bitmap data is recorded as image data.

However, as the amount of report data increases, the amount of bitmap data after expansion increases, and a relatively inexpensive facsimile machine does not have a large amount of memory. There is a problem that there is a limit and the time to execute the above report output becomes too large to be ignored.

Further, in the conventional machine, since the amount of data becomes large when the report image is stored as data,
During the report output, the output instruction of the next report could not be specified. Therefore, only the output of the next report can be instructed after waiting for the end of the report being output.

According to the present invention, in an image communication apparatus which outputs information in the image communication apparatus as report data, when the report information to be output as a report is stored in a memory, the memory capacity is reduced, and It is an object of the present invention to provide an image communication device capable of making a reservation for a report image by allowing a plurality of data to be stored.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, in an image communication device for outputting information in the image communication device as report data, when report information to be output as a report is stored in a memory, the report is transmitted. It is an image communication device for accumulating image data as ASCII data.

[0009]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a facsimile apparatus FS1 which is an embodiment of the present invention.

In the facsimile machine FS1, the CPU
(Central processing unit) 1 is a ROM (Read Only Memory)
2 controls the entire facsimile apparatus FS1 according to a program stored in advance in FIG. RAM
The (random access memory) 3 is used as a work area for the CPU 1.

The contact sensor (CS) 5 reads a document (not shown), and this read signal is obtained as binary data of one line via the read control gate array (R_CNT) 4. The binary data is compressed by encoding control and then encoded, or encoded in an uncompressed form and stored in a DRAM (dynamic RAM) 11 as an image memory.

In the facsimile transmission mode, the DRAM
The image data stored in 11 is encoded according to the encoding method determined by the procedure executed between the CPU 1 and the receiving side. Then, the coded data is PM-AM modulated by a modulator / demodulator (MODEM) 12 and then transmitted to a public line network 14 through a network control unit (NCU) 13 at a speed determined by a predetermined procedure. Sent out.

In the copy mode, the DRAM 11
The CPU 1 decodes the image data stored in the raw data into raw data, and in response to a data request from the LBP (laser beam printer) 10, the recording control gate array (W_CNT) 9
Is sent to the LBP 10 and recorded.

In the facsimile reception mode, NCU1
Data received from the public network 14 via M.
After the ODEM 12 demodulates, the CPU 1 decodes it according to the coding method determined by a predetermined procedure.

The binary raw data obtained by the correct decoding is compressed and encoded by the encoding control or is encoded in an uncompressed form and stored in the DRAM 11 as an image memory. It

Then, the encoded data stored in the DRAM 11 is stored in the LB according to the instruction and setting from the operator.
It is recorded at P10 or transmitted at the time of new communication. The operator can execute various instructions and settings by pressing the key (KEY) 8, and can confirm the contents on the screen on the display unit (LCD) 7.

In this case, the CPU 1 detects the input data from the KEY 8 via the operation panel control gate array (OPE_CNT) 6 and displays the necessary data on the LCD 7 according to the input. The selection of the mode used for the encoding control and the threshold value is also executed via the KEY8.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing the operation of outputting a report image in the above embodiment.

In S21, the report information is created based on the registration information indicating the setting of the facsimile apparatus FS1, which is stored in the RAM 3 and the communication management data including the communication end result.

In S22, a report format character string is created from the created report information using table data stored in the ROM 2. That is,
The report information created above is converted into an ASCII character string.

In S23, the converted ASCII character string is stored in the RAM 3 as image data. S24
Then, the image data stored in RAM3 is stored in ROM
2 is expanded into bitmap data based on the CG data stored in 2.

In step S25, the expanded bitmap data is encoded, and in step S26, the encoded data and the RAM 3 are stored as image image data.
Accumulate in. In S27, the stored image is decoded like other received images, and in S28, it is printed by the printer. The general flow of processing a report image is
It is as above.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing how a report image to be output is held as image data.

When the report image is stored as image data, the image data expanded into the bitmap data is stored in the memory in the device by the encoding process. In this case, the encoding process is executed. Therefore, a large amount of image data will be stored.

FIG. 4 shows the report image to be output as AS
It is a figure which shows a mode that it hold | maintains as CII data.

When accumulating as ASCII data,
Since the data amount is smaller than that in the case of storing as image data, the memory consumption of the facsimile apparatus FS1 is small.

Next, the advantages of accumulating the report image as ASCII data in the above embodiment will be described.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a format of a communication management report showing a communication result in a general facsimile apparatus.

This report is printed when the communication result data for a certain fixed period in the past is stored in the memory in the facsimile and the communication is completed at an arbitrary timing or in a predetermined fixed time unit or in a predetermined amount. It is a report.

FIG. 6 is a view showing the communication management information in the communication management report showing the communication result in the general facsimile machine.

This communication management information, which varies depending on the facsimile machine, generally holds data for the past 40 to 50 communications. Here, a case will be described in which data for 40 communications is held.

The communication management data array 61 is from communication result data 0 to 39, and the communication result data here has an area for storing a reception number, a destination telephone number, and a communication result.

The communication result data output pointer 62 indicates the position of the communication result data output as a report. That is, the communication result data before this data is
Indicates that it has already been output as a report. In other words, the data before this data can be overwritten with the new data.

The communication result data storage pointer 63 indicates the position of the communication result data to be stored when the communication is actually finished. In other words, the data after this and before the communication result data output pointer 62 is the data that has not been output and is an area that should not be overwritten.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing transitions of the communication management data, the communication result data output pointer, and the data of the communication result data storage pointer at each end of communication.

In the communication management data 71 of a certain time,
The communication result data already output at this time is up to the communication result data 4, and the communication result data storage pointer indicating the area in which the communication result can be stored now points to the communication result data 38. When communication is performed from this state, the communication result data is further stored.

The communication management data 72 is the communication management data 7
It is the communication management data in the state where 1 to 5 communication is completed. At this stage, the number of remaining communication result data that can be stored is two. For most fax machines,
As described above, a mode for outputting the communication result report can be selected, and among them, there is a mode for outputting when the buffer of the communication result data is full.

This case applies to the case of the communication management data 72, but if there is no recording paper in the LBP 10 at this time, it cannot be output.

The communication management data 73 is for a further advanced case, and the communication result data in this case has a margin of 1
There is only one.

In the case of a general facsimile apparatus, if the communication result data has no margin and the communication result report cannot be further output as described above, the following three cases can be considered.

The first case is a case where data that has not been output is overwritten. In this case, the user cannot confirm the result of a certain communication.

In the second case, if the output cannot be performed, the communication thereafter is stopped, and in this case, the function as the facsimile apparatus cannot be fulfilled.

The third case is a case where the data cannot be output, but is stored in the facsimile as report data. The above embodiment is particularly effective in these cases.

When image data is stored, a considerably large amount of memory is required, but as in the above embodiment, the AS
Storing as CII data can significantly reduce the required memory amount.

As an application of the above embodiment, the AS
The CII data may be encoded, and in this case, it is possible to further secure the data.

Each of the above embodiments may be applied to an image communication apparatus other than the facsimile apparatus.

[0048]

According to the present invention, the report file is
Since it is stored in the image communication apparatus as ASCII data, the memory can be saved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a facsimile apparatus FS according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a block diagram showing a configuration of No. 1.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an operation of outputting a report image in the above embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing how a report image to be output is held as image data.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a manner of holding a report image to be output as ASCII data in the above embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a format of a communication management report showing a communication result in a general facsimile apparatus.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing communication management information in a communication management report showing a communication result in the general facsimile apparatus.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing transitions of communication management data, a communication result data output pointer, and data of a communication result data storage pointer at each end of communication.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... CPU, 2 ... ROM, 3 ... RAM, 4 ... R_CNT, 5 ... CS, 6 ... PANEL, 7 ... LCD, 8 ... KEY, 9 …… W_CNT, 10 ... LBP, 11 ... DRAM, 12 ... MODEM, 13 ... NCU, 14 ... Line.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A report format creating means for converting data stored in an image communication device into a report format of ASCII image data and creating a report format; and a plurality of ASCII image data created by the report format creating means. ASCII image data storage means for storing; CG expansion processing means for expanding the ASCII image data stored in the ASCII image data storage means into bitmap data; coded bitmap data expanded by the CG expansion processing means Encoding means for encoding; encoded data storage means for storing the encoded data described above; decoding means for decoding the encoded data stored in the encoded data storage means; A process for sequentially printing the image data decoded by the decoding means. And an image communication device, which is capable of reserving a plurality of report images as ASCII image data. 2. The image communication apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the encoding means encodes the ASCII image data stored in the ASCII image data storage means. 3. The image communication device according to claim 1, wherein the image communication device is a facsimile device.