JPS61281670A - Control system for facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten widely a transmitting time by accumulating picture information with a coding system, and executing the accumulating processing and the transmitting processing of the picture information in parallel. CONSTITUTION:A data compressing part 4 is equipped with plural action modes, the applied picture signal is code-compressed by the coding system set from a system control part 1, the transmitting picture information is formed, and the transmitting picture information is added to the system control part 1. Presently, when a communicating control part 7 requests the system control part 1 to transfer transmitting picture information PIX, the system control part 1, thereafter, executes the accumulating processing to a picture memory 2 of the output data from the data compressing part 4 and the reading processing of the picture information from a picture memory 2 in parallel. As the parallel processing system, the known time division processing can be applied. Therefore, the time necessary to transmission is shortened, further, when the receiving error is responded from the address terminal, the picture information which comes to be an error is transmitted again, thereby, the transmitting error can be coped.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to a control method for a facsimile machine equipped with an image memory.

[Prior Art] In general, facsimile machines recommended by CCITT (Consultative Committee for International Telegraph and Telephone) transmit image information to a destination terminal while reading it.

Since the destination terminal directly records and outputs the received images, this is to synchronize the transmission between both terminals.

Normally, the processing speed of the slower processing speed matches the processing speed of the faster processing speed.

In addition, if a transmission error occurs while transmitting multiple originals, the sending terminal cannot determine which originals have been properly transmitted, so the originals may be resent by telephone with the operator of the destination terminal. It took a lot of time and effort to contact the sender and then perform the sending operation again.

By the way, in recent years, image memory with a large capacity is provided, and the image information to be sent is stored in this image memory and then transmitted to the destination.
Furthermore, facsimile machines equipped with an image storage function for storing received image information in this image memory are in practical use.

A facsimile machine equipped with such an image storage function can realize a broadcast function that transmits the same image information to multiple destinations, a time-specified transmission function that specifies the transmission time, etc. Because we exchange information,
Even if the processing speeds of the image reading section and the recording section are relatively slow, there is an advantage that the transmission speed can be made high.

Moreover, if a transmission error occurs, the transmitted image can be read out from the image memory again and transmitted, which greatly reduces the burden on the operator.

However, in facsimile machines equipped with an image storage function, the image information is stored in the image memory before the transmission operation begins, so the total transmission time is the sum of the image reading time and the transmission time. This caused the inconvenience of taking time.

In addition, in order to use image memory efficiently, the read image signal is usually encoded to compress the amount of information, but since the encoding method may differ depending on the destination, it is necessary to encode the image signal when transmitting the single image information. It may be necessary to convert the system, which causes the inconvenience of complicating the process.

Note that there is a device in practical use that stores the type of encoding method for each destination and changes the encoding method used when storing both signals to the stored encoding method for each destination.
Such a method cannot deal with cases where the destination model is changed and the encoding method is changed.

Furthermore, if there are so many documents to be sent that all the image information cannot be stored in the image memory, processing will be interrupted and an error message will be displayed when the image memory is full, so that a large amount of image information cannot be stored in one page. cannot be transmitted at the same time. Therefore, in such a case, it is necessary to divide the transmitted original into two sets and store and transmit each set separately, resulting in the inconvenience that it takes a very long time to transmit all the image information. .

[Objective] The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned disadvantages of the conventional technology, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a control method for a facsimile machine that can significantly shorten the transmission time of a facsimile machine equipped with a single image memory. shall be.

[Configuration] The present invention stores image information using the encoding method set at that time when the setting of the transmission function is completed in the pre-transmission procedure, and performs the storage processing and the transmission processing of the image information in parallel. By executing this, the time required for transmission is shortened, and furthermore, when a reception error is responded from the destination terminal, the image information in error is transmitted again, thereby making it possible to deal with the transmission error. Furthermore, if the image memory becomes full while image information is being stored, the storage process is suspended until the image information being transmitted is deleted from the image memory.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a facsimile machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, a system control section 1 is composed of a microcomputer, etc., and controls the operation of the entire facsimile machine, and is equipped with a large-capacity image memory 2.

The image reading section 3 scans the original to be sent, decomposes the image into pixels of a predetermined size, and photoelectrically converts each pixel into an image signal, and outputs the image signal to the data compression section 4. has been done.

The data compression unit 4 has a plurality of operation modes, and compresses the applied image signal using the encoding method set by the system control unit 1 to form transmission image information, and the transmission image information is controlled by the system. Added to Part 1.

The data reproducing unit 5 has a plurality of operation modes, reproduces the encoded received image information added from the system control unit 1 into an original image signal, and the image signal is added to the image recording unit 6. Output as a received image.

The communication control unit 7 implements facsimile transmission by executing predetermined transmission control procedures, and includes a modem 8 that performs predetermined modulation/demodulation processing for transmitting digital data using the public telephone network, and an automatic call/receiver. It is connected to the public telephone line network via a well-known network control device 9 with functions.

The operation display section 10 also includes various operation keys for the operator to operate the facsimile machine, and a display for displaying various messages from the facsimile machine to the operator.

Incidentally, the system control section 1 divides the storage area of the image memory 2 into a large number of small memory blocks, and manages the accumulation and reading of image information for each block, an example of which is shown in FIG.

In this example, the image memory 2 is divided into n memory blocks M1.
-Mn. In the state shown in this figure, the first page is P.
The image information of page 1 has been stored in memory blocks 1 to M3, and the image information of page 2 has been stored in memory blocks M4 to M7. At this point, the image information occupies memory blocks Mll and M9, and subsequent image information is sequentially stored in memory blocks M1o to Mn.

With the above configuration, when the operator sets a plurality of documents to be transmitted on the image reading section 3, inputs the destination telephone number from the operation display section 10, and then commands the start of transmission from the operation display section 10, the system control section 1 transfers the input destination telephone number to the communication control section 7 and instructs to make a call to the destination.

As a result, the 1 communication control unit 7 transfers the destination telephone number to the network control device 9 to make a call to the destination.

As a result, when the destination is called and a transmission line is established, the transmission function of the receiving terminal is transferred from the destination terminal (hereinafter referred to as the receiving terminal) to this facsimile machine (hereinafter referred to as the transmitting terminal), as shown in Figure 3. An identification signal PS1 indicating .

The transmitting terminal determines the functions that can be commonly used by its own terminal from the transmission functions included in the received identification signal PS1, and includes the contents in the transmission function setting signal PS2.
This transmission function setting signal PS2 is transmitted to the receiving terminal6. Also, when the contents of the transmission function setting signal PS2 are determined in this way, the system control unit 1 of the transmitting terminal transmits the encoding method selected at that time to the data compression unit. 4, the 1-image reading section 3 is activated to read the set transmission document. As a result, the image signal output from the image reading section 3 is code-compressed by the data compression section 4 using the encoding method set at that time, and the transmitted image information obtained as a result is sequentially stored in the image memory 2. .

Meanwhile, the transmission control procedure by the communication control unit 7 continues to be executed, and after outputting the transmission function setting signal PS2, the modem training check signal PS3 is output for modem training of the receiving terminal, and the result is If the image quality is good and a receivable signal PS4 is received from the receiving terminal, transmission processing of the transmitted image information PIX is executed.

At this time, when the communication control section 7 requests the system control section 1 to transfer the transmission image information PIX, the system control section 1 will thereafter store the output data from the data compression section 4 in the image memory 2. The process and the process of reading image information from the image memory 2 are executed in parallel.

As this parallel processing method, well-known time division processing can be applied. That is, for example, the processing time of the system control unit 1 is divided into two time slices, and one time slice executes the process of accumulating the output data from the data compression unit 4 in the image memory 2, and the other time slice executes the process of accumulating the output data from the data compression unit 4 in the image memory 2. Transmission image information P stored in image memory 2
A process of sequentially reading IX from the beginning and transferring it to the communication control unit 7 is executed.

An example of the image information accumulation process is shown in FIG. 4, and an example of the image information readout process is shown in FIG.

That is, in the image information storage process, until the reading of the transmission document set in the image reading section 3 is completed (determination 10
(until the result of step 1 becomes YES), if there is an unused free memory block in image memory 2 (decision 103).
If the result is YES), the read image information is stored sequentially from the first free memory block (process 102).

Then, if there are no more free memory blocks (decision 1
03), it is determined whether the page Pz being stored at that time and the page P0 being transmitted are the same (determination 104).

At this time, as shown in FIG. 6, for example, page P1-2, which is two pages before the page P1 being stored, is being transmitted.
A page Pi is being stored and a page P is being transmitted.

(i.e. page Pi-z) is different from (judgment 1
If the result of step 04 is NO), if the image information transmission ends normally as described later, the image information of the transmitted page is erased from the image memory 2, and the corresponding memory block is released and becomes an empty memory block. Wait for the image to be completed (processing 1os). ``In addition, as shown in Figure 7, the amount of image information after data compression becomes extremely large, and the image information for one image cannot be stored in the image memory 2. , the page Pi being accumulated
If the page P being transmitted and the page P being transmitted are the same, the memory block corresponding to the portion transmitted so far, for example, memory blocks M1 to M4, is released and a free memory block is forcibly created. Return to 101.

On the other hand, in the image information readout process, until all the image information stored in the image memory 2 has been read out (judgment 2
01 result is No), until the reading of image information for one page is completed (until the result of judgment 203 becomes YES)
reads the image information sequentially for each memory block starting from the first memory block and transfers it to the communication control unit 7 (processing 2
02).

Then, when the reading of one page is finished (judgment 20
If the result of step 3 becomes YES), and if the reception at the destination terminal ends normally as described later, then the result of step 204 becomes YES.
S) Process to release all memory blocks corresponding to the transmitted page and erase the normally transmitted image information 205
), if the reception at the destination was not normal (the result of judgment 204 is NO), the image information readout position was returned to the top of the page in order to transmit the image information of the same page again (
After step 206), the process returns to judgment 201.

Note that if the image information of the first part of the transmitted page is deleted in step 105 of the image information accumulation process, an error message is displayed from the operation display section 10 without executing step 206. , to notify the operator of the situation.

In this way, storage and transmission of transmission image information PIX are executed in parallel, and when transmission of one page of transmission image information PIX is completed, a page end signal PS5 is output from the transmission terminal to the destination terminal. .

At this time, if the received image at the receiving terminal is defective, the receiving terminal outputs a poor reception signal PS6 in response to the procedure end signal PS5.

In this way, when the poor reception signal PS6 is responded, the communication control section 7 of the transmitting terminal not only responds to the system control section 1 that a reception error has occurred, but also transmits the transmission image information PIX.
Repeat from the previous steps for transmission. At the same time, in the image information reading process, since the result of judgment 204 is NO, the image information reading position is moved to the beginning of the transmitted page.

As a result, as described above, after the transmitting terminal outputs the transmission function setting signal PS2, the modem training check signal PS2 is output for modem training of the receiving terminal.
3 is output, and if the result is good and the reception terminal responds with a receivable signal PS4, the transmission process of the transmission image information PIX is executed.

Then, if the received image at the time of retransmission of the transmitted image information PIX is good and the reception terminal responds with a reception good signal PS7 in response to the procedure end signal PS5, the communication control unit 7 sends the system control unit 1 one page. It is notified that the transmission of the image information has been successfully completed, and if there is subsequent image information, the same process as described above is repeatedly executed.

Then, when all the image information has been transmitted, the communication control unit 1 outputs a line disconnection signal to the destination terminal, and then instructs the network control unit 9 to disconnect the line. to notify that the transmission is complete.

As a result, the system control unit 1 executes the process 205 because the result of the judgment 204 in the image information reading process described above becomes YES, and the transmitted image information PI that has been transmitted is
Delete X from image memory 2. Therefore, an empty memory block is created in the image memory 2, so if the image storage process waits for an empty memory block to be created in step 105.

At that point, image accumulation can be resumed.

In this way, the storage of the transmission image information is started immediately after the transmission function is set, and the storage and transmission of the image information are executed in parallel, so that the time required for facsimile transmission can be reduced.

In addition, 1. Normally, the storage speed of image information is faster than the transmission speed, so if you try to transmit multiple documents to be sent, the image memory 2 will become full before the image information of all the documents to be sent is stored. However, in such cases, the accumulation of image information is suspended until the page being transmitted is completed and a free memory block is created, so there is no inconvenience in which the device stops processing in the middle of transmitting image information. It never occurs.

Alternatively, as is well known, the amount of image information after data compression varies greatly depending on the content of the image, and in some cases the image information becomes so large that it is impossible to store the image information of one page of original in the image memory 2. However, in such a case, the first part of the page is deleted from the image memory 2 to forcibly create a free memory block, so that image information can be stored continuously.

Furthermore, if a reception error occurs and the image information of the first part is not deleted in step 105 of the image storage process, the image information of the page will be stored in the image memory 2 at that time. Therefore, since the transmitted image information can be retransmitted, operator intervention is not required at the time of retransmission.

By the way, when receiving image information, the system control unit 1
1, the received image information transferred from the communication control section 7 is sequentially stored in the image memory 2, and the received image information stored in the image memory 2 is sequentially transferred from the beginning to the data reproducing section 5 to reproduce the original data. The image signal is reproduced into an image signal, and the image signal is output to the image recording section 6 to form a received image.

The process of accumulating the received image information in the image memory 2 and the process of transferring it from the image memory 2 to the data reproducing section 5 can also be realized by parallel processes similar to those described above.

In addition, if the recording paper jams or paper runs out before one page of received images is finished being recorded in the image recording section 6, the unrecorded received images will be deleted from the image memory 2. Don't do it, keep it. At the same time, the operation display unit 10 displays a paper jam or a paper outage to notify the operator of such a situation.

Therefore, after removing the fault in the image recording section 6, the operator can issue a command to record the image from the operation display section 10, thereby making it possible to record and output the received image that could not be recorded.

In addition, normally recorded received images are deleted from the one-image memory 2.

Note that in the above description, detailed explanations of data exchanges that are not related to the gist of the present invention are omitted. Further, the present invention can be applied to a facsimile machine having a one-time designation function and a facsimile machine having a confidential transmission function in the same manner as described above.

[Effects] As explained above, according to the present invention, at the time when the setting of the transmission function is completed in the pre-transmission procedure.

By accumulating image information using the encoding method set at that time and executing the accumulation process and image information transmission process in parallel, the time required for transmission can be shortened, and even when the image memory becomes full. In this case, waiting for free space prevents the transmission from being interrupted, and furthermore,
When a reception error is responded to from the destination terminal, the error-prone image information is transmitted again to deal with the transmission error, which provides the advantage that the transmission time can be significantly shortened.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention and such a facsimile machine, Fig. 2 is a signal arrangement diagram illustrating the storage management state of the image memory, and Fig. 3 is a timing diagram showing an example of transmission control. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of image storage processing, FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing an example of image readout processing, and FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an example of the storage state of image information in the image memory. FIG. 7 is a signal arrangement diagram showing another example of the storage state of image information in the image memory. 1... System control unit, 2... Image memory, 3...
- Image reading section, 4... Data compression section, 5... Data reproducing section, 6... Image recording section, 7... Communication control section, 8
···modem. 9...Network control device, lO...Operation display section. Figure 2 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 3

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a control method for a facsimile machine that encodes transmitted image information and then stores it in an image memory and then transmits the image information read from this image memory to a destination terminal, the transmission function including at least the encoding method is performed in the pre-transmission procedure as described above. Immediately after setting with the destination terminal, the storage of the transmission image information in the image memory starts, and in parallel with the storage of this transmission image information, the image information is transmitted to the destination terminal, and one page worth of images is stored. If a reception error is responded from the destination terminal after transmitting the information, the same image information is transmitted to the destination terminal again, and if a normal reception is responded, the transmitted image information is deleted from the image memory. At the same time, when the image memory runs out of free space, if at least one page of image information other than the page currently being stored is stored in this image memory, the image information will be stored until the image information that has been transmitted is deleted. A control method for a facsimile machine characterized by interrupting.