KR940007677B1 - Storage image printing method for computer-fax system - Google Patents

Abstract

The method prints an edited ASCII file or a scanned fax image file stored in a hard disk of a PC by using a facsimile connected to a PC. The method comprises the steps of: (A) opening a designated file and sending a print request signal to a FAX; (B) checking print recognition bit of a FAX and sending print mode; (C) checking mode recognition bit, reading 1 page from a hard disk and sending data to a FAC; (D) sending page end signal and checking page end recognition bit; (E) closing a file and opening the next page and sending data; (F) sending last page and sending end of file signal; and (G) checking end of file bit and closing a current file.

Description

How to Print Stored Images in Computer-Facsimile Connection Systems

1 is a schematic hardware configuration block diagram of one embodiment of a computer-facsimile connection system to which the present invention is applied.

2 is a facsimile connection structure diagram in a computer-facsimile connection system to which the present invention is applied.

3 is a flowchart of performing stored image printing in accordance with the present invention.

4 is a flowchart of RS232C interrupt performance in the present invention.

5 is a flowchart for performing time interruption in the present invention.

* Explanation of symbols for main parts of the drawings

10: Computer 11: RS232C Connection

12: computer main control unit 13: main memory unit

14 Hard Disk 15 Keyboard

16: monitor 20: facsimile

21: facsimile control unit 22: image scanner

23: modem and network control unit 24: image printer

25: serial connection 30: connection device

31: Song. Reception connection part 32: switching circuit part

33: connection control unit 34: connection memory unit

35: buffer unit 36: computer connection unit

The present invention relates to a method of printing a stored image in a computer-facsimile connection system (hereinafter simply referred to as "PC-FAX"), in particular an edited ASCII (ASCII) file or a scanned fax image file. It relates to a method of printing stored images in PC-FAX that stores (fax image files) on a PC hard disk and then prints them using a facsimile connected to the PC.

The image print in the present invention means to transfer an ASCII (ASCII) file or a fax image file stored in a hard disk on the PC side to a fax connected to the PC for printing.

Conventional facsimile machine includes an image scanner, an image printer, a facsimile communication modem, and a peripheral circuit thereof to transmit and receive image information. However, the facsimile does not implement an editing function because it directly prints the received image data. Not only prints out as it is, but it also becomes impossible to receive when the thermal recording paper is insufficient or the image printer breaks down, and communication between the facsimile is interrupted immediately, and the communication time is shortened due to the limitation due to the thermal recording speed. There was a limit.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to eliminate the above-mentioned problems. In order to control all the functions of FAX from a PC by connecting FAX to a PC that has already been widely used, a general facsimile of image data stored on a PC hard disk is used. The purpose of this method is to provide a method for effectively printing using a.

In order to achieve the above object of the present invention, a modem and network control means connected to a public communication network for transmitting and receiving images with an external facsimile, an image printer, and connected to the modem and network control means and an image printer, A facsimile apparatus (FAX) having a facsimile control means for controlling input and output, a serial connection means connected to said facsimile control means and connecting an external device, RS232C connection means for connecting to an external device, ROM and RAM A computer (PC) having main memory means, a hard disk, a keyboard, a monitor, and a computer main control means connected to the RS232C connection means hard disk keyboard and a monitor to perform overall control. In the stored image printing method by PC side control in a PC-FAX connection system, a user supports a file name and a mode. A first step of opening a designated file when a predetermined request is made to print a stored image; Sending a print request signal to the FAX side and setting a time; A third step of determining whether the print recognition bit is set for the time set in the second step, transmitting the print mode specified in the first step, and setting a new time; A fourth step of determining whether the mode recognition bit is set for the time set in the third step and reading one page data stored in the hard disk and transmitting the data to the FAX side; After performing the fourth step, it is determined whether the next page to be transmitted exists. If there is a page to be transmitted, the page end signal is transmitted, the time is newly set, and the page end recognition bit is determined to determine whether the current page is allocated. A fifth step of closing and opening the file to which the next page is allocated, clearing the mode recognition bit and the end-of-page bit that are currently set, and repeating from the third mode transfer and timeset process; And the sixth step of transmitting the file end signal and setting the time, determining whether the file end recognition bit is set for the set time, and closing the current file to terminate the file after the last page is transmitted in the fifth step. It features.

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

1 is a schematic block diagram of a hardware configuration of a PC-FAX to which the present invention is applied, in which 10 is a computer, 20 is a facsimile, 30 is a connection device, 11 is a RS232C connection, and 12 is a computer. Main control part, 13 is main memory part consisting of ROM and RAM, 14 is hard disk, 15 is keyboard, 16 is monitor, 21 is facsimile control part, 22 is image scanner, 23 is modem and network control part, 24 is image printer Denotes a serial connection portion, 31a denotes a reception connection portion, 31b a transmission connection portion, 32 a switching circuit portion, 33 a connection control portion, 34 a connection memory portion, and 35 a buffer portion.

For reference, Patent Application Nos. 90-16399, 90-19410, and 91-19850 relating to such a hardware configuration to which the present invention is applied have already been filed by the present applicant.

As shown in the figure, the present invention provides a facsimile 20 connected to a public communication network (PSTN), a known personal computer 10 which is generally widely used, and a connection device connected between the facsimile and a personal computer (INTERFACE). It applies to a system consisting of a) 30, the facsimile 20 is a general facsimile with a serial interface (25) or a known receive-only facsimile.

The personal computer 10 is a general-purpose computer having a hard disk (HARD DISK) 14 and an RS232C connection unit 11 having an expansion memory of 20M bytes or more, and is widely used by IBM PC / AT (registered trademark) or It is preferable to comprise the compatible model.

In addition, the connection device 30 includes a transmission / reception connection part 31 connected to the serial connection part 25 of the facsimile 20, a switching circuit part 32 connected to the transmission / reception connection part, and a computer 10. A computer connection section 36 connected to an RS232C connection section 11, a connection control section 33 connected to the switching circuit section and a computer connection section, a connection memory section 34 connected to the switching circuit section, a computer connection section, and a connection control section, respectively; The buffer 35 is provided, and the transmission / reception connection unit 31 inputs the image information and the control signal encoded from the facsimile 20 to the switching circuit unit 32, or the switching from the computer 10 side. As shown in the figure, the image information and control signal inputted through the circuit unit 32 are applied to the facsimile 20. The receiving connection part 31a and the transmission connection part 31b are formed.

The switching circuit part 32 selects and switches the transmission connection part 31b or the reception connection part 31a according to the control signal of the computer 10, and determines the input / output direction of image information.

Then, the connection control unit 33, the connection memory unit 34, and the buffer unit 35 temporarily store the document information among the signals input through the computer connection unit 36, and then expand the image information into image information to transmit the fax. Encoding is made into image information which can be directly transmitted from the apparatus 10. In addition, it is responsible for determining and controlling an internal information processing procedure such as temporarily storing image information transmitted from a facsimile transmitting apparatus or a facsimile receiving apparatus and transmitting the image information to a computer through the computer connection unit 36.

The connection control unit 33 is a microprocessor, and the connection memory unit 34 is configured by using a font storing ROM and a program storing ROM. The buffer unit 35 is composed of RAM.

The computer connection unit 36 is responsible for an interface function for RS232C communication with the computer 10.

However, in performing the image data transmission on the PC-FAX system of the present invention, when the data transmission speed of the computer 10 is lower than the data reception speed of the facsimile 20, the connection device 30 is removed. The serial connection 25 of the fax and the RS232C connection 11 of the computer can be directly connected.

At this time, an embodiment connection structure of the facsimile side is shown in FIG.

In the figure, 21a is a CPU, 21b is a ROM for program storage and font storage, 21c is a RAM which is a buffer memory, 21d is a component of a facsimile control unit as an address decoder, 23a is a component of a modem and a network control unit as a modem, 25a UART (Universal Asyncronous Receiver Transmitter) is a component of the computer system connection.

The CPU 21a is a processor for controlling the overall operation of the facsimile, and the ROM 21b is connected to an address bus, a data bus, and a control bus, and is expandable, and separates a program storage ROM and a font storage ROM. In this embodiment, however, one EPROM is used. The RAM 21c is also connected to the address bus, data bus, and control bus, and is expandable and constructed using 256K SRAM in this embodiment. Here, the CPU 20a, the ROM 21b, and the RAM 21c may be replaced by a one-chip CPU including these functions. In this case, when the capacity of the buffer memory is insufficient, the RAM as described above is externally present. The capacity can be extended by adding.

The modem 23a is connected to the data bus and the control bus and is connected to the line of the public communication network. The UART 25a is connected to the data bus and the control bus and is connected to the computer side. The address decoder 21d has an input connected to the address bus, and an output connected to the ROM, RAM, modem, and UART.

3 is a flowchart of performing a stored image printing according to the present invention. The main controller 12 of the PC 10 transmits an image of an ASCII file or a fax image file stored in the hard disk 14 to the FAX 20. The process of printing is shown.

If the user designates the file name to be printed through the PC and the desired mode such as ordinary or small characters (41), the PC 10 opens the designated file (42) and requests printing to the FAX 20 side. At the same time as the signal is transmitted, a time of thiami (not shown) is newly set (43).

Then, it is determined whether the print request recognition bit and the abbot bit are set for the set time (44, 46). Here, the print request recognition bit is set by an acknowledgment signal that the FAX 20 accepts a print request from the PC 10, as shown in the performance description for the RS232C interrupt in FIG. 4 described later. The bit is set by a signal indicating that the FAX 20 is in a non-printable state.

Therefore, if the print request recognition bit is set (44), the FAX 10 transmits the desired mode to the FAX 20 and sets a new time (45).

If the abbott bit is set (46), the open file is closed and the transmission error processing such as outputting a message to the user is performed and then terminated. However, if the print request recognition bit or abort bit is not set for the time set by the PC 10 during the print request transmission (48), the open file is closed and time error processing is terminated (61).

After the mode transmission and time set (45), it is determined whether or not the mode recognition bit is set for the set time (49, 51), the mode recognition bit is a print mode recognition confirmation signal from the FAX (20) It is set when it is received. At this time, if the mode recognition bit is not set within the set time, the open file is closed and time error processing is terminated (61). If the mode recognition bit is set within the set time (49). The data of the designated file is read from the hard disk and transferred to the FAX 20 (50).

In this way, after transmitting one page of data, it is determined whether the next page exists (52).

If the next page exists, the end-of-page signal is transmitted to the FAX 20 side and the timer time is newly set (53). Then, during the set time, the FAX 20 judges whether the end-of-page signal has been recognized or not by setting the end-of-page recognition bit (55), and if it is recognized, closes the file to which the current page is assigned and the next page is allocated. After the file is opened, the mode recognition bit and the page end bit which have already been set are cleared (56), and then the specified mode is transmitted again and the process is repeated (45). However, even if the end-of-page recognition bit is not set within the set time (57), the open file is closed and time-error processing ends (61).

In this way, after the last page is transmitted (52), the file-end signal is transmitted to the FAX 20 side, the time is newly set (54), and whether the file-end recognition bit is set (58) is determined. If so, the current file is closed and execution ends (59). However, at this time, if the file end signal is not recognized by the FAX 20 side for the set time and the file end recognition bit is not set (60), the file is closed and time error processing is terminated (61).

FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating RS232C interrupt in the present invention, and unlike the case of FIG. 3, it resides in RAM of the computer main memory unit 13 and is interrupted by the interrupt processing of the computer main control unit 12. To be handled.

When data is received from the FAX 20 side via the RS232C connection unit 11 (71), the main control unit 12 of the PC 10 determines whether the received data is command data (72). Specifically, it is determined which command data is used, i.e., any of the print recognition command 73, the mode recognition command 75, the page end recognition command 77, the file end recognition command 79, or the abort command 81. If it is determined whether the corresponding bit is set (74, 76, 78, 80, 82), if the print recognition bit, mode recognition bit, or end-of-page recognition bit is set (74, 76, 78) The process proceeds to the first data reception wait step 71, and when the file end recognition bit or abort bit is set (80, 82), the execution is stopped.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of interrupt execution of time in the present invention. When the time of the timer described in FIG. 3 is set, it is simply reduced (91, 92), and no separate error processing is performed.

Now, as an example of the method of printing the stored image by the PC side control as described above, a process of printing the stored image information of three pages through the FAX 20 connected to the PC 10 will be described.

It is assumed that image data of three pages to be printed on the hard disk 14 on the PC 10 side is stored in three files (PRINT. 001, PRINT. 002, PRINT. 003).

First, when the user designates a file name and mode, the PC 10 opens the file (PRINT. 001) assigned to the first page, and transmits a print request signal to the FAX 20. Then, the FAX 20 checks whether it is in a printable state and transmits a print request recognition signal to the PC 10 so that the print request recognition bit is set by RS232C interrupt processing. Subsequently, the PC 10 transmits a mode, reads data sequentially from the opened file, and transmits the data to FAX. After the transmission of the corresponding page is completed, the next page is checked. Since there is a file assigned to the next page (PRINT.002), the PC sends the end-of-page signal to the FAX side, resets the mode recognition bit and the end-of-page recognition bit, closes the already transmitted file (PRINT.001), and Open the file (PRINT.002) and repeat the above mode transmission process to send the second page to print. After completing the transmission to the next page file (PRINT.003) through the same process, it is the last page. After confirming, the file end signal is transmitted to the FAX 20 side. Then, the transferred file (PRINT.003) is closed to end the stored image print job.

According to the present invention as described above, by printing a file stored in the hard disk of the PC using a conventional FAX, even if the FAX without a memory function, the received data is stored in the hard disk of the PC side once desired data data It can print only, greatly improving the efficiency of use of existing FAX, save and print time and recording paper by editing and checking before printing the image, and it prevents the communication between faxes even in case of temporary fax printer failure. It has the effect of avoiding.

Claims (6)

Modem and network control means 23 connected to a public communication network, an image printer 24, and the modem and network control means and an image printer to control input and output of image data for image transmission and reception with an external facsimile. A facsimile device (FAX) 20 having a facsimile control means 21, a serial connection means 25 connected to the facsimile control means and connecting an external device, and an RS232C connection for connection with an external device. Means 11, main memory means 13 composed of ROM and RAM, hard disk 14, keyboard 15, monitor 16, RS232C connection means hard disk keyboard and monitor. In the method of printing a stored image by PC-side control in a PC-FAX connection system configured by connecting a computer (PC) 10 having a computer main control means 12 connected to perform overall control, the user has a file name and Specify mode If required the printing of over image storage 41 and 42 the first step to open a specified file; (43) a second step of sending a print request signal to the FAX 20 side and setting the time; Determining whether or not the print recognition bit is set during the time set in the second step (44), transmitting the print mode specified in the first step and setting a new time (45); A fourth step of determining whether the mode recognition bit is set (49, 51) for the time set in the third step (50), and reading (1) 50 pages of data stored in the hard disk to the FAX (20); After performing the fourth step, it is determined whether there is a next page to be transmitted (52). If there is a page to be transmitted, the page end signal is transmitted and the time is newly set (53). (C) closing the file to which the current page is allocated, opening the file to which the next page is allocated, and clearing the mode recognition bit and the end-of-page bit that are currently set (56). A fifth step of repeating from; And if it is transmitted to the last page in the fifth step, after transmitting a file end signal and setting the time (54), it is determined whether the file end recognition bit is set (58, 60) for the set time (58, 60), and the current file is closed (59). 6) A method for printing a stored image in a PC-FAX access system, characterized in that the method is performed by the sixth step of terminating. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein if the abort bit is set during the execution of the third step (46), it is performed by the seventh step of closing the file in use and performing the abort error process (47). Stored image printing method using a PC-FAX connection system. The method of claim 1, wherein if a time error occurs during the execution of any one of the third to sixth steps (48, 51, 57, 60), the used file is closed and time error processing is performed (61). A method of printing a stored image in a PC-FAX connection system, characterized in that performed by the eighth step of terminating. 2. The RS232C interrupt as set forth in claim 1, which is located in a RAM of said computer main memory means (13) and is background processed by an interrupt process of the computer main control means (12), thereby processing RS232C interrupt by data transfer from said facsimile (20). And a ninth step, wherein the stored image printing method in the PC-FAX connection system. 5. The method of claim 4, wherein the ninth step comprises: receiving data from the facsimile (71) (71) and determining (72) whether it is command data; If the received data is any one of a print recognition command, a mode recognition command, and an end-of-page recognition command (73, 75, 77), the bits of the corresponding command are set (74, 76, 78), and the process is repeated from the tenth step. Eleventh step; And the twelfth step of setting the bit of the command (80, 82) and ending the file end recognition command or the abort command (79, 81). How to print a stored image on a FAX connection system. The method according to claim 1, wherein the time of the timer set in each step is simply reduced by one by interrupt processing of the computer main control means (12).