JP2006060543A - Facsimile machine - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a facsimile machine that is made to use a telephone line on a device body side preferentially in the case of transmitting halftone image data by facsimile. <P>SOLUTION: This device body is provided with a transmission control means configured to perform facsimile transmission from the device body side by memory transmission when the device body side performs facsimile communication when an image determined to be a halftone is transmitted. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  According to the present invention, an option board having a communication line connection terminal for performing facsimile communication is connected to an apparatus main body having a resolution conversion circuit having a higher function than the resolution conversion circuit of the option board. The present invention relates to an improvement of a facsimile apparatus capable of two-line independent facsimile communication with the apparatus main body side.

  2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, facsimile apparatuses that connect a plurality of telephone lines and perform facsimile communication using two lines have become widespread. For example, the following Patent Document 1 discloses a facsimile apparatus using two lines, and discloses that a line to be used for time-designated transmission can be determined while referring to a communication history corresponding to each line. Yes.

In order to support such a two-line connection, an option board is often added, and a first telephone line is provided on the apparatus main body side and a second telephone line is provided on the option board side, and facsimile communication is performed for each board. It has a function.
JP 2002-132726 A

  However, in many cases, the option board is not provided with a high image quality conversion circuit in order to reduce the size and cost. On the other hand, a high image quality conversion circuit is often provided on the main substrate side. In such a case, when an image to be transmitted by facsimile is converted in accordance with the capability of the counterpart machine, since there is no high-quality image conversion circuit on the option board side, it is simply a thinning process, and moire tends to occur. There is a problem. On the other hand, since there is a high image quality conversion circuit on the main board side, conversion that does not deteriorate the image quality is performed using interpolation, so there is no problem that moire occurs. Such a problem can often occur when halftone image data is transmitted by facsimile.

  The present invention has been proposed in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide a facsimile apparatus that preferentially uses a telephone line on the apparatus body side when transmitting halftone image data by facsimile. And

  In claim 1 proposed to achieve the above object, when the apparatus main body transmits the image determined to be a halftone, if the apparatus main body side is performing facsimile communication, the apparatus main body side transmits the image by memory transmission. Transmission control means configured to perform facsimile transmission is provided.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, the apparatus main body has a communication direction setting means for prohibiting setting the apparatus main body side for reception only and the option board side for transmission only or transmission / reception, and either the apparatus main body side or the option board side. And a transmission control means for selecting facsimile according to the set communication direction and performing facsimile transmission.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, when the option board side is set to exclusive use for transmission or transmission / reception, the transmission control means, if the apparatus main body side is in facsimile communication during transmission of an image determined to be halftone, The image is transmitted from the apparatus main body side by memory transmission without transmitting the image by facsimile from the side.

  According to another aspect of the present invention, the resolution conversion circuit of the apparatus main body is configured to perform resolution conversion for determining the black and white of the converted pixel by interpolation at least when converting the resolution of the halftone image, and the resolution conversion of the option board. The circuit is configured to always perform resolution conversion by simple thinning.

  According to the first aspect, when the apparatus main body transmits the image determined to be a halftone, if the apparatus main body side is performing facsimile communication, the apparatus main body performs facsimile transmission from the apparatus main body side by memory transmission. When data is transmitted by facsimile, the telephone line on the apparatus main body side is preferentially used, and a high-quality image without moire can be transmitted by facsimile by the high image quality conversion function on the apparatus main body side.

  According to the second aspect of the present invention, since the apparatus main body side is prohibited from setting the apparatus main body side to receive only and the option board side to be dedicated to transmission or transmission / reception, facsimile transmission is performed from the option side without the image quality conversion function Therefore, it is possible to prevent the transmission of an image having moiré.

  Further, since either the apparatus main body side or the option board side is selected according to the set communication direction and facsimile transmission is performed, both can be used according to the user's preference.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, when the option board side is set to exclusive use for transmission or transmission / reception, if the apparatus main body side is in facsimile communication when the image determined to be halftone is transmitted, the image is sent from the option board side. Since the facsimile transmission is performed from the apparatus main body side by the memory transmission without the facsimile transmission, even if the option board side is set so that the facsimile transmission is possible, only the halftone data is transmitted from the apparatus main body, and the high quality image is transmitted. Data can be sent by facsimile.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of a basic configuration of a facsimile apparatus according to the present invention. The facsimile machine F is composed of components 1 to 10 on the apparatus main body side and an option board O having the components 11 to 17.

  On the apparatus main body side, the entire apparatus main body is controlled, MPU 1 constituting transmission control means and communication direction setting means, ROM 2 storing various programs necessary for the operation of the apparatus F, and communication direction described later. A RAM 3 having a setting table 3A, an image memory 4 for temporarily storing image data, and a high-function image conversion circuit for performing resolution conversion for determining at least black and white after conversion by interpolation for an image determined to be at least halftone. 5, an operation display unit 6, a printer 8 that reads a set original and generates image data, an NCU 9 that controls connection to the telephone line 1, and modulates and demodulates signals for facsimile communication through the telephone line 1. A modem 10.

  One option board O includes an MPU 11 that controls the option board O, a dual port RAM 12, an NCU 15 that controls connection to the RAM 13, ROM 14, and telephone line 2, and signals for facsimile communication via the telephone line 2. The modem 16 which modulates and demodulates the above and a resolution converter (codec) 17 are provided.

  Unlike the high-function resolution conversion circuit 5, the resolution conversion unit 17 always performs resolution conversion by simple thinning.

  The communication direction setting table 3A on the apparatus main body side is configured as shown in FIG. 2, for example. That is, in accordance with each setting NO, it is registered whether each of the telephone line 1 and the telephone line 2 is for facsimile transmission or facsimile reception. Note that NO. For 4 (F = 00), both telephone lines 1 and 2 are enabled for both facsimile transmission and reception.

  Using such a table 3A, the use of facsimile communication can be assigned to each of the telephone lines 1 and 2 in the RAM 3 or the like of the apparatus F. This process is performed with the process shown in the flowchart of FIG. That is, the communication direction setting mode is executed by a predetermined operation, and a selection screen for performing assignment setting or canceling is displayed (100).

  Although not shown in the figure, this screen may be any screen that can select whether transmission or reception of the telephone lines 1 and 2 is set or canceled.

  And when it is selected to cancel (101), neither transmission nor reception is assigned to the telephone lines 1 and 2, and if transmission or reception is set up to that point, it is canceled. To do. Then, the display operation unit 6 displays “setting canceled” (102, 103).

  On the other hand, when setting is selected (101), the following processing is performed.

  That is, NO. 1 (F = 01), NO. 2 (F = 10), NO. 3 (F = 11) is displayed, and a communication direction selection display screen prompting which one to select is displayed (104).

  And NO. When 1 is selected, the telephone line 1 is assigned for facsimile transmission and the telephone line 2 is assigned for facsimile transmission, and a message to that effect is displayed (105, 106, 107).

  In addition, NO. When 2 is selected, the telephone line 1 is assigned for facsimile transmission and the telephone line 2 is assigned for facsimile reception, and a message to that effect is displayed (105, 108, 109).

  Furthermore, NO. When 3 is selected, the telephone line 1 is assigned for facsimile reception and the telephone line 2 is assigned for facsimile reception, and a message to that effect is displayed (105, 110, 111).

  In such an assignment setting process, at least the selection items for making the telephone line 1 dedicated to reception and the telephone line 2 dedicated to transmission are not prepared. This is because such a setting should be prohibited. In other words, the high-quality image conversion circuit 5 is required to convert halftone images with high-quality resolution, and this is because the image should be transmitted from the main body side having the high-function image conversion circuit 5. The telephone line 2 may be prohibited from being dedicated to transmission / reception. That is, the setting that the telephone line 1 is dedicated to reception and the telephone line 2 is dedicated to transmission must be prohibited.

  When the use of the telephone lines 1 and 2 is set by such processing, the facsimile apparatus F operates as follows (FIGS. 4 and 5).

  That is, when a transmission job is designated (200), the assignment setting state of the usage of the telephone lines 1 and 2 is determined. As a result, the previous NO. 1 (F = 01) or NO. When the information of 4 (F = 00) is set (201), the process after step 202 is performed. On the other hand, NO. 1 (F = 01) or NO. When information other than 4 (F = 00) is set, processing described later is performed.

  In step 202, it is determined whether or not the telephone line 1 is in use. If the telephone line 1 is not in use, facsimile transmission through the telephone line 1 is performed (203). If the telephone line 1 is in use, it is determined whether the telephone line 2 is in use (204).

  As a result, if the telephone line 2 is in use, it is determined whether the document to be facsimile-transmitted is halftone (205). If it is halftone, a memory transmission reservation is made through the telephone line 1 (207). As soon as the telephone line 1 becomes available, the image is converted by the high-quality image conversion circuit 5 and sent by facsimile.

  Also, when the telephone line 2 is in use at step 204, the memory transmission reservation by the telephone line 1 is reserved (207), and as soon as the telephone line 1 becomes available, the image is converted by the high-quality image conversion circuit 5 and transmitted by facsimile. do.

  On the other hand, if it is determined in step 204 that the telephone line 2 is not in use and it is determined in step 205 that it is not a halftone image, facsimile transmission is performed via the telephone line 2 (206).

  Next, according to the determination in step 201, the assignment setting of the telephone lines 1 and 2 is NO. The operation in the case of neither 1 nor 4 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  First, in step 300, the assignment setting is NO. It is determined whether it is 2. NO. If the allocation setting state is 2, it is determined whether or not the telephone line 1 is in use (301). If the telephone line 1 is not in use, facsimile transmission is performed via the telephone line 1 (302). At that time, the image data is image-converted by the high-quality image conversion circuit 5.

  On the other hand, if the assignment setting is NO. 2 and if the telephone line 1 is in use (301), since the telephone line 2 is dedicated for reception, a memory transmission reservation is made by the telephone line 1 (303). The image conversion circuit 5 converts the image and transmits it by facsimile.

  Furthermore, in step 300, the assignment setting is NO. If it is not 2, the allocation setting for the telephone lines 1 and 2 is NO. 3, for example, the display operation unit 6 displays, for example, “This device is dedicated to reception. Transmission is not possible”, notifies that it is a device dedicated to reception, and cancels the transmission job (304, 305).

  Next, a case where the specified job is not a transmission job based on the determination in step 200 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

  Here, a received job is illustrated as a job other than a transmission job. That is, if a call signal is received on the telephone line 1 (400), the allocation setting state of the telephone lines 1 and 2 is determined. As a result, NO. If it is any one of 3 and 4 (401), the telephone line 1 is connected to the NCU 9 and facsimile reception through the telephone line 1 is received (402, 403). On the other hand, the assignment setting status of the telephone lines 1 and 2 is NO. If it is neither 3 nor 4 (401), the telephone line 1 is dedicated to transmission, so no job is performed and the process returns to step 200.

  On the other hand, if a call signal is received on the telephone line 2 (400), the allocation setting state of the telephone lines 1 and 2 is NO. 1, if so, the telephone line 2 is dedicated for transmission, so no job is performed and the process returns to Step 200. On the other hand, the assignment setting status of the telephone lines 1 and 2 is NO. If it is not 1 (404), NO is "10", so the telephone line 2 is connected to the NCU 15 and facsimile reception through the telephone line 2 is performed (405, 406).

The figure which shows an example of the basic composition of this invention The figure which shows an example of a structure of a communication direction setting table Flowchart for explaining allocation setting processing of telephone lines 1 and 2 Flow chart for explaining the basic operation of the present invention Flow chart for explaining the basic operation of the present invention Flow chart for explaining the basic operation of the present invention

Explanation of symbols

F Facsimile machine O Option board 3A Communication direction setting table 5 High-function resolution conversion circuit 17 Resolution conversion circuit

Claims (4)

An option board that has a communication line connection terminal and performs facsimile communication is connected to an apparatus body having a resolution conversion circuit that is more functional than the resolution conversion circuit of the option board. In a facsimile apparatus capable of two-line independent facsimile communication,
The apparatus body includes transmission control means configured to perform facsimile transmission from the apparatus body side by memory transmission when the apparatus body side is performing facsimile communication when transmitting an image determined to be halftone. , Facsimile machine. An option board that has a communication line connection terminal and performs facsimile communication is connected to an apparatus body having a resolution conversion circuit that is more functional than the resolution conversion circuit of the option board. In a facsimile apparatus capable of two-line independent facsimile communication,
The device body is
A communication direction setting means for prohibiting setting the apparatus main body side to reception only and the option board side to transmission only or transmission / reception;
A facsimile apparatus comprising: a transmission control means for selecting one of the apparatus main body side and the option board side according to a set communication direction and performing facsimile transmission. In claim 2,
The transmission control means is
When the option board is set to send-only or send / receive,
When transmitting an image determined to be halftone, if the apparatus main body side is in facsimile communication, the image is not transmitted from the option board by facsimile, but is transmitted from the apparatus main body side by memory transmission. A facsimile machine. In any one of Claims 1-3,
The resolution conversion circuit of the apparatus main body is configured to perform resolution conversion for determining black and white of the converted pixel by interpolation when performing resolution conversion of at least a halftone image, and
A facsimile apparatus in which the resolution conversion circuit of the option board is configured to always perform resolution conversion by simple thinning.

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