JP2609069B2 - Facsimile machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus having a function of automatically transmitting an original having the same contents (hereinafter referred to as a broadcast message) to a plurality of destinations (counter destinations) in facsimile communication.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A facsimile apparatus having the above-described functions will be described below with reference to a facsimile storage / broadcast apparatus.

In recent years, with the increase in facsimile communication,
Facsimile storage and broadcasting devices have been increasingly used.

[0004] In a conventional broadcast device, a message received from a terminal is temporarily stored, and the broadcast is controlled in accordance with the control contents of the message.

[0005]

However, the above-mentioned facsimile storage / broadcasting apparatus does not monitor the status of the other party, that is, whether or not the other party is operating. I had sent the broadcast message to the other party.

For this reason, when the destination is operating, transmission to the destination fails, and the efficiency of use of the broadcast device and the line is poor. There was a problem that the broadcast message to the other party would not be delivered.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and eliminates unnecessary calling operation in a facsimile machine.
The purpose is to improve the operating efficiency of the device .

[0008]

According to the present invention, a storage means for storing image information to be transmitted to achieve the above object ,
A destination information storage that stores the destination to which the printing information is sent.
And the image information is sent independently based on the destination information.
Multiple sending means to communicate with
Already transmitted by another transmission means among the plurality of transmission means.
Outputs a transmission invalid signal when information is being transmitted.
Output means and the transmission means in response to the output of the transmission invalidation signal.
Control means for canceling the transmission process of the stage.
It

[0009]

The present invention has the above-mentioned configuration, and is useless even if a call is made.
In order to be able to cancel the call to
The operation efficiency of the device can be improved.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A facsimile storage broadcasting device will be described below as an embodiment of a facsimile device with reference to the drawings. In the present invention, “in use” refers to a state in which the user and the other party are connected, and “busy” refers to a state in which the other party is connected to a third party.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram showing a broadcast communication system to which a facsimile storage and broadcast device according to one embodiment of the present invention is applied.

This broadcast communication system includes a plurality of facsimile terminals FAX1, FAX2,... FAXn (both of which may be part of a reception-only device) which are conventionally used for transmission and reception, and facsimile terminals FAX1, FAX2,. An exchange S connected via a facsimile communication line to
It is provided with a switch S and a facsimile storage / broadcasting device M according to an embodiment of the present invention, which is connected via a plurality of receiving and transmitting lines (two lines in the illustrated example). In the figure, M _IN indicates the connection end of the reception line, and M _OUT indicates the connection end of the transmission line.

In this embodiment, a mark sheet (an OCR sheet or the like may be used) is used as input means of control information for controlling broadcast communication.

As shown in FIG. 1, the facsimile storage / broadcast device M controls a facsimile reception control unit (which increases or decreases according to the number of lines) 1 in charge of facsimile reception control, and a plurality of facsimile reception control units. A reception channel control unit 2, a message reception management unit 3 that manages reception of broadcast messages, a message storage unit 4 that stores the contents of the broadcast messages, and information other than the contents of the broadcast messages, such as the reception date and time. A message management information storage unit 5 that stores and manages a message, a message distribution management unit 6 that draws out a broadcast message when transmission is necessary, a transmission channel control unit 7 that controls a plurality of facsimile transmission control units, and a broadcast message In addition to being equipped with a facsimile transmission control unit 8 for controlling transmission to the other party, it is a marker for recognizing control information required for broadcast communication from a broadcast command mark sheet input together with a broadcast electronic message. A sheet recognition unit 9, a terminal information storage unit 10 for accumulating the advance terminal information, the terminal usage management unit 11 for managing the different usage terminal,
A call prohibition control unit 12 that prohibits a transmission operation even when a transmission request occurs.

The terminal information storage unit 10 is provided with a plurality of storage units in which the partner ground information of the broadcast communication is stored in advance, and is configured to be able to search each storage unit at random.

Each storage unit includes a terminal number (each facsimile terminal number) storage unit, a terminal name (distribution destination name, management unit name, etc.) storage unit, a station number (dial) storage unit, and the like. , And the other party's ground information is stored and managed separately.

The other party's ground information in each storage unit is taken into the electronic message acceptance management unit 3 and electronic message delivery management unit 6 as necessary.

As shown in FIG. 2, the terminal usage status management unit 11 includes a plurality of monitoring circuits 11a, 11b,.
Each of the monitoring circuits 11a, 11b, ... 11m has a busy monitoring circuit 100 that outputs a transmission invalid signal while the terminal is in a busy state, and is already transmitting to the terminal or the terminal is half-duplex. In use, that is, while the terminal is in use, that is, the busy monitoring circuit 101 that outputs a transmission invalidation signal while the terminal is in use, and when any one of the transmission invalidation signals becomes valid, the transmission invalidation signal issues a call inhibition circuit And an OR circuit 102 for outputting the result to the X.

Next, the operation of the facsimile storage / broadcasting device M having the above-mentioned configuration will be described. Now, suppose that the facsimile terminal FAX1 has the first mark sheet
When a manuscript on which a broadcast message is superimposed is set on the first and subsequent sheets and a transmission operation is performed, these messages are sent to the facsimile reception control unit 1 via the exchange S in accordance with a general-purpose facsimile transmission procedure, where the image information is sent. Is received as The received image information is received channel control unit 2 and message reception management unit 3
Is input to the message storage unit 4 and at the same time is input to the mark sheet recognition unit 9 line by line. This input data is detected by the mark sheet recognizing section 9 as to the presence or absence of a mark, that is, the presence or absence of control information necessary for broadcast communication.

When the presence of the control information is confirmed, the control information is separated into the terminal number information of the other party and the broadcast control information other than the terminal number information. The other party ground information of the broadcast communication, that is, each information (terminal number) in each storage unit, which is stored in advance, is compared.

As a result of the comparison, if it is determined that the two pieces of information do not match, information indicating that they are unregistered is returned to the originating side, and if it is confirmed that they match, the broadcast communication possible information is sent. The mark sheet recognition unit 9 outputs the information to the facsimile reception control unit 1 and also outputs to the terminal usage status management unit 11 that the terminal on the originating side is in the transmission state.

As described above, the facsimile reception control unit 1 having received the broadcastable information transfers the broadcast message to the message reception management unit 3 via the reception channel control unit 2. Then, the management unit 3 stores the contents of the broadcast message in the message storage unit 4.
On the other hand, information other than the contents of the message (such as the reception date and time) is accumulated in the message management information storage unit 5. Here, a series of reception operations ends.

When it becomes necessary to transmit, the electronic message distribution management unit 6 extracts the terminal information (station number, etc.) of the other party's ground from the terminal information storage unit 10, and indicates that there is a transmission request to the other party's ground. Output to the management unit 11. The terminal usage status management unit 11 determines whether or not the other party's ground is busy, is already transmitting another broadcast message, or is not already receiving if the other party's ground is a half-duplex terminal. In other words, that is, whether or not it is in use is monitored, and the monitoring result is the call inhibition control unit 1
Output to 2. The call prohibition control unit 12 outputs to the message distribution management unit 6 whether or not to prohibit the transmission request based on the monitoring result sent from the terminal use status management unit 11. If the transmission request is valid, the broadcast telegram (including the telegram content and other information) is extracted from the telegram storage unit 4 and the telegram management information storage unit 5, and these are transmitted via the transmission channel control unit 7. The data is transferred to the facsimile transmission control unit 8, and the message delivery management unit 6 outputs to the terminal usage status management unit 11 a signal indicating that the other party's ground is in the reception state. Hereinafter, normal broadcast control of facsimile is performed via the transmission control unit 8, and the destination (facsimile terminal FAX) is controlled.
2,... FAXn) are transmitted sequentially or all at once. At this time, if the transmission is unsuccessful and the cause of the failure is that the other party is talking to the ground, a signal to that effect is output to the terminal usage status management unit 11.

In FIG. 1, the facsimile terminal FA
Although an example in which X1 is the originating terminal has been described, the present invention is not limited to this. For example, the terminal FAX2 may be the originating terminal.

Further, in this embodiment, the case where the broadcast message is superimposed on the first mark sheet, the broadcast message is superimposed on the second and subsequent sheets to form one set, and the broadcast message is transmitted to the transmitting terminal, has been described. It is also possible to set a plurality of sets and send them simultaneously to the terminal device of the place of origin to perform broadcast communication. In this case, the terminal device of the other party receives the broadcast message for each mark sheet.

Further, although an example in which the control information necessary for the broadcast communication is input through the dedicated sheet has been described, it is also possible to input it by using, for example, half of the front page of the broadcast message if necessary. .

[0027]

As is apparent from the above description, the present invention has a storage means for storing image information to be transmitted and the image information of the image information.
Destination information storage means for storing a destination to be a destination,
Plural that independently send the image information based on the destination information
And the destination that you want to send
The image information is transmitted by another transmitting means of the plural transmitting means.
Output means for outputting a transmission invalid signal when it is in the middle,
The transmission processing of the transmission unit is performed according to the output of the transmission invalidation signal.
Since the control means for canceling the processing is provided, it is possible to cancel the call to the destination which is useless even if the call is made, so that the operation efficiency of the device can be improved. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a broadcast communication system to which a facsimile storage broadcast device according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a main part showing a schematic configuration showing a terminal usage status management unit provided in the facsimile storage / broadcasting device of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11 Terminal use status management part 11a, 11b,-11m monitoring circuit 12 Call prohibition control part 100 Busy monitoring circuit 101 Busy monitoring circuit 102 Logical OR circuit M Facsimile accumulation broadcast device

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Hiroshi Miki 2-3-8 Shimomeguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo Matsushita Electric Transmission Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-57-95742 (JP, A) JP-A-57-95742 Showa 59-25471 (JP, A) Japanese Patent Publication 5-62858 (JP, B2)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A storage unit for storing image information to be transmitted;
Destination information storage for storing a destination to which the image information is transmitted
Means, a plurality of transmitting means for independently transmitting the image information based on the destination information, and a pair of destinations to be transmitted.
And already in another transmission means in the plurality of transmission means
Outputs a transmission invalid signal when image information is being transmitted
Output means and the transmission in response to the output of the transmission invalid signal
A facsimile device including a control means for canceling the transmission processing of the means .