JP2622148B2 - Batch output of multiple pages - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD [0001] The present invention relates to a message output method for batch output of a plurality of pages which can reduce a plurality of pages of a message transmitted from, for example, a facsimile terminal to one page. About.

(Prior Art) Currently, in message communication performed by a facsimile terminal, N pages of messages (N is the number of pages) transmitted by a transmitting side are received as they are and output as N pages.

However, in message communication that is usually performed, information that is not always necessary for the recipient or information that is not so important is often transmitted. For this reason, it is necessary to select only necessary information from many pieces of received information.

(Object of the Invention) The present invention reduces the size of one message or a plurality of messages consisting of a plurality of pages based on such conventional recognition, and collectively outputs the plurality of pages as one page to a receiving facsimile terminal. It is intended to do so. It is an object of the present invention to provide a message communication which can be efficiently selected because it is possible to quickly search only necessary information from the plurality of reduced pages and eliminate the need to read all unnecessary information.

(Structure of the Invention) (Differences between the features of the invention and the prior art) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention determines the ratio of the reduced size conversion in advance and sets the ratio in accordance with the content of the received N page message. The most main feature is to determine the ratio, perform reduction size conversion at the ratio, determine the display position of each of the reduced N pages, and output the reduced N page message as one page. .

In the prior art, the N-page received by the transmission side is output as it is, but the present invention is different in that the N-page is reduced and converted and output as one page.

(Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a configuration example of a message communication system to which the present invention is applied. In the figure, 101 and 102 are telephones, 1
03 and 104 are facsimile terminals, 105 is an exchange, and 106 is a communication line connecting them. For example, facsimile terminal
The message communication is performed by transmitting a message including a plurality of pages from the facsimile terminal 104 to the facsimile terminal 104.

Although this example illustrates a case where facsimile communication is performed using a public telephone network, the present invention is similarly effective when a message communication is performed using a dedicated line without an exchange. Any of the transmitting facsimile terminal 103, the exchange 105, and the receiving facsimile terminal 104 can have the function of the present invention in which a plurality of pages are batch-outputted to one page.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a batch output processing unit for a plurality of pages which realizes a function of reducing a plurality of pages to one page and displaying the same according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a batch output processing unit 201 includes a message receiving unit 202, a character size determining unit 203, a reduced size conversion ratio determining unit 201, a reduced size converting unit 205, a message storage / display position determining unit 206,
It comprises a designated ratio receiving unit 207.

When a message including a plurality of pages P _{1 to} P _N is input, the message is received by the message receiving unit 202 and stored. After a certain number of pages are stored in the message receiving unit 202, the message receiving unit 202 sends a message to the character size determining unit 203.
Activate and send the stored message.

The character size determination unit 203 determines the character size from the received message. The character size can be determined by extracting characters from the message and determining the size from the extracted characters.

Many methods have already been proposed for character extraction and size determination, and these methods can be used. For example, there is a method using a marginal distribution (Akiyama et al .: "Individual character segmentation method from vertical / horizontal document" IEICE Technical Report, PRL83-7 (1983-05)). This is a method for estimating. With this method, the size of the character can be determined.

As another example of determining the size of a character, it is possible to determine in advance that information on the size of a character is to be written in a transmission document as a special mark such as a barcode. The character size determination unit 203 can read the special mark and determine the character size according to a predetermined rule.

The character size determined by the character size determination unit 203 is
The reduction size conversion ratio determination unit 204 is notified. The reduction size conversion ratio determination unit 204 determines the reduction size conversion ratio according to the size of the character.

For example, the size of the character is about 8mm square (about 20 points)
In the case of, the ratio is 1/3, in the case of about 6 mm square (about 18 points), the ratio is 1/2, and in the case of about 4 mm square (about 12 points), the ratio is 3/4
The ratio can be determined by storing in a memory in advance. The reduced ratio conversion unit 205 is notified of the determined ratio.

The reduced size conversion unit 205 performs the reduced size conversion on each page of the message received from the message receiving unit 202 at the ratio of the reduced size conversion determined by the character size determination unit 203 and determined by the reduced size conversion ratio determination unit 204. Perform processing.
Many methods have been proposed for the reduced size conversion processing. The reduction size conversion processing can be performed using these conversion methods. One example is a conversion method that prevents the disappearance of fine lines (Wakabayashi et al .: “Reduction conversion method that prevents the disappearance of fine lines”, IEICE (D), J70-D, 4, pp. 742-749 (Showa 62)). No. Each page of the message that has been reduced in size by the reduced size conversion unit 205 is sent to the message storage / display position determination unit 206.

The message storage / display position determination unit 206 stores a plurality of pages subjected to the reduced size conversion in a memory. Next, in order to display and output the reduced plurality of pages in one page, the display position of each reduced page with respect to the output page is determined. For example, the reduced nine pages 302 of P1 to P9 are converted into one page 301 as shown in FIG.

The display position of each reduced page is determined by specifying a display position at an interval that allows each reduced page to be sufficiently displayed. As an example, the maximum value of the width and length of each reduced page is obtained, and the display positions of the reduced pages are specified at intervals equal to or greater than the respective maximum values, so that all the reduced pages do not overlap. Can be displayed.

According to the method described above, it is possible to reduce the size of a message composed of a plurality of pages, a plurality of messages, and the like, and output the plurality of pages received by the receiving facsimile terminal into one page. In the above description, an example in which the size of a character written on a page in a message is determined has been described, and a method of determining a reduction size conversion ratio has been described.

Next, an example will be described in which the sender or the receiver of the message directly specifies the ratio of the reduced size conversion.

The designated ratio receiving unit 207 receives the reduced size conversion ratio designated by the sender or the recipient from the telephone or the like. Taking an example of designation using a push-button telephone, the designated ratio receiving unit 207 receives the MF signal sent from the telephone and decodes the designated ratio. The reduced size conversion ratio received by the designated ratio receiving unit 207 is notified to the reduced size conversion unit 205.

The reduced size conversion unit 205 performs conversion processing of each page sent from the message receiving unit at the notified reduced size conversion ratio. As described above, even when the sender or the receiver of the message directly specifies the reduction size conversion ratio, it is possible to collectively output a plurality of received pages to one page.

Next, a method of determining the reduction size conversion ratio from the number of message pages will be described. It is assumed that a plurality of pages are reduced at the same reduction ratio and similar in the horizontal and vertical directions. Further, it is assumed that a message consisting of 10 pages arrives as an example of a message to be received.

In this case, by displaying 16 pages in one page
All ten pages can be displayed, and the remaining six pages are blank. Let α be the ratio when a plurality of pages are reduced at the same reduction ratio and similarly in the horizontal and vertical directions, and N be the number of received pages.

At this time, a natural number that satisfies (m-1) ² <N ≦ m ² is obtained, and by setting α = 1 / m, the reduction size conversion ratio can be determined in accordance with the number of received pages.

By using this ratio, a plurality of pages can be reduced in a similar manner and at the same ratio, and the number of blank pages can be minimized.

In addition, when reducing not the similar shape or when reducing multiple pages at different ratios, calculate the width and length of each reduced page and set the display position of the reduced page to be more than the width / length. By setting, each page can be reduced to one page and displayed without overlapping.

(Effect of the Invention) According to the present invention, it is possible to obtain information of a plurality of pages in one page. This allows you to use multiple pages
Unnecessary information can be easily selected. Further, since the facsimile terminal has information of a plurality of pages in one page of paper, paper can be saved.

Further, the present invention can be applied to a facsimile terminal on the transmission side. In this case, by performing reduction size conversion of a plurality of pages, it becomes possible to reduce the amount of transmission data.

Although the present invention has been described with respect to a facsimile terminal, the present invention can be applied to various types of message terminals such as a personal computer, a videotex, and a teletex.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration example of a message communication to which the present invention is applied, FIG. 2 is a block configuration diagram of a batch output processing unit for a plurality of pages showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. This is an example of batch output. 101, 102 subscriber telephone, 103, 104 facsimile terminal, 105 exchange, 106 communication line, 201 batch output processing unit, 202 message receiving unit, 203 character size determination unit, 204 … Reduction size conversion ratio determination unit, 205
... Reduced size converter 206, Message storage and display position determiner 207 Designated ratio receiver 301, 1
Page output, 302 ... received reduced conversion page.

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Toshihiko Nakayama 1-6, Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (56) References JP-A-62-252274 (JP, A) JP-A Sho 63-59062 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] In a message communication using a message terminal and a communication line, a reduced size conversion ratio is determined in advance in accordance with the number of pages and the size of a character, and the number of pages of the received message and the size of a character are determined. Determining the respective reduced size conversion ratios, performing reduced size conversion, and determining the display position of each of the reduced N pages (where N is the number of pages). Output method.