JPH08116369A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a facsimile equipment for easily discriminating whether or not it is the information of retransmission on the reception side at the time of retransmitting voice information because of a transmission defect. CONSTITUTION: An information storage means 4 stores a part where communication is interrupted and a retransmission judgement means 7 judges wheter or not the communication is to be retransmitted when the communication is interrupted. When it is judged that the retransmission is not to be performed by the retransmission judgement means 7, a display means 8 displays that effect. When it is judged that the retransmission is to be performed by the retransmission judgement means 7, a retransmission system selection means 9 selects a retransmission system for indicating from which part of the voice information the retransmission is to be performed. A retransmission identification display addition means 10 adds retransmission identification display to the head part of the voice information of the retransmission corresponding to the retransmission system selected by the retransmission system selection means 9. In such a manner, by the retransmission identification display added to the voice information of the retransmission, whether it is the voice information at the time of normal transmission or the voice information at the time of the retransmission is easily discriminated on the reception side.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile machine, and more particularly, to transmitting and receiving image information and voice information, and whether the information is retransmitted by the receiving side with respect to the information retransmitted due to a transmission failure or the like. The present invention relates to a facsimile device that can be easily discriminated.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Recently, B-ISDN (broadband ISDN)
2. Description of the Related Art With the development of digital communication technologies such as the above, multimedia communication has been performed in which various media such as voice, video, still image, and moving image are integrally handled. Regarding the audio information of this multimedia, various audio encoding methods such as PCM, ADPCM, and CELP methods have already been standardized by the ITU. Further, the voice compression technology has made great progress, and chips using this voice compression technology have come to be found. Now, regarding the conventional facsimile apparatus which transmits the voice information together with the image information, the following technique is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7646/1990.
No. 0 publication. The audio information is managed by associating the image information with the audio information related to the image information. Further, the correspondence between the image information and the audio information is clearly indicated, and the receiver refers to the clearly specified correspondence and reproduces the audio information corresponding to the image information as appropriate. Further, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-2253, the ISDN is used to transmit and receive the image information and the voice information related to the image information, and the image information and the voice information are stored in the same storage means. There is disclosed a technique in which the image information and the audio information are appropriately output in accordance therewith.

[0003]

In the above-mentioned conventional facsimile apparatus, when communication is interrupted due to a line failure or the like, all the abnormally ended image information and voice information are retransmitted from the beginning, which is wasteful. There is a problem that the information, that is, the image information and the audio information of the portion normally transmitted is also transmitted again. Also, if the data is retransmitted immediately after the communication is interrupted, the facsimile machine on the receiving side cannot distinguish whether it is the reception at the time of normal transmission or the reception at the time of retransmission, and must correctly understand the received voice. There is a problem that it becomes difficult. An object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned problems of the prior art and to make it easy for the receiving side to determine whether or not the information retransmitted due to a transmission failure or the like is retransmitted information. To provide a facsimile machine of the above.

[0004]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the invention of claim 1 is a storage means for storing a voice information portion where the communication is interrupted, and voice information when the communication is interrupted. Retransmission determining means for determining whether or not to retransmit, and when it is determined to retransmit by the retransmission determination means,
It is characterized in that it is provided with a retransmission method selection means for selecting a retransmitted portion of the voice information and a retransmission identification display addition means for adding a retransmission identification display to the head portion of the retransmitted voice information. According to a second aspect of the present invention, the retransmission method selection means examines the length of voice information, means for determining whether or not the length of the voice information is less than or equal to a certain amount, and the voice information. If the length is less than a certain amount, all the voice information is retransmitted, and if the length of the voice information is longer than a certain amount, a retransmitting means for retransmitting the voice information from a position traced back by a certain amount from the interruption point. It is characterized in that it is equipped with.

Further, in the invention of claim 3, means for dividing the image information and voice information into blocks, storage means for storing the blocked image information and voice information in pairs, and the communication are interrupted. Storage means for storing the voice information portion, a retransmission determination means for determining whether or not to retransmit the voice information when the communication is interrupted, and a retransmission determination means for determining whether or not to retransmit the voice information. Retransmission method selecting means for selecting a retransmission method from the beginning of the block of the image information paired with the block, and retransmission identification display adding means for adding the retransmission identification display to the beginning portion of the retransmitted audio information. The point is that it was done.

[0006]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, the retransmission identification display adding means adds the retransmission identification display to the beginning of the retransmitted voice information so that the normal transmission voice information or the retransmission voice information is transmitted. It becomes possible to easily determine whether or not. Also,
According to the invention of claim 2, when the length of the voice information is equal to or less than a certain amount, all the voice information is retransmitted, and when the length of the voice information is longer than a certain amount, a constant value is set from the interruption point. Since the voice information is retransmitted from a location traced back in quantity, unnecessary transmission can be avoided. Claim 3
According to the invention, since the retransmission is performed from the beginning of the block of the image information paired with the block of the audio information in which the error has occurred, the receiving side can easily take correspondence between the retransmitted image information and the audio information. Will be possible.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of a facsimile machine to which the present invention is applied. In the figure, reference numeral 11 designates a CPU for controlling the entire facsimile apparatus and processing for controlling the facsimile transmission control procedure.
Reference numeral 2 is a RAM as a work area used by the control program, 13 is an operation display device for operating the facsimile apparatus and displaying the operation status or processing status of the apparatus,
Reference numeral 14 is an image reading device for reading a transmission document, 15 is an image printing device for printing the image information read by the image reading device 14 and the image information received from a communication partner, and 16 is an image information encoding / decoding device. An image processing device for converting the image information into blocks and, if necessary, dividing the image information into blocks, a storage device 17 for storing the image information and audio information described later. Reference numeral 18 is a voice input device for inputting voice information, which is, for example, a microphone. Reference numeral 19 is a voice reproducing device that outputs voice information, and is, for example, a speaker or headphones.

Reference numeral 20 denotes a voice processing device for encoding / decoding voice information, and blocking the voice information as needed, and 21 stores a program for controlling the entire facsimile apparatus. A system control unit 22 including a ROM and the like stores a program for performing facsimile communication, for example, control according to G3 protocol, G4 protocol, etc., and is driven by an instruction from the CPU 11 or the like to control facsimile communication. A control unit, 23 is a modem which is a modulator / demodulator, and 24 is the facsimile machine and an analog line, a digital line or I
A network control device for connecting to an SDN network or the like, and has an automatic call originating / receiving function. Reference numeral 25 denotes each of the functional units (reference numeral 1)
1 to 22), a system bus for mutually transmitting data, and 26 is a line whose connection is controlled by the network control device 24 and through which transmission information is transmitted. The line 26 is composed of a plurality of lines.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the first embodiment. First, in step S1, a document is input from the image reading device 14 and a voice is input from the voice input device 18 in accordance with an instruction from the operation display device 13. The input document and voice are input to the image processing device 16
Then, the audio processing device 20 performs processing such as encoding, and stores the image information and the audio information in the storage device 17.
In step S2, the communication control unit 22 makes a call to a desired destination. In step S3, after receiving a predetermined response to the call, image information is transmitted to the destination, and in subsequent step S4, voice information is transmitted.
In step S5, it is determined whether or not an error has occurred during the transmission of voice information. If this determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to step S6. On the other hand, if the determination is negative, a predetermined process is performed as it is and the process ends. In step S6, the communication is interrupted when an error occurs. In step S7,
The interruption point of the voice information is stored in the RAM 12 or the like in association with the voice information.

In step S8, it is determined whether or not the voice information is retransmitted. This judgment is instructed in advance by the operator from the operation display device 13 or the like. Further, when the processing of step S7 is completed,
It may be instructed by the operator. If the determination in step S8 is affirmative, the process proceeds to step S10, while if the determination is negative, the process proceeds to step S9 to display on the operation display device 13 that the communication is not retransmitted, and inform the operator. In step S10, it is determined which retransmission method is selected. This judgment is made by the operator's instruction as in step S8.
In this determination, if the retransmission method (a) is selected, the process proceeds to step S11, the retransmission from the audio information at the interruption point due to the error is determined, and if the retransmission method (b) is selected, the process proceeds to step S12. It is decided to retransmit from the voice information of the part which has proceeded to a certain amount and goes back a certain amount from the interrupted part. If the retransmission method (c) is selected, the process proceeds to step S13 to check the length of voice information, and then step S1.
In 4, it is determined whether or not the length of the voice information is less than or equal to a certain amount. If this determination is negative, then the step S
12, and on the other hand, if the result is affirmative, the process proceeds to step S15, where it is determined to retransmit all the audio information.

The judgment in step S14 is such that, if the length of the entire voice information in which an error has occurred is short, for example, if the voice information has a length of several seconds, even if all of the voice information is retransmitted, the retransmission time does not take much time, and it does not take much. Since it does not affect the usage efficiency of the device, it is determined to be positive. On the other hand, if the length of the entire voice information is long, for example, if the voice information has a length of 1 minute or more, if all the voice information is retransmitted, the retransmission time becomes long and the use efficiency of the device deteriorates, so it is determined as negative. To do. Step S1
In No. 6, after the retransmission method of the voice information is determined, a retransmission identification display, for example, a voice display such as “the subsequent voice information is retransmission” is added to the beginning of the voice information to be retransmitted, Returning to S2, the processing operation after step S2 is repeated, and the voice information is retransmitted from the portion determined in step S11, S12, or S15.

Next, step S in the flowchart of FIG.
Specific communication processing operations of image information transmission and voice information transmission in S3 and S4 will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a specific example of transmission of image information and voice information by the facsimile apparatus to which this embodiment is applied. First, when a call is made from the transmitting side (not shown), a called party identification tone (CED) is transmitted from the receiving side, and subsequently, a digital identification signal (NSF / DIS) for notifying the function of the receiving side is sequentially transmitted. Next, a digital command signal (DCS) for notifying the transmission conditions is transmitted from the transmitting side, and subsequently a training check signal (TCF), which is a test signal, is sequentially transmitted. When the training is successful, the receiving side confirms a reception preparation confirmation signal ( CFR)
Will be sent. The sender receives this and receives the image information (1)
When the transmission is completed, the partial page signal (PPS-
MPS) is transmitted. When the transmission side receives the message confirmation signal (MCF) for the image information (1) from the reception side, it transmits the voice information (1), and when the transmission is completed, it transmits the partial page signal (PPS-EOM). When the receiving side normally receives the voice information (1), the voice information (1) is received.
Send MCF to. Thereafter, the same transmission operation as described above is performed, and the transmission side transmits image information (2) and audio information (2).
A disconnection signal (DCN) when the transmission is completed normally
To end the transmission of the information.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the communication is interrupted by the communication error, and when the voice information of the communication is retransmitted, the retransmission identification information is added to the beginning of the retransmitted voice information. The receiving side can easily determine whether or not the retransmitted information is retransmitted voice information. Also,
Since the voice information is retransmitted from a location that is traced back by a certain amount from the error occurrence location, the receiving side can easily understand the connection with the voice information received before the interruption. Further, when the length of the voice information is less than a certain amount, that is, when the information amount is small, all the voice information is retransmitted, and when the length of the voice information is longer than the certain amount, that is, the information amount is large. In this case, the voice information is retransmitted from a location that is a certain amount of distance back from the interruption location. Therefore, it is possible to avoid unnecessary retransmission, and efficient transmission / reception can be performed.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 5 is a flow chart showing the operation of the second embodiment. First, in step S101, as in step S1 of FIG. 3, the original document and the voice are input, and the image processing device 16 and the voice processing device 20 respectively perform processing such as encoding and blocking. Next, the original document and the voice are stored in the storage device 17 as image information and voice information in association with each block.

In steps S102 to S109, the same processing operations as in steps S2 to S9 are performed, and in step S110, it is determined whether or not the image information and the sound information are stored in the storage device 17 as a pair. Is judged. When this determination is affirmative, the process proceeds to step S115, and it is determined that the block of the image information in which the error has occurred is retransmitted from the beginning of the block of the image information.
On the other hand, if this determination is negative, the process proceeds to step S111, and it is determined which retransmission method to select, as in step S10. Steps S112 and S113 are S11 and S12, S114 is S15, and S1.
16 performs the same processing operation as S16.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, the image information and the audio information are paired for each block.
Even if communication is interrupted due to a communication error and retransmitted, the receiving side can obtain correspondence between image information and audio information. Also in this case, step S11
Since the retransmission identification display is added in 6, the receiving side can easily determine that the received information is retransmitted.

Next, the functional configuration of the above embodiment is shown in FIG.
Will be described with reference to the block diagram of FIG. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes an operation input means that is operated by an operator and inputs an instruction thereof, and corresponds to, for example, the operation display device 13. Reference numeral 2 denotes an information input means for inputting image information or voice information, which is composed of, for example, the image reading device 14 and the voice input device 18. Reference numeral 3 is an information processing means for encoding the image information or audio information and, if necessary, for blocking the image information or audio information, 4 is an information storage means for storing the image information or audio information in pairs. , If a communication error occurs,
The portion where the communication error occurs (communication interruption) is stored. 5 is a communication control means for performing control according to a predetermined communication processing procedure, 6
Is a network control means for controlling the line network, and when a communication error occurs, the communication control means 5 detects the communication error via the network control means 6 and interrupts the communication.

Reference numeral 7 is a resend determination means for determining whether or not to resend the communication according to an instruction from the operation input means 1 when the communication is interrupted by the communication control means 5, and 8 is the resend. When the judging means 7 judges not to resend, it is a display means for displaying that fact. When 9 determines that the retransmission is to be performed by the retransmission determining means 7, the retransmission method selecting means 10 selects the retransmission method indicating from which part of the voice information the retransmission is to be performed by the instruction from the operation input means 1, and 10 is the retransmission method. Corresponding to the resending method selected by the selecting means 9, it is resending identification display adding means for adding a resending identification display for identifying the beginning of the resending voice information to indicate resending, and the contents of the resending identification display. Is a voice such as "the subsequent voice information is a retransmission."

[0019]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the invention of claim 1, the retransmission identification indication adding means adds the retransmission identification indication to the head portion of the retransmitted voice information. It is possible to easily discriminate between the voice information at the time of normal transmission and the voice information at the time of retransmission. Further, since one of a plurality of retransmission points can be selected by the retransmission method selection means, the communication side is saved and the connection between the voice information before the interruption and the voice information received after the interruption is made by the receiving side. It is possible to retransmit in an easy-to-understand manner. Further, according to the invention of claim 2, when the length of the voice information is equal to or less than a certain amount, all the voice information is traced, and when the length of the voice information is longer than the certain amount, a certain amount is traced back from the interruption point. Retransmit the audio information from the location where For this reason, the communication charges are not wasted, and efficient transmission processing can be performed. According to the invention of claim 3, since the image information paired with the retransmitted voice information is retransmitted from the beginning, the receiving side can easily take correspondence between the retransmitted image information and the voice information. .

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing a functional configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a hardware configuration of a facsimile apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a specific example of transmission of image information and audio information.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the second embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Operation input means, 2 ... Information input means, 3 ... Information processing means, 4 ... Information storage means, 5 ... Communication control means, 6 ... Network control means, 7 ... Retransmission determination means, 8 ... Display means, 9 ... Retransmission Method selecting means, 10 ... Retransmission identification display adding means.

Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Office reference number FI Technical indication location H04N 1/00 106 B 1/32 J (72) Inventor Toshiaki Konoe 3-7-1, Iwatsuki-shi, Saitama Prefecture Inside Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A means for inputting image information, a means for inputting audio information related to the image information, and a means for accumulating the image information and the audio information, wherein the accumulated audio information is communicated with the image information. In a facsimile device that transmits and receives during the same connection call as the above, a storage unit that stores the voice information location where the communication is interrupted, and a retransmission judgment that determines whether or not to retransmit the voice information when the communication is interrupted Means, a retransmission method selecting means for selecting a retransmission location of the voice information, and a retransmission identification display adding means for adding a retransmission identification display to the head portion of the retransmission voice information when the retransmission determination means determines that the retransmission is to be performed. A facsimile apparatus, comprising: and retransmitting voice information based on the retransmission method selected by the retransmission method selecting means. 2. The resending method selecting means, means for checking the length of the voice information, means for judging whether or not the length of the voice information is a certain amount or less, and length of the voice information is When it is less than a certain amount, all the voice information is retransmitted, and when the length of the voice information is longer than a certain amount, a retransmitting means for retransmitting the voice information from a point traced back from the interruption point by a certain amount is provided. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: 3. A communication means for image information, comprising means for inputting image information, means for inputting audio information related to the image information, and means for accumulating the image information and audio information. In a facsimile apparatus that transmits and receives during the same connection call as the above, a unit that blocks the image information and the voice information, a storage unit that stores the blocked image information and the voice information as a pair, and the communication is interrupted. Storage means for storing the voice information portion that has been transmitted, a retransmission determination means for determining whether or not to retransmit the voice information when the communication is interrupted, and a voice information for the retransmission determination means. Retransmission method selection means for selecting the re-transmission method from the beginning of the block of image information that is paired with the block of No. A facsimile apparatus comprising: a re-transmission identification display adding means for adding to a portion, and re-transmitting from a head of a block of image information paired with a block of voice information in which an error has occurred.