JPH08149312A - Communication equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a communication equipment to realize an inexpensive OCR facsimile equipment employing an operating system of single task specification. CONSTITUTION: Facsimile MODEMs 3a, 3b,..., 3n each with a memory mounted thereto are connected to an input section of an arithmetic processing unit 2 provided with an operating system of single task specification including a monitor program and a character recognition means and the reception of received information stored in the memory of the facsimile MODEMs 3a, 3b,...,3n by the character recognition means is controlled by the monitor program to store facsimile reception information into the memory of any of the facsimile MODEMs 3a, 3b,..., 3n even when the character recognition means is under character recognition processing.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a communication device for an arithmetic processor for character recognition.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a slip is used when an item is ordered from a retail store to a wholesaler. Then, for example, this voucher is transmitted from a retail store to a wholesaler using a facsimile machine, and the wholesaler inputs the received data into a control device such as a computer. In such a method, mistakes in key input are likely to occur, and labor costs increase.

Therefore, although an arithmetic processing unit typified by a computer uses a keyboard as an input terminal to take in various kinds of information, there is also one in which a facsimile machine is used as an input terminal. That is, handwritten or printed character information is received by a facsimile machine, the character information is taken into a character recognition means in an arithmetic processing unit, an automatic character recognition process (so-called OCR process) is performed, and converted into code data. The input information is input to the computer. Such a method is called "OCR facsimile" or "FAX-OCR", and is used, for example, for automatic input of handwritten numerical values in the ordering slip as described above.

[0004]

However, the conventional OC
In the R facsimile, in order to efficiently recognize the handwritten characters received by the facsimile, an operating system (command processing,
This means basic software at the PC level that controls input / output, interrupts, and manages external storage devices.
Hereinafter, in this specification, it is necessary to use "abbreviated as" OS "). However, with a single-task OS, OC
Although it is possible to have the function of R facsimile,
For that purpose, it is necessary to perform virtual multitask processing, and the CPU in the computer is enormously burdened. Therefore, it is necessary to use an expensive one capable of high-speed processing. In any case, the present situation is that the OCR facsimile is expensive.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided an input section of an arithmetic processing unit comprising a single task specification operating system including a monitoring program and character recognition means,
A communication device is configured so that a facsimile modem equipped with a memory is connected and the reception program stored in the memory of the facsimile modem is controlled by the monitoring program to be taken in by the character recognition means.

[0006]

By using a facsimile modem equipped with a memory and having a storage function, while the character recognition means in the processor is performing character recognition, a facsimile modem equipped with this memory can be used. The received information received by facsimile is temporarily stored in the memory, and when the character recognition process ends, the monitoring program monitors the facsimile modem side and if the received information is stored in the memory, the received information is read from this memory. Since character recognition can be performed by incorporating it into the character recognition means, efficient character recognition processing can be performed even with an arithmetic processor equipped with an inexpensive single-task specification OS.

[0007]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. First, a computer 2 that includes a display 1 and the like and serves as an arithmetic processing unit is provided. This computer 2
Has a character recognition means (not shown) and is equipped with a single task OS. A monitoring program is included in this OS. A plurality of (n) facsimile modems 3 are provided in the input section of such a computer 2.
, 3n are switchably connected by a switch 4. These facsimile modems 3a, 3b,
, 3n are each equipped with a memory (not shown) capable of storing received information, and the facsimile lines 5a, 5b,
, 5n and a facsimile (not shown) are connected to the public line. In this way, OC with multi-line configuration
R facsimile is built.

In such a configuration, the computer 2
The OS executes each process according to the single task specification. For example, if the program is being executed, the program execution is continued. Further, if the data for character recognition has been taken in by the character recognition means, the character recognition processing by the character recognition means is executed. In this way, if a facsimile is received while the computer 2 is performing processing such as character recognition processing, the received information is sequentially stored in the memory of the facsimile modem 3 of the corresponding line. After that, when the character recognition processing by the character recognition means is completed, the computer 2 monitors the state of the facsimile modem side according to the monitoring program. That is, the switching device 4 is appropriately switched (for example, the facsimile modem 3a → the facsimile modem 3b).
→ ... → Switches in the order of the facsimile modem 3n), and checks whether or not there is a facsimile modem 3 that stores the received information in the memory, and if there is, receives the received information from the memory of the facsimile modem 3 into the character recognition means,
Character recognition processing is executed for the received information. Also in this case, if there is facsimile reception, the reception operation is performed by sequentially storing the received information in the memory in the facsimile modem 3 of the corresponding line.

That is, by using the facsimile modem 3 having a memory for receiving a facsimile for computer input, the facsimile receiving function may be impaired even when the computer 2 is performing character recognition processing according to the single task specification. Absent. Therefore, it is sufficient for the computer 2 to be provided with an OS of single task specification, and the load on the CPU thereof may be light, so that the OCR facsimile can be realized by an inexpensive computer. In this case, by using the switch 4, it is possible to configure the system for multiple lines by simply providing the facsimile modem 3 for the necessary lines without using a special device.

In implementing the present invention, only a single facsimile modem (eg, facsimile modem 3a
Of course, the configuration may be such that only the switch) is provided and the switch 4 is not required.

[0011]

According to the present invention, a facsimile modem having a memory is connected to an input unit of an arithmetic processing unit including a monitoring program and an operating system of a single task specification and a character recognizing means. Since the communication device is configured to control the reception of the received information stored in the memory in the character recognizing means by the monitoring program, facsimile reception is possible even with an inexpensive configuration using a single-task OS. Efficient character recognition processing can be performed without impairing the function.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic connection diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Processor 3 Facsimile modem

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A facsimile modem having a memory is connected to an input unit of an arithmetic processing unit including a monitoring program including an operating system of a single task specification and a character recognizing unit, and stored in the memory in the facsimile modem. The communication device is characterized in that the monitoring program controls fetching of the received information to the character recognition means.