JP2004032418A - Image communication device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image communication device capable of selecting a suitable resolution conversion method in accordance with the sort of picture data whose resolution is to be converted when the picture data are received as a facsimile image. <P>SOLUTION: The image communication device is provided with a resolution discrimination means 1 for discriminating the resolution of picture data, 1st and 2nd image processing means 14A, 14B, a means 14E for printing out the image processed by the 1st and 2nd image processing means 14A, 14B, and a control means for selecting which image processing means out of the 1st and 2nd image processing means 14A, 14B processes the picture data on the basis of the discriminated result of the resolution discrimination means 1 in the case of printing out the picture data by the printing output means 14E. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2004,JPO

Description

[0001]
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an improvement in an image communication device such as a facsimile device.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, image communication apparatuses such as facsimile apparatuses have been widely used, but the resolution of printers has been increasing year by year. On the other hand, in order to meet this requirement, the recommendation calls for a higher resolution of facsimile communication.
[0003]
In other words, the resolution of facsimile communication is set to 16 dots / mm × 15.4 line / mm in Hyperfine, which has the highest resolution, in order to respond to the printer resolution becoming 600 dpi and 1200 dpi.
[0004]
Therefore, for data received by facsimile, the resolution of the received data is converted and increased before printing so as to match the resolution of the printer, and then printed.
[0005]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
However, when the image data to be converted is binary data, the resolution is converted as it is and the smoothing process is performed. However, in the case of the pseudo halftone, such a process deteriorates the image quality.
[0006]
In the case of the pseudo halftone, unlike the processing of the binary data, a processing of once converting the data to multi-valued data, converting the resolution, and returning to the binary data is required.
[0007]
Conventionally, the resolution conversion processing has only one of the above-described processing functions, and it has not been possible to perform appropriate resolution conversion depending on the type of image data to be converted.
[0008]
Therefore, the present invention provides an image communication apparatus that has both of the above processing functions and can select an appropriate resolution conversion method according to the type of image data to be converted when the image data is received by facsimile. It is intended to be.
[0009]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
In order to achieve the above object, an image communication apparatus according to claim 1 of the present invention comprises a resolution determining unit for determining the resolution of image data, a first and a second image processing unit, and a first and a second image processing unit. Means for printing and outputting the image processed by the image processing means, and when the image data is printed and output by the print output means, the image data is converted into one of the first and second image processing by the determination result of the resolution determining means. Control means for selecting whether to perform processing by means.
[0010]
In the image communication apparatus according to the second aspect, the first image processing means performs resolution conversion processing and smoothing processing of the image data, while the second image processing means converts the image data into multi-valued image data. Then, a process of converting the resolution of the multi-valued image data into binary image data is performed.
[0011]
In the image communication apparatus according to the third aspect, the resolution determining means includes a storage means for storing resolution information of a facsimile communication procedure signal received before receiving the image data, and the resolution read out from the storage means. The resolution of the image data is determined based on the information.
[0012]
BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[0013]
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating an example of a main configuration of a communication device according to the present invention. Here, the configuration of the facsimile machine F is shown as a communication device, but the present invention is not limited to this example, and any device that can execute various functions and can be connected to a communication network such as the Internet is used. May be.
[0014]
The facsimile apparatus F includes an MPU 1 for controlling the facsimile apparatus F, an NCU 2 for controlling connection to a telephone line, a modem 3 for modulating and demodulating various signals necessary for facsimile communication, and a scanner 4 for reading and forming image data. When performing facsimile communication, a communication codec 5 that encodes and decodes image data, a keypad 7 including various keys, a display unit 6 including a liquid crystal screen, etc. It has a LAN interface 8 for connecting to one LAN, a ROM 9 for recording various programs necessary for the operation of the facsimile machine F, and a management table 10A to be described later, and stores a speed dial and the like. A RAM 10, an image memory 11 for temporarily storing image data, and A print codec 12 that encodes and decodes the image data, a memory management unit 13 that manages the image memory 11 and the page memory 16, an image processing circuit 14 for print, and a printer mechanism control unit that controls the printer mechanism. 15 is provided.
[0015]
The printing image processing circuit 14 includes a resolution conversion smoothing circuit 14A, a multi-level resolution conversion re-binarization circuit 14B, a selector 14C, a register 14D, and an LED print head 14E.
[0016]
The resolution conversion smoothing circuit 14A converts the binary data as it is to convert the resolution as it is and performs the smoothing process. After converting to value data, resolution conversion accompanied by linear interpolation is performed, and thereafter, processing for returning to binary data by an error diffusion method (or dither method) is performed.
[0017]
The selector 14C selects which of the resolution conversion smoothing circuit 14A and the multi-level resolution conversion re-binarization circuit 14B performs the resolution conversion of the image data in accordance with the resolution of the image data determined by the MPU 1. I do.
[0018]
The resolution of the image data determined by the MPU 1 is stored in the register 14D.
[0019]
In such a configuration, the present invention is characterized by performing the following processing. This will be described with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS.
[0020]
FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the resolution conversion processing of the received image data. When a facsimile is received and a print job is started (100), it is checked whether there is free space in the page memory 16 (101).
[0021]
When the image data is received by facsimile, the resolution data of the image data is received by the facsimile communication at the preceding stage, and is stored in the management memory 10A. The received image data is stored in the image memory 11 in an encoded state.
[0022]
The facsimile machine F reads out the resolution data stored in the management memory 10A (102), and sets the resolution data in the print codec 5 and the register 14D of the print image processing circuit 14 (103).
[0023]
Then, the print codec 5 is activated, the image data stored in the image memory is decoded according to the set resolution (104), and the process of storing each page in the page memory 16 is performed for all pages of the job. (105, 106).
[0024]
Subsequently, the resolution of the received data obtained in such a process and stored in the page memory 16 is converted as shown in FIG.
[0025]
That is, the facsimile apparatus F transfers the image data in the image memory 11 to the print image processing circuit 14 for each page. At this time, the resolution data stored in the register 14D is determined, and as a result, the normal image data If there is (200), the selector 14D selects the resolution conversion smoothing circuit 14A as the resolution conversion means (201).
[0026]
The reason why the resolution conversion smoothing circuit 14A is selected when the resolution is normal and the multi-level resolution conversion re-binarization circuit 14B is selected when the resolution is fine is as follows.
[0027]
That is, normally, a pseudo halftone image is rarely transmitted at a low resolution. This is because the image quality is poor even if the pseudo halftone processing is performed at a low resolution.
[0028]
Therefore, image data transmitted at a high resolution is likely to be pseudo halftone data, and image data transmitted at a low resolution is likely to be binary data.
[0029]
Then, the facsimile apparatus F reads out the image data from the image memory 11 and performs the resolution conversion process by using one of the circuits 14A and 14B (203).
[0030]
At this time, if the transfer clock signal has been output (204), the image data for one line subjected to the resolution conversion processing is output to the LED print head 14E in synchronization with the clock signal (205) and printed out. This is repeatedly printed out over all pages (206).
[0031]
【The invention's effect】
As described above, in the image communication device according to the first aspect of the present invention, when the received image data is printed out by the print output unit, the image data is converted into the first and second images by the determination result of the resolution determination unit. (2) Since the user selects which one of the image processing means to process, when the image data is received by facsimile, an appropriate resolution conversion method can be selected according to the type of the image data to be converted, which is convenient.
[0032]
In the image communication apparatus according to the second aspect, the first image processing means performs resolution conversion processing and smoothing processing of the image data, while the second image processing means converts the image data into multi-valued image data. Since the multi-valued image data is subjected to resolution conversion and converted into binary image data, the resolution conversion is performed by an appropriate method depending on the type of the received image data, that is, whether the image data is binary image data or a pseudo halftone image. can do.
[0033]
In the image communication apparatus according to the third aspect, the resolution determining means includes a storage means for storing resolution information of a facsimile communication procedure signal received before receiving the image data, and the resolution read out from the storage means. Since the resolution of the image data is determined based on the information, the resolution of the received image data can be determined by a simple method.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of a main configuration of an image communication apparatus according to the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating an operation of the image communication device.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining an operation of the image communication device.
[Explanation of symbols]
F: Facsimile machine 1: MPU
10A management table 14A resolution conversion smoothing circuit 14B multi-level resolution conversion re-binarization circuit 14C selector 14E LED print head

Claims (3)

Resolution determining means for determining the resolution of image data, first and second image processing means, means for printing out images processed by the first and second image processing means, An image communication apparatus comprising: control means for selecting which of the first and second image processing means should process the image data according to the result of determination by the resolution determining means when printing out by the print output means . In claim 1,
The first image processing means performs resolution conversion processing and smoothing processing of the image data, while the second image processing means converts the image data into multi-valued image data and outputs the multi-valued image data. An image communication device that performs a process of converting the resolution into binary image data. In claim 1 or claim 2,
The resolution determining means includes storage means for storing resolution information of a facsimile communication procedure signal received before receiving image data, and determines the resolution of the image data based on the resolution information read from the storage means. Image communication device.

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