JP2005159593A - Facsimile - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a facsimile machine in which a mistake of a telephone number can be prevented even when transmission is made to a new destination and preparation therefor is simple. <P>SOLUTION: The facsimile machine (1) has a number recognition section (19) for recognizing a part of an image as a telephone number. A user inputs the telephone number of a destination through operation at an operating section (17) and enters the telephone number of the destination at a predetermined part of a first document. The facsimile machine (1) compares a telephone number inputted through the operating section (17) with the telephone number in an image recognized at a number recognition section (19). If they do not match each other, a message for asking the user which telephone number is selected is displayed at a display section (18) and a selected telephone number is transmitted as the telephone number of a destination facsimile machine. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to a facsimile machine, and more particularly to a facsimile machine having a function of preventing transmission to an erroneous transmission destination.

  A facsimile machine that reads an image from a document, transmits the read image to another apparatus via a public telephone line, receives an image from the other apparatus via a public telephone line, and prints the received image. And are widely used at home. When transmitting with a facsimile machine, a telephone number (facsimile number) for specifying a transmission destination is required, and the telephone number is usually input by a key operation.

  Most facsimile apparatuses are provided with a display unit for displaying various information, and display the input telephone number. The user can confirm the telephone number input by this display, and when the input telephone number is incorrect, the user can correct or re-enter the telephone number.

  However, the user may fail to confirm the telephone number entered by the user and send data to the wrong destination. When such a situation occurs, not only the user of the original transmission destination apparatus cannot obtain data, but also the user of the wrong transmission destination apparatus is inconvenienced. Furthermore, there is a risk that a third party may obtain data that should be kept confidential.

  Several methods for preventing an error in the destination telephone number have been proposed. For example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2000-115434 and 2000-184007, a destination telephone number and a name are stored in association with each other, and when a telephone number is input, the destination corresponding to the telephone number is stored. A facsimile apparatus is disclosed in which a name is displayed and transmission is not performed unless the user performs a predetermined operation indicating that the destination name has been confirmed.

  Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 9-55839 proposes that the first page of the document is a standard format instead of inputting the telephone number by key operation, and the destination telephone number and name are described in this form. ing. This facsimile apparatus discriminates the telephone number and name of the transmission destination by character recognition, and compares the discrimination result with information stored in advance, and automatically performs transmission.

Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-314775 proposes a facsimile apparatus that stores the telephone number when it is mistakenly transmitted to a telephone and prevents the reoccurrence of an erroneous telephone.
JP 2000-115434 A JP 2000-184007 A JP-A-9-55839 JP 2002-314775 A

  Each of these techniques is useful in preventing transmission to an erroneous destination. However, either technique stores some information related to the transmission destination in the facsimile apparatus, and cannot cope with a transmission destination in which the facsimile apparatus does not store the information.

  That is, in the facsimile apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-115434, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-184007, and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 9-55839, when transmitting to a first destination that has never been transmitted, Since information regarding the transmission destination is not stored, transmission cannot be performed. This inconvenience can be avoided by storing information about the transmission destination in the facsimile apparatus in advance, but it is inconvenient because many operations must be performed for information input. In addition, it is necessary to store information about a transmission destination that is apparently transmitted only once.

  The facsimile apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-314775 can perform transmission to a first transmission destination without storing information in advance. However, in that case, the function to prevent the telephone number error does not work.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and it is possible to prevent an error in a telephone number even when transmitting to a first transmission destination. The purpose is to provide.

  In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, in a facsimile apparatus that reads an image from a document and transmits the read image to another apparatus via a public telephone line, a telephone number is manually input prior to transmission. When the received phone number matches the entered phone number, the entered phone number is sent as the phone number of the destination device. If the input phone number does not match the recognized phone number, the transmission is suspended.

  This facsimile machine compares the telephone number entered by manual operation with the telephone number included in the scanned image, and if they match, it sends to the device with that telephone number and matches. If not, transmission is suspended. That is, it is confirmed that the telephone number input by the telephone number included in the image is correct. If it is correct, transmission is performed. Therefore, it is possible to prevent transmission to an erroneous transmission destination, and this function works even when transmitting to the first transmission destination. Moreover, since the user only has to enter the telephone number on a part of the manuscript in addition to performing a normal operation including inputting the telephone number, transmission and preparation thereof are easy.

  For the process of recognizing an image as a telephone number, a character recognition technique can be employed. Since a part to be recognized as a telephone number in the image is determined in advance, there is no problem even if a number is included in the other part of the image, and the required time is very short. If a manuscript in a fixed form with a phone number entry field corresponding to the part recognized as a phone number in the image is defined, the user can easily know where to enter the phone number in the manuscript, Also, it is preferable because it is possible to avoid forgetting to enter the telephone number.

  When the entered phone number does not match the recognized phone number, a message is displayed asking which phone number to select while holding the transmission, and one of the phone numbers is manually selected. Upon receiving an instruction to select, the selected telephone number may be transmitted as the telephone number of the destination device. In this way, the user can perform transmission without re-entering the telephone number when one of the entered telephone number and the telephone number entered on the manuscript is incorrect and the other is correct.

  In this case, when an instruction to select the input telephone number is received, the portion recognized as the telephone number in the read image may be corrected to represent the input telephone number and transmitted. In this way, it is possible to avoid the confusion of the user of the transmission destination device by transmitting an image including an incorrect telephone number.

  When a predetermined part of the read image cannot be recognized as a telephone number, transmission may be suspended. In this way, the phone number entered is correct when the phone number cannot be recognized because the phone number included in the image is unclear or the phone number is not included in the image. As a result, it is possible to prevent transmission.

  In this case, when a predetermined part of the scanned image cannot be recognized as a telephone number, a message requesting confirmation that the input telephone number is correct is displayed while the transmission is suspended, and the manual operation is performed. After receiving the confirmation instruction, the input telephone number may be transmitted as the telephone number of the destination device. In this way, the user can perform transmission without re-entering the telephone number as long as the correct telephone number is input.

  When a plurality of images to be transmitted at one time are read, a predetermined portion of the first read image may be recognized as a telephone number. If there are multiple images, it is necessary to check which image contains the phone number unless it is determined in advance which image the destination phone number is included in. However, this processing is unnecessary. In general, the user of the facsimile apparatus writes the name of the other party on the first page of the manuscript as a cover letter (cover letter), so it is convenient to enter only the telephone number on this page.

  According to the facsimile apparatus of the present invention, even when transmitting to the first transmission destination, when the telephone number is incorrect, it can be detected, and erroneous transmission can be prevented. Moreover, since the user only has to enter the telephone number on a part of the manuscript in addition to performing a normal operation including inputting the telephone number, transmission and preparation thereof are easy.

  Hereinafter, an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 schematically shows the configuration of the facsimile apparatus 1 of the present embodiment. The facsimile apparatus 1 includes a CPU 11, a ROM 12, a RAM 13, a communication unit 14, an image reading unit 15, a printing unit 16, an operation unit 17, and a display unit 18.

  The CPU 11 controls the overall operation of the facsimile apparatus 1. The ROM 12 stores a program describing the control performed by the CPU 11 and parameters used for the control. The RAM 13 stores images transmitted to other devices and images received from other devices, and also stores parameters temporarily used by the CPU 11 for control.

  The communication unit 14 transmits images to other devices via the public telephone line 2 and receives images from other devices. The image reading unit 15 reads an image to be transmitted to another apparatus from a document. There are several types of originals to be read, such as B4, A4, and B5. When a plurality of documents are set, the image reading unit 15 sequentially reads images from these documents. Images read in this way are transmitted at once. The printing unit 16 prints an image received from another apparatus on a sheet.

  The operation unit 17 includes a plurality of keys and buttons (not shown), and accepts user operations. The keys of the operation unit 17 include ten numeric keys for inputting numerical values from “0” to “9”, and the user operates these numeric keys to determine the destination device. Enter the telephone number (facsimile number). The display unit 18 displays the setting status of the facsimile machine 1, operation guidance, and the like.

  The facsimile apparatus 1 compares the telephone number input by operating the key of the operation unit 17 and the telephone number included in the image read from the document, and if the two match, the facsimile number is set. It is transmitted as a destination telephone number, and has a function of deferring transmission when both do not match. The facsimile machine 1 has a number recognition unit 19 for recognizing an image read from a document as a telephone number.

  Recognizing an image as a telephone number, that is, a number, is performed by a character recognition technique. Various methods for character recognition have been developed and are currently under development. However, since character recognition itself is not a feature of the present invention, description thereof is omitted. What is necessary is just to employ | adopt the method which can recognize an image as a number reliably and for a short time.

  In the facsimile apparatus 1, it is assumed that a predetermined part of the image represents a telephone number. When there is one image to be transmitted, the part representing the telephone number is naturally in the image. In addition, when there are a plurality of images to be transmitted, it is assumed that the part representing the telephone number is in the first read image. This is to reduce the time required for processing by eliminating the need to check which image includes the telephone number. In addition, it is common practice to use the first page of the manuscript as a cover page and fill in this page with the name of the recipient and the name of the sender. This is because it is convenient for the user.

  An example of such a document is shown in FIG. This is a cover sheet in a fixed form provided with a column indicating a destination as a transmission destination and a column indicating a user of the facsimile apparatus 1 as a transmission source. In the column indicating the partner, a column A for entering a telephone number is provided next to the heading “FAX number” in addition to the column for entering the affiliation and name of the partner.

  The manuscript for filling in the telephone number of the destination can be in any form as long as the position and size of the telephone number entry field are constant. However, if the standard form as shown in FIG. It becomes clear that it should be filled in, and where the phone number should be filled is also clarified, so that it is possible to avoid forgetting to fill in or writing in the wrong position. The telephone number may be entered by handwriting, or the entire manuscript including the telephone number may be created and printed by a word processor.

  Information indicating a portion representing a telephone number in the image, that is, a portion to be subjected to character recognition by the number recognition unit 19 is stored in the ROM 12. As described above, since the facsimile apparatus 1 can read images from several types of originals having different sizes, a portion representing a telephone number in the images is determined according to the size of the image. Information corresponding to the size of the image read by the image reading unit 15 is read from the ROM 12 and given to the number recognition unit 19.

  The number recognition unit 19 notifies the CPU 11 of the success or failure of the recognition after the recognition process is completed. In the example shown in FIG. 2, a hyphen “-” is inserted between the telephone numbers, but the number recognition unit 19 ignores the recognized hyphen. Further, it is assumed that the number recognition unit 19 fails to recognize when characters other than numerals and hyphens are recognized, and also fails to recognize when no characters can be detected.

  When the telephone number input by operating the key of the operation unit 17 and the telephone number recognized by the number recognition unit 19 do not match, the facsimile apparatus 1 indicates that and the telephone number, and A message is displayed asking the user whether to select a telephone number or to re-enter the telephone number by key operation. An example of this display is shown in FIG.

  In response to this message, the user operates the keys of the operation unit 17 to instruct to select one of the telephone numbers or to instruct re-input. When any one of the telephone numbers is selected, the facsimile apparatus 1 transmits the selected number as the telephone number of the transmission destination apparatus. Therefore, the user can promptly transmit if the correct telephone number is entered or the correct telephone number is entered in the manuscript.

  Here, when the input telephone number is selected, the telephone number included in the image is incorrect. If the image including the wrong telephone number is transmitted as it is, the user of the transmission destination apparatus is suspicious as to whether or not the received image is addressed to himself / herself. Therefore, when the input telephone number is selected, the part of the image that is the object of character recognition by the number recognition unit 19 is replaced with a numerical image representing the input telephone number.

  When the user enters a telephone number on the manuscript by handwriting, the number recognition unit 19 may not recognize the telephone number. Also, when the user forgets to enter the telephone number in the manuscript, the number recognition unit 19 cannot recognize the telephone number. In such a case, the facsimile apparatus 1 indicates that the telephone number of the read image cannot be recognized, indicates the telephone number input by the key operation of the operation unit 17, and whether the input characters are correct or the telephone number A message is displayed asking the user whether to re-enter by key operation. An example of this display is shown in FIG.

  In response to this message, the user operates the keys of the operation unit 17 to instruct to confirm the correctness of the input telephone number or to perform re-input. Therefore, as long as the user inputs a correct telephone number, the user can promptly transmit.

  The flow of transmission processing in the facsimile machine 1 is shown in FIG. First, input of a telephone number indicating the start of transmission processing is waited (step # 10), and when a telephone number is input by a key operation of the operation unit 17, the telephone number is stored in the RAM 13 (# 12). Next, it waits for a transmission instruction to be given by operating a predetermined key of the operation unit 17 (# 14). The user sets the document on the image reading unit 15 before giving this transmission instruction. When a transmission instruction is given, the image reading unit 15 reads an image from the document (# 16), and stores the read image in the RAM 13 (# 18).

  Next, the number recognition unit 19 recognizes a telephone number included in a predetermined portion of the original read first (# 20). Then, it is determined whether or not the recognition is successful (# 22). When the telephone number is successfully recognized, the recognized telephone number is stored in the RAM 13 (# 24), and whether or not the telephone number input in step # 10 matches the telephone number recognized in step # 20. Is determined (# 26).

  If the input telephone number matches the recognized telephone number, the input telephone number is set as the telephone number of the destination device (# 30), and the image read in step # 16 is transmitted. (# 32). Then, the process returns to step # 10 to wait for input of a telephone number for the next transmission.

  If it is determined in step # 22 that the telephone number has not been successfully recognized, that is, if the telephone number is not included in the image or is not correctly recognized as a telephone number even if it is included, step # 22 is executed. The above-described message (FIG. 3B) including the telephone number input at 10 is displayed on the display unit 18 (# 40). Then, the user waits for an instruction to confirm the correctness of the input telephone number or an instruction to re-enter the telephone number by the key operation of the operation unit 17 (# 42, # 44).

  When a confirmation instruction is given in the determination of step # 42, the input telephone number is set as the telephone number of the transmission destination apparatus (# 46), and the image is transmitted (# 48). Then, the process returns to step # 10.

  If it is determined in step # 44 that an instruction for re-entering the telephone number is given, the system waits for the telephone number to be input by key operation of the operation unit 17 (# 70), and stores the input telephone number. (# 72), the telephone number is set as the telephone number of the destination device (# 74). Then, the image is transmitted (# 76), and the process returns to step # 10.

  If it is determined in step # 26 that the input telephone number does not match the recognized telephone number, the above-mentioned message (FIG. 3A) including those telephone numbers is displayed on the display unit 18 (# 50). Then, the user waits for an instruction to select one of the telephone numbers or an instruction to re-enter the telephone number by the key operation of the operation unit 17 (# 52, # 54). .

  If it is determined in step 52 that an instruction to select one of the telephone numbers is given, it is determined whether or not the selected telephone number is the telephone number input in step # 10 ( If it is an input telephone number, the portion to be recognized in step # 20 in the image is replaced with an image representing the input telephone number (# 58). Then, the selected telephone number is set as the destination telephone number (# 60), the image is transmitted (# 62), and the process returns to step # 10.

  If it is determined in step # 54 that an instruction to re-enter the telephone number is given, the process proceeds to step # 70 and the above-described processing is performed.

  In the facsimile apparatus 1 according to the present embodiment, when the telephone number is not included in the image, transmission is performed only by confirming that the telephone number input by the key operation of the operation unit 17 is correct. However, when the image does not include a telephone number, transmission may not be performed. In this way, based on the telephone number included in the image, the function of preventing transmission to the wrong telephone number can be reliably exhibited. In that case, when the telephone number is not included in the image, a message indicating that the telephone number should be written on the manuscript is displayed. An example of the display is shown in FIG.

  Further, in the facsimile apparatus 1, the image including the telephone number is the first read image, but the image including the telephone number may be the last read image. However, it is customary to use the first page of the manuscript as a cover page, and it is possible to enter a phone number on this page, and it is not unnatural to enter a phone number on the cover page. As in the present embodiment, it is preferable that the image including the telephone number is the first read image.

  Also, here, when the input phone number does not match the recognized phone number, and the input phone number is selected, an image representing the input phone number of the portion to be recognized in the image However, even when the recognition is not possible, the portion to be recognized in the image may be replaced with an image representing the input telephone number. In this way, an image including a phone number that is difficult to read or an image in which the corresponding phone number field is blank even though there is a heading such as “FAX number” is transmitted to the user of the destination device You can avoid feeling uncomfortable.

1 is a diagram schematically illustrating a configuration of a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. The figure which shows the example of the original document which entered the telephone number of the transmission destination which the said facsimile machine reads. The figure which shows the example of the message which the said facsimile apparatus displays at the time of transmission processing. 6 is a flowchart showing a flow of transmission processing of the facsimile apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

1 Fax machine 11 CPU
12 ROM
13 RAM
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 14 Communication part 15 Image reading part 16 Printing part 17 Operation part 18 Display part 19 Number recognition part 2 Public telephone line

Claims (6)

In a facsimile machine that reads an image from a document and transmits the read image to another device via a public telephone line,
Prior to sending, the phone number is entered manually, and a predetermined part of the scanned image is recognized as the phone number.
When the entered phone number matches the recognized phone number, the entered phone number is sent as the phone number of the destination device, and when the entered phone number does not match the recognized phone number, send is sent. A facsimile machine characterized by holding. When the entered phone number does not match the recognized phone number, a message is displayed asking you to select one of those phone numbers while holding the transmission,
2. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein after receiving an instruction to select any telephone number by manual operation, the selected telephone number is transmitted as the telephone number of the destination apparatus.   3. When receiving an instruction to select an input telephone number, a portion recognized as a telephone number in a read image is corrected to represent the input telephone number, and transmission is performed. The facsimile apparatus described in 1.   The facsimile apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein transmission is suspended when a predetermined portion of the read image cannot be recognized as a telephone number. When a certain part of the scanned image cannot be recognized as a phone number, a message is displayed requesting confirmation that the entered phone number is correct while the transmission is on hold,
5. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 4, wherein after receiving a confirmation instruction by manual operation, the input telephone number is transmitted as the telephone number of the destination apparatus.   6. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when a plurality of images to be transmitted at one time are read, a predetermined portion of the first read image is recognized as a telephone number.

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