JP2571813B2 - Image communication method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an image communication method, and in particular, receives image information of a destination sheet describing telephone number information of a plurality of destinations from a source, and receives the received destination. The phone number information is coded by recognizing the image pattern of the phone number information described on the sheet, and the image information sent from the source is sent to a plurality of destinations using the coded phone number information. The present invention relates to an image communication method in a relay broadcasting device for transmitting.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a facsimile apparatus that relays image information to a plurality of partner stations has been known. When broadcasting the same image information from a broadcast source to a plurality of remote stations (broadcast destinations) in a remote place using this type of device, first, image information to be broadcast to a certain remote station (broadcast station) is transmitted, Broadcasting to a plurality of stations in the vicinity via the broadcasting station is advantageous in terms of communication cost.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] When performing the above-mentioned broadcast operation, the broadcast source transmits the telephone number data of the broadcast destination to the broadcast station. The broadcast station broadcasts based on the destination information. However, there is a problem that a transmission error occurs due to a line condition at the time of transmission from the broadcast source to the broadcast station, and the broadcast is performed to an incorrect partner station. there were.

In particular, a method is known in which a destination sheet in which a list of telephone numbers of broadcast destinations is written by a broadcast source is transmitted to a broadcast station to specify a broadcast destination. Since the information is transmitted as information, there is a possibility that an incorrect broadcast destination telephone number is recognized due to a transmission error or a limitation in recognition capability.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above-mentioned problems and to enable reliable broadcast relay.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, in the present invention, image information of a destination sheet describing telephone number information of a plurality of destinations is received from a transmission source, and the received destination sheet is received. The phone number information is coded by recognizing the image pattern of the phone number information described in, and the image information sent from the source is transmitted to a plurality of destinations using the coded phone number information. Determining whether there is a telephone number information confirmation request from the transmission source, and when it is determined that there is a request, a font pattern based on the coded telephone number information. To generate an image, return the generated image to the transmission source, and receive image information indicating a normal response from the transmission source based on the returned image. Adopting a configuration to transmit the image information sent from the transmission source to multiple destinations using the telephone number information De of.

[Operation] According to the above configuration, when there is a telephone number confirmation request from the transmission source, a font pattern based on the recognition result of the image pattern of the telephone number information written on the destination sheet received from the transmission source is read and generated. When the image information indicating the normal response to the image is received, the image information transmitted from the source is transmitted to the plurality of destinations using the recognized telephone number information.

EXAMPLES The present invention will be described below in detail based on examples shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the structure of a facsimile apparatus having a broadcast relay function employing the present invention. Here, a device that can be used as a broadcast source and a broadcast station is shown. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a CPU composed of a microprocessor or the like, which controls the following units via a bus 7.

First, reference numeral 2 denotes a line control unit which controls connection of the telephone line 3 and modulates and demodulates transmission / reception data. Normal transmission / reception image data and broadcast image data are stored in the image memory 5 through the redundancy suppression processing of the encoding / decoding unit 4. CPU1 is
According to the program stored in the ROM 6, the control described later is performed using the RAM 11 as a work area.

In this embodiment, when performing broadcast communication, the transmitting station of the broadcast source writes the telephone number of the broadcast destination by hand on the destination sheet as shown in FIG. The obtained image information is transmitted to the broadcast relay station.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 201 denotes a bar code for identifying the destination sheet, which is printed at a predetermined position such as the left shoulder of the destination sheet 200. Reference numeral 204 denotes an entry box for writing the telephone number of the sender, 2
05 is an entry box for writing telephone numbers of a plurality of broadcast destinations.

Further, reference numeral 202 denotes a check frame for designating whether or not the broadcasting station should confirm the broadcast destination. When the destination sheet is transmitted after checking the “Yes” section of the check box 202, the broadcasting station returns the read telephone number of the broadcast destination as image information using a font. The operator of the broadcast source confirms the telephone number, checks the correctness of the telephone number in the check box 203, and returns the same to the broadcast station again. If the item “absence” in the check box 202 is checked, such broadcast destination confirmation processing is not performed.

When receiving the image information of the destination sheet, the relay station reads and recognizes the telephone number written at the position of each entry frame, and transmits the image information to the broadcast destination. For this character recognition, a correspondence table of character patterns of character codes is stored in the font memory 8 of FIG. The CPU 1 compares the character pattern of the font memory 8 with the image pattern of the entry frame of the destination sheet 200, and identifies the character code of the entered character. The obtained character code is stored in the code memory 9. The character recognition procedure is publicly known and will not be described in detail, but is assumed to be stored in the ROM 10.

FIG. 3 shows a receiving procedure of the broadcast station (relay station) in the broadcast communication. When the image information to be broadcast and the image information of the destination sheet are transmitted from the transmitting station of the broadcast source, the image information is received in step S2 in FIG. In step S3, the bar code 201 shown in FIG. 2 is detected, and if it is recognized that the transmitted image information is that of the destination sheet, a check box 20
2, the write state of 203 is determined, and step S4,
Branch to S8 and S13. Note that the information written in the entry box 204 of the transmission source is also recognized at the same time, and when the relay station is in a state of waiting for a check result response from the transmission source before communication, this information matches the transmission station information recognized in the pre-communication procedure. If not, ignore the new broadcast request (step S15),
Continues waiting for a check result response.

If a check request for the destination information is not made in the check box 202, the process proceeds to step S4 and the destination sheet is
Recognize the written information in the 200 entry boxes. In step S5, the broadcast destination telephone number based on the recognized character code is stored in the code memory 9, and in step S6, the image data in the image memory 5 is broadcasted using this telephone number.

On the other hand, if there is a confirmation request by the check frame 202 in step S3, the process proceeds to step S8. In this case, only the image information of the destination sheet 200 is transmitted to the relay station.

In steps S8 and S9, as in steps S4 and S5, the destination sheet
The character information in the 200 entry boxes 205 is recognized and stored in the code memory 9.

In step S10, the broadcast destination telephone number entered in the destination sheet 200 is correctly transmitted, and image information for causing the broadcast source operator to confirm whether or not it has been recognized is generated. For example, an image for confirmation is generated by expanding the character code of the broadcast destination telephone number stored in the code memory 9 into the image memory 5 using the font pattern in the font memory 8. In that case, the same format as that of the destination sheet 200 may be used.

In step S11, the generated confirmation image is transmitted to the transmission station of the broadcast source, and in step S12, a flag indicating that a check result response is waiting (confirmation processing is being performed) is set, and the process returns to step S12.

If the data of the broadcast destinations of the two match by comparing the confirmation image and the destination sheet 200, the transmitting side operator enters a check mark indicating correctness in the check box 203, and then re-images the destination sheet 200. Send

Destination sheet with confirmation flag set and sent
If the check box 203 of 200 has been checked, the broadcasting station proceeds to step S13 to determine the check state of the check box 203.

If a check mark is entered in the "correct" column of the check box 203 in step S13, broadcast transmission is performed using the broadcast destination telephone number stored in the code memory 9 in step S14.

On the other hand, if the "wrong" column of the check box 203 is checked, the process directly proceeds to step S7, where the image memory 5, the code memory 9, the confirmation flag, and the like are reset, and the process returns to the initial state.

According to the above embodiment, the telephone number of the broadcast destination transmitted to the broadcasting station and confirmed is returned to the transmission source as image information, and can be confirmed by the sender of the broadcasting source. The possibility of broadcasting to the station can be reduced.

In the above, an example in which the destination sheet is transmitted for each broadcast has been described. However, in the method in which the telephone number of the broadcast destination is continuously stored and used in the relay station, the information of the broadcast destination in the memory of the relay station is rewritten. In this case, the rewriting information can be confirmed by the above control.

In the above description, the broadcast station transmits the confirmation information of the telephone number to the broadcast source as image information, and the confirmation result of the broadcast destination is also transmitted as the image information. May be used to perform the confirmation processing. In this case, an operation method may be used in which the broadcaster operator causes the telephone number data to be displayed and output for confirmation, and the confirmation result to be input by a predetermined key operation or the like.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, when there is a telephone number confirmation request from a transmission source, an image pattern of telephone number information written on a destination sheet received from the transmission source The font pattern based on the recognition result is read out and the generated image is returned to the transmission source. When the image information indicating the normal response to the image is received, the image information transmitted from the transmission source is recognized using the recognized telephone number information. The transmission is sent to multiple senders, so the sender can check the recognition result of the telephone number information on the destination sheet before starting transmission. Transmission can be prevented in advance, and since the recognition result of the telephone number information and the transmission and reception of the normal response are performed using the image information, the transmission source requires no special functions. There is an excellent effect that there is no.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a facsimile apparatus adopting the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of a destination sheet used in broadcast relay, and FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a control procedure of a relay station. 1 CPU, 5 Image memory 8 Font memory 9 Code memory 200 Destination sheet 202, 203 Check box 204, 205 Entry frame

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An image processing apparatus comprising: receiving image information of a destination sheet describing telephone number information of a plurality of destinations from a transmission source; and recognizing an image pattern of the telephone number information described on the received destination sheet, thereby determining the telephone number. An image communication method in a relay broadcast device for encoding number information and transmitting image information sent from the transmission source to a plurality of destinations using the encoded telephone number information, It is determined whether there is a telephone number information confirmation request. If it is determined that there is a request, a font pattern is read out based on the coded telephone number information to generate an image, and the generated image is returned to the transmission source. When receiving image information indicating a normal response from the transmission source based on the returned image, the image information transmitted from the transmission source is transmitted using the coded telephone number information. An image communication method comprising transmitting to a plurality of destinations.