JP2574603B2 - Image communication device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image communication apparatus capable of handling a plurality of types of lines, and more particularly to a control for selecting a line to be used in this type of image communication apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As this type of image communication apparatus, there is a facsimile apparatus capable of performing both G3 facsimile communication using an analog line (public telephone line or the like) and G4 facsimile communication using a digital line (such as an ISDN line).

Conventionally, such a facsimile apparatus cannot use a digital line at first when making a call because it is not possible to determine in advance whether the facsimile apparatus to communicate with is a G3 facsimile apparatus or a G4 facsimile apparatus. Tried G4 facsimile communication, and when it was unsuccessful due to line incompatibility,
It was configured to perform facsimile communication (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-284066, etc.).

[0004]

However, according to the above-described configuration, for example, when G4 facsimile communication is attempted first, a digital line is unnecessarily accessed every time communication is performed with the G3 facsimile apparatus. There was a problem that the efficiency of the was poor.

[0005] It is an object of the present invention to provide an image communication apparatus such as a facsimile apparatus which reduces such useless line access and enables more efficient communication.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above object, the present invention controls image communication corresponding to different types of lines.
A plurality of communication control means to control the
Corresponds to the line type that matches
Refers to the above-mentioned line type of the communication destination when making a call
Line selection to determine the order of selection of lines to use for communication
Means and the rank of the line determined by the line determination means
A communication requester who requests the communication control means to perform communication in accordance with
And the step according to the result of the communication by the communication control means.
Update means for updating the contents of the storage means.
It is a thing.

[0007]

According to the present invention, with the above-described configuration, for a communication destination which has successfully communicated on a certain type of line, the same type of line is preferentially selected next time and communication is attempted, but the probability of success is extremely high. high. This is because it is extremely rare that the line type of the same communication destination is changed.

[0008] Even if the line type of the communication destination is changed, a communication failure due to the line non-conformity occurs only once with respect to the communication destination. Useless access to the line can be prevented.

[0009]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an image communication apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. This image communication device (hereinafter, referred to as the present device) is a G3 facsimile device (G3 FAX) using an analog line such as a public telephone line, and a G4 facsimile device (G4 FAX) using an ISDN line. Any of G4 facsimile communication is possible.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a numeric keypad for inputting a telephone number of a communication destination facsimile apparatus, etc., 2 denotes an LED display unit for notifying a user of the state of the apparatus, and 3 denotes a control unit for controlling the entire apparatus. 4 is a flash memory for storing learning data and the like, 5 is a G3 control unit for controlling G3 facsimile communication using an analog line, and 6 is a G4 facsimile communication using an ISDN line. Control unit 7, a scanner for reading a transmission original, and a printer 8 for outputting a reception original. The main control unit 3 includes a line selection unit 10 and a learning unit 11.

Incidentally, a battery backup RAM may be used instead of the flash memory 4. The main control unit 3 is configured as a program control type device including a microprocessor and peripheral circuits, and the functions of the line selection unit 10 and the learning unit 11 are realized by a program. However, the main control unit 3 may be constituted only by hardware.

FIG. 2 shows the structure of the learning data in the flash memory 4. As illustrated, the learning data is stored in a table 13 including a maximum of m records. The contents of each record 14 are a telephone number (tx) of a communication destination, a line flag indicating a line type, and the number of times of use (nx). As will be described later, the records 14 of the table 13 are sorted in the order of the number of times of use, so that the record 14 of the communication destination having a higher communication frequency is arranged closer to the head of the table 13 (the upper end in FIG. 2).

Hereinafter, the operation when transmitting from the present apparatus will be described. FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the main control unit 3 in this case.

The main control unit 3 reads the telephone number of the communication destination input by the user from the numeric keypad 1 (S
1). Next, the line selection unit 10 of the main control unit 3 searches the telephone number of the communication destination from the top of the table 13 on the flash memory 4 and, when a corresponding record is found, determines the state of the line type flag ( S2).

When the line type flag indicates the G3 line, that is, the analog line, the line selecting section 10 determines the analog line to be selected first, so that the main control section 3 calls the G3 control section 5 by telephone. The number is passed to request communication (S3). The G3 control unit 5 makes a call to a communication destination using an analog line, and attempts G3 facsimile communication (transmission). Note that the data of the transmission original is input from the scanner 7 to the G3 control unit 5.

The G3 control unit 5 notifies the main control unit 3 of the communication result. The main control unit 3 determines the communication result (S6), and when the communication is normally completed, causes the learning unit 11 to execute the table update A process (S12). The contents of this processing will be described later with reference to FIG. On the other hand,
When notified of the line type error, the main control unit 3
Requests the G4 control unit 6 to communicate by designating a telephone number (S7), and then causes the learning unit 11 to execute a table update B process (S13). The contents of this processing will be described later with reference to FIG.

When the line type flag of the record of the searched communication destination indicates the G4 line, that is, the ISDN line,
Since the line selection unit 10 determines the ISDN line as the line to be selected first, the main control unit 3 passes the telephone number to the G4 control unit 6 and requests communication (S4). The G4 control unit 6 makes a call using the ISDN line, attempts G4 facsimile communication (transmission), and notifies the main control unit 3 of the communication result. The main control unit 3 determines the communication result (S8).
The process is executed (S12). However, when notified of the line type error, the main control unit 3 sets the G3 control unit 5
To request communication (S9), and then causes the learning unit 11 to execute a table update B process (S13).

When the telephone number of the communication destination is not found by the search of the table 13, the line selection unit 10 of the main control unit 3 performs the ISD according to the default line selection order.
Since the N line is determined as the line to be selected first, the main control unit 3 requests the G4 control unit 6 for communication (S5).
The communication result from the G4 control unit 6 is determined (S10). Then, when the communication result is normally completed, the main control unit 3 causes the learning unit 11 to execute the table update B process (S1).
3) If a line type error occurs, the G3 control unit 5 is requested to perform communication (S11), and then the learning unit 11 is caused to execute a table update B process (S13).

Next, the table update A process will be described with reference to FIG. This process updates the learning data according to the result of communication with the communication destination registered in the table 13.

First, the number of uses in the record of the current communication destination is increased by 1 (S21), and the records 14 are sorted in descending order of the number of uses (S22). After sorting, it is checked whether there is another communication destination having the same number of uses as the current communication destination (S23). If there are two or more communication destinations having the same number of times of use, these records should be arranged consecutively, so the record of the current communication destination is moved to the beginning (S24).

Thus, a record of a communication destination having a larger number of times of use, that is, a communication frequency is moved to the head of the table 13. Move to the head of the table 13. The purpose of such a record moving operation is to increase the efficiency of a table search at the time of calling.

Next, the table update B processing will be described with reference to FIG. First, it is determined whether the current communication destination has been registered in the table 13 (S31). This determination can be made from the progress of the process before entering the process.

If it has been registered, the line type flag of the record of the current communication destination is rewritten so as to indicate a line type different from the previous one, the number of times of use is increased by one (S32), and the update process is terminated. I do.

If the current communication destination is unregistered, it is determined whether the table 13 is full (S33). If the communication destination is full, the last record of the table 13 is deleted and 1
The number of empty records is secured (S34). Then, the telephone number of the current communication destination, the line type flag, and the number of times of use (once) are set in the record closest to the head among the empty records in the table 13 (S24). The line type flag at this time is set as an ISDN line when the table update B process is entered from step S7 or S10, and is set as an analog line when entered from step S9 or S11.

FIG. 6 shows an example in which an ISDN line is first selected and G
4 shows a protocol when four facsimile transmissions are successful. FIG. 7 shows a protocol in a case where an ISDN line is first selected and a call is made, but fails due to line incompatibility, and then an analog line is selected and G3 facsimile transmission is successful.

As can be seen from FIG. 6, there is no charge in the ISDN until the network returns CONNECT. As shown in FIG. 7, even if a call is made to the ISDN line, the line is incompatible and DISCONNECT (disconnection) is performed from the network.
Is returned, there is no charge. Therefore, according to the method of preferentially selecting an ISDN line as a default when a communication destination is not registered in the table 13 in step S2 of FIG. 5, unnecessary charging is avoided as compared with the method of first selecting an analog line. Thus, an effect of saving communication costs can be obtained.

Although the embodiment for performing facsimile communication has been described above, the present invention can be applied to an apparatus for performing image communication other than facsimile communication, and also to a similar image communication apparatus corresponding to three or more types of lines. Applicable.

[0028]

As is evident from the above invention, the present invention provides a method for controlling image communication corresponding to different types of lines.
Communication control means and the number of times
A memory device that associates with a line type and stores it in accordance with the number of uses.
And communication with reference to the line type of the communication destination when making a call.
Line determination means for determining the selection order of the line to be used for
According to the order of the lines determined by the line determining means.
Communication request means for requesting the communication control means to perform communication,
The storage means according to a result of communication by the communication control means.
And updating means for updating the contents of the
The contents of the storage means to determine the line type of the communication destination.
Separately, select the communication control means corresponding to this line type
Since communication is being performed, useless
If you can reduce access and communicate efficiently
This has the effect.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of an image communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a structure of learning data;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a transmission operation of a main control unit.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a table updating A process of a learning unit.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a table update B process of a learning unit.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a protocol when G4 facsimile transmission is successfully performed from the beginning.

FIG. 7: G4 facsimile transmission to G due to line mismatch
Diagram showing protocol when switching to 3 facsimile transmission

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Numeric keypad 2 LED display part 3 Main control part 4 Flash memory 5 G3 control part 6 G4 control part 7 Scanner 8 Printer 10 Line selection part 11 Learning part 13 Learning data table 14 Learning data record

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. An image communication system corresponding to different types of lines.
A plurality of communication control means for controlling, a telephone number of a communication destination,
Corresponds to matching line type and stores according to the number of uses
And the line type of the communication destination when making a call.
Line selection to determine the selection order of the line used for communication
Setting means and the order of the lines determined by the line determining means.
Communication request for requesting communication to the communication control means according to the order
Means according to the result of the communication by the communication control means.
Update means for updating the contents of the storage means.
Characteristic image communication device.