JP2580165B2 - Facsimile machine - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus.

[Prior art] Generally, when transmitting an image by a facsimile machine,
After the operator sets a document to be transmitted on the apparatus, various types of information necessary for transmission, such as a destination, are set. After the setting is completed, the start key is turned on.
As a result, the transmission control process by the facsimile apparatus is started, and at the message transmission stage, the set transmission original is read and transmitted to the destination. When the transmission is completed and all transmitted originals are ejected, the operator collects the transmitted originals, and a series of facsimile transmission processing ends.

However, according to the above-described facsimile transmission processing, since the operation of the operator and the operation of the facsimile apparatus are sequentially performed, there is a problem that the operator's intervention time in the facsimile apparatus is relatively long.

[Purpose] The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described disadvantages of the related art, and has as its object to provide a facsimile apparatus capable of reducing the time required for an operator to intervene.

[Constitution] The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus having an automatic transmission / reception function, a document reading means for reading an image of a document, a document detector for detecting that a document is set on the document reading means, and the document An image memory for storing image information read by the reading means, an operation input means for inputting various information necessary for the operation of the apparatus, and a detection signal output from the document detector, the document reading means At the same time, the storage process of operating and storing the read image information in the image memory and the transmission operation input process of the operation input unit are performed in parallel, and once the reading of one page of the document image is completed, The reading operation of the document reading means is stopped, and it is determined whether or not an operation input of a transmission start instruction has been performed in the transmission operation input processing. In the case where the image information is transmitted to the designated destination, the image information stored in the image memory is transmitted first, and when the transmission of the image information is completed, When a document is detected, the document reading means is provided with control means for restarting the reading operation and transmitting the read image information following the image information stored in the image memory.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows an example of a document transport system of a facsimile apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a document placed on a document table 1 is conveyed by conveyance rollers 2 and 3, illuminated by a light source 5 on a contact glass 4, and light reflected from an image surface is reflected by a mirror 6. , An image is formed on the line image sensor 8 by the lens 7. Also, on the platen 1,
A document sensor 9 for detecting a document is provided.

 FIG. 2 illustrates a control system of this device.

In FIG. 1, a scanner 10 is for reading a document image at a predetermined resolution, a plotter 11 is for recording and outputting a copy image and a received image at a predetermined resolution, and the operation display unit 12 is a facsimile machine. It comprises various operation keys necessary for operating the apparatus and a display for displaying various information such as a guidance message for guiding an operator's operation procedure.

The image memory 13 is for storing transmission / reception image information, and the transmission buffer 14 is for storing transmission image information.

The encoding / decoding units 15 and 16 encode and compress the image signal and decode the encoded image information into the original image signal.The system control unit 17 controls the entire facsimile apparatus. The communication control unit 18 is for executing a predetermined transmission control procedure when transmitting data with the partner device, and the modem 19 exchanges digital data using an analog transmission path such as a telephone line. Sometimes it is for modulating and demodulating data, and the network controller 20 has an automatic transmission / reception function and is for connecting this facsimile apparatus to an analog transmission line.

These scanner 10, plotter 11, operation display unit 12,
Image memory 13, transmission buffer 14, encoding / decoding units 15,1
6. Data transmission between the system control unit 17 and the communication control unit 18 is performed via the system bus 21.
The detection signal of the document sensor 9 is applied to a system control unit 17.

Each component of the facsimile apparatus has the same configuration as that of the conventional apparatus, and a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

When the operator sets a transmission original on the scanner 10 in order to transmit image information using the facsimile apparatus and the original sensor 9 is turned on, the system control unit 16 executes the original reading process shown in FIG. Are performed in parallel.

In the document reading process, the system control unit 17 first starts the document reading operation of the scanner 10 (process 101), and is most efficient in transferring the read image signal to the encoding / decoding unit 15 for storage. Encode and compress with the encoding method (process 102,
103), the image information is stored in the image memory 13 and the transmission buffer 1
4 are sequentially stored (process 104).

These processes 102 to 104 are performed until the reading of one page of the transmission original document is completed (NO loop of decision 105). When the reading of one page is completed (the result of decision 105 is YES), the reading is temporarily stopped (process 106). ).

Here, the system control unit 17 checks whether the image memory 13 or the transmission buffer 14 is full, or whether the transmission start is instructed by the operator (the start key is turned on; described later) (decisions 107, 108). If the result of judgment 107 and judgment 108 is NO, it is checked whether the succeeding page of the transmission original is set on the scanner 10 (decision 109).

If the result of the determination 109 is YES, the process returns to the process 101 to start reading the image of the next page.

Then, when the results of the determinations 107 and 108 are YES, and when the result of the determination 109 is NO, the process proceeds to the transmission process.

In the transmission process, the system control unit 17 first starts the input process of the operator by the operation display unit 12 and sequentially displays an appropriate guidance message to the operator in the information necessary for transmitting the image information, for example, the telephone number information of the destination and the like. The guidance message is displayed so that the start key is turned on when all necessary information is input (process 201). Then, it is monitored that all the information is input and the start key is turned on (decision 20).
2). The destination of the process from the document reading process is
Just before 02.

When the result of the determination 202 is YES, the system control unit 17 transfers the telephone number of the destination input from the operator to the network control device 20 to call the destination, and transmits the destination to the communication control unit 18 at the time of transmission. Instructs to start a predetermined transmission control procedure.

Then, at the message transmission stage, the transmission buffer
The image information stored in 14 is read out and decoded by the encoding / decoding unit 15 into the original image signal (process 203), and the image signal is encoded by the encoding method set between the image signal and the destination at that time. The encoding and decoding are performed by the encoding and decoding unit 16 (process 204),
It is transferred to the modem 19 via the communication control unit 18 (processing
205). These processes 203 to 205 are repeatedly executed until the image information accumulated in the transmission buffer 14 is completed (determination
106 NO loop).

When the transmission of the image information stored in the image buffer 14 is completed in this way, it is checked whether or not a transmission error has occurred at that time (decision 207).

If the result of determination 207 is YES, a predetermined retransmission process is executed (process 208). In this process 208, the image memory
The image information stored in 13 is transmitted. This retransmission process
All the image information stored in the image memory 13 for the transmission operation is repeated until the receiving device can receive the image information without error.

If the result of the judgment 207 is NO, it is checked whether or not the document sensor 9 is on at that time (decision 209). If the result of the judgment 209 is YES, there is a transmitted document that has not been transmitted yet. Then, the reading operation of the scanner 10 is restarted (process 210), and the read image signal is transferred to the encoding / decoding unit 15 to be coded by the coding method of the destination (process 211, 212) and transferred to the modem 19 (process). 213). The processes 211 to 213 are executed until the reading of all the originals is completed (NO loop of the determination 214), and this process ends. If the result of determination 209 is NO, transmission of all transmitted originals has already been completed, and this process is immediately terminated.
When this processing is completed, the image information stored in the image memory 13 for transmitting the image information is cleared.

In this way, the operator sends the transmitted document to the scanner 10.
When the setting is set to, the reading of the transmission document is started, and the transmission operation of the operator is enabled. Since the reading of the transmission document and the subsequent transmission operation of the operator are performed in parallel, the intervention time of the operator is extremely short. Become.

If the number of set originals is very large and not all image information can be stored in the image memory 13 or the transmission buffer 14, the stored part is read out from the transmission buffer 14 and transmitted. Therefore, the time of that portion is shorter than when transmitting the original while reading it, and the operator's intervention time is reduced overall.

Further, when a transmission error occurs, the image information is retransmitted until all the image information is properly received, so that the operator finishes the operation input for transmission and leaves the facsimile machine, and the The image information can be transmitted appropriately even when not waiting.

In the above-described embodiment, two encoding / decoding units are provided. However, the present invention can be applied to a case where one encoding / decoding unit is provided.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the transmission image information can be stored in the image memory and the transmission buffer without providing the transmission buffer in the two.
The invention can be implemented.

[Effects] As described above, according to the present invention, in a facsimile apparatus having an automatic sending / receiving function, a document reading unit for reading an image of a document, and detection of a document set on the document reading unit A document detector, an image memory for storing image information read by the document reading unit, an operation input unit for inputting various information necessary for the operation of the apparatus, and a detection signal output from the document detector. Then, the document reading means is operated to store the read image information in the image memory, and the transmission operation input processing of the operation input means is executed in parallel. When the reading operation is completed, the reading operation of the document reading unit is temporarily stopped, and it is determined whether or not an operation input of a transmission start instruction is performed in the transmission operation input process. If the operation input of the communication start instruction has been performed, the operation of transmitting the image information to the designated destination is started, the image information stored in the image memory is transmitted first, and the transmission of the image information ends. When the document detector has detected the document at the point of time when the document is read, the reading operation of the document reading means is restarted, and the read image information is transmitted after the image information stored in the image memory. Since the means is provided, the operation input for the transmission operation by the operator and the reading of the document are executed in parallel, so that the effect that the operator's intervention time can be reduced is obtained.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a document conveying system of a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of a control system, and FIG. 3 is an example of a document reading device. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an example of the transmission process. 9: Document sensor, 10: Scanner, 12: Operation display unit, 13: Image memory, 14: Transmission buffer, 16, 15 ...
... Encoding / decoding unit, 16 ... System control unit.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A facsimile apparatus having an automatic transmission / reception function, a document reading means for reading an image of a document, a document detector for detecting that a document is set on the document reading means, and the document reading means. An image memory for storing image information read by the apparatus, operation input means for inputting various information necessary for operation of the apparatus, and when a detection signal is output from the document detector, the document reading means is activated. While the storage process of storing the read image information in the image memory and the transmission operation input process of the operation input means are executed in parallel, once the reading of one page of the document image is completed, the document reading is temporarily performed. The reading operation of the means is stopped, and it is checked whether or not the operation input of the transmission start instruction has been performed in the transmission operation input processing. In this case, the operation of transmitting image information to the designated destination is started, the image information stored in the image memory is transmitted first, and when the transmission of the image information is completed, the original detector detects the original. A facsimile apparatus, wherein when facsimile is detected, the reading operation of the original reading means is restarted, and the facsimile apparatus further comprises control means for transmitting the read image information subsequent to the image information stored in the image memory. apparatus.