JP2745447B2 - Facsimile communication method - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile communication method for temporarily storing image information transmitted from a transmitting station at a relay station and transferring the image information to a designated transmitting station. 2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various useful functions have been realized with a storage function for storing image information in a facsimile machine, and one of them is a relay function. [0003] This relay function is for sequentially transferring image information received and stored from the transmitting device to one or more relay destinations designated by the transmitting device, and a plurality of facsimile devices at remote locations from the transmitting device. Communication cost when transmitting image information to the device can be reduced (so-called relay broadcast function). In a facsimile apparatus, the resolution (the reading resolution in the main scanning direction and the reading line density in the sub-scanning direction) and the size of image information that can be transmitted and received are limited by the performance of the scanner or plotter provided. . Accordingly, a facsimile apparatus capable of reading image information up to a large-sized document with a high resolution transmits image information to a facsimile apparatus having a smaller resolution and a smaller document size for recording. The image information is transmitted in a state where the image information and the size have been converted corresponding to the receiving device. Therefore, if the resolution and size of the image information receivable by the relay device are smaller than those receivable by the transmitting device, the image information is reduced in size and reduced by the transmitting device. Transmitted. Normally, resolution conversion is performed by thinning out image information or forming a logical sum between adjacent pixels. Therefore, the image quality tends to be lower than when the image is read at the resolution after conversion. . In addition, since the reduction (magnification) of the size of the image information is realized by the similar processing, the image quality of the image after the magnification tends to decrease similarly. [0008] Even if the resolution and size of image information receivable by the relay facsimile apparatus are the same as those of the transmitting apparatus, the image information whose resolution has been converted or scaled by the relay apparatus is relayed. Transmitted first. For this reason, conventionally, even if the resolution and size of image information that can be transmitted and received by the transmitting device and the receiving device (relay destination) are large, the image information that can be transmitted and received by the relay device is conventionally used. When the resolution and the size are small, there has been a problem that the image information whose image quality has deteriorated is eventually received at the relay destination. [0010] The present invention has been made in order to solve the inconvenience of the related art, and has as its object to provide a facsimile communication method that can relay the image quality of a transmitting device to a receiving device. According to the present invention, there is provided a facsimile communication method for temporarily storing image information transmitted from a transmitting station in a relay station and transferring the image information to a designated transmitting station. In a pre-transmission procedure performed in advance, the relay station notifies the transmitting station of the receivable parameters and recordable parameters of its own terminal, and the transmitting station that has received the notification, when performing transfer to the transmitting station, Determines the communication parameters based on the receivable parameters, while determining the communication parameters based on the recordable parameters when recording and outputting image information at the relay station without performing transfer to the transfer station. The transmitting station transmits image information to the relay station based on the determined communication parameters. Therefore, when the transmitting station desires the transfer via the relay station, the communication parameters are determined based on the receivable parameters, so that the restriction on the image information due to the performance of the relay station is minimized. Can be minimized. Further, when the transmitting station desires normal transmission to the relay station, the communication parameters are determined based on the recordable parameters, so that the image information can be reliably transmitted in an appropriate form. Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows a facsimile relay apparatus according to one embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. 1, a system control unit 1 controls the entire facsimile relay apparatus, a scanner 2 reads an original image at a predetermined resolution, and a plotter 3 converts a received image or the like into a predetermined image. The image memory 4 stores the received image information in a compressed state and records various management information for managing the stored image data file. As shown in FIG. 2A, a part of the image memory 4 is set as a management information area for storing management information, and the other part is used for storing received image information. It is set in the image information area. As shown in FIG. 3B, received image information is accumulated in the image information area in a state where file numbers are sequentially assigned. The management information for managing these files includes a file number, a start address of an image information area in which the file of the file number is stored, and
The destination information includes one or more relay destinations, resolution information indicating the resolution of the image information of the file, and size information indicating the size (width) of the image information. The operation display unit 5 includes various operation keys and a display device having a large degree of freedom for displaying operation guidance information and the like. The image processing unit 6 includes a reception unit stored in the image memory 4. The encoding / decoding sections 7a and 7b encode and compress the image data and convert the encoded and compressed image data into the original image data. Is decrypted. The communication control unit 8 executes a predetermined facsimile transmission control procedure to execute image transmission with the partner station. The modem 9 uses a public telephone line network or the like as an analog line network as a transmission line. The network controller 10 modulates and demodulates digital data so that the facsimile can be connected to a public telephone line network. The network control device 10 has an automatic transmission / reception function. The system control section 1, scanner 2, plotter 3, image memory 4, operation display section 5, image processing section 6, encoding / decoding sections 7a and 7b, and communication control section 8 are connected to a bus. Data is mutually exchanged via the line 11. With the above configuration, when a relay request is made to this facsimile relay apparatus from another facsimile apparatus,
First, when a call is made from the transmitting device, as shown in FIG.
The facsimile relay apparatus responds to the called station identification signal CED to indicate that the terminal is a non-voice terminal (facsimile terminal apparatus), and then transmits a non-standard apparatus signal NSF indicating a specially provided function and a standard Digital identification signal DIS indicating that the facsimile transmission device has various functions. As shown in FIG. 4, the non-standard device signal NSF includes the maximum receivable resolution information indicating the maximum resolution of receivable image information and the maximum resolution of image information recordable by the plotter 3. Facsimile relay device; maximum recordable resolution information representing the maximum receivable size information representing the maximum size of receivable image information; maximum recordable size information representing the maximum size of image information recordable by plotter 3; The information includes the function information indicating the contents of the functions (for example, the relay function and the broadcast function, etc.) provided in the. Here, as the maximum receivable resolution information, the maximum resolution (for example, 16 dots / mm in the main scanning direction and 15.4 lines / mm in the sub-scanning direction) expected to be possible by the transmitting device is set. As the maximum possible size information, the maximum size (for example, A3 size) that the transmitting device is expected to be able to transmit is set. [0022] The facsimile transmitting apparatus identifies the various kinds of information included in the non-standard apparatus signal NSF to determine the function of the facsimile relay apparatus. In this case, since the maximum receivable resolution and the maximum receivable size are not smaller than the resolution and size of the image information that can be processed by the own terminal, the resolution of the image information read by the own terminal by the non-standard device setting signal NSS is used. And size, and 1
Notify one or more relay destinations. When the relay destination is specified, the facsimile relay device can be included in the relay destination. Thereafter, normal facsimile transmission is performed. As a result, the image information is received by the facsimile relay apparatus while the image information is read by the facsimile transmission apparatus. And in the facsimile relay device,
Resolution specified by the non-standard device setting signal NSS,
The size and the relay destination are stored, and the received image information is stored in the image information area of the image memory 4. At this time, the above-mentioned management information is formed and stored in the management information area of the image memory 4. When the reception of the image information is completed in this way, the system control unit 1 of the facsimile relay apparatus
First, one piece of destination information included in the management information of the received image information is read, and it is determined whether or not the destination information represents the own terminal. Here, when it represents another facsimile machine, a destination is called with a telephone number corresponding to the destination information, and the image information stored in the image memory 4 is transmitted to the destination. At this time, in the same manner as described above, the resolution and the size of the image information that can be received by the destination are notified in the procedure for transmitting the image information. If the resolution and size of the destination are equal to or greater than the resolution information and the size information included in the management information of the image information to be transmitted, the stored image information is left as it is and the destination facsimile is used. Transmit to the receiving device. When the resolution and size of the destination are smaller than the resolution information and the size information included in the management information of the image information to be transmitted, the system control unit 1 first
The image processing unit 6 is set up by notifying the image processing unit 6 of the resolution before and after the conversion of the image information to be transmitted and the size before and after the conversion of the image information to be transmitted. In this state, the image information to be transmitted is once decoded into the original image data by the encoding / decoding section 7a, and the image data is transferred to the image processing section 6 and converted into a resolution and size suitable for the receiving apparatus. Then, the image data after the conversion is encoded by the encoding / decoding unit 7b using an encoding method suitable for the receiving device, and then transferred to the communication control unit 8. In this way, image information suitable for the destination facsimile receiving apparatus is transmitted and received by the destination. When the destination information included in the management information of the received image information includes information representing the own terminal, the resolution information and the size information included in the management information are converted by the plotter 3. If the recordable resolution and size are the same or smaller, the image information is decoded into the original image data by the encoding / decoding unit 7a, and the image data is transferred to the plotter 3 as it is. To record and output the received image. On the other hand, if the resolution information and the size information included in the management information of the received image information are larger than the resolution and the size that can be recorded by the plotter 3, the system control unit 1 After setting up the image processing unit 6, the image information is encoded and decoded by the encoding / decoding unit 7a.
The image data is transferred to the image processing unit 6 to convert the image data into a recordable resolution and size, and the converted image is transferred to the plotter 3 to record and output the received image. As described above, when the terminal is designated as the destination, the image received from the plotter 3 is recorded and output. When the facsimile relay apparatus is designated as a direct receiving apparatus, the facsimile transmitting apparatus transmits the maximum recordable resolution information and the maximum recordable size information included in the non-standard apparatus signal NSF or the digital identification signal. By referring to the resolution information and the size information included in the DIS, if necessary, the image information to be transmitted is converted into a resolution and a size that can be directly recorded by the facsimile relay device (receiving device), and the converted image information is transmitted. I do. Accordingly, at this time, the system control unit 1 of the facsimile relay apparatus decodes the received image information into the original image data by the encoding / decoding unit 7a, and transfers the image data to the plotter 3 to receive the received image information. Is recorded and output. In the above-described embodiment, the facsimile relay apparatus is provided with two encoding / decoding sections, but a single encoding / decoding section can realize a similar function. However, in that case, it is necessary to temporarily store the image data formed in the middle in the image memory. Further, according to the present invention, in addition to the above-described facsimile relay apparatus, for example, when a plotter provided in the terminal itself fails, the received image information is transferred to another preset facsimile apparatus. The present invention can also be applied to a case where the data is recorded and output on a plotter of the facsimile machine at the transfer destination. As described above, according to the present invention,
If the transmitting station desires transfer via the relay station, the communication parameters are determined based on the receivable parameters, so that the restrictions on the image information due to the performance of the relay station can be minimized. Get the effect. Further, when the transmitting station desires normal transmission to the relay station, the communication parameters are determined based on the recordable parameters, so that the image information can be reliably transmitted in an appropriate form. Also get.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a facsimile relay apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating the contents of an image memory and the storage state of an image information area; FIG. 3 is a time chart showing an example of a pre-transmission procedure. FIG. 4 is a signal arrangement diagram showing an example of the content of a non-standard device signal. [Description of Signs] 1 System control unit 3 Plotter 4 Image memory 6 Image processing units 7a and 7b Encoding / decoding unit 8 Communication control unit

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] In a facsimile communication method in which image information transmitted from a transmitting station is temporarily stored in a relay station and transferred to a designated transfer station, in a pre-transmission procedure performed prior to transmission and reception of image information, the relay station Notifying the receivable parameters and recordable parameters of the terminal itself, the transmitting station receiving the notification, when performing the transfer to the transfer station, while determining the communication parameters based on the receivable parameters, When recording and outputting image information at the relay station without performing transfer to the transfer station, the communication parameters are determined based on the recordable parameters described above, and from the transmission station to the relay station based on the determined communication parameters. A facsimile communication method characterized by transmitting image information.