JP2949688B2 - Image control method and apparatus - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a binary original image generating apparatus which does not have image data encoding means and decoding means according to the G4 facsimile control procedure. An image control method and apparatus suitable for receiving image data from a line.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art According to a G4 facsimile communication control procedure,
Facsimile communication apparatus for transmitting image data in a communication how the packet communication and the like are known. This type of communication apparatus has an encoding unit and a decoding unit according to a G4 facsimile communication control procedure (hereinafter, referred to as a G4 protocol).

On the other hand, data terminal devices such as word processors, database machines, and computer devices are also widely known. Such data terminal devices are connected to a communication line to transmit various data. Particularly in recent years, not only character data such as characters and symbols, but also image data generated by a data terminal device, that is, dot data, has been transmitted.

[0004]

However, the above-mentioned conventional data terminal apparatus does not include an encoding unit and a decoding unit in accordance with the G4 protocol, so that the communication line can be connected without compressing and encoding the original image data. Had been transmitted through. Alternatively, communication between data terminal devices of the same model is performed using a dedicated protocol. Therefore, there have been problems that the transmission time of image data becomes enormous and versatility is significantly restricted. In particular, there has been a problem that image data cannot be communicated between the G4 facsimile communication device and the data terminal device.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and has a data terminal device as a general host device and a G4 facsimile communication device which does not have encoding means and decoding means for the G4 protocol. between, and to provide an excellent image control how and apparatus, which can be transmitted by encoding according to G4 protocol image data.

[0006]

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, image data generated by a host device is transmitted to a CC.
Encoding means for encoding and generating encoded data according to the Group 4 facsimile control procedure of the ITT recommendation, transmitting the encoded data to a communication line, and receiving and receiving encoded image data coming from the communication line Communication line control means for transmitting as data, decoding means for decoding received data in accordance with the group 4 facsimile control procedure to generate decoded data, image data generated by the host device, and decoding of the decoded data. It comprises a SCSI control means for sending to the host device, and a data storage means for storing image data, encoded data, received data and decoded data, and the subsequent received data is read without being stored by the read-out command from the host device. It is configured to be thrown away.

[0007]

According to the image control how or apparatus according to the action] Accordingly the present invention, between a no host device an encoding means and decoding means according to the Group 4 facsimile control procedure of CCITT recommendation, the general G4 facsimile communication device so,
Alternatively, with the above-mentioned host device via a communication line,
Communication of encoded image data is performed according to the group 4 facsimile control procedure.

[0008] In addition, image data that is not required by the host device is issued a discard command, and the received data coming from the communication line is discarded without being stored.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below. FIG.
It is a schematic diagram of one embodiment in facsimile communication system in which an image control device and Methods of the present invention is applied.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a binary original image generating apparatus having no encoding means and no decoding means in accordance with the G4 facsimile control procedure, such as a word processor, a database machine, and a computer. The image data generated by the generation device 1 is sent to the image control device 2 by a SCSI (Small Computer Sy).
The transfer is performed according to a connection procedure (stem interface). Reference numeral 2 denotes an image control device which converts the image data received from the binary original image generation device 1 into G4
The data is converted into code data in accordance with the facsimile control procedure and sent to the communication network 3.

4 is a G4 facsimile machine,
The image control apparatus 2 is configured to generate code data from a manuscript and send the generated code data to the communication network 3. The image control device 2 uses the decoding means to decode the code data received from the communication network 3 in accordance with the G4 facsimile control procedure. The image data is transferred to the binary original image generation device 1 as image data by the SCSI connection procedure. That is, the binary original image generating apparatus 1 having no encoding means and no decoding means in accordance with the G4 facsimile control procedure connects the image control apparatus 2 to the outside, so that the original binary image generated in black and white is generated. Images can be transmitted and received via the communication network 3.

Next, the flow of processing for the image control device 2-2 of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an internal configuration of the image control device 2-2, a binary original image generation device (hereinafter, referred to as a host device 1), a communication network 3, and the image control device 2. Arrows indicate the flow of data. First, a process of sending the binary original image data generated by the host device 1 to the communication network 3 will be described.

The image data generated by the host device 1 is
The image data storage means 2 is controlled by the SCSI control means 21 by controlling the command data and the command sequence.
2 is stored. Thereafter, the data is converted into code data in accordance with the G4 facsimile control procedure by the coding means 23 and stored in the code data storage means 25. The accumulated code data is sequentially transferred to the transmission data storage means 26, and at this time, is configured in a format that can be transmitted to the communication line network 3. The transmission data of the transmission data storage means 26 is sequentially transmitted to the communication network 3 via the communication line control means 28.

The above processing flow relates to the transmission to the G4 facsimile apparatus, and then to the reception from the G4 facsimile apparatus, that is, until the code data received from the communication line network 3 is transferred to the host apparatus 1 as image data. Will be described. Code data received from the communication line network 3 is stored in the reception data storage unit 27 as reception data by the communication line control unit 28. Thereafter, of the received data, only the code data portion is extracted and stored in the code data storage means 25, and the number of decoding lines requested by the host device 1 is decoded by the decoding means 24 as image data, and is decoded. 22. The decoded image data transferred to the image data storage unit 24 is S
The command, data, and command sequence are transferred to the host device 1 by the CSI control unit 21.

In the image control device 2, data is transmitted and received in accordance with the G4 facsimile control procedure during transmission and reception.

As described above, since the image control device 2 includes the SCSI control means 21, the coding means 23, the decoding means 24, and the communication line control means 28 for controlling the connection with the host device 1, the G4 Even image data of a host device having no encoding means and no decoding means according to the facsimile control procedure can communicate with an existing general G4-compatible facsimile apparatus. Moreover the host device 1, G4 facsimile control procedure and, encoding processing of image data, there is no need to be aware at all for decoding, SCS in the image control device and method will be described later
Only the process of issuing the command and data defined by the I control means 2-4 to the image control device 2 in accordance with the command sequence will suffice.

Next, a description will be given of the SCSI control means 21 for connecting the host device 1 and the image control device 2, and an image control device and a method for realizing the unnecessary part reading discarding process at the time of the reception process from the G4 facsimile device. This will be specifically described.

FIG. 3 is a table showing main commands 31 defined in the SCSI control means for realizing the image control apparatus and method , and main functions 32 of the commands.

The command 31 shown in FIG.
-1 is issued, and additional information is added to each command. Also, receiving the command 31
It is a SCSI control unit 21 in the image control device 2. The image control device 2-2 that has received the command 31 executes the processing indicated by the main function 32 of the command.

Here, referring to FIG. 4 and FIG. 3, how the image control device processes a command issued by the host device will be described.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a command sequence between the host device 1 and the image control device 2, wherein (a) is a transmission process to the G4 facsimile device, and (b) is a reception process from the G4 facsimile device. is there. First, the transmission processing to the G4 facsimile apparatus (a) will be described. The host device 4-1 first issues the command TERMINAL SELE
Issue CT. To this command, a dial number or the like of the other party is added as data.
Sets the destination dial number internally. Next, the host device 1 issues a READ SENSE command. With this command, the image control device 2 performs call processing to the other party and connects the communication line. After the line is connected, the host device 1 issues a MODE SELECT command. An encoding format for encoding the image data is added to this command as additional information. Thereafter, the host device 1 issues a SEND command, divides the image data to be sent to an appropriate length, and transfers the image data to the image control device. The image control device 2 uses the above-described MODE.
Based on the encoding format specified by the SELECT command,
Encoding is performed according to the G4 facsimile control procedure, and data is transmitted to the communication network 3. When the transfer of all the image data to be sent by the host device 1 is completed by the SEND command, a FLUSH BUFFER command is issued. The image control device 2 uses the FLUSH BUFFE
When the R command is received, the processing is terminated and the line is disconnected.

In the above, the processing until the image data of the host device 1 is transmitted to the communication line 3 (the processing until the image data is transmitted to the communication line 3) is described above with reference to FIGS. It is as described.

Next, (b) the receiving process from the G4 facsimile apparatus will be described. In the case of reception processing, first,
The host device 1 issues a RECEIVE READY command. With this command, the image control device 2
It is in a state of being able to accept an incoming call from the other party. Thereafter, the host device 1 issues a STATUS SENSE command in order to know the state of the incoming call (presence / absence). Upon receiving this command, the image control device 2 makes a response to notify the host device 1 of the incoming call status from the communication network 3. By this response, the host device 1 can know whether there is an incoming call or not. When there is an incoming call, the host device 1 issues a MODE SENSE command. This command causes the image control device 2
Responds to incoming calls. Thereafter, code data is sent from the communication network 3. Therefore, the host device 1 issues a RECEIVE command. To this command, the number of lines of image data required by the host device 1 is added as attached information.
Decodes the number of lines according to the G4 facsimile control procedure and transfers the decoded data to the host device 1 as image data. The host device 1 issues a FLUSH BUFFER command after accepting all data sent from the communication network 3 (sent by the partner terminal) as image data. This command is for terminating the process and disconnecting the line, as in the case of FIG.

In FIGS. 4A and 4B, a response message is issued from the image control apparatus 2 in response to a command issued from the host apparatus, but is omitted for the sake of simplicity.

Next, decrypts discarding, only the image data necessary portions host apparatus 1 has recognized the unnecessary image data in the image control device 2 with reference to FIG. 5, the image control device to be transferred to the host device 1 And the method will be described.

FIG. 5 shows a specific processing sequence for realizing the image control apparatus and method . This processing sequence is applied to the above-described reception processing from the G4 facsimile apparatus 4, and includes the host device 1, the SCSI control device 21, the decoding unit 24, the code data storage unit 25,
This shows transmission and reception of commands and data between the reception data storage means 26 and the communication line control means 28, respectively. The command sequence between the host device 1 and the image control device 2 when applied is, of course, the same as the sequence shown in FIG. here,
An example will be described in which image data received by the host device 1 requires 150 lines (assuming that all received image data is n lines) and processing of image processing data recognized as unnecessary after that is required. . Further, in this case, the host device 1 sets the required 150 lines to 100 lines,
It is assumed that the request is divided into 50 lines. This is the case where the operator of the host device 1 can sufficiently grasp the contents from the image data that has already been transmitted, and determines that the subsequent image data is sufficient if there are 150 lines.

First, the host device 1 requests the image control device 2 for 100 lines of image data by a RECEIVE command. SCSI control means 2 in image control device 2
In step 1, the command is recognized, and the decoding unit 24 is instructed to request a 100-line decoding. Decryption means 24
Sends a reception data transfer request to the reception data storage unit 26. In response to the request, the reception data storage unit 26 transfers the reception data already received and stored from the communication line control unit 28 to the decoding unit 24. The decoding means 24 performs a decoding process for 100 lines using the transferred encoded data. The 100 lines of decoded data, that is, image data, are stored in the image data storage unit 22 shown in FIG. 2 and are transferred in response to a transfer request from the SCSI control unit 21. Therefore, although the image data storage means 22 is omitted in FIG. 5 for simplicity, it goes without saying that the above processing sequence is performed. The SCSI control unit 21 that has received the report of the completion of the decoding of 100 lines via the image data storage unit 22 transfers the decoded image data (100 lines) to the host device 1.

Next, a case in which the host device 1 requests the image control device 2 to transfer 50 lines of image data by a RECEIVE command and to issue an instruction that image data thereafter is unnecessary to the image control device 2 will be described. in this case,
The case where the 100-line decoding request is made will be described. In this case, a 50-line decoding request is instructed from the SCSI control unit 21 to the decoding unit 24 in the same manner as the above-described 100-line decoding request. At this time, it means that image data of 50 lines and thereafter is unnecessary. In addition, information of a discard instruction is also instructed. The decoding unit 24 executes the 50-line decoding process in the same manner as the 100-line decoding process, and reports the completion of the 50-line decoding to the SCSI control unit 21. After that, the processing until the image data is transferred to the host device 1 is the same. However, at this time, at the same time as the completion of the decoding of the 50 lines, an instruction for reading and discarding is given to the reception data storage unit 27 and further to the communication line control unit 28.
As a result, the received data stored in the received data storage means 27 is discarded, and the received data from the communication line control means 28 is read and discarded before being stored in the received data storage means 27. This reading and discarding process is executed until the page unit of the code data sent from the communication line (page division in the case of receiving a plurality of pages) or until the line is disconnected.

In this image control device and method , a command capable of controlling an image with the host device and information added to the command (in this case, a RECEIVE command and subsequent information that does not require image data) are defined. Based on the information, it is possible to discard the image data at the code data level before decoding, so that the host device 1 can receive image data of only necessary information, Compared to the process of decoding all unnecessary image data and transferring it to the host device 1, the entire processing time and the charging time during communication are shortened due to the discarding process, which is very efficient.

[0030] As described in the above embodiments, according to the image control how and apparatus of the present invention, the image data of the host device 1 having no encoding means and decoding means in accordance with the G4 facsimile control procedure , G4 facsimile machine 7, and the coded data sent from the G4 facsimile machine 4 can be received and processed as image data that can be handled by the host device 1.

[0031] According further to the system of the image control how及<br/> patron in the present invention, among the image data received from the communication line, treats only the portion required at the host device, unnecessary portions are present It is possible to discard it in the image control device,
Very efficient communication can be performed.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the configuration of the combination with the host device 1, the image control device 2, and the G4 facsimile device 4 has been described.
A configuration in which image data is transmitted / received between the host devices in a combination in which the image data is opposed to each other, or a configuration in which a document scanner or the like is combined is also possible. Further, by applying the image control apparatus and method described in the present embodiment, it is also possible to apply a file management of received data using only necessary information as an index.

[0033]

According image control how and its apparatus in the present invention, a host device that does not have an encoding means and decoding means in accordance with the G4 facsimile control procedure, by connecting the image controller, the host The image data generated by the apparatus can be transmitted to the G4 facsimile apparatus, and the image data from the G4 facsimile apparatus can be received. The G4 facsimile control procedure, and the encoding / decoding processing of the image data according to the procedure Regarding the above, the host device can communicate with the G4 facsimile device simply by following the SCSI connection procedure without any consideration.

[0034] According further to the system of the image control how及<br/> patron in the present invention, will only information required to deal with the host apparatus to the image data received, for example,
If half of the image data is unnecessary image data, the connection performance with the host device is about twice as high in processing performance, and the line charging time depends on the amount of image information (the amount of code data). However, the communication time is reduced to about 75%, and very efficient communication can be realized.

[Brief description of the drawings]

1 is a configuration diagram of a facsimile communication system which uses the image control device and Methods embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the inside of the image control device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing commands defined in the image control apparatus and method according to the present invention and their main functions.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a command sequence between a host device and an image control device.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a specific processing sequence for realizing the image control apparatus and method according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Binary original image generation apparatus (host apparatus) 2 Image control apparatus 4 G4 facsimile apparatus 21 SCSI control means 22 Image data storage means 23 Encoding means 24 Decoding means 25 Code data storage means 26 Transmission data storage means 27 Received data storage Means 28 Communication line control means

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. An image data generated by a host device is stored via a communication control means connected to the host device, encoded according to a group 4 facsimile control procedure of CCITT recommendation, and transmitted to a communication line. The coded received data coming from the communication line is stored, decoded according to the group 4 facsimile control procedure, and then sent out to the host device via the communication control means. image control how, wherein the received data discards without storing. 2. Image data generated by a host device is represented by C
Encoding means for encoding and generating encoded data in accordance with the Group 4 facsimile control procedure of the CITT recommendation; transmitting the encoded data to a communication line and receiving encoded image data coming from the communication line; Communication line control means for transmitting as received data, decoding means for decoding the received data according to the group 4 facsimile control procedure to generate decoded data, receiving the image data generated by the host device, and SCSI control means for sending the decoded data to the host device, and data storage means for storing the image data, coded data, received data and decoded data, the read and discard command from the host device, An image control device, wherein received data is discarded without being stored.