JP2987213B2 - Facsimile machine - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus, and more particularly, to a facsimile apparatus which detects the size and number of read originals and notifies an operator of the detected size and number.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Many facsimile apparatuses having a scanner for reading an image by transporting a plurality of set originals one by one have been widely used. May be simultaneously drawn in and transported while overlapping. In this case, if the image is transmitted as it is, all the image data of the set original cannot be transmitted to the other party, and the transmission ends normally but the image data is missing.

As a method for solving such a problem, for example, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Hei 2-13538, there is a method of notifying the size and number of documents read by a scanner before transmission. In this facsimile apparatus, before transmission, the operator sets the document size (A4, B5
Etc.), the number of sheets, etc., are input, the size and the number of documents actually read by the scanner are compared, and the operator is notified of the size of the document based on the comparison result. With this function, if the number of scanned originals and the number of notified originals are different, the operator will know that multiple originals have been overlapped and have been pulled in. Can be avoided.

[0004]

However, in such a conventional facsimile apparatus, it is necessary for the operator to input the size and number of documents to be read by the scanner before transmission. However, there is a problem in that operations other than those described above are forced to complicate the operations and increase the operation burden on the operator.

[0005]

According to the present invention, there is provided an original conveying means for conveying originals one by one to a reading position, and an image for photoelectrically converting an original surface conveyed to the reading position by the original conveying means by reading one line at a time. A facsimile apparatus comprising: a reading unit for obtaining a length of the document based on the number of lines read by the image reading unit up to the trailing end of the document, and determining a standard size of each document from the length. Size discriminating means, document number counting means for counting the number of documents for each standard size determined by the document size discriminating means, and notifying means for notifying the number counted by the document number counting means. Features .

[0006]

According to the present invention, the length of a document in the sub-scanning direction is obtained based on the number of lines read until the trailing edge of the document conveyed in the sub-scanning direction is detected, and the standard size of the document is determined from the length. Document number discriminating means for discriminating the number of documents, a document number counting means for counting the number of sheets for each discriminated document size, and storing the counted value, and a notifying means for notifying the number of sheets counted for each document size. Automatically detects the size and the number of originals and notifies them. Therefore, it is possible to notify the operator of whether or not a plurality of set originals have been pulled in at the time of reading without forcing the operator to perform any operation other than the transmission operation.

[0007]

[0008]

Next, a specific description will be given based on an embodiment.
FIGS. 1 to 4 are views showing an embodiment of the facsimile apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of the facsimile apparatus 1, and the facsimile apparatus 1 includes a system control unit 2,
It comprises a ROM 3, a RAM 4, a line control unit 5, an image memory 6, a compression / decompression unit 7, an operation unit 8, a scanner 9, a plotter 10, a line buffer 11, and the like.

A system control section (document size discriminating means, document number counting means, page number detecting means) 2 executes a sequence as the facsimile apparatus 1 according to a program stored in a ROM 3 and performs a document size discriminating process described later. Execute The ROM 3 stores a program for executing a sequence as the facsimile machine 1 and also stores a document size discrimination processing program.

The RAM 4 forms a work area of the system control unit 2 and stores various data when executing a sequence as the facsimile apparatus 1 and read line number data output from the scanner 9 during document size detection processing. Store temporarily. The line controller 5 transmits and receives image data by executing a facsimile communication protocol with the destination facsimile machine.

The image memory 6 is a large-capacity memory such as a hard disk or an optical disk or a DRAM (Dynamic RA).
M) and CMOS ( Complementary Metal Oxide Semicondu
It is composed of a ctor) type RAM or the like and stores encoded image signals. The compression / expansion unit 7 compresses (encodes) a transmission image signal by a predetermined encoding method, and reproduces (decodes) a reception image signal.

The operation unit (notification means) 8 includes various operation keys such as a numeric keypad, a start key, and a function key. The operation unit 8 includes a display (for example, a liquid crystal display) and the like. The input contents and various information transmitted from the facsimile machine 1 to the operator are displayed on a display.

As shown in FIG. 2, the scanner (image reading means) 9 comprises a CCD (Charge Coupled Device) 12, an image processing section 13, and a document transport section (not shown). The CCD 12 scans the document with a predetermined reading width and a predetermined main scanning width with reflected light of light emitted from a light source onto the image surface of the document conveyed one by one to the reading position by the document conveying unit, The image information of the document conveyed in the sub-scanning direction is read line by line, the analog data is converted into digital data, and output to the image processing unit 13.

The image processing unit 13 performs image quality correction and scaling processing of the digital data input from the CCD 12 and transfers the image data to the compression / expansion unit 7 via the line buffer 11. At this time, the number of image lines for one page is counted.
When the scanner 9 detects the trailing edge of the document, the counted value
Is stored in the RAM 4. Further, the scanner 9 detects the front end and the rear end of the document conveyed at the reading position and notifies the system control unit 2 of the detection. As the blotter 10, for example, a thermal recording device using a thermal element is used, and the blotter 10 records an image directly on thermal recording paper or indirectly on ordinary recording paper via an ink sheet.

The line buffer 11 adjusts the input speed of image data for each line transferred from the scanner 9 and the processing speed of the compression / decompression unit 7 so that the scanner 9 matches the input speed.
Temporarily store the image data transferred from. next,
The operation will be described. In the facsimile apparatus 1 of the present embodiment, the size and the number of originals are determined based on the number of lines read by the scanner 9 until the trailing edge of the original is detected, and a notification is made before transmission. It has that characteristic. Hereinafter, this document size determination process will be described with reference to FIG.
It will be described based on.

In the facsimile apparatus 1, a plurality of documents are set on the scanner 9 by an operator, and a document reading operation in the scanner 9 is started by operating a transmission start button or the like of the operation unit 8, and a rear end detection signal from the scanner 9 is sent from the scanner 9. Is notified to the system control unit 2 (step S
1) The system control unit 2 calculates the length L of the document in the sub-scanning direction from the reading linear density in the sub-scanning direction and the number of lines stored in the RAM 4 (step S2 ).

Next, the calculated document length L is compared with the standard size Sn (n = 1, 2,...), That is, the standard size such as A4 or A5 used in facsimile communication (step S3). It is determined whether the length L of the document matches the standard size Sn (step S4). If they match,
Based on the original length L and the standard size Sn, the standard size of the original is stored in the RAM 4 (step S5). If the original size does not match, the fact that the original is a standard size + α or a nonstandard size The information is stored in the RAM 4 (Step S6).

Therefore, the JIS used in Japan
For a document size such as A4 or JISB4, for example, the width of the document read by the scanner 9 is A4 width and the length L is 3
If it is 50 mm, the length of JISA4 is 297 mm, so that this document is determined to be not the standard size, and the difference between the length and the standard size is obtained.

That is, the difference is 53 mm,
The size of this document is stored in the RAM 4 as “A4 + 53 mm”. Next, it is checked whether or not there is a document page that has been read next (step S7). If there is a document, the processes of steps S1 to S6 are repeated to determine the size of each document, and Copy original size data to RA
If no document is stored in M4, the information for each size of the document stored in the RAM 4 is totaled, displayed on the display of the operation unit 8, and the process is terminated.

In this display, for example, when three originals of A4 size and one original of A4 width and length L of 350 mm are read, A4: 3 A4 + 53 mm: 1 is displayed.

In addition, in consideration of the case where there are many originals outside the standard size, the originals may be displayed in a classification such as the standard size and other originals due to restrictions on the display area of the display. In this case, in the above example, A4: 3 sheets and others: 1 sheet are displayed.

Further, it is also possible to display the page number of the document outside the standard size. In this case, A4: 3 sheets Other: 1 sheet P2 is displayed.

Further, when an original is read by the scanner 9, even if the original has the same size, a slight variation occurs in the number of read lines for one page each time the original is read. Also,
Even if the document is of a standard size, there is some dimensional variation for each sheet. Therefore, it is needless to say that the comparison between the original length and the standard size is performed with a certain margin. FIG. 4 shows an example in which the document size information is displayed on the display of the operation unit 8.

After the end of the document size determination process, if the displayed content matches the size of the set document,
With the permission of the operator, the transmission process is continuously executed. Therefore, the operator of the facsimile apparatus 1 displays the size of the document set and read on the scanner 9 on the display of the operation unit 8 before transmission, so that the contents of the actually set document size and the displayed document size information are displayed. Thus, it is possible to know whether or not the reading operation in the scanner 9 has been performed normally, and immediately notify the operator of a phenomenon that occurs when a plurality of originals of the same size are set and the originals are overlapped and are sent to prompt the operator to take measures. be able to.

Further, since the page number of the document outside the standard size is displayed, the operator can easily know the document in which the trouble has occurred, and can take immediate action. As a result, when the operator performs the transmission operation of the facsimile apparatus 1, the input operation of the document size data and the like other than the transmission operation is not required, so that the operation burden on the operator is reduced, and the operability and convenience of the facsimile apparatus are improved. be able to.

[0026]

According to the present invention, the length of a document is determined based on the number of lines read until the trailing edge of the document conveyed one by one in the sub-scanning direction is detected, and the standard size is determined from the length. And the number of sheets is counted and notified for each discriminated standard size, so that it can be notified whether the image information of the size and the number of sheets of the set document has been read normally, and the reading operation can be performed normally. If not, the operator can be immediately dealt with.

Also, the document size information is automatically notified without having to input the size and the number of the set documents in advance, so that the operation burden on the operator can be reduced. As a result, the convenience and operability of the facsimile apparatus can be improved .

[0028]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration diagram of a facsimile apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of a scanner of the facsimile apparatus of FIG. 1 according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a program of a document size determination process according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a view showing an example of display of document size information according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Facsimile apparatus 2 System control part 3 ROM4 RAM 5 Line control part 6 Image memory 7 Compression / decompression part 8 Operation part 9 Scanner 10 Plotter 11 Line buffer

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] An original transporting means for transporting the originals one by one to a reading position;
An image reading unit that reads lines by line and performs photoelectric conversion, wherein the image reading unit obtains the length of the document based on the number of lines read up to the rear end of the document, and calculates each length from the length. Document size discriminating means for discriminating the standard size of the document, document number counting means for counting the number of documents for each standard size discriminated by the document size discriminating means, and notification for notifying the number counted by the document number counting means. And a facsimile apparatus .