JP3051134B2 - Facsimile control method - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for controlling transmission facsimile by temporarily storing image information, such as a facsimile storage and broadcasting device.
In particular, the present invention relates to a method of temporarily storing and transmitting a message in which a destination and a transmission time are set.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as a facsimile storage / broadcasting apparatus, for example, a facsimile original transmitted from a broadcast request facsimile terminal is stored once, and then broadcasted to a plurality of designated general destination facsimile terminals. It has been known. FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of a facsimile broadcasting system to which such a facsimile storage and broadcasting device is applied.

In FIG. 4, S is a facsimile storage and broadcast device (hereinafter referred to as a broadcast device). The broadcast device S is connected to a circuit switching network A via a plurality of lines l. Also, F
Are terminal facsimile machines (hereinafter referred to as terminals), and the terminals F1, F2 (hereinafter referred to as terminals F) are connected to a circuit switching network A via a line l.

The sender of the broadcast message transmits a predetermined signal from the terminal F to the broadcast device S via the line 1 to establish a call and transmit the broadcast message. At this time, management information such as a broadcast destination, a transmission source, and a transmission time is input using a PB signal, an OMR sheet, or the like. The broadcast device S accumulates broadcast messages and stores and manages information such as a designated broadcast address and transmission time. When the input of the message is completed, the broadcasting device S performs the broadcast distribution of the message stored at the designated transmission time to the designated broadcast address. When the broadcast destination is communicating, the broadcast is ended after performing the specified number of tries, and finally the broadcast result is notified to the source terminal to complete the processing of one message.

There is known a technique in which a terminal having an extremely large number of distributions at the time of the broadcast distribution is set in advance as a specific terminal in a storage means in the facsimile storage / broadcasting apparatus. FIG. 5 shows the inside of the storage means in which the specific terminal is set.
In FIG. 5, the transmission time is set to 20:00 and 17:00, respectively, with the general affairs department and the personnel department of the destination terminal as specific terminals. Therefore, the transmission time is automatically set for a message whose destination is designated to the general affairs department or the human resources department (in this case, the transmission time of the messages 1 to 3 addressed to the general affairs department is 20:00, and the message 2 to the human resources department is The transmission time is set at 17:00.) FIG. 6 shows a sequence from the transmission source to the destination terminal. The transmission source terminal F1 transmits the message 1 as shown in FIG. At 00, a specific destination terminal general affairs section (the general affairs section has a transmission time set to 20:00 in advance as a specific destination terminal; the same applies hereinafter) is specified as a destination and transmitted to the broadcast device S, and the source terminal F2 Similarly, the message 2 is designated at 11:00 and transmitted to the specific destination terminal general affairs department. In this case, the broadcast device S
As soon as 20:00, the message 1 and the message 2 are transmitted to the destination terminal (in this case, the general affairs department) which is the specific destination terminal.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a flow from reception to transmission in the broadcasting device S. In ST1, recognition of the destination as to whether the destination is a specific terminal is performed. If it is not a specific terminal, the process proceeds to ST4, incorporated in a broadcast schedule, and transmitted to a specified destination at a specified time. If it is a specific terminal, it checks in ST2 whether or not a predetermined distribution time has been reached for the specific terminal. If the distribution time has not been reached, the terminal waits for a certain time in ST3 and enters ST2 again. When the distribution time is reached in this way, the process moves to ST4 and is transmitted to the specific terminal.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in the case of the above-described conventional configuration, the transmission time of a message addressed to a specific terminal is determined in advance,
When it is desired to transmit a message addressed to the specific terminal earlier than the specified time, for example, immediately, it is not possible to transmit the message unless all other messages stored in the broadcast device S addressed to the specific terminal are released. This will be specifically described with reference to FIG. 5. For example, if it is desired to immediately transmit the message 2 of the destination general affairs department, the message 1 and the message 3 of the destination general affairs department must also be released. And the message 3 must be set again by specifying the destination to the specific terminal.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and has as its object to provide a facsimile control method capable of changing a transmission time for each message after setting and temporarily storing transmission times.

Means for Solving the Problems To achieve the above object, a storage step of storing a message together with a destination and a transmission time predetermined for each destination, and collectively storing the messages stored in the storage step at the transmission time for each destination And a transmission time changing step of selecting a message stored in the storage step and changing a transmission time.

When the transmission time of the message once stored in the storage unit is changed to a desired time by the transmission time change unit together with the transmission time determined in advance for each destination, the transmission unit receives the changed transmission time, and Is sent. As a result, there is no need to release all the telegrams having the same destination as the change telegram and input another telegram again as in the related art.

Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIGS. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of this embodiment. The facsimile storage / broadcasting apparatus includes a receiving unit 10 for receiving a message transmitted from a source terminal, an image information storage unit 11 for storing the message together with transmission designated time information for each designated destination, and an image information storage unit. A broadcast control unit 12 that reads out and outputs the message stored in the message 11 at a specified time, a transmission unit 13 that transmits the output of the broadcast control unit 12, and an OMR sheet or PB that is sent to the beginning of the message. A destination recognizing unit 14 for recognizing destination information from a signal or the like; a destination information unit 15 for temporarily storing transmission result information such as a distribution time and the number of retries to an unreachable destination; A message additional information section 16 for adding information to the message, a scheduling section 17 for scheduling broadcast transmission based on the information of the message additional information section 16, a clock 18 for outputting the current time, and control of the entire apparatus. Controller 19 for performing image data storage And an input unit 20 for changing the transmission time stored in the unit 11.

The operation of the facsimile storage and broadcasting device configured as described above will be described below. When the message is received by the receiving unit 10 from the source terminal, the destination recognizing unit 14 recognizes the destination from the OMR sheet or the PB signal sent to the head of the message, and notifies the control unit 19 of it. The control unit 19 causes the image information storage unit 11 to store the facsimile original transmitted after the OMR sheet or the like together with the designated transmission time for each designated destination. This situation is the same as in FIG. 5 described above. Fifth
In the figure, messages 1 to 3 are stored with the transmission time set to 20:00 in the general affairs department of the transmission destination. Watch 18 is 2
When 0:00 is designated, the image information storage unit 11 sends the electronic messages 1 to 3
Is immediately read out and sent to the broadcast control unit 12. On this occasion,
If the designation of priority transmission for these messages is set in the message adding unit 16, the scheduling unit 17 performs scheduling of the messages 1 to 3 based on the designation, and is instructed to the broadcast control unit 12 to specify the priority designation. The transmission unit 13 transmits the message from a certain message.

Next, a case where the transmission time of a message already stored in the image information storage unit 11 is changed will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is an operation sequence diagram when the transmission time is changed. In FIG. 2, at time 10:00, a message 1 is transmitted from a source terminal A to a facsimile storage / broadcasting apparatus by designating a specific terminal, and further, a message 2 is transmitted from a source terminal B at 11:00.
Is transmitted to the facsimile storage / broadcasting apparatus by designating the same specific terminal as a destination. As a result, the message 1 and the message 2 are stored in the image information storage unit 11. The specific terminal is the general affairs department as in FIG. 5, and the transmission time is set to 20:00. Here, it is assumed that the message 2 needs to be immediately transmitted to the general affairs department. The operator of the facsimile storage / broadcasting apparatus inputs a change command from the input unit 20 to change the transmission time of the message 2 to the current time.
As described above, even if the transmission time is set in advance for the destination (for example, the transmission time is set to 20:00 for the general affairs department in this embodiment), the message is temporarily stored in the storage unit. Since the transmission time is changed by designating the message itself after the storage, the message to be transmitted can be transmitted immediately without changing the transmission time set in advance for each destination, and the work of the operator can be reduced. This command causes the control unit 19
Is a broadcast control unit that reads only message 2 from the image information storage unit 11.
Input to 12 and transmit from transmission unit 13 to general affairs department. FIG. 2 shows a state where the input is made at the current time 12:00. As a result, the message 2 is discarded from the image information storage unit 11, and only the message 1 is transmitted to the general affairs department at the transmission time 20:00.

In the above example, the message is sent to the destination terminal immediately after input from the input unit 20, but if the time is before 20:00, the message 1 is transmitted at that time regardless of which time is specified from the input unit 20. Is done.

Next, an operation flow when the transmission time of the specific terminal is changed will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 3, a message destination is recognized in ST1, and it is checked whether or not the terminal is a specific terminal. If the destination is a specific terminal, a distribution time predetermined for the specific terminal is set in ST2. Next, in ST3, the distribution time determined in ST2 is compared with the current time. If the distribution time has not yet been reached, the process waits for a certain time in ST4, returns to ST3, and repeats the comparison between the distribution time and the current time again. In such a case, a distribution time change instruction is input in ST6, and at that time, the broadcast schedule is incorporated in the broadcast schedule and transmitted in ST5.

As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, the transmission designation time of each message already stored in the facsimile storage / broadcasting device can be arbitrarily changed. Therefore, there is no need to input another message that has been released again, and the work of the operator can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 3 is a sequence diagram of the operation of the present embodiment, Fig. 3 is a flowchart of the operation of the present embodiment, Fig. 4 is a connection diagram between the facsimile storage and broadcasting device and the terminal, and Fig. 5 is storage in the image information storage unit. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing the situation, FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram of the operation of the conventional example, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the operation of the conventional example. 10 receiving section, 11 image information storage section, 12 broadcast control section, 13 transmitting section, 14 destination recognition section, 15 destination information section, 16 message additional information section, 17 ... Schedule Department, 18
... clock, 19 ... control unit, 20 ... input unit.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H04N 1/32-1/34 H04N 1/21

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A storage step of storing a message together with a destination and a transmission time predetermined for each destination; a transmission step of collectively transmitting the messages stored in the storage step at the transmission time for each destination; A facsimile control method comprising: selecting a message stored in a storage step to change a transmission time.