JP3267821B2 - 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 which switches between a facsimile communication function and a telephone function and prevents useless calling when a communication error occurs.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, terminals that switch between a facsimile communication function and a telephone function have been used, but such terminals are often switched to a telephone function at all times. Therefore, when the other terminal device is switched to a telephone function only, it is impossible to transmit a facsimile signal. In such a case, conventionally, it is necessary to make a telephone call to the other party and to switch to the facsimile communication function. On the other hand, a facsimile with an automatic retransmission function is also common, but when a facsimile apparatus with an automatic retransmission function is used to call a facsimile apparatus switched to a telephone only, a response signal cannot be obtained from the other party. In this case, a retransmission operation is repeatedly performed. Also, even if the other party is switched to the facsimile function, if there is a communication error, there is no means for the transmitting user to know that, and a wasteful attempt to retransmit many times is made. There was a problem.

Further, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-313965, an incorrect dial number is registered in facsimile communication in which a registered dial number is designated by a one-touch key or the like to make a call. Unless you notice the mistake, there is a similar problem of trying to connect to the same destination many times. In order to solve such a problem, the facsimile apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-313965, when a predetermined number of communication abnormalities are detected for the same destination dial number, displays the dial number as an alarm. Like that.

[0004]

However, the prior art disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-313965 only deals with registered dial numbers, and an alarm is displayed on the registered dial numbers. However, since it is impossible to determine whether the cause is a communication error due to an incorrect dial number or a communication error caused by the other terminal being set to the telephone function, it is impossible to take appropriate measures.
Further, since the alarm is displayed when the cumulative communication abnormality reaches a predetermined number of times, even if the other party terminal can normally communicate as a facsimile terminal, the telephone function is rarely selected and the communication failure as described above occurs. There has been a problem of an excessive alarm in which an alarm is displayed when the possible state occurs.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems in the conventional facsimile apparatus, and it is intended to determine whether or not a connection error has occurred due to a switch to a telephone function. It is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile apparatus provided with a connection abnormality alarm unit that does not generate an excessive alarm and that does not generate an excessive alarm.

[0006]

According to the present invention, there is provided a facsimile apparatus provided with a facsimile transmitting means for performing a facsimile transmission by designating a transmission destination as a first means. At the time of transmission, for each destination dial number, a facsimile response signal is not received from the destination. A connection error occurrence counter that counts the number of continuous occurrences of connection errors, and whether there is a record of receiving facsimile signals from the destination. A reception result storage unit that stores therein, when a value counted by the connection abnormality occurrence counter reaches a predetermined value, an alarm indicating that a facsimile response signal is not received from a destination of the dial number, and An alarm output unit for outputting information based on the contents of the reception record storage unit is provided.
As a second means, in the above, a telephone for making a call with the other party, and a call control unit for enabling only the call by the telephone when the value counted by the connection abnormality occurrence counter reaches a predetermined value. And a configuration including:

[0007]

According to the first means, at the time of facsimile transmission, a connection error occurrence counter for counting the number of continuous occurrences of connection errors for which no facsimile response signal is received from the destination for each destination dial number; A reception result storage unit for storing whether or not there is a record of receiving a facsimile signal; and, when the value counted by the connection error occurrence counter reaches a predetermined value, a facsimile response from the destination of the dial number. Since the alarm output unit that outputs an alarm indicating that a signal is not received and information based on the content of the reception result storage unit is provided, there is no operation of trying to uselessly connect to the same partner terminal, and It can be determined whether or not the connection abnormality has occurred because the partner terminal has been switched to the telephone function. There never also alarm display reaches a predetermined value.

[0008] In the second means, in the above, a telephone for making a call with the other party and, when the value counted by the connection abnormality occurrence counter reaches a predetermined value, a call for enabling only the telephone to make a call. With the configuration including the call control unit, when connection abnormalities continue more than a predetermined number of times, useless calling for facsimile transmission is prohibited, and telephone communication with the other party becomes possible. .

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a facsimile apparatus according to the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a control unit for managing and controlling the entire apparatus according to a built-in program, and 2 denotes an operator who gives an instruction to the facsimile apparatus. And an operation display unit 3 including a keyboard for displaying a message and the like to the operator by a facsimile apparatus, and 3 is a RAM, which stores image information read by the scanner 4 and an encoding / decoding unit (DCR). 8) A recording medium for temporarily storing image information data compressed by 8 or received compressed image information data, image information decompressed by DCR 8, and the like. 5 is DCR8
A plotter 6 outputs the received image information expanded by the RAM 3 via the RAM 3, and a network controller (N) for setting up a call with a remote facsimile machine via the public telephone network.
CU), 7 are communication control units for performing facsimile transmission and reception according to the G3 protocol, 9 is a modem comprising a low-speed modem and a high-speed modem, and 10 is an image memory.

When facsimile transmission is performed by such a facsimile apparatus, image information is first read into the RAM 3 by the scanner 4 under the control of the control unit 1, and the DCR
After being compressed by 8, it is stored again in the RAM 3. In addition, the control unit 1 acquires call-out designation information such as a destination specified by the operation display unit 2, and the NCU 6 to which the destination information is passed sets a call between the NCU 6 and the specified destination. Subsequently, the communication controller 7 controls the phase B via the low-speed modem.
Is executed, the process proceeds to phase C, and the compressed image information data in the RAM 3 is modulated by the high-speed modem in the modem 9 and transmitted through the NCU 6.

At the time of reception, after a call is set up by the NCU 6, the process proceeds to phase B, a predetermined communication is performed via a low-speed modem, and the process proceeds to phase C to receive compressed image information data. The image information data is stored in the RAM 3 via the NCU 6 and the communication control unit 7, further expanded by the DCR 8, and output to the plotter 5 via the RAM 3.

Further, in this embodiment, in addition to the above basic functional blocks, as shown in FIG. 1, the RAM 3 is provided with a connection abnormality occurrence counter 12 and a reception result storage unit 13. The connection abnormality occurrence counter 12 counts, for each dial number, the number of consecutive occurrences of a connection abnormality in which a facsimile response signal is not received from a connected party at the time of facsimile transmission, and stores the number. Also, the reception result storage unit 13
Stores whether there is a record of receiving a facsimile signal from the other party. In the present embodiment, an alarm output unit 11 is further provided. When the count value of a certain dial number counted by the connection abnormality occurrence counter 12 reaches a predetermined value, the alarm output unit 11 issues an alarm indicating that a facsimile response signal is not received from the other party of the dial number. In addition to the output, information based on the contents stored in the reception result storage unit 13 is output.

FIG. 2 is an operation flowchart showing one embodiment of the present invention. Hereinafter, the operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. As shown in FIG. 2, a user first inputs a dial number of a facsimile transmission destination from the operation display unit 2 (S1). This dial number is provided to the communication control unit 7 via the control unit 1, and further provided to the network control device 6 from the communication control unit 7, and the network control device 6 makes a call to the destination of the designated dial number. (S
2). If the other party can connect, the call is set up,
If the terminal is a facsimile device or a terminal that switches and uses the facsimile communication function and the telephone function, and if the facsimile communication function is selected at that time, the terminal operates according to a predetermined communication protocol, and the facsimile signal is eventually transmitted from the other party. It is transferred (S3).

When the control section 1 recognizes the reception of the facsimile signal from the other party via the communication control section 7, it sets "1" in the reception result storage section (storage area) 13 in the RAM 3 (S
4) Then, the connection abnormality occurrence counter 12 is reset (S5). To reset the connection error counter,
This is for controlling to output an alarm when the facsimile signal has not been received continuously a predetermined number of times.

On the other hand, if the connected party is not a facsimile machine, or if the facsimile function is not selected even if it is a facsimile machine, no facsimile signal is transferred from the other party (S3). Then, the controller 1 increments the count value of the connection abnormality occurrence counter 12 for the counterpart number at that time by one (S6), and checks whether or not the count value has reached a predetermined value as a result (S7). If the coefficient value has not reached the predetermined value, the process waits until the next dial number is input and repeats the call repeatedly.
Thus, an alarm display as shown in FIG. 3 is output to the display device of the operation display unit 2 (S8).

The alarm output unit 11 includes a control unit 1 as shown in FIG.
And a display device of the operation display unit 2. A program stored in the ROM of the control unit 1 is used to store a dial number at which the value of the connection abnormality occurrence counter 12 reaches a predetermined value and a dial number. The corresponding value in the reception record storage unit 13 is acquired, and a text as shown in FIG. 3 is created and output.

The display example shown in FIG. 3 shows that the alarm has not received a facsimile signal response from the other party which is displayed n times (predetermined number of times).
The information based on the contents of the above is also shown. That is,
(A) is a display content when the value of the reception record storage unit 13 is “1”, and (b) is a display value of the reception record storage unit 13 is “0”.
This is the display content in the case of. In the case of the display content shown in FIG. 3 (a), the user determines that “the terminal of XXXXX has been switched to the telephone function recently” and calls the other party to make a facsimile communication function. Can be requested. On the other hand, in the case of the display contents as shown in FIG. 3B, it is determined that the dial number is incorrect, and the dial number is confirmed. .

The output device of the alarm output unit 11 may be a voice output device using a speaker instead of a display device. In this case, for example, a voice ROM is provided in the control unit 1 and voices other than the voice corresponding to the dialed number are ADPC.
M into digital information compressed by M, etc.
A part of M, the dialed number is 0-9 voice A
This can be easily realized by converting the data into a DPCM, storing the data in the audio ROM, and combining the information at the time of output.

In the above description, the user can freely set a desired value (number of times) of the number of occurrences of connection abnormality for issuing an alarm according to the situation. This is provided with a corresponding program in the control unit 1, allows the user to select a predetermined value setting menu by menu selection on the operation display unit 2, and changes a predetermined value input from a key constituting the operation display unit 2 according to a display message. This is realized by the control unit 1 acquiring the information and setting it in a predetermined area in the RAM 3. It is also possible to configure so that the user can know the number of occurrences of the connection abnormality at that time. This is so that when the user selects the connection error occurrence frequency output menu, the control unit 1 acquires the value of the connection abnormality occurrence counter 12 in the RAM 3 and displays the acquired value on the operation display unit 2 or the like. What is necessary is just to comprise.

FIG. 4 is a structural block diagram showing another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG.
In addition to the configuration of the embodiment shown in FIG.
It has fifteen. The call control unit 15 is provided in the control unit 1 and shares a CPU. When the count value of the connection abnormality occurrence counter 12 reaches a predetermined value based on a corresponding program in the ROM, an alarm is issued simply. And prohibits facsimile transmission to the other party whose number of occurrences of the connection abnormality has reached a predetermined value thereafter. However, at this time, calling from the telephone to the other party is not prohibited, and a call can be made.

In the above description, when an instruction to release prohibition is input from the operation display unit 2, facsimile transmission to the other party can be made possible again.
Such transmission prohibition and transmission prohibition cancellation are realized by providing a transmission prohibition destination table (list) in the RAM 3. That is, when the destination is a transmission-inhibited destination, the destination dial number is registered in the transmission-inhibited destination table, and a call is made when the operation display unit 2 indicates the destination dial number to be released from the prohibition. The control unit 15 obtains the dial number and releases the dial number from the transmission prohibition destination table. At the time of facsimile transmission, the control unit 1 refers to the transmission prohibition destination table, and if the destination dial number to be called is registered, the network control unit 6
The call instruction may not be output to the user. In the present embodiment, since the configuration is as described above, for example, when an alarm is received for some reason, the problem that another user using the same terminal makes a useless call is eliminated, and After the state is switched to the facsimile receivable state, the call prohibition is released and normal transmission becomes possible.

[0022]

As described above, according to the present invention,
First, at the time of facsimile transmission, a connection error occurrence counter that counts the number of continuous occurrences of connection errors in which a facsimile response signal is not received from the destination for each destination dial number, and a facsimile signal from the destination is received. A reception result storage unit for storing whether or not there is a result, and a fact that a facsimile response signal is not received from the other party of the dial number when the value counted by the connection error occurrence counter reaches a predetermined value. , And an alarm output unit that outputs information based on the contents of the reception record storage unit, eliminates the waste of erroneous connection to the same partner terminal many times. Moreover on the connection abnormality it is determined whether the occurred because it is switched to the telephone function, since the connection abnormality cumulative number is not entirely be <br/> alarm display when it reaches a predetermined value, Useless calling is prevented, and the line can be used effectively. In addition, an appropriate response to the connection abnormality can be performed, and the trouble caused by the excessive alarm is eliminated.

Second, in the above, a telephone for making a call with the other party and a call control for enabling only the telephone to make a call when the value counted by the connection error occurrence counter reaches a predetermined value. In this configuration, unnecessary calls for facsimile transmission are prohibited when connection abnormalities occur more than a predetermined number of times, and furthermore, a telephone call with the other party can be continued, so that no warning is noticed. It is possible to prevent the third party from making useless calls for facsimile transmission thereafter, and it is possible to immediately respond to inquiries by telephone when an alarm is displayed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a configuration block diagram of a facsimile apparatus showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation flowchart of the facsimile apparatus showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIGS. 3A and 3B are screen views of a facsimile apparatus showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a configuration block diagram of a facsimile apparatus showing another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Control part, 2 ... Operation display part, 3 ... RAM, 4 ... Scanner, 5 ... Plotter, 6 ... Network controller, 7 ... Communication control part,
8: coding / decoding unit, 9: modem, 10: image memory, 11
... alarm output unit, 12 ... connection error occurrence counter, 13 ... reception record storage unit, 14 ... telephone, 15 ... call control unit.

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] In a facsimile apparatus provided with facsimile transmission means for performing facsimile transmission by designating a transmission destination, when a facsimile transmission is performed, a continuous connection error in which no facsimile response signal is received from the destination for each destination dial number. A connection error occurrence counter that counts the number of occurrences, a reception result storage unit that stores whether there is a result of receiving a facsimile signal from the other party,
When the value counted by the connection abnormality occurrence counter reaches a predetermined value, an alarm indicating that a facsimile response signal is not received from the other party of the dial number and information based on the contents of the reception result storage unit are output. A facsimile apparatus comprising: 2. A telephone set for making a call with a partner, and a call control unit for enabling only calling by the telephone set when a value counted by the connection error occurrence counter reaches a predetermined value. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein: