JP3292847B2 - Image communication device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image communication apparatus having a transfer function of transferring received image information to a designated destination,
In particular, the present invention relates to a technology effective when applied to a facsimile machine.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As shown in FIG. 7, a conventional facsimile communication means for transmitting and receiving image information via a telephone network in accordance with a predetermined communication control procedure (ITU-T compliant). And an image information memory 31 for storing received image information, and a storage unit 3 for storing a designated destination.
50, and a transfer control unit 520, and the received image information stored in the image information memory 31 is automatically transmitted to a designated destination stored in the storage unit 350.

[0003] In the above-described apparatus, for example, image information (facsimile information) transmitted to a terminal at home that is absent can be automatically transferred to a terminal at a designated destination.

[0004]

However, according to such a configuration, there is a problem in that image information that does not always need to be transferred is wasted, and inconvenience that the transfer destination is fixed to one occurs. Was.

The above problem occurs for the following reasons. That is, in the above-described conventional apparatus, the received image information is indiscriminately transferred to the same transfer destination. For this reason, even mails that do not need to be transferred, such as direct mail, are transferred, which may require extra communication costs. Further, depending on the caller, there is a case where the transfer needs to be performed to another destination. In this case, it is necessary to perform the re-transfer at the transfer destination.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and does not cause waste such as transferring unnecessary received image information and inconvenience such as needing to be re-transferred.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an image communication device capable of appropriately transmitting received image information.

[0007]

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication device capable of connecting two or more lines, and a transfer device for holding a plurality of transfer destination information of received image information. And a control unit for broadcasting image information received from a specific line and from a predetermined destination to the plurality of transfer destinations.

[0008]

According to the present invention, the image information received from a predetermined destination via a specific one of two or more lines is transferred to a predetermined destination by the above-described configuration, so that a received image can be transmitted in accordance with the received line. Since the information is transferred to an arbitrary transfer destination, the received image information can be selectively transmitted according to the receiving line, so that unnecessary image information is transferred and unnecessary retransmission is required. The received image information can be properly transferred without causing any inconvenience.

[0009] Further, by registering a plurality of transfer destination information, the received contents are automatically broadcast to a necessary place.
It is possible to save the trouble of broadcasting the image information to the necessary destination from the destination to which the image information has been received, and to improve the efficiency of the operation.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In the drawings, the same reference numerals indicate the same or corresponding parts. FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of an image communication apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 4 denotes a facsimile communication means for transmitting and receiving image information via a telephone network in accordance with a predetermined communication control procedure (ITU-T compliant). , 31 are image information memories for storing received image information,
Reference numeral 32 denotes a file management table for managing the image information stored in the image information memory 31 in file units.
Reference numeral 3 denotes a transmission job table in which data defining transmission operations such as a file ID (identification information) of transmission image information and a transmission destination is stored (loaded). Reference numeral 36 denotes a plurality of caller telephone numbers and respective callers. Storage means for arbitrarily registering a transfer destination of the telephone number; 51, an extraction means for extracting at least a part of the telephone number of the caller when receiving an incoming call; 52, a caller of the extracted telephone number registered in the storage means 36; If the received image information is stored in the image information memory 31, the received image information stored in the image information memory 31 is transmitted to the transfer destination registered for the registered caller.

Here, as shown in FIG. 2, the extracting means 51 exchanges data between a calling side (transmitting side) and a called side (receiving side) prior to transmission of image information (facsimile data). Various control signals (NSF, CSI, DIS, NSS, T
SI, DCS) of the T sent from the calling side to the called side.
From the SI, the lower four digits of the calling side are extracted.

[0013] The storage means 36 is a shortened dial table 34
And the incoming program table 35
It has a data format configuration in which a registered destination and a transfer destination for the registered destination are searched (searched) from the digit telephone number.

FIG. 3 shows a specific example of the configuration of the image communication apparatus shown in FIG. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an image reading apparatus for reading image information for transmission from a document or the like;
Is an image information memory, 32 is a file management table, 33
Is a transmission job table, 34 is a shortened dial table,
35 is an incoming program table, 4 is a facsimile communication means, 5 is a system control unit, and 6 is a device for compressing transmitted / received image information.
An encoding / decoding unit for decompression processing, a recording device 7 for printing and receiving received image information and a communication report on recording paper, a common system bus 8, and a telephone line L.

The operation panel 2 includes an operation unit 21 including numeric keys and command keys, and a display unit 2 using a liquid crystal panel or the like.
2, and the operation / display unit control 23.

The image information memory 31 is constructed by using a large-capacity storage device such as a hard disk drive, and stores read image information as a file for each communication. A file management table 32 is provided to manage the image information stored in the image information memory 31 in file units.

The system control unit 5 is constituted by using a computer (CPU) in the form of a microcircuit, and centrally controls the operation of the entire apparatus.

Each function of the extraction means 51 and the transfer control means 52 shown in FIG. 1 is incorporated in the system control section 5 by software.

Further, the system control unit 5 also has software built-in detecting means for detecting which line has an incoming call.

Each of the management tables 32 to 35 is, for example, an SRAM backed up by a power supply with a battery.
It is composed of a non-volatile, writable memory at any time.

FIG. 4 shows a configuration example of the speed dial table 34 and the incoming program table 35.

In the abbreviated dial table 34, a registration area is set for each abbreviated number (001) to (0 **).
In each registration area, a destination name and a destination number (telephone number), a communication line (extension, outside line, etc.), a communication type, and the like are arbitrarily stored and registered. This abbreviated dial table 34 is originally used for performing the abbreviated dial transmission operation. However, together with an incoming program table 35 described later, a designated call source for transfer control and a designated destination for the same are stored and stored. It is also used as storage means 36 for registering.

A registration area is set in the reception program table 35 for each of the reception programs Nos. (1) to (k).
01) to (0 **), incoming lines (extensions, outside lines, etc.) and communication types, and a plurality of transfer destinations are arbitrarily stored and registered.

Here, the select short numbers (001) to (0 **) of the incoming program table 35 correspond to the short numbers (001) to (0 **) of the short dial table 34, and are selected. By designating the abbreviated No., the telephone number of the destination registered with the same abbreviated number as the designated select abbreviated No. can be searched. That is, the select abbreviation No. of the incoming program table 35 functions as a kind of pointer data indirectly indicating the telephone number of the specific caller, and has substantially the same function as the telephone number of the specific caller.

FIG. 5 shows a configuration example of the file management table 32 and the transmission job table 34.

The file management table 32 stores file identification information (ID) set for each file, and further includes, for each file identification information (ID), the number of pages, line density, encoding method, and document size. And the like, and storage addresses for each page and their lengths are stored.

The transmission job table 34 has identification information (I) of the image information file stored in the image information memory 31.
D) is stored together with the communication type, and the number of pages of image information in the file, the number of destinations, information of each destination (such as a dial number) and the like are stored for each identification information (ID). I have.

The operation of the image communication apparatus configured as described above will be described below. FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a schematic operation of the image communication apparatus described above.

First, when there is an incoming call, it is determined whether or not the transfer setting has been made by the user's arbitrary operation. If the transfer function has not been set, the normal operation of printing the received image information on a recording sheet is performed. A receiving operation is performed.

If the transfer setting has been made, it is checked whether the line receiving the incoming call is a specific line registered in the incoming call program table 35 or not. If the line receiving the call does not correspond to any of the registered lines, the process shifts to a normal receiving operation of printing and recording the received image information on recording paper.

If the line that received the call is a registered line, the extracting means 51 formed in the system control unit 5 by software means the TSI sent from the calling side to the lower part of the calling telephone number. Four digits are extracted. Then, a search is made as to whether the caller of the telephone number having the same lower four digits as the extracted lower four digits is registered. This search is performed with reference to the incoming program table 35 and the shortened dial table 34.

If it is determined that the caller is registered, a transfer destination registered for the caller and a file of image information received and stored from the caller are stored. The ID is read from each of the tables 32, 34, and 35 to create the transmission job table 33. Then, normal transmission is performed by the transmission job table 33.

As described above, the received image information can be selectively transmitted according to the incoming line and the caller, and the transfer destination can also be allocated according to the incoming line and the caller. Can be.

As a result, the received image information can be appropriately transferred without inconvenience such as unnecessary transfer of unnecessary received image information and retransmission.

Further, in the case of the above-described embodiment, since the abbreviated dial table provided for the abbreviated dialing operation is also used for registration and retrieval of the call source to be transferred, Can be effectively used, and the advantage of simplifying the operation of registering the caller can be obtained.

[0036]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, image information received from a predetermined destination via a specific one of two or more lines is transferred to a predetermined destination, thereby enabling reception. The received image information is transferred to an arbitrary transfer destination in accordance with the received line, so that the received image information can be selectively transmitted in accordance with the receiving line. This has the effect that the received image information can be appropriately transferred without causing inconvenience such as the need to retransmit.

Further, by registering a plurality of pieces of transfer destination information, the received contents are automatically broadcast to a necessary place.
This has the effect of eliminating the need to broadcast the image information to a further necessary destination from the destination to which the image information has been received, thereby improving the work efficiency.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of an image communication device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a part of a communication control procedure performed by the apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a specific configuration example of the device shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a speed dial table and an incoming program table;

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a file management table and a transmission job table.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a schematic operation of a transfer operation by the device of the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a schematic configuration diagram of a conventional image communication device.

[Description of Signs] 1 Image reading device 2 Operation panel 31 Image information memory 32 File management table 33 Transmission job table 34 Short dial table 35 Incoming program table 36 Storage means (34, 35) 4 Communication means 5 System control unit (Extraction means) , Detection means, transfer control means) 51 extraction means 52 transfer control means L line

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. Communication means capable of connecting two or more lines,
Transfer destination storage means for storing a plurality of transfer destination information of received image information, and control means for broadcasting image information received from a specific line and from a predetermined destination to the plurality of transfer destinations. Characteristic image communication device.