JP3609249B2 - Facsimile device - Google Patents

Description

[0001]
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a facsimile machine having a charging device.
[0002]
[Prior art]
Conventionally, as a technique for reducing the communication cost, the inventions described in JP-A-5-292292 and JP-A-7-335521 are known. The former accumulates the encoded communication data, analyzes it, and if it does not exceed the predetermined time set for the call time per unit billing fee, it does not communicate immediately and communication of the next transmission document is required. When the accumulated time exceeds a predetermined time, the accumulated data is sent to the same destination. In the latter case, regarding facsimile mail, a message is stored for each designated destination, and if the predicted transmission time is within the searched communication time, the message is not transmitted and stored in the storage unit. Keep it. These techniques aim to reduce the communication cost by sending the accumulated documents together, and do not control the accumulation operation with the balance information from the charging device.
[0003]
[Problems to be solved by the invention]
By the way, in a facsimile machine having a conventional billing device, in order to obtain a communication fee from the time required for actual communication, it is not possible to charge according to the communication fee, but only on the basis of another system such as the number of documents. There wasn't.
[0004]
Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to charge the communication fee by predicting the communication fee, and stop the accumulation operation at the number of originals that is predicted not to be short of the balance, thereby reducing the communication fee. In view of the above, it is possible to provide a facsimile apparatus that can limit the transmission operation and prevent shortage of the balance.
A second object of the present invention is to provide a facsimile machine that warns an operator when the accumulation operation is stopped at the number of originals predicted from the balance.
The third object of the present invention is to not only notify the operator of the reason for stopping the accumulation operation when displaying a warning to the operator, but also display the warning and temporarily stop the accumulation operation. However, if a charge is added, the accumulation operation is continued. The present invention provides a facsimile apparatus that can continue all the documents prepared by an operator and can store all the originals.
[0005]
[Means for Solving the Problems]
According to the first aspect of the present invention, the accounting apparatus having the balance notification function, the memory for storing the compressed transmission image, the size detecting means for obtaining the size of the image data stored in the memory, the telephone number and the communication time are used. A charge data table for obtaining a communication charge, and each time image data for one page is stored in the memory, the charge data table is referred to from the size and telephone number detected by the size detection means of the image data. Predicting means for predicting communication charges, and comparing means for comparing the communication charges predicted by the predicting means with the balances notified from the charging device, and the balance by the comparison means is insufficient. In such a case, the first object is achieved by stopping the operation of storing the transmission image in the memory.
[0006]
According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, a warning display device is provided to warn the user of a shortage of the balance when the balance by the comparison means causes a shortage. The second object is achieved by stopping the operation of storing the transmission image in the memory after giving a warning.
[0007]
According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect of the present invention, when the balance is insufficient due to the comparison by the comparison means, the user adds a fee after warning the user of the shortage of the balance on the warning display device. The third object is achieved by temporarily stopping the operation of storing the transmission image in the memory for a predetermined period of time.
[0008]
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Hereinafter, a preferred embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the facsimile apparatus according to the present embodiment. This facsimile apparatus includes a CPU (central processing unit) 11, an encoder / decoder 12, a SAF memory 13 for storing a transmission waiting file and a reception printing waiting file, a charge data table 14 for knowing a communication charge from a telephone number and a call time, an image The size calculation means 15, the communication charge prediction means 16, the display device 17 that presents necessary information to the operator in a recognizable manner, and the document reading device 18, are connected to the charging device 20.
[0009]
The overall control of this apparatus is performed by the CPU 11. The encoder / decoder 12 compresses the read image or expands the received image, and the image size calculation means 15 obtains the size of the read image data compressed and stored in the SAF memory 13.
The communication charge prediction means 16 predicts the communication charge from the communication time predicted from the image size using the charge data table 14. The document reading device 18 reads a transmission document prepared by an operator.
[0010]
FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure according to the first embodiment.
First, the balance information is taken out from the billing apparatus 20 (step 10), and a one-page document is stored (step 11). Thereafter, the image size calculation means 15 calculates the size of the stored image (step 12). Based on the calculated size, the communication fee predicting means 16 calculates the communication fee by predicting the communication time (step 13). The predicted communication charge calculated here is compared with the remaining balance taken out in advance (step 14). If the remaining balance is large (step 14; Y), the next page is accumulated, but if it is small (step 14; N) ), The process is terminated even if the transmission document remains.
In this embodiment, by stopping the accumulation operation with the number of documents corresponding to the predicted communication fee according to the remaining amount notification from the charging device 20, it becomes possible to limit charging for the communication fee and not be charged due to a shortage of the remaining amount. Can be avoided.
[0011]
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a processing procedure according to the second embodiment.
The accumulation operation is performed in the same procedure as in the first embodiment (steps 20 to 24). When the comparison result with the balance is small (step 24; N), the display device 17 displays that the accumulation operation is terminated because the fee is insufficient before the termination (step 25). Notify the user to that effect.
In the second embodiment, the user can recognize that the accumulation operation is stopped due to a shortage of the balance.
[0012]
FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure according to the third embodiment. The accumulation operation is performed in the same procedure as in the first embodiment (steps 30 to 34). If the remaining balance is insufficient (step 34; N), the display device 17 displays that the accumulation operation is terminated because the fee is insufficient (step 35). Notify the user to that effect. Thereafter, the storage operation is suspended for a predetermined time until the charge is added (steps 36 and 37). If a charge is not added even after a predetermined time has elapsed (step 37; Y), the accumulation operation is terminated. In the third embodiment, since the user has an opportunity to add a shortage fee, it is possible to charge by the communication fee while preventing the case where all the originals cannot be transmitted.
[0013]
【The invention's effect】
According to the first aspect of the present invention, it is possible to limit the charge for the communication charge and stop the remaining charge by stopping the accumulation of the transmission image in the memory with the number of documents corresponding to the predicted communication charge according to the remaining charge notification from the charging device. Therefore, it is possible to prevent from being unable to charge.
[0014]
According to the second aspect of the present invention, it is possible to make the user recognize that the accumulation operation is stopped due to the shortage of the remaining amount by displaying the shortage of the remaining amount on the warning display device to warn the user.
[0015]
According to a third aspect of the present invention, when the remaining amount is insufficient due to the comparison by the comparison means, a predetermined time until the user adds a fee after warning the user that the remaining amount is insufficient on the warning display device, the memory By temporarily suspending the operation of storing the transmission image on the network, it is possible to charge the communication fee while preventing the case where all the originals cannot be transmitted.
[Brief description of the drawings]
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment.
FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure according to the first embodiment.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure according to the second embodiment.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart illustrating a processing procedure according to a third embodiment.
[Explanation of symbols]
11 CPU
12 Encoder / Decoder 13 SAF Memory 14 Fee Data Table 15 Image Size Calculation Unit 16 Communication Fee Prediction Unit 17 Display Device 18 Document Reading Device 20 Billing Device

Claims (3)

A billing device having a balance notification function;
A memory for storing compressed transmission images;
Size detection means for determining the size of the image data stored in the memory;
Charge data table for obtaining communication charges from telephone number and communication time,
Prediction means for predicting a communication charge by referring to the charge data table from the size and the telephone number detected by the size detection means of the image data each time one page of image data is stored in the memory;
Comparing means for comparing the communication fee predicted by the predicting means and the balance notified from the charging device,
A facsimile apparatus characterized in that when a balance is insufficient due to the comparison by the comparison means, the operation of storing the transmission image in the memory is stopped. When there is a shortage of balance due to the comparison by the comparison means, a warning display device that warns the user of a shortage of balance,
2. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein after the warning is given to the warning display device, the operation of storing the transmission image in the memory is stopped. When the remaining amount is insufficient due to the comparison by the comparison means, after the warning display device is warned to the user that the remaining amount is insufficient, the transmission image is stored in the memory for a predetermined time until the user adds a fee. 3. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the facsimile apparatus is temporarily stopped.

Images