JPH01255372A - Image communicating device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce a procedure time and a communication cost by transmitting all image data transmitted to the same opponent station without disconnecting a line connection when the image data transmitted to the same opponent station are stored. CONSTITUTION:A control part 1 decides whether the other image data transmitted to the opponent station are stored in an image memory 32 or not at the time of transmitting the image data, and when the other image data transmitted to the same opponent station are stored, all image data transmitted to the same opponent station are transmitted without disconnecting the line connection by a communication control part 3. Consequently, when the image data transmitted to the same opponent station are plurally stored, all image data can be transmitted without disconnecting the line connection. Thus, the high efficiency of a communication processing, namely, a work to use such a communicating device and the reduction of the communication cost can be executed.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to an image communication device, and particularly to an image communication device that stores image data to be transmitted to a plurality of partner stations in advance in association with identification number data of the partner stations. The present invention relates to an image communication device that sequentially transmits image data to a partner station.

[Prior Art] Conventionally, facsimile apparatuses have been known that load all image data to be transmitted into an image memory and then call a destination station to transmit an image.

In recent years, large amounts of memory have been implemented. Alternatively, there is also known a device that is provided with an external storage device such as a magnetic disk, in which image data for a plurality of partner stations is stored and sequentially transmitted.

In the method described above, in which images transmitted to multiple partner stations are stored in the image memory, the phone number and image data (or data pointer pointing to the image data, etc.) of the partner stations are stored as a set of data blocks, and at the time of transmission, 1
Call blocks one by one and send.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in conventional devices, the line is disconnected every time the transmission process of one data block is completed, and a call is made using the telephone number of the next data block to transmit the next image data. Control was in place to send the . Therefore, if you make a transmission reservation for the same destination station multiple times, that is, read image data and input the destination phone number, even if these steps are performed consecutively, there will be a difference between the processing of data blocks. There is a problem in that the line is disconnected and the call processing and communication procedure are repeated from the beginning when transmitting the second data block.

This problem also occurs when image data is being transmitted to a certain partner station and a transmission reservation is made to the same partner station. Such control increases processing time and is extremely disadvantageous in terms of communication costs when communication charges are the same within a certain period of time, such as in local communication.

The object of the present invention is to solve the above problems.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, in the present invention, image data to be transmitted to a plurality of partner stations is stored in advance in association with identification number data of the partner stations. In an image communication device that sequentially transmits image data to the partner station, when transmitting image data, it is determined whether or not other image data to be transmitted to the partner station is stored, and the image data to be transmitted to the same partner station is determined. A configuration is adopted in which communication control means is provided to transmit all image data to be transmitted to the same partner station without disconnecting the line connection when other image data is stored.

[Sakukawa] According to the above configuration, if a plurality of image data to be transmitted to the same partner station are stored, all the image data can be transmitted without disconnecting the line connection.

[Example] The present invention will be described in detail below based on an example shown in one drawing.

FIG. 1 shows the configuration of a facsimile apparatus employing the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a control section that controls the operation of the entire apparatus, and is composed of a microprocessor element and the like. Each storage means necessary for control and each section to be controlled, which will be described later, are connected to the control section 1 via data and address buses.

A ROM 1a for storing programs and constants necessary for control, which will be described later, is connected to the control unit 1.

Reading of document image data is performed by a reading section 2 composed of a CCD sensor, a document conveyance system, and the like. Further, received image data or image data read by the reading section 2 during a copying operation is recorded by a recording section 7 comprising a thermal printer, an inkjet printer, or the like.

Transmission and reception of image data and procedure signals to and from the line 6 is performed via the communication control section 3.The communication control section 3 is connected to a modem that modulates and demodulates the image signals and procedure signals, and a telephone (or handset) 5 for line control. It consists of an NCU that controls line connections and maintains loops.

The communication operation is controlled by the control unit l according to the operation input from the operation unit 4. The operation unit 4 includes a keyboard such as a numeric keypad and a display device such as a liquid crystal display.

In FIG. 1, memories are provided, designated 31 and 32. These memories are composed of rewritable memories such as RAM and magnetic disk drives.

Among these, numeral 31 is a transmission data block that stores the telephone number of the other party and a data pointer to the image data stored in the 4-image memory 32 for each block, and numeral 32 is an image memory that actually stores the image data. be.

Although these memories are shown divided into two blocks here, these memories may actually be arranged in a linear memory space.

FIG. 2 shows the data structure of the transmission data block 31 and image memory 32 in FIG. 1.

As shown on the left side of FIG. 2, the transmission data block 31 consists of six blocks #0 to #5.

Block #0 is a transmission execution block, and when transmission is instructed, the image data pointed to by the register in block #O is transmitted. Blocks #1 to #5 are reserved blocks for transmission, and when the contents of #O are transmitted, blocks #1 to #5 are reserved for transmission.
The contents of 5 are sequentially transferred to execution block #O and transmitted.

The structure of block #O1#l is shown in the center of FIG.

The image memory 32 is a page memory configured in page units that can sufficiently accommodate image data such as A4 size, and has a storage area for 300 pages from 0 to 299.

As shown in the center of FIG. 2, at the beginning of transmission data block #0 there is a telephone number register 31a for storing 20 digits of the other party's telephone number, and after that there is a telephone number register 31a for storing 20 digits of the telephone number of the other party. A page register 31b for storing a pointer specifying a page follows. At the beginning of the page register 31b, data of 0, ■, and 2 are stored as shown in the figure, and these numbers are 0° of the image memory 32. 1
．． This means 2 pages.

The fourth register (3) of the page register 31b stores -1 data indicating the end of data. The structure after data block #0 is the same, and data block #l similarly stores a telephone number and a page number (297) of the memory in which image data is stored.

With such a configuration, when the control unit l reads the information of the data block 30 to be transmitted, the telephone number register 31
A call is made using the contents of a.

Subsequently, the image data stored in each page of the image memory in each register of the page register 31b is transmitted to the partner station.

Next, the operation of the above configuration will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. The procedure in Figure 3 is ROM
1a as a control program.

Prior to transmission, when a known transmission reservation operation is performed, that is, input of a telephone number and reading of image data by the reading unit 2, telephone number data and page specification data are sequentially stored in blocks #0 to #5 of the transmission data block 31. is memorized.

Further, the image data read by the reading section 2 is sequentially stored in empty pages of the image memory 32.

After that, when the transmission of image data is commanded by a predetermined operation input from operation pH4, a call is made to the other party's station using the dial data stored in the telephone number register 31a of block #0 of the transmission data block 31 in step S1. Next, in step S2, the pointer PP specifying the register in block #0 of the transmission data block 31 is reset to 0. As a result, block #0 is selected as the transmission execution block.

Next, in step S3, the image data stored in the page of the image memory 32 indicated by the register in the page register 31b indicated by the pointer PP is transmitted.

In step S4, the pointer PP is incremented by 1, and the process moves to step S4', where the register contents of the page register 31b indicated by the pointer PP are read, and then one step S
5, it is determined whether the value is -1. If this value is not -1, the page block to be transmitted is stored in the image memory 32, so the process returns to step S3 and repeats the transmission of the page block. First, the image data stored in pages 0 to 2 of the image memory 32 is transmitted.

When -1 is read out in step S5 (in the example of FIG. 2, when the contents of register 3 of page register 31b are read out), the process moves to step S6, and the ? ! ! It is determined whether the same telephone number data as that stored in the telephone number register 31a of data block #O currently being transmitted is stored in the telephone number register 31a. If the same telephone number data does not exist, the line connection is cut off in step S8 and the transmission process ends; however, if the same telephone number exists, the process advances to step S7.

In step S7, the contents of the data block (any one of #1 to #5) storing the same telephone number as the telephone number register 31a of data block #O detected in step S6 are transferred to the position of data block #0. As a result, the data block indicating the partner station to which the primary transmission should be performed is transferred to #0, which is the execution data block. After that, the process returns to step S2 and repeats the above operation.

According to the above configuration, if the same telephone number data is stored in the telephone number register 31a of each block #0 to #5 of the transmission data block 31, transmission to the same partner station can be performed in step S2 without disconnecting the line. ~S7 loop.

Therefore, even if there is a transmission reservation for the same partner station during transmission, unlike in the past, the line will not be disconnected every time, and communication costs will not increase. If the configuration is such that they can be performed in parallel, image data can be sent continuously to the same partner station without disconnecting the line even if a transmission reservation is made to the partner station that is currently transmitting using the procedure shown in Figure 3. be able to.

According to the above configuration, the time required for procedures before and after communication is saved, and communication costs are also reduced accordingly.

[Effects of the Invention] As is clear from the above, according to the present invention, image data to be transmitted to a plurality of partner stations is stored in advance in association with identification number data of the partner stations, and the stored image data is transmitted to the corresponding stations. 1 in the image communication VT device that sequentially transmits to the other station
When transmitting image data, determine whether other image data that should be sent to the partner station is stored, and if other image data that should be sent to the same partner station is stored, the line connection is disconnected. Since the configuration includes a communication control means that allows all image data to be transmitted to the same partner station to be sent to the same partner station without having to All image data can be transmitted without disconnecting, which has the excellent effect of streamlining communication processing and, therefore, business operations using such a communication device, and reducing communication costs.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a facsimile machine adopting the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing the structure of the transmission data block and image memory of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a control of the communication control unit of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a flowchart diagram showing a procedure. 1... Control unit 2... Reading unit 3... Communication control unit 4... Operation unit 6... Line 7... Recording unit 31... Transmission data block 32... Image memory Figure 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1) Image data is transmitted in an image communication device that stores image data to be transmitted to multiple partner stations in advance in association with identification number data of the partner stations, and sequentially transmits the stored image data to the partner stations. In this case, it is determined whether other image data that should be sent to the other station is stored, and if other image data that should be sent to the same other station is stored, it can be sent to the same other station without disconnecting the line connection. An image communication device characterized by comprising communication control means for transmitting all image data to be transmitted to a station.