JPH01258526A - Facsimile store and forward switching system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To execute the effective use of the memory of a Fax store and forward switching system by providing at least one terminal of the facsimile(Fax) terminal of an extension equipped with a picture memory and providing a means to accumulate prescribed picture information into the picture memory and transmit the transfer information of the effect to the related Fax terminal. CONSTITUTION:In a Fax store and forward switching system 1, for example, when the time designation transmission is requested from extension Fax terminals F1-Fn, the system 1 accumulates temporary the picture information of an original from the extension Fax terminals F1-Fn to request the communication request to a memory 6 at the time of the designation time, the picture information is read and transmitted to a designed destination from the memory 6. When the confidential transmission service from the Fax terminal of line wires LO1-LOm to special extension Fax terminals F1-Fn is requested, the system 1 receives the picture information from a requester, accumulates the picture information into the memory 6, and thereafter, the prescribed identifier is designated from the extension Fax terminals F1-Fn, an in case of requesting reception, the system answers the reception request and transmits the picture information of the memory 6.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a facsimile storage and forwarding device, and more particularly to a facsimile storage and forwarding device that makes effective use of a memory for storing image information.

(Prior Art) Recently, as facsimile machines have become widespread, they are connected to multiple facsimile terminals via multiple extensions and external lines, and after storing image information from each facsimile terminal in memory, they are sent to a specified destination. Transmitting facsimile store and forward devices are emerging.

Such facsimile storage and forwarding devices provide various communication services. For example, when a call is made from an extension facsimile terminal, facsimile control signals are exchanged according to normal facsimile communication procedures, and then the facsimile terminal The communication procedure is set according to the functions possessed by the device, and image information is received. At this time, when the extension facsimile terminal requests time-specified transmission, the facsimile storage and forwarding device temporarily stores the received image information in its memory, and then transmits it to the specified destination at the specified transmission time according to normal facsimile communication procedures.

In addition, when a call is made from an outside line facsimile terminal, it connects to the extension facsimile terminal of the sending party, and the facsimile storage and forwarding device receives image information from the outside line facsimile terminal and stores it in memory, and then transfers it to the extension facsimile terminal. Sending. Further, when an external line facsimile terminal requests a confidential service, the facsimile storage/exchange device stores the received image information in the memory, and thereafter, when there is a reception request from the internal line facsimile terminal, transmits the image information in the memory.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) However, in such conventional facsimile storage and forwarding devices, image information stored in the memory cannot be transmitted due to reasons such as the other party's facsimile terminal being busy or out of paper. If this is not possible, the image information will not be sent and will be stored in memory indefinitely as an undelivered document. Therefore, memory could not be used effectively.

Therefore, in the past, if the stored image information could not be sent to the destination even after re-calling a preset number of times, or if there was no request for receipt within the specified allowable time for confidential service, facsimile storage and exchange was used. There is also a facsimile storage and exchange device that erases image information of undelivered documents and confidential documents stored in the device's memory.

However, if the image information of undelivered documents and confidential documents stored in the memory of the facsimile storage and forwarding device is deleted, the operator of the facsimile terminal that requested communication service from the facsimile storage and forwarding device will repeatedly request the same communication service. This reduces the usability of the facsimile storage and forwarding device, and also makes it impossible to effectively utilize the image information of undelivered originals.

(Object of the Invention) Therefore, the present invention provides at least one facsimile terminal equipped with an image memory as an extension facsimile terminal, and transmits image information of undelivered manuscripts and original information of confidential manuscripts to the facsimile terminal. By storing the image information in the image memory and transmitting transfer information to the corresponding facsimile terminal, it is possible to prevent the memory of the facsimile storage and exchange device from being occupied by the image information of undelivered originals or confidential originals, and to The image information of manuscripts and confidential documents is stored in the image memory of the extension facsimile terminal in a usable state, thereby making effective use of the memory of the facsimile storage and forwarding device, and increasing the convenience of communication services using the facsimile storage and forwarding device. The aim is to further improve the performance.

(Structure of the Invention) In order to achieve the above objects, the present invention provides the following features: The facsimile storage and forwarding device is equipped with at least one facsimile terminal equipped with an image memory as an extension facsimile terminal, and the image information received and stored in the memory cannot be transmitted to the predetermined destination. At this time, the image information is transmitted to the facsimile terminal with image memory and stored in the image memory, and forwarding information to that effect is transmitted to the destination or the like.

and (2) image information is transmitted to the facsimile terminal with image memory at predetermined time intervals or when image information has been accumulated in the memory to a predetermined capacity.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be specifically explained based on examples.

FIG. 1.2 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, ■ is a facsimile storage and forwarding device, and the facsimile storage and forwarding device 1 is connected to the main unit 2 and a private branch exchange (
Private Branch Exchange:
PBX)3.

The main body 2 includes a system control unit 4, a communication control section 5, and a memory 6, and the private branch exchange 3 is connected to extension facsimile terminals F, - through extensions Ll, -Lln.
Fn is connected, and outside lines LO, to LOm are also connected. The private branch exchange 3 performs a calling operation according to instructions from the system control unit 4, and also connects the extension LI.

~1. In mutual and extension Ll, -Lln and outside line LO1
~Connect and exchange with LOm.

Among the extension facsimile terminals F and -Fn, the extension facsimile terminal F+ is equipped with an image memory GM, and the image memory GM has a capacity to store image information for a plurality of pages of a document.

The communication control unit 5 includes a modulator/demodulator, a compressor/regenerator, a double buffer memory, and the like. According to instructions from the system control unit 4, the communication control unit 5 exchanges facsimile control signals with the other party's facsimile terminal (extension facsimile terminals F, ~Fn or a facsimile terminal connected to an outside line), and also exchanges facsimile control signals with the other party's facsimile terminal (extension facsimile terminals F, -Fn or facsimile terminals connected to an outside line). The resulting image information is stored in one side of the double buffer memory while demodulating and redundancy reduction encoding is performed, and when it becomes full, it is transferred to the memory 6, and the image information transferred from the memory 6 is double-buffered. After storing the data in one side of the buffer memory, an output operation is performed in which the data is modulated and sent to the other party's facsimile terminal.

The system control unit 4 controls each part of the facsimile storage and forwarding device 1 according to a program stored in the internal ROM to execute the sequence as the facsimile storage and forwarding device 1, and also executes the image information transfer process for undelivered original documents of the present invention. .

The memory 6 stores image information transmitted from each facsimile terminal, and the image information stored in the memory 6 is managed as a file by the system control unit 4 for each designated destination.

Next, the operation will be explained based on the flowchart shown in FIG.

The facsimile storage and forwarding device 1 is an extension facsimile terminal F.
, ~Fn or an outside line LO, ~LOm, when a communication service request is received from a facsimile terminal connected to the outside line LO, ~LOm, various communication services are provided in response to the communication service request. For example, when there is a request for time-specific transmission from an extension facsimile terminal F1 to Fn, the facsimile storage and forwarding device 1 sends a request to the extension facsimile terminal F, to Fn that requested the communication request.
receives the image information of the original from and temporarily stores it in the memory 6,
At the designated time, the image information is read out from the memory 6 and transmitted to the designated destination. Also, outside line LO, ~LO
When there is a request for confidential transmission service from a facsimile terminal F to a specific extension facsimile terminal F, to Fn, the facsimile storage and exchange device 1 receives the image information from the client and stores it in the memory 6, and then , When a reception request is received from an extension facsimile terminal F1 to Fn specifying a predetermined ID (identifier), image information stored in the memory 6 is transmitted in response to the reception request.

In this way, in the facsimile storage and forwarding device 1, image information is stored in the memory 6 depending on the content of the communication service, and is stored in the memory 6 until the communication service is completed. However, if the image information stored in the memory 6 cannot be sent because the destination is busy or out of paper, or if there is no request for receipt using the confidential transmission service, the original will be stored in the memory 6 forever as an undelivered document. Cannot be used effectively.

Therefore, in this embodiment, a facsimile terminal F equipped with an image memory GM is installed as an extension facsimile terminal,
Based on a predetermined transfer time or the storage capacity of the memory 6, the image information of the undelivered original in the memory 6 is transferred to the extension facsimile terminal F and stored in the image memory GM.

That is, the system control unit 4 firstly
Is there an undelivered document in the memory 6? In other words, the image information of the document received in response to a time-specified transmission request was called at the specified time, but could not be received, and the image information that could not be sent after re-calling a predetermined number of times is checked in the memory 6. If there is no undelivered manuscript, check whether there is image information in the memory 6 for a confidential manuscript for which there is no receipt request (Step P1).
Step P2). If there is no image information for the confidential manuscript, please check whether there is a transfer report request (Step P).
If there is no transfer report request, the process returns to step P1.

If there is an undelivered document or a confidential document without a receipt request in step P1 or step P2, check whether the preset transfer time has arrived (step P4).
If the transfer time has not yet arrived, it is checked whether the storage amount in the memory 6 has reached the preset storage amount (step P). For example, the transfer time may be set once or several times a day as the transfer time, or for undelivered documents, the transfer time may be set several hours after the specified sending time, and for confidential documents, the transfer time may be set as the transfer time. The transfer time may be several hours after the reception time. Further, the amount of storage in the memory 6 is set based on the total memory capacity of the memory 6 and the number of pages of the manuscript as appropriate in relation to subsequent communication services.

When the transfer time has not arrived and the amount of storage in the memory 6 has not reached the predetermined amount (step P4, P), the process moves to step P and the same process is repeated. When the transfer time is reached or the amount stored in the memory 6 reaches a predetermined amount, the extension facsimile terminal F1 equipped with the image memory GM is called (step P6), and undelivered documents and confidential documents are transferred to the extension facsimile terminal F1. (Step P7). At this time, the facsimile storage and forwarding device 1 transmits the undelivered document to the image memory GM of the extension facsimile terminal F1.
Confidential documents are transmitted confidentially and stored in the image memory GM of the extension facsimile terminal F. When the document transmission is completed, disconnect the line (step pa)
.

Next, the facsimile storage and forwarding device 1 calls the corresponding extension facsimile terminals F1 to Fn and outputs a transfer report (steps P, , P, , Pth). This transfer report sends undelivered manuscripts and confidential manuscripts to the extension facsimile terminal F.
This is a report indicating that the original has been transferred to the image memory CM of No. 1 and a list of the originals.
・Using the function. That is, the facsimile storage and forwarding device 1 first calls the extension facsimile terminal F1 to which the undelivered document or confidential document was transferred, and outputs a transfer report. Therefore, the operator of the extension facsimile terminal F1 can know that image information of undelivered originals and confidential originals is stored in the image memory CM of the extension facsimile terminal F1. Next, if the transferred document is an undelivered document, the facsimile storage and forwarding device 1 calls the extension facsimile terminals F1 to Fn that have requested time-specific transmission, and outputs a transfer report. Therefore, the operators of extension facsimile terminals F and -Fn who requested time-specific transmission know that the original document has not been erased and is stored in the image memory GM of extension facsimile terminal F, and the operator of extension facsimile terminal F+ is asked to send the image at extension facsimile terminal F+. The image information of the original stored in the memory GM can be effectively used.

Furthermore, if there is a request to send or receive a non-delivery document or a confidential document immediately transferred to the extension facsimile terminal F+ in step Px, the facsimile storage and forwarding device 1 determines that it is a transfer report request, and moves to step Px. , and outputs a transfer report to the corresponding extension facsimile terminals F1 to Fn (steps P9 to P). In this way, in the facsimile storage and forwarding device 1 of this embodiment, undelivered documents and confidential documents are sent to the extensions. Since the image can be transferred to the image memory GM of the facsimile terminal F and stored in the image memory GM, the facsimile storage and exchange device 1
The memory 6 of the extension facsimile terminal F1 can be used effectively, and the image memory GM of the extension facsimile terminal F1 can be used effectively. In addition, undelivered manuscripts and confidential manuscripts stored in the image memo IJGM of the extension facsimile terminal F can be effectively used.

In the above embodiment, the conditions for transferring the original stored in the memory 6 of the facsimile storage and forwarding device 1 are as follows.
Although the transfer time and the memory storage amount have been discussed, the present invention is not limited to these, and the method of setting the conditions is not limited to that of the above embodiment.

(Effects) According to the present invention, it is possible to prevent the memory of the facsimile storage and forwarding device from being occupied by the image information of undelivered originals and confidential originals, and also to transfer the image information of undeliverable originals and confidential originals to the extension facsimile. To be able to store information in a usable state in the image memory of a terminal, to make effective use of the memory of a facsimile storage and forwarding device, and to further improve the convenience of communication services using the facsimile storage and forwarding device. I can do it.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

1.2 is a diagram showing an embodiment of the facsimile storage and forwarding device of the present invention, FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the facsimile storage and forwarding device, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the document transfer process thereof. be. 1...Facsimile storage and exchange device, 2...
... Main body, 3... Private branch exchange, 4... System control unit, 5...
...Communication control unit, 6...Memory, Ll, ~Lln...Extension, LO, ~LOm...External line, F1-Fn... Extension facsimile terminal, GM・
...Image memory. Figure 1/-1

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a facsimile storage and forwarding device that is connected to multiple facsimile terminals via multiple extensions and outside lines, receives image information from each facsimile terminal, temporarily stores it in memory, and then transmits it to a predetermined destination. At least one facsimile terminal equipped with an image memory is provided as a facsimile terminal, and when image information received and stored in the memory cannot be transmitted to a predetermined destination, the image information is transmitted to the facsimile terminal with image memory. A facsimile storage and exchange device that stores images in the image memory and transmits transfer information to that destination, etc. (2) The facsimile storage and exchange according to claim 1, characterized in that image information is transmitted to the facsimile terminal with image memory at preset predetermined time intervals or when image information has been accumulated in the memory to a predetermined capacity. Device.