JPH02311072A - Portable facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the need for a read mechanism and a recording mechanism by converting a data stored in a recording medium into a facsimile signal, sending the signal at the transmission and listing up the content by way of soft copy display at the reception. CONSTITUTION:A kernel 21 is a data retrieval mechanism and in charges of storage management such as provision of index, retrieval and source in the unit of managed data. MH, MR data from an optical disk 10 or MH, MR-coded data from a coder decoder (CODEC) 16 are modulated into a PSK signal or a QAM signal by a MODEM/NCU 17 and send to a telephone line. On the other hand, received data is demodulated by the MODEM/NCU 17 and stored in the optical disk 10 once via an optical disk drive 9. When the user observes a received facsimile data, the stored data is decoded by the CODEC 16, expanded into a 2-dimension dot image, displayed on a display section 12a and observed as a soft copy.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a portable facsimile device that is miniaturized by removing the document reading section and the recording section that outputs hard copies from a normal facsimile device. .

(Prior Art) FIG. 5 shows the basic configuration of a conventional stationary facsimile machine. A normal facsimile device 1 includes a control circuit 2 that manages the entire facsimile communication, a document reading section such as an image sensor 3, a recording conversion section such as a thermal head 4, recording paper 5 necessary for receiving and recording, and a power source 6. It is configured.

Here, the conventional facsimile machine sends the communication result to the recording paper 5.
In order to print out a hard copy, a recording mechanism is required, and its operation consumes a large amount of power.Also, in order to send the existing document 7 to the other party's facsimile machine, it requires a recording mechanism to read the document. Requires a mechanism.

These recording mechanisms and document reading mechanisms are restricted by recording paper size and document size, and their power consumption is large, which poses a bottleneck to miniaturizing the apparatus. For this reason, normal facsimile machines are of a stationary type, and it has been impossible to carry the facsimile machine itself.

(Object of the Invention) An object of the present invention is to provide a portable facsimile device that is equipped with a facsimile function without having a recording mechanism or a document reading mechanism.

(Structure of the Invention) (Characteristics of the Invention and Differences from the Prior Art) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention stores the received data in a built-in recording medium when receiving a facsimile, and displays the contents on a soft copy display. The present invention is characterized in that data that has already been stored in the storage medium is converted into a facsimile signal and then transmitted when sending a facsimile. This differs from conventional facsimile machines in that it does not have a document reading mechanism or a hard copy recording mechanism.

(Embodiment) FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention, in which 8 is an apparatus main body, 9 is an optical disk drive, 10 is an optical disk, and 11 is an insertion slot for the optical disk 10.

12 is an integrated input display device, and 13 is a power switch.

14 is a connector for connecting to a communication line.

The device main body 8 has a built-in facsimile communication function, and can perform facsimile communication by connecting a telephone and a telephone line to the connector 14, but does not have a built-in document reading mechanism or hard copy recording mechanism.

Communication in G3 facsimile mode will be explained below as an example. When receiving a facsimile, the received data is stored on the optical disk 10, which is a large storage medium. The user inputs the facsimile data stored on the optical disk 10 and obtains the information as a soft copy using the integrated display device 12. Furthermore, when transmitting a facsimile, facsimile data already stored on the optical disk 10 is converted into a facsimile signal and transmitted.

If the user wishes to obtain a hard copy of the reception result of facsimile communication, the user can simply transfer the received data to the nearest conventional facsimile machine (facsimile transmission).

Note that it is desirable that the optical disk 10 be rewritable, and magneto-optical disks, phase change optical disks, etc. are suitable.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the internal configuration of the device body 8 shown in FIG. 1, in which 15 is a control circuit, 16 is a COG decoder (CODEC), and 17 is a modem and network control device! ! (N CU), 18 is the power supply, 19 is the basic human output software (BIOS), 20 is the operation software (
os), 21 is the man-machine interface (MMI)
and a search kernel, 22 is a basic application program (AP), and 23 is various application programs (AP). Of these, 19 to 23 are software, and the programs are stored in the ROM or optical disk 1.
It is stored in 0. - First, facsimile reception operation will be explained.

Data input via the telephone line and connector 14 is demodulated by the model/NCU 17 and stored on the optical disk IO via the optical disk drive 9.

Here, when the communication mode is G3 facsimile, the stored data is MH or MR encoded data. In order for the user to view the received facsimile data, the stored data is decoded by the CODEC 16 and developed into a two-dimensional dot image, which is then displayed on the display section 12a and viewed as a soft copy. Here, a liquid crystal display LCD can be used as the first display section 12a.

Furthermore, it is not necessary that one display section 12a has the same size and resolution as the size of the transmitted document. That is, since the received result is viewed as a soft copy, display techniques such as enlargement/reduction, scrolling, etc. can be used to cope with communication of various document sizes.

For example, the resolution of the display section 12a is 4 d a t /
rtn + display size is 640 x 400 dots, A4 manuscript (8 dots/+m).

1728dot x 230011ine), you can view one page by reducing the size to 1/4. However, since the resolution deteriorates, it may be impossible to distinguish characters, etc., but it is possible to understand the overall layout.

Further, the image data may be displayed as it is without being reduced in size for interpretation. However, if the display area is small, the user can review while scrolling the display.

All operations on the device body 8 are performed by touching the tablet 12b. The tablet L2b and the display section 12a are integrated into an integrated input/display device.

Next, the facsimile transmission operation will be explained.

If the data already stored on the optical disk 10 remains in the MH or MR code, it may be modulated by the modem/NCU 17 and sent to the telephone line via the modular jack 14 without going through the C:0 DEC 16.

In addition, if the data stored in the optical disk IO is a two-dimensional dot image, the dot image is converted to C0D.
After MH or MR encoding with EC16, modem/NC
U17. It is sufficient to send it to the telephone line via the modular jack 14.

In the above facsimile transmission operation, the MH and MR data from the optical disk 10 or the M
The H, MR encoded data is modulated into a PSK signal or a QAM signal by the modem/NCU 17, and then sent to the modem/NCU 17.
CU17. It is sent out to the telephone line via the modular jack 14.

In this way, the present invention does not perform hard copy recording when receiving a facsimile, so the recording mechanism required in conventional facsimile machines is not required, and the device can be made smaller.
Recording power, which conventionally required tens to hundreds of W, is not required, and the capacity of the power source 18 can be significantly reduced in size and weight, and as a result, a battery-powered portable facsimile device can be realized.

Further, in the second configuration, the modular jack 14
It is equipped with two modular jacks, one for the telephone line and one for the telephone, and if the telephone function is built-in, only one modular jack is required.The data of the original to be transmitted is stored in advance on the optical disk 10. This data can be entered into the nearest conventional facsimile machine, or
Handwritten input may also be performed using the tablet 12b.

By the way, the above-mentioned facsimile transmission and reception operations are controlled by the program group of the soft block and the control circuit 15 of the hard block.

The soft block is 0820°BI as shown in Figure 2.
O819, kernel 21. It is composed of AP22.23. The BIO 319 controls each device of the hard block and also provides a software interface with a higher-level program. The kernel 21 is a data search mechanism and a man-machine interface management mechanism. As a data search mechanism, it is responsible for general storage management such as adding indexes to data management units, searching, and sources, just like general database management software.

It is also responsible for man-machine interface management, presentation of job selection menus, search results, error messages, etc. to the user, and command input processing. Basic AP
22 is composed of programs for communication control, data search, etc. In addition, as various AP23, by preparing dedicated software, word processor, database, etc.
Drawing 2 spreadsheets etc.

It can run the same types of software as general computers.

FIG. 3 schematically shows an example of the processing flow of the basic AP 22 shown in FIG. 2 above. After turning on the power source 18, a job selection menu is first displayed on the display section 12a, and the user selects a job from the menu.

For example, receiving a document from the other party's facsimile machine.

When displaying (a), the following float will be used. After the call setup (Phase A) is completed, if you instruct FAX reception in job selection, negotiation with the other party's facsimile machine (Phase B) follows the communication procedure of CCITT T, 30.
Start.

When terminal constant settings such as document size and communication speed are completed through this negotiation, an image signal is received (phase C), and the received data is stored on the optical disk 10. The received image signal is MH or MR encoded data, usually 171 of the original dot image data.
Amount of data less than 0 (50 per page in A4 size product quality mode)
KB or less). Therefore, when storing received data on the optical disc 10, it is better to store the encoded data as it is.

Next, when the reception of the image signal is completed, a termination process (phase D) is performed, and the call is disconnected (phase E), and the call S is terminated.

Note that after the communication ends, the user adds an index necessary for searching to the received data. When this facsimile reception routine ends, the basic AP returns to job selection again and waits for the fifth process selection.

In the case of the document display routine (a), when you start it,
This is a flow for searching for desired data from a large amount of image data stored on the optical disc 10. As a search method for this data, a general search method can be applied, such as a one-display search where the first page of each document is sequentially displayed.

Browsing (reducing the first page of each document and displaying it all at once) is possible.

Once the documents have been narrowed down through the search, all of the document data is loaded from the optical disk 10 into the RAM (not shown) in the control circuit 15. Here, if the data is encoded data, it is decoded, converted to dot image data, and expanded to a display VRAM (not shown), and the dot image is displayed on the display unit 12a. Confirmation of reception results 2. Can be read.

Although the displayed image is a part of the document due to the size of the display section 12a, the entire document can be read by reducing or scrolling.

After the display process is complete, the displayed data will be corrected.

It is possible to add, process and send by facsimile.

If the data is modified, the modified data is saved on the optical disk 10, and then the process returns to job selection.

When facsimile transmission is selected in job selection, the document to be sent is searched for using the same process as the search routine, and CCITT T, 30 is sent in the same way as the reception routine.
Process facsimile transmissions in accordance with communication procedures. In the encoding process, part of the data from the optical disc 10 is developed and displayed as image data, and after the user confirms the transmission content, it is converted into MH or MR code. Whether to use MH code or MR code as the encoding method is determined by negotiation (phase B) with the other party's facsimile machine; however, if the data on the optical disk 10 is MR code, the other party's facsimile machine can only handle MH codes. In this case, it is necessary to develop part of the MR encoded data into a dot image before starting Phase C (image signal transmission) and then convert it to MH code again, which makes the process complicated.

Therefore, since the MH code is the standard (MR code option) in G3 facsimile, the code of the transmitted data is
If the code is limited to codes, such conversion processing from MR code to MH code after phase B becomes unnecessary. That is, the data in the optical disk 10 includes image data, M
There are R data, MH data, character codes such as word processing documents, etc., but all of them are partially developed into dot images and then unified into MH codes before starting communication processing, so it is difficult to confirm the contents. As well as being possible.

Processing becomes simple.

When other AP processing is selected in job selection (1), the application program (AP) is once loaded into the RAM and then the AP processing is started.

This AP may exist on the optical disc 10.

FIG. 4 shows an example of a job selection menu screen controlled by the basic AP 22, in which 24 is a function key, 25 is a scroll key, 2G is a mode display, 27 is a data display section, and 28 is a keyboard display section.

Each key is a soft switch that the user points with a pen or finger to input a selection. In this example, "Document display""Other APJ rFAX reception J"
rFAX transmission J is displayed, but for example, [Document display]
When selecting , it is sufficient to touch the part where the words "Document Display" are displayed, and this starts the document display sequence and starts displaying the next selection menu or executing the job.

Since input and display are integrated in this way, only the minimum necessary keys are displayed each time an input operation is performed, making key operations easier and the man-machine interface significantly improved compared to conventional keyboard operations. In addition, when modifying a displayed document, handwritten input is possible; in this case, the data display section 27 becomes a full-scale handwritten input screen, and handwritten notes can be added over the existing display screen (text, still images, 2 drawings, etc.) You can add .

Further, when inputting a character code as in a word processor, input can be performed using a Bentouch keyboard on the keyboard display section 28. In any case, this display section 12
Since the tablet 12b is integrated with the tablet 12b, the tablet 12b can display menus and input various data such as commands and images using software.

As described above, the apparatus of the present invention is a conventional facsimile machine without the original reading section and the recording section, but a dedicated scanner can be added if necessary.

If a printer is prepared, it can be equipped with functions equivalent to or greater than those of conventional facsimile machines.

Furthermore, since it can be equipped with processing functions similar to those of a personal computer using one type of application program AP, it has the advantage of being able to be used as a personal portable information processing terminal.

Regarding communication with a facsimile device, the modular jack of an existing facsimile device can be directly connected to the device of the present invention without using a telephone line, and the existing facsimile device can be used as an image input device for the device of the present invention. Available. Therefore, various types of information inputted via a facsimile device can be edited according to an individual's interests, and the information can be easily condensed.

In addition, since the input and display are integrated, it is possible to efficiently select jobs by touching the display screen with a point, making it possible to greatly improve the man-machine interface by optimizing the design of the menu screen and touch surface. In addition, it is possible to perform one handwritten input, and it is possible to add and save handwritten memos to existing character data, image data, etc.

In addition, with the addition of the application program AP,
In addition to the facsimile communication function, it can also function as a terminal for various communications such as PC communication, telewriting communication, videotex communication, teletext communication, still image communication, and fM easy video communication.

Furthermore, the device of the present invention has a wide range of applications as an information storage and retrieval terminal, and its application fields include advanced electronic notebooks, CAI terminals, replacements for various existing communication terminals, and integrated digital communication networks (ISDN). It can be applied to terminals for

For example, if you use it as an advanced electronic notebook, you can input and edit a large amount of information according to your personal interests, and you can easily add notes etc. by hand, making it useful as a personal data organization tool, as well as a manual. If you accumulate data such as maps, product catalogs, dictionaries, etc., you can use it in sales and other businesses.

It has the advantage of being used as a presentation tool for customers and as an alternative to manuals.

In addition, as a terminal for CAI, for example, textbooks can be stored in advance as a multimedia database, notes can be written in accordance with the instructor's explanation, and it can be used as both a textbook and a notebook.Moreover, if a communication function is added, it can be used for communication. It has the advantage that it can also be used as an educational device.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, the device of the present invention has a large-capacity data storage and search function using a YV-changeable optical disk, an advanced input/output function using a device that integrates input and display, and a facsimile communication function. It has an all-in-one configuration integrated into the same housing, and does not require a document reader or hard copy recording mechanism that is required in a normal facsimile machine. This makes it possible to miniaturize the device and realize a portable facsimile device. Moreover, its functions have the following advantages.

a. The received results are viewed as a soft copy, so make full use of display techniques such as scaling and scrolling.

It can support various types of AM size communications.

b. Since facsimile data is stored data, broadcast communication is easy.

C1 When the received facsimile data is transferred to another facsimile, there is no need to read the original again and there is no deterioration in quality.

d. You can personally accumulate and manage facsimile documents from various locations, making document organization more efficient6.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view of one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG.
Figure 3 shows the internal configuration of the main body of the device.
22 is an explanatory diagram of an example of the processing flow, FIG. 4 is a layout diagram of an example of a job selection menu screen controlled by the basic AP, and FIG.
The figure is a configuration diagram of a conventional facsimile machine. 8... Apparatus body, 9... Optical disk drive, 10... Optical disk, 11... Optical disk IO insertion slot, 12... Input display integrated device,
13...Power switch. 14... Connector for connection with communication line, 15... Control circuit, 16... GODEC, 17... Modem and N
CU, 18... Power supply, 19 ・BI O8, 20-
...O8, 21-...Man-machine interface and search kernel, 22...Basic AP, 23...Various A
P, 24... Function key, 25... Scroll key, 26... Various mode displays, 27... Data display section, 28... Keyboard display section. Figure 1 9 Dryer Figure 2 Figure 4 Figure 5 4 Thurman Head

Claims (1)

[Claims] A large-capacity storage unit that receives facsimile data sent from the other party's device, adds an index necessary for searching, and stores it; and a large-capacity storage unit that stores desired data from among the large number of document data stored in the large-capacity storage unit. a search unit that searches for the search unit; a display unit that restores and displays the data searched by the search unit;
A portable facsimile device comprising: a transmitting section that transmits data stored in the large-capacity storage section to a communication line; and a connecting section that connects the main body of the device to the communication line.