JPH0258968A - Facsimile terminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obstruct the reception of a troublesome call in a facsimile equipment by continuing the reception of a document only when an information part on document contents to previously agree with a transmitting side terminal is detected at reception time. CONSTITUTION:A pattern matching circuit 4 supervises whether a password pattern exists in the designated part of received contents or not using the respective pieces of storage information of a password pattern storing circuit 2 and a password position storing circuit 3. Further, when the password pattern exists in the designated part, the contents temporarily stored in a temporary memory circuit 9 are printed in a printer circuit 5 and sent to a receiver as document contents 7. On the other hand, when the password pattern does not exist in the designated part, while it is informed that the received call is the troublesome call by an alerting circuit 6, a line control circuit 1 is designated to immediately stop the reception. Thus, the reception of the troublesome call in the facsimile equipment can be obstructed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Technical Field to Which the Invention Pertains) The present invention relates to a fax terminal device having a function of avoiding receiving faxes from other fax terminals than the fax terminal agreed upon in advance.

(Prior Art) In recent years, with the widespread use of faxes, nuisance calls called "prank faxes" and "mistake faxes" have been occurring. Typical nuisance calls in faxes include: (a) Those that send plain white or pitch black text that says it's too late.

(b) Those who send mysterious documents with meaningless or obscene contents.

(1) Faxes that are repeatedly delivered with content unrelated to the recipient due to an error in specifying the recipient of an automatically sent fax.

In both cases, not only will the receiving terminal become disabled and unable to receive other fax calls, but it will also waste the receiving paper, which is the burden of receiving faxes.

It has become a social problem.

As measures to prevent these nuisance calls, the following methods have been devised and put into practical use.

(a) A method in which the receiving terminal receives the subsequent text only when the receiving terminal receives a PIN predetermined with the calling terminal at the time of receiving the call.

(b) A method in which a closed reception service is registered in advance on the communications network between terminals that send and receive texts, and incoming calls from other sources are rejected.

However, in case (a), the number of digits in the PIN number is about four at most, and it is easy to decipher if the nuisance call originator investigates thoroughly, and the PIN string itself has no meaning. Because, dark! The drawback is that users of 1EWi tend to forget it.

Another drawback is that even general fax documents that do not have a password but are not nuisance calls are rejected.

In the case of (b), there is the inconvenience that at least it takes time to register on the network side, and additional service fees must be paid.

(Objective of the Invention) The object of the present invention is to prevent the reception of unsolicited calls via fax by continuing to receive documents only when the information part of the document that has been agreed upon in advance with the calling terminal is detected at the time of reception. be.

(Structure of the Invention) (Characteristics of the Invention and Differences from the Prior Art) In order to achieve the above object, in claim 1 (1), the present invention sets an agreement in advance with the document transmission terminal. The specific mark pattern, the relative position of the mark pattern on the document, and the possible mark position range are memorized, and whether or not the mark pattern exists there is determined based on the similarity of both graphic patterns. The main feature is to perform or cancel the document receiving operation.

Further, in claim (2), the received document information is temporarily stored, and when the received document is determined to be a nuisance, a nuisance signal is inputted, and the nuisance document is stored until the next time the document is received. The image information that is temporarily stored and permanently stored until at least the next time the document is received is successively compared with the image information that is being received, the degree of similarity between both graphic patterns is determined, and it is determined that the degree of similarity is high. The main feature is that the document reception operation is stopped when the document is received.

Conventional technology uses a PIN code to block nuisance calls between calling and receiving terminals, or means to register a closed reception service with the communication network in advance and reject calls from other sources, but the present invention prevents calls from being received. Is it a nuisance call based on the document?
The difference is that the reception operation is stopped.

(Embodiment) FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention, and in the figure, 1 indicates an incoming call response.

2 is a line control circuit that controls data reception from the subscriber line and the end of reception; 2 is a code pattern storage circuit that stores a pattern that is the code information portion (related to claim (1)); It also serves as a circuit and has the function of storing the document content of the nuisance call in preparation for the next reception (related to claim (2)).

Reference numeral 3 denotes a mark position storage circuit for storing relative coordinate information of the mark information portion within the document (related to claim (1)), and 2 and 3 above constitute a mark storage means. Reference numeral 4 corresponds to a symbol detecting means, which detects similarities in symbol portions by image signal processing such as dynamic pattern matching between the pattern in the symbol pattern storage circuit (permanent document storage circuit) 2 and the image data from the line control circuit 1. 5 is a printing circuit that prints the received data; 6 is an alert circuit that notifies the recipient that the received data is a nuisance call; 7 is the received document. , 8 is a document display device that displays the received document; 9 is a temporary storage circuit (related to claim (2)) that holds the received document until the reception is completed; Equivalent to. Reference numeral 10 denotes an indicating device having two functions (related to claim (2)), and one of the functions is to indicate the part to be marked and its location from the text received from the other party in advance. Another function is to instruct the user to save the text received up to that point when receiving a nuisance call. Reference numeral 11 denotes an image analysis processing circuit which has a function of extracting the part to be marked and its location from the temporary memory circuit 9 and registering it in the mark storing means 2 and 3 according to instructions from the instruction device 10, and when receiving a nuisance call. ,
It has a function of controlling the received text information to be stored from the temporary storage circuit 9 to the sign storage means 2 and 3, and FIG. 2 shows the sign pattern storage circuit 2 and the sign position storage circuit 3.
This is an example of the relationship between the stored information contents and surface information.

That is, in order to characterize the document as stored information in the signature pattern storage circuit 2, a seal is shown in pattern 1, a logotype is shown in pattern 2, a document name is shown in pattern 3, and a company name is necessary in pattern 4, which are necessary for determining the signature pattern. At least one or a plurality of sets are stored.

The mark position storage circuit 3 also stores dotted line divisions 1' and 2 in the logical position and range of each mark pattern in the document.
．． It is stored as shown in 3.

Next, the operation will be explained. When a document starts to be received through the line control circuit 1, its contents are sequentially sent to the temporary storage circuit 9 and the pattern matching circuit 4. The pattern matching circuit 4 uses the stored information in the sign pattern storage circuit (permanent document storage circuit) 2 and the sign position storage circuit 3 to determine whether or not the sign pattern (Fig. 2) exists in the designated portion of the received content. monitor.

If a mark pattern exists in the specified portion, the contents temporarily stored in the temporary storage circuit 9 are printed by the printing circuit 5 and delivered as a document 7 to the recipient. In addition, if the code pattern does not exist in the specified part, the alert circuit 6 notifies you that it is a nuisance call, and also sends a message to 1.
Instructs the line control circuit 1 to immediately stop reception.

Based on this instruction, the line control circuit 1 requests the network side to terminate the communication and terminates the call.

Also, in the above, once the document begins to be received.

The received contents are displayed on the document display device 8. The recipient will monitor the text and if it is a nuisance call.

When the storage key 10a of the pointing device 10 is pressed, the contents stored in the temporary storage device 9 up to that time are stored in the mark position storage circuit 3. When the document starts to be received for the second time or later, its contents are successively compared in the pattern matching circuit 4 with the text first stored in the sign position storage circuit 3, and if they match, it is a nuisance call. The alert circuit 6 notifies the user that something has happened, and the line control circuit 1
instruct them to immediately stop receiving the information. Based on this instruction, the line control circuit requests the network side to terminate communication and terminates the call.

In this way, the present invention can match symbol patterns.

Alternatively, since it is determined that the call is a nuisance call based on the document display, the receiver can immediately take measures to terminate the communication.

The mark pattern shown in FIG. 2 is preferably one that characterizes the document, such as a seal impression, logotype, or signature. Furthermore, since these positions are not necessarily the same relative positions each time a document is received, the mark position storage circuit 3
This sets the range in which the sign pattern can exist.

Furthermore, a plurality of types of marking patterns to be stored in the marking pattern storage circuit (permanent document storage circuit) 2 are allowed for one position/range portion stored in the marking position storage circuit 3. Further, it is also allowed that the stored plural pieces of position/range information overlap with each other.

With these measures, the degree of freedom in document creation on the side that makes a non-nuisance call can be increased, and it becomes possible to send documents in the same way as conventional document sending.

(Effects of the Invention) As explained above, the present invention is capable of continuing document reception only when an information part on a document that has been agreed upon in advance with the originating terminal is detected at the time of reception. By automatically avoiding calls that have the same text as the document, it is possible to minimize the reception of unsolicited calls via fax, and in addition to preventing terminals from being put on hold and wasteful consumption of receiving paper. It has the following advantages.

(a) There is no need to use a password that is easy to decipher or forget.

(b) There is no need to register with the network or pay for additional services.

(1) By receiving some nuisance calls, the received documents can be kept as evidence.

Useful in clarifying the sender and in disputes.

(1) The range in which the signature information part is allowed to exist and the complexity of the signature information part itself can be easily changed, thereby making it possible to freely set the strength of guard against nuisance calls. Therefore, the possibility of rejecting a general fax document that is not a nuisance call can be almost eliminated.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 shows the stored information contents of the sign pattern storage circuit 2 and the sign position storage circuit (permanent document storage circuit) 3 of FIG. It shows the relationship of information. 1...Line control circuit, 2...Sign pattern storage circuit (permanent document storage circuit). 3... Sign position memory circuit, 4... Pattern matching circuit, 5... Print circuit. 6... Alert circuit, 7... Received document, 8... Document display device, 9... Temporary storage circuit, 10... Instruction device, 11... Image analysis processing circuit. Patent applicant Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) One or more mark patterns consisting of specific figures, symbols, characters, etc., or combinations thereof, agreed upon in advance with the document sending terminal, as a line segment, raster, or dot data group. A mark pattern storage means for storing a mark pattern, one or more ranges in which the mark pattern may exist, and a mark position for storing the relative position of the range on a document as one or more coordinate data groups. The storage means determines whether or not the symbol pattern stored in the symbol pattern storage means exists in the range and relative position stored in the symbol position storage means among the image information being received, using both graphic patterns. A sign existence detection means that determines based on the similarity of
a reception stop means for stopping the operation of receiving the document;
A fax terminal device comprising: (2) Temporary storage means capable of temporarily storing received document information during the reception, and inputting the judgment when the received document information is determined to be a nuisance call. a nuisance judgment input means capable of inputting a nuisance judgment, and a permanent document storage means for permanently storing the document stored in the temporary storage means until the input of the means is made at least until the next time the document is received; similarity determination means for successively comparing the image information being received and the document image information stored in the permanent document storage means to determine the degree of similarity between both graphic patterns; A facsimile terminal device comprising: reception canceling means for canceling the receiving operation of the document when it is determined that the document is high.