JPH03187666A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently perform transmission/reception processing by informing the fact of busy when detecting incoming from a line on the other side during performing communication on a line on one side, and making the incoming stand by for prescribed time after completing the communication. CONSTITUTION:An NCU 36a is connected to a DTMF(Dual Tone Multi Frequency) transmission/reception part 47a, and an NCU 36b to a DTMF transmission/reception part 47b, and they are comprised so that the transmission/ reception of a DTMF signal for lines 43a, 43b can be performed. A main control part 31, when detecting the incoming from the line on the other side during performing the communication on the line on one side, informs the fact of the busy to the line on the other side, and also, makes the incoming from the line on the other side stand by for the prescribed time after the communication on the line on one side is completed. Thereby, the transmission/reception processing is efficiently performed.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a facsimile machine that accommodates at least two lines and is capable of transmitting and receiving.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, facsimile machines have accommodated one dedicated line for sending and receiving operations. However, like with regular telephones, users who are equipped with facsimile devices that connect extensions have a desire to communicate with other parties via extensions to save on line usage charges. . For this reason, it accommodates two lines, an internal line and an external line,
A facsimile machine that can select the most suitable line for communication has been proposed. [Problem to be solved by the invention] However, with these facsimile machines, unless the operating rate is extremely high, it is possible to selectively use only one line rather than communicating on two lines at the same time. Such a configuration has the advantage that the price can be kept low. For this reason, many devices are configured such that while communicating on one line, communication cannot be performed on the other line, that is, they have only one modem. With a device configured in this way, for example, even if an incoming call is received from an extension line while transmitting on an outside line, it will not be possible to receive the call, and the sending terminal on the extension line will not receive a busy signal or other signal from the facsimile machine that sent the call. Therefore, it is impossible to know why communication is not possible. For this reason, even if it becomes more advantageous in terms of charges by allowing the use of extension lines,
This means that the communication time efficiency will not improve much. On the contrary, since the reason why a call cannot be received cannot be determined by the other party's terminal, the operator of the other party's device has to repeat the sending operation many times, which increases the amount of wasteful processing. Furthermore, facsimile machines and the like that store a large amount of images in their image memory and then transmit them have a problem in that it is difficult to move on to reception processing because the images are sent one after another, which further reduces reception efficiency. The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned conventional example, and it is an object of the present invention to efficiently perform transmission and reception processing by responding to a line that receives an incoming call during communication, as well as determining the cause of communication failure and instructing a re-call. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a facsimile device that can perform the following functions.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the facsimile apparatus of the present invention has the following configuration. That is, a facsimile device capable of accommodating at least two lines, and when an incoming call from the other line is detected during communication on one line, a notification means for notifying the other line that the other line is busy;
and waiting means for waiting for an incoming call from the other line for a predetermined time after communication on the one line ends. [Operation] In the above configuration, when an incoming call from one line is detected during communication on one line, the other line is notified that the other line is busy. After communication on one line is completed, it operates to wait for an incoming call from the other line for a predetermined period of time. [Examples] Hereinafter, detailed examples of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. [Description of Facsimile Apparatus (Fig. 1) 1 Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of the facsimile apparatus of this embodiment. As shown in the figure, in the facsimile machine of this embodiment, a main control section 31 composed of a microprocessor, etc.
The configuration is such that each part of the device connected via a data and address bus is controlled in accordance with a program shown in a flowchart to be described later, which is stored in the M31a. Each part of the apparatus will be explained in order below. In the figure, reference numeral 32 denotes a reading section composed of a CCD line sensor, a document transport mechanism, etc., which reads the document image, and the read data is converted into 2 by the read data converter 33.
Converted to digitized information. On the other hand, the received image data and the image data read by the reading unit 2 during a copying operation are recorded on a recording medium by a recording unit 34 that includes a thermal printer or the like. Data conversion processing required during recording (data decoding, etc.)
is performed by the recording data converter 35. The conveyance of original documents and recording paper in the reading section 32 and the recording section 34 is performed by a motor group 44 . The motor group 44 includes motors Ml and M2 provided in the document and recording paper transport mechanism.
．． It is represented by M3. Further, information regarding the operating states of the reading section 32 and the recording section 34, such as the presence or absence of original documents and recording paper, is detected by a sensor group 45. The sensor group 45 is configured using photosensors and the like, and their driving and detection processing is performed by a sensor control circuit 46. The communication operation is controlled by the main control section 31 in accordance with operation inputs from the operation panel 42 . The operation panel 42 includes a key matrix 42a of a keyboard such as a numeric keypad and a liquid crystal display 42b. In addition to various normal control keys, the keyboard is provided with a key 42c that allows the operator to interrupt processing in the event of an emergency. Data input/output to/from the operation panel 42 is performed via the operation panel control section 41 (consisting of an input/output board, etc.). Transmission and reception of image data to and from the lines 43a and 43b is carried out by a modem 37 that modulates and demodulates image signals and procedure signals, and an NCU 36b% and NCU 3 that control line connection with a telephone for line control or maintain a loop.
6b. An image memory 39 stores image data to be transmitted and received. This image memory 39 is configured using elements such as a dynamic RAM, and input/output of image data to and from the image memory 39 is controlled via a DRAM controller 38. It is assumed that the image data stored in the image memory 39 is encoded using a compression encoding method such as the MH or MR method. In addition, NCU36a is DTM F (Dual
ToneMulti Frequency) transmitter/receiver (
T/R) 47a, and the NCU 36b is connected to the DTMF transmitting/receiving section 7b, and the lines 43a and 47a are respectively connected to the NCU 36b.
The configuration is such that it can transmit and receive DTMF signals to and from 43b. [Explanation of Operation (FIGS. 2 to 4)] The operation of the above configuration will be explained. 2 to 4 are flowcharts showing the control procedure of the main control section 31, and a control program for executing this process is stored in the ROM 31a. FIG. 2 is a routine showing the operation after detecting an incoming call. First, in step S1, it is checked whether there is an incoming call on the line 43a connected to the NCU 36a, that is, whether a valid calling signal (ci) has arrived. If there is no incoming call, the process advances to step S2, and the line 4 connected to the NCU 36b is
3b. If there is no incoming call in step S2, return to step Sl and repeat this. If there is an incoming call here, proceed to step S3, and the current modem 3
7 is available. If it can be used, the process proceeds to step S4, where the reception reservation flag is set to rOFF (off)j, and the process proceeds to normal reception operation (step S5) in step S5. On the other hand, if the modem 37 is unavailable in step S3,
In other words, if the other line is already receiving or transmitting, it is not possible to perform a reception operation on this line. Therefore, the process from step S6 onwards is performed to respond to this incoming call. First, in step S6, the line is acquired, and then in step S7, a DTMF signal indicating that reception cannot be performed is transmitted. This signal takes the format shown in FIG. 5(A), for example. In FIG. 5(A), 51 indicates a start signal, and 53 indicates an end signal. Further, 52 indicates that reception is not possible (“01” with a repeat call instruction; “01” without a repeat call instruction). The length of the start instruction signal 51 is approximately 1500 m5, the time interval until the start of the next data is set to 250 m5, and the time width of one data is set to 250 m5. Next, the process advances to step S8 to wait for a confirmation signal to be received, and if a valid signal cannot be received within a certain period of time in step S9, the process advances to step S15, where it is determined that the other party's facsimile machine does not have this function and the line is disconnected. Release it and return to step S1 again. If the confirmation signal is received in step S8, the process proceeds to step SIO, where a recall time signal is sent in the format shown in FIG. If the reception is successful, set the reception reservation flag to ``rON (on)'' and proceed to step S.
Step 14 sets the time that the flag is valid. The time set here is set to the current time plus the recall time. In FIG. 5(B), the data 52 after the start signal 51 is set with a value for setting the recall time (31: recall time (in seconds), 32: recall time (in minutes)). has been done. 5
4 indicates a type separation signal, 55 is a data area, and the recall time is set to "120 seconds". Next, the process of starting transmission will be explained with reference to the flowchart in FIG. First, in step S21, an incoming call operation is performed during communication as described in FIG. 2, and the reception reservation flag is set to "ON" to determine whether reception reservation has been made and transmission should be temporarily suspended. Find out if. Reception reservation flag is O
If N, the process advances to step S22, and step S in FIG.
It is checked whether the reception reservation valid time set in step 22 is still within the validity period. If it is within the reservation valid time, the process advances to step S21, and the transmission operation is put on hold in order to give priority to reception. In addition, if the reception reservation valid time has elapsed, step 52
The process proceeds to step S3, where the reception reservation flag is set to rOFJ, and the process proceeds to step S24, where a check of the transmission operation is started. If the reception reservation flag is "rOFF" in step S21, the process advances to step S24, and it is checked whether or not there is an image to be transmitted in the image memory 39. If the image data to be transmitted is not stored, the process advances to step 32B, where it is checked whether the operator has requested to transmit the original. If there is no transmission request, the process returns to step S21 and the above-mentioned process is repeated. If there is a document transmission request in step S28, the process advances to step S29 to see if the modem 37 can be used. If the modem 37 cannot be used, the process advances to step S31, an error message is displayed, and the process returns to step S21. Further, if the modem 37 can be used in step S29, the process advances to step S30, and the document image read by the reading section 32 is transmitted. If there is a transmission image in the image memory 39 in step S24, the process advances to step S25, and it is checked whether the modem 37 can be used. If the reception operation has started at this time, the modem 37 cannot be used, so step S2
Return to 1. If the modem 37 is usable, the process advances to step S26, where it is checked whether a call waiting time has been set or not by the process shown in FIG. 4, which will be described later. If so, the process advances to step S27 and a memory transmission operation is executed. On the other hand, the operation of the calling side when an incoming call operation is performed during communication as explained in FIG. 2 will be explained with reference to FIG. First, at the time of initial identification in step S41, G3 or 62
If a significant communication signal such as
42, the procedure is carried out in accordance with the normal CCITT standard.If these signals cannot be received in step S41, the process advances to step S43 to see if a DTMF signal is received. When the DTMF signal is received, the process advances to step S44, and its contents are verified. Step S4
In step S45, if it is a reception impossible signal as shown in FIG. 5(A), the process advances to step S45 and a confirmation signal is transmitted. On the other hand, if the DTMF signal cannot be received in step S43, the process proceeds to step S51; if the time has elapsed, the process proceeds to error processing in step 853; if the time has not exceeded, initial identification is performed in step S52. Next, step S46. Wait for the re-call time signal in S47,
Based on the received data, a recall waiting time is set in step S48. The recall waiting time is the current time plus the recall time. Thereafter, in step S49, the line is released and the process returns to the transmission operation shown in FIG. In this embodiment, a method was adopted in which a DTMF transmitter/receiver was provided to specify the recall time, but if the DTMF transmitter/receiver is not provided, only the presence or absence of an incoming call is verified, and when an incoming call is received, A simple method such as making the transmission interval longer than usual to make it easier to receive calls may be sufficient. This is shown in Figure 6 (A) and (B), and Figure 6 (A)
When a call arrives during transmission, as shown in FIG. 6(B), the time until the start of the next transmission is lengthened to make it easier to receive the call. On the other hand, if you have a DTMF transmitting/receiving unit, you receive the other party's telephone number as a DTMF signal, and after the transmission operation is complete, you make a call to the transmitting device and receive it by polling (see Figure 6 (D). ).Alternatively, give the other party's phone number an emergency or priority level, cancel the current sending process and switch to receiving process (6th
Figure (C). Another possible application is to make the transmitting side device wait for the current transmission process to finish, and then perform reception after the transmission process is finished. As explained above, according to this embodiment, a facsimile machine that accommodates two lines detects an incoming call while it is being sent, and performs processing such as delaying the next sending operation depending on whether or not there is an incoming call. Now we can do it evenly and efficiently. [Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, transmission and reception processing can be made more efficient by responding to a line that receives an incoming call during communication, as well as determining the cause of communication failure and instructing a re-call. There are some effects that can be achieved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the schematic configuration of the facsimile machine of this embodiment, FIGS. 2 to 4 are flowcharts showing transmission and reception processing in the facsimile machine of this embodiment, and FIG. 5 is a DTMF signal used in this embodiment. FIG. 5(A) is a diagram showing an example of
5(B) is a diagram showing an example of a re-call time signal, and FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a transmission/reception state in another embodiment. In the figure, 31...main control unit, 31a...ROM,
32... Reading unit, 34... Recording unit, 35... Recorded data conversion unit, 36a, 36b-NCU, 37=-modem, 39... Image memory, 40... Motor controller, 41... ...Operation panel control unit, 42...Operation panel, 42a...Key matrix, 43a, 43b
...It's a line. 「l、・・JIL゛□

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) A facsimile device capable of accommodating at least two lines, and when an incoming call from the other line is detected during communication on one line, a notification means for notifying the other line that the other line is busy; A facsimile apparatus comprising: a standby means for waiting for an incoming call from the other line for a predetermined time after communication on the one line ends. (2) A facsimile device capable of accommodating at least two lines, and when an incoming call from the other line is detected during communication on one line, a notification means for notifying the other line that the other line is busy; A facsimile apparatus comprising: a delay unit that operates to delay the next calling operation for a predetermined period of time after the end of communication on the one line.