JPH03190364A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily grasp the outline content stored in a storage means by outputting information in a designated area by a selection means among information stored in the storage means without reduction. CONSTITUTION:The information received in a storage means 26 is stored while an identification symbol such as a file number or a page number is stored, and information in an optional area among information stored in the storage means 26 is selected by a selection means 16. The selection is implemented by selecting a factor such as a file number, a page number or an output area, and an output means 20 outputs the information in the area selected by the selection means 20 onto recording paper. That is, when the selection means gives a command of, e.g. outputs of several lines from the top line of a top page of each file, the commanded information is continuously outputted onto recording paper. Thus, even when the stored information is huge in its quantity, the outline content of each file is easily grasped.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile machine having a function of outputting any selected portion of a stored document.

2. Description of the Related Art With the remarkable development of image communication technology in recent years, facsimile machines are now being used even in ordinary households. Currently, facsimile machines used for boat fishing include:
As is well known, various functions are added. For example, by providing a memory to store sent and received information, even if the recording paper runs out or a jam occurs, information can be continuously received without disconnecting the connected line. In addition, by storing the transmission information in this memory, the information can be transmitted at the desired time, and furthermore, by storing the transmission information before connecting the line, the actual transmission time can be reduced. I am trying to shorten it.

By the way, recently, considering the ease of use when sending and receiving,
For example, devices with extremely large memory capacities, such as hard disks, are being used.

As the storage capacity increases in this way, usability during transmission and reception will improve, but on the other hand, if there is no function to easily search for stored information, it will be difficult to output the necessary information. The disadvantage is that it cannot be done quickly.

In order to eliminate such drawbacks, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-
In the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 188462, information stored in a storage device is thinned out and output, and multiple pages of information are reduced and output on one sheet of paper. It makes searching easy. In addition, in the technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 62-286376 R2, only a part of the information stored in the storage device is displayed on the provided liquid crystal display. The outline of the information is easy to understand.

Problems to be Solved by the Invention However, in such conventional facsimile machines,
For those that are designed to output partially thinned information, the reduced and outputted information is of course information that is partially missing, so for example, stored information If the information is in small characters, it may become illegible.

In addition, in devices that output stored information to a liquid crystal display, the liquid crystal display must have a high resolution that allows even small font information to be read, which increases costs. There is also the problem that only a portion of the retrieved information is displayed, making the contents unattractive.

The present invention has been made in view of these conventional problems, and is capable of storing, for example, only the first part of each file or only the first part of each page of an arbitrary file among the stored information. An object of the present invention is to provide a facsimile device which outputs information on recording paper and allows the outline of stored information to be easily recognized.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a storage means for storing received information with an identification symbol such as a file number or page number, and information stored in the storage means. The present invention is characterized in that it includes a selection means for selecting an arbitrary region of information with an identification symbol attached thereto, and an output means for outputting the information selected by the selection means.

Operation The facsimile apparatus of the present invention constructed as described above operates as follows.

The received information is stored in the storage means with identification symbols such as file numbers and page numbers attached thereto. Any area of the information stored in this storage means is selected by the selection means. This selection is made, for example, by selecting a file number, page number, and output area.

The output means outputs the information of the area selected by the selection means onto recording paper.

For example, if the selection means instructs to output the top few lines of the first page of each file for all files, the instructed information will be continuously output on the recording paper. Therefore, even if the amount of stored information is enormous, the general contents of each file can be easily grasped.

Embodiments Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail based on the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a facsimile apparatus according to the present invention.

The CPU 10 operates based on a program stored in the program memory 12 and controls the operation of the entire facsimile machine. The data memory 14 stores data when the CPU 10 is operating based on the program. The operation section 16 is used by the user to operate the facsimile machine, and is provided with various keys and a display device as shown in FIG. This key operation controls the operation of the facsimile machine.

The image reading section 18 is a section that reads the contents of the transmitted document, and specifically, electrically reads the contents using a photoelectric conversion element such as a CCD element. The image recording unit 20 outputs a received document or the contents of the document stored in a storage device, which will be described later, onto recording paper. The image buffer 22 is composed of a semiconductor memory, and contains the contents of the transmitted document and the NCU.
(Network control unit) 23 and the contents of the received manuscript input via the motem 24 are temporarily stored. The auxiliary storage device 26 is composed of, for example, a magnetic disk or an optical disk, and stores a large amount of original documents. Image data compression/expansion circuit 2
8 encodes, that is, compresses, the image data read by the image reading unit 18 when transmitting the original, and encodes, that is, compresses the image data read by the image reading unit 18, and encodes the compressed received data when the original is reproduced by the image recording unit 20. This is a circuit that performs restoration, or decompression, processing.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a specific configuration of the operating section 16 shown in FIG. 1.

The operation unit 16 includes a numeric keypad 16 with numbers from 0 to 9.
A, a start key 16B and a stop key 16C used when sending a transmission document to the other party, a mode key 16D used when performing various special operations, and information such as the set telephone number of the other party. A liquid crystal panel 16E for display is provided. This numeric keypad 16A
is used when setting the other party's telephone number and retrieving image data stored in the auxiliary storage device 26. When the start key 16B is pressed, the transmission document read by the image reading section 18 is transmitted to the other party, and when the stop key 16C is pressed, the transmission is interrupted. Among the mode keys 16D, the key indicated by M is a toggle switch that switches between memory reception and normal reception. Further, the key indicated by A is a key used to record all of the image data stored in the auxiliary storage device 26 from the image recording section 20 onto recording paper. The key indicated by P is used to record the first part of each page of the image data stored in the auxiliary storage device 26 from the image recording unit 20 onto the recording paper, and the key indicated by F is , is a key used to record the leading portion of each file of the image data from the image recording section 20 onto the recording paper -1-. The key indicated by E is a key used to erase image data stored in the auxiliary storage device 26.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the flow of image data when a transmitted original is received. Note that the processing shown in this figure is performed by CPU10 shown in FIG.

The image data transmitted via the telephone line is sent to the NCU.
The image data is input to a modem 24 via a (network control unit) 23, and the modem 24 converts the image data transmitted as an analog signal into a digital signal. This digitized image data is then temporarily stored in the image buffer 22. This stored image data will be output by the image recording section 20, but at this time, the mode key 16D is
If the normal reception mode is selected by the key indicated by , the image data stored in the image buffer 22 is decompressed by the image data compression/decompression circuit 28 and then transferred to the recording paper by the image recording section 20. It will be reproduced in On the other hand, if the memory reception mode is selected by the key indicated by M, the image buffer γ
The image data stored in 22 is further stored in auxiliary storage device 26.
It will be transferred to and memorized. When there is an output command, the image data stored in the auxiliary storage device 26 in this way is stored in the A of the mode keys 16D, for example.
, P, or F is pressed, the image data is expanded by the image data compression/expansion circuit 28 and then reproduced on recording paper by the image recording section 2o.

The general operation of each part of the facsimile device of the present invention is as follows.Next, the general operation when the present facsimile device outputs image data stored in the auxiliary storage device 26 will be explained. .

Mode key 16 to output the first page of each file
Press the F key of D and manually enter the number of divisions n for each file using the numeric keypad 16A. And start key 1
When 6B is pressed, 1/n images from the top of the first page of all files stored in the auxiliary storage device 26 are output from the image recording unit 20. Specifically, for example, if the total number of lines on the first page of the stored file is N lines, and you enter the value of n manually using the numeric keypad 16A, the number of lines that will be output will be N/n lines. Become. FIG. 4 shows an example of an image output on recording paper when the number of divisions n is set to 5. If the number of divisions is set to 5 in this manner, 115 first pages of each of the five files will be recorded per sheet of recording paper.

When outputting each page, in this case, the P key of the mode keys 16D is pressed and the number of divisions n of each page is entered manually using the numeric keypad 16A. Then, when the start key 16B is pressed, one page from the top of each page of image data stored in the auxiliary storage device 26 is pressed.
/n images are output from the image recording section 20. If the number of divisions n is set to 5, 115 images of 5 pages will be recorded per sheet of recording paper.

To delete any file, press the F key of mode key 16D and press numeric key 16.
Enter the scent of the file you want to delete using A. Further, when the E key of the mode keys 16D is pressed, the specified file is deleted.

When deleting an arbitrary page, first press the F key of the mode keys 16D and input the number of the file to be deleted using the numeric keypad 16A. Next, press the P key of mode key 16D and press numeric key 1.
6A, enter the number of the page you want to erase. Then, when the E key of the mode keys 16D is pressed, the specified page of the specified file is erased.

Next, the operation of the facsimile apparatus of the present invention will be explained in more detail based on the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 5 to 8.

The flowchart shown in FIG. 5 is the main flowchart of the facsimile machine according to the present invention. CPUl
In step 1), if image data is received and the reception mode is the memory reception mode as described above, the received image data is stored in the auxiliary storage device 26. A memory reception process is performed to store the data in the memory (step 2.3). On the other hand, when the mode is not the memory reception mode but the normal reception mode, the image recording section 20 records the received image data as is on recording paper.

That is, the received data is printed (step 4). When the F key or P key of the mode keys 16D is pressed (step 5) while image data is not being received, and the number of divisions n or the file number and page number are entered manually using the numeric keypad 16A. , this input number is stored in the data memory 14 (step 6). Next, when the start key 16B is pressed (step 7), a partial printout process of the file or page is performed based on the division number n manually entered in step 6 (step 8). On the other hand, if the start key 16A is not pressed, the mode key 16
When the E key of D is pressed (step 9), the specified page of the specified file is erased based on the 4-digit number entered manually in step 6.
The specified portion of image data is deleted from the image data stored in the auxiliary storage device 26 (step 10).
. Also, if the A key of the mode keys 16D is pressed without the start key 16A being pressed (step 11), and the P key is further pressed (step 12), the file number and page number entered manually in step 6 will be changed. Based on this, the entire designated page of the designated file is printed out (step 13). On the other hand, if the P key is not pressed, the entire designated file is printed out based on the file number input in step 6 (step 14). Further, if the A key of the mode keys 16D described above is pressed while image data is not being received (step 15), all the image data stored in the auxiliary storage device 26 is The image is outputted onto recording paper by the recording unit 20 (step 16). If no key is operated in a state where image data is not being received, the system is in a state of waiting for transmission/reception or waiting for manual input of the keys on the operating section 16 (step 17).

The flowchart in Figure 6 is based on step 3 shown in Figure 5.
3 is a subroutine flowchart of memory reception processing in FIG.

When image data is received while the memory reception mode is selected, the CPU 10 inputs the received image data into the image buffer 22 (step 21). When the received image data is the first page of the file, the value of the file pointer is added to the beginning of the received image data, and the value of the file pointer is incremented by 1 (steps 22, 23, and 24). Furthermore, the value of the page pointer is set to 1, added next to the file pointer, and the value of the page pointer is incremented by 1. Therefore, a file pointer is first added to the beginning of the received image data, and then a page pointer is added. The value of this file pointer is set to the initial value 1 by the CPU 10 when nothing is stored in the auxiliary storage device 26. Also, the value of the page pointer is
The initial value is set to 1 when the process is performed. The file pointer and page pointer are attached using part of the data memory 14, and the data memory 14 at this time plays a role similar to that of a counter (steps 25 and 26).

Furthermore, if the received image data is not the first page, the value of the page pointer is added to the beginning of the received image data, and the value of the page pointer is incremented by 1 (steps 27 and 28). Then, one page of image data to which the file pointer and page pointer have been attached in this manner is transferred to the auxiliary storage device 26 and stored therein. The above processing is performed until the reception of the image data is completed (step 29.30). By performing the above processing, the received image data is
For example, the data will be stored in the auxiliary storage device 26 in a data storage format as shown in FIG. 6A.

The flowchart in FIG. 7 is based on step 8 shown in FIG.
3 is a subroutine flowchart of page and file printout processing in FIG.

First, when the image recording unit 20 records on recording paper, the CPU 10 inputs the total number of lines constituting one page into the counter B. This total number of lines is a preset value and is stored in the data memory 14 in advance.

Further, the counters (A, AB) used in the processing of this flowchart are set in the data memory 14 (step 31). In step 6 of the flowchart shown in FIG. 5, the manually entered numerical data n is set in each of the counters A and A', and the value of N/n is calculated based on the values of counter A and counter B. This value of N/n corresponds to the number of divisions to output 1/n pages from the beginning of the stored image data when outputting by the image recording unit 20, and is the area to be output. (Step 32.3
3).

If the key pressed in step 5 is the P key, the page pointers attached to the image data stored in the auxiliary storage device 26 are sequentially searched from the beginning (steps 34 and 35). Next, when this page pointer is searched, CPUl0 is N/n9 from the beginning of this page.
42 minutes of image data is output to the image buffer 22. When the transfer of image data for that page is completed, the value of counter A' is decremented by 1, and the search for the next page pointer and the searched page are performed in the same manner until the value of counter A' becomes 0. Performs image data transfer processing. Through this process, the page N/
Image data for n942 portions will be transferred to the image buffer 22 n times, and an image for one page will be formed from the transferred image data (step 3).
6, 37. 38). This step 35 to step 38
The processing up to this point is continued until all pages are completed (step 55). In this way, when one page of image data is transferred to the image buffer 22, the transferred image data is expanded by the image data compression/expansion circuit 28, and then this expanded image data is Image recording section 20
The image is reproduced as an image on a sheet of recording paper (steps 39 and 40). And again, set the value of counter A° to n
In step 1-L, the processes from step 35 to step 42 are performed. This process is repeated until all pages of image data stored in the auxiliary storage device 26 are output from the image recording section 20 (steps 41 and 42). To summarize the processing up to this point, the image data of each page is partially extracted from the image data stored in the auxiliary storage device 26 according to the specified number of divisions, and the extracted image data is divided into one page. When one page of images is reached, one page of images is output based on the image data. Such processing is performed for all pages, and when all pages are output, the process returns to the main flowchart of FIG. 5. There are various ways to output pages, such as a specific page of a specific file, an arbitrary range of pages in a specific file, all pages of a specific file, etc. However, this embodiment is also applicable.

On the other hand, if the key pressed in step 5 is the F key (step 34), the file pointer added to the image data stored in the auxiliary storage device 26 is searched from the beginning (step 43). If the number of divisions n set in step 6 is not 1, then CP
Ul0 outputs N/n942 worth of image data of the first page (1st page) of the searched file to the image software γ22 (steps 44 and 45). Next, when the transfer of the image data of the first page of that file is completed, the value of counter A° is decremented by 1, and the search for the next file pointer is performed until the value of counter A′ becomes 0. Performs processing to transfer the image data of the first page of the file. Through such processing,
Image data for N/n942 of the first page of the file will be transferred to the image buffer 22 n times, and an image for one page will be formed by this transferred image data (step 46). .47). When the image data is transferred to the image buffer 22 in this way, the value of the counter A° is set to n again in step 4.
8) The transferred image data is decompressed by the image data compression/decompression circuit 28, and then the decompressed image data is reproduced as an image on a sheet of recording paper by the image recording section 20 (step 49. 50). This process is repeated until N/n942 worth of image data of the first page of all files stored in the auxiliary storage device 26 is output from the image recording unit 20 (step 51).
. Further, when the number of divisions n set in step 6 is 1, the CPU 10 outputs all image data of the first page (1st page) of the searched file to the image buffer 22 (step 52). The transferred image data is expanded by the image data compression/expansion circuit 28, and then the expanded image data is reproduced as an image on a sheet of recording paper by the image recording section 20 (steps 49 and 50). ) This process is also repeated until the first page image data of all files stored in the auxiliary storage device 26 are output from the image recording section 20 (step 51).

To summarize the processing up to this point, the image data of the first page of each file is partially extracted from the image data stored in the auxiliary storage device 26 according to the specified number of divisions, and the extracted image data When the amount of image data reaches one page, an image of one page is output based on the image data. After performing this process on all files and outputting N/n lines of the first page of all files,
Returning to the main flowchart in FIG.

Furthermore, when the number of divisions is set to 1, all images of the first page of each file are output to each page. In addition, the method of specifying the file is, for example, a specific file.

Various types of files such as an arbitrary range of files, all files, etc. can be considered, but this embodiment is applicable to any of them.

The flowchart in FIG. 8 is based on step 1 shown in FIG.
2 is a subroutine flowchart of page and file deletion processing in FIG.

First, CPU10 determines whether the key pressed in step 5 of the main flowchart was the F key (step 61), and if it was the F key, it is input to registers M and N in step 6 of the same flowchart. Step 6: Search for the specified file pointer based on the numerical data of the specified file and page.
2) Delete the entire searched file (step 63). Note that a part of the data memory 14 is used for this register, and the value of the file pointer is stored in register M.
Each register N stores the value of a page pointer. Furthermore, if the key pressed in step 5 is the P key, the file pointer and page pointer specified based on the file and page specification numerical data manually entered in registers M and N in step 6 of the same flowchart. Step 6
4) Delete the corresponding page of the searched file (step 65).

As described in the embodiments above, the facsimile machine of the present invention can print the entire image of the first page of each file,
You can now obtain a specified number of lines from the top of the first page of each file without reducing the size, and you can also obtain a specified number of lines from the top of a specified page of a specified file. It has become. Therefore, when retrieving necessary information from a large amount of image data stored in the auxiliary storage device 26 at night, for example, the index of the stored image data can be retrieved without using a large amount of recording paper.
Also, it can be easily obtained without spending a lot of time. Note that although the image obtained as an index is the beginning of a file or page, it has not been subjected to any processing such as reduction, so it is possible to reliably determine the overall outline. In addition, the user can set the number of pages of the first part of the document to be recorded on one page of recording paper, and can also select the document to be output. It becomes an easy-to-use facsimile machine.

Effects of the Invention As is clear from the above explanation, according to the present invention, the area specified by the selection means from among the information stored in the storage means can be outputted without being reduced. You can easily understand the outline of the content.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram of a facsimile apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a specific configuration of the operation section 16 shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a transmitted original document. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of an image output on recording paper when the number of divisions n is set to 5 in the facsimile apparatus according to the present invention. 5 is a main flowchart of the facsimile apparatus according to the present invention, FIG. 6 is a subroutine flowchart of the memory reception process in step 3 shown in FIG. 5, and FIG. A diagram showing the data storage format of image data to be stored, FIG. 7 is a page in step 8 shown in FIG.
Subroutine Flowchart of File Printout Processing FIG. 8 is a subroutine flowchart of page and file deletion processing in step 10 shown in FIG. 10...CPU (output means 2 selection means), 20...
- Image recording unit (output means), 22... image buffer (output means), 26... auxiliary storage device (storage means).

Claims (1)

[Claims] A storage means for storing received information with an identification symbol such as a file number or a page number, and any information to which an identification symbol is added among the information stored in the storage means. A facsimile apparatus comprising: a selection means for selecting an area; and an output means for outputting information selected by the selection means.