JPH0380665A - Facsimile equipment and communication system for facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To recognize production of communication disabled state and its cause immediately by dialing a preset telephone number when picture reception is disabled so as to inform a cause of disabled reception in a voice message. CONSTITUTION:A network controller 5 connects a telephone line and a telephone set 6 to apply prescribed line control such as line closing or opening, transmission of a selection signal being a destination telephone number or detection of an arrival call and a communication control section 8 controls the network controller 5 and a MODEM 7 to execute facsimile transmission by prescribed transmission control procedure. When picture reception is disabled and the communication is interrupted, a preset telephone number is called and when the destination replies the call, a voice message representing a cause of picture reception disable is sent. Thus, the operator recognizes the production of the communication disabled state and its cause immediately.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a facsimile machine and a communication system for the facsimile machine.

[Prior Art] During image reception, a facsimile device detects a certain amount of data errors or more in the received data signal, becomes unable to record the received image, or runs out of memory space when receiving the image. If the image information cannot be received due to some reason, the communication is interrupted.

On the other hand, in recent years, facsimile machines that record images on plain paper using an electrostatic electrophotographic recording method have gradually become popular. In the case of such a facsimile machine, compared to the currently popular thermal recording type facsimile machine, recording is more likely to become impossible due to paper shortage, paper jam within the machine, or toner exhaustion.

[Problem to be solved by the invention] By the way, the operators on the transmitting side and the receiving side do not constantly monitor the equipment, so if the communication is interrupted as described above, it is important to know about it immediately. I couldn't do it. In addition, on the sending side, if communication was interrupted due to a problem on the receiving side, it was not possible to determine what state the receiving side was in. For this reason, there is a problem in that the operator cannot quickly perform appropriate recovery measures.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile machine and a communication system for the facsimile machine that eliminates the above-mentioned inconvenience and allows an operator to immediately know the occurrence and cause of a communication failure state.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In the first invention, when communication is interrupted because one image cannot be received, a call is made to a preset telephone number, and when the other party answers, it becomes impossible to receive images. The system sends a voice message indicating the reason for the failure.

Further, in the second invention, when the receiving side becomes unable to receive images and interrupts communication, the receiving side notifies the transmitting side of the reason for the unreceivable reason,
When the sender is notified of the reason for non-reception, the sender calls the preset phone number, and if the recipient answers,
A voice message indicating the reason for the unreceivable reception is sent out.

Furthermore, in the third invention, similarly to the above, the receiving side notifies the transmitting side of the reason for unreceivable reception, and if the reason for unreceivable reception is a communication error due to deterioration of the line condition, the transmitting side If the image transmission is not successful even after re-transmitting the image to the specified destination and re-transmitting the image a certain number of times,
A call is made to a preset telephone number and a voice message is sent to the effect that the transmission has failed.

[Operations] According to the first invention, by setting the telephone number of the receiving operator in the receiving device, if reception becomes unavailable, the receiving operator will immediately know the occurrence and cause. You will be able to do this.

Further, according to the second invention, by setting the telephone number of the transmitting operator in the transmitting device, the transmitting operator can immediately know the occurrence and cause of the unreceivable state on the receiving side. It becomes like this. Further, according to the third invention, since the transmitting side retransmits in the case of a communication error, the success rate of transmission is high, and only when the transmission fails and a response is required, the operator You can receive a notification to that effect.

[Embodiments] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a facsimile machine according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a scanner 1 reads an original image and extracts image information. The plotter 2 records received images on plain paper using an electrostatic electrophotographic recording method, for example, and is a means for detecting various causes of inability to record, such as paper shortage, paper jam in the recording paper conveyance path, toner exhaustion, etc. It is equipped with

The encoding/decoding unit 3 encodes image information to be transmitted and decodes received image information. The image memory 4 stores image information to be transmitted in the case of memory storage and transmission, and stores image information received when the plotter 2 is unable to record.

The network control device 5 is connected to the telephone line and the telephone set 6, and performs predetermined line control such as closing the line and detecting the exit 1 call of a selection signal which is an open 2 calling optical telephone number.

The modem 7 modulates and demodulates image information and transmits the same, and also transmits various procedure signals in transmission control procedures.

The communication control section 8 controls the network control device 5 and the modem 7 to execute facsimile transmission according to a predetermined transmission control procedure.

The operation display unit 9 displays the operating status of the device, and
The operator performs various operations. The system memory 10 stores various information necessary for transmission and reception processing.

The system control unit 11 is a microcomputer,
It controls each of the above sections to execute predetermined operations of this facsimile machine.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration diagram of the network control device 5 and the communication control section 8. As shown in FIG. In the figure, the telephone line is connected to a common terminal C of a switching circuit 51, and its terminal a1 is connected to a DC connection circuit 52 that forms a DC loop for the telephone line and a dial that sends a dial signal when a call is made. It is connected to the signal exit circuit 53. Also, the other terminal b
The terminals are connected to the telephone set 6 and the incoming call detection circuit 54, respectively.

Further, a hybrid circuit 55 is connected to the DC connection circuit 52. This hybrid circuit 54 extracts a received signal from the telephone line and sends a transmitted signal to the telephone line.The received signal line is connected to the received signal terminal RX of the modem 7, and the transmitted signal line is connected to the received signal terminal RX of the modem 7. , are connected to the common terminal c2 of the switching circuit 56. The terminal a2 of the switching circuit 56 is connected to the transmission signal terminal TX of the modem 7, and the terminal b2 is connected to the voice message output circuit 81 of the communication control section 8. The voice message output circuit 81 is for sending various preset voice messages to the telephone line.

The control circuit 57 inputs the detection signal of the incoming call detection circuit 54 and controls the switching circuits 51 and 56 and the dial signal sending circuit 53. The control circuit 82 of the communication control section 8 controls each section of the communication control section 8 and the control circuit 57.

With the above configuration, an outline of the operation of the network control device 5 will now be explained. When the network control device 5 is not operating, the switching circuit 51 is connected to the b□ side, and the telephone 6 becomes ready for conversation.

Further, an incoming call to this facsimile machine is detected by the incoming call detection circuit 54, in which case the switching circuit 51 is connected to the a□ side and the line is closed by the DC closing circuit 52. On the other hand, when making a call, the switching circuit 51 is first connected to the a0 side to close the line, and then the dial signal sending circuit 53 sends out a dial number, which is the destination telephone number. When a communication line with the other party is formed by such incoming and outgoing calls, the switching circuit 56 is then connected to the 82 side, and the transmitted and received signals from the line are input and output to the modem 7, and facsimile communication is executed. .

Further, in this embodiment, a voice message may be sent to the line, in which case the switching circuit 56 is connected to the b2 side, and the voice message output circuit 81 outputs the voice signal to the line.

When using the facsimile machine of this embodiment, a telephone number where a key operator is stationed is set in advance by a predetermined operation. This key operator is in charge of maintaining the apparatus by replacing recording paper, replenishing toner, etc.

Next, the operation when transmitting images between these facsimile machines will be explained.

The operator on the sending side sets the original to be sent on the scanner l and performs a predetermined sending operation on the operation display section 9. As a result, the facsimile machine first performs processing 101 to make a call to the other party, as shown in FIG. ), - Monitor the response from the destination facsimile machine for a fixed period of time (process 102). When the other party responds (Y in process 102), one page of image information is transmitted according to a predetermined transmission control procedure (process 1
03).

On the other hand, when the receiving facsimile machine receives a call as shown in FIG. 4 (process 201), it executes the transmission control procedure corresponding to the sending side and receives image information. If recording is possible, the received images are recorded at the same time (FIG. 4, process 202).

When the reception of one page is completed, the reception result is determined (processing 203). Now, assuming that the image information is successfully received and recorded (Y in process 203), a response signal indicating normal reception is returned (process 204), and if there is image information for the next page (Y in process 205). , returns to the above process (to process 202).

The transmitting side receives the response signal from the receiving side (see Figure 3).
Process 104), if the reception is normal (Y in Process 105),
It is determined whether there is a next page (process 106), and if there is a next page (Y in process 106), the transmission is repeated in the same way (
to process 103). As a result, image information is sequentially transmitted page by page.

When the transmission of the final page is completed (N in process 106), the transmitting side disconnects the line according to a predetermined termination procedure (process 107) and ends the transmission operation.

Further, when the receiving side finishes receiving the final page (Y in process 205 in FIG. 4), it disconnects the line according to a predetermined termination procedure (process 206), and then determines the result of the receiving operation (process 207). Then, if the reception is normal (Y in process 207)
), the reception operation ends.

FIG. 5(a) shows an example of a transmission procedure when image transmission is executed without error in this manner. That is, when the receiving side receives a call, it first sends CED.

In response to the exit of the NSF, DIS signal, the sender
It sends SS signals, TCP signals, etc. This allows the receiving side to perform modem training and
sending back signals.

Next, the transmitting side sends out an MPS signal indicating one page of image information and a multi-page, and in response, the receiving side returns an MCF signal indicating normal reception. Next, the sender sends two pages of image information and an EO indicating the final page.
A P signal is sent, the receiving side returns an ACF signal, and the transmitting side sends a DCN signal indicating disconnection of the line, thereby terminating the communication.

In this embodiment, if the receiving facsimile device becomes unable to record an image while receiving image information due to jamming of two pieces of recording paper, running out of toner, etc., the receiving facsimile device stops recording the image information and stores it in the image memory 4. I am trying to accumulate it in . Furthermore, if there is no more free memory space in the image memory 4 to store the received image information, or if more than a certain amount of data errors, that is, communication errors occur in the received image information, communication is interrupted. . In such a case, the receiving side notifies the transmitting side of the content of the abnormality that has occurred using an RTN signal.

By the way, the various procedure signals used in the CCITT G3 standard are transmitted by HDLC procedure data frames, and as shown in FIG. 6, the data frames include a flag F, an address field AF, Control field CF, facsimile 1mm control field FCF, facsimile information field PIF, frame check sequence FC5
It is made up of.

The types of the various procedure signals are indicated by the facsimile control field FCF.

In this embodiment, as shown in the same figure, the RTN signal indicates this in the facsimile control field FCF as in the conventional case, and also indicates that the recording paper is out of paper, 9 paper jams, toner out, etc. by each bit of the facsimile information field PIF. , whether or not memory reception is possible, 2 communication errors, etc. 1 details of the abnormality that has occurred are shown.

Therefore, when receiving one page of image information and an abnormality occurs (N in process 203 in FIG. 4), the receiving side generates a facsimile information field PIF information indicating the details of the abnormality (process 208), and sends a response signal. asR
A TN signal is transmitted (process 204).

When the sending side receives such an RTN signal response (
In step 105 (N), the content of the abnormality is identified based on the facsimile information field PIF information.

For example, suppose that the receiving side becomes unable to record due to paper shortage, but there is free space in the image memory 4.

In this case, the sending side (from N in process 108 to process 109,
Step 109 (Y), the presence or absence of image information of the next page is determined (process 106). Then, if there is a next page (processing 1
06 Y), as shown in FIG. 5(b), after receiving the RTN signal, transmits NSS, TCP signals, etc., and re-executes the transmission control procedure to transmit the image information of the next page. (Proceed to process 103). At this time, the receiving side executes a corresponding predetermined procedure to receive the transmitted image information.

Next, assume that on the receiving side, recording becomes impossible due to paper shortage, etc., and there is no free space in the image memory 4.

In this case (N in process 109), the sending side performs the process shown in FIG. 5(c)
As shown in FIG. 3, after receiving the RTN signal, the DCN signal is sent to disconnect the line (process 110). Next, the number of calls made to the other party is checked (process 111), and if a preset number of calls have not been made (N in process 111),
It waits for a specific period of time set depending on the nature of the abnormality on the receiving side (process 112), and then similarly executes the outgoing operation (proceeds to process 101).

On the other hand, if the receiving side cannot receive the image information in this way (N in process 207), it creates message information to notify the key operator of the device status (process 209).
), executes notification processing to the key operator.

That is, FIG. 7 shows this notification process. First, a call is made to a telephone number preset in this facsimile machine (process 301). Then, when the operator responds (Y in process 302), according to the message information created above, for example, "The facsimile machine was out of paper and the memory received" or "The facsimile machine ran out of toner and the memory was full, so reception was canceled." ” (processing 303).

On the other hand, if the operator does not respond (N in process 302), the number of calls is counted (process 304), and if it is less than the specified number (N in process 304), after waiting for a certain period of time (
Process 305), and re-call (proceed to Process 301). Further, if there is no response even after making a specified number of calls (process 304), the operation is stopped (described above is process 210 in FIG. 4).

When the operator receives notification that reception has been discontinued,
Immediately take prescribed measures such as replacing the recording paper in the facsimile machine and replenishing the toner. This enables the receiving side to receive.

On the other hand, if the receiving side cannot receive the image information in this way, the sending side will re-call a certain number of times, so the receiving side will
The next time you make a call, you will be able to receive the image information correctly.

By the way, for example, if no action is taken on the receiving side because the receiving side operator is absent, the sending side will not be able to transmit even if it makes a certain number of calls.

In this case (Y in FIG. 3, process 111), the sending side creates message information to notify the key operator on the sending side of the situation that has occurred (process 113), and performs the notification process shown in FIG. Execute. Here, the operator is notified of the execution result of the transmission process, for example, ``The destination facsimile machine ran out of toner and memory was full, so transmission was not possible'' (process 114).

On the other hand, if a communication error occurs on the receiving side while receiving image information, the sending side is notified of the occurrence of the communication error in the same way as described above. In this case (Y in process 108), the transmitting side immediately disconnects the line (process 110). Next, if the number of calls is less than a certain number (N in process 111), after waiting for a predetermined time (process 112), the call is made again (proceeding to process 101).

Furthermore, if the sending side calls a predetermined destination and the destination does not respond due to a busy line or the like (N in process 102), it re-calls a certain number of times in the same way as above (go to process 111). .

By the way, in process 112, the waiting time for re-calling is very short in the case of a communication error, as described above, and is rather long if the other party does not respond due to a busy line, etc. In this way, when reception is not possible at the other party, the time required for the operator on the receiving side to take predetermined measures is taken into consideration, and the settings are made to be longer.

As described above, in this embodiment, if the receiving facsimile machine becomes unable to record due to two paper jams, toner exhaustion, etc., it will call the operator's telephone number after the communication process is completed to confirm that recording is not possible. The reason for this is notified by voice message. In addition, when the receiving facsimile machine detects an abnormal condition such as recording failure or communication error, it notifies the transmitting side of the details using an RTN signal, while the sending facsimile machine retransmits a fixed number of times. In case of failure, the sending operator is notified of the result.

As a result, each operator on the transmitting and receiving sides can immediately know the occurrence of a communication failure state and its cause.

Furthermore, when the sending side makes a re-transmission due to a transmission failure, the waiting time is changed depending on the cause, so that the process can be performed efficiently by reducing wasteful and useless transmission operations.

In the above embodiment, if the receiving side is unable to receive data, the transmitting side retransmits a certain number of times and then notifies the operator of the abnormality. You can know the communication results quickly.

Also, although the MCF signal and RTN signal were used to notify the sending side of the reception result, it is of course possible to define and use other signals such as RTP, PIP, PIN, or a new signal. It is.

Furthermore, facsimile machines that accommodate two lines, an internal line and an external line, are known, but if the sender makes a call to a facsimile machine that accommodates such two lines, and then resends the call after being notified of a communication error, , it is also possible to make a call to the telephone number of the other line.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, when it becomes impossible to receive images on the receiving side, the preset '11! Since the telephone number is called and the reason for unreceivable communication is notified by voice message, the operator on the receiving side can immediately know the occurrence of the unreachable state and its cause. In addition, the receiving side notifies the sending side of the reason for unreceivable reception, and the sending side calls the set phone number and notifies the reason for unreceiving through a voice message. The operator can immediately know the occurrence and cause of communication failure. In addition, the sending side can increase the success rate of transmission by re-transmitting in the case of a communication error and notifying only if the transmission fails, and the operator can You can know if the transmission has failed.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram of part of a network control device and a communication control section, FIG. 3 is an operational flowchart of transmission processing, and FIG. The figure is an operation flowchart of reception processing, Figures 5(a) to (c) are sequence diagrams of transmission control procedures in each case, Figure 6 is a data frame configuration diagram of an RTN signal, and Figure 7 is a notification process to the operator. It is an operation flowchart. 1... Scanner, 2... Plotter, 3... Encoding/decoding unit, 4... Image memory, 5... Network control device,
6... Telephone, 7... Modem, 8... Communication control section, 9... Operation display section, 10... System memory, 1
1... System control unit, 51.56... Switching circuit,
52... DC closing circuit, 53... Dial signal sending circuit, 54... Incoming call detection circuit, 55... Hybrid circuit, 57.82... Control circuit, 81... Voice message output circuit. Funeral map 2 Figure (A) Figure (B) Figure (C) Figure 6

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) In a facsimile machine that interrupts communication when it becomes impossible to receive images during image reception, a calling means that makes a call to a preset telephone number when communication is interrupted due to the inability to receive images; 1. A facsimile apparatus comprising: reception failure notification means for transmitting a voice message indicating the reason why images cannot be received when the other party responds. (2) In a facsimile communication system that interrupts communication if the receiving side becomes unable to receive images during image transmission, the receiving side informs the sending side of the reason for the inability to receive images when it becomes unable to receive images and interrupts communication. On the other hand, the sending side includes a calling means that calls a preset telephone number when the receiving side notifies the reason of unreceivable reception, and a caller that makes a call to a preset telephone number when the receiving side notifies the recipient of the reason for unreceivable reception. 1. A communication system for a facsimile apparatus, comprising: receiving side status notification means for transmitting a voice message indicating the reason for reception failure when received. (3) In a facsimile communication system that interrupts communication if the receiving side becomes unable to receive images during image transmission, the receiving side informs the sending side of the reason for inability to receive images when it becomes unable to receive images and interrupts communication. On the other hand, if the notified reason for unreceivable reception is a communication error due to deterioration of the line condition, the sending side has a retransmission means that re-calls the other party and re-executes the image transmission. a transmission execution means, a calling means that calls a preset telephone number if the image transmission is not successful even after a certain number of re-transmissions, and a notification indicating that the image transmission has failed when the called party answers. 1. A communication method for a facsimile device, comprising: transmission result notification means for transmitting a voice message.