JPH04264879A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain a facsimile equipment which can communicate a communication fee to be charged before the transmission of an original. CONSTITUTION:The facsimile equipment having a memory transmitting function, is equipped with a counting means which counts the picture data amount of the original at the time of reading the transmitted original, converting it into picture data, and storing it in a memory, a calculating means which calculates the communication fee to be charged at the time of transmitting the entire originals, at every communicating speed at the time of transmitting the original, from both the picture data amount obtained by this counting means, and the telephone number information of the destination of the transmission, and an informing means which communicates the communication fee calculated by this calculating means at every communicating speed. At that time, a coded amount counting means 3 constitutes the counting means, a dial discriminating means 5 and a communication fee calculating means 6 constitute the calculating means, and a display part 7 constitutes the informing means.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[Purpose of the invention]

0001

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile machine, and more particularly to a communication charge notification structure.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Communication charges incurred when transmitting a document using a conventional facsimile machine are calculated based on the actual communication time. For this reason, it is not possible to calculate the communication charges incurred until all transmission of the manuscript is completed, and it is not possible to know the communication charges before sending the manuscript. By the way, the difference between facsimile communication and normal telephone communication is that in facsimile communication, the content and amount of communication is determined before communication. Therefore, if the destination is known before performing facsimile communication, it is possible to calculate the communication fee for this transmission and notify it to the operator.

For example, even if the amount of information to be transmitted is almost the same, there will be a difference in communication charges depending on whether the amount of documents to be transmitted is on the verge of a step-up in communication charges or whether it is slightly beyond this amount. Alternatively, there may be a difference in the amount of information that can be sent even if the communication fee is the same, depending on whether the amount of documents to be sent is slightly larger than the amount for which the communication fee will be stepped up, or whether the communication fee is on the verge of the step-up. or However, with conventional facsimile devices, the communication fee is notified after the facsimile transmission is completed, similar to normal telephone communication, so there is a drawback that it is not possible to manage communication fees such as always maximizing the amount of information sent. Ta.

0004

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] As mentioned above, in conventional facsimile machines, communication charges for transmitted documents are calculated based on the actual communication time. This method has the disadvantage that it is not possible to effectively manage communication to send as much information as possible or to save on communication charges.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a facsimile machine which can notify the user of the communication charges before transmitting the original document. [Structure of the invention]

[0006]

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention provides a facsimile apparatus having a memory transmission function, which includes a counting means for counting the amount of image data of the original document when reading the transmitted original document and converting it into image data and storing it in the memory; a calculating means for calculating the communication fee required when all the original documents are transmitted based on the image data amount obtained by the counting means and the telephone number information of the destination; and this calculating means; and a notification means for notifying the communication fee calculated by the communication speed for each communication speed.

[0007]

In the facsimile apparatus of the present invention, the counting means counts the amount of image data of the original when reading the original to be sent and converting it into image data and storing it in the memory. The calculating means calculates the communication fee required when all the original documents are transmitted based on the image data amount obtained by the counting means and the telephone number information of the destination for each communication speed at the time of transmitting the original documents. The notifying means notifies the communication charges calculated by the calculating means for each of the communication speeds.

[0008]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a facsimile apparatus of the present invention. Reference numeral 1 denotes a reading unit that reads the contents of a document and converts it into image data, 2 an encoding unit that encodes the image data read by the reading unit 1, and 3 a code amount counter that counts the amount of encoded image data. , 4 is an image storage unit that stores image data; 5 is a dial determination unit that determines the communication fee per unit time when transmitting a document from the telephone number of the own station and the destination telephone number; 6 is the image to be transmitted; A communication charge calculation unit calculates the document transmission charge for each communication speed from the amount of data and the communication charge per unit time; 7 is a display unit that displays the communication charge etc. for the document to be transmitted; 8 is a calling unit;
9 is an input unit for inputting dial information and various operation instructions, and 10 is a job management unit for managing data allocation and operations for each of the functional blocks described above.

Here, the code amount counting section 3 constitutes a counting means, the dial discrimination section 5 and the communication charge calculating section 6 constitute a calculating means, and the display section 7 constitutes a notification means.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained. At the time of transmission, the operator places the document on the document table of the reading section 1, and then inputs a communication charge calculation instruction and the destination's telephone number information from the input section 9. As a result, the reading section 1 is activated, the documents are sequentially read, and the obtained image data is encoded by the encoding section 2 and then sent to the code amount counting section 3 and the image storage section 4. The image storage section 4 stores input image data.

On the other hand, the code amount counting unit 3 counts the code amount of the input image data and outputs it to the communication fee calculation unit 6. Further, the destination telephone number information input from the input section 9 is sent to the dial discrimination section 5. As a result, the dial discrimination section 5 calculates the communication charge per unit time required for transmitting the transmission document based on the telephone number of the own station and the telephone number of the destination, and sends this to the communication charge calculation section 6. give. The communication charge calculation unit 6 calculates the communication charge (transmission charge) required to transmit the entire transmission document from the code amount of the transmitted image data and the communication charge per unit time, depending on the transmission speed, for example, 9600 bps, 7600 bps, 4800 bps, etc.
bps is calculated and sent to the display section 7. The display unit 7 displays communication charges for each communication speed. Here, the communication charge calculation unit 6 first converts the code amount of the image data into communication time, and then adds the time required for the pre-procedure and post-procedure of the facsimile communication protocol (fixed time) to this communication time, and thus obtains the The communication charge is calculated for each communication speed by multiplying the total communication time by the communication charge per unit time. Next, by looking at the display on the display section 7, the operator can know the communication fee required before sending the original to be transmitted, and if it is acceptable, issues a transmission instruction from the input section 9. It is assumed that the operator knows the communication speed of the destinations he/she frequently calls.

After the above processing, when the input telephone number information is given to the communication control section 8, the communication control section 8
makes a call to the destination, and when the line is connected, preprocesses the communication protocol and then transmits the image data read from the image storage section 4 to the destination. At this time, the communication control unit 8
In order to provide the determined communication speed to the display section 7, the display section 7 displays the document transmission speed before the image data is transmitted, thereby confirming and displaying the actual communication charges to the operator.

According to this embodiment, it is possible to calculate and display the communication charges for each communication speed when the entire document is transmitted from the code amount of the transmitted image data and the telephone number information of the destination. This allows the operator to know the communication charges involved in transmitting a document before transmitting it. This allows the operator to take measures such as reducing the number of originals to reduce communication charges, or increasing the number of originals without increasing communication charges, resulting in more efficient transmission for communication costs. At the same time, communication charges can be easily managed.

[0014] By informing the communication charge calculation unit 6 of the communication speed information of the document obtained by the communication control unit 8 each time in the communication protocol for pre-processing at the time of transmission, the communication charge calculation unit 6 can calculate the communication speed for each destination. By collecting statistics on the information, it is also possible to configure the communication charge calculation section 6 to calculate the communication charge incurred when transmitting a document by the communication speed obtained from the statistics.

[0015]

As described above, according to the facsimile apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to notify the user of the communication fee before transmitting the document.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a facsimile apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claims: 1. A facsimile device having a memory transmission function, comprising: a counting means for counting the amount of image data of the original when reading a transmitted original and converting it into image data and storing it in a memory; Calculating means for calculating the communication fee for each communication speed when transmitting the original document based on the image data amount and the destination telephone number information, and the communication fee calculated by the calculating means A facsimile apparatus comprising a notification means for providing notification for each communication speed.