JPH04309068A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain the communication in the talking mode even when a called party equipment is a facsimile equipment in the automatic reception mode. CONSTITUTION:When it is discriminated by a procedure signal that a called station is set to a picture communication mode (step S6) at dialing (steps S4-) in the talking mode, an advance talking reservation procedure is used to set the called station to the talking mode (step S11) for the communication in the talking mode. Thus, even when the called equipment is set to the automatic reception mode due to mis-operation or the like, sure talking is attained.

Description

[Detailed description 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 facsimile machine that uses a telephone line to communicate with a partner station in either a speech mode or an image communication mode.

0002

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, facsimile apparatuses have been known to have a configuration in which the facsimile mode is switched between a telephone mode and a facsimile mode depending on the state of the apparatus.

For example, when there is a document to be sent, if one-touch dialing or speed dialing is performed, the system operates as a facsimile mode and automatically sends a facsimile. When dialing, it operates as a telephone mode for communication purposes, and after auto-dialing, the user monitors the line sound (line monitor) using the speaker, confirms by ear that the other party answers, and then the operator goes off-hook. Controls such as enabling telephone calls are performed by

0004

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] However, in the above conventional example, in telephone mode, line monitoring was only performed after auto-dialing, regardless of whether the other party was connected to a telephone or a facsimile machine. Therefore, it had the following drawbacks.

[0005] In recent years, the demand for facsimile has increased and the market has penetrated to the point where a single telephone line is used, so there is an increasing number of cases in which facsimiles are used by switching to manual reception when at home and automatic reception when absent. Therefore, it is often the case that people forget to switch between manual and automatic mode and set the mode to automatic reception when they are at home.

Therefore, even if you auto-dial a facsimile machine in such a state in telephone mode, the called party's facsimile machine is in facsimile reception mode, and even though the calling party made the call for the purpose of talking, I can't achieve my goal.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the above problems and provide a facsimile device that can perform communication in a call mode even when the called device is in an automatic reception mode.

[0008]

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, the present invention provides a facsimile machine that uses a telephone line and communicates with a partner station in either a call mode or an image communication mode. When making a call, means is provided for detecting the reception state of the facsimile procedure signal of the called station, and when the detection means detects the facsimile procedure signal and the called station is set to the image communication mode, the call reservation procedure is performed. We adopted a configuration in which the called station is switched to call mode using the call mode, and communication is performed in call mode.

[0009]

[Operation] According to the above configuration, when it is determined by the procedure signal that the called station is set to the image communication mode, the called station is switched to the call mode using the call reservation procedure, and the call is made. Communication can be performed by mode.

0010

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be explained in detail below based on embodiments shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of the main parts of a facsimile machine employing the present invention.

In the figure, reference numeral 14 is a CPU that controls the entire device, and is composed of a microprocessor or the like. A control program for the CPU 14 is stored in the ROM 14a. The following members are connected to the CPU 14.

Reference numeral 15 is a one-touch button, which is composed of a plurality of keys, and is associated with the one-touch button 15.
The telephone number of the desired partner station is stored in the AM 14b. Depending on the operation of the one-touch button 15, a call is made using the telephone number stored in the RAM 14b.

In FIG. 1, illustrations of a document reading section, an image recording section, etc. are omitted, and only a document presence/absence sensor 16 for detecting a document in the document reading section is shown. Original presence sensor 1
Reference numeral 6 includes an optical sensor provided on the document transport path.

Further, the device shown in FIG. 1 is connected to a handset (transceiver) or a telephone (not shown) as in the prior art, and the hook switch 17 detects the on-hook/off-hook state of the handset.

Reference numeral 18 is an NCU, reference numeral 19 is a modem,
The NCU 18 and modem 19 constitute an interface to the telephone line 22. The NCU 18 performs line switching control, and the modem 19 modulates and demodulates procedure signals and image signals.

Reference numeral 20 is a monitor speaker for line monitoring, and reference numeral 21 is a buzzer for sounding a pseudo bell tone (ringing tone), which are used in the telephone mode.

FIG. 2 shows the CPU stored in the ROM 14a.
There are 14 control programs. FIG. 2 shows a control procedure when making a call by pressing the one-touch button 15.

When the operator presses the one-touch button 15 in step S1 of FIG. 2, the NCU 18 closes the telephone line 22 with direct current (line capture) in step S2. Subsequently, in step S3, the document presence/absence sensor 16 determines whether there is a document to be transmitted.

If there is no document, the process advances to the telephone mode from step S4 onwards, where the telephone number corresponding to the one-touch button 15 is input using the NCU 18, and the signal on the line is monitored from the monitor speaker 20 at step S5.

Further, in step S6, it is determined whether or not a DIS (digital identification) signal has been received by the modem 19, and if not, the process advances to step S7. Subsequently, in step S7, the hook state is detected by the hook switch 17, and if it is on-hook, the process advances to step S8 to check whether a predetermined time has elapsed, and repeats the loop returning to step S6 until the predetermined time has elapsed.

[0022] When the facsimile machine in automatic reception mode responds on the called side, the DIS signal is received in step S6 within this predetermined time, but in this case, the process advances from step S6 to step S11, and a known advance telephone call is performed. Using the mode, processing is performed to shift the called party's station, which is set to facsimile mode, to communication mode.

[0023] When step S11 is completed, step S9
The DC loop of the line is opened at step S10, and the process returns to the standby state of step S10.

Further, when the called party answers by telephone, the loop of steps S6-S7-S8-S6 is repeated. In this loop, when the operator answers the phone using the monitor speaker 20 and tries to pick up a handset (not shown) to make a call, the hook switch 17 goes into an off-hook state, and the process proceeds to step S9 via step S7.

In the loop of steps S6-S7-S8-S6, if the DIS signal or off-hook is not detected within a predetermined time, the process moves from step S8 to step S9.

In step S9, the line is released and the process returns to the standby state in step S10.

On the other hand, when the one-touch button 15 is pressed while there is a document to be sent, the process moves from step S3 to step S12.
After dialing is performed here, a known facsimile transmission operation is performed in step S13, and the process advances to step S9.

FIG. 3 shows a known operational procedure for advance call reservation used in step S11. When a call is made from the calling side as indicated by reference numeral 23 in FIG. 3, the called party automatically receives the call and transmits a DIS signal as indicated by reference numeral 24.

When the calling side makes an advance call reservation, when it detects this DIS signal, it sends a PRI-- which is a telephone call signal.
After transmitting the EOP signal, the called party issues a pseudo-bell tone as indicated by reference numeral 26 to request operator intervention.

Furthermore, after the called operator goes off-hook as shown at 27, it sends a PIP (Procedure Interruption Affirmative) signal as shown at 28, and the calling side facsimile emits the buzzer 2.
1, a pseudo bell sound is sounded as shown in 29 to notify the operator on the called side that the call is available. code 3
When the calling party goes off-hook, as in case 0, the call can be made.

Conventionally, after transitioning to the telephone mode (steps S3 to S4) in FIG. 2, the detection of the DIS signal as shown in step S6 was not performed.
If the called party is in the telephone mode and the called party is in the facsimile automatic reception mode, the call cannot be made, but step S6 is provided, and if the called party is in the facsimile mode, the call can be made by using the advance call reservation procedure to switch to the talking mode. You will be able to do this.

Therefore, even if the facsimile machine forgets to switch between manual and automatic mode, it is possible to communicate in the call mode even with a facsimile machine set for automatic reception.

Furthermore, since the above-mentioned embodiment utilizes the well-known advance call reservation mode, it has the advantage that changes in software/hardware are minimal and the configuration is simple and inexpensive.

In the above embodiments, the G3 facsimile was assumed, but it goes without saying that the present invention can also be applied to the G2 facsimile. That is, step S6 in FIG.
If the called party uses a G2 facsimile, it is sufficient to replace the DIS reception with the detection process of the DIS signal or the GI2 signal, and to automatically make a previously known G2 facsimile telephone call if the called party uses a G2 facsimile.

[0035] In addition, in the above, a call can be made by pressing one-touch button 1.
5, the calling method is not limited to this, and the present invention can of course be applied to cases where calling methods such as speed dialing and numeric keypad input are used.

[0036]

As is clear from the above, according to the present invention, in a facsimile machine that uses a telephone line to communicate with a partner station in either the call mode or the image communication mode, when a call is made in the call mode, Means for detecting the receiving state of the facsimile procedure signal of the called station is provided, and by the detection of the facsimile procedure signal by the detection means,
If the called station is set to image communication mode, the called station is configured to switch to call mode using the call reservation procedure and communicate in call mode, so the called station is set to image communication mode. If it is determined by the procedure signal that the call reservation procedure has been set, the called station can be switched to call mode and communication can be performed in call mode. The purpose of the call can be reliably achieved even if the call mode is set, and since the known call reservation process is used, the configuration is simple and inexpensive.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of main parts of a facsimile device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a control procedure of a facsimile machine employing the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a timing chart showing a known advance call reservation calling procedure utilized by the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

14 CPU 15 One-touch button 16 Original presence sensor 17 Hook switch 18 NCU 19 Modem 20 Monitor speaker

Claims (1)

[Claims] Claim 1: In a facsimile device that uses a telephone line to communicate with a partner station in either a call mode or an image communication mode, when a call is made in the call mode, the receiving state of a facsimile procedure signal from the called station is detected. means is provided, and when the called station is set to the image communication mode by the detection of the facsimile procedure signal by the detection means, the called station is switched to the call mode using a call reservation procedure and communication is performed in the call mode. A facsimile device featuring: