JPH0442665A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce sent data quantity and to improve the transmission efficiency by combining picture information of one line read from both sides of each original, coding the combined picture information in the lump and sending the result. CONSTITUTION:When a facsimile equipment is started, a destination is called and it replies a call, the pictures on both side is read from the 1st page of the transmitted original by each 1 line then sets of picture information La1, La2...of a front side and sets of picture information Lb1, Lb2...of a rear side of each line to be obtained are sequentially stored in a buffer memory 4, the picture information sets La1 and Lb1 of each face to be stored are extracted sequentially and the both are combined. The combined picture information is coded by a coding decoding section as picture information of a new line to obtain one set of coding picture information. Then the coded picture information is sent by the known procedure as one line of picture information. Thus, the picture is sent in a short time and the transmission efficiency is improved.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application field] The present invention relates to a facsimile device.

[Prior Art] For example, as seen in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 1-246955, a facsimile apparatus has been proposed that simultaneously reads and transmits images on both sides of a document to be transmitted.

When sending back-side originals, using this proposed facsimile machine allows the operator to copy both sides of the original before sending, or flip the original when sending, unlike when using a conventional facsimile machine. This eliminates the need to perform other tasks, making the sending task easier.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the above proposal, image information for each screen is transmitted separately using a known method. For this reason, compared to the normal case where images of each side are read and transmitted sequentially,
The amount of image information remained unchanged, and the transmission efficiency did not improve.

In view of this point, it is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile device that can improve transmission efficiency when transmitting double-sided originals.

[Means for Solving the Problems] For this purpose, the present invention reads one line at a time from both sides of a multi-page document, combines the image information of one line on each side obtained thereby, and creates a new one-line image. Forming information, part 1
This system is characterized in that line image information is encoded and transmitted all at once.

[Effect] ゛When encoding image information, the amount of data of the original image information is 2
Even if the amount of data is doubled, the amount of encoded data often does not double. Therefore, by combining and encoding the image information of each screen and transmitting the encoded data, the amount of data to be transmitted is reduced. As a result, images can be transmitted in a short time, and transmission efficiency can be improved.

[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 simultaneously reads images on both sides of a multi-leaf document,
This is to extract the image information of each surface. The plotter 2 records received images simultaneously on both sides of recording paper. The encoding/decoding unit 3 data-compresses the image information to be transmitted using various known encoding methods, while restoring the received image information to the original image information.

The buffer memory 4 temporarily stores image information to be transmitted and received. The modem 5 modulates and demodulates image information and transmits the same, and also transmits and receives various procedure signals for transmission control. The network control device 6 is connected to a telephone line and performs predetermined line control for making and receiving calls. The operation display section 7 displays the operation status of the device and is used by the operator to perform various operations.

The system control section 8 is a microcomputer that controls each of the above sections, and is adapted to exchange various data and control signals with the above sections via a system bus 9.

With the above configuration, the communication operation of the facsimile apparatus of this embodiment will now be explained.

The transmitting operator uses the scanner 1 as shown in FIG.
Place the original to be sent (process 101), perform predetermined setting operations such as inputting the destination, and start the facsimile machine (101).
Process 102).

As a result, the facsimile machine is activated and makes a call to the other party (process 103). When the other party responds, the images on both sides of the first page of the transmission document are read line by line.

Image information La1. of each line on the surface thus obtained. La,
...and the image information Lb on the back, Lb2..., the third
As shown in Figure (a), the data are sequentially stored in the buffer memory 4 (process 104).

Next, the stored one-line image information La and Lb for each side are stored.
, and combine the two as shown in FIG. 3(b). This combined image information is encoded as new 1-line image information by the encoding/decoding unit 3, as shown in FIG.
Obtain one encoded image information as shown in (process 105)
. Then, the encoded image information is transmitted as one line of image information using a known procedure (process 1.6).

After this, it is determined whether there is a next reading line in the MH image (process 107), and if there is a reading line (Y in process 107), the above process is repeated (go to process 104)
. As a result, images on both sides of the multi-leaf transmission document are transmitted line by line.

Then, when image transmission of all lines of all pages of the transmission document is completed (N in process 107), the transmission operation is ended.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 4, when the receiving facsimile machine receives a call (process 201), it starts image reception and sequentially stores the received image information line by line in the buffer memory 4 (process 202). Next, the stored image information is
The data is read line by line and sequentially decoded by the encoding/decoding unit 3 (processing 203).

The original image information reproduced by this decoding is separated into two parts, the first half and the second half, to obtain one line of image information for each of the front and back sides of the transmission document (process 204). Next, the image information of each side is recorded on each side of the recording paper by the plotter 2 (process 205).

After this, it is determined whether or not there is image information for the next line (process 206), and if there is next image information (Y in process 206)
, repeats the above process (proceed to process 202). Then, when all lines have been processed (N in process 206), the reception process is ended.

As described above, in this embodiment, the image information of each line on the front and back sides of the document is combined, and the combined image information is encoded as one line and transmitted.

Now, assume that there are multiple consecutive lines in which all pixels are "white" on both sides of the document. At this time, for example, if the encoding method is the MR method, when image information combining the front and back surfaces is encoded, the amount of data of the encoded image information will be 1 bit per line.

Conventionally, each line on the front side and the back side was encoded separately, resulting in a total of 2 bits, so in this embodiment, in this case, the encoded image information is reduced to 1/2.

By the way, original images such as ordinary documents and drawings often have continuous white lines for all pixels.

Therefore, by combining and encoding the image information on both sides of the document as in this embodiment, the amount of data to be transmitted is reduced and the transmission efficiency is improved.

Further, when the encoding method is, for example, the MH method.

The encoded image information indicates the run length of white or black for each line using a predetermined code.

When the image information on both sides of the document is combined, the number of image information bits will double, but in most cases the number of bits of the above code will be doubled even if the image information bit number doubles. Therefore, the encoded image information also does not increase. This point is considered to be the same in other various encoding methods as well.

Therefore, even in cases other than the MR method, the amount of encoded image information is reduced and the same effect can be obtained.

Next, another embodiment will be described in which image information of a double-sided document as described above is transmitted.

In this embodiment, when transmitting an image, as shown in FIG.
1). Next, one line of image information on the front and back sides is encoded (processing 302 and processing 303), and
As in the embodiment described above, image information obtained by combining image information of each plane is encoded (processing 304).

Next, in the above, the data amount of each encoded image information obtained by independently encoding each side of the front and back sides, and the data amount of encoded image information obtained by combining the image information of each side and collectively encoding it. are counted respectively (process 305).

Then, the sum of the data amount of encoded image information for each side by the above-mentioned independent encoding is compared with the data amount of encoded image information by batch encoding (processing 306). Here, if the amount of data resulting from the independent encoding is smaller (Y in process 306)
, each encoded image information obtained by independent encoding is transmitted together with an identification code indicating that the image information is independent (processing 3).
07). On the other hand, if the amount of data obtained by batch encoding is smaller (N in process 306), the encoded image information obtained by batch encoding is transmitted together with an identification code indicating that the image information is batch encoded (processing 306). 308).

The above process is repeated for each line of the transmission document (from Y in process 309 to process 301), and when all lines are executed (
Step 309 (N), the transmission process ends.

On the other hand, on the receiving side, as shown in FIG. The code is determined (process 402).

Then, if the image information is independently encoded image information (Y in process 402), the front and back side image information are each decoded (processes 403 and 404), or the image information is collectively encoded. If yes (N in process 402), after decoding (process 405), the image information is divided into the first half and the second half (process 406).

Next, the obtained image information of each side is recorded on recording paper (process 407), and the above process is repeated for the received image information of each line (from Y in process 408 to process 401),
When all lines have been processed (N in process 408), the reception process ends.

By the way, for example, as shown in FIG. 7, when a document image is read with 1728 bits per line, the image information of line i on the front surface F is "1" (black) for only the last bit, and all other bits are "1" (black). Assume that the image information of line i+1 is “0” (white), all bits are “0” (white), and the image information of the line main on back side B is all bits “l” (black), line i11
Assume that the image information of is all bits and "0" (white).

Now, if we consider the case where the image information of the front side F and the back side B are combined and encoded using the MR method, the image information of line i+1 is " white 34
In addition, the above-mentioned "3456 bits of white" is encoded to indicate "2560 bits of white,""896 bits of white," and "0 bit of white." This will be shown by each code.

In this case, the code indicating "white 2560 bits" is 12 bits, "white 896 bits" is 9 bits, and "white 0 bits" is 12 bits.
is 8-bit data, and "black 0 bit" is 10-bit data.

Further, horizontal mode H is 3-bit data. These add up to 42 bits.

On the other hand, the image information of the front side F and the back side B is
If we consider the case of encoding using the vertical mode VR(1), the line i+1 on the surface F, as shown in FIG.
The code is 3-bit data.

Furthermore, line i+1 on the back side B is encoded in horizontal mode H so as to indicate "1728 bits for whites" and "0 bits for blacks." The above "white 1728 bits" is "white 1
It is indicated by the codes "728 bits" and "white 0 bits". In this case, the code indicating "white 1728 bits" is 9 bits, and the rest is the same as above. Therefore,
The total of these amounts to 33 bits.

As described above, depending on the image information pattern, the amount of encoded image information may be smaller if the image information on both sides is encoded independently without being combined.

In this example, the amount of encoded image information is compared between cases where image information on the front and back sides of the document are encoded independently and cases where both sides are combined and encoded. I'm trying to send you one.

As a result, compared to the embodiment described in FIG. 2, the amount of transmitted data is further reduced and the transmission efficiency is improved.

In the above embodiments, images are recorded on both sides of the recording paper on the receiving side, but if a recording paper twice the size of the transmitted document is provided, the image on the front side of, for example, a 1M document is recorded on the front side of the recording paper. The images of both sides of the document may be recorded on one side of the recording paper, such as recording the images on the left side and the back side of the document on the right side of the front side of the recording paper.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, one line of image information read from both sides of a multi-page document is combined.

Since the combined image information is collectively encoded and transmitted, the amount of data to be transmitted is reduced and transmission efficiency is improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart of transmission processing, FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a method of processing image information on each line, and FIG.
FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart showing another embodiment of the image information transmission method, FIG. 6 is an operation flowchart showing the image information reception method corresponding to the embodiment, and FIG. 7 is an operation flowchart showing the reception process. FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of image information of a document image. FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the number of bits of encoded image information when image information of each side of the document is combined and when not. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1...Scanner, 2-...Plotter, 3-mount encoding/decoding unit, 4...Buffer memory, 5...Modem, 6...
...Network control device, 7.. Operation display section, 8.. System control section.

Claims (3)

[Claims] (1) In a facsimile device that reads and transmits images recorded on both sides of each leaf of a document, an image information reading means that simultaneously reads images on both sides of each leaf of a document and sequentially extracts image information on each side line by line; an image information combining means for combining one line of extracted image information of each side to form a new one line of image information; a batch encoding means for encoding the formed one line of image information; and an encoding method. 1. A facsimile device, comprising: image information transmitting means for transmitting image information. (2) Individual encoding means that independently encodes the image information of one line of each side taken out, and the amount of data of the image information encoded by the individual encoding means and encoded by the batch encoding means. If the amount of data of the individual encoding means and the amount of data of the individual encoding means are smaller than the amount of data of the batch encoding means,
and selective transmission means for transmitting the image information encoded by the individual encoding means.
Facsimile machine as described. (3) in a facsimile device that decodes received image information line by line and records the image, image information separation means that separates the decoded image information into image information on the front side and image information on the back side of the sending original; A facsimile apparatus comprising: double-sided recording means for recording the image information of the separated front and back sides on each side of recording paper.