JPH05130281A - Color picture data communication equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To avoid undesired printing and to reduce the print supply cost by displaying caller information onto a CRT when a received picture is confirmed. CONSTITUTION:A picture conversion section of a system controller l generates a reduced picture from a received picture expanded in a picture memory section 4 and transfers the result to a CRT interface section 9. The presence of the reception data is commanded by displaying the reduced picture of the received picture, the sender information and a reception time or the like onto the CRT 11. A recipient commands printout from an operation section 2 with respect to the command to print out the received picture.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a color image data communication device which prevents unnecessary printing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a black and white G3 facsimile apparatus, sender information (e.g., sender's telephone number, sender date, time, etc.) is added to the tip of a received image for output. With this, it is possible to identify who and when the communication message is transmitted after reception.

[0003]

The above-mentioned source information is redundant information in some cases, but in a facsimile machine in which an image is a black and white image, such redundant information in a sense. Even if you print out an image containing, the amount of data is small and the supply cost for printing is low. However, when the image is a color image, the amount of image information is three times as large as that of a monochrome image. Therefore, it takes a lot of time and storage capacity to transmit, store, and output the color image, and the color image is also required. There was a problem that the supply cost for printing would increase by an order of magnitude. In such a color image communication device, it is desired to print only the necessary image from the received images without performing color printing without redundant information or printing all the received images. Was there.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a color image data communication apparatus in which unnecessary printing is avoided by displaying information of a sender on a CRT when confirming a received image, thereby reducing print supply cost. .

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, according to the present invention, a color image input means, a means for transmitting and receiving data via a line, a means for encoding an input image, and a receiving means. In a color image data communication apparatus including means for decoding image information, color image output means, and means for accumulating encoded image information, means for reducing the received image and the reduced image It is characterized in that a means for displaying together the information of the sender and the information of the sender is provided, and the fact that the data has been received is instructed by the displayed content.

[0006]

In the image conversion section of the system controller, a reduced image is created by thinning out pixels from the received image developed in the image memory section and transferred to the CRT interface section. By displaying the reduced image of the received image, the information of the sender, the receiving time, etc. on the CRT, the recipient is instructed that there is received data. In response to the instruction, only the necessary received image is printed out. As a result, it is possible to avoid unnecessary printing and reduce the print supply cost.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be specifically described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a system controller 1 controls the operation of each part of the color G4 facsimile apparatus, and includes a CPU (central processing unit), a RAM that is a work area of the CPU, a ROM that stores a control program, and the like.
It is composed of a bus interface and the like. Also,
It controls the operation unit 2 and the secondary storage device 3 which will be described later and transfers data between these devices. Further, an image conversion unit for reducing and converting the image data of the image memory unit 4 described later is provided.

The operation unit 2 is provided with various operation keys (a facsimile start key, a facsimile start key, etc.) for operating the facsimile apparatus.
A telephone number input key, a function key, etc.), an operating procedure, and a display device such as a liquid crystal panel for displaying various information such as the state of the facsimile apparatus.

The secondary storage device 3 stores encoded data,
It is composed of, for example, a magnetic disk device that stores information of the sender, a registered telephone number, and the like. Image memory unit 4
Is a frame buffer for accumulating uncompressed input / output image data, that is, image data read by the scanner unit 8 or image data output to the plotter unit 7, which will be described later, and is composed of a memory and a bus interface. ing.

The codec unit (encoding / decoding) 5 transfers image data to and from the image memory unit 4, and
G (Joint Photographic Expe
The image data is compressed and decompressed according to the rts Group) method. Regarding the JPEG system, refer to, for example, "International Standardization Trend of Color Still Image Coding" in PCSJ90 Image Coding Lecture Preliminary Lecture organized by the Image Coding Symposium (PCSJ) Steering Committee.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the codec section 5, and FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of the codec section 5. At the time of encoding, the DMA (Direct Memory Access) 22 transfers the R, G, B image data in the image memory unit 4 to the RAM 23 (step 301). DSP (Digital Signal Processor)
The color conversion unit 241 constituting 24 linearly converts the R, G, B image data into a luminance component Y and color difference components Cb, Cr (steps 302, 303). DCT (discrete cosine transform) of DSP 24 for Y, Cb, Cr image data
/ The inverse DCT unit 242 performs the DCT operation (step 3
04), the quantization / inverse quantization unit 243 quantizes the DCT coefficient (step 305), and the CPU 21
The quantized DCT coefficient is temporarily stored in the RAM 23.

Then, the CPU 21 makes the quantized DC
The T coefficient is Huffman-encoded (step 306) and the compressed data is converted into a FIFO (first-in / first-out, which is provided to operate the DSP without delay when transmitting / receiving image data) 25. It is written (step 307). Then, the compressed data is transmitted to the ISDN interface unit 6 via the bus interface 26.

Decoding is the reverse operation of the above-described encoding operation, and the compressed data received by the ISDN interface unit 6 is transferred to the FIFO 2 via the bus interface 26.
5, and is decrypted by the CPU 21. Hereinafter, the quantization / inverse quantization unit 243 is applied to the decoded data.
Then, dequantization is performed, and further, the DCT / inverse DCT unit 242 performs an inverse DCT operation to decompress the compressed data. Then, color conversion is performed to restore the original image.

DCT (Discrete Cosine)
(Transform Discrete Cosine Transform) is a method of orthogonal transform that compresses an image signal by removing spatially redundant components of the image signal, and is applied to color still image, video conference / videophone, and moving image coding methods. Already,
ISO and CCITT have decided a standardization recommendation.

The two-dimensional DCT will be briefly described below. Pixels forming an image are divided into blocks of 8 × 8 pixels, and the value of each pixel is represented by f (i, j) (where i = 0-7, j = 0 to 7), the map F by DCT
(U, v) is

F (u, v) = (4 · C (u) · C (v) / N · N) ΣΣf (i, j) · cos {(2i + 1) uπ / 2N} · cos {(2j + 1) vπ / 2N} is expressed as equation (1). The result of this two-dimensional DCT is called a DCT coefficient, which is given by an 8 × 8 coefficient matrix. However,
The sum of products operation is performed from i, j = 0 to N-1. Also, C
(W) = 1 / √2 (when w = 0) or 1 (w = 1,
2 ... N-1).

The inverse DCT is

## EQU00002 ## f (i, j) =. SIGMA..SIGMA.C (u) .C (v) .F (u, v) .cos {(2i + 1) u.pi./2N} .cos {(2j + 1) v.pi./2N} Formula (2 ) Is required. However, the sum of products operation is u, v = 0 to N
Go to -1.

The 8 × 8 coefficient matrix F (u, v) given by the equation (1) corresponds to the conversion coefficient of a higher frequency component of the spatial frequencies included in the image as u and v increase. , F (0,0) corresponds to the coefficient of the DC component. That is, the top row corresponds to the horizontal direction in order from the lowest frequency component among the coefficients of the horizontal component of the spatial frequency contained in the image, and the leftmost column similarly shows the vertical component. Among the coefficients of (1), they correspond in the vertical direction in order from the component with the lowest frequency, and the upper left component (F00) corresponds to the coefficient of the DC component of the image. The diagonal portion corresponds to the frequency coefficient (AC coefficient) obtained by superimposing the horizontal and vertical components, respectively.

The ISDN interface unit 6 controls a protocol for communication and transmits / receives compressed encoded data, and is composed of an interface circuit for the ISDN line 10, a control unit, a memory, and a bus interface. In this embodiment, as the communication protocol, the extended function of class 1 of the G4 machine is used, and the color coding expression capability is added.

The plotter unit 7 comprises a DMA (Direct Memory Access), a bus interface, a color ink ribbon, a thermal head, a paper transport mechanism, and the like.
The image data is fetched from the image memory unit 4 by DMA, and the color of the color ink ribbon is printed on the paper by the heat of the thermal head according to the color information.

The scanner unit 8 is a device for reading a document image at a predetermined resolution and inputting image data, and includes a light source,
It is composed of a photoelectric conversion element, an A / D converter, a bus interface, and the like. The R, G, and B three colors are simultaneously read by using a filter to obtain color image data, and the separated R, G, and B data are sent to the image memory unit 4 via the bus interface.

The CRT interface section 9 includes a CRT 11
A display memory for displaying on the display, a DMA, a timing controller for display, a D / A converter, and a bus interface. The DMA transfers image data from the image memory unit 4 to the display memory via the bus interface. It is converted into an analog signal by the D / A converter and displayed on the CRT 11.

FIG. 4 is a processing flowchart of the system controller of this embodiment, and the operation of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the flowchart.

Upon reception, when the ISDN interface section 6 detects an incoming call, the ISDN interface section 6 notifies the system controller 1 that the incoming call was detected while performing the receiving operation (step 402). The system controller 1 instructs the operation unit 2 and the CRT interface unit 9 to display that reception is in progress (step 403), and stores the received encoded data in the secondary storage device 3. At this time, information such as the sender information and the reception time obtained at the communication protocol stage is also stored in the secondary storage device 3 (step 404).

When the reception is completed, the operation unit 2 and the CRT interface unit 9 are instructed to display that the reception is completed (step 405), and the codec unit 5 is used to reproduce the image data from the accumulated encoded data. Is activated to decompress the compressed data. The decompressed image data is expanded in the image memory unit 4 (step 40).
6). Next, the codec section 5 notifies the system controller 1 for each fixed processing unit (step 40).
7).

In response to this notification, the system controller 1 reads out the sender information, the reception time and the like obtained by the protocol from the secondary storage device 3 and transfers them to the CRT interface unit 9 and at the same time the image in the system controller 1 is read. In the conversion unit, pixels are thinned out from the received image developed in the image memory unit 4 to create a reduced image and a CRT.
Transfer to the interface unit 9. Then, by displaying the reduced image of the received image on the CRT 11 together with the information of the sender, the reception time, etc., it is instructed that there is received data, that is, as an indicator (step 408).

When the processing of the codec section 5 is completed (steps 409 and 410) and the receiver gives a printout instruction from the operation section 2 in response to the instruction (step 411), the plotter section 7 is activated. (Step 412), and the received image that does not include information about the sender is printed out (Step 413). When the printout is completed, the fact that the reception is completed is displayed on the operation unit 2 and the CRT 11 (step 414), and the process returns to the standby state (step 401). Note that when printing out the received image, if it is necessary to print the information of the sender, the reception time, etc., the operation unit 2 gives an instruction to add them to the leading end of the image.

At the time of transmission, the system controller 1 detects an instruction from the operation unit 2 (step 415) and first activates the scanner unit 8 (step 416). The scanner unit 8 starts reading an image and simultaneously reads R, G, and B data for 8 bits each, and the image memory unit 4
Sequentially write to. In addition, the system controller 1 stores the information of the caller (for example, the caller's telephone number, call date, time, etc.) input by the operation unit 2 in the image memory unit 4.
Write in. When the scanner unit 8 finishes storing a certain amount of data, the system controller 1 instructs the codec unit 5 to start encoding (step 417).

The codec section 5 takes in the image data from the image memory section 4 and performs an encoding process. The encoded information is sent to the system controller 1 and the ISDN interface unit 6 and stored in the secondary storage device 3 (step 418). Then, the scanner unit 8 and the codec unit 5
When the operation of the above is completed and the storage in the secondary storage device 3 is completed (steps 419, 420, 421), the system controller 1 activates the ISDN interface section 6, and the information of the transmission source and the encoded Image data I
The data is transferred via the SDN line 10 (step 422).

When the transfer is completed, the ISDN interface section 6 notifies the system controller 1 of this (step 423). When the system controller 1 receives the transfer end report, it issues an end display instruction to the operation unit 2 and the CRT interface unit 9 (step 424),
The process returns to the standby state (step 401).

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, the information of the sender is displayed together with the reduced received image on the CRT screen at the time of reception, so that what has been transmitted at a glance can be displayed. It becomes possible to determine. In addition, as a result of the judgment, whether to print or not can be selected, unnecessary printing can be avoided, and color printing can be performed by removing unnecessary parts such as sender information from the received image. As a result, the print supply cost can be significantly reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration of a codec section.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the codec section.

FIG. 4 is a processing flowchart of the system controller of the present embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 System Controller 2 Operation Section 3 Secondary Storage Device 4 Image Memory Section 5 Codec Section 6 ISDN Interface Section 7 Plotter Section 8 Scanner Section 9 CRT Interface Section 10 ISDN Line 11 CRT

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A color image input means, a means for transmitting and receiving data via a line, a means for encoding an input image, a means for decoding received image information, a color image output means, and a code. In a color image data communication device having means for accumulating the reduced image information, means for reducing the received image and means for displaying the reduced image and the information of the sender together are provided, A color image data communication device characterized by instructing that data has been received according to the displayed contents.