JPH0556706B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (A) Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a facsimile relay broadcast system.

(B) Prior Art Recently, in facsimile devices, received image signal data is temporarily stored in a memory, and then the stored data is simultaneously stored in multiple locations, as shown in, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-60061. A facsimile machine with a relay broadcast function has been developed, and when the transmitting station and the final receiving station are far apart, when the same document is sent to multiple locations, it can be transmitted by relaying the same document to multiple locations. To reduce telephone line usage charges, for example, when sending the same document from the head office to multiple offices in each region, the head office sends it to the branch office, and then the branch office sends it to the office in charge. There is.

However, if a relay station's facsimile device uses memory to perform broadcast communication, the relay station may not have enough memory capacity to store all of the transmitted data when transmitting from the transmitting station to the relay station. There were cases where the message was lost, but since the transmitting station did not know the situation, there were problems such as later finding out that the message had not been transmitted normally and having to retry the transmission.

(c) Problems to be Solved by the Invention The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems, and is a facsimile relay broadcasting system configured to return data indicating the remaining memory capacity of a relay station to a transmitting station. system.

(d) Means for solving the problems The present invention provides the following features: When a relay station receives a signal instructing relay broadcasting from a transmitting station and when transmission ends,
The control means checks the remaining capacity of the memory and returns data indicating the remaining capacity of the memory to the transmitting station, while the transmitting station displays the remaining capacity of the memory on the display and instructs the operator about the status of the relay station. It is configured to do so.

(E) Effect By having the present invention configured as described above, the transmitting station can know the state of the relay station's memory before transmitting the document to the relay station, so that the transmitted data does not fit into the memory as in the conventional case. You can prevent it from being lost. Further, by configuring the transmitting station to return data indicating the remaining capacity of the memory to the transmitting station even after the transmission is completed, the transmitting station can confirm whether or not the transmitted document data has been completely stored in the memory.

(f) Examples Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a facsimile device constituting the facsimile relay broadcasting system of the present invention. Reference numeral 1 denotes a control circuit for controlling the entire facsimile device, which is composed of a microprocessor and has a processing program. Each part is controlled according to the stored program in the program memory 2. In addition, the control circuit 1 also performs signal processing of read transmission document data and processing of received signals. Reference numeral 3 denotes a reading unit that optically reads the transmission original, converts the read black and white data into electrical signals, and supplies the electrical signals to the control circuit 1, and is comprised of an original transport mechanism, a lens mechanism, an illumination mechanism, an image sensor, and the like. Reference numeral 4 denotes a recording section which drives a recording head such as a thermal head under the control of the control circuit 1 based on a received signal to perform printing, and is composed of recording paper, a recording paper transport mechanism, and the recording head. 5 is the send key,
The keyboard is composed of a reception key, a mode key, a numeric keypad, etc., and the control circuit 1 that receives the key signal stores the program memory 2 in accordance with the key signal.
control according to the program. 6 is keyboard 5
This is a display device that displays data etc. input by. Reference numeral 7 denotes a data memory for storing document content data read by the reading section 3 for broadcast communication or received for relay broadcast communication, and data writing and reading are controlled by the control circuit 1. Reference numeral 8 denotes a destination memory that stores a plurality of pieces of telephone number data input using the ten keys of the keyboard 5, and the telephone number data is stored in groups. Reference numeral 9 denotes a line connection circuit that connects the telephone line (L) and the facsimile device, and performs switching between the telephone line and the telephone 10. Reference numeral 11 denotes an automatic dialing circuit that automatically performs dialing by reading the telephone number data stored in the destination memory 8, and transmits a dialing signal to the telephone line (L) via the line connection circuit 9.

Next, the operation of the present invention having such a configuration will be explained.

First, connect the facsimile device shown in Figure 1 to transmitting station 1.
2 and a relay station 13, and at the relay station 13, the telephone number of the broadcast destination is inputted using the ten keys on the keyboard 5, and is stored in the destination memory 8 in advance. At this time, the telephone numbers are divided into groups and stored, and the transmitting station 12 is notified of the list in advance. As a result, as shown in FIG.
A relay broadcast system consisting of a relay station 13 and a plurality of receiving stations 14 can be constructed, and now the transmitting station 12
The operation of relaying and broadcasting to a plurality of receiving stations 14 via the relay station 13 will be explained below.

At the transmitting station 12, the original to be transmitted is set in the reading unit 3, and after inputting the relay broadcast key and the group number indicating the destination on the keyboard 5, the telephone number of the relay station 13 is entered on the telephone 10 in order to transmit to the relay station 13. dial to make a call. After confirming that the relay station 13 has returned a response signal (CED signal) to the dial call, when the transmit key on the keyboard 5 is operated, the control circuit 1 of the transmitting station 12 that has detected the transmit key signal transmits the signal to the relay station 13. In communicating the communication procedure signals based on the standard shown in FIG. 3 with the relay station 13, data instructing relay broadcasting and group number data instructing the destination are transmitted to the relay station 13 using an NSS signal.
As a result, the control circuit 1 of the relay station 13 that has received the relay broadcast instruction data checks the usage status of the data memory 7, calculates the remaining capacity, and sends it back to the transmitting station 12 in the form of a CFR signal. The control circuit 1 of the transmitting station 12 that has received the CFR signal displays the remaining capacity of the data memory sent from the relay station 13 on the display 6, for example.
A4: Notify the operator by displaying page 5, etc. Based on this display, the operator can judge whether all the original data to be transmitted will be stored in the relay station 13. If the operator judges that the memory capacity is low, press the stop key on the keyboard 5. The user presses the button to cancel the transmission, waits until the memory of the relay station 13 becomes free, and after a while dials the relay station 13 again to perform the transmission operation. On the other hand, if it is determined that the memory capacity of the relay station 13 is sufficient, no key operation is performed, so the control circuit 1 of the transmitting station 12 controls the reading unit 3 and sends the read original data to the relay station 13. Send. The relay station 13 sequentially stores the received manuscript data in the data memory 7. Then, the relay station 13 receives the EOP signal instructing the end of the original data from the transmitting station 12.
The control circuit 1 checks the remaining capacity of the data memory 7 and sends it back to the transmitting station 12 using the MCF signal.
As described above, the remaining capacity of the data memory 7 is displayed on the display 6 at the transmitting station 12. Upon receiving the MFC signal, the control circuit 1 of the transmitting station 12 disconnects the line.
The DCN signal is transmitted to relay station 13, and the transmission operation ends.

Next, the control circuit 1 of the relay station 13 reads the first received and stored group number data, and selects the first receiving station 1 from the corresponding group in the destination memory 8.
4 and controls the automatic dialing circuit 11 to make a dialing call. When the receiving station 14 responds to the dial call, the control circuit 1 detecting the response reads out original data from the data memory 7 and transmits it to the receiving station 14 after transmitting and receiving a predetermined communication procedure signal. At the receiving station 14, printing is performed in the recording section in the same manner as in a normal facsimile machine. As a result, the original data transmitted from the transmitting station 12 is transferred to the receiving station via the relay station 13.
4 and recorded. When the relay station 13 finishes transmitting the data in the data memory 7, the control circuit 1 reads the telephone number data of the second receiving station 14 stored in the next destination memory 8, and transfers the data to the data memory 7 in the same manner as described above. The original data is transmitted to the receiving station 14. In this way, the relay station 13
The transmission of the original data in the data memory 7 is repeated until the transmission is completed to all communication destinations in the designated group in the destination memory 8.

In this way, compared to direct broadcast communication from a transmitting station to a plurality of receiving stations far away, since broadcast communication is carried out from a nearby relay station to a receiving station, the line usage fee becomes cheaper.

In the embodiment, the telephone numbers of the communication destinations are stored in groups in the relay station, and the transmission station specifies the communication destination by transmitting the group number. Alternatively, the previous telephone number data may be transmitted and stored in the relay station.

In addition, in the embodiment, the operator judged whether or not transmission was possible based on the remaining capacity of the memory displayed on the display, but by first inputting the size and number of originals, This can be automatically determined by comparing the memory capacity, and in this case, a display will be displayed to indicate that transmission is not possible due to insufficient memory capacity.

(G) Effects of the Invention As described above, in the facsimile relay and broadcast system of the present invention, when a transmission station instructs a relay station to relay and broadcast, the relay station checks the data memory that stores original data and determines the remaining capacity. By sending back data indicating the data to the transmitting station, displaying the remaining capacity at the transmitting station, and instructing the operator, it is possible to prevent the loss of transmitted document data due to insufficient data memory capacity at the relay station. Furthermore, by configuring the system so that data indicating the remaining capacity of the memory is sent back to the transmitting station even after transmission is completed, the transmitting station can confirm whether or not the transmitted document data has been completely stored in the memory. This has an extremely large practical effect.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a facsimile device constituting the facsimile relay broadcasting system of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a block diagram showing the relay broadcasting system, and Fig. 3 is a chart showing the communication procedure of facsimile communication. be. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Control circuit, 3... Reading section, 4... Recording section, 5... Keyboard, 6... Display, 7... Data memory, 8... Destination memory, 12... Transmitting station, 13... Relay station, 14...Receiving station.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A means for transmitting transmission manuscript data to a relay station;
A transmitting station equipped with an indicator that displays the remaining capacity of the memory of the relay station, a data memory that stores transmitted original data from the transmitting station, and a transmitting station that receives a relay broadcast instruction signal from the transmitting station. When the transmission is completed, the memory capacity of the data memory is checked, data indicating the remaining capacity of the data memory is returned to the transmitting station, and the transmitted original data stored in the data memory is replayed to the receiving station. A facsimile relay broadcasting system comprising a relay station comprising a control means for controlling a transmitting relay broadcast function, and a receiving station comprising means for receiving and recording transmission data from the relay station.