JPH06121134A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the facsimile equipment which enables memory transmission for a lot of originals even without using any large capacity image memory. CONSTITUTION:A main control part 1 inputs the originals read from a reading part 2 through an image memory control part 7 to an image memory 6 one by one. At such a time, the main control part 1 originates a call from a network control part 4 to the destination and when a line (a) is connected as a result, the main control part reads these originals inputted through the image memory control part 7 to the image memory 6, transmits these originals from the network control part 4 to this destination and erases these read originals from the image memory 6. Further, each time the original just for one page is inputted to the image memory 6 while performing these operations, the main control part 1 checks the remaining capacity of the image memory and when the remaining capacity is lacked, the main control part starts inputting these originals again after the input of the original is temporarily waited and this remaining capacity is increased.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus having a memory transmission function, and more particularly to a transmission system for memory transmission.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in this type of facsimile apparatus,
It has a memory transmission function of reading a document set in the reading unit, temporarily storing it in the image memory, and then transmitting the document stored in the image memory to a designated destination. When such a memory transmission function is used, a broadcast transmission function for transmitting to a plurality of destinations, a transmission document is temporarily stored in the image memory even when the line is blocked, and the stored document is stored in the memory when the line is free. It is possible to realize a proxy transmission function or the like for reading and transmitting the document.

However, since the memory transmission function reads all the originals and temporarily stores them in the image memory and then reads the originals from the memory for transmission, the time until the originals are actually transmitted to the destination (original (Reading and storing in the memory) + (sending time), which takes an extra time for reading the original and storing it in the memory, compared to the case of sending while scanning a normal original. There was a drawback that it would end up. Therefore, in order to solve such a defect, a document is read and stored in an image memory, a call is made to a destination, a line is connected, and the first document stored in the image memory is sequentially read and transmitted. There is a facsimile device having a function. In the facsimile apparatus of such a system, the original is stored in the image memory, read out, and sequentially transmitted to the destination, so that the transmission time can be shortened as compared with the above system. However, even if any of the above transmission methods is used, if a large number of transmitted originals or a large amount of information in the originals are used when performing memory transmission, an expensive large-capacity image memory is required, so a low-priced facsimile is required. The device has a drawback in that the memory transmission function cannot be installed because of its price.

[0004]

As described above, in the conventional facsimile apparatus having the memory transmission function, all pages of the transmission original are temporarily stored in the image memory. Since a large capacity image memory is required and the price of this image memory is high, there is a drawback that it cannot be installed in a low-priced facsimile apparatus. Therefore, it is conceivable to use a low-priced, small-capacity image memory to have a memory transmission function, but this has a drawback that it can transmit only a small amount of originals to the memory and is not very practical.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to eliminate the above-mentioned drawbacks and to provide a facsimile apparatus capable of transmitting a large number of originals to a memory without using a large-capacity image memory.

[0006]

According to the present invention, in a facsimile apparatus having a function of inputting a read document into a memory and reading the input document and transmitting it to a destination, the document is input into the memory in predetermined amounts. Storage means, check means for checking the remaining capacity of the memory each time a predetermined amount of original is input to the memory by the storage means, and the remaining capacity of the memory is less than or equal to a predetermined amount by the checking means. When it is found, the control means for temporarily stopping the operation of inputting the original document to the memory by the storage means until the remaining capacity becomes a predetermined amount or more, and the control means for reading from the memory and transmitting to the destination. And an erasing unit for erasing the original from the memory.

[0007]

In the facsimile apparatus of the present invention, the storage means inputs the document into the memory by a predetermined amount. The checking means checks the remaining capacity of the memory each time a predetermined amount of original document is input to the memory by the storage means. When the control means finds out by the checking means that the remaining capacity of the memory is less than or equal to a predetermined amount, the control means temporarily performs the input operation of the original document to the memory by the storage means until the remaining capacity becomes equal to or more than the predetermined amount. Stop. The erasing means erases the original read from the memory and transmitted to the destination from the memory.

[0008]

DETAILED 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 the facsimile apparatus of the present invention. Reference numeral 1 is a main control unit that performs normal transmission / reception control, memory transmission control, and the like, 2 is a reading unit that reads a document and converts it into image data, 3 is an encoding / decoding unit that encodes or decodes image data, and 4 is an emission unit. A network control unit for controlling a call, an incoming call, and transmission / reception of image data, 5 is a recording unit for printing image data on recording paper and outputting the image data, 6 is an image memory for accumulating the image data, and 7 is a document for the image memory 6. An image memory control unit for performing writing / reading control, an operation panel unit 8 for inputting telephone number information and various operation instructions, and a memory 9 for writing data necessary for the operation of the main control unit 1. .

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. First, the operation of transmitting the image data already stored in the image memory 6 will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. When the memory transmission is activated due to, for example, the line being idle, the main control unit 1 gives the telephone number information of the destination to the network control unit 4 in step 201 to make a call, and when the line is connected by this, the process proceeds to step 202. move on. In step 202, one page of image data is read from the image memory 6 via the image memory control unit 7, modulated by the network control unit 4, and then transmitted to the destination. Next, the main control unit 1 waits in step 203 for receiving an answer signal from the destination facsimile machine. When the answer signal is received, the process proceeds to step 204, and the transmission original of the next page is stored in the image memory 6. It is determined whether or not there is any. If not, the process ends, and if there is, the process proceeds to step 205. Step 205
Then, it is determined whether the first page of the transmitted document is completed or whether the answer signal returned from the destination side is negative with respect to the document transmission of the second and subsequent pages, and if so, the process returns to step 202. . Also, step 2
If the answer signal returned from the destination side is positive for the transmission of the second and subsequent pages of the document at 05, the process proceeds to step 206. The main controller 1 deletes the image data of one page transmitted immediately before in the image memory 6 via the image memory controller 7 in step 206, and then in step 202
Return to. It is assumed that the image memory 6 stores the image data of the document read by the reading unit 2 in advance and encoded by the encoding / decoding unit 3.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a transmission / reception procedure between the facsimile apparatus (transmission side facsimile apparatus) of this example and the reception side facsimile apparatus at the destination when the above memory transmission is performed. The first page original stored in the image memory 6 is not deleted at the time a in the figure, the second page original is deleted at the time b, and the third page original is not deleted at the time c. Then, the communication ends. In this example, since the original of the first page is not deleted from the image memory 6 at the time of a, if the original cannot be transmitted to the destination due to a line error or the like,
A non-delivery notice can be issued by reading the first page of the document from the image memory 6 and outputting it from the recording unit 5.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a transmission / reception procedure between a facsimile apparatus (sending facsimile apparatus) which does not have the above non-delivery notification function and a receiving facsimile apparatus at a destination. In this example, the original on the first page is deleted from the image memory 6 at the time of (a), and the originals on the second and third pages are deleted at the times of (b) and (c). Therefore, it is not necessary to leave the first page of the original document in the image memory 6, so that the image shown in FIG.
It is possible to further reduce the capacity of the image memory 6 as compared with the example shown in FIG.

Next, the operation in the case where the operator makes a transmission request for the document set in the reading section 2 from the operation panel section 8 to the main control section 1 will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First, in step 501, the main control unit 1 waits for a transmission request, and when there is a transmission request, the process proceeds to step 502 to check the remaining capacity of the image memory 6 (the amount of free area where image data can be stored). Then, based on the result, it is determined in step 503 whether or not the memory transmission is possible, and if it is not possible, the process shifts to the normal transmission operation in which the image data read by the reading unit 2 is directly transmitted, and it is determined that the memory transmission is possible. If yes, step 50
Go to 4. In step 504, the reading unit 2 is activated to read one page of the set document, the read image data of one page is encoded by the encoding / decoding unit 3, and then the image memory control unit 7 is activated. Through image memory 6
The operation of inputting into the memory is started. At that time, it is judged in step 505 whether or not the image memory is full and the memory is over. If the memory is over, the operation is interrupted. When it is determined in step 505 that the image data has been normally written in the image memory 6, the process proceeds to step 506, in which it is determined whether or not there is a document of the next page to be read by the reading unit 2 and it does not exist. If so, the process ends, and if there is, the process proceeds to step 507.

In step 507, the memory remaining amount of the image memory 6 is checked again, and thereafter, in step 508, whether the memory input of the first page of the document set in the reading unit 2 is completed or the second page and subsequent pages are read. It is determined whether the memory input is completed. If the memory input for the first page is completed, the process proceeds to step 509, and if the memory input for the second and subsequent pages is completed, the process proceeds to step 511. In step 509, it is determined whether the remaining capacity of the image memory 6 is larger or smaller than a predetermined amount (assumed to be set in the memory 9 or the like in advance), and if larger, the process returns to step 504,
If it is smaller, the process proceeds to step 510. In step 510, the remaining capacity of the image memory 6 at this time is set in the remaining amount limited area in the memory 9, and then the process returns to step 504. On the other hand, if the process proceeds to step 511, it is determined whether the remaining amount of the image memory 6 is larger or smaller than the remaining capacity set in the remaining amount limited area, and if it is larger, step 504.
If it is smaller, the process proceeds to step 512. In step 512, the operation of inputting the image data read by the reading unit 2 into the image memory 6 is temporarily suspended and then step 51
Return to 1. In this example, it is assumed that the memory transmission operation shown in FIG. 2 is performed in parallel with the operation of accumulating the transmission document in the image memory 6 described above.

According to the present embodiment, when transmitting to the memory, the original input to the image memory 6 and the operation of transmitting the original input to the image memory 6 to the destination are performed in parallel to transmit the transmitted original. In addition to erasing from the image memory 6, especially when inputting a document to the image memory 6, the remaining capacity of the image memory 6 is checked every time one page of the transmission document is input, and the remaining capacity increases when the remaining capacity is insufficient. By temporarily waiting for the memory input of the original document until that time, the small-capacity image memory 6 is used to enable the memory transmission of a large number of transmission original documents. Therefore, even a low-priced facsimile apparatus that cannot use a large-capacity image memory can be equipped with the memory transmission function of this system to transmit a large number of originals to the memory.
Further, in this method, since the original is transmitted in parallel with the memory input of the original, the memory transmission time can be shortened.
Furthermore, by not deleting the first page of the transmitted document from the image memory 6, it is possible to issue a non-delivery notification indicating that the document could not be transmitted.

[0015]

As described above, according to the facsimile apparatus of the present invention, many originals can be transmitted to the memory without using a large capacity image memory.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing a memory transmission operation in the device shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a transmission / reception procedure between the facsimile apparatus of this example and a receiving-side facsimile apparatus when a non-delivery notification is made.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing a transmission / reception procedure between the facsimile apparatus of the present example and a receiving-side facsimile apparatus when a non-delivery notification is not performed.

5 is a flowchart showing a transmission document accumulation operation in the apparatus shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Main control part 2 ... Reading part 3 ... Encoding / decoding part 4 ... Network control part 5 ... Recording part 6 ... Image memory 7 ... Image memory control part 8 ... Operation panel part 9 ... Memory

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A facsimile device having a function of reading an input document into a memory while reading the input document and transmitting the document to a destination, and a storage unit for inputting the document into the memory in predetermined amounts. Checking means for checking the remaining capacity of the memory each time the means inputs a predetermined amount of originals to the memory, and if the checking means finds that the remaining capacity of the memory is less than or equal to the predetermined amount, the storing means Control means for temporarily stopping the operation of inputting the original document to the memory by the means until the remaining capacity becomes a predetermined amount or more; and the original document read from the memory and transmitted to the destination is erased from the memory. A facsimile machine comprising an erasing means.