JPH06121141A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily perform the various kinds of setting in a facsimile equipment and to perform the various kinds of the setting of the receiving side facsimile equipment by remote control by transmitting the information for control for the setting. CONSTITUTION:Set information is entered on the control sheet of an exclusive format, read by the scanner part 1 of the facsimile equipment and converted to binarized picture data at a binary part 2. The picture data are picture- recognized at an OCR part 3 and the information for the control 15 prepared and registered inside a memory 4 by a registration part 7. Also, the information for the control is converted corresponding to a prescribed protocol by a replacement part 5 and transmitted through a transmission/reception part 6 to the other facsimile equipment and the facsimile equipment which receives the data converts the data to the information for the control and registered through the registration part 7 in the memory 4.

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 which allows a user to easily set various functions.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, a facsimile apparatus is provided with various expanded functions for the convenience of the user, in addition to the normal transmission / reception function of documents, images and the like. For example,
As well-known functions, there are various other functions such as one-touch dial and speed dial for simplifying dial operation, RTI and TTI for notifying the other party of the name and FAX number of the sender.

When these functions are actually used, the user needs to set them in the facsimile machine in advance. The setting is made by key operation, and the setting result is recorded in the memory built in the facsimile machine. To be done.

[0004]

However, in the setting method by the key operation as described above, not only the numbers but also the Katakana and the alphabet are frequently used at the time of inputting, which is difficult and troublesome for general users.

Therefore, the present invention provides a facsimile apparatus in which a user writes setting information on a control sheet of a predetermined format and causes the facsimile apparatus to read the sheet to perform various settings. With the goal.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, the facsimile apparatus of the present invention reads a control sheet of a dedicated format for writing setting information, and the setting information written on the control sheet to read image data. And a means for recognizing the converted image data to create control information, and a means for receiving the created control information and setting and registering the control information.

Further, in addition to the above configuration, the control information is received from the means for creating the control information, converted according to a predetermined protocol, and transmitted to another facsimile apparatus,
When data is received from another facsimile apparatus, it is configured to have a replacement transmitting / receiving means for converting it into control information and transferring it to the setting registration means.

Further, the control sheet of the above-mentioned dedicated format is composed of a thermochromic film capable of recording and erasing by heat.

[0009]

According to this structure, when the user writes the setting information on the control sheet and causes the facsimile to read the setting information, the setting information is converted into image data, and further the control information is created and registered in the recording unit. It

Further, if the created control information is converted according to a predetermined protocol and sent to another facsimile machine that can recognize the protocol, the receiving side facsimile machine takes out the control information and sets it via the means for registering the setting. To register. That is, the setting information of the control sheet can be read and transmitted by the transmitting side facsimile device, and various settings can be performed by the remote control of the receiving side facsimile device.

Further, if a thermochromic film capable of recording and erasing by heat is used as the control sheet, the setting information can be freely rewritten and one control sheet can be used any number of times. In addition, the writing and erasing of the setting information on this thermochromic film can be performed by using the attached hot pen and eraser.

[0012]

Embodiments will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. A scanner unit 1 includes a photoelectric conversion device and an A / D conversion device, and reads a document to generate multivalued digital image data. Reference numeral 2 denotes a binarization unit that converts multivalued digital data into binary digital data by a well-known binarization method. 3 is an OCR (Opti) which recognizes binary digital data by characters and creates control information.
cal Character Recognition) section.

Reference numeral 4 denotes a memory, which previously stores judgment data for character recognition and has a registration data area.
This registration data area is also possessed by ordinary facsimile machines, and one-touch dial destination management, charge management,
It is used for management of TTI, RTI, etc. and management of system information. A replacement unit 5 converts the control information created by the OCR unit 3 into a predetermined protocol and vice versa. Reference numeral 6 is a transmission / reception unit, 7 is a registration unit for setting and registering the control information created by the OCR unit 3 in the memory 4, and 8 is a buffer memory temporarily used during communication.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. First,
For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the setting information to be registered is written in alphanumeric kana characters on the control sheet 10 of a dedicated paper format. This format is predetermined at the time of designing and is supplied to the user by the manufacturer. In addition to the example shown in FIG. 2, the control sheet may be represented by a mark sheet method, a bar code method, or the like.

The setting information of the control sheet 10 is read as image data by the scanner unit 1 and is A / D converted into multi-valued digital data (image data). The multi-valued digital data is binarized by the binarization unit 2 with a threshold value that is defined in advance by the system, and becomes binary digital data.

The OCR section 3 separates the binary digital data into characters and ruled lines and performs image recognition to obtain control information. As a method of image recognition, an already known algorithm may be used, but in any case, characters,
Information for recognizing ruled lines and the like is necessary as known information. Therefore, it is stored in the memory 4 in advance and the
The judgment data given in the form of M is used as known information for recognition.

The control information created by the OCR unit 3 is sent to the registration unit 7, and the registration unit 7 rewrites the registration data area of the memory 4 to perform setting registration. Also the registration section 7
Has a function of displaying the described contents on the operation panel of the facsimile apparatus, if necessary. The system thereafter operates using the registration data.

When each of the facsimile machines on the transmitting side and the receiving side has the structure of the present invention shown in FIG. 1, various settings of the facsimile machine on the receiving side are sent by sending the setting information of the control sheet read by the facsimile machine on the transmitting side. Can be changed by remote control.

That is, in the sending side facsimile apparatus, the setting information of the control sheet is read by the scanner unit 1,
After performing A / D conversion to make multi-value digital data, the binarization unit 2 converts it to binary digital data. OCR part 3
Image-recognizes the binary digital data and creates control information. Next, the replacing unit 5 receives the control information, converts it into a protocol that can be recognized by both the transmitting and receiving sides, and transmits from the transmitting / receiving unit 6. Since such a code is not prepared in the CCITT standard, communication is performed using the unique mode.

In the receiving side facsimile apparatus, the transmitting / receiving section 6
The data received in step S5 is converted into control information by the replacement unit 5, and transferred to the registration unit 7. The registration unit 7 rewrites the registration data area of the memory 4 to perform setting registration.

In the above description, a control sheet made of paper is used, but a thermochromic film capable of recording and erasing by heat can also be used. The thermochromic film becomes optically transparent when heated at a predetermined first temperature, remains transparent even when returned to room temperature, and becomes optically opaque when heated at a predetermined second temperature. And has the property of maintaining opacity even after returning to room temperature. When this thermochromic film is used as the control sheet, the hot pen 11 and the heat eraser 12 as shown in FIG. 3 are used for writing the setting information.

The thermochromic film is described in detail in a facsimile device (Japanese Patent Application No. 3-226379) proposed by the present inventors and using a thermochromic film as a transmission / reception information storage medium.

[0023]

As described above, according to the present invention,
By simply writing the setting information on the control sheet and performing the reading operation with the facsimile device, it is possible to easily perform various state settings that have been complicated in the past. Also, rewriting of registration information can be performed very easily by using this method. For example, when there are a plurality of users for one facsimile machine, each person can read his or her own control sheet to adjust the settings to the ones most convenient for him or her.

Further, since it is possible to change the setting for a plurality of facsimile machines by using the broadcast function, it is possible to easily rewrite the registration information of the facsimile machines of the branch office from the head office. In addition, it is possible to change all the registration information (such as changing the billing system of the public line) that a service person has conventionally visited by visiting the service center all together by remote operation.

Further, the one using a thermochromic film as the control sheet is extremely advantageous in terms of cost and resource saving since the same data sheet can be repeatedly used.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example of setting information of the control sheet.

FIG. 3 is a configuration diagram of a hot pen and a heat eraser which are writing tools when a thermochromic film is used as a control sheet.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Scanner part, 2 ... Binarization part, 3 ... OCR
Parts, 4, 8 Memory, 5 Replacement unit, 6 Send / receive unit, 7 Registration unit, 11 Hot pen, 12 Heat eraser.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A control sheet in a dedicated format for writing setting information, a means for reading the setting information written on the control sheet and converting it into image data, and a control information for recognizing the converted image data. And a means for receiving the created control information, and for setting and registering the created control information. 2. The control information is received from the control information creating means, converted according to a predetermined protocol and transmitted to another facsimile apparatus, and when the data is received from the other facsimile apparatus, the control information is transmitted. 2. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising replacement transmitting / receiving means for taking out and transferring to the setting / registering means. 3. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the control sheet of the dedicated format is made of a thermochromic film capable of recording and erasing by heat.