JPH06303411A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain the facsimile equipment which facilitates communicating operation by sending or receiving an image after sending or receiving a previously set certain PB tone signal after a communication party is called and connected to a line. CONSTITUTION:An operator optionally inputs the dial number of the service center at a caller destination and, for example, 'W6T123', i.e., control information showing that the PB tone signal '123' is sent 6 after a 6-second wait. The facsimile equipment dials the inputted dial number and reads out one item of the control information when the opposite party answers, thereby waiting for 6 seconds in this example. During this period, the center side sends back a speech message. Then the facsimile equipment further processes other control information. Consequently, a code number '123' is sent out with the PB tone signal in this example. The center side receives it and sends out a signal DIS and a signal NSF to start the communication procedure of G3 facsimile.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile machine which utilizes a facsimile mail service, a facsimile information service and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various organizations have provided facsimile mail services and facsimile information services for facsimile users.

These services are used as follows, for example.

The user first calls the service center using a touch-tone telephone. When the service center responds, the service center sends out an operation procedure as a voice message. The user listens to the voice message, and then operates according to the instructed operation procedure.

For example, in the case of the facsimile mail service, the code number indicating the transmission destination is then input by the push button operation. As a result, the PB (Pus
The hButton) tone signal is transmitted, and the code information is notified to the service center. After that, the user activates the facsimile device and transmits the document image. The transmitted original image is once received by the service center and then transferred to the corresponding destination.

In the case of facsimile information service,
After making a call to the service center, the user inputs a code number indicating desired information by a push button operation to activate the receiving operation of the facsimile apparatus. The inputted code information is notified to the service center, and the corresponding information is transmitted from the service center. Then, the facsimile device receives the information.

[0007]

In the conventional facsimile apparatus, it is not possible to transmit a PB tone signal in accordance with a voice message received from the other party in the case of automatic transmission.

Therefore, when using the facsimile mail service or the facsimile information service, the user must
There has been a problem that the communication work as described above must be performed manually, and the work is troublesome.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems and provide a facsimile apparatus which facilitates communication work.

[0010]

To this end, according to the present invention, after a call is made to a communication partner and a line is connected, a preset P-constant is set in accordance with a preset timing.
After transmitting / receiving the B tone signal, the image is transmitted / received.

[0011]

As a result, the automatic transmission operation of the facsimile device enables the use of the facsimile mail service and the facsimile information service, which facilitates the operator's communication work.

[0012]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a scanner 1 reads a document image, and a plotter 2 records and outputs a received image. The encoding / decoding unit 3 compresses the image information to be transmitted by various encoding methods, while decoding the received image information to restore the original image information. The modem 4 sends and receives image information and various procedure signals for transmission control. The network control device 5 is connected to a telephone line and performs predetermined line control when making or receiving a call. This network control device 5 has P
It is provided with means for transmitting a B tone signal.

The operation display unit 6 is for displaying various information such as the operating state of the apparatus as the operator performs various operations. The system control unit 7 is a microphone computer that controls the above-described units, and the system bus 8 is a signal line through which the units exchange various control signals and data with each other.

In this embodiment, it is assumed that the facsimile mail service is used by the facsimile apparatus having the above-mentioned configuration.

When using the facsimile mail service, the operator sets the transmission original on the scanner 1 and then performs a predetermined operation on the operation display unit 6 as shown in FIG. Enter and.

In this case, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, various control information is continuously input after the dial number of the service center. In the example of the figure, "W" indicates a time waiting instruction, "T" indicates a PB signal transmission instruction, and "W6"
"T123" indicates that the PB tone signal "123" is transmitted after waiting 6 seconds.

In this way, the operator arbitrarily inputs the dial number of the service center and the control information (process 101).

The facsimile machine is activated by the above operation to call the inputted dial number (process 10).
2). Then, when the other party responds, it is determined whether or not the control information is input (process 103). When the control information is input (Y in process 103), the control information is set to 1
The item is read (process 104) and the corresponding process is executed (process 105). In the above example, the operation of waiting for 6 seconds is first executed.

When the center side responds as shown in FIG. 4, a voice message such as "This is the XX center. Please enter the destination code." Is returned. The operator measures the sending time of the voice message in advance, and the waiting time of 6 seconds is set to be slightly longer than the sending time of the voice message.

After that, the facsimile machine determines whether or not there is further control information (process 106), and if there is any other control information (Y in process 106), executes the corresponding process for the next one item. (Go to processing 104). Thus, in the above example, the code number "123" is transmitted by the PB tone signal after the voice message is completed. The number “123” is, for example, a group code of transmission destinations registered in the center in advance and indicates a plurality of destinations.

Upon receiving the code information, the center side sends out a DIS signal and an NSF signal to start a known G3 facsimile communication procedure.

When the facsimile apparatus completes each process for the input control information (N in process 106), it executes the above communication procedure with the center side and transmits the document image (process 107).

The center side once receives and stores the transmitted original image. Then, the facsimiles of the respective destinations indicated by the group code are sequentially called to transmit the stored image.

When transmitting to a normal facsimile apparatus, the control operation is not input and only the transmission destination is input to start the transmission operation. When the control information is not input in this way (N in process 103), the facsimile device immediately starts the normal transmission procedure. This allows
Normal facsimile communication can be executed.

As described above, in the facsimile apparatus of this embodiment, if the operator sets the waiting time and the code number during the call operation, after the call is made to the center side and the line is connected, After waiting for the set time, the PB tone signal of the set code number is sent out, and then the image is sent.

Therefore, if the transmission time of the voice message transmitted from the center side is set as the waiting time and the address in the facsimile mail service is set as the code information, the automatic transmission operation of the facsimile machine is performed. It is possible to use such a facsimile mail service. This facilitates the operator's communication work.

Further, the waiting time and the code number are set by inputting a predetermined character or numeral after the dial number of the other party, so that the setting can be easily performed without special setting means. You can work.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the waiting time and the transmission of the code number are executed only once, but the setting method shown in FIG. 3 can be repeated plural times as necessary. .

The facsimile mail service for transferring the transmitted image to another facsimile apparatus via the service center has been described as an example. However, the service center is notified of desired information and the corresponding image information is sent from the service center. The reception process can be executed by the same processing procedure in the received facsimile information service.

By the way, as in the above-described embodiment, when communicating between the facsimile machine and the service center, the center side may notify the facsimile machine side of necessary information by a PB tone signal.

For example, the service center notifies the facsimile machine side of the identification number of the service center immediately after responding to the incoming call. In this case, the facsimile machine is provided with means for receiving the PB tone signal. Then, the code number to be received is further designated at the time of the call operation.

FIG. 5 shows an example of the setting input in this case. In the figure, "D456" indicates that the code number "456" is received. Therefore, in this example, after calling the other party to connect to the line, the code number "456" is received, the code number "123" is transmitted, and then the image transmission is executed. There is.

If the code number to be received cannot be received during such communication, the operation display unit 6 or the plotter 2 may be used to notify the occurrence of an error.
This allows the operator to easily know that communication is impossible.

By the way, in general, a facsimile machine is
When the called party does not respond, the call origination operation is stopped after the call is repeated a preset number of times.

Similarly, if the code number to be received cannot be received as described above, the re-calling may be repeated several times. When the code number cannot be received due to external noise, such re-calling enables communication. In addition, the number of times of re-calling when the predetermined code number cannot be received in this way may be set smaller than when the other party does not respond. In many cases when the specified code number cannot be received, it is considered that the dialing number of the callee is incorrect. Therefore, by setting a small number of times to recall calls, it is unnecessary to call the wrong party many times. It is possible to reduce the number of unnecessary calling operations.

Further, in the case of executing the various processes as described above, as shown in FIG. 6, the correspondence between the control code and each process is registered in advance, and each process is designated by inputting the control code. You may

In the above embodiment, PSTN (Pu
blic Switches Telephone N
Although the description has been made by taking the case of the facsimile machine for network as an example, the facsimile machine for ISDN also has a G3
Of course, the invention is equally applicable when communicating in mode.

Further, in the above embodiment, it is assumed that the facsimile machine communicates with various service centers. However, after automatically exchanging information other than the image information between the facsimile machines, the image information is transmitted. The present invention can also be applied to the case of transmitting and receiving.

[0040]

As described above, according to the present invention, after a call is made to a communication partner and a line is connected, a PB tone signal set according to a preset timing is transmitted / received, and then an image is transmitted / received. By doing so, it is possible to use the facsimile mail service and the facsimile information service by the automatic transmission operation of the facsimile apparatus, and the operator's communication work becomes easy.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation flowchart of communication processing of the facsimile apparatus.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of input information.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a communication procedure between a facsimile device and a service center.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of input information in another embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of registration information in yet another embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Scanner 2 Plotter 3 Encoding / Decoding Unit 4 Modem 5 Network Control Device 6 Operation Display Unit 7 System Control Unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. In a facsimile apparatus that automatically calls a communication partner according to a setting operation to transmit or receive an image, the facsimile is preset according to a preset timing after calling the communication partner and connecting to a line. A facsimile apparatus comprising communication control means for transmitting or receiving an image after transmitting or receiving a fixed PB tone signal. 2. A means for inputting a dial number of a communication partner at the time of the setting operation and inputting information indicating the content of the PB tone signal and the transmission / reception timing after the input. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, 3. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising means for displaying an error when the constant PB tone signal cannot be received.