JPH06319007A - Facsimile communication method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To minimize restrictions imposed on image information by the performance that a repeating station has by determining communication parameters on the basis of receivable parameters when a transmitting station transfer data through the repeater station. CONSTITUTION:When the resolution and size of the repeater station are equal to or larger than resolution information and size information on stored image information at a transmitting station, the stored information is sent to a destination facsimile receiver as it is. The resolution and size of the repeater station are smaller than the resolution information and size information on the image information at the transmitting station, an image processing part 6 is set up. Then the image information to be sent is decoded by an encoding and decoding part 7a temporarily into original image data, which are transferred to the image processing part 6 and converted to resolution and size matching the receiver. Further, the converted image data are encoded at an encoding and decoding part 7b by an encoding system matching the receiver and sent to the destination facsimile receiver through a communication control part 8.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile relay having a recording means for temporarily storing received image information, transferring the received image information to a relay destination designated by a transmitter, and recording and outputting the received image. Regarding the device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, various useful functions have been realized by providing a facsimile apparatus with a storage function for storing image information, and one of them is a relay function.

This relay function is to sequentially transfer the image information received and accumulated from the transmitting device to one or more relay destinations designated by the transmitting device. It is possible to reduce the communication cost when transmitting image information to the device (so-called relay broadcast function).

In the facsimile apparatus, the resolution (reading resolution in the main scanning direction and reading line density in the sub scanning direction) and size of image information that can be transmitted and received are limited by the performance of the scanner and plotter that are installed. .

Therefore, when a facsimile apparatus capable of reading image information up to a large size original in a high resolution state transmits the image information to a facsimile apparatus having a smaller resolution and a recordable original size, the resolution is reduced. And the image information is transmitted in a state in which the size is converted corresponding to the receiving device.

Therefore, if the resolution and size of the image information that can be received by the relay device is smaller than that that the transmitter can transmit, the image information will be displayed in a state in which the resolution is reduced and the size is reduced by the transmitter. Is transmitted.

Since resolution conversion is usually performed by thinning out image information or forming a logical sum between adjacent pixels, the image quality tends to deteriorate as compared with the case of reading at the converted resolution. . Further, the reduction (magnification) of the size of the image information is also realized by the same processing, and therefore, similarly, the image quality of the image after the magnification tends to deteriorate.

By the way, even if the resolution and size of the image information receivable by the facsimile apparatus of the relay destination is the same as that of the transmitting apparatus, the image information whose resolution is converted or scaled by the relay apparatus is relayed. It is transmitted first.

[0009]

Therefore, conventionally, even when the resolution and size of image information that can be transmitted and received by the transmitting device and the receiving device (relay destination) is large, the resolution and size of image information that can be transmitted and received by the relay device. If is small, there is a disadvantage that the image information whose image quality is deteriorated is received at the relay destination.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the disadvantages of the prior art, and an object thereof is to provide a facsimile relay apparatus capable of relaying the image quality of the transmitting apparatus to the receiving apparatus as it is.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention comprises recording means for temporarily accumulating received image information, transferring the received image information to a relay destination designated by a transmitter, and recording and outputting the received image. In a facsimile relay device, image processing means for converting the resolution of image information and changing the size, and at the time of reception, even if the resolution or size of the transmitting device exceeds the recording capacity of the recording means, When the information is received and stored as it is in the resolution and size of the transmitting device and the received image information is transferred to the relay destination, the resolution and size of the received image information are corresponded to the relay destination by the image processing means. It is equipped with a means for converting.

[0012]

Therefore, at the time of reception, even when the resolution or size of the transmitting device exceeds the recording capacity of the recording means, the image information is received and stored as the resolution and size of the transmitting device, and When the received image information is transferred to the relay destination, since the resolution and size of the received image information are converted by the image processing means in correspondence with the relay destination, the image quality of the transmitter can be relayed to the receiver as it is.

[0013]

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

FIG. 1 shows a facsimile relay apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, a system controller 1 controls the entire facsimile relay apparatus, a scanner 2 is for reading an original image at a predetermined resolution, and a plotter 3 is a predetermined one for receiving a received image or the like. The image memory 4 is for recording and outputting at a resolution, and stores the received image information in a compressed state and also records various management information for managing the stored image data file.

For example, as shown in FIG. 2A, a part of the image memory 4 is set as a management information area for storing management information, and the other part is for storing received image information. It is set in the image information area. In the image information area, the received image information is sequentially stored with file numbers assigned, as shown in FIG. The management information for managing these files includes a file number, the start address of the image information area in which the file having the file number is stored, 1
It includes destination information including one or more relay destinations, resolution information indicating the resolution of image information of the file, and size information indicating the size (width) of the image information.

The operation display section 5 is composed of various operation keys and a display having a large degree of display freedom for displaying operation guidance information and the like, and the image processing section 6 receives the images stored in the image memory 4. Image processing is performed to convert the resolution of image information and to change the size of the image information. The encoding / decoding units 7a and 7b encode and compress the image data and convert the encoded and compressed image data into the original image data. It is to be decrypted into.

The communication control unit 8 executes a predetermined facsimile transmission control procedure to perform image transmission with the partner station, and the modem 9 can use a public telephone line network, which is an analog line network, as a transmission line. As possible, the digital data is modulated and demodulated, and the network control device 10 is for connecting the facsimile device to the public telephone line network. The network control device 10 has an automatic call originating / receiving function.

The system control unit 1, the scanner 2, the plotter 3, the image memory 4, the operation display unit 5, the image processing unit 6, the encoding / decoding units 7a and 7b, and the communication control unit 8 are connected to the bus. Data is exchanged with each other via the line 11.

With the above configuration, when a relay request is made to this facsimile relay apparatus from another facsimile apparatus,
First, when a call is made from the transmitter, as shown in FIG.
The facsimile relay device responds to the called station identification signal CED and asserts that its own terminal is a non-voice terminal (facsimile terminal device), and then a non-standard device signal NSF and a standard A digital identification signal DIS indicating that the facsimile transmission apparatus has a function is responded to each facsimile transmission apparatus.

As shown in FIG. 4, the non-standard device signal NSF includes the maximum receivable resolution information indicating the maximum resolution of receivable image information and the maximum resolution of image information recordable by the plotter 3. Maximum recordable resolution information that represents, maximum receivable size information that represents the maximum size of receivable image information, maximum recordable size information that represents the maximum size of image information that can be recorded by the plotter 3, and a facsimile relay device. It includes function information indicating the contents of the functions (for example, the relay function and the broadcast function) installed in the. Here, as the maximum receivable resolution information, the maximum resolution expected by the transmitting device (for example, 16 dots / mm in the main scanning direction and 15.4 lines / mm in the sub scanning direction) is set, and reception is performed. As the maximum possible size information, the maximum size (for example, A3 size) expected to be transmitted by the transmission device is set.

The facsimile transmitting apparatus identifies the various information contained in the non-standard apparatus signal NSF to determine the function of the facsimile relay apparatus. In this case, since the maximum receivable resolution and the maximum receivable size are not smaller than the resolution and size of the image information that can be processed by the own terminal, the resolution of the image information read by the own terminal is set by the non-standard action setting signal NSS. And specify the size and 1
Notify one or more relay destinations. When the relay destination is designated, the facsimile relay device can be included in the relay destination.

After that, normal facsimile transmission is executed.

As a result, the image information is received by the facsimile relay device as it is read by the facsimile transmission device. And in the facsimile relay device,
The resolution specified by the non-standard device setting signal NSS,
The size and the relay destination are stored, and the received image information is stored in the image information area of the image memory 4. At this time, the management information described above is formed and stored in the management information area of the image memory 4.

When the reception of the image information is completed in this way, the system controller 1 of the facsimile relay apparatus
First, one piece of destination information included in the received management information of the image information is read, and it is determined whether or not the destination information represents the own terminal.

When it represents another facsimile apparatus, the destination is called by the telephone number corresponding to the destination information and the image information stored in the image memory 4 is transmitted to the destination.

At this time, similarly to the above, in the pre-transmission procedure of the image information, the resolution and size of the image information that can be received by the destination are notified. If the resolution and size of this destination are the same as or larger than the resolution information and size information included in the management information of the image information to be transmitted, the stored image information remains as is and the facsimile of the destination is stored. Transmit to receiving device.

When the resolution and size of the destination are smaller than the resolution information and the size information included in the management information of the image information to be transmitted, the system controller 1 first
The image processing unit 6 is set up by notifying the image processing unit 6 of the resolution before and after conversion of the image information to be transmitted, and the size before and after conversion of the image information to be transmitted.

In this state, the image information to be transmitted is once decoded into the original image data by the encoding / decoding unit 7a, and the image data is transferred to the image processing unit 6 to be converted into a resolution and size suitable for the receiving device. Then, the converted image data is encoded by the encoding / decoding unit 7b by an encoding method suitable for the receiving device, and then transferred to the communication control unit 8.

In this way, the image information suitable for the destination facsimile receiving apparatus is transmitted and received by the destination.

When the destination information included in the management information of the received image information includes what represents the terminal itself, the resolution information and size information included in the management information are stored in the plotter 3. If the recordable resolution and size are the same or smaller, the image information is decoded by the encoding / decoding unit 7a into the original image data, and then the image data is transferred to the plotter 3 as it is. Then, the received image is recorded and output.

On the other hand, when the resolution information and the size information included in the management information of the received image information is larger than the resolution and size recordable by the plotter 3, the system control unit 1 is similar to the above. After setting up the image processing unit 6, the image information is encoded / decoded by the encoding / decoding unit 7a.
Then, the original image data is decoded by, the image data is transferred to the image processing unit 6 and converted into a recordable resolution and size, and the converted image is transferred to the plotter 3 to record and output the received image.

As described above, when the own terminal is designated as the destination, the image received from the plotter 3 is recorded and output.

By the way, when the facsimile relay device is directly designated as the receiving device, the facsimile transmitting device determines the maximum recordable resolution information and the recordable size information included in the non-standard device signal NSF, or the digital identification signal. By referring to the resolution information and size information included in the DIS, if necessary, the image information to be transmitted is converted into a resolution and size that can be directly recorded by the facsimile relay device (reception device), and the image information after the conversion is transmitted. To do.

Therefore, at this time, the system control unit 1 of the facsimile relay apparatus decodes the received image information into the original image data by the encoding / decoding unit 7a, transfers the image data to the plotter 3, and receives the received image information. Is recorded and output.

In the above-mentioned embodiment, the facsimile relay apparatus is provided with two encoding / decoding units, but one encoding / decoding unit can also realize the same function. However, in that case, it is necessary to temporarily store the intermediately formed image data in the image memory.

In addition to the above-mentioned facsimile relay apparatus, the present invention transfers the received image information to another preset facsimile apparatus when, for example, the plotter equipped in the terminal itself is out of order. The present invention can also be applied to the case of recording and outputting to the plotter of the destination facsimile machine.

[0038]

As described above, according to the present invention,
At the time of reception, even if the resolution or size of the transmission device exceeds the recording capacity of the recording means, the image information is received and stored as the resolution and size of the transmission device, and the received image information is relayed. When transferring to the destination, the resolution and size of the received image information are converted by the image processing means in correspondence with the relay destination, so that the image quality of the transmitting device can be relayed to the receiving device.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a facsimile relay device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating the contents of an image memory and the storage state of an image information area.

FIG. 3 is a time chart showing an example of a pre-transmission procedure.

FIG. 4 is a signal arrangement diagram showing an example of contents of a non-standard device signal.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 system control unit 3 plotter 4 image memory 6 image processing unit 7a, 7b encoding / decoding unit 8 communication control unit

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] May 11, 1994

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Name of item to be amended] Title of invention

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

Title: Facsimile communication method

[Procedure Amendment 2]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Name of item to be amended] Claims

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[Claims]

[Procedure 3]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0001

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile communication method in which image information transmitted from a transmitting station is temporarily stored in a relay station and transferred to a designated transfer station.

[Procedure amendment 4]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0010

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

The present invention has been made in order to solve the disadvantages of the prior art, and an object thereof is to provide a facsimile communication method capable of relaying the image quality of a transmitting device to a receiving device.

[Procedure Amendment 5]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0011

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a facsimile communication method in which image information transmitted from a transmitting station is temporarily stored in a relay station and transferred to a designated transfer station. In the pre-transmission procedure described above, the relay station notifies the transmitting station of the receivable parameters and recordable parameters of its own terminal. While determining the communication parameter based on the receivable parameter, when recording and outputting the image information at the relay station without transferring to the transfer station, the communication parameter is determined and determined based on the recordable parameter. The image information is transmitted from the transmission station to the relay station based on the communication parameters.

[Procedure correction 6]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0012

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[0012]

Therefore, when the transmitting station desires the transfer via the relay station, the communication parameter is determined based on the receivable parameter, so that the restriction imposed on the image information by the performance of the relay station is minimized. can do. Further, when the transmitting station desires normal transmission to the relay station, the communication parameter is determined based on the recordable parameter, so that the image information can be surely transmitted in an appropriate form.

[Procedure Amendment 7]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Name of item to be corrected] 0022

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

The facsimile transmitting apparatus identifies the various information contained in the non-standard apparatus signal NSF to determine the function of the facsimile relay apparatus. In this case, since the maximum receivable resolution and the maximum receivable size are not smaller than the resolution and size of the image information that can be processed by the own terminal, the resolution of the image information read by the own terminal is set by the non-standard device setting signal NSS. And specify the size and 1
Notify one or more relay destinations. When the relay destination is designated, the facsimile relay device can be included in the relay destination.

[Procedure Amendment 8]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0038

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[0038]

As described above, according to the present invention,
When the transmitting station wants to transfer via the relay station, the communication parameter is determined based on the receivable parameter, so that the restriction imposed on the image information by the performance of the relay station can be minimized. Get the effect. Further, when the transmitting station desires normal transmission to the relay station, the communication parameter is determined based on the recordable parameter, so that the image information can be surely transmitted in an appropriate form. Also get.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A facsimile relay apparatus having a recording unit for temporarily accumulating received image information, transferring the received image information to a relay destination designated by a transmitting apparatus, and recording and outputting the received image. An image processing unit that converts the resolution and changes the size, and at the time of reception, image information is transmitted to the resolution of the transmission device even if the resolution or size of the transmission device exceeds the recording capacity of the recording unit. In addition to receiving and accumulating the size as it is, when transferring the received image information to the relay destination, there is provided means for converting the resolution and size of the received image information by the image processing means in correspondence with the relay destination. Facsimile relay device characterized by.