JPH06326807A - Facsimile multiple address communication method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To send multiple address communication control information including lots of destinations from a multiple address communication request equipment to a multiple address communication equipment simply and surely at a high speed. CONSTITUTION:A multiple address communication request equipment 1, a multiple address communication equipment 2, and plural facsimile equipments 4-1-4-N are interconnected by a communication line. The multiple address communication equipment 2 is provided with a file equipment 3. The user uses a key board or the like attached to the facsimile equipment 1 to enter multiple address communication information such as a multiple address communication destination and a transmission designation time and uses an image scanner or the like to enter transmission document information. The multiple address communication request equipment 1 adds an identifier to the multiple address communication information and document information respectively and sends the result to the multiple address communication equipment 2 in a facsimile information form. The multiple address communication 2 decomposes the arrived facsimile information into the multiple address communication information and the document information and stores them to the file equipment at once and distributes the document information to each of the facsimile equipments 4-1-4-N according to the multiple address communication information.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile broadcast communication method for delivering the same document to a large number of destinations, and more specifically, a method for sending broadcast control information from a broadcast request device to a broadcast device. Regarding

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a facsimile communication network, when a G4 facsimile is used, a method of sending broadcast control information such as a broadcast destination and a transmission time using UUI (interface information between users) of D channel has been used. It's being used. In this method, since the broadcast control information can be sent separately from the facsimile information, the facsimile information can be easily processed.
Since the amount of UUI information that can be sent at one time is limited, there is a drawback that many destination information and the like cannot be sent at one time. Therefore, when transferring a large amount of control information, it is necessary to connect and transfer the line many times, which is complicated and has a drawback that the load on the communication network becomes heavy.

There is also a method of sending the broadcast control information using image data of a mark sheet or the like, but it requires mark sheet recognition processing, a heavy processing system load, time consuming transmission of the mark sheet, and erroneous recognition. It has drawbacks such as complicated time processing.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for transmitting a large amount of broadcast control information from a broadcast request device to a broadcast device in a facsimile broadcast system in a simple, fast and reliable manner. To do.

[0005]

To achieve the above object, the present invention provides a broadcast requesting device, a broadcast device connected to the broadcast requesting device through a communication line, and the broadcast device. In a facsimile broadcast system consisting of a plurality of facsimile devices connected to each other via a communication line, the broadcast requesting device assembles the broadcast control information and the image information of the transmitted document into facsimile information of the same format, The control information and the image information are attached to the respective identifiers and sent as facsimile information to the broadcasting device.

[0006]

In the broadcast requesting device, for example, the broadcast control information is added as an identifier in the facsimile information area of the first page as character code information, and the transmission document is similarly stored in the facsimile information area of the second and subsequent pages. Is added as an image information to the broadcasting device and transmitted. This allows
A large amount of broadcast control information can be delivered to the broadcast device at high speed and reliably. In the broadcast device, the sent facsimile information is separated into broadcast control information and image information by an identifier, and the image information of the transmitted document is distributed to a large number of destinations according to the broadcast control information.

[0007]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an embodiment of a facsimile broadcasting system to which the present invention is applied. In the figure, 1 is a broadcast request device, 2 is a broadcast device connected to the broadcast request device 1 by a communication line, 3 is a file device provided in the broadcast device 2, and 4-1 to 4-N are the same. This is a facsimile device of a broadcast destination connected to the broadcast device 2 via a communication line. In addition,
The broadcast request device 1 may be positioned as one facsimile device.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the structure of the broadcast requesting device 1, which includes a character code input unit 11 such as a keyboard, an image input unit 12 such as an image scanner, an image output unit 13 such as a laser printer, a CPU and the like. It comprises a processing unit 14, a memory 15 for temporarily storing facsimile information and the like, and a data transmitting / receiving unit 16 for transmitting / receiving facsimile information and the like.

1 and 2, facsimile devices 4-1 to 4-N are transmitted from the broadcast requesting device 1 via the broadcast device.
The operation of delivering the same document will be described below.

Using the document code input unit 11 such as a keyboard attached to the broadcast requesting apparatus 1, the user inputs broadcast control information such as a designated transmission time, a broadcast destination, and the number of retries as character code information, Further, the image input unit 12 such as an image scanner is used to input the image information of the transmission document. The image information of the transmitted document may be obtained by converting a document created by a word processor or the like into a code image. Further, the number of retries may be set to one value common to all the destinations, or may be set individually to each destination. FIG. 3 shows a configuration example of the broadcast control information input from the character code input unit 11.

As shown in FIG. 4, the processing unit 14 of the broadcast requesting device 1 inputs the broadcast control information of the character code information input from the character code input unit 11 from, for example, the first page and the image input unit 12. The image information of the transmitted document is assembled into facsimile information of the same format, for example, the second page to the fourth page, and stored in the memory 15. Note that FIG.
"Character code" and "FAX information" are identifiers, "Character code" indicates that the data in the data area of the page is a code, and "FAX information" is an image of the data area in the page. It indicates that there is.

The data transmission / reception unit 16 of the broadcast request device 1
Under the control of the processing unit 14, the facsimile information, which is a combination of the broadcast control information of the character code and the image information of the transmitted document, is read from the memory 15 and transmitted to the broadcast device 2.

FIG. 5 shows an example of a configuration in which the facsimile control of the broadcast control information and the image information is realized in a G4 facsimile document format.

In the broadcast device 2, the received facsimile information is decomposed into broadcast control information and image information of the transmitted document and stored in the shared file device 3. After that, the broadcast control information and the image information are acquired from the file device 3, and the image information is distributed to the facsimile devices 4-1 to 4-N that are the broadcast destinations according to the broadcast control information.

FIG. 6 is an example of a processing flow of the broadcast device 2 when receiving facsimile information. When the broadcast device 2 receives the incoming call from the broadcast request device 1 (step 601) and receives the composite facsimile information including the broadcast control information and the image information (step 602), the broadcast control information of the character code is received. It is decomposed into image information of the transmitted document, made into a list (step 603), and stored in a predetermined area of the file device 3 (step 604). This completes the process for receiving the facsimile information.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a flow chart for identifying the broadcast control information when the facsimile information sent from the broadcast requesting device 1 is in the G4 facsimile document format shown in FIG.

When the facsimile information sent from the broadcast requesting device 1 is in the form of a G4 facsimile document, it is judged whether it is image information or character code control information according to the encoding attribute in the content attribute information field of each page. (Step 701). For example, the encoding type is an integer "0" (MMR) or "1" (M
H) and "2" (MR) are the image information, and the identifier format representing the character code is the control information. In this way, when the content of the page is identified as the control information area including the character code information, it is possible to obtain the broadcast control information by the character code matching and the identification. Step 702 of FIG.
In ˜713, the broadcast control information is acquired by using the words such as the designated transmission time, the broadcast destination, the retry, the end, and the information such as the date and time and the telephone number. If the image information area is identified in step 701, the content of the page is stored as image information of the transmitted document in step 714.

As a method of distinguishing the broadcast control information and the image information from the ordinary facsimile information, it is possible to use a provider code or the like.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a processing flow of the broadcasting device 2 during broadcasting. The broadcast device 2 acquires the designated transmission time from the file device 3 (step 801) and determines whether it matches the current time (step 802). If they match, the image information of the transmitted document is acquired, the broadcast destination list. Is acquired (steps 803 and 804). Then, it is judged whether or not there is an unprocessed destination in the broadcast destination list (step 805), and if there is an unprocessed destination, the leading destination is set (step 806) and image information is transmitted to the destination. (Step 807). Then, it is determined whether the transmission is normally completed (step 808), and if the transmission is normally completed, it is registered in the result list and the destination is removed from the broadcast destination list (step 809), and the process returns to step 805. on the other hand,
If it does not end normally, it is determined whether or not the other party is busy, and if the other party is not busy, it is registered in the non-delivery list and the destination is removed from the broadcast destination list (step 8).
14) and returns to step 805. If the other party is busy, it is determined whether the designated number of retries has been completed (step 811). If not, the destination is added to the end of the broadcast destination list in order to continue the retries. Then, the number of retries is incremented by 1 (step 812), the number of retries is incremented by 1 (step 813), and the process returns to step 805. When the specified number of retries is completed, the retry is added to the undelivered list (step 814) and the process returns to step 805. In this way, if there are no unprocessed destinations in the broadcast destination list, the broadcast device 2 returns communication result information (result list, non-delivery list) to the broadcast request device 1 (step 81
5) Then, the broadcast process ends.

When the communication result is returned from the broadcast device 2 to the broadcast request device 1, the result information is described as character code information on the first page and transmitted to the second page in the same format as in FIG. It is possible to attach only the first page of the image and return it.

In the embodiment, the G4 facsimile has been described as an example, but the G3 facsimile can also be supported by using the simple mixed mode function or the like. Further, although four types of broadcast control information (designated transmission time, broadcast destination, retry, end) have been described, the broadcast control information is not limited to this, and page division is not limited to the embodiment.

[0023]

As described above, in the present invention, the broadcast control information of the character code is sent from the broadcast request apparatus to the broadcast apparatus using the same data area as the image information in the facsimile information. It becomes possible to deliver a large amount of broadcast control information to the broadcast device at high speed and reliably.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an overall block diagram of an embodiment of a facsimile broadcasting system to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a configuration example of a broadcast requesting device of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of broadcast control information to be input.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating a transmission format of broadcast control information and image information according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a configuration example when the transmission format of FIG. 4 is realized in a G4 facsimile document format.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a processing flow at the time of receiving facsimile information on the broadcasting device side.

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing an example of a detailed processing flow of broadcast control information identification processing.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an example of a broadcast processing flow on the broadcast device side.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Broadcast Request Device 2 Broadcast Device 3 File Device 4-1 to 4-N Facsimile Device 11 Character Code Input Unit 12 Image Input Unit 13 Image Output Unit 14 Processing Unit 15 Memory 16 Data Transmission / Reception Unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A broadcast request device, a broadcast device connected to the broadcast request device via a communication line, and a plurality of facsimile devices connected to the broadcast device via a communication line, The broadcast requesting device sends the broadcast control information such as the broadcast destination and the transmission time and the image information of the transmitted document to the broadcast device, and the broadcast device transmits the image information to the plurality of facsimiles according to the transmitted broadcast control information. In a facsimile broadcast system for delivering to a device, the broadcast request device assembles the broadcast control information and the image information into facsimile information of the same format, and attaches the broadcast control information and the image information to the respective facsimiles to give a facsimile. The information is sent to the broadcast device as information, and the broadcast device decomposes the facsimile information sent from the broadcast request device into broadcast control information and image information, Distributing image information according to the control information, a facsimile broadcast wherein the.