JPH066563A - Picture transmitter - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain transmission reception of a reproduced picture SV and a scanner picture in one communication by designating a picture source in the unit of documents and pages to a part before picture information to be sent in the picture transmission control procedure. CONSTITUTION:A communication control circuit 18 sets up a line with a communication opposite party and uses a transmission control procedure to inform it to a receiver side that a reproduced picture SV from a still video floppy is included in a transmission picture based on a parameter NSC in a session start command CSS. The receiver side informs the reception enable state to the sender side by using a session start affirmative response RSSP. The sender side adds a parameter representing a picture size, a color space and the coding system to a command CDCL sent for each document and sends the resulting command to the receiver side and the receiver side informs a format set by its own equipment to the sender side. Thus, the transmission reception of the picture SV and the scanner picture are attained in one communication by designating a picture source in the unit of documents before picture information to be sent in this way.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image transmission device,
More specifically, it relates to an image transmission device called a facsimile or a telecopier.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a facsimile, a document image read by a line scanner is modulated by a predetermined modulation method and transmitted to a remote place via a communication line such as a public telephone line. The reception side demodulates and prints the received image on paper by a thermal transfer method or an electrophotographic method. In a conventional facsimile, these processes were sequentially executed, but due to the large capacity and low cost of semiconductor memory and hard disk, the image information read by the scanner is stored as it is or after being stored at the time of transmission. Products have been commercialized, which are configured to be temporarily stored in a device, and in which received image information is directly or demodulated as a modulated signal and temporarily stored in a storage device.

In addition to the line scanner, means for digitizing an image, such as an electronic still camera or an image
Scanners have been put to practical use and are now offered at low cost,
Further, various editing processes can be easily realized on a computer. In addition to this, a magneto-optical disk and a small hard disk whose disk portion can be removed have been commercialized, and an extremely large-capacity portable information storage medium can be easily used.

Under such a circumstance, an external device such as a recording / reproducing device for a still video floppy which is an image recording medium of an electronic still camera, a drive device for an ordinary floppy disk, and a reading / writing device for a memory card. Facsimile devices that integrate a storage device have been proposed and put to practical use. However, even a facsimile machine having an external storage device is usually equipped with a line scanner (or image scanner) for reading an image of a document. That is, it has two image sources.

In a facsimile apparatus to which such an external storage device is added, both the transmitting side and the receiving side are the same type or an external storage device compatible with the image storage system (for example, a still video floppy recording / reproducing device). However, even when the image information is included, the image information is converted into an image having the same characteristics as the image read by the conventional scanner and transmitted. For example, in the case of a reproduced image of a still video floppy (hereinafter referred to as an SV image), the SV image is converted from an RGB signal having an NTSC characteristic into an RGB signal having a scanner characteristic, and thereafter, the same number of pixels as the reading resolution of the scanner. The pixel density is converted so that the image becomes as follows, and is encoded and transmitted in the same manner as an image read by a scanner (hereinafter referred to as a scanner image). On the receiving side, the pixel density is inversely converted, the scanner characteristic is converted into the SV image characteristic, and the image is recorded on the recording medium.

[0006]

However, the conventional example has a drawback in that even if a plurality of image sources are provided in this manner, only one image source can be transmitted within one communication. Further, in outputting the received image, there is a drawback that only a hard copy by the printer device can be performed.

It is an object of the present invention to provide an image transmission device that eliminates such inconvenience.

[0008]

An image transmission apparatus according to the present invention specifies an image source of a transmission image in a communication capacity exchange procedure of an image transmission control procedure. Furthermore, in page units,
The image source is specified prior to the image information to be transmitted. On the receiving side, an output device is associated with each image source.

[0009]

With the above means, the transmission form can be designated, that is, changed, in document units and page units. This allows
For example, a reproduced image from a still video floppy and an image read by an image scanner can be transmitted within one communication. The output device is not limited to a hard copy by a printer, and recording on a still video floppy is also possible.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of an embodiment of the present invention. Reference numeral 10 is a CPU that controls the whole, 12 is an image encoding / decoding circuit that encodes an image to be transmitted and decodes a received encoded image signal, and 14 is a conversion of a CMYK image into an RGB image and its inverse conversion ( γ conversion), NTS
Conversion of C characteristic RGB image to scanner characteristic RGB image and vice versa, pixel density conversion for image size change, color image conversion to monochrome image, and multi-value image conversion to binary image conversion An image conversion circuit that performs conversion and the like.

Reference numeral 16 is a frame memory used for the encoding and decoding processing by the image encoding / decoding circuit 12 and the image conversion processing of the image conversion circuit 14, and 18 is for controlling the connection with a communication line, for example, ISDN. It is a communication control circuit.

Reference numeral 20 is a key input device for the user to input various instructions, 22 is a display device for displaying various information such as no paper, running out of ink and communication status, and 24 is an image for reading an image of a document. The scanner 26 is a printer that prints out a received image and a report of the communication status, and these are directly controlled by the I / O control circuit 28. A recording / reproducing device 34 for a still video floppy 32 is also connected to the I / O control circuit 28 via an adapter 30.

36 is a well-known SCSI interface,
38 is a hard disk.

Reference numeral 40 is an image data bus dedicated to image data, and 42 is a control bus for system control. The image data bus 40 includes circuits 12, 14, 16, 18, 24,
26, 30, 36 are connected to each other, and a control bus 42
Connect circuits 10-18, 28, 36 to each other.

Since the functions and interactions of each circuit are not particularly unique, detailed description thereof will be omitted.

The function of transmitting and receiving the image reproduced on the still video floppy 32 and the image read by the image scanner 24 during one communication will be described in detail. The meanings of commands and responses are as follows.

CSS: Command Session Start RSSD: Response Session Start Positive CSE: Command Session End RSED: Response Session End Positive CDPB: Command Document Page Boundary RDPBP: Response Document Page Boundary Positive CDCL: Command Document Capability List RDCLP: Response Document Capability List Positive CDE: Command Document End RDEP: Response Document End Positive First, an operation example in which it is possible to specify, in document units, a reproduced image (SV image) from the floppy 32 or an image read by the image scanner 24 (scanner image) will be described. FIG. 2 shows an operation flowchart of the receiving side.

In FIG. 2, the communication control circuit 18 establishes a line with the communication partner (S1), and the session start command C is set in the session layer procedure in the transmission control procedure.
The parameter NSC of SS allows the transmitting side to transmit the SV image, and notifies the receiving side that the image transmitted from these includes the SV image (S2). In response to the command CSS, the receiving side confirms that the received image includes the SV image, and the session start positive response R
The SSP informs the transmitting side of its own function (SV image receivable) (S3).

When it is confirmed that the communication image includes the SV image and both the transmitting and receiving sides can communicate the SV image (S4, 5), the transmitting side sends the command CDCL for each document to the image size and color. The parameter NSC declaring the space and the encoding method is attached and transmitted (S
6). The receiving side confirms the decoding method of the image data to be received, and uses the format set by itself as the response RDC.
The LP notifies the transmitting side (S7).

As described above, the image transmission condition for each document is set. If the received document is an SV image (S8), the processing from S9 is executed, and if it is not an SV image, the normal reception processing of S13 is executed. When the image is an SV image, the image data is received (S9), the received image data is decoded according to the previously set format (S10),
The received image is recorded on the still video floppy 32 by the still video recording / reproducing device 34 (S11). After the communication is completed, the line is disconnected (S12).

When the image is not an SV image (S8), the received data is decoded as usual and is printed out by the printer 26.

FIG. 3 shows an operation flowchart on the receiving side of an operation example in which an SV image or a scanner image can be designated in page units. FIG. 4 shows a communication sequence for FIG.

In FIG. 3, S21 to S27 are the same as S1 to S7 in FIG. That is, the line is established, the communicability of the SV image is confirmed, and the format of the SV image is notified from the transmitting side to the receiving side (S21 to S7). Here, further, after the notification of the communication start by the command CDS on the receiving side (S29), as the detailed information of the image to be transmitted, the page layout descriptor includes information such as the image size, the color space, and the decoding method. Send (S2
9). The receiving side confirms the decoding method for each page based on this detailed information.

After that, as in the case of FIG. 2, if the received page is an SV image (S30), the processes of S31 and thereafter are executed, and if it is not the SV image, the normal reception process of S35 is executed. In the case of an SV image, image data is received (S31), the received image data is decoded according to the previously set format (S32), and the received image is recorded on the still video floppy 32 by the still video recording / reproducing device 34. (S33). After the communication is completed, the line is disconnected (S34).

If the image is not an SV image (S30), the received data is decoded as usual and is printed out by the printer 26.

In this way, the SV image and the scanner image can be continuously transmitted and received page by page within one communication.

Both the transmitting side and the receiving side are still video,
Although the embodiment including the image recording / reproducing apparatus using the floppy as the image recording medium has been described, the present invention is not limited to the example in which the transmitting side and the receiving side are necessarily provided with the same type of image recording / reproducing apparatus. For example, the transmitting side or the receiving side is equipped with a recording / reproducing device for a still video floppy, while the receiving side or the transmitting side is a writing / reading device or a recording / reproducing device for a magneto-optical disk, a magnetic disk, a hard disk, a solid-state memory device, etc. It may be configured to include a device. In short, the present invention is premised on a facsimile having a recording / reproducing device or a storage device for an image having a resolution and a modulation method different from those of the scanner image.

Although the still video floppy is used as the image source in this embodiment, the present invention is not limited to this, and another image source may be used.

The present invention can also be applied to G3 and G4 facsimiles having a function of transmitting, for example, a television standard video image, and mixed mode transmission capable of transmitting mixed text and graphics.

[0031]

As can be easily understood from the above description, according to the present invention, a plurality of types of images having different image sources can be transmitted and received within one communication.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is an operation flowchart of a receiving side that transmits an SV image or a scanner image in document units.

FIG. 3 is an operation flowchart of a receiving side that transmits an SV image or a scanner image in page units.

FIG. 4 is a communication sequence of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

10: CPU 12: Image encoding / decoding circuit 14: Image conversion circuit 16: Frame memory 18: Communication control circuit 20: Key input device 22: Display device 24: Image scanner 26: Printer 28: I
/ O control circuit 30: adapter 32: still video floppy 34: recording / reproducing device 36: SCSI interface 38: hard disk 40: image data bus 42: control bus

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. An image transmission apparatus, wherein an image source of a transmission image in one communication is designated in a communication capacity exchange procedure of an image transmission control procedure. 2. The image transmission device according to claim 1, wherein the image source is designated prior to the image information to be transmitted in page units. 3. The image transmission device according to claim 1, wherein the output device of the received image source is made to correspond to each image source type. 4. The image transmission device according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of image sources can be designated as the image source.