JPH0774866A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide a facsimile equipment which can improve the utilization efficiency of the device and a line. CONSTITUTION:An in-use state monitor circuit which monitors whether or not the equipment is connected to an opposite-side terminal FAX1 through a channel constituting a facsimile reception control part 1 is provided in a terminal use state management part 11 and the equipment is equipped with a calling inhibition control part 12 which inhibits a signal from being sent to the opposite terminal FAX1 through a channel constituting a facsimile transmission control part 8 when the in-use state monitor circuit indicates that the opposite terminal FAX is in use.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus having a function of automatically transmitting a manuscript having the same contents (hereinafter referred to as a telegram) in a facsimile communication to a plurality of destinations (destinations to the ground).

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A facsimile apparatus having the above-mentioned functions will be described below by taking a facsimile storage broadcasting apparatus as an example.

With the recent increase in facsimile communication,
Facsimile storage / broadcasting devices have been increasingly used.

In the conventional broadcast device, the electronic message received from the terminal is temporarily stored and the broadcast is controlled according to the control contents of the electronic message.

[0005]

However, in the above-mentioned facsimile storage broadcasting apparatus, the facsimile storage broadcasting apparatus does not monitor the status of the other party's ground, that is, whether the other party's ground is operating or not, and the I had sent the broadcast message to the other party.

For this reason, when the other party is operating, the transmission to the other party fails, the utilization efficiency of the broadcasting device and the line is poor, and when the number of retransmissions is limited, There was a problem that the broadcast message to the other party would not be delivered.

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and the failure is predicted by monitoring the operation status of the other party's ground, that is, whether the broadcasting device is already using the other party's ground. It is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile device capable of improving the utilization rate of a broadcast device and a line and reducing the rate of non-delivery of broadcast messages by prohibiting transmission in advance.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a busy monitoring means for monitoring whether or not a connection is established with a destination terminal via a first channel, and a busy monitoring means. And means for prohibiting transmission to the destination terminal via a second channel different from the first channel when the means indicates that the destination terminal is in use.

[0009]

With the above arrangement, the present invention allows the busy monitoring means to monitor whether or not the partner terminal is in use, before the broadcast message is transmitted. When the monitoring result indicates that the other party's terminal is in use, the calling prohibition means prohibits transmission to the other party's terminal.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A facsimile storage broadcasting device will be described below as an embodiment of a facsimile device with reference to the drawings. In the present invention, "in use" means a state in which me and the other party are connected, and "busy" means a state in which the other party is connected to a third party.

FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a broadcast communication system to which a facsimile storage broadcast device according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

This broadcast communication system includes a plurality of conventionally known facsimile terminals FAX1, FAX2, ... FAXn for both transmission and reception (a part may be a reception-only machine) and each facsimile terminal FAX1, FAX2 ,. An exchange S connected to the facsimile machine via a facsimile communication line,
It is provided with a switch S and a facsimile storage / broadcasting device M according to an embodiment of the present invention connected via a plurality of receiving and transmitting lines (two lines in the illustrated example). In the figure, M _IN indicates the connection end of the reception line, and M _OUT indicates the connection end of the transmission line.

In this embodiment, a mark sheet (an OCR sheet or the like may be used) is used as a control information input means for controlling the broadcast communication.

As shown in FIG. 1, the facsimile storage / broadcast device M controls a facsimile reception control unit (which increases or decreases according to the number of lines) 1 in charge of facsimile reception control and a plurality of facsimile reception control units. A reception channel control unit 2, a message reception management unit 3 that manages reception of broadcast messages, a message storage unit 4 that stores the contents of the broadcast messages, and information other than the contents of the broadcast messages, such as the reception date and time. A message management information storage unit 5 that stores and manages a message, a message distribution management unit 6 that draws out a broadcast message when transmission is required, a transmission channel control unit 7 that controls a plurality of facsimile transmission control units, and a broadcast message In addition to having a facsimile transmission control unit 8 for controlling transmission to the other party, it is also a marker for recognizing control information required for broadcast communication from a broadcast command mark sheet input together with a broadcast electronic message. A sheet recognition unit 9, a terminal information storage unit 10 for accumulating the advance terminal information, the terminal usage management unit 11 for managing the different usage terminal,
A calling inhibition control unit 12 is provided for inhibiting the transmission operation even if a transmission request is made.

The terminal information storage unit 10 is provided with a plurality of storage units in which the partner ground information of the broadcast communication is stored in advance, and is configured to be able to search each storage unit at random.

Each storage unit includes a terminal number (each facsimile terminal number) storage unit, a terminal name (distribution destination name, management unit name, etc.) storage unit, a station number (dial) storage unit, and the like. The other party's ground information is stored and managed separately.

The other party's ground information in each storage unit is taken into the electronic message acceptance management unit 3 and electronic message delivery management unit 6 as necessary.

As shown in FIG. 2, the terminal utilization status management unit 11 has a plurality of monitoring circuits 11a, 11b, ... 11m for each terminal.
Each of the monitoring circuits 11a, 11b, ... 11m has a busy monitoring circuit 100 that outputs a transmission invalid signal while the terminal is in a busy state, and is already transmitting to the terminal or the terminal is half-duplex. In use, that is, while the terminal is in use, that is, the busy monitoring circuit 101 that outputs a transmission invalidation signal while the terminal is in use, and when any one of the transmission invalidation signals becomes valid, the transmission invalidation signal issues a call inhibition circuit. 12 and an OR circuit 102 for outputting to 12.

Next, the operation of the facsimile storage / broadcasting device M having the above-mentioned configuration will be described. Now, suppose that the facsimile terminal FAX1 has the first mark sheet
When a document with superimposed broadcast telegrams is set on the first and subsequent sheets and a transmission operation is performed, these telegrams are sent to the facsimile reception control unit 1 via the exchange S according to a general-purpose facsimile transmission procedure, and the image information is displayed here. As received. The received image information is received channel control unit 2 and message reception management unit 3
Then, the data is input to the electronic message storage unit 4 and simultaneously input to the mark sheet recognition unit 9 line by line. The mark sheet recognition unit 9 detects the presence or absence of a mark in this input data, that is, the presence or absence of control information necessary for broadcast communication.

When the presence of the control information is confirmed, the control information is separated into the terminal number information of the other party and the broadcast control information other than this, and the former terminal number information and the terminal information storage unit 10 are further separated. The other party ground information of the broadcast communication, that is, each information (terminal number) in each storage unit, which is stored in advance, is compared.

As a result of the comparison, if it is determined that the two pieces of information do not match, information indicating that they are unregistered is returned to the originating side, and if it is confirmed that they match, the broadcast communication possible information is sent. The mark sheet recognition unit 9 outputs the information to the facsimile reception control unit 1 and also outputs to the terminal usage status management unit 11 that the terminal on the originating side is in the transmission state.

As described above, the facsimile reception control unit 1 that has received the broadcast communication enable information transfers the broadcast message to the message acceptance management unit 3 via the reception channel control unit 2. Then, the management unit 3 displays the contents of the broadcast message in the message storage unit 4.
On the other hand, information other than the contents of the message (such as the reception date and time) is accumulated in the message management information storage unit 5. At this point, a series of receiving operations ends.

When it becomes necessary to transmit, the electronic message delivery management unit 6 extracts the terminal information (station number, etc.) of the other party's ground from the terminal information storage unit 10, and indicates that there is a transmission request to the other party's ground. Output to the management unit 11. The terminal usage status management unit 11 determines whether or not the other party's ground is busy, is already transmitting another broadcast message, or is not already receiving if the other party's ground is a half-duplex terminal. That is, whether or not it is in use is monitored, and the monitoring result is used as the call prohibition control unit 1.
Output to 2. The calling prohibition control unit 12 outputs to the message delivery management unit 6 whether or not to prohibit the transmission request, based on the monitoring result sent from the terminal usage status management unit 11. If the transmission request is valid, the broadcast telegram (including the telegram content and other information) is extracted from the telegram storage unit 4 and the telegram management information storage unit 5, and these are transmitted via the transmission channel control unit 7. The data is transferred to the facsimile transmission control unit 8, and the message delivery management unit 6 outputs to the terminal usage status management unit 11 a signal indicating that the other party's ground is in the reception state. Thereafter, the ordinary broadcast communication control of the facsimile is performed through the transmission control unit 8 to make a call to the other party (facsimile terminal FAX
2, ... FAXn) broadcast messages are transmitted sequentially or all together. At this time, if the transmission is unsuccessful and the cause of the failure is that the other party is talking to the ground, a signal to that effect is output to the terminal usage status management unit 11.

In FIG. 1, the facsimile terminal FA
Although the example in which X1 is the origin terminal is described, the present invention is not limited to this, and the terminal FAX2 may be the origin terminal, for example.

Further, in the present embodiment, the case where the mark sheet is the first sheet and the second and subsequent sheets are superposed with the broadcast message to make one set, and this is set on the terminal device of the origin, is explained. It is also possible to set a plurality of sets and send them simultaneously to the terminal device of the place of origin to perform broadcast communication. In this case, the terminal device of the other party receives the broadcast message for each mark sheet.

Further, although an example in which the control information necessary for the broadcast communication is input through the dedicated sheet has been described, it is also possible to input it by using, for example, half of the front page of the broadcast message if necessary. .

[0027]

As is apparent from the above description, according to the present invention, the busy state of the destination terminal is monitored, and when the monitoring result of the busy state is obtained, the transmission is prohibited. Also, it is possible to improve the utilization efficiency of the line and reduce the rate of non-delivery of the broadcast message.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a broadcast communication system to which a facsimile storage broadcast device according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a main part showing a schematic configuration showing a terminal usage status management unit provided in the facsimile storage / broadcasting device of FIG.

[Explanation of Codes] 11 Terminal Utilization Management Units 11a, 11b, to 11m Monitoring Circuit 12 Call Prohibition Control Unit 100 Busy Monitoring Circuit 101 Busy Monitoring Circuit 102 Logical Sum Circuit M Facsimile Accumulation Broadcasting Device

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Hiroshi Miki 2-3-8 Shimomeguro, Meguro-ku, Tokyo Matsushita Dentsu Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A busy monitoring means for monitoring whether or not the remote terminal is connected via a first channel, and when the busy monitoring means indicates that the remote terminal is in use, A facsimile apparatus, comprising: a calling prohibition unit that prohibits transmission to the destination terminal via a second channel different from the first channel.