JPH0779309A - Facsimile terminal equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce a transmission time of a facsimile terminal equipment considerably and to prevent a transmission error. CONSTITUTION:A character recognition coding means 18 executing the similar processing to that of an OCR is provided not to a receiver side but to a transmitter side. The character recognition coding means 18 receives data corresponding to character information recorded on a document among dot data obtained by a dot conversion means to recognize characters represented by the dot data and to convert the recognized characters into character codes corresponding to the characters. A transmission means 5 sends the character codes obtained by the processing in the character recognition coding means 18 to a communication line.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile terminal device, and more particularly to a facsimile terminal device capable of significantly shortening a transmission time and effectively preventing a transmission error.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Some facsimile communications are carried out by utilizing a character recognition coding process (hereinafter also referred to as an OCR process) as performed by an OCR (optical character reading device). FIG. 2 shows an outline of a facsimile communication system using such OCR processing. First, in the facsimile terminal device TF on the transmission side (that is, the transmitter of the facsimile terminal device TF), the reflected light from the form P is input to the photoelectric conversion unit 2. In this way, the photoelectric conversion unit 2 converts the input light from the form P into a video signal. The binarization unit 3 converts the video signal into, for example, “black” corresponding to the shade of the input light for each pixel.
Converted to "white" dot data. The dot data thus obtained is sent to the communication line L from the transmitter 5 after being subjected to appropriate data compression processing in the data compressor 4.

On the other hand, the facsimile terminal device RF on the receiving side
(That is, the receiver of the facsimile terminal device RF)
In, the receiving unit 6 receives the data transmitted from the facsimile terminal device TF on the transmitting side.
The data decompression unit 8 decompresses the received data, which corresponds to the graphic information on the form P, to the initial state. The data decompressed in this way is input to the host computer. In parallel with this, the data corresponding to the character information on the form P among the received data is character-recognized by the OCR processing unit 9 by an arbitrary method, and converted into a character code indicating the recognized character. After conversion, the character code is input as it is to the host computer.

[0004]

However, in the above conventional technique, the character information on the form P is sent from the facsimile terminal device TF on the transmitting side as it is as dot data for each pixel. Therefore, there is a problem that it takes a long transmission time. In addition, transmission noise is mixed in the data being transmitted, and a so-called “data garbled” transmission error easily occurs. For this reason, in the OCR processing unit 9 of the facsimile terminal device RF on the receiving side, it often happens that accurate character recognition encoding cannot be performed. The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a facsimile terminal device capable of significantly shortening the transmission time and effectively preventing a transmission error.

[0005]

A facsimile terminal device according to the present invention comprises a transmitter and a receiver, and the transmitter inputs light reflected from a form surface to be read and outputs the input light. Photoelectric conversion means for converting to a video signal,
For each predetermined pixel, dot conversion means for converting the video signal into dot data, and of the dot data obtained by the dot conversion means, input dot data corresponding to the character information recorded on the form, The character recognition coding means for recognizing the character indicated by the inputted dot data and for converting the recognized character into a corresponding character code, and a transmitting means for sending the character code to a communication line. .

[0006]

This facsimile terminal device is provided with character recognition coding means for performing the same processing as OCR on the transmitter side, not on the receiver side. The character recognition coding means inputs the dot data corresponding to the character information recorded on the form among the dot data obtained by the dot conversion means, recognizes the character indicated by the dot data, and recognizes the character. Convert a character to the corresponding character code. The transmitting means sends out the character code obtained by the processing in the character recognition encoding means to the communication line.

As described above, since the character information recorded on the form is transmitted by the simplified character code obtained by the processing by the character recognition encoding means before being sent to the communication line, The transmission time will be effectively shortened. Furthermore, since the character code is transmitted instead of the dot data itself, it is possible to perform transmission in a state without so-called "data garble" without being affected by transmission noise during transmission.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the facsimile terminal device TFA on the transmission side, that is, in the transmitter of the facsimile terminal device TFA, the overall operation of the terminal device TFA including various processing operations described below is controlled by, for example, a microcomputer (not shown). It is controlled by the department.

The drive unit 10 moves the form P on which character information and / or graphic information is recorded relative to the optical sensor S of the photoelectric conversion unit 2. Due to this relative movement, the form P is sequentially scanned by the optical sensor S, and the data recorded on the form P and the read data can be transmitted.

More specifically, in the photoelectric conversion unit 2, the reflected light from the form P illuminated by an arbitrary illuminating means passes through the lens 11 and the optional filter 12, and is reflected by the optical sensor S which is, for example, a CCD line sensor. Input, that is, an image is formed on the photocathode. Thus, the optical sensor S converts the light reflected and input from the form P into an electric video signal. The next binarization unit 3 converts the video signal into binary dot data of, for example, "black" and "white" for each pixel. The dot data obtained in this way is temporarily stored in the buffer memory 15.

Data in which the dot data corresponds to non-codeable photographs and other graphic information (graphic corresponding data)
If it is, the data is subjected to known data compression processing in the data compression unit 4.

Further, when the dot data stored in the buffer memory 15 is data corresponding to character information (character corresponding data), the data is stored in the dictionary memory 19 in the OCR processing section 18, for example. Matched with a character pattern. By this collation, the OCR processing unit 18 recognizes the character indicated by the character correspondence data, and further converts the recognized character into a simplified character code corresponding to the character. Preferably, the character code is adapted to be given to the display 20. The display 20 displays the characters recognized by the OCR processor 18 based on the character code in a visually confirmable manner.

In order to prevent the data to be transmitted from being intercepted by a third party and being used maliciously, the encryption unit 21 includes the graphic corresponding data compressed by the compression unit 4 and the OCR processing unit 18. The obtained character code is
Encrypt according to any encryption method. And the transmitter 5
Then, the data encrypted by the encryption unit 21 is
Send to the communication line L.

On the other hand, the facsimile terminal device RF on the receiving side
In A, that is, in the receiver of the facsimile terminal device RFA, various processing operations described below are included.
The overall operation of the terminal device RFA is controlled by a control unit such as a microcomputer (not shown). The receiving unit 6 receives the data transmitted from the facsimile terminal device TFA on the transmitting side. The decryption unit 23 decrypts the received data to the state before encryption. Of the data thus decoded, the graphic correspondence data is expanded by the expansion unit 8 from the compressed state at the transmitting side to the initial state.
It is temporarily stored in the buffer memory 26.

The character corresponding data, that is, the character code, of the data decoded by the decoding unit 23 is temporarily stored in the buffer memory 26 as it is. The printer 27 restores and prints the graphic information and / or the character information recorded on the form P based on the graphic corresponding data and / or the character code stored in the buffer memory 26. The graphic correspondence data and / or the character code stored in the buffer memory 26 is given to the host computer through the interface 28 and appropriately processed by the host computer.

That is, according to this embodiment having the OCR processing function on the transmitter side, the graphic information is transmitted as compressed dot data, but the character information is transmitted before being sent to the communication line L. The transmission time is effectively shortened because the transmission is performed with the simplified character code obtained by the processing in the OCR processing unit 18. Further, as described above, since the character information is not the dot data but the character code, the character information can be transmitted without being affected by the transmission noise and in the so-called "data garbled" state. Become.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention, the transmitter side of the facsimile terminal device is provided with the character recognition encoding means for performing the OCR processing, so that the transmission time can be greatly shortened. It has an excellent effect that transmission errors can be effectively prevented.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a facsimile terminal device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a conventional facsimile terminal device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 photoelectric conversion unit 4 binarization unit 5 transmission unit 18 OCR processing unit

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A transmitter and a receiver, wherein the transmitter inputs light reflected from a form surface to be read and converts the input light into a video signal, and photoelectric conversion means for each predetermined pixel. , Dot conversion means for converting the video signal into dot data, and dot data corresponding to the character information recorded on the form among the dot data obtained by the dot conversion means is inputted, and the dot data indicates A facsimile terminal device comprising character recognition coding means for recognizing a character and converting the recognized character into a corresponding character code, and transmitting means for sending the character code to a communication line.