JPH08279870A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To reduce a communication load by distributing the communication load of a relay facsimile equipment to a receiver in the case of multiple address transfer. CONSTITUTION: When a polling communication control section 7 receives a polling signal requesting transfer of image data from receiver side facsimile terminals 3a-3n, the control section 7 commands transfer of image data stored in an image data storage section 6 to an image data transfer section 9. The image data transfer section 9 transfers image data under the connection state from the receiver side facsimile terminals 3a-3n to allow the receiver side facsimile terminals 3a-3n to share a telephone line charge in the transfer of the image data.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile machine, and more particularly to reduction of communication load of a facsimile machine having a broadcast transfer function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a facsimile device having a relay function for transferring image data received from a transmitting device to a receiving device, a facsimile device having a broadcast communication function for transmitting image data to a large number of receiving devices, and both. Facsimile devices and the like having a relay broadcast function that also has a function have been developed.

[0003]

However, in the facsimile machine of the relay station having the relay broadcast function, the image data is transferred to a large number of receiving side devices, so that the line usage fee is high.

The present invention has been made to solve the above disadvantages, and an object thereof is to reduce the communication load of a facsimile apparatus having a broadcast transfer function by distributing the communication load to the receiving side apparatuses.

[0005]

A facsimile apparatus according to the present invention has a polling communication control section and an image data transfer section, and the polling communication control section receives a polling signal requesting transfer of image data from a receiving side apparatus. Then, the image data transfer unit is instructed to transfer the image data stored in the image data storage unit, and the image data transfer unit instructs the polling communication control unit to transfer the image data under the connection state from the receiving side device. Forward.

Further, when the polling communication control unit receives the polling signal and the password requesting the transfer of the image data from the receiving side device, the image stored in the image data storage unit when the received password matches the predetermined password. It is desirable to instruct the image data transfer unit to transfer the data.

Further, the image data transfer unit may transfer the image data corresponding to the management number received from the receiving side device.

Further, it is preferable that the image data transfer section adds a mark peculiar to each receiving side device which issued the polling signal to the image data and transfers the image data.

Further, the polling communication control unit may send a polling signal requesting the transmission of the image data to the transmitting side device.

[0010]

According to the present invention, when the polling communication control section receives the polling signal requesting the transfer of the image data from the receiving side apparatus, it instructs the image data transfer section to transfer the image data stored in the image data storage section. To do. The image data transfer unit transfers the image data under the connection state from the receiving side device according to the instruction from the polling communication control unit, and the receiving side device bears the telephone line usage fee at the time of transferring the image data.

Further, when the polling communication control unit receives the polling signal and the password requesting the transfer of the image data from the receiving side device, the image stored in the image data storage unit when the received password matches the predetermined password. The image data transfer unit is instructed to transfer the data, and the confidentiality of the image data is protected.

Further, the image data transfer section transfers the image data corresponding to the management number received from the receiving side device to the receiving side device which has issued the polling signal, and transfers only the image data required by the receiving side device.

Further, the image data transfer unit adds a mark peculiar to each receiving side device which has issued the polling signal to the image data and transfers the image data to enhance confidentiality when the receiving side device transfers.

Further, the polling communication control section transmits a polling signal requesting the transmission of the image data to the transmitting side device, and receives only the image data which needs to be transferred.

[0015]

1 is a connection diagram of a facsimile apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in the figure, the facsimile device 1 is connected to a transmitting side facsimile device 2 which is a source of image data and receiving side facsimile devices 3a to 3n which are destinations of image data.
The image data received from is temporarily stored and is broadcast to the receiving side facsimile devices 3a to 3n.

As shown in the connection diagram of FIG. 2, the facsimile apparatus 1 includes a main control unit 4, a system memory 5, an image data storage unit 6, a communication control unit 7, a polling communication control unit 8, an image data transfer unit 9, and an operation. It has a display unit 10, a compression / decompression unit 11, a plotter 12, and a scanner 13. The main controller 4 controls the entire facsimile device 1. System memory 5
Stores information necessary for controlling the operation of the facsimile apparatus 1. The image data storage unit 6 stores the image data for transfer and the like received from the transmitting side facsimile apparatus 2. The communication control unit 7 controls communication with the transmitting side facsimile device 2 and the receiving side facsimile devices 3a to 3n.
The polling communication control unit 8 is the receiving side facsimile apparatus 3a.
When the polling signal requesting the transfer of the image data stored in the image data storage unit 6 is received from 3n, the image data transfer unit 9 is instructed to transfer the image data stored in the image data storage unit 6. The image data transfer unit 9 transfers the image data stored in the image data storage unit 6 to the receiving side facsimile devices 3a to 3n that requested the transfer. The polling communication control unit 8 transmits polling requesting the transmission of image data to the transmitting side facsimile device 2 via the communication control unit 7.

An operation in the case where the facsimile apparatus 1 having the above-mentioned configuration transmits the image data for relay broadcast communication stored in the image data storage unit 6 in response to a transmission request from the receiving side facsimile apparatuses 3a to 3n, a flowchart of FIG. Will be described with reference to.

When the facsimile machine 1 is called by the facsimile machine 3a on the receiving side (step S1) and the polling communication control section 8 receives a polling signal requesting transmission of image data (step S4), the polling communication control section is executed. Reference numeral 8 checks the system memory 5 to see if a password is preset. When the password is preset (step S5), the polling controller 8 compares the signal received subsequently to the polling signal from the receiving side facsimile apparatus 3a with the preset password (step S6). If the received signal and the preset password do not match, the polling controller 8 sends an error message to the receiving side facsimile device 3a (steps S7, S).
8).

The polling controller 8 instructs the image data transfer unit 9 to transfer the image data when the password is not preset or when the received signal and the preset password match. Image data transfer unit 9
Checks whether or not the management number is transmitted from the receiving side facsimile apparatus 3a, and if the management number is not transmitted, all the image data for return stored in the image data storage unit 6 is transferred (step S9). , S10). When the management number is transmitted, the image data transfer unit 9 checks the image data stored in the image data storage unit 6, and when there is no image data corresponding to the received management number, an error message is sent to the receiving side facsimile device 3a. Is transmitted (step S8). If the image data transfer unit 9 has image data corresponding to the received management number (step S11),
The designated facsimile machine receives the designated image data from the facsimile machine 3a.
After the transfer, the reception side facsimile device 3a is notified of the end of the transfer procedure, and the reception side facsimile device 3a disconnects the line connection and ends the reception of the facsimile data (step S13). As described above, since the receiving side facsimile apparatuses 3a to 3n that need the image data make a call and the image data is transferred under the line connection state, the cost at the time of transferring the image data is the facsimile of the receiving side. Since the apparatus 3a becomes a burden on the apparatus 3, it is possible to prevent the communication cost of the image data from being concentrated on the relay facsimile apparatus 1.

Further, the facsimile apparatus 1 prints out the image data for relay broadcast communication stored in the image data storage unit 6 after a predetermined time has elapsed after storing the image data in the image data storage unit 6 (step S2). Then, the data is saved and then deleted (step S3). As a result, if the image data stored in the image data storage unit is not requested to be transferred, the image data storage unit 6 can keep unused image data.
Prevents using memory bound.

In the above embodiment, the image data storage unit 6
Although the image data stored in the above is directly transferred, the image data transfer unit 9 may transfer the image data by adding a different mark to each of the transfer destination facsimile devices 3a to 3n. As a result, the receiving side facsimile device 3
It is possible to improve the confidentiality in the case of further transferring with a to 3n.

Next, the operation in the case where the facsimile machine 1 requests the transmission side facsimile machine 2 to transmit the image data for relay broadcast communication will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

When requesting the transmission of the image data for the relay broadcast communication, the polling communication control unit 8 of the facsimile apparatus 1 causes the transmission side facsimile apparatus 2 via the communication control section 7.
After calling (step S21), a polling signal and a password are transmitted to request transmission of image data (steps S22 and S23). The sending facsimile machine 2 checks the validity of the password received following the polling signal, and if the password is valid, adds a different mark to the image data to be sent for each destination (step S2).
4) The image data is transmitted to the facsimile machine 1. When the facsimile device 1 receives the image data from the transmitting facsimile device (step S25), it adds the management number to the received image data for relay broadcast communication, stores it in the image data storage unit 6, and then disconnects the line. The image data receiving operation is ended (step S26). In this way, the image data is received by sending a request to send image data to the sending facsimile device 2, so that the sending facsimile device 2 connects a plurality of facsimile devices 1 having the relay broadcast layer new function. Even in this case, it is possible to prevent the communication cost burden from being concentrated on the transmitting side facsimile device 2.
Further, since the image data is stored by adding a different management number to each image data, it is possible to manage a plurality of image data in the same manner.

In the above embodiment, the facsimile machine 1 is used.
Although the management number is added to the image data received in step 3 and stored in the image data storage unit 6, the transmission side facsimile device 2 adds the management number and transmits it to the facsimile device 1, and the facsimile device 1 stores the image data as it is. It may be stored in the unit 6.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the polling signal requesting the transfer of the image data is received from the receiving side device, the image received and stored from the transmitting side device under the connection state from the receiving side device. Since the data transfer is performed and the telephone line usage fee for image data transfer is borne by the receiving side device, it is possible to prevent the line usage fee for transfer from being biased to the relay station.

Further, when the polling signal and the password requesting the transfer of the image data are received from the receiving side device, the stored image data is transferred when the received password and the predetermined password match, so that the image data is confidential. Can be protected.

Further, since the image data corresponding to the management number received from the receiving side device is transferred to the receiving side device which issued the polling signal, only the image data required by the receiving side device can be transferred.

Further, since a mark peculiar to each receiving side device which issued the polling signal is added to the image data and transferred, the confidentiality in the case of further transferring by the receiving side device can be enhanced.

Further, the polling signal for requesting the transmission of the image data is transmitted to the transmitting side device, and only the image data which needs to be transferred is received, so that the communication cost of the transmitting side can be reduced.

Further, when the receiving side device requires the image data, the receiving side device requests the transfer of the image data, so that the time for transferring the image data to the receiving side device is dispersed and the communication of the facsimile device of the relay station is performed. It is possible to prevent the load from temporarily becoming heavy.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a connection diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a configuration diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing an operation when transferring image data.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing an operation when receiving image data.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Facsimile device 2 Sending side facsimile device 3 Receiving side facsimile device 6 Image data storage unit 8 Polling communication control unit 9 Image data transfer unit

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A facsimile apparatus for storing image data received from a transmission side apparatus in an image data storage section and transferring it to a plurality of reception side apparatuses, having a polling communication control section and an image data transfer section, and performing polling communication control. When receiving the polling signal requesting the transfer of the image data from the receiving side device, the unit instructs the image data transfer unit to transfer the image data stored in the image data storage unit, and the image data transfer unit controls the polling communication. A facsimile apparatus, which transfers image data under a connection state from a receiving side apparatus according to an instruction from a section. 2. When the polling communication control unit receives a polling signal requesting the transfer of image data and a password from the receiving side device, the image stored in the image data storage unit when the received password matches the predetermined password. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image data transfer unit is instructed to transfer the data. 3. The image data transfer section transfers the image data corresponding to the management number received from the receiving side device.
The described facsimile machine. 4. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image data transfer unit adds a mark peculiar to each receiving side device which has issued the polling signal to the image data and transfers the image data. 5. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the polling communication control section transmits a polling signal requesting transmission of image data to the transmitting side apparatus.