JPH08293942A - Multi-functional business machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To provide a multi-functional business machine capable of quickly and easily performing copying work and facsimile transmission work. CONSTITUTION: When an original is set on a scanner part 12, and a facsimile transmission condition and a copying condition are set by an operating/display part 13, and a both function start key is operated, a main control part 11 judges that both copying and facsimile transmission are performed, and reads the original in page memory 14 by the scanner part 12. The main control part 11 executes copying processing and facsimile transmission processing in parallel based on image data in the page memory 14 by controlling a plotter part 17 and a communication control part 18. Concretely, the main control part 11 transfers the image data in the page memory 14 to both the plotter part 17 and an image data accumulation part 16, and the plotter part 17 prints out the image data according to a set copy condition, and the image data accumulation part 16 accumulates received image data as the one for transmission. After all the data are accumulated in the image data accumulation part 16, they are transmitted from the communication control part 18.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a multifunctional office machine such as a copying machine with a facsimile function having a copying function and a facsimile function or a facsimile machine with a copying function.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a copying machine with a facsimile function of this kind, an operation for facsimile transmission and an operation for copying have been performed separately. That is, in the case of facsimile transmission, the original to be transmitted is set in the scanner and the transmission start key is operated, and in the case of copying, the original to be copied is set in the scanner and the copy key is operated. The functions were to be performed independently by separate operations. This is because the image data for facsimile transmission and the image data for copying have different output destinations, so that the image data read from the document passes through another data path.

[0003]

However, in a general office environment, when a document is to be distributed to a plurality of related departments, it is transmitted to a distant related department by facsimile, and a nearby related department and The document will be copied and distributed to your department. In such a case, in the conventional copying machine with a facsimile function,
Since the operation for facsimile transmission and the operation for copying must be performed separately as described above, similar operations (manuscript setting, reading operation, key operation, etc.)
Must be repeated many times, which complicates the operation and requires a long time for a series of processes.

Further, since it is necessary to wait for the end of one processing (for example, copying) and perform the operation for the other processing (for example, facsimile transmission), the user must stay at the copying machine with a facsimile function during that time. I have to. Therefore, the user is restrained for a long time, and there is a problem that work efficiency is poor. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a multifunctional office machine capable of performing copying work and facsimile transmission work quickly and easily.

[0005]

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a multifunctional office machine comprising: a reading unit for reading image information from a document; a copying unit for printing out the image information; and a transmitting unit for transmitting the image information by facsimile. The above object is achieved by including a parallel control unit that controls the reading unit, the copying unit, and the transmitting unit to execute the copying process of the read image information and the facsimile transmitting process in parallel.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a multifunctional office machine including a reading unit for reading image information from a document, a copying unit for printing out the image information, a transmitting unit for transmitting the image information by facsimile, the reading unit, and the copying unit. The above-mentioned object is achieved by including a time-division control unit that controls the copying unit and the transmission unit to execute the copying process of the read image information and the facsimile transmission process in a time-division manner.

According to a third aspect of the multi-functional office equipment, in the multi-functional office equipment according to the first or second aspect, a predetermined process start key is further provided, and one operation on the process start key is performed. The object is achieved by activating the parallel control means or the time division control means.

[0008]

In the multi-functional office machine according to the first aspect, the copying process is performed based on the image information read from the original, and at the same time, the image information is transmitted by facsimile. That is, the copying process and the facsimile process are performed in parallel by one reading process. In the multi-functional office machine according to the second aspect, the copying process based on the image information read from the document and the transmitting process of the image information by facsimile are performed in a time-sharing manner. That is, the copying process and the facsimile process are continuously performed by one reading process. In the multifunctional office equipment according to the third aspect, each operation of the image information reading, copying, and facsimile transmission is collectively performed by one operation on the processing start key.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT A preferred embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 shows the structure of a copying machine with a facsimile function according to an embodiment of the present invention. This apparatus includes a main control section 11 for controlling the entire apparatus, a scanner section 12 for reading a set original document, an operation / display section 13 for receiving an operation by a user and a necessary display.
Page memory 14 for temporarily storing the read image data
An image processing unit 15 that performs necessary editing processing on the read image data, an image data storage unit 16 that extracts and stores the image data in the page memory 14 as needed, and image data stored in the page memory 14. A plotter unit 17 for printing and outputting and a communication control unit 18 for performing communication control necessary for facsimile transmission / reception via a telephone line (not shown).

FIG. 2 shows a layout of the operation / display unit 13 shown in FIG. The operation / display unit 13 is a liquid crystal display device (LC) that displays icons indicating various processing contents.
D) and a touch panel arranged so as to be overlaid thereon, and the process (command) indicated by the icon can be selected by touching the panel surface of the desired icon display position on the LCD. And the operation / display unit 1
3 is a facsimile transmission condition setting area 21, a copying condition setting area 22, and a facsimile start key 23.
, Both function start key 24, copy start key 25
Is provided.

The facsimile transmission condition setting area 21 is
The facsimile transmission conditions (pixel density, etc.) are set, and the copy condition setting area 22 is for setting copying conditions (magnification, pixel density, etc.). Also,
Facsimile start key 23 is operated when performing only facsimile transmission, copy start key 25 is operated when performing only copying, and both-function start key 24 is operated when performing both facsimile transmission and copying. It is a key to be.

Next, the operation of the copying machine with facsimile function having the above construction will be described with reference to FIG. A user who wants to perform both copying and facsimile transmission of a document first sets the document on the scanner unit 12 of the copying machine with a facsimile function, and sets necessary reading conditions and the like by the operation / display unit 13 (step 1). Specifically, the facsimile transmission condition and the copying condition are input and set from the facsimile transmission condition setting area 21 and the copying condition setting area 22. When the both-function start key 24 of the operation / display unit 13 is operated, the main control unit 11 determines that both copying and facsimile transmission processes are to be performed, and first controls the scanner unit 12 to read the original. (Step 2), the read image data is temporarily stored in the page memory 14 (step 3).

Next, the main control unit 11 controls the plotter unit 17 and the communication control unit 18 to execute the copy output process and the facsimile transmission process in parallel based on the image data stored in the page memory 14. (Step 4, Step 5). Specifically, the image data in the page memory 14 is transferred to both the plotter unit 17 and the image data storage unit 16. The plotter unit 17, which has received this image data,
The image data is printed out according to the set copying conditions, and the image data storage unit 16 stores the received image data.

If there is the next manuscript (step 6;
Y), the processing of Step 2 to Step 6 is repeated,
When there are no more originals, the copying process and the transmission image data storage process are terminated (steps 7 and 8). When the accumulation of all the transmission image data is completed, the communication control unit 18 connects the telephone line by a calling process according to a predetermined procedure, and sequentially transmits the image data of the image data accumulation unit 16 (step 9). .

When only copying is performed, the operation / display unit 1
Copy condition setting area 22 of 3
Copy conditions are set by and the copy start key 25
When only the facsimile transmission is performed, the facsimile start key 23 may be operated after the transmission conditions are set by the facsimile transmission condition setting area 21 of the operation / display unit 13.

When different contents are set for the conditions common to the copying process and the facsimile process,
Read the original under the same conditions (stricter conditions),
At the time of copying, or at the time of storing or transmitting image data for transmission to the image data storage unit 16, the data is processed into a required form and output or transmitted. For example, when the pixel density is set to 400 dpi and the magnification is set to 1 × in the copy processing condition setting, and the pixel density is set to 200 dpi in the facsimile transmission condition setting, the scanner unit 12 transfers the page memory 14 to the page memory 14 with the pixel density of 400 dpi. The image data is read, and the plotter unit 17 outputs the copy as it is.

On the other hand, in the facsimile transmission process, when the image data is accumulated in the image data accumulating unit 16, it is converted to 200 dpi and is transmitted, or the image data accumulating unit 16 is accumulated at 400 dpi and converted into 200 dpi when transmitting. To do. As described above, in this embodiment, the transmission process by the facsimile is performed in parallel with the copy output of the image data read from the document. That is, the copying process and the facsimile process are performed in parallel by one reading process.

Next, another operation example of the copying machine with the facsimile function of FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG. The processing of this embodiment is performed from the setting of the reading condition (step 1) to the page memory 1
4 is the same as that shown in FIG. 3 until the data is read (step 3), except that the communication control unit 18 stores the image data for facsimile transmission after the copying process by the plotter unit 17 is completed. That is, in this embodiment, the two processes are sequentially performed in a time-division manner instead of in parallel. This order is
The copying process may be performed after the image data for facsimile transmission is stored, but in any case, the facsimile transmission is performed after both the copying process and the image data storing process are completed.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention will be described. This embodiment is applied to a device mainly having a facsimile function (that is, a facsimile device with a copying function). As shown in FIG. 5, the operation / display unit 13 has a facsimile transmission condition setting area 31. , Simultaneous copy setting key 3
2 and a reading start key 33. The copy condition setting area shown in FIG. 2 is not provided, and the copy condition is set to be the same as the facsimile transmission condition. In addition, it does not include a copy start key, and is not intended for execution of copying only. Other configurations are the same as those in FIG.

In this embodiment, first, the facsimile transmission condition is set by operating the facsimile transmission condition setting area 31 of the operation / display unit 13, and the document is scanned by the scanner unit 1.
Set to 2. When performing only facsimile transmission, only the reading start key 33 is operated. On the other hand, when copying is also performed, the simultaneous copy setting key 32 is operated and then the reading start key 33 is operated. When only the read start key 33 is operated, the main control unit 11 determines that only the facsimile transmission is to be performed, reads the image data from the document into the page memory 14, and at the same time, reads the image data from the page memory 14.
6, the predetermined call processing is performed, and the facsimile transmission is performed. On the other hand, when the simultaneous copy setting key 32 and the read start key 33 are operated, the main control unit 11 determines that both the copying and the facsimile apparatus are to be performed, and the same as in the above-described embodiment (FIG. 3 or 4). Facsimile transmission processing and copying processing are performed according to the procedure.

[0021]

According to the multi-functional office machine of the first or second aspect of the invention, the copying process and the facsimile process are performed simultaneously or successively by one reading process, so that the processing time as a whole is increased. Can be shortened. Also,
The user does not need to repeatedly set the document for reading, so the operation is simple. Further, the user is not restricted to the copying machine for a long time, and the working efficiency is improved. Further, for example, if the copy condition and the facsimile transmission condition are set to be the same, it becomes extremely easy to create a copy of the facsimile transmission document.

According to the multi-functional office equipment of the third aspect, each operation of reading, copying, and facsimile transmission of the original can be collectively performed by only one operation on the processing start key. Becomes extremely easy.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a main part of a copying machine with a facsimile function according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating an arrangement configuration example of an operation / display unit in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining an operation example of a copying machine with a facsimile function in FIG.

4 is a flow chart for explaining another operation example of the copying machine with a facsimile function of FIG.

5 is a diagram showing another arrangement configuration example of the operation / display unit in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 11 main control unit 12 scanner unit 13 operation / display unit 14 page memory 15 image processing unit 17 plotter unit 18 communication control unit 21, 31 facsimile transmission condition setting area 22 copying condition setting area 23 facsimile start key 24 both function start key 25 copy Start key 32 Simultaneous copy setting key 33 Scan start key

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A reading unit for reading image information from a document, a copying unit for printing out the image information, a transmitting unit for transmitting the image information by facsimile, and a reading unit by controlling the reading unit, the copying unit and the transmitting unit. A multifunctional office machine comprising: parallel control means for executing in parallel the image information copying process and the facsimile transmission process. 2. A reading unit for reading image information from a document, a copying unit for printing out the image information, a transmitting unit for transmitting the image information by facsimile, and a reading unit by controlling the reading unit, the copying unit and the transmitting unit. A multifunctional office machine, comprising: a time-division control means for executing the image information copying process and the facsimile transmission process in a time-division manner. 3. A predetermined processing start key is further provided, and the parallel control means or the time division control means is activated by a single operation on the processing start key. Multifunctional office equipment described in 2.