JPS6093877A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain sure communication with small capacity of memory by restarting picture reading after picture data storage is intermitted and the picture data in a storage means is transmitted when the residual amount of the storage means is less. CONSTITUTION:A transmission original (a) is read by a CCD line sensor 14 and stored in a picture memory 17 via a CCD control circuit 15 and a picture data compressor 16. A controller 19 stores the picture on the original (a) to the memory 17 via the sensor 14 while monitoring remaining amount of the memory 17 via a memory residual detector 18. When the residual amount of the memory 17 is less, the reading is intermitted and the picture data in the facsimile 17 is transmitted to a transmission line 21 via a line control section 20.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to a facsimile machine, and more particularly to a facsimile machine having a memory for image data.

[Conventional technique #IJ Conventionally, facsimile machines have been known to temporarily store image data in memory in consideration of the minimum transmission time on the image receiving side, and then transmit the image data according to the processing speed of the image receiving side. It is being If the image data exceeds the memory capacity, communication will not be possible, so conventional facsimile machines require a large memory capacity. Also, in order to save memory or reduce communication time,
Various compression methods are known for compressing input image data. However, image data compression has the disadvantage that the amount of information increases for high-density originals, and even if data compression is performed, the memory capacity cannot be reduced that much.

Conventional facsimile machines require sufficient memory to compress and store the image data of a single page of a document; There was a possibility that the portion of the data that exceeded the memory could not be sent, or that the communication itself would end in error.

[Objective] The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile device that can reliably perform image communication with a small memory capacity.

[Example] Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail based on the example shown in the drawings.

FIGS. 1 and 2 show the state of facsimile communication according to the present invention.

The left side of FIG. 1 shows a transmission document a to be transmitted, and the image of this transmission document a is read line by line from the top to the bottom of the figure. It is also assumed that this document is a high-density document that can only be stored from a point indicated by 1 to a point indicated by 2 in a memory that can sufficiently store document image data of normal density.

In the present invention, when it is confirmed that the memory is full after reading up to point 2, data compression, and memory storage, the image data up to point 2 is transmitted as the first image data, and the image data up to point 2 is transmitted as the first image data. The document from 3 to the last point 3 of the document is transmitted as the second image data.

On the first received original document on the receiving side, image data from point 1 to point 2 of the transmitted original document a is recorded, as shown in the row on the right side of FIG. As shown in the lower right corner of the figure, image data from point 2 to point 3 of the transmitted document a is recorded on the received document C of 2 sheets]1. In this example, point 2
The image from to point 3 is recorded from the top of the second received document C, but the recording position is not limited to this, and in other embodiments, as shown in FIG. The image data from point 3 may be recorded on the second received document C at a position corresponding to the transmitted document.

Next, the configuration of a facsimile machine that performs the above communication will be explained in detail.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of main parts of a facsimile machine that employs the present invention. In the figure, the reference numeral 7 indicates a conveying device that conveys the transmission document a line by line. The stepping motor is driven and controlled by a device composed of a microcomputer or the like.

The transmitted document a is illuminated by a light source 10, and the reflected light is transmitted to C through an optical system consisting of a mirror 12 and a lens l3.
An image is formed on the CD line sensor l4. The image read by the CCD line sensor l4 is read every 1947 minutes via the CCD control circuit l5, and the image data compressor 16
The amount of information is compressed and input to and stored in the memory 17.

A line control unit 20 is connected to this memory l7,
The data in memory is the control part! It is sequentially sent to the line 2l via the line control unit 20 under the control of the line 19. Further, a remaining memory capacity detection device l8 is connected to the memory 17,
The remaining capacity of the memory l7 is notified to the control device l9.

The control device 19 monitors the remaining capacity of the memory 17 via the memory remaining capacity detection device 18 and displays the image of the transmitted document a on the CCD.
The image data is read through the line sensor 14 and sequentially compressed by the image data compressor 16 and stored in the memory 17. When the memory 17 is full or the remaining capacity is low and has been consumed up to a predetermined amount, image reading is interrupted and the image data in the facsimile 17 is transferred to a transmission line such as a telephone line via the line control unit 20. Send on 21st.

The operation of the control device 19 described above will be explained in more detail with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, in step S1 of FIG. 4, the control device 19 turns on the light source 10 for document illumination IJI in order to start reading.

Subsequently, in step S2, the conveyance device 7 is activated via the motor control circuit 8, and the document a is conveyed by one line.

Next, in step S3, it is determined whether or not the reading of the document has been completed, and if the reading has been completed, the process proceeds to step S6.
If the process has not ended, the process moves to step S4. The completion of reading may be determined by, for example, detecting whether or not the lines of one original document have been conveyed using a hardware or software counter.

If the original document has not been completed, the loop from step 54 to step S2 is repeated to send the original document a.
ll images are read, compressed and stored in memory 17. In step S4, by checking the output of the remaining memory capacity detection device 18, it is determined whether the remaining capacity of the memory 17 is exhausted or has decreased to a predetermined value. If there is sufficient remaining capacity in the memory 17, the process returns to step S2 in a loop and repeats the above operation; if the remaining capacity is low, the process proceeds to step S5, where image reading and memory storage are interrupted and the division transmission is performed. Set a flag to indicate that this will be done.

If there is no more memory remaining in step S4, or if reading of the document is finished in step S3, step S
6, the line control unit 20 is controlled to connect the transmission line 21 to the facsimile machine, and the image data in the memory 17 is sent out in step S7.

When the transmission of the image data is completed, the process moves to step S8, and it is determined whether the destination divided transmission flag is set. If this flag is set, the process moves to step S2.
Returning to step-1, the remaining image data of transmission document a is read and transmitted by repeating the operation described in -1-.

As described above, the original image is stored in the memory capacity 1. If the density exceeds t, divided transmission can be performed, and image data will not be lost or communication will end in error, and the target data will not be transmitted. 11! Reliable image communication can be performed using a small memory capacity commensurate with the image density.

The control JI of the control device 19 shown above is for the case where the communication shown in Fig. 1 is performed, but in order to perform the communication shown in Fig. 2, the document up to the time when reading is interrupted in step S5 of Fig. This can be done by storing the number of conveyance lines (11) that are not read, and transmitting this value to the receiving side when transmitting the second sheet to cause the document to be fed in a blank manner.

[Effects] As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, in a facsimile machine that stores scanned original image data in predetermined units in a storage unit and then transmits the data in predetermined units, the remaining capacity of the storage unit is further comprising a means for detecting the storage means, and when it is detected that the remaining capacity of the storage means is low or that the storage means is full, reading of the original and storage of image data in the storage means is interrupted and the storage is performed. After transmitting the image data in the device, image reading is restarted from the point where reading was interrupted, so the simple and inexpensive structure prevents image data from being lost or errors. Therefore, it is possible to provide an excellent facsimile device that can perform reliable image communication using a small memory capacity commensurate with standard image density.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 and 2 are explanatory diagrams showing the state of communication in different embodiments of the present invention, and FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the main parts of a facsimile machine that performs the communication shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. The block diagram shown in FIG. 4 is a flow chart diagram explaining the control operation of the control device in FIG. 3. 8...Motor control circuit 14...CCD line sensor 15...CCD control circuit 16...Image data compressor 17...Memory 18...
...Memory remaining amount detection device 19...Control device 20...Line side IL1 section 21.
...Transmission path a...Transmission original S, C...Reception original O

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a facsimile machine that stores scanned original image data in a storage means in predetermined units and then transmits it in units of required units, means is provided for detecting the remaining amount of the storage means, so that the remaining amount of the storage means becomes low. Or, if it is detected that the storage means is full, reading the original and storing the image data in the storage means is interrupted, and after transmitting the image data in the storage means, the reading is resumed from the point where reading was interrupted. A facsimile device characterized by restarting image reading.