JPS63229969A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To shorten a time required for outputting and to speedily confirm accumulated contents by reducing picture data which have been accumulated in a buffer memory in a page unit and simultaneously outputting reduced picture data of plural pages. CONSTITUTION:The picture signal of a transmission original which has been obtained from a read scanning part 1 is coded in a coding part 2, and is once accumulated in the buffer memory 4 through a control part 31. It is read in accordance with the operation state of a transmission reception part 5 from the buffer memory 4, and is transmitted to a subscriber line 6. Here, the control part 3 has a micro computer as a main control circuit, and is equipped with a reduction processing means 31, an editing means 32 and a recording display control means 33 as the means to confirm the accumulated contents of the buffer memory 4. The reduction processing means 31 reads picture data from the buffer memory in a page unit, reduces them and simultaneously outputs them with plural pages together, whereby the accumulated contents are speedily confirmed.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Purpose of the invention] (Industrial application field) The present invention relates to improvements in facsimile machines.

(Conventional technology) In recent years, with the promotion of office automation, facsimile %! Although R mushrooms are increasingly used,
Some of them are equipped with a buffer memory for image data. This type of device encodes the image signal obtained by the reading scanning section and then buffers it. After being stored in the memory, the image data is sent out to the line by the transmitting/receiving section, and the image data received by the transmitting/receiving section is temporarily stored in the buffer memory, and then decoded and introduced into the recording scanning section to be recorded on recording paper. . If such a device is used, for example, if the other party's terminal is in communication at the time of transmission, the document to be sent will be scanned and scanned, the image data will be stored in the buffer memory, and after the other party's terminal returns to the standby state, it will be scanned and scanned. Image data can be read from the buffer memory and sent. Also, during reception, if the recording paper runs out, all the received image data can be stored in the buffer memory, and after the recording paper is replenished, the image data can be read out from the buffer memory and recorded.
It's very convenient.

However, in this type of device, the operator may want to check the image data stored in the buffer memory before sending or recording, but in the conventional device, the image data stored in the buffer memory is not stored in the buffer memory when a confirmation request is input. Since the image data contained in the image data is recorded page by page as is by the recording scanning section, there are problems in that it takes a lot of time to check and the amount of recording paper consumed increases.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, the conventional apparatus has the problems that it takes a lot of time to check the image data stored in the buffer memory and consumes a large amount of recording paper. However, the present invention focuses on this point and makes it possible to output the image data stored in the buffer memory in a short time and using only a small amount of recording paper, thereby making it possible to check the stored contents in a short time. The purpose of this invention is to provide a facsimile machine that is efficient and economical.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) As shown in FIG. 1, the present invention comprises a reduction processing means A that reduces image data stored in a buffer memory at a predetermined magnification in page units; It is equipped with a reduced image data memory B for storing reduced image data obtained by the reduction processing means A, and a confirmation output control means C, and when a confirmation request for image data stored in the buffer memory is input, the above-mentioned After the image data stored in the buffer memory is reduced by the confirmation output control means C by the reduction processing means A and stored in the reduced image data memory B, the reduced image stored in the reduced image data memory B is The data is read out for several pages at a time, and the edited data is output to the output section for confirmation in one page before reduction.

(Function) As a result, both data stored in the buffer memory will be outputted one page at a time, so the time required for output will be shortened compared to the conventional method of outputting one page at a time.
This makes it possible to quickly check the stored contents. Further, when a recording scanning unit is used as an output means, the amount of recording paper used can be reduced, thereby increasing economic efficiency.

(Embodiment) FIG. 2 shows the configuration of a facsimile machine in an embodiment of the present invention. In this device, an image signal of a transmitted document obtained by reading and scanning by a reading scanning section 1 is encoded by an encoding section 2, and then temporarily stored in a buffer memory 4 via a control section 3. 4 is read out according to the operating state of the transmitter/receiver 5 and introduced into the transmitter/receiver 5. This transmitting/receiving section 5 is composed of a modulation/demodulation circuit (MOD) 51 and a network control circuit (NCtJ) 52, and modulates the image data read out from the buffer memory 4 with the MOD 51 and then sends it to the subscriber line 6 via the NCU 32. Send. Note that 7 is a telephone source that is alternatively connected to the main body of the facsimile machine for the subscriber m6 by the NCU 32. On the other hand, when image data arrives via the subscriber line 6, this device receives this image data via the NCU 32 at the MOD 51, demodulates it, and then temporarily stores it in the buffer memory 4 via the control section 3. Then, this image data is read out from the buffer memory 4 according to the operating state of the recording/scanning section 9 and is read out by the decoding section 8.
After decoding, the data is introduced into the recording scanning section 9, and thereby recorded on recording paper. In addition, this device includes an operation panel 10 equipped with a keypad section 11 consisting of dial keys and various function keys, a display section consisting of a liquid crystal display, and a page memory 20 capable of storing image data for one page. We are prepared.

This page memory 2o is used when checking and outputting the image data stored in the buffer memory 4.
For example, it is composed of RAM. The reference numeral 30 denotes a display device which is provided as one of image data confirmation output means.

By the way, the control unit 3 has, for example, a microcomputer as a main control circuit, and in addition to communication control means and reading and recording scanning control Jσ means, it also has a back 1 memo υ4.
As a means for confirming the stored contents, as shown in FIG. 3, a reduction processing means 31, an editing means 32, and a record display control means 33 are provided. Among these, first the reduction processing means 3
1 reads image data page by page from the buffer memory 4 and reduces it at a predetermined magnification. Further, the editing means 32 edits the image data reduced by the reduction ffi processing means 31 to the size of one page before reduction, in units of multiple pages, and stores it in the page memory 20. Finally, when a request for checking the image data stored in the buffer memory 4 is input from the key manual section 11 of the operation panel 10, the recording display control means 33 controls the reduction processing means 3.
1 and editing means 32 to reduce the image data and H1
! After the image data is read out from the page memory 20 and displayed on the display section @30, it is also supplied to the recording scanning section 9 and recorded on the recording paper according to the operator's request. It is.

Next, we will explain the operation of the device configured in this way for $17! !
] The control procedure of section 3 will be explained. In the standby state, the control section 3 repeatedly monitors the outgoing call, the incoming call, and the input of the confirmation request in steps 4a to 4C, as shown in FIG. 4(a).

In this state, when the operator operates the confirmation key of the key manual section 11 to confirm the image data stored in the buffer memory 4, the control section 3 moves this operation to step 4C.
The process moves to step 4d, where it is determined whether or not image data is stored in the buffer memory 4, and if it is, the process moves to step 4f and subsequent output controls. If no image data is stored in the buffer memory 4, a message indicating that no image data is stored is generated and displayed on the display section 12 of the operation panel 10 in step 4e.

Now, when the image data is stored in the buffer memory 4, the control section 3 first reads out the image data one page at a time from the buffer memory 4 in step 4f, and transfers this image data to the decoding section 8.
After decoding, the image data is introduced, and then, in step 4g, this image data is reduced. As a method of reduction processing, for example, pixels may be thinned out evenly over the entire page and then compressed. After completing the reduction of the image data for one page, the control section 3 sets the display position of this reduced image data in step 4h, and then in step 41
The data is stored in the corresponding area of the page memory 20. For example, if you want to reduce the current image data by a factor of 1/4,
Since it is possible to display four pages of reduced image data on one page before reduction, the reduced image data of the first page is arranged at the upper left of the first page before reduction, as shown in FIG. The reduced image data of the page is stored in the corresponding storage W4 area of the page memory 20 so that the reduced image data of the third page is arranged in the lower left, and the image data of the fourth page is arranged in the lower right. . After one page of reduced image data has been stored, the control unit 3 first determines whether or not there is an unread page remaining in the buffer memory 4 in step 4j, and if so, the next page is stored. In step 4, the number of pages of reduced image data that can be displayed on one page before reduction is n (in this case, the reduction ratio is 1/4, so n
-4) is determined, and if not, the process returns to step 4f to read out the image data of the next page, perform reduction processing, editing processing, and storage in the page memory 20.

Now, the reduced image data for 4 pages is stored in the page memory 2.
0, the control section 3 moves to step 42 shown in FIG. 4(b), reads out the reduced image data for the above four pages from the page memory 20, and displays this reduced image data on the display in step 4m. The image is displayed on the device 30.

That is, the display result at this time is as shown in FIG. After the display ends, the control unit 3 proceeds to step 4n, and here determines whether there is a request to record reduced image data. In this state, the operator
When determining that it is necessary to record based on the display result of 0 and operating the recording request key of the key human power section 11, the control section 3 detects this at step 4n and moves to step 4o, where the page is displayed. The reduced image data for the four pages are read out from the memory 2o, and in step 4p, this reduced image data is directly supplied to the recording operation section 9 to be recorded on recording paper. When the recording is completed, it is determined in step 4q whether there are any remaining pages that have not been output in the buffer memory 4, and if there are remaining pages, the process is performed in step 4q.
Returning to f, the above control is repeated, and if there are no remaining pages, the process returns to the standby state.

In this embodiment, when a request to confirm image data stored in the buffer memory 4 is input, this image data is reduced and edited to one page before being reduced, and then displayed or recorded. Therefore, compared to conventional devices that record the image data stored in the buffer memory 4 one page at a time, the time required to output all the stored pages is greatly reduced. Thereby, image data can be checked efficiently in a short time. Furthermore, since the number of sheets of confirmation image data recorded is 1/linear reduction ratio n, the amount of recording paper consumed can be reduced by that amount.Moreover, in this embodiment, the reduced image data is first displayed on the display device 30. Since recording is performed only when a recording request is input, the amount of recording paper used is further reduced and economical efficiency is improved.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above embodiments. For example, by increasing the capacity of the reduced image data memory so that it can store multiple pages of image data, it is possible to store all pages of reduced image data stored in the buffer memory at once. Good too. Further, as the confirmation output means, only the image display device may be used, and the recording scanning unit which requires FR interval for output may not be used, or, conversely, only the recording scanning unit may be used. Furthermore, as an advanced example of the present invention, image data for multiple pages obtained by reading scanning is directly reduced, edited into one page before reduction, stored in a page memory, read out from this page memory, and encoded. It may also be sent after that. Also,
If it is particularly necessary, such as when the image quality of the image data is poor, the image data stored in the buffer memory may be transferred as is to the page memory without being reduced, and then displayed or recorded. . In addition, the processing method of the reduction processing means, the structure of the reduced image data memory, the control procedure and control contents of the confirmation output control means, etc. can be modified in various ways without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, according to the present invention, there is provided a reduction processing means for reducing image data stored in a buffer memory at a predetermined magnification in units of pages, and a reduced image obtained by this reduction processing means. It comprises a reduced image data memory for storing data and a confirmation output control means, and when a confirmation request for the image data stored in the buffer memory is input, the confirmation output control means stores the data in the buffer memory. The reduced image data is reduced by the reduction processing means and stored in the reduced image data memory, and then the reduced image data stored in the reduced image data memory is read out for a plurality of pages and edited into one page before reduction. By having the output unit output the confirmation output in the current state, it is possible to output the image data stored in the buffer memory in a short time and using only a small amount of recording paper. It is possible to provide a facsimile device that can efficiently perform confirmation in a short time and is highly economical.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of a facsimile device of the present invention, and FIGS. 2 to 5 are for explaining the facsimile device in an embodiment of the present invention. 3 is a functional block diagram showing the control means of the control section, FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the control procedure and control contents of the control section, and FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram used to explain the operation. . A...reduced job means, B...reduced image data memory, C
... Confirmation output control means, 1... Reading scanning section, 2...
- Encoding unit, 3... Control unit, 4... Buffer memory, 5... Transmitting/receiving unit, 6... Subscriber line, 7... Telephone, 8... Decoding unit, 9...・Record scanning section, 10...
- Operation panel, 11... Key manual section, 12... Display section, 20... Page memory, 30... Display display device, 31... Reduction processing means, 32... Collection means, 33...Record display control means. Applicant's representative Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4 (a) Figure 4 (b) Buffer memory Figure 5

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) In a facsimile machine that temporarily stores image data obtained by a reading scanning section or image data received by a receiving section in a buffer memory and then transmits or records the image data stored in the buffer memory, page by page. a reduction processing means for reducing the image at a predetermined magnification; a reduction image data memory for storing reduced image data obtained by the reduction processing means; The image data stored in the buffer memory is reduced by the reduction processing means and stored in the reduced image data memory, and then the reduced image data stored in the reduced image data memory is read out for a plurality of pages at a time, and the image data before reduction is read out. 1. A facsimile apparatus comprising: display output control means for displaying and outputting an edited state of one page. (2) The facsimile apparatus according to claim (1), wherein the display output control means causes the recording/scanning section to record the reduced image data or causes the image display to display the image.