JPS63294040A - Data communication system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To efficiently communicate data by transmitting and receiving information indicating an outline of data to be communicated to display this information before data communication. CONSTITUTION:Before a document is transmitted at the time of transmission, a special page where parts of respective pages of the document are expressed on a single page as shown in the figure is generated by a picture processing part 15, and a discrimination header indicating the special page is added to the special page to transmit it, and a timer part 14 is started. The transmission side waits for reception of a discrimination signal, which indicates whether the document expressed on the transmitted special page is required or not, from the reception side. If the discrimination signal is received from the reception side within a set time, the contents of a parameter part 52 of the discrimination signal are compared with a preliminarily determined value ('1' if required, '0' if not required) to check whether the reception side requires the document concerning the special page or not, and the document is transmitted to terminate communication if it is required, but communication is immediately terminated if it is not required.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Technical field] The present invention relates to a data communication system.

[Prior art] In recent years, teletex terminals, group 4 type facsimile machines,
BACKGROUND ART Devices such as so-called telematics terminals, such as mixed mode terminals, are connected to communication lines to send and receive text information, image information, or a mixture of both. Particularly recently, there has been a trend to introduce the concept of a page as a unit of information to be exchanged, and to treat a single or a collection of pages as a document and to perform transmission and reception on a document-by-document basis.

Received documents are usually reproduced by printing them on a printer, etc.
This is done by displaying on a display such as a CRT. It is also common practice to temporarily store received documents in a storage device such as a magnetic disk before reproducing them.

However, depending on the content of the received document, it may be particularly important to the user of the document exchange system, or it may not be very important, or it may not be necessary at all.
Unnecessary documents may be discarded due to differences in importance, and
Furthermore, if it is stored in a storage device, it is usually erased from the storage device.

However, with conventional technology, in order to know the contents of a document,
It is necessary for the user to view all pages of the document,
These methods have relied on methods such as a method in which the user visually checks the content of a printed document by going through it page by page, or a method in which a display device is provided and the content is visually checked by displaying the document page by page.

[Problem that the invention is trying to solve] However,
According to the conventional technology, since the user has to visually check the entire document, it can be said that it is inefficient if the user focuses on grasping the outline of the document. Furthermore, if the document is unnecessary, inefficiencies will arise in terms of paper for printing, storage space occupied in the storage device, and the like.

Also, regarding understanding the outline of the document, in mixed mode communication.

Is there a way to use this content on the receiving side by sending a protocol element called "Document Profile Descriptor" specified in CC1TT Recommendation T, 73 from the sending side? The information provided includes format-related information such as character spacing, line spacing, character progression direction, line progression direction, pixel transmission density, etc.
This is insufficient information to represent the outline of the document.

[Method and operation for solving the problem] According to the present invention, efficient data communication is made possible by transmitting, receiving, and displaying information indicating an outline of the data to be communicated prior to data communication. .

[Example] Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the configuration of a document exchange system according to the present invention. 1 is the main body of the document exchange device, which usually only creates documents, displays them on a display 2 such as a CRT, prints them on a printer 3, and stores them on a magnetic disk 4. Instead, it can be sent to another document exchange device 7 connected to the communication line 6 via the communication control unit 5 and the communication line 6, or vice versa. It also stores documents received via the magnetic disk 4, prints them on the printer 3, and displays them on the display 2.

The document exchange device main unit 1 includes a ROM 12 that stores the control procedures according to the present embodiment and the control procedures shown in the flow charts of FIGS. 6 and 7, and a microprocessor that executes the control procedures stored in the ROM 12. (hereinafter referred to as CPU)
11, a RAM l 3, a timer part 14, an image processing unit 15 having an image memory capable of storing image information for at least one baler, and a document reception selection for selecting whether or not the received document is necessary after displaying a special page. Consisting of 16 parts.

The RAM 13 stores various types of control information and other information used in this embodiment.

Note that the other document exchange device 7 has the same configuration as the document exchange device 1.

Next, the operation of the document exchange system of this embodiment will be explained in detail according to the flowcharts shown in FIGS. 6 and 7.

FIG. 6 shows the control procedure during transmission. At the time of transmission, before transmitting the document, the image processing unit 15 first creates a special page in which each page of the document is partially displayed on a single page in S1, and the process proceeds to S2. For example, as shown in Figure 3, the special page is
Stack the pages in order from the last page (nth page),
Moreover, it is displayed on a single page in such a way that only a portion of each page can be seen. In S2, an identification header indicating that the page is a special page is added to the special page created in St and transmitted, and the timer part 14 is activated. FIG. 4 shows an example of the format of the transmission frame at this time. 4
1 is a control unit in which the identification header is written;
is the data part, in which the special page itself is written. Next, the process advances to step 83 and waits for an identification signal indicating whether or not the document represented by the transmitted special page is necessary to be received from the receiving side. If it has not been received, the process advances to S6, and it is checked whether the set time has elapsed. If the set time has not elapsed, the process returns to S3, and if it has, the process advances to S7 to perform abnormality processing. On the other hand, when an identification signal is received from the receiving side in S3, the process proceeds to S4 and the content of the identification signal is analyzed. The identification signal has, for example, a format shown in FIG. 5, where 51 is an identifier section and 52 is a parameter section. In S4, by comparing the contents of the parameter section 52 with a predetermined value (for example, L when necessary and O when unnecessary), it is determined whether the document related to the sent special page is necessary on the receiving side. If the document is required, the process proceeds to S5, where the document is sent, and the process ends; if the document is not required, the process ends immediately.

FIG. 7 shows the control procedure at the time of reception. First, in R1, wait until a special page or a page of a normal document is received, and when it is received, proceed to R2, and determine whether the received data is a special page or not depending on whether it matches the format shown in Figure 4. investigate. If it is a normal document, the process advances to RIO and performs normal document reception processing. If it is a special page, proceed to R3 and display its contents on display 2.
, then proceed to R4 and wait for the operator's instructions. R4
After starting the timer section 14, the operator selects whether or not the document displayed on the special page is necessary, and waits for an instruction as to whether the document displayed on the special page is necessary using the document reception selection section 16, which will be described later. If no instruction is given, the process advances to R9 and checks whether or not the set time has elapsed. If it has not, the process returns to R4 and waits for the operator's instruction again. If the time has elapsed, the process advances to R6. On the other hand, if there is an instruction from the operator, the process proceeds to R5, where it is checked whether the document is necessary or not. If it is necessary, the process proceeds to R6, and the necessary information is entered in the parameter section 52 of the identification signal shown in FIG. A value indicating this (l in this embodiment) is written and transmitted to the sending document exchange device, and the process proceeds to R7, where normal reception processing for receiving the document is performed. If it is determined in R5 that the document is unnecessary, the process proceeds to R8, where a value indicating that the document is unnecessary (0 in this embodiment) is written in the parameter section 52 of the identification signal shown in FIG. After sending it to the exchange device, the process ends. In addition, if there is no instruction from the operator after the set time has passed in R9,
The document is considered necessary as a default state,
Proceed to R6 and perform the above-mentioned processing.

Next, a process for selecting whether or not the document is necessary after displaying the special page will be described. FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the document reception selection section 16, in which 161 is a switch for indicating that the document 3 is required, and 162 is a switch for indicating that the document is not required. It is capable of inputting signals to the CPU II. If the operator determines that the document is necessary, the operator presses the switch 161, and if the operator determines that the document is unnecessary, the operator presses the switch 162, thereby notifying the cptzi of each of these.

[Other Embodiments] In the above-mentioned embodiments, in order for the receiving side to detect whether or not the special page is a special page, a method was used in which the sending side added an identification header to the special page and sent it. Before sending a special page, the sending side sends a request signal indicating that it wishes to send a special page, the receiving side returns a response signal to the request signal, and after receiving the response signal, the sending side sends a special page. It is also possible to detect by sending a page. FIG. 8 shows the processing sequence on the sending side and receiving side regarding special page detection in this case.

Also, as a method for selecting whether a document displayed on a special page is necessary or not, instead of providing the document reception selection section shown in FIG. 2, a keyboard or pointing vise is connected to the document exchange device main body section l, Specific keys on a keyboard or pointing device may also be used.

As explained above, since a single page representing an overview of the entire document is sent in advance, the receiving side receives the l! of the document that is about to be received. It has become possible to understand the concept more efficiently and more easily. Further, since the document to be received is transmitted only when the receiving side determines that it is necessary, it is possible to efficiently use the printing paper and the storage area of the storage device.

[Effects] As described above, data communication can be performed efficiently by the present invention.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an example of the block configuration of the document exchange system and document exchange device of this embodiment, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing the configuration of the document reception selection section 16 used in this embodiment, and FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a special page used in this embodiment, in which a part of each page of a document is all expressed on a single page. FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an example of a special page used in the first embodiment. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the format of the identification signal used in the first embodiment, which indicates whether the document represented on the received special page is necessary or not.
7 is a flowchart showing the control procedure on the receiving side according to the first embodiment. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing the control procedure on the receiving side according to the first embodiment. FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a control sequence on the transmitting side and the receiving side related to special page detection processing in the embodiment. In the figure, l is the main body of the document exchange device, 2 is the display, 3 is the printer, 4 is the magnetic disk, 5 is the communication control unit, 6 is the communication line, 7 is another document exchange device, 11 is the CPU, and 12 is the R.O.
M, 13 is a RAM, 14 is a part of a timer, 15 is an image processing section, and 16 is a document reception selection section.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] A data communication system characterized by transmitting and receiving information indicating an outline of data to be communicated, transmitting and receiving the information prior to data communication, and displaying the information.