JPS6345971A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To quicken the processing such as recovery of recording paper or the like by calling an opposite station corresponding to a telephone number of a picture sender side immediately after a received picture data is recorded so as to send a prescribed voice message. CONSTITUTION:A telephone number of a prescribed opposite station is registered in advance in a memory 1 and a CPU 3 controls a voice output device 6 and a dial device 7 when the transmission or reception of a picture is finished to use the telephone number stored in the memory 1 for the automatic dialing, and the voice message representing the end of communication processing is sent. When all the picture messages are finished for recording, a destination of the picture message in response to the transmission station is subject to information of the reception of the picture by the voice message. Thus, in registering the telephone number of a desk of a person in charge different from the picture sending station of a customer into the memory 1 as the destination of the voice message, the person in charge in an office acquires the picture message of the customer without delay and the procedure corresponding to the picture message is taken quickly.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a facsimile machine, particularly a facsimile machine having a means for making a telephone call to a predetermined partner station by automatic calling processing, and transmitting and receiving image data via a predetermined communication line. The present invention relates to a facsimile machine that performs facsimile operations.

[Prior Art] Traditionally, facsimile machines have been configured to transmit document data set at a specified time, or to automatically receive image data in response to a telephone call, making unattended operation possible. Many things are possible.

In the case of image reception, most of the processes such as recording, transporting recording paper, and cutting are automated, and even when transmitting a plurality of originals, the transport of the originals is performed by an auto sheet feeder. Therefore, even if the device does not operate completely unattended, it can be used by setting an original and then leaving the device to do other work.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, in conventional facsimile machines, the start and end of image data transmission and reception are only announced using a bell sound, etc., so if the user leaves the machine, the machine will not operate properly. There is a problem that the operating state cannot be known. For example, as shown above, if you set a document, issue a transmission command, and then leave the device, you will not know when the processing will end, so you will have to find an appropriate time to go and retrieve the document. There wasn't. Further, when receiving an image, unless the user is near the apparatus, it is not possible to know whether the recording process is complete or even whether an image is being received or not.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to solve the above problems, the present invention has means for making a call to a predetermined partner station by automatic calling processing, and transmits an image via a predetermined communication line. A facsimile device that sends and receives data is provided with means for detecting the telephone number of the image transmitter when receiving an image, and a storage means for storing at least one set of data in which telephone numbers are associated with each other according to the telephone number of the image transmitter. Immediately after recording the received image data, search the storage means from the phone number of the image sending side and read out the corresponding phone number.
A configuration is adopted in which the telephone calling means calls the other party's station corresponding to this telephone number and transmits a predetermined voice message.

[Function] According to the above configuration, if the destination of the voice message is specified as the operator's desk telephone, etc., the operator can know the timing at which recording of the received image message ends, and the operator can check the recording paper. It is possible to quickly perform processes such as collecting.

[Embodiments] The present invention will be described in detail below based on embodiments shown in the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a facsimile machine employing the present invention. The illustrated facsimile machine, like known devices, has an image reader 8 for reading a document, and a printer 9 for recording an image upon receiving the document or during a copying operation of the document.

The reading and recording operations of the image reader 8 and printer 9 are controlled by the CPU 3. The CPU 3 processes the operation of the entire device, which is comprised of a microprocessor, a memory storing a control program, and the like. CPU
Since the control procedure for transmitting and receiving images in step 3 is the same as that of conventional devices, detailed explanation will be omitted here.

A memory 1 composed of a RAM or the like is connected to the CPU 3 for use as a storage area for image data received or read by the image reader 8, or as a work area. This memory 1 stores data such as a telephone number for automatic dialing, as will be described later.

In this embodiment, two dial devices 2.7 are provided as communication processing units. The dial device 2 has a function of automatically sending a dial signal to a line using telephone number data inputted from an operation unit (not shown) and stored in the memory 1.

Further, although processing units such as an NCU and a modem are not illustrated in this embodiment, it may be considered that these communication processing units are included in the dial device 2.

In this embodiment, the dial device 2 is used for transmitting and receiving image data, and the dial device 7 is used for processing to transmit an audio signal output from an audio output device 6 to a predetermined partner station as described later. used for.

The audio output device 6 is composed of a tape recorder, a voice synthesizing means, etc., and is used to create a voice message to be sent to a predetermined destination when communication processing is completed.

According to the above configuration, the telephone number of a predetermined partner station is registered in the memory 1 in advance, and when the image transmission or reception operation is completed, the CPU 3 controls the audio output device 6 and the dial device 7 to It is possible to make an automatic call using the telephone number stored in 1 and send a voice message to the effect that the communication process has been completed.

Therefore, the operator must
In other words, by registering your desk or home phone number in memory 1, you can accurately know when the communication will end, and take appropriate actions such as immediately collecting the manuscript or recording paper. .

The flowcharts in FIGS. 2 and 3 illustrate an example of the processing procedure of the CPU 3 for performing the above operations. In the example shown here, the status of image reception is notified by transmitting a voice message to a predetermined partner station. In the processing examples shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, it is assumed that a voice message is transmitted when an image message arrives from a certain transmitting station. In addition, in this embodiment, the memory 1 stores data associating a plurality of transmission partner stations with predetermined voice message transmission destinations corresponding to each of them. is automatically controlled.

The processing procedures shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 are stored as a program for the CPU 3 in a memory such as a ROM (not shown). In the following description, it is assumed that flows labeled with the same alphabet in FIGS. 2 and 3 are continuous at that position. The steps in FIGS. 2 and 3 will be explained in detail below.

In the standby state, the CPU 3 executes step S1 in FIG.
Then, while going through the loop formed by step S14 in FIG. 3, it is determined whether to proceed to transmission or reception processing.

If there is a call from the line in step S1, the process moves to the reception process from step S2 onwards, and if a transmission command is input at step S14, the process moves to the transmission process from step S15 onwards.

In the reception process, first, in step S2, telephone number data transmitted from the other party's station is identified. It is assumed that the telephone number data is transmitted from the other party's station in step S15, which will be described later. Communication with the image transmitting station takes place via a dial device 2.

Next, in step S3, an image message is received from the transmitting station. Image reception processing is performed by executing the loop from step S4 onward for each predetermined amount of image messages, for example, every page.

First, in step S4, it is determined whether or not the image message has ended, and if the message has ended, the process moves to step S7.

If the message processing is to be continued, the received data is first demodulated and combined in step s5, and then the restored image data is recorded by the printer 9 in step s6.

In step S7, a correspondence table between transmitting stations and voice message destinations (hereinafter referred to as contacts) stored in the memory 1 is searched.

In the following step S8, the search result in step s7 is determined. If the contact information corresponding to the transmitting station telephone number is registered in the memory 1, the process moves to step S9, and if the contact information is not registered, the process returns to the loop of step s1.

In steps 59 to s12, the arrival of the facsimile message is notified to a predetermined contact point corresponding to the transmitting station by a voice message. That is, in step S9, memory 1
The phone number of the contact that has been read out is given to the dialing device 7 via the signal line 1o, causing the dialing device 7 to generate a dial signal and calling the contact.

When the operator at the contact point responds, in step S10 the voice output device 6 is activated and a pre-prepared voice message is transmitted via the dial device 7. The voice message may be any message that notifies the arrival of the image message, such as "Facsimile image received."

The voice message is continuously transmitted until the operator hangs up the phone in step sll.

Subsequently, in step S12, the dial device 7 cuts off the line connection with the contact, and the process returns to the loop of step S1.

On the other hand, when performing transmission processing, first, in step 515 in FIG. 3, the telephone number of the line to which the own device is connected is notified to the other party. It is preferable to transmit the telephone number data using an information field of a facsimile procedure signal. The telephone number data transmitted to the other party's station is used according to the procedure shown in FIG.

Subsequently, in step 316, the image reader 8 reads the image data of the set document. The end of the reading process is determined by detecting the presence or absence of a document in step S17 every predetermined data processing amount (for example, every line read). The presence or absence of a document can be detected using a photosensor or the like provided in a part of the document conveyance path, as is conventionally done. If the document data is completed in step S17, the process returns to step S1 in FIG.

In steps 31B and 319, respectively, step 3
The data read in step 16 is encoded and transmitted via dial device 2.

According to the process described above, when all image messages have been recorded, the contact information corresponding to the sending station of the image message is notified by voice message that the image has been received.

Therefore, for example, in an office, if the desk telephone of a different person in charge of each customer's image transmission station is registered in memory 1 as a voice message contact, the person in charge can receive the customer's image message without delay. This allows you to quickly move on to procedures that correspond to image messages.

In the procedures shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, the communication by voice message is made immediately after the recording of the image message is completed, but the communication may be made immediately before the recording of the image data starts. Further, in the above process, the received image is recorded immediately after the communication process by voice message is performed, but it may be stored in a buffer memory or the like and then recorded according to an instruction from the operator.

Further, in the above process, the end of the reception process is notified by a voice no-2 message when an image is received, but it is conceivable that the same process is performed when an image is sent. If communication is made by voice message when transmitting images, the operator can immediately return to his/her desk after setting a large number of originals and wait for communication by voice message while doing other work.

Furthermore, the voice message that the voice output device 6 outputs is not limited to one type, but the operator of the contact can set a desired message or select a desired message from among a plurality of prepared messages. You can leave it as

[Effects] As is clear from the above, according to the present invention, there is provided a facsimile machine that has means for making a call to a predetermined partner station by automatic calling processing, and that transmits and receives image data via a predetermined communication line. , a means for detecting the telephone number of the image transmitter when receiving the image, and a storage means for storing at least one set of data in which the telephone number is associated with the telephone number of the image transmitter according to the telephone number of the image transmitter. Since the above-mentioned storage means is searched from the telephone number of the side, the corresponding telephone number is read out, and the telephone transmission means calls the other party station corresponding to this telephone number and sends a predetermined voice message. It is possible to provide an excellent facsimile device in which the end timing of recording processing of received image data can be immediately known at a location different from where the device is installed.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a facsimile machine that employs the present invention, and FIGS. 2 and 3 are C of FIG.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart diagram showing an example of a processing procedure of a PU. 1...Memory 2.7...Dial device 3
...CPU 6...Audio output device 8...Image reader 9.
...Printer Ju 2nd Summer Pro 7) Picture 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a facsimile machine having means for making a telephone call to a predetermined partner station by automatic calling processing and transmitting and receiving image data via a predetermined communication line, means for detecting a telephone number of an image transmitting party when receiving an image; A storage means is provided for storing at least one set of data in which telephone numbers are associated with each other according to the telephone number of the image transmitting side, and when the received image data is finished recording, the storage means immediately stores data from the telephone number of the image transmitting side. 1. A facsimile apparatus, characterized in that the facsimile apparatus searches for a corresponding telephone number, reads out a corresponding telephone number, calls the other party's station corresponding to this telephone number using the telephone calling means, and transmits a predetermined voice message.