GB2307824A

GB2307824A - Communication terminal device

Info

Publication number: GB2307824A
Application number: GB9624474A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Makoto Yamamoto
Original assignee: Murata Machinery Ltd
Current assignee: Murata Machinery Ltd
Priority date: 1995-11-28
Filing date: 1996-11-25
Publication date: 1997-06-04
Anticipated expiration: 2016-11-25
Also published as: GB2307824B; JPH09153971A; GB9624474D0; DE19649175C2; DE19649175A1; KR970031417A

Description

2307824 1 The present invention relates to a communication terminal

device, such as a facsimile device, having a function for transferring image data received from an external terminal device such as a computer to another communication terminal 5 device.

Conventionally, facsimile devices have been widely used as communication terminals for the transmission and reception of image data via telephone lines. On the other hand, many multi-function terminals such as computers have been developed and are used for a variety of purposes.

In association with the use of both devices, facsimile devices having an PIP (Facsimile Interface Processor) mode enabling operation connected with an external terminal such as a computer have been developed. With such facsimile devices having PIP mode, image data produced at the external terminal device may be sent to a facsimile device and transmitted on to another facsimile device. In the reverse sense, an image scanned at a facsimile device can be sent to an external terminal device for processing or amendment of the image data.

However, with a conventional facsimile device, once facsimile transmission to another facsimile device due to an image data transmission request from an external terminal is complete, only the response to the command indicating completion of transmission is returned to the external terminal. Data such as transmission result, transmission time, communication speed and the like is included in this response to the external terminal but the transmitted image data is not included. As a result, the person who requested transmission at the external terminal device is not able to confirm what kind of image data was transmitted even if he 2 knows the image data transmission result.

Furthermore, as no function of recording image data after completion of transmission is provided, it is troublesome to confirm transmission by cross-checking the transmission 5 results with the contents of image data afterwards.

In view of the above facts, it is an object of the present invention to provide a communication terminal device that can confirm the contents of image data received from an external source and transmitted to another communication terminal, and by including a transmission result in the image data and recording them, can make the transmission result corresponding to the image data simple to understand.

In accordance with the invention there is provided a communication terminal device for connection to a telephone line and to an external terminal device via an exclusive line, comprising: means for receiving from the external terminal device a transmission request for image data to be sent to another communication terminal, 20 recording and/or display means operable, when there is a transmission request for image data to be sent from the external terminal device to said another communication terminal via the telephone line and once transmission of the image data is complete, to record and/or display the image data in respect of which transmission is complete, the means including a recording part and/or a display part; and means for sending the image data in respect of which transmission is complete to the external terminal device.

A facsimile device, computer or the like provided with a recording part such a magnetic storage device, print output part or memory and a display part such as a liquid crystal 3 display or CRT display are included in this communication terminal device. A computer or the like provided with functions for production, processing and amendment of image data is included in the external terminal device. These devices are connected by an exclusive line through an interface such as RS232C or ether-net and carry out transmission and reception of image data in accordance with a pre-specified command signal.

Thus, even after a lapse of time after transmission, the completion of transmission can be confirmed. In addition, even if the external terminal device of the transmission source is positioned in a place separated from the communication terminal device of the present invention, completion of the transmission can be confirmed at that external terminal device.

Furthermore, according to a preferred feature of the present invention, image data showing the completion of transmission of image data to another communication terminal is included in the image data recorded in the recording part, displayed in the display part or returned to the external terminal device. The included image data can include the transmission time, telephone number and name of the transmission destination etc in addition to a transmission complete mark. With this feature of the present invention, the completion of transmission of the image data can be confirmed together with the image data itself. This transmission result can be recorded, if desired.

According to a further preferred feature of the present invention, the image data showing the completion of transmission of the image data includes image data of a colour different from the image data in respect of which transmission 4 is complete. As a result, this communication terminal device may utilise a colour printer using an ink-jet system, a colour liquid crystal display or a colour CRT display. A computer provided with a similar colour display or the like may be 5 utilised at the external terminal device.

Thus, as the image data showing completion of transmission of the image data and the image data in respect of which transmission is complete are of different colours, they can be printed and displayed one on top of each other, making discrimmination of the two types of data easy.

According to a further preferred feature of the communication terminal device of the present invention, the data which shows completion of transmission of the image data to another communication terminal device is only incorporated on the leading page of the image data that is either recorded in a recording part, displayed in a display part or sent to the external terminal device via the exclusive line.

Alternatively, the transmission complete mark can be positioned at an optional place that is set in the image data in respect of which transmission has been completed.

The data showing completion of transmission preferably comprises image data of a colour which can be distinguished from the transmitted image data.

The data showing completion of the transmission preferably includes at least the destination and transmission time as data items and the colour of each item is set to be different from each other item.

According to a further preferred feature of the communication terminal device of the present invention, a page may be set in the image data that is either recorded in a recording part, displayed in a display part or sent to the external terminal device via the exclusive line such that the data showing completion of transmission can be presented on this page.

In order that the invention may be fully understood, an embodiment of communication terminal device will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a block diagram showing one example of the basic construction of a communication terminal device (facsimile device) in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 2 is a diagram showing one example of the composition of an image transfer processing system using a facsimile device as shown in Fig. 1.

Figure 3 is a sequence diagram showing one example of the basic operations of the image transfer processing system shown in Fig. 2.

Figure 4 is an example of the print output when transmission of image data has been completed.

Fig. 1 is a block schematic diagram showing one example of the basic construction of a communication terminal device in accordance with the present invention. The communication terminal device is here shown as a facsimile device F, by way of example.

This facsimile device F is not only connected to telephone lines L but also to an external terminal device, such as a computer PC, via an exclusive line L1 (to be described later, with reference to Fig. 2).

In Fig. 1, 1 is a signal processor including a CPU which carries out signal control of each part of the device, 2 is a network control unit for carrying out connection control with a public network via telephone lines L, 3 is a modem for 6 carrying out generation and detection of protocol signals in order to execute facsimile communication procedures and modulating/demodulating the image data that is transmitted and received, 4 is an auto-dialler that automatically calls the telephone number of a third party's facsimile device, 5 is an interface for carrying out transmission and reception of image data and character data with the computer PC via an exclusive line Ll, 6 is a key operation part having any one of various kinds of operating keys such as a keypad, 7 is a display including a liquid crystal display or the like, 8 is an image scanner that scans the document, 9 is a print output part having a colour printing head which outputs the image data on to recording paper, 10 is memory comprising an image data memory 10a that temporarily memorises the image data; a transmission complete mark memory lob that memorises the image data of the transmission complete mark that accompanies the image data; and other memories. 11 is a signal converter that codes/decodes the image data and converts the character data into image data in order to make transferal (of image data) between the computer PC or the like and another communication terminal device possible.

Fig. 2 is a diagram showing one example of the composition of an image transfer processing system using a facsimile device F as shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3 is a sequence diagram showing one example of the operations of the image transfer processing system shown in Fig. 2. The basic operations of the facsimile device F will now be described based on these diagrams.

In Fig. 2, the facsimile device F is connected to the computer PC, i.e. an external terminal device, by an exclusive line L1 such as RS232C, and is connected to another external 7 facsimile device Fa via the telephone lines L.

When image data is to be transmitted from the computer -PC to another facsimile device Fa via the telephone lines L, a transmission request command is initially transmitted to the facsimile device F via the exclusive line Ll. This command contains the telephone number of the destination facsimile device Fa.

Next, the computer PC transmits a print output request command and directs the facsimile device F to print out the image data when the transmission of the image data is complete. Page selection is possible in this command. For example, page selection of only the first page, or print out up to a certain page, or print out of all pages. It should be noted that even if this command is not transmitted (by the computer PC) the details of this command may be set by operation of the key operation part 6 at the facsimile device F.

Then, when the facsimile device F receives the image data from the computer PC, the signal processor 1 stores this image data in the image data memory 10a. It should be noted that if character data is received at this time, the character data is converted to MMR coded (or the like) image data at the signal converter 11 and the image data is stored in an image data memory 10a called a mail box or the like where it is managed in block units.

of course, it is possible for character data to be stored in the image data memory 10a as character data without conversion to image data and then be converted to image data when conversion is necessary at transmission time.

When the facsimile device F has received all the pages of image data from the computer PC via the interface 5, the 8 telephone number in the transmission request command is automatically dialled by the auto-dialler 4. When the destination facsimile device Fa responds to this, transmission of image data is carried out in accordance with facsimile communication procedures.

Then, when transmission of all the image data is complete, after a transmission complete response has been relayed back to the computer PC, the image data of those pages specified by the print output request command is outputted on to recording paper from the print output part 9, and after this print-out the image data in the image data memory 10a is erased.

Fig. 3 shows an example where only the specified first page of the two pages of image data transmitted to the destination facsimile device Fa is outputted from the print output part 9.

Next, an example of the output from the aforementioned print output part 9 is shown in Fig. 4.

In this diagram, a transmission complete mark M which shows that transmission has been completed accompanies the image data printed out. This transmission complete mark M is set and positioned at an optional place such as the margin of the document by a command received from the computer PC acting as the external terminal device and by operation of the key operation part 6. It is also possible for this mark M to be present on only the leading page of the pages that are specified to be printed out. The contents of this mark M may include the transmission date and time, the number of pages transmitted, the transmission time duration, the telephone number and name of the destination and the like, based on a calendar clock, timer circuit, telephone number memory and the 9 like. Thus, useful information can be obtained when this communication result is viewed afterwards. Also, if the characters of the transmission complete mark M are made larger than the standard size (10 point) used in general documents, 5 they are easier to see.

Furthermore, when the transmission complete mark M is positioned over the transmitted image data (the image data in respect of which transmission is complete) as shown in Fig. 4, if the colour of the mark M is different from that of the image data, then there is no loss of clarity of the transmitted image data and identification of the transmission complete mark M is made easier.

The operations at this time are as follows:

The fixed data of the transmission complete mark M is stored in the transmission complete mark memory 10b by beforehand scanning it with the image scanner 8, or by rece iving it as data from the computer PC, or by select ing/sett ing it by the operation of the key operation part 6.

Then, at the point when transmission is complete, the image data, the fixed data of the transmission complete mark M and the communication result data such as the time, date, etc, are compiled into the image memory (not shown) as image data of differing colours such as black, red and blue respectively, and this is outputted from the print output part 9. If the colour of the transmission complete mark M is set to be different for each item of the mark by the key operation part 6, a specific item can quickly be confirmed.

The case where the image data in respect of which transmission has been completed is printed out has been described above, but the present invention is not limited to this. Recording that image data in a recording part separate f rom the print output part 9 (such as in an internal or external magnetic storage device), displaying it in the display 7 and transmitting it back to the computer PC is also 5 possible, as indicated at the bottom of Fig. 3.

When the image data is sent back to the computer PC, the image data may be transmitted back in accordance with protocol between the computer PC and the facsimile device F after a transmission request command is transmitted from the facsimile device F.

In this way, completion of transmission can be confirmed at the computer PC, together with the image data which has been transmitted, as a display on the CRT screen, and as a print-out from the printer and the like, even at a place separated from the facsimile device F. It is also possible to process and amend this image data and re-send it to the facsimile device F and forward it to the external facsimile device Fa.

11

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A communication terminal device for connection to a telephone line and to an external terminal device via an exclusive line, comprising:

means for receiving from the external terminal device a transmission request for image data to be sent to another communication terminal, recording and/or display means operable, when there is a transmission request for image data to be sent from the external terminal device to said another communication terminal via the telephone line and once transmission of the image data is complete, to record and/or display the image data in respect of which transmission is complete, the means including a recording part and/or a display part; and means for sending the image data in respect of which transmission is complete to the external terminal device.

2. A communication terminal device as claimed in claim 1, further comprising means for including in the image data that is either recorded in the recording part, displayed in the display part or sent to the external terminal device via the exclusive line data showing the completion of the transmission of the image data to said another communication terminal device as a transmission complete mark.

3. A communication terminal device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the data showing completion of transmission is of a colour which can be distinguished from the image data in respect of which transmission is complete.

is

4. A communication terminal device as claimed in claim 2 or 3, wherein the data which shows completion of transmission of the image data to said another communication terminal device is arranged to appear only on the leading page 12 of the image data that is either recorded in the recording part, displayed in the display part or sent to the external terminal device via the exclusive line.

5. A communication terminal device as claimed in claim 2 or 3, wherein the transmission complete mark can be arranged to appear at an optional place that is set in the image data in respect of which transmission is complete.

6. A communication terminal device as claimed in claim 2,3,4,or 5 wherein at least the destination and transmission time are included as data items in the data showing completion of the transmission, the colour of each said item being different.

7. A communication terminal device as claimed in claim 2, comprising means for setting a page in the image data that is either recorded in a recording part, displayed in a display part or sent to the external terminal device via the exclusive line so that the data showing completion of transmission can be incorporated on the said page.

8. A communication terminal device as claimed in any preceding claim, comprising means for printing out the image data that is either recorded in a recording part, displayed in a display part or sent to the external terminal device via the exclusive line at either the external terminal device or the communication terminal device, and means for specifying pages of that image data to be printed out.

9. A communication terminal device substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawings.

10. A data transfer system comprising a communication terminal device as claimed in any preceding claim, an external terminal device connected to the communication terminal device 13 by an exclusive line, and another communication terminal device connected to the aforesaid communication terminal device by telephone lines.

11. A data transfer system as claimed in claim 10, wherein the external terminal device is a computer, and the communication terminal devices are facsimile machines.