JP2639806B2 - Data communication terminal utilization device - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data communication terminal using device that pays and uses a fee, and more particularly to a data communication terminal using device in which a data communication terminal usage fee charging system is improved.

[Prior Art] A facsimile apparatus is one of well-known data communication terminal apparatuses. Until now, in most cases, facsimile machines have been mostly installed in offices and the like and used only by their staff members. However, in recent years, for example, stationery stores and the like have installed facsimile machines, and transmission services such as documents to unspecified general customers have been provided.

In order to provide such a transmission service, the store must pay a communication fee to the line / line installation provider according to the time used for the telephone line and the distance to the destination. Therefore, for example, a device usage fee and a communication fee set according to the number of documents are collected from the customer.

For this purpose, the store clerk operates the facsimile machine in accordance with the user's request to perform the transmission process, while measuring the communication time, calculating the communication fee by referring to the destination destination fee table prepared in advance, A transmission service usage fee is obtained by adding the predetermined device usage fee.

As described above, conventionally, when providing a transmission service for documents and the like, it is troublesome for the store clerk to operate the facsimile apparatus and calculate the fee. In addition, there is an inconvenience that the user does not know the usage fee until the transmission processing is completed.

By the way, there is known a general facsimile machine having a function of calculating a communication fee with a communication destination after outputting a transmission process and outputting a communication fee management report. However, in this case, since the fee is calculated based on the communication time after the communication is completed, the fee cannot be known in advance. Further, even if the charge is calculated in advance, the transmission speed of the image information is determined after the communication is started, and the communication time varies depending on the transmission speed.

In addition to the facsimile apparatus, there is, for example, a teletex as a data communication terminal capable of transmitting the user's data in such a manner. However, in this case, there is also trouble and inconvenience.

[Purpose] It is an object of the present invention to provide a data communication terminal using apparatus which can display a maximum usage charge of a data communication terminal before data transmission and can smoothly use the data communication terminal without trouble.

[Configuration] For this reason, according to the present invention, the communication distance is determined from the destination telephone number to obtain a communication fee per unit time, the transmission data is temporarily stored in a memory, and the data transmission speed is determined based on the data amount. When the required communication fee is calculated from the communication time obtained under the slow conditions and the communication fee of the unit time above, and the usage fee is displayed based on the calculated communication fee before the start of data transmission, while the fee is delivered Start sending data to
When the actual transmission speed is determined, the communication fee is calculated again, and the difference in the reduced usage fee is refunded.

 Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a reading unit 1 reads out a transmission original at a predetermined linear density to extract image information, and a line buffer 2 temporarily stores the extracted image information of one line. CO
The DEC (encoding / decoding unit) 3 encodes image information to be transmitted and decodes received image information in accordance with the GIII standard of the CCITT recommendation. Line buffer 4
The received image information is temporarily stored for one line, and the recording unit 5 records the image information on a recording sheet.

The image memory 6 temporarily stores image information to be transmitted. The modem 7 transmits and receives a transmission procedure signal under the control of the transmission procedure control unit 8, and modulates image information to be transmitted and demodulates received image information. This modem 7 has 9600 BPS, 7200 BPS, 4800 BPS and 2
It has a function to transmit data at four transmission speeds of 400 BPS,
96 due to the modem training performed in the transmission control procedure
Fallback is sequentially performed from 00BPS to a transmission rate that can be transmitted, and the transmission rate is set to one transmission rate. NCU (network controller)
Reference numeral 9 denotes an outgoing operation such as supplementation of a line and transmission of a selection signal as a dial number, and an incoming operation by detecting an incoming call. At this time, the automatic transmission unit 10 outputs a predetermined selection signal.

The information counting unit 11 detects all the encoded image information to be transmitted, that is, the amount of data stored in the image memory 6. The communication time counting unit 12 calculates the communication time with the destination before starting the transmission operation. Here, assuming that the data amount is D, the time required for the transmission control procedure is T ₁ , and the data transmission speed is S, the communication time T ₀ is obtained by the following equation.

T ₀ = (D / S) + T ₁ (1) The time T ₀ is slightly different between the case where the document has only one page and the case where the document is a multi-page, but is calculated by the average number of pages for the data amount. .

The device operating time counting unit 13 counts the device operating time from the start of operation of the user operating the facsimile device to the end of communication. The device usage fee calculation unit 14 calculates the device usage fee by multiplying the device operating time by a preset fee per unit time.

The telephone number storage unit 15 stores a destination telephone number to be transmitted, and the unit charge storage unit 16 stores a communication charge per unit time when calling from the installation location of the facsimile machine to various parts of the country, that is, line / line. This is for storing a communication fee to be paid to the facility provider and obtaining a communication fee per unit time for the other party based on the destination telephone number. Communication charge calculation unit 17, by the fee per unit time the communication time T _0, and calculates the communication fee actually required.

The display controller 18 sums up the communication fee and the device usage fee, and displays the transmission service usage fee charged to the user on the display unit 19. The display unit 19 can display characters such as a CRT and a liquid crystal display.

The fee delivery unit 20 delivers the displayed fee by coins or bills to the user, and the fee counting unit 21 counts the delivered amount. The difference calculation unit 22 is for returning a predetermined difference from the charge refund unit 23 when the delivery amount exceeds the usage fee.

The operation unit 24 issues a reading instruction of a transmission original, an input of a destination telephone number, a start instruction of transmission processing, and the like. The system control unit 25 controls each of the above units,
A predetermined usage fee is collected and a predetermined image transmission is executed.

The facsimile apparatus of the present embodiment has the above configuration, and is installed in an unmanned place like a public telephone, for example, and the user operates by himself / herself when he / she wants to use it and pays a predetermined fee each time. Things.

When performing transmission processing using this facsimile apparatus, the user first reads the transmission original as shown in FIG.
, And input the destination telephone number with the operation unit 24 to perform a start operation (process 31). As a result, the reading unit 1 is activated under the control of the system control unit 25, and the read image information is
The data is coded by CODEC3 and sequentially stored in the image memory 6 (process 32). The information counting unit 11 counts the data amount sequentially stored in the image memory 6 and detects the total data amount to be transmitted.

The communication time counting unit 12 calculates the communication time from the equation (1) based on the data amount, the data transmission speed, and the time required for the transmission control procedure. In this case, since the data transmission rate is determined by the transmission control procedure after the start of the communication processing, here, the lowest data transmission rate of 2400 BP
Calculate with S. On the other hand, the unit charge storage unit 16 obtains, for example, a communication charge per second from the input destination telephone number. The communication charge calculation unit 17 calculates a necessary communication charge based on the product of the communication charge per unit time and the communication time.

The apparatus operating time counting unit 13 measures the time from the time when the user first sets the document on the reading unit 1 to the time when the accumulation of the image information of the document in the image memory 6 ends, and measures the time. And the communication time obtained by the communication time counting unit 12 are added to calculate the device use time. The device usage fee calculation unit 14 calculates a predetermined device usage fee from the device usage time.

The display control unit 18 adds the device using charges and the communication charge is calculated usage fee C ₀ (process 33). Then, as shown in FIG. 3, the communication fee (FIG. 3A), the device usage fee (FIG. 2B), the usage fee (FIG. 3C) which is the total amount of both, and the charge request message (FIG. 3D). Is displayed (step 34).

The user pays the fee displayed on the display unit 19 from the fee delivery unit 20. The charge counting unit 21 counts the delivered charges. The difference calculator 22 checks the result (processing
35). Here, if the fee is paid (Y in the process 35), the fee refund unit 23 is controlled as necessary to return the change.

Next, the automatic transmission unit 10 reads out the destination telephone number from the telephone number storage unit 15 and controls the NCU 9 to perform a predetermined transmission process. When the partner facsimile machine responds, a predetermined transmission process starts (process 36).

FIG. 4 shows an example of the transmission control procedure executed here. That is, when receiving the CED signal and the DIS signal from the receiving side RX, the transmitting side TX transmits the DCS signal and the modem training signal. This modem training signal
First, it sends out the signal with the fastest transmission speed of 9600 BPS.

As a result, the receiving RX performs modem training and performs FT when the line condition is poor and the data error rate is high.
Returns T signal. When the transmitting TX receives the FTT signal, it lowers the transmission speed by one step and transmits the modem training signal again. Such a procedure is repeated, and when the receiving side RX can normally receive, the CFR signal is returned. Sending TX
Is determined to a specific transmission rate S ₁ receives this. The figure shows a case where the value is determined to be 4800 BPS.

The system control unit 25 monitors the progress of the transmission control procedure (process 37), the transmission rate S ₁ is determined (process 37 Y), the transmission rate used in the billing and its transmission rate S ₁
Compare with 2400 BPS (process 38). Here, the transmission speed S ₁ is 2
Not equal 400 bps (N processing 38), similarly to the at that transmission rate S _1, calculates the communication fee C ₁ (process 39). Then, to calculate the difference between the rates C ₀ previously calculated between the current fee C _1, to refund the difference from the fee refund part 23 (process 40).
At this time, the display unit 19 displays the fee calculated this time.

In parallel with the above processes 37 to 40, the image information of the image memory 6 is transmitted from the transmission side TX by the modem 7 as shown in FIG. 4, and an EOP signal is transmitted after the image information. Receiver R
X returns an MCF signal, and the transmitting TX transmits a DCN signal, and the transmission process ends.

On the other hand, if the fee has not been delivered (N in process 35), the transmission process is not executed. Also, the transmission speed S ₁ is 2400
If it is a BPS (Y in process 38), the transmission process is executed directly. By the way, when there is no response even if the other party's line is busy or the call is made for a certain period of time after the calling process is started, the fee paid by the fee refund unit 23 is refunded.

As described above, in the present embodiment, the image information of the transmission original is temporarily stored in the image memory 6, and the communication time is obtained from the data amount, the lowest transmission speed, and the time required for the transmission control. The communication charge per unit time is stored, the area is determined from the input destination telephone number, and the necessary communication charge is calculated from the charge per unit time and the communication time. In addition, the operation time of the device is counted, the device usage fee corresponding to the time is calculated, and the sum with the communication fee is displayed as the usage fee of the transmission service such as a document before the start of the transmission process. . Then, the transmission process is started after the fee is delivered, and when the data transmission speed is determined, the fee is calculated again and the excess delivery is refunded.

Since the fee calculation is performed by the facsimile machine in this way, by performing the operation by the user himself, there is no trouble for a clerk or the like to perform the operation or calculate the fee. In addition, since the usage fee is displayed before transmission, the user can know the fee in advance, and can perform transmission processing after paying the fee, so that the user can use the device with confidence.

By the way, in the above-mentioned embodiment, since the usage fee is calculated under the highest condition first, there is a disadvantage that the user always needs more money than the actually required amount. FIG. 5 shows the operation of a facsimile apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention in which this inconvenience has been alleviated. In the figure, the same reference numerals as those in FIG. 2 indicate the same processes.
In this case, the original set, destination telephone number input (process 31),
After the document reading (process 32), usage charge C ₂ is calculated at a transmission rate S ₂ that are most used by the facsimile apparatus (process
41). In the above-described modem training, but the transmission rate S ₁ used by the line status at the time of communication is determined, wherein the preset transmission rate generally the most determined as S ₂ is.

Then, if it is delivered its rates (Y of process 35), starts the transmission process (process 36), when the transmission rate S ₁ is was determined (37 processing Y), the transmission rate S ₁ and the transmission comparing the speed S ₂ (process 42), when mismatch calculates a usage fee C ₁ at a transmission rate S ₁ again (process 43).

Then, it calculates the difference obtained by subtracting the usage fee C ₁ obtained this time from the usage fee C ₂ obtained in the expression, when this difference is positive, that amount refund (process 45), executes a predetermined transmission processing The entire image information is transmitted (process 46).

On the other hand, if the difference is negative, based on the difference between the transmission speed S ₁ and the transmission rate S _2, usage fee that is delivered earlier
C The time limit T for how long the transmission can be continued in ₂ minutes is calculated (process 47). Then, as shown in FIG. 6, the paid fee (f in FIG. 6) and the usage fee are displayed on the display unit 19.
And displays the determined rates is C ₁ (FIG g) and insufficient rates is the difference between them (FIG h), a message for prompting to deliver the missing rates within the time limit T (FIG. I ) Is displayed (process 47).

Next, the delivery of the fee is checked (process 49), and if a predetermined fee is delivered within the time T, the transmission process is executed as usual (process 46). On the other hand, if the fee has not been delivered, the transmission process is executed for the time limit T (process 5).
0).

As described above, in the present embodiment, the usage fee to be collected first is calculated at the most frequently used transmission speed, so that the user can reduce the amount of money that is not actually needed as in the case of FIG. The inconvenience of having to deliver once is improved.

In the above embodiment, although the transmission rate S ₂ for billing were as previously set fixedly, communication distance, the transmission rate that is most used in the communication time zone and communication destination by region investigated The result may be stored in a memory, and an appropriate transmission speed may be determined each time based on the input destination telephone number, and the charge may be calculated.

In addition, if the amount paid for the usage fee is small, the communication may be performed for a time corresponding to the fee. Further, in that case, the transmission mode may be changed to a transmission mode with a coarse line density to transmit image information to shorten the communication time.

Further, in the embodiment of FIG. 2, the communication time is calculated at the time when the data transmission speed is determined, and the usage fee is calculated again based on the data transmission speed. If the usage fee is calculated again based on the determined communication time, an accurate fee corresponding to the actual communication fee can be collected.

In addition, if the transmission processing is interrupted due to a transmission error after the payment of the predetermined fee, the fee may be obtained in accordance with the rate at which the image could be transmitted. Further, the apparatus usage fee is obtained according to the operation time of the apparatus, but may be determined according to the number of documents, and it is needless to say that the apparatus usage fee can be freely determined.

By the way, the case of the facsimile apparatus has been described above. However, in the case where such a data transmission service is performed by, for example, teletex, it is natural that the same operation and effect can be obtained by applying the present invention.

[Effects] As described above, according to the present invention, the communication distance is determined from the destination telephone number to obtain the communication fee per unit time, and the transmission data is temporarily stored in the memory, and the data amount is calculated. The required communication fee is calculated from the communication time obtained under the condition of the slowest data transmission speed and the communication fee of the unit time, and the usage fee is displayed based on the communication fee obtained before the start of data transmission. When delivered, data transmission starts and refunds will be made when the actual communication fee is determined. In addition to eliminating the hassle of performing calculations, the usage fee is displayed before transmission under the highest conditions, so that the user pays the fee and there is no interruption in transmission due to shortage of the fee. In addition, the data communication terminal can be used stably, and the difference between the delivered fee and the actual fee will be refunded after the transmission is completed, facilitating payment and use of the data communication terminal usage fee. Done in

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the facsimile apparatus, FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of a transmission service charge, and FIG. The figure is an explanatory diagram of the transmission control procedure,
FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the facsimile apparatus in another embodiment, and FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a display example of the insufficient usage fee in the embodiment. 1 ... Reading unit, 2,4 ... Line buffer, 3 ... CODEC
(Encoding / decoding unit), 5: recording unit, 6: image memory, 7: modem, 8: transmission procedure control unit, 9: NCU
(Network control device), 10: Automatic transmission section, 11: Information amount counting section, 12: Communication time counting section, 13: Device operating time counting section, 14: Device usage fee calculation section, 15: Phone number storage unit, 16 Unit charge storage unit, 17 Communication charge calculation unit, 18
…… Display control part, 19 …… Display part, 20 …… Charge delivery part, 21
… Charge counting unit, 22… Difference calculation unit, 23… Charge refund unit, 24… Operation unit, 25… System control unit.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A destination specifying means for specifying a telephone number of a transmission destination, a communication fee determining means for determining a communication distance from a specified telephone number to obtain a communication fee per unit time, and inputting data to be transmitted. Transmission data input means, transmission data storage means for temporarily storing data input by the transmission data input means, and a plurality of transmission speeds at which the stored transmission data can be transmitted. A data transmission unit for selecting and transmitting the fastest transmission speed at which transmission is possible; a plurality of transmittable data and a data amount of transmission data stored in the transmission data storage unit and a communication fee obtained by the communication fee determination unit; An initial speed usage fee calculating means for calculating a usage fee of a data transmission service including a device usage fee from a minimum transmission speed initially set among the transmission speeds; and Charge display means for displaying the usage charge calculated by the means, data transmission start means for causing the data transmission means to start data transmission when the usage charge is delivered before the start of transmission, and the data transmission means being selected. Means for calculating the actual data transmission service usage fee at the determined transmission speed, and, when there is a difference between the delivered fee and the actual usage fee, refund the difference after the data transmission is completed. A data communication terminal using apparatus, comprising: a usage fee managing unit.