JPH0340660A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To obtain an excellent picture without defect of recording lines with simple processing by not executing the processing to picture information when the extracted picture information has a data error and processing picture information extracted one by one line each from the succeeding reception line at an interval of a prescribed line number. CONSTITUTION:When a data error occurs during the transmission of picture information, a correct run length code is not obtained at the decoding at a receiver side or picture information of a prescribed bit number is not obtained at the reproduction of one line picture information. When the prescribed run length code is not obtained at the decoding and the reception data is not an EOL code, a line buffer 10a and a bit number counter are immediately cleared to execute the retrieval of the EOL code. Thus, in this case, the processing to the picture information of the line having an error is stopped and the picture information of the succeeding line is processed in place of the picture information of the said line. Thus, the similar processing is repeated from the line at the interval of one line.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Industrial application fields] The present invention relates to a facsimile device.

[Prior Art] When a facsimile machine receives an image, if the size of the recording paper is smaller than the size of the received image, it is often done to reduce the received image according to the size of the recording paper and record it. ing.

For example, if the received image is A4 size and the recording paper size is A6 size, the received image is reduced to a size ratio of 172. In this way, the method of reducing the received image to 1/2 is to take out the image information that is sequentially received one line at a time and reduce it in the sub-scanning direction, and also to reduce the black and white data of each pixel of each line to 1/2. A well-known method is to thin out every pixel and reduce the size in the main scanning direction.

By the way, in the case of commonly used facsimile apparatuses such as the G3 standard of CCITT, image information is encoded and compressed for each line before being transmitted.

When image information is encoded and transmitted line by line in this manner, if a transmission error occurs in even one bit, the receiving side cannot reproduce the image information after the error bit.

For this reason, conventionally, when recording a received image, lines in which an error has occurred are not recorded.

On the other hand, in order to prevent missing lines in this case, all received image information is taken out once and one line to be recorded is processed, for example by performing an OR operation on each pixel data of odd and even lines. There is a method of creating image information by performing certain processing.

However, in the above method, it is sufficient to extract and decode every other line of received image information, whereas in this method, all lines of received image information are extracted and decoded, and then certain processing is performed. Must. Therefore, the processing of one-stroke information becomes complicated and the processing time becomes long.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] As described above, in the past, if the processing of received image information was simplified, some lines of the recorded image would be missing when a transmission error occurred, making it impossible to obtain a good image. However, when trying to prevent such lines from being dropped, there was a problem that image information processing became complicated. The present invention solves the above problem and makes it possible to record lines without missing lines using simple processing. The purpose of the present invention is to provide a facsimile device that can obtain images.

[Means for Solving the Problems] For this purpose, the present invention receives transmitted image information, extracts the image information one line at a fixed number of lines, and determines whether or not there is a data error in the image information. If there is no data error, the image information is converted to image information for recording through certain processing such as decoding or reduction processing, and the image is recorded.If there is a data error in the extracted image information, This method is characterized in that the image information is not processed on the image information, but image information is sequentially extracted and processed one line at a predetermined number of lines from the next received line.

[Operation] As a result, even if a transmission error occurs in one line, a normal image on the next line is recorded, so that a good image can be obtained without missing recording lines. In addition, the received image information can be extracted every fixed number of lines and subjected to predetermined processing such as decoding and reduction, which simplifies the processing of the image information.

[Examples] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a facsimile machine according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a scanner 1 reads an original image and extracts image information, and a plotter 2 records the image information on recording paper.

In this embodiment, the maximum size of the document read by the scanner 1 and the recording paper recorded by the plotter 2 are both A.
It is assumed to be the 6th edition.

For example, the encoding/decoding unit 3 performs M H (Modify
d Huffman) encoding method, which encodes the image information to be transmitted and decodes the image information that is received. The image information thinning processing section 4 thins out each pixel data of one line of received image information every pixel, thereby reducing the image size to 172 pixels in the main scanning direction.

The network control device 5 performs predetermined call origination/reception operations by detecting line acquisition (1) selection signal which is the destination telephone number (2) and incoming (2) incoming calls. The modem 6 modulates and demodulates image information according to the known transmission control procedure of the G3 standard and transmits the image information.

The operation display section 7 displays the operating status of the device and is used by the operator to perform various operations.

The CPU 8 controls each part mentioned above, and the ROM 9
It stores various fixed data necessary for its control programs and operations. .

The RAM 10 temporarily stores various data during the operation of the CPU 8, and includes a line buffer 10a that temporarily stores image information to be recorded line by line.
is formed. The system bus 11 is a signal line that exchanges various signals and data between the above-mentioned units.

The facsimile machine of this embodiment has the above configuration, and when a call is received and an A4 size document image is sent from the other party,
It has a function to reduce the received image to A6 size and record it.

Next, the reception operation in that case will be explained.

When this facsimile machine receives a call, it executes a predetermined transmission control procedure and sequentially receives the transmitted image information. At this time, as shown in Fig. 2, the image information receives six or more EOL codes first, then the encoded image information and EOL code for the line The encoded image information of each line is sequentially received. After the image information of the nth line, which is the last line of one page, six EOs forming the RTC code are displayed.
An L code is received.

Assuming that image information is encoded using the MH encoding method, the encoded image information for each line is composed of a predetermined termination code and makeup code that indicate the run length of white pixels or black pixels. There is.

When the facsimile machine receives image information, it sequentially transfers the received image information to the encoding/decoding section 3 and decodes it, as shown in FIG. 2 (process 101). As a result, if image information is received from the transmitting side without any transmission error, a predetermined run length code, which is the termination code or makeup code, can be obtained.

Here, it is checked whether a predetermined run length code has been obtained (process 102). Then, when a predetermined code is obtained (Y in process 102), the image information of the white pixel or black pixel indicated by the code is reproduced, and the RAM10
(processing 103). Next, the number of bits of the image information stored in the line buffer 10a is counted (process 104), and the process returns to the first process (process 101). As a result, the original image information reproduced by decoding is sequentially stored in the line buffer 10a.

Then, when the reception of one line is completed, the EOL code is received. When an EOL code is detected (from N in process 102 to process 105 and Y in process 105), it is checked whether it is part of the RTC code (process 106). Then, if there is no RTC code (N in process 106), next,
It is checked whether the image information in the line buffer 10a has a predetermined number of bits (process 107).

Now, since the image size is A4, if the resolution of the received image information is 8 dots/n+m in the main scanning direction, one line will be 1728 bits.

In this way, when the number of bits in one line is correct (processing 10
7 Y), the image information thinning processing unit 4 performs thinning processing on the image information. The image information thinning processing section 4 converts the image information of one line of 1728 bits into 1/2 image information of 864 bits by extracting every other bit (processing 108).

One line of image information processed in this way is recorded by the plotter 2 (Processing) 09). As a result, the received image is reduced to 1/2 in the main scanning direction and recorded.

Next, a counter that counts the contents of the line buffer 10a and the number of bits of the l line is cleared (processing 110).
. Then, the received image information is sequentially retrieved (processing 111), and an EOL code is searched (processing 112,
(Proceed to process 111 from N in process 112).

As a result, in the present example, the image information of the next line of the recorded one line of image information is sequentially retrieved from the modem 6. Note that in this case, decoding and thinning processing of image information is not performed. Then, E which is the last image information of that line
When the OL code is extracted (Y in process 112), the process returns to the first process (to process 101).

As a result, the image information of the next line is processed in the same manner as described above, and an image reduced to 172 is recorded using the main scanning method. Furthermore, by printing every other line in this manner, an image reduced to 1/2 is also printed in the sub-scanning direction, so that an A4 image is printed on a F6 size recording paper.

By the way, if a data error occurs during the transmission of image information, the correct run length code may not be obtained when decoding it on the receiving side, or the image information of a predetermined number of bits may not be obtained when one line of image information is reproduced. You may not be able to obtain it.

Therefore, if the received data is not in the predetermined run length code (N in process 102) and is not in the EOL code (N in process 105) when decoding, the line buffer 10a and the bit number counter are immediately cleared. (processing 1
10) Execute the EOL code search (proceed to process 111). Therefore, in this case, the processing for the image information of the line where the error occurred is stopped, and the image information of the next line is processed instead of that line. (Proceed to process 101)
. As a result, the same process is repeated every other line starting from that line.

Further, if the decoding of one line is completed and image information of a predetermined number of bits is not obtained (N in process 107),
Without recording that line, the same process as above is repeated for every l line from the primary line.

This allows the image of the next line to be recorded in place of the line where the data error occurred.

Then, when the last line of one page is processed and the RTC code is detected (Y in process 106), the above reception process is ended.

As described above, in this embodiment, the received image information undergoes decoding processing and thinning processing for reduction every other line, and when transmission data is detected in the processing of one line, the next line The image information of the line is extracted and processed, and every other line from that line is similarly processed.

As a result, even if a transmission error occurs on a particular line, the next normal line (i-image) will be recorded, preventing some lines from being lost in the recorded image as in the past. .

In addition, in the above reception process, it is sufficient to perform processes such as decoding and reduction for every l line, which simplifies image processing. This also improves processing speed.

In the above embodiment, an example was explained in which image information was encoded and transmitted using a G3 standard facsimile machine.
Needless to say, even when encoded transmission is not performed, processing on the receiving side is simplified. In addition, although we have explained the case where an A4 size received image is recorded in A6 size, it is natural that the same process can be performed in other cases as long as the reduction ratio is 172, such as when recording an A3 size in A6 size. . In addition, when the reduction ratio is reduced by an integer ratio such as 1/3 or 1/4, the image information thinning processing unit 4 thins out the image information of each line according to the ratio, and each received The present invention can be similarly applied by processing the image information of lines every few lines.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, received image information can be extracted every certain number of lines and predetermined processing can be performed on it, which simplifies image processing. If a transmission error occurs, a normal image of the next line is recorded, so that missing recorded lines can be prevented and a good image can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram of received image information, and FIG.
The figure is an operation flowchart showing image information reception processing. 1... Scanner, 2... Plotter, 3... Encoding/decoding section, 4... Image information thinning processing section 1.5... Network control device, 6. Modem, 7... Operation Display section, 8...CP
U, 9・ROM10...RAM, loa...Line buffer. Figure 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a facsimile machine that reduces and records a received image in the sub-scanning direction by recording the received image information of each line every a certain number of lines, it receives the image information that is sequentially transmitted line by line and records the image information every a certain number of lines. An image information extraction means for extracting the image information line by line; an error determination means for determining whether or not there is a data error in the extracted image information for one line; If there is a data error in the extracted image information of one line, the image information extracting means converts it into information and records it, and if there is a data error in the image information of one line, the image information extracting means sequentially records the image information one line at a fixed number of lines from the next line. 1. A facsimile apparatus, comprising processing line changing means for extracting the image and executing processing by the error determining means and image recording means.