JPH0575810A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To attain the improvement of the convenience to use of equipment and the improvement of the using efficiency of a public telephone line by making the storage and the reproduction of each storage area independent of each other. CONSTITUTION:The original of facsimile read by an original read circuit 1 to read successively the original of the facsimile is stored in a storage circuit 2 in which two storage areas are provided. A series of the original of the facsimile stored in the storage area is reproduced, and after being encoded by an encoding circuit 3, it is transmitted to the facsimile equipment of a transmitting destination connected to the public telephone line through a public telephone line interface 7. Another series of the original of the facsimile can be stored in the different storage area and in addition, can be reproduced even in the course of transmission or reception. Besides, the remaining area is operated by a remaining area arithmetic program provided in a CPU 13, and is displayed by a remaining transmission time display circuit 8.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus, and in particular, a storage circuit for storing a facsimile original is divided into a first storage area and a second storage area, and storage and reproduction of each storage area are independent of each other. The present invention relates to a facsimile machine that can perform.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a conventional facsimile apparatus, an image of a facsimile original is organized into predetermined pages in bit units and stored in a storage circuit. The image organized in the storage circuit is reproduced at the time of transmission and sent to the public telephone line. The capacity to store one manuscript is determined by the density of the image. Generally, in A4 size, when the whole text is a mixture of kanji and hiragana and the gradation of light and shade is small, it is about 20 Kbits, and the transmission time is 1 second. In the case of 9600 bits, it takes about 10 to 16 seconds, and the time for storing one document is extremely short compared to the transmission time. In order to improve the efficiency of use of the public telephone line, the capacity of the memory circuit for storing the manuscript may be increased. Generally, the capacity of this memory circuit is A
It is sufficient that there are about 50 to 100 sheets converted into 4 size, 216 mm and 300 mm. If an error such as the absence of the destination printing paper occurs during transmission / reception, the transmission is immediately interrupted and a message to that effect is printed.

In the facsimile apparatus having the above-mentioned configuration, for example, A4
When 20 original documents are stored in the storage circuit and the destination telephone number of the transmission destination is input from the operation member such as the ten-key pad, the facsimile machine is connected to the transmission destination facsimile machine via the public telephone line and transmission is started. In this state, even if an attempt is made to store a document of 30 sheets of A4 size in the memory circuit to a partner having a different destination telephone number, the document of 20 sheets of A4 size is reproduced from the memory circuit and the transmission is not interrupted due to an error. Until the 20 originals are reliably transmitted, even if the storage circuit has a remaining capacity, it cannot be stored. This state does not change even when the storage and reproduction operations of the storage circuit are the FIFO system (first-in-first-out).

Further, there is a problem that it is not possible to input the destination telephone number of the transmission destination because it is not known how long the document of 30 sheets of A4 size of the transmission destination different from the destination telephone number is stored. ..

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and by providing first and second storage areas divided into a storage circuit for storing a document of a facsimile, storage of each storage area, Playback is independent of each other,
Further, it is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile apparatus which can improve the usability of the apparatus and the efficiency of use of public telephone lines.

[0006]

A facsimile apparatus according to the present invention includes an original reading circuit for sequentially reading originals of a facsimile, a storage circuit for storing the originals of the facsimile read by the original reading circuit, and an original provided in the storage circuit. A first storage area for storing a series of facsimile originals read by a reading circuit, an encoding circuit for encoding a series of facsimile originals reproduced from the first storage area, and an encoding circuit for encoding A public telephone line interface for transmitting a series of facsimile manuscripts to a public telephone line;
And a series of facsimiles which are provided separately from the storage area and are sequentially read by the original reading circuit during transmission of a series of facsimile originals reproduced from the first storage area through the public telephone line interface. And a CPU for controlling the storage circuit, the encoding circuit and the public telephone line interface.

[0007]

The facsimile original read by the original reading circuit for sequentially reading the facsimile original is stored in the storage circuit having two storage areas. A series of facsimile originals stored in the storage area is reproduced, encoded by an encoding circuit, and then transmitted to a destination facsimile machine connected to a public telephone line via a public telephone line interface. During transmission or reception, another series of facsimile originals can be stored in another storage area and can be reproduced.

Further, the remaining area calculation program provided in the CPU calculates the remaining area, and the remaining transmission time display circuit displays it. As a result, the storage and reproduction of the respective storage areas are independent of each other, and the usability of the device and the efficiency of use of the public telephone line are improved.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of a facsimile apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. The facsimile apparatus EQ ₁ according to the present invention comprises a public telephone line interface 7 connected to a terminal T _{1 as} shown in FIG. 1, an original reading circuit 1, a transmission memory 2, an encoding circuit 3, a decoding circuit 4 and a receiving memory. 5, image printer unit 6, LCD display unit 8, operation unit 9, ROM 11, RAM 12, CPU 13 and ROM 1
1 is provided with the flag management program 15.

The inside of the public telephone line interface 7 connected to the terminal T ₁ is connected to the output side of the encoding circuit 3 and the input side of the decoding circuit 4, and the original reading circuit 1 is connected to the input side of the encoding circuit 3. The output side of the transmission memory 2 to which is connected is connected. The output side of the decoding circuit 4 is connected to the input side of the reception memory 5 to which the image printer unit 6 is connected.
The other output side of the transmission memory 2 is connected to the image printer unit 6 so that the stored image can be printed for a test. Further, the ROM 11 and the RAM 12 are connected to the CPU 13 via the data bus 14, and the control side of the CPU 13 is the LCD display unit 8, the input side of the operation unit 9, the output side of the operation unit 9 and the transmission memory 2, the encoding circuit 3. , The decoding circuit 4, the reception memory 5, and the control side of the public telephone line interface 7, respectively.

The ROM 11 is provided with a flag management program 15 shown in FIG. 2 together with a program for storing, reproducing, transmitting and receiving. The flag management program 15 is a time activation program that is activated every 96 ms, for example.
In the flow of the flag management program 15, the flag table FLT shown in FIG. 3, the transmission memory area SME, and the counter area CTE shown in FIG. 4 are prepared. The flag table FLT, the transmission memory area SME, and the counter area CTE are memories each having 1 to 0 to 31 bits, and the flag table FLT has a capacity of 0 to 15 words. The respective bits are numbered from 0 to 511, and the 0th bit corresponds to 0 to 127 words of the transmission memory area SME having a structure of 0 to 65535 words, and the 511th bit corresponds to 65408 to 65535 words. When the 0th to 127th words of the 0th bit are the first page of the file as shown in FIG. 4, the number of pages of the file is stored in the file page area FP provided in 0th to 5th bits of the 0th word. In addition, the numbers of digits DS0 to DS23 of the telephone number of the transmission destination are stored in 1 to 4 words. Therefore, the rest is 3936 bits. The area other than the first page of the file is 4096 bits, which is the minimum unit of normal pages. For a page not particularly dense in general A4 size, it is sufficient that the area of 4 flags is about 16 Kbits. The capacity of the transmission memory area SME is 20 Mbits in total. Further, in the counter area CTE shown in FIG. 4, a bit counter BC configured by a ring counter that returns to an initial value 0 when 0 to 9 bits count 512, and a file in which 24 to 27 bits can be transmitted are stored. 31 is a file counter FC indicating the program tag PT.

The flag management program 1 shown in FIG. 2 described above.
When the program tag PT is 0 when the program 5 is activated, the flow goes to the judgment box F ₁ when the program tag PT is 0 and the judgment box F ₆ when the program tag PT is 1. When the flow goes to the judgment box F ₆ , it is judged whether or not the original is set in the original reading circuit 1, and if there is an original, the processing F _{7 is performed.}
Then, 1 is added to the bit counter BC. Next, in the storage subroutine F ₈ , 0 corresponding to the value of the bit counter BC
Activate the bit number flags from 0 to 1.
When the flag is activated from 0 to 1, the image of the document is stored in the corresponding flag unit area of the transmission memory area SME shown in FIG. 3, for example, # 0. Next, it is judged in the judgment box F ₉ whether or not the storage of the unit file is completed. If it is not completed, the program tag PT is processed in the processing F _11.
Subtract 1 from the value of. This allows program tag P
The numerical value of T becomes 0, and when the flag management program 15 is time-activated in the next cycle, the flow goes to the judgment box F ₁ . In the judgment box F ₁ , it is judged whether or not the data is transmitted, and when it is not transmitted, the value 0 of the program tag PT is set to 1 in the process F _5.
Is added and control is passed to the execution management program. When the flag management program 15 is activated for a time in the next cycle, the numerical value of the program tag PT becomes 1, so the flow advances to the judgment box F ₆ . In this way, the judgment box F ₉ is sequentially processed until it is judged that the storage of the unit file is completed.
The image of the document is stored for each flag unit area.
When it is judged in the judgment box F ₉ that the storage of the unit file is completed, the numerical value of the file counter FC is set to 1 in the processing F _10.
Is added, and 1 is subtracted from the value of the program tag PT in process F ₁₁ . When the flag management program 15 is time-activated in the next cycle, the numerical value of the program tag PT is 1, so the flow goes to the judgment box F ₁ . If it is judged in the judgment box F ₁ that the file can be transmitted and the numerical value of the file counter FC is not 0, the flow proceeds to the reproduction subroutine F ₂ . In the reproduction subroutine F ₂ , the leading flag 1 of the circulation position is inacted to 0. In this way, when the reproduction of the unit file is completed, the judgment box F ₃ is executed, 1 is subtracted from the numerical value of the file counter FC in the process F ₄ , and then 1 is added to the numerical value 0 of the program tag PT in the process F _5. Control is given to the execution management program.

In the facsimile device EQ ₁ having the above-mentioned structure, if the number of transmitted pages is 20, 1 image is rough, 2 to 18 pages are not particularly dense pages, and 19 to 20 pages are dense pages, the file is The numerical value of 20 is stored in the file page area FP of the first page. Pages 2-18 are 4 flag units, # 1
# 4, # 5- # 8 ... # 65- # 68 16K each
Bits, pages 19 to 20 are # 69 to # 7 in 6-flag units.
4 bits and # 75 to # 80 each have 24 K bits, the bit counter BC has a numerical value of 81, and the flag table FLT has bits 0 to 80 activated to 1. In this way, for example, 8 corresponding to the next file
When bits 1 to 400 are further activated to 1, the image of the original is stored in # 81 to # 400. In this state, the value of the bit counter BC is 4
01, the numerical value of the file counter FC is 2.
Next, through the public telephone line interface 7, the number of digits DS
0~DS23 the stored destination telephone number is transmitted to the public telephone line, # 1 to # Unit files of up to 80 is reproduced by the reproduction subroutine F ₂ and is connected to the facsimile apparatus EQ ₁ destination .. When the unit files of # 1 to # 80 are reproduced, 1 is subtracted from the numerical value 2 of the file counter FC in the process F ₄ to become 1 and stored in # 81 to # 400 corresponding to the next 81st to 400th bits. The reproduced original image is reproduced in the reproduction subroutine F ₂ , and 1 is subtracted from the numerical value 1 of the file counter FC to 0 in the process F ₄ . This means that the two files stored in the storage subroutine F ₈ and the image of the document of 164 Kbits in total have been transmitted. Note that the reproduction by the reproduction subroutine F ₂ and the storage by the storage subroutine F ₈ are alternately performed in a cycle of 96 mS for each flag unit area in a time-divisional manner, so that the storage operation and the transmission speed controlled by the document reading speed are changed. The controlled reproduction operation is separated from each control, and the storage and the reproduction are performed independently.

During this transmission, the numerical value of the bit counter BC, that is, the number of flags activated to 1 and the ratio of being actuated to 0 is the remaining amount N% and is displayed on the LCD display unit 8 together with the telephone number of the transmission destination. .. The required bits relating to the image of the original in the storage area in the above embodiment are determined by the number of gray levels of the halftone and are not limited to the above embodiment.

The capacity of one flag unit area in the above embodiment is not limited to that in the above embodiment.

[0016]

As is apparent from the above embodiments, the facsimile apparatus according to the present invention has an original reading circuit for sequentially reading the originals of the facsimile, a storage circuit for storing the originals of the facsimile read by the original reading circuit, and a memory. A first storage area provided in the circuit for storing a series of facsimile originals read by an original reading circuit; an encoding circuit for encoding a series of facsimile originals reproduced from the first storage area; A public telephone line interface for transmitting a series of facsimile manuscripts encoded by the encoding circuit to the public telephone line and a first storage area are provided separately, and the first public area is provided via the public telephone line interface. During transmission of a series of facsimile originals reproduced from the storage area, other series of facsimiles sequentially read by the original reading circuit are read. A second storage area for storing the paper,
The storage circuit, the encoding circuit, and the CPU for controlling the public telephone line interface are provided, and further, the remaining area calculation means for calculating the remaining area of the storage circuit, the remaining area calculation means, and the encoding speed of the encoding circuit. Since it has a remaining transmission time display circuit that displays the remaining transmission time calculated from, the storage and playback of each storage area are independent of each other, improving the usability of the device and improving the efficiency of use of public telephone lines. There is an effect that can be achieved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a facsimile apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of a flag management program provided in the RAM of the facsimile apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a data configuration diagram used for a flag management program of the facsimile apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a data configuration diagram used for a flag management program of the facsimile apparatus according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 ... ・ Document reading circuit 2 ・ ・ ・ Transmission memory (storage circuit) 3 ・ ・ Code circuit 7 ・ ・ ・ ・ Public telephone line interface 8 ・ ・ ・ ・..LCD display section (transmission time display circuit) 13 ... CPU 15 ... Flag management program (remaining area calculation means)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A document reading circuit for sequentially reading a document of a facsimile, a memory circuit for storing a document of a facsimile read by the document reading circuit, and a series of circuits provided in the memory circuit and read by the document reading circuit. A first storage area for storing facsimile originals, an encoding circuit for encoding a series of facsimile originals reproduced from the first storage area, and a series of facsimiles encoded by the encoding circuit. A public telephone line interface for transmitting a document to a public telephone line and a series of facsimiles provided separately from the first storage area and reproduced from the first storage area via the public telephone line interface. A second storage area for storing other series of facsimile originals sequentially read by the original reading circuit during transmission of the original; Road, facsimile apparatus comprising the said coding circuit and a CPU for controlling the public telephone line interface. 2. A remaining area calculation means for calculating a remaining area of the storage circuit, and a remaining transmission time display circuit for displaying the remaining transmission time calculated by the remaining area calculation means. The facsimile apparatus according to Item 1.