JPH07123183A - Cordless facsimile system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To allow plural users to use one facsimile equipment by sending received facsimile picture data to a required slave set only so as to use a radio channel effectively. CONSTITUTION:A master set 1 is connected to a public line 2 and has a facsimile function and makes facsimile signal transmission reception optionally and freely by means of a built-in radio function with plural slave sets 3-5 mutually. The slave sets 3-5 may be personal computers used by individual persons or a home use terminal telephone sets and each of the slave sets 3-5 is provided with an input device, a display device and a storage device and a number used to identify the destination of any of the slave sets 3-5 is added to received facsimile data. That is, the facsimile reception data stored in the master set 1 are edited or stored freely and optionally by each of the slave sets 3-5. Thus, one facsimile line is shared in common by the plural slave sets 3-5 without need for movement to the location of the master set 1 for each occasion.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cordless facsimile system, and more particularly, to freely perform facsimile transmission and reception from a master unit connected to a public line and a plurality of slave units wirelessly connected to each other. The present invention relates to a cordless facsimile system.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, there is a computer (personal computer) used by each individual to which a facsimile function is added. However, as shown in FIG. 7, the personal computer 71, 72 is connected to a public line 73, 74 by a public line. Although connected to a line, or not shown, a personal computer was replaced by a wireless modem instead of the above-mentioned cable, and a cordless system was used. Therefore, one telephone line was required for each personal computer. Therefore, when many personal computers are used, the number of telephone lines is required, which is inefficient, and when wired, it is inconvenient to move. Therefore, conventionally, there has been proposed a system called a cordless facsimile system, which includes a facsimile device connected to a public line and a plurality of terminal devices wirelessly connected to each other. Examples include JP-A-4-29455 "Facsimile system" and JP-A-4-213951 "Cordless facsimile apparatus".

That is, the former has proposed a system consisting of a master telephone connected to a public line and a facsimile and a slave telephone wirelessly connected to the master telephone, but it is simply a facsimile and a wired line terminal. This is a wireless communication between the mobile phone and between the slave telephone and the facsimile, and it is inconvenient to go to the facsimile machine each time to know the received contents, only to operate the facsimile machine wirelessly. In the latter, a system is proposed in which a master unit connected to a public line and having a facsimile function is connected to a plurality of slave units via a wireless line, and each slave unit performs facsimile transmission and reception via the master unit. Has been done.

However, the facsimile image received by the master unit has its destination confirmed by the operator operating the master unit and sends it to the corresponding slave unit, and the operator is not always allowed to exclusively belong to the master unit. As long as it was received, it could not be delivered to the relevant recipient immediately. Furthermore, although some other similar means have been proposed, a system in which contents received by a facsimile are delivered to all slaves or a system in which all received contents are stored in a facsimile memory Therefore, there are problems such as inconvenience that the wireless line is congested and cannot be used immediately when needed, and a huge memory is required.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in order to solve the problems of the conventional cordless facsimile system as described above, and by transmitting the received facsimile image data only to the necessary slave units. It is an object of the present invention to provide a cordless facsimile system in which a single facsimile can be used to the maximum by a plurality of users by effectively utilizing a wireless line.

[0006]

In the present invention, in order to achieve the above object,
According to the first aspect of the invention, a master unit that is connected to a public communication line by wireless or wired and has a public line interface unit, a facsimile function, and a wireless communication unit, a unit that wirelessly communicates with the parent unit, an image display unit, and an input unit. And a slave unit provided with a storage unit, and is configured to be communicable with the other facsimile connected to the public communication line from the slave unit via the master unit. In a second aspect of the invention, in the same configuration, a plurality of the slaves are provided, and the slaves are configured to be communicable with other facsimiles connected to the public communication line via the master and the slaves. A distinguishable user number or code is registered for each, and the user number or code in the facsimile image received by the master unit is read and transferred to the corresponding slave unit. And

In the third invention, in the second invention, when the slave unit identification number or code registered in the facsimile image received via the public communication line by the master unit is not detected, The image data is stored in the memory of the master unit, and the slave unit is notified of the fact that a facsimile having an unknown destination has been received, the number of the facsimiles, and the sender name if necessary. Furthermore,
In each of the above inventions, the master unit uses the facsimile function by providing the master unit with a buffer memory so that the facsimile image data requested to be transmitted from the slave unit can be stored in the buffer memory as needed. It is characterized in that it is configured to be able to receive a facsimile request from a slave even if it is in the middle.

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a structural conceptual diagram showing an embodiment of a cordless facsimile system according to the present invention. In this figure, reference numeral 1 is a master unit, which is connected to a public line 2 and has a facsimile function as described later, and is capable of mutual communication with a plurality of slave units 3, 4, 5 by a built-in wireless function. Thus, facsimile transmission / reception can be arbitrarily performed within a range in which mutual wireless control is possible. The child device may be an information processing device used by each individual such as a personal computer, or may be a terminal telephone device at home. In this embodiment, a personal computer will be described as an example. However, according to the present invention, the slave device is provided with an input device, a display device, and a storage device, and which of a plurality of slave devices is transmitted to the received facsimile data. If a number or code for identification is added, the facsimile reception image data required only by each slave unit will be transmitted.
It can be received at the Palace and can be sent as well.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart showing an example of control when facsimile transmission / reception is carried out by the above system. FIG.
(B) shows a case where the facsimile image received by the parent device is transmitted to the child device. By doing so, it is possible to send and receive any image displayed on the screen of the personal computer by facsimile without printing on paper each time when sending and receiving by facsimile.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the base unit 1, and 2 is a public line connected to the base unit 3, 4, 5 and 5.
Each is a child machine. The base unit 1 is a communication line connection network control unit connected to the public line 2 and detects an external telephone line state. Reference numeral 32 is a modem, which converts a digital signal to be transmitted into a signal suitable for telephone line transmission or a received signal into a digital signal. 33 is a send buffer memory, 34 is a receive buffer memory, and 35 is a compression / memory.
Expansion / magnification processing unit, 36 is system memory, and 37 is PRO
M and 38 are OCR memory 39, a control unit having a built-in CPU and the like, 40 is a wireless transmission / reception device, and 41 is a storage desk memory. FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the main part of the slave unit.
5 is a PC engine including a CPU and a storage device, 46 is a signal compression / expansion / magnification processing unit, 47 is a wireless transmission / reception unit, 48
Is a display unit such as a CRT or LCD, and 49 is an input device.

The operation and control method of the above-described configuration of the master unit and the slave unit will be described. First, a case where a facsimile image is transmitted from the outside to the master unit via the public communication line according to the flowchart shown in FIG. 5 will be described. If the reception process is started (S
1, 2, 3, 4). In the receiving process, the received data is fetched into the memory (S5), and the decompressing process of restoring the data compressed on the transmitting side to the original (S6) is performed. Then, the portion of the received image data displaying the destination name is OCR (Optical Character). Re
ader) to determine which of the slaves the facsimile machine received and received is a slave (S7). It is determined whether the decrypted destination matches the name registered as the name of the child device (S8), and if there is a matching child device, the received data is recompressed (S9), and then the corresponding child device is detected. To the wireless communication means (S10). If the destination decoded in the determination of S8 is not equal to any of the slaves or the master itself, the received data is compressed again (S11) and then recorded with a document number in the storage device of the master (S12). )
At the same time, it notifies all the slaves that there is received data whose destination is unknown (S13).

The first step S in the flowchart
In step 2, if a call request is detected, it is determined whether or not the call is from the slave unit (S14), and if it is from the slave unit, it is further determined whether or not the request is a facsimile transmission (S1).
5) Do. There are two types of call requests from the child device, namely, a call for facsimile transmission and a call for inquiring about the above-mentioned destination unknown document. Above S
If the call from the child device is not a facsimile transmission request in 15, the process determines that the inquiry is for an unknown destination document and responds to each (S16). In this process, if necessary, it is possible to display the total number of destination unknown documents and monitor them at any time in response to a request from a slave. The document of unknown destination can also be recorded on a large capacity external hard disk, etc. If the sender's name etc. is displayed at that time, the corresponding slave device will be responded to by inquiry. Would be useful for searching for.

Further, when the corresponding slave finds a destination unknown document, the document can be taken in by the slave and simultaneously deleted from the memory of the master. On the other hand, if the call request from the slave unit is facsimile transmission in step S15, the other party's telephone number transmitted from the slave unit is fetched (S17), and the transmitted image data is temporarily stored in the memory of the master unit. Then, (S18), after waiting for a free public line connected to the base unit (S19), after transmitting processing (S20) such as dialing the telephone number of the other party, the image data is read from the base unit buffer memory. Facsimile transmission is executed (S21). Although the data is compressed in steps S9 and S11 above, this is to reduce the amount of data to be stored, and when it is not necessary, the data can be directly stored in the memory.

As described above, according to the present invention, a plurality of slave units can receive and transmit facsimile image data via one master unit, and at the time of reception, each slave unit can receive the facsimile image data. User ID is assigned to the identification number or code set in
Since the D (UID) automatically transfers the data from the master to the corresponding slave, the inefficient operation of transferring data to all the slaves each time a facsimile is received is avoided. In addition, when the public line is in use when making a call for facsimile transmission from the cordless handset, the image data from the cordless handset is temporarily recorded in the buffer memory of the cordless handset and waits for the line to open. Since the facsimile transmission is performed, it is possible to efficiently perform the transmission processing without considering whether the line is used on the slave side.

Next, the operation on the slave side will be described with reference to the flow chart shown in FIG. It is determined whether a call is made from the slave unit (S61) or a call is made from the master unit (S63). When there is a call from the master unit, a response signal is transmitted (S64) and the call from the master unit is made. It is detected whether or not the image data determined to be the facsimile addressed to the child device is transferred (S65), and in the case of the facsimile data transfer, it is necessary to receive the image data sent according to normal facsimile data processing. For example, it is read into the storage device (S66). If the call from the master unit is a destination unknown document notification in S65, the data is displayed or stored as necessary (S68).

On the other hand, when a facsimile transmission call is made from the slave, a call signal is transmitted to the master (S6
9) Identify whether the call is for a facsimile transmission or an inquiry for an unknown destination document (S7).
0) In case of facsimile transmission, the telephone number of the other party is input (S71) or the registered telephone number is transmitted. Image data is transmitted to the base unit according to communication with the base unit (S
72, S73). If the call request is an inquiry about an unknown destination document in step S70,
In accordance with a required process, the destination unknown document stored in the parent device is monitored (S74). Although the embodiments of the present invention have been described above, various modifications are possible without being limited to the above examples in implementing the embodiments, and it is not necessary to have all the functions described above, and it is possible to appropriately combine necessary functions. It goes without saying that you can do so.

[0017]

As described above, according to the present invention, communication between a master unit and a plurality of slave units is performed by wireless means, and facsimile reception data stored in the master unit is arbitrarily edited in each slave unit. Since it is configured so that it can be stored, a single facsimile line can be efficiently shared by a large number of slave units without moving to the master unit each time. Also, a user identification ID such as an identification number or code for each child device.
Is added and the above user ID is read from the facsimile reception data received by the master unit and automatically transferred to the corresponding slave unit, so that all received image data is transferred to all slave units. This inefficiency is avoided, and at the same time, it is possible to function as a large number of facsimile machines in a time division manner, and it is extremely efficient. Further, since the master unit is provided with the buffer memory, the slave unit can arbitrarily perform the facsimile transmission process regardless of whether or not the line is used. As described above, the present invention is effective in significantly enhancing the function of the cordless facsimile system.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a conceptual configuration diagram of a cordless fax mill system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an embodiment of basic processing of the cordless facsimile system of the present invention,
(A) is the case of performing facsimile transmission from the child device, (b)
The figure which showed the case where a facsimile is received via a main | base station.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of a master unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a block configuration diagram showing a configuration example of a slave unit according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart diagram illustrating an operation example of a parent device according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart diagram illustrating an operation example of a child device according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining facsimile transmission by a conventional personal computer.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 base unit, 2, 73, 74 public line, 3, 4, 5
Remote unit, 31 NCU, 32 modem, 33 transmission buffer memory, 34 reception buffer memory, 3
5, 46 compression / expansion scaling unit, 36 system memory, 37 PROM, 38 OCR processing unit, 39
Control unit, 40, 47 transceiver device, 41 storage device, 45 PC engine, 48 display device, 71,
72 personal computers.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A master unit which is connected to a public communication line by wireless or wired and has a public line interface unit, a facsimile function and a wireless communication unit, a unit for wirelessly communicating with the master unit, an image display unit and an input unit. A cordless-facsimile system comprising a slave unit provided with a storage means, the slave unit being capable of communicating with another facsimile machine connected to the public communication line via the master unit. 2. A master unit which is connected to a public communication line by wireless or wired and has a public line interface unit, a facsimile function and a wireless communication unit, a unit for wirelessly communicating with the master unit, an image display unit and an input unit. The slave unit includes a plurality of slave units each having a storage unit, is configured to be communicable from the slave unit to another facsimile connected to the public communication line via the master unit, and is a unit identifiable by each slave unit. -Register the user number or code and read the user number or code in the facsimile image received by the master unit,
A cordless-facsimile system characterized by being transferred to a corresponding slave. 3. The cordless facsimile system according to claim 2, wherein the slave unit identification number or code registered in the facsimile image received by the master unit via the public communication line is not detected. The image data is stored in the memory of the master unit, and each slave unit is notified of the fact that a facsimile having an unknown destination has been received, the number of facsimiles, and the sender's name if necessary. Dress / facsimile system. 4. The master unit is provided with a buffer memory so that the facsimile image data requested to be transmitted from the slave unit can be stored in the buffer memory, so that the master unit is using the facsimile function. 2. A cordless facsimile system according to claim 1, wherein said cordless facsimile system is constructed so as to be able to receive a facsimile request from a slave unit.