JPH11175431A - Information transmission system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To output a form of a character even if a terminal machine is not provided with a font by making character data that is produced by a center machine a bitmap and sending it as imaged character data to the terminal machine. SOLUTION: The processing part 10 of a center machine 1 reads program data from a program file 6 and reads a character font that is specified by the program data, image data and sound data from each file 7 to 9. The part 10 discriminates whether the kind of transmission information is character data or the other data such as image data and sound data. When the transmission information is character data, a font which is specified from an attribute code of the character data is selected from a font file 5. Here, the character data becomes a form of a 'character' to be displayed and a bitmap converting part 11 converts the αcharacter' into a bitmap as an image. Thus, the data is compressed in the same manner as image data and sound data and is sent to a terminal machine 2 through a telephone line 3.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an information transmission system for transmitting information created by a center machine to a plurality of terminal machines via a communication line.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 5 shows an information transmission system in which a center machine 1 and a plurality of terminal machines 2 are connected via a telephone line 3. This system is for transmitting information such as advertisements to a plurality of terminal machines 2 from a transmission side provided with a center machine 1. The transmission information is composed of images, characters, and the like, and is created by the center machine 1.

For example, a notice as shown in FIG. 6 is made up of a character part 4 created by inputting from a character input device such as a keyboard, and an image 5 input from an image scanner or the like. Such transmission information is transmitted as coded character data or image data. The terminal machine 2 that has received the coded information returns the code to the form of characters or images and displays it. The character data includes a character code representing a character type such as "o" or "knowledge", and an attribute code representing a character attribute such as font and size.

[0004] The terminal machine 2 receiving such character data specifies the character type from the character code and specifies the font from the font data of the attribute code. Then, the terminal machine 2 selects the font specified from the character data from the fonts provided in the terminal machine 2 itself. Then, the character part 4 corresponding to the character code and the attribute code is reproduced on the terminal machine 2. And character part 4
Is output to a display or a printer.

[0005]

As described above, when the character data is transmitted, the font corresponding to the phone of the attribute code and the data, ie, the font corresponding to the phone of the attribute code, is selected from the fonts provided in the terminal machine 2 on the receiving side. Then, the same font as that used in the center machine 1 is selected to display characters. Therefore, the terminal machine 2 must have the same font as the font used for the character part 4 created by the center machine 1. If the terminal machine 2 does not have the same font as the font used in the center machine 1, the character data transmitted from the center machine 1 is output in the font provided in the terminal machine 2. For example,
When the character part 4 as shown in FIG. 7A is created and transmitted using the font of the center machine 1, the terminal machine 2
If this font does not exist, it is converted to another font provided in the terminal machine 2 and, for example, the character portion 4 'in FIG.
Is output.

On the other hand, the transmitting side provided with the center machine 1
The information is created using various fonts after calculating the impression received by the person who saw the information and the advertising effect. Nevertheless, if the terminal machine 2 does not have the same font as that used in the center machine 1, a different font is output as shown in FIG. In the character portions 4 and 4 ', the information content does not change, but the impression given to the viewer is different. Not only does the sender's intended characters not arrive, but the intended effect may not arrive. Therefore, the characters created on the center machine 1 side are transferred to the terminal machine 2
In order to be able to output, the terminal machine 2 must have all the fonts of the center machine 1. Moreover, in order for all terminal machines 2 to be able to output the characters created by the center machine 1, every terminal machine 2 must have a large number of fonts.

However, some small receiving terminals have a limited storage capacity and cannot be provided with a large number of fonts. Further, even when fonts can be provided, it is costly to provide a large number of fonts. In particular, since kanji fonts and special fonts are expensive, a terminal machine equipped with many such fonts is expensive. Moreover, one center machine 1
Are connected to a plurality of terminal machines 2. Therefore, an increase in the cost of one terminal machine 2 results in a very large increase in the cost of the entire system. In addition, when the terminal machine 2 receives data in a form that does not match its own characteristic level, it may not be able to output it as it is. For example, even if fine characters are created and transmitted by the center machine 1, if the resolution of the terminal machine 2 is low, the line may be collapsed and the character may not be understood. Therefore, the resolution of the output unit such as the display and printer of the terminal machine 2 is
If the data does not match the received data, the terminal machine 2 adjusts the data and outputs the data.

An object of the present invention is to enable a terminal machine to output a character created in a form intended by a center machine without providing the terminal machine with a font. Also,
An object of the present invention is to enable a terminal machine to receive information suitable for the characteristic level of the terminal machine at any time.

[0009]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, a center machine is connected to the center machine via a communication line.
The center machine comprises a file storing transmission information including character data created by the center machine, and a bitmap conversion unit, and converts the character data into the bitmap data. It is characterized in that the image data is converted into a bitmap by a conversion unit to generate image character data, and the image character data is transmitted to a terminal machine. In the second invention, the center machine specifies a file storing a level table in which a registration number specifying the terminal machine and a characteristic level of the terminal machine are associated with each other, and specifies the characteristic level of the terminal machine as the transmission destination from the table. And a processing unit for transmitting the created imaged character data in accordance with the characteristic level. Third
In the invention, the processing unit of the center machine transmits the audio data or the image data created by the center machine in accordance with the characteristic level of the output unit of the terminal machine that is the transmission destination.

[0010]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The first embodiment shown in FIGS.
This is a system that distributes data from a center machine 1 to a plurality of terminal machines 2. Center machine 1 and terminal machine 2
Is connected via the telephone line 3 as in the conventional example shown in FIG. The transmission information transmitted from the center machine 1 to the terminal machine 2 is, for example, “notification” shown in FIG. This transmission information is created with character data and image data, but can also be transmitted with audio data.

The center machine 1 includes a processing unit 10 as shown in FIG. The processing unit 10 includes a program file 6, a font file 7, an image file 8,
The voice file 9 and the transmission unit 12 are connected. And
The transmission information is created by the center machine 1 by combining image data previously stored in the image file 8 and audio data stored in the audio file 9 in addition to character data. And the program file 6
Stores program data relating to the contents of transmission information. This program data stores the file name of the image data and the file name of the audio data used for the transmission information, in addition to the character data of the character part of the transmission information. The character data includes a character code and an attribute code as in the conventional example.

Further, the program data also has a telephone number which is a registration number for specifying a transmission destination for transmitting the information. Further, the processing unit 10 includes a bitmap conversion unit 11 that converts characters, figures, and the like into bitmaps. On the other hand, the terminal machine 2 includes a receiving unit 21, a processing unit 22, and a storage unit 23. The processing unit 22 is connected to output units such as a display 24, a printer 25, and a speaker 26. No files. The processing section 22 has a decoder function of converting the received code into a character or image and outputting the converted code.

The operation of such a system will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. In step 1, the processing unit 10 of the center machine 1 reads program data from the program file 6. In step 2, the processing unit 10 transmits the character font specified by the program data, the image data,
The audio data is read from each of the files 7, 8, and 9.
In step 3, the processing unit 10 determines that the type of the transmission information is
Character data or other data such as image data,
Determine whether the data is audio data. If the data is not character data, the process proceeds to step 6, where the data is compressed. In step 7, the compressed data is transmitted from the transmitting unit 12.

On the other hand, if the transmission information is character data in step 3, the process proceeds to step 4. In step 4, the font specified from the attribute code of the character data is selected from the font file 5. Here, the character data is in the form of “character” to be displayed. In step 5, the bitmap conversion unit 11 uses the "character" as an image.
Convert to bitmap. Here, the character data is converted into image data by bitmapping. As described above, data obtained by bit-mapped character data is image character data according to the present invention. Step 6
Then, data is compressed in the same manner as image data and audio data. In step 7, the compressed data is transmitted to the terminal machine 2 via the telephone line 3.

Step 8 and subsequent steps are operations of the terminal machine 2. In step 8, the data received via the receiving unit 8 is decompressed by the processing unit 22, and stored in the storage unit 23 if necessary. In step 9, the processing unit 22 converts the code into characters, images and voices,
5. Output to the speaker 26. Display 2 above
The characters displayed by the printer 4 and the printer 25 are the characterized image data transmitted from the center machine 1 as they are processed and output by the processing unit 22. Unlike the character data, the image character data does not need to specify the font from the code and reproduce the character shape. Therefore, the character from the center machine 1 can be displayed on the terminal machine 2 having no font.

Therefore, in the center machine 1 for creating transmission information, freely designed characters can be transmitted to any terminal machine 2 without considering the fonts of the terminal machine 2. In order to enable the terminal machine 2 to output characters in any font as it is, when creating transmission information on the center machine 1,
A method is also conceivable in which characters are read by a scanner as image data. However, since image data has a larger amount of information than character data, if all of them are created as image data, a large storage capacity is required. Further, when the information content is changed, the image data must be changed and then re-entered, which is troublesome. Character data can be easily changed by keyboard operation. Therefore, what can be created as character data is better created as character data.

In the above system, the terminal machine does not need to be provided with a font, so that the terminal machine can be made cheaply. Therefore, the number of terminal machines installed can be increased. For example, it is also possible to display an advertisement or the like on a sold product from a center machine to a vending machine via a communication line. In this case, the vending machine serving as the terminal machine can display information including characters without providing a font by merely providing a display, a receiving unit, and a processing unit having a decoder function. it can. In such a system, the same information can be distributed from the center machine 1 to many terminal machines 2 at the same time. However, it is also possible to specify a transmission destination by a telephone number and individually transmit different information. it can.

The first embodiment is an example in which the level of the information created by the center machine 1 and the characteristic level of the terminal machine 2 match. And the characteristic level of the terminal machine 2 may not match. A second embodiment corresponding to such a case will be described below. The second embodiment shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 differs from the first embodiment in that a level table file 13 is connected to the processing unit 10 of the center machine 1. The level table file 13 stores a table in which the characteristic level of the terminal machine 2 is associated with the telephone number. The characteristic level of the terminal machine 2 refers to the characteristic level of the display 24, the printer 25, and the speaker 26, which are the output units of the terminal machine 2, such as resolution, color, and reproducible audio frequency.

The characteristic levels as described above also differ depending on the terminal machine 2. If these characteristic levels are different from the level of the information transmitted from the center machine 1,
As it is, the terminal machine 2 cannot properly output the received information. For this reason, conventionally, the terminal machine 2 had to adjust the received data to match its own characteristic level. Alternatively, information may not be transmitted from the center machine 1 to the terminal machine 2 which is not provided with such an adjustment function. Therefore, in the second embodiment, the adjustment to the characteristic level of the terminal machine 2 is performed on the center machine 1 side.

For example, if the display or printer of a certain terminal machine 2 does not support color, even if the center machine 1 creates the character portion 4 of the transmission information in color, the terminal machine 2 outputs in color. Can not do it. In such a case, it does not make sense to transmit the color information, so that the imaging character data excluding the color information is created. When the resolution of the terminal machine 2 is low,
Even if high quality characters are sent, they cannot be displayed as they are. Therefore, the center machine 1 changes the data so as to match the resolution of the output unit of the terminal machine 2 and then transmits the data. The same applies to audio data. Then, the processing unit 10 specifies the characteristic level of the terminal machine 2 from the level table file 13 and
It also has the function of adjusting the transmission data according to the level as described above. The configuration of the terminal machine 2 is the same as in the first embodiment.

The operation of this system is shown in the flowchart of FIG. In steps 101 and 102, program data is read, and file data is read in accordance with the program data. In step 103, the processing unit 10 refers to the level table of the level table file 13 and specifies the level of the transmission destination terminal machine 2 from the telephone number of the program data. In step 104, the type of transmission information is
It is determined whether the data is character data, image data, or audio data.

In the case of character data, the process proceeds to step 105, where a font is specified from the character data and a character is selected from the font file 7. In step 106, the "character" is converted into a bitmap using the image as an image to create image character data. In step 107, the processing unit 10 adjusts the imaged character data to the level of the transmission destination. Since the characteristic level of the terminal machine 2 which is the transmission destination is specified in the above-described step 103, the processing unit 10 automatically creates the image character data in a form conforming to the level.

In the case of image data, the process proceeds from step 104 to step 108, where the processing section 10 creates image data that is at the level of the transmission destination. In the case of audio data, the process proceeds to step 109, where the processing unit 10 creates audio data that matches the level of the transmission destination. In step 110, each data whose level has been adjusted as described above is compressed, and in step 111, the signal is transmitted from the transmission unit 12. From step 112, the flow of the terminal machine 2 is as follows.
This is the same as steps 8 to 10 of the first embodiment.

In the second embodiment, the data transmitted by the center machine 1 is transmitted in accordance with the characteristic level of the output unit of the terminal machine 2 on the receiving side. For this reason, the terminal machine 2 can always receive data in a form suitable for its own level. In this way, the center machine 1 has to adjust the level according to each terminal, but instead, all the terminal machines 2 do not need to adjust the level of any received data. Further, since the center machine 1 can adjust the transmission data to the level of each terminal machine 2, it is possible to transmit information to the terminal machines 2 having different characteristic levels. For example, information can be similarly transmitted to a simple receiving device such as a pager or a terminal equipped with a high-vision television.

[0025]

According to the first aspect, the character data created by the center machine is bit-mapped and transmitted to the terminal machine as image character data.
It can output character shapes even if the terminal machine does not have fonts. Therefore, the character intended by the transmitting side having the center machine can be displayed as it is on the terminal machine. As described above, the terminal machine does not need to be provided with expensive fonts at all, so that the equipment cost of the terminal machine can be reduced. Therefore, the cost of the entire system can be reduced. In this way, if the cost of the terminal machine can be reduced, it will be easier to install the terminal machine anywhere,
Information can be sent to many terminal machines. Also, the transmitting side can freely design characters regardless of what font the terminal machine has. Therefore, the effect of the advertisement can be enhanced by using characters that suggest information contents and information transmission sources.

According to the second aspect, the terminal machine can always receive the imaged character data created by the center machine as data in a form suitable for its own characteristic level. Therefore, the terminal machine can display characters in an optimal state on the output unit without adjusting the level of the received data. According to the third aspect, the terminal machine can receive the audio data or the image data created by the center machine as data in a form suitable for its own characteristic level. Therefore, the output unit of the terminal machine can always output images and sounds in an optimal state. As described above, according to the second and third aspects, since the received data of the terminal machine conforms to its own characteristic level, it can be output as it is. Therefore, there is no need to provide the terminal machine with a level adjustment function. Accordingly, the terminal machine can be simplified and the cost can be further reduced. Further, the center machine can transmit information to various terminal machines having different characteristic levels.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a first embodiment.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart of the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a second embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a second embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a conventional information transmission system.

FIG. 6 is an example of transmission information of a conventional example.

7A and 7B are display examples of characters in a conventional example, where FIG. 7A is a character created by a center machine, and FIG. 7B is a character output by a terminal machine.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Center machine 2 Terminal machine 3 Telephone line 4 Character part 5 Image 10 Processing part 11 Bitmap conversion part 13 Level table file 24 Display 25 Printer 26 Speaker

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A center machine and a plurality of terminal machines connected to the center machine via a communication line and provided with a data output unit, wherein the center machine includes transmission information including character information created by the center machine. And a bitmap conversion unit, wherein the character information is converted into a bitmap by the bitmap conversion unit to create image character data, and the image character data is transmitted to a terminal machine. Information transmission system. 2. A center machine specifies a file storing a level table in which a registration number specifying a terminal machine and a characteristic level of the terminal machine are associated with each other, and specifies a characteristic level of the terminal machine as a transmission destination from the table. The information transmission system according to claim 1, further comprising a processing unit for transmitting the created imaged character data in accordance with the characteristic level. 3. The processing unit of the center machine transmits the audio data or the image data created by the center machine according to the characteristic level of the output unit of the terminal machine that is the transmission destination. Information transmission system as described.