JPH0276459A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To remove inconvenience of continuously inputting a sound signal during the transmission of image information by reading out the sound signal from a sound storage means at a prescribed timing and transmitting the sound signal together with the image information. CONSTITUTION:A transmitter turns on a sound input switch simultaneously with the setting of an original or previously and inputs a sound signal through a microphone to store the sound signal in a sound storage device 4. After transmitting all image signals and transmitting an image/sound switching signal, the sound signal stored in the device 4 is read out by a transmission circuit 5 and transmitted through a telephone line. Thereby, it is unnecessary for the transmitter to continuously send the sound signal up to the end of transmission of the image information.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a facsimile device, and particularly to a facsimile device that transmits image information as well as audio signals related to the image information.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention provides a facsimile device capable of transmitting both image information and audio signals related to the image information, which includes an audio storage means capable of storing audio signals related to the image information, and stores the audio at a predetermined timing along with the transmission of the image information. By reading and transmitting audio from the means, it is possible to automatically transmit both image information and audio signals related to the image information.

[Conventional technology]

2. Description of the Related Art A system is widely known in which a conventional facsimile machine automatically reads and transmits image originals that have been sorted in advance one by one.

By the way, in the recent information age, it is difficult to reliably convey increasingly complex information to the other party, and even with the conventional facsimile machine mentioned above, if the image information transmitted from the sender cannot be understood, a separate It was very troublesome to have to make the recipient understand the sender's intentions through a telephone conversation.

Therefore, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 55-56756,
A facsimile device has been proposed that can transmit not only image information but also audio signals related to the image information.

In other words, this facsimile machine transmits image information and audio signals corresponding to the image information from the sending side, and magnetically records the image information and audio signals on recording paper and a magnetic tape provided on the recording paper on the receiving side. This facsimile device is capable of conveying messages related to the image information transmitted from the sender to the recipient by appropriately reproducing the image when viewing the image.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

By the way, in the facsimile signal transmitted and received by the facsimile device disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 55-56756, the image signal Σ and the audio signal are almost simultaneous, and as shown in FIG. , a synchronization signal, an image signal, and an audio signal are arranged for each line. This can be easily obtained by having the sender input an audio signal related to the image information being transmitted using a microphone or the like, and sequentially compressing the audio signal on the time axis for each line of the image.

In this case, as a general rule, the audio signal must be input while the image information is being transmitted, and the sender must continue inputting the audio signal without leaving the facsimile machine until the facsimile communication is finished, which is very inconvenient. be. Also the third
In the transmission format shown in the figure, the image signal area and the audio signal area are defined for each line, so the audio signal amount is determined according to the amount of image information to be transmitted, and the image information is transmitted at least as much as the audio message. , or when a large amount of image information is required but only a small number of voice messages are required, there is waste such as transmitting blank image information or silent voice signals.

Therefore, in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, the present invention is capable of automatically transmitting both image information and an audio signal related to the image information, and
It is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile device in which the amount of image information and the amount of audio signal can be set arbitrarily.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to solve the above problems, a facsimile device according to the present invention includes: an image input means for inputting image information; an audio input means for inputting an audio signal related to the image information;
The present invention is characterized in that it includes a voice storage means for storing the inputted voice signal, and a transmitter that reads out and transmits the voice from the voice storage means at a predetermined timing together with the transmission of the image information.

Here, the predetermined timing is, for example, after all image information is transmitted, or before image information is transmitted.

[For production]

A facsimile device according to the present invention is provided with a storage means for storing an audio signal, and reads the audio from the storage means at a predetermined timing while transmitting the image information, thereby automatically transmitting both the image information and the audio signal. It is possible,
The amount of audio signal transmitted is independent of the amount of image information.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of a facsimile apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the transmitting side of a facsimile machine according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, the facsimile device includes an image input device 1 that reads image information to be transmitted, an image signal processing device 2 that performs signal processing such as data compression on the image signal sent from the image input device. an audio input bag W3 for inputting an audio signal corresponding to the image information using a microphone or the like; an audio storage device 4 configured with a RAM (random access memory) as a storage means for storing the input audio signal; A transmitting circuit 5 that transmits an image signal sent from the signal processing device 2 and an audio signal sent from the audio storage device 4 at a predetermined timing, and an output terminal 6
It is equipped with the following.

In such a facsimile machine, when the sender sets the manuscript paper to be sent and presses the image transmission switch, the manuscript paper is automatically loaded into the image input device l, and the image of the manuscript paper is read by a reading means such as a line sensor. The information is read, and the read image information is sent to the image signal processing device 2 as an image signal. This image signal processing device 2 performs digital processing to digitally encode the image signal and sends it to the transmission circuit 5, and as shown in FIG. . . G, etc. are transmitted from the output terminal 6 via the telephone line.

The sender turns on the audio input switch simultaneously with or in advance of loading the document paper, and manually inputs audio signals such as explanations and precautions related to the image information via the microphone. This audio signal is converted from analog to digital and stored in the audio storage device 4. Then, as shown in FIG. 2, after all the image signals have been transmitted and the image/audio switching signal 25 has been transmitted, the audio signal 26 stored in the audio storage device 4 is read out by the transmitting circuit 5. It is transmitted from the output terminal 6 via the telephone line.

Then, when the transmission of the audio signal 26 is completed, an end signal 27 is transmitted, and the transmission is completed.

According to the facsimile apparatus having the above-described transmission side configuration, the sender can store an audio signal related to image information in the audio storage device 4 in advance, and can terminate the transmission of the image information at a predetermined timing, for example. Since approximately six audio signals are automatically transmitted afterward, there is no need for the sender to continue transmitting audio signals until the end of transmission of the image information, unlike in conventional facsimile machines.

In addition, since the length of the audio signal can be set regardless of the amount of image information, it is possible to send many audio messages for a small amount of image information, or add short audio comments to a lot of image information, without wasting any time. Effective signal transmission is possible.

Various configurations of the receiving section for receiving the facsimile signal transmitted from the transmitting section of such a facsimile machine are conceivable. FIG. 1 shows a specific example of this receiving section together with a transmitting section.

This receiving section includes a receiving circuit 8 that receives the image signal and audio signal received via the input terminal 7, and the receiving circuit 8.
an image signal decoding circuit 9 that decodes the image signal output from the image signal decoding circuit 9; a printer 10 that prints an image using the signal output from the image signal decoding circuit 9; and the receiving circuit 8.
an audio decoding circuit 11 that decodes the audio signal output from the audio decoding circuit; an audio storage device 12 constituted by a RAM, which is a semiconductor memory that stores the signal output from the audio decoding circuit; An audio playback device 13 that plays back the stored audio signals, and the printer 10 and the audio memory management device 1 that generate correspondence data for associating the image information and audio signals sent at the same time.
control for controlling the operations of the corresponding data generating device 14 that is sent to the corresponding data generating device 14, the receiving circuit 8, the image signal decoding circuit 9, the printer 10, the audio signal decoding circuit 11, the audio storage device 12, and the corresponding data generating device 14; circuit 15, and the audio storage device 12 in response to a control signal from the control circuit 15.
an audio memory management device 16 that manages the writing and reading of audio signals to and a key manual device 17 that inputs signals specifying image signals to be printed and audio signals to be heard.
It is equipped with the following.

In this specific example of the receiving section, the corresponding data generating device I
The above-mentioned corresponding data generated from 4 is clearly displayed in the image printed by the printer 10, and the storage address of the audio signal is managed by the audio memory management device 16 based on the corresponding data. Then, by inputting data corresponding to the printed image via the key input device 17, it is possible to appropriately reproduce a voice message according to the image information. In addition, when image information is also stored in the memory, the same memory can be used for both the image information storage memory and the audio storage device 12, and the memory can be managed collectively, simplifying the configuration and Memory can be used effectively. This converts the audio storage device 4 of the transmitting section to the audio storage device 1 of the receiving section.
The same applies to the case where it is used also as 2.

If the receiving facsimile device does not have an audio signal receiving function, for example, when determining the communication protocol at the start of facsimile communication, it may switch to normal image data communication mode and send only image information. Just do it.

In addition, in the above-mentioned embodiment, a method was used in which the audio signal inputted by the microphone was converted from analog to digital and stored in the RAM, which is a storage means. Good too.

The advantage of this case is that the analog signal can be transmitted as it is via the telephone line, which saves time and effort for recording and reproducing such as compression and expansion as with digital signals.

In addition to semiconductor memory such as RAM, storage means include
The above-mentioned magnetic tape, optical disk, etc. may be used, and it goes without saying that the image signal may be transmitted after the audio signal, as opposed to transmitting the audio signal after the image signal.

〔Effect of the invention〕

The facsimile device according to the present invention is provided with an audio storage means that can store and record audio related to image information to be transmitted, and the audio storage means is configured to store and record audio related to image information to be transmitted at a predetermined timing (for example, after or before transmitting all image information) together with the image information. By reading out and transmitting the audio signal from the computer, it is now possible to automatically transmit both the image information and the audio signal. Therefore, it is possible to eliminate the inconvenience of the sender being unable to leave the facsimile machine because the sender manually sends a voice signal via a microphone or the like while transmitting image information. Also,
The amount of audio signal can be set independently of the amount of image information, so even when adding many audio messages to a small amount of image information, or adding short audio comments to a lot of image information, it is possible to set the amount of audio signals without wasting any waste. signal transmission.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a transmitter of a facsimile machine as an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a transmission format of a facsimile signal of the facsimile machine of the embodiment, and FIG. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a transmission format of a facsimile signal of a facsimile device. 1...Image input device 2...Image signal processing device 3...Audio input device 4...Audio memory device 5...Transmission circuit Patent applicant Sony Corporation representative Patent attorney Koike Mimi Tamura Sakae - Masaru Sato

Claims (1)

[Claims] Image input means for inputting image information; audio input means for inputting an audio signal related to the image information; audio storage means for storing the input audio signal; A facsimile apparatus comprising a transmitting section that reads out voice from the voice storage means and transmits the voice at a predetermined timing along with transmission.