JPH03188747A - Transfer control system for facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To save a talking charge by transferring selectively only picture information with desired attribute information added thereto to a transfer facsimile equipment among picture information sent from a transmission facsimile equipment and stored therein. CONSTITUTION:An emergency command detection means 6 of a relay facsimile equipment 2 detects attribute information so as to discriminate whether or not emergency is commanded and when emergency is commanded, picture information is stored in a picture memory 9 and the stored location is stored in a storage area storage means 31. when no emergency is commanded, only the storage of the picture information to the picture memory 9 is implemented, when the storage location of the picture information is stored in the storage area storage means 31, a readout control means 32 reads stored picture information. Since the relay facsimile equipment transfers only the picture information designated for the presence of emergency by the transmission facsimile equipment to a transfer facsimile equipment, the talking charge is saved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a transfer control method for a facsimile device, and in particular, to transmit image information read by a sender facsimile device to a relay facsimile device and temporarily store it. In a transfer control method for a facsimile device that subsequently transfers to a destination facsimile device, facsimile device transfer selectively transfers only desired image information to the transfer facsimile device from among the image information stored in the relay facsimile device. Regarding control method.

(Prior Art) In recent years, as facsimile machines have become widespread, there has been a demand for higher functionality, and facsimile machines (hereinafter abbreviated as memory FAX) equipped with an image memory for storing image information have appeared.

In such a memory FAX, received image information is not immediately printed out, but is temporarily stored in an image memory, and then printed out at a desired time. Therefore, communication time can be shortened and call charges can be reduced compared to the conventional method.

Furthermore, memory FAX can bring about various other effects by devising its usage.

For example, when attempting to transfer a document based on image information received by a facsimile device to another facsimile device, the received image information is first printed on recording paper, the document is reproduced, and the reproduced document is transferred to another facsimile device. was sent to the facsimile machine again and sent to the destination facsimile machine.

However, such a method has problems such as poor work efficiency and deterioration of image quality. Recently, as a system to solve such problems, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-195761 has been developed.
As described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-106572, a method has been proposed in which a facsimile machine equipped with an image memory for storing image information is used as a repeater.

In these conventional techniques, as shown in FIG. ) is received once and stored in the image memory.

In this relay FAX 2, "transfer management information" (hereinafter sometimes simply referred to as management information) consisting of, for example, the forwarding destination's telephone number, model information (ID), password, confidential box number, etc., is registered in advance by the operator. ing.

Among these, the model information is information regarding the capabilities of the destination facsimile machine, such as signal transmission speed, printing speed, paper size, etc. In addition, the password is identification information that allows only a specific operator to register forwarding management information. Registration of the transfer management information is accepted only if the password matches.

The confidential box number is a number that indicates a confidential area that stores only confidential information, which is provided in a specific area of the image memory of the relay FAX 2. It can be output only if registered.

The relay FAX 2 transmits image information 30 based on the transfer management information.
is transmitted to the transfer destination facsimile device 3 (hereinafter referred to as transfer FAX).

According to such a transfer method, the image information 30 transmitted from the transmitting FAXI can be easily transmitted to the transmitting FAX 3 without deteriorating the image quality.

In addition, as another method of using a memory FAX, for example, as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 1-202981, image data stored in the memory FAX can be collected by sending a polling request to the memory FAX from another facsimile device. Techniques have also been proposed that allow printing out from other facsimile machines.

Note that in the following explanation, a system that is composed of a sending FAX, a relay FAX, and a forwarding FAX and that enables the transfer of image information as described above may also be referred to as a "transfer system using a memory FAX." be.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) The image information sent from each sending FAXI to the relay FAX 2 includes information that is not very important or has no urgency. There is no need to transfer the information from the fax machine to the transfer fax machine 3, and the operator only needs to print it out when the operator returns to the relay fax machine 2.

Furthermore, among the plurality of transmission FAXes, there is a transmission FAX that transmits only image information that does not need to be transferred.

The image information from such a transmission FAX may also be printed out when the operator returns to the relay FAX 2, as described above.

However, in the above-mentioned conventional technology, the relay FAX 2 that receives the image information transferred from the sending FAX 1 immediately transfers all of the received image information to the forwarding FAX 3, regardless of the content or the sender. The transfer FAX 3 immediately prints out the transferred image information.

Therefore, even image information that does not need to be transferred can be transferred by FAX.
There was a problem in that the call was forwarded to 3, and the call charges were wasted.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and to make it possible to selectively transfer only the necessary information to the transfer FAX 3 out of a large amount of image information sent from each sending FAX 1 to the relay FAX 2. Its purpose is to provide facsimile machines.

(Means and effects for solving the burden) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention transmits the image information read by the sending fax to the relay fax, stores it once, and then transfers it to the transfer fax. The transfer control method for facsimile machines is characterized by the following measures.

(1) Sending FAX adds at least one piece of attribute information to the read image information and outputs it, and NataFAX sorts the input image information by the attribute information added to the image information and stores it. , only the image information to which predetermined attribute information is added is read out and transferred to the transfer FAX.

(2) Sending FAX adds at least one attribute information to the read image information and outputs it, and relay FAX divides the input image information by the attribute information added to the image information and stores it. , only the image information to which attribute information matching the manually entered attribute information is added is read out from the transfer FAX and output to the transfer FAX.

According to configuration (1) above, the relay FAX is
From among the image information transmitted from the AX and stored, only the image information to which desired attribute information has been added can be selectively transferred to the transfer FAX.

Furthermore, according to configuration (2) above, the forwarding FAX is
From among the image information stored in the relay FAX, only the image information to which desired attribute information has been added can be selectively transferred to the relay FAX.

(Example) Below, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. 1st
The figure is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the present invention.

In the figure, a transmission FAXI attribute information setting unit 101 sets attribute information indicating attributes of image information read by an image information reading/recording unit 109.

This attribute information includes information representing the nature of the image information, such as the importance of the image information and the urgency of the transfer, and identification information unique to each facsimile machine, such as the telephone number and identification code of the sending FAX. Consists of at least one of information representing characteristics and origin.

The attribute information addition unit 102 adds the attribute information to the captured image information. The image information to which the attribute information has been added is converted into an analog signal by the modem 110 and then output to the telephone line 21 via the transmission/reception control section 111.

The image information storage section 103 of the relay FAX 2 accumulates the image information read by the image information reading/recording section 109 and the image information sent from the sending FAX I via the telephone line 21.

The attribute information detection unit 107 detects attribute information sent via the telephone line 21.

The storage control unit 105 stores the image information sent from the sending FAX 1 together with the attribute information in the image information storage unit 103 in order to classify the image information according to the attribute information and store the image information in the image information storage unit 103. Control the storage location.

That is, in order to later selectively read only highly important or urgent image information from the image information storage unit 103 and transfer it to the transfer FAX 3, each piece of image information is distinguished by attribute information. The image information is stored in the image information storage unit 103.

The attribute information specifying unit 104 specifies the attribute information when reading only image information specified by desired attribute information from among the image information stored in the image information storage unit 103.

The readout control unit 106 reads out only the image information specified by the attribute information designation unit 104 from among the image information stored in the image information storage unit 103.

The transfer FAX 3 receives the image information output from the N&FAX 2, and prints out the image information using the image information reading/recording section 109.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an image information transfer system that is an embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, a transmission FAX 1 is connected to a system section Tab line control means 8 interconnected via a system bus 10a.
a, emergency/non-emergency setting means 51, and emergency instruction adding means 52.

The relay FAX 2 includes a system section 7b, a line control means 8b, an image memory 9, a storage area storage means 31, a readout control means 32, and an emergency instruction detection means 6, which are interconnected via a system bus 10b.

The transfer FAX 3 is composed of a system section 7C and a line control means 8C that are interconnected via a system bus 10c.

The system units 7a to 7c of each facsimile machine have a transfer F
As representatively shown in AX3, CPU II, ROM 12, and RAM are interconnected via the system bus.
13, a scanner 23, a printer 24, and the like. Each CPU II performs control of each facsimile machine itself and transmission control for transmitting image information, and its control programs and the like are stored in each ROM 12, and work areas and the like are formed in each RAM 13.

The line control means 8a to 8C control the connection between each facsimile machine and the telephone line 21, and demodulate the digital data so that the telephone line 21, which is an analog line network, can be used as a transmission circuit.

The transmission FAXI emergency/non-urgent setting unit 51 sets whether or not there is an urgency regarding the transfer of the image information captured from the scanner of the system section 7a. The emergency instruction adding means 52 is
Attribute information indicating the presence or absence of the urgency is added to the image information.

The image memory 9 of the relay FAX 2 stores image information read by the scanner of the system section 7b or image information sent from the sending FAXI.

The emergency instruction detection means 6 detects whether or not an emergency instruction is given based on the attribute information sent from the sending FAXI together with the image information. The storage area storage means 31 stores an area on the image memory 9 in which image information at that time is stored when an emergency instruction is detected by the emergency instruction detection means 6. The readout control means 32 reads out image information from the stored storage area.

Hereinafter, a method for transferring image information using the image information transfer system having such a configuration will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

The sender who sends image information from the sending FAX 1 operates the scanner of the system unit 7a to capture the image information in step S1, and also operates the emergency/non-urgent setting means 51 in step S2 to determine the urgency of the image information. Set the presence/absence of .

In step S3, information regarding the presence or absence of urgency set by the emergency/non-urgent setting means 51 is added to the image information as attribute information by the emergency instruction adding means 52.

In step S4, the sender dials and relays the fax.
2 and when both lines are connected, image information is output to relay FAX 2 together with attribute information in step S5.

In step S6, the emergency instruction detection means 6 of the relay FAX 2
detects the attribute information, and in step S7 it is determined whether the attribute information indicates an emergency.

If there is an emergency instruction, the image information is stored in the image memory 9 in step S8, and the storage location is stored in the storage area storage means 31. If there is no urgent instruction, only the image information is stored in the image memory 9 in step S9.

In step SIO, it is confirmed by the readout control means 32 whether or not the storage location of the image information is stored in the storage area storage means 31. If the storage location is stored, the storage location is stored in the storage location in step Sll. Read out the image information that is displayed.

Note that if the storage location of the image information is not stored in the storage area storage means 31, that is, if no urgent instruction is given based on the input attribute information, the image information at that time is stored as is in the image memory. Alternatively, it is printed out by the printer of the relay FAX 2.

In step S12, the line control means 8b transfers the FAX 3
When the transfer FAX 3 is automatically dialed and the line is connected, the read image information is transferred to the transfer FAX 3 in step S13.

In the transfer FAX 3, the relay FAX is transferred in step S14.
The image information transferred from 2 to the printer 2 of the system section 7c
4 is printed out.

According to this embodiment, since the relay FAX transfers only the image information designated as urgent by the sending FAX to the forwarding FAX, there is no need to transfer image information that does not need to be transferred to the forwarding FAX, and You can save on fees.

Note that in the above embodiment, only the presence or absence of urgency is specified as the attribute information, but it is also possible to specify the presence or absence of importance, or both urgency and importance. .

Also, when specifying multiple attribute information like this,
The emergency instruction detection means 6 detects, for example, only those items that are specified as urgent, only those items that are specified as important, or even only those that are specified as both urgent and important. detected, etc.
By setting the detection conditions in advance, it becomes possible to more precisely select image information to be transferred.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a second embodiment of the present invention, and the same reference numerals as in FIG. 2 represent the same or equivalent parts.

In the same figure, a transmission FAXI is connected to a system section 7as and a line control means 8 interconnected via a system bus 10a.
a, and source information adding means 54.

The relay FAX 2 includes a system section 7b, a line control means 8b, an image memory 9, a storage area storage means 31, a readout control means 32, a sender information specifying means 55, and a sender information detector, which are interconnected via a system bus 10b. Means 61
Consisted of.

The transfer FAX 3 is composed of a system section 7C and a line control means 8C that are interconnected via a system bus 10c.

The transmission source information addition means 54 for the transmission FAXI adds the transmission FAXI to the image information taken in from the scanner of the system section 7a.
Each sending F, such as an AXI phone number or identification number.
Source information, which is a unique code, is added to each of AX1-1 to AX1-n.

The source information specifying means 55 is preset with the source information of the transmission FAX that outputs the image information desired to be transferred to the transfer FAX 3.

Hereinafter, a method of transferring image information using the image information transfer system having such a configuration will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

In step S20, when the sender operates the scanner of the system section 7a of the sending FAX 1-1 to capture image information, in step S21, the telephone number of the sending FAX I-1, which is the source information of the sending FAX 1-1, is It is added to the image information.

In step S22, the caller dials the relay F.
When AX2 is called and both lines are connected, step S
At 23, the image information is output together with the source information.

In step S24, the source information detection means 61 of the relay FAX 2 detects the source information.

The transmission source information specifying means 55 of the relay FAX 2 includes a forwarding FA
The sender information (telephone number in this embodiment) of the outgoing FAX that outputs the image information that you wish to transfer to X3 is registered in advance, and in step S25, the detected sender information is transferred to the It is compared with the original information, and if the two match, the image information is stored in the image memory 9 in step S26.
At the same time, the storage location is stored in the storage area storage means 31. If they do not match, only the image information is stored in the image memory 9 in step S27.

In step 328, the readout control means 32
It is determined whether or not a storage location of image information is stored in the storage area storage means 31. If the storage location is stored, the image information stored in the storage location is read out in step S29.

Note that the subsequent steps 330 to S32 are the same as steps 312 to S14 described with reference to FIG.
Since this process is the same as the previous process, its explanation will be omitted.

According to this embodiment, the relay FAX 2 transfers only the image information from the pre-specified sending FAX to the transfer FAX 3, so there is no need to transfer image information that does not need to be transferred to the transfer FAX 3, and the call charge is reduced. You can save money.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a third embodiment of the present invention, and the same reference numerals as in FIG. 2 represent the same or equivalent parts.

In the same figure, the configurations of the sending FAX 1 and the transferring FAX 3 are the same as those in the embodiment described with reference to FIG. 2, so their explanation will be omitted.

The middle 11 FAX 2 includes a system section 7b, line control means Bb, image memory 9, storage area storage means 31, readout control means 32, which are interconnected via the system bus 10b.
It is constituted by a transfer permission setting means 56 and a transfer condition setting means 53.

In the transfer permission setting means 56, transfer permission, such as whether or not to transfer the image information transmitted from the sending FAX to the transfer FAX 3, is set in advance. The transfer condition setting means 53 sets conditions for transfer based on whether the transfer is possible or not.

Hereinafter, a method of transferring image information using the image information transfer system having such a configuration will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

In the same figure, the processing from steps S41 to 845 is the same as the processing from steps S1 to 85 explained with reference to FIG. 3, so the explanation thereof will be omitted.

In step 346, the transfer condition setting means 53 identifies whether the transfer is permitted or not set in the transfer permission setting means 56, and if the transfer is not permitted, in step S47, the emergency instruction detection means 6 of the relay FAX 2 detects the attribute information. detect,
In step 548, it is determined whether the attribute information indicates an emergency.

If there is an emergency instruction, the image information is stored in the image memory 9 in step S49, and the storage location is stored in the storage area storage means 31. If there is no urgent instruction, only the image information is stored in the image memory 9 in step S50.

On the other hand, if the transfer is permitted in step 346, the process immediately moves to step S49, where all image information is stored regardless of the attribute information, and the storage location is the storage area. It is stored in the storage means 31.

Note that the processing from step S51 to step S55 is the same as the processing from step S10 to 314, so the explanation thereof will be omitted.

FIG. 12 shows the content of the attribute information in the sending FAX 1, the setting content of the forwarding permission/prohibition in the relay FAX 2, and
FIG. 7 is a diagram showing the relationship with the transfer status in each case.

According to this embodiment, depending on the situation at that time, the relay fax may decide whether to transfer all the image information sent from the sending fax or only the image information that the sending fax has designated as urgent. As described above, it is possible to save on call charges and to reflect the sender's intention with the recipient's intention regarding the transfer of image information.

By the way, in each of the above-mentioned embodiments, for example, the specification of sender information in the second embodiment and the setting of forwarding permission in the third embodiment are registered in advance in the relay FAX.
If the situation on the recipient's side changes after that, for example, if the designation of sender information is changed, it is necessary to go back to the relay FAX and reconfigure the settings, which is not convenient.

Therefore, in the embodiment shown below, attribute information such as sender information can be specified from a transfer FAX to a relay FAX.

FIG. 8 is a functional block diagram of another configuration of the present invention,
Compared to the functional block diagram shown in Figure 1, relay FAX
The attribute information specifying section 104 provided in 2 is removed,
The feature is that the transfer FAX 3 is newly provided with an attribute information specifying section 108.

The attribute information specifying unit 108 inputs attribute information in order to transfer only image information having specific attribute information from among the image information stored in the image information storage unit 103 of the medium gFAX 2.

FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the invention described above,
The same reference numerals as in FIG. 4 represent the same or equivalent parts.

In the figure, header generation means 4 of relay FAX 2 generates a header according to input attribute information. The header detection means 5 reads from the image memory 9 only image information having a scheduled header from among the image information stored in the image memory 9.

The sending source information specifying means 57 of the transfer FAX 3 specifies the sending source information of the sending FAX that outputs the image information desired to be transferred.

Hereinafter, a method of transferring image information using the image information transfer system having such a configuration will be explained with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 10.

In this figure, the processing from steps S61 to 365 is the same as the processing from steps S20 to 324 described with reference to FIG. 5, so the explanation thereof will be omitted.

In step S66, the emergency instruction detection means 6 of the relay FAX 2 detects the attribute information, and the header generating means 4 generates a header indicating emergency or a header indicating non-urgent according to the attribute information. is stored in the image memory 9 together with the image information.

When the accumulation of the image information from the sending FAX 1 is completed in step S67, the sending source information detecting means 61 of the relay FAX 2 waits for the input of sending source information as attribute information from the transferring FAX 3 in step S368.

Thereafter, in this manner, image information from each transmission FAX 1-1 to 1n is stored one after another in the image memory with each transmission source information as a header.

Here, when the relay FAX 2 is called by an appropriate method such as polling from the transfer FAX 3, and the sender information specified by the sender information specifying means 57 is detected by the sender information detecting means 61, In step S69, the header is scanned by the header detecting means 5, and when the head/soda registered in the transmission source information is detected in step S70, the image information having the head/soda is read out in step S71. Note that the processes from steps S72 to 374 after this are performed in step S3.
Since the processing is the same as that from 0 to S32, the explanation thereof will be omitted.

In step S75, it is determined whether scanning of all headers in the image memory 9 has been completed. If not, the process returns to step S69, and the same process as above is repeated to specify the source information. All the image information specified by the sender information specified by means 57 is printed out.

According to this embodiment, the recipient at the forwarding destination can specify the forwarding fax that he or she wishes to forward according to the situation at the time, so as in the case described above, it is possible to save on call charges and improve usability. do.

(Effects of the Invention) As is clear from the above description, according to the present invention, the following effects are achieved.

(1) Relay FAX can selectively transfer only the image information with desired attribute information added to it from among the image information sent from the sending FAX and stored, to the forwarding FAX. You will be able to save money.

(2) Transfer FAX allows you to selectively transfer only the image information with desired attribute information added from among the image information stored in the relay FAX, thereby saving on call charges. become able to.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a functional block diagram showing the configuration of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the invention, Fig. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of Fig. 2, and Fig. 4 is a functional block diagram of the present invention. A block diagram of the second embodiment of the invention, FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of FIG. 4, FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the third embodiment of the invention, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of FIG. 6. 8 is a functional block diagram showing another configuration of the present invention, FIG. 9 is a block diagram of an embodiment of another configuration of the present invention, and FIG. 10 is a functional block diagram showing another configuration of the present invention. A flowchart for explaining the operation, FIG. 11 is a diagram for explaining an image information transfer system using memory FAX, and FIG. 12 is a flowchart for explaining the operation.
7 is a diagram for explaining the operation of the embodiment shown in FIG. 6. FIG.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) The image information read by the source facsimile device is sent to the relay facsimile device, and the relay facsimile device stores the received image information once and then transfers it to the destination facsimile device, and the destination facsimile device receives the image information. In a transfer control method for a facsimile device that records image information, the source facsimile device adds at least one attribute information to the read image information and outputs it, and the relay facsimile device converts the input image information into the image. Transfer of a facsimile device, characterized in that after the information is classified and stored based on attribute information added to it, only image information to which predetermined attribute information is added is read out and output to a destination facsimile device. control method. (2) The image information read by the source facsimile device is sent to the relay facsimile device, and the relay facsimile device stores the received image information once and then transfers it to the destination facsimile device, and the destination facsimile device receives the image information. In a transfer control method for a facsimile device that records image information, the source facsimile device adds at least one attribute information to the read image information and outputs it, and the relay facsimile device converts the input image information into the image. After sorting and storing information based on the attribute information added to it, only the image information to which attribute information that matches the attribute information input from the destination facsimile device is added is read out and output to the destination facsimile device. A transfer control method for a facsimile machine characterized by the following.