JPH03201769A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To select an optimum telephone line by obtaining a communication time based on data quantity and its communication speed after a transmission original is once read and selecting a telephone line offering the cheaper charge based on the communication time. CONSTITUTION:A line selector 6 obtains a required communication time through calculation from a transmission data quantity stored in a 1st data memory 5 and a communication speed of a MODEM circuit 13 and applies a prescribed calculation based on a table data stored in a 2nd data memory 7 from a supplied dial number of toll station number data to obtain the communication distance. Moreover, a prescribed calculation is implemented based on the table data of the 2nd data memory 7 by the weekday and time information read from a clock circuit 9 and the overall decision is implemented as to which telephone line of a telephone company offers the cheapest communication charge and a 4-digit code number representing the selected telephone company as the result of decision is generated and outputted to a control circuit 1. Thus, an optimum telephone line is selected.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (A) Field of Industrial Application The present invention relates to a facsimile machine equipped with telephone line selection skills.

(B) Conventional technology Recently, when making a communication or phone call, the so-called LCR (List Cost Routine) automatically selects the route with the cheapest communication charges among the telephone lines of multiple telephone companies. ) communication devices such as telephones and facsimile machines are being developed (for example, see the instruction manual for facsimile machine 5anfax-5 manufactured by Sanyo Electric Co., Ltd.).

By the way, in communication equipment equipped with LCR function,
In order to select the cheapest route, please enter your area code,
It has a data table by day of the week, time zone, etc., and when a dial number is entered when dialing, it will tell you which telephone company's phone line to use based on the entered dial number, day of the week, time zone, etc. The system calculates the lower charges, generates a 4-digit code number indicating the selected telephone company as a result of the calculation, and sends the telephone number to call after the code number to the telephone line. The telephone company's exchange that detects the code number then operates to connect to the telephone company's line corresponding to the code number.

(c) Problems to be Solved by the Invention In the LCR function mentioned above, one of the conditions for selecting a line is the communication or call time, and currently the time limit for facsimile communication is 1 minute, and for telephone calls it is 3 minutes. Lines are selected based on calculations based on standards, but if there is a large discrepancy from the actual communication or call time, it may be cheaper to select another telephone line, so the optimal selection may not always be made. I couldn't say that. To solve this problem, it is conceivable for the user to predict and enter the communication time, but it is difficult to predict the communication time for multiple sheets of original documents when communicating by facsimile, and Predicting and inputting communication time is troublesome and troublesome.

(d) Means for Solving the Problems The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problems. calculate the time,
This is a line selection means that selects the telephone line with the lowest communication charge, along with other selection conditions.

(E) Function Since the present invention is configured as described above, communication time can be calculated fairly accurately, and the optimum telephone line can be selected.

(f) Example Embodiments of the present invention will be described below based on the drawings.

(1) is a control circuit that controls the entire facsimile machine,
A microprocessor is installed at the bottom of the tank, and each part is controlled according to a program in a program memory (2) in which processing programs are stored. The control circuit (1) also performs signal processing of read transmission original data and processing of received signals.

(3) is a reading unit that optically reads the transmitted original, converts the read black and white data into electrical signals, and supplies it to the control circuit (1). The bottom is grooved.

(4) is a recording section that drives a recording head such as a thermal head to perform printing under the control of the control circuit (1) based on a received signal, and is composed of a recording paper, a recording paper transport mechanism, and a recording head.

(5) is a first data memory in which the original data read by the reading unit (3) or the data signal-processed by the control circuit (1) is stored, and the data is stored under the control of the control circuit (1). Reading and writing take place. (6) is a line selection device that performs the LCR function, which is operated by an arithmetic circuit that calculates communication charges, etc., and generates a four-digit code number indicating the selected telephone company. (7) is a second storage device that stores basic data for calculating communication charges when selecting a line with the line selection device (6).
The data memory stores area code, day of the week, time zone charge table data, etc.

(8) is a keyboard consisting of a communication key, a mode key, a numeric keypad, etc., and a control circuit (1) that captures key signals.
) is controlled according to the program in the program memory (2) in response to the key signal. (9) is a clock circuit which outputs day of the week and time data, and the control circuit (1) reads the data as appropriate. (10) is a clock circuit (9
), data entered from the keyboard (8), or data processed by the control circuit (1), etc., is displayed.The bottom of the display is a liquid crystal display, and the displayed data can be switched as appropriate. However, the current time data is usually displayed. (11) is a dial signal generation circuit that generates a pulse or tone dial signal based on the dial number data supplied from the control circuit (1), and is connected to the telephone line (L) via the line switching circuit (12). be done. (1
3) modulates the signal sent to the telephone line (L), and also the telephone line,! This is a modem circuit that demodulates the signal from (L) and is connected to the line switching circuit (12). Line switching circuit (1
2) is a dial signal generation circuit (11) on the telephone line (L)
, a modem circuit (13), and a telephone set (14) are connected at the bottom of the tank by a relay circuit, and the switching is controlled by a control circuit (1). The line switching circuit (12) also has a built-in incoming call detection circuit that generates an incoming call detection signal by detecting an incoming bell signal.

Next, the operation of the present invention comprising such a tank bottom will be explained.

When sending, first set the transmission original on the reading section (3) and instruct reading of the reply original by operating a specified key on the keyboard (8).
) controls the reading section (3) and starts reading the set transmission document. After the read data is subjected to signal processing such as encoding, it is written into the first data memory (5). When you have finished reading the sent document, press the keyboard (8).
When the dial number of the communication destination is input using the numeric keypad, the input dial number data is temporarily stored in the memory in the control circuit (1) and is also supplied to the line selection device (6). The line selection device (6) that has received the dial number data calculates the amount of data to be sent from the amount of data stored in the first data memory (5) and the communication speed (for example, 9600 bps) of the modem circuit (13). In addition to determining the communication time, a predetermined calculation is performed based on the table data stored in the second data memory (7) from the area code data of the supplied dial number to determine the communication distance. Based on the day of the week and time read from (9), a predetermined calculation is performed based on the table data in the second data memory (7) to determine which telephone company's telephone line should be used to obtain the lowest cost including communication charges. A comprehensive judgment is made, and a four-digit code number indicating the telephone company selected as a result of the judgment is generated and output to the control circuit (1).

The control circuit (1) that has received the code number first controls the line switching circuit (12) to connect the line, and then transmits the dial number data stored in the internal memory following the code number to the dial signal generation circuit (12). 11). The dial signal generation circuit (11) generates a pulse or tone dial signal based on the supplied code number and dial number data, and dials the telephone line (L).

When the other party's facsimile machine responds to the dial call and returns a response signal, the control circuit (1) that has detected the response signal via the modem circuit (13) performs normal control signal exchange with the other party's facsimile machine. , first data memory (5)
Reads out the transmission data stored in the modem circuit (1
3) to the telephone line (L). The facsimile machine of the other party is connected to the line of a pre-selected telephone company, and the transmission is performed via that line.

In this way, transmission can be carried out at low communication charges, and since the telephone line is selected based on the communication time based on the amount of data to be transmitted, the optimum telephone line can be selected.

Next, when receiving a transmission from another facsimile machine, when the line switching circuit (12) detects the incoming call, the control circuit (1) sends and receives control signals to and from the other facsimile machine, and then By receiving the signal, performing signal processing such as decoding, and supplying the processed signal to the recording section (4), a recording head such as a thermal head is driven to perform reception recording on recording paper.

Next, the operation when dialing to make a call will be explained.

In this case as well, when the dial number to be sent is input using the numeric keys on the keyboard (8), the line selection device (6 ), the system determines that it is in call mode, sets the call time to a preset 3 minutes, calculates the charge, and selects the most suitable telephone line. However, in this case, if the actual call time deviates significantly from the predicted three minutes, it may be cheaper to use another telephone line.

(g) Effects of the Invention As described above, the facsimile device of the present invention reads the original to be sent once, calculates the communication time from the data amount and communication speed, and selects the telephone line with the lowest charge based on the calculated time. By doing so, the communication time can be determined accurately, and the optimal telephone line can be selected, which has an extremely large practical effect.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawing is a block diagram showing the groove bottom of the facsimile machine of the present invention. (1)...control circuit, (3)...reading section, (4)...
...recording section, (5)...first data memory, (6).
... Line selection device, (7) ... Second data memory, (
8)...Keyboard.

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A facsimile machine equipped with a so-called LCR function that automatically selects a telephone line with lower communication charges includes a reading means for reading the transmitted document, a means for storing the read data, and a storing means. A facsimile device comprising a line selection means that calculates communication time from the amount of data and the transmission speed and selects the telephone line with the lowest communication charge along with other selection conditions.