JPH0474058A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To omit the operation for the entry of a transmission time and to relieve the load of the operation when a transmission designation time used in the past is repetitively set to a destination dialed through the use of a time designation transmission function once by storing transmission time history information. CONSTITUTION:When the revision of transmission time history information is finished, a picture of a transmission original is read by a scanner 5 in the unit of pages, the obtained picture signal is subject to coding compression by a coder decoder section 8 and the obtained picture information is stored sequentially stored in a picture storage device 9. When the control section 1 checks a job management table and finds out the job management table in which the content of transmission time information indicates the lapse of the current time, the transmission according to the content described in the job management table is implemented. When the transmission is finished, the content of transmission result information is revised into a value representing the result of transmission and the picture information whose transmission is finished is deleted from the picture storage device 9. When the time sent to a same destination is decided, the load of the entry operation of the transmission time is relieved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a facsimile machine having a time-specified transmission function.

[Prior Art] Generally, a facsimile machine equipped with a single image storage function has a
Equipped with a time-specified transmission function that allows you to specify the transmission time of image information.

Utilizing this time-designated transmission function has the advantage that image information transmission can be performed during times when communication charges are low, and communication costs can be reduced.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, when using this time-specified transmission function, it is necessary to input the designated transmission time, which has conventionally caused the inconvenience that the operation is somewhat troublesome. .

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile machine that can reduce the effort required to operate when using the time-specified transmission function.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The present invention provides storage means for storing transmission time history information consisting of identification information of a destination when time-specific transmission is specified and a specified time, and a storage means for storing transmission time history information consisting of destination identification information and a specified time when time-specific transmission is specified; is registered in the transmission time history information of the storage means, the control means displays the designated time stored in the storage means corresponding to the destination as a candidate for the designated transmission time.

[Effect: Therefore, for a destination that was called using the - degree time specified transmission function, when repeatedly setting a previously used specified transmission time, the input operation of the transmission time can be omitted.
Operation effort can be reduced.

[Embodiments] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a Group 3 facsimile machine according to one embodiment of the present invention.

In the figure, a control unit 1 performs control processing of each part of the facsimile machine and facsimile transmission control procedure processing, and a system memory 2 stores control processing programs and processing programs executed by the control unit 1. The parameter memory 3 is used to store various types of data required when executing the fax machine, and constitutes the work area of the control unit 1. The parameter memory 3 is used to store various types of information specific to this group 3 facsimile machine. It is.

The clock circuit 4 is for obtaining current time information,
The scanner 5 is for reading a document image at a predetermined resolution, the plotter 6 is for recording and outputting an image at a predetermined resolution, and the operation display section 7 is for operating this facsimile device. It consists of various operation keys and various displays.

The encoding/decoding unit 8 encodes and compresses the image signal, and decodes the encoded and compressed image information into the original image signal, and the image storage device 9 encodes and compresses the encoded and compressed image information. This is for storing a large amount of image information in a different state.

The group 3 facsimile modem 10 is for realizing the group 3 facsimile modem function, and has a low speed modem function (V,
21 modem), and a high-speed modem function (V, 29 modem, V, 27ter) mainly for exchanging image information.
modem).

The network control device 11 is for connecting this facsimile device to the public telephone line network, and has an automatic call originating and receiving function.

These control section 1, system memory 2, parameter memory 3, clock circuit 4, scanner 5, probe 6, operation display section 7, encoding/decoding section 8, image storage device ff1t9, group 3 facsimile modem 10, and , network control device 1
1 is connected to a system bus 12, and data exchange between these elements is mainly performed via this system bus 12.

FIG. 2 shows an example of the operation display section 7. As shown in FIG.

In the figure, a start key 78 is used to input a command to start the transmission/reception operation of this facsimile machine, and a stop key 7b is used to input a command to stop the operation of this facsimile machine. 7c
The 9 function key 7d is used to input numerical information such as a telephone number, and the 9 function key 7d is used to specify various functions of this facsimile machine, such as data registration to the one-touch dial function. The time designation key 7d is
This is for setting and inputting the time specified transmission mode.
The one-touch dial key 7f is used to operate a one-touch dial function that specifies a destination with a single key operation.

The liquid crystal display 7g is for displaying various messages from this facsimile machine to the operator.
The YES key 7h is used to enter a positive answer to the guidance message displayed on the liquid crystal display 7g, and the NO key 71 is used to enter a negative answer to the guidance message displayed on the liquid crystal display 7g. It is for input.

Here, when the control section 1 stores transmission image information in the image storage device 9, it forms a job management table as shown in FIG. 3(a) for each image file. In addition, a page management table as shown in FIG. 6(b) is created for the image information of each page.

The job management table contains job identification information for identifying each job, mode information indicating the transmission mode in which the image information was generated, destination telephone number information for storing the destination telephone number, and time-specified transmission. Management of transmission time information for storing the specified transmission time in the case of a remote, transmission result information for storing the transmission result, page number information for storing the number of pages of image information, and image information of the first page. It consists of a first page pointer that indicates the first address of the page management table currently being stored.

The page management table contains page reference number information indicating the page reference number of the image information managed by the page management table, start address information indicating the start address of the image information storage area, and information indicating the data amount of the image information. The next page pointer indicates the top address of the page management table that manages the image information of the next page of the image information.

Furthermore, the control unit 1 creates transmission time history information as shown in FIG.

This transmission time history information consists of destination telephone number information, which indicates the destination to which the time-specified transmission was sent, and transmission specified time information, which indicates the specified transmission time.
is formed.

With the above configuration, when a transmission document is set on the scanner 5, the control section 1 executes the process shown in FIG. 4, and shifts to the transmission operation.

First, guidance is displayed on the liquid crystal display 7g to have the operator input destination information (process 101), and then it is monitored that the time designation key 7e or the start key 78 is turned on (determination 102, No loop of JO3). ).

The start key 7a is turned on and the result of judgment 103 is Y.
When ES is reached, since immediate transmission is specified, a call is made to the destination specified at that time, and the process moves to a transmission process in which the image of the transmission document set in the scanner 5 is transmitted.

The time designation key 7e is turned on and the result of judgment 102 is Y.
When it becomes ES, it is checked whether the transmission time history information of the destination designated at that time is stored in the parameter memory 3 (determination 104).

When the result of the judgment 104 is YES, extract the designated transmission time information from the transmission time history information, set the designated transmission time information to the content of the designated time,
Display a guidance message to confirm whether or not to decide on the specified time (process 10)
5). Moreover, when the result of judgment 104 is ~0,
The current time information is read from the clock circuit 4, the current time information is set to the contents of the specified time, and a guidance message is displayed to confirm whether or not to set the specified time to the contents (processing 106).

In response to such a confirmation guidance message, it is checked whether the operator operates the YES key 7h (decision 107), and if the result of determination 107 is NO when the NO key 71 is operated, the transmission time is sent to the operator. Executes time specification input processing for operation input (process 108
).

In this way, when the designated transmission time is determined, the system waits until the start key 7a is turned on.
loop), when the start key 7a is turned on and the result of judgment 109 becomes YES, it is checked whether transmission time history information is stored for the destination designated at that time (decision 110).

When the result of judgment 110 is YES, the content of the specified transmission time information of the transmission time history information is updated to the value of the specified transmission time determined at that time (111), and the result of judgment 110 is No. Sometimes, transmission time history information is newly generated for the destination, and the value of the designated transmission time determined at that time is set in the content of the designated transmission time information (process 112).

When the transmission time history information has been updated in this manner, the scanner 5 reads the image of the transmission document page by page, the image signal obtained thereby is encoded and compressed by the encoder/decoder 8, and the resulting image signal is encoded and compressed by the encoder/decoder 8. The image information is stored in the image storage device 9.
(processing 113).

Then, a job management table for the time-specified transmission job is created and stored (step 114), and the process for time-specified transmission ends.

After that, the control unit 1 checks the job management table to see if there is a job whose transmission time information has passed the current time, and if such a job management table is found, the control unit 1 checks the job management table. Performs the transmission operation of the contents described in the table. When the transmission operation is completed, the content of the transmission result information is updated to a value indicating the transmission result, and the image information whose transmission has been completed is deleted from the image storage device 9.

In this way, in this embodiment, transmission time history information is formed and stored for each destination, so that, for example, when transmitting sales slips to the center device at a fixed time, etc., the time of transmission to the same destination is When the transmission time is determined, the trouble of inputting the transmission time can be saved.

Additionally, the receiving side can specify the sending time in advance to the sending side. In this case, the receiving side operator can receive the received document at a certain time. It can be used effectively.

In this case, the initially registered transmission time may not be changed. Furthermore, it is also possible to store the transmission time in relation to the one-touch dial key, in which case the operation effort can be further reduced.

Incidentally, in the above-described embodiment, the present invention is applied to a group 3 facsimile machine that uses a telephone line as a transmission path, but the present invention can be similarly applied to other facsimile machines.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the present invention, since transmission time history information is stored, a transmission specification used in the past is sent to a destination called using the -degree time specified transmission function. When repeatedly setting the time, the input operation of the transmission time can be omitted, and the effect of reducing the effort of the operation can be obtained.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a Group 3 facsimile apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing an example of an operation display section, and FIG. 3(a) is a schematic diagram showing an example of a job management table. FIG. 4B is a schematic diagram showing an example of a page management table, FIG. 4C is a schematic diagram showing an example of transmission time history information, and FIG. . DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Control unit, 2... System memory, 3... Parameter memory, 9... Image storage device. Figure 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a facsimile machine equipped with a timed transmission function,
a storage means for storing transmission time history information consisting of identification information of a destination and a designated time when time-designated transmission was specified; and a storage means for storing transmission time history information consisting of destination identification information and designated time when time-designated transmission was specified; 1. A facsimile apparatus comprising: a control means for displaying a specified time stored in the storage means corresponding to the destination as a candidate for the specified transmission time when the destination is present.