JPH0479469A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the use efficiency of a telephone line and to eliminate a waste of recording forms by providing a control means which allows a facsimile signal to be received when it is decided that password information of a facsimile signal is correct. CONSTITUTION:When the facsimile equipment is called, a control part 15 actuates a voice answering part 13 to generate and send a voice message 'Input a password number.' to the transmission-side facsimile equipment 1. The transmission-side facsimile equipment 1 has its push buttons operated to input the password number. When the password number is correct, the reception of an original is allowed, but when the password number is incorrect or when no password number is inputted on the opposite side, the telephone line is disconnected from the reception side to inhibit the original reception is inhibited. Consequently, no unnecessary original is received, the use efficiency of the telephone line is improved, and recording forms are saved.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a facsimile device that transmits or receives document information or the like using a general telephone line.

(Prior Art) In recent years, facsimile machines have rapidly become popular. A facsimile machine is a very convenient device in that it can easily send or receive document information using a general telephone line, and unlike mail etc., document information can be exchanged instantly.

However, recently, it has become common for businessmen to include the telephone number of a facsimile machine in addition to their address and telephone number on their business cards. Increasingly, this business card is being used without the user's knowledge, and document information is being sent from unknown parties. In particular, as a recent trend, there has been an increase in the number of advertisements or publicity document information being sent.

However, with conventional facsimile machines, it is not possible to refuse reception unless the power is turned off, so the facsimile machine may receive document information that it does not need.

In this case, not only is recording paper wasted, but even if you try to receive document information from an important customer, the telephone line will be occupied and you will not be able to receive document information during this time, resulting in missed business opportunities. It's becoming more common.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) In this way, conventional facsimile machines do not have a means to prohibit the reception of document information that the sender does not want, and document information can be sent based on the sender's unilateral convenience. There was an inconvenience.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a facsimile machine that does not receive unnecessary document information, improves the efficiency of telephone line usage, and eliminates waste of recording paper.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) The facsimile device of the present invention is a facsimile device that transmits or receives document information, etc. using a telephone line, and the facsimile device transmits or receives the facsimile signal before receiving the facsimile signal. a receiving means for receiving the password information from the sender;
The apparatus includes a determining means for determining whether the password information received by the receiving means is correct or not, and a control means for permitting reception of the facsimile signal when the determining means determines that the received password information is correct.

(Operation) Prior to receiving a facsimile signal, the facsimile device of the present invention receives password information from the source of the facsimile signal, and permits reception of the facsimile signal only when the received password information is correct.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an overall configuration diagram of a facsimile apparatus according to the present invention. In other words, 1 is the sending facsimile device,
2 is a telephone line, and 3 is a network control unit (NCU), which is connected between the telephone line 2 and the facsimile machine. A modem 4 converts a voice band signal from the network control device 3 into digital data, and converts digital data from a buffer memory 5, which will be described later, into a voice band signal.

Reference numeral 5 denotes a buffer memory, which is used to keep the data transfer rate constant. 6 is an encoder/decoder which converts or decodes facsimile signals. A line memory 7 stores one line of binary information. A binarization circuit 8 converts one line of image information into black and white binary information. A one-dimensional image sensor 9 optically reads one line of image information from the original (document information) to be transmitted.

Reference numeral 10 denotes an operation display section, which is composed of a keyboard, a data display section, and the like. 11 is the paper feed motor of the printer; 12
is the printer's thermal recording head. 1B is a voice response unit that generates a voice message to be output to the sending side. ] 4 is a button signal identification unit that identifies the received button signal. A control section 15 controls the entire facsimile machine.

Next, the operation in such a configuration will be explained with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG.

First, in order to send a document from the facsimile machine 1 on the sending side, the user designates the telephone number of the facsimile machine on the receiving side and makes a call (Sl). This telephone number is connected to the local telephone exchange and telephone line 2, and the designated destination facsimile machine is called. Then, the network control device 3 is activated from the calling signal input from the telephone line 2 (S2
). Then, the network control device 3 performs a connection operation with the telephone line 2, and informs the control unit 1 that a call has been made from an external line.
Let 5 know.

Next, the control unit 15 sets the variable K to "0" (S3
), activates the voice response unit 13 and generates a voice message such as "Please enter your PIN number",
It is transmitted to the facsimile machine 1 on the sending side through the network control device 3 and telephone line 2 (S4). After hearing the voice message, the facsimile machine 1 on the sending side presses a button attached to the facsimile machine 1 to input a password (password information).

If the sender already knows the PIN number, enter it immediately. However, if you know your PIN number but need to look it up, it takes time to enter it. To this end, the voice message is outputted from the voice response unit 13 three times at certain intervals to provide time for the sender to enter the password. During this time, the control unit 15 checks whether the transmitting side has pressed the button.

The above processing is performed in steps S5 and 86. S7,58S9 S
This is done using IO. That is, first, step S5.
S6. S7. Checking whether a telephone signal can be received while going around the S8 loop. Processing that goes around this loop has the same effect as a timer. Here, the variable is a variable that counts the number of times the loop has been passed,
Each time the loop goes around, one is added (S7). Further, LMAX determines the time interval of the timer by the maximum number of times this loop is repeated.

If a telephone signal can be received while going through these loops, the process proceeds to step 313. On the other hand, if the telephone signal cannot be received during this loop and the variable becomes LMAX, the process proceeds to step S9.

Here, the variable is needed to count how many times the same voice message ("Please enter your password") is output from the voice response unit 13. Then, when the variable K becomes, for example, "3", the process proceeds to step Sll. On the other hand, if the variable I( is within "3", the process returns to step S4.

This process is an operation in which the voice response section 13 outputs a voice message ("Please enter your password") three times at time intervals set by the timer.

Now, when the variable K becomes "3" and the process proceeds to step Sll, the voice response unit 13 generates a voice message saying, for example, "Please confirm your password and call again." When the process reaches this point, it is assumed that the sender does not know the password at all, and there is no need to connect the sender with the telephone line any further, so the receiver hangs up (812).

With the process explained above, when the sender makes a call,
A voice message is output from voice response unit] 3 three times at regular time intervals. If the sender does not enter the PIN number during this time, the receiver will hang up. If the sender does not know the password, the receiver's facsimile machine cannot be accessed at all.

Next, if the input occurs while the receiver is waiting for a tone signal, processing proceeds to step 81.3. The received phone signal is sent to the phone signal identification unit 1.
4, is coded as a password, and the result is sent to the control unit 15. Then, in the process of step S14, the received password is checked, and if it is correct, the process proceeds to step S15, and if it is not correct, the process proceeds to step S17.

Here, the method for checking the password will be explained. First, the password is input in advance from the keyboard of the operation display section 10 and set in the control section 15. This password setting can be changed at any time on the receiving side.

For example, if the password you always use becomes known to someone else, you can change the password. Furthermore, the number of digits of the password can also be changed arbitrarily. If the number of digits in the set PIN code is large, the confidentiality increases, but it becomes difficult for the sender to memorize or input.5On the other hand, if the number of digits is small, it is easy to memorize or input, but the confidentiality increases. can no longer be maintained. Therefore, the number of digits of the PIN number may be set in consideration of the business situation at that time. The password set in this way is compared with the received password, and if the two match, it is determined that the received password is correct, and if they do not match, it is determined that it is incorrect.

Now, if the received password is incorrect, the voice response unit 13 generates a voice message saying, for example, "Your password is incorrect" (81.7). here,
The variables are the same as those used to determine that the telephone signal cannot be received, and in this process, a check is made for errors in the input of the password. Then, as mentioned above, if you add the number of times it took to monitor the evening time without inputting a phone signal and the number of times you entered the wrong PIN number, you are allowed up to three times (S
18 S 19). Then, when the variable K becomes "3" (S19), the process proceeds to step Sll. Thereafter, in the same way as above, the voice response unit 13 will ask you to confirm your PIN number.
The receiver generates a voice message saying "Please call again" and hangs up the call (S), 2).

As explained above, we check up to 3 times, including the number of times the sender did not enter the PIN and the timer was monitored, and the number of times the PIN was input manually but ended up being incorrect.
If the number exceeds this limit, the receiving party will hang up.

On the other hand, if the PIN sent from the sender is correct,
Voice response unit] 3 sends a voice message saying, for example, "Please send a manuscript" (81, 5). The subsequent processing is similar to that of a normal facsimile machine.
The facsimile signal sent from the sending side is received and printed out on recording paper (31.6).

That is, a facsimile signal sent from the transmitting side is converted into digital data by the modem 4 and stored in the buffer memory 5. The buffer memory 5 is manually processed by the modem 4 at a constant bit rate (2400 bps to 9600 bps), but the data on the output side is stored in the line memory 7 to be described later. 17. This data needs to be synchronized with the operation of the paper feed motor 11, and since this process involves mechanical operation, the processing is not constant. Therefore, by temporarily storing the data on the input side in this buffer memory 5, the input side and the output side are synchronized.

-The data stored in the buffer memory 5 is compressed by the so-called MR or MH method, which is a common compression method for facsimile machines. Therefore, this data is converted into original image data by the encoder/decoder 6. Then, the data output from the encoder/decoder 6 is stored in the line memory 7, line by line. Here, general facsimile machines use a line recording method, in which one line of dot information is printed in the horizontal direction, and one dot in the vertical direction.
This is a method for recording information, and the line memory 7 is intended to store data for one run.

The data stored in the line memory 7 is sent to the thermal recording head 12. Since this data represents black and white dot information for one line, the thermal recording head
2, the information is recorded line by line on the thermal recording paper. On the other hand, in synchronization with the recording operation of the thermal recording head 12, the paper feed motor 11 operates to feed the recording paper.

Then, the above-described operations are repeated, and when all information on the document has been sent from the sending facsimile machine 1, all processing is completed.

Next, the operation of transmitting a document from this facsimile apparatus to another facsimile apparatus will be explained. These operations are no different from conventional facsimile machines.

That is, first, set the telephone number of the other party's facsimile machine]3 from the keyboard of the operation display section 10, and then press rr3. talk. The network control device 3 performs a calling operation on the telephone line 2 and connects the line to a designated facsimile machine. Next, when a beeping sound (referred to as a CNG signal) is transmitted from the other party's facsimile machine, the document is sent.

The operation of transmitting a document is to first send the document to the one-dimensional image sensor 9.
The signal obtained by optical scanning and photoelectric conversion is
After the black and white binary information is converted by the binarization circuit 8, it is stored in the base line memory 7. Then, the binary information read from the line memory 7 is sent to the encoder/decoder 6 as MR
Alternatively, compression processing is performed using the MH method and stored in the buffer memory 5. After adjusting the data to match the line speed, the buffer memory 5 sends the data to the telephone line 2 as a facsimile signal via the modem 4 and network control device 3.
Send to. The sent facsimile signal is then received by the facsimile machine of the other party and converted into an image.

As explained above, according to the above embodiment, a PIN is received from the other party before receiving the document, and if the PIN is correct, reception of the document is permitted; If the receiving side does not enter a password, the telephone line is cut off from the receiving side and reception of documents is prohibited, so unnecessary documents are not received, and the efficiency of using the telephone line is improved. At the same time, it also saves recording paper.

[Effects of the Invention] As detailed above, according to the present invention, it is possible to provide a facsimile machine that does not receive unnecessary document information, improves the efficiency of using telephone lines, and eliminates waste of recording paper. .

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating the receiving operation of the embodiment. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1... Sending side facsimile device, 2... Telephone line, 3... Network control device, 4... Modem, 5... Buffer memory, 6... Encoder/decoder, 7...・Line memory, 8...Binarization circuit, 9...One-dimensional image sensor, 10...Operation display unit, 11...Paper feed motor,]2 Thermal recording head, 13...Voice response Department, ]4・
・Butushupon signal identification section. Applicant's agent Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue 16.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] In a facsimile device that transmits or receives document information or the like using a telephone line, a receiving means for receiving password information from a source of the facsimile signal prior to receiving the facsimile signal; A facsimile machine comprising: a determining means for determining whether the received password information is correct; and a control means for permitting reception of the facsimile signal when the determining means determines that the received password information is correct. Device.