JPH06237331A - Data transmission method - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Abstract] [Purpose] While efficiently transmitting document data, it enables the receiving side to process the transmitted document data. [Composition] A communication device that transmits document data in a certain data format has an optional function of transmitting document data in various data formats, and if the communication destination device has the optional function, the data amount is the maximum. Document data is transmitted in a data format with less data. In another invention, document data is transmitted in the data format requested by the partner device.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a data transmission method of a communication device for transmitting document data of characters and images.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, information processing apparatuses such as word processors and personal computer systems that process document data of characters and images have been widely used. Many of such information processing apparatuses have a communication function that allows document data to be exchanged between the apparatuses via a telephone line, for example.

By the way, the above information processing apparatus is
The data format of the input / output document data differs depending on the manufacturer and the type of device. When communicating, the specifications of the modem and the communication protocol are different.

Therefore, in many cases, if the devices used are not the same, it is not possible to directly exchange the document data by communicating with other devices.

In such a case, a facsimile machine is often used. When using a facsimile machine, on the sending side, for example, once print out the document data,
The original is sent to the other party through a facsimile machine. Further, some facsimile machines have an interface for directly inputting document data from another machine, and in the case of such a facsimile machine, the document data could be transmitted without being printed out.

[0006]

By the way, the information processing apparatus often handles character information. However, since the facsimile apparatus transmits image data of an image, when transmitting character information by the facsimile apparatus, it has to be converted into image data and transmitted.

Since the image data has an enormous amount of data as compared with the character information that can be represented by the code information, the document information cannot be transmitted efficiently.

Further, since it is difficult to inversely convert the image data into character information, the receiving side could not reproduce the original character information and process it in the information processing apparatus.

As described above, conventionally, there is a problem that the document data cannot be efficiently transmitted, and the transmitted document data may not be processed on the receiving side.

An object of the present invention is to provide a data transmission method which solves the above problems, efficiently transmits document data, and enables the receiving side to process the document data.

[0011]

To this end, according to the first aspect of the invention, document data is transmitted in various data formats to a communication device that transmits document data in a constant data format with a standardized constant communication protocol. With optional features to
When the communication partner apparatus has the equivalent optional function, the document data is transmitted in the data format with the smallest data amount. Further, in the second invention, the document data is transmitted in the data format requested by the partner device.

[0012]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the partner device has the optional function, the amount of data to be transmitted can be reduced, so that the document data can be efficiently transmitted in a short time. Further, according to the second aspect, the document data can be transmitted in a data format that can be processed by the receiving side. In addition, since it communicates with a standardized communication protocol, it is possible to communicate with many destinations, and even if the destination device does not have an optional function, it can send document data in a basic data format. You can

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention. In the figure, a personal computer system 1 creates document data and is connected to a facsimile device 2.

In the facsimile apparatus 2, the scanner 201 reads an original image and the plotter 202 records and outputs the image. Encoding / decoding unit 203
Is MH (Modified Huffman), MR
(Modified Relative Elemen
t Address Design) or MM
According to the R (Modified MR) method, image information is data-compressed or compressed data is restored to the original image information. The disk device 204 stores document data to be transmitted and received.

The communication section 206 communicates with other facsimile machines via a communication line. In the communication line,
For example, PSTN (Public Switches)
Telephone Network) line and ISDN
(Integrated Services Digi
Tal Network) line is used. Further, the communication protocol complies with the standard such as G3 (group 3) or G4 (group 4) of CCITT recommendation.

The data conversion unit 207 converts the data format of the input document data as needed. The operation display unit 208 is for displaying various information such as the operating state of the device as the operator performs various operations.

The system control unit 209 is a microphone computer that monitors and controls the above-mentioned units, and is a system bus 2.
Reference numeral 10 is a signal line for exchanging control signals and data between the respective units.

With the above-described configuration, the communication system of this embodiment has the facsimile apparatus 2 having an optional function of transmitting document data of another data format in addition to a normal communication function of transmitting a document image as image data. It shall be provided.

FIG. 2 shows a transmission process of the facsimile apparatus 2. That is, when executing the transmission process, the document data to be transmitted is input to the facsimile apparatus 2. In this case, there are a method of reading a document by the scanner 201 and a method of creating document data by the personal computer system 1.

When reading with the scanner 201, the operator sets a document and executes a predetermined reading operation. When creating with the personal computer system 1, desired document data is created using various word processors and image processing software. Then, the created document data is transferred to the facsimile device 2. In this way, the input document data is stored in the disk device 2
It is stored in 04.

In this embodiment, the data format of the document data in this case is, for example, as shown in FIG. 3A, "image data", "word processing document data", "printer recording data" and "page recording data". There are four types of "description language data".

Of these, "image data" is image information in which one pixel corresponds to one bit, and is input from the scanner 201 and the personal computer system 1.
May be created in. The other three types of data are all created by the personal computer system 1.

"Word processing document data" is data in a data format uniquely determined by the software manufacturer of the word processor, and is composed of various character codes and control codes.

"Printer recording data" is data for recording and outputting a document on a printer, and is composed of various character codes and printer control codes. The printer control code in this case differs depending on the device manufacturer.

"Page description language data" is document data expressed in a page description language. The page description language is
It is a language used when recording and outputting a document on a page printer. For example, PostScript (PostSc
The (ript) language is well known.

The facsimile device 2 inputs the document data in such various data formats (above, processing 100).
1).

Then, the operator sets the destination of the transmission to the facsimile apparatus 2 and specifies the document data to be transmitted, and activates the transmission operation (process 1002).

As a result, the facsimile apparatus 2 makes a call to the other party (process 1003). Then, when the partner device responds, transmission control is started according to the standard procedure of G3 or G4 facsimile (process 1004).

In the case of G3 facsimile, at this time, the other party transmits an NSF signal or a DIS signal, thereby notifying the other party's device function. In the case of G4 facsimile, the CDCL command is transmitted in the procedure of the document layer, thereby notifying the device function of the other party. The facsimile device 2 determines whether the destination device has the same optional function as its own device based on the notification information (process 1005).

Here, when the partner device has an optional function (process 1005). After this, the nonstandard communication procedure defined independently is switched. Then, the input document data is transmitted to the other party in a data format with a small amount of data. That is, as shown in FIG. 3B, when the input document data is “image data”, it is converted into “compressed image data” and transmitted. The “compressed image data” is data obtained by compressing the “image data” by the above-mentioned various encoding methods. On the other hand, data in other data formats are transmitted as they are (process 1006).

On the other hand, when the partner device does not have the optional function (N in processing 1005), G3 or G4
Documents are sent in the usual data format by standard facsimile procedures. That is, as shown in FIG. 4, when the document data is "image data", it is converted into "compressed image data" and transmitted in the same manner as above. In the case of "word processing document data", "printer recording data" and "page description language data", after being converted into "image data", they are further converted into "compressed image data" and transmitted (process 1007).

As described above, in the present embodiment, when the partner device has an option function of transmitting document data in various data formats when communicating, "word processor document data", "printer recording data" Document data of "or page description language data" is transmitted as it is.

Since these document data have a very small data amount as compared with the case of "image data" or "compressed image data", they can be efficiently transmitted in a short time. Further, in this case, the receiving side can input the received document data into a personal computer system or the like and directly process it.

Further, when the transmission destination does not have the optional function, the standard procedure of G3 / G4 facsimile is used for communication, so that the document data can be transmitted and received with the conventional facsimile apparatus.

In the above embodiment, the data conversion is not performed among the "word processing document data", the "printer recording data" and the "page description language data", but among these data formats Alternatively, the document data may be converted into the smallest amount of document data and transmitted. In addition, the “compressed image data” may be compressed and transmitted by the encoding method having the highest compression effect.

By the way, in the above-described embodiment, when the received document data is processed by the personal computer system or the like on the receiving side, the data format may not be suitable and the processing may not be possible.

Next, another embodiment of the present invention for preventing such inconvenience will be described.

In this embodiment, when the receiving side has an optional function, the transmitting side is notified of the data format of the document data that can be processed by the receiving side. That is, the transmitting side starts communication with the receiving side as shown in FIG.
When it is determined that the receiving side device has the optional function (Y in process 1005), the request for the data format is received from the receiving side (process 1008).

Then, on the transmitting side, if the data format of the input document data is different from the request on the receiving side, the data format is converted according to the request on the receiving side.

FIG. 6 shows the types of data conversion in this case. For example, assume that the input document data is "word processing document data", "printer recording data", or "page description language data". If the request on the receiving side is also one of the three types, the data is directly converted in accordance with the request on the receiving side. If the request on the receiving side is "compressed image data", the document data is once converted into "image data" and then converted into "compressed image data". However, since it is difficult to convert “image data” into the above-mentioned three types of data formats, in this case, the rule is to convert to “compressed image data”.

In this way, the document data is converted into a data format according to the request from the receiving side and transmitted to the other party (Process 1).
009).

As a result, the receiving side can directly input the received document data to the personal computer system or the like and always process it.

In the above embodiment, the receiving side may request a plurality of data formats, and the transmitting side may transmit the same document data in a plurality of data formats according to the request.

Further, in each of the above-mentioned embodiments, the facsimile apparatus is used to communicate basically according to the standard procedure of the facsimile, but other communication apparatuses are used to communicate with another communication protocol. It is also possible to do it.

Further, in each of the above embodiments, the communication system is composed of the personal computer system and the facsimile, but the present invention is also applicable to other device configurations such as the personal computer system having a communication function. be able to.

[0047]

As described above, according to the first aspect of the invention, when the destination device has a predetermined communication function, the document data is transmitted in the data format with the smallest amount of data, so that it can be performed in a short time. Data can be transmitted efficiently. Further, according to the second aspect of the invention, the document data is transmitted in the data format requested by the partner device, so that the document data that can be processed by the receiving side can be transmitted. Also, since communication is performed using a standardized communication protocol, it is possible to communicate with many destinations, and even if the destination device does not have optional functions, documents can be transmitted in a basic data format. it can.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block configuration diagram of a communication system according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation flowchart of a transmission process of a facsimile device.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a method of transmitting various document data when using an optional function.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a transmission method of various document data when the optional function is not used.

FIG. 5 is an operation flowchart showing a part of a transmission process according to another embodiment.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing types of conversion of document data in the embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Personal computer system 2 Facsimile device 201 Scanner 202 Plotter 203 Encoding / decoding unit 204 Disk device 206 Communication unit 207 Data conversion unit 208 Operation display unit 209 System control unit

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A data transmission method of a communication device for transmitting document data of a constant data format by a standardized constant communication protocol, comprising an optional function of transmitting document data in a plurality of arbitrary data formats, and performing communication. A data transmission method, characterized in that the document data is transmitted in a data format with the smallest amount of data when the destination device has an equivalent optional function. 2. A data transmission method of a communication device for transmitting document data of a constant data format by a standardized constant communication protocol, comprising an optional function of transmitting document data in a plurality of arbitrary data formats, and performing communication. A data transmitting method, characterized in that document data is transmitted in a data format required by a partner device. 3. Group 3 as a fixed communication protocol
The data transmission method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the communication procedure of the group 4 facsimile is executed.