JPH088622B2 - Image communication device - Google Patents

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image communication device that performs relay transfer.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, as an example of a communication system equipped with this type of image communication device, a plurality of relay broadcasting devices (hereinafter referred to as centers) are distributed in each district and are in charge of a plurality of terminals. There is known a system in which the broadcast message input to the center is transmitted to another center by a normal facsimile communication together with a mark sheet, and each center performs the broadcast transmission to a terminal facsimile in charge (for example, an open patent). Publication 61-60061).

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a schematic configuration of a facsimile relay broadcast system to which such a facsimile relay broadcast control method is applied. In FIG. 10, S1, S2, S3, ...
Is a facsimile storage broadcasting device (hereinafter referred to as a center) having a relay transfer function, and these centers S1, S2, S3
Are connected to the circuit switching network A via a plurality of communication lines l. F11, F12, ..., F21, F22, ..., F31, F32, ...
(Hereinafter, referred to as F1X, F2X, F3X) is a terminal F (hereinafter referred to as a terminal), and the terminals F1X, F2X, F3X are set in the management ranges of the centers S1, S2, S3, respectively, by distinguishing the installation areas and the like.

Regarding the operation of such a system, the broadcast message sender sends a broadcast message 1 from any terminal F10 to the nearest center S1.
A case of inputting will be described as an example. In this case, a mark sheet 2 for designating a broadcast destination is provided at the beginning of the broadcast electronic message 1.
Overlap and enter.

The format of the mark sheet 2 is preset in all centers S1, S2, S3.

Each of the centers S1, S2, S3 is equipped with a mark sheet decoding unit 3, which decodes the inputted mark sheet 2 and obtains a decoding result 4 as shown in FIG.

When the center S1 takes in the mark sheet 2 and obtains the decoding result 4 shown in FIG. 11, it not only broadcasts a message to the terminals F11, F12, ... belonging to its own center S1, but also other centers. The input mark sheet 2 and broadcast telegram 1 are transmitted to S2 and S3 by normal facsimile communication. Upon receiving this, the centers S2, S3 decode the mark sheet 2 in the same manner as the center S1 (see FIG. 11), and the terminals F21, F22 ... And F31, F3 belonging to the respective centers S2, S3.
Broadcast transmission to 2 ...

However, according to such a communication system, in some centers other than the center (source center) including the source terminal, a broadcast message may be sent to a terminal belonging to the source center. In order to avoid it, there was a problem that it was necessary to add a large operational limitation.

The above problem arises for the following reasons. That is, relay transfer communication is performed by normal facsimile communication, and when each center receives a telegram, it cannot distinguish whether the telegram is a relay transfer or an input from a terminal.

As a countermeasure, it is conceivable to set a regulation that all broadcast messages output from each terminal are collectively fetched to a predetermined center and broadcast to all destinations. However, this method has a problem that some terminals are forced to carry out communication over an extremely long distance, resulting in large waste.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and when destination information and image information are input, they are automatically relayed and transmitted to a destination terminal without instructing a communication path. It is an object of the present invention to provide an image communication device capable of performing the above.

Means for Solving the Problems In order to achieve the above object, the present invention is an image communication device used in a communication system in which a plurality of image communication devices are connected via a dedicated line, and includes destination information and image information. Input means for inputting, a storage means for storing communication paths having different wind numbers in advance, and one selected from a plurality of communication paths stored in the storage means, and input according to the selected communication path. Control means for transferring the image information to another image communication apparatus in the communication system, wherein the control means makes one communication from the storage means according to a connection state of each image communication apparatus in the communication system. The route is selected.

Effect According to the present invention, since the communication path is selected according to the destination information by the above configuration, the sender realizes the communication using the relay transfer by a simple operation without having to specify the communication path each time the image information is input. It becomes possible. In addition, a plurality of different communication paths are stored in the storage means in advance,
Even if the layout of each image communication device in the communication system is changed, the control unit selects one communication path from the storage unit according to the connection state of each image communication device in the communication system. If communication paths corresponding to various layouts are stored in the storage means in advance, it is possible to easily deal with the change without rewriting the contents of the storage means.

Embodiment FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a facsimile relay broadcasting system using an image communication apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.

In FIG. 1, S1, S2, S3, ... Are facsimile storage broadcasting devices (hereinafter referred to as centers) having a relay transfer function, and these centers S1, S2 ,. Connected to B. F11, F12, ...
(Hereinafter, referred to as F1X), F21, F22, ... (hereinafter, referred to as F2X), ... Are terminals F (hereinafter, referred to as terminals), and terminal F1X,
F2X, ... (hereinafter referred to as FXX) is set to the management range of the centers S1, S2 ,.

Further, the centers S1, S2 ... Are respectively configured as shown in FIG.

In FIG. 2, reference numeral 11 is an input / output unit for inputting / outputting data to / from the terminal FXX, 12 is a message memory for fetching and storing the message information via the input / output unit 11, and 13 is input by the terminal FXX. A mark sheet decoding unit that decodes the contents of the mark sheet 30 to obtain a decoding result, 14 is a control unit that controls each circuit of this center, 15 is a transfer information memory that stores a transfer management table preset for each center, and 16 is This is a management information memory for storing the decoding result obtained by the mark sheet decoding unit 13.

The mark sheet decoding unit 13 reads the contents of the mark sheet 30, obtains source information 32 indicating the terminal FXX that entered the mark sheet 30 and broadcast destination information 33 indicating the terminal to which the broadcast message should be transmitted, and outputs these to the third, respectively. As shown in the figure, it is stored in the decryption result 31.

The transfer information memory 15 stores a management table (hereinafter referred to as a table) T in which the destination centers Sn and the source centers Sm are arranged in a matrix as shown in FIG. 4 and the relay transfer order is defined. In this case, each center S1, S2,…
Stores a plurality of types of tables T whose contents are set for each center. For example, as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the center S1 may be a table T11, T12, etc.
2 is table T21, T22, etc., and center S3 is table T3
1, T32 etc. are paid respectively.

The operation of the center and the facsimile relay broadcasting system configured as described above will be described below.

Here, as shown in FIG. 7, the terminal F10 belonging to the center S1 is the source, and the destination terminals are terminals F11, F12, F13 belonging to the center S1 and terminals belonging to the centers S2, S3 connected in parallel to the center S1. The case of broadcasting as F21, F22, F23, F31, F32, F33 is taken as an example.

First, the mark sheet 30 indicating the originator and the destination is input to the terminal F10 together with the broadcast message to be transmitted, and these are transmitted to the center S1 to which the terminal F10 belongs.

Then, the broadcast message is stored in the message memory 2. On the other hand, the contents of the mark sheet 30 are read by the mark sheet decoding section 3 (see step (hereinafter referred to as ST) 1 in FIG. 9), and the decoding result 31 is temporarily stored in the management information memory 6.

The control unit 4 reads the table T from the transfer information memory 5 and the decoding result 31 from the management information memory 6 and selects the table T matching the decoding result 31. In this case, since the source and destination are set as shown in FIG. 7, the table T11 shown in FIG. 5 is selected.

Then, the control unit 4 indicates that the terminal F10 is indicated in the transmission source information 32 of the decoding result 31, and that this terminal F10 belongs to the center S1.
Source field (focus on the horizontal axis (ST2), select the destination field (vertical axis) in charge of the source field of center S1 (ST
3).

Next, it is determined whether the columns selected in ST2 and ST3 are blank (ST4). If it is not blank, the broadcast message and mark sheet 30 stored in the message memory 2
Perform the procedure to send the contents of (ST5) to the destination,
If left blank, skip the ST5 procedure and proceed. Then, the processes of ST1 to ST5 are sequentially performed for all the destinations (ST6).

In this way, the center S1 determines based on the table T11 that the centers S2 and S3 are the relay transfer destinations, retrieves the broadcast message from the message memory 12, and marks it as a mark sheet.
It sends to center S2, S3 with the contents of 30.

In the centers S2 and S3, the table is set according to the contents of the mark sheet 30 in the same manner as the processing of the center S1 described above.
T21 and T31 are selected and the relay transfer destination is determined based on the contents of the tables T21 and T31.

Thus, in this embodiment, the center S1 has no relay transfer destinations in the centers S2, S3 and the center S2,
In the center S3, the result that there is no relay transfer destination is obtained, and the 7th message is sent to the sender center without sending it back.
Broadcasting is properly performed according to the procedure shown in the figure.

Further, for example, as shown in FIG. 8, a terminal F10 belonging to the center S1 is used as a transmission source, and the terminal F2 is first transmitted from the center S.
Broadcast to center S2 that connects 1, F22, F23, and then
Center S3 connecting terminals F31, F32, F33 from center S2
Also in the case of broadcast delivery to, the relay transfer is performed as follows, as in the above example.

That is, when the mark sheet 30 is input to the center S1, the content thereof is read by the mark sheet decoding unit 13 and the decoding result is temporarily stored in the management memory 16.

The control unit 14 selects one of the tables T stored in the transfer information memory 15 that matches the decoding result. In this case, the table T12 shown in FIG. 6 is selected.

Center S1 to Center S based on this table T12
Relay transfer to 2. Then, in the center S2, the table T22 is selected in the same manner as described above, and the center S
The relay transfer is performed to the center S3 designated as the destination in the column 1.

Similarly, at the center S3, the table T32 is selected.
In this case, the column of the transmission source center S1 of the table T32 is blank, and the relay transfer from the center S3 to another center is not performed.

Thus, as shown in FIG. 8, the broadcast communication is properly performed without sending back the broadcast telegram to the transmission source center.

EFFECTS OF THE INVENTION As is apparent from the above description, the present invention stores a plurality of different communication routes for each destination information in the storage means, and stores a plurality of destination information corresponding to the destination information when the destination information and the image information are input. The communication path is selected in accordance with the destination information by selecting one from the communication paths and transmitting the image information according to the selected communication path. Therefore, the sender does not need to specify the communication path each time the image information is input, and the communication path can be simplified. Communication using relay transfer can be realized by operation. In addition, by storing a plurality of different communication paths in the storage means in advance, and the control means selects one communication path from the storage means according to the connection state of each image communication device in the communication system. Even if the layout of each image communication device in the communication system is changed, if the communication paths corresponding to various layouts are stored in the storage means in advance, the contents of the storage means can be easily rewritten without rewriting. Can handle changes.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram showing a facsimile relay broadcasting system to which an image communication apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an image communication apparatus (center) of the facsimile relay broadcasting system. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a decoding example of the mark sheet decoding section of the same center, FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a transfer management table stored in the transfer information memory of the same center, and FIG. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a transfer management table stored in each transfer information memory, FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram showing an example of another transfer management table stored in the same transfer information memory, and FIG. 7 is FIG. FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a relay transfer procedure in the facsimile relay broadcast system, FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram showing another relay transfer procedure in the facsimile relay broadcast system, and FIG. Flowchart showing the operation procedure of Li relay broadcast system, Figure 10 is a schematic diagram showing a facsimile broadcast system to which an example of a conventional image communication apparatus is applied,
FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram showing a mark sheet decoding process of a facsimile storing / broadcasting device applied to the same facsimile broadcasting system. 12 …… Telegram memory, 13 …… Mark sheet decoding section, 14 ……
Control unit, 15 ... Transfer information memory, 16 ... Management information memory, 30 ... Mark sheet, 31 ... Decoding result, 32 ... Originator information, 33 ... Broadcast destination information, S1, S2, S3. Center,
T11, T21, T31, T12, T22, T32 ... Transfer management table.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An image communication device used in a communication system in which a plurality of image communication devices are connected via a dedicated line, the input device inputting destination information and image information, and a plurality of different communication routes in advance. And one of a plurality of communication paths stored in the storage means, and the image information input according to the selected communication path is used as another image communication device in the communication system. And a control unit for transferring the image communication device to the image communication device, wherein the control unit selects one communication path from the storage unit according to a connection state of each image communication device in the communication system.