JPH0969933A - Facsimile equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To automatically broadcast and transmit documents, whose contents are partially different, such as cover sheets in sequence. SOLUTION: A document storage part 14 is stored with a common document which is common to all addresses. This document is read out, address by address, at each time. A cover sheet storage part 15 stores cover sheets having different contents corresponding to the respective addresses. For sequential broadcasting transmission, telephone numbers are read out, address by address, and the cover sheets corresponding to them are read out of the cover sheet storage part 15 each time, and put together and transmitted by a broadcasting transmission control part 5. Not only the cover sheets, but also documents having a common part and different parts by addresses can be broadcasted and transmitted automatically in sequence by the same procedure.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus capable of including originals having different contents for each destination in an original having common contents when sequentially transmitting by facsimile.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Some facsimile machines have a broadcast transmission function for automatically sequentially transmitting originals having common contents to a large number of destinations. In such a facsimile apparatus, the original or cover sheet to be transmitted is temporarily stored in the image memory, and once the transmission process is started, the operation of reading and transmitting the original is repeated every time the destination is dialed.

[0003]

By the way, the above-mentioned conventional broadcast transmission by the facsimile apparatus has the following problems to be solved. For example, even if the text part that should be sent to multiple recipients is common, add the message "Please process as soon as possible" to a recipient.
You may want to add a message for your information to other destinations. However, in the conventional apparatus that stores the originals collectively in the image memory in advance and sequentially performs the broadcast transmission, it is not possible to insert different comments for each destination. Therefore, in such a case, a cover sheet in which different comments are written for each destination is created, and the facsimile transmission is individually performed for each destination. That is, in such a case, the broadcast transmission function cannot be used. However, when there are a large number of destinations to be transmitted, there is a problem that the labor of the user becomes so large that it cannot be ignored compared with the case of using the broadcast transmission function.

[0004]

The present invention adopts the following constitution in order to solve the above points. The facsimile apparatus of the present invention associates a common original document having the same content with a document storage unit for storing the common original document in a batch for simultaneous transmission to a plurality of locations, and a cover sheet prepared for each destination. A cover sheet storage unit that stores the information and a broadcast transmission control unit that sequentially reads the cover sheets according to the transmission request when the transmission with the cover sheet is requested and automatically transmits the cover sheet to the corresponding destination together with the original document.

Further, a facsimile apparatus of another invention is such that a common manuscript storage section for storing a common manuscript having the same contents in a batch for simultaneous transmission to a plurality of places, and an individual manuscript prepared for each destination. And an individual document storage unit that stores the data corresponding to the destination, and a broadcast transmission control unit that sequentially reads the individual documents according to the broadcast transmission request and automatically transmits the individual documents together with the common document to the corresponding destination.

[0006]

In the document storage section, a common document common to all destinations is stored. This is read every time for each destination.
The cover sheet storage section stores cover sheets having different contents corresponding to respective destinations. When the broadcast transmission is sequentially performed, the telephone number is read for each destination, and the corresponding cover sheet is read from the cover sheet storage unit each time, and is synthesized and transmitted by the broadcast transmission control unit. In the case where not only the cover sheet but also the document includes a common part and a separate part for each destination, the broadcast transmission can be automatically performed sequentially by the same procedure.

[0007]

The present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an embodiment of a facsimile apparatus of the present invention. Prior to this description, the overall configuration of the facsimile apparatus of the present invention will be described first. FIG. 2 is a hardware block diagram of the facsimile apparatus of the present invention. The apparatus shown in the figure includes a reading unit 1, a recording unit 2, an operation display unit 3, a coding / decoding unit 4, a broadcast transmission control unit 5, a modulation / demodulation unit 6, and a line control unit 7. The schematic configuration of this device is similar to that of a conventional facsimile device, and is connected to another facsimile device via a line 8 to send and receive image data.

The reading section 1 is a section for reading a document or the like to be transmitted, such as a document or a cover sheet. The recording unit 2 is a unit that prints the received document. The operation display section 3 is a section for inputting a telephone number or operating a function of this apparatus according to a certain guidance. In the present invention,
The operation display unit 3 is used to input an instruction for sequential broadcast transmission with a cover sheet or sequential broadcast transmission including partially different originals. The encoding / decoding unit 4 is a unit that is generally provided in a facsimile apparatus and performs compression and decompression of image data. The modulation / demodulation unit 6 and the line control unit 7 are units that perform communication control for sending the transmission / reception data of the facsimile apparatus to the line 8.

The broadcast transmission control section 5 includes a processor (CPU) 11 for controlling the entire apparatus, and a ROM (read only memory) 1 storing a program for its operation.
2 are provided. In addition to this, the broadcast transmission control unit 5
A RAM (Random Access Memory) 13 is provided in the memory. The document storage unit 14, the cover sheet storage unit 15, the communication information management memory 34, and the telephone number memory 33, which are targets of the broadcast transmission in the present invention, are provided here. The document storage unit 14 stores a common document having contents common to all destinations. In addition, the cover sheet storage unit 15 stores an individual cover sheet using a message or the like different for each destination. Communication information management memory 3
Data for controlling broadcast transmission is stored in 4 and the telephone number of the destination is stored in the telephone number memory 33. In the following example, the transmission function of this facsimile machine will be mainly described. Therefore, the CPU 11 shown in FIG. 2 is shown as a part of the broadcast transmission control unit 5. But this CPU1
It goes without saying that 1 also controls the facsimile reception function as well as various reception function blocks not shown.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the contents of each image data before transmission. As shown in the figure, the RAM 13 has a common document 51 and cover sheets 50A, 50B, 5 for each destination.
0C is stored. In the present invention, such image data is prepared, and a corresponding cover sheet is selected for each destination to sequentially perform broadcast transmission together with the common document 51.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of image data upon reception. In the figure, (a) shows the transmission to the destination A, (b) shows the transmission to the destination B, and (c) shows the transmission to the destination C. That is, for example, with respect to the destination A, the cover sheet 50A starting from the heading "A-like" and describing the contents peculiar to this destination is added to the common document 51 and transmitted by facsimile. The same applies to the other destinations B and C.

In order to realize the above functions, the device of the present invention has a functional block configuration as shown in FIG. The telephone number instruction input unit 22 shown in this block,
The destination-specific cover sheet selection instruction input unit 23 is realized by the operation display unit 3 shown in FIG. The image input unit 21 is realized by the reading unit 1, and image data to be transmitted such as a document or a cover sheet is input from here. The input data page detection unit 24 is a unit that detects the number of pages of input data, that is, the original, and the image memory data input instruction unit 25 stores the corresponding image data in the original storage unit 14 and the cover sheet storage unit 15. Control is performed.
Further, in order to manage the stored contents, control is performed to store predetermined management data in the communication information management memory 34. Note that these stored contents will be described later in detail with reference to FIGS.

The telephone number instruction input unit 22 is used for designating a telephone number of a transmission destination or for designating a transmission destination already registered. The telephone numbers stored in the telephone number memory 33 by the telephone number memory instructing unit 31 are read out in the order instructed by the user and used for transmission control. The input telephone number detection unit 32 detects how many telephone numbers are registered and the destinations are designated when sequential broadcast transmissions are requested, and the number is input to the communication information management memory 3
4 is a part for performing control to be stored. The destination-specific cover sheet selection instruction input unit 23 is a unit for designating which cover sheet is transmitted to which destination. The address-specific cover sheet memory instructing section 35 stores the instruction in the communication information management memory 34.

The broadcast transmission control section 5 is provided with an image data reading section 41, a read image data instructing section 42 and each destination image data transmission interface section 43. The image data reading section 41 refers to the information stored in the communication information management memory 34 according to the instruction of the read image data instructing section 42 and refers to the document storage section 14 or the cover sheet storage section 15
This is a part for performing control to selectively read out a document or a cover sheet from. The read image data instructing section 42 sequentially reads out the telephone numbers registered and designated for the broadcast transmission from the telephone number memory 33.

Further, the read image data instructing section 42 reads out which cover sheet to the image data reading section 41 while referring to the contents of the communication information management memory 34,
Instruct which document to read. Further, the image data to be transmitted is sent from the image data reading unit 41 to each destination image data transmission interface unit 43, and the telephone number data is sent from the read image data instructing unit 42. These are controlled by the interface unit 43, and are sent to the line 8 via the encoding / decoding unit 4 and the modulation / demodulation unit 6 shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 illustrates the contents of the image data stored in the document storage unit 14 and the cover sheet storage unit 15. The document storage unit 14 and the cover sheet storage unit 15 are, as described above, the RAM provided in the apparatus shown in FIG.
Allocated to 13. For example, as shown in this figure,
Cover sheets for each of the three types of destinations are from 1000 to 130
It is stored at address 0. Further, a document having contents common to all destinations is stored over the subsequent three pages of addresses 1300 to 2000.

The contents of the communication information management memory for managing such data are shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, it is stored in the communication information management memory how the image data for sequentially transmitting the broadcast while sorting the cover sheets according to the destinations is stored in the memory. This is the address m to m + of the RAM 13 shown in FIG.
Write at address 12. That is, information about whether or not there is a cover sheet at the address m, the number of destinations at the address m + 1, the number of original pages at the address m + 2, the telephone number address of each destination at the addresses m + 3, m + 4, and m + 5, and the address m + 6.
Necessary information is stored in the address m + 8, such as the start address of the memory storing the cover sheet for each destination and the start address of each page of the common document from the addresses m + 9 to m + 11. Broadcast transmission control unit 5 shown in FIG.
Refers to the contents of such communication information management memory, if there is a cover sheet, reads out the telephone number according to the telephone number address of each destination, and reads the corresponding cover sheet from the cover sheet storage unit 15, Further, an operation such as reading a document from the document storage unit 14 and transmitting it is performed.

FIG. 7 is a diagram for explaining the contents of the telephone number memory. The telephone number memory 33 shown in FIG. 1 stores telephone numbers for each destination, as shown in this figure. This is also allocated to the RAM 13 shown in FIG.

FIG. 8 shows an explanatory diagram of the communication transaction management area. When the above-described broadcast transmission processing is performed for different targets, for example, necessary management information can be stored in the transaction management area as shown in this figure and continuously executed. That is, as shown in the figure, the address of the management area of the next read communication transaction is displayed at the address n of the memory. Furthermore,
The address of the next transmission communication transaction management area is displayed at the address n + 1. Below the address n + 3, the cover sheet presence / absence information storage address for each communication is displayed. The initial value of both address n and address n + 1 is n + 2. When the first broadcast communication read operation is performed, the address of the cover sheet presence / absence information portion of the first communication information management memory as shown in FIG. 6 is stored in the address n + 2. When this read operation is completed, the address n is n
Updated to +3. Similarly, when the second broadcast communication read operation is performed, the address of the cover sheet presence / absence information portion of the second communication information management memory as shown in FIG. 6 is stored at address n + 3. . When this read operation is completed, the address n is updated to n + 4. Thus, n
The content of the address advances from n + 2 by the amount of the broadcast communication that has been read. On the other hand, the transmission operation is executed according to the contents of the address n + 1. Since the initial value is n + 2, the transmission process is started from the address stored in the address n + 2. When the first broadcast communication ends, the content at the address n + 1 advances from n + 2 to n + 3. Then, similarly, the second transmission process is started. In this way, in the present embodiment, the reading process and the transmitting process can be executed concurrently and independently of each other by the pointers shown at the addresses n and n + 1. Therefore, even if the reading process is stopped, if there is already read data, the sending process is executed independently. At this time, it is necessary to judge whether there is already read data. This is, for example, address n and
This is done by comparing the contents of the pointer at the +1 address. If the value of the address n is larger than the value of the address n + 1, it is determined that the read data still remains without being transmitted. If the value of address n is equal to the value of address n + 1, it is determined that all the read data have been transmitted. This transaction management area plays such a role. Although the outline is as described above, the reading and transmitting operations will be described more specifically with reference to the flowcharts of FIGS. 9 and 10.

<Operation> The facsimile apparatus of the present invention described above operates as follows. The operation for reading a document and preparing for transmission will be described below with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10.
9 and 10 are flowcharts of an operation of reading a document or the like. First, in this flowchart, the image memory is M1 as shown in the figure, the communication information management memory is M2,
The telephone number memory will be abbreviated as M3. First, the operator sets a document, and the reading unit 1 shown in FIG. 2 starts reading the document. At this stage, the CPU shown in FIG.
Reference numeral 11 sets the communication information management memory, that is, the address pointer of M2 at the address m.

Next, the operator specifies the presence or absence of the cover sheet. This is performed by the operation display unit 3 shown in FIG.
Here, if it is specified in step S2 that there is a cover sheet, the process proceeds to step S3, and the data that the cover sheet exists in the address m of the communication information management memory M2 is stored. If there is no cover sheet, step S
In No. 4, similarly, the data that there is no cover sheet is stored in the address m. Next, in step S5, the address pointer of the communication information management memory M2 is set to the address m + 3. As shown in FIG. 6, preparations are made for subsequent input of a telephone number address.

Here, the operator specifies the required number of destinations in steps S6 to S8. That is, when the operator designates the destination A in step S6, the address of the designated destination telephone number memory M3, that is, 10
The address 0 is stored in the address m + 3 of the communication information management memory M2 shown in FIG. Next, in step S7, the address pointer of this communication information management memory is incremented. Then, in step S8, it is determined whether or not the start key is depressed. When the addressing is completed, this start key is pressed down. Furthermore, when inputting another destination, steps S6 and S7.
repeat.

When the destination B is designated, the telephone number address 11 of the destination B is assigned to the address m + 4 as shown in FIG.
If address 0 is stored and destination C is specified, the next m
The telephone number address 120 is stored in the +5 address.
As described above, the telephone number memory shown in FIG. 7 stores each telephone number at a location just corresponding to this address. When the start key is pressed down in step S8, the destination designation is completed. Then, the process proceeds to step S9 shown in FIG. 10 and the number of destinations 3 which is repeatedly counted in this way is stored in the address m + 1 of the communication information management memory M2 shown in FIG.

In this case, the address pointer is not operated. That is, the last m + 6 address where the telephone number address is input is held as it is as an address pointer. Next, in step S10, the head address of the empty area of the image memory is stored in the address m + 6 of M2. That is, in order to read the document from the address 1000 of the image memory, the address 1000 is written in the address m + 6. Here, in step S11, one document is read. That is, the first first cover sheet is read here. Then, in step S12, the address pointer of the communication information management memory is incremented to m + 7 this time.

In step S13, it is determined whether or not there is a next original, and since there are still about five originals, the process returns to step S10. When reading the second original, in step S10, the address 1100 of the image memory shown in FIG. 5 is stored in the address m + 7 of the communication information management memory. The same process is repeated, and the three cover sheets are stored in the image memory at addresses 1000, 1100, 1200 and below, respectively, and the common document as the main text for three pages, addresses 1300, 1600, respectively.
M of the communication information management memory stored under 1800
The image data storage location registration processing ends at addresses +6 to m + 11.

Thus, from step S13 to step S
At step 14, the head address of the empty area of the image memory, that is, the data of address 2000 as shown in FIG. 5, is stored with respect to the address m + 12 of the communication information management memory. In this way, the head address for the subsequent data storage is displayed in the communication information management memory. Further, in step S15, the number of document pages confirmed by the above processing is set to M2.
Store at address m + 2. It should be noted that this number is the number obtained by subtracting the number of destinations from the actual number of read documents. This is because the cover sheets for the number of destinations are included.

Next, the operation of transmitting the cover sheet and the common document as described above will be described with reference to FIG. FIG.
It is a flowchart for explanatory drawing of a transmission operation. First, in step S1, the first address m of the communication information management memory shown in FIG. 6 is read to recognize whether or not there is a cover sheet. Further, the destination pointer for destination control is set to m + 3, and the cover sheet pointer for reading the cover sheet is set to m + 3 + N. This N is the number of destinations. In the next step S2, the processing is first divided depending on whether the cover sheet is present or not. If there is a cover sheet, the body pointer is set to m + 3 + 2 × N in step S3. This body pointer is a pointer used for control for reading the body. The text is stored from the address m + 9, which is twice the number of destinations from the address m + 3 shown in FIG. In order to set this as the body pointer, the process of step S3 is performed.

If there is no cover sheet, step S
By the process of 4, the address just before the cover sheet is set to the text pointer. Next, step S5
In, the telephone number of the corresponding destination in the telephone number memory shown in FIG. 7 is read by the address indicated by the destination pointer in the communication information management memory. That is, by reading the address m + 3 of the communication information management memory, the telephone number written in the address 100 of the telephone number memory shown in FIG. 7 is read. Then dial. At this time, the destination pointer is incremented by "1". That is, when the destination pointer is N + 3, it is incremented to N + 4.

Then, in step S6, processing is similarly divided depending on the presence or absence of the cover sheet. If there is a cover sheet, in step S7, one page of image data indicated by the cover sheet pointer is transmitted. That is, here, the image memory shown in FIG. 5 is read according to the address of the cover sheet stored at the address m + 6 shown in FIG. As a result, the cover sheet just corresponding to the telephone number is read out. Then, in step S8, the cover sheet pointer is incremented by "1". That is, in the example shown in FIG. 6, when the cover sheet for the destination A is read by the instruction of the address m + 6,
The cover sheet pointer is incremented to the next address m + 7.

If there is no cover sheet, the processing in steps S7 and S8 is skipped. Then, in the next step S9, one page of the image data indicated by the body pointer is transmitted. When the destination is A, the contents of the address m + 9 shown in FIG. 6 are read, and the contents of the image memory 13 shown in FIG.
The image data of the text is read from address 00. This text corresponds to the common manuscript. In step S10, the body pointer is incremented by "1", and in step S11 it is determined whether the number of transmitted pages is equal to the number of original pages. When the transmission for all common originals is completed, the process exits step S11 and proceeds to step S12. In step S12, it is determined whether the processing for the number of transmission destinations has been completed. If there is another destination, the process returns to step S2.

Through the above processing, in steps S2 to S5, the telephone numbers are sequentially read out, the destinations of the broadcast transmission are sequentially dialed, and steps S6 to S
By the process of 8, the cover sheet corresponding to the telephone number of the other party is read. Then, the common document is read out by the processing of steps S9 to S12 and all the common documents are transmitted. In this way, it is possible to perform broadcast transmission with different cover sheets.

As described above, in this embodiment, individual cover sheets are sequentially read out for each destination and are transmitted to the other party together with the common document. In the above embodiment,
Although the case where the destination is registered in advance is described, the operator may input the telephone number of the destination each time.
In this case, the telephone numbers are sequentially stored in the telephone number memory, and then the broadcast transmission is started. Further, the image data stored in the image memory may be encoded and transmitted after reading and accumulating all the originals at once, or the image data of the read originals may be encoded and then accumulated and directly transmitted. You may make it transmit the coded data.

Further, according to the present invention, as described above, not only the cover sheet is prepared for each destination and transmitted together with the common document, but a part of the document is common and the other parts are different for each destination. In this case, it is possible to handle individual documents different for each destination just like a cover sheet and sequentially use the broadcast transmission function. Further, the present invention is not limited to a normal facsimile apparatus having both a transmission function and a reception function,
It can also be applied to a transmission-only device having only a transmission function.

[0034]

The facsimile apparatus of the present invention described above stores the common original document and the cover sheet separately when the common original document having the same content is simultaneously broadcast to a plurality of locations, and has a cover sheet. When the transmission is requested, the cover sheet is sequentially read out for each destination and automatically transmitted together with the common document. Therefore, it is possible to perform sequential broadcast transmission including a cover sheet different for each destination. Also,
It is possible to sequentially broadcast not only the cover sheet but also originals including individual originals prepared for each destination. As a result, the convenience of the facsimile user can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram showing an embodiment of a facsimile apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a hardware block diagram of a facsimile apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of image data before transmission.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of image data upon reception.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of contents of an image memory.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of contents of a communication information management memory.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory diagram of contents of a telephone number memory.

FIG. 8 is an explanatory diagram of contents of a communication transaction management memory.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart (No. 1) of an operation of reading an original or the like.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart for reading an original or the like (part 2)
It is.

FIG. 11 is a transmission operation flowchart.

[Explanation of symbols]

 5 Broadcast transmission control section 14 Original document storage section 15 Cover sheet storage section 21 Image input section 22 Telephone number instruction input section 23 Telephone address cover sheet selection instruction input section 26 Communication information management memory 33 Telephone number memory 34 Communication information management memory 30 image Memory 41 Image data reading unit 42 Reading image data instruction unit

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A document storage unit for storing a common document having the same content in a batch for simultaneous transmission to a plurality of locations, and a cover sheet prepared for each destination corresponding to the destination. A cover sheet storage unit and a broadcast transmission control unit for sequentially reading the cover sheets according to the transmission request when a transmission with a cover sheet is requested and automatically transmitting the cover sheet to the corresponding destination together with the original document. A facsimile device characterized by the above. 2. A common manuscript storage unit for storing common manuscripts having the same content in a batch to be transmitted to a plurality of locations, and an individual manuscript prepared for each destination is stored in association with the destination. A facsimile apparatus, comprising: an individual document storage section for performing the same, and a broadcast transmission control section for sequentially reading the individual documents in accordance with a broadcast transmission request and automatically transmitting the individual documents together with the common document to a corresponding destination.