JPH11146167A - Image data communication device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] To efficiently perform facsimile transmission and reception by making file management in a file storage device more efficient. SOLUTION: As shown in (a) and (b), processing is performed by performing file management by using a partial storage area for a data area R3 without using the entire storage area of a file storage device 623. Increase speed. Further, the data area R3 for storing a file is not fixed (however, the capacity is fixed), and when erasing a file and storing another file,
(C) As shown in FIG.
By storing another file in a storage area 602 which is a storage area different from the storage area 1 and is continuous with the storage area 603 of another file, the occurrence of fragmentation due to repeated writing and erasing is suppressed. When the storage area 603 is in a data full state, the file is saved using the other storage area 605 as shown in FIG. Also, by virtually deleting the data on the file management area R2 and leaving the data, recovery of the deleted data is enabled.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus or an image data communication apparatus such as a copying machine having a facsimile function, and more particularly to a file management method in a file storage device for temporarily storing image data files during facsimile transmission and reception. The present invention relates to an improved image data communication device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A facsimile apparatus and an image data communication apparatus such as a copying machine or a printer having a facsimile function use a RAM or an HDD as a file storage device.
After the image data read by the scanner is sequentially stored in the file storage device, the image data file is read from the file storage device and transmitted by facsimile, and the image data received by facsimile is sequentially stored in the file storage device. The image data file is read and output as an image. Conventionally, in this type of image data communication device, as shown in FIG.
Is allocated to the file management area R12, and the remaining area is entirely the storage area (data area) of the image data file.
The file management was performed by using R13.

[0003]

However, as described above, in the conventional image data communication apparatus, even when a large capacity is not necessarily required for storing image data, the entire storage area R11 of the file storage apparatus 700 is targeted. Since the image data file is stored and managed, the access speed to the storage area when writing and reading the image data is reduced, and the processing speed in facsimile transmission / reception is reduced. Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an image data communication device capable of efficiently performing facsimile transmission and reception by making file management in a file storage device more efficient. In addition, the conventional image data communication device has an external storage dedicated to backup in order to prevent the file data stored in the file storage device from being completely lost due to some kind of failure or an erroneous erasing operation. There is one provided with a device (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 7-13832). However, the provision of a storage device in addition to the file storage device has a problem that the system configuration is complicated and the cost is increased. Therefore,
A further problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide an image data communication device capable of performing backup without using a storage device dedicated to backup, recovering erased data and the like, and efficiently performing facsimile transmission and reception. It is in. Further, in the conventional image data communication device, when erasing a part of the image data file stored in the file storage device and saving another image data file, the area vacated by the file erasure is filled so as to be later. Since the data of the file to be saved was written, when input / output of a file having a different data amount is repeated, FIG.
As shown in (b), the storage device-specific fragmentation (worm eating) 701 occurs in some places. When a new file is saved in a state where such fragmentation 701 occurs frequently, FIG.
As shown in (c), the data 702 of one file is separately stored in a discontinuous area (the black portion in the figure), and the access speed to the file is significantly reduced. Thus, the processing speed of facsimile transmission and reception is significantly reduced. Therefore, a further problem to be solved by the present invention is to provide an image data communication apparatus capable of efficiently performing facsimile transmission and reception by suppressing the occurrence of fragmentation due to repeated writing and erasing of an image data file in a file storage device. To provide.
Further, in the conventional image data communication device, since the image data file is stored and managed for the entire storage area R11 of the file storage device, as shown in FIG. When the area 703 is in the data full state, the transmission / reception processing is interrupted halfway. In such a case, the receiving side prints the data halfway, and the transmitting side tries to communicate again, and the paper and re-communication charges are wasted. Therefore, a further problem to be solved by the present invention is that even if an area initially set as a storage area for an image data file becomes full during facsimile communication, transmission / reception processing is interrupted halfway. There is no need to provide an image data communication device.

[0004]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided an image processing apparatus, comprising: sequentially storing image data read by a scanner in a file storage device; An image data communication apparatus having a function of reading out an image data file and transmitting the image data by facsimile, and sequentially storing image data received by facsimile in the file storage device, and then reading out the image data file from the file storage device and outputting the image data as an image. , A control device for performing file management using a fixed capacity smaller than the maximum capacity of the file storage device for storing image data files is provided, so that file management in the file storage device is made more efficient and facsimile. Transmission and reception can be performed efficiently. According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the storage area for storing the image data file is not fixed, and when the image data file is deleted to store another image data file, The control device is configured to perform file management so as to store the other file in a storage area that is different from the storage area of the image data file to be stored and that is continuous with the storage area of the other image data file. By doing so, the occurrence of fragmentation due to repeated writing and erasing of the image data file in the file storage device is suppressed, and facsimile transmission and reception can be performed efficiently. According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect, when the storage area of the fixed capacity is in a data full state, not only the storage area of the fixed capacity but also the other storage areas. By configuring the control device to save the image data file by using, even if the storage area of a certain capacity becomes a data full state during facsimile communication, the transmission / reception processing is interrupted halfway. So that it does n’t get lost. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to third aspects, it is instructed to use a part of the storage area of the file storage device as a file management area and delete the image data file. In this case, the image data file is not deleted immediately, but the control device is configured to virtually delete the image data file in the file management area. Data can be restored.

[0005]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the image data communication apparatus according to the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a schematic overall configuration diagram showing an example of an embodiment of an image data communication device according to the present invention. In this example, a digital multifunction peripheral having both the functions of a facsimile machine and the functions of a copier is shown. The digital multifunction peripheral includes a multifunction peripheral body 1 and an automatic document feeder (hereinafter, referred to as an automatic document feeder).
It has an ADF (100), a 3-bin sorter (200), and a paper feeding unit (hereafter called a bank) (300). The multifunction device body 1 includes a scanner, an image processing unit, a plotter, and the like.
The optical scanning system includes an exposure lamp 11, a first mirror 12, a lens 15, a full color
It comprises a CCD 16 and the like. A first carriage which is provided with an exposure lamp 11 and a first mirror 12 and is driven by a stepping motor to move at a constant speed when reading a document; and a second mirror 13 and a third mirror 14
And a second carriage driven by a stepping motor at the time of reading a document and driven at half the speed of the first carriage. An original (not shown) on the contact glass 10 is optically scanned by the first carriage and the second carriage, and the light source 11 and the first mirror 1 are scanned.
2. An image is formed on the CCD 16 via the second mirror 13, the third mirror 14, and the lens 15, and photoelectrically converted. CCD
The image signals separated into red (R), green (G), and blue (B) are AD-converted by an AD converter and output to an image processing unit that performs image processing. The image processing unit performs various image processing (binarization, multi-level conversion, scaling, editing, etc.) on the image signal from the AD converter, and converts the image signal into a digital signal. The writing unit is a laser output unit 20, f
The laser output unit 20 includes a laser diode as a laser light source and a polygon motor.

The black image signal output from the image processing unit is
The laser beam is converted into a laser beam having an intensity corresponding to the image signal, is shaped into a light beam having a predetermined shape by a collimator lens, an aperture, and a cylinder lens, is irradiated on a polygon mirror surface of a polygon motor, and is output from a laser output unit 20. The laser beam output from the laser output unit 20 is applied to the photosensitive drum 30 via the fθ lens 21 and the mirror 22. Further, the laser light passing through the fθ lens 21 is applied to a beam sensor that generates a main scanning synchronization detection signal PMSYNC disposed outside the image area. The red image signal output from the image processing unit is buffered in order to match the write position with the black image signal, and the LED write unit (two-color LED array) 3
1 to irradiate the photosensitive drum 30. ADF10
0 is the contact glass 1 of the multifunction device body 1 for each original one by one.
0, and discharge after copying. Documents are on the document feeder 10
1, and the width direction is aligned by the side guides. The document on the document feeder table 101 is separated and fed one by one from a lowermost document by a feed roller 102, and is fed onto a contact glass 10 of the copying main body 1 by a transport belt 103. After reading the original on the contact glass 10, the transport belt 103 and the discharge roller 104
Is discharged onto the paper discharge tray 105.

When reading a two-sided document, the document feeder 1
01 on the paper feed roller 10
2, the paper is fed one by one,
As a result, the original is fed onto the contact glass 10 of the copying main body 1 and set on the contact glass 10 after the original is inverted by the inversion claw 106. After reading the back side of the original, the original is conveyed by the conveyor belt 103 and set on the contact glass 10 after the original is inverted by the inversion claw 106.
After the reading of the front side of the document, the document is discharged to a discharge tray 105 by a transport belt 103 and a discharge roller 104.
First tray 50, second tray 310, third tray 32
0, the transfer papers stacked on the fourth tray 330 are transferred to the first paper feeder 51, the second paper feeder 311, and the third paper feeder 3 respectively.
21, the sheet is fed by the fourth sheet feeding device 331, and is conveyed by the bank vertical conveyance unit 340 and the main body conveyance unit 60. When the leading edge of the transfer paper is detected by the registration sensor 52, the transfer paper is conveyed for a predetermined time and then stopped by the registration roller 53. The transfer paper is sent out onto the photosensitive drum 30 in accordance with the leading edge of an image valid signal (FGATE), an image is transferred by a transfer charger, the transfer paper is separated from the photosensitive body, and then transported by the transport device 54. The sheet is fixed by a fixing device 55 having a fixing roller and a pressure roller, and is discharged to a three-bin sorter 200 by a discharge roller 56.

An image is formed on the photoreceptor by irradiating the laser beam with the electric charge charged on the photoreceptor drum 30 by the first charging device to form an electrostatic latent image.
As a result, an image is formed on the photosensitive drum 30. Thereafter, the photosensitive drum 30 is charged again by the second charging device, a second-color electrostatic latent image is formed by the LED array 31, and an image is formed on the photosensitive drum 30 by the second developing device 33. I have. When performing double-sided printing using the double-sided unit 40, the transfer paper from the fixing device 55 is guided to the double-sided conveyance path 41 by the switching claw 57, passes through the feed roller 42 and the separation roller 43, and is transferred to the double-sided tray. Be accumulated. The transfer papers accumulated on the tray come into contact with the feed roller 42 when the tray is raised, and are sent to the main body vertical conveyance unit 60 when the feed roller 42 rotates, and are fed again to the registration roller 53. After that, printing is performed on the back surface. The 3-bin sorter 200 includes a first discharge tray 201, a second discharge tray 202, a third discharge tray 203, and a reversing-only tray 204, which are configured so that transfer paper can be reversed and output to each tray. I have. In the case of front-side discharge, the transfer paper discharged from the multifunction device body 1 is guided in the direction of the discharge tray by the switching claw 207 and discharged to a preset tray. When discharging to the second discharge tray 202, the second tray switching claw 205 is operated, and when discharging to the third discharge tray 203, the third tray switching claw 206 is operated to guide the transfer paper. In the case of reverse discharge, the transfer roller 209 is guided in the direction of the reverse tray 204 by the switching claw 207, and when the rear end of the transfer paper passes the reverse detection sensor 208, the transport roller 209 reverses and is guided in the direction of the discharge tray. Paper is discharged to the set tray. The first discharge tray 201 has a function of shifting the tray back and forth and a function of shifting the tray up and down. The shift function is used when sorting transfer papers, and the up / down function is used for stacking a large amount of transfer papers while ensuring sheet alignment.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the operation section of the digital multifunction peripheral. 400x256d at the center of the operation unit 400
An ot liquid crystal display (LCD) 401 and a touch panel are provided. The liquid crystal display unit 401 displays the functions (copy, FAX) incorporated in the machine, and the user operates the machine according to the display. On the right side of the liquid crystal display section, various numeric keys 402, clear / stop keys 403,
Start key 404, program key-405, job recall key 406, mode clear / preheat key 407,
Various keys such as an interrupt key 408, a pose / redial key 409 used exclusively for FAX, a shortened key-410,
Keys such as a reception key-411 are arranged. Further on the right side of the interrupt key 408, there is provided an energizing LED 705 indicating that the digital multifunction peripheral is in an energized state. On the left side of this liquid crystal unit, there is a FAX switching key.
412, copy switching key-413, initial setting key-41
4, a guidance key 415, and an LCD density adjustment volume 416 are provided. A display unit 417 dedicated to FAX is provided at a further left portion of the key. The display unit displays various L values such as during communication and memory full.
ED and 40 characters (20 characters x 2)
Row) LCD is provided.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the digital copying machine. The control of the multifunction device body 1 is performed by a liquid crystal display, various LEs.
Operation unit controller 5 for D control and various key input controls
00, main controller (system controller, SCU) for feeding, transporting, fixing, duplexing, process control, etc.
501, an image processing controller 502 for performing image control / scanner reading control, an ADF controller 503 for performing ADF control, a sorter controller 504 for controlling a 3-bin sorter, a paper feed tray controller 505 for controlling a paper feed unit, and a facsimile FAX controller (corresponding to a control device described in the claims) 506 for performing transmission / reception management and file management of G, and G for performing G3 protocol control
3 controller 507, G for controlling the protocol of G4
It is composed of four controllers 508 and the like.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of the image processing unit. The CPU 600 of the image processing controller 502 transmits an instruction to the scanner control circuit 604 when there is an instruction to start reading from the main controller 501.
The scanner control circuit 604 turns on the exposure lamp 11,
By operating the motor 605, the first carriage,
The second carriage is moved to the reading reference position, and reading is started after detection by the position sensor 603. At this time, a sub-scanning effective period signal FGATE (active at the start of reading, negative at the end of reading) is generated and the timing control circuit 6
Send to 06. The timing control circuit 606 generates and outputs an image synchronization clock CLK, a main scanning synchronization signal LSYNC, and a main scanning enable signal LGATE. The flow of the image is such that the original 607 placed on the contact glass 10
The reflected light forms an image on the color CCD 16, and the analog image signal separated into red (R), green (G), and blue (B) from the color CCD 16 is amplified / quantized by a signal processing circuit 608. The signal is converted into a digital multi-level signal by the AD converter 609, and is subjected to shading correction by the shading correction circuit 610.
11 is sent. In the image processing unit 611, MTF correction,
Basic image quality processing such as gamma correction, black image generation, color image generation, binary processing, multi-value processing, and scaling, editing, and marker processing
Performs digital-specific image processing such as detection and performs black data DAT
A0 to 7 and color data DATAC are output. The image data output from the image processing unit 611, the synchronization signal generated by the timing control circuit 606, and the write reference signal PMSYNC are input to the image selector 612.
In the case of copying, the black image is written by the writing control unit (black) 613.
The color image is sent from the writing control unit (color) 615 to the LED 616, and is irradiated with the photosensitive drum to form an image. When performing FAX transmission, the data is transferred from the selector 612 to a FAX memory inside the main controller 501.
The FAX reception output is obtained by expanding the data received from the line and expanding the data in a FAX memory, and then inputting it to the image selector 612 together with the image data and the synchronizing signal to perform writing.

FIG. 5 shows a flow of image data at the time of facsimile transmission / reception. At the time of FAX image storage / transmission, the image data read from the scanner is subjected to various image processing by the image processing controller 502 and then stored in the image memory 620 on the main controller 501 from the selector 612. Is done. Thereafter, the data is compressed by the compression / decompression device 622 into the specified compression code (MH, MR, MMR), and the file storage device (SAF) 62 on the facsimile controller 506 is provided.
3 is stored. At this time, if it is more efficient to transmit the image data stored in the image memory 620 by rotating the image data in the A4 landscape or the B5 landscape, the image memory 620 is used.
When the image data is passed from to the compression / expansion unit 622, the image is rotated using the rotator 621 to perform compression. The image data stored in the file storage device 623 is transferred to the line buffer 624 in the G3 controller 507, recompressed by the compression / expansion device 627 according to the mode of the receiver, and then transmitted from the NCU 626 via the modem 625. Sent. Similarly, in the case of G4, the data is transferred to the line buffer 628 in the G4 controller 508 and compressed by the compression / expansion unit 631 in accordance with the mode of the receiver.
29, transmitted through the transformer 630. During fax reception / printing, image data sent from the line is
U626, file storage device 623 via modem 625
Is accumulated in The image data stored in the file storage device 623 is expanded by the compression / expansion device 622 on the main controller 501 and is expanded on the image memory 620. If it is more efficient to rotate and print A4 landscape or B5 landscape at the time of decompression, the rotator 62 transmits image data from the compression / expansion unit 622 to the image memory 620.
Use 1 to rotate the image and expand. Image
The image data developed on the memory 620 is sent to the image processing controller 502, passed from the selector 612 to the writing control unit, and printed.

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below for each claim with reference to FIG. The present invention is characterized in the way of managing files in the file storage device 623 in the FAX controller 506. Here, FA
It is assumed that the X controller 506 performs file management and input / output control using a partial area of the file storage device 623 as the file management area R2. In the embodiment corresponding to claim 1, as shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B, an image data file is stored in an arbitrary storage area having a fixed capacity smaller than the maximum capacity of the file storage device 623. File management is performed using the data area R3. Thus, without using the entire storage area of the file storage device 623,
By performing file management using a part of the storage area, image data can be written or written as compared with a conventional facsimile apparatus that stores and manages image data files for the entire storage area of the file storage device. Since the access speed to the storage area when reading out becomes faster,
Facsimile transmission and reception can be performed efficiently. In addition, since the file management control is performed using an arbitrary storage area having a fixed capacity smaller than the entire storage area of the file storage apparatus 623 without using the entire storage area, the maximum capacity of the file storage apparatus is less likely to be restricted. In other words, any file storage device having a storage capacity equal to or larger than the above-mentioned fixed capacity can correspond to a file storage device having various capacities.

Next, in an embodiment corresponding to claim 2, as shown in FIGS. 6A and 6B, the data area R3 for storing the image data file is not fixed (the capacity is fixed). When the image data file is deleted and another image data file is stored, as shown in FIG. 6C, the storage area is different from the storage area 601 of the image data file to be deleted and other storage areas are used. File management is performed so that another file is stored in the storage area 602 that is continuous with the storage area 603 of the image data file. in this way,
When the image data file is deleted and another image data file is stored, the other file is stored in a storage area different from the storage area 601 of the image data file to be deleted. The occurrence of fragmentation due to repeated writing and erasing of the image data file to the 623 can be suppressed. Further, the newly stored file is allocated to a continuous data area as much as possible, so that the processing speed is improved and facsimile transmission / reception can be performed efficiently.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, when the storage area 603 having a certain capacity is in a data full state, as shown in FIG. 603 and other storage areas 60
5 is also used to save the image data file. Therefore, even if the storage area of a fixed capacity initially set as the storage area for the image data file becomes full during the facsimile communication, the transmission / reception processing will not be interrupted halfway, and the communication with the paper will not be interrupted. It is possible to reduce waste of money.

In an embodiment corresponding to claim 4, when an instruction to delete an image data file is issued, the image data file is not deleted immediately but is virtually deleted in the file management area R2. When storing another image data file, as shown in FIGS. 6C and 6E, the storage area 601 of the image data file to be deleted (file 2 in FIG. 6E) File management is performed so that another file (file 5 in FIG. 6E) is stored in a storage area 602 which is another storage area and is continuous with the storage area 603 of another image data file.
Conventionally, for example, when saving the file 5 by deleting the file 2 shown on the left side of FIG. 6 (e), as shown in FIG. Although the file 2 could not be recovered because it was stored in the place where it was, in the present invention, the file 2 was deleted in the file management area R2, so the data of the file 2 was apparently deleted. However, since the data of the file 2 actually remains on the data area R3, when the file 2 is to be restored, the file 2
It can be easily restored by changing the attribute of.
In addition, since the backup data can be restored and the erased data can be restored without providing a storage device dedicated to the backup, the system configuration can be simplified and the cost can be reduced. In the above embodiment, the case where the present invention is applied to a digital multifunction peripheral having both a facsimile function and a function as a copier has been described as an example.However, the facsimile function and data from an external device such as a personal computer are used. The present invention can be applied to a digital multifunction peripheral having a printer function for capturing and printing out, and further to a digital multifunction peripheral having three functions of a facsimile, a printer, and a copier.

[0017]

In summary, according to the present invention, the following excellent effects can be exhibited. According to the first aspect of the present invention, the entire storage area of the file storage device is not used, but the file management is performed using a part of the storage area, so that the image data can be stored in the entire storage area of the file storage device. The access speed to the storage area when writing and reading image data is faster than in a conventional facsimile apparatus that stores and manages files, and facsimile transmission and reception can be performed efficiently. According to the second aspect of the present invention, the storage area for storing the image data file is not fixed, and when the image data file is deleted and another image data file is stored, the storage of the image data file to be deleted is performed. Since the file management is performed so that the other file is stored in a storage area separate from the area and continuous with the storage area of the other image data file, writing and erasing of the image data file in the file storage device is performed. , The occurrence of fragmentation due to the repetition of is suppressed, and facsimile transmission / reception can be performed efficiently. According to the third aspect of the present invention, when the storage area of a fixed capacity set as the storage area of the image data file becomes full during the facsimile communication, not only the storage area of the fixed capacity but also Since the storage of the image data file is continued by using other storage areas, the transmission / reception processing is not interrupted halfway, and waste of paper and re-communication can be eliminated. Also,
According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the image data file instructed to be deleted is not immediately deleted but is virtually deleted in the file management area, so that the file is apparently deleted. However, since the file data actually remains in the storage area of the image data file, when it becomes necessary to restore the deleted file, it can be easily restored by changing the attribute of the file. .

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic overall configuration diagram showing an embodiment of a digital multifunction peripheral as an example of an image data communication device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of an operation unit of the digital multi-function peripheral shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a control system of the digital multi-function peripheral shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an image processing unit of the digital multi-function peripheral shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a flow of image data when the digital multifunction peripheral shown in FIG. 1 transmits and receives a facsimile.

FIGS. 6A to 6E are explanatory diagrams of an embodiment corresponding to each claim.

FIGS. 7A to 7E are explanatory diagrams of a conventional technique.

[Description of Signs] 1 MFP (main body of image data communication device), 506
FAX controller (control device), 623 file storage device.

Claims (4)

[Claims] After sequentially storing image data read by a scanner in a file storage device, an image data file is read out from the file storage device and transmitted by facsimile, and the image data received by facsimile is sequentially stored in the file storage device. Then, in an image data communication device having a function of reading an image data file from the file storage device and outputting it as an image, a fixed capacity smaller than the maximum capacity of the file storage device is stored for storing the image data file. An image data communication device comprising a control device for performing file management using the image data communication device. 2. The control device according to claim 1, wherein the storage area for storing the image data file is not fixed, and when the image data file is deleted and another image data file is stored,
The file management is performed so as to store another file in a storage area different from the storage area of the image data file to be deleted and in a storage area continuous with the storage area of the other image data file. Item 2. The image data communication device according to Item 1. 3. The image processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein when the storage area of the predetermined capacity becomes full, the control device stores the image data file using the other storage area. 3. The image data communication device according to 2. 4. The control device uses a part of the storage area of the file storage device as a file management area and, when instructed to delete the image data file, immediately deletes the image data file. The image data communication device according to claim 1, wherein the image data is virtually deleted on the file management area without performing the operation.