JPH11275331A - Facsimile machine - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] The present invention provides a method for storing image data in a memory.
Provided is a facsimile apparatus which promptly determines whether or not image data is to be uncompressed and shortens processing time. A facsimile apparatus converts image data to SAF.
When storing in the DCR, after setting the number of check words W specifying the time point of determining whether to continue the encoding in the DCR, the image data is sequentially transferred from the line buffer to the DCR in word units, and the word data is sequentially stored in the DCR. Encode in units. DC
When the transfer word number becomes the check word number W, R calculates the ratio (N / M) of the pre-encoding word number M and the post-encoding word number N at that time, and when the ratio is “1” or more, Check if there is. If N / M ≧ 1, the DCR interrupts the CPU and notifies the CPU. If the ratio is less than “1”, the DCR terminates the encoding process for one line of image data, and To notify that the encoding process of the image data is completed and the calculation result of N / M. CP
When the encoding process is completed with N / M ≧ 1, the U restarts the DCR in the non-encoding mode, and reprocesses the line.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a facsimile apparatus, and more particularly, to a facsimile apparatus that appropriately determines whether or not image data is to be compressed and shortens processing time.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a facsimile machine,
When storing image data read from a document or received image data in a storage means such as an image memory, etc. MH (Modified Huffman) method or MR (Modufied Relative element address de
signate) method and the like, so that the storage means is effectively used.

However, when image data is encoded by the above-described encoding method, when the number of change points in one line is large, the data amount of the encoded data is smaller than the data amount of the raw image data before encoding. And the use efficiency of the storage means may be reduced.

Therefore, conventionally, a predetermined threshold value is set for the coding amount of one line of image data, and image data is coded for each line. When the coding amount exceeds the set threshold value, There has been proposed a facsimile apparatus in which encoding of a line is stopped and the image data of the line is stored in a memory as raw data, that is, in an uncompressed state (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 6-197189).

[0005]

However, in such a conventional facsimile apparatus, when one line of image data is encoded, and the amount of encoding exceeds a predetermined threshold, the image of the line is rejected. Since the data is stored in the memory as raw data, whether the line data is coded and stored in the memory until the coded data exceeds a predetermined threshold value by coding the image data in units of one line, It is not determined whether to store the raw data as it is, and it takes a long processing time, and there is a problem that the processing time of the image data in the facsimile apparatus takes a long time.

Therefore, according to the first aspect of the present invention, when the image data is encoded by a predetermined encoding method and stored in the image storage means, a predetermined determination point in the middle of the encoding processing of one line of image data is performed. It is determined whether the data amount of the encoded image data of the line up to the determination time has reached a predetermined threshold data amount, and the data amount of the encoded image data has reached the threshold data amount at the determination time. In this case, the line is de-encoded and stored in the image storage unit,
It is determined whether the data amount of the encoded image data has reached the threshold data amount at a time earlier than when the encoding processing for one line is completed as in the related art, and the image data is non-encoded. It is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile apparatus capable of shortening the processing time in processing and shortening the processing time of image data.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, when a judgment time point for judging whether or not the data amount of the encoded image data has reached the threshold data amount is set and input from the input means, the setting and input is performed from the input means. At the time of the determination, it is determined whether or not the data amount of the encoded image data has reached the threshold data amount, so that the degree of freedom at the time of the determination is improved in accordance with the type of the image data, etc. It is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile apparatus which can further reduce the processing time for encoding processing and further reduce the processing time of image data.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, a reading mode switching means for switching a reading mode of a document by a reading means for reading an image of the document and outputting image data between a normal binary reading mode and a halftone reading mode. When the mode is selected, by changing the determination time point for determining whether or not the data amount of the encoded image data has reached the threshold data amount according to the reading mode, for example, the data of the encoded image data is changed. In the halftone reading mode in which the amount is large, the judgment time is automatically set earlier than in the case of the binary reading mode, and the processing time when the image data is non-encoded is further reduced, It is an object of the present invention to provide a facsimile apparatus which can further shorten the processing time of image data and has good usability.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the number of continuous non-coding lines that are continuously determined that the data amount of the coded image data has reached the threshold data amount is counted, and the number of continuous non-coding lines is counted. Accordingly, by changing the determination time point for determining whether the data amount of the encoded image data has reached the threshold data amount, it is possible to increase the possibility that the data amount of the encoded image data will reach the threshold data amount. A facsimile apparatus capable of automatically setting a determination time point to an earlier time point to further reduce the processing time when performing non-coding processing on image data and to further shorten the processing time for image data. It is intended to be.

[0010]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a facsimile apparatus which encodes image data by a predetermined encoding method, and stores the image data encoded by the encoding means. Controlling the encoding means, and a data amount determining means for determining whether a data amount of the encoded image data encoded by the encoding means has reached a predetermined threshold data amount. At the time of a predetermined determination in the middle of the encoding process of the one line of the image data by the encoding means, the data amount of the encoded image data up to the determination of the line is reduced. When the data amount determining unit determines that the data amount of the encoded image data has reached the threshold data amount, the data amount determining unit determines whether or not the threshold data amount has been reached. And control means for storing in the image storage means the line is processed uncoded the encoding means,
With the provision of the above, the above object is achieved.

According to the above arrangement, when the image data is encoded by a predetermined encoding method and stored in the image storage means,
At a predetermined decision point in the middle of encoding processing of one line of image data, it is determined whether or not the data amount of the encoded image data of the line up to the decision point has reached a predetermined threshold data amount. If the data amount of the encoded image data has reached the threshold data amount at the time, the line is de-encoded and stored in the image storage means, so that the data amount of the encoded image data reaches the threshold data amount. Can be determined at a point earlier than when the encoding processing for one line is completed as in the related art, and the processing time when the image data is non-encoded can be reduced. Data processing time can be reduced.

In this case, for example, as set forth in claim 2, the facsimile apparatus further includes input means for setting and inputting the determination time point of the data amount determining means, and the control means includes the input means. And determining whether the data amount of the coded image data has reached the threshold data amount at the time of the determination input by the setting.

According to the above arrangement, when the judgment time for judging whether or not the data amount of the coded image data has reached the threshold data amount is set and input from the input means, the judgment set and input from the input means is performed. At this point, since it is determined whether the data amount of the encoded image data has reached the threshold data amount,
By improving the degree of freedom at the time of determination according to the type of image data, etc., it is possible to further reduce the processing time when performing non-coding processing on image data, and further shorten the processing time of image data. Can be.

For example, as set forth in claim 3, the facsimile apparatus reads a document image and outputs image data, and sets the reading mode of the document by a normal binary mode. A reading mode switching unit that switches between a reading mode and a halftone reading mode, wherein the encoding unit encodes the image data of the document read by the reading unit, and the control unit includes:
The determination point of the data amount determining means may be changed according to the reading mode selected by the reading mode switching means.

According to the above arrangement, the reading mode is switched by the reading mode switching means for switching the reading mode of the document by the reading means for reading the image of the document and outputting the image data between the normal binary reading mode and the halftone reading mode. When selected, the judgment time point for judging whether the data amount of the encoded image data has reached the threshold data amount is changed in accordance with the reading mode. For example, when the data amount of the encoded image data is large, In the halftone reading mode, the determination time is automatically set earlier than in the case of the binary reading mode, so that the processing time when the image data is non-encoded can be further reduced, The processing time of the image data can be further shortened, and the usability of the facsimile apparatus can be improved.

Further, for example, as set forth in claim 4, the control means determines that the data amount determining means has continuously determined that the data amount of the encoded image data has reached the threshold data amount. The number of uncoded lines may be counted, and the determination point of the data amount determining means may be changed according to the number of consecutive uncoded lines.

According to the above configuration, the number of continuous non-coding lines that are continuously determined that the data amount of the coded image data has reached the threshold data amount is counted, and according to the number of continuous non-coding lines. Since the determination time for determining whether or not the data amount of the encoded image data has reached the threshold data amount is changed, when the data amount of the encoded image data is highly likely to reach the threshold data amount, the determination time Can be automatically set at an earlier point in time to further reduce the processing time when performing non-coding processing on image data, and further reduce the processing time for image data.

[0018]

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be noted that the embodiments described below are preferred embodiments of the present invention, and therefore, various technically preferable limitations are added. However, the scope of the present invention is not limited to the following description. The embodiments are not limited to these embodiments unless otherwise specified.

FIGS. 1 and 2 show an embodiment of a facsimile apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 1 shows a main circuit of a facsimile apparatus 1 to which an embodiment of the facsimile apparatus of the present invention is applied. It is a block diagram.

In FIG. 1, a facsimile machine 1 has a C
PU (Central Processing Unit) 2, ROM (Read O
nly Memory) 3, RAM (Random Access Memory) 4,
DCR (encoding / decoding unit) 5, DMAC (Direct Mem
ory Access Controller: DMA controller) 6, plotter 7, operation port 8, scanner 9, modem 10, N
CU (Network Control Unit) 11 and SAF (Store
And Forward) 12 etc., and the above main parts are
They are connected by a bus 13.

The ROM 3 stores various control programs such as a basic control processing program as the facsimile machine 1 and an encoding control processing program to be described later. The ROM 3 stores system data and data necessary for executing these control programs. Various data are stored.

The RAM 4 is used as a work memory for the CPU 2 and also as a line buffer for image data.

The CPU (control means) 2 controls each part of the facsimile machine 1 while using the RAM 4 as a work memory based on a program in the ROM 3 to execute basic processing as the facsimile machine 1 and to be described later. Various processes such as an encoding control process are executed.

The DCR 5 is used to effectively use a memory when storing image data of a document read by the scanner 9 described later in the SAF 12, and to shorten a communication time when performing facsimile communication via the NCU 11. In order to achieve this, the MH method, MR method, MM
Encoding is performed by various encoding methods such as an R encoding method or an arithmetic encoding method, and the encoded image data is decoded. When the number of check words W is set by the CPU 2, the DCR 5 determines the data amount of the encoded image data as a time when the number of words of the transferred image data reaches the number of check words W. It is determined whether or not (the number of words) has reached a predetermined threshold data amount (for example, the number of uncoded words which is the number of words of the image data transferred up to the time of the determination), and the determination result is notified to the CPU 2. I do. Therefore, DCR5 is
It functions as an encoding unit and a data amount determination unit.

The DMAC 6 controls a DMA transfer that directly transfers data between the input / output device and the memory or between the memories without passing through the CPU 2.
DMA transfer between the RAM 4 and the SAF 12 and between the RAM 4 and the scanner 9 are controlled to improve the data processing speed.

As the plotter 7, for example, a thermal recording device using a thermal element or an electrophotographic recording device is used, and an image is formed on recording paper based on received image data and image data read by the scanner 9. Record and output.

An operation port (input means, reading mode switching means) 8 includes various operation keys such as a numeric keypad and a start key, and also includes a display (for example, a liquid crystal display). Is input, and on the display, the content of the command input from the operation keys and various information notified from the facsimile machine 1 to the operator are displayed. From the operation port 8, in particular, in an encoding control process to be described later, a check word indicating a word in the middle of one line for checking whether the number of words after encoding by the DCR 5 has become the number of words before encoding. An input operation of several W, an input operation of a reading mode of whether the reading of the original by the scanner 9 is performed in a simple binary or a halftone such as an error diffusion method are performed.

The scanner (reading means) 9 is, for example, a CC
An image scanner using a D (Charge Coupled Device) or the like is used, and generally includes an ADF (Automatic Document Feeder). A plurality of documents are set on the ADF, and the ADF feeds the set documents one by one to a document reading position of the scanner 9. The scanner 9 is an AD
The document conveyed from F is scanned, and the image of the document is read at a predetermined resolution.

A line L, for example, a public telephone line or a dedicated line, is connected to the NCU 11.
Automatically receives an incoming call from the line L, and performs an automatic call processing to the line L. Also, the NCU 11 has a built-in communication control unit, and the facsimile control signal is exchanged with the other facsimile apparatus by the communication control unit to execute a facsimile communication procedure.

The modem 10 is connected to the NCU 11 and operates under the control of the CPU 2 to modulate a transmission signal and demodulate a reception signal.

The SAF (image storage means) 12 is composed of a hard disk, a RAM, or the like, stores image data in file units, and stores management data for managing the stored image data. This SAF12
Stores image data in a state of encoded data encoded by DCR5 and in a state of raw data not encoded.

Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be described. When the facsimile apparatus 1 encodes the image data by the DCR 5 to store the image data in the SAF 12, the facsimile apparatus 1
In the word of the preset check word number W in the middle of the line, it is checked whether the data amount (word number) of the encoded image data is equal to or larger than the data amount (word number) of the image data before encoding. Then, the encoding process is continued or the encoding process is stopped and the raw image data is
The feature lies in controlling whether the data is stored in F12.

In other words, the facsimile machine 1 determines at what word in one line the operator checks in advance whether the number of words after the encoding process is equal to or greater than the number of words before the encoding process. The number of check words W is input and set from the operation port 8, and the CPU 2
When the number W of check words is set and input, the number W of check words set and input is stored in the RAM 4.

For example, if the image data has a B4 width, 1
Since the number of words in the line is “128”, the operator sets the number of check words W to “50”, for example.
(W = 50) is set and input.

When the facsimile apparatus 1 stores image data in the SAF 12, for example, when storing image data read by the scanner 9 in the SAF 12,
When the image data for one line is transferred to the line buffer of No. 4, the image data is DMA-transferred from the line buffer of the RAM 4 to the DCR 5 in word units, coded by the DCR 5 according to a predetermined coding method, and then coded. Is stored in the SAF 12. At the time of this encoding, it is checked whether or not the data amount of the encoded image data has reached the data amount of the image data before the encoding. Without doing, SAF1
Store in 2.

That is, as shown in FIG. 2, when accumulating the image data read by the scanner 9 in the SAF 12, the CPU 2 first binarizes the image data read by the scanner 9 and temporarily stores the image data in the line buffer of the RAM 4 as shown in FIG. It is stored (step S1), and it is checked whether image data for one line has been stored in the line buffer (step S2).
When the image data for one line is stored in the line buffer of the RAM 4 in step S2, the CPU 2
The number of check words W at the time of determination (for example, W =
After setting (50) (step S3), the DCR 5 is started (step S4), and the RA is controlled under the control of the DMAC 6.
The image data is transferred from the M4 line buffer to the DCR 5 in word units, and the DCR 5 sequentially encodes the image data in word units. The image data that has been encoded by the DCR 5 is transferred from the DCR 5 to the SAF 12 under the control of the DMAC 6.
Is DMA-transferred and stored in the SAF 12.

When the number of check words W is set and the image data is sequentially transferred for each word, the DCR 5 sequentially codes the transferred image data by a predetermined coding method and transfers the data. It is checked whether the number of transferred words has become the number of check words W, that is, whether or not it has reached the judgment point. When the number of transferred words becomes the number of check words W, the number of words transferred in the one line is checked word. The number of words of the image data before encoding at the time when the number W is reached (hereinafter, referred to as the number of words before encoding) is represented by M, When the number of words of the image data (hereinafter, referred to as the number of words after encoding) is N, the ratio N / M is calculated, and whether the ratio N / M is “1” or more (N / M ≧ 1) To Ekku. If the ratio N / M is “1” or more (N / M ≧ 1) at this time, the DCR 5 interrupts the CPU 2 and informs the CPU 2 that the number of words after encoding has become equal to or greater than the number of words before encoding. At this point, if the ratio N / M is less than “1” (N / M <1), the encoding process is continued, and the encoding process of one line of image data is completed. After calculating the ratio N / M, the CPU
Then, an interrupt is issued to notify that the encoding process of the image data for one line has been completed and the calculation result of the ratio N / M. For example, “50” is set as the number of check words W, and when the number of transferred words becomes “50”, the DCR 5 calculates a ratio L = N / M. When N is “60”, L = N / M =
Since 1.2 ≧ 1, the DCR 5 interrupts the CPU 2 even if the processing for one line has not been completed.

The CPU 2 checks whether an interrupt is received from the DCR 5 (step S5).
According to the notification from CR5, whether the number of words after encoding N has not reached the number of words before encoding M or not (N / M <
1) That is, it is determined whether the processing has been completed normally or the processing has been completed (N / M ≧ 1) (step S6).

In step S6, when the processing is completed normally, the CPU
Reference numeral 2 denotes encoding of one page of image data and SAF12.
It is checked whether or not the storage in the storage has been completed (step S9).
If the processing of the image data for the page has not been completed, the process returns to step S1, and the same processing as described above starts from the processing for storing the image data for the next one line in the line buffer of the RAM 4.

In step S6, if the encoding process in the DCR 5 is completed with N / M ≧ 1, the CPU 2 restarts the DCR 5 in the non-compression mode (non-encoding mode), and the processing of the line is not performed. The data is reprocessed by compression (non-coding) (step S7), and an interruption or tick is received from the DCR 5 (step S8). It should be noted that the encoding process in DCR5 ends when N / M ≧ 1 ends, as described above, when the number of transferred words reaches the number of check words W, N / M ≧ 1. When the number of transferred words reaches the number of check words W, N
/ M <1, but when all one line is encoded,
There are times when N / M ≧ 1 and the process ends.

When the DCR 5 is set to the non-compression mode and instructed to restart, the DCR 5 transfers the processed image data to the SAF 12 without encoding the line, and
When all the lines have been processed, the CPU 2 is interrupted.

When an interrupt is received from the DCR 5, the CPU 2 determines that the non-coding process of the line has been completed, and checks whether the coding of the image data for one page and the storage in the SAF 12 have been completed. (Step S9) When the processing of the image data for one page is not completed,
Returning to step S1, the process from storing the next one line of image data in the line buffer of the RAM 4 is performed in the same manner as described above (steps S1 to S9).

When the processing for one page is completed in step S9, the CPU 2 sets the SAF of the image data for one page.
Then, the process of storing the data in the storage unit 12 is completed. When there are a plurality of pages of image data, the same processing as described above is repeated for the pages.

Further, the facsimile machine 1 has a scanner 9
When the original reading accuracy is not simple binary and the halftone is selected by the operation port 8 when reading the original by the
However, if the number of check words W is set to a value smaller than the value of the number of check words W set by the operator, for example, “50” is set as the number of check words W, for example, “40” is set. Set to DCR5.

Accordingly, the DCR 5 checks whether the number N of words after encoding has become equal to or greater than the number M of words before encoding when the number of words to be transferred is smaller than that in the simple binary case. If the number N of words after encoding is equal to or more than the number M of words before encoding at that time, the CPU 2 is notified of the fact by interrupting the CPU 2.

As a result, in the case of a halftone in which the number of words N after encoding is likely to be larger than that in the simple binary case, is the number N of words after encoding greater than the number M of words before encoding? Can be determined quickly, and the processing time can be improved.

Further, when the number of lines stored in the SAF 12 without encoding increases, the value of the number of check words W may be set to a small value. That is, in the process of FIG. 2, the CPU 2 determines in step S6 that D
When an interrupt is generated from the CR5 and the processing of the DCR5 is completed after the number N of words after encoding becomes equal to or more than the number M of words before encoding (N / M ≧ 1 end), non-encoding processing is performed using the RAM4. The number of consecutive non-coded lines that have been completed in step is counted, and when the number of continuous non-coded lines reaches a predetermined number of lines preset by operating the operation port 8, the number of check words W set in the DCR 5 is set. It is set to a value smaller than the number of check words W. For example, if “50” is set as the number of check words W by operating the operation port 8, the CPU 2 sets the number of check words W to be set in the DCR 5 when the number of continuous non-coding lines reaches a predetermined number. For example, “30” is set.

Therefore, the DCR 5 checks whether the number N of words after encoding has become equal to or more than the number M of words before encoding at a point in time when a predetermined number of non-coding lines continue, faster than when non-coding lines do not continue. Then, if the number N of words after encoding is equal to or greater than the number M of words before encoding at that time,
An interrupt is issued to the CPU 2 to notify that effect.

As a result, if the non-coded lines are consecutive and the possibility of the occurrence of the non-coded lines is large, it is immediately determined whether or not the number N of words after coding is equal to or more than the number M of words before coding. And the processing time can be improved.

As described above, according to the facsimile apparatus 1 of the present embodiment, when the image data is encoded by the predetermined encoding method and stored in the SAF 12, the image data of one line is in the middle of the encoding process. The time when the number of words of the transfer image data becomes the number of check words W is determined as the determination time, and the number of words of the original image data in which the number of words of the coded image data of the line up to the determination time is the threshold data amount Is determined, and if the data amount of the coded image data has reached the threshold data amount at the time of the determination, the line is subjected to non-coding processing and stored in the SAF 12.

Therefore, whether the data amount of the coded image data has reached the threshold data amount is determined at a time earlier than when the coding processing for one line is completed as in the related art. It is possible to reduce the processing time when performing non-coding processing on data, and to shorten the processing time for image data.

When a decision point for judging whether or not the data amount of the coded image data has reached the threshold data amount is set and input from the operation port 8, the coded image data is It is determined whether or not the data amount of the image data has reached the threshold data amount, so that the degree of freedom at the time of the determination is improved in accordance with the type of image data and the like, and the processing time for performing the non-coding processing of the image data is improved. Can be further reduced, and the processing time of the image data can be further reduced.

Further, when the reading mode of the original by the scanner 9 is switched and selected by the operation port 8 between the normal binary reading mode and the halftone reading mode, the encoded image is read in accordance with the selected reading mode. Since the determination time point for determining whether the data amount of the data has reached the threshold data amount is changed, for example, in the halftone reading mode in which the data amount of the encoded image data increases, the binary reading mode The judgment time is automatically set earlier than the case, and the processing time when the image data is non-encoded can be further reduced, and the processing time of the image data can be further reduced. At the same time, the usability of the facsimile machine 1 can be improved.

Also, the number of continuous non-coding lines that are continuously determined that the data amount of the coded image data has reached the threshold data amount is counted, and the coded image data is counted according to the number of continuous non-coding lines. Since the determination time point for determining whether the data amount of the data has reached the threshold data amount is changed, if the data amount of the encoded image data is likely to reach the threshold data amount, the determination time point is set earlier. By automatically setting the time point, the processing time when the image data is de-encoded can be further reduced, and the processing time of the image data can be further reduced.

Although the invention made by the inventor has been specifically described based on the preferred embodiments, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various modifications may be made without departing from the gist of the invention. It goes without saying that it is possible.

For example, in the above embodiment, the number M of words before encoding is adopted as the threshold data amount, and when the number N of words after encoding becomes equal to or more than the number M of words before encoding, the code of the image data of the line is rewritten. The coding is stopped, and the image data is stored in the SAF 12 in a non-coded state. However, the threshold data amount is not limited to the number of words before coding.
For example, the data amount may be appropriately set from the operation port 8.

[0057]

According to the facsimile apparatus of the first aspect of the present invention, when the image data is encoded by a predetermined encoding method and stored in the image storage means, during the encoding of one line of image data. It is determined whether or not the data amount of the encoded image data of the line up to the determination time has reached a predetermined threshold data amount at the predetermined determination time, and the data amount of the encoded image data If the data amount has been reached, the line is de-encoded and stored in the image storage means. Therefore, it is determined whether or not the data amount of the encoded image data has reached the threshold data amount as in the conventional case. The determination can be made at a point earlier than the determination at the time when the encoding processing is completed, and the processing time for performing the non-coding processing on the image data can be reduced, and the processing time for the image data can be reduced.

According to the facsimile apparatus of the second aspect of the present invention, when a judgment time point for judging whether or not the data amount of the coded image data has reached the threshold data amount is set and input from the input means, the input is performed. Since it is determined whether or not the data amount of the coded image data has reached the threshold data amount at the time of the determination input by setting from the means, the degree of freedom at the determination time is improved according to the type of image data and the like. As a result, the processing time for performing the non-coding processing on the image data can be further reduced, and the processing time for the image data can be further reduced.

According to the facsimile apparatus of the present invention, the reading means for reading the image of the original and outputting the image data switches the original reading mode between the normal binary reading mode and the halftone reading mode. When the reading mode is selected by the mode switching means, the determination time point for determining whether the data amount of the encoded image data has reached the threshold data amount is changed in accordance with the reading mode. In the halftone reading mode in which the data amount of the image data is large, the judgment time is automatically set earlier than in the binary reading mode, so that the processing time for performing the non-encoding processing on the image data is reduced. The processing time of image data can be further shortened, and the usability of the facsimile apparatus can be improved.

According to the facsimile apparatus of the present invention, the number of continuous non-coding lines which are determined to be continuous when the data amount of the coded image data has reached the threshold data amount is counted. Depending on the number of coding lines, the time point for determining whether the data amount of the coded image data has reached the threshold data amount is changed, so that the data amount of the coded image data may reach the threshold data amount. In the case where is large, the judgment time is automatically set to an earlier time, so that the processing time when the image data is uncoded can be further reduced, and the processing time of the image data can be further reduced. Can be.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a circuit block diagram of a facsimile apparatus to which an embodiment of the facsimile apparatus of the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing an encoding control process by the facsimile apparatus of FIG. 1;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Facsimile machine 2 CPU 3 ROM 4 RAM 5 DCR 6 DMAC 7 Plotter 8 Operation port 9 Scanner 10 Modem 11 NCU 12 SAF 13 Bus

Claims (4)

[Claims] An encoding means for encoding the image data by a predetermined encoding method; an image storage means for storing the image data encoded by the encoding means; and an image data encoded by the encoding means. A data amount determining unit for determining whether the data amount of the encoded image data has reached a predetermined threshold data amount; and controlling the encoding unit to encode the image data, At a predetermined point in time during the encoding process of the data by the encoding means, the data amount determination is made as to whether the data amount of the encoded image data of the line up to the determination point has reached the threshold data amount. When the data amount determination unit determines that the data amount of the encoded image data has reached the threshold data amount, the data amount determination unit causes the encoding unit to perform a non-encoding process on the line and store the image. Facsimile apparatus characterized by and a control means for storing the stage. 2. The facsimile machine further comprises input means for setting and inputting the judgment time of the data amount judging means, and the control means controls the data at the judgment time set and input from the input means. 2. A facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said amount judging means judges whether or not the data amount of said encoded image data has reached said threshold data amount. 3. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said facsimile apparatus reads a document image and outputs image data, and switches a reading mode of said document between a normal binary reading mode and a halftone reading mode. And a mode switching unit, wherein the encoding unit encodes the image data of the document read by the reading unit, and the control unit responds to a reading mode selected by the reading mode switching unit. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the determination time of the data amount determination unit is changed.
A facsimile machine as described. 4. The control means counts the number of continuous non-coding lines continuously determined by the data amount determining means that the data amount of the coded image data has reached the threshold data amount, and 4. The facsimile apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said determination point of said data amount determination means is changed according to the number of continuous non-coding lines.