JP2887166B2 - Image information communication device - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image information communication apparatus, and more particularly, to an image information communication apparatus capable of performing transmission header printing and transmitting data at a relatively high speed. 2. Description of the Related Art For example, in a facsimile apparatus provided with a memory for storing images, image information read by a reading unit is temporarily stored in this memory (hereinafter, referred to as an image memory), and then transmitted to a partner apparatus. It has become. The image information is compressed and written into the image memory, and when read, the original image information is restored when decompressed. The restored image information is encoded and transmitted to the other device. Of course, in order to transmit image information, it is necessary that the receiving capability of the other party and the resolution and size of the image information stored in the image memory match. By the way, in an image information communication apparatus represented by a facsimile apparatus, a transmission header is generally added to the leading end of an image and transmitted. Here, the transmission header refers to character information indicating the telephone number of the own station, the transmission date, the number of pages of the document to be transmitted, and the like. When an image information communication device having an image memory performs transmission by adding a transmission header, the procedure is generally as follows. (1) Decompress the compressed data stored in the image memory. (2) Generate a transmission header print, compress (encode) it for transmission, and transmit it. (3) The image information after expansion is similarly compressed and transmitted. (4) The image information after expansion is similarly compressed and transmitted. "Problems to be solved by the invention" The G3 set by CCITT (International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee)
In a facsimile apparatus, there is no particular problem in sequentially encoding and transmitting image information expanded from an image memory. However, for example, in the case of a G4 facsimile machine that appeared after the G3 type facsimile machine, the transmission speed is considerably increased, and if a conversion operation of image information is performed with a circuit configuration similar to the conventional one, the conversion work cannot be performed. For this reason, unless you create a conversion circuit especially considering high speed,
There is a problem that the advantages of the image information communication device represented by the new facsimile device cannot be sufficiently brought out, leading to an increase in the cost of the device. Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an image information communication apparatus which does not need to particularly increase the speed of a circuit and can sufficiently cope with an increase in transmission speed. "Means for Solving the Problems" In the present invention, (a) image information reading means, (b) a transmission header section generating means for generating a transmission header section, and (c) an image read by the reading means. An image memory for storing information after compression, and (d) a portion corresponding to a transmission header print in the image information before being stored in the image memory by the number of lines necessary for the transmission header before compressing the image information. Image information deletion means for continuously deleting a plurality of lines in line units from the leading end of the information, (e) data compression means for compressing the transmission header information generated by the transmission header section generation means, and (f) image memory If the image information stored in the memory and the reception capability of the other party's facsimile machine match, the data compressed by the data compression means and the part of the image information read from the image memory are used as data. If the image information stored in the image memory and the receiving capability of the facsimile machine do not match, the data of the image information stored in the image memory is expanded and compressed. The image information communication device is provided with control means for performing the transmission. Here, in the case of the predetermined encoding method, one time is set between the data compressed by the data compression means and the compressed image information read from the image memory storing the image information of the document.
You may make it add a white line more than a line. Here, the white line constitutes the last line of the transmission header generated by the transmission header section generation means. According to the present invention, since a plurality of white lines are inserted between the transmission header portion and the deleted image information, there is no need to encode the image information read from the image memory on the transmission side, and the conversion is performed. The procedure can be omitted. This makes it possible to sufficiently cope with an increase in transmission speed. "Example" Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in detail with reference to examples. FIG. 1 shows a main part of a facsimile apparatus as an image information communication apparatus in one embodiment of the present invention. This facsimile apparatus has a CPU (central processing unit) 11 mounted thereon. The CPU 11 is connected to each unit of the apparatus by a bus 12 such as a data bus, and performs various controls such as transmission of image information. The ROM 13 is a read-only memory storing various procedures of the apparatus. The RAM 14 is a work memory for temporarily storing various data. The scanner 15 is a part that reads image information on a document. The character generator 16 is a part that generates a pattern for creating a transmission header. The line memory 17 is a buffer memory for selectively inputting image information output from the scanner 15 or the character generator 16. The data compression / decompression unit 19 is a part that compresses or decompresses input data. The image information correction unit 21 is a part that cooperates with the data compression / decompression unit 19 to delete the first few lines of image information read by the scanner 15 or to generate a predetermined white line. The image memory 22 is a memory for storing compressed image information obtained by reading a document. The line control unit 24 is a unit that sends out data to the line 25 and receives sent data. The serial data conversion section 26 converts the compressed data of the transmission header into a multiple of 8 bits or 16 bits, and enables these to be processed by the general-purpose CPU 11. An example will be described in which the facsimile apparatus configured as described above transmits an A4-size document to a receiving-side facsimile apparatus at 200 × 200 ppi (pixels / inch) with a transmission header attached. FIG. 2 is for explaining the outline of the operation of the device in this case. The facsimile apparatus on the transmitting side first reads a document, and deletes image information having the same number of lines as the transmission header to be transmitted at the time of transmission. Then, the image information is compressed by the MMR coding method, and this is stored in the image memory 22 (step).
In this state, the scanner 15 is connected to the line memory 17, and the image information input to the line memory 17 is compressed or partially compressed under the control of the data compression / decompression unit 19 and the image information correction unit 21. The deletion will be performed. When data is transmitted without adding a transmission header, the data corresponding to the head of the document is not deleted. Thereafter, the facsimile apparatus is connected to the other apparatus. Then the capabilities of the device are examined and 200 x 200
It is confirmed that image information can be transmitted by ppi and that data stored in the image memory 22 can be received (step). In this state, the sending facsimile machine is 200 × 200ppi
A transmission header is added to the head of the data of the document stored in step (1), and the data is transmitted to the apparatus of the other party (step). This will be described in detail below. Thereafter, a communication end procedure is performed, and the communication ends (step). FIG. 3 is for describing the procedure described in the step of FIG. 2 in more detail. First, a transmission header for one line is generated as an _ai line (step). Next, the _ai line is data-compressed using the a- ₁ line as the line immediately before this line as a reference line (step). If the a _i line is the first line, compression is performed on the assumption that the a _i-1 line is a white line. When the above operation is completed, it is determined whether or not the transmission header line has been completed (step). If the processing has not been completed (N), the above operation is repeated (step,). When the processing is completed, a white line is generated as aN _{+ 1} line (step). Here, the sign (N +
1) indicates the number of transmission header lines. That is, in this embodiment, the last line of the transmission header line is a white line. The reason why the white line is inserted immediately before the line of the image information of the original is that the data of the first line is determined because the MMR encoding method sequentially compresses the data while referring to the immediately preceding line. It is to make it. Then data compressing a _{N + 1-line} as a reference line the a _N-line (step). Since the data stored in the image memory 22 has already been compressed, the read compressed data is transmitted to the receiving side as it is without performing compression and decompression processing thereafter. The serial data converter 26 is used to connect the compressed data read from the image memory 22 and the compressed data of the transmission header, and the line controller 24 transmits the compressed data via the connection ( Steps). This means that the compressed data generated is a word boundary or a byte
e) It may not be a boundary. The case where the image information stored in the transmitting device matches the receiving capability of the other device has been described above. If the reception capacities do not match, the image information stored in the image memory 22 is expanded by the data compression / expansion unit 19, and the converted image information corresponding to the other party's reception capacity is deleted by the pixel deleted for the transmission header. This image information is discarded, obtained from the reduction ratio by the conversion. Thereafter, the remaining image information in the image memory 22 is expanded to return to the original image information, compressed after pixel conversion, and
Through the line 25. [Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, image information read by a reading unit is compressed and stored, and when the stored image information matches the reception capability of the other party's facsimile apparatus, The data stored in the memory as compressed data is transmitted without any particular conversion. Therefore, in this case, the reliability of the device can be improved by omitting the conversion operation.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS The drawings are for explaining one embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a main part of a facsimile apparatus, and FIG. 2 is an outline of a transmission operation of this apparatus. Showing the flow chart,
FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the details of the operation when transmitting the compressed data with a transmission header. 11 ... CPU, 13 ... ROM, 16 ... Character generator, 19 ... Data compression / decompression unit, 21 ... Image information correction unit, 22 ...
Image memory.

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] Image information reading means, transmission header section generation means for generating a transmission header section, an image memory for storing the image information read by the reading section after compression, and image information before being stored in the image memory. Image information deletion means for continuously deleting a plurality of lines in a line unit from the leading end of the image information by the number of lines necessary for the transmission header before compressing the image information to a portion corresponding to the transmission header print; A data compression unit for compressing the transmission header information generated by the unit generation unit; and data compressed by the data compression unit when the image information stored in the image memory matches the reception capability of the other party facsimile apparatus. And a portion of the image information read from the image memory, without performing data expansion and compression, and transmitting the image memo. Control means for decompressing and transmitting data of the image information stored in the image memory when the reception capability of the other party's facsimile apparatus does not match the image information stored in the image memory. Image information communication device. 2. An image information compression unit that encodes the image information read by the reading unit using a two-dimensional encoding method, and compresses the image information by virtually processing the reference line of the first line as a white line. The image memory stores the image information compressed by the image information compression unit, and the image information deletion unit deletes a portion corresponding to the transmission header print in the image information before being compressed by the image information compression unit. The data compression unit encodes the transmission header information generated by the transmission header unit generation unit using the two-dimensional encoding method, and processes the reference line of the first line virtually as a white line. The image information is compressed, and the control means intervenes between the data compressed by the data compression means and the image information read from the image memory. A white line equal to or more than a line is added, the white line is encoded by the two-dimensional encoding method, and the subsequent image information portion is transmitted without decompressing and compressing data. The image information communication device according to claim 1. 3. 3. The image information communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the white line constitutes the last line of the transmission header generated by the transmission header section generation means. 4. 3. The image information communication apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the white line forms a virtual line one line before the leading line of the image information stored in the image memory.