JP2578414B2 - Data communication device - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to a data communication device that communicates data representing a binary image and a multivalued image.

(Conventional example)

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, data communication devices capable of communicating image data are known, and those capable of transmitting a binary image and those capable of transmitting a multi-valued image are known.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] However, for example, when it is possible to transmit an image in which a part to be expressed as a binary image and a part to be expressed as a multi-valued image are mixed in one page, the communication destination is a multi-valued image. If there is no function of processing the image, there is a problem that the image is output to an image communication partner different from the image intended by the operator.

In order to solve the above problem, the present invention provides a method for transmitting a mixed image in which a portion to be expressed as a binary image and a portion to be expressed as a multi-valued image are mixed in one page, and the communication destination is multi-valued. It is an object of the present invention to transmit an image intended by an operator and to control transmission efficiently even without a function of processing an image.

[Means for Solving the Problems] According to a data communication apparatus of the present invention for solving the above-described problems, a binary image representing one pixel in binary and a multi-valued image representing one pixel in multiple values are converted into pages. Holding means (corresponding to the hard disk device 50 in the present embodiment) for inputting and holding mixed images mixed therein, and input means for inputting information indicating whether the holding partner can process multi-valued images (Also corresponding to the CCU 30), if the information indicates that the communication partner cannot process the multi-valued image, the multi-valued image portion of the mixed image held by the holding unit is converted into a binary image. It is characterized by including a conversion unit (also corresponding to the CPU 27) and a transmission unit (also corresponding to the CCU 30) for transmitting the mixed image converted by the conversion unit.

Embodiment An embodiment of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the above embodiment.

The reader 10 reads a predetermined document and outputs an electric signal.

In addition, the reader can identify an image area between a binary image area and a halftone image area such as a photographic image, and has an image processing function of reading the latter with a dither pattern or the like.

The facsimile body 20 includes a reader / printer interface 21, an image compression unit (hereinafter referred to as "ICU") 22, and a program memory (hereinafter referred to as "PME").
M ”) and Bitmove Unit (hereinafter“ BMU ”)
24) and image memory (hereinafter referred to as “IMEM”)
25, a video RMA (hereinafter, referred to as “VRAM”) 26, a central processing unit (hereinafter, referred to as “CPU”) 27, a bus 29, and a communication control unit (hereinafter, referred to as “CCU”) 30.

ICU22 compresses or decompresses data,
To increase the coding rate, two-dimensional compression (high compression) is employed. The PMEM 23 has an OS program and an application program memory area for controlling input / output devices provided around the facsimile main unit 20 and each unit in the facsimile main unit, and converts character codes into image data. And a font memory area for performing

Also, PMEM23 is a memory management unit (MM
EU), and also has a work area as a buffer of transmission data for transmission from the hard disk via the CCU 30 and storage from the CCU 30 to the hard disk. The buffer is for adjusting the speed of a disk, a line or the like. Also, code data of a sentence by the key 61 is stored.

The BMU 24 edits an image (image processing) in the CRT 60, and enlarges, reduces, rotates, moves, or cuts a predetermined image.

The IMEM25 has 4 Mbytes and stores an image from the reader, stores an edited image by the BMU24, stores data expanded by the ICU22, and stores data obtained by converting a character code into an image. It is. Here, one page of the mixed document information is composed of a block of bit image data and a block of character code data. Each block data is stored in PMEM and IMEM with an identification code and an attribute code indicating a block position. The attribute code can be added when each block is transmitted.

The VRAM 26 stores image data to be displayed on the CRT 60 in bit map codes.

A hard disk device 50 and a floppy disk device 51 are provided as external storage devices. Although these devices are nonvolatile memories, a backup memory may be used as the nonvolatile memory.

The keyboard 61 is used to input characters and the like, and to specify a position on the CRT 60 using a cursor. 62
Is one of the pointing devices. In addition, a printer 70 is provided.

In this embodiment, the image data and the character code data are divided into blocks for communication in the above configuration. Further, in the image data, the binary image area and the intermediate image area (or the very fine image area even if it is a binary image) are each divided into separate blocks, and compression processing corresponding to each area is performed. That communicate.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing the control operation of the CPU 27 in the present embodiment.

In steps S1 and S19 in FIG. 5, it is determined whether data is to be created or data is to be communicated.

The operator puts the device in the data creation mode with the keyboard 61 when creating data, and puts the device in the data transmission mode with the keyboard 61 when sending data. In step S19, it is determined whether there is a call signal from the line.

In the case of data creation, the process proceeds from step S1 to step S2, and in the case of data communication, the process proceeds from step S19 to step S20.

In steps S2 and S3, it is determined whether the data to be created is character data or image data. When creating data, the operator creates original data one page at a time while watching the display on the CRT 60. At this time, the entire original of one page is all character data, all image data, or both character data and image data. Can be mixed data. The operator uses the keyboard to determine whether the data to be input is character data or image data.
Instruction is given by 61 to set the device in character input mode and image input mode. The CPU 27 determines in steps S2 and S3 whether the mode is the character input mode or the image input mode.

If it is determined in step S2 that the character input mode is set, in step S5, the area data (block area) where character data is input and the data of the character format (character size or character arrangement, etc.) in the original of one page. Enter These area data and format data are input by the operator using the keyboard 61 and the mouse 62.

When the character area, the data and the character format data are input in step S5, they are stored as block data in the PMEM 23 together with the character data input in steps S6 and S7.

If it is determined in step S3 that the mode is the image input mode, the flow advances to step S8, and block area data to which image data is input is input in step S8.

In step S9, the image data of the document read by the reader 10 is input and sequentially stored in the IMEM 25, and an image area separation table is created in the PMEM 23 based on the image area data sent together with the image data from the reader 10. When the reader 10 reads a document as shown in FIG. 3, for example, the address data (X, Y) of the image and the image attribute data (for example, a binary image or a halftone image) are read via a reader / printer interface 21. Is output together with the image data. The CPU 27 creates an image area separation table as shown in FIG. 4 in the PMEM 23 based on the address data and the image attribute data sent from the reader 10 while storing the image data in the IMEM 25.

In step S10, a pointer is set to the first block of the image area separation table of the PMEM 23.

In steps S11 and S12, it is determined whether the corresponding block is a binary image or a halftone image.
In S15, compression processing of the binary image, such as MH (Modified Huffman) encoding, MR (Modified Read) encoding,
Processing such as MMR (Modified-Mode-Read) coding is performed. Then, in step S16, the encoding attribute data of the block (for example, data indicating that encoding is performed by MH and MR) is set in the block, and the flow advances to step S17.

If the block is determined to be a halftone image in step S12, a compression process of the halftone image, for example, a dither pattern compression process, or no compression (non-compression) is performed in step S13. Then, in step S14, the encoding attribute data of the block is set in the same manner as in step S16, and the table pointer is incremented in step S17.
If it is determined in step S18 that the next block exists, the process returns to step S11.

Thus, when the compression processing of the image data is completed and the block data is created, the process returns from step S18 to S2. The data thus created is stored in the hard disk device 50 with a document name added.

As described above, when one page of manuscript data is created by steps S2 to S18, the operator inputs completion of one page manuscript using the keyboard 61 and the pointing device 62, and when the manuscript of the next page is created, , Step S2
~ Create by repeating step S18.
When the creation of the transmission data is completed, the end of the data creation is input from the keyboard 61.

If it is determined in step S4 that the data creation end has been input, the flow advances from step S4 to step S19.

When the data communication mode is selected by the operator, the process proceeds from step S19 to step S20, and it is determined whether or not data transmission is performed. If data transmission is performed, step S2 is performed.
Proceed to 1 to proceed to the reception routine if data is received.

When transmitting data, an operator inputs a document name to be transmitted and designates a document to be transmitted from document data stored in the hard disk 50. Then, the telephone number of the destination to which the original data is to be transmitted is input.

In step S21, the CCU 30 calls the telephone number to the line 40 in order to connect the line to the destination input by the operator. Then, when it is confirmed in step S22 that the line has been connected to the partner, the communication procedure (protocol) of the CCITT recommendation is performed with the partner device in step S23. In this protocol, it is determined whether mixed data of character code data and image data can be received, and if it can be received, data transmission is performed.

In steps S24, S25, and S26, first, the hard disk 50
The transmission original is read one page at a time, and the data of one page is further transmitted in block units. When the document data transmission is completed, the line is released in step S27.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the control operation of the CPU 27 in the case of data reception.

If it is determined in step S20 of FIG.
The process proceeds to the reception routine shown in FIG.
Performs the CCITT recommended protocol. When it is determined that the data can be received by this protocol, the reception mode determined by the protocol is set, data is received in steps S2, R3, and R4, and the received data is sequentially stored in the hard disk 50. When the data reception is completed, the line is released, and the received data is printed out in step R5 and subsequent steps.

At step R5, the received data is read out for one page from the hard disk 50 and stored in the PMEM 23, and at step R6, block configuration data indicating what block of data of one page is input is inputted. First, data of one block is input in order to develop data into dot data in block units.

If the block data input in step R7 is character code data, the character code is expanded into dot data by the character generator of the PMEM23 based on the address data and format data added to the block data in step R8. , Are stored in an area of the IMEM 25 corresponding to the block.

In step R9, it is determined that the input block data is image data, and in steps R10, R12, it is determined whether the image data is binary image data or halftone image data. If the image data is binary image data, a decompression process (for example, decoding of MH, MR, MMR) is performed in step R11 based on the coding attribute data of the block, and the decompressed image data is stored in the one-page memory of the IMEM25. Is stored in an area corresponding to.

If it is determined in step R12 that the image is a halftone image, the image is expanded in step R13 in accordance with the halftone image in the same manner as in step R11, and the expanded data is stored in the block area of IMEM25. And store it in IMEM25 as it is).

In this way, character code data and image data are expanded into dot data in block units, and the
When the development of the data of all the blocks constituting one page is completed in R14 and the dot data of the original of one page is stored in the IMEM 25, the dot data is sequentially read out from the IMEM 25 in step R15 and printed out by the printer 70. And 1
When the printout of the page data is completed, the data of the next page is printed out.

As described above, in this embodiment, in a document in which character code data and image data coexist, character code data and image data are divided into blocks and transmitted (or received). And halftone images (or very fine or complex images) are divided into blocks, and compression processing is performed according to the halftone images or binary images, respectively, so that they are simply divided into image data and character code data. It is possible to perform more efficient data transmission as compared with the data transmission. In this embodiment, in the image data, the binary image area and the halftone image area are automatically divided,
It is also possible to adopt a configuration in which division is performed manually by the pointing device 62 and the pointing device 62.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an example for automatically dividing a binary image area and a halftone image area.

Hereinafter, automatic division of the binary image area and the halftone image area will be described.

The original data read by the reader 10 is a small block data unit (for example, 4 blocks) shown in FIGS. 8 (a) and 8 (b).
X4 = block consisting of 16 dots) and output from reader 10. At this time, the reader 10 transmits the small block data S
In addition, the small block data S is a halftone image or 2
Address data (X, Y) of identification data small block data indicating a value image is simultaneously output.

Determining small block S is either a halftone image or a binary image by the reader 10, subtracts the minimum value Pmin from the maximum value Pmax of P ₁ to P ₁₆ shown in FIG. 8 (b) (data indicating the density of pixels) The determination is made as to whether the calculated value is greater than a predetermined level α. For example, if the density level is set to 8 levels and α is set to 4, if Pmax = 6 and Pmin = 5, it becomes smaller than α = 4, the small block S is determined as a halftone image block, and Pmax = 7 and Pmin = 1. In this case, α is larger than 4, and the small block S is determined to be a binary image block.

In step M1 in FIG. 7, the CPU 27 initializes a small block table for creating the image area separation data of the PMEM 23. Then, in step M2, the small block data S _n and S _m are input from the reader 10 and stored in the IMEM 25.

Small Bro poke data S _{n, m} it is judged whether the halftone image based on the identification data added to the small blow poke data S _{n, m} in step M3, the process proceeds if the halftone image in step M4, 2 value If it is an image, go to step M8.

At step M3, the small block data S _n , _m is determined to be a halftone image and the process proceeds to step M4.If the current block region is a halftone region, it is determined whether the current block region is a halftone region. If the current block region is a halftone region, the process proceeds to step M12. If the current block area is not the halftone area, the process proceeds to step M5.

In steps M5 and M6, small block data S _n-1 , _m , S _n , _m-1
Is a halftone image, and the small block data
When both S _n−1 , m, S _n , and _m−1 are halftone images, the process proceeds to step M7, indicating that the subsequent data is a halftone image. The data is stored in the small block table of the PMEM 23 together with the address data of the small block.

In step M3, it is determined that the small block data S _n , _m is a binary image, and in step M8, it is determined in step M8 whether the current block area is a binary image area. If there is, the process proceeds to step M2, and if not a binary image area, the process proceeds to step M9.

In steps M9 and M10, small block data S _n−1 , _m , S _n ,
If both _m-1 are binary images, a flag indicating that the subsequent data is a binary image is stored in the small block table of the PMEM 23 together with the address data of the small block in step M11.

Then, in step M12, the small block pointer is incremented, and the process proceeds to the determination of the next small block data.

In this way, the small block data output from the reader 10 is determined, and a small block table of the PMEM 23 is created. When the determination of all data is completed in this way, Step M14
In, the image is divided into block areas based on the small block table. The block division in step M14 is performed as follows.

That is, in one halftone area of the small block table, the minimum Xmin and the minimum Ymin are selected from the address data (X, Y) to which the flag indicating that the image has changed from the binary image to the halftone is added. The maximum Xmax and the maximum Ymax of the address data (X, Y) to which the flag indicating that the image has changed from the halftone to the binary image are selected. This (Xmin, Ymi
n) as the start address of the halftone block area (Xmax, Ym
ax) is the end address of the halftone block area. Based on the start address and end address of the halftone image block area thus obtained, an image area separation table as shown in FIG. 4 is created in step M15.

The automatic division of the image area described above is only an example, and is not limited to the automatic division described above.

For the halftone image data, the data from the reader 10 is A / D
When a halftone block consisting of these sets is converted and composed of 8-bit gradation codes per pixel and transmitted, a packet is transmitted for each data of a predetermined number of bits, and the reception side receives the predetermined bit. The bucket data for each number is assembled, and a halftone image block of 8 bits of pixels is reproduced. Therefore, if the reception recording unit 70 has a so-called multi-value printer capable of reproducing a halftone corresponding to the above-mentioned gradation code by brightness modulation or pulse width modulation, the transmission halftone image block can be faithfully received and recorded.

In the above embodiment, the image area is divided into the binary image area and the center tone image area and the data is transmitted. However, the halftone image may not be processed depending on the function of the device on the receiving side. Therefore, as another embodiment, if the device of the destination (reception destination) cannot process the multi-value code of the halftone image,
The halftone image (multi-level code) is converted into a binary image (“1”, “0”), that is, a pseudo intermediate binary signal by the dither method, etc.
The binary image block, the binary image block, and the binary image block are transmitted, and if the other party can receive the halftone image, the binary image block and the binary image block represented by one pixel and one bit are used when the other party can receive the halftone image. Transmission of the indicated halftone image block will be described.

In another embodiment, the data stored in the hard disk device 50 is transmitted, and the creation of the data has been described above, and will not be described here. The configuration of the other embodiment is the same as that of FIG. 1 except that the control program of the CPU 27 is different.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart showing the control operation of the CPU 27 in another embodiment.

In step N1 of FIG. 9, the CPU 27 determines whether or not the transmission command of the keyboard 61 has been input by the operator, and if it determines that the transmission command has been input, the CPU 27 proceeds to step N2. A call is made to the line 40 based on the previous telephone number. Then, in step N3, it is determined whether or not the line has been connected to the other party before the predetermined time elapses. If the line is connected to the other party, the process proceeds to step N4.

In step N4, the communication procedure is exchanged (protocol) with the partner device, and the type of the partner device (G4 facsimile, mixed-mode terminal, teletex, etc.) and the communication function of the partner are determined by this protocol. (Whether character codes can be received, halftone processing, etc.)
And the communication mode is determined based on the destination information. Then, the transmission data is converted into a form that can be received by the destination device based on the information of the destination. For example, if the other party can only receive image data with a class 1 G4 facsimile machine, expand the character code into photo data, convert all data to 1-bit 1-bit image data, and then compress the data as necessary. And send it. If the other party cannot process the halftone image (processes the multilevel code of the halftone), all the halftone images are converted to pseudo halftone binary images such as dither and transmitted.

Next, when the protocol with the other party is completed in step N4, the process proceeds to step N5. In step N5, the other party apparatus determines whether or not halftone image data can be received based on the result of the protocol. If reception is possible, the flow advances to step N10 to read out transmission data from the hard disk device 50, and block data is transmitted in step N11. If halftone image data is not received, the flow advances to step N6. For transmission of halftone image data, the CCU 30 converts a parallel 8-bit code signal into a serial 8-bit code signal and sends it to the line.

In step N6, the transmission data is read from the hard disk device 50, and in step N7, it is determined whether or not a halftone image block exists based on the block configuration information of the transmission data added to the head of the transmission data, and the halftone image block is determined. If there is no halftone image, the process proceeds to step N11. If there is a halftone image block, the halftone image is converted into a binary image in steps N8 and N9. This binary image conversion of the halftone image is executed when stored in the hard disk 50. I do.

When all the halftone image blocks are converted into binary image blocks and the attributes of the blocks are changed from the halftone image to the binary image, the process proceeds from step N9 to step N11.

In steps N11, N12, N13, and N14, data transmission is performed in the same manner as in steps S24, S25, S26, and S27 in FIG.

As described above, in another embodiment, if the destination can process the halftone image, the transmission data is transmitted as a character code block, a binary image block, or a halftone image block, and the halftone image is transmitted to the destination. If there is no processing function, the halftone image block is converted into a binary image block and the transmission data is transmitted as a character code block and a binary image block, so that data transmission can be performed according to the function of the destination.

In the other embodiment described above, the transmission data divided into three blocks of character code blocks, binary image blocks, and halftone image blocks is converted. If it is known that the image cannot be read, the image area of the original read data is not divided into a binary image area and a halftone image area, and a line drawing such as a character is sliced in a predetermined manner and a halftone image such as a photograph is obtained. The image may be binarized by a dither pattern and all may be handled as a binary image.

In some cases, a color original is separated into B, G, and R components and read, and one pixel is divided into those components and transmitted. Blocks composed of the color components can be transmitted in a mixed manner in one page of the transmission document. That is, by assigning 8 bits to each color component in one pixel, forming a color block corresponding to a total of 24 bits for one pixel, and attaching a color block identification code (attribute) to transmit. If the receiving side has a color reproduction function, color calculation is performed based on each component data only for that block, and Y, M,
The C color material can be selected and recorded by a color printer or the like.

On the other hand, if the receiving side has only the monochrome function instead of the color reproducing function, the transmitting side converts the color block into a simple monochrome halftone block based on the partner information as in the case of the halftone. This is from the B, G, R component data
The data is converted into data of Y, I, and Q components, and data of only brightness Y is converted into monochrome halftone data. Then, it is included in the same block as the other original monochrome halftone block, block boundary information (block size, attribute data for each block, etc.) is deleted, and converted to a large block for transmission.

[Effects] As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to transmit a mixed image in which a portion desired to be expressed as a binary image and a portion desired to be expressed as a multi-valued image are mixed in one page. If there is no function for processing the multi-valued image, it is possible to control the transmission of the image suitable for the communication partner by converting the multi-valued image into a binary image. Furthermore, since the information indicating that the communication partner can process the multi-valued image is input from the communication partner or the like, the mixed image held in the holding unit is stored in the holding unit of the mixed image to be transmitted. Can be transmitted immediately, so that the control can be performed efficiently.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of this embodiment, FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a data communication apparatus of this embodiment, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an example of image data, and FIG. 4 is an image area separation table. FIG. 5 is a flowchart of this embodiment, FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing a reception routine, FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing automatic division of an image area, and FIG. a) and (b) are diagrams showing small block data, and FIG. 9 is a flowchart of another embodiment. 10 is a reader, 20 is a facsimile machine body, 30 is a CCU, 40 is a line, 21 is a reader / printer interface, 22 is an ICU, 23 is a PMEM, 24 is a BMU, 25 is an IMEM, 26 is a VRAM, 27 is a CPU, 29 is a bus, 50 is a hard disk device, 51 is a floppy disk device, 60 is a CRT, 61 is a keyboard, 62 is a mouse, and 70 is a printer.

Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-57-52261 (JP, A) JP-A-59-167141 (JP, A) JP-A-61-111042 (JP, A) JP-A-59-61356 (JP) , A) JP-A-59-165567 (JP, A) JP-A-59-45765 (JP, A) JP-A-60-18828 (JP, A)

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A holding means for inputting and holding a mixed image in which a binary image in which one pixel is represented by binary and a multi-valued image in which one pixel is represented by multi-value in a page; Input means for inputting information indicating whether a multi-valued image can be processed; and, when the information indicates that the communication partner cannot process the multi-valued image, the number of mixed images held by the holding means. A data processing device comprising: a conversion unit that converts a value image portion into a binary image; and a transmission unit that transmits a mixed image that has been converted by the conversion unit.