Data communication apparatus having a multi-address transmission function

A data communication apparatus having a function to transmit data to a plurality of addressees comprises a generation circuit for generating information representing the plurality of addressees, and an information transmitting circuit for transmitting the information generated by the generation circuit to each of the addressee.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
1. Field of the Invention 
The present invention relates to a data communication apparatus having a 
multi-address transmission function. 
2. Related Background Art 
When multi-address transmission is to be effected in a prior art facsimile 
apparatus, image information of a document to be transmitted is read and 
stored in a memory, designated multi-address destination stations are 
sequentially called, and the image information stored in the memory is 
read out each time the line is connected to sequentially transmit the 
image information. 
In a receiving station, the image information transmitted by the 
multi-address function is received in the same manner as that of a normal 
reception. 
However, in the prior art, the receiving station cannot determine whether 
the received information is by multi-address transmission or by single 
address transmission. As a result, a receiving station may misunderstand 
that it has been transmitted to that station only in spite of the fact 
that the transmitting station transmitted in the multi-address 
transmission mode, considers that it should be transmitted to other 
stations as well, and transmits the document in duplicate to the stations 
to which the document has been transmitted by the original multi-address 
transmission mode. 
The multi-address transmission function is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 
4,772,955; 4,845,569 and 5,111,307 and U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 
387,981 filed on Aug. 1, 1989, 442,721 filed on Nov. 29, 1989 and 547,127 
filed on Jul. 3, 1990, but there has been no proposal to solve the above 
problem. 
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
It is an object of the present invention to improve a data communication 
apparatus to solve the above problem. 
It is another object of the present invention to permit a receiving station 
to recognize other addressees of the multi-address transmission. 
In order to achieve the above objects, in accordance with the present 
invention, a data communication apparatus having a multi-address 
transmission function is provided with means for transmitting information 
indicating all addressees of multi-address transmission to each address of 
the multi-address transmission. 
Other objects of the present invention will be apparent from the following 
detailed description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying 
drawings.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
The preferred embodiments of the present invention are now described in 
detail with reference to the drawings. In the following embodiments, a 
facsimile apparatus having a multi-address calling function is described 
although the present invention is not limited to the facsimile apparatus 
but it is equally applicable to various data communication apparatus such 
as a telex and computer communication. 
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a configuration of a facsimile apparatus in 
accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention. 
A network control unit (NCU) 2 is connected to a terminal of a line to use 
a telephone network for data communication, and controls the connection of 
the telephone network, switches it to a data communication path and 
retains a loop. When a signal level (signal line 46a) from a control 
circuit 46 is "0", the NCU 2 connects the telephone line 2a to a telephone 
set 4, and when the signal level is "1", it connects the telephone line 2a 
to the facsimile apparatus. In a normal state, the telephone line 2a is 
connected to the telephone set 4. 
A hybrid circuit 6 separates a transmission signal and a reception signal, 
sends out a transmission signal from an adder circuit 18 to the telephone 
line 2a through the NCU 2, receives a signal from a destination station 
through the NCU 2 and sends it to a V29 demodulator 22 and a V21 
demodulator 20 through the signal line 6a. 
A V21 modulator 8 modulates in accordance with the known CCITT 
Recommendation V21. It modulates a protocol signal (signal line 46b) from 
the control circuit 46 and sends it out to an adder circuit 18 through a 
signal line 8a. 
A read circuit 10 sequentially reads image signals along main scan lines, 
line by line, from a document to be transmitted to prepare a signal train 
representing white and black binary values. It comprises an image pickup 
device such as CCD (charge coupled devices) and an optical system. The 
signal train binarized by black and white is sent to an encoding circuit 
12 from a signal line 10a. 
The encoding circuit 12 encodes the read data (MH (Modified Huffman) 
encoding or MR (Modified READ) encoding) and sends it to a framing circuit 
14 and a modulator 16 from a signal line 12a. 
When a signal level of a signal line 46d from the control circuit 46 is 
"0", the framing circuit 14 receives the encoded data sent to the signal 
line 12a to effect the HDLC (high level data link control) framing, and 
when the signal level of the signal line 46d from the control circuit 46 
is "1", it receives multi-address calling addressee data sent to the 
signal line 46c and effects the HDLC framing. 
The HDLC framing comprises a flag (one byte), an address (one byte), a 
control (one byte), an FCF (facsimile control field) (one byte), a frame 
number (two bytes), image data (256 bytes), an FCS (frame checking 
sequence) (two bytes), and a flag (one byte). Whether the frame 
constitutes data of the multi-address calling destination or image data is 
designated by the FCF. 
A V27ter or V29 modulator 16 modulates in accordance with the known CCITT 
Recommmendation V27ter (differential phase modulation) or V29 (quadrature 
modulation). When a signal level of a signal line 46e from the control 
circuit 46 is "0", the modulator 16 receives the data sent to the signal 
line 12a of the encoding circuit 12, and when the signal level of the 
signal line 46e is "1", it receives the data sent to the signal line 14a 
of the framing circuit 14, and when the signal level of the signal line 
46e is "2", it receives the data sent to the signal line 46c of the 
control circuit 46. It modulates the respective input data. The modulated 
data from the modulator 16 is sent to the adder circuit 18 through the 
signal line 16a. 
The adder circuit 18 adds the outputs of the modulators 8 and 16. The 
output of the adder circuit 18 is sent to the hybrid circuit 6. 
The V21 demodulator 20 demodulates in accordance with the known CCITT 
Recommendation V21. The demodulator 20 receives a protocol signal from the 
hybrid circuit 6 through the signal line 6a, V21-demodulates it and sends 
the demodulated data to the control circuit 46 through the signal line 
20a. 
The V27ter or V29 demodulator 22 demodulates in accordance with the known 
CCITT Recommendation V27ter or V29. The demodulator 22 receives a 
modulated image signal from the hybrid circuit 6, demodulates it, and 
sends the demodulated data to a deframing circuit 24 and a decoding 
circuit 26 through a signal line 22a. 
The deframing circuit 24 deframes the HDLC framed data received from the 
signal line 22a of the demodulator 22. The output signal of the deframing 
circuit 24 is sent to the control circuit 46 and the decoding circuit 26 
through the signal line 24a. 
When the signal level of the signal line 46f from the control circuit 46 is 
"0", the decoding circuit 26 receives the data from the demodulator 22, 
and when the signal level of the signal line 46f is "1", it receives the 
data from the deframing circuit 24 and decodes (MH decoding or MR 
decoding) it. The decoded data is sent to a record circuit 28 through a 
signal line 26a. 
The record circuit 28 sequentially records the decoded black and white 
signals sent from the decoding circuit 26, line by line. When the signal 
level of the signal line 46g from the control circuit 46 is "0", the 
record circuit 28 is inactive, and when the signal level of the signal 
line 46g is "1", it receives the output (signal line 26a) from the 
decoding circuit 26 and records it. When the signal level of the signal 
line 46g is "2" it receives the output (signal line 30a) from a 
multi-address called station data making circuit (or multi-address 
transmission addressee generation circuit) 30 and records the 
multi-address transmission addressees, and when the signal level of the 
signal line 46g is "3", it receives the output (signal line 32a) from a 
communication result record making circuit 32 and records a communication 
result report, and when the signal level of the signal line 46g is "4", it 
receives the output (signal line 34a) from a communication result table 
making circuit 34 and records a communication result summary sheet. 
The multi-address called station data making circuit 30 receives the 
multi-address transmission addressee information sent from the control 
circuit 46 to the signal line 46h, converts it to dot information and 
sends it to the signal line 30a. 
The communication result record making circuit 32 receives the 
communication result report information sent from the control circuit 46 
to the signal line 46i, converts it to dot information and sends it to the 
signal line 32a. 
The communication result record making circuit 34 receives the 
communication result summary sheet information sent from the control 
circuit 46 to the signal line 46j, converts it to dot information and 
sends it to the signal line 34a. 
A one-touch dialing button depression detection circuit 36 detects the 
depression of a one-touch dialing button. When the one-touch dialing 
button is depressed, it sends the information corresponding to the 
depressed button to the control circuit 46 through the signal line 36a. 
An abbreviated dialing button depression detection circuit 38 detects the 
depression of an abbreviated dialing button. When the abbreviated dialing 
button is depressed, it sends the information corresponding to the 
depressed button to the control circuit 46 through the signal line 38a. 
A ten-key depression detection circuit 40 detects the entry of two-digit 
abbreviated number by the ten-key following to the depression of the 
abbreviated dialing button or the dialing input by the depression of only 
the ten-key. When the ten-key is depressed, it sends the information 
corresponding to the depressed ten-key to the control circuit 46 through 
the signal line 40a. 
A memory circuit 42 stores the information of the one-touch dialing and the 
abbreviated dialing. The memory circuit 42 can store the one-touch 
dialings from "01" to "36" and the abbreviated dialings from "00" to "99". 
When the one-touch dialing information is to be stored in the memory 
circuit 42, two-digit numerals (00-36) following a numeral 0 are sent from 
control circuit 46 to the signal line 42a, a telephone number 
corresponding to the one-touch dial number is sent, and a write pulse is 
sent to the signal line 46k. For the abbreviated dialing, two-digit 
numerals (00-99) following a numeral 1 are sent from the control circuit 
46 to the signal line 42a, a telephone number corresponding to the 
abbreviated number is sent, and a write pulse is sent to the signal line 
46k. 
When the one-touch dialing information stored in the memory circuit 42 is 
to be read, two-digit numerals (00-36) following a numeral 0 are sent from 
the control circuit 46 to the signal line 42a and a read pulse is sent to 
the signal line 46l. For the abbreviated dialing, two-digit numerals 
(00-99) following a numeral 1 are sent from the control circuit 46 to the 
signal line 42a and a read pulse is sent to the signal line 46l. Thus, the 
memory circuit 42 sends the telephone number corresponding to the input 
two-digit number to the signal line 42a. 
An operation unit (console unit) 44 is provided with a communication result 
summary sheet output button, a one-touch dial registration cancel button, 
an abbreviated dialing registration cancel button and a start button. When 
each button is depressed, it sends the information corresponding to the 
depressed button to the control circuit 46 through the signal line 44a. 
A dialer 45 receives the telephone number sent to the signal line 46m when 
a call request pulse is sent from the control circuit 46 to the signal 
line 46n, and sends a selection signal to the addressee through the signal 
line 45a. 
The control circuit 46 controls the overall facsimile apparatus and 
comprises a microcomputer and peripheral equipments such as a ROM and a 
RAM. 
A multi-address called station notice selecting button 48 is used to select 
a mode for noticing which of the multi-address addressees have been 
selected. When the button is depressed, a pulse signal is sent to a 
multi-address called station notice lamp 50 through the signal line 48a. 
The multi-address called station notice lamp 50 indicates which of 
multi-address addressees have been selected. It is turned off by a clear 
pulse (signal line 46p) from the control circuit 46, and thereafter 
repeats the turn-on and the turn-off each time the pulse signal is sent by 
the depression of the multi-address called station notice selecting button 
48. During the turn-on of the multi-address called station notice lamp 50, 
a signal level "1" is sent to the control circuit 46 from the signal line 
50a to allow the transmission of the multi-address addressee summary sheet 
to the receiving stations. During the turn-off of the multi-address called 
station notice lamp 50, a signal level "0" is sent to the control circuit 
46 from the signal line 50a to inhibit the transmission of the 
multi-address addressee summary sheet to the non-selected receiving 
stations addresses. 
FIGS. 2 to 5 show flow charts of control operations of the control circuit 
46 in the present embodiment. 
A signal level "0" is supplied from the control circuit 46 to the signal 
line 46a to turn off the CML (S52). A signal level "0" is supplied to the 
signal line 46e to send a status that the modulator 16 receives the signal 
of the encoding circuit 12 (signal line 12a) (S54), a signal level "0" is 
supplied to the signal line 46d to set a status that the framing circuit 
14 receives the signal of the encoding circuit 12 (signal line 12a) (S56), 
and a signal level "0" is supplied to the signal line 46f to set a status 
that the decoding circuit 26 receives the signal of the demodulator 22 
(signal line 22a) (S58). 
The control circuit 46 supplies a clear pulse to the signal line 46p to 
turn off the multi-address called station notice lamp 50 (S59), and 
supplies a signal level "0" to the signal line 46g to set the recording 
circuit 28 inactive (S60). 
When the registration of the one-touch dial is selected (S62), the 
registration process of the one-touch dial is carried out (S64). 
When the registration of the abbreviated dial is selected (S66), the 
registration process of the abbreviated dial is carried out (S68). 
Whether the transmission has been selected or not is monitored (S70), and 
if it has been selected, whether the multi-address transmission has been 
selected or not, or more particularly whether a plurality of destinations 
have been designated by the one-touch dial, the abbreviated dial or the 
ten-key or not is determined (S72), and if the multi-address transmission 
has been selected, the signal on the signal line 50a is received to 
determine whether the multi-address addressee notice is made or not 
(S731). If the multi-address addressee notice mode has not been selected, 
a normal multi-address transmission is made (S732) and then the process 
returns to an initial state (S52). 
If the multi-address addressee notice mode has been selected, the process 
proceeds to S94 to be described later. 
If the multi-address calling (or multi-address transmission) has not been 
selected in S72, the signal level of the signal line 46a from the control 
circuit 46 is set to "1" to turn on the CML (S74), and after the 
pre-procedure (or pre-protocol) (S76), the image is transmitted starting 
from the first line (S78) followed by the post-procedure (or 
post-protocol) (S80). Then, the process returns to the initial state 
(S52). 
If the multi-address addressee notice mode has been selected in S731, the 
signal from the one-touch dialing button depression detection circuit 36, 
the abbreviated dialing button depression detection circuit 38 or the 
ten-key depression detection circuit 40 is received and the multi-address 
called stations (or multi-address destinations) are sequentially read 
(S94) to generate image data of the multi-address transmission addressee 
summary sheet (S96). It is transmitted to each destination as a front page 
with a page number 0. 
Then, a call is made to the multi-address transmission destination by the 
calling circuit 45 (S98). If the destination station is not busy (S100), 
the signal level of the signal line 46a from the control line 46 is set to 
"1" to turn on the CML (S102), and after the pre-procedure (S104), the 
image is transmitted (S106). A signal level "2" is supplied to the signal 
line 46e to transmit the multi-address transmission addressee summary 
sheet as the page number 0, and then a signal level "0" is supplied to the 
signal line 46e to transmit the image of the document to be transmitted 
sequentially from the page 1. FIG. 6 shows an example of the image to be 
transmitted. As shown, the multi-address transmission addressee summary 
sheet is transmitted with the page number P0, and the image of the 
document to be transmitted is transmitted sequentially starting from the 
page number P1. 
After the post-procedure (S108), the CML is turned off (S110), and if there 
remains a next multi-address transmission destination (S112), the process 
returns to S98 after 20-seconds interval (S114) and repeats the 
multi-address transmission process. If there is no other multi-address 
transmission destination (S112), the multi-address transmission process is 
terminated and the process returns to the initial state (S52). 
If the destination station is busy in S100, the call is made three times to 
the destination and if there is no response (S116), whether there remains 
other multi-address transmission destination or not is checked (S122). If 
it remains, the process returns to S98 after 20-seconds interval (S114) 
and repeats the multi-address transmission process. If there is no other 
multi-address transmission destination (S124), the process returns to S98 
after two-minutes interval and repeats the multi-address transmission 
process. 
When the call is made three times to the busy destination station in S116, 
the fact that the multi-address transmission has not been attained for 
that destination is stored (S118), and whether there remains other 
multi-address transmission destination or not is checked (S120). If it 
remains, the process returns to S98 after 20-seconds interval and repeats 
the multi-address transmission process. If there is no other destination 
(S120), the multi-address transmission process is terminated and the 
process returns to the initial state (S52). 
When the transmission is not selected in S70 and the reception is selected 
in S82, the signal level of the signal line 46a from the control circuit 
46 is set to "1" to turn on the CML (S84), and after the pre-protocol 
(S86), the mode of the recording circuit 28 is set to receive the signal 
from the decoding circuit 26 (S87), the image is received (S88), the 
post-protocol is carried out (S90), and the process returns to the initial 
state (S52). 
When the transmission is not selected in S70 and the reception is not 
selected in S82, other process is carried out (S92). 
In the present embodiment, the multi-address transmission addressee summary 
sheet is numbered as page 0 and the image of the document to be 
transmitted is numbered as pages 1 et seq. although the numbering of pages 
is not limited to the above. 
In the present embodiment, the multi-address transmission addressee summary 
sheet is transmitted as image information and it is received at the 
receiving station as an ordinary image. Alternatively, the multi-address 
transmission addressees may be noticed by code information. 
FIGS. 7A and 7B show flow charts of an operation when the multi-address 
transmission addressees are noticed by code information by a protocol 
signal. FIGS. 7A and 7B show only those portions which differ from FIGS. 
2-5. 
The CML is turned on in S102 of FIG. 4, and in the pre-protocol, whether 
the destination station has a function to output the multi-address 
transmission addressee summary sheet or not is determined (S132). If it 
has, the code information (user abbreviations and telephone numbers) of 
the multi-address transmission addressee summary sheet is included in the 
NSS and it is transmitted (S134). The image is then transmitted (S136) and 
the process returns to S108 of FIG. 4. 
If the destination station does not have a function to output the 
multi-address transmission addressee summary sheet, the image is 
transmitted (S136) by the normal pre-procedure (S140). 
Then, the CML is turned on in S84 of FIG. 3, and in the pre-protocol, the 
fact that its own station has a function to output the multi-address 
transmission addressee summary sheet is declared (S144). The recording 
circuit 28 is set to receive the data from the multi-address called 
station data making circuit 30 which outputs the multi-address addressee 
summary sheet converted from the code information to the image information 
(S146). Then, the process proceeds to S87 of FIG. 3. 
In the present embodiment, the multi-address addressee summary sheet is 
outputted together with the received image of document, although it may be 
outputted later as a communication management report separately from the 
received image of document. 
FIGS. 8A and 8B show flow charts of an operation to output the 
multi-address addressee summary sheet as a communication management report 
after the output of the received image of document. FIGS. 8A and 8B show 
only those portions which differ from FIGS. 2-5. 
The CML is turned on in S84 of FIG. 3. In the pre-procedure, the fact that 
its own station has a function to output the multi-address addressee 
summary sheet is declared (S174), but the multi-address addressee summary 
sheet is not outputted. The process then proceeds to S87 of FIG. 3. 
The post-procedure is carried out in S90 of FIG. 3 and the CML is turned 
off (S152). Thus, the recording circuit 28 is set to receive the data from 
the communication result record making circuit 32 and it outputs the 
communication result report generated by the record making circuit 32 
(S154). The communication result report includes the multi-address 
addressee summary sheet generated by the communication result summary 
sheet table circuit 34. Then, the process proceeds to the initial state 
(S52) of FIG. 2. 
The code information of the multi-address addressee summary sheet may be 
included in a portion of the HDLC framed image signal. 
FIGS. 9 and 10 show flow charts for the above operation. FIGS. 9 and 10 
show only those portions which differ from FIGS. 2-5. 
In FIG. 9, the CML is turned on in S102 of FIG. 4, and in the pre-protocol, 
whether the destination station has a function to output the multi-address 
addressee summary sheet or not is determined (S182). If it has, the 
transmission of the multi-address addressee summary sheet by an image 
signal is noticed to the destination station (S184). 
The control circuit 46 supplies a signal level "1" to the signal line 46e, 
and the modulator 16 is set to receive the signal of the signal line 14a. 
A signal level "1" is supplied to the signal line 46d, and the framing 
circuit 14 receives the signal of the signal line 46c and transmits the 
HDLC framed multi-address addressee summary sheet prior to the 
transmission of the document image. Then, a signal level "0" is supplied 
to the signal line 46d, and the framing circuit 14 receives the signal of 
the signal line 12a and transmits the document image by HDLC framing 
(S186). Then, the process returns to S108 of FIG. 4. 
When the destination station does not have a function to output the 
multi-address addressee summary sheet, the normal image transmission is 
carried out (S192) by the normal pre-procedure (S190). 
In FIG. 10, the CML is turned on in S84 of FIG. 3. In the pre-procedure, 
the fact that its own station has a function to output the multi-address 
addressee summary sheet is declared in the NSF (S160), and whether the 
multi-address addressee summary sheet is included in the received image 
information or not is determined (S162). If it is not included, the 
process proceeds to S87 of FIG. 3. 
If it is included, the received image is HDLC-deframed by the deframing 
circuit 24 (S166). The control circuit 46 receives the signal of the 
signal line 24a, recognizes the multi-address transmission destinations 
(S168), and supplies a signal level "2" to the signal line 46g so that the 
recording circuit 28 is set to receive the data from the multi-address 
called station data making circuit 30 and outputs the multi-address 
addressee summary sheet generated by the multi-address called station data 
making circuit 30 (S170). Then, the process proceeds to S87 of FIG. 3. 
In the reception of the multi-address communication, it may be recorded in 
the communication result summary sheet. 
In accordance with the present invention, the receiving station is informed 
of other destination stations of the multi-address communication and can 
effectively take necessary measure such as decision as to a destination of 
transmission. 
The present invention is not limited to the above embodiments but various 
modifications thereof may be made.