Patent ID: 7769150

Claim:
A facsimile device connected to a public line in parallel with an external telephone, comprising: a facsimile circuit configured to send and receive image data through the public line; a voltage detector that detects a voltage of the public line; an open-circuit voltage detector that releases the public line after closing the public line and detects an open-circuit voltage; a telephone status monitoring unit configured to judge whether the external telephone closes the public line or releases the public line based on the voltage of the public line detected by the voltage detector; and a warning unit configured to output a warning indicating that the external telephone is in a busy state if the telephone status monitoring unit judges that the external telephone closes the public line, wherein if a voltage difference between a reference voltage and the open-circuit voltage detected by the open-circuit voltage detector is smaller than a predetermined voltage difference, the telephone status monitoring unit operates to: judge that the external telephone releases the public line if a voltage difference between the reference voltage and a detected line voltage detected by the voltage detector when the facsimile circuit has released the public line is smaller than the predetermined voltage difference; and judge that the external telephone closes the public line if the voltage difference between the reference voltage and the detected line voltage detected by the voltage detector when the facsimile circuit has released the public line is larger than or equal to the predetermined voltage difference, wherein if the voltage difference between the reference voltage and the open-circuit voltage detected by the open-circuit voltage detector is larger than or equal to the predetermined voltage difference, the telephone status monitoring unit operates to: judge that the external telephone releases the public line if the voltage difference between the reference voltage and the detected line voltage detected by the voltage detector when the facsimile circuit has released the public line is smaller than the predetermined voltage difference or if the detected line voltage detected by the voltage detector when the facsimile circuit has released the public line is equal to the open-circuit voltage; and judge that the external telephone closes the public line if the voltage difference between the reference voltage and the detected line voltage detected by the voltage detector when the facsimile circuit has released the public line is larger than or equal to the predetermined voltage difference and if the detected line voltage detected by the voltage detector when the facsimile circuit has released the public line is different from the open-circuit voltage.