Facsimile machine equipped with appendant information adding unit

• US 5,414,528 A
• Filed: 01/18/1994
• Issued: 05/09/1995
• Est. Priority Date: 07/28/1989
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Original Assignee: Brother Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha
• Inventors: Hatamura, Junji
• Primary Examiner(s): Peng, John K.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Lefkowitz, Edward
• Application Number:
  US08/184,760
• Time in Patent Office: 476 Days
• Field of Search: 358/434, 358/435, 358/436, 358/440, 358/402, 358/400, 358/403, 358/438, 358/498, 379/100
• US Class Current: 358/440
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32112 in a separate computer file, document page or paper sheet, e.g. a fax cover sheet H04N1/32122 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3205 of identification information, e.g. name or ID code H04N2201/3209 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3209 of a telephone number
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3216 of a job size, e.g. a number of images, pages or copies, size of file, length of message
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3225 of data relating to an image, a page or a document
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3242 of processing required or performed, e.g. for reproduction or before recording H04N2201/3256 and subgroups take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3271 Printing or stamping
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3274 Storage or retrieval of prestored additional information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3278 Transmission

Abstract

A facsimile machine including an appendant information adding unit for automatically preparing appendant information such as a cover page information and a call-back-message information and transmitting the information to the reception side together with the original images, whereby the appendant information is printed on a sheet to automatically prepare a cover page and/or a call-back-message page together with the original image sheets at the reception side. The appendant information adding unit comprises a memory unit for storing the appendant information, a transmission indicating unit for indicating a start of a transmitting operation, an addition indicating unit for indicating addition of the appendant information to the original images, and a control unit for reading out the appendant information stored in the memory unit and transmitting the read-out appendant information to the reception side together with the original images when the start of the transmitting operation and the addition of the appendant information are indicated.

Claims

1. A facsimile machine for transmitting and receiving original images on original sheets between transmitting and reception sides, each original sheet bearing an original image, including:

an image reading means for reading the original images;

a sheet-presence detecting unit for detecting a presence of unread original sheets to be transmitted;

an appendant information adding unit for automatically adding appendant information comprising cover page information to the original images to be transmitted from the transmitting side and transmitting the appendant information to the reception side together with the original images, said appendant information adding unit transmitting the appendant information after the sheet-presence detecting unit detects the absence of unread original sheets to be transmitted so that the appendant information is printed on a sheet separate from sheets on which the original images are printed at the reception side without being printed on the sheets on which the original images are printed, said appendant information adding unit comprising;

a memory unit for storing the appendant information,

a transmission indicating unit for indicating a start of a transmitting operation,

an addition indicating unit for indicating addition of the appendant information to the original images, and

a control unit for reading out the appendant information stored in said memory unit and transmitting the read-out appendant information to the reception side after the original images when the start of the transmitting operation and the addition of the appendant information are indicated; and

a sheet detector detecting each of the original sheets being transmitted to the reception side to count the number of transmitted sheets and storing a counted value representing the number of transmitted sheets in said memory unit, the appendant information adding unit automatically printing, on the sheet with the appendant information, a number of transmitted sheets detected by the sheet detector when the sheet-presence detecting unit detects the absence of unread original sheets.

2. The facsimile machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein the cover page information includes at least a name and a telephone number of the transmitting side, a name of the reception side and the number of sheets to be transmitted.

3. A facsimile machine as claimed in claim 2, further comprising an one-touch dialing unit for connecting the transmitting side to the reception side on a telephone circuit with one-touch dial.

4. A facsimile machine as claimed in claim 1, wherein said memory unit includes an EEPROM for storing character selection data for names and telephone numbers of the transmitting side, names and telephone numbers of the reception sides corresponding to one-touch dials, a ROM for storing character selection data for comments and invariable characters to be printed on an appendant page, a first RAM for storing names and telephone numbers of the reception sides other than those of the one-touch dials, a second RAM having memory areas provided with addresses corresponding to any positions on the appendant page for storing the desired character selection data outputted from said EEPROM, said ROM and said first RAM, a character generator for outputting characters in accordance with the character selection data stored in said second RAM, and a third RAM for storing the characters outputted from said character generator as the appendant information.