Image processing apparatus, method for controlling the same, and storage medium

The present invention relates to an image processing device, a control method thereof, and a program.

If there is a collision with an incoming call from a third party (incoming / outgoing call collision) when sending a fax, the line may be connected to that third party. Furthermore, if the third party has a function to switch to the fax reception mode when receiving a fax call signal (CNG), the fax document may be sent to the third party. In order to prevent this erroneous transmission, a method is used in which the dial tone sent from the exchange is monitored at the time of making a call, and if the dial tone is not detected, the call (transmission) is not performed.

Dial tones have different standards depending on the country, and the frequency and dial tone ON time and OFF time cadence patterns differ from country to country. In order to prevent the above-mentioned erroneous fax transmission, it is necessary to accurately detect dial tones with different patterns in each country. In addition, it is very important not to mistake the voice as a dial tone because the voice may be heard from the line at the time of a dial tone collision.

Patent Document 1 proposes a method of preparing a pattern table in which upper and lower limits of ON time and OFF time are defined for each country in order to check the cadence of a tone signal. Based on the values in the upper and lower limit table, whether or not the ON time and OFF time of the received tone signal are within those ranges is used as a criterion.

<p num="0005"><patcit num="1"><text>Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 10-210113</text></patcit></p>

<p num="0006"> However, the prior art has the problems described below. Generally, considering the maintainability of the program, it is preferable to prepare a small number of pattern tables. However, with the above-mentioned conventional method, if one pattern table is to cover the standards of multiple countries, it is necessary to widen the upper and lower limits of the ON time and the OFF time. By widening the upper and lower limits of the ON time and OFF time, it is possible to detect dial tones of any cadence to some extent.</p><p num="0007"> On the other hand, when voice is received, there is a high possibility of misidentification. The voice may contain the same frequency as the dial tone frequency, and when such a voice is received, the dial tone detection filter is intermittently turned ON / OFF. If the upper and lower limits of the ON time and OFF time are widened, there is a high possibility that ON / OFF will be within the effective range even if voice is received, and as a result, misidentification will occur. In this case, even though it is not a dial tone, there is a problem that it leads to an erroneous fax transmission because it erroneously detects and makes a call.</p><p num="0008"> The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and is an image processing that covers the standards of a plurality of countries for dial tones with a relatively small number of pattern tables and reduces the number of false detections of audio as dial tones. It is an object of the present invention to provide a device, a control method thereof, and a program.</p>

<p num="0009"> The present invention can be realized as an image processing device. The image processing device determines the length of the tone signal when the signal determination means for determining whether or not the received signal received from the outside is a tone signal and the signal determination means determines that the received signal is a tone signal. A measuring means for measuring, a pattern determining means for determining whether or not an intermittent dial tone including a tone signal whose length has been measured by the measuring means, and a previously received tone signal has a specific pattern, and a pattern determination When the means determines that the intermittent dial tone has a specific pattern, the duty ratio determining means for determining whether or not the duty ratio of the intermittent dial tone is within a predetermined range, and the duty ratio determining means When it is determined that the duty ratio of the intermittent dial tone is within a predetermined range, a calling means for making a call according to the intermittent dial tone is provided.</p>

<p num="0010"> The present invention can provide an image processing device, a control method, and a program for covering a plurality of national standards for dial tones with a relatively small number of pattern tables and reducing the number of false detections of voice as dial tones.</p>

<figref num="1">It is a flowchart which shows the processing flow which concerns on this Embodiment.</figref><figref num="2">It is a figure which shows the cadence pattern of the intermittent dial tone which concerns on this embodiment.</figref><figref num="3">It is a figure which shows the duty ratio of the intermittent dial tone which concerns on this embodiment.</figref><figref num="4">It is a figure which shows the ON / OFF effective upper and lower limit value table and the S / M / L threshold value definition of the intermittent dial tone which concerns on this embodiment.</figref><figref num="5">It is a figure which shows the structural example of the image processing apparatus which concerns on this embodiment.</figref>

Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. It should be noted that the following embodiments do not limit the invention according to the claims, and not all combinations of features described in the embodiments are essential for the means for solving the invention.

&lt;Configuration of image processing device&gt; Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 5. First, a configuration example of the image processing apparatus will be described with reference to FIG. Reference numeral 500 indicates an image processing device. The image processing device 500 includes an operation unit 501, a reading unit 502, a system control unit 503, various sensors 505, a recording unit 506, a modem / NCU (Network Control Unit) 507, and a power supply 508. The system control unit 503 includes a CCU (Communication Control Unit) 504.

The operation unit 501 is composed of a keyboard, a display unit, and the like, and is for the operator to perform various input operations. The operation unit 501 may be provided with a touch panel type display unit to realize software buttons. The reading unit 502 performs coding processing of image data handled by the image processing apparatus. The system control unit 503 controls the entire device. The CCU504 is a communication control unit that performs modem control, NCU control, protocol control, image compression / decompression, and the like.

The various sensors 505 include a document size detection sensor and the like, and the detection result of each sensor is transmitted to the system control unit 503. The recording unit 506 records the received image and file data on a paper medium. The modem / NCU507 demodulates the modulated signal from the line, and conversely modulates the signal from the device and sends it to the line. In addition, the modem / NCU507 corresponds to the interface between the telephone line and FAX, and performs line control such as detecting a signal received from the telephone line and transmitting it to the modem, or switching the line to FAX or telephone. In recent years, many modems have NCU functions. The power supply 509 supplies power to the image processing apparatus 500.

&lt;Cadence pattern&gt; Next, with reference to FIG. 2, the dial tone cadence pattern at the time of fax transmission will be described. There are roughly two types of dial tone cadence standards. A continuous dial tone that does not repeat ON / OFF and always stays ON, and an intermittent dial tone that repeats constant ON / OFF. In the case of continuous dial tones, detection is OK when the ON time continues for a certain period of time or longer. In the case of an intermittent dial tone, it is generally judged whether the ON time and the OFF time are within the specified range, and if the valid ON / OFF repetition continues for a certain number of times or more, the detection is OK. Is.

Intermittent dial tone cadence standards can be broadly divided into two specific patterns, as shown in Figure 2. The S / L shown in FIG. 2 indicates the length of the tone, S (SHORT) indicates a short tone, and L (LONG) indicates a long tone. Although not shown in FIG. 2, "M (MID, MIDDLE)" indicates a tone having a length between S and L.

The first of the two specific cadence patterns is a repetitive cadence pattern of SHORT_ON-SHORT_OFF, as shown in 201 in FIG. For example, the cadence pattern is repeated with an ON time of 0.2 s and an OFF time of 0.2 s. The second is a repeating cadence pattern of SHORT_ON-SHORT_OFF-LONG_ON-LONG_OFF, as shown in 202 in FIG. For example, it is a repeating cadence pattern of ON time 0.2s, OFF time 0.2s, ON time 0.6s, and OFF time 1.0s.

In order to retain such a cadence pattern for each country and determine which country the dial tone is when a dial tone is received, the processing time increases as the number of retained cadence patterns increases. It ends up. Therefore, it is required to maintain as few cadence patterns as possible. When holding only a relatively small number of cadence patterns, it is possible to detect any cadence dial tone received to some extent by widening the upper and lower limits of the ON time and OFF time. However, when voice is received, if the effective range of ON time and OFF time is set wide, the risk of misidentifying it as a dial tone increases. Since the voice is usually discontinuous, when a misidentification occurs, it is almost always misidentified as an intermittent dial tone. Therefore, the image processing apparatus according to the present embodiment holds only a relatively small number of dial tone cadence patterns and reduces false detection of dial tones.

Specifically, a check condition is added to the detection of intermittent dial tones by utilizing the characteristics of the above two cadence patterns. First, in order to divide the ON time and OFF time into S / M / L, the length of S (1st division) / M (2nd division) / L (3rd division) is set for each of the ON time and OFF time. Set the indicated threshold (classification). When ON or OFF of a dial tone with an effective length is detected, it is determined whether the length is S / M / L, and the information is stored.

Next, when an ON / OFF of an effective length is detected, the consistency between the ON / OFF S / M / L pattern one cycle before and the current pattern is checked. As a result, if it deviates from the above two cadence patterns, it is determined that it is not a dial tone, and the test result up to that point (corresponding to the detection count described later) is reset.

Further, in the case of the first SHORT_ON-SHORT_OFF repeating pattern 201, since the ON and OFF times are equal, the duty ratio should be 50% as shown in FIG. Here, the duty ratio in the dial tone will be described with reference to FIG. Reference numeral 301 denotes a period during which the pulse signal of the dial tone is High (H). Reference numeral 302 denotes one cycle (T) in the pulse signal of the dial tone. Therefore, the duty ratio can be expressed as H / T × 100 (%). That is, the duty ratio indicates the ratio at which the dial tone is turned ON in one cycle of the pulse signal in the dial tone.

Utilizing the above-mentioned duty ratio of 50%, the image processing apparatus 500 according to the present embodiment adds a duty ratio check when a pattern of SHORT_ON-SHORT_OFF is continuously detected. Further, if the duty ratio error is not within the predetermined range, the test result up to that point is reset. That is, the image processing apparatus 500 according to the present embodiment checks the length (S / M / L) of the tone signal and the duty ratio. Thereby, the present embodiment can reduce the cadence pattern of the dial tone to be held and reduce the false detection such that the voice is detected as the dial tone.

&lt;Judgment of dial tone&gt; Hereinafter, the dial tone determination control in the present embodiment will be described. When the image processing apparatus 500 in the present embodiment receives the dial tone, it checks whether or not the cadence pattern and the duty ratio satisfy the regularity described below. First, the seven regularities used in the consistency check with the ON / OFF S (SHORT) / M (MID) / L (LONG) pattern of the cadence pattern one cycle before and the duty ratio check are explained. To do.

&lt;Pattern consistency check with one cycle ago&gt; The regularities 1-5 used to check the consistency of the cadence pattern are as follows. Regularity 1: When LONG_ON is received, the previous ON is SHORT and the previous OFF is also SHORT. Regularity 2: When LONG_OFF is received, the previous OFF is SHORT and the previous ON is LONG. Regularity 3: When SHORT_OFF is received, the previous ON is SHORT. Regularity 4: MID_ON does not exist. Regularity 5: MID_OFF does not exist. The above regularity 1-5 is a condition for determining whether or not the characteristics of either of the above two cadence patterns are matched.

&lt;Duty ratio check&gt; The regularities 6-7 used to check the duty ratio are as follows. Regularity 6: When SHORT_ON-SHORT_OFF is continuous, the ratio of the ON time to the "previous ON time + 1 previous OFF time" is within the specified value. Regularity 7: When SHORT_ON-SHORT_OFF is continuous, the ratio of the OFF time to the "previous ON time + 1 previous OFF time" is within the specified value. The regularity 6-7 is a condition for determining whether the duty ratio of any of the two cadence patterns described above is similar. The usage of the above seven regularities 1-7 will be described later with reference to FIG.

&lt;Table&gt; Next, the table held by the image processing apparatus 500 will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 4A, the image processing apparatus 500 defines the upper and lower limits of the ON time and the OFF time for each country and holds them as a table. That is, the pattern table shown in FIG. 4A shows the upper and lower limits of the ON time and the OFF time for each country, respectively.

Moreover, as shown in FIG. 4 (b), the threshold value of SHORT / MID / LONG is held as a fixed value. The threshold value may also be tabulated for each country, but in this embodiment, one is defined for the device. The respective lengths (threshold values) of SHORT / MID / LONG of the above ON time and OFF time are shown below. The following thresholds are examples and are not intended to be limited to this value. The unit is s (seconds).

SHORT_ON (1st division): Lower limit of ON ~ 0.325s (1st value) MID_ON (2nd category): 0.325s ~ 0.480s (2nd value) LONG_ON (3rd category): 0.480s ~ Upper limit of ON SHORT_OFF (1st division): Lower limit of OFF ~ 0.360s MID_OFF (2nd category): 0.360s ~ 0.640s LONG_ON (3rd division): 0.640s ~ OFF upper limit Here, the lower limit value / upper limit value of ON and the lower limit value / upper limit value of OFF correspond to the lower limit value / upper limit value in the table of a plurality of countries in FIG. 4 (a). That is, in the present embodiment, the dial tone is not detected corresponding to the lower limit value / upper limit value of each country, but the dial tone is detected using the lower limit value / upper limit value corresponding to any country. .. This reduces the amount of processing in dial tone detection. However, if such a measure is taken, the number of times that the voice is erroneously detected as a dial tone increases as described above. Therefore, the image processing apparatus 500 according to the present embodiment further holds the table of FIG. 4 (c) below.

The table shown in FIG. 4 (c) defines the threshold values for the upper and lower limits of the duty ratio. The image processing apparatus 500 according to the present embodiment checks whether or not the duty ratio falls within the range defined in FIG. 4 (c). In this embodiment, the lower limit value / upper limit value of the duty ratio are set to 0.3 and 0.7, respectively. The lower limit value / upper limit value of this duty ratio corresponds to the duty ratio of the above two cadence patterns. However, this threshold is an example and is not intended to be limited to this value.

&lt;Processing flow&gt; Next, with reference to FIG. 1, the processing procedure of the dial tone determination process based on the above regularities 1 to 7 will be described. The processes described below are collectively controlled by the system control unit 503. In S100, when a signal is received from the outside, the system control unit 503 determines whether the received signal is dial tone ON, noise, or silence (dial tone OFF) by performing frequency determination. Calculate the duration of the signal. That is, the system control unit 503 functions as a signal determination means and a measurement means in S100. Here, if ON of the dial tone is detected, the process proceeds to S112, if OFF of the dial tone is detected, the process proceeds to S115, and if noise is detected, the process proceeds to S111.

When the dial tone ON is detected, in S112, the system control unit 503 determines from the duration calculated in S100 whether or not it is the specified continuous ON time or more (threshold value or more). If it is longer than the specified continuous ON time, the process proceeds to S113, and the system control unit 503 determines that continuous dial tone detection is OK and ends the process.

On the other hand, if the continuous ON time is less than the specified value, the process proceeds to S114, and the system control unit 503 determines whether the received signal is within the range of MIN_ON and MAX_ON defined in the table of FIG. 4 (a). If it is out of the range, it is determined that the ON is invalid, the process proceeds to S111, and the system control unit 503 resets the previous test. On the other hand, if it is within the range, the process proceeds to S101, and the system control unit 503 determines which of the above S / M / L the received signal is defined in the table of FIG. 4 (b). If it is S, it goes to S106, if it is M, it goes to S111, and if it is L, it goes to S102.

If it is LONG_ON, in S102, the system control unit 503 determines whether or not the condition of the above regularity 1 is met. That is, here, the system control unit 503 determines whether or not the previously received tone signal and the dial tone pattern including the tone signal received this time match the regularity 1. If they do not match, it is judged that the cadence pattern is invalid, and the process proceeds to S111 to reset the detection count. Here, the detection count is a count of the number of times a valid dial tone is detected, and when the count value exceeds a specified value, the dial tone is started.

On the other hand, if they match, proceed to S108. Further, when it is determined in S101 that MID_ON, the system control unit 503 violates the above-mentioned regularity 4, so the process proceeds to S111 and the detection count is reset. When it is determined in S101 that it is SHORT_ON, in S106, the system control unit 503 determines whether or not the previous ON / OFF is SHORT. If it is SHORT, proceed to S107 and determine whether the received signal is within the upper limit of the duty ratio defined in the table of FIG. 4 (c), that is, whether it matches the condition of the above regularity 6. If they match, proceed to S108. If S106 is not SHORT, proceed to S108. If the regularity 6 is not matched in S107, the process proceeds to S111, and the system control unit 503 resets the detection count.

When dial tone OFF is detected in S100, in S115, the system control unit 503 determines whether the received signal is within the range of MIN_OFF and MAX_OFF defined in the table of FIG. 4A. If it is out of the range, it is determined to be invalid OFF, the process proceeds to S111, and the system control unit 503 resets the previous test. On the other hand, if it is within the range, the process proceeds to S103, and the system control unit 503 determines that the received signal is one of the S / M / L defined in the table of FIG. 4 (b). If it is S, it goes to S104, if it is M, it goes to S111, and if it is L, it goes to S105.

If it is LONG_OFF, in S105, the system control unit 503 determines whether or not the condition of the above regularity 2 is met. If they do not match, it is determined that the cadence pattern is invalid, and the process proceeds to S111 to reset the detection count. On the other hand, if they match, proceed to S108. If MID_OFF is determined in S103, it violates regularity 5, so the process proceeds to S111 and the detection count is reset. When SHORT_OFF is determined in S103, in S104, the system control unit 503 determines whether or not the condition of the above regularity 3 is met, and if not, proceeds to S111 and resets the detection count. If the condition of regularity 3 is met, the process proceeds to S106, and the system control unit 503 determines whether or not the previous ON / OFF is SHORT. If it is SHORT, proceed to S107 and determine whether the received signal is within the upper limit of the duty ratio defined in the table of FIG. 4 (c), that is, whether it matches the condition of the above regularity 6. If they match, proceed to S108. If S106 is not SHORT, proceed to S108. If the regularity 6 is not matched in S107, the process proceeds to S111, and the system control unit 503 resets the detection count.

In S108, the system control unit 503 counts up the detection count only when none of the above regularities 1 to 7 is violated. After that, in S109, the system control unit 503 determines whether or not the detection count exceeds the specified number (predetermined number of times). When the detection count exceeds the specified number, the process proceeds to S110, and the system control unit 503 determines that the dial tone detection is OK and performs a dial tone operation. On the other hand, if the detection count is equal to or less than the specified number, the system control unit 503 returns the process to S100. The determination of S102, S104, S105, and S106 corresponds to the processing of the pattern determination means. Further, the determination of S107 corresponds to the processing of the duty ratio determining means.

&lt;Other embodiments&gt; The present invention is also realized by executing the following processing. That is, software (program) that realizes the functions of the above-described embodiment is supplied to the system or device via a network or various storage media, and the computer (or CPU, MPU, etc.) of the system or device reads the program. This is the process to be executed.