FR2775406A1 - Portable fax transmission and receiving unit linking to cellular phone network - Google Patents

Abstract

The unit includes a combined unit for paper handling. The portable terminal for radio communications includes an optical analysis unit (5) for analyzing a document to be faxed whilst it is moved relative to the analysis unit. It also includes a print unit (6) producing a printed image on paper as the paper moves through the unit, and a management unit controlling these two elements. This is linked to a radio circuit for connection to the communications network. Between the scanning and printing sections there is a device for marking or referencing the relative positions of the scanner (5) and printer (6) and the document to be scanner or the printed output.

Description

Portable radio network terminal
incorporating a fax machine.

The portable radiocommunication terminals allow their users to establish voice communications or, simply, to receive a short message, notifying for example that they must call by telephone 1 transmitter of the message.

However, the carrier of such a terminal does not have all the options offered to a subscriber connected by wire to the switched telephone network, since this carrier remains limited to telephone communications and cannot in particular exchange graphic data with his correspondent, such as faxes.

The present invention aims to allow the exchange of graphic data by means of a radiotelephone network terminal whose volume, or mass, remains limited, that is to say which is portable.

To this end, the invention relates first of all to a portable radiocommunication network terminal comprising: - optical analysis means arranged to analyze a scrolling fax document, by relative movement, in front of said analysis means, - means for managing the analysis means connected to radio means for connection with the network and comprising - means for locating the relative position between the analysis means and the document.

Thus, the terminal according to the invention makes it possible to enter and also to transmit faxes, although it does not integrate, in addition to conventional radio means, only a minimum of fax means, which limits the excess of mass or volume related to these.

Advantageously, the terminal box ensures the entry of the document and comprises at least one support and guide wheel in scrolling of the analysis means in front of the fax document, and the locating means comprise a detector for measuring the rotation of roulette.

 The invention also relates to a portable radiocommunication network terminal comprising - means for printing a fax image on a printing medium, scrolling, by relative movement, in front of said printing means, - management means printing means, connected to radio means for connection to the network and comprising - means for locating the relative position between the printing means and the printing medium.

The terminal can thus print faxes received by radio.

Advantageously, the printing means comprise a printing head associated with a back-up roller and there are provided drive means for scrolling the printing medium between the head and the back-up roller, the drive means comprising an electric motor and a power supply thereof, fixedly mounted in the terminal to drive the counter-support roller and arranged to serve as a support axis for a hub of a paper roll d thermal printing.

Thus, the motor, its power source and the paper roll make the best use of the available volume and the need for a specific support for the hub is also avoided.

The invention finally relates to a portable radio network terminal comprising - optical analysis means arranged to analyze a scrolling fax document, by relative movement, in front of said analysis means, - means for printing an image facsimile on a printing medium, scrolling, by relative displacement, in front of said printing means, - means for managing analysis means and printing means, connected to radio means for connection to the network, and comprising - means for locating the relative positions between, on the one hand, the analysis means and the printing means and, on the other hand, the document and the printing medium.

The applicant thus intends to claim any radio terminal corresponding to the concept of the invention, that is to say capable of entering and / or restoring faxes.

The invention will be better understood with the aid of the following description of two alternative embodiments of a terminal according to the invention integrating all the characteristics of the three types of terminal claimed, with reference to the appended drawing in which - Figure 1 is a schematic back view of the terminal in both variants to illustrate the orientation of the facsimile elements relative to the box, - Figure 2 is a side sectional view of the terminal according to the first embodiment, according to the plane II-II of FIG. 1, - FIG. 3 is a side section view of the terminal according to the second embodiment, according to the plane II-II of FIG. 1, and - FIG. 4 is a section of it transverse according to the plane III-III of figure 3.

FIG. 1 represents the terminal housing 1, seen from the back, that is to say the face 3 opposite to a front face 2 of user / network interface, face 2 which carries a data entry keyboard, like the telephone numbering, as well as an earpiece and a microphone.

The housing 1, elongated in a substantially rectangular parallelepiped shape, carries at the end an antenna 4 whose direction of extension is substantially that of maximum extension 7 of the housing 1. I1 has been designed a strip 5 of optical contact sensors, CIS , for the point-by-point optical analysis of a document to be entered for faxing, and a printing head 6 for fax reproduction, here a line head, that is to say that, in this example, the terminal can optically enter documents and can return, here print, faxes. The box 1 thus has, on one side, a data entry keyboard and, on the other side, the analysis bar 5 and the head 6.

The bar 5 and the line head 6 extend parallel to each other, in substantially the direction of an axis 7 carrying a pair of rollers and disposed between the bar 5 and the head 6.

This choice, which has been made here, of the direction of extension of the elements 5 and 6 is motivated by the fact that these can extend over substantially the entire length of the box 1, which makes it possible to process faxes from maximum width. Here, this width is 10.5 cm, which corresponds to the format
A6 (length 14.8 cm), or even half the width of the usual A4 format. We can therefore enter an A4 page in two passes.

Figure 2 illustrates the first variant. This corresponds to a very rudimentary achievement, that is to say involving a minimum of facsimile elements.

At the rear face 3 of the facsimile interface are mounted the CIS bar, here referenced 15, and the thermal head, here referenced 16, both turned towards the outside of the casing 1 and flush with the rear face 3. In addition, a caster 17 of the housing 1 is rotatably mounted on an axis integral with the housing 1 and parallel to the direction of extension 7 of the elements 15 and 16, exposed above. The roller 17 projects slightly from the rear face 3 of the housing 1 by a light formed therein and located in this example between the bar 15 and the head 16. As shown in FIG. 2, the elements 15, 16, 17 here are arranged near a side edge of the face 3 because, in addition to the wheel 17, there is provided, near the opposite edge, another support element, here a pad 19, to support the housing 1, by its face rear 3, against a document to be analyzed optically or a sheet to be printed, placed for example on a table.

The roller 17 guides the housing 1 relative to the document to be entered or to the scrolling sheet to be printed, with a relative movement, in front of the elements 15 and 16 to respectively cooperate with one of them.

It can be provided that the roller 17 is axially central. Preferably, however, at least two such rollers are provided, but arranged laterally at the ends of the housing 1, possibly with a differential rotation detector between them to logically correct any distortion in the captured image, or alternatively a roller having the extension of the elements 15 and 16. The same is true for shoe 19.

The four elements 15, 16, 17, 19 are mounted so that the bar 15 and the head 16 are in the plane, perpendicular to that of Figure 2 and tangent to the pad 19 and the wheel 17, in order to ensuring the desired cooperation with the document to be analyzed, assumed to be locally planar, and possibly supported by a rigid plan, and with the sheet to be printed.

A logic fax assembly 14 coordinates the operation of elements 15 to 17. The wheel 17 is associated with a coding wheel 18, which measures its rotation and communicates it to the assembly 14. The latter is also connected to a conventional assembly 1 1 of radio telephony, of connection with the radio network, for the exchange of faxes through this radio network. At the front face 2, two keys, 12 and 13, make it possible to control the fax assembly 14 for respectively sending and receiving radio faxes through the assembly 11.

The assembly 14 includes a management microprocessor 140, controlling a fax memory 141 and comprising software for entering and restoring faxes as well as the protocol T30 for managing fax transmissions. The terminal supply battery is not shown.

The operation of the terminal will now be explained in more detail.

The optical capture of a document is carried out, in practice, by manually scrolling the CIS 15 strip in front of, here with contact, the document, placed for example on a rigid flat surface, that is to say that the housing 1 ensures entry of the document. The fax assembly 14 is previously controlled, by a key not shown, to capture the image of the document. The coding wheel 18 of the caster 17, for supporting and guiding the box 1 on the document, furthermore provides the facsimile unit 14 with the relative position between the box 1, and more precisely the bar 15, and the document, with regard to the direction of travel of the housing 1, that is to say the direction here perpendicular to the direction of extension of the elements 15, 16, 17 and substantially parallel to the rear face 3.

The wheel 17 thus controls the filling speed of the fax memory of the assembly 14 in order to maintain a constant definition according to the scanning direction. The wheel 17 and the assembly 14 therefore form a control block.

The restitution on paper of a fax by the head 16, from the memory 141, follows the same principle as above as regards the scrolling of the box 1 against the sheet to be printed.

The transmission of a fax, through the radio assembly 11, is carried out from the memory 141, previously filled with all the pages of the document to be transmitted. However, there may be provision for a run-of-the-river transmission, as a new page is analyzed, by providing sufficient time to avoid loosening of the communication between two optical analyzes.

The second variant, in FIGS. 3 and 4, differs essentially from the first in that the print head, referenced 26, is located in a housing 20 at the end of the housing 1 and cooperates with a roller 38 for back-up and of thermal paper in rolls or sheets. The elements 15 and 18, unchanged, bear the respective references 25, 28, the wheel 17 and the shoe 19 being replaced by two pairs of wheels 27 and 29.

The control circuits 1 1 to 14 remain but have not been shown, for the sake of clarity.

The print head, here thermal, 26, is housed in a recess in the housing 20, and is recalled, by springs 24 bearing on the wall of the housing, towards, and even against, the opposite backing roller 38.

An electric motor 32, powered by a battery 30 (see FIG. 4), drives the roller 38 in rotation, through a gear 37 driving the latter. Figure 4 is a more precise mechanical representation of the drives than is Figure 3, which is only schematic.

The battery 30 and the motor 32 are housed in a cylinder 40, here made of cardboard, forming a hub for carrying a supply roller 41 of virgin printing paper, here thermal. A wall 43 of the housing 20 and an opposite guide 44 guide the paper 41 from the hub 40 to its passage between the head 26 and the back-up roller 38; guide walls 45 and 46 do the same downstream of the head 26 as far as a mouth 47 leaving the housing bounded on one side by a lip 48 having a sharp outer edge and thus forming a transverse cutting blade, or paper cutter, on which a user can apply the printed paper to separate it from the blank paper roll.

A light 49, formed in the wall of the housing 1 opposite the hub 40, makes it possible to verify the presence of virgin paper.

It is further provided to be able to print successive sheets of paper, so that a slot 42 for receiving such sheets is formed in the wall of the housing 1, substantially in the upstream extension of the guide wall 43. The line in dotted with arrow illustrates the path of such a sheet.

As shown in FIG. 4, the battery 30 and the motor 32 substantially occupy the diametrical section offered by the hub 40 and, in a manner not shown, are mechanically secured. This avoids any loss of useful volume. In addition, no specific means have been provided here forming the support axis of the hub 40 because the battery 30 and the carcass of the motor 30 also fulfill this mechanical function, by carrying the hub 40 free to rotate. The battery 30 motor assembly 32 is fixed at an axial end, in a removable manner, by a stud 33, of square section here, cooperating with a recess of the same shape and size of the housing 1. Although FIG. 4 illustrates a case for which this stud 33 is located on the geometric axis of the hub 40 and of the motor 32, it will be understood that this stud 33, or any other removable fixing means, can be located at any level of one of the radial end faces , or even exist on both sides, since no rotation of the battery 30 and the carcass of the motor 32 is provided.

The motor 32 includes a rotor, the shaft end 35 of which drives the gear 37, as indicated above, here through a gear train 36. The shaft end 35 projects by one of the radial faces mentioned above, here the face opposite to that of fixing (33).

In this example, the end of the shaft 35 also serves to avoid a cantilever with respect to the stud 33, that is to say that it projects by the opposite radial face to bear on a spaced bearing in the wall of the housing 1. In this example, the motor 32 being centered on the axis of the cylinder 40, the end of the shaft 35 therefore exits axially with respect to the hub 40.

An electrical connector 34, which may possibly serve as a fixing means replacing the stud 33, allows the control of a switch 31, inserted between the battery 30 and the motor 32, control which is carried out by means of a button on the housing 1 The battery 30 also supplies the rest of the circuits.

The operation in printing will now be specified.

The roll of paper 41 and its hub 40, consumables, are initially threaded onto the carrier assembly 30, 32 temporarily disassembled for this purpose, then reassembled with the paper, this through a hatch for access to the housing, disposed at the one of the axial ends of it. A removable cover can, as a variant, be provided laterally (left side in FIG. 3) between the inlet 42 and outlet 47 mouths.

To introduce the front edge of the paper roll 41 between the head 26 and the back-up roll 38, the user to move the head 26 back against the action of the springs 24, that is to say that he can manually control the disengagement of the springs 24 by compression of the latter towards the wall of the housing, for example by action on a lever plate.

The supply of the motor 32 by the switch 31 then causes the rotation of the roller 38 which, pinching the front edge of the unwound paper, unwinds the blank paper 41 from the hub 40. When a sheet has been printed, the motor 32, controlled in fact, through the management microprocessor 140, continues its rotation so as to provide an extra length at least equal to the distance separating the head 26 from the downstream paper cutter 48.

As indicated, the battery 30 and the motor 32 form a fixed axis carrying, at low friction, the hub 40.

In a variant, the terminal is modular, that is to say that the housing 20, containing the motor 32, is located in a removable end part of the housing 1 with a mechanical device for hooking to the rest of the housing 1 and an electrical connector.

As explained above, the terminal may include only a limited number of facsimile functions and for example the optical input means or the means for rendering faxes can be omitted.

Claims (17)

CLAIMS 1. Portable radio network terminal comprising - optical analysis means (5; 15; 25) arranged to analyze a facsimile document scrolling, by relative movement, in front of said analysis means (5; 15; 25 ), - means (14, 17, 27) for managing the analysis means (5; 15; 25) connected to radio means (11) for connection to the network and comprising - tracking means (17; 27 ) of the relative position between the analysis means (5; 15; 25) and the document. 2.- Terminal according to claim 1, the housing (1) of which captures the document and comprises at least one roller (17; 27) for supporting and guiding the scrolling of the analysis means (15; 25) in front the facsimile document, and the locating means comprise a detector (18; 28) for measuring the rotation of the caster (17, 27). 3.- Terminal according to claim 2, wherein the detector comprises a coding wheel (18; 28), driven by the wheel (17; 27), to provide the angular position variations thereof. 4.- Terminal according to one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the housing (1) comprises, on one side, a data entry keyboard and, on the other side, the analysis means (5; 15; 25). 5. Portable radio network terminal comprising - means (6; 16; 26) for printing a fax image on a printing medium, scrolling, by relative movement, in front of said printing means (6 ; 16; 26), - means (14, 17, 27) for managing the printing means (6; 16; 26), connected to radio means (11) for connection to the network and comprising - means for marking (17; 27) of the relative position between the printing means (6; 16; 26) and the printing medium. 6.- A terminal according to claim 5, the housing (1) of which prints the printing medium and comprises at least one roller (17; 27) for supporting and guiding the scrolling of the printing means (6 ; 16; 26) in front of the printing medium and the marking means comprise a detector (18; 28) for measuring the rotation of the caster (17, 27). 7.- Terminal according to one of claims 5 and 6, wherein the printing means comprise a print head (16) which is flush with said face (3) of the facsimile interface and which is arranged to print the support d printing under the control of the rotation detector (18). 8.- Terminal according to one of claims 5 to 7, in which the printing means comprise a printing head (26) associated with a counter-support roller and there are provided drive means (30, 32, 37) for scrolling the print medium (41) between the head (26) and the counter-support roller (38).  9. - Terminal according to claim 7, in which the drive means comprise an electric motor (32) and a source (30) for supplying the latter, fixedly mounted in the terminal to drive the counter-support roller. (38) and arranged to serve as a support axis for a hub (40) of a roll of thermal printing paper (41). 10.- Terminal according to claim 9, wherein a terminal housing part includes a window (49) for checking the presence of the printing paper (41). 11. Terminal according to one of claims 8 to 10, in which means for guiding the print medium comprise, downstream of the head (26), a paper cutter blade (48). 12.- Terminal according to one of claims 8 to 11, wherein there is provided disengageable means (24) for returning the head (26) against the counter-support roller (38). 13.- Terminal according to one of claims 8 to 12, wherein there is provided, upstream of the head (26), receiving means (42) and guide means (43, 44) of a sheet of paper to print. 14.- Terminal according to claim 13, wherein the guide means (43, 44) are arranged to also guide the paper from the printing paper roll. 15. Portable radio network terminal comprising - optical analysis means (5; 15; 25) arranged to analyze a scrolling fax document, by relative displacement, in front of said analysis means (5; 15; 25) , - means (6; 16; 26) for printing a facsimile image on a printing medium, scrolling, by relative displacement, in front of said printing means (6; 16; 26), - means (14) for managing the analysis means (5; 15; 25) and the printing means (6; 16; 26), connected to radio means (11) for connection to the network and comprising - means for identification (17; 27) of the relative positions between, on the one hand, the analysis means (5; 15; 25) and the printing means (6; 16; 26) and, on the other hand, the document and print media. 16.- Terminal according to claim 15, wherein the analysis means (5; 15; 25) and the printing means (6; 16; 26) are arranged at two opposite ends of a face (3) of terminal housing, with, between them, a caster (7; 17; 27) locating means. 17.- Terminal according to one of claims 15 and 16, wherein the analysis means (5; 15; 25) and the printing means (6; 16; 26) extend in the same direction (7 ) substantially parallel to a direction of maximum extension of the terminal housing (1).