JPH11507778A - Method for using a point-to-point communication device including a fax device as a two-way Internet terminal - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] An Internet / fax server that determines the appropriate network address and repackages communications for a packet-switched communications network is used as an interface to enable a point-to-point dial-up (or telephone) communications network. A device, such as a fax machine, that does not attach an electronic address to the message body because it is intended to communicate with each other, can communicate with a general addressable electronic mailbox on the Internet. Electronically based on information identified from the sending fax station including machine-readable graphics (e.g., barcodes or OCR text) embedded in the fax body, DTMF keypad tones, digital fax ID fields or new digital information fields These electronic addresses can be derived jointly by directly deriving the addresses or by table lookup based on data including DID, caller ID, fax ID fields, and the like. Providing a reply cover sheet that automatically routes reply faxes to the original e-mail box, especially when e-mail messages are sent from the Internet to faxes through such Internet / fax servers. Can be.

Description

Description: A method for using a point-to-point communication device, including a fax machine, as a two-way Internet terminal Technical field The present invention relates to a class of methods, techniques and systems for enabling a point-to-point communication device, such as a fax device, to be used as a two-way Internet terminal. It incorporates already installed standard (and advanced, computerized, server, etc.) fax machines into the "Internet" (or similar communication network) as both an information receiving and transmitting terminal. Is what makes it possible. The inventor of the present application referred to such a service as "InterFAX ^tm ". BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION AND PRIOR ART Two types of electronic communication networks have emerged (especially North America, and more generally worldwide). In fact, these communication networks often share the same physical line, but are more clearly distinguished by the type of "terminal" used and the type of communication method. One is the "phone" line that is familiar for local, long-distance and international calls. In this case, the type of "terminal" is mainly a simple voice telephone, a fax machine and possibly a video- or video-phone. The feature of these terminals and the communication method used is that the terminals are relatively simple transducers (for audio or video) and are usually point-to-point connected for dedicated short-term "conversations" on dial-up. That is. Here, a very important aspect is that the information arrives at the destination via a specific dedicated connection. That is, a particular telephone / fax at one location, ie, a telephone number, is connected to another specific location, ie, a telephone number, by a point-to-point connection. Since the information is only in one place with one established connection, the information reaches the destination directly. In addition, although a pair of computers “talk” via a modem by such a point-to-point connection, the computer also has a function of being able to communicate with a network-type terminal described later. Wrong. The second electronic communication network is a message or packet switching network. The most striking of these is the "Internet ¹ ". (Throughout this application, the terms "The Internet" or "Internet" will also apply to similar data networks. Similarly, throughout this application, the Internet Alternatively, e-mail accounts can be used for online services such as American Online and CompuServe, BBS service accounts, and large computers such as universities, research institutes, military and government agencies, and businesses, without being strictly confined to the Internet. It shall apply to similar accounts, locations, or "mailboxes", such as accounts.) The difference is that the message or message part may contain, in addition to the message body itself, other headers, destination addresses or routing information, etc. Section. This allows multiple computers to communicate with one another over a large (distributed) shared connection network without the need for separate `` connection lines '' or via separate connections provided between a pair of terminals. is there. That is, since the routing information or the address information is stored in the message packet, many of such packets can be transmitted on the same portion of the "connection line" without confusion. Routing capabilities are built into networks that carry packets to the appropriate destination on the network based on the addresses of the packets. Computers can be programmed to divide communications from their own into packets and wrap them in an appropriate "protocol" containing address information, but this is generally not possible by telephone or fax. For this reason, an object of the present invention is to enable a terminal for point-to-point dial-up communication such as a fax machine to be used as a receiving and / or transmitting terminal on a packet-switching type network such as the “Internet”. . Note that some large point-to-point communication networks may actually utilize packet switched networks at the Internet level. For example, when voice data arrives at the local exchange from a certain "point", the voice data is digitized and transmitted "packetized" over the network in a packet switched state. At the destination exchange, the packet is reassembled, returned to analog and carried to the receiving "point". In the context of the present invention, this change is nothing. For users at each end of the network, the connection is point-to-point and no address is available other than dialing the specific user's phone number. Specifically, when it comes to faxing, it relates to the integration of fax and Internet technologies (The Whole Internet User's Guide & Catalog, 2nd edition Krol, O'Reilly & Associates, Inc., November 1994, p. 338. ), `` The technolo gies are indeed merging, but not as quickly as you would anticipate ... com puter people have viewed FAX as a lesserservice, because the documents are not machine-readable, merely machine-transferable and displayable .. .Wha t's there is not text, but a picture of the page ". Thus, fax and computer networks are "[only] merged to a limited extent." If it is routable only in the outbound direction, "take the file and send it to the fax via modem". To do this on the Internet, "you must create a really strange e-mail address containing the telephone number of the destination fax machine. For example, fax the editor Krol whose telephone number is 1-217-555-1234. Suppose you want to send it, in which case you would send an e-mail to the following address: remote.printer.Ed_Krol/1120_DCL＠12175551234.iddd.tpc.int Mailbox (left part of 左側) Always starts with remote.printer. After remote.printer, you can put text to be printed on the fax cover sheet. At any address, the body of the email message will be a regular e-mail. The test of the message is printed on the receiving fax machine.In this document, the "device readable" graphic is the same as used above by Krol, In other words, the term is used in the sense that it is "not only transferable and displayable" but also discriminable by the device, including contents in a format understandable by the device. Specifically, when it comes to faxing over the Internet, sending services to send an e-mail message to a fax machine at a dial-up phone number (to date, uneven and unreliable, volunteers) The problem is that there is, but no way for the fax receiver to respond. This disadvantage will be described later. Eliminating this drawback can provide many new and useful services. Disclosure of the invention Attach a file (text or image) to a specific point-to-point network (telephone number) with an e-mail account holder on the Internet (or similar participant on a packet-switched network), as described above. It is possible to send to a fax machine that has been set up. This can be achieved by specifying an address that includes a point-to-point address (telephone number) (or by capturing the message body) and translating or mapping it to the address of a fax server computer on the bucket switching network. Thus, the message bypasses servers on the packet-switched network where faxes can be dialed up, such as by utilizing an installed fax modem (or PC / FAX) card in the point-to-point network. The body of the message text is converted to a fax image (or the content of the image is directly captured) and carried over the telephone in a normal fax format. The problem here is that the fax recipient cannot respond at all. At present, there is no way for the Internet / fax server to determine the desired return route information (eg, e-mail address, etc.) from information provided by the recipient, ie, the receiving fax machine. Various embodiments of the present invention overcome this limitation. Somewhat ambiguous or unambiguous, "reply" the fax only or "start" the fax. Specific examples First, it utilizes a flawed embodiment that makes no changes to the messages sent by the fax server. In this case, the (reply) route information is derived from the telephone number called by the reply fax machine and / or the reply fax machine itself. As one example, the recipient calls a specific telephone number (as indicated in the received cover sheet) associated with one (or a limited number) of accounts. This may work well if the server has one or relatively few accounts assigned to it. However, in general, the server sends the message to more Internet users than the number of lines or telephones to which it is connected. Nevertheless, the identification of the number called by the fax returning (or initiating) the call is available by sensing this with direct-inward-dial (DID) technology. A more practical embodiment would be to have one (or a few) enter (dial) an `` extension '' number that identifies the account (or even certain communications) to be answered after entering the fax server. Have the recipient answer by calling a phone number. Otherwise, the account selects the initial communication (ie, not a "answer"). The problem with this embodiment is that automatic faxing is not possible because the extension must be entered. It must be transferred to the extension by a human operator. In a third, related embodiment, account identification, identification of a particular communication number or routing information is embedded in a fax ID field, usually to identify the sender. However, this embodiment also has two problems. First, programming this field is a cumbersome task, usually done only once when the fax machine is installed. Having to reprogram the fax before each transmission is often an irrational overload. However, providing a convenient mechanism for doing this is part of the present invention and takes the form of being more easily entered via a keyboard on a standard fax machine. That is, pressing a key on a standard fax machine a few times stores the "directory" of the entry to be loaded into the ID field. It also provides software to control the ID field used by the PC-FAX board (installed on the device alone or on a fax server) from a keyboard or stored directory. Second, the ID field also supports identifying senders rather than recipients according to FCC rules. Regardless of whether it is completely practical or not, in each of these three embodiments, the sending (replying) fax machine provides some indication of the Internet account requested from the Internet server. Alternatively, since the identification is due to a special communication made before, the server can check the record and obtain the Internet account that started the communication to be responded to. In a second class of embodiments, the current sender (and thus the previous recipient) is identified, and again, the server checks its record to determine the Internet account that initiated the communication to respond to. One variation is that the sending fax machine is identified from the ID field sent by the fax machine. Alternatively, the sending device is identified by a "call ID" from the telephone company that identifies (possibly) the number of the party attempting to set up the call (i.e., the fax device). The problem with these two embodiments is the ambiguity associated with identifying the fax machine rather than the actual recipient or sender. In particular, in large organizations, multiple recipients share the same fax machine. Similarly, several individuals with Internet accounts may use the same fax machine to send faxes to the same party. For this reason, even if the return fax is returned, even if it came from a specific fax machine (i.e., it came from a specific telephone number or had a specific ID field) ), It is not possible to determine who sent the reply. This problem can be somewhat improved by identifying the DID in combination with the caller ID. In this case, at least within a limited range, a plurality of recipients using the same fax can be separately identified. In particular, if the fax server has N telephone numbers for receiving (let's say A, BC, D ... N), the fax server will send a maximum of N telephone numbers for each fax number (fax device) to which the fax is sent. Can respond to different accounts (sending). For example, at each separate fax machine, the recipient who will receive the fax from the first account is told to respond to telephone number A (by instructions on the incoming cover sheet). The recipient who will receive the fax from the second account is told to respond to phone number B (by instructions on the incoming cover sheet), and so on. This procedure is performed the same number of times as the number of fax numbers sent by the server (ie, M numbered as 1,2, ... M). Thus, N × M pairs of DID and caller ID pairs are identified for sending a particular e-mail account. In particular, if a single e-mail account user sends faxes to multiple recipients with a single fax machine, the fax return phone can be used to identify each recipient separately so that each recipient can identify themselves. Must have a number. Otherwise, you will respond to the same return fax number, and all these faxes will be correctly returned to the same Internet account holder, but will not be able to automatically identify each responder separately. However, if someone responds to a fax received from an Internet account, the response may be from a different fax machine than the fax machine that received the original transmission. This is incompatible with the technology described above. Furthermore, upon initial transmission (as opposed to replying), in these embodiments there is no way to reasonably determine which Internet account to send the fax to. Preferred embodiment A preferred embodiment suitable for responding to a document received from an Internet e-mail user's account with a standard fax machine is as follows. The internet / fax server is specially configured for outgoing transmissions (anywhere, but apparently the first pre-covered sheet to be sent, which may be before the cover sheet provided by the Internet user). Inserted print information. This print information includes at least the identifier of the sending party (or the account of the sending party), and usually also includes an identifier that can identify the message itself. The message identifier consists of two parts: a prefix identifying the Internet / fax server, and a suffix consisting of an array of numbers for transmission. For this reason, each server can maintain an independent overlap sequence list, but each document on the network has an identifier that can identify itself. Sender name, address, phone and fax numbers, e-mail account (if indicated), recipient name, address, phone and fax numbers, date, title, priority, security level, etc. In some cases, it may include information indicating a message body or the like. All of this information is provided as graphic images in "machine readable format". An example of such a format is a bar code that can be read by a machine but is generally not readable by humans. This will be provided later in human readable form. Alternatively, some OCR text formats are readable by both machines and humans. In either case, if you encounter a faxed image of the coversheet in the future, the information on the coversheet must be able to be decrypted by an Internet / fax server. In any case, the requirement is that the information on the cover sheet can be decrypted by the Internet / fax server, even if the cover sheet image is later faxed back. In this case, the sender's Internet or e-mail account address is decrypted (or a message sequence number that allows the sender's account to be referenced from a table), and the fax transmission is made via several computers connected to the Internet. Be able to send to the sender's e-mail. For this reason, even point-to-point fax machines can send fax messages to the Internet, where the necessary address information is captured in a machine-readable format, but Internet experts have described faxes as " It is not machine readable and can only be transferred and displayed on a machine "(see quote above). Further details regarding the "reply cover sheet" and details on utilizing machine readable graphics in fax are described in the inventor's earlier patent applications cited above. In particular, the reply cover sheet can include instructions to the recipient on how to use the reply cover sheet. These instructions may include instructions on which number to call to contact the Internet / fax server, instructions on using the received cover sheet as a pre-cover sheet in reply, etc. . Another preferred embodiment is to provide an internet / fax server with user account or message sequence information as follows. First, instructions for accomplishing this are attached to the outgoing coversheet or provided via an automatic dialog initiated by the Internet / fax server. An interactive session between a computer having such a synthesized or pre-recorded voice and a person in front of a keypad (or voice response) is common and departs from the gist of the present invention. In either case, the returning user may enter the message sequence number (perhaps all digits for ease of entry) from the telephone number button (or alternatively, a voice response device or a voice response to certain auto-generated voice instructions, e.g., (With ""). In either case, the responding user must enter the message sequence number (perhaps all digits for ease of entry) into the phone's numeric keypad (or voice-recognition or And so on) by voice response to certain automatically generated voice instructions. If so, it is terminated by the pound (#) key, and so on. From the message sequence number, the internet / fax server refers to the e-mail account of the sender of the start message and uses this to send the reply message. Similarly, the internet / fax server may provide, upon initial transmission, all the alternative digits that represent the sender's e-mail account (to simplify entry from the telephone number button). The use of such alternatives can be achieved (and reversed) by standards, either at the network level or what are known as local Internet / fax servers. Alternatively, enter your alphanumeric e-mail account number as follows: For example, the “2” touch key also includes “A”, “B”, and “c”. In this case, A is input at 21, B is input at 22, and C is input at 23. Alternatively, A is input at 2, B at 22 and C at 222. Systems utilizing such input algorithms often make 11, 12, and 13 "Q,""Z," and "space." Data entry from such a telephone keypad is conventional and is not, in itself, generally the subject of the present invention. For Internet addresses, 01, 02, 03, 04 and 05 (or other key combinations) and "@", "."":""/" And "_" are also useful. The only problem with this second preferred embodiment is that the interactive session is cumbersome and requires human intervention, which interrupts the automatic unattached fax transmission of the reply document. In either case, the following techniques can be used to increase efficiency when attempting to respond to a "fill in form" incoming fax. First, the fax server (which must have received the template from the original sender) removes the "fill-in" part and optionally only replies into form on the sender's computer. Or, convert the stuffed content into text by OCR and send back. In either case, the form delete reply will reduce the need for transmission and storage, and the return of many similar responses to fax messages can be extremely efficient. One way to achieve similar benefits without using an internet / fax server that is supplied with the cut-out template is to keep a copy of the original transmission on the server and replace it with the " Subtract ". The original image can be translated, rotated or scaled (and "frame information" disclosed in the inventor's previous patent application) and registered in the return fax before subtraction. The result after the subtraction is information given by the recipient before the form is returned. Similarly, for the mark sheet form returned via the Internet / fax server, the mark sheet analysis is performed on the server and the result is returned only as ASCII e-mail. Other preferred embodiments The section described above relates to how a recipient receiving a standard fax of an Internet initiated communication will respond to the initiating user. Alternatively, with a standard fax machine, someone may wish to initiate such communications to an Internet e-mail account or similarly addressed network location. In that case, the above-described embodiment can be applied. Conversely, the interactive keypad input mechanism can be utilized almost exactly as described above. All that is required is that the user knows the telephone number to connect to the Internet / fax server and the e-mail account destination or other address to enter. Slightly complicates the "machine-readable graphics" embodiment. The first method requires that the PC have a dot-matrix laser or other graphic-capable printer. In this case, the user with the fax machine will send the e-mail account address (and other information, such as the sender name, fax number, title, etc.) that can be displayed as a summary by the e-mail management software on the recipient's computer after reception. Utilizing software to print the cover sheet information) in barcode, OCR type text or other machine readable graphic format. This is then used (apparently) as the first sheet when sending a fax to the Internet / fax server. The second method does not require special software, but instead requires a special form to indicate your e-mail address. A plurality of types can be used as such a form. One is like a mark sheet used in standard tests, marking one of several small square columns at each position. The other is a form in which each box is carefully handwritten with letters or numbers or has a special box typed in it. Another is a special location on the sheet where the email address was carefully handwritten or typed in for OCR analysis. The third method requires no software or forms. Instead, establish a "standard" to help Internet / fax servers identify carefully handwritten or typed e-mail addresses. As an example of such a standard, the e-mail address (possibly double space) (103) may be replaced by "=" (101) and " <sup>*</sup> '' (102), a few inches above the first sheet framed by (102), optionally followed (or before) an example of the alphabet in a particular `` standardized '' order (104). Furthermore, it probably exists in double space, which can be used to help OCR software identify characters in an e-mail address (103). See FIG. Non-uniformly spaced typed characters are preferred to simplify OCR requirements, and larger font sizes are better. If the e-mail address cannot be decrypted, an error message is returned to the initiating fax machine identified by the fax ID field or caller ID information. However, in this situation (and in all other situations where the address cannot be automatically determined), a human system administrator can locate, read, and type in an e-mail address on a computer before giving up sending information, thereby allowing a human system administrator To apply "character recognition" to situations. In a fourth method, a more free-form cover sheet is provided by an Internet / fax server utilizing more "intelligent" software, such as those described in the inventor's earlier patent applications mentioned above. To analyze. However, here, the software is tuned with high precision to extract e-mail accounts. This is accomplished by first finding the "@" character, finding the appropriate form, and checking for a valid account, for example, using the UNIX finger command. Again, if we fail to automatically identify a valid e-mail account, apply human intervention and automatic error notification. A fifth method incorporates the first method described above into a somewhat improved standard standalone or server variety fax machine. In this case, an e-mail address or other non-document information is entered by the user from the keyboard. Alternatively, a mechanism used to store a 7- or 11-digit (or longer for international calls or extensions) phone numbers in an "auto-dial" and retrieve them in one or two digits. An index is input to a previously stored table entry such as. This information is then converted directly (rather than printed and scanned by fax) into a compressed fax transmission format image. This image is equivalent to a cover sheet of machine-readable graphics (e.g., barcodes, OCR text, etc.), which can be before (or after) fax transmission, which would otherwise have been in a standard form without modification. ) Sent to. Similarly, the fax machine can be modified so that the information to be input is appropriately and automatically added to the fax ID field. Alternatively, the incoming information is placed in a new digital information field, which is transmitted before (or after) a fax transmission that would otherwise be in a standard form. It is only recognizable by a fax machine or server programmed with the new digital field in mind. The reason that the new field follows the standard transmission most efficiently is that a standard fax machine will thus shut down after receiving a standard fax transmission. A receiving fax machine programmed with this new field will continue to monitor the new information field at the end of a standard fax transmission. If a new field is present, after a standard transmission is completed, a fax machine programmed to look for it will receive this information. If the new field does not exist, the fax machine programmed to look for it will eventually "time out" and shut down the connection. Use Using the basic mechanism described above, a fax machine can be used bidirectionally as a (limited) Internet terminal, with many possible uses, including: It is not something to be done. In general, they are available in other systems and, in general, are not the subject of the present invention, but the use of these services in the Internet or related applications is novel and forms part of the present invention. is there. Therefore, this will not be described in detail. Broadcast Fax-sent to many recipients (both fax and e-mail accounts) on the network in one transmission (starting from an e-mail account or starting from a fax machine). Delayed fax (storage and forwarding service)-The date and time of sending the fax can be scheduled later. Busy signals that are convenient and cost-saving. Conformation-When the recipient (or at least the recipient's device) receives the message, sends a reply message (fax or e-mail) to the sender. When sending by e-mail, a read conformation (ie, access to the sent file) can also be provided. Fax on Demand-Fax transmissions are automatically sent over the Internet in response to automated voice and keypad telephone sessions, including Internet mediated information such as WWW pages and archived text, or subscriptions to mailing lists . In addition, rather than just an interactive voice / keyboard session, fax or e-mail a `` request '' (e.g., through a barcode, OCR, mark sheet, or simply sending a request or `` null message '' to an e-mail account) You can start. In particular, because fax machines are limited Internet terminals by these technologies, fax transmissions are also sent from the first fax machine to the first Internet / fax server via the Internet, followed by the second Internet / fax server to a second fax machine. See FIG. In this way, many services, such as those mentioned above, are available on a daily basis through software programmed into an Internet / fax server and the Internet. In addition, by using the Internet for the “long-distance transmission” portion of transmission, the cost for long-distance fax transmission can be reduced. In addition, the inventor of the present application has disclosed a technique called "sure fax" in his past patent application. Incorporate these technologies into Internet / fax servers, "scramble" faxes sent to the server (or generated by the server from e-mail text), and ensure that such communications are transmitted and stored . Then it is automatically unscrambled and sent as a fax, or sent as a secure fax. Similarly, incoming communications from faxes intended to be sent to an e-mail account are scrambled by an internet / fax server, and sent reliably over the relatively public and less secure internet, followed by By entering a password or decryption key, the recipient unscrambles on his computer. In particular, some forms of secure “electronic commerce” are affected by variations on this method when scrambled signatures and other transmissions are made. Other uses-phantom or virtual e-mail accounts One particularly useful application of the technology disclosed herein is to provide a "phantom" or "virtual" e-mail to a person who does not (or does not want to use) an account via a computer terminal or PC. Setting up an account. Such people can send and receive e-mails via fax. For example, many people who fax their business communications on a daily basis do not want to pay extra to use online communication services and / or to spend effort learning how to use them. ing. Nevertheless, many others believe that they can communicate via e-mail, and such virtual e-mail accounts are profitable. These parties may notify others as if they were a standard e-mail account (for example, by advertising on business cards or letterhead). Yes, you can have a standard, regular e-mail name instead of a phone number. The incoming e-mail arrives at a local Internet / fax server, where it is converted from text to image and forwarded to fax. Such forwarding can be done every time an e-mail message arrives. Alternatively, a call may be set up on an Internet / fax server, the ID and request code entered, and the transfer performed on a request-by-request basis to send to a fax other than the default fax machine, office fax. it can. For example, it is possible to specify a fax transfer in a form such as “moving” or receiving at home. As a third variation, the messages may be sent together at a convenient time, such as at night, when network and / or fax traffic is typically low and in some cases lower rates. [Related services include a standard e-mail account owner calling an internet / fax server, which converts the e-mail message to a text image and sends it to a default or keyed fax machine To be able to "pick up" the e-mail. Out-of-the-box text-to-speech software `` reads '' the sender and message reference lines, tells the user which (by key-in) forwards which message and keeps it as text, deletes it after sending it and returns which It is also possible to make such a selection. In addition, other available Internet resources may also be sent by fax rather than to a computer-based Internet account. Such transmissions include, but are not limited to, archive text files, computerized database search results, and WWW pages. ] You can use the reply coversheet sent with each message to return a response to anyone who sent the e-mail. A particularly useful option here is to convert a faxed e-mail from a fax image to ASCII text and then send the converted data to the person who sent the e-mail from a standard e-mail account. Reply as e-mail. Thus, the InterFAX account that mediates "virtual" faxes is hidden. Such a conversion can be accomplished using any currently available OCR software that can be installed on an Internet / fax server. In order to easily and easily perform OCR conversion with high accuracy, the user of such a service can apply the following technology. First, if a word processor is used, printing the document to be faxed in a large (eg, 14 point or more) character font will improve the results. Improving results by printing in a font with a fixed character spacing (rather than proportional). Using the same font each time (so that the OCR software can be tweaked and such use or tweaks stored and recalled for each user account) improves the results. It would be helpful to send an example of a standard order alphabet font (used in an e-mail address, as shown in Figure 1). Alternatively, a software application could be provided for each user with such an InterFAX account to convert the e-mail text into a series of dots or characters, which can then be converted back to text on an Internet / fax server. The inventor of the present application calls such a technique a “paper modem”. This is described in more detail in the above-mentioned past application. Alternatively, if you want to send an image instead of ASCII text, you can choose a common image format that most recipients think will be viewable, such as TIFF. Alternatively, a display utility may be attached to the e-mail transmission (or at least describe how to use such a utility over the Internet) from an Internet / fax server. Binary (non-ASCII text) files, such as image files and display utilities, are usually converted to a special text format before being sent as e-mail, such as by using a UNIX utility called uuencode, and complemented. Must be converted again by the uudecode utility. The display utility (or annotation) may transmit the InterFAX e-mail only for the first time (or several times) for transmitting to the third party (account) specified on the Internet. The display utility (or note) may only be sent the first (few) times s uch InterFAX EMail were sent to a particular party (account) on the net--to be suppressed once a particular user is assumed to be familiar with the procedure. Alternatively, register your e-mail address as an "experienced" user as part of the "annotation" and then e-mail each account that has access to the Internet / fax server so that you can send it without utilities or annotations May be instructed to be transmitted. Regarding the InterFAX e-mail in which such a party starts communication instead of responding, various descriptions for simplifying the specification of the e-mail transmission address are made in addition to the present specification. The rfax-to-text conversion techniques described elsewhere herein are equally applicable in this application. Internet phantom or virtual fax account Similarly, complementary services may provide users with an e-mail account that functions as a "phantom" or "virtual" fax machine. This may be because you have an e-mail account but don't like the trouble / cost of getting a fax machine or a second phone line, or a "public" fax in a copy shop or office. Sharing is convenient for those who find it inconvenient or lack reliability and security. Many people are interested in computer communications, and doing so will allow them to conveniently communicate with others who trust faxes for business communications. In this case, the purpose is to provide a mechanism that looks public as a fax number, especially to those doing business with faxes, but acts as an e-mail account for the account owner. The transmitted e-mail to fax communication functions as described above as a machine-readable graphic reply coversheet technology. However, this concept allows the printing of what appears to be a standard fax number on advertisements, business cards, etc., and the internet / fax server receives the incoming fax and forwards it to the user's e-mail account (perhaps (After converting to text with OCR). One approach is to have each user have a separate telephone line into the Internet / fax server, but this is expensive. Another less costly approach is to have one (or several) physical lines responding to a range of multiple dial numbers. Different numbers falling into this range are distinguished by DID technology and converted to the user's e-mail address by a consulting table. A third method is to use one telephone number for a plurality of user accounts and print the extension number to be dialed after the main number. Again, this main number corresponds to an e-mail account or address. The fourth method (which does not hide the virtual nature of fax machines) is to have the fax sender's call at a common number and instruct the user to enter either the fax number machine or a printed recipient code. I do. This is stored by the internet / fax server using ID technology when a fax is sent from the fax machine identified during the dialog and identified for the user's account. Invoicing In general, the billing business of such services is not considered part of the present invention. However, if either the sender or the recipient is charged, either the e-mail or fax user will be charged. Invoicing services may be done through the internet or through a telephone company, and may only be available on an account basis or may be offered to the public. In addition, 800 and 900 telephone and credit cards and other billing options are available. Description of the drawings FIG. 1 has already been described in another preferred embodiment. FIG. 3 shows that a message (311) generated (e.g., from an e-mail account (312)) at the Internet connection device (310) is a standard dial-up telephone number (302) and a standard dial-up telephone line (302). 303), how to be sent via the internet (309) to the internet / fax (304) and from the internet / fax server (304) to a standard fax machine (or computer-based fax server) (301). Included in the Internet / fax server (304) is a fax / modem (also called a PC / fax card, which may be provided in a PROM or have operating routines as separate software) (305) or its equivalent, converting the e-mail text into a fax image (306) and generating a barcode or other machine-readable graphic for the reply coversheet (307), e.g., a number And software for keeping records of transmissions (308), such as the list of e-mail accounts and the transmission source. FIG. 4 shows the fax message body (405). This message is also generated by a standard fax machine (or fax server) (401) connected to a standard dial-up telephone number (402) and is either a bar-coded or OCR-formatted cover sheet (403). Alternatively, account ID information (404) includes address information. This fax information is transmitted from a standard dial-up telephone line (406) to the Internet / fax server (407) and then sent via e-mail or other e-mail to the receiving computer (412) via the Internet (411). Sent to Internet Account (413). Included in the Internet / Fax Server (407) is a fax modem (408), which reads and decodes the barcode or OCR information that identifies the Internet account for transmission (409) and decodes the document sequence number (if necessary). ), And refers to the Internet account number, and starts sending an e-mail message to the e-mail account (410). FIG. 2 shows that two standard faxes (201) and (207) operating as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 connect two Internet / fax servers (203) and (205) It shows how to communicate with each other via standard dial-up lines (202) and (206). These two Internet / fax servers (203) and (205) communicate with each other via the Internet (204). FIG. 5 is a more detailed diagram when element (304) of FIG. 3, ie, the Internet / fax server is operating in a mode of sending e-mail to fax. An e-mail message (501) containing both body and address is received over the Internet by an Internet / fax server, and a software routine (502) extracts the recipient's telephone number embedded in the e-mail address I do. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the e-mail address identifies an apparently standard account (apparently standard, but not required, on the server machine) and uses this as the fax number. Notify the server that will be the alias for. In this case, the telephone number of the receiving side is referred to in a table accessible by the server. Yet another software routine (503) provides the usual human readable information, machine readable (e.g., bar coded or OCR printed) document sequence numbers and / or e-mail account purposes as described above. Generate a special reply coversheet that includes the location. A third software routine (504) converts the ASCII text of the e-mail body into a fax image of the text. Also, the e-mail may already contain image format information that does not require such conversion. The fax image element outputs from (503) and (504) are combined into a full fax body (505), along with the telephone number (506) generated by (502), on an Internet / fax server. To the PC / fax card or equivalent (507) device. Elements under the control of the computer (507), including the bulk of the Internet / fax server, call the standard fax machine or its equivalent (509) and combine it over a standard dial-up telephone line (508). Send the fax document (505). FIG. 6 is a more detailed diagram when element (401), the fax machine, and (407), the Internet / fax server, of FIG. 4 are operating in the mode of sending from fax to e-mail. A standard fax machine or its equivalent (600) scans and faxes document content (601) sent as content (605) containing separate or joint e-mail addresses or document sequence numbers (606). Generate information. Element (606) can be a machine readable graphic (barcode, OCR, text, etc.) on cover sheet (602), user input from phone keypad (603), or fax ID field in fax transmission (604). Consists of several combinations of the three options for information in Elements (605) and (606) are sent together as a combined fax transmission (607) to an Internet / fax server (609) via a standard dial-up telephone line (608). An Internet / fax server (609) is an Internet-connected computer system that, in addition to standard computer components, receives fax transmissions (611), decodes DIMF telephone keypad tones (612), A PC / fax card or equivalent (610) is provided that can maintain the user's interactive voice script (613) in addition to the software routine. This routine includes software (614) that converts the fax content (605) to a computer image format such as TIFF (615), processes this computer image (615) with the OCR algorithm (616), and converts the image information to ASCII Includes any software (616) to convert to text format (617) and a combination of three elements. The direct correspondence to the combination of elements (602), (603) and (604) is used to send the document sequence number or e-mail address at the time of transmission. The software routine (618) derives the information by decoding the machine-readable (e.g., barcode or OCR text) cover sheet (602), or the software routine (619) generates the DTMF tones ( 603) or the software routine (620) reads the fax ID field (604) from the PC fax card. In addition, the internet / fax server computer may include software that references the recipient's e-mail address (if necessary) referenced by the sequence number of the previously sent document (621), content (605), ( Internet e-mail generation software (622) that sends (615) and / or (617) to an address derived from an appropriate combination of (618), (619), (620) and (621), and communication software And a physical connection (623) with the Internet (625) controlled by (624). For all system diagrams described here, the configuration shown is an example, and some elements may be organized differently and combined into one element, split into two or more elements, It can be eliminated or provided by a different mechanism. However, the system described herein works well. In particular, some of these functions can be performed by hardware components such as PC / fax cards, or reside on or be provided by such components, or can be implemented on server systems via the Internet. Some are executable by available software routines. The information flow already shown in FIGS. 3 and 5 will be described again as a software flow diagram in FIG. The e-mail message arrives at the Internet / fax server in the usual way (700). At this point, the recipient's address is confirmed as a valid transmission to this site (701). Otherwise, the email and error message will be "bounced back" to the sender of the email. If the address is valid, check if the specified "e-mail box" is a standard (i.e., non-fax) address (702); mail is sent as standard e-mail. Otherwise, the transmission to the fax machine will either extract the phone number from the e-mail address itself, or access a table of valid accounts accessible by this site, and that e-mail address will actually be It is a "phantom" or "virtual" address that looks like a standard e-mail address, but is actually determined by judging that it is an "alias" for e-mail faxing (703). A unique sequence number for the document is generated (704). Uniqueness can be generated by prefixing the local sequence number with the server's site address and incrementing it by a fixed number. For returning machine-readable graphics (such as barcodes or local OCR standards) that contain the sender's e-mail address and / or document sequence number encoded and may include other information such as recipient data A cover sheet is generated (705). Furthermore, a print instruction for a human-readable recipient such as how to create a reply cover sheet at the time of reply can be included in the cover sheet. The text (possibly ASCII) of the sender's message is converted (706) to an image of that text, possibly in a format such as TICC, or directly to the compressed fax transmission format. This is already combined with any other elements of the e-mail body in graphic image format, and with the cover sheet generated in (705) above. This composite message image is converted (707) into a compressed fax conversion format as required. According to (707), the content is scheduled (possibly delayed for convenience or during times of low telephone charges) and sent to the telephone number derived in (703) (708), where relevant transaction information is An entry is created. When the transmission actually takes place or is aborted, the transaction record is updated. The transmission is retried by a PC / fax card or equivalent mechanism over a dial-up telephone line until successful or until the maximum number of attempts is reached (709). If the transmission fails, the sender will be notified by reply e-mail. Similarly, the transmission source may be notified when the transmission is successful. The flow of information already shown in FIGS. 4 and 6 will be described once again here as the software flow chart of FIG. A fax message with any voice / keypad interaction from the user reaches the Internet / fax server (800). At this point, the e-mail address of the intended recipient can be determined and any of the following eight methods can be one (or any combination). [In particular, it can determine that the message is to be sent to another fax location. In this case, it is sent to the destination via the Internet and other Internet / fax servers as shown in FIG. Otherwise, if it is (obviously) to be sent to a standard e-mail account, the software / processing flow shown is implemented. ] Eight ways to identify the intended e-mail account (directly or indirectly, with reference to the document sequence number associated with the sending e-mail account) include: . Utilizing the DID of the particular Internet / Fax server telephone number called by the fax machine, a table linking such numbers to e-mail account addresses is referenced (801). Caller ID of a telephone number that the fax machine can use to call and reference (802) a table linking such numbers to e-mail account addresses. Consult the fax ID field of incoming fax messages and specify an e-mail account, document sequence number or other reference in the table linking such references to e-mail account addresses (8033) . Consult for non-standard digital headers, footers or other insertion information included in incoming fax messages, e-mail accounts, document sequence numbers or other references, such references and e-mail account addresses Is specified in the table to be linked (804). A machine-readable graphic (such as a barcode or OCR text) on the coversheet (possibly a reply coversheet supplied by the internet / fax server in a fax previously sent to the current sender) or transmitted Detect, decrypt and consult information contained in the body of incoming faxes and specify e-mail accounts, document sequence numbers or other references in a table linking such references to e-mail account addresses (805). Similarly, information on the cover sheet (as shown in FIG. 1) or the incoming fax body is detected in a "standard" format, decoded, consulted, and e-mailed. The mail account, document sequence number, and other references are specified in a table that links such references to e-mail account addresses (806). The fact that the information on the cover sheet or the body of the incoming fax is not in a "standard" format can be detected, decoded and decoded as described in the inventor's earlier patent application mentioned above. (807) can be parsed by intelligent computer programs that perform e-mail accounts, document sequence numbers, and other references in a table that links such references to e-mail account addresses. . The information may be entered directly by the sender as an "extension" via a touchtone keypad, or may include prerecorded or synthetic segments from a computer during an interactive session to detect and decode DTMF tones. The e-mail account, document sequence number, and other references are specified in a table that links such references to e-mail account addresses (808). At that point, the e-mail address is determined, and the same mechanism allows the sender to specify other information. Other information includes the sender's name or e-mail address, reference lines, the option to convert the fax text from image to text and then send it, and the sending priority. Incoming faxes are (usually) converted from the compressed fax transmission conversion format to an even more common computer image format such as TIFF (809). Optionally, if specified by the user, or if the default procedure for this user account is established on an internet / fax server, the fax body is further converted by OCR to ASCII coded text, possibly in standard e-mail format (810) or further converted to a "text" or "binary" digital format by the inventors'"PaperModem" technology. Thus, if the recipient is a holder of a standard e-mail account, they will access the message as standard e-mail text without accessing the graphics software utility to display the fax message as an image be able to. This allows the recipient to be completely unaware that the message came from a fax machine rather than from a standard e-mail account. In either case, format the message in text or image format as the body part of the e-mail message (for example, use uuencode to send a binary image or compressed image file as a non-binary mode text message, etc.) ), Throw this to the Internet (811) and send it to the e-mail account derived by any combination of the steps (801-808) described above. The flows shown in the software flow diagrams herein are examples, and some items may be reordered, combined as a single step, skipped altogether, or accomplished in different ways. . However, the illustrated flow works well. In particular, some of these functions can be performed by hardware components such as PC / fax cards, or reside on or be provided by such components, or server via the Internet. Some are executable by software routines available on the system. Usage of technology elements The numerous industrial elements of the present invention described above are "already available on the market" as hardware and software components, and can be readily incorporated by those skilled in the art into computer system programming, integration, management, and the like. . In particular, utilizing the computer's add-in hardware board, fax / modem functions and "voicemail" functions (i.e. voice recording and playback, detection of DTMF keypad input, reading of embedded DID and caller ID signals) Can be obtained. These components are available from many vendor and developer level software routines, and the entire application program can be used to operate such a board. It is also possible to adjust these software routines so that they can communicate and exchange information under operating systems such as UNIX, DOS, Windows or System 7. Similarly, the communications, e-mail transmission and reception and other software functions that make up the "Internet" are widely known and available, and their use and application is limited to those skilled in the art of computer network management. Within range. Thus, the various technical elements, including the present invention, disclosed herein are standard and well-known and widely available elements (unless otherwise specified). The configuration, operation, application, and incorporation of these elements are not generally the spirit of the present invention. For details on the configuration, operation, applications, and incorporation of these elements, see fax machines, fax / modems, fax servers, voicemail devices, barcode printing, barcode scanning, optical character recognition, computer communications and networks (especially e-mail, Internet and related communication and information exchange protocols such as HTTP, UDP, TCP / IP) and areas of hardware, software and information formats related to, but not limited to, computers and operating systems. In available prints and software and equipment manuals. Many of the elements of the present invention are "already available on the market" and are not themselves inventive. However, the design, configuration, and operation of the composite system and technology disclosed in the specification of the present application, the use thereof, and the like are the purpose of the present invention and are new and useful. These novel composite high-level system designs are described herein with reference to the accompanying system diagrams and flowcharts. Finally, the functions and system configurations described in this specification may be provided by another having equivalent functions. For example, the signals and hardware may be analog or digital. Specific functions can be used as special-purpose hardware, or can be used as a program to be mounted on general-purpose hardware. The software can be provided on a PROM or stored on memory or a magnetic or optical disk. In various situations, a fax machine, a computer fax / modem, a local computer or a remote computer can have various functions, such as a fax-to-fax connection, a fax-computer connection, a computer-to-computer connection, etc. There are options. It is within the scope of the present invention to utilize the currently used and future developed system components in appropriate combinations to achieve the methods and systems described herein. Things. As described above, the above-mentioned object is efficiently achieved, including the ones clarified from the above description. In addition, certain modifications may be made in practicing the methods described above and achieving the arrangements disclosed herein. Therefore, all matters contained in the above description or the contents shown in the accompanying drawings are merely examples, and do not limit the present invention. While the preferred embodiment of the present invention has been described with reference to the drawings, it will be understood that various changes and modifications may be made in form or detail without departing from the spirit of the invention. Therefore, the present invention is not strictly limited to the details of the content disclosed and described herein, but is limited only by the content disclosed in the following claims.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification symbol FI H04N 1/32 (81) Designated country EP (AT, BE, CH, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, IE , IT, LU, MC, NL, PT, SE), OA (BF, BJ, CF, CG, CI, CM, GA, GN, ML, MR, NE, SN, TD, TG), AP (KE, LS, MW, SD, SZ, UG), AM, AT, AU, BB, BG, BR, BY, CA, CH, CN, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, GB, GE, HU , IL, JP, KE, KG, KP, KR, KZ, LK, LR, LT, LU, LV, MD, MG, MN, MW, MX, NO, NZ, PL, PT, RO, RU SD, SE, SI, SK, TJ, TT, UA, US, UZ, VN [Resume summary] Reply cover sheet that automatically routes reply faxes and sends them back to the original e-mail box Can be provided.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. Message body from which the packet switching network address can be derived A method for identifying useful information for a machine, which can be automatically extracted after reception Fax received graphic information encoding the useful information in any suitable format How to incorporate transmissions intended for use. 2. Automatically derive network address in message body Initiated from dial-up source for dial-up transmission information for For facilitating routing through a packet switched communication network, such as a network transmission . 3. Useful information in the message body is included in the transmission, and the additional information is By sending information, including the network address, to the packet switching network, Packet switching such as fax transmission derived from dial-up sources A method for routing communications through a network. 4. The useful information is stored in a suitable format from which the useful information can be automatically extracted. 3. The method according to claim 2, comprising graphical information that has been digitized. 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the graphic information includes a barcode. 6. 5. The method according to claim 4, wherein said graphic information comprises OCR text. 7. The method according to claim 4, wherein the graphic information includes a mark sheet form. . 8. The graphic information is specially formatted for network address information 5. The method according to claim 4, comprising printed material. 9. 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the useful information includes a DTMF tone. Ten. 3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the useful information includes DID information. 11． 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the useful information includes a caller ID. 12． 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the useful information includes fax ID field information. Law. 13. The useful information may be digital in addition to that normally contained in Group 3 fax transmissions. 3. The method of claim 2, including a total information field. 14. Useful information in the message body is included in the transmission, and the additional information is By sending information, including the network address, to the packet switching network, Packet switching such as fax transmission derived from dial-up sources A method for routing communications through a network, said method comprising: Information is derived in a way that is derived by intelligent analysis of the fax text , a) Decode the encoded document fax transmission into a raster document image Steps and b) format analyze the output of the decoding step and analyze the document raster image And identify at least one image section type and section Generating a document image, c) at least one graphic decoding / conversion process, each with a specific sentence Key to the document image section type and output of the format analysis step Process, decrypt at least one document image part, and machine-use its contents Converting the document into a coded document section; d) Perform content-dependent extraction, process the output of the graphics decoding / conversion step, Analyze one or more machine available encoded document sections to identify document / received information Extracting. 15． A virtual e-mail account at least partially affected by the method of claim 3 A way to make it easier. 16． A virtual fax machine at least partially affected by the method of claim 3 Way to make it easier. 17． Convert the fax image of the text to ASCII by OCR technology. 16. The method of claim 15, further comprising: 18． Convert the fax image of the text to ASCII by OCR technology. 17. The method of claim 16, further comprising: 19. Copy the e-mail in your e-mail account other than the fax information already sent A method for forwarding to a desired recipient via fax, a. converting the e-mail to a fax transmission format; b. The e-mail converted to the fax compression transmission image format is fax / Transmitting to a standard fax machine via a modem. 20. a method for picking up e-mail, a. Call the network / fax server, b. 20. The method of claim 19, wherein a transmission request is entered into said network / fax server. Affected way.