Facsimile queuing and transmission system
First Claim
1. An apparatus for electronically transmitting a multipage document having at least one page to a remote document receiving apparatus, the page having thereupon an image comprising characters and graphics, the page further having a feature corresponding to a prescribed arrangement of characters and graphics, the feature defining a value of an apparatus operating parameter, said apparatus operating parameter including a remote document receiving apparatus telephone number and a number of pages in the multipage document, said apparatus comprising:
- optical scanner means for receiving the page and for generating scanner signals indicative of individual characters in the image upon the page;
optical character recognition means OCR for receiving said scanner signals and for generating in dependence thereupon character signals which are indicative of the characters and graphics of the image;
feature recognizer means including a destination recognizer means for receiving said character signals and generating therefrom telephone number signals which are indicative of a telephone number of the remote document receiving apparatus, and including a document size recognizer means for receiving said character signals and generating therefrom document size signals indicative of a number of pages in the document;
telephone interface means for generating signals to electronically connect to the remote document receiving apparatus and to present signals indicative of the multipage document thereto in response to telephone interface control signals;
document loading means for selectively presenting the page into said optical scanner means in response to document control signals; and
a controller for generating said document control signals to selectively present the multipage document to said optical scanner means and for generating said telephone interface control signals to electronically connect to the remote document receiving apparatus and to present signals indicative of the multipage document to the remote document receiving apparatus in dependence on values of said signals indicative of the value of the apparatus operating parameter including the telephone number signal indicative of a telephone number of the remote document receiving apparatus, and the document size signal indicative of a number of pages in the document and, the value of the apparatus operating parameter being determined by a shape and sequence of scanned characters and graphics, whereby the value of the apparatus operating parameter is independent of the absolute position or precise coordinates of the character and graphics on a page of a document.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
An apparatus for sequentially transmitting a plurality of multipage documents via a facsimile includes an optical scanner, an optical character recognition apparatus, and a feature recognizer apparatus. The present apparatus allows hands-free transmittal of several multipage documents by automatically determining from the document'"'"'s cover sheet the values of operating parameters, such as the telephone numbers of destination facsimile machines and the number of pages in the document to transmit. Human intervention is not required to dial phone numbers or separate documents that are to be transmitted to different destinations. Moreover, the present apparatus allows for direct transmittal of copies to those persons indicated in the document to receive the same without the need to know the other recipients of the document.
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Citations
13 Claims
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1. An apparatus for electronically transmitting a multipage document having at least one page to a remote document receiving apparatus, the page having thereupon an image comprising characters and graphics, the page further having a feature corresponding to a prescribed arrangement of characters and graphics, the feature defining a value of an apparatus operating parameter, said apparatus operating parameter including a remote document receiving apparatus telephone number and a number of pages in the multipage document, said apparatus comprising:
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optical scanner means for receiving the page and for generating scanner signals indicative of individual characters in the image upon the page; optical character recognition means OCR for receiving said scanner signals and for generating in dependence thereupon character signals which are indicative of the characters and graphics of the image; feature recognizer means including a destination recognizer means for receiving said character signals and generating therefrom telephone number signals which are indicative of a telephone number of the remote document receiving apparatus, and including a document size recognizer means for receiving said character signals and generating therefrom document size signals indicative of a number of pages in the document; telephone interface means for generating signals to electronically connect to the remote document receiving apparatus and to present signals indicative of the multipage document thereto in response to telephone interface control signals; document loading means for selectively presenting the page into said optical scanner means in response to document control signals; and a controller for generating said document control signals to selectively present the multipage document to said optical scanner means and for generating said telephone interface control signals to electronically connect to the remote document receiving apparatus and to present signals indicative of the multipage document to the remote document receiving apparatus in dependence on values of said signals indicative of the value of the apparatus operating parameter including the telephone number signal indicative of a telephone number of the remote document receiving apparatus, and the document size signal indicative of a number of pages in the document and, the value of the apparatus operating parameter being determined by a shape and sequence of scanned characters and graphics, whereby the value of the apparatus operating parameter is independent of the absolute position or precise coordinates of the character and graphics on a page of a document. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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Specification