Document transmission and routing with recipient control, such as facsimile document transmission and routing
First Claim
1. A method for an automated fax transmission system to allow a human that receives an attempted transmission of a fax document to interactively control delivery of the fax document, the method comprising:
- receiving an indication of a fax document to be transmitted;
determining a telephone number that is associated with a destination fax machine to which the fax document is to be transmitted;
initiating an attempt to transmit the fax document to the destination fax machine by using the determined telephone number to establish a telephone connection;
determining that the established telephone connection is with a human; and
automatically and in response to the determining that the established telephone connection is with a human,providing a spoken message to the human over the established telephone connection that indicates at least one delivery option for the fax document;
receiving from the human over the established telephone connection an indication of a selection of at least one of the indicated delivery options; and
attempting to deliver the fax document in accordance with the selected delivery options,so that the human recipient of the attempt to transmit the fax document can interactively control the delivery of the fax document.
8 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Techniques for transmitting information to a recipient under their control are described. In some situations, the techniques are used in conjunction with a fax delivery system to, as part of a connection established to perform a fax transmission, provide a variety of functionalities to a human recipient that is participating as part of the connection, such as when the human recipient is contacted in error. In addition, in some situations an interactive voice response system is used to receive and interpret input from a human recipient, such as in response to one or more control selections or options provided to the human recipient.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. A method for an automated fax transmission system to allow a human that receives an attempted transmission of a fax document to interactively control delivery of the fax document, the method comprising:
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receiving an indication of a fax document to be transmitted; determining a telephone number that is associated with a destination fax machine to which the fax document is to be transmitted; initiating an attempt to transmit the fax document to the destination fax machine by using the determined telephone number to establish a telephone connection; determining that the established telephone connection is with a human; and automatically and in response to the determining that the established telephone connection is with a human, providing a spoken message to the human over the established telephone connection that indicates at least one delivery option for the fax document; receiving from the human over the established telephone connection an indication of a selection of at least one of the indicated delivery options; and attempting to deliver the fax document in accordance with the selected delivery options, so that the human recipient of the attempt to transmit the fax document can interactively control the delivery of the fax document. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A computer-implemented method for allowing a human recipient of an attempted fax transmission to control the fax transmission, the method comprising:
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attempting to initiate a fax transmission to a destination fax system by identifying a telephone number to be used with the fax transmission and establishing a telephone connection using the identified telephone number; determining that the established telephone connection is with a device under control of a person; providing a control mechanism with which the person can indicate how to control the fax transmission; and after the person has indicated how to control the fax transmission, controlling the fax transmission based at least in part on the indication from the person. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification