EP1051840A1

EP1051840A1 - Method and device for transmitting a facsimile

Info

Publication number: EP1051840A1
Application number: EP99904728A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Thomas Wagner
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1998-01-22
Filing date: 1999-01-21
Publication date: 2000-11-15
Also published as: WO1999038317A1; DE19802221C2; DE19980099D2; AU2512199A; DE19802221A1

Abstract

The invention relates to a method and a device for improving the sending and receiving of a facsimile by sending and receiving the facsimile via a data network in the form of electronic mail. Facsimiles are sent and received using this inexpensive method for selected call numbers. The destination addresses in the alternative transmission medium are transferred by means of the network protocol using an existing connection in the conventional transmission network.

Description

Method and device for transmitting a facsimile

The invention relates to a method and an apparatus for transmitting a facsimile.

Fax machines are widely used today. They are used for the fast transmission of a facsimile. The graphic information of the document to be transmitted is recorded by means of a recording device or scanner and transferred into binary data. This data is then translated into analog signals and transmitted to the receiving device via a previously established telephone connection. There they are translated back into the graphic information for the production of a facsimile.

Facsimiles can also be transmitted via dedicated data networks, such as the Internet. For this purpose, the data recorded using the scanner are transmitted together with a suitable file as electronic mail. Such a transmission does not take place via a previously established point-to-point connection, but in the form of individual data packets, some of which are transmitted over a large number. different transmission routes to the recipient.

Although the transmission of a facsimile using dedicated data networks is much cheaper than the conventional transmission via telephone connection, it has not yet been able to establish itself. The respective destination addresses of the telephone network, namely the fax numbers, are widespread. Office personnel are familiar with the handling of conventional fax machines.

A system for transmitting a facsimile via the Internet is known from WO 97/26753. First, a connection is established over the telephone network between a conventional sending fax machine and a first computer. By means of the sending fax machine, the telephone number of the fax machine to be dialed is transmitted to the first computer together with the facsimile. The first computer converts the signals received into a data record that can be transmitted via the Internet and transmits this data record to a second computer that is located in the vicinity of the fax machine to be dialed. The second computer then converts the data record back into the corresponding signals and transmits them to the fax machine to be dialed while establishing a further telephone connection. - In this way, the data transfer via the Internet can be used to reduce the considerable charges for establishing a telephone connection, especially in the case of long transmission distances.

The known method is cumbersome and expensive because conventional telephone connections have to be established between the sending fax machine and the first computer and the second computer and the fax machine to be dialed. For cost reasons, it is not suitable for the transmission of a facsimile over short distances. In addition, the sender does not receive an acknowledgment of receipt, or only with a considerable time delay, because there is no direct connection between the sending and the fax machine to be dialed. Another disadvantage is that a computer must be made available and maintained in order to achieve the cost savings in the area of each local telephone network.

US 5,461,488 describes a system in which incoming signals are received by a computer via a modem. The computer converts the signals into the corresponding graphic information, determines the name of the recipient of the facsimile using a text recognition system and then forwards it to the recipient's computer via e-mail. - In this system too, the telephone network is used for the transmission of the signals. Errors often occur when reading the recipient using the text recognition system. In this case, the facsimile cannot be forwarded or cannot be forwarded correctly. Finally, a high level of equipment is required to carry out the method.

The object of the invention is to provide a method and a device with which a facsimile can be automatically transmitted as inexpensively as possible. The transmission should be possible with conventional fax machines and using the known fax numbers.

This object is solved by the features of claims 1 and 11. Advantageous developments of the invention result from the features of claims 2 to 10 and 12 to 19. According to the invention, a method for transmitting a facsimile is provided with the following steps:

a) transferring a first address of a first transmission network to a transmitting device,

b) checking whether there is a corresponding second address of a second transmission network stored in a data record for the transferred first address,

if yes: cl) establishing a connection to a receiving device by means of the second transmission network using the second address,

if not: c2) establishing a connection to a receiving device by means of the first transmission network using the first address,

c3) querying at least one second address corresponding to the first address and

c4) producing a data record, the first address being assigned as corresponding to the at least one second address.

By means of the present invention, a cheaper second transmission network is automatically selected for transmission if the receiver has the necessary requirements. tion, namely the existence of a second address, is fulfilled. For this purpose, a conventional first address, for example the fax address, of the recipient can be used to establish a connection to the receiving device. A direct connection is established between the transmitting and the receiving device. The sender receives an acknowledgment of receipt immediately and can repeat the transmission of the facsimile in the event of a transmission error. If transmission via the second transmission network fails, a further transmission attempt can be carried out automatically using the first transmission network. This increases the speed of transmission of a facsimile. It is also possible to transmit facsimiles directly to second addresses to which no real fax machine is assigned. Another advantage of the invention is that it allows a gradual transition from the first transmission networks, for example conventional telephone networks, to other transmission networks, such as the Internet. It is not necessary to replace conventional fax machines with other devices. It is sufficient to retrofit conventional fax machines using an additional device.

According to an advantageous development, it is provided that during or after step lit. c2 at least one second address of the transmitting device is transmitted to the receiving device. This also enables the receiving device to use the second transmission network to transmit a facsimile to the transmitting device. During or after step lit. c2, an open key of the receiving device can also be queried and stored in the data record as corresponding to the first or second address. This enables the data record corresponding to the facsimile to be automatically encrypted. This increases the security of the transmission.

Advantageously, during or after step lit. c2 transmit at least one open key of the transmitting device to the receiving device. This also enables the receiving device to transmit a facsimile in encrypted form to the transmitting device.

According to a further design feature, during or after step lit. c2 the connection to the first transmission network is interrupted and a new connection is established by means of the second transmission network using the second address. In this way, the transmission costs can be reduced.

The steps lit. c2 to c4 can then be carried out if in step lit. cl no connection to the receiving device has been established. The possibility of choosing between several alternative transmission routes contributes to faster transmission of a facsimile. The aforementioned feature also makes it possible to recognize a change in the second address of the receiving device and to include the changed second address in the data record. In this way, the data record is kept up to date. The successful establishment of a connection to the receiving device is advantageously indicated. It can also be displayed which transmission network was used to establish the connection.

The graphic information content of the document is expediently converted into a, preferably binary, data record suitable for transmission in the first or second transmission network. The data record produced for the transmission of the facsimile can be encrypted before transmission in the second transmission network using the open key corresponding to the second address, the encrypted data record advantageously being decrypted by the receiving device. This enables secure transmission of a facsimile in transmission networks that are not bug-proof.

A digital signature is advantageously added to the facsimile to be transmitted, e.g. according to the well-known public key procedure. The sending device uses the secret key to encrypt the name of the sending point, the transmission date and a checksum calculated from the unencrypted facsimile data. The receiving device can automatically decrypt the encrypted data using the open key of the sending device. This ensures that the facsimile is unadulterated.

A particularly secure transmission can be carried out by checking the open key of the receiving device 8th

Transmission device can be achieved. For this purpose, a further checksum can be added to the open key, which has been encrypted with the secret key of an independent certification body. By decrypting the encrypted further checksum using an open key from the certification body, any falsifications of the open key of the receiving device can be identified. To this end, before the creation of a data record containing the open key of the receiving device, the open key of the certification body can be queried by automatically establishing a connection between the transmitting device and the certification body, and a corresponding check can be carried out. The same naturally also applies in reverse for the receiving device.

According to the invention, a device for transmitting a facsimile is also provided with

aa) a device for checking whether a second address of a second transmission network corresponding to a transferred first address of a first transmission network is stored in a data record,

bb) a device for optionally establishing a connection to a receiving device by means of the first or second transmission network using the first or second address, cc) a device for querying at least one second address of the receiving device corresponding to the first address and

dd) a device for producing a data record, the first address being assigned as corresponding to the at least one second address.

The facilities lit. aa to dd are expediently combined in an additional device to be connected after a conventional fax machine. They can be part of a microcomputer in which a corresponding program is permanently entered. When setting up lit. dd can be a battery-buffered permanent storage. The means mentioned in claims 12 to 18 are advantageously functions or components of a corresponding computer program. Of course, the facilities lit. aa to dd can also be integrated in a fax machine or designed as a retrofit module in the form of a plug-in card.

A device for transferring the first address is advantageously provided. This device is preferably integrated in a conventional fax machine. This can be a keyboard for entering the first address or a storage device in which the first address is stored and from which it can be called up.

An embodiment of the invention is described in the drawing. Show it: 10

1 is a schematic representation of a previously common connection between two fax machines,

Fig. 2 is a schematic representation of the arrangement of fax machines and additional functions to illustrate the principle of the present invention and

Fig. 3 is a flow chart.

1, a sending fax machine 10 is connected to a receiving fax machine 50 via a telephone connection 30 established for the purpose of fax transmission. The billing for the transmission is typically done by costing the measured connection time.

2 shows a schematic representation of the arrangement according to the invention. There is again the possibility of connecting a sending fax machine 10 to a receiving fax machine 50 via a telephone connection 30. However, storage and switch boxes 20 and 40 are interposed here. The storage and switch boxes can select between the telephone connection 30 and the data network 32 and temporarily store the facsimile or fax sent by the fax machine 10 or forwarded to the fax machine 50 until the connection is actually manufactured. Of course, you can also choose between more than two alternative connection paths. If shipping as electronic mail or e-mail over a data network, such as the Internet, is chosen as the connection path, then 11

the fax to be transmitted is converted into a transmission form suitable for the respective network by means of a converter device 18 before transmission. In the case of the Internet, this means that the fax is packaged as electronic mail and sent to a destination address or transmitted using a data transfer service such as ftp, telnet, a real-time fax transmission protocol or others. On the receiver side, the transmitted fax must be converted back from the specific transmission format back into a normal fax format by a further converter device 58. At the conversion devices 18 and 58 there is an interface for an in-house data network, e.g. based on the TCP / IP protocol, via which the connection to the actual transmission network 32, e.g. the Internet takes place.

To send successfully, the sending fax machine 10 must know the destination address of the receiving fax machine 50 in the alternative transmission network 32. In the case of the Internet as an alternative transmission network 32, this destination address can be defined by an e-mail or IP address, ie a unique location designation of a resource on the Internet. The destination address in the alternative transmission network is different from the number of the fax machine in the conventional telephone network. In particular, it cannot be generated by prefixing a number combination, as is used for the selection of telephone service providers in the so-called call-by-call method. Knowing this destination address differentiates the method described here from solutions that are call-specific to reduce the costs 12

Select telephone service provider, e.g. so-called least-cost router.

The destination addresses of the alternative transmission network are advantageously stored in an address memory 12, in such a way that a destination address in the alternative transmission network 32 is assigned in pairs to each normal fax number required, in the case of the Internet, for example, the email address of the receiving fax machine.

The address memory 12 is advantageously kept as a non-volatile storage medium, which does not lose its data even after a power failure, at least over a certain period of time.

The address memory 12 can be in different ways

Data are occupied. On the one hand, such data about the

User interface 16 can be entered directly in pairs in the address memory 12. The embodiment of the user interface 16 can be very different: it can be implemented as a keyboard, but can also be a more comfortable computer interface or even an interface to a telecommunications or data network from which the data for the address memory is downloaded. When downloading data, either complete data records with all known assignments of conventional destination addresses and alternative destination addresses can be loaded. Likewise, user-specific subsets can also be loaded, for example from the last ones by the user 13

Have the selected fax numbers determined. This data can be exchanged particularly inexpensively via the alternative transmission network, e.g. by email.

However, another alternative for occupying the address memory is particularly advantageous. The addresses in the alternative transmission network are exchanged between two fax machines while they are connected via a conventional telephone connection at the start of the fax transmission. If an alternative address is used on the Internet, the devices exchange their e-mail or IP addresses in the greeting protocol during a conventional telephone connection. These are stored in the respective address memories 12 and 52. In the event of a renewed connection, this is established via the alternative connection network. It is also conceivable to abort the fax transmission of the first fax as soon as the alternative address is known and to forward the first fax to be transmitted via the Internet. In this case, the address memory can even be designed so small that only an alternative address, namely that of the fax currently being sent, is determined during the telephone connection and then stored in order to be used in the generation of the e-mail message .

There is also the possibility of entering an alternative destination address directly on the transmitting device, in particular in order to thereby address a destination device in an alternative transmission network directly, to which no address in the conventional transmission network is assigned at all. This is used there, for example 14

where a fax is to be sent from a fax machine to an e-mail address of a user who does not have a receiving fax machine at all.

The exchange protocol generators 14 and 54 take on the task of incorporating the respective alternative destination address into the connection protocol and reading out the alternative destination address of the opposite device, if any, and storing it in the address memory together with the normal fax number.

The units 52, 54 and 56 are functionally identical to 12, 14 and 16, they only belong to the receiving fax machine.

All additional devices can either be designed as separate retrofit parts for existing fax machines or, with new fax machines, are already advantageously part of the fax machine. The advantages according to the invention, e.g. Sending a document from a fax machine to an e-mail address can already be done with a single device mounted on the sender side. This is helpful for the rapid spread of the new technology, as there is immediate customer benefit.

An example of application for the use of the method according to the invention is the transmission of facsimile with specially expanded fax machines which use a switching method according to the invention. This means in particular that fax machines in addition to their phone number in the conventional telephone network with a further identifier in an alternative 15

Transmission network, e.g. an e-mail or IP address or a URL on the Internet.

Analogously, the method according to the invention can also be used in other document transmission systems that can be physically coupled to an alternative transmission network.

Another alternative embodiment also promises an increase in functionality. If a company has only one fax machine, a calling fax machine can not only request the identification address of the receiving fax machine in the alternative transmission network, but can also transmit the name of the employee to whom this fax is to be transmitted. The receiving fax machine then has the option of specifying the employee's directly in the alternative transmission network instead of his own identification address, e.g. in the form of an email address. This then advantageously allows the effort for distributing the faxes to be reduced from a central location. Instead of employees, function names in the company can of course also have identification addresses, e.g. Management, public relations etc. In this case, the identification addresses of your own employees or function names are stored in a memory 58 or 18 in the receiving fax machine.

It is also possible to have this internal data completely transmitted to the sending fax machine in order to give the sender a transparent selection option for the one that is optimal for him 16

Give destination address. This can be done, for example, using conventional fax-on-demand services, but it can also be done purely electronically via a display on the fax machine or a printout on the sending fax machine.

According to a further embodiment, the present invention can be combined with encryption techniques. A document is encrypted before being sent in an alternative transmission network and decrypted again before being sent to the recipient. This uses state-of-the-art encryption methods. These encryption methods make it possible to protect a facsimile from being spied on and falsified and to uniquely identify the sender. A subscriber has an open key accessible to everyone and a secret key known only to the subscriber. A message encrypted with one of the two keys can only be decrypted by the recipient using the other key. For the preferably automatic transmission of a facsimile in encrypted form, the respective open key can be exchanged between the transmitting and the receiving device. The authenticity of the open keys can in turn be checked by a checksum encrypted by a certification body. At the same time, the authenticity of the facsimile is ensured by a digital signature. A storage and automatic use of recipient-specific key information, such as PGP, is expediently carried out in the address memories 12 and 52, with the storage space possibly having to be expanded accordingly and secured against unauthorized access. 17

A data record can have the following structure:

Fax number of the 1st alternative destination Open key target device (FI) address of the 1 destination program 1st destination device device (AZ1) (OS1)

Fax number of the 2nd alternative destination open key of the destination device (F2) address of the 2 destination program of the 2nd destination device device (AZ1) (OS2)

... ...

Fax number of the n. Alternative destination open key target device (Fn) address of the n. Destination n. Target device devices (AZn) (OSn)

It is also possible to add columns to the table and to specify several alternative target addresses and / or keys for each target device. This can be used to still be able to send a fax via a further alternative destination address if a first alternative destination address cannot be reached.

In a further embodiment, messages are sent to message-receiving target devices, such as SMS-capable cell phones or so-called pagers, which can only receive text-oriented messages. A data network that is closely coupled to the telephone network or radio telephone network is typically used for the transmission. In this case, a printed or handwritten message must be put into machine-readable form before being sent, since only letter sequences but no images can be transmitted in the above-mentioned data networks. This is done on the transmitter side with an additional device in the converter device 18. 18th

The OCR (OCR = Optical Character Recognition) module used for character recognition that converts the printed document into electronic letters that are transmitted to the pager and displayed there. The use of transmission forms that can easily be filled in with block letters is also advantageous here.

According to a further exemplary embodiment, high-resolution or colored documents can also be transmitted if the fax machine is equipped accordingly. For this purpose, the scanner on the transmitter side only and the output device on the receiver side must be designed for the corresponding resolution or color levels. It is not necessary to change the transmission protocol, since when transmitting in alternative transmission networks, the document format is already standardized, e.g. TIFF that can be accessed.

3, the method according to the invention is shown again by way of example in the form of a flow chart. An additional device connected downstream of a conventional fax machine is used. First, the destination fax number is transferred from the conventional fax machine to the additional device. The additional device checks whether the destination fax number and, if applicable, an alternative address have already been saved. If not, a connection to the receiving device is established using the conventional telephone network. The additional device enables the query or exchange of the second address and, if necessary, the open key during the greeting protocol. The database or the data record containing the first and second address is then produced and managed. 19

If an alternative address for the destination fax number is already known, the additional device automatically connects to the receiving device via an alternative transmission network, e.g. the internet, fro. The facsimile is automatically transmitted in encrypted form.

Claims

20 patent claims

1. Procedure for transmitting a facsimile with the following steps:

c3) querying at least one second address corresponding to the first address and

c4) producing a data record, the first address being assigned as corresponding to the at least one second address. 2 1

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein during or after step lit. c2 at least one second address of the transmitting device is transmitted to the receiving device.

3. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein during or after the step lit. c2 an open key of the receiving device is queried and stored in the data record as corresponding to the first or second address.

4. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein during or after step lit. c2 at least one open key of the transmitting device is transmitted to the receiving device.

5. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein during or after the step lit. c2 the connection to the first transmission network is interrupted and a new connection is established using the second transmission network using the second address.

6. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the steps lit. c2 - c4 are executed if in step lit. cl no connection to the receiving device has been established.

7. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the successful establishment of a connection to the receiving device is displayed. 22

8. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the graphic information content of the document is converted into a data record suitable for transmission in the first or second transmission network.

9. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the data set produced for transmission of the facsimile is encrypted before transmission in the second transmission network using the open key corresponding to the second address.

10. The method according to any one of the preceding claims, wherein the encrypted data set is decrypted by the receiving device.

11. Device for transmitting a facsimile

aa) a device for checking whether there is a corresponding second address of a second transmission network stored in a data record for a transferred first address of a first transmission network,

bb) a device for selectively establishing a connection to a receiving device by means of the first or second transmission network using the first or second address,

cc) a device for querying at least one second address of the receiving device corresponding to the first address and 23

12. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein a means for transmitting at least a second address of the transmitting device to the receiving device is provided.

13. Device according to one of claims 11 or 12, wherein a means for querying at least one open key of the receiving device is provided.

14. Device according to one of claims 11 to 13, wherein a means for transmitting at least one open key of the transmitting device to the receiving device is provided.

15. Device according to one of claims 11 to 14, wherein a means for interrupting the connection in the first transmission network and for subsequently establishing a new connection in the second transmission network is provided using the second address.

16. Device according to one of claims 11 to 15, wherein a means for indicating a successful establishment of a connection to the receiving device is provided.

17. The apparatus according to any one of claims 11 to 16, wherein a means for converting the graphic information content 24

of the document is provided in a data record suitable for transmission in the first or second transmission network.

18. Device according to one of claims 11 to 17, wherein a means for encrypting the data set produced for transmission of the facsimile is provided prior to transmission in the second transmission network using the open key corresponding to the second address.

19. Device according to one of the preceding claims, wherein a device is provided for transferring the first address to the transmitting device.