FR2660505A1 - Method of transmitting a fax to computer equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

This relates to transmitting a fax comprising a message and a header. The header alone is coded on transmission and decoded on reception by the computer equipment with no risk of error. The coding of the header is done by bar codes. In order to decode the header on reception, the region (12) of the bar codes is divided into disconnected horizontal sub-regions (13), and the thickness of the first decoded black line portion of each of the sub-regions, which is considered as origin (14), is determined.

Description

The present invention relates to a method for transmitting a facsimile to computer equipment. The computer equipment is supposed to have a fax function. A priori, it will be a computer which, once the fax has been received, will have to process it, for example by retransmitting it, archiving it, putting it in a "mailbox", etc.

The processing that the IT equipment will undergo on the fax will naturally depend on information transmitted with the fax, which can be qualified as header information associated with the message to be faxed, such as, for example, the identification of the sender of the fax, the recipient, their address, etc.

A problem can arise when the header is handwritten.

It may not be properly recognized on the receiving side. In this case, the right treatment would not be guaranteed.

The present invention aims to overcome such a drawback.

To this end, the present invention relates to a method of transmission, from a transmitting facsimile machine to a receiving computer equipment, of a facsimile machine comprising a message and a header, characterized in that the header only is coded on transmission and decoded on reception by computer equipment.

Thanks to the coding and coding of the header, the fax is recognized on the receiving side without risk of error.

Preferably, the coding on transmission and the decoding on reception are automatic.

Advantageously, the coding of the header is carried out by bar codes.

Advantageously also, to decode the header upon reception, the barcode area is divided into disjointed horizontal sub-areas and the thickness of the first portion of black line decoded from each of the sub-areas is considered as origin.

In this case, and preferably, an odd number of sub-areas is cut out and the first black line in the code is considered to be that consisting of a majority of first portions of black line of the same thickness.

The invention will be better understood using the following description of the preferred implementation of the method of the invention, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which - Figure 1 is a schematic view of part of the system for the implementation of the method of the invention, with the sending fax machine, the barcode printing equipment and the receiving computer equipment and - FIG. 2 is a drawing illustrating the recognition, on reception, barcode lines.

The method of the invention which will now be described aims, from a conventional facsimile machine 1 used in transmission, and towards computer equipment 2, used in reception, endowed with a facsimile function, to facsimile a message accompanied by an information header allowing the IT equipment to ensure appropriate processing of the fax after its reception.

The header here consists of bar codes. Barcodes are made up of a succession of groups of thin and thick black lines separated by white spaces, each group being separated from an adjacent group by a white space wider than those which separate the lines of the same group. The lines have a given height making it possible to compensate for the alterations likely to be caused during the transmission of the fax. The bar codes are representative of alphanumeric information such as, for example, the number identifying the sending fax machine, the subscriber reference number and the recipient reference.

The bar codes are arranged on a sheet, in an area larger than the area of the same sheet reserved for the message, to overcome the localization errors which can be introduced both by the operator and by the facsimile equipment, with a strip. thick white at the top of the barcode area, to allow good recognition of these codes on reception.

On the transmission side, the facsimile machine 1 is associated with equipment 3 for printing bar codes, here a microcomputer itself associated with a graphic printer and with printing software, but which could also be specialized equipment according to the application. The sending fax machine includes a module 4 for analyzing the barcode header 5 and a compression module 6.

On the reception side, the computer equipment 2 includes a fax access module 7, a decompression module 8, an image storage module 9 and a recognition module 10, transforming the image of the header of the bar codes in characters (numbers, letters, ...).

System operation
The information in the header associated with the fax message is entered and printed on a sheet on the equipment 3. The sheet is placed in the sending fax machine 1 with the other message sheets. The computer equipment 2 is called by the facsimile machine 1, through the switched telephone network 11, then the sheets are transmitted. The bar codes are then decoded in the equipment 2 for subsequent processing.

In the case of an A4 format fax, the resolution adopted in the analysis module is 1,728 picture elements, or pixels, or points, per 215 mm horizontal line and 2,339 horizontal lines in height.

The analysis of a sheet therefore leads to a map, or bitmap, of 4041792 points or 505224 bytes.

The fine black lines here have a width of 1 to 2 points, the thick lines, from 3 to 4 points, the white spaces between lines of the same group, from 3 to 4 points and the white spaces between groups of lines, 6 to 8 points.

After transmission, on reception, the pixels are decompressed 8, stored 9 in the image memory, containing the point map and then decoded and recognized 10. The decoding is carried out by scanning the image memory, line of pixels per line of pixels in the point map.

Barcode area search
From the top of the area containing a priori the bar codes, one searches, over the minimum width over which the bar codes would extend, a succession of 3 or 4 lines of identical or almost identical dots and whose successions of black dots and whites are compatible with coding, that is to say with short half-waves. If the analyzed area is empty, the image must be "turned over" and the analysis started again, the sheet having been able to be inserted upside down in the sending fax machine.

Barcode decoding
We start by cutting the area 12 of the bar codes into horizontal sub-areas 13, of 8 successive lines, spaced from each other and here in an odd number 2n + l in order to be able to proceed, as explained below, to a determination of original line thickness by majority vote. In each sub-area 13, the analysis is carried out, starting from the left, column of points by column of points to determine the color of each of the columns. As a decision criterion, it was adopted here that a column was black if at least 5 points, out of the 8, were black. The thickness of the first portions of black line is therefore determined from the left, of the sub-areas 13. If at least a majority n + l of these first portions of decoded line have the same thickness, it is determined that they form the first line of the thickness code thus determined and the other line portions are identified, as well as the spaces between lines in each sub-area, from these first portions considered as origins.

If less than n of the first line portions do not have the same thickness, it is then examined whether the following line portions, to the right, cannot be considered as origins.

It will be noted that the fact of analyzing disjoint sub-zones of 8 lines of points makes it possible to compensate for a possible inclination, on the vertical, of the bars, up to a value of 7, greater than that which can be introduced. by the different elements of the transmission chain and the operator.

In Figure 2, there is shown a first thin line origin 14 inclined. The division of the zone 12 into subzones 13 and the adoption of a thickness determination criterion by majority vote, in addition to overcoming the drawback of an inclination of the bars, make it possible to reduce the analysis times as well as possible.

The bars being recognized and determined, both in their thickness and their spacing, the alphanumeric information associated with the message is reconstituted.

Claims (5)

Claims 1. A method of transmission, from a transmission fax machine (1) to a reception computer equipment (2), of a fax machine comprising a message and a header, characterized in that the header only is coded (3, 5) on transmission and decoded (9, 10) on reception by the computer equipment (2). 2. Method according to claim 1, in which the coding on transmission and the decoding on reception are automatic. 3. Method according to claim 1, in which the coding of the header is carried out by bar codes (5). 4. Method according to claim 3, in which, to decode the header on reception, the area (12) of the bar codes is cut into horizontal sub-areas (13) which are disjoint and the thickness of the first is determined. portion of black line decoded from each of the sub-areas considered as origin. 5. Method according to claim 3, in which an odd number of sub-areas is cut out (13) and the first black line of the code is considered to be that consisting of a majority of first portions of black line of the same thickness.