FR2743460A1 - SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR FAX CERTIFICATION - Google Patents

Abstract

Systems for certifying the transmission, reception and content of a facsimile are disclosed. The system includes a facsimile transmission/reception device (12) in which signals received for each facsimile are recorded in a memory (MF1-MF8), an identification device (14) for identifying characteristics of the sender and addressee of the facsimile, a decision device (16) that uses identification characteristics and specific criteria to determine whether or not to forward the received facsimile to the addressee and optionally send a message to the sender, and a recording device (18) for recording the received facsimile on a non-rewritable recording medium.

Description

SYSTEMB AND METHOD FOR CERTIFYING FAX
A system for certifying the content of a facsimile as needed and a method of implementing the system.

In the business world, the exchange of information and the commitments made is increasingly done through faxes so that the use of these as legal proof is becoming more and more common. However, faxes can be challenged as legal evidence on several aspects such as the lack of identification of the sender or recipient of the fax, the certainty that the pages received correspond to those issued in number and content, etc ...

 Third-party certification certification systems are known under the supervision of a bailiff and an accredited court expert with certification of the content of the documents transmitted.

However, these systems are complicated to implement by their users because they require a cumbersome procedure that can not be automated.

An object of the present invention is therefore to provide a third-party certification certification system that is fully automatic and safe from falsification.

The invention relates to a third-party certification certification system, characterized in that it comprises: - facsimile transmission / reception means in
which the signals received for each facsimile are
stored in a memory, - means for identifying the characteristics of
the sender and the recipient of the fax, - means of decision which, from the
identifying characteristics and criteria
particulars, determine the redirection or not of
the fax received to the recipient and the sending
possible to the sender of a message, and - means of recording the fax received and
characteristics of the fax received, the
decision taken and the fax forwarded to the
recipient on a recording medium of the type
non-rewritable.

The means for transmitting / receiving facsimile, the means for identifying the characteristics of the sender and the recipient and the decision means are made by a computer in which are connected electronic transmission / reception of fax cards available in and in which are recorded appropriate software that is also commercially available such as facsimile, received or transmit signal processing software, facsimile signal analysis to recognize alphanumeric characters, identification of the meaning of the alphanumeric characters, control of the means of recording.

To benefit from the certification system according to the invention, the shipper must, in one variant, perform a pre-payment of the certification services and the system then comprises, in addition, pre-payment management means which consist essentially of by appropriate software, also commercially available.

The various means listed above are enclosed in a closed enclosure which is sealed by a bailiff, the only connections of the enclosure to the outside being the telephone line or facsimile, a plug of power supply associated with a switch, an input / output device of the computer diskette with an access control button, an input / output device of the recording medium with an access control button and a alarm device.

The computer diskette may contain only information and / or instructions relating to the management of pre-payments that have no connection with the handling of faxes and their management.

The invention also relates to a third-party certification certification process by the certification system described above, characterized in that it comprises the following steps: a) transmission by the sender of a fax to
certify to the certification system, the
fax with a specific format for the first
page to indicate the characteristics of
sender and recipient, b) receipt of fax to be certified by the system
certification and registration of received signals
for each fax in a memory, c) analyze the received signals for each fax and
corresponding to the first page to identify the
characteristics of the consignor and the consignee, (d) analysis of the identified characteristics of the
the sender and the recipient; (e) where the results of the analysis of the
characteristics are not satisfactory, issue
an error message to the sender, f) in the case where the results of the analysis of the
characteristics are satisfactory, emission towards
the recipient of the received fax, and g) recording on the non-recording medium
rewritable fax received as such
registered in that memory and
features of fax reception by
the certification system and by the recipient,
those resulting from the analysis of the fax received
and those relating to the decision taken.

In the case of prepayments by the senders, the method further includes the step of comparing the characteristics of the sender with those of the persons having made pre-payments to authorize the forwarding of the fax to the recipient only if the sender's pre-payment credit is sufficient for the price of the certification.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will appear on reading the following description of a particular embodiment, said description being made in relation to the accompanying drawings in which - Figure 1 is a block diagram of a system of
fax certification according to this
invention, and - Figure 2 is a simplified diagram of a device
using N = 8 telephone lines.

A third party certification certification system 10 comprises, as shown in the block diagram of FIG. 1, a fax transmission / reception device 12, an identification device 14 of the characteristics of the sender and the recipient of the fax. facsimile, a decision device 16 which, based on the identified characteristics and particular criteria, decides whether or not to forward to the recipient of the received facsimile and a recording device 18 of the received facsimile on a non-erasable medium after a first registration, that is to say a non-rewritable support.

The devices 12, 14 and 16 are in fact made using a computer 22 equipped with additional electronic cards and suitably programmed as will be described hereinafter.

The fax transmission / reception device 12 is of conventional type and comprises at least one telephone line input / output so as to allow the reception or the emission of a fax. For example, the device 12 is connected to N = 8 telephone lines input / output LT1 to LT8, each telephone line being respectively connected to an electronic card CF1 to CF8 (Figure 2) which constitutes an additional card of the computer 22.

Each electronic card CF1 to CF8 very schematically includes a modem MOD1 to MOD8 for receiving and transmitting the facsimile signals and a memory MF1 to
MF8 to record signals received or to be transmitted.

The signals recorded in the memories MF1 to MF8 are processed by the computer 22 using appropriate software, for example the one known under the trademark
WINFAX and marketed by BVRP SOFTWARE.

The identification device 14 of the sender and recipient characteristics of the facsimile analyzes the received signals corresponding to the first page of the facsimile to recognize the alphanumeric characters and to interpret them.

This first page has a particular format as shown in TABLE 1, the information contained in this first page being essential for the operation of the system of the invention.

This first page is, for example, divided into four parts P1, P2, P3 and P4.

Part P1 indicates the legal value that is assigned to the fax whose content is listed on the following pages, namely: "Certified Fax" or "1Confirmation Recommended in Prepayment".

Part P2 identifies the recipient of the fax by name, address, and fax line number. This part P2 also indicates the total number of pages of the fax and its character URGENT or NO. Finally, this party identifies the sender of the fax by name, address, fax number and possibly telephone number. In addition, an identification code can be assigned to the sender as an accredited user of the system.

Part P3 is reserved for free text while part P4 is reserved to give general information for the use of the sender but especially the recipient.

For the operation of the system, only the information in Part P2 is essential. To simplify their identification, they will preferably be arranged in boxes whose positions in the page are perfectly defined.

TABLE 1

<tb> P1 <SEP> Fax <SEP> Certified
<tb><SEP> (or <SEP> Confirmation <SEP> Recommended <SEP> in <SEP> Pre-Payment.
<Tb>

P2 <SEP> Recipient <SEP>: <SEP> DURAND <SEP> NO <SEP> FAX
<tb><SEP> ADDRESS
<tb><SEP> Number <SEP> of <SEP> pages
<tb><SEP> including <SEP> this one <SEP>: <SEP> URGENT <SEP>: <SEP> YES / NO
<tb><SEP> Sender <SEP>: <SEP> DUPONT <SEP> Code
<tb><SEP> ADDRESS <SEP> NO <SEP> FAX
<tb><SEP> NO <SEP> TELEPHONE
<tb> P3 <SEP> Other <SEP> any <SEP> information
<tb> P4 <SEP> The <SEP> copy <SEP> of <SEP> this <SEP> document <SEP> is <SEP> archived
<tb><SEP> automatically <SEP> on <SEP> a <SEP> support <SEP> No
<tb><SEP> rewritable <SEP> with <SEP> the <SEP><SEP> date and <SEP><SEP> time of
<tb><SEP> receiving <SEP> by <SEP> the <SEP> recipient. <SEP> It <SEP> owns
<tb><SEP> the same <SEP><SEP> value <SEP> legal <SEP> as <SEP> the original
<tb><SEP> (Article <SEP> 1348, <SEP> paragraph <SEP> 2 <SEP> of <SEP> Code <SEP> Civil) <SEP> and <SEP> is
<tb><SEP> passed <SEP> to <SEP> sender <SEP> on <SEP> simple <SEP> request
<tb><SEP> for <SEP> is <SEP> that <SEP> only <SEP> of <SEP> is right.
<Tb>

The identification device 14 includes facsimile signal analysis software for determining the alphanumeric characters of the first page or at least P2 and alphanumeric character recognition software for identifying the elements of the P2 part.

Such software is for example commercially marketed under the trademark EASY RIDER ELITE and is sold by INNOVATIC.

The decision device 16 is made by the computer 22 in the form of appropriate software and the decisions taken are a function of the characteristics identified or not of the part P2 of the first page of the fax.

In the event that the identification of the information contained in the P2 part does not reveal any error, the fax that has been received on one of the telephone lines LT1 to LT8 is re-transmitted in the as-received state to the identified recipient. to the identified number of the recipient's telephone line.

Then, as will be explained in more detail below, the received fax will be recorded as received on an in erasable recording medium after a first, ie non-rewritable, recording via of a recording device 18.

The recording medium is, for example, a disc of the compact disc type, read only, better known by the abbreviation "CD-ROM" and the recording device 18 will be a "burner" CD disc -ROM. Such a CD-ROM recording device is for example that sold under the reference CDR102 by YAMAHA MUSIQUE FRANCE. Such a recording device is under the control of the computer 22 via appropriate software such as that sold under the trademark EASY-CD
PRO by INCAT SYSTEMS.

This recording medium must make it possible to keep a copy of the received fax which is the indelible, faithful and lasting reproduction of the received document by irreversibly modifying a medium. In the following description, such a medium will be defined as being non-rewritable, that is to say, it can not be re-registered or deleted after a first registration.

The computer 22 implements, in addition to the software that has been mentioned above, other so-called management software which will be described in greater detail below, in connection with the description of the operation of the system.

The computer 22, including the electronic cards CF1 CF8, and the recording device 18 are enclosed in an enclosure 20 which is sealed by a bailiff. The only connections between the elements enclosed in this enclosure and the outside world are - an electrical power socket 24 with a
switch (not shown), - the telephone lines LT1 to LT8, - an input / output device 26 for a floppy disk
of the computer 22 with an access control button
(not shown), an input / output device 28 for a CD disk
ROM 32 of the recording device 18 with a
access control button (not shown), an alarm device 34, for example a sound device, for
indicate the existence of an error status message from the
system.

To ensure the falsifiable nature of the contents of CD-ROM 32 discs, these are primarily used indelibly numbered by a bailiff on one and / or the other of their faces.

The floppy disk 30 constitutes the only access to the computer 22 and can only contain information and / or instructions relating to the management of the system, this information and / or instructions therefore having no connection with the processing of faxes.

The operation of the system of Figure 1 will now be described in the case where a fax sender wishes his fax to be certified as to its date and content. To qualify for such a certification service, the sender must be recognized as a user who has subscribed to the contract certification system with pre-payment of a sum credited to the user's account. However, this service could work without this aspect.

For this purpose, the various users of the system will have to sign a contract in which they will be assigned a code number and an amount according to the monetary value of the pre-payment made. In addition to this code number and amount, each user record will also include his address, fax number and possibly his telephone number.

The processing steps for received faxes are as follows: 1. Arrival of a fax, 2. Assignment of the first free line among
eight lines LT1 to LT8, for example LT1, for
receive the fax, 3. Receive the fax via the electronic card
CF1 to CF8 assigned to the assigned line, ie
say CF1 in the described case, thanks to the software of
receipt of the CF1 card and registration of the
fax received in the memory MF1, 4. Scanning memories MF1 to MF8 to detect the
receiving a fax, using the WINFAX software, 5. Stopping the scanning of memories MF1 to MF8
detecting a received fax, for example on MF1, 6.Recording the received and selected fax
on the hard drive of the computer 22, for example
in a first F1 file (not shown), 7. Analyzing the first page of the fax with
character recognition software for
determine the alphanumeric characters contained
in at least P2, 8. Identification of the information represented by the
alphanumeric characters of certain areas of the
Part P2 that are - the type of fax
"Certified Fax" (or "Recommended Confirmation"
in Pre-Payment "),
- the character of the fax: URGENT or NO,
- the sender's code,
- the sender's fax number,
- the number of pages of the fax.

9. Analysis of zone information and decision on
following the procedure, 10. Whatever the result of the analysis and the
decision taken - recording on the hard disk of the computer 22,
for example in a second F2 file (no
represented), receiving characteristics of the
received fax, results of the analysis performed
and the decision taken.

11. Deferred transmission or not of the received fax
to the addressee in the case of a decision
resignation.

12. Recording on the computer's hard disk
22, for example in a third file F3 (no
represented), characteristics of the reception by
the recipient of the fax.

13. Switch to the next fax in memory
MF1 if there is another one or one of the memories
MF2 to MF8 if no other fax exists in
the memory MF1, that is to say, resuming the scanning of
step 4.

14. Saving F1, F2 and F3 files on the disc
hard of the computer 22 on the CD-ROM, that is
say about non-rewritable memory.

Step 9 Analysis and Decision may result in the following decisions depending on the outcome of the analysis
9.1 if the sender's code and the number of the
fax are wrong
- destruction of the received fax in the memory
MF1 and,
- change to the next fax in the memory
MF1 or in one of the following memories MF2 or MF8,
9.2 if the sender's code is incorrect and if the
fax number is correct
- destruction of the received fax in the memory
MF1 and,
- sending a fax to the sender for
warn him of the error,
- in addition, invoicing the service
corresponding to the sender by debiting his account
pre-payment, 9.3 if the sender's code is correct and the fax number is incorrect
- destruction of the received fax in the memory
MF1 and,
- sending a fax to the fax number
corresponding to the code of the sender,
- in addition, invoicing the service
corresponding to the sender identified by the code
by debiting his pre-payment code.

9.4 if the sender's code is correct and the recipient's fax number is unreadable
- destruction of the fax received in the memory MF1,
- sending a fax to the sender for
warn him of the error, furthermore
- billing of the provision of services to
the sender by debit on his prepayment account.

9.5 if the sender's code is correct and the
Prepay account is exhausted
- destruction of the fax received in the memory MF1,
- alternatively, send a fax to
the sender to indicate that the account is
exhausted or insufficient and the redirection to the addressee will not take place.

9.6 if the number of pages received is different from the expected number
- destruction of the received fax in the memory
MF1 and,
- sending a fax to the sender for
tell him this error; In addition, billing
delivery to the sender by debit on the pre-payment account
9.7 if everything is correct
- decision to send the fax received to the
recipient and,
- billing of the service performed
the sender by debit on the account of pre
payment,
- alternatively, sending a fax to
the sender to indicate the forwarding to
the recipient of the fax and the
corresponding characteristics.

The steps just described show that all received faxes, whether forwarded or not, are saved to disk
CD-ROM as received from the F1 file of the hard disk of the computer 22.

In addition, the F2 and F3 files are saved on the CD-ROM disc and contain the following information - that provided by any fax on receipt and
on the show, know
date / time of the fax,
number of pages transmitted,
duration of emission,
receiving code or error code, etc., ...

- those provided by the identification of information
of part P2 of the first standard page of the
fax, know
the fax number of the recipient,
the sender's fax number,
the subscriber code of the sender,
the sender's phone number,
the urgency of faxing - those resulting from the analysis of information
identified and the decision taken, this information
can be in the form of codes.

The computer management of all these elements can be achieved by a database management software of the type marketed under the trademarks
DBASE3, DBASE4 or FOX PRO.

The above description shows that the facsimile certification method according to the invention comprises the following steps: a) transmission by the sender of a fax to
certify to the certification system, the
fax with a specific format for the first
page to indicate the characteristics of
sender, recipient and fax, b) receipt of fax to be certified by the system
certification and registration of received signals
for each fax in a memory, c) analyze the received signals for each fax and
corresponding to the first page to identify the
characteristics of the sender, the recipient and
faxing, d) analysis of the characteristics of the sender, the
addressee and fax, e) in the event that the results of the analysis are not
unsatisfactory, issuing an error message to the sender, f) in the case where the results of the analysis are
satisfactory, transmission to the addressee of the
received fax, g) recording on the recording medium not
rewritable (32) fax received as is
as recorded in said memory and
characteristics of the fax received, the
decision taken and the fax forwarded to the
recipient.

In certain circumstances, the sender may be interested in receiving, at his own expense, a fax confirmation of a document sent, such as an order for goods and / or services. In this case, the invention provides that the sender sends, by any means, to the addressee of the order, a page whose area P1 includes the words: "Confirmation
Recommended in Pre-Payment ".

Field P2 includes the characteristics of the sender and the receiver but in this case, the recipient is in fact the original sender who is interested in receiving this confirmation, sender who is a user of the certification system and to whom has been assigned a code number for pre-payment transactions. This is the code number of the original sender that appears on this page. This page may be sent by the original sender either by normal fax, certified fax or other means.

In order to ensure protection of the user of the certification system with regard to unauthorized use of the prepayment by a non-user third party, the user's code is alternatively subjected to an encryption process. sending to the sender and reverse decryption processing in the certification system.

For this purpose, the user of the certification system receives a floppy disk or an electronic card compatible with his fax machine which may be a microcomputer equipped with a WINFAX device or other. The diskette or electronic card contains software for processing the user's code so as to result in new code that can only be decrypted by the certification system using appropriate software.

This diskette may also contain the format of the first page of the fax whether it is a "Certified Fax" or a "Confirmation"
Recommended in Pre-Payment ".

Claims (11)

A third-party certification certification system, characterized in that it includes - facsimile transmission / reception means (12)  in which the signals received for each fax  are stored in a memory, - means for identifying (14) characteristics  of the sender and recipient of the fax, - means of decision (16) which, from  identifying characteristics and criteria  particulars, determines the redirection or not of the  fax received to the recipient and the sending  possible to the sender of a message, and - means of recording (18) the fax  received and the characteristics of the fax received,  the decision taken and the fax sent back to the  recipient on a recording medium of the type  non-rewritable. 2. System according to claim 1, characterized in that  the means of transmitting / receiving facsimile  (12), the identification means (14), the means for  Decision (16) and the means of recording the  fax (18) are enclosed in an enclosure (20)  under seal. 3. System according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that the fax transmission / reception means (12), the identification means (14) and the decision means (16) are made by a computer (22). ) equipped with at least one electronic card for transmitting / receiving facsimile and for transmitting / receiving facsimile, identifying, interpreting and comparing alphanumeric characters. 4. System according to claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized in that the identification means (14) are made by a character recognition software contained in all or part of the first page of the received fax. 5. System according to claim 1, 2, 3 or 4, characterized in that the recording means (18) comprise an engraving device on a medium of the CD-ROM disk type. 6. System according to any one of the preceding claims 1 to 5, characterized in that the decision means comprise at least one memory in which the identification characteristics of the users of the certification system and the amount of the monetary credit are recorded. for their own account for third-party certification operations, said memory being updated as necessary according to the new users, the payments made by the users and the operations carried out by third-party certification. A method of certifying third-party fax certification by the certification system according to the preceding claims 1 to 6, characterized in that it comprises the following steps: a) transmission by the sender of a fax to  certify to the certification system, the  fax with a specific format for the first  page to indicate the characteristics of  sender, recipient and fax, b) receipt of fax to be certified by the system  certification and registration of received signals  for each fax in a memory, c) analyze the received signals for each fax and  corresponding to the first page to identify the  characteristics of the sender, the recipient and  faxing, d) analysis of the characteristics of the sender, the  addressee and fax, e) in the event that the results of the analysis are not  unsatisfactory, issuing an error message to the sender, f) in the case where the results of the analysis are  satisfactory, transmission to the addressee of the  received fax, g) recording on the recording medium not  rewritable (32) fax received as is  as recorded in said memory and  characteristics of the fax received, the  decision taken and the fax forwarded to the  recipient. 8. Method according to claim 7, characterized in that it comprises, in addition, the next step in the case where the senders are users of the certification system with prepayment according to one of claims 1 to 6 - comparison of the characteristics of the sender with  those of the users of the certification system  to allow forwarding of fax  received to the recipient only if the sender is a  system user whose pre-payment credit  is sufficient for the price of certification. 9. The method of claim 8, characterized in that the format of the first page of the fax is determined by a computer file provided to the user. 10. Method according to claim 9, characterized in that the format of the first page comprises a code identifying the user, said file further comprising a software for encrypting said code to obtain an encrypted code which is decrypted by the certification system. according to the invention. 11. The method as claimed in claim 8, 9 or 10, characterized in that step a) is preceded, in the case of a "Recommended Confirmation in Pre-Payment", of a sending by the user to the addressee. a first page indicating the user as the recipient of the confirmation and the code of the user encrypted or not.