Facsimile telecommunications system and method

Abstract

A system and method for facilitating facsimile transmissions has one or more store and forward facilities. The store and forward facilities include a computer for controlling operations and mass data storage equipment. Subscriber mailboxes are provided as part of the mass storage, which can be accessed by a subscriber to have his messages delivered to any facsimile machine he designates. Secure facsimile transmission is achieved through use of subscriber PIN numbers. The system can also be used in cooperation with a paperless facsimile machine which directly displays the facsimile message on a screen and is capable of entering outgoing facsimile messages to the store and forward facility.

Description

[0001] This is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 07 / 248,798 on Sep. 0.22, 1988, in the name of Richard J. Gordon and James R. Kennedy and assigned to F-Mail Associates, L.P.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The field of this invention is telecommunications systems used in connection with facsimile transmissions. More specifically, this invention relates to a system and method for enhancing ease of facsimile transmissions and providing features relative to facsimile transmissions not heretofore available. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] The electronic transmission of documents by way of facsimile (fax) systems employing public and private switched telephone networks has become both commonplace and, often, an essential component in many business activities. In such a setting, it is very common for the fax terminals (fax machines) to be kept quite busy during a major fraction of the business day. Moreover, where sender and recipient are in different time zones, the “busines...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0017] Placing the delivering spooling system geographically near the destination machine has the advantage of more economical use of any long-distance lines that may be involved. These lines are used only to move the message from the originator to the spooling system in the vicinity of the destination, which is virtually certain to be successful on the first try. Subsequent attempts to contact the destination machine can be handled more or less locally and need not tie up the bulk of the long-distance facilities.

[0019] An important feature of the system is that it recognizes all of the documents that are spooled in the system at a given time for a given destination machine. These are identified and linked together to form a message queue for that machine. In this way, once contact is established, all of the waiting messages can be “dumped” to that machine in a continuous batch. Furthermore, if new messages arrive while that dump is occurring, they are simply appended to the end of the active queue and are transmitted when their turn comes. This has the advantage of greatly enhancing the utilization efficiency of a busy destination machine.

[0021] Similarly, since the documents are stored near the originator, the system can permit messages which have already been sent to be copied to other destinations after the fact, without the necessity of resending the message to the SAFF. Likewise, since the messages are also spooled in a facility near the destination, the system also provides the recipient with the option of forwarding or redirecting documents to still other destinations, as if the recipient were the originator. The system can also accept and store messages destined for a fictitious destination or “Mail Box”. Thus, individuals who are traveling can, at their convenience, dial into the system and pick up any waiting documents.

[0022] Other services are provided that are particularly useful to individuals who are not at the “home” machines. For example, so-called “paperless” fax terminals, small portable computers equipped with modems and software programs which enable them to emulate fax terminals, are being employed at an increasing rate. The Mail Box system recognizes a variety of these devices and provides interactive features to facilitate their use. In this case, the SAFF can either periodically retry to communicate with the intended paperless fax terminal or transmit the fax message to another paperless fax terminal or fax machine as instructed by the recipient or sender. In addition, the system recognizes a small, highly portable Mail Box Reader that consists of an adapter that can be connected between the user's telephone and a normal television set (for example, in a hotel room), allowing the user to display fax messages received from the Mail Box on the TV screen.

[0025] Closely akin to these features is the ability to have the originator of a transmission include the requirement that the recipient provide a security code, such as a PIN number, in order to release the document from the spool to the destination machine. In this case, the SAFF sends a written report to the destination machine advising that a secure message is waiting for a particular recipient and the fax identification of the originating machine. The recipient must then call in to the SAFF and key in the security code to initiate the delivery of the document. Since the document is spooled, the delivery easily may be delayed until the recipient is available to supply the code.

[0026] Finally, since the documents and their delivery are both under the control of the telephone system, as a special service the telephone call accounting system can provide both time and charges for the telephone services rendered and fax information, such as pages transmitted, sorted according to the originator's clients. This can greatly facilitate the fax user who wishes to do cost accounting or to bill clients for costs incurred.

Problems solved by technology

These circumstances present a number of practical problems for a fax user.

This is a “hit or miss” process at best and can be very wasteful of the originating operator's time.

However, this is limited to only one or two documents and, more importantly, it ties up the transmitting machine until the effort is successful or abandoned.

This is hardly an acceptable solution if that machine has other documents to send or receive.

There are other conditions which can result in a failure to transmit even though a telephone connection has been established.

In such situations, repeated attempts to “redial” will lead to repeated toll charges with each attempt, with no actual success until the receiving machine is serviced (which may be some time if the machine is operating unattended because it is nighttime half-way around the world).

Busy machines which are destined to receive messages are affected by the converse problem.

Since they and the prospective transmitting machines must engage in (perhaps, automated) “telephone tag”, they are used very inefficiently.

Thus, the receiving machine will likely remain idle for some fraction of the time until such an attempt is made.

The practice of broadcasting documents to a number of addressees obviously compounds these problems and adds still others of its own.

Even if one does not encounter busy signals or impaired machines, convenient broadcasting demands an expensive memory-type fax machine on the transmitting end.

This, of course, exacerbates the busy signal problem for those units trying to contact the sending machine.

The security of sensitive documents is still another problem.

This is a very inconvenient situation in that it requires that the paper documents be held until the traveler phones in from a remote machine.

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