WO1999065225A1

WO1999065225A1 - Facsimile document enhancement system

Info

Publication number: WO1999065225A1
Application number: PCT/US1999/012268
Authority: WO
Inventors: Randy G. Goldberg; Kenneth H. Rosen
Original assignee: At & T Corp.
Priority date: 1998-06-12
Filing date: 1999-06-02
Publication date: 1999-12-16

Abstract

A facsimile document enhancement system is disclosed. In one embodiment of the present invention, a document that is electronically transmitted in a standardized facsimile format is received at a network. The network enhances the received faxed document and transmits the enhanced document to the intended recipient. The document is received by the intended recipient on standard facsimile receiving equipment.

Description

FACSIMILE DOCUMENT ENHANCEMENT SYSTEM

Background of the Invention

The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for a facsimile system. More specifically, the invention provides for enhancing the quality of a faxed document before the document is output from a receiving fax machine to an intended recipient.

Documents can be quickly and easily transferred from one party to another party by transmitting a facsimile of the document that is to be transferred. However, whereas the document can be easily faxed to a recipient, there are drawbacks with current facsimile transmission systems. Often faxed documents are received but the quality of the document is such that it may be difficult to read. Thus, even though the document can be quickly and easily sent to the recipient, the quality of the document may be such that it cannot be used by the recipient. Compounding the problem, if the received faxed document is then again faxed to another recipient, the quality of the faxed document will be further degraded. To fax a document using present day technology, the transmitting fax machine scans the image of the document into the fax machine. The resolution of the image of the document that is scanned into the transmitting fax machine is dependent upon the scanning pixel resolution of the transmitting fax machine. Thus, if the transmitting fax machine has poor resolution or large scanning inaccuracies, the received fax will be difficult to read, blurry and faded regardless ofthe quality ofthe receiving fax machine. Thus, the quality ofthe received fax document is dependent upon the characteristics ofthe transmitting fax machine. If the transmitting fax machine transmits a good quality facsimile ofthe document, it is likely that a good quality document will be received by the receiving fax machine. However, if a poor quality facsimile ofthe document is transmitted, a poor quality facsimile will be received. It may also be possible that when using today's known methods for faxing a document that even a good quality fax transmission from a transmitting fax machine can result in a poor quality received document, for example, due to a poor quality phone connection between the sending and receiving fax machines. Currently known methods for enhancing a faxed document only improve the quality ofthe faxed document after the document is output from a receiving fax machine. The requirement to perform enhancements on the document after the document is output as a fax results in drawbacks for the receiving party. Some of these drawbacks could be additional time requirements for the receiving party before an enhanced version ofthe received fax document can be created and additional software requirements for the recipient's PC if the PC is utilized to enhance the faxed document.

Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a capability where the quality of a transmitted fax document could be enhanced before the document is output by a receiving fax machine. In this manner, the quality ofthe output fax document from the receiving fax machine would not be dependent upon the quality ofthe transmitting fax machine and the recipient ofthe document would not be required to perform enhancements on the document after it is output as a faxed document.

Summary ofthe Invention In accordance with one embodiment ofthe present invention, a facsimile document enhancement system is provided. A faxed document is received at a network. The network enhances the quality ofthe faxed document and faxes the enhanced document to the intended recipient. In this manner, the present invention provides for a method and apparatus for enhancing the quality of a faxed document before the document is output by a receiving fax machine.

Brief Description of the Drawings Fig. 1 illustrates a facsimile document enhancement system in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present invention.

Fig. 2 illustrates a facsimile document enhancement system in accordance with a second embodiment ofthe present invention Fig. 3 illustrates a facsimile document enhancement system in accordance with a third embodiment ofthe present invention

Fig. 4 provides a process flow chart for the method steps in practicing one embodiment ofthe present invention.

Detailed Description Fig. 1 illustrates a functional block diagram for one embodiment ofthe facsimile document enhancement system ofthe present invention. As shown, a standard transmitting fax machine 100 and a standard receiving fax machine 150 are interconnected to network 110. In order to transmit a fax document from fax machine 100 to fax machine 150, the sender ofthe document will transmit the faxed document from transmitting fax machine 100 through local exchange carrier (LEC) switch 108 to network 110. When transmitting the document to network 110, the sender also provides the facsimile telephone number for the intended recipient ofthe faxed document at receiving fax machine 150. Network 110 receives the faxed document 102, enhances the facsimile document, as will be explained, and transmits the enhanced facsimile document 104 to the intended recipient's fax machine 150 through LEC switch 109 by utilizing the fax phone number for the intended recipient as provided by the sender. In this manner, an enhanced version ofthe facsimile document is received by the recipient at the recipient's fax machine 150.

Network 110 may be a data network, an integrated services network such as an Internet service provider network, or may be the public switched telephone network. As such, the network is capable of providing a variety of services to a subscriber and the fax enhancement capability ofthe network is integrated into the network and is not, therefore, merely a single application program that is accessed by a network. Patent Application Serial Number 08/933,489, entitled "Network Based Facsimile Transmission

System", filed September 18, 1997, discloses a network-based fax system and is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.

As mentioned previously, the sender of a faxed document that is intended for a party at receiving fax machine 150, transmits the faxed document to network 110. The sending party utilizes standard facsimile transmission equipment to produce an electronic facsimile of an original document and transmit the electronic facsimile ofthe document to network 110. Because the capabilities ofthe transmitting fax machine 100 may be limited, and consequently the quality ofthe electronic facsimile ofthe original document may be accordingly limited, an accurate, readable, good quality facsimile ofthe original document may not be transmitted by the transmitting fax machine 100. Thus, regardless ofthe capabilities ofthe receiving fax machine 150, the quality ofthe received facsimile document is limited by the capabilities ofthe transmitting fax machine.

In order to improve the quality ofthe electronic facsimile document before it is output from receiving fax machine 150, processor 160 in network 110 receives the faxed document, enhances it, and transmits it to the intended recipient. There are many methods available for enhancing an electronic facsimile document and the present invention is not limited to any particular method. Regardless ofthe methodology utilized for enhancing the electronic facsimile document, an enhanced electronic facsimile document will be provided to receiving fax machine 150.

One method for enhancing the quality ofthe electronic facsimile document by network 110 is to utilize optical character recognition (OCR) techniques that are contained in fax enhancement software 162 stored in processor 160. OCR techniques can be used to determine which areas ofthe document contain characters and which are just images. For the areas in the document that are characters, the OCR routines would be implemented to determine the font type and what each character is. Once it is determined as to where characters are and what each of these characters are, the original fax can be changed to include an enhanced version of these characters. The pixels for each of these characters (fonts) will be stored in the memory ofthe system so that a character from the degraded fax document can be replaced by that determined by the system. Two patent applications disclose OCR enhancement techniques that could be utilized with the present invention. These patent applications are Serial No. 08/909,199, filed August 11, 1997, entitled "A Confusion Matrix Based Method And System For Correcting Misrecognized Words Appearing In Documents

Generated By An Optical Character Recognition Technique" and Serial No. 08/909,200, also filed August 11, 1997 and entitled "Method And Apparatus For Performing An Automatic Correction Of Misrecognized Words Provided By An Optical Character Recognition Technique By Using A Hidden Markhov Model Based Algorithm." Both of these patent applications are incorporated by reference herein.

Additional simple image enhancement techniques could be used with the present system. Examples of enhancements to images that could be made include detecting all straight lines in the electronic facsimile document and enhancing them. Another technique is to perform edge detection and to perform an algorithm on the edge to make it smoother and sharper.

The fax enhancement software 162 is also able to recognize non-symmetrical images that it cannot enhance and will not attempt to enhance these images. For example, if someone has handwritten a note on the original document, the electronic facsimile ofthe original document will also contain an image of this handwritten note. The fax enhancement software will recognize that this handwritten image does not contain characters that can be recognized by OCR techniques and will also recognize that the non- symmetrical shapes that form the handwritten image are too complex to perform simple image enhancement techniques on, as described above, and will thus not alter these non-symmetrical images. The fax enhancement techniques that are described above, including the OCR enhancement techniques, do not require that the faxed document that is received at the network be converted from its digital format. The techniques are able to perform enhancements on the received digital bit stream at the network that represents the received faxed document.

As mentioned previously, a variety of techniques can be utilized with the present invention for enhancing an electronic facsimile document and the present invention is not limited to any particular technique. All that is required is that an enhanced electronic facsimile document be received by the intended recipient. Several different techniques that could be practiced with the present invention for enhancing a facsimile document have been described above as examples ofthe types of techniques that could be practiced.

As discussed previously, network 110 must determine the facsimile phone number for the intended recipient's fax machine 150 so that network 110 can transmit the enhanced facsimile document to the intended recipient. There are many possible ways for identifying who the intended recipient is and the present invention is not limited to any particular methodology. All that is required is that a facsimile telephone number for the recipient be ultimately determined.

The present invention could be practiced by providing a single telephone number for accessing network 110. A sender of a fax document would send the fax to network 110 by utilizing the telephone number for accessing network 110. When sending the fax document to network 110, the sender would also provide the fax telephone number for the intended recipient to network 110. The fax telephone number for the intended recipient could be typed on the faxed document and the network could use OCR techniques to interpret the fax phone number. Alternative methods for providing the fax phone number for the intended recipient to network 110 could also be used with the present invention. For example, bar codes could be provided on the faxed document or touch tones could be entered into network 110 to provide the fax phone number for the intended recipient to network 110.

As an alternative to directly entering the fax phone number for the intended recipient into network 110, other identifying information for the intended recipient could be entered into the network and correlated to the fax phone number for the intended recipient. This other identifying information for the intended recipient could be the name ofthe recipient or an identification code for the intended recipient. Other identifying information could be provided as well. The identifying information could be provided to network 110 by any ofthe methods addressed above for entering the fax phone number for the intended recipient into the network. If identifying information other than the fax phone number for the intended recipient is utilized to identify the intended recipient, the other information related to the intended recipient, which is also stored in database 164, would be used to access database 164 to determine a fax phone number for the intended recipient. The identifying information for the intended recipient would be correlated to the fax phone number for the intended recipient and the fax phone number would be retrieved from database 164. In an alternative method for transmitting a document to network 110 for ultimate transmission to an intended recipient, other than using a common phone number to access network 110 and providing the fax phone number for the intended recipient to the network, a separate fax phone number for each intended recipient could be provided. The fax document would be transmitted to the intended recipient by routing the document through network 110 where the network would enhance the facsimile document. In this manner, for routing purposes, network 110 would function in a manner similar to a fax server for routing the fax document to the intended recipient.

In addition to enhancing the quality ofthe electronic facsimile document, the fax enhancement software is also able to enhance the facsimile document by adding text or graphics to the facsimile document. For example, if a sender of a document desires that a company logo comprising both text and graphics be added to every document faxed by that sender, network 110 could add the logo to each document that is faxed by that sender. In this manner, the faxed document could be enhanced by changing the content of the faxed document to meet the desires of the sender. The text and graphics to be added to the faxed documents could be stored in database 164 and be associated with a particular fax sender.

An additional feature ofthe present invention is that prior to sending the enhanced electronic facsimile document to the intended recipient, network 110 can send the enhanced document back to the sender so that the sender can verify that any enhancements that are done to the document result in a document that accurately represents the original document. If the sender is satisfied that the enhanced facsimile document accurately represents the original document and/or includes other enhancements desired by the sender, the sender could signal the network to transmit the enhanced facsimile document to the intended recipient.

After a document is transmitted to the intended recipient, network 110 stores information related to the transmission ofthe document in database 164. This information can be data that indicates the time ofthe transmission, the time required for transmitting the document, the sender ofthe document, the recipient, the cumulative number of documents transmitted by a particular sender in any given time period, and electronic copies of the original facsimile document and the enhanced facsimile document. Additional information can be stored depending upon the requirements ofthe sender and the network service provider. This information can be utilized for verification purposes, accounting purposes, or for a variety of other purposes. Network 110 also transmits a status report to the sender ofthe fax document after transmitting the enhanced facsimile document to the intended recipient. The status report could contain information related to whether the document was successfully transmitted to the intended recipient and whether any enhancements to the facsimile document were required and performed.

Figs. 2 and 3 illustrate alternative embodiments for practicing the present invention. In Figs. 2 and 3, the enhancements to the electronic facsimile document are not performed by a network; rather, the fax enhancement software 162 is contained in either the receiving fax machine, as illustrated in Fig. 2, or in the transmitting fax machine, as illustrated in Fig. 3. In the embodiments of Figs. 2 and 3, the same fax enhancements could be made to an electronic facsimile document as was described for the embodiment of Fig. 1. However, in the embodiments of Figs. 2 and 3, the fax enhancement software would be included in either the receiving fax machine or the transmitting fax machine, respectively.

In the embodiment of Fig. 2, an electronic facsimile document 102 is transmitted by transmitting fax machine 100 to receiving fax machine 150 through public switched telephone network (PSTN) 200. When the electronic fax document 102 is received at receiving fax machine 150, the receiving fax machine, which includes the fax enhancement software 162 described previously, enhances the received electronic facsimile document. Receiving fax machine 150 will enhance the electronic facsimile document prior to outputting the electronic facsimile document to the intended recipient. In this manner, an enhanced version ofthe electronic facsimile document is created prior to outputting the fax document to the intended recipient.

Fig. 3 illustrates an embodiment ofthe present invention where the fax enhancement software 162 is included in the transmitting fax machine 100. After scanning the original document 101 to create an electronic facsimile ofthe original document, transmitting fax machine 100 will enhance the facsimile document by utilizing any ofthe techniques previously described. Transmitting fax machine 100 will then transmit the enhanced facsimile document 104 to the receiving fax machine 150 through PSTN 200 for receipt by the intended recipient.

Fig. 4 provides the process steps for practicing an embodiment ofthe present invention. In step 400, an original document is scanned into a transmitting fax machine by utilizing standard fax transmission software. In step 405, the transmitting fax machine transmits an electronic facsimile ofthe original document to a network. The network enhances the electronic facsimile document by utilizing one or more of a variety of techniques for enhancing the faxed document, step 410. In step 415, the network transmits the enhanced electronic facsimile document to a receiving fax machine. The receiving fax machine receives the enhanced electronic facsimile document, step 420, and outputs the enhanced document to the intended recipient, step 425. The method steps shown in Fig. 4 are not intended to be all inclusive of all ofthe features ofthe present invention, as described in this specification. The specification, when read as a whole, fully describes the facsimile document enhancement system ofthe present invention.

In the disclosed embodiments, the network is disclosed as enhancing a fax document and transmitting the enhanced fax document to a single recipient; however, the network is capable of transmitting the enhanced document to multiple recipients, e.g., broadcasting the document. The sender could designate a single group identifier to identify all intended recipients. The network database would contain information that would identify each intended recipient that is included in the group identifier and information related to those individuals, e.g., the fax phone number for each recipient. The network would then send the document to each individual that is included in the group identifier.

The transmitting and receiving fax machines could be any devices that are capable of transmitting and receiving a fax document. The devices could be standard fax machines or could be personal computers with fax software. Regardless of the embodiment for the fax transmitting and receiving devices, the present invention would enhance a fax document before outputting the fax document to an intended recipient.

As described above, a facsimile document enhancement system is provided. The disclosed embodiments are illustrative of the various ways in which the present invention may be practiced. Other embodiments can be implemented by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope ofthe present invention.

Claims

What Is Claimed Is:

1. A method for transferring an electronic document comprising the steps of: receiving an electronic facsimile document at a network wherein the electronic facsimile document is a facsimile of an original document; enhancing the electronic facsimile document by said network to produce an enhanced electronic facsimile document; and transmitting the enhanced electronic facsimile document to an intended recipient by said network.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of enhancing the electronic facsimile document by the network comprises the steps of: converting the electronic facsimile document into a text formatted document by using optical character recognition (OCR) techniques; enhancing the text formatted document by utilizing an OCR enhancement technique; and reconverting the enhanced text formatted document back into an electronic facsimile document.

3. The method of claim 2 wherein said OCR enhancement technique utilizes a hidden Markhov model based algorithm.

4. The method of claim 2 wherein said OCR enhancement technique utilizes a confusion matrix.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said step of enhancing the electronic facsimile document by the network comprises the steps of: detecting all substantially straight lines in the electronic facsimile document; and enhancing said substantially straight lines to more accurately represent straight lines.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of entering identification information for the intended recipient into a database resident in said network.

7. The method of claim 6 further comprising the step of determining a facsimile phone number for the intended recipient by accessing said database by utilizing said identification information.

8. The method of claim 7 wherein said identification information is the intended recipient's name.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of notifying a sender ofthe electronic facsimile document ofthe status of transmitting the document to the intended recipient.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of transmitting the enhanced electronic facsimile document to a sender ofthe electronic facsimile document prior to transmitting the enhanced electronic facsimile document to the intended recipient of the enhanced electronic facsimile document.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of enhancing the electronic facsimile document by said network to produce an enhanced electronic facsimile document further comprises the step of modifying the electronic facsimile document by adding text or graphics to the electronic facsimile document.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein said network is an integrated services network.

13. The method of claim 1 wherein said network is a telephone network.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of storing information in said network related to the transmitted enhanced document.

15. A method for transmitting an electronic document comprising the steps of: creating an electronic facsimile of a document by utilizing a facsimile transmission machine; enhancing the electronic facsimile ofthe document by the facsimile transmission machine; and transmitting the enhanced electronic facsimile ofthe document to a receiving facsimile machine.

16. A method for receiving an electronic document comprising the steps of: receiving an electronic facsimile of a document at a receiving facsimile machine; enhancing the electronic facsimile ofthe document by the receiving facsimile machine; and outputting the enhanced electronic facsimile ofthe document from the receiving facsimile machine.

17. A facsimile system comprising: a service provider network wherein said network receives an electronic facsimile document that is a facsimile of an original document; said network including : facsimile enhancement software for enhancing the electronic facsimile document to produce an enhanced electronic facsimile document; and fax transmission equipment for transmitting the enhanced electronic facsimile document to an intended recipient.

18. The facsimile system of claim 17 wherein said network contains a database.

19. The facsimile system of claim 17 wherein said network is an integrated services network.

20. The facsimile system of claim 17 wherein said network is a telephone network.

21. The facsimile system of claim 18 wherein said database stores information related to the transmission ofthe enhanced electronic facsimile document to the intended recipient.

22. The facsimile system of claim 18 wherein said database contains identification information for the intended recipient.