Patent ID: 6590677
Filing Date: 2003-07-08
Classification: H04L,H04N

Abstract:
An apparatus for connecting a telephone line-connectable facsimile machine to a digital network and to a telephone line, said apparatus comprising:a telephone line communications interface for connecting said apparatus with said telephone line; a facsimile machine communications interface for connecting said apparatus with said facsimile machine; a first memory storage for storing a facsimile transmission image sent from or to said facsimile machine communications interface; a second memory storage for storing facsimile transmission management information associated with said facsimile transmission image; a facsimile modem for sending/receiving facsimile transmissions to and from said telephone line through said telephone line communications interface; a digital communications interface for connecting said apparatus with said digital network; and a controller for controlling user-defined options for the operation of said interfaces, said first and second memory storages and said modem to enable said facsimile machine connected to said apparatus to send and receive facsimile transmissions over said telephone line and to send said facsimile transmission image and facsimile transmission management information to said digital communications interface; and wherein said controller further comprises a digital signal processing unit dedicated to performing optical character recognition on said incoming facsimile transmission image for converting said facsimile transmission image to digital text data.