Patent Publication Number: US-2011053562-A1

Title: Method and Apparatus for Receipt and Wireless Transmission of a Facsimile

Description:
INDEX TO RELATED APPLICATIONS 
     This application claims benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61,236,946, filed Aug. 26, 2009, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART 
     In the past, NOKIA MOBILE PHONES introduced a wireless telephone device with the capability to receive and transmit faxes from the wireless device. The NOKIA 9000 COMMUNICATOR included a received fax folder in which received faxes sent to the device were stored. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 6,333,973 to Smith et al (“the &#39;973 reference”), issued on Dec. 25, 2001, discloses an integrated message center wherein a fax mail server processes and stores fax mail messages for a user. In the &#39;973 reference, when a caller sends a fax, or fax mail message, to a network services provider for the user, a fax mail server stores the fax at a location corresponding to the user and informs an SMS server of the pending message and the identity and telephone number of the caller. The SMS server then formulates an SMS fax notification message to notify the user of the fax. 
     What is needed is a system and method for remotely storing a fax, received from a device calling the intended recipient&#39;s phone number, and providing the mobile device with the fax formatted for that mobile device. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a system wherein a fax sent to a mobile device, i.e., by faxing to the mobile device&#39;s phone number or at another phone number that is logically linked to the mobile device&#39;s phone number, is stored at a remote server and an informational message informing the user of the stored fax is provided to the user&#39;s mobile device. In the instant embodiment, the informational message is used by the mobile device to retrieve the fax, formatted for display on the mobile device. 
     Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims. 
     Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in an Method and Apparatus for Receipt and Wireless Transmission of a Facsimile, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims. 
     The construction of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of the specific embodiment when read in connection with the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
       The present invention is illustrated by way of example, and not by way of limitation, in the figures of the accompanying drawing, in which like reference numerals refer to similar elements and in which: 
         FIG. 1  is a simplified diagram of a system in accordance with one particular embodiment of the instant invention; 
     
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Referring now to  FIG. 1 , there is shown a simplified diagram of a system  100  for the receipt and transmission of faxes using a mobile device  110 . In the system  100 , a fax is transmitted by the facsimile transmission device or fax machine  150 , which may be a traditional fax machine or transmission device. The fax scanned into the fax machine is transmitted via the public switched telephone network (PSTN)  140 . More particularly, in a known way, the user of the fax machine  150  enters into the fax machine  150  a telephone number to which the scanned fax is to be sent. In the instant embodiment of the invention, this telephone number is, in actuality, the telephone number of the recipient&#39;s mobile device, i.e., the same telephone number dialed to connect a voice call to the mobile device. In particular, the fax machine  150  dials the entered telephone number corresponding to the recipient mobile device in order to connect over the PSTN  140 . It is important to note that there may also exist another telephone number, that when called by fax machine  150  will be associated with mobile device  110 . Such another telephone number may be used in place of mobile device  110 &#39;s telephone number by fax machine  150 . In this way, mobile device  110  may not be limited to a telephone but may be a mobile internet device capable of transmitting and receiving data over wireless networks or other devices with similar capabilities that may not have the ability to place or receive telephone calls via the PSTN. 
     However, in the instant embodiment, rather than the scanned fax being provided to, and stored in, the user&#39;s mobile device, the received fax is stored in the fax storage memory  130  by the server  120 . Thus, although the fax was transmitted by dialing the telephone number of the mobile device  110 , the fax itself is not stored on the user&#39;s mobile device  110 . One advantage of such a system allows for the remote storage server  120  to store the facsimile data sent by fax machine  150  in a format that preserves certain or all of the characteristics of the original facsimile transmission irrespective of the capabilities of device  110 . 
     Upon receipt and storage of the fax, the server  120  formulates and transmits an informational message, such as a textual message or an SMS message  115 , for transmission to the user&#39;s mobile device  110 , via the mobile network  105 . The informational message  115  can inform the user of the receipt of the stored fax and, if desired, can include a hyperlink enabling the user to view the fax stored in the fax storage  130 . 
     In another embodiment, upon receipt and storage of the fax, the server  120  does not send an informational messages to device  110  but rather awaits for device  110  to contact it via a data network at which time server  120  will notify device  110  of the availability of a such received facsimile transmission(s). 
     Alternately, in one particular embodiment of the instant invention, the mobile device  110  can include software or firmware executable by a processor in the mobile device  110  to intercept the informational message  115  (an SMS message, for example) directly and, using information contained in the message  115  and with or, if desired, without human interaction with mobile device  110 , connect to the server  120 , via a wireless network  105 , to retrieve the fax from the fax storage  130 . In the present embodiment, the wireless network  105  can be a wireless cellular network or other type of wireless network, such as, a wireless network connected to the internet using the 802.11 “WiFi” standard, etc. 
     Additionally, if desired, the mobile device  110  can be provided with a plurality of wireless modems/transceivers, that enable the mobile device  110  to connect wirelessly to a plurality of wireless networks. For example, as particularly shown in the FIGURE, the mobile device  110  is provided with devices that enable it to connect to the server  120  via a wireless cellular network  105  and also via a wireless connection  107  to the Internet  160 . The wireless connection  107  can be, for example, a WIFI device, such as can be found at a WIFI hotspot. In such a system, the WIFI capable mobile device  110  would contain the necessary hardware, software and/or firmware to enable the mobile device  110  to communicate with the server  120 , via the wireless device  107  and the Internet  160 . As such, in response to the receipt of an SMS notification  115 , the mobile device  110  can access the Internet via the path wireless Internet path,  107 ,  160 , to access, retrieve and/or review the fax, for example, using a web browser resident on the mobile device  110 . 
     In the presently described embodiment, upon receiving a request from the mobile device  110  to retrieve the stored fax, the server  120  converts the fax to a format appropriate for viewing on the handset  110  (i.e., formattable by the client software running on the handset  110 ) and/or in accordance with pre-stored preferences of the user. The server  120  then transmits the converted data to the mobile device  110 . 
     Once the fax has been received by the handset  110  it may be optionally stored in memory of the handset  110  for later viewing without the need to access the wireless network  105  again. 
     Once the fax has been stored in memory of handset  110 , it may be manipulated (viewed, deleted, copied, etc.) without need of accessing or affecting the fax image stored on server  120 . Indeed, the local copy of the fax residing in handset  110  may be deleted independently of the fax image stored in server  120 . This gives the user the maximum flexibility to manage which faxes he chooses to store in memory on handset  110  and which faxes he chooses to store on server  120 . 
     It should be noted that there may also be a coupling of manipulations between handset  110  and server  120 ; for example, the user may decide that he no longer needs to retain a particular fax on either the handset or the server and he may choose to perform a delete of the fax on the handset  110 . Contemporaneously with the deletion of the fax on handset  110 , a signal may be sent via wireless network  105  (or wireless network  107 , if used) that instructs the server  120  to remove the fax from the fax storage  130 , thus eliminating the requirement that a user access two user interfaces (one on the handset  110  and then one on server  120 ) to manipulate the faxed stored in storage  130 . 
     Conversely, the user may access the fax stored on storage  130  via a web browser or other suitable application via the public Internet  160  to access or manipulate the fax (view, delete, copy, print, forward to another recipient, etc.). Such actions performed via the Internet  160  may then be coupled to handset  110  via one or more signals (such as an SMS message) sent via wireless network  115  that handset  110  may optionally act upon. For example, a user may access server  120  via the public Internet  160 , view a fax and then delete it from storage  130 . Server  120  may then send a signal to handset  110  via network  115  with instructions to delete the fax from the handset  110 &#39;s local memory. 
     The fax can then be viewed on the mobile device  110 . If desired, the user of the mobile device  110  can indicate that the stored fax is to be forwarded to another device. In particular, software running in the mobile device  110  can be used to signal the server  120  that the fax should be sent to a dedicated fax machine, for printing, or even to a further mobile device, as desired by the user. For example, the user can enter a command on the mobile device  110  that the fax should be forwarded to the mobile device of another user, which further mobile device may receive the fax formatted differently than the user&#39;s mobile device  110 . In such a case, the server  120  sends an SMS message to the further mobile device, which is intercepted by software running in that further mobile device, and which retrieves the fax in a appropriate format for the further mobile device. Note that the server  120  may format the fax differently for the mobile device  110  than for the further mobile device, in accordance with the recipient&#39;s prestored preferences or, alternatively, in accordance with dynamically determined device capabilities of device  110 . 
     In the instant embodiment of the invention, the telephone number of the mobile device is a multi-purpose telephone number capable of receiving voice calls, as well as fax calls, with the capability of automatically detecting the type of call and then handling the call in the most appropriate manner. For example, in the instant invention, if voice is detected at the mobile device, the call is processed as a voice call and connected by the server  120  to the user&#39;s preferred voice communications device. If the call is detected to be a fax, the server  120  automatically receives the fax and formats the fax for disposition in a variety of ways, depending on the end user&#39;s pre-stored preferences in a database. For example, the recipient user can pre-inform the server  120  to perform any or all of the following: deliver fax to the mobile device; store the fax in an online “inbox” for the user; email the fax to one or more email addresses pre-stored in a configuration database. 
     Note that the above-described embodiments are exemplary and that the above invention is not meant to be limited only to its preferred embodiments. It can be seen that other modifications can be made to the preferred embodiments and still be within the spirit of the present invention.