Patent ID: 7099030

Claim:
An image communications system for receiving fax image data encoded with a specific facsimile data format and carrying transmission codes having no relation with image contents, converting the received fax image data into Internet-fax data in a specific format, and transferring the Internet-fax data to an Internet terminal as an in-system terminal, the system comprising: a receiver to receive the fax image data supplied via a regular communications network; a comparator to compare an encoding mode for the received fax image data and an encoding mode for the Internet-fax data for the Internet terminal; a converter to add format data for the Internet-fax data to the fax image data with no decoding of the fax image data if there is a match in the comparison, for converting the format data-added fax image data into the Internet fax data; and a transmitter to transmit the converted Internet fax data to the Internet terminal; wherein said comparator includes: a mode comparator to compare the encoding mode for the received fax image data and an encoding mode for the Internet-fax data to be used at the in-system Internet terminal; a detector to detect whether or not there is a match between the encoding mode for the received fax image data and the encoding mode for the Internet-fax data; and a data switch to output the fax image data to the converter if there is a match in a comparison result at the detector and to output the Internet-fax image data generated in the system to the converter if there is no match.