Computerized facsimile systems

Abstract

Most facsimile machines are manually operated, and accept only documents printed or handwritten on paper. Few of them are interfaced to computers. Currently there are a number of low-cost facsimile interface adapters designed for PCs which not only provide a link between a PC and a facsimile machine, but also perform most of the traditional facsimile functions. These adapters are able to transmit and receive messages as any ordinary facsimile machine does. They also have the added advantage of being able to send ASCII files from a PC directly and to display the received images on a VDU. They are thus more economic and easier to operate. Their only disadvantage is their inability to accept graphic inputs. This can be overcome by installing a hand scanner to act as a graphic input device. In this paper, we shall discuss the performance of two facsimile interface systems, namely the CWS-186F and the MFAX75S. The possibility of an efficient OCR system based on noise-free facsimile transmission is also discussed.