Title of Invention

A METHOD TO OPTIMIZE FAX TRANSMISSION

Abstract

The present invention relates to network facsimile apparatus and an optimisation method implemented at differeny stages of fax transmission capable of improving the fax transmission comprising the steps of: receiving the user request for the data transmission;receiving the user specified scanner settings by the fax control unit;generating the scanned uncompressed raw data for analysis,by the scanner before actual scanning starts;checking whether the user specified settings are optimised by the controller;scanning the image and transfering the data to T30 component if the settings are optimised;and checking the data size of the proposed bit map and if the size is less than a specified value the fax transmissio takes place immediately

Full Text

FORM 2 THE PATENTS ACT, 1970 [39 of 1970] & THE PATENT RULES, 2003 COMPLETE SPECIFICATION (Section 10; Rule 13) A METHOD TO OPTIMIZE FAX TRANSMISSION SAMSUNG INDIA SOFTWARE OPERATIONS PVT. LTD., BAGMANE LAKEVIEW, BLOCK ‘B’ No. 66/1, BAGMANE TECH PARK, C V RAMAN NAGAR, BYRASANDRA, BANGALORE - 560093 A wholly owned subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Company Limited, Korea, an Indian Company The following Specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it is to be performed 1 FIELD OF INVENTION The present invention relates to a network facsimile apparatus and an optimization method implemented at different stages of fax transmission capable of improving the fax transmission facsimile data transfer More particularly the present invention relates to a method to optimize fax transmission. DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART Information transmission by telecopier or telefax or fax machine has developed to a great extent and has acquired considerable importance. Image and text data transmitted by fax machines are among the most widely using method for transferring information. In the T.30 and T.4/T.6 standards, the Telecommunications Standardization Section of the ITU (ITU-T) has defined procedures for facsimile transmission of documents in a public switched telephone network (PSTN).The faxed images are usually transmitted through the PSTN line and received for printout or storage of the image on a receiver machine. Fax data transmitted may contain redundant data which may not be required for printing or storage. During transmission transmitter machine sends the data according to user selection, it doesn't do any optimization for user selection. Transmitter machine can do an optimization to reduce data size, improve/degrade image/text quality depending on the data information, call charges during transmission etc. As explained earlier Transmitter machine will not do any optimization for fax data. It 2 just compresses and sends the data using T.30 protocol. So there will be following limitations in the related art:- 1- There is a possibility of redundant data being sent to receiver machine. 2- There is no pre-analysis of scanned raw data. 3- There is no criteria for which Transmitting machine decide when to send the scanned data. Either it sends it immediately or at user's pre-configured time (i.e. Delay Fax). Moreover, in the prior arts user has to configure time of transmission. There is no way by the machine by itself decide when to send the data by analysis the fax data. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The basic objective of the proposed invention is to apply optimization methods at different states of facsimile transmission, which will improve the fax transmission. For different fax transmission attributes, the different optimization methods will be applied. Fax transmission attributes will be Resolution, Brightness/Contrast, Image Quality and Scanned uncompressed data. Optimization methods can be applied before scanning, during scanning, after scanning and during data transmission. These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the detailed description taken in conjunction with the drawings and the claims. Accordingly, this invention explains a method of optimized fax transmission comprising the steps of: 3 a) receiving the user request for the data transmission; b) receiving the user specified scanner settings by the fax control unit; c) generating the scanned uncompressed raw data for analysis, by the scanner before actual scanning starts; d) checking whether the user specified settings are optimized by the said controller; e) scanning the image and transferring the data to T.30 component if the settings are optimized; and f) checking the data size of the proposed bit map and if the size is less than a specified value the fax transmission takes place immediately. If fax transmission does not take place a toll delay counter is initiated with the predetermined time where the control unit periodically checks the current time, and if the said current time is greater than the toll save time, the fax data is transmitted or else it waits for the current time to be greater than the toll save time to transmit the data. If the user specified settings are not optimized by the said controller then an optimization method is applied to reduce the data size where after the user specified settings are overridden for the further processing. The scanned data is pre-analysis where determination of whether data contain image, text or combination of text and image is done. By using “EDGE-DETECTION” procedure the actual data area will be determined. In Edge-detection procedure, scanner component analyze the scanned data and detects the boundary of the image depending on the density of pixels in the image. According to edge-detection procedure lower density pixels are not considered part of the image and higher 4 density portion of image is considered part of image which results in removing the low density pixel data and creating a new image with high density pixel data. Normal scanning is done with the output of pre-scanning. Appropriate compression techniques are used on the scanned data to further reduce the data size. These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the ensuing detailed description of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPANYING DRAWINGS Figure 1 shows a fax transmission session through the PSTN network. Figure 2 is a flow chart showing the working of the related art. Figure 3 is a flow chart explaining he optimization methods during the scanning process. Figure 4 is flow chart showing the process of Fax transmission optimization. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood however that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. The following description and drawings are not to be construed as limiting the invention and numerous specific details are described to 5 provide a thorough understanding of the present invention, as the basis for the claims and as a basis for teaching one skilled in the art how to make and/or use the invention. However in certain instances, well-known or conventional details are not described in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention in detail. The main objective of the proposed invention is to reduce the fax data size and the call charges for sending the data. By doing this the fax transmission can be optimized, when user wants to send the data in an optimized way. The optimization methods will be applied at different stage of fax transmission process. The method to optimize the fax transmission is to reduce the data size and send the data at appropriate time (i.e. when call rate is low).The optimization methods will be applied at the different stages of scanning. The scanning process can be divided in different steps :- 1- Before actual scanning starts i.e. scanner generates the scanned uncompressed raw data for analysis, that is Pre-Scanning. 2- During scanning when scanner generates raw uncompressed data. 3- After scanning where compression method is applied to reduce the data size. Once scanning process starts the optimization methods will be applied at different stage as shown in Fig 3. In Scan step #1 first the scanned data will be analyzed, analysis means 6 pre-analysis which is explained in below 2 points. It means a pre-analysis of the data will be done, so that in 2nd stage of scanning, scanner will produce optimize data. Pre-analysis will determine different factors on which data optimization method can be applied:- 1- It will determine whether data contain image, text or combination of text and image. This will help to determine how effectively scanner should scan the paper. 2- By using “EDGE-DETECTION ALGORITHM” the actual data area will be determined. So that scanner will produce only small data. In Edge-detection algorithm, Scanner component will try to analyze the scanned data. In that it will try to detect the boundary of the image depending on the density of pixels in the image. According to algorithm lower density pixels are not part of the image and higher density portion of image is part of image. By this scanner module remove the low density pixel data and create a new image with high density pixel data. In Scan step #2 the output of Scan step#1 factors will be used for scanning the data. Scanner will scan the paper as per determined by Scan step#1 In Scan step #3 appropriate compression algorithms (MH/MR/MMR/JBIG/JPEG) will be applied to further reduce the data. In all above step#1 is most important, this step only decide how effectively optimization of the scan data will be done. 7 The above settings will override the user selected scanner settings for optimization of the fax data. The criterion for creating above table is to create less and optimized scanned data as per user input settings. It may possible that settings done by the user for scanning document is not optimized. So in that case we need to create scanner settings which are optimized both in size and quality of image. This table is dependant on the scanner hardware of the device. Once scanner generate the optimize data, data is transferred to the fax communication component (T.30 module). This component will decide how to send fax data to receiver machine. Here the 2nd optimization method will be applied. Figure 2 is a flow chart showing the working of the related art. Start Scan the document. 8 Encode in selected format. Capability Exchange during Handshake. Check for requested capability supported. If requested capability supported, then send the fax. Printing the fax. If requested capability not supported then, convert into a supporting format and send the fax. Figure 3 is a flow chart explaining he optimization methods during the scanning process. User request for fax transmission. Get the user scanning settings for data transmission. Start scanning Process. Start pre-scanning for analyzing the data. Scan step#1 Start actual scanning Scan step#2 After scanning Scan step#3 Optimized scanned data. Figure 4 is a flow chart showing the process of Fax transmission optimization. The various steps in this process are as given below. 9 i) After receiving the user request for the data transmission, the fax control unit receives the user specified scanner settings (step 1). ii) The scanner generates the scanned uncompressed raw data for analysis, before actual scanning starts (step 2). iii) The controller checks whether the user specified settings are optimized (step 3). If it is done then it will scan the image and transfer the data to T.30 component (step 4). iv) If it is not done then optimization is applied to reduce the data size (step 5). After that the user specified settings are overridden for the further processing and then the control goes to step 4 (step 6). v) Then the data size of the proposed bit map is checked to decide whether to send the data immediately or not (step 7). If it is less than 1MB (the value may vary depending on the implementer), the fax transmission takes place immediately (step 8). vi) Otherwise it will initiate a toll delay counter with the predetermined time (step 9). The control unit periodically checks the current time, and if it is greater than the toll save time, the fax data will be transmitted (step 10). Or else it waits for the current time to be greater than the toll save time to transmit the data (step 11). Thus in this method we will decide when to send compressed scan data to receiver machine. If the scan data is more, that means time required for sending data will be more, so call duration also. T.30 module will now decide when to send data so that call charge will be less. In this case facsimile data will be transmitted during time in 10 which toll rate is lowest. In Prior art user set this settings and it is static. But in proposed method machine will whether to select toll save or not for scanned data depending on the size of the It will also be obvious to those skilled in the art that other control methods and apparatuses can be derived from the combinations of the various methods and apparatuses of the present invention as taught by the description and the accompanying drawings and these shall also be considered within the scope of the present invention. Further, description of such combinations and variations is therefore omitted above. It should also be noted that the host for storing the applications include but not limited to a microchip, microprocessor, handheld communication device, computer, rendering device or a multi function device. Although the present invention has been fully described in connection with the preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that various changes and modifications are possible and are apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications are to be understood as included within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims unless they depart therefrom. 11

Documents:

317-CHE-2006 AMENDED PAGES OF SPECIFICATION 01-11-2013.pdf

317-CHE-2006 AMENDED CLAIMS 01-11-2013.pdf

317-CHE-2006 EXAMINATION REPORT REPLY RECEIVED 01-11-2013.pdf

317-CHE-2006 EXAMINATION REPORT REPLY RECEIVED. 01-11-2013.pdf

317-CHE-2006 FORM-5 01-11-2013.pdf

317-CHE-2006 OTHER PATENT DOCUMENT 01-11-2013.pdf

317-CHE-2006 POWER OF ATTORNEY 01-11-2013.pdf

317-CHE-2006 AMENDED CLAIMS 28-03-2014.pdf

317-CHE-2006 AMENDED PAGES OF SPECIFICATION 28-03-2014.pdf

317-CHE-2006 CORRESPONDENCE OTHERS.pdf

317-CHE-2006 EXAMINATION REPORT REPLY RECEIVED 28-03-2014.pdf

317-CHE-2006 FORM-1 28-03-2014.pdf

317-CHE-2006 FORM-1.pdf

317-CHE-2006 FORM-13 13-12-2013.pdf

317-CHE-2006 POWER OF ATTORNEY 28-03-2014.pdf

317-CHE-2006 FORM-13 17-12-2013.pdf

317-che-2006-abstract.pdf

317-che-2006-claims.pdf

317-che-2006-correspondence-others.pdf

317-che-2006-description(complete).pdf

317-che-2006-drawings.pdf

317-che-2006-form 1.pdf

317-che-2006-form 26.pdf