Path: utzoo!telecom-request Date: Tue, 11 Jun 1991 01:29:37 GMT From: William Vajk Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: Easy Fax to ASCII? Reply-To: William Vajk Message-ID: Organization: TELECOM Digest Sender: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 445, Message 10 of 12 Lines: 38 In article Claudio Nieder writes: > We are looking for a solution which can be implemented without any > costly program development etc. The best solution would be if there > already exists some product which would make the fax machine appear > to the program like a local printer, so that no change to the existing > software is necessary. Fax utilizes a specific bit mapped format, each line of dots encoded with padding "0's" as necessary. Fax also talks in several parallel 2400 baud modulated signals to achieve the 9600 throughput. As if that weren't enough, several messages are exchanged first in a Bell 103 mode (like at 300 baud, man) to establish the protocols which will be used. The new machines are backwards compatable with the old fashioned optically scanned rotary drum, seven minutes per page machines from the 1960's. And in the Bell 103 mode they also exchange names and addresses before they shift into the mode which transmits the data you really want. There was another fax related message here the other day, and I was in process of responding when the computer went bye-bye. It was a request for an easy conversion to ascii from fax. Because of the graphic nature of fax, and the fact that there is no assurance of the style and pitch of type received, one would actually have to be at the edge of some serious AI to achieve the goal requested. Anyone who has used an optical scanner and worked to convert a long document to ascii from typed sheets can attest to the difficulties of accurate conversion given only one character set to decipher. On the other hand, to convert from ascii to fax is relatively easy, but certainly not easy enough to make a fax machine into a computer peripheral. Bill Vajk