Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!qt.cs.utexas.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!ucdavis!csusac!cindy!petunia!zeus!hhallika From: hhallika@zeus.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.fax Subject: Re: fax to ascii conversion Message-ID: <1991Jun29.015621.129204@zeus.calpoly.edu> Date: 29 Jun 91 01:56:21 GMT References: <1991Jun4.205833.5884@world.std.com> <557@nitrex.UUCP> <1991Jun26.191806.20689@sparrms.ists.ca> Distribution: na Organization: California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo Lines: 40 It's really too bad this fax to ascii conversion is necessary. Since so much of the stuff sent by fax is text, the machines should just accept calls with ascii. If someone is using a computer to generate the stuff she/he is then going to fax, it's a lot more efficient to just send the ascii instead of printing it out, scanning it, doing image compression and then sending it thru a 9600 bps modem, which the phone company then changes to 64 kbps, which then gets changed back to voice grade audio by the phone company at the far end, which then drives the receiving 9600 bps modem, which then decompresses the image and its finally printed. Only now, we want to take this and convert it back to the original ascii!!! Pretty amazing! Fax machines work great, but it's sure getting complicated (and expensive). How about if the fax standards included a "print ascii" mode. They'd look like the old Teletype model 33 printers that ran Bell 103 on dial up lines. I could call it with any modem and dump a message to it. Sending ascii at 9600 bps (even more with compression) would sure me more efficient for all the nongraphic (image, not language) faxes we send. If we need to send an image, the machine would accept that too. Other great (?) fax ideas... How about a fax machine that works on switched 56K or ISDN lines? Sending images at 64 kbps would be great! Sending ascii text at that speed would be even better? For compatibility, I wonder if we could use DSP to emulate the existing 9600 bps fax modems over the 56K circuit, if we find we're talking or listening to a conventional fax. It seems silly for us to go to some tremendous complexity to stuff 9600 bps down a dial up circuit when it's immediately converted to 64 kbps at the central office. Sorry about drifting a bit from the subject. I tend to do that... Harold -- Harold Hallikainen ap621@Cleveland.Freenet.edu Hallikainen & Friends, Inc. hhallika@pan.calpoly.edu 141 Suburban Road, Bldg E4 phone 805 541 0200 fax 544 6715 San Luis Obispo, CA 93401-7590 telex 4932775 HFI UI