Facsimile telecommunications system and method
View Patent ↗A fax processing system handles faxes that are originally destined for a recipient's phone number. The fax processing system communicates with the fax recipient via a data communications network (for example, the Internet) and can provide more sophisticated fax handling capabilities than conventional fax machines.
1. A method for handling fax transmissions, comprising:
receiving a fax call to receive a fax via a public telephone network at a fax processing system, the fax call originally destined for a subscriber's phone number;
in response to receiving the fax call, determining whether a called number associated with the fax call is registered to a subscriber and determining that the subscriber is connected to a data communications network at a network address on the data communications network; and
in response to determining that the subscriber is connected to the network, transmitting a fax call notification to the subscriber's network address, wherein transmission of the fax call notification begins regardless of whether the fax has been completely received and wherein the notification is to display an indication to the subscriber that the fax call is in process.
2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of the transmitting the fax call notification comprises transmitting the fax call notification in real-time.
3. The method of claim 1 wherein the fax call notification includes a phone number of a sender of the fax, and the phone number is obtained from caller identification information for the fax call received at the fax processing system.
4. The method of claim 3 wherein the caller identification information is provided by a fax device sending the fax call.
5. The method of claim 3 wherein the caller identification information is provided during call setup of the fax call by the public telephone network.
6. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
obtaining by the fax processing system from a database an identifier for a sender of the fax, using a phone number of the sender, and wherein the notification is to display the identifier.
7. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
receiving, by the fax processing system, an instruction from the subscriber for handling the fax, wherein a display of the fax notification includes options for fax handling instructions, the received instruction is selected from the options in the display.
8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
after transmitting the notification, streaming the fax to the subscriber's network address as the fax is being received by the fax processing system.
9. The method of claim 1 wherein the fax call notification is transmitted immediately after having determined that the subscriber is connected to the network.
10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:
in response to the fax call being terminated, signaling completion of fax transmission by sending a control message to the subscriber's network address which is then displayed to the subscriber via a client application.
11. A fax processing system, comprising:
a fax management subsystem coupled to a public telephone network to receive a fax call for receiving a fax, the fax call originally destined for a subscriber's phone number;
a database subsystem to store subscriber records for determining whether a called number associated with the fax call is registered to a subscriber; and
an online presence detection subsystem coupled to the Internet to monitor status of a subscriber data device to determine availability for fax notification service at a network address,
wherein the fax management subsystem is to transmit a fax call notification to the subscriber's network address in response to a determination that the subscriber's data device is available, and wherein transmission of the notification begins regardless of whether the fax has been completely received and wherein the notification is to display an indication to the subscriber that the fax call is in process.
12. The fax processing system of claim 11 wherein the fax management subsystem transmits the notification in real-time without waiting to receive an entirety of the fax.
13. The fax processing system of claim 11 wherein the notification includes a phone number of a sender of the fax.
14. The fax processing system of claim 11 wherein the fax management subsystem answers the fax call to establish a two-way path, after having transmitted the notification.
15. The fax processing system of claim 11 wherein the fax management subsystem is to obtain from the database subsystem an identifier for a sender of the fax, using a phone number of the sender, and wherein the notification is to display the identifier.
16. The fax processing system of claim 11 wherein the fax management subsystem is to receive an instruction from the subscriber for handling the fax, wherein a display of the notification includes options for fax handling instructions, the received instruction having been selected from the options in the display.
17. The fax processing system of claim 11 wherein after transmitting the notification, the fax management subsystem is to begin streaming the fax to the subscriber's network address as the fax is being received by the fax processing system.
18. The fax processing system of claim 11 wherein the notification is transmitted immediately after it has been determined that the subscriber's data device is available for fax notification service at said network address.
19. The fax processing system of claim 11 wherein the fax management subsystem, in response to the fax call being terminated, is to signal completion of fax transmission by sending a control message to the subscriber's network address which is then displayed by the subscriber's data device.