adamg@world.std.com (Adam M Gaffin) (06/05/91)
If this one has already been beaten to death, please forgive me, but... Probably nobody gets more junk fax than a newsroom, and we are getting tired of going through reams of expensive fax paper, so we're looking at replacing the machine with a computer and fax board. Our computer gurus have come up with some software that will turn a fax message into a PCX or TIFF file and another program that will convert THAT into ASCII, and want to write a batch file to transmit that into our main system. The problem is this has to be done for each individual fax, because the software they want to use (ReadRight is one of the programs) apparently can't be automated. Unfortunately, it all seems more complex than the average reporter or editor is willing to deal with, especially since we probably get 40-50 faxes (maybe more; I've never counted) a day. Does anybody know of any decent software for turning fax into ASCII, preferably automatically, or, at the least, through macros? Any help would be most appreciated! Thanks! Adam Gaffin Middlesex News, Framingham, Mass. adamg@world.std.com Voice: (508) 626-3968. Fred the Middlesex News Computer: (508) 872-8461
rbl@nitrex.UUCP ( Dr. Robin Lake ) (06/20/91)
In article <1991Jun4.205833.5884@world.std.com> adamg@world.std.com (Adam M Gaffin) writes: |>If this one has already been beaten to death, please forgive me, but... |> |>Probably nobody gets more junk fax than a newsroom, and we are getting |>tired of going through reams of expensive fax paper, so we're looking at |>replacing the machine with a computer and fax board. Our computer gurus |>have come up with some software that will turn a fax message into a PCX |>or TIFF file and another program that will convert THAT into ASCII, and |>want to write a batch file to transmit that into our main system. The |>problem is this has to be done for each individual fax, because the |>software they want to use (ReadRight is one of the programs) apparently |>can't be automated. Unfortunately, it all seems more complex than the |>average reporter or editor is willing to deal with, especially since we |>probably get 40-50 faxes (maybe more; I've never counted) a day. Does |>anybody know of any decent software for turning fax into ASCII, |>preferably automatically, or, at the least, through macros? Any help |>would be most appreciated! |> |>Thanks! |> |>Adam Gaffin |>Middlesex News, Framingham, Mass. |>adamg@world.std.com |>Voice: (508) 626-3968. Fred the Middlesex News Computer: (508) 872-8461 |> I haven't yet tried this, but it "should" work. \ Get a Macintosh with a FAX board. Save the incoming image as TIFF. Acquire an OCR program that accepts TIFF images. Feed the TIFF image into the OCR program. Problems: 1. FAX scanners tend to smear and add noise to characters. Many OCR software packages produce hilarious ASCII versions of noisy characters. 2. The OCR recognition process is relatively SLOW. You might need a Mac II fx to get close to usable performance if your incoming FAX traffic is typical newsroom level. Why the Mac? You should be able to run both the FAX and the OCR at the same time. Either using MultiFinder or a FAX-receiving Desk Accessory. Rob Lake BP Research lake@rcwcl1.dnet.bp.com
mb@sparrms.ists.ca (Mike Bell) (06/27/91)
In article <1991Jun4.205833.5884@world.std.com> adamg@world.std.com (Adam M Gaffin) writes: >Probably nobody gets more junk fax than a newsroom, and we are getting >tired of going through reams of expensive fax paper, so we're looking at >replacing the machine with a computer and fax board. Our computer gurus >have come up with some software that will turn a fax message into a PCX >or TIFF file and another program that will convert THAT into ASCII, and >want to write a batch file to transmit that into our main system. The >problem is this has to be done for each individual fax, because the >software they want to use (ReadRight is one of the programs) apparently >can't be automated. Unfortunately, it all seems more complex than the >average reporter or editor is willing to deal with, especially since we >probably get 40-50 faxes (maybe more; I've never counted) a day. Does >anybody know of any decent software for turning fax into ASCII, >preferably automatically, or, at the least, through macros? Any help >would be most appreciated! > >Thanks! > >Adam Gaffin >Middlesex News, Framingham, Mass. >adamg@world.std.com >Voice: (508) 626-3968. Fred the Middlesex News Computer: (508) 872-8461 I just watched a NeXT demonstration of precisely this yesterday. An incoming fax was displayed on the screen. The user selected the text from this image (in a variety of fonts,sizes) and invoked an OCR program to convert a section of the text into ASCII, which was then passed to a standard mail. It was all done manually, but I had the distinct impression that it would have been possible to do this all automatically. I should try your local NeXT computer salesman. (Hey, and it could play Bach at the same time too!)
hhallika@zeus.calpoly.edu (Harold Hallikainen) (06/29/91)
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