Re: [hylafax-users] Fw: use fax machine as scanner

["Jason" <pg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi, I'm the one started this thread.

I agree sometimes we have to force the users to adapt our new working
environment. But only when we solution is mature and better than the old
fashioned ones. In my case, I prefer fax machine over scanner because :

1. it's fast: a good fax machine which cost USD500+ can scan a page in 2 or
3 seconds.
    A fast scanner can be fast too, but extremely expensive, because the
quality is better (which we may or may not need), and most important, it is
not in mass production (compared to fax machines).

2. the operation is simple : Just press a speed dial button, and there it
goes.


Before I use the "Fax machines as scanner" style, I have been thinking of a
solution to simulate fax machines operations. The solution must be :

1. The scanner works with it must be not slow style.

2. The scanner must have ADF. ( I have bought serveral HP 5XXX scanners 4
years ago, which was quite expensive at that thime. They all died more or
less just after the warranty of 1 year)

3. Speedy operation :
    Solutions come with scanners always work in manner that :
      step 1. scan the document (wait, wait, wait..., OK completed).
      step 2. pop up windows in computer that allows you to do something.
    What I want is : At the time we press a button on scanner, when the
scanning process is undergoing, the computer pop up the program to let us
choose what to do with the "being scanned" documents. The user would be
happier, since he knows, after the scanning is completed, his job is
finished, because the instruction has already been given.

I think this working style should still be accepted today. But when I gave
up this thought, SANE was not good as now, and I can't write complicated
program which is need by this client program in the computer.

What I'm considering now is, as what I've said, "using fax machines as
scanner". Hylafax alone is nearly a complete solution, except two options :
1. it must goes thru carrier, or PBX
2. it does not recognize DTMF ( I know with vgetty, it can. But implementing
it to do the following is not easy )
    Why we need DTMF? By sensing what the fax machine has dialed, hylafax
client can do whatever the user wanted.
    eg. if user pressed   #100001#, fax it to a memory [001], #100002# to
[002]...
                                  #200001#, email it to email memory [001]
....
                                  #300001#, store it in database, or a
directory. The owner is user [001]...
                                  #9xxxxxxxxx#, free style fax.
                                  etc...


In the future, machines like HP's document sender (model 9XXX) should be the
best. But the problem is, unlike SMTP which is a standard protocol,
hylafax's protocol is not a standard that everyone would comply to. We don't
know whether HP will use hylafax as its backup fax server.

Jason

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Simon Woodhead
To: hylafax-users@xxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Saturday, July 24, 2004 1:04 AM
Subject: Re: [hylafax-users] Fw: use fax machine as scanner


Thanks Lee - that sounds like a great solution.

I'd take the fax machine off them! and give them the help they need to help
themselves. When we implemented our solution, it was simply not being used,
with people preferring to print a document , take it off the printer, fax it
then shred it. By making the actual fax internal only we made it pointless
to work in this way and they began faxing directly from their desktop. Of
course, there will always be actual paper  to be sent and our current
solution makes that unduly hard!

Thanks,
Simon


Lee Howard wrote:

On 2004.07.23 02:36 David Evans wrote:


 I'd ideally like to be able to connect a scanner directly to the lan
and
for a user to be able to pop a document in  it  and  send it to
his/her
desktop. From here it could be sent as a fax or used in other ways.


I've a couple of clients that have a networked scanner that they access from
their browser.  The scanner (anything would work, I guess, but ones with
ADFs seem to work better for them) is directly connected to a Linux server
running, among other things, SANE, Apache, and PHP.  The user drops the
paper into the scanner.  Then the user enters "scanner" into the URL box of
their browser.  A PHP-produced page on the Linux server connected to the
scanner comes up with as many options as you can conceive of (scan, copy,
fax to numbers, etc.).  They then complete the HTML form, and press a
button, and then the action occurs.  In most cases they simply have a copy
of the scan pop-up in a new browser window (in PDF, in Acrobat Reader), and
then they do with it what they will from there.

Sadly, if they had wanted to fax it they normally would have gone over to
the fax machine first, and thus they almost never use the networked scanner
device as an outbound fax client.  In my experience, the only way to
convince offices of heterogeneous computer skills to actually use the fax
server for most of their outbound faxing is to actually take the fax machine
away.  It's either a learning curve thing, or there must be a certain
feeling of accomplishment to see the paper go through the machine, dial, and
complete in that fashion.  Maybe taking that away from them is like taking
the pacifier from a child.  I haven't ever yet been so brave because I have
concerns about how much productivity will be lost over the
where-is-the-fax-machine squabble and the coping with the new arrangement.

Lee.

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