Title of Invention

METHOD OF AUTHENTICATING FACSIMILE DATA FOR TRANSMISSION

Abstract

This invention in general relates to illegal document reproduction and transmitting to breach data security in MFP (with Fax Feature) and Fax systems. This invention further relates to document security based on Manual approval. More specifically this invention relates to a method and system for detecting, reporting, and preventing, of transmitting illegal document as a Fax (or Scan as Email) by requiring Manual approval. The invention explains a method and system of predetermined manual approval for sending document as facsimile data comprising the steps of; a user submitting a fax job; transferring the data to be transmitted, to a computational unit which is connected to the facsimile machine where the computational unit stores the said data; sending a notification for authenticating data transfer by the facsimile machine to the administrators by the computational unit; giving a negative or positive acknowledgment based on the data required to be faxed; and allowing data transmission by the facsimile machine if all the administrators approve the transfer.

Full Text

FIELD OF THE INVENTION This invention, in general, relates to illegal document reproduction and transmitting to breach data security in MFP (with Fax Feature) and Fax systems. This invention further relates to document security based on Manual approval. More specifically this invention relates to a method and system for detecting, reporting, and preventing, of transmitting illegal document as a Fax (or Scan as Email) by requiring Manual approval. DESCRIPTION OF THE RELATED ART US Patent no. 6175714B1 title "Document Control System and Method for Digital Copiers" describes a system and a method for storing a document to be reproduced on a physical memory. Moreover, the patent application describes a method for storing security data associated with the document for review by security personnel in future. However, the patent application does not seem to mention the use of manual approval for reproduction of the document. Another US patent no. 4,908,873 talks about a very generic system that can detect textual data by OCR and use the same from preventing the reproduction m/c from making copies of secure documents. It uses a predefined number of scan lines and also predefined number of characters per line to determine a whether a piece of text is present in the document or not. Though the claim is extended to images and watermarks, there is no specific mention about them in the description. They use predetermined patterns stored in PROM to perform the detection. It is also mentioned that a code reader is used to take care of misalignment. To compensate misalignment, they propose changing of O/P of code reader or comparison with multiple images stored in PROM which are copies of same character with different alignment. The prior art two also makes claims similar to the one above but it is specially meant for protecting against the scanning of secure images such as currencies. The final patent mentioned in the prior art describes how to detect a specific pattern in an image. The above related art uses an image processing mechanism to detect an image with another image/text present in it. It does not speak about the specific methods/details involved in it. But once such a pre-known image/text is found in the bigger image, an alarm is sounded and a count is incremented. However the above patents has following limitations: 1. The related art is more concerned about digitizing an existing document and printing them. Though it is very loosely mentioned that the code reader part can be avoided, the system then becomes less useful. 2. The above related art use machine intelligence for detecting the flaws in security which can be possible to penetrate. 3. It uses only fixed lines to do the OCR. This number is kept as a constant. This will not work in case of Fax when a page is faxed in different resolution. 4. It uses a remote alarm to alert the authorities. This requires the authorities to be presented always watching for an alarm to be raised. 5. It does not mention about storing the digital data that was given to the copier for copying. If the data is stored at a safe location a. It can be used as an evidence against the offender b. It can be examined later to confirm whether the m/c raised a false alarm or not (no m/c is perfect) 6. They have only static source of predefined text/image. In a drastically changing world, single time programmable PROM will not be able to store all information sufficient to evaluate plurality of documents submitted for copying. 7. Some of the methods suggested for correcting misalignment are not practical. It is suggested that character codes of all expected alignments can be stored in PROM. This is surely not a good solution. One can think of generating such bit-maps on the fly by changing the co-ordinate system associated with the bit-map. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The primary object of this invention is to make facsimile devices less prone to misuse and ensure the data security of the organization. This is achieved by applying a method best suited for the document under consideration. The invention is aware of the drastically changing scenarios in today's world and hence allows the user to decide on adding any new approval in the approval process and method to notify the approval for is some fax is pending for the approval or not. The invention describes a system and a method for manually authenticating data transfer by a facsimile machine. The facsimile machine is connected to a computational unit. The facsimile machine first transfers the data that is to be transmitted, to the computational unit. The computational unit stores the data. The computational unit sends a notification for authenticating data transfer by the facsimile machine to the administrators. The computational unit can notify the administrators by a plurality of methods like fax, email or SMS. The computational unit allows data transmission by the facsimile machine if all the administrators approve the transfer. Even if one of the administrators disallows the transfer, the computational unit sends a notification indicating breach to concerned authorities. As the computational unit stores all the data, which is submitted to the facsimile machine for transmission, a request for unauthorized transmission could be easily detected later. These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more readily apparent from the detailed description taken in conjunction with the drawings and the claims. Accordingly this invention explains a method of predetermined manual approval for sending document as facsimile data comprising the steps of: (a) a user submitting a fax job; (b) transferring the data to be transmitted, to a computational unit which is connected to the facsimile machine where the computational unit stores the said data; (c) sending a notification for authenticating data transfer by the facsimile machine to the administrators by the computational unit; (d) giving a negative or positive acknowledgment based on the data required to be faxed; and (e) allowing data transmission by the facsimile machine if all the administrators approve the transfer. The computational unit notifies the administrators by a plurality of methods such as fax, email or SMS. If one of the administrators disallows the transfer, the computational unit sends a notification indicating breach to concerned authorities. An unauthorized transmission is detected using the data stored by the computational unit. The manner of giving the acknowledgement is through the Web Ul or System Ul or any dedicated client server program. If a positive response is received for the approval, the fax gets processed and a notification is received by the user. If a negative response is received for the approval the status gets informed to the higher authority and the data is stored in the memory. The computable unit has an attached hard disk / memory which is accessible only to service personnel or administrator or the said unit acts as a trusted network server from where the administrator retrieve the stored data later. The user is adapted to decide the number of the approvers and the method to decide by which approvals gets noticed when a fax job is pending for the approval. The data stored in the confidential document posses certain distinguishing features that are recognized when the job is submitted for transmitting at a facsimile device/multi functional device. Accordingly, this invention further explains a system for predetermined manual approval for sending document as facsimile data comprising: (a) a means for the user to submit a fax job; (b) a means for transferring the data to be transmitted, to a computational unit which is connected to the facsimile machine where the computational unit stores the said data; (c) a means for sending a notification for authenticating data transfer by the facsimile machine to the administrators by the computational unit; (d) a means for giving a negative or positive acknowledgment based on the data required to be faxed; and (e) a means allowing data transmission by the facsimile machine if all the administrators approve the transfer. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPANYING DRAWING Figure 1 explains the flow chart of the proposed system. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The preferred embodiments of the present invention will now be explained with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood however that the disclosed embodiments are merely exemplary of the invention, which may be embodied in various forms. The following description and drawings are not to be construed as limiting the invention and numerous specific details are described to provide a thorough understanding of the present invention, as the basis for the claims and as a basis for teaching one skilled in the art how to make and/or use the invention. However in certain instances, well-known or conventional details are not described in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention in detail. Figure 1 explains the flow chart of the proposed system. As soon as the user submit a fax job system first send the notification to all the approvals or by following a path of approval process, informing a fax required to approve is submitted. The way of informing to approval can be Email/SMS/ or some known method. Now the approval will process or based on the data required to fax decide and give negative or positive acknowledgment to the system. The way of giving the acknowledgement can be through the Web Ul or System Ul or any dedicated client server program, but this ways are only some example by which an approval can be done and not meant to limit the scope of invention. If system gets the positive response from the approval, he will send the fax and send the notification to the user. If system set the negative acknowledgment system will informed the higher authority with the predefined method. Also data is kept in the system to decide the action or for further investigation. The steps of the flow chart is as follows: • Fax job is first submitted by the user • The received data for approval request is sends to the approval • The data is analyzed for the approval • Then a check is made to confirm whether the data is a confidential data • If it is a confidential data then a Negative Ack to the Facsimile device is send and the fax transmission is aborted and an alert message send to the authorities • If it is not a confidential data then a Positive Ack is send to the facsimile device and the fax gets transmitted and user will get notification. The most important difference this system posses from its predecessors systems and technique is that it require the manual approval for transmitting data as a fax, hence detecting the breach is very easy. If it detects a violation, it saves a copy of the digital document acquired by it. Since the computable unit which has attached hard disk which is accessible only to service personnel or administrator or it could be a trusted network server from where the administrator can retrieve the job later. Basically this invention is talking about the system containing Faxing device and a computational device as a whole. Before performing the send operation the data are going to send to the host (May be a PC) where the data is approved by the pre-determined approval and then depend on the approval decision the data will be transmitted or get rejected. If it found some breach of security it will store the data and appropriate decision can be taken. Otherwise will give positive acknowledgment to the faxing device to proceeds the task. We also give the user a chance to decide the number the approvers and method to decide by which approvals can get notice whether a fax job is pending for the approval. In the world of multifunction devices, the change required in implementing such a system is almost negligible. They already have a general purpose processor, connection to internet and a modem in most of the cases. This will make the alerting and backing up of the job very simple. Even if the peripheral is not connected to network, we can store such incidents in non-volatile memory and indicate the breach every time it restarts again. This is already present many computers that act as servers, where they display a message during boot time if the chassis was opened before. The working of the invention is based on the fact that the data stored in the confidential document posses certain distinguishing features that can be recognized when the job is submitted for transmitting at a facsimile device/multi functional device. The system (host/computational unit connected to Facsimile device) stores the data within itself that will be checked by the approval before sending the document once the system get the positive acknowledgment the data will be transmitted and notification will sent to user, or otherwise if there is any breach in security alert will be send to the higher predefine authority. . Since each organization will have its own security benchmarks, a provision is provided for updating the same in host side. As soon as the user submit a fax job system first send the notification to all the approvals or by following a path of approval process, informing a fax required to approved is submitted. Now the approval will process or based on the data required to fax decide and give negative or positive acknowledgment to the system. If system gets the positive response from the approval, he will send the fax and send the notification to the user. If system set the negative acknowledgment system will informed the higher authority with the predefined method. Also data is kept in the system to decide the action or for further investigation. The mode of transmission of data i.e. to approval or notification can be any Email/SMS or others, description of these modes is not in the scope of this patent as already description are available in public domain. It will also be obvious to those skilled in the art that other control methods and apparatuses can be derived from the combinations of the various methods and apparatuses of the present invention as taught by the description and the accompanying drawings and these shall also be considered within the scope of the present invention. Further, description of such combinations and variations is therefore omitted above. It should also be noted that the host for storing the applications include but not limited to a microchip, microprocessor, handheld communication device, computer, rendering device or a multi function device. Although the present invention has been fully described in connection with the preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be noted that various changes and modifications are possible and are apparent to those skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications are to be understood as included within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claims unless they depart therefrom. WE CLAIM 1. A method of predetermined manual approval for sending document as facsimile data comprising the steps of: (a) a user submitting a fax job; (b) transferring the data to be transmitted, to a computational unit which is connected to the facsimile machine where the computational unit stores the said data; (c) sending a notification for authenticating data transfer by the facsimile machine to the administrators by the computational unit; (d) giving a negative or positive acknowledgment based on the data required to be faxed; and (e) allowing data transmission by the facsimile machine if all the administrators approve the transfer. 2. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the computational unit notifies the administrators by a plurality of methods like fax, email or SMS. 3. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein if one of the administrators disallows the transfer, the computational unit sends a notification indicating breach to concerned authorities. 4. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein an unauthorized transmission is detected using the data stored by the computational unit. 5. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the way of giving the acknowledgement is through the Web Ul or System Ul or any dedicated client server program. 6. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein if a positive response is received for the approval, the fax gets processed and a notification is received by the user. 7. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein if a negative response is received for the approval the status gets informed to the higher authority and the data is stored in the memory. 8. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the computable unit has an attached hard disk / memory which is accessible only to service personnel or administrator or the said unit acts as a trusted network server from where the administrator retrieve the stored data later. 9. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the user is adapted to decide the number of the approvers and the method to decide by which approvals gets noticed when a fax job is pending for the approval. 10. A method as claimed in claim 1 wherein the data stored in the confidential document posses certain distinguishing features that is recognized when the job is submitted for transmitting at a facsimile device/multi functional device. 11. A system for predetermined manual approval for sending document as facsimile data comprising: (a) a means for the user to submit a fax job; (b) a means for transferring the data to be transmitted, to a computational unit which is connected to the facsimile machine where the computational unit stores the said data; (c) a means for sending a notification for authenticating data transfer by the facsimile machine to the administrators by the computational unit; (d) a means for giving a negative or positive acknowledgment based on the data required to be faxed; and (e) a means allowing data transmission by the facsimile machine if all the administrators approve the transfer. 12. A system as claimed in claim 11 wherein the computational unit notifies the administrators by a plurality of methods like fax, email or SMS. 13. A system as claimed in claim 11 wherein if one of the administrators disallows the transfer, the computational unit sends a notification indicating breach to concerned authorities. 14. A system as claimed in claim 11 wherein an unauthorized transmission is detected using the data stored by the computational unit. 15. A system as claimed in claim 11 wherein the way of giving the acknowledgement is through the Web Ul or System Ul or any dedicated client server program. 16. A system as claimed in claim 11 wherein if a positive response is received for the approval, the fax gets processed and a notification is received by the user. 17. A system as claimed in claim 11 wherein if a negative response is received for the approval the status gets informed to the higher authority and the data is stored in the memory. 18. A system as claimed in claim 11 wherein the computable unit has an attached hard disk / memory which is accessible only to service personnel or administrator or the said unit acts as a trusted network server from where the administrator retrieve the stored data later. 19. A system as claimed in claim 11 wherein the user is adapted to decide the number of the approvers and the method to decide by which approvals gets noticed when a fax job is pending for the approval. 20. A system as claimed in claim 11 wherein the data stored in the confidential document posses certain distinguishing features that is recognized when the job is submitted for transmitting at a facsimile device/multi functional device. 21 .A method of predetermined manual approval for sending document as facsimile data substantially described particularly with reference to the accompanying drawings. 22. A system for predetermined manual approval for sending document as facsimile data substantially described particularly with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Documents:

1184-CHE-2005 AMENDED PAGES OF SPECIFICATION 29-01-2014.pdf

1184-CHE-2005 AMENDED CLAIMS 29-01-2014.pdf

1184-CHE-2005 CORRESPONDENCE OTHERS 29-01-2014.pdf

1184-CHE-2005 EXAMINATION REPORT REPLY RECEIVED 17-10-2013.pdf

1184-CHE-2005 FORM-1 17-10-2013.pdf

1184-CHE-2005 FORM-1 29-01-2014.pdf

1184-CHE-2005 FORM-13 17-10-2013.pdf

1184-CHE-2005 POWER OF ATTORNEY 17-10-2013.pdf

1184-CHE-2005 POWER OF ATTORNEY 29-01-2014.pdf

1184-CHE-2005 AMENDED PAGES OF SPECIFICATION 17-10-2013.pdf

1184-CHE-2005 AMENDED CLAIMS 17-10-2013.pdf

1184-CHE-2005 FORM-13 12-12-2013.pdf

1184-CHE-2005 FORM-13 19-06-2006.pdf

1184-CHE-2005 OTHER PATENT DOCUMENT 17-10-2013.pdf

1184-CHE-2005 AMENDED CLAIMS 17-12-2013.pdf

1184-CHE-2005 EXAMINATION REPORT REPLY RECIVED 17-12-2013.pdf

1184-CHE-2005 FORM-13 17-12-2013.pdf

1184-CHE-2005 POWER OF ATTORNEY 17-12-2013.pdf

1184-che-2005-abstract.pdf

1184-che-2005-claims.pdf

1184-che-2005-correspondnece-others.pdf

1184-che-2005-description(complete).pdf

1184-che-2005-drawings.pdf

1184-che-2005-form 1.pdf

1184-che-2005-form 26.pdf