CHAPTER 44

FACSIMILE
(FAX)
In addition to basic signals consisting of speech, It differs from facsimile in that the scene may be
music, or telegraph codes, a telecommunication live (i.e. include movement).
system is often required to transmit signals of a Information is transmitted at a much faster rate in
visual nature. Facsimile means an exact television transmission than it is in facsimile
reproduction, and in facsimile transmission an transmission. As a result, television transmission
exact reproduction of a document or picture is requires a much larger bandwidth, and special
provided at the receiving end. Television means wideband circuits are required. The small
visually at a distance and a television system is bandwidth required for facsimile makes it suitable
used to reproduce any scene at the receiving end. for transmission over normal telephone lines.

FA CSIM ILE M A C HIN E

An input scanner can be used to transmit images over a telecommunications link to a remote printer. This
principle has been in use commercially for news photograph transmission since 1930s. Combined send/
receive machines suitable for office use became widely available in 1960s, and between 1980 and 1987 the
number of machines connected to the world-wide telephone network grew from a quarter of a million to two
million. Facsimile provides very fast transmission of almost any documentary material without specialist
preparation. However, between 2 million and 10 million bits are required for a raster scan of an A4 page; this
has to be compared with 20000 bits for a similar-sized page of ASCII-coded characters. This added
transmission burden is somewhat alleviated by the ability to tolerate very high error rates.

Fig.44.1 Personalfacsim ile m achine

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The design of facsimile machines has been strongly influenced by the use of the PSTN (public switched
telephone network). Firstly, the network was designed for speech, not data. Therefore the power/frequency/
time characteristics of the transmitted facsimile signal must be chosen to suit the network. Secondly,
transmission time is expensive, so effective data compression and channel modulation methods must be
used. Thirdly, since the public network is switched, every facsimile machine can in principle be connected
to every other. Rigorous development and application of international standards is therefore necessary to
ensure that this potential for interconnection is not wasted.
Fig. 44.2 shows the block diagram of a typical facsimile machine. When data is read from an input
document it is first compressed and then modulated on to an audio-frequency carrier prior to being coupled
to the line. The receive path is the reverse of this.

Fig.44.2 Block diagram ofa typicalfacsim ile m achine

B ASIC FAX M A C HINE O PER ATIO NS

Essentially, a fax machine scans original documents, converts the scanned images into electrical signals,
and transmits them over telephone lines to a receiving fax machine. The receiving fax machine in turn
converts the received signals back into the graphical images of the original document and prints them. The
basic Group 3 fax machine operations for transmitting a page are presented in Fig. 44.4.

Fig.44.3 A fax m achine is basically a scanner-copierm achine that

sends and receives graphic im ages overtelephone lines.
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Fig.44.4 Basic fax m achine operations

The handshake process : The sending and receiving fax-modems set up the transmission protocols,
transmission speed, and other settings between them in a handshake process. If one modem cannot transmit
at the highest speed of the other, both modems agree to fallback to the next highest speed at which both
modems can transmit on the line.
At the transmitting end :
1. Scanning : The images on the page are scanned and transformed into analog signals to begin the
transmission process. Either a charge-coupled device or contact image sensor scanner scans the
page being sent. A photosensor array of 1728 tiny sensors for A4 paper size (or 2048 for B4) targets
very small picture elements (pixels) on a line of page, one sensor per pixel, resulting in 1728 (or
2048) bits per line. The array determines whether each pixel is black or white and accordingly
generates a strong or weak electronic signal for that pixel.
A page is scanned line-by-line with all the pixels in a thin strip from 0.13 to 0.25 mm high across
the top of the page, or between 10 and 12 scan lines per line of text. Successive strips are scanned
until the whole page is converted into a series of electrical pulses. The amplitude of each pulse
represents the brightness of the corresponding pixel. This scanning operation takes between five
and ten seconds per page.
2. A/D Conversion : The scanner signals are converted from analog to digital with typically from one
to six bits per pixel. After image processing is complete, one bit per pixel is produced.
3. Video Processing : The processing of the scanner data can be done on the analog scanner signal, the
digital data, or both. It accomodates for the shading, distortions, and other aspects of the original
image so that reproduction can be as accurate as possible.
4. Shading compensation checks for non uniformity in the scanner optical system and corrects
distortions due to both, light sources as well as nonun iformity in the scanner element.
5. Thresholding : The conversion of the scanner output from grey level to a black-and-white level
must also be performed. It may include dithering (or half-toning), a method of generating pseudo-
grey scales.
Other video processing techniques include automatic background correction, automatic contrast
control, edge enhancement and MTF (modulation transfer function) correction. These can be
performed in one or two dimensions. Images may also be reduced or enlarged.
6. Compressing the digital signals : The data compression operation can reduce the picture information
by a factor of from 5 to 20, depending on the characteristics of the image. This operation generates
code words containing the pixel imformation in compressed digital signals.
7. Modulation : The compressed digital signals are modulated by the modem into analog signals (a
tone series) that can be sent over regular telephone lines. Group 3 fax machines are half duplex and
can either send or receive at any time.
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8. Transmission: The analog signals are then transmitted over the phone lines from the sending modem
to the receiving modem.
At the receiving end :
1. Demodulation : A modem demodulates or decodes the received analog tone signals regenerating
the digital signals (bit streams) sent.
2. Decompression : The next step is to expand the digital signals and reconstruct the page’s images
into black-and-white pixels which represent the pixel’s of the page’s image.
3. Thermal printing: The thermal printer converts the expanded bit stream into a copy of the original
page. The printer’s wires are spaced 203 to the inch, touching the temperature-sensitive recording
paper. For black marking, the wires heat up when high current passes through them. The wires go
from non-marking (white) to marking (black) temperature, and back again in a few milliseconds.
4. Resolution : Standard resolution is 203 lines per inch across and 98 lines per inch down the page.
Fine resolution requires twice the number of lines (196 lines per inch) down the page. Most group
3 fax machines include a high resolution option.

G RO UP 3 FAX M A CHINES
Group 3 fax machines now comprise the overwhelming majority of fax machines in operation worldwide.
Group 3 refers to the digital standard that ensures compatibility among fax machines.
The Group 1 (1968) analog standard covered four and six minutes per page fax machines, while the
Group 2 (1976) analog standard covered two and three minutes per page machines. The Group 3 digital
standard was first adopted in 1980. It calls for the ability to send an 8.5 × 11 inch page in approximately 30
seconds over a voice grade telephone line. Group 3 fax machines actually do better. They can send an
average page of text in 10 to 30 seconds with about 15 seconds for the initial first page handshake. The time
per page really depends on how many black markings (text and graphics images) are present, on their level
of detail and on the compression scheme used.
Due to advancing technology the Group 3 standard has been revised several times since 1980. Most
notable advances in VLSI chip technology and DSP have resulted in increased data rates that significantly
reduce transmission time.
Group 4 fax machines, which transmit at 64,000 bps, will be suited to computer controlled network
communications. First adopted in 1984, Group 4 fax machines are designed for transmission over ISDN.

Fig.44.5 The Panasonic KX -580 BX facsim ile system

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While Group 3 machines excel at stand-alone, person-to-person communications, Group 4 fax machines
will be suited to computer-controlled network communications. However the installed base of Group 4
machines today is very small compared to Group 3 machines and they are comparatively expensive.

EXERCISES

D escriptive Q uestions
1. Draw the block diagram of, and briefly explain, a facsimile machine.
2. Explain basic fax machine operations.
3. Write short notes on :
(a) The handshake process (b) Decompression
(c) Resolution (d) Group 3 fax machines

Fillin the B lanks

1. Fax means reproduction.
2. Fax can be transmitted over normal .
3. Fax provides transmission of almost any documentary material.
4. If one modem cannot transmit at the highest speed of the other, both modems agree to
to the next highest speed at which both modems can transmit on the line.
5. Shading compensation checks for in the scanner optical system.
6. Data compression reduces the picture information by a factor of from .
7. Group 3 fax machines are and can either send or receive at any time.
8. Fine resolution requires the number of lines down the page.
9. Group 3 fax machines include a option.

ANSW ERS
Fillin the B lanks
1. exact 2. telephone lines 3. very fast
4. fall back 5. nonuniformities 6. 5 to 20
7. half duplex 8. twice 9. high resolution