Information transmitting and receiving station utilizing a copier-printer

Abstract

A copier-printer is employed in conjunction with an optical scanner and associated character recognition logic to transmit information contained in a document over a telephone line or other communication line. The copier-printer is used to make a copy of the document which is stored in the duplex tray. When a buffer memory associated with the communication line is ready to receive further information for transmission, the copy is retrieved from the duplex tray and circulated through the copier-printer to the optical scanner. The scanner provides the information from the copy to the buffer memory in a non-coded format except to the extent that the character recognition logic is able to code some or all of the information. The copy is advanced from the scanner to a mailbox in the form of a limited access compartment at the bottom of the collator for the copier-printer. The copier-printer may be used to receive information transmitted over the communication line by temporarily storing the information in the buffer memory and then printing the information on paper which is routed to and stored in the mailbox. Information provided to the print buffer for printing can be checked for printing accuracy by scanning the resulting printed paper using the optical scanner and comparing the scanned information with the information originally entered in the print buffer.