THERMALLY-ACTIVATED RECEIVING MEDIUM FOR USE IN A FACSIMILE TRANSMISSION SYSTEM

摘要

A printing medium for the printing of images thereon to form a document by the printer of a standard facsimile machine in a manner which renders the document unreadable to a casual observer. There is a strip of a flexible printing medium receivable by the facsimile machine for passage therethrough past the printer thereof. The printing medium has a surface for receiving an image from the printer. Additionally, there is a strip of an obscuring medium removably attached to the printing medium along an edge thereof in a manner which will allow the obscuring medium to pass through the facsimile machine in combination with the printing medium. The obscuring medium has an obscuring portion covering a printing surface of the printing medium upon which the printer prints images for rendering printing of the printing medium unreadable to a casual observer. Four embodiments are disclosed for use in both thermal and plain paper facsimile machines. An addressing scheme to allow identification of the addressee without opening the ''envelope''' is shown. One version can be employed to provide plain paper output on a standard facsimile machine with a thermal printhead by simply replacing the thermal paper thereof.