Classifications

• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N1/00—Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
  • H04N1/32—Circuits or arrangements for control or supervision between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device, e.g. between a still-image camera and its memory or between a still-image camera and a printer device
  • H04N1/327—Initiating, continuing or ending a single-mode communication; Handshaking therefor
  • H04N1/32765—Initiating a communication
  • H04N1/32771—Initiating a communication in response to a request, e.g. for a particular document
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N1/00—Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N1/00—Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
  • H04N1/00127—Connection or combination of a still picture apparatus with another apparatus, e.g. for storage, processing or transmission of still picture signals or of information associated with a still picture
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N1/00—Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
  • H04N1/00127—Connection or combination of a still picture apparatus with another apparatus, e.g. for storage, processing or transmission of still picture signals or of information associated with a still picture
  • H04N1/00132—Connection or combination of a still picture apparatus with another apparatus, e.g. for storage, processing or transmission of still picture signals or of information associated with a still picture in a digital photofinishing system, i.e. a system where digital photographic images undergo typical photofinishing processing, e.g. printing ordering
  • H04N1/00135—Scanning of a photographic original
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N1/00—Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
  • H04N1/00127—Connection or combination of a still picture apparatus with another apparatus, e.g. for storage, processing or transmission of still picture signals or of information associated with a still picture
  • H04N1/00204—Connection or combination of a still picture apparatus with another apparatus, e.g. for storage, processing or transmission of still picture signals or of information associated with a still picture with a digital computer or a digital computer system, e.g. an internet server
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N1/00—Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
  • H04N1/00127—Connection or combination of a still picture apparatus with another apparatus, e.g. for storage, processing or transmission of still picture signals or of information associated with a still picture
  • H04N1/00204—Connection or combination of a still picture apparatus with another apparatus, e.g. for storage, processing or transmission of still picture signals or of information associated with a still picture with a digital computer or a digital computer system, e.g. an internet server
  • H04N1/00244—Connection or combination of a still picture apparatus with another apparatus, e.g. for storage, processing or transmission of still picture signals or of information associated with a still picture with a digital computer or a digital computer system, e.g. an internet server with a server, e.g. an internet server
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N1/00—Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
  • H04N1/32—Circuits or arrangements for control or supervision between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device, e.g. between a still-image camera and its memory or between a still-image camera and a printer device
  • H04N1/32101—Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N1/00—Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
  • H04N1/00127—Connection or combination of a still picture apparatus with another apparatus, e.g. for storage, processing or transmission of still picture signals or of information associated with a still picture
  • H04N1/00204—Connection or combination of a still picture apparatus with another apparatus, e.g. for storage, processing or transmission of still picture signals or of information associated with a still picture with a digital computer or a digital computer system, e.g. an internet server
  • H04N1/00209—Transmitting or receiving image data, e.g. facsimile data, via a computer, e.g. using e-mail, a computer network, the internet, I-fax
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N1/00—Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
  • H04N1/32—Circuits or arrangements for control or supervision between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device, e.g. between a still-image camera and its memory or between a still-image camera and a printer device
  • H04N1/32101—Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title
  • H04N1/32106—Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title separate from the image data, e.g. in a different computer file
  • H04N1/32122—Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title separate from the image data, e.g. in a different computer file in a separate device, e.g. in a memory or on a display separate from image data
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N1/00—Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
  • H04N1/32—Circuits or arrangements for control or supervision between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device, e.g. between a still-image camera and its memory or between a still-image camera and a printer device
  • H04N1/32101—Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title
  • H04N1/32128—Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title attached to the image data, e.g. file header, transmitted message header, information on the same page or in the same computer file as the image
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N2201/00—Indexing scheme relating to scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, and to details thereof
  • H04N2201/32—Circuits or arrangements for control or supervision between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device, e.g. between a still-image camera and its memory or between a still-image camera and a printer device
  • H04N2201/3201—Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title
  • H04N2201/3225—Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title of data relating to an image, a page or a document
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N2201/00—Indexing scheme relating to scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, and to details thereof
  • H04N2201/32—Circuits or arrangements for control or supervision between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device, e.g. between a still-image camera and its memory or between a still-image camera and a printer device
  • H04N2201/3201—Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title
  • H04N2201/3225—Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title of data relating to an image, a page or a document
  • H04N2201/3243—Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title of data relating to an image, a page or a document of type information, e.g. handwritten or text document
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N2201/00—Indexing scheme relating to scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, and to details thereof
  • H04N2201/32—Circuits or arrangements for control or supervision between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device, e.g. between a still-image camera and its memory or between a still-image camera and a printer device
  • H04N2201/3201—Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title
  • H04N2201/3278—Transmission
• • H—ELECTRICITY
  • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
  • H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
  • H04N2201/00—Indexing scheme relating to scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, and to details thereof
  • H04N2201/32—Circuits or arrangements for control or supervision between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device, e.g. between a still-image camera and its memory or between a still-image camera and a printer device
  • H04N2201/3201—Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title
  • H04N2201/328—Processing of the additional information

Definitions

• EP 0 748 107 A2 a method of scanning and adding extra information is disclosed.
• information regarding a document to be scanned is written or printed in a form.
• the form is then scanned and the extra information is extracted using an image recognition technique.
• the information extraction is not as complex for the scanning device as when the information is extracted from the document itself, but still an image processing is required and other problems are added.
• the scanning device must be able to recognise that the paper it is scanning is an information form and therefore only a restricted amount of different designs of the form could be used. If a form is changed, e.g. in a case when some other information is needed, the scanning device must be reprogrammed to be able to extract the information.
• the method further comprises the step of validating the inputted information.
• the information can be controlled to be in the right format. For example if an amount is asked for the validation should ensure that the inputted information is a number.
• Fig. 1 is a schematic view of a data network with different applications including the system according to the invention.
• Fig. 2 is a schematic view of an implementation of the system according to the invention.
• Fig. 3 is a schematic view of a working procedure according to the invention.
• a preferred embodiment of a system 1 is showed connected to a network 2.
• the system 1 comprises a Network Document Server (NDS) 3, an input device 4 and a connection to an image information acquiring means 5.
• NDS Network Document Server
• the system comprises a means for requesting information regarding the image information.
• This image information acquiring means 5 is in most cases a scanner, but it could also be a digital copier, a fax machine, a digital camera etc.
• the input device 4 could be any kind of input device, e.g. a keyboard or a pen scanner, and the information could be inputted by just inserting the data or by selecting it from a list presented in connection with a request.
• the means for requesting information could be any kind of display or a speech device for vocally requesting information.
• the NDS 3 is the heart of the system 1 and connects the scanner to a data network 2.
• the NDS 3 could either
• the NDS 3 When the NDS 3 has received a digital image file 6 and all meta information has been inputted, the NDS 3 connects the meta information 18b to the digital image file 18a.
• the meta information 18b could be embedded in the same file as the digital image file 18a, this is referred to as 18 in Fig. 2, but it could also be in a file separate from the digital image file 18a. If the meta information 18b is in a separate file, the meta information preferably is supplemented with a pointer to the image file.
• the NDS 3 transmits the digital image file 18a and the meta information 18b to a selected destination on a data network 2.
• This destination is not necessarily the same for the digital image file 18a and the meta infor- mation 18b, the digital image file 18a could for example be transmitted to a certain catalogue on a file server whereas the meta information 18b is transmitted to another catalogue on another file server.
• the components that are shown as internal NDS components in Fig. 2 could also be external components that is to be accessed over a network when needed.
• step 101 the administrator writes a control file 7 and in step 102 the administrator puts the control file 7 on a server.
• the administrator configures the NDS 3 to retrieve the control file 7. Then the NDS 3 retrieves the control file in step 104.
• the control file 7 is then treated by the NDS 3 in step 105.
• the control file 7 is parsed and validated and if the control file 7 is not correct an error information is sent to an administrator interface and the control file 7 is ignored, step 106.
• the admini- strator corrects the control file 7 in step 107 and then the process is returned to step 102.
• control file 7 If the control file 7 is found to be correct in step 105 the control file 7 could be used to control the requesting of meta information in the NDS 3. In connection with an image information acquiring operation the user is then requested to input meta information. The requested information is prompted for on a NDS display in step 108. In step 109 the user enters a value which is examined according to a specification in the control file 7 in step 110. If the value is not correct the process is returned to step 108.
• step 110 the NDS 3 examines, in step 111, whether more information should be requested according to the control file 7. If so, the process is returned to step 108, otherwise an output file comprising the meta information is created in step 112. Some extra meta information could be added automatically to the output file. This is information which the NDS 3 could access without extensive processing, such as a time stamp for the scanning, the size of the digital image file 6 or a name of the scanner 5 that produced the digital image file 6.
• the control file 7 holds a specification for the format of the output file corresponding to a format required by a destination for the output file. The output file is then sent to the destination in step 113.
• step 114 a check is made if the meta information and the digital image file should be sent to more destinations. If so, the NDS 3 could be designed to restart in step 108 to prompt the user for information required for the destination. The NDS 3 could alternatively request all information for all destinations first and then transmit meta information to the desti- nations. In such case the NDS 3 creates a new output file in step 112 for the next destination. The output file is then prepared to be compatible to the destination appli- cation. If there are no more destinations in step 114 the process is complete.
• a specific application of the invention will be described in the following.
• This application is an example of how the system could be used and it relates to invoice handling.
• a company many different people could receive invoices. However, all invoices are handled at the same department or could even be handled by accounting software.
• the invoice handler wants to receive specific information regarding the invoice so that an additional analyse of the invoice is avoided. This information could be an invoice number, a date of payment and a name of an orderer.
• the system administrator designs a control file for a system according to the invention so that the specific information needed by the invoice handler is requested from a user when the invoice handler is chosen as destination for a scanned document.
• the administrator gives an attribute to the information as to whether it is required, optional or hidden information. If the information is required the user has to input the information to be able to send the document, whereas if the information is optional it is optional for the user to enter information. If the information is hidden the user does not see that the information is added, it is thus obtained automatically. Furthermore, the administrator set a pattern to check the lexical correctness of an entered value. In this case the invoice number could be set to be a five-digit number, the date of payment could be set to be a date in the form DD/MM/YYYY and the name of the orderer could be set to be a free text .
• the person who received the invoice scans the invoice at a scanning device equipped with the system according to the invention for transmission of a scanned document to the invoice handler.
• the person is asked for meta information regarding the invoice.
• the dynamic control of the requesting will ensure that the person is prompted for the specific information that the invoice handler needs.
• the scanned document together with the meta information is sent to the destination.
• the receiver then has all information needed for the further treatment of the document.

Landscapes

• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Multimedia (AREA)
• Signal Processing (AREA)
• Computing Systems (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Information Transfer Between Computers (AREA)
• Facsimiles In General (AREA)
• Computer And Data Communications (AREA)
• Information Retrieval, Db Structures And Fs Structures Therefor (AREA)
• Processing Or Creating Images (AREA)

Priority Applications (4)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Publications (1)

Family

ID=20279975

Family Applications (1)

Country Status (7)

Cited By (3)

Families Citing this family (1)

Citations (3)

Family Cites Families (2)

• 2000
  • 2000-06-06 SE SE0002098A patent/SE518643C2/sv not_active IP Right Cessation
• 2001
  • 2001-06-05 EP EP01937117A patent/EP1302064A1/en not_active Withdrawn
  • 2001-06-05 JP JP2002503018A patent/JP4095891B2/ja not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2001-06-05 AU AU2001262882A patent/AU2001262882A1/en not_active Abandoned
  • 2001-06-05 KR KR1020027016537A patent/KR100804918B1/ko not_active IP Right Cessation
  • 2001-06-05 CN CNB018108067A patent/CN1196314C/zh not_active Expired - Fee Related
  • 2001-06-05 WO PCT/SE2001/001255 patent/WO2001095609A1/en active Application Filing

Patent Citations (3)

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