WO2005006683A1

WO2005006683A1 - System and method for sending image information

Info

Publication number: WO2005006683A1
Application number: PCT/AU2004/000934
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hugh Trumble; Anthony John Mccarthy; Geoffrey Arthur Elwood
Original assignee: Mypostie Pty Ltd
Priority date: 2003-07-09
Filing date: 2004-07-09
Publication date: 2005-01-20
Also published as: AU2003903546A0

Abstract

There is disclosed a system (8) for sending image information via electronic mail (e-mail). The system (8) comprises identification means for validating user identification information provided by a user and granting access to a user profile when the user identification information is validated, image acquisition means for producing image information based on at least one image provided to the image acquisition means, the image information to be included in an e-mail to be sent, a selection means for enabling the user to select at least one recipient (22) of the e-mail from a set of recipients associated with the user profile, and an e-mail compilation means for compiling the e-mail when the user has selected the at least one recipient (22) and the image information has been acquired, the compiled e-mail being addressed to the at least one recipient (22) and including the image information, whereafter the compiled e-mail can be sent to the at least one recipient (22).

Description

SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR SENDING IMAGE INFORMATION

Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a system and method for sending image informatio .

Background of Invention

The use of electronic mail (e-mail) to send messages is becoming more popular for both business and personal communication. An increased availability of the Internet has greatly contributed to the number of people utilising e-mail as a convenient and low cost alternative to conventional postal services.

A number of studies have indicated that whilst communicating via e-mail suits most people, particularly younger members of the community, certain community groups are either unwilling or unable to participate in this relatively new form of communication, and are therefore becoming marginalised. These groups include the elderly and infirm who often do not have access to a computer with e-mailing capabilities, do not have a grasp of the basic computer skills required to send e-mails, or are daunted by the seemingly complex technology and processes involved with sending e-mails.

US 6,304,898 discloses a system which removes the need for a user to type e-mails by providing a data capture area in which the user can hand write a message to be sent. Such systems are, in reality, of even greater complexity than convention personal computer (PC) e-mailing systems as they require a user to use additional peripheral components and software.

Accordingly, there is a need for an alternative procedure to send e-mail messages.

Summary of Invention

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system for sending image information via electronic mail (e-mail) , comprising: identification means for validating user identification information provided by a user and granting access to a user profile when said user identification information is validated; image acquisition means for producing image information based on at least one image provided to said image acquisition means, said image information to be included in an e-mail to be sent; a selection means for enabling said user to select at least one recipient of said e-mail from a set of recipients associated with said user profile; and an e-mail compilation means for compiling said e- mail when said user has selected said at least one recipient and said image information has been acquired, said compiled e-mail being addressed to said at least one recipient and including said image information, whereafter said compiled e-mail can be sent to said at least one recipient.

In one embodiment said identification means comprises a proximity card reader and said user identification information is stored on a proximity card.

In another embodiment said identification means comprises a swipe card reader and said user identification information is stored on a swipe card.

In an embodiment said image acquisition means comprises an image scanner and associated scanning software for scanning images provided to said image scanner and producing said image information.

In one embodiment to produce said image information, said scanning software converts data produced by said image scanner to an image file.

In one embodiment said selection means comprises a touch screen display, and at least part of said set of recipients is displayed on a display to enable a user to select a recipient.

Typically, said set of recipients are displayed as pictorial images of said recipients whereby said user may select at least one recipient by touching a pictorial image corresponding to said at least one recipient.

Typically, selecting said at least one recipient causes at least one corresponding e-mail address to be added to an address field of said e-mail by said e-mail compilation means .

In another embodiment, said system constitutes a user terminal .

According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for sending image information via electronic mail (e-mail), comprising the steps of: granting a user access to a user profile when user identification information provided by said user is validated; said user selecting at least one recipient of an e-mail to be sent from a set of recipients associated with said user profile; acquiring image information based on at least one image provided to an image acquisition means; and compiling said e-mail when said user has selected said at least one recipient and said image information has been acquired, said compiled e-mail being addressed to said at least one recipient and including said image information.

Brief Description of Drawings

A preferred embodiment of the invention will now be described in relation to the accompanying drawings wherein: Figure 1 is a schematic representation of a system adapted to send images via e-mail, according to an embodiment of the present invention; Figure 2 shows a kiosk of a preferred embodiment; and Figure 3 shows a touch screen displaying a set of e-mail recipients according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Description of Preferred Embodiment

According to an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a system 8 adapted to send image information via e-mail to at least one recipient 22 as shown in Fig. 1. The system of the preferred embodiment is configured to allow elderly or infirm users who are unfamiliar with e-mail to send hand written letters via e-mail to their friends and family. E-mails to be sent are compiled using user terminals 9 and sent to a web-mail server via the Internet 21. Each user terminal 9 is connected to the Internet 21 using a dial-up modem, broad-band connection or other suitable connection. Recipients 22, are able to send and receive e-mails by logging on to an e-mail account hosted by web-mail server. Recipients can also receive a notification e-mail to another e-mail account. E-mail can only be sent to and from the web-mail server, thus establishing what is in effect a virtual private network. The user terminal is provided in the form of a "kiosk" 9 and includes a housing 1 mounted on base 40. Sign 41 draws the attention of users to the kiosk 9. The preferred embodiment is described in terms of a single kiosk 9. In practice there would be numerous kiosks 9 located in the communal areas of hospital wards, nursing homes and retirement villages, the kiosks 9 all being able to send and receive e-mail.

The kiosk 9 is ergonomically designed with desk top 42 at a suitable height to enable users in wheelchairs to readily access all of the features of the kiosk 9. The housing 1 houses a first computer, a printer (not shown) for printing e-mails wherein the printed pages are supplied to the user through an output slot 5, and an image scanner (not shown) for scanning documents . The image scanner is embedded in the desktop 42 with lid 6 of the image scanner flush with the desktop 42. The scanner lid β is of light weight construction and a handle 43 is provided to enable the lid to be lifted whereafter a user can place documents to be scanned on the scanner.

A touch screen display 2 is provided for presenting options to a user and thus functions as a selection means, operating in conjunction with associated software on the first computer, whereby a user can select an option by pressing a corresponding area of the touch screen display 2. The touch screen display 2 provides a more "user friendly" selection interface for elderly or infirm users than keyboard and mouse arrangements conventionally used with PC systems as well as removing the requirement of understanding how to operate e-mail software programs. Similarly, an identification means which includes a proximity card reader mounted in a recess 3 in the desktop 42 of the housing 1, provides a simpler validation arrangement for users than conventionally used password entry. The proximity card reader is configured to read cards located in recess 3.

The first computer is connected to the proximity card reader 3, touch screen display 2, image scanner, printer, and the Internet 21. The swipe card reader 3 is part of an identifying means which is used to validate user identification information stored in a proximity card. The first computer periodically polls the proximity card reader to determine that a proximity card is present. The proximity card provides user identification information to the proximity card reader 3. The first computer 7 forms the remaining part of the identification means and validates the user identification information provided by the user.

Once the user identification information has been validated, the user is granted access to their user profile. The user profile is stored in a database of user profiles which are managed by the web-mail server 20. A number of different users can therefore access their corresponding individual user profiles from the same kiosk 9. Each user profile includes various recipient parameters including pictorial images 30 and e-mail addresses, however, the user will access these parameters using customised user interface software operating on the first computer 7. The user unknowingly accesses these parameters when using the customised user interface software which is relatively simple to use, especially when compared with PC e-mailing software currently available. When the proximity card is removed, the system automatically logs the user off.

The web-mail server 20 runs an e-mail server which centrally manages all incoming and outgoing mail for the system 8. The web-mail server 20 is accessible via the Internet and has a profile manager for allowing a secondary user, such as a more technically adept relative of an elderly user, to manage that user's profile. The secondary user can, for example, add or remove recipients from a user's profile, update recipient pictorial images 30, or update recipient e-mail addresses. The secondary user, who is likely also to be a recipient 22, is to have their access to the user profile validated using a password. Password protection minimises the possibility of unauthorised persons accessing the user profile. A central system administrator also has access to all user profiles and is responsible for, among other things, controlling the passwords.

The primary user process to access the system 8 is simple and does not require the user to remember a password. The user simply places a proximity card 10 in recess 3 and the validation process begins automatically. Once the user identification information has been validated, a personalised message is displayed on the touch screen 2 welcoming the user to the system. A number of options are also displayed including the options to send an e-mail and print any received e-mails.

When the user selects the send e-mail option on the touch screen 2, a set of potential recipients 22 to whom the e-mail can be sent are accessed from the user profile and displayed on the touch screen 2. In the preferred embodiment, the recipients 22 are displayed as pictorial images 30, which are photographs of the recipients 22. If a pictorial image 30 is not available, the name of the recipients 31 is displayed instead (Fig. 3) . The set of recipients 22 is specific to the user and hence the user is only presented with familiar recipients 22.

When the user selects a recipient 22 for the e-mail to be sent, by pressing the name or pictorial image 30 on the touch screen 2, e-mail compiling software is executed by the first computer 7 to thereby provide an e-mail compilation means. The e-mail compilation means inserts the corresponding e-mail address of the recipient 22 into an address field of the e-mail to be sent by the first computer 7. Again, this function is hidden from the user.

Once a desired recipient 22 has been selected, the user is prompted by a message displayed on the touch screen 2 to enter the documents to be sent (eg. a hand written letter or photograph) by placing them on the scanner. The user places individual pages on the image scanner bed, one at a time. When a page is located on the scanner bed, it is scanned automatically. After each page has been scanned, the user is asked via a prompt, whether there are any additional pages to be included in the e-mail.

The image scanner and associated software thus provides an image acquisition means for acquiring image information based on the scanned documents . Once the user indicates that the last document to be sent has been scanned, by selecting an appropriate option displayed on the touch screen 2, an image file is produced from the acquired image information. The acquired image information is stored as an image file (eg. JPEG, PDF, TIF etc.) by the first computer 7 and is automatically attached or included in the e-mail to be sent by the e-mail compilation means, without requiring any further input from the user. The compiled e-mail is forwarded by the first computer 7 to the web-mail server 20.

The user can then proceed to undertake additional options including sending another e-mail, viewing or printing any received e-mails. When the user selects the option to print received e-mails, printed pages 6 are supplied to the user through the output slot 5. Before e-mails are printed, header information such as e-mail addresses are either modified or stripped altogether, and the resulting message thereby more closely resembles traditional correspondence .

Photographs may also be sent to the user, and for this purpose, the user's account is associated with a gallery where images sent to them are automatically stored. Although not provided in the preferred embodiment, the system may be modified in order to provide an additional photo printer on which photos can be printed. Alternatively, the kiosk may be provided with a disk writer and the photos written to disk so that the user can get the images printed on a high quality colour printer such as found at photographic shops .

In order for the recipients to receive e-mails from the users, they must log on to the web-mail server. Web-mail server is constructed in accordance with traditional principles such as Hotmail or Yahoo, however, in the preferred embodiment, the recipients can only send and receive e-mail to users of the system in relation to whom they are recipients. That is, the users in who's profile they are registered. As discussed above, this has the effect of making the system a virtual private network and prevents unwanted e-mail such as junk or spam mail being sent to users.

In order to assist with user's viewing e-mail, viewing software is provided such as that when a user wishes to view an e-mail, the image of that e-mail is displayed on the screen. In order to account for potential errors in scanning, a rotation tool is provided in order to allow the recipient to rotate the image.

Other variations and embodiments of the foregoing preferred embodiment will be apparent to those skilled in the art . For example, received e-mails could be printed by a central system administrator and then delivered to the user manually. This may have the advantage of simplifying the system further so as to only provide the option of sending e-mails.

Image information based on image data captured by the image scanner could be processed by character recognition software before being included in the e-mail. In this case, the image information would be text extracted from hand written letters and would be inserted into an e-mail as text .

Additional peripheral hardware such as a keyboard, a conventional personal computer (PC) and a mouse could be readily interfaced with the system 8 either collectively as an alternative user interface or individually to be used in conjunction with the kiosk of the preferred embodiment .

The ordering of the selecting a recipient and acquiring the image information is not critical and therefore the image information to be sent could alternatively be acquired before the recipient of the e-mail is selected.

A suitable alternative for the proximity card holder of the preferred embodiment could include a swipe card reader wherein user information stored on a swipe card is validated.

Although the e-mail is sent immediately after compilation in the preferred embodiment, the user may be presented with further compilation options for entering additional information or including other documents before sending the e-mail. A sheet feeder may be used in conjunction with the scanner so that documents to be sent can be scanned in a more convenient manner. All pages to be sent could therefore be scanned automatically when placed in the sheet feeder, thereby removing the need for a user to enter the documents one page at a time.

Although the preferred embodiment describes the case where a single recipient 22 is selected, it is apparent that a plurality of recipients for the e-mail could be selected, as could mailing groups of recipients.

In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, a first computer and the web-mail server computer could be connected via a local area network (LAN) , the web-mail computer also being connected to the Internet. Alternatively, in other embodiments of the present invention, only a single computer directly connected to the Internet need be used—that is, the kiosk might be a standalone unit which e-mails correspondence directly to existing e-mail addresses, or a plurality of first computers and a plurality of second computers could be networked together.

It is also anticipated that in embodiments where more than one user interface is provided in the system, a user can access their user profile from any of a number of kiosks.

These and other variations and embodiments should be considered to fall within the scope of the invention disclosed.

Claims

CLAIMS :

1. A system for sending image information via electronic mail (e-mail) , comprising: identification means for validating user identification information provided by a user and granting access to a user profile when said user identification information is validated; image acquisition means for producing image information based on at least one image provided to said image acquisition means, said image information to be included in an e-mail to be sent; a selection means for enabling said user to select at least one recipient of said e-mail from a set of recipients associated with said user profile; and an e-mail compilation means for compiling said e-mail when said user has selected said at least one recipient and said image information has been acquired, said compiled e-mail being addressed to said at least one recipient and including said image information, whereafter said compiled e-mail can be sent to said at least one recipient.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said identification means comprises a proximity card reader and said user identification information is stored on a proximity card.

3. A system as claimed in claim 2, wherein said identification means comprises a swipe card reader and said user identification information is stored on a swipe card.

4. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said image acquisition means comprises an image scanner and associated scanning software for scanning images provided to said image scanner and producing said image information.

5. A system as claimed in claim 4, wherein to produce said image information, said scanning software converts data produced by said image scanner to an image file.

6. A system as claimed in claim 4, wherein to produce said image information from a hand written document, said scanning software converts data produced by said image scanner to a text file.

7. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said selection means comprises a touch screen display, and at least part of said set of recipients is displayed on a display to enable a user to select a recipient.

8. A system as claimed in claim 7, wherein one or more recipients of said set of recipients are displayed as pictorial images of said recipients whereby said user may select at least one recipient by touching a pictorial image corresponding to said at least one recipient.

9. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein selecting said at least one recipient causes at least one corresponding e-mail address to be added to an address field of said e-mail by said e-mail compilation means.

10. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said system sends said compiled e-mail after compilation without requiring further user input.

11. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said identification means, said image acquisition means, said selection means, and said e-mail compilation means provided a user terminal .

12. A system as claimed in claim 11, wherein said user terminal is adapted to receive e-mail.

13. A system as claimed in claim 12, wherein said user terminal comprises a printer to print e-mails.

14. A system as claimed in claim 1, wherein said system constitutes a user terminal.

15. A system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a web-mail server and wherein said e-mail is sent to said web-mail server.

16. A system as claimed in claim 15, wherein each recipient has an e-mail account hosted by said web-mail server.

17. A system as claimed in claim 16, wherein when a recipient accesses an e-mail via said account, said image information of said e-mail is displayed to said recipient as an image .

18. A system as claimed in claim 17, further comprising means for rotating said image.

19. A system as claimed in claim 15, wherein said web-mail server has profile management means for allowing a secondary user to manage said user profile when said profile management means validates said secondary user.

20. A method for sending image information via electronic mail (e-mail), comprising the steps of: granting a user access to a user profile when user identification information provided by said user is validated; said user selecting at least one recipient of an e-mail to be sent from a set of recipients associated with said user profile; acquiring image information based on at least one image provided to an image acquisition means; and compiling said e-mail when said user has selected said at least one recipient and said image information has been acquired, said compiled e-mail being addressed to said at least one recipient and including said image information.

21. A method as claimed in claim 20, further comprising automatically sending said e-mail to said at least one recipient when compilation of said e-mail is complete .

22. A method as claimed in claim 21, comprising sending said e-mail to a web-mail server.

23. A method as claimed in claim 22, further comprising said at least one recipient accessing said e-mail server to obtain said e-mail.

24. A method as claimed in claim 20, further comprising a second user managing said user profile via said web-mail server.

25. A method as claimed in claim 20, further comprising displaying one or more recipients of said set of recipients as pictorial images of said recipients on a touch screen display whereby a user may select at least one recipient by touching a pictorial image.