Patent Application
20070139694
The present technology relates to a user interface that may be used on a device known as a digital document system (DDS) that allows a user to control the image processing performed on a document by the device based on a purpose for which the document is intended to be used.
One common type of device is a digital document system (DDS) that includes a user interface, such as a scanner, fax machine, or multi-function device (MFD) including a scanner, fax, printer, etc. Such devices, for example, MFDs, are often being equipped with powerful image processing capabilities in order to support a wide variety of document processing requirements. As the number of features offered by the MFD increases, the number of controls for configuring the image processing typically increases, as does the complexity of the interaction between image processing controls. It is typically up to the user of the device to manipulate the device controls through some user interface (UI) to obtain the desired device output. A problem arises in that most users don't understand the image processing requirements for optimizing the output for their work. A need arises for a technique by which a user can control the image processing performed by a device in a way that is easy to understand and operate, yet which provides high-quality image processing output.
The present technology includes user interface and processing techniques that provide a solution for configuring an image processing path, and associated image processing module parameters, with minimal user input. The solution consists of two key components: (1) a set of easily understood categories (or workflows) that describe the desired device output (or document processing), and (2) a system for mapping those categories to parameterized image processing paths.
A method for processing a document comprises accepting a selection of a purpose for which a document is to be used, determining processing to be performed on the document based on the selection by loading rules controlling processing of the document based on the selection, wherein the rules comprises at least one script, scanning the document, determining a content of at least a portion of the document, applying the loaded rules to determine at least one technology to be used to process the document, and processing the document using the determined technology.
The document may be processed by a device comprising at least one of a photocopier, a xerographic photocopier, a scanner, a printer, a xerographic printer, a fax machine, a xerographic fax machine, a multi-function device, or a xerographic multi-function device.
The method may further comprise accepting a selection of a fidelity of the document and wherein the document is processed according to the determined processing and the selected fidelity of the document. The method may further comprise displaying a representation of a knob or slider and accepting the selection of the fidelity of the document using the a representation of the knob or slider. The method may further comprise displaying a plurality of selectable choices, each representing a purpose for which the document is to be used. The may further comprise indicating a fidelity of the document associated with a selected choice of the plurality of selectable choices, upon selection of the selected choice. The script may comprise a plurality of commands specifying processing and parameters controlling levels of the processing.
Objects and advantages of the technology described in the present disclosure will be more clearly understood when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
The present technology includes user interface and processing techniques that provide a solution for configuring an image processing path, and associated image processing module parameters, with minimal user input. The solution consists of two key components: (1) a set of easily understood categories (or workflows) that describe the desired device output (or document processing), and (2) a system for mapping those categories to parameterized image processing paths.
An example of a digital document system 100, to which the present technology may be advantageously applied, is shown in
It is to be noted that device 102, shown in
Typically, such document processing devices provide a UI that exposes controls and a variety of selectable options used to configure a particular job. Such options include:
designating the content of the original as photo and/or text;
color balance selections of normal, lively, cool, and warm;
contrast selection from dark to light;
color shift selection from pastel to vivid;
sharpness selection from soft to sharp;
background suppression;
selecting output or inprocessing resolution;
selecting between color, or black & white, or monochrome processing;
Selecting controls and options in the UI ultimately results in configuring the image processing path for the current job, and in some cases requires expert knowledge of the effects and workflow to produce optimum device output.
The present technology encapsulates expert knowledge in a process and makes available to the user a number of easy to understand options based on typical document processing applications. As a result, the user need only be knowledgeable about their application and need not be knowledgeable about the details of the document processing path. Rather, suitable document processing may be provided using as few as a single control.
An example of a user interface 200 that provides document processing option selection is shown in
The functions of category choices 202 and Speed/Fidelity Selector 206 may be independent, or they may be linked. For example, selection of each choice 204A-D may cause Speed/Fidelity Selector 206 to indicate a default or preferred Speed/Fidelity setting for the choice. The user may then proceed with that default or preferred setting, or the user may further modify the Speed/Fidelity setting for the choice, if desired. Optionally, additional information may be displayed based on the settings of Speed/Fidelity Selector 206 and category choices 202. For example, information such as file size (per page) 208 of the scanned document, the scan resolution (dots per inch) 210, and the scan speed (pages per minute) 212, may be displayed based on the settings of Speed/Fidelity Selector 206 and category choices 202.
An exemplary flow diagram of a process of document processing 300 is shown in
It is to be noted that the processing performed using the present technology may be performed at the document system at which the user interface is present, or the processing performed using the present technology may be performed at some other device. Such a device, termed a remote device, may, for example, include one or more server systems that provide document processing. The present technology is applicable to implementation wholly on the document system, or partially on the document system and partially on one or more remote devices.
It is also to be noted that the rules that are used to process the document may have any format that provides appropriate control of the document processing. For example, the rules may comprise scripts that expressly set forth and control the processing performed. A script is a list of commands that can be executed without user interaction. Typically, a script may be considered to be a relatively simple form of programming language. However, programming languages of any level of simplicity or complexity may be used. Such scripts may include commands that specify processing and parameters that control levels of such processing. Such scripts may also include conditional statements that vary the processing based on particular conditions that do or do not occur. The present technology is not limited to script-based rules, but rather is applicable to any format of rules that provide appropriate control. For example, data tables including entries that control the processing performed and/or parameters that control the levels of processing performed may be used.
Typical technologies that may be utilized alone or in combination include color balance, contrast, color shift, sharpness, page positioning, compression, rotation, skew detection, etc. Each document processing category selection requires different technologies to produce optimum results. For example, scanning hard to read receipts on yellow paper would require grayscale scanning with adjusted histogram levels. Scanning high quality documents for legal archive is optimized by higher resolution but bi-level sampling. A set of rules is used to map from the user's choice to the combination of technologies to apply to the document. The user's document processing category selection combined with the user's fidelity selection is used to determine a set of technologies to be used. For example a low quality setting might be used to select a faster but lower quality scaling algorithm.
Some examples of rules include:
Receipt Filing:
Legal Archive:
Make Photo:
For OCR Ready:
A block diagram of a document system 400, in which the technology described in the present disclosure may be implemented, is shown in
Input/output circuitry 404 provides the capability to input data to, or output data from, computer system 400. For example, input/output circuitry may include input devices, such as keyboards, mice, touchpads, trackballs, scanners, etc., output devices, such as video adapters, monitors, printers, etc., and input/output devices, such as, modems, etc. Network adapter 406 interfaces computer system 400 with network 410. Network 410 may be any standard local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN), such as Ethernet, Token Ring, the Internet, or a private or proprietary LAN/WAN. In this example, network 410 provides communicative connection with remote processing device 412.
Memory 408 stores program instructions that are executed by, and data that are used and processed by, CPU 402 to perform the functions of the present technology. Memory 408 may include electronic memory devices, such as random-access memory (RAM), read-only memory (ROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), flash memory, etc., and electro-mechanical memory, such as magnetic disk drives, tape drives, optical disk drives, etc., which may use an integrated drive electronics (IDE) interface, or a variation or enhancement thereof, such as enhanced IDE (EIDE) or ultra direct memory access (UDMA), or a small computer system interface (SCSI) based interface, or a variation or enhancement thereof, such as fast-SCSI, wide-SCSI, fast and wide-SCSI, etc, or a fiber channel-arbitrated loop (FC-AL) interface.
In this example, memory 408 includes user interface routines 414, document processing routines 416, document processing rules 418, document processing technologies 420, and operating system 422. User interface routines 414 perform processing that accepts input from a user of document system 400 and displays information to the user. For example, user interface routines 414 may implement a user interface such as that shown in
Remote device 412 includes remote document processing routines 416, document processing rules 426, and document processing technologies 428. Remote document processing routines 424 provide the capability to perform document processing using the present technology at remote devices in addition to, or instead of, performing such processing in document system 400. Remote document processing routines 424 include software routines that implement the rules 426 that control the processing of the document including the scanning of the document, the application of document processing technologies 428 to the document, and the output of the document.
Although specific embodiments of the present technology have been described, it will be understood by those of skill in the art that there are other embodiments that are equivalent to the described embodiments. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the technology is not to be limited by the specific illustrated embodiments, but only by the scope of the appended claims.
