Patent Application
20100209018
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image forming devices. In particular, the present invention relates to an image forming device comprising an electronic filing cabinet for storing documents electronically.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, small office environments use a paper-filing cabinet to store important documents such as receipts and bills for subsequent reference. Documents that are printed, scanned or photocopied using image forming devices in offices are manually stored in the paper filing cabinet. Filing every document individually requires manual effort, which may be tedious for a user. Further, retrieval of previously stored documents for reference is difficult and time consuming.
In order to automate the paper filing process, some image forming devices are connected to a computer system. The computer system helps in archiving and retrieving relevant documents. In these systems, the image forming devices are not capable of storing documents independently. Therefore, transfer of archived documents to another computer system, which may be required for upgrading the computer system or replacing an old computer system, is difficult.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,957,235 titled ‘Automatic document archiving for a computer system’ assigned to Ricoh Corporation (NJ) and Ricoh Company Ltd. (JP) describes a method for archiving documents transferred between a computer system and a peripheral device. The documents are archived in the memory of the computer system. However, the method requires a computer system operating in conjunction with the peripheral device. Further, transfer of archived documents to another computer system is difficult.
Embodiments of the present invention overcome shortcomings with prior systems and thereby satisfy a need to independently and automatically store documents and facilitate easy retrieval thereof.
An image forming device comprising an electronic filing cabinet is provided. The electronic filing cabinet includes an indexing engine and a storage device. The indexing engine further includes an optical character recognition unit. Documents output from the image forming device or read into the image forming device are processed by the optical character recognition unit. The optical character recognition unit scans and/or inspects the documents and generates timestamps for the documents. The scanned information and the generated timestamps are input into the indexing engine. Data about the operation, such as scan, fax and print, performed by the image forming device on the documents is also provided to the indexing engine. The indexing engine classifies and indexes the documents, based on the scanned information and a first predefined set of rules. The indexed documents are subsequently stored in the storage device based on a second predefined set of rules. The first predefined set of rules is provided by a user. Examples of the first predefined set of rules include potential actions based on the occurrence of predefined keywords, pattern recognition and document size. Potential actions may include classifying documents under predefined categories, sending an email to a predefined mailing account, deleting documents irrelevant or unimportant to a user, and the like. Examples of the second predefined set of rules may include document encryption, password protection and the like. The electronic filing cabinet also includes a human machine interface. Documents in the storage device may be retrieved by the user through a search engine integrated in the human machine interface.
Since the storage device is integrated in the image forming device, the image forming device can function independently and does not require a computer system. Further, the storage device may be removable for facilitating transfer of indexed documents to another image forming device. Moreover, the optical character recognition and indexing capabilities of the image forming device facilitate easy retrieval of documents for subsequent reference. In addition, electronic filing capabilities of the image forming device are not limited to a specific format of documents.
The above-mentioned and other features and advantages of this invention, and the manner of attaining them, will become more apparent and the invention will be better understood by reference to the following description of embodiments of the invention taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
It is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and the arrangement of components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced or of being carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology used herein is for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of “including,” or “comprising,” and variations thereof herein is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items. Unless limited otherwise, the terms “connected,” and “coupled,” and variations thereof herein are used broadly and encompass direct and indirect connections and couplings. In addition, the terms “connected” and “coupled” and variations thereof are not restricted to physical or mechanical connections or couplings.
The present invention relates to an electronic filing cabinet integrated in an image forming device for automatically and electronically storing documents that are produced as output from the image forming device or read into the image forming device. The documents are classified and indexed, and subsequently stored in a storage device. The indexed documents can be easily retrieved for reference, when required, by using keyword-based searching.
It is understood that image forming device 100 may include other components and/or modules commonly found in imaging devices, such as a print engine, scan assembly and facsimile module (not shown).
Documents output from image forming device 100 or read into image forming device 100 are processed and subsequently stored in electronic filing cabinet 102. In an embodiment of the present invention, the processing and storage of documents is performed substantially automatically with little or no user input. Documents output from image forming device 100 include, but are not limited to, images of documents scanned, printed, faxed and copied by image forming device 100. Documents may, for example, be read into image forming device 100 through a memory device inserted in a USB interface, a pictbridge or a similar interface of image forming device 100. Documents may be output from or read into image forming device 100 through HMI 104.
The documents processed by image forming device 100 are input into formatter 106. Formatter 106 converts the documents into an accessible format, for example, PDF before providing the documents as input to OCR 108. In an embodiment of the present invention, the documents may not be formatted. OCR 108 inspects and/or analyzes the documents and generates timestamps for the documents. Indexing engine 110 classifies and indexes the documents, based on the inspected information and/or the characters recognized by OCR 108 and a first predefined set of rules. Subsequently, indexing engine 110 stores the indexed documents in storage device 112 based on a second predefined set of rules. The method for indexing documents is described in detail in
HMI 104 provides an interface for using image forming device 100 to perform print, scan, copy, fax and similar operations on a document. Further, HMI 104 facilitates retrieval of the indexed documents from storage device 112. Herein, search interface 114 and search engine 116 facilitate searching of the documents stored in storage device 112. In addition, the first predefined set of rules may be updated by a user through HMI 104.
Document inspecting by OCR 108 includes, but is not limited to, searching for predefined keywords in the documents, recognizing patterns and identifying document size. For example, a tax receipt that may have to be scanned by OCR 108 will have a particular format and size, and a tax receipt number printed on it. OCR 108 inspects the tax receipt for the keyword “tax”, the pattern of the tax receipt number and the size of the tax receipt. OCR 108 also generates encoded data about the operation performed on the documents by image forming device 100, such as scan, print and fax. In an embodiment of the present invention, OCR 108 functions independently of indexing engine 110.
In an embodiment of the present invention, indexing engine 110 is configured to receive emails from an FTP engine that can index files from a remote location. The emails may include information required to index the documents. The indexed documents are subsequently stored in storage device 112 based on the second predefined set of rules. In various embodiments of the present invention, storage device 112 may be a hard drive, a USB flash drive and a similar storage device that enables encrypted storage of the documents, based on the second predefined set of rules.
The first predefined set of rules may be directed to, but are not limited to, potential actions based on the occurrence of predefined keywords, pattern recognition and document size. The potential actions may include classifying documents under predefined categories, sending an email to a predefined mailing account, deletion of documents irrelevant or unimportant to a user, and the like. The second predefined set of rules may be directed to, but are not limited to, potential actions for handling or maintaining the classified, indexed documents, such as document encryption, password protection to control access, enabling remote access of documents, enabling a purging date or duration for the stored documents, and the like. In an embodiment of the present invention, categories of documents may possess certain default properties or actions defined by the user. In this embodiment, such default properties of categories may be included in the second predefined set of rules. For example, documents related to bank statements are categorized under a category “Bank”. This category may possess a default property of password protection. In other words, all the documents stored in storage device 112 related to bank statements are password protected.
The first predefined set of rules and the second predefined set of rules may be updated through HMI 104. HMI 104 also facilitates retrieval of previously stored documents. To retrieve documents, the user specifies the search criteria in the form of keywords through search interface 114. The search criteria are input into search engine 116 in the form of search queries. Search engine 116 identifies and retrieves documents desired by the user from storage device 112 through a data retrieval protocol. The retrieved documents may be further processed, for example, sent to an email account or printed, scanned, copied, or faxed by image forming device 100 through HMI 104.
For example, a user may require all the statements of his/her bank savings account from a predefined category “Bank” in the time period 2006-2008. The user may enter a keyword which refers to the name of the user's bank, the category as “Bank” and the time period as “2006-2008” as search criteria. The search engine performs a search in the specified category and identifies the documents that match the criteria. The documents identified under the category ‘Bank’ may be password protected and therefore require a password to be retrieved. Thereafter, the identified documents may be available for viewing, printing or email transmitting to a user-selected email account.
To enable speedy retrieval of the documents and reduce their storage size, storage device 112 may use compression techniques for compressing the indexed documents before storage. In various embodiments of the present invention, storage device 112 may be a combination of hardware, software and firmware that enables efficient storage, indexing and retrieval of documents. In various embodiments of the present invention, storage device 112 may facilitate up gradation of image forming device 100 by enabling transfer of archived documents to another image forming device. In an embodiment of the present invention, storage device 112 is removable for enabling transfer of the indexed documents from image forming device 100 to another image forming device. In another embodiment of the present invention, data transfer may be achieved by facilitating transfer of indexed documents from storage device 112 to a computer, to buffer data to be transferred to another image forming device. In another embodiment of the present invention, data transfer may be achieved via a portable memory device. In yet another embodiment of the present invention, data transfer may be achieved via a network connection, such as a wireless connection.
The scanning and indexing operations automatically performed on the documents before storage in storage device 112 are explained in conjunction with
With reference to
The method and system described above are explained in conjunction with the following example. A user scans a set of tax receipts for the time period 2006 to 2008 using image forming device 100. The set of scanned tax receipts is received as input at indexing engine 110. The set of scanned tax receipts includes a keyword “tax”, a pattern listing the tax receipt number, and has a predefined size. OCR 108 inspects and/or analyzes the set of tax receipts, and also generates a timestamp and encoded data about the “scan” operation. The inspected information along with the generated timestamp and encoded data is provided to indexing engine 110. The scanned information is compared with the first predefined set of rules. According to the first predefined set of rules, the set of tax receipts is classified under the category “tax”. Further, according to the second predefined set of rules, the set of tax receipts is encrypted. Thereafter, the saving and indexing preferences for the set of tax receipts are determined. Accordingly, the set of tax receipts is saved in storage device 112 under the “tax” category. The set of tax receipts may then be retrieved by a user by using keywords such as “tax”. On retrieval, the set of tax receipts is decrypted.
The foregoing description of several methods and an embodiment of the invention have been presented for purposes of illustration. It is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise steps and/or forms disclosed, and obviously many modifications and variations are possible in light of the above teaching. It is intended that the scope of the invention be defined by the claims appended hereto.
