Patent Application
20060195491
Embodiments of the invention relate generally to scanning systems and methods. More specifically, embodiments of the invention relate to a scanning system and method of importing documents into a document management system.
In recent years, multifunction devices (MFDs) have come into widespread use in business and home settings. Such devices provide a broader range of functionality than that provided by traditional single-function devices, such as dedicated printers, scanners, copiers, and facsimile machines.
Electronic document management systems (EDMS) are utilized widely in various industries, such as the legal and financial industries. Often, paper documents associated with a particular project or matter are digitally scanned and imported into an EDMS for archival and other purposes. Typically, a scanned document is associated with metadata, some or all of which may be identical to associated metadata of related documents. Barcode coversheets have been employed to facilitate the association of scanned documents with metadata. Such coversheets include or reference applicable metadata for a project or matter. In a typical scenario, a user creates a barcode coversheet at the user's desktop computer using a third party application and then prints the coversheet. At a scanning device, such as an MFD, the user scans the coversheet, and then scans documents the user wishes to associate with the metadata of the coversheet.
The following summary sets forth certain example embodiments of the invention described in greater detail below. It does not set forth all such embodiments and should in no way be construed as limiting of the invention.
In an embodiment, a method of using a scanning device to import a document into a document management system comprises displaying at the scanning device a list of one or more available profiles, each of the profiles being associated with metadata; receiving input indicative of a selection of one of the one or more profiles; scanning the document to create a scanned document image; associating the metadata of the selected profile to the scanned document image; and importing the scanned document image and the associated metadata into the document management system.
In another embodiment, a peripheral comprises a display that shows a list of available profiles, each of the profiles having an identifier and being associated with metadata; an interface that receives input indicative of a selected one of the displayed profiles; a scanner that reads a document and generates a graphics image of the document; and a communications interface that sends the graphics image and the metadata associated with the selected profile to a device separate from the peripheral.
Before any embodiments of the invention are explained in detail, 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 following 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 are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of “including,” “comprising,” or “having” and variations thereof herein is meant to encompass the items listed thereafter and equivalents thereof as well as additional items. The order of limitations specified in any method claims does not imply that the steps or acts set forth therein must be performed in that order, unless an order is explicitly identified in the specification as essential. In addition, it should be noted that a plurality of hardware and software based devices, as well as a plurality of different structural components, may be utilized to implement the invention.
Embodiments of the invention relate to a scanning system and method of importing documents into an electronic document management system. In an embodiment, profiles containing metadata can be accessed, modified, and/or created at a multifunction device (MFD). A profile can be selected by a user, and the metadata therein can be associated with scanned documents. It is to be appreciated that embodiments herein do not require desktop application programs (e.g., third party application programs), personal computers, physical barcode coversheets, and other components. Accordingly, embodiments herein achieve significant cost savings to manufacturers and consumers, while expanding the scope of useful functions an MFD can support in a user-friendly manner. Moreover, embodiments herein speed up the process of importing documents into an EDMS, enabling a user to quickly access, create, and/or modify profiles with metadata at an MFD without a need to print and keep track of paper coversheets, and minimizing the time spent by a user profiling documents with applicable metadata.
Additionally, the term “PC” is used generically herein to denote, for example, desktop computers, laptops, servers, and other computers that can be suitably configured to operate within the contexts broadly set forth herein. Further, embodiments of the invention can be applied to printers, copiers, scanners, facsimile devices, multifunction devices, and combination or multifunction printers that perform some or all these functions.
The MFD 110 includes an interface, such as a touch screen and/or other suitable input/output device(s), such as a keypad and/or an LCD display.
In an embodiment, the server 130 runs a routing application, such as Lexmark Document Distributor offered by Lexmark International, Inc. (Lexington, Ky.). The server 130 includes an EDMS or is in communication with an EDMS.
The profile database 140 may be external or internal to the server 130. In an embodiment, the profile database 140 is an ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) compatible database that can be accessed directly or indirectly by the server 130 and/or the MFD 110 or other network-communicating MFDs.
The profile access module 210 provides a user at the MFD 110 with access to previously stored profiles (if any). Each profile (also referred to herein as “transaction”) has an identifier and contains or references metadata associated with at least one document. In an example implementation, a profile is the combination of the metadata previously given for a scanned document. The profiles can be stored in the profile database 140 of
The MFD 110 also can include a profile presentation module (not shown) that presents a user at the MFD 110 with a list of previously stored profiles (if any). The user can select a desired profile from among the list of profiles.
The receiver module 220 receives a user input that indicates a profile to be associated with a document (e.g., a document related to a legal service, financial service, or other service or purpose) that a user would like to scan and import into the EDMS. Such user input can be provided via a touch screen, keypad, or other suitable input mechanism. The profile can be, for instance, an unaltered profile previously stored, a stored profile that has been modified by the user, and/or a new profile.
The storage module 230 stores the indicated profile in a storage location, such as the profile database 140 and/or a local repository of the MFD 110, if at least one condition is satisfied. For instance, a satisfied condition is the reception of a user input requesting that the profile be saved.
The scanner 240 scans a document to create a scanned document image. The association module 250 associates the scanned document image with the indicated profile. The scanned document image optionally may be processed using optical character recognition (OCR) techniques. Recognized characters in the scanned document image may be used and/or stored, for example, by the MFD 110, the EDMS, or a device in communication with the EDMS.
In an embodiment, the MFD 110 includes a modification interface (not shown) that allows a user to modify settings of stored profiles, create and/or save new profiles, and/or delete profiles.
In an embodiment, if the user has no previously saved profiles, the user is presented with screens of prompts necessary to scan a document into a third party EDMS application. The prompts include questions that solicit answers from the user. At the end of the prompts, the user is given the option to save the user's answers as a profile so that the answers can be used again as metadata for future documents. If the user chooses to save the answers, the user gives the profile a name and then scans the document using the scanner 240.
In an embodiment, if the user had previously saved profiles, the user is presented with a list of the user's profiles in the order of most recently used. If the user selects one of the saved profiles, the user is given a summary display of the metadata (settings) associated with that profile and can choose to change none, one, or multiple of these settings. If the user changes any of these settings, the user can choose to update the current profile with these changes, create a new profile with these changes, or not save these changes. The user can then scan the document using the scanner 240.
FIGS. 3 to 11 show screenshots of various example MFD interfaces that provide functionality in accordance with embodiments of the invention. The interfaces of FIGS. 3 to 11 may be sequentially presented depending on selections made by a user. It is to be appreciated that the specific look and feel of the interfaces, as well as the sample textual content depicted therein, are not limiting of the invention.
Specifically,
Alternative embodiments of the invention can be realized. For instance, embodiments herein can coexist with an approach involving barcode coversheets. In addition, it is to be appreciated that embodiments herein can be useful in various contexts, such as any context in which reusable scan metadata is required for scanning documents. Moreover, embodiments are useful in contexts in which scanning can occur over multiple user sessions.
As should also be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art, the systems shown in the figures are models of what actual systems can be like. As noted, many of the modules and logical structures described are capable of being implemented in software executed by a microprocessor or a similar device or of being implemented in hardware using a variety of components including, for example, ASICs. Terms like “processor” may include or refer to both hardware and/or software. Furthermore, any capitalized terms in the specification are used to conform to common practices and to help correlate the description with the examples and drawings. However, no specific meaning is implied or should be inferred simply due to the use of capitalization. Thus, the claims should not be limited to the specific examples or terminology or to any specific hardware or software implementation or combination of software or hardware.
