Image analysis – Image transformation or preprocessing – Image storage or retrieval
Reexamination Certificate
2000-07-05
2003-11-18
Mehta, Bhavesh M. (Department: 2625)
Image analysis
Image transformation or preprocessing
Image storage or retrieval
C382S303000, C382S305000, C382S307000, C358S401000, C358S405000, C358S426020, C707S793000, C707S793000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06650794
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a large-capacity digital multifunctional apparatus and a data terminal apparatus connected therewith, specifically the digital multifunctional apparatus can register documents and equipped with a document managing system to control the registered documents, that registered documents is created by the data terminal apparatus and transferred to the digital multifunctional apparatus by online.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a digital multifunctional apparatus has been developed, which implements copier, printer and facsimile, etc. with a single apparatus, and furthermore a digital multifunctional apparatus incorporating a large-capacity memory to have a document managing system is also being provided.
A conventional digital multifunctional apparatus performs document managing as shown below. When a document is registered in the digital multifunctional apparatus, a scanner of the digital multifunctional apparatus scans the document sheet and stores the scanned image (herein after called document) in a predetermined area of memory. Then, the digital multifunctional apparatus creates an identification code to identify the registered document and managing information on the registered document and creates a document file for management(herein after called managing document) by combining this identification code and part of the registered document. The digital multifunctional apparatus prints the managing document. The user uses the printed managing document sheet for a search later.
Thus, the digital multifunctional apparatus allows the user to complete a document registration operation by only carrying out a scanning operation similar to a normal copy operation for a document to be registered, without requiring the user to perform special operations such as keyword entries.
When searching a desired document, the scanner of the digital multifunctional apparatus scans the managing document sheet which has been printed out when the document was registered. Then, an identification code is extracted from the scanned image of the managing document sheet and the document corresponding to the extracted identification code is searched and picked up from registered documents.
Thus, it is extremely simple to pick up the desired document; the user only needs to have the digital multifunctional apparatus scan the managing document sheet and the user need not perform any special operations such as keyword entries.
On the other hand, with the spread of data terminal apparatuses like personal computers (hereinafter referred to as “PC”), many documents are being created on a PC. When a document created on a PC is stored in memory such as a hard disk, it is often the case that a document folder is created and the document is managed as a registered document by the PC.
However, such a prior art does not allow the user to see a document registered in the digital multifunctional apparatus on a display of the PC or register a document created by the PC in the digital multifunctional apparatus. This is because the digital multifunctional apparatus carries out document management according to its own document managing system, while the PC also carries out document management according to its own document managing system, and so it is totally impossible to establish cooperation between these two. As a result, a document registered in the digital multifunctional apparatus cannot be acquired unless it is output from the recording section of the digital multifunctional apparatus, or a document created by the PC cannot be seen except on the display of the PC. This results in an inefficient system when the digital multifunctional apparatus and PC are viewed combined.
Here, adopting a separate document managing system common to the digital multifunctional apparatus and PC could solve the above problem. However, this will result in increased burden on the user because this requires the user to re-register all documents controlled according to the existing document managing system. Moreover, there are a variety of document managing systems used by digital multifunctional apparatus and PC and it is practically difficult to adopt a document management system common to all those systems.
Furthermore, since a PC has a higher-level of general purposeness than a digital multifunctional apparatus, it is possible for the PC side to adopt the document managing system of the digital multifunctional apparatus and use that system as the common system. However, compared to the PC, which is mainly based on keyboard entries, the digital multifunctional apparatus has more limited key entries and in this way it often adopts a special document managing system. Therefore, if the document managing system of the digital multifunctional apparatus is adopted to the PC, the PC is forced to follow a document managing system less convenient than its original document managing system, making the system not so easy-to-use.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been implemented taking into account the points described above and it is an object of the present invention to provide a digital multifunctional apparatus and a data terminal apparatus connected therewith, each apparatus having its own document managing system, that allow the user to see a document registered by the digital multifunctional apparatus on the data terminal apparatus or register a document created by the data terminal apparatus in the digital multifunctional apparatus, without creating additional burden on the user or without deteriorating ease of use.
With the present invention, when a document is registered from the data terminal apparatus to the digital multifunctional apparatus, the digital multifunctional apparatus transfers a document code of a document used for document management information to the data terminal apparatus. The data terminal apparatus links the document managing information set by the user or machine with the document code of the document transferred from the digital multifunctional apparatus. When the data terminal apparatus requests the digital multifunctional apparatus to perform a document search, the data terminal apparatus converts the document managing information input by the user to a linked document code and transfers it to the digital multifunctional apparatus.
This allows the user to register a document in the digital multifunctional apparatus according to the document managing system of the digital multifunctional apparatus by simply specifying an arbitrary document name from the data terminal apparatus. Furthermore, if the user enters an arbitrary document name from the data terminal apparatus, the user can search a desired document in the digital multifunctional apparatus according to the same system as the managing system of the digital multifunctional apparatus.
A first aspect of the present invention is a digital multifunctional apparatus comprising a storage that stores one or more documents, a document managing section that, when registering a document in said storage, creates a document code of said document, outputs a managing document combining an identification mark created based on said document code with the whole or part of said document, when searching a desired document in said storage, analyzes the identification mark included in a scanned image of the managing document, extracts the desired document from said storage used by the analyzed result of the identification mark, and a controller that, when registering a document upon reception from an external data terminal apparatus, transfers a document code generated for the document to said data terminal apparatus.
According to this digital multifunctional apparatus, when receiving a document from an external data terminal apparatus connected via a network and registering the received document, the digital multifunctional apparatus transfers a document code created for the received document to the data terminal apparatus, and in this way the digital mul
Greenblum & Bernstein P.L.C.
Kassa Yosef
Mehta Bhavesh M.
Panasonic Communications Co. Ltd.
LandOfFree
Digital multifunctional apparatus and data terminal... does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Digital multifunctional apparatus and data terminal..., we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Digital multifunctional apparatus and data terminal... will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-3129254