Facsimile and static presentation processing – Static presentation processing – Communication
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-22
2002-10-01
Grant, II, Jerome (Department: 2722)
Facsimile and static presentation processing
Static presentation processing
Communication
C358S001900
Reexamination Certificate
active
06459499
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns scanning a document and sending a corresponding image file to a remote recipient. In particular, the invention concerns scanning and sending the document using an autosend utility that accesses predefined profiles of potential recipients.
2. Description of the Related Art
High-quality document scanning can now be performed using relatively inexpensive scanning devices. Such scanning devices are attached directly to a computing device, for example a PC-compatible computer, and image files are created on the computing device based on scanned documents.
Despite the prevalence of such scanning devices, there are still situations in which a user's computing device does not have a connected scanning device, although a scanning device is connected to a nearby computing device. To create an image file on his own computing device, such a user would go to the nearby computing device and would use the scanning device to create an image file on the nearby computing device. Thereafter, the user would somehow send the image file to his own (and now remote) computing device.
The creation of the image file using another user's computing device can be complicated, particularly for inexperienced users. Each individual user ordinarily wants his image files scanned using particular scanning characteristics, such as resolution in dots per inch (dpi), color depth, etc. However, since scanning is performed at a different computing device, the defaults for that computing device ordinarily are used. As a result, mismatches often occur between an image file and a method that a recipient uses to view the file, resulting in disparity. For example, if a recipient uses a 300 dpi resolution printer to print an image file scanned for screen display at 72 dpi, then significant distortion will occur as the printer attempts to adjust for the resolution mismatch.
The user can manually override or reset the defaults for the scanning characteristics before scanning. However, manually overriding or resetting the default scanning characteristics can be cumbersome. In addition, each user must keep track of his desired scanning characteristics and set the scanning device correspondingly prior to a scan operation.
Moreover, once the document is scanned, sending the resulting image file to the remote computing device is ordinarily difficult and time-consuming, particularly for inexperienced users. Conventional file transport protocols do exist to send image files to remote recipients. These transport protocols include E-mail, file transport protocol (ftp), Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM), and using shared network disks. However, a user typically must have significant knowledge of the transport protocols in order to use them. As a result, not all users can easily use these protocols to send image files. In addition, manually sending the files using these protocols is often cumbersome.
Similar problems arise when the user scans a document and sends the resulting image file to a remote recipient other than himself. In this situation, the user still must set the scanning characteristics in order to avoid disparity, and the user must somehow determine an appropriate data transport protocol to send the file to the remote recipient. Thus, the user must set the scanning characteristic according to the remote recipient and must send the resulting file to the recipient using an appropriate file transport protocol.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, what is needed is a system that automatically allows a user to scan a document using scanning characteristics corresponding to a remote recipient and to send the resulting image file to the remote recipient using an appropriate file transport protocol using the minimum number of keystrokes.
The invention addresses the foregoing need by providing a system for scanning a document and sending a corresponding image file to a remote recipient using a software autosend utility that accesses predefined profiles of potential recipients. The predefined profiles include image scanning characteristics and transport protocols for such recipients. Once a particular recipient is identified, the document is scanned according to scanning characteristics for that recipient, and the resulting image file is sent to the recipient using the transport protocol for that recipient. For example, a profile for a first recipient might define scanning at 300 dpi in 24-bit color mode, followed by a transport protocol using E-mail; whereas a profile for a second recipient might define scanning at facsimile (100×200) resolution followed by a transport protocol using ftp.
By virtue of the foregoing operation, a user can scan a document and send the resulting image file by simply launching the autosend utility and identifying a remote recipient. The autosend utility automatically determines how to scan and send the image file based on the profile, thereby simplifying the operations that the user must perform.
Thus, in one aspect the present invention is a method for scanning a document and sending a corresponding image file to a remote recipient using a software autosend utility that accesses pre-defined profiles of potential recipients. The pre-defined profiles including transport protocols and image scanning characteristics for such recipients. The scanning characteristics preferably include at least scanning resolution and color depth (e.g., black/white, 8-bit color, 16-bit color, true color, etc.). The transport protocols preferably include E-mail, ftp, Microsoft®'s Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM), which allows data to be transported and opened in applications on remote computing devices, and Windows® file move/copy.
According to the invention, the autosend utility is launched, and the autosend utility receives user input identifying the remote recipient. Based on the profile corresponding to the identity of the remote recipient, the image scanning characteristics and transport protocol for resulting image data are determined. The document is scanned in accordance with the determined image scanning characteristics, and a temporary image file containing image data for the scanned document is stored. The temporary image file is then sent to the remote recipient using the determined transport protocol. Then, the temporary image file preferably is deleted so as to avoid wasting image file storage space.
In the preferred embodiment, a scanning device used to scan the document is attached to a computing device that implements the invention, such as an IBM-PC compatible computer running Windows® 98. Furthermore, the autosend utility preferably is launched in response to activation of an interface to the scanning device, such as a push button or a screen touch interface (STI).
If the invention is implemented on a PC running Windows® 98, then pressing the push button preferably activates the autosend utility through the “PUSH” feature of the Windows® 98 Still Imaging Interface event monitor. This PUSH feature launches a program, in this case the autosend utility, when a push button or other interface on a peripheral device is activated.
By virtue of the PUSH operation, a user simply places a document on a scanning device connected to the PC and presses the scan button on the scanning device. The autosend utility is automatically launched, and the user inputs the identity of a remote recipient. The autosend utility then initiates scanning of the document using the scanning characteristics for that recipient, and sends the resulting image file to the recipient using the transport protocol for that recipient.
The predefined profiles can be either stored locally on a computing device that implements the invention, or stored centrally such as on a network drive. If the profiles are stored centrally, the profiles preferably are updatable remotely by each of the potential recipients. Thus, the recipients can change the scanning characteristics and transport protocols to suit changes in their hardware a
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