Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 10
Claim 1
Independent Claim
93 words
A method of producing a database of document information, characterized by the steps of: forming digital images of said documents (12), storing said digital images; producing from one of the stored digital images, a visual image (140) of a document (40) on a display screen (142) of a visual display device (24), identifying zones (52, 54 etc) of said document (40) by manipulating zone identifying indicia (146) on the visual image (140) of the document displayed on said display screen (142) and storing representations of the location of the identified zones (52,54 etc).
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
48 words
A method according to claim 1, characterized in that said step of identifying zones (52,54 etc.) of said document includes the steps of producing a box-shaped area (146) on said display screen (142) and controlling the size of the box-shaped area (146) by utilizing a mouse pointing device.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
40 words
A method according to claim 1 or claim 2, characterized in that said step of forming digital images includes the steps of scanning a document (40) using a scanning device (14) and storing a digital representation of the scanned image.
Claim 4
Independent Claim
48 words
A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized by the initial steps of defining classes for said documents (40), wherein each class contains documents having zones of the same type thereon, the locations of the zones being different for different documents of the same class.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
35 words
A method according to claim 4, characterized in that the zone types include zones for data to be read, zones for data to be written, and zones for the presence of data to be verified.
Claim 6
Independent Claim
38 words
A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized by the step of analyzing the stored digital images of said documents to determine graphical features thereof, and storing representations of the locations of said graphical features.
Claim 7
Dependent Claim
15 words
A method according to claim 6, characterized in that said graphical features include straight lines.
Claim 8
Independent Claim
26 words
A method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized by the step of storing the produced database of document information on a storage disk.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
40 words
Apparatus for carrying out a method according to any one of the preceding claims, characterized by image forming means (14) adapted to form digital images of said documents (12) and computing means (18-26) coupled to said image forming means (14).
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
51 words
Apparatus according to claim 9, characterized in that said computing means (18-26) includes processing means (18), a display device (24) adapted to display visual images (140) corresponding to said stored digital images, and a mouse (26) adapted to control the manipulation of said zone identifying indicia on said display device (24)