Image processing system for documentary data

Claim 3

The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of transmitting a pixel image of each area of interest containing said second indicia to a visual display for editorial intervention.

Claim 4

The method of claim 1 wherein the step of selecting and processing an area of interest comprises processing with an automated symbol recognition resource selected from the group consisting of: a bar code reader, an optical mark reader, a font OCR reader, a reader of handprinted numeric data and a reader of handprinted alphanumeric data.

Claim 5

The method of claim 1 further comprising the steps of: (f) scanning a copy of said document containing only said first indicia in said first mode, using a scanner that produces a pixel image of the first indicia detected; and (g) storing the pixel data obtained from step (f) in a memory device.

Claim 6

The method of claim 4 further comprising the step of transmitting a pixel image of at least one area of interest containing said second indicia to a visual display for editorial intervention.

Claim 7

The method of claim 5 further comprising: for said at least one area of interest to be transmitted to the visual display, performing a pixel-for-pixel merge of the pixel image of steps (b) and (f) to produce a single merged pixel image containing both first and second indicia within said at least one area of interest.

Claim 8

The method of claim 6 further comprising: (h) determining whether the automated symbol recognition resource that processes each area of interest has successfully produced alphanumeric information representative of the second indicia; and (i) transmitting to the visual display a single merged pixel image for each area of interest for which the automated symbol recognition resource has failed to produce alphanumeric information representative of the second indicia.

Claim 9

The method of claim 6 further comprising the steps of: before performing step (c), compressing the pixel image produced in step (b) to reduce the amount of pixel data used to represent areas of the document bearing no indicia detectable in said second mode; and before performing said pixel-for-pixel merge, decompressing the pixel data stored in step (c) to obtain the pixel image of step (b).

Claim 10

The method of claim 1 further comprising scanning multiple documents bearing said first and second indicia, building a queue of areas of interest from multiple documents that is used to sequentially transfer the pixel images of each area of interest to the appropriate automated symbol recognition resource and, following processing of an area of interest, providing an edit status code for that area of interest to indicate whether or not the automated symbol recognition resource was able to successfully process the pixel image for that area of interest.

Claim 11

Apparatus for extracting information from a document bearing first indicia detectable in a first scan mode using light in a first spectral range but not detectable in a second scan mode using light outside the first spectral range and bearing second indicia detectable in either said first scan mode or second scan mode, said second indicia representing information encoded in a plurality of encoded forms, each encoded form decodable into alphanumeric data by one of plurality of automated symbol recognition resources, comprising: (a) means for defining at least two areas of interest on said document, each comprising less than the entire document, in which said second indicia representing information encoded in a plurality of forms may appear, said definition for each area of interest including information specifying the form of encoding for said second indicia and a content test corresponding to the form of encoding to determine if any second indicia in the specified form of encoding are present in the area of interest; (b) means for scanning said document in said second mode, using a scanner that produces a first pixel image of the second indicia detected, said first pixel image excluding said first indicia; (c) means for storing the pixel data from the first pixel image in a memory device; (d) means for selecting one or more areas of interest from those defined for said document, applying the content test defined for the area of interest to said first pixel image and, if the content test is satisfied, processing the first pixel image of said area of interest with one of said plurality of automated symbol recognition resources suitable for the form of encoding specified for the second indicia in the selected area of interest; and (e) means for producing one or more output records incorporating alphanumeric information representative of the second indicia in said plurality of areas of interest produced by said selecting and processing means.

Claim 12

Apparatus for extracting information from a document bearing first indicia detectable in a first scan mode using light in a first spectral range but not detectable in a second scan mode using light outside the first spectral range and bearing second indicia detectable in either said first scan mode or second scan mode, said second indicia representing information encoded in a plurality of encoded forms, each encoded form decodable into alphanumeric data by one of plurality of automated symbol recognition resources, comprising: (a) means for defining at least two areas of interest on said document, each comprising less than the entire document, in which said second indicia representing information encoded in a plurality of forms may appear, said definition for each area of interest including information specifying the form of encoding for said second indicia and a content test corresponding to the form of encoding to determine if any second indicia in the specified form of encoding are present in the area of interest; (b) means for scanning said document in said second mode, using a scanner that produces a first pixel image of the second indicia detected, said first pixel image excluding said first indicia; (c) means for storing the pixel data from the first pixel image in a memory device; (d) means for selecting one or more areas of interest from those defined for said document, applying the content test defined for the area of interest to said first pixel image and, if the content test is satisfied, processing the first pixel image of said area of interest with one of said plurality of automated symbol recognition resources suitable for the form of encoding specified for the second indicia in the selected area of interest; and (e) means for producing one or more output records incorporating alphanumeric information representative of the second indicia in said plurality of areas of interest produced by said selecting and processing means.

Claim 13

The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising means for compressing the first pixel image to reduce the amount of pixel data used to represent areas of the document bearing no indicia detectable in said second mode.

Claim 14

The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising means for transmitting a pixel image of each area of interest containing said second indicia to a visual display for editorial intervention.

Claim 15

The apparatus of claim 10 wherein the means for selecting and processing an area of interest comprises means for processing with an automated symbol recognition resource selected from the group consisting of: a bar code reader, an optical mark reader, a font OCR reader, a reader of handprinted numeric data and a reader of handprinted alphanumeric data.

Claim 16

The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising: means for scanning a copy of said document containing only said first indicia in said first mode, using a scanner that produces a second pixel image of the first indicia detected; and means for storing the pixel data from the second pixel image in a computer storage device.

Claim 17

The apparatus of claim 11 further comprising means for decompressing the stored pixel data to obtain the first pixel image and means for performing a pixel-for-pixel merge of the first and second pixel images to produce a single merged pixel image containing both first and second indicia within said at least one area of interest.

Claim 18

The method of claim 10 further comprising: means for scanning multiple documents bearing said first and second indicia; means for building a queue of areas of interest from multiple documents that is used to sequentially transfer the pixel images of each area of interest to the appropriate automated symbol recognition resource; and means for providing an edit status code for each area of interest following its processing, to indicate whether or not the automated symbol recognition resource was able to successfully process the pixel image for that area of interest.