US5825943A — Selective document retrieval method and system

Claim 1

Independent Claim 196 words

A method implemented on a digital computer for storing and selectively retrieving information contained in a set of documents originally located external to said computer, wherein said document set includes at least one page, said method comprising: A. generating a bit-mapped image data set representative of information contained in the document set; B. storing the image data set in a first memory storage device associated with said computer; C. generating a text data set representative of a text portion of the information contained in the document set; D. storing the text data set in a second memory storage device associated with said computer; E. generating a text-image correspondence table including information representative of correlations between each phrase within the stored text data set and two-dimensional coordinates of a corresponding location within the stored image data set; F. identifying a search phrase, corresponding to user-specified search criteria, in the stored text data set; G. identifying two-dimensional coordinates corresponding to the search phrase from the text-image correspondence table; and H. generating a display of at least that image data, from within the stored image data set and by using said identified two-dimensional coordinates, corresponding to said search phrase.

Claim 2

Independent Claim 196 words

A method implemented on a digital computer for storing and selectively retrieving information contained in a set of documents originally located external to said computer, wherein said document set includes at least one page, said method comprising: A. generating a bit-mapped image data set representative of information contained in the document set; B. storing the image data set in a first memory storage device associated with said computer; C. generating a text data set representative of a text portion of the information contained in the document set; D. storing the text data set in a second memory storage device associated with said computer; E. generating a text-image correspondence table including information representative of correlations between each phrase within the stored text data set and two-dimensional coordinates of a corresponding location within the stored image data set; F. identifying a search phrase, corresponding to user-specified search criteria, in the stored text data set; G. identifying two-dimensional coordinates corresponding to the search phrase from the text-image correspondence table; and H. generating a display of at least that image data, from within the stored image data set and by using said identified two-dimensional coordinates, corresponding to said search phrase.

Claim 3

Dependent Claim 24 words

The method of claim 1, wherein Step H further comprises indicating at least a portion of the search phrase on the displayed image data.

Claim 4

Dependent Claim 25 words

The method of claim 1, wherein Step C comprises performing optical character recognition on the stored image data set to generate the text data set.

Claim 5

Dependent Claim 31 words

The method of claim 3, wherein the step of performing optical character recognition further comprises segmenting the text portion and the graphics portion from the information contained in the document set.

Claim 6

Dependent Claim 22 words

The method of claim 1, wherein the text data set comprises one from the group consisting of: ASCII; Unicode; EBCDIC; and JIS.

Claim 7

Dependent Claim 57 words

The method of claim 1, wherein the document set comprises a plurality of pages and Step H comprises generating a display of a portion of each of several pages of the document set, wherein each displayed page portion contains at least a portion of the search phrase and all of said displayed page portions are displayed simultaneously.

Claim 8

Dependent Claim 11 words

The method of claim 1 wherein each phrase is a word.

Claim 9

Dependent Claim 32 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the generating step comprises generating a display of a portion of a page of the document set containing said image data corresponding to said search phrase.

Claim 10

Dependent Claim 20 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the step of identifying a search phrase includes the use of a concordance table.

Claim 11

Dependent Claim 35 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the image data set is subjected to a parsing algorithm to eliminate extraneous data, wherein the extraneous data comprises data from the group of data comprising punctuation and formatting.

Claim 12

Dependent Claim 38 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the search criteria are predetermined criteria presented to the user in the form of a menu of options in a graphical user interface on a computer screen display associated with said computer.

Claim 13

Dependent Claim 27 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the text-image correspondence table is accessed once the first occurrence of the search phrase is identified within the text data set.

Claim 14

Dependent Claim 26 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the text-image correspondence table is accessed after all occurrences of the search phrase are identified within the text data set.

Claim 15

Dependent Claim 21 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the step of generating a display includes highlighting the search phrase within the image data.

Claim 16

Dependent Claim 28 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the step of generating a text data set converts all text within the information contained in the document set into computer-readable code.

Claim 17

Dependent Claim 16 words

The method of claim 1 wherein the set of documents is a set of paper documents.

Claim 18

Independent Claim 217 words

A method implemented on a digital computer for storing and selectively retrieving information contained in a set of documents originally located external to said computer, wherein said document set includes at least one page, said method comprising: A. generating a bit-mapped image data set representative of information contained in the document set; B. storing the image data set in a first memory storage device associated with said computer; C. generating a text data set representative of a text portion of the information contained in the document set; D. storing the text data set in a second memory storage device associated with said computer; E. generating a text-image correspondence table including information representative of correlations between each phrase within the stored text data set and two-dimensional coordinates of a corresponding location within the stored image data set; F. generating a set of non-literal search terms, in accordance with a predetermined set of rules, corresponding to user-specified search criteria; G. identifying at least one of the non-literal search terms in the stored text data set; H. identifying two-dimensional coordinates corresponding to the non-literal search term(s) from the text-image correspondence table; and I. generating a display of at least that image data identified in Step H, from within the stored image data set and by using said identified two-dimensional coordinates.

Claim 19

Independent Claim 217 words

A method implemented on a digital computer for storing and selectively retrieving information contained in a set of documents originally located external to said computer, wherein said document set includes at least one page, said method comprising: A. generating a bit-mapped image data set representative of information contained in the document set; B. storing the image data set in a first memory storage device associated with said computer; C. generating a text data set representative of a text portion of the information contained in the document set; D. storing the text data set in a second memory storage device associated with said computer; E. generating a text-image correspondence table including information representative of correlations between each phrase within the stored text data set and two-dimensional coordinates of a corresponding location within the stored image data set; F. generating a set of non-literal search terms, in accordance with a predetermined set of rules, corresponding to user-specified search criteria; G. identifying at least one of the non-literal search terms in the stored text data set; H. identifying two-dimensional coordinates corresponding to the non-literal search term(s) from the text-image correspondence table; and I. generating a display of at least that image data identified in Step H, from within the stored image data set and by using said identified two-dimensional coordinates.

Claim 20

Dependent Claim 25 words

The method of claim 17, wherein Step I further comprises indicating at least a portion of the non-literal search term on the displayed image data.

Claim 21

Dependent Claim 25 words

The method of claim 17, wherein Step C comprises performing optical character recognition on the stored image data set to generate the text data set.

Claim 22

Dependent Claim 31 words

The method of claim 19, wherein the step of performing optical character recognition further comprises segmenting the text portion and the graphics portion from the information contained in the document set.

Claim 23

Dependent Claim 58 words

The method of claim 19, wherein the document set comprises a plurality of pages and Step I comprises generating a display of a portion of each of several pages of the document set, wherein each displayed page portion contains at least a portion of the non-literal search term and all of said displayed page portions are displayed simultaneously.

Claim 24

Dependent Claim 22 words

The method of claim 17, wherein the text data set comprises one from the group consisting of: ASCII; Unicode; EBCDIC; and JIS.

Claim 25

Dependent Claim 15 words

The method of claim 17, wherein Step B further comprises compressing the image data set.

Claim 26

Dependent Claim 174 words

A computer-based system for storing and selectively retrieving information contained in a set of documents originally located external to said computer, said document set including at least one page, said system comprising: A. a stored bit-mapped image data set associated with said computer and representative of information contained in the document set; B. a stored text data set associated with said computer and representative of a text portion of the information contained in the document set; C. a text-image correspondence table including information representative of correlations between each phrase within the stored text data set and two-dimensional coordinates of a corresponding location within the stored image data set; D. means for identifying a search phrase, corresponding to user-specified search criteria, in the stored text data set; E. means for identifying two-dimensional coordinates corresponding to the search phrase from the text-image correspondence table; and F. means for generating a display of at least that image data identified in paragraph E above from within the stored image data set and by using said identified two-dimensional coordinates.

Claim 27

Dependent Claim 174 words

A computer-based system for storing and selectively retrieving information contained in a set of documents originally located external to said computer, said document set including at least one page, said system comprising: A. a stored bit-mapped image data set associated with said computer and representative of information contained in the document set; B. a stored text data set associated with said computer and representative of a text portion of the information contained in the document set; C. a text-image correspondence table including information representative of correlations between each phrase within the stored text data set and two-dimensional coordinates of a corresponding location within the stored image data set; D. means for identifying a search phrase, corresponding to user-specified search criteria, in the stored text data set; E. means for identifying two-dimensional coordinates corresponding to the search phrase from the text-image correspondence table; and F. means for generating a display of at least that image data identified in paragraph E above from within the stored image data set and by using said identified two-dimensional coordinates.

Claim 28

Dependent Claim 23 words

The system of claim 24, further comprising means for indicating at least a portion of the search phrase on the displayed image data.

Claim 29

Dependent Claim 28 words

The system of claim 24, further comprising an optical character recognition (OCR) device for performing OCR on the stored image data set to generate the text data set.

Claim 30

Dependent Claim 22 words

The system of claim 24, wherein the text data set comprises one from the group consisting of: ASCII; Unicode; EBCDIC; and JIS.

Claim 31

Independent Claim 221 words

A method implemented on a digital computer for storing and selectively retrieving information contained in a set of documents originally located external to said computer, wherein said document set includes at least one page, said method comprising: A. generating a bit-mapped image data set representative of information contained in the document set; B. storing the image data set in a first memory storage device associated with said computer; C. generating a text data set representative of a text portion of the information contained in the document set; D. storing the text data set in a second memory storage device associated with said computer; E. generating a text-image correspondence table including information representative of correlations between each phrase within the text data set and two-dimensional coordinates of a corresponding location within the image data set; F. identifying a search phrase, corresponding to user-specified search criteria, in the text data set; G. identifying, within the image data set and by means of using said coordinates, image data corresponding to the search phrase identified in the text data set; and H. generating a display of at least that image data corresponding to said search phrase, said generating step not displaying any text data; wherein each corresponding location within the image data set comprises a two-dimensional beginning boundary point and a two-dimensional ending boundary point.

Claim 32

Independent Claim 221 words

A method implemented on a digital computer for storing and selectively retrieving information contained in a set of documents originally located external to said computer, wherein said document set includes at least one page, said method comprising: A. generating a bit-mapped image data set representative of information contained in the document set; B. storing the image data set in a first memory storage device associated with said computer; C. generating a text data set representative of a text portion of the information contained in the document set; D. storing the text data set in a second memory storage device associated with said computer; E. generating a text-image correspondence table including information representative of correlations between each phrase within the text data set and two-dimensional coordinates of a corresponding location within the image data set; F. identifying a search phrase, corresponding to user-specified search criteria, in the text data set; G. identifying, within the image data set and by means of using said coordinates, image data corresponding to the search phrase identified in the text data set; and H. generating a display of at least that image data corresponding to said search phrase, said generating step not displaying any text data; wherein each corresponding location within the image data set comprises a two-dimensional beginning boundary point and a two-dimensional ending boundary point.

Claim 33

Independent Claim 249 words

A method implemented on a digital computer for storing and selectively retrieving information contained in a set of documents originally located external to said computer, wherein said document set includes at least one page, said method comprising: A. generating a bit-mapped image data set representative of information contained in the document set; B. storing the image data set in a first memory storage device associated with said computer; C. generating a text data set representative of a text portion of the information contained in the document set; D. storing the text data set in a second memory storage device associated with said computer; E. generating a text-image correspondence table including information representative of correlations between each phrase within the text data set and two-dimensional coordinates of a corresponding location within the image data set; F. identifying a search phrase, corresponding to user-specified search criteria, in the text data set; G. identifying, within the image data set and by means of using said coordinates, image data corresponding to the search phrase identified in the text data set; and H. generating a display of at least that image data corresponding to said search phrase, said generating step not displaying any text data; wherein the image data set is divided by a first set of parallel lines into a set of zones and then further divided by a second set of parallel lines, orthogonal to the first set of parallel lines, to create a set of points that define said two-dimensional coordinates.

Claim 34

Independent Claim 249 words

A method implemented on a digital computer for storing and selectively retrieving information contained in a set of documents originally located external to said computer, wherein said document set includes at least one page, said method comprising: A. generating a bit-mapped image data set representative of information contained in the document set; B. storing the image data set in a first memory storage device associated with said computer; C. generating a text data set representative of a text portion of the information contained in the document set; D. storing the text data set in a second memory storage device associated with said computer; E. generating a text-image correspondence table including information representative of correlations between each phrase within the text data set and two-dimensional coordinates of a corresponding location within the image data set; F. identifying a search phrase, corresponding to user-specified search criteria, in the text data set; G. identifying, within the image data set and by means of using said coordinates, image data corresponding to the search phrase identified in the text data set; and H. generating a display of at least that image data corresponding to said search phrase, said generating step not displaying any text data; wherein the image data set is divided by a first set of parallel lines into a set of zones and then further divided by a second set of parallel lines, orthogonal to the first set of parallel lines, to create a set of points that define said two-dimensional coordinates.

Annuity Stage	Window Opens	Payment Deadline	Surcharge Period Until	Estimated Fee	Status
3.5 Years (Year 4)	2001-10-19	2002-04-20	2002-10-20	$2000.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
7.5 Years (Year 8)	2005-10-19	2006-04-20	2006-10-20	$3760.00	Window Closed / Lapsed
11.5 Years (Year 12)	2009-10-19	2010-04-20	2010-10-20	$7700.00	Window Closed / Lapsed

Selective document retrieval method and system

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