Electronic document content redaction

• US 10,108,815 B2
• Filed: 10/07/2014
• Issued: 10/23/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 06/24/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ABBYY Development LLC
• Original Assignee: ABBYY Development LLC
• Inventors: Korneev, Ivan Yurievich
• Primary Examiner(s): Nguyen, Maikhanh
• Application Number:
  US14/508,560
• Publication Number:
  US 20150378973A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,477 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/6245 Protecting personal data, e.g. for financial or medical purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191

Abstract

Systems and methods for redacting certain content (e.g., content representing private, privileged, confidential, or otherwise sensitive information) from electronic documents. An example method comprises: identifying, by a computing device, two or more layers in an electronic document; processing each of the identified layers to produce a layer text representing one or more objects comprised by the layer; combining the produced layer texts to produce a combined text of the electronic document; and identifying, within the combined text of the electronic document, a target character string corresponding, in view of a specified search function, to a specified character string.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

identifying, by a computing device, two or more layers in an electronic document;

processing a first layer of the identified layers, by performing optical character recognition of one or more images comprised by the first layer to produce a first layer text comprising one or more character strings representing respective images;

processing a second layer of the identified layers, to produce a second layer text;

combining the first layer text and the second layer text to produce a combined text of the electronic document;

identifying, within the combined text of the electronic document, a target character string corresponding, in view of a specified search function, to a specified character string;

redacting, from the electronic document, the target character string;

visually rendering the combined text of the electronic document; and

receiving an input confirming redaction of the target character string from the combined text of the electronic document.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the specified search function is provided by one of:

a strict search, a fuzzy search, a synonymic search, a morphologically-aware search, a semantic search, or a search employing a user-defined transformation.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the redacting comprises at least one of:

removing the target character string, replacing the target character with a filling string, or replacing an image corresponding to the target character string with a filling image.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein combining the first layer text and the second layer text is performed in view of relative positions of layer texts within a visual image of the electronic document.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein redacting the target character string comprises:

redacting the target character string from one or more;

a metadata item, an annotation field, or a comment field of the electronic document.

6. A computing device, comprising:

a memory;

a processor, coupled to the memory, to;

identify two or more layers in an electronic document;

process a first layer of the identified layers, by performing optical character recognition of one or more images comprised by the first layer to produce a first layer text comprising one or more character strings representing respective images;

process a second layer of the identified layers, to produce a second layer text;

combine the first layer text and the second layer text to produce a combined text of the electronic document;

identify, within the combined text of the electronic document, a target character string corresponding, in view of a specified search function, to a specified character string;

redact, from the electronic document, the target character string;

visually render the combined text of the electronic document; and

receive an input confirming redaction of the target character string from the combined text of the electronic document.

7. The computing device of claim 6, wherein the specified search function is provided by one of:

a strict search, a fuzzy search, a synonymic search, a morphologically-aware search, a semantic search, or a search employing a user-defined transformation.

8. The computing device of claim 6, wherein combining the first layer text and the second layer text is performed in view of relative positions of layer texts within a visual image of the electronic document.

9. A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium comprising executable instructions that, when executed by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

identifying two or more layers in an electronic document;

processing a first layer of the identified layers, by performing optical character recognition of one or more images comprised by the first layer to produce a first layer text comprising one or more character strings representing respective images;

processing a second layer of the identified layers, to produce a second layer text;

combining the first layer text and the second layer text to produce a combined text of the electronic document;

identifying, within the combined text of the electronic document, a target character string corresponding, in view of a specified search function, to a specified character string;

redacting, from the electronic document, the target character string;

visually rendering the combined text of the electronic document; and

receiving an input confirming redaction of the target character string from the combined text of the electronic document.

10. The computer-readable non-transitory storage medium of claim 9, wherein the specified search function is provided by one of:

a strict search, a fuzzy search, a synonymic search, a morphologically-aware search, a semantic search, or a search employing a user-defined transformation.