Thumbnail audit trail in MFP and print processor/spooler-based print-job auditing

• US 20040179236A1
• Filed: 03/12/2003
• Published: 09/16/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America Incorporated (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Ferlitsch, Andrew R., Chrisop, Roy, Klave, Daniel Leo
• Granted Patent: US 7,397,578 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.18
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32101 Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/323 for tracing or tracking, e.g. forensic tracing of unauthorized copies
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3236 Details of authentication information generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/325 Modified version of the image, e.g. part of the image, image reduced in size or resolution, thumbnail or screennail
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3274 Storage or retrieval of prestored additional information

Abstract

Structure and methodology for creating a content-informative audit trail derived from text, vector information and imagery, and taking the form of a reduced-size data extraction from a document-job data-stream, such as a data-stream which exists in the context of a document printing, copying, scanning, e-mailing, and faxing job, etc. Selected, reduced-content components of a subject document data-stream are extracted according to various extraction approaches, and extracted information is stored in a appropriate storage site for later review to give an indication of just what printing, scanning, copying, etc activity has taken place with respect to different identified documents.

Claims

1. Structure for creating a content-informative audit trail, including subject-representative reduced-image content, in relation to the implementation of a document data-stream which has been initiated by a user with regard to invoking an imaging job, said structure comprising

a job initiator,

document data-stream structure disposed to convey, and/or have access to, a collection of document data generated from said job initiator and deliverable and/or delivered to a job destination, and

data-stream content extractor structure operatively associated with said data-stream structure, operable to extract, and to effect the retention of, a selectively retrievable and reviewable audit-trail sub-collection of reduced-size, but nonetheless functionally informative, data-collection content surrogates.

2. The structure of claim 1 wherein the imaging job takes the form of at least one of (a) a print job, (b) a scan job, (c) an e-mail job, (d) a copy job, and (e) a fax job.

3. The structure of claim 1 wherein said job initiator takes the form of at least one of (a) a print job initiator, (b) a scan job initiator, (c) an e-mail job initiator, (d) a copy job initiator, and (e) a fax job initiator.

4. The structure of claim 1, wherein said extractor structure is coupled to said data-stream structure to extract data-collection content from substantially the location of said job initiator.

5. The structure of claim 1, wherein said extractor structure is coupled to said data-stream structure to extract data-collection content from a location which is effectively intermediate said job initiator and the mentioned destination.

6. The structure of claim 1, wherein said extractor structure is coupled to said data-stream structure to extract data-collection content generally from substantially the location of the mentioned destination.

7. The structure of claim 1 which includes functional elements intermediate said job initiator and the mentioned destination, which elements include at least one of (a) a spooler, (b) a print processor, (c) a print assist, and (d) a print server, and said extractor structure is connected to extract data-collection content from a region in said data-stream structure which is effectively located adjacent the location of one of said elements.

8. The structure of claim 1 which includes functional elements intermediate said job initiator and the mentioned destination, which elements include at least one of (a) a spooler, (b) an imaging processor, (c) an imaging assist, and (d) an imaging server, and said extractor structure is connected to extract data-collection content from a region in said data-stream structure which is effectively located adjacent the location of one of said elements.

9. The structure of claim 1, wherein the data-collection content which is extracted by said extractor structure includes text, vector information, and imagery.

10. The structure of claim 8, wherein said extractor structure is constructed, with respect to the extraction of imagery, to perform extraction utilizing techniques drawn from the list including (a) reduction of resolution, and (b) focus on luminance without focus on color.

11. The structure of claim 1, wherein said extractor structure is configured to create, over time, selective, cyclic, progressively reduced-content data-collection surrogates based upon extraction of content from a prior-extracted, related data-collection content surrogates.

12. A method for creating a content-informative audit trail, including subject-representative reduced-image content, in relation to the implementation of a document data-stream which has been initiated by a user with regard to invoking an imaging job, said method comprising

furnishing a job initiator,

furnishing a document data-stream structure, and employing that structure to convey, and/or to have access to, a collection of document data generated from said job initiator and deliverable, and/or delivered, to a job destination, and

furnishing a data-stream extractor structure, and utilizing that extractor structure at a selected location relative to the job initiator to extract and effect collection of a reduced-size, but nonetheless functionally informative, data-stream collection content surrogates derived from a data-stream initiated by the job initiator.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein said imaging job may be any one of (a) a printing job, (b) a scanning job, (c) a faxing job, (d) an e-mailing job, and (e) a copying job.