Document imaging and indexing system

• US 20050160115A1
• Filed: 02/08/2005
• Published: 07/21/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/22/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Starkweather, Gary K.
• Granted Patent: US 8,380,012 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems

Abstract

A document digitizing method digitizes and automatically indexes documents in printed form. The method includes optically scanning the document, forming and storing a digitized image file from the optically scanned document, optically recognizing characters in the optically scanned document, and forming and storing a text file of the optically recognized characters in document. A retrieval method for retrieving the digitized image file for a document includes searching the text files to identify any having a selected text string and providing access to the digitized image files that correspond to those text files. The digital image file and the text file together represent a digitized document data structure that combines a digital image of a document with a text file of optically recognized characters in the digital image.

Claims

1. A method of retrieving a digitized image file from a document storage system, the document storage system comprising a plurality of digitized image files and a plurality of text files, wherein each digitized image file is associated with a text file of text characters and comprises a digitized image of a printed document comprising the text characters in printed form, the method comprising:

searching the plurality of text files to identify a plurality of first text files comprising a first text string;

searching the plurality of first text files to identify a second text file comprising a second text string, wherein the second text file is associated with a second digitized image file; and

providing access to the second digitized image file.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein providing access to the second digitized image file comprises:

determining a name of the second text file;

determining a name of the second digitized image file from the name of the second text file; and

displaying the name of the second digitized image file.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein each digitized image file comprises a name and a file extension,

wherein each text file comprises a name and a file extension, and

wherein the name of each digitized image file is the same as the name of the text file with which it is associated.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein the file extension of each digitized image file is different than the file extension of the text file with which it is associated.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein each digitized image file comprises a name,

wherein each text file comprises a name,

wherein the document storage system comprises a mapping table, and

wherein the mapping table comprises the name of each digitized image file and the name of the text file with which the digitized image file is associated.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein providing access to the second digitized image file comprises enabling a user to select the second digitized image file for display.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein searching the plurality of text files to identify the plurality of first text files comprising the first text string comprises:

specifying a plurality of separate first text strings, and

searching the plurality of text files in a batch to identify the plurality of first text files comprising any of the plurality of separate first text strings.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

storing a name of the second text file, wherein each text file comprises a name.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein each text file is generated by computer optical character recognition of the digitized image file with which the text file is associated.

10. A computer-readable medium having computer-executable instructions for performing steps, comprising:

searching, in a document storage system, a plurality of text files to identify a plurality of first text files comprising a first text string;

searching the plurality of first text files to identify a second text file comprising a second text string, wherein the second text file is associated with a second digitized image file; and

providing access to the second digitized image file, wherein the document storage system comprises the plurality of text files and a plurality of digitized image files,

wherein each digitized image file of the plurality of digitized image files is associated with a text file of the plurality of text files, and

wherein each text file of the plurality of text files comprises text characters and each digitized image file of the plurality of digitized image files comprises a digitized image of a printed document comprising the text characters in printed form.

11. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, having further computer-executable instructions for performing the steps of:

determining a name of the second text file;

determining a name of the second digitized image file from the name of the second text file; and

displaying the name of the second digitized image file.

12. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein each digitized image file comprises a name and a file extension,

wherein each text file comprises a name and a file extension, and

wherein the name of each digitized image file is the same as the name of the text file with which it is associated.

13. The computer-readable medium of claim 12, wherein the file extension of each digitized image file is different than the file extension of the text file with which it is associated.

14. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, wherein each digitized image file comprises a name,

wherein each text file comprises a name,

wherein the document storage system comprises a mapping table, and

wherein the mapping table comprises the name of each digitized image file and the name of the text file with which the digitized image file is associated.

15. The computer-readable medium of claim 10, having further computer-executable instructions for performing the steps of:

specifying a plurality of separate first text strings; and

searching the plurality of text files in a batch to identify the plurality of first text files comprising any of the plurality of separate first text strings.

16. A document retrieval system, comprising:

a plurality of digitized image files and a plurality of text files, wherein each digitized image file is associated with a text file of text characters and comprises a digitized image of a printed document comprising the text characters in printed form;

means for searching the plurality of text files to identify a plurality of first text files comprising a first text string;

means for searching the plurality of first text files to identify a second text file comprising a second text string, wherein the second text file is associated with a second digitized image file; and

means for providing access to the second digitized image file.

17. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

means for determining a name of the second text file;

means for determining a name of the second digitized image file from the name of the second text file; and

means for displaying the name of the second digitized image file.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein each text file comprises a name and a file extension, and wherein the name of each digitized image file is the same as the name of the text file with which it is associated.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the file extension of each digitized image file is different than the file extension of the text file with which it is associated.

20. The system of claim 16, further comprising:

a mapping table comprising a name of each digitized image file and a name of each text file with which the digitized image file is associated, wherein each digitized image file of the plurality of digitized image files and each text file of the plurality of text files comprises a name.