Supplementary information dissemination system

• US 20060036706A1
• Filed: 11/14/2003
• Published: 02/16/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 11/14/2003
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Kyocera MITA Corporation (Kyocera Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Kyocera MITA Corporation (Kyocera Corporation)
• Inventors: Sakamoto, Hiroshi
• Application Number:
  US10/707,013
• Publication Number:
  US 20060036706A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9554 by using bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/12 specially adapted for proprietary or special-purpose networking environments, e.g. medical networks, sensor networks, networks in vehicles or remote metering networks
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/75 Indicating network or usage conditions on the user display

Abstract

A supplemental information dissemination system is disclosed which provides supplemental information on managed documents having unique identifying information printed thereon, and is comprised of a supplemental information management server and a supplemental information acquisition device. The supplemental information management server stores supplemental information on each document that has identifying information associated with each document. The supplemental information acquisition device reads identifying information on a document, and acquires stored supplemental information on the document associated with the identifying information from the supplemental information management server.

Claims

1. A supplemental information dissemination system that provides supplemental information on managed documents having unique identifying information printed thereon, the supplemental information dissemination system comprising:

a supplemental information management server that stores supplemental information on each document having identifying information associated with each document; and

a supplemental information acquisition device that reads identifying information for a document, and acquires stored supplemental information on the document associated with the identifying information from the supplemental information management server.

2. The supplemental information dissemination system set forth in claim 1, wherein the supplemental information management server and the supplemental information acquisition device are connected to each other via a network.

3. The supplemental information dissemination system set forth in claim 2, further comprising a print device that both prints documents and prints encoded identifying information on the documents.

4. The supplemental information dissemination system set forth in claim 1, wherein when the contents of managed documents have been updated, the supplemental information management server will both allocate new identifying information to updated documents, and request or allow updates to stored supplemental information associated with pre-update identifying information.

5. The supplemental information dissemination system set forth in claim 1, wherein when the contents of managed documents have been updated, the supplemental information management server will both allocate new identifying information to updated documents, and automatically update stored supplemental information associated with pre-update identifying information.

6. The supplemental information dissemination system set forth in claim 1, wherein when a managed document has been deleted, the supplemental information management server will request or allow the stored supplemental information associated with identifying information for the deleted document to be updated.

7. The supplemental information dissemination system set forth in claim 1, wherein when a managed document has been deleted, the supplemental information management server will automatically update the stored supplemental information associated with identifying information for the deleted document.

8. The supplemental information dissemination system set forth in claim 3, wherein the print device prints encoded identifying information allocated to a document, an encoded network address of the supplementary information management server, and encoded information on the location of the supplementary information on the document.

9. The supplemental information dissemination system set forth in claim 3, wherein the print device will print the identifying information as a bar code.

10. The supplemental information dissemination system set forth in claim 1, wherein the supplemental information acquisition device comprises a reading unit that reads the identifying information printed on a document, and a display unit that presents supplemental information based upon the identifying information read by the reading unit and acquired from the supplemental information management server to a user in the form of text or sound.

11. The supplemental information dissemination system set forth in claim 1, wherein the supplemental information acquisition device is a bar code reader comprised of a wireless communication module.

12. The supplemental information dissemination system set forth in claim 1, wherein the supplemental information acquisition device is a copying machine comprised of a network interface and a scanner, and extracts encoded identifying information from document image data read by the scanner.

13. The supplemental information dissemination system set forth in claim 1, wherein the supplemental information acquisition device is a portable telephone comprised of a camera, and extracts encoded identifying information from document image data photographed by the camera.