Document management device and document management method

• US 20070047014A1
• Filed: 01/24/2006
• Published: 03/01/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/25/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies Incorporated (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Konica Minolta Business Technologies Incorporated (Konica Minolta Inc.)
• Inventors: Kawabuchi, Yoichi, Murakami, Masakazu, Ikenoue, Yoshikazu
• Granted Patent: US 8,074,164 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 358/403
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00204 with a digital computer or a digital computer system, e.g. an internet server programmed control between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device H04N1/32561
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/2179 Interfaces allowing access to a plurality of users, e.g. connection to electronic image libraries
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32112 in a separate computer file, document page or paper sheet, e.g. a fax cover sheet H04N1/32122 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32502 in systems having a plurality of input or output devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32523 a plurality of output devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3245 of image modifying data, e.g. handwritten addenda, highlights or augmented reality information

Abstract

The document management device is for managing a document circulated to a reader in accordance with a circulation tree and additional information added to the document by the reader. The circulation tree indicates the circulation order of plural readers. The device includes: document circulation unit for enabling the n^th (n is an integer not less than 2) reader to read the n−1^th generation document data cumulatively including the 1^st additional information to the n−1^th additional information added, by the first reader to the n−1^th reader respectively, to the 0^th generation document data readable by the first reader of the circulation tree; recognition unit for recognizing the n^th additional information added by the n^th reader as electronic data; and additional information management unit for managing the n^th additional information by associating it with the 0^th generation document data.

Claims

1. A document management device for managing a document circulated to a reader in accordance with a circulation tree and additional information added to the document by the reader, the circulation tree indicating a circulation order of a plurality of readers, the device comprising:

document circulation unit for enabling an n^th (n is an integer not less than

     2) reader of the circulation tree to read n−

1^th generation document data which cumulatively includes 1^st to n−

1^th pieces of additional information added, by a first reader to an n−

1^th reader of the circulation tree respectively, to 0^th generation document data readable by the first reader;

recognition unit for recognizing n^th additional information added by the n^th reader as electronic data; and

additional information management unit for managing the n^th additional information recognized, by associating it with the 0^th generation document data.

2. The document management device according to claim 1, wherein the recognition unit recognizes the n^th additional information based on a difference between n^th generation document data including the n^th additional information added to the n−

1^th generation document data by the n^th reader and the n−

1^th generation document data.

3. The document management device according to claim 1, wherein the recognition unit recognizes the n^th additional information as document data when it is added as document data, and recognizes the n^th additional information as image data when it is added as image data.

4. The document management device according to claim 1, further comprising record unit for recording the 0^th generation document data, 1^st generation document data including 1^st additional information added by the first reader to the 0^th generation document data, and 2^nd generation to n^th generation document data.

5. The document management device according to claim 1, further comprising circulation information management unit for setting the circulation tree indicating the circulation order of the plurality of readers.

6. A document management method for managing a document circulated to a reader according to a circulation tree and additional information added to the document by the reader, the circulation tree indicating a circulation order of plurality of readers, the method comprising:

enabling an n^th (n is an integer not less than

     2) reader of the circulation tree to read n−

1^th generation document data which cumulatively includes 1^st to n−

1^th pieces of additional information added, by a first reader to an n−

1^th reader of the circulation tree respectively, to 0^th generation document data readable by the first reader;

recognizing n^th additional information added by the n^th reader as electronic data; and

managing the n^th additional information recognized, by associating it with the 0^th generation document data.

7. The document management method according to claim 6, wherein in the step of recognizing, the additional information is recognized based on a difference between document data including the additional information added by the reader and the document data circulated to the reader.

8. The document management method according to claim 6, wherein in the step of recognizing, the n^th additional information is recognized as document data when it is added as document data, and the n^th additional information is recognized as image data when it is added as image data.

9. The document management method according to claim 6, further comprising a step of recording the 0^th generation document data, 1^st generation document data including 1^st additional information added to the 0^th generation document data by the first reader, and 2^nd generation to n^th generation document data.

10. The document management method according to claim 6, further comprising a step of setting the circulation tree indicating the circulation order of the plurality of readers.

11. A document management program for prompting a computer to execute a document management method for managing a document circulated to a reader according to a circulation tree and additional information added to the document by the reader, the circulation tree indicating a circulation order of plurality of readers, the method comprising:

enabling an n (n is an integer not less than

     2) reader of the circulation tree to read n−

1^th generation document data which cumulatively includes 1^st to n−

1^th pieces of additional information added, by a first reader to an n−

1^th reader of the circulation tree respectively, to 0^th generation document data readable by the first reader;

recognizing n^th additional information added by the n^th reader as electronic data; and

managing the n^th additional information recognized, by associating it with the 0^th generation document data.

12. A computer readable recording medium on which the document management program according to claim 11 is stored.