NON-SYMBOLIC DATA SYSTEM FOR THE AUTOMATED COMPLETION OF FORMS

• US 20070089049A1
• Filed: 12/08/2006
• Published: 04/19/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Gormish, Michael, McFarland, Max, Griffin, Michael
• Granted Patent: US 8,732,570 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/224
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

A system and method for paper-based, automated completion of forms allows a user charged with filling out multiple forms containing some common information to write each unique piece of information one time, and the system generates a set of completed forms with the required information on each form with no change to the use or structure of the current forms. The control module is operable on a processor to determine a mapping between common fields on multiple forms or multiple pages of the same form, copy information written in a field on one form to equivalent fields on other forms, and produce a set of completed forms. The system is computationally simple and independent of language because these operations can be performed without having to understand, translate or convert the writing. Furthermore, there is no loss of security or privacy beyond the use of paper forms because these operations can be performed without access to a centralized database and without connectivity to other systems. The system is advantageous because it does not change paper based workflows since the inputs and outputs of this system are paper.

Claims

1. A system for automatic completion of forms, the system comprising:

an input device adapted to receive an input document including non-symbolic data, the input device having an output;

an automatic completion device for extracting information from the non-symbolic data corresponding to a field and creating at least one output document having a corresponding field with the extracted information, the automatic completion device having an input coupled to the output of the input device and an output to provide the output document; and

an output device for generating the output document, the output device having an input that is coupled to output of the automatic completion device.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the automatic completion device creates a plurality of output documents and each output document includes a corresponding field with the extracted information.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the input device receives a second input document including additional non-symbolic data; and

the automatic completion device extracts information from the additional non-symbolic data corresponding to a second field, and the output document has a second corresponding field with extracted information from the additional non-symbolic data.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the input device receives a second input document including additional non-symbolic data; and

the automatic completion device extracts information from the additional non-symbolic datacorresponding to a second field, and the output document generates a second output document including a second corresponding field with extracted information from the additional non-symbolic data; and

the output device generates the second output document.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the input document includes a plurality of fields;

the automatic completion device extracts information corresponding to the plurality of fields, the automatic completion device generates a plurality of output documents, each output document in the plurality of output documents include at least one corresponding field with extracted information corresponding to one of the plurality of fields; and

the output device generates the plurality of output documents.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the input document includes a machine readable code specifying a document, at least one field and its location in the document.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising mapping &

storage unit coupled to the automatic completion device, the mapping &

storage unit mapping fields in different documents.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the mapping &

storage unit includes one from the group of a server, a data storage device that is part of a multifunction peripheral device, a data file stored in a memory or a central database.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising a scanning module for scanning for processing an original document, the scanning module coupled to the automatic completion device.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a form identification module for identifying the input document and identifying one or more associated output documents, the form identification module coupled to the automatic completion device.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the input document is an image of a scanned document.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a field extraction module for identifying a relationship between the field and the corresponding field, the input document and the output document, the field extraction module extracting handwritten information from the input document for replication to at least one output document.

13. A method for automatic completion of forms, the method comprising:

receiving non-symbolic data for an input document;

extracting information for a field from the non-symbolic data;

composing an output document including the extracted information; and

outputting the output document.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising:

identifying a field on the input document;

identifying a corresponding field on the output document; and

establishing a relationship between the field and the corresponding field.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein identifying includes creating a list of unique fields, where each field includes a unique field identifier, a list of documents the field appears on, an offset of the field from a reference point and a width and a height of the field on that document.

16. The method of claim 13, wherein the field, the corresponding field, the input document and the output document comprise form field information and further comprising storing the form field information.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the form field information is stored in a machine readable code.

18. The method of claim 13, further comprising scanning and storing an original form for automatic completion.

19. The method of claim 13, further comprising identifying the input document from the received non-symbolic data.

20. The method of claim 13, further comprising obtaining form field information for the input document, form field information including a field, a corresponding field, a input document ID and an output document.

21. The method of claim 13, further comprising determining a set of output forms.

22. The method of claim 13, wherein outputting the output document comprises printing the output document.

23. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of receiving includes receiving a plurality of input document at least two of the plurality having a different field.

24. The method of claim 13, wherein the step of outputting the output document includes outputting a plurality of output documents at least two of the plurality having a different field.