Object-Based Network Scanning

• US 20090240697A1
• Filed: 03/18/2008
• Published: 09/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 03/18/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Fenelon, Michael P.
• Granted Patent: US 8,848,213 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32037 Automation of particular transmitter jobs, e.g. multi-address calling, auto-dialing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3242 of processing required or performed, e.g. for reproduction or before recording H04N2201/3256 and subgroups take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3273 Display
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3274 Storage or retrieval of prestored additional information
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3276 of a customised additional information profile, e.g. a profile specific to a user ID
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3277 The additional information being stored in the same storage device as the image data

Abstract

In accordance with one or more aspects, a user selects one or more capabilities of a repository service and one or more capabilities of a scanner. A scan object including both acquisition parameters based on the selected one or more capabilities of the scanner and post-scan instructions based on the selected one or more capabilities of the repository service is generated and stored for subsequent access by the scanner. At the scanner, multiple scan objects available to a user of the scanner are identified. One or more electronic documents are created by scanning one or more documents using the acquisition parameters in the selected scan object. Both the post-scan instructions in the selected scan object and the one or more electronic documents are sent to a service identified in the scan object, where the post-scan instructions are processed.

Claims

1. A method implemented in a scanner, the method comprising:

identifying multiple scan objects available to a user of the scanner, each scan object identifying acquisition parameters and post-scan instructions;

receiving a user selection of one of the multiple scan objects;

creating one or more electronic documents by scanning one or more documents using the acquisition parameters in the selected scan object; and

sending both the post-scan instructions in the selected scan object and the one or more electronic documents to a service identified in the scan object.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving one or more acquisition parameters from the user; and

replacing one or more of the identified acquisition parameters with the one or more acquisition parameters received from the user.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, the identifying comprising:

receiving user credentials identifying the user;

accessing a scan object store maintaining the multiple scan objects to identify the multiple scan objects available to the user based at least in part on the user credentials; and

receiving, from the scan object store, an identification of the multiple scan objects available to the user.

4. A method as recited in claim 1, the identifying comprising receiving, from a scan object store, only scan objects associated with the scanner.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, from a computing device, a request for possible acquisition parameters of the scanner; and

sending, to the computing device, an indication of the possible acquisition parameters of the scanner for generation of one or more scan objects by the computing device.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein sending the post-scan instructions comprises sending the selected scan object to the service identified in the scan object.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein sending the post-scan instructions comprises sending an identifier of the selected scan object to the service identified in the scan object.

8. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the one or more electronic documents and processing of the one or more electronic documents in accordance with the post-scan instructions comprises a scan job, the method further comprising:

receiving, from the service, a status of the scan job; and

presenting the status to the user.

9. A method as recited in claim 8, further comprising receiving the status of the scan job in response to a request for the status of the scan job sent to the service in response to a request, received from the user, for the status of the scan job.

10. A method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

displaying, for each of the multiple scan objects, a user-friendly identifier of each of the multiple scan objects to the user; and

wherein the receiving comprises receiving a user selection of one of the user-friendly identifiers.

11. One or more computer storage media having stored thereon multiple instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

retrieve an indication of capabilities of a repository service;

retrieve an indication of capabilities of a scanner;

present, to a user, the capabilities of the repository service and the capabilities of the scanner;

receive a user selection of one or more of the capabilities of the repository service and one or more of the capabilities of the scanner;

generate a scan object including both acquisition parameters based on the selected one or more capabilities of the scanner and post-scan instructions based on the one or more of the capabilities of the repository service; and

store the scan object for subsequent access by the scanner.

12. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to store user access rights associated with the scan object, the user access rights identifying one or more users to which the scan object is available.

13. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 11, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to:

retrieve an indication of capabilities of one or more additional repository services;

present, to the user, the capabilities of the one or more additional repository services; and

wherein to receive the user selection is to receive a user selection of capabilities of one of the one or more additional repository services.

14. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 11, wherein to retrieve the indication of capabilities of the repository service is to retrieve the indication of capabilities of the repository service from a repository configuration service running on a same server as the repository service.

15. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 11, wherein to retrieve the indication of capabilities of the scanner is to retrieve the indication of capabilities of the scanner from the scanner.

16. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 11, the scan object further including an identifier of the repository service.

17. One or more computer storage media having stored thereon multiple instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a device, cause the one or more processors to:

receive, from a scanner, one or more electronic documents acquired by the scanner;

receive post-scan instructions from a scan object identifying post-scan operations to be performed by a repository service, the scan object having been generated based at least in part on both capabilities of the repository service previously identified by a service on the device and capabilities of the scanner previously identified by a service on the scanner; and

process the one or more electronic documents based at least in part on the post-scan instructions.

18. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 17, wherein to receive the post-scan instructions is to receive the post-scan instructions from the scanner.

19. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 17, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to send a status to the scanner regarding the processing of the post-scan instructions.

20. One or more computer storage media as recited in claim 17, wherein the instructions further cause the one or more processors to send a status to a scanner management console regarding the processing of the post-scan instructions, the scan object having been generated at the scanner management console.