METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR AIDED INPUT ESPECIALLY FOR COMPUTER MANAGEMENT TOOLS

• US 20100254608A1
• Filed: 12/10/2008
• Published: 10/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Serensia
• Original Assignee: Serensia
• Inventors: Flesselles, Emmanuel
• Granted Patent: US 8,553,993 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/182
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging

Abstract

A method of aided input especially for a computer management tool, the management tool being executed in a computer system possessing an operating system furnished with instrumentation services, characterized in that it comprises the following steps: (a) entering raw data from an exterior source, (b) extracting relevant data from said raw data, (c) using said instrumentation services to transcribe said extracted data to corresponding fields of a preexisting input interface belonging to the management tool, with a view to allowing further inputs and overall validation. Application in particular to the semi-automated input of accounting items such as supplier invoices and the like.

Claims

1. A method of aided input especially for a computer management tool, the management tool being executed in a computer system possessing an operating system furnished with instrumentation services, wherein it comprises the following steps:

(a) input of raw data from an exterior source,

(b) extraction of related data from said raw data,

(c) use of said instrumentation services to transcribe the said extracted data towards corresponding fields of a pre-existing input interface belonging to the management tool, in view to allow additional inputs and an overall validation.

2. Method according to claim 1, wherein the instrumentation services allow in particular to discover the model and content of a pre-existing input screen and to simulate user actions.

3. Method according to claim 1 or 2, comprising before the transcription step, a display step, organized in pre-input fields, of the related data extracted in view of their pre-validation.

4. Method according to one of the claims 1 to 3, wherein the extraction step comprises a paper image scan in digital image, or a reading step of a structured file or described according to a predetermined description language.

5. Method according to one of the claims 1 to 4, wherein the extraction step comprises character or document conversion optical recognition in list of alphanumerical elements and associated coordinates, or a lexical and syntactic analysis.

6. Method according to one of the claims 1 to 5, which further comprises, after step (b), an intermediate qualification step of the data, extracted with the aid of a rules-based extraction.

7. Method according to one of the claims 1 to 6 in combination with claim 3, wherein the display step comprises an allocation, with the aid of a pre-input rules-base, of likely values for the various pre-input fields.

8. Method according to one of the claims 1 to 7, wherein the transcription step is performed by call of the instrumentation services of the operating system to simulate an input in the input module fields of the management tool.

9. Method according to one of the claims 1 to 8, further comprising a manual input step of additional data in the pre-existing input module of the management tool, and an enrichment step of the pre-input rules-base and/or of the extraction rules-base depending on the additional data.

10. Method according to one of the claims 1 to 9, comprising a simultaneous display step of a raw data representation in a first display zone, of pre-input fields in a second display zone, and an input screen of a pre-existing input module in a third display zone.

11. Computer system, comprising a CPU, programme and working memories, input devices and a display device characterized in that it contains programmes able to implement the method according to one of the claims 1 to 10.