DEVICE ENABLED VERIFIABLE STROKE AND IMAGE BASED WORKFLOWS

• US 20110060910A1
• Filed: 09/08/2009
• Published: 03/10/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Gormish, Michael J., Piersol, Kurt W., Kosoglow, Richard D., Barrus, John W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,560,854 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/176
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/80 Wireless
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/88 Medical equipments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 involving digital signatures

Abstract

A system for device enabled verifiable stroke and image based workflows comprises a plurality of portable computing devices, coupled by a network to a stroke and image workflow server. The portable computing devices include a display, stroke capture capability and a wireless communication capability. The portable computing devices are adapted to receive images, add stroke annotations to the received images, and send the annotated received images. The stroke and image workflow server is coupled to the network for communication with the portable computing devices. The stroke and image workflow server sends and receives documents from the portable computing devices, maintains a log for verification, and implements a paper like workflow and processing the documents. Essentially, this stroke and image workflow server implements paper like workflow and handles the overhead of processing electronic documents so that it is invisible to the user.

Claims

1. A method for implementing paper-like workflow of compound documents, the, the method comprising:

receiving a first formatted message including a compound document having an image and metadata;

extracting the compound document from the first formatted message;

displaying the image of the compound document;

capturing input strokes;

adding the input strokes to the compound document;

adding a log entry to the compound document for the input strokes;

creating a second formatted message including the compound document; and

sending the second formatted message.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first formatted message is an email message, and receiving the first formatted message is receiving an email message having the compound document as an attachment.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein extracting the compound document from the first formatted message, includes extracting workflow routing information from an email header.

4. The method of claim 1, comprising:

receiving an image from a device;

creating the compound document having at least the received image and a metadata;

creating a formatted message including the compound document; and

sending the formatted message.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein adding the input strokes to the compound document includes storing an original image of the input strokes in a raster format and storing symbolic stroke information.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein adding a log entry to the compound document comprises adding to a log of a page metadata for the image in the compound document.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein adding a log entry to the compound document comprises storing log data in document metadata of the compound document.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the log entry includes a cryptographic hash of a stroke file and previous log entries.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the metadata includes:

document metadata having a document log and other document metadata; and

image metadata for each image, the image metadata including image stroke data, other image metadata, and an image log.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps are performed by a portable computing device.

11. The method of claim 1, comprising creating an entangled local log that includes changes to a plurality of compound documents by a particular computing device.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein sending the second formatted message includes determining a routing for the second formatted message by automatically extracting routing information from the first formatted message and using the routing information to generate an addressee for the second formatted message.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps are performed by a portable computing device having a unique identifier, the compound document includes images stored in an encrypted format, and the extracting the compound document includes decrypting the images of the stored document using the unique key.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein comprising transmitting the input strokes in an intermediate formatted message.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein adding the input strokes to the compound document includes adding a digital signature for the input strokes and a capture device.

16. A system for performing workflow services, the system comprising:

a display device for displaying images;

a stroke capture device capable of accepting strokes and generating signals representing the strokes;

a document transfer module adapted to send and receive formatted messages having a compound document;

a metadata module for reading metadata from the compound document and adding metadata to the compound document;

a processor coupled to the display device, the stroke capture device, the document transfer module, and the metadata module for receiving a first formatted message, extracting the compound document, displaying an image from the compound document, storing strokes captured by the stroke capture device, updating metadata of the compound document and sending a second formatted message including the compound document.

17. The device of claim 16, comprising a logging module for creating and storing a log, the logging module coupled to the processor.

18. The device of claim 16, comprising a routing module for determining the next step in a workflow process, the routing module coupled to the processor and the document transfer module to receive the formatted message and extract routing information.

19. The device of claim 16, comprising a workflow module for creating compound documents and formatted messages, the workflow module coupled to receive images and to the document transfer module for sending formatted messages.

20. The device of claim 17, comprising a verification module for verifying the processing of a compound document, the verification module coupled to the process and the logging module to retrieve log information and compare it to computed information generated by the verification module, the verification capable of verifying processing if the computed information matches the log information.