Method and system for updating business cards
First Claim
1. A method for managing contact information, the method comprising:
- receiving in a server an image of a business card from a device associated with a user that has received the business card from a giver of the business card;
processing the image for optical character recognition (OCR) using an OCR engine being executed in the server;
verifying at least contact information in the business card from extracted data generated from the OCR engine to ensure that the contact information is accurate to communicate by the server with the giver before entering the extracted data as a record into an account of the user established on the server so that when the user synchronizes a chosen device with the account on the server to update a local address book in the chosen device, the local address book has the record, wherein a change to the record in the local address book in the chosen device is to be reflected in the record of the account on the server; and
notifying the giver by the server using the contact information in the business card that has been entered electronically into the account of the user, wherein the giver is invited to establish an account to be linked to the account of the user when the giver has not had the account with the server, or an account of the giver is set to be linked to the account of the user when the account of the giver is already established with the server so that the giver is able to manage the record to keep the user updated of any change to the record.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Techniques for capturing images of business cards, uploading the images to a designated computing device for processing and recognition are disclosed. A mechanism is provided to update extracted data from the images when there are any changes. Depending on implementation, there are a number of ways to capture images of business cards (e.g., via a phone camera, a PC camera, or a scanning device). A transmission means is provided to transport the images to the designated computing device for centralized management of integrated contact information for individual users. As a result, a user may access his/her updatable integrated contact information database anywhere anytime from a chosen device.
47 Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method for managing contact information, the method comprising:
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receiving in a server an image of a business card from a device associated with a user that has received the business card from a giver of the business card; processing the image for optical character recognition (OCR) using an OCR engine being executed in the server; verifying at least contact information in the business card from extracted data generated from the OCR engine to ensure that the contact information is accurate to communicate by the server with the giver before entering the extracted data as a record into an account of the user established on the server so that when the user synchronizes a chosen device with the account on the server to update a local address book in the chosen device, the local address book has the record, wherein a change to the record in the local address book in the chosen device is to be reflected in the record of the account on the server; and notifying the giver by the server using the contact information in the business card that has been entered electronically into the account of the user, wherein the giver is invited to establish an account to be linked to the account of the user when the giver has not had the account with the server, or an account of the giver is set to be linked to the account of the user when the account of the giver is already established with the server so that the giver is able to manage the record to keep the user updated of any change to the record. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 19)
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11. A method for managing contact information, the method comprising:
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receiving in a server an image of a media from a device associated with a user, wherein the media is given to the user by a giver; extracting in the server an identifying parameter associated with the image to determine if this image is sent from a registered user; when the identifying parameter is already registered with the server, processing the image for optical character recognition (OCR) using an OCR engine being executed in the server; extracting data from the image; correcting any errors in an email address in the extracted data before the extract data is entered as a record into an account of the user so that later the user synchronizes a chosen device with the account to update a local address book in the chosen device, wherein the local address book has the record, the record includes contact information of the giver from the extracted data; notifying the giver by the server using the email address that the media has been entered electronically into the account of the user, wherein the giver is invited to establish an account to be linked to the account of the user when the giver has not had the account with the server, or an account of the giver is set to be linked to the account of the user when the account of giver is already established with the server so that the giver is able to manage the record to keep the user updated of any change to the record; when the identifying parameter is not registered with the server, sending a message back to where the message came from using the identifying parameter, wherein the message invites the user to sign up a service being offered on the server. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13)
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14. A system for managing contact information, the system comprising:
a first device used by a first user to take an image of a business card received from a second user, the device transporting the image to a server configured to manage an account for the first user, wherein the server is further configured to process the image for optical character recognition (OCR) to extract texts from the image after a parameter accompanying the image is verified with the account of the first user, a result from the OCR is entered into the account of the first user, and meanwhile the server is configured to send a notification by an email address in the extracted texts to the second user indicating the business card has been electronically entered into the account of the first user in the server, the email address is verified with a database that is gradually populated by verified domain names that are initially obtained from images of business cards captured over time by all users registered with the server. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18)
Specification