METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CAPTURING AND EXTRACTING CONTENT FROM DOCUMENTS ON A MOBILE DEVICE

• US 20150040001A1
• Filed: 08/02/2013
• Published: 02/05/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 08/02/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Symbol Technologies, LLC (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Symbol Technologies, Inc. (Zebra Technologies Corporation)
• Inventors: He, Duanfeng, Kannan, Anu, Epshteyn, Alan J.
• Granted Patent: US 10,769,362 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/243
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/245 by locating a pattern; Special marks for positioning
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/142 using hand-held instruments; Constructional details of the instruments
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/412 Layout analysis of documents structured with printed lines or input boxes, e.g. business forms or tables

Abstract

A mobile device captures information from a document. The mobile device selects a template stored in a memory of the mobile device. The selected template describes data content of at least one document. The mobile device then captures an image of a document, determines that the image corresponds to one document described by the selected template by verifying that at least one first region in the image corresponds to a region of the document described by the selected template, identifies at least one region in the image that corresponds with a region in the document described by the selected template, and processes information in the identified region in the image. The mobile device then aggregates application specific information from the processed information and presents the aggregated application specific information to a user program operating on the mobile device.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

selecting, by a mobile device, a template stored in a memory of the mobile device, the selected template describes data content of at least one document;

capturing, on the mobile device, an image of a document;

determining, by the mobile device, that the image corresponds to one document described by the selected template by verifying that at least one first region in the image corresponds to a region of the document described by the selected template;

identifying, by the mobile device, at least one region in the image that corresponds with a region in the document described by the selected template and processing information in the identified region in the image;

aggregating, by the mobile device, application specific information from the processed information; and

presenting, by the mobile device, aggregated application specific information to a user program operating on one of the mobile device and a remote device connected with the mobile device.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the aggregating comprises aggregating a predefined set of data, the predefined set of data being associated with one or more documents.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing information in the identified region in the image comprises at least one of recognizing and processing alphanumeric characters, converting checked marks or boxes to numerical values, processing an image, converting text to audio, or performing customized decoding on the identified region.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising qualifying regions in the image that correspond with the document described by the selected template based on fields in the selected template.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprises using the selected template to specify characteristics associated with the document, identify a document type and identify processing requirements for at least one portion the document.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the processing information in the identified region in the image comprises at least one of:

decoding at least one barcode in the identified region and capturing at least one picture associated with the at least one barcode in one decode session,

refining the image of the identified region,

converting a checked state of at least one check box in the identified region to a numerical value, or

identifying alphanumeric characters in the identified region in the image.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the selecting comprises retrieving the template corresponding with the document from a template builder configured to build and store templates corresponding with the document.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein each region in the selected template comprises a predefined type of information and the aggregating, by the mobile device, comprises attaching a descriptive identifier to aggregated application specific information.

9. A mobile device comprising:

an image capturing device configured to capture an image of a document;

a memory configured to store a plurality of templates at least one of which is associated with the document;

a processor configured to;

select a template stored in the memory, the selected template describes data content of at least one document, prior to the document being captured by the image capturing device;

determine, subsequent to the image of the document being captured by the image capturing device, that the image corresponds to one document described by the selected template by verifying that at least one first region in the image corresponds to a region of the document described by the selected template;

identify at least one region in the image that corresponds with a region in the document described by the selected template and process information in the identified region in the image;

aggregate application specific information from the processed information; and

present aggregated application specific information to a user program operating on one of the mobile device and a remote device connected with the mobile device.

10. The mobile device of claim 9, further being communicatively coupled to a template builder configured to create and store the plurality of templates, the processor being configured to retrieve the selected template from the template builder.

11. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the processor further comprises at least one of an optical character recognition processor, an optical mark recognition processor, an image sharpening processor, a text to speech processor, an object recognition processor or a custom decoder.

12. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to qualify regions in the document that correspond with the layout of the selected template based on the fields in the selected template.

13. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to use the selected template to specify characteristics associated with the document, identify a document type and identify processing requirements for at least one portion the document.

14. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein the processor is further configured to perform at least one of:

decode at least one barcode in the identified region and capture at least one picture associated with the at least one barcode in one decode session,

refine the image of the identified region,

convert a checked state of at least one check box in the identified region to a numerical value, or

identify alphanumeric characters in the identified region in the image.

15. The mobile device of claim 9, wherein each region in the selected template comprises a predefined type of information and the processor is further configured to attach a descriptive identifier to the aggregated application specific information.

16. A processor in a mobile device, comprising:

a template acquiring component figured to retrieve at least one template describing at least one document;

an image acquiring component configured to acquire an image of a document;

a document matching interface configured to determine that the image corresponds to one document described by the selected template by verifying that at least one first region in the image corresponds to a region of the document described by the selected template;

segmentation component configured to identify at least one region in the image that corresponds with a region in the document described by the selected template and process information in the identified region in the image;

at least one post processor configured to receive processed information from the segmentation component, to identify each region in the selected template, and process information in a region in the document that corresponds with the identified region in the selected template; and

an aggregation component configured to obtain processed information from the at least one post processor, aggregate application specific information from the processed information obtained from the at least one post processor, and present the aggregated application specific information to a user operating the mobile device, wherein the aggregation component forwards the application specific information to a user application operating on one of the mobile device and a remote device connected with the mobile device.

17. The processor of claim 16, wherein the template matching interface is configured to retrieve the at least one template from a template builder configured to create and store the at least one template and communicatively coupled to the mobile device.

18. The processor of claim 16, wherein the at least one post processor includes at least one of an optical character recognition processor, an optical mark recognition processor, an image sharpening processor, a text to speech processor, an object recognition processor and a custom decoder.

19. The processor of claim 16, further configured to use the selected template to specify characteristics associated with the document, identify a document type and identify processing requirements for at least one portion the document.

20. The processor of claim 16, wherein the segmentation component is further configured to refine the image of the identified region.