Office automation system with integrated image management
First Claim
1. In an image management system, means for retrieving image documents from a plurality of types of bulk image storage media comprising:
- (A) a relational data base system,(B) at least one document locator data base, each for use by the relational data base system for determining a media address from a logical document identifier, the media address identifying one of a plurality of different types of storage media,(C) an image system data base for use by the relational data base system for determining a physical device address from a media address, wherein the image system data base includes a table for each of a plurality of types of bulk image storage media, each such table including information about physical device addresses of the storage media of the type to which the table correspondswhereby the physical device address of at least a portion of the image document identified by the logical document identifier can be determined.
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Abstract
An office automation system that provides for the incorporation of documents of all types by integrating images into the system. A minicomputer-based system includes applications such as word processing, data base, and mail, each of which can access image documents. Bulk storage of document images is provided using a variety of storage media such as microfilm, microfiche, and optical disks. An image access subsystem provides to each of the office automation applications uniform access to images stored on all of the media. The image access subsystem can use a hardward controller to handle some of the complexity of retrieval of images from the image storage devices. A relational data base system is used to organize the stored images so as to provide flexible access to the images and to isolate any effects of reconfiguration of the image storage system.
132 Citations
9 Claims
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1. In an image management system, means for retrieving image documents from a plurality of types of bulk image storage media comprising:
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(A) a relational data base system, (B) at least one document locator data base, each for use by the relational data base system for determining a media address from a logical document identifier, the media address identifying one of a plurality of different types of storage media, (C) an image system data base for use by the relational data base system for determining a physical device address from a media address, wherein the image system data base includes a table for each of a plurality of types of bulk image storage media, each such table including information about physical device addresses of the storage media of the type to which the table corresponds whereby the physical device address of at least a portion of the image document identified by the logical document identifier can be determined. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 6, 7)
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5. An office automation system comprising:
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(A) a plurality of bulk image storage devices, at least two of which use different types of storage media, (B) means for defining image documents and associating with each image document a logical document identifier, where an image document is a logical group of stored images, said defining means being capable of including, in a single image document, images stored on the different types of media, (C) an image access subsystem for receiving a logical document identifier and for providing access to images, which are stored on said storage devices, of the image document associated with the received logical document identifier in a manner idependent of the type of medium on which each of the images is stored, (D) a word processing subsystem arranged to provide a logical document identifier to the image access subsystem and to display an image identified thereby as a part of a word processing document. (E) a data base subsystem providing a field data type of the type "image document" by which an image document can be associated with a data base record in such a way that the image document can be retrieved from said storage devices by providing the content of an "image document" field to the image access subsystem as a logical document identifier, (F) an electronic mail subsystem for delivering message packages including image documents retrieved from said storage devices by providing a logical document identifier to the image access subsystem. - View Dependent Claims (8)
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9. An office automation system comprising:
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(A) a plurality of bulk image storage devices, at least two of which use different types of storage media, (B) means for defining logical groups of images stored on any of said bulk image storage devices as image documents and associating with each image document a logical document identifier that is sufficiently independent of the type of medium on which the associated images are stored that these images can still be accessed by use of the same logical identifier even if they are moved to a storage medium of a different type, (C) an image access subsystem for receiving a logical document identifier and for providing access to images, which are stored on said storage devices, of the image document associated with the received logical document identifier in a manner independent of the type of medium on which each of the images is stored, (D) a word processing subsystem arranged to provide a logical document identifier to the image access subsystem and to display an image identified thereby as a part of a word processing document, (E) a data base subsystem providing a field data type of the type "image document" by which an image document can be associated with a data base record in such a way that the image document can be retrieved from said storage devices by providing the content of an "image document" field to the image access subsystem as a logical document identifier, (F) an electronic mail subsystem for delivering message packages including image documents retrieved from said storage devices by providing a logical document identifier to the image access subsystem.
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Specification