Automated form handling and generating system and a form sheet associated to said system
First Claim
1. A form handling system, comprisingacceptance means for physically accepting a form sheet with respect to said system,optical scanning means for scanning said form sheet, form processing means includingdata storage means interconnected to said scanning means for storing data for generating a set of forms of respective types,first recognizing means fordetecting a plurality of physically sparse format calibrating items at a perimeter of said form sheet,measuring a separation between said items, andcalibrating the form processing means to an expected form appearance based on the separation between said items;
- second recognizing means fed by said first recognizing means for detecting and recognizing directly machine-readable form identifier data, which identifies a selected form from the set, the form identifier data being in a prescribed identifier field of said form sheet, said prescribed identifier field being located according to said expected form appearance;
third recognizing means, fed by said first and second recognizing means, for locating, according to said expected form appearance, one or more user indicia boxes proper to the selected form and forwarding indicia data of those indicia boxes for processing by said data processing means.
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Abstract
A document handling system comprises physical presentation means for receiving, presenting, and removing a document with respect to the system. Furthermore, it is provided with scanning memos for the document and printing means for printing on an unprinted sheet a document that contains a form. The form contains a plurality of physically sparse format calibrating items at a perimeter of the form, directly machine-readable form identifier clam in a prescribed identifier field, and form content dam including user completable indicia boxes proper to the form so identified. The form can be used for generating a facsimile sheet inclusive of standard facsimile header, for generating a standard document for general use, or for allowing a user to input amending dam for inclusion into a later to be printed user specifiable document.
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Citations
14 Claims
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1. A form handling system, comprising
acceptance means for physically accepting a form sheet with respect to said system, optical scanning means for scanning said form sheet, form processing means including data storage means interconnected to said scanning means for storing data for generating a set of forms of respective types, first recognizing means for detecting a plurality of physically sparse format calibrating items at a perimeter of said form sheet, measuring a separation between said items, and calibrating the form processing means to an expected form appearance based on the separation between said items; -
second recognizing means fed by said first recognizing means for detecting and recognizing directly machine-readable form identifier data, which identifies a selected form from the set, the form identifier data being in a prescribed identifier field of said form sheet, said prescribed identifier field being located according to said expected form appearance; third recognizing means, fed by said first and second recognizing means, for locating, according to said expected form appearance, one or more user indicia boxes proper to the selected form and forwarding indicia data of those indicia boxes for processing by said data processing means. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method for generating customized forms comprising the steps of
optically scanning a form sheet; -
in data processing means; first recognizing a plurality of physically sparse calibrating items at a perimeter of said form sheet; measuring a separation between said items; calibrating to an expected form appearance based on the separation between said items; locating and second recognizing form identifier data, based on the expected form appearance; retrieving stored data related to a selected form based on the form identifier data; locating and recognizing indicia data, proper to the selected form, in user indicia boxes, said locating and recognizing being based on the retrieved data and the expected form appearance; and outputting a customized output form generated from the stored data related to the selected form and the indicia data.
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Specification