Document producing support system

• US 6,632,251 B1
• Filed: 12/30/1998
• Issued: 10/14/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 07/03/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Sopheon NV (Wellspring Worldwide Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Polydoc NV
• Inventors: Wilkinson, David, van Ruyssevelt, Frank, Rutten, Hubert J. M.
• Primary Examiner(s): Hong, Stephen S.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Huynh, Thu V.
• Application Number:
  US09/223,496
• Time in Patent Office: 1,749 Days
• Field of Search: 707/501, 707/511, 707/512, 707/513, 707/515, 707/533, 707/530, 707/532, 707/103, 707/500, 707/501.1, 345/329, 345/331, 345/751, 345/733, 715/513, 715/511, 715/500, 715/515, 715/530, 704/1-4, 704/9
• US Class Current: 715/205
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/42 Data-driven translation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/47 Machine-assisted translation, e.g. using translation memory
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/56 Natural language generation
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

Document producing support system including: input means like a keyboard or a mouse; display means; a user profile database storing user profiles; a logon/logoff module connected to the user profile database for identifying roles of users based on the user profiles; a semantic database storing semantic elements; a dossier database for storing drafts of documents; a publishing database for storing final versions of documents; a workflow module arranged for at least controlling which roles of users are entitled to carry out specific activities and which activities may be carried out at a specific moment, as well as tracking which activities have already been carried out and how much process time has already been spent within any of the activities, activities being defined as sets of tasks allowed to be carried out by any individual user depending on his role; language technology modules for terminology control, machine-aided translation and language task support; a processor coupled to and arranged for controlling the elements mentioned above.

Claims

1. A document producing support system comprising:

input means for receiving manual input from a user;

display means;

a logon/logoff module connected to a user profile database for identifying roles of users based on a user profiles;

language technology modules for language control, machine-aided translation and language task support;

a processor coupled to and arranged for controlling said input means, said display means, said logon/logoff module, and said language technology modules, said system further comprising;

a user profile database storing user profiles;

a workflow module arranged for at least controlling which roles of users are entitled to carry out specific activities and which activities may be carried out at a specific moment, as well as tracking which activities have already been carried out and how much process time has already been spent within any of the activities, activities being defined as sets of tasks allowed to be carried out by any individual user depending on his role;

a dossier database for storing texts and objects useful for producing documents;

a semantic database storing semantic elements, said semantic elements each being a specific data element appearing in the form of different text fragments and objects with pre-defined contents and meanings depending on the context of use, said semantic elements being related to a linguistic structure of the documents, the linguistic structure logically ordering the content of the document;

a publishing database for storing final versions of the documents generated from selected and ordered ones of the semantic elements in the linguistic structure of the document;

the processor being coupled to and arranged for controlling said workflow module, said dossier database, said publishing database, and said semantic database.

2. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a task form library database storing data relating to a set of task forms, each task form being associated with at least one task, the processor being coupled to the display means for displaying said task forms on said display means.

3. The system according to claim 1, further comprising an analysis database storing the following data:

a) a brief general description of the document production process, including the technical hardware and software environment in which it is carried out;

b) a list of sub-processes and a description of each;

c) a list of activities, ordered per sub-process and a description of each, including roles of persons carrying this out, triggers necessary to start any of the activities and the hardware and software currently available to support it;

d) a breakdown of the activities into tasks, including a description of each;

e) a list of all documents involved in the process, related to the tasks;

f) a list of semantic elements used to build up the documents, related to each document, with a description of each, including relational links to other semantic elements and to available data models;

g) a list of roles of users, including a brief profile of each role.

4. The system according to claim 1, further comprising an interchanger coupled between the workflow module and the processor for providing an interface between a commercially available workflow module and the processor.

5. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a scanner connected to said processor for scanning paper documents and transferring the content to the processor.

6. The system according to claim 1, further comprising an I/O module for coupling the system to external systems.

7. The system according to claim 1, further comprising an internet module for providing documents to internet.

8. The system according to claim 1, wherein the language technology module for language control comprises a dynamic terminology collection module.