Selective document scanning method and apparatus

• US 7,002,712 B2
• Filed: 07/07/2003
• Issued: 02/21/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 02/19/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Barker, John C., McGraw, Montomgery C., Sturgeon, Derrill L.
• Primary Examiner(s): Grant, II, Jerome
• Application Number:
  US10/614,482
• Publication Number:
  US 20040004733A1
• Time in Patent Office: 960 Days
• Field of Search: 358/474, 358/468, 358/1.6, 358/1.8, 358/452, 358/448, 358/453, 358/470, 358/401
• US Class Current: 358/474
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/38 Circuits or arrangements for blanking or otherwise eliminating unwanted parts of pictures H04N1/387 takes precedence

Abstract

A technique is disclosed for selectively scanning or encoding a desired region of a document. The desired region is identified via scannable indicia on a control form. The region may be outlined by a border preprinted on the form or traced by a user. Preset selectable regions may be identified by codes or other textual descriptions on the form. The form is scanned and the instructions selected by the user are encoded. The selected region is identified and scanned. Only the selected region is scanned, or a larger region is scanned and extraneous data not corresponding to the selected region is eliminated from the resulting data set. The technique permits elimination of unwanted portions of a document automatically, the reduction in scanned file size, and straightforward handling of batch scanning tasks in which selected portions of documents are to be scanned and processed.

Claims

1. A method for selectively scanning a document under control of a scanning device operably associated with a memory, the method comprising the steps of:

operating the scanning device during a single scanning operation to

(i) automatically sense individual marker areas at predetermined locations in a region on a control sheet, each marker area located near an associated human intelligible representation of a scanning function control parameter,

(ii) respond only to the presence of a marking at one or more of said sensed marker areas and to correlate the sensed presence of a said marking with data stored in said memory corresponding to the scanning function control parameter associated with the marker area having the sensed marking; and

(iii) performing a scanning operation of one or more document areas associated with said control sheet to digitally encode scanned data content thereof in accordance with the scanning function control parameter associated with each respective marker area having a sensed marking; and

performing at least a further operation independently of said scanning function control parameters on scan encoded data only from one or more of said document areas occupying less than the total document area scannable during said scanning operation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the human intelligible representations include preprinted textual descriptors of said control parameters on the control sheet and during said scanning operation said automatic sensing is not responsive to said preprinted identification textual descriptors.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said markings comprise user applied markings at one or selected marker areas at said predetermined locations.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein said marker areas comprise closed boundary areas and a marking of a selected marker area is effected by a sensor readable user applied filling or partial filling of said selected area.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the marker areas are positioned relative to predetermined identifiable reference points on said control sheet.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the scanning function control parameters include designation of one or more sub-areas of the control sheet each sub-area for receiving at least one document area for encoding contents thereof during said scanning operation in said step (iii).

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said further operation comprises transmitting said scan encoded data over a communications network.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said further operation comprises storing the scan encoded data in memory.

9. A method for selectively scanning a document under control of a scanning device operably associated with a memory, the method comprising the steps of:

operating the scanning device during a single scanning operation to;

(i) automatically sense individual marker areas at predetermined locations on an instruction region of a control sheet that also includes a document support region, each marker area located near an associated human intelligible representation of a scanning function control parameter,

(ii) respond only to the presence of a marking at one or more of said sensed marker areas and to correlate the sensed presence of a said marking with data stored in said memory corresponding to the scanning function control parameter associated with the marker area having the sensed marking; and

(iii) performing a scanning operation of a document located on the document support region to encode scanned data contents thereof in accordance with the scanning function control parameter associated with each respective marker area of the instruction region at which a sensed marking is present and to store the encoded data in said memory;

wherein one of said scanning function control parameters is scan operability during said scanning operation, and a plurality of marker areas on the instruction region are associated with human intelligible representations of the respective sub-areas of said support region occupying less than the total area of the document support region, whereby scan encoding during said scanning operation is determined by sensing markings associated with at least a selected one of said sub-areas; and

performing at least a further operation on encoded scan data only from each sub-area.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein said scanning device is operable during said scanning operation to encode scanned contents of the document only over at least one of said sub-areas of said support region.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the sub areas of the support region are identified by border indicia.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the border indicia comprise a nested set of border indicia.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein during the scanning operation t encoded scan data are generated only by scanning over the or each said sub-area.

14. A method for selectively scanning a document under control of a scanning device operably associated with a memory, the method comprising the steps of:

operating the scanning device during a single scanning operation to

(i) automatically sense individual marker areas at predetermined locations in on a control sheet, each marker area located near an associated human intelligible representation of a control parameter, first ones of said marker areas associated with scan function control parameters and other ones of said marker areas associated with operation control parameters;

(ii) respond to the presence of a marking at one or more of said sensed marker areas and to correlate the sensed presence of a said marking with data stored in said memory corresponding to the control parameter associated with the marker area having the sensed marking; and

(iii) performing a scanning operation of one or more document areas associated with said control sheet to encode scanned data content thereof in accordance with the scanning function control parameter associated with each respective first marker area having a sensed marking; and

in accordance with the operation control parameter associated with each respective other marker area having a sensed marking, performing at least a further operation on scan encoded data only from one or more of said document areas occupying less than the total document area scannable during said scanning operation.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said operation control parameters include copy function parameters.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein said operation control parameters include facsimile transmission parameters.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein said operation control parameters include sender and recipient identification data.

18. A method for selectively scanning a document under control of a scanning device operably associated with a memory, the method comprising the steps of:

operating the scanning device during a single scanning operation to

(i) automatically sense first and second individual marker areas at predetermined locations in a region on a control sheet, each first marker area located near an associated human intelligible representation of a scanning function control parameter, each second marker area located near an associated human intelligible representation of an operation control parameter different from said scanning function control parameter;

(ii) respond only to the presence of a marking at one or more of said sensed first marker areas and to correlate the sensed presence of a said marking with data stored in said memory corresponding to the scanning function control parameter associated with the first marker area having the sensed marking; and

(iii) performing a scanning operation over a document area associated with said control sheet to encode scanned data content thereof in accordance with the scanning function control parameter associated with the or each respective first marker area having a sensed marking; and

performing at least a further operation independently of said scanning function control parameters on encoded data of only one or more predefined document sub-areas, each sub-area having an area less than said document area, said at least one further operation performed in accordance with an operation control parameter associated with one or more second marker areas having a sensed marking.

19. A system including a scanning device and an operatively associated memory, the system comprising:

a document having a portion to be encoded;

a control sheet including an instruction region and a support region, said instruction region including a plurality of marker areas at predetermined locations of the instruction region, each marker area located near an associated human intelligible representation of a scanning device functional parameter, and a plurality of said marker areas on the instruction region are associated with human intelligible representations of control parameters including marker areas associated with first and second scan function control parameters and further marker areas associated with operation control parameters;

said scanning device operable during a single pass scanning operation over said control sheet to automatically sense and respond to the presence of markings at a plurality of said marker areas in the instruction region of the control sheet by correlating the sensed presence of a said marking with data stored in said memory corresponding to the control parameter associated with the marker area at which the sensed marking is located, and to perform a scanning operation in the document support region of the control sheet;

wherein first scanning function control parameters associated with first marker areas define one or more discrete sub-areas of the support region;

said scanning device operable during said scanning operation of the document support region to generate and store in said memory scanned data signals resulting from scanning data located in the support region, the scanning device operable to encode the scanned data signals in accordance with second scanning function control parameters associated with second ones of said marker areas associated with scan function control parameters at which the presence of a marking is sensed during scanning of said instruction region; and

wherein said system is operable to perform at least one operation under control of an operation control parameter associated with a said further marker area having a sensed marking using stored encoded scan data from one or more discrete sub-areas in the document support region defined by a second scan function control parameter.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein a scanned document is supported on the instruction support.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the memory is included in the scanning device.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the scanning device is configured to scan a region larger than each said sub-area and to pare data from a resulting data set to eliminate data corresponding to areas of said support regions outside the or said sub-area.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein each sub-area is also marked by a border.