System and method for scanning a document in client/server environment

• US 7,765,271 B1
• Filed: 02/03/2000
• Issued: 07/27/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 02/03/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Chartone, Inc., Hyland Software Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Hyland Software Incorporated
• Inventors: Bahr, David L., Ekbote, Meenal V., Okonechnikov, Alexandre, Bahr, Douglas W.
• Primary Examiner(s): NEURAUTER, GEORGE C
• Application Number:
  US09/497,383
• Time in Patent Office: 3,827 Days
• Field of Search: 709/201, 709/217, 709/232, 358/442, 358/468, 358/474, 358/1.15, 345/760, 345817-820, 345/767, 345/802, 715/501.1, 715/513
• US Class Current: 709/217
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00222 details of image data generation or reproduction, e.g. scan-to-email or network printing
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00225 details of image data generation, e.g. scan-to-email or network scanners using an image reading device as a local input to a computer H04N1/00241
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00241 using an image reading device as a local input to a computer input via network, e.g. network scanners H04N1/00225
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00413 using menus, i.e. presenting the user with a plurality of selectable options H04N1/00464 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/0044 for image preview or review, e.g. to help the user position a sheet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00464 using browsers, i.e. interfaces based on mark-up languages
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00973 from a remote device, e.g. receiving via the internet instructions input to a computer terminal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32117 in a separate transmission or protocol signal prior to or subsequent to the image data transmission, e.g. in digital identification signal [DIS], in non standard setup [NSS] or in non standard field [NSF] for mode signalling H04N1/333
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32507 a plurality of input devices
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0039 Connection via a network
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0075 by a user operated remote control device, e.g. receiving instructions from a user via a computer terminal or mobile telephone handset
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3216 of a job size, e.g. a number of images, pages or copies, size of file, length of message
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3226 of identification information or the like, e.g. ID code, index, title, part of an image, reduced-size image
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3273 Display
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3278 Transmission

Abstract

The invention includes generating a start scan signal at a user interface of a client device, transmitting the start scan signal from the client device to a scanner, receiving the start scan signal at the scanner, and scanning a document with the scanner to generate document data, in response to the start scan signal. The user interface can include a web browser and the start scan signal can be generated by activation of a control element defined in a hypertext mark-up language (HTML) document displayed on the web browser. The method can also include transmitting the document data from the scanner to the client device, receiving the document data at the client device, and generating a display including the scanned document on the user interface of the client device, based on the document data. The display can be generated from a hypertext mark-up language (HTML) document.

Claims

1. A method comprising the step of

a) generating a display based on a hypertext mark-up language (HTML) document stored in a client device using a web browser of a user interface of the client device, the display including a document display portion, an index field portion, and a control portion all visibly defined in the display in separate portions thereof by the HTML document, the document display portion including a display of document data received from a scanner coupled to the client device, the scanner generating the document data by scanning a document in print form, the document data representing the scanned document, the index field portion permitting index data to be input by a user with an input device of the client device into the user interface in association with the document data, and the control portion including at least one control element operable by the user with the input device for generating a start scan signal to initiate scanning of the document with the scanner to generate the document data and for generating a send data signal to transmit the document data with the index data displayed by the web browser from the client device to the server over a network using a destination address for the server specified in an address field of the web browser.

2. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control element is operable by the user with the input device to alternately generate the start scan signal and the send data signal with respective successive activations of the control element with the input device.

3. A method as claimed in claim 1 further comprising:

b) inputting index data identifying the document data into the index field portion.

4. A method as claimed in claim 3 wherein the index data input in said step (b) comprises a document name identifying the scanned document.

5. A method as claimed in claim 3 wherein the index data input in said step (b) comprises an identification number identifying the scanned document.

6. A method as claimed in claim 3 wherein the index data input in said step (b) comprises a file path indicating the subdirectory on the server at which the document data is to be stored.

7. A method as claimed in claim 3 wherein the index data input in said step (b) comprises text explaining the nature of the scanned document.

8. A method as claimed in claim 3 wherein the index data input in said step (b) identifies a matter to which the scanned document relates.

9. A method as claimed in claim 3 wherein the index data input in said step (b) identifies a transaction to which the scanned document relates.

10. A method as claimed in claim 3 further comprising the step of:

c) activating the control element by the user with the user interface to scan the document with a scanner to generate the document data.

11. A method as claimed in claim 10 further comprising the step of:

d) activating the control element by the user to upload the document data representing the scanned document to a server over a network.

12. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the control portion includes at least one control element that can be activated by the user with the input device to adjust the scale of the display of the document data.

13. A method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the control element can be activated by the user with the input device to increase the scale of the display of the document data (“

zoom in”

).

14. A method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the control element can be activated by the user with the input device to decrease the scale of the display of the document data (“

zoom out”

).

15. A method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the control element can be activated by the user with the input device to scale the document data to fit within the document display portion of the display.

16. A method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the control element can be activated by the user with the input device to scale the document data for display in the document display portion to the same scale as the scanned document.

17. A method as claimed in claim 12, wherein the control portion includes a control element activated by the user with the input device to select document data from among a plurality of scanned documents for display on the document display portion of the display.

18. A method comprising the steps of:

a) generating at a client device a start scan signal using a control element defined by a hypertext mark-up language (HTML) document stored in the client device and displayed by a web browser of a user interface of the client device in response to a user'"'"'s operation of an input device of the client device;

b) at the client device, converting the start scan signal into a form compatible with a scanner;

c) at the client device, transmitting the converted start scan signal from the client device to the scanner;

d) receiving the converted start scan signal at the scanner; and

e) scanning a document with the scanner to generate document data, in response to the converted start scan signal received in said step (d).

19. A method as claimed in claim 18, wherein said step (a) is performed by depressing and releasing a control element of the user interface of the client device using a mouse constituting at least part of the input device.

20. A method as claimed in claim 18, further comprising the steps of:

f) transmitting the document data from the scanner to the client device;

g) receiving the document data at the client device;

h) at the client device, converting the document data into a form that can be displayed within the web browser of the client device; and

i) generating a display including the scanned document on the web browser of the client device, based on the document data converted in step (h).

21. A method as claimed in claim 20, further comprising the step of:

j) adjusting the display of the document data via a user'"'"'s operation of a control element defined by the HTML document displayed by the web browser within the user interface.

22. A method as claimed in claim 21, wherein the adjusting of said step (j) includes increasing the scale of the display of the scanned document (“

zooming in”

) on the user interface.

23. A method as claimed in claim 21, wherein the adjusting of said step (j) includes decreasing the scale of the display of the scanned document (“

zooming out”

) on the user interface.

24. A method as claimed in claim 21, wherein the adjusting of said step (j) includes scaling the display of the scanned document to fit within the document display portion of the display of the user interface of the client device.

25. A method as claimed in claim 21, wherein the adjusting of said step (j) includes generating the display of the scanned document on the user interface of the client device with the same scale as the scanned document.

26. A method as claimed in claim 21, further comprising the step of:

k) generating a multiscan mode signal via a user'"'"'s operation of a control element defined within the web browser at the user interface of the client device, said steps (e)-(g) repeatedly performed to generate document data for a plurality of documents, based on the multimode scan signal.

27. A method as claimed in claim 26, further comprising the steps of:

l) generating a selection signal via a user'"'"'s operation of a control element defined within the web browser of the client device indicating at least one of the first, last, next and previous scanned documents for display; and

m) displaying the document data for one of the scanned documents within the web browser of the client device, based on the selection signal generated in said step (l).

28. A method as claimed in claim 21, further comprising the steps of:

k) user inputting predetermined index data into an index field defined by the HTML document separately from a document display portion in which the document data from the scanner is displayed by the web browser of the user interface of the client device;

l) generating a send data signal using the control element operated by a user with the input device and defined by the HTML document displayed by the web browser of the user interface of the client device;

m) transmitting the document data and index data from the client device to the server over an internetwork in response to the send data signal generated in said step (l);

n) receiving the document data and index data at the server; and

a) storing the document data in association with the index data in a database of a data storage unit separate from the server.

29. A method as claimed in claim 28, wherein the index data includes predetermined identification data to identify the document.

30. A method as claimed in claim 28, wherein the document data and the index data are transmitted between the server and client device in hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP).

31. A method as claimed in claim 28, wherein the start scan signal and the send data signal are input by the user with the input device via a common control element displayed within the web browser of the user interface that toggles between a first scan mode for the performance of said step (a) and a second send mode for the performance of said step (m).

32. A method as claimed in claim 28, wherein the start scan signal is input by a user with the input device via a first control element displayed within the web browser of the user interface for a first scan mode in the performance of said step (a) and the send data signal is input by a user with the input device via a second control element displayed within the web browser of the user interface in the performance of said step (m).

33. A method as claimed in claim 18, further comprising the step of:

f) transmitting the document data from the client device to a server.

34. A method as claimed in claim 18, further comprising the step of:

f) transmitting the document data from the scanner to a server.

35. A method comprising the steps of

a) generating a start scan signal using a control element defined by a hypertext mark-up language (HTML) document stored in the client device and displayed by a web browser of a user interface of a client device, the control element operated by a user with an input device of the client device;

b) at the client device, converting the start scan signal into a form compatible with the scanner;

c) transmitting the converted start scan signal from the client device to a scanner;

d) receiving the converted start scan signal at the scanner,

e) scanning a document in print form with the scanner to generate document data, in response to the converted start scan signal received in said step (d);

f) transmitting the document data from the scanner to the client device;

g) receiving the document data at the client device;

h) at the client device, converting the document data into a form that can be displayed by the web browser of the client device;

i) generating a display including the scanned document in the HTML document displayed within the web browser of the user interface of the client device, based on the document data converted in said step (h);

j) inputting predetermined index data into a field defined separately from a document display portion for the document data in the HTML document displayed by the web browser of the user interface of the client device, the index data associated with the document data displayed by the web browser;

k) generating a send data signal using a control element defined in the HTML document displayed by the web browser of the user interface of the client device;

l) transmitting the document data and index data from the client device to the server over an internetwork in response to the send data signal generated in said step (k) using a destination address of the server specified in an address field of the web browser;

m) receiving the document data and index data at the server via the internetwork; and

n) storing the document data received in step (m) in association with the index data in a database of a data storage unit separate from the server.

36. A method as claimed in claim 35 wherein the index data input in said step (j) identifies the scanned document.

37. A method as claimed in claim 36 wherein the index data input in said step (j) comprises a document name identifying the scanned document.

38. A method as claimed in claim 36 wherein the index data input in said step (j) comprises an identification number identifying the scanned document.

39. A method as claimed in claim 35 wherein the index data input in said step (j) comprises a file path indicating the subdirectory on the server at which the scanned document is to be stored.

40. A method as claimed in claim 35 wherein the index data input in said step (j) comprises text explaining the nature of the scanned document.

41. A method as claimed in claim 35 wherein the index data input in said step (j) identifies a matter to which the scanned document relates.

42. A method as claimed in claim 35 wherein the index data input in said step (j) identifies a transaction to which the scanned document relates.

43. A method as claimed in claim 35, further comprising the step of:

o) adjusting the display of the scanned document via a user'"'"'s operation of a control element defined by the HTML document displayed by the web browser within the user interface.

44. A method as claimed in claim 43, wherein the adjusting of said step (o) includes increasing the scale of display of the scanned document (“

zooming in”

) on the user interface.

45. A method as claimed in claim 43, wherein the adjusting of said step (o) includes decreasing the scale of the display of the scanned document (“

zooming out”

) on the user interface.

46. A method as claimed in claim 43, wherein the adjusting of said step (o) includes scaling the display of the scanned document to fit within the document display portion of the display of the user interface of the client device.

47. A method as claimed in claim 43, wherein the adjusting of said step (o) includes generating the display of the scanned document on the user interface of the client device with the same scale as the scanned document.

48. A method as claimed in claim 43, further comprising the step of:

p) generating a multiscan mode signal via a user'"'"'s operation of a control element defined within the web browser of the user interface of the client device, said steps (e)-(g) repeatedly performed to generate document data for a plurality of documents, based on the multimode scan signal.

49. A method as claimed in claim 43, further comprising the steps of:

p) generating a selection signal via a user'"'"'s operation of a control element defined within the web browser at the client device indicating at least one of the first, last, next and previous scanned documents for display; and

a) displaying the document data for one of the scanned documents within the web browser of the client device, based on the selection signal generated in said step (p).

50. A method as claimed in claim 43, wherein the index data includes predetermined identification data to identify the document.

51. A method as claimed in claim 43, wherein the document data and the index data are transmitted in said step (l) between the server and client device in hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) format.

52. A method as claimed in claim 43, wherein the start scan signal and the send data signal are input by the user with the input device via a common control element defined within the web browser of the user interface that toggles between a first scan mode for the performance of said step (a) and a second send mode for the performance of step (l).

53. A method as claimed in claim 43, wherein the start scan signal is input by the user with the input device via a first control element defined within the web browser of the user interface for a first scan mode in the performance of said step (a), and the send data signal is input by the user with the input device via a second control element defined within the web browser of the user interface in the performance of said step (l).

54. A system for use with at least one document, the system comprising:

a client device including

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor;

an input device coupled to the processor; and

a display unit coupled to the processor;

a scanner coupled to the processor; and

at least one server coupled to the processor,

the processor operating under a predetermined control program stored in the memory to generate a display on the display unit based on a hypertext mark-up language (HTML) document stored in the memory, the display generated by the HTML document including a document display portion, an index field portion, and a control portion separately defined in the display, the document display portion displaying document data received from a scanner, the document data generated by scanning the document with the scanner, the index field portion permitting index data to be input by a user via the input device for association with the document data, and the control portion including at least one control element operable by the user with the input device for use in generating at least a start scan signal to initiate scanning of the document with the scanner and for use in generating a send data signal with the input device to transmit the document data with the index data to the server over a network using a destination address from an address field of the display of the client device.

55. A system as claimed in claim 54, wherein the control element alternates between generating the start scan signal and the send data signal between successive activations of the control element by the user with the input device.

56. A system as claimed in claim 54, wherein the control element can be operated by the user with the input device to adjust the scale of the display of the document data.

57. A system as claimed in claim 54, wherein the control element can be operated by the user with the input device to increase the scale of the display of the document data (“

zoom in”

).

58. A system as claimed in claim 54, wherein the control element can be operated by the user with the input device to decrease the scale of the display of the document data (“

zoom out”

).

59. A system as claimed in claim 54, wherein the control element can be operated by the user with the input device to scale the document data to fit within the document display portion of the user interface.

60. A system as claimed in claim 54, wherein the control element can be operated by the user with the input device to scale the document data for display in the document display portion to the same scale as the scanned document.

61. A system as claimed in claim 54, wherein the control element can be operated by the user with the input device to select document data from among a plurality of scanned documents for display on the document display portion of the display.

62. A system as claimed in claim 54, wherein the server receives document data and index data from the client device, the system further comprising:

a database storage unit coupled to the server, the database storage unit being separate from the server, for storing the index data in association with the document data from the processor.

63. A system used to scan a document, the system coupled to a network, the system comprising:

a client device;

a scanner coupled to the client device;

a server coupled to the client device via the network; and

a database storage unit coupled to the server,

the client device receiving document data generated by the scanner by scanning a document, the client device having a user interface capable of generating a display by execution of an hypertext mark-up language (HTML) document stored by the client device, the display including a document display portion, an index field portion, and a control portion separately defined in the display, the document display portion displaying document data received from the scanner, the document data generated by scanning the document in print form with the scanner, the document data representing the scanned document, the index field portion permitting index data to be input by a user via an input device of the client device for association with the document data, and the control portion including at least one control element operated by the user with the input device for use in generating at least a start scan signal with the input device to initiate scanning of the document with the scanner and for use in generating a send data signal with the input device to transmit the document data with the index data to the server over the network using a destination address from an address field of the display, the server storing the document data and index data in the database storage unit.

64. A system as claimed in claim 63, wherein the network includes an internetwork.

65. A system as claimed in claim 63, wherein the client device includes a personal computer.

66. A system as claimed in claim 63, wherein the user interface includes a web browser in which the document data is displayed.

67. A system coupled to a network, the system operated by at least one user, the system comprising:

a plurality of subsystems coupled to the network, the subsystems having respective client devices capable of displaying document data included within respective hypertext mark-up language (HTML) documents displayed on corresponding web browsers thereof, at least one of the subsystems including a scanner coupled to a respective client device, the scanner generating the document data by scanning a document in print form based on a first command from a user entered into the web browser of the client device coupled to the scanner, the client device receiving the document data from the scanner and generating a display of the document data in the web browser thereof, the client device transmitting the document data based on a second command from the user entered into the web browser of the client device;

at least one server coupled to the network, the server receiving the document data from the client device over the network using a destination address specified in an address field of the web browser of the client device; and

a database storage unit coupled to the server, the database storage unit separate from the server, the database storage unit storing the document data so that the subsystems can access the document data.

68. A system as claimed in claim 67, wherein the network includes an internetwork.

69. A method comprising the steps of:

a) generating a display including a display portion with a view of a scanned document within a browser of a client device based on document data derived from a scan of a document in print form;

b) inputting predetermined index data into at least one field of an index field portion of the display within the browser of the client device, the index field portion defined in the display within the browser separately from the display portion;

c) generating a send data signal from within the browser of the client device using a control element of a control portion defined separately from the index field portion and the display portion in the display within the browser;

d) transmitting the document data and index data from the client device to the server over an internetwork with the control element of the control portion using a destination address of a server identified in an address field of the browser in response to the send data signal generated in said step (c);

e) receiving the document data and index data at the server; and

f) storing the document data in association with the index data received from the server in a database of a data storage unit separate from the server.

70. A method as claimed in claim 69 wherein the display of the scanned document is included in a hypertext mark-up language (HTML) document displayed by the browser of the client device'"'"'s user interface.

71. A method as claimed in claim 70 wherein the send data signal is generated in step (c) by activating a control element defined in the HTML document.