Methods and systems for disassembly and reassembly of examination documents

• US 8,171,404 B2
• Filed: 03/12/2007
• Issued: 05/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 10/08/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Sharp Laboratories of America Incorporated (Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd.)
• Inventors: Borchers, Gregory Eugene, Mathieson, Rono James
• Primary Examiner(s): Hutton, Jr., Doug
• Assistant Examiner(s): SMITH, BENJAMIN J
• Application Number:
  US11/685,046
• Publication Number:
  US 20070146823A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,877 Days
• Field of Search: 715/233
• US Class Current: 715/272
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00244 with a server, e.g. an internet server fax-servers or the like for store and forward H04N1/324
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00464 using browsers, i.e. interfaces based on mark-up languages
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00503 Customising to a particular machine or model, machine function or application
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0094 Multifunctional device, i.e. a device capable of all of reading, reproducing, copying, facsimile transception, file transception

Abstract

Aspects of the present invention relate to systems, methods and devices for manipulating documents. According to one aspect of the present invention, the responses, from multiple examinees, to a question on an examination may be combined to form a combined document associated with the question for grading, scoring or other analysis. According to a second aspect of the present invention, markings made by the examination grader, on the combined document, associated with an examinee may be combined with the examinee'"'"'s examination document to produce a modified examination document.

Claims

1. A method for document manipulation, said method comprising:

receiving, at a computing device, a first input document comprising first document content in a first region-of-interest and a second input document comprising second document content in an associated first region-of-interest;

determining a document map associated with said first input document and said second input document, wherein said document map defines said first region-of-interest in said first input document and said associated first region-of-interest in said second input document, wherein said document map comprises input document disassembly and reassembly configuration data for disassembling said input documents from student-specific input documents into component parts and reassembly of said component parts into question-specific reconfigured documents, wherein said document map comprises marking region data for locating a marking region in said reconfigured documents, wherein said document map also comprises region metadata associated with said regions of interest, said region metadata consisting of a recipient list of recipients to which said reconfigured documents are to be transmitted, recipient instructions, grading points assigned to each question and an explanation of the correct solution for each examination question, wherein said document map further comprises reconfigured document disassembly and reassembly data for disassembling said reconfigured documents with marking regions into reconfigured component parts and for reassembling said reconfigured component parts into modified documents, wherein said document map further comprises a modified document recipient list describing recipients to which said modified documents are to be transmitted;

generating a first reconfigured document comprising the first document content in said first region-of-interest in said first input document and the second document content in said associated first region-of-interest in said second input document, wherein said generating is performed according to said input document reassembly configuration data in said document map;

transmitting said first reconfigured document to a reconfigured document recipient identified in said document map;

receiving a modified first reconfigured document at said computing device, wherein said modified first reconfigured document comprises grading modifications in a first marking region associated with said first region-of-interest and grading modifications in a second marking region associated with said associated first region-of-interest; and

generating a first modified input document corresponding to said first input document and a second modified input document corresponding to said second input document, wherein said first modified input document comprises said modifications from said first marking region and said first document content from said first input document and said second modified input document comprises said modifications from said second marking region and said second document content from said second input document.

2. A method as described in claim 1, wherein said determining a document map comprises requesting said document map from a remote resource.

3. A method as described in claim 1, wherein said first input document is an examination document.

4. A method as described in claim 3, wherein said first region-of-interest corresponds to a first answer region in said examination document.

5. A method as described in claim 1, wherein said receiving is from an imaging device.

6. A method as described in claim 1 further comprising sending said first combined document to an imaging device.

7. A method as described in claim 1, wherein said first marking region is associated with a grading process related to an examination question associated with said first region-of-interest.

8. A method as described in claim 7 further comprising sending said first modified input document to an imaging device.

9. A method for imaging device remote document combination, said method comprising:

receiving a document-combination request from a first imaging device;

b) sending display content to said first imaging device, said display content comprising a list of available document combinations;

receiving a document-combination selection from said first imaging device;

receiving a first by-student input document comprising first document content and a second by-student input document comprising second document content from said first imaging device;

determining a document map associated with said document-combination selection, wherein said document map comprises a first region-of-interest, wherein said document map comprises input document disassembly and reassembly configuration data for disassembling said input documents from by-student input documents into component parts and reassembly of said component parts into by-question reconfigured documents, wherein said document map comprises marking region data for locating a marking region in said reconfigured documents, wherein said document map also comprises region metadata associated with said regions of interest, said region metadata consisting of a recipient list of recipients to which said reconfigured documents are to be transmitted, recipient instructions, grading points assigned to each question and an explanation of the correct solution for each examination question, wherein said document map further comprises reconfigured document disassembly and reassembly data for disassembling said reconfigured documents with marking regions into reconfigured component parts and for reassembling said reconfigured component parts into modified documents, wherein said document map further comprises a modified document recipient list describing recipients to which said modified documents are to be transmitted;

generating a first reconfigured by-question document comprising the document content in said first region-of-interest from said first input document and from said second input document, wherein said generating is performed according to said input document reassembly configuration data in said document map;

transmitting said first reconfigured by-question document to a reconfigured document recipient identified in said document map;

receiving a modified first reconfigured document, wherein said modified first reconfigured document comprises a first marking region associated with said first input document and a second marking region associated with said second input document, wherein said marking regions are defined in said marking region data in said document map and wherein said first marking region comprises first modification data comprises second modification data input on said second modified reconfigured document; and

generating a first modified input document corresponding to said first input document and a second modified input document corresponding to said second input document, wherein said first modified input document comprises the first modification data from said first marking region and the first document content from said first input document and said second modified input document comprises the second modification data from said second marking region and the second document content from said second input document.

10. A method as described in claim 9, wherein said first input document is an examination document.

11. A method as described in claim 9, wherein said first region-of-interest corresponds to a first answer region in an examination document associated with said first input document and said second input document.

12. A method as described in claim 9, wherein said determining a document map associated with said document-combination selection comprises requesting said document map from a remote resource.

13. A method as described in claim 9, wherein said display content is formatted in a markup language.

14. A method as described in claim 9 further comprising generating a second reconfigured document comprising third document content in a second region-of-interest from said first input document and said second input document, wherein said document map defines said second region-of-interest.

15. A method as described in claim 9 further comprising sending said first reconfigured document to a second imaging device.

16. A method as described in claim 15, wherein said first imaging device and said second imaging device are the same imaging device.

17. A method as described in claim 9, wherein said first marking region is associated with a grading process related to an examination question associated with said first region-of-interest.

18. A method as described in claim 17 further comprising sending said first modified input document to a third imaging device.

19. A method as described in claim 18, wherein said first imaging device and said third imaging device are the same imaging device.

20. A method for imaging device remote document combination, said method comprising:

receiving a document-combination request at an imaging device from a user interface on said imaging device;

sending said document-combination request from said imaging device to a remote computing device;

receiving said document-combination request from said imaging device at said remote computing device;

sending display content to said imaging device from said remote computing device, said display content comprising a list of available document combinations;

displaying said display content at said imaging device;

receiving a document-combination selection at said imaging device from said user interface on said imaging device;

sending said document-combination selection to said remote computing device from said imaging device;

receiving said document-combination selection at said remote computing device from said imaging device;

receiving a first input document comprising first document content in a first region-of-interest and a second input document comprising second document content in an associated first region-of-interest at said imaging device;

sending said first input document and said second input document from said imaging device to said remote computing device;

receiving, at said remote computing device from said imaging device said first input document and said second input document;

determining, at said remote computing device, a document map associated with said document-combination selection, wherein said document map defines said first region-of-interest and said associated first region-of-interest in said second input document, wherein said document map comprises input document disassembly and reassembly configuration data for disassembling said input documents from student-specific input documents and reassembly into question-specific reconfigured documents, wherein said document map comprises marking region data for locating a marking region in said reconfigured documents, wherein said document map also comprises region metadata associated with said regions of interest, said region metadata consisting of a recipient list of recipients to which said reconfigured documents are to be transmitted, recipient instructions, grading points assigned to each question and an explanation of the correct solution for each examination question, wherein said document map further comprises reconfigured document disassembly and reassembly data for disassembling said reconfigured documents with marking regions and for reassembling into modified documents, wherein said document map further comprises a modified document recipient list describing recipients to which said modified documents are to be transmitted;

generating, at said remote computing device, a first reconfigured document comprising the document content in said first region-of-interest from said first input document and from said second input document;

transmitting said first reconfigured document to a reconfigured document recipient identified in said document map;

receiving, at said remote computing device, a modified first reconfigured document, wherein said modified first reconfigured document comprises a first marking region associated with said first input document and a second marking region associated with said second input document, wherein said first marking region comprises first modification data input by a recipient of said first reconfigured document and said second marking region comprises second modification data input by said recipient; and

generating, at said remote computing device, a first modified input document and a second modified input document, wherein said first modified input document comprises the first modification data from said first marking region and the document content in said first input document and said second modified input document comprises the second modification data from said second marking region and the document content in said second input document.