Method for publishing hand written messages

• US 8,327,025 B2
• Filed: 02/24/2010
• Issued: 12/04/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/11/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: EasyWeb Innovations, LLC
• Original Assignee: EasyWeb Technologies, Inc.
• Inventors: Codignotto, John D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Dollinger, Tonia L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Murray, Daniel C
• Application Number:
  US12/711,581
• Publication Number:
  US 20100150446A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,014 Days
• Field of Search: 709/206, 709/246, 358/442, 358/453, 382/176, 382/276, 382/321
• US Class Current: 709/246
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/116 Details of conversion of file system types or formats
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/986 Document structures and storage, e.g. HTML extensions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2206/1512 Print-to a presentation device other than a printer, e.g. e-reader, e-paper, tablet
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/1276 within a printer driver, e.g. driver resides either on a server or on a client
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/117 Tagging; Marking up details of markup languages G06F40/143; Designating a block; Setting of attributes style sheets, e.g. eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation [XSLT], G06F40/154
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/143 Markup, e.g. Standard Generalized Markup Language [SGML] or Document Type Definition [DTD]
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/107 Computer-aided management of electronic mailing [e-mailing]
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/22 by selection of a specific region containing or referencing a pattern; Locating or processing of specific regions to guide the detection or recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/416 Extracting the logical structure, e.g. chapters, sections or page numbers; Identifying elements of the document, e.g. authors
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/08 Annexed information, e.g. attachments
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/212 using filtering or selective blocking
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/02 based on web technology, e.g. hypertext transfer protocol [HTTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/06 specially adapted for file transfer, e.g. file transfer protocol [FTP]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/1097 for distributed storage of data in networks, e.g. transport arrangements for network file system [NFS], storage area networks [SAN] or network attached storage [NAS]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/53 using third party service providers
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 67/565 Conversion or adaptation of application format or content adding application control or application functional data H04L67/561
• 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 1/32374 Storage subsequent to an attempted transmission
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32475 Changing the format of the data, e.g. parallel to serial or vice versa
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32771 in response to a request, e.g. for a particular document
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/4433 : to an apparatus, part of an apparatus or an apparatus function

Abstract

Publishing of a message divided into two portions, one portion not requiring computer recognition of it'"'"'s content while another portion requires recognition of it'"'"'s content. The non-recognized portion is published as-is with minimal processing by the system due to it being suited for easy human understanding of that respective portion (e.g., hand-written text). The recognized portion is processed by optical recognition software so that the output of the recognition process is an accurate representation of that information portion. The portion requiring recognition can be a critical portion such as in the case of the price for a food item on a daily specials menu, as one non-limiting example. In further aspects, messages can be published on a time and date scheduled basis.

Claims

1. A method for publishing a message comprising a hand-written text portion and an optical-recognition readable portion, comprising the steps of:

(a) extracting the hand-written text portion of the message as an image of the hand-written text portion of the message;

(b) under control of the processor executing optical-recognition software, processing the optical-recognition readable portion using the optical recognition software, wherein the processing includes scanning for any date or time mentioned in the optical-recognition readable portion after which a message is unreviewable;

(c) storing the respective extracted and processed message portions in a storage area;

(d) receiving a request from a requestor for at least the extracted image portion of the message;

(e) retrieving each said requested message portion from the storage area; and

(f) sending the retrieved message portion(s) to the requestor over a network for review after a confirmation that the request is received prior to said any date or time after which the message is unreviewable.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the message comprises more than one hand-written text portion or more than one optical-recognition readable portion.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the network comprises the Internet.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the message comprises a time/date schedule portion.

5. The method claim of 4, including the additional step of processing the schedule portion using the optical-recognition software.

6. The method claim of 5, wherein the step of sending the retrieved message portions to the requestor is performed after a determination that a time specified by the schedule portion is in the past.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the message on which the extracting and processing steps are performed is a fax message.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of sending the retrieved message portion(s) to the requestor further comprises sending an output or result of the execution of the optical-recognition software on the optical-recognition portion of the message.

9. A method for publishing a message comprising a hand-written text portion and an optical-recognition readable portion, comprising the steps of:

(g) extracting the hand-written text portion of the message as an image of the hand-written text portion of the message;

(h) under control of the processor executing optical-recognition software, processing the optical-recognition readable portion using the optical recognition software, wherein the processing includes scanning for any date or time mentioned in the optical-recognition readable portion indicating the date or time that the message is viewable;

(i) storing the respective extracted and processed message portions in a storage area;

(j) receiving a request from a requestor for at least the extracted image portion of the message;

(k) retrieving each said requested message portion from the storage area; and

(l) sending the retrieved message portion(s) to the requestor over a network for review after a confirmation that the request is received during the viewable date or time.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the message comprises more than one hand-written text portion or more than one optical-recognition readable portion.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the network comprises the Internet.

12. The method of claim 9, wherein the message on which the extracting and processing steps are performed is a fax message.

13. The method of claim 9, wherein the step of sending the retrieved message portion(s) to the requestor further comprises sending an output or result of the execution of the optical-recognition software on the optical-recognition portion of the message.