Methods and systems for collecting responses

• US 8,358,964 B2
• Filed: 04/23/2008
• Issued: 01/22/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 04/25/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Scantron Corporation (MX Holdings One LLC)
• Original Assignee: Scantron Corporation (MX Holdings One LLC)
• Inventors: Radtke, Todd N., Moulton, Philip R., Emmerich, Craig, Watson, Hugh Eugene, Nielsen, Robbie A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Thai, Xuan
• Assistant Examiner(s): Grant, Michael
• Application Number:
  US12/108,325
• Publication Number:
  US 20080264701A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,735 Days
• Field of Search: 345/179, 235/472.03, 434/323, 434/353, 358 11- 118, 358/468, 358/473, 382/193, 382/195, 382/205, 382/209, 382/217, 382/240
• US Class Current: 434/353
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03545 Pens or stylus

Abstract

Implementations feature scannable form techniques and systems. Some aspects feature an apparatus that includes a pen-camera device, an electronic clipboard to store the pen-camera device, and a docking station for the clipboard. The clipboard includes a retention clip to hold a form on a substantially planar surface, and a pen-camera storage compartment to store the pen-camera device. The clipboard includes a power supply interface for charging the pen-camera device, a communication interface to transmit image and location data from the pen-camera device, and electrical interfaces for the clipboard docking station. The pen-camera device can mark response data on the form, optically scan response data and location data on the form, and associate time-stamped information for the marked responses on the form for error checking and fraud detection. The scannable form can include an area for encoded information that identifies a location and arrangement of a position-coding pattern on the form.

Claims

1. A system for collection of responses from users of scannable forms, comprising:

a scannable form comprising;

(i) a position-coding pattern comprising a plurality of unique patterns,

(ii) at least two response areas for receipt of information from a user of the form, and

(iii) two or more location marks indicating a referenceable physical location on the scannable form, wherein the response areas are positioned in a specified relation to the location marks;

a pen-camera device for optically detecting the position-coding pattern and marking the scannable form with response marks in at least one of the response areas, wherein the pen-camera device is configured to have a location of the pen-camera device on the scannable form identified with the position-coding pattern;

a scanner configured to optically detect the location marks and the response marks; and

a form definition file that associates scanned content from the scanner with location information from the pen-camera device, the form definition file comprising;

(i) a first form layout for referencing the scanned content and position information for the at least two response areas, the first form layout being configured to be referenced with the scanner; and

(ii) a second form layout for the position-coding pattern for identifying locations of the pen-camera device on the scannable form when marking the scannable form,

wherein the first form layout and the second form layout of the form definition file are configured to provide information to enable a comparison of the scanned content and the position information for the at least two response areas with a position-coding pattern for the identified locations of the pen-camera device on the scannable form.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the position-coding pattern is invisible to a human eye.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the location marks comprise timing marks that are located along one edge of the scannable form, wherein at least one of the timing marks is horizontally aligned with at least one response field.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the location marks are superimposed on the position-coding pattern.

8. the system of claim 1, scannable form further comprising:

an area for encoded information that identifies a location and arrangement of the position-coding pattern on the scannable form.

9. The system of claim 8, the scannable form further comprising timing marks that are located along one edge of the scannable form, wherein at least one of the timing marks is horizontally aligned with at least one response field.

10. The system of claim 8, wherein the area for the encoded information further identifies a type of scannable form.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the encoded information comprises binary encoded information.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the position-coding pattern is invisible to a human eye, and wherein location marks are superimposed on the position-coding pattern.

5. A method for collecting data from a form, the method comprising:

receiving, from a scanner, scanned response data from a scannable form that comprises at least two response areas for receipt of information from a user of the form;

reading, from a pen-camera device, location information from the scannable form, the scannable form further comprising a position-coding pattern having a plurality of unique patterns, the pen-camera device optically detecting the location information using the position-coding pattern when the scannable form is marked with response marks; and

referencing a form definition file that associates the scanned response data from the scanner with the location information from the pen-camera device, the form definition file including;

(i) a first form layout for indicating content and position information for the at least two response areas, the first form layout being configured to be referenced with the scanner; and

(ii) a second form layout for the position-coding pattern for identifying locations of the pen-camera device on the scannable form when the scannable form is marked;

comparing the scanned response data using the first form layout of the form definition file with the read location information using the second form layout of the form definition file; and

providing a result based on the comparison.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising using the location information to track a path of the pen-camera device on the scannable form, wherein the comparison relates to an error checking of the scanned response data with the read location information.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising storing the location information from the pen-camera device and the received scanned response data from the scannable form.

13. A computer program product, encoded on a non-transitory computer-readable medium, comprising instructions to cause data processing apparatus to perform operations for collecting data from a form, the operations comprising:

receiving, from a scanner, scanned response data from a scannable form that comprises at least two response areas for receipt of information from a user of the form;

reading, from a pen-camera device, location information from the scannable form, the scannable form further comprising a position-coding pattern having a plurality of unique patterns, the pen-camera device optically detecting the location information using the position-coding pattern when the scannable form is marked with response marks; and

referencing a form definition file that associates the scanned response data from the scanner with the location information from the pen-camea device, the form definition file including;

(i) a first form layout for indicating content and position information for the at least two response areas, the first form layout being configured to be referenced with the scanner; and

(ii) a second form layout for the position-coding pattern for identifying locations of the pen-camera device on the scannable form when the scannable form is marked;

comparing the scanned response data using the first form layout of the form definition file with the read location information using the second form layout of the form definition file; and

providing a result based on the comparison.

14. A computer program product of claim 13, the operations further comprising:

reading encoded information from a region of the scannable form that identifies a location and arrangement of the position-coding pattern on the scannable form.

15. The computer program product of claim 14, further comprising instructions for using the encoded information to identify a type of scannable form.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the region of the scannable form is between the at least two response areas.

17. A form definition file configured to associate scanned content from an optical scanner with location information from a pen-camera device, the form definition file comprising:

(i) a first form layout for referencing scanned content and position information for at least two response areas on a scannable form,

the scannable form comprising;

a position-coding pattern comprising a plurality of unique patterns;

the at least two response areas for receipt of information from a user of the form; and

two or more location marks indicating a referenceable physical location on the scannable form, wherein the response areas are positioned in a specified relation to the location marks; and

wherein the first form layout is configured to be referenced with an optical scanner; and

(ii) a second form layout for the position-coding pattern for identifying locations of a pen-camera device on the scannable form when marking the scannable form,

the pen-camera device being configured to optically detect the position-coding pattern and to mark the scannable form with response marks in at least one of the response areas, wherein the pen-camera device is configured to have a location of the pen-camera device on the scannable form identified with the position-coding pattern, and

wherein the first form layout and the second form layout of the form definition file are configured to provide information to enable a comparison of the scanned content and the position information for the at least two response areas with a position-coding pattern for the identified locations of the pen-camera device on the scannable form.