Stroke and image aggregation and analytics

• US 8,504,624 B2
• Filed: 09/08/2009
• Issued: 08/06/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Gormish, Michael J., Barrus, John W., Piersol, Kurt W., Gudan, Kenneth F., Savitzky, Stephen R.
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, PHUOC H
• Application Number:
  US12/555,675
• Publication Number:
  US 20110057884A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,428 Days
• Field of Search: 709/203, 709/206, 709/217
• US Class Current: 709/206
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2209/541 Client-server
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/54 Interprogram communication
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0633 Workflow analysis

Abstract

The present invention overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art with a system for stroke and image aggregation and analytics. The system is particularly advantageous because it provides a system for distributing page images such as worksheets, examinations or forms to multiple devices. The system allows independent paging and writing on the distributed materials; collection of the strokes added to the distributed pages images; and aggregating and displaying those strokes or summary information in a useful manner. For example, an instructor might receive the current work of the students for a particular examination question and view those strokes in a parallel manner or a combined manner.

Claims

1. A method for stroke aggregation and analysis, the method comprising:

sending a first formatted message including a background image of a page to a plurality of portable computing devices;

receiving a plurality of return messages from the plurality of portable computing devices, the plurality of return messages including stroke data input in relation to the background image of the page;

aggregating, with one or more processors, the stroke data from the plurality of return messages to produce aggregated data;

analyzing, with the one or more processors, the aggregated data to produce analyzed data, the analyzed data including the stroke data received in relation to the background image of the page from each of the plurality of return images;

generating, with the one or more processors, a visual representation of the analyzed data, the visual representation including the stroke data received from each of the plurality of return images, wherein the return images are scaled; and

displaying the visual representation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first formatted message is an email message including a compound document having the background image displayed by the plurality of portable computing devices.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of return messages are email messages including stroke data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of return messages are email messages including image data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of sending, receiving, aggregating, analyzing, generating and displaying are performed on a portable computing device.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of receiving, aggregating, analyzing, and generating are performed on a stroke and image workflow server;

and the method further comprises sending a display message including the visual representation to a portable computing device, and the displaying step is performed by the portable computing device.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising sending a polling signal to request stroke data to the plurality of portable computing devices, and wherein the plurality of return messages are sent in response to the polling signal.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising maintaining a list of the plurality of portable computing devices from which a response to the polling signal has been received.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein aggregating data includes extracting stroke data from the plurality of return messages and storing the stroke data received from the plurality of portable computing devices.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein:

at least one of the return messages includes information from a sensor of one of the plurality of portable computing devices;

aggregating data includes determining a context using the aggregated data; and

analyzing the aggregated data uses this context in addition to stroke data.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the aggregated data to produce analyzed data includes determining an amount of time that was required to add the stroke data on each of the plurality of portable computing devices.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the aggregated data to produce analyzed data includes determining a percentage of the plurality of portable computing devices from which the stroke data has been received.

13. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the aggregated data to produce analyzed data includes determining an amount of time that elapsed to input the stroke data on a section of the background image on each of the plurality of portable computing devices.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the aggregated data to produce analyzed data includes summarizing the stroke data from the plurality of portable computing devices.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein analyzing the aggregated data includes filtering the stroke data by receiving a selection from a user of one or more stroke data input in the plurality of return messages.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual representation is an independent view of the stroke data from one of the plurality of portable computing devices.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual representation is a combined view of the stroke data from two or more of the plurality of portable computing devices.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the visual representation is an overview of the stroke data from two or more of the plurality of portable computing devices.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of return messages include timing information about the stroke data.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein displaying the visual representation is a recreation of the stroke data in an order related to each other as they were added on their respective portable computing device.