Systems and methods for routing a facsimile confirmation based on content

• US 8,593,673 B2
• Filed: 10/20/2010
• Issued: 11/26/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 05/01/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kofax Incorporated
• Original Assignee: Kofax Incorporated
• Inventors: Couchman, Roy, Borrey, Roland G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Cato, Miya J
• Application Number:
  US12/908,821
• Publication Number:
  US 20110032578A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,133 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/2247 Characters composed of bars, e.g. CMC-7
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/412 Layout analysis of documents structured with printed lines or input boxes, e.g. business forms or tables
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00122 of text or character information only
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00204 with a digital computer or a digital computer system, e.g. an internet server programmed control between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device H04N1/32561
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00209 Transmitting or receiving image data, e.g. facsimile data, via a computer, e.g. using e-mail, a computer network, the internet, I-fax
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/00326 with a data reading, recognizing or recording apparatus, e.g. with a bar-code apparatus arrangements for the associated working of recording or reproducing apparatus with related apparatus G11B31/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32 Circuits or arrangements for control or supervision between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device, e.g. between a still-image camera and its memory or between a still-image camera and a printer device H04N1/38, H04N1/387 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32438 Informing the addressee of reception
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0017 Notifying a communication result
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0093 Facsimile machine H04N2201/0094 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3218 of a confirmation, acknowledgement or receipt

Abstract

A method for routing a confirmation of receipt of a facsimile or portion thereof according to one embodiment of the present invention includes analyzing text of a facsimile for at least one of a meaning and a context of the text; and routing one or more confirmations to one or more destinations based on the analysis. A method for routing one or more confirmations according to another embodiment of the present invention includes analyzing a pattern of light and dark areas of a facsimile; correlating the pattern to one or more forms; and routing one or more confirmations to one or more destinations based on the correlation. Additional systems and methods are also presented.

Claims

1. A method for routing one or more confirmations of receipt of the facsimile, comprising:

analyzing a pattern of light and dark areas of a computer-readable version of a facsimile;

correlating the pattern to one or more forms; and

routing one or more confirmations of receipt of the facsimile to one or more confirmation destinations based on the correlation,

wherein routing the one or more confirmations of receipt of the facsimile comprises routing the one or more confirmations of receipt of the facsimile to one or more destinations other than to a sender of the facsimile for communicating information to a human other than the sender of the facsimile.

2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein each of the one or more forms relates to a certain document type.

3. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the analyzing determines one or more document features of the pattern, wherein the one or more document features include graphical elements.

4. A method as recited in claim 3, wherein the correlating includes at least one of comparing at least one of the document features to features of the form;

determining the position of one or more of the document features within the pattern and comparing at least one of the document features to other features of the pattern.

5. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the facsimile does not contain confirmation destination information about the determined confirmation destination.

6. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the confirmation of receipt of the facsimile is selected from a group consisting of:

an email message, an audible message, a fax, a text message, and a multimedia message.

7. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein the confirmation of receipt of the facsimile includes a request for additional information, and

wherein the analyzing does not utilize any optical character recognition (OCR) techniques.

8. The system in claim 1,

wherein the one or more destinations are selected from the group consisting of:

a litigation department;

a sales department;

a human resources department;

a marketing department;

a billing department;

a bookkeeping department;

a product development team;

a purchasing department;

an accounting department; and

a hiring department.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the analyzing utilizes one or more techniques selected from a group consisting of:

naï

ve Bayesian analysis;

support vector machine (SVM) classification;

artificial neural network modeling; and

k-nearest neighbor classification.

10. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

initiating a business process based on the analyzing; and

determining that at least one of;

the business process is initiated; and

the business process is completed,

wherein one of the confirmations of receipt of the facsimile is routed to the sender of the facsimile in response to determining that at least one of;

the business process is initiated; and

the business process is completed.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising:

determining whether a problem with the business process exists;

notifying the sender of a problem with the business process in response to determining that the problem with the business process exists; and

delaying the routing of one or more of the confirmations of receipt of the facsimile for a predetermined duration.

12. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising routing one or more text files to one or more of the recipients,

wherein at least one text file is routed to at least one recipient based on one or more predetermined conditions, and

wherein the text file comprises translated text.

13. A method for routing a confirmation of receipt of the facsimile, comprising:

obtaining a pattern of light and dark areas of computer-readable version of a facsimile;

determining one or more document features from the pattern;

determining a confirmation destination based on comparing the one or more document features to features of one or more forms, said forms relating to one or more of a certain document type and at least one of the following;

determining the position of one or more of the document features within the pattern; and

comparing at least one of the document features to other features of the pattern; and

routing a confirmation of receipt of the facsimile to the confirmation destination based on the determination of the confirmation destination,

wherein the facsimile does not contain confirmation destination information about the determined confirmation destination.

14. The method in claim 13, wherein multiple confirmation destinations are determined;

wherein the facsimile and the confirmation of receipt of the facsimile are routed to the multiple confirmation destinations, wherein at least one of the confirmation destinations is a destination other than to a sender of the facsimile.

15. The method in claim 13, further comprising:

translating one or more of a name of the sender, a name of the human other than the sender from a first language to a second language, wherein a computer-readable version of the facsimile is also routed to the confirmation destination based on the determination.

16. The method in claim 15, wherein multiple confirmation destinations are determined;

wherein the confirmation of receipt of the facsimile is routed to the multiple confirmation destinations.

17. A system for routing a confirmation of receipt of the facsimile, comprising:

a memory;

a processor in communication with the memory;

logic for obtaining a pattern of light and dark areas of a facsimile;

logic for determining one or more document features from the pattern;

logic for determining a confirmation destination based on a comparison of the one or more document features to features of one or more forms, said forms relating to one or more of a certain document type; and

at least one of;

a determination of the position of one or more of the document features within the pattern; and

a comparison of at least one of the document features to other features of the pattern; and

logic for routing a confirmation of receipt of the facsimile to the confirmation destination based on the determination of the confirmation destination,

wherein the logic for routing the one or more confirmations of receipt of the facsimile comprises logic for routing the one or more confirmations of receipt of the facsimile to one or more destinations other than to a sender of the facsimile for communicating information to a human other than the sender of the facsimile.

18. The system in claim 17, wherein multiple confirmation destinations are determined;

wherein the facsimile is routed to the multiple confirmation destinations.

19. The system in claim 17, wherein a computer-readable version of the facsimile is also routed to the confirmation destination based on the determination.

20. A computer program product for routing a confirmation of receipt of the facsimile, comprising:

a nontransitory computer readable medium having computer code thereon, including;

computer code for obtaining a pattern of light and dark areas of a facsimile;

computer code for determining one or more document features from the pattern;

computer code for determining a confirmation destination based on at least one of the following;

comparing the one or more document features to features of one or more forms, said forms relating to one or more of a certain document type;

determining the position of one or more of the document features within the pattern; and

comparing at least one of the document features to other features of the pattern; and

computer code for routing the confirmation of receipt of the facsimile to the confirmation destination based on the determination of the confirmation destination; and

computer code for classifying the text as a specific document type,

wherein the facsimile does not contain confirmation destination information about the determined confirmation destination.

21. A system for routing one or more confirmations of receipt of the facsimile, comprising:

a memory; and

a processor in communication with the memory, the processor being configured for;

analyzing a pattern of light and dark areas of a facsimile;

correlating the pattern to one or more forms; and

routing one or more confirmations of receipt of the facsimile to one or more confirmation destinations based on the correlation,

wherein the form relates to one or more of a certain document type, and

wherein the facsimile does not contain confirmation destination information about the determined confirmation destination.

22. A system as recited in claim 21, wherein the one or more confirmation destinations are selected from the group consisting of:

a litigation department;

a sales department;

a human resources department;

a marketing department;

a billing department;

a bookkeeping department;

a product development team;

a purchasing department;

an accounting department; and

a hiring department.

23. A system as recited in claim 21, wherein the analyzing determines one or more document features of the pattern.

24. A system as recited in claim 23, wherein the correlating includes at least one of:

comparing at least one of the document features to features of the form;

determining the position of one or more of the document features within the pattern; and

comparing at least one of the document features to other features of the pattern.

25. A system as recited in claim 21, wherein the confirmation of receipt of the facsimile is selected from a group consisting of:

an email message, an audible message, a fax, a text message, and a multimedia message.

26. A system as recited in claim 21, wherein the confirmation of receipt of the facsimile includes a request for additional information.

27. A computer program product for routing one or more confirmations of receipt of the facsimile, comprising:

a nontransitory computer readable medium having computer code thereon, including;

computer code for analyzing a pattern of light and dark areas of a facsimile;

computer code for correlating the pattern to one or more forms;

computer code for routing one or more confirmations of receipt of the facsimile to one or more destinations based on the correlation; and

computer code for distributing at least one of the analyzing, the correlating, and the routing operations across a plurality of processors as part of a parallel processing operation.