Non-symbolic data system for the automated completion of forms

• US 8,732,570 B2
• Filed: 12/08/2006
• Issued: 05/20/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/08/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Gormish, Michael J., Griffin, Michael G. E., McFarland, Max E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Stork, Kyle
• Assistant Examiner(s): Hasty, Nicholas
• Application Number:
  US11/608,796
• Publication Number:
  US 20070089049A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,720 Days
• Field of Search: 715222-226, 358/505
• US Class Current: 715/226
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

A system and method for paper-based, automated completion of forms allows a user charged with filling out multiple forms containing some common information to write each unique piece of information one time, and the system generates a set of completed forms with the required information on each form with no change to the use or structure of the current forms. The control module is operable on a processor to determine a mapping between common fields on multiple forms or multiple pages of the same form, copy information written in a field on one form to equivalent fields on other forms, and produce a set of completed forms. The system is computationally simple and independent of language because these operations can be performed without having to understand, translate or convert the writing. Furthermore, there is no loss of security or privacy beyond the use of paper forms because these operations can be performed without access to a centralized database and without connectivity to other systems. The system is advantageous because it does not change paper based workflows since the inputs and outputs of this system are paper.

Claims

1. A system for automatic completion of forms, the system comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory;

an input device coupled to the one or more processors and the memory and adapted to receive an input document including a union of all fields from output documents, handwritten information and a machine-readable code identifying the input document, at least one field on the input document, a location for each of the at least one fields on the input document and the output documents for automatic completion, wherein at least two of the output documents are different, the input device having an output;

an automatic completion device coupled to the one or more processors and the memory for reading the machine-readable code identifying the input document, the at least one field on the input document, the location for each of the at least one fields on the input document and the output documents for automatic completion, wherein at least two of the output documents are different, extracting markings including the handwritten information corresponding to the at least one field identified at the location from the input document for replicating on the output documents and creating the output documents with the extracted markings including the handwritten information scaled horizontally and vertically by a fixed length to maintain an aspect ratio corresponding to the at least one field on the input document, copied and repositioned to fit at least one corresponding field in the output documents in addition to having at least one incomplete field highlighted with a color and at least one completed field redacted in the output documents, the automatic completion device having an input coupled to the output of the input device and an output to provide the output documents; and

a mapping and storage unit coupled to the automatic completion device, the mapping and storage unit for mapping fields between the input and the output documents.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the input device receives a second input document including additional written information and a second machine-readable code identifying the second input document and at least one field on the second input document; and

the automatic completion device reads the second machine-readable code, identifies the second input document, and extracts markings including the additional handwritten information corresponding to the at least one identified field on the second input document, the output documents having at least one additional corresponding field with extracted markings.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the input device receives a second input document including additional written information and machine-readable code identifying the second input document and at least one field on the second input document; and

the automatic completion device reads the second input document'"'"'s machine-readable code, identifies the second input document, extracts markings including the additional handwritten information corresponding to the at least one identified field on the second input document, and creates a second output document including at least one additional corresponding field with extracted marking.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the input document includes a plurality of fields; and

the automatic completion device extracts markings corresponding to the plurality of fields, the automatic completion device generates the output documents, each output document including corresponding fields with extracted markings corresponding to one of the plurality of fields.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the output documents include their own machine-readable codes.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the input device receives a second input document; and

the automatic completion device identifies the second input document by determining a location and a size of each field from a scan, accessing a database of forms and matching the location and the size of each field with a form in the database.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the mapping and storage unit includes one from the group of a server, a data storage device that is part of a multifunction peripheral device, a data file stored in a memory or a central database.

8. The system of claim 1, further comprising a scanning module for scanning and processing an original document, the scanning module coupled to the automatic completion device.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the input document is an image of a scanned document.

10. The system of claim 1, further comprising a field extraction module for identifying a relationship between the fields of the input document and the corresponding fields of the output documents, the field extraction module extracting handwritten information from the input document for replication to the output documents.

11. A method for automatic completion of forms, the method comprising:

receiving, with one or more processors, handwritten information from an input document, the input document including a union of all fields from output documents;

receiving, with the one or more processors, a machine-readable code from the input document identifying the input document, at least one field on the input document, a location for each of the at least one fields on the input document and the output documents for automatic completion, wherein at least two of the output documents are different;

determining, with the one or more processors, an identity of the input document, the at least one field on the input document, the location for each of the at least one fields and the output documents for automatic completion, wherein at least two of the output documents are different, from the machine-readable code;

extracting, with the one or more processors, markings including the handwritten information corresponding to the at least one field identified at the location from the input document for replicating on the output documents;

composing, with the one or more processors, the output documents with the extracted markings including the handwritten information scaled horizontally and vertically by a fixed length to maintain an aspect ratio corresponding to the at least one field on the input document, copied and repositioned to fit at least one corresponding field in the output documents in addition to highlighting at least one incomplete field with a color and redacting at least one completed field in the output documents;

outputting, with the one or more processors, the output documents; and

mapping, with the one or more processors, fields between the input and the output documents.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

identifying a field on the input document;

identifying a corresponding field on the output documents; and

establishing a relationship between the field on the input document and the corresponding field on the output documents.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein identifying includes creating a list of unique fields, where each field includes a unique field identifier, a list of documents the field appears on, an offset of the field from a reference point and a width and a height of the field on that document.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the output documents include their own machine-readable codes.

15. The method of claim 11, further comprising scanning and storing an original form for automatic completion.

16. The method of claim 11, further comprising determining a set of output forms.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein outputting the output documents comprises printing the output documents.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein the step of receiving includes receiving input documents, at least two of the input documents having a different field.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the input document is a master form for a set of forms that includes all unique fields from the set of forms and wherein a user completes a single form that the automatic completion device uses to generate multiple output documents.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the automatic completion device computes a bounding box of the extracted markings including the handwritten information, rescales and repositions the extracted markings to fit a size of the at least one corresponding field.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the master form includes fields in a first language and the user'"'"'s native language and wherein the automatic completion device generates the output documents in the first language and not the native language.