System and method for highlighting barriers to reducing paper usage

• US 8,879,103 B2
• Filed: 03/04/2013
• Issued: 11/04/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2013
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Willamowski, Jutta Katharina, Bouchard, Guillaume M., Grasso, Maria Antonietta, Hoppenot, Yves
• Primary Examiner(s): Poon, King
• Assistant Examiner(s): PEREN, VINCENT ROBERT
• Application Number:
  US13/783,650
• Publication Number:
  US 20140247461A1
• Time in Patent Office: 610 Days
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0639 Performance analysis of employees; Performance analysis of enterprise or organisation operations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for identifying constraints to reducing consumable usage includes acquiring print job information for a set of print jobs submitted for printing by a set of users. A print job representation is computed for each of the print jobs based on features extracted from the print job information. Provision is made for user-annotation of the submitted print jobs with a task category and a constraint category. Each of a plurality of task categories represents a respective task with which the printing of a print job is associated. Each of a plurality of selectable constraint categories expresses a different reason for printing the print job. User-annotations are received for at least some of the submitted print jobs. The print jobs are clustered into clusters based on the print job representations and task category annotations. A representation of the set of print jobs is generated which represents reasons for printing of print jobs in at least one of the clusters, based on the users'"'"' constraint category annotations.

Claims

1. A method for identifying constraints on reducing consumable usage comprising:

acquiring print job information for a set of print jobs submitted for printing by a set of users, each print job comprising a document to be printed;

computing a print job representation for each of the print jobs based on features extracted from the print job information;

providing for user-annotation of the submitted print jobs with a task category and a constraint category, each of a plurality of task categories representing a respective task with which the printing of a print job is associated, each of a plurality of selectable constraint categories expressing a different reason for printing the print job, wherein at least one of;

a) the providing for user-annotation of the submitted print jobs with a task category comprises providing for the user to select a task category from a predefined set of categories and wherein the user is permitted to propose a new task category for adding to the set of task categories, and

b) the providing for user-annotation of the submitted print jobs with a constraint category comprises providing for the user to propose a new constraint category for adding to the plurality of constraint categories;

receiving user-annotations for at least some of the submitted print jobs;

clustering the print jobs into clusters based on the print job representations and task category annotations; and

generating a representation of the set of print jobs which represents reasons for printing of print jobs in at least one of the clusters, based on the users'"'"' constraint category annotations,

wherein at least one of the computing of the print job representation, providing for user-annotation, receiving user-annotations, clustering the print jobs, and generating of the representation of the set of print jobs is performed with a computer processor.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising computing consumable usage for the print jobs in the at least one of the clusters.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the representation associates the consumable usage with the reasons for printing.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the consumable usage is based on at least one of a number of pages printed and a number of sheets printed in each print job.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein when the user proposes a new task category for adding to the set of task categories, the proposed new task category is submitted to a coordinator for review before adding the proposed new task category to the set of task categories.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the computing of the print job representation for each of the print jobs based on features extracted from the print job information comprises extracting features selected from the group consisting of:

user ID;

print job submission time;

document title;

document length;

print job type;

textual content features;

visual content features; and

page coverage features.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the features comprise textual features, the computing of the print job representation comprising words from the print job and generating a statistical representation of the print job based on the extracted words.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the constraints include constraints selected from the group consisting of signature requirement, archiving, outbound communication, mobility, reading comfort, note taking, handing over to third person, and other.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the generating of the representation of the set of print jobs comprises generating a graphical representation.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the acquiring print job information for a set of print jobs submitted for printing comprises acquiring print logs from a plurality of printers for the submitted print jobs.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving user-annotations for at least some of the submitted print jobs comprises receiving task category annotations for fewer than all of the print jobs in the set, the clustering comprising assigning print jobs without a task category annotation to a respective cluster based on the respective print job representation.

12. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory recording medium storing instructions which, when executed by a computer processor, perform the method of claim 1.

13. A system comprising memory which stores instructions for performing the method of claim 1 and a processor in communication with the memory which implements the instructions.

14. A method for identifying constraints on reducing consumable usage comprising:

acquiring print job information for a set of print jobs submitted for printing by a set of users, each print job comprising a document to be printed;

computing a print job representation for each of the print jobs based on features extracted from the print job information, wherein the features comprise at least one of visual content features and textual content features,

wherein when the extracted features comprise visual content features, the computing of the print job representation comprises extracting low-level features from patches of a page of the document of the print job and generating a statistical representation of the page based on the extracted low-level features, and

wherein when the extracted features comprise textual features, the computing of the print job representation comprises extracting words from the print job and generating a statistical representation of the print job based on the extracted words;

providing for user-annotation of the submitted print jobs with a task category and a constraint category, each of a plurality of task categories representing a respective task with which the printing of a print job is associated, each of a plurality of selectable constraint categories expressing a different reason for printing the print job;

receiving user-annotations for at least some of the submitted print jobs;

clustering the print jobs into clusters based on the print job representations and task category annotations; and

generating a representation of the set of print jobs which represents reasons for printing of print jobs in at least one of the clusters, based on the users'"'"' constraint category annotations,

wherein at least one of the computing of the print job representation, providing for user-annotation, receiving user-annotations, clustering the print jobs, and generating of the representation of the set of print jobs is performed with a computer processor.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the providing for user-annotation of the submitted print jobs with a task category comprises providing for the user to select a task category from a predefined set of categories.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein a user is permitted to propose a new task category for adding to the set of task categories.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the providing for user-annotation of the submitted print jobs with a constraint category comprises providing for the user to propose a new constraint category for adding to the plurality of constraint categories.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein the proposed new constraint category is submitted to a coordinator for review before adding the proposed new constraint category to the plurality of constraint categories.

19. A method for identifying constraints on reducing consumable usage comprising:

acquiring print job information for a set of print jobs submitted for printing by a set of users, each print job comprising a document to be printed;

computing a print job representation for each of the print jobs based on features extracted from the print job information;

providing for user-annotation of the submitted print jobs with a task category and a constraint category, each of a plurality of task categories representing a respective task with which the printing of a print job is associated, each of a plurality of selectable constraint categories expressing a different reason for printing the print job;

receiving user-annotations for at least some of the submitted print jobs;

clustering the print jobs into clusters based on the print job representations and task category annotations;

generating a representation of the set of print jobs which represents reasons for printing of print jobs in at least one of the clusters, based on the users'"'"' constraint category annotations; and

evaluating a transition from paper to digital documents, comprising;

for first and second sets of the print jobs, performing the acquiring print job information, computing of the print job representation, providing for user-annotation, receiving user-annotations, clustering the print jobs, and generating of the representation of the set of print jobs, and comparing the representation for the second set of print jobs with the representation for the first set of print jobs,

wherein at least one of the computing of the print job representation, providing for user-annotation, receiving user-annotations, clustering the print jobs, and generating of the representation of the set of print jobs is performed with a computer processor.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the information for the second set of print jobs is acquired for print jobs submitted after submission of the first set of print jobs.

21. A method for identifying constraints on reducing consumable usage comprising:

acquiring print job information for a set of print jobs submitted for printing by a set of users, each print job comprising a document to be printed;

computing a print job representation for each of the print jobs based on features extracted from the print job information;

providing for user-annotation of the submitted print jobs with a task category and a constraint category, each of a plurality of task categories representing a respective task with which the printing of a print job is associated, each of a plurality of selectable constraint categories expressing a different reason for printing the print job;

receiving user-annotations for at least some of the submitted print jobs;

clustering the print jobs into clusters based on the print job representations and task category annotations;

generating a representation of the set of print jobs which represents reasons for printing of print jobs in at least one of the clusters, based on the users'"'"' constraint category annotations; and

providing a reward to users who provide user-annotations for at least some of their respective submitted print jobs,

wherein at least one of the computing of the print job representation, providing for user-annotation, receiving user-annotations, clustering the print jobs, and generating of the representation of the set of print lobs is performed with a computer processor.

22. A system for identifying constraints on reducing consumable usage comprising:

a job tracking component for acquiring print job information for a set of print jobs submitted for printing by a set of users, each print job comprising a document to be printed;

a features extractor for computing a print job representation for each of the print jobs based on features extracted from the print job information;

an annotation component for receiving user-annotations for at least some of the submitted print jobs, the user user-annotations comprising a task category and a constraint category, each of a plurality of task categories representing a respective task with which the printing of a print job is associated, each of a plurality of selectable constraint categories expressing a different reason for printing the print job;

a clustering component for clustering the print jobs into clusters based on the print job representations and task category annotations, wherein when the received user-annotations comprise task category annotations for fewer than all of the submitted print jobs, the clustering component assigns submitted print jobs without a task category annotation to a respective cluster based on the respective print job representation;

an analysis component for generating a representation of the set of print jobs which represents reasons for printing of print jobs in at least one of the clusters, based on the users'"'"' constraint category annotations; and

a processor which implements the job tracking component, features extractor, annotation component, clustering component, and analysis component.

23. A method for identifying constraints on reducing consumable usage comprising:

acquiring print job information for a set of print jobs submitted for printing by a set of users, each print job comprising a document to be printed;

computing a print job representation for each of the print jobs based on features extracted from the print job information, the features including a statistical representation of low-level features extracted from patches of a page of the document;

receiving user-annotations for at least some of the submitted print jobs whereby submitted print jobs are annotated with a task category and a constraint category, each of a plurality of task categories representing a respective task with which the printing of a print job is associated, each of a plurality of selectable constraint categories expressing a different reason for printing the print job;

partitioning the print jobs into clusters based on the print job representations and task category annotations; and

generating a representation of the set of print jobs which represents reasons for printing of print jobs in at least one of the clusters, based on the users'"'"' constraint category annotations,

wherein the computing of the print job representation, receiving user-annotations, partitioning the print jobs, and generating of the representation of the set of print jobs are performed with a computer processor.