Paper-based document logging

• US 20080059800A1
• Filed: 08/31/2006
• Published: 03/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 08/31/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Piersol, Kurt W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,479,004 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 713/176
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/32101 Display, printing, storage or transmission of additional information, e.g. ID code, date and time or title
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/3269 of machine readable codes or marks, e.g. bar codes or glyphs
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/327 which are undetectable to the naked eye, e.g. embedded codes

Abstract

A method and apparatus are disclosed herein for paper-based document logging. In one embodiment, the method comprises scanning bits of a document, generating a cryptographic hash, converting the cryptographic hash into a machine readable code, and rewriting the document with the code contained thereon.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

scanning bits of a document;

generating a cryptographic hash;

converting the cryptographic hash into a machine readable code; and

rewriting the document with the code contained thereon.

2. The method defined in claim 1 wherein rewriting the document with the code comprises modifying the document at an area.

3. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising:

examining identified locations in a list containing one or more locations in the document at which the code may be located, and wherein scanning bits of the document occurs if the code is not at the one or more locations.

4. The method defined in claim 3 further comprising storing scanned bits corresponding to content of the document and the hash in a database.

5. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising selecting a plurality of locations for the code on the document.

6. The method defined in claim 5 wherein the plurality of locations are selected based on one or more of a group consisting of size, probability of ordinary documents filling that area, and an aesthetic placement consideration.

7. An article of manufacture having one or more computer readable media storing instructions thereon which, when executed by a system, cause the system to perform a method comprising:

scanning bits of a document;

generating a cryptographic hash;

converting the cryptographic hash into a machine readable code; and

rewriting the document with the code contained thereon.

8. The article of manufacture defined in claim 7 wherein rewriting the document with the code comprises placing the mark over a blank area on the document.

9. The article of manufacture defined in claim 7 wherein the method further comprises:

examining identified locations in a list containing one or more locations in the document at which the code may be located, and wherein scanning bits of the document occurs if the code is not at the one or more locations.

10. The article of manufacture defined in claim 9 wherein the method further comprises storing scanned bits corresponding to content of the document and the hash in a database.

11. The article of manufacture defined in claim 7 wherein the method further comprises selecting a plurality of locations for the code on the document.

12. The article of manufacture defined in claim 11 wherein the plurality of locations are selected based on one or more of a group consisting of size, probability of ordinary documents filling that area, and an aesthetic placement consideration.

13. A method comprising:

generating a machine readable code who contents are associated with document content; and

creating a paper version of the document with the machine readable code.

14. A method comprising:

scanning bits of a document;

detecting a machine readable code in scanned bits of the document;

gaining access to a document log using contents of the machine readable code as an identifier.

15. The method defined in claim 14 further comprising verifying scanned bits against bits stored in a database to ensure that the document is pointing to the document log.

16. The method defined in claim 14 further comprising scanning a list of potential locations on the document to locate the machine readable code.

17. The method defined in claim 16 wherein the list of potential locations is scanned in a predetermined order.

18. An article of manufacture having one or more computer readable media storing instructions thereon which, when executed by a system, cause the system to perform a method comprising:

scanning bits of a document;

detecting a machine readable code in scanned bits of the document;

gaining access to a document log using contents of the machine readable code as an identifier.

19. The article of manufacture defined in claim 18 wherein the method further comprises verifying scanned bits against bits stored in a database to ensure that the document is pointing to the document log.

20. The article of manufacture defined in claim 18 wherein the method further comprises scanning a list of potential locations on the document to locate the machine readable code.

21. The article of manufacture defined in claim 20 wherein the list of potential locations is scanned in a predetermined order.

22. A method comprising:

examining identified locations in a list containing one or more locations in the document at which a machine readable code containing a cryptographic hash;

scanning bits of the document if the machine readable code is not found at the one or more locations;

comparing the document image corresponding to scanned bits of the document against stored document images in a memory; and

obtaining the cryptographic hash associated with a stored document image that matches the document image corresponding to the scanned bits if a match is found.

23. The method defined in claim 22 further comprising computing a cryptographic hash of the document image corresponding to the scanned bits if a match is not found in the memory.

24. The method defined in claim 23 further comprising storing the document image corresponding to the scanned bits and the cryptographic hash in the memory.