GENERATING PAGE AND DOCUMENT LOGS FOR ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS

• US 20120233535A1
• Filed: 03/07/2011
• Published: 09/13/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/07/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Piersol, Kurt W.
• Granted Patent: US 8,504,907 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/197 Version control for software G06F8/71

Abstract

A method and system for generating page and document logs for electronic documents. The system includes a plurality of portable electronic devices and a workflow server. The portable electronic devices display a document that receives stroke input and images. A stroke capture device and module generates a log of segments and updates the log in response to a user erasing stroke data. An image capture module captures an image and inserts the image into a document. A logging module generates page metadata for each page within the document and document metadata that includes changes made to the page data. The logging module copies the page metadata and document metadata in response to a request. The copying includes a copy of all the metadata, metadata for selected pages and metadata for redacted content.

Claims

1. A method of copying a document and its associated metadata, the method comprising:

generating a document that includes pages;

generating page metadata for each page of the document and document metadata for the document;

modifying a first page in the document;

updating the page metadata for the first page; and

generating a hash of the modification that is included in the document metadata.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a request for a copy of the document;

copying the document, the page metadata and the document metadata; and

transmitting the document, the page metadata and the document metadata.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a request for a copy of selected pages within the document;

copying page metadata for the selected pages;

updating the document metadata with page metadata from the selected pages; and

transmitting the page metadata and the document metadata.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

receiving a request for a copy of redacted pages;

redacting content from the page metadata;

updating document metadata with page metadata for the redacted content;

updating the document metadata with page metadata for the redacted content;

copying the document metadata and the page metadata for the redacted content; and

transmitting the document metadata and the page metadata for the redacted content.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising the step of comparing the updated document metadata to a previous version of the document metadata to verify an authenticity of the updated document metadata.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the document metadata includes at least one of optical character recognition metadata, barcode recognition metadata and video link metadata.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein audio text is saved as document metadata and portions of audio text are saved as page metadata if they reference a page.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the page metadata includes at least one of stroke data, a page log and an image.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the page metadata and the document metadata are included in a compound document.

10. A method for inserting an image into a document, the method comprising

capturing an image;

opening a document;

extracting metadata from the document and the image; and

determining if an image area is present based on metadata.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising responsive to an image area being present, scaling the image to fit the image region and modifying a page base image in the image region.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising updating a page log associated with the page where the image was inserted.

13. The method of claim 10, further comprising responsive to an image area not being present, inserting an image in a new page at an end of the document.

14. The method of claim 13, further comprising updating a page log associated with the page where the image is inserted.

15. A method for creating a log of stroke data, the method comprising:

receiving stroke data from a user;

identifying segments in the stroke data;

generating a log of segments that includes a time of each segment;

saving the log of segments as stroke data; and

receiving an erasure of at least one of the segments.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein updating the log of segments includes updating page metadata for a page in a document that includes the stroke data.

17. The method of claim 16, further comprising updating document metadata with a hash of the update to the page metadata.

18. The method of claim 16, wherein the time of the original segments remaining untouched after the erasure.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising performing character recognition on the log of segments.

20. The method of claim 19, further comprising the steps of:

receiving an erasure of at least one of the segments;

updating a log of segments; and

performing character recognition on the updated log of segments.