METHOD AND SYSTEM TO ATTRIBUTE METADATA TO PREEXISTING DOCUMENTS

• US 20160224516A1
• Filed: 01/30/2015
• Published: 08/04/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Conduent Business Services, LLC (Conduent, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Xerox Corporation (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Clar, Megan, Gross, Eric Michael, Harte, Eric, Venable, Dennis L., Hamby, Eric S.
• Granted Patent: US 10,325,511 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/224 of printed characters having additional code marks or containing code marks
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/00 Electrically-operated teaching apparatus or devices working with questions and answers mechanically operated G09B3/00; computing arrangements G06F
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/06 of the multiple-choice answer-type, i.e. where a given question is provided with a series of answers and a choice has to be made from the answers
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/0044 for image preview or review, e.g. to help the user position a sheet
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/387 Composing, repositioning or otherwise geometrically modifying originals
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2201/0094 Multifunctional device, i.e. a device capable of all of reading, reproducing, copying, facsimile transception, file transception

Abstract

This disclosure provides a method and system to convert a first digital representation of a document including a first format to a second digital representation of the document including a second format. According to an exemplary method, a preexisting printed assessment is scanned to produce an image file and an educational assessment analysis system captures an image area associated with a question, processes the captured image area to automatically assign metadata associated with an independent assessment creation process to the captured image area, which is subsequently processed to generate an assessment based on the assigned metadata which conforms with a format consistent with the independent assessment creation process.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of converting a first digital representation of a first form document including a first format to a second digital representation of the first form document including a second format, the method comprising:

a) capturing a first area of the first digital representation of the form document, the first area selected by a user and the first area including one or more of a text, an image and a graphic;

b) assigning metadata to the first area, the metadata including one or more predefined selectable metadata field entries associated with the first area, the predefined selectable metadata field entries defined by an associated independent document creation process configured to generate a second form document based on one of a plurality of predefined form document models including the second format and based on the user inputting the one or more predefined selectable metadata field entries; and

c) the independent document creation process generating the second digital representation of the first form document including the second format based on the first area and the assigned metadata.

2. The computer-implemented method of converting a first digital representation of a first form document according to claim 1, wherein the first form document is one of an assessment to be completed by a student, a survey form, a data entry form, a medical information form, an application form, a subscription form, and a contest entry form.

3. The computer-implemented method of converting a first digital representation of a first form document according to claim 1, wherein the first form document is an assessment including one or more questions to be completed by a student and the first digital representation of the first form document is one of a scanned version of a printed assessment, a .pdf (Portable Document Format) version of an assessment, a Microsoft Word .doc version of an assessment and a .tiff file.

4. The computer-implemented method of converting a first digital representation of a first form document according to claim 1, wherein step a) captures the first area with one of a user controlled mouse device and a user controlled screen shot.

5. The computer-implemented method of converting a first digital representation of a first form document according to claim 1, wherein the captured first area is associated with one of a layer and cell, and the metadata is assigned to one of the layer and cell.

6. The computer-implemented method of converting a first digital representation of a first form document according to claim 1, wherein step b) is performed by one of a manual assignment process, a semi-automatic assignment process and an automatic assignment process.

7. The computer-implemented method of converting a first digital representation of a first form document according to claim 1, wherein all or part of the metadata is automatically assigned to the first area, step b) comprising:

b1) extracting one or more of numbers, characters, key words and key phrases associated with the one or more predefined selectable fields;

b2) accessing one or more trained classifiers to determine the one or more predefined selectable metadata field entries associated with the first area, each of the trained classifiers associated with a respective predefined selectable metadata field entry; and

b3) assigning the determined selectable metadata field entries as metadata associated with the first area.

8. The computer-implemented method of converting a first digital representation of a first form document according to claim 7, wherein the one or more trained classifiers are derived from one or more heuristics applied to the extracted one or more numbers, characters, key works and key phrases from the first area.

9. The computer-implemented method of converting a first digital representation of a first form document according to claim 7, wherein the one or more trained classifiers are trained using a machine learning process including a supervised training set.

10. The computer-implemented method of converting a first digital representation of a first form document according to claim 1, wherein prior to step c), step a) and step b) are repeated to capture a second area of the first digital representation of the form document, and assign metadata to the first area, and step c) generates the second digital representation of the first form document based on the first area, the first area'"'"'s assigned metadata, the second area, and the second area'"'"'s assigned metadata.

11. An image processing system comprising memory storing instructions for performing the computer-implemented method for converting a first digital representation of a first form document to a second digital representation of the form document according to claim 1, and a processor operatively communicating with the memory which executes the instructions.

12. A computer program product comprising a non-transitory recording medium storing instructions, which when executed on a computer causes the computer to perform the method for converting a first digital representation of a first form document to a second digital representation of the form document according to claim 1.

13. An image processing system for converting a first digital representation of a first form document to a second digital representation of the first form document, the image processing system comprising:

an image capture module which captures a first area of the first digital representation of the first form document, the first area selected by a user and the first area including one or more of a text, an image and a graphic;

an assignor module which assigns metadata to the first area, the metadata including one or more predefined selectable metadata field entries associated with the first area, the predefined selectable metadata field entries defined by an associated independent document creation process configured to generate a second form document based on one of a plurality of predefined document models and the user inputting one or more predefined selectable metadata field entries; and

an independent document creation module which generates the second digital representation of the first form document based on the first area and the assigned metadata.

14. The image processing system for converting a first digital representation of a first form document according to claim 13, wherein the first form document is one of an assessment to be completed by a student, a survey form, a data entry form, a medical information form, an application form, a subscription form, and a contest entry form.

15. The image processing system for converting a first digital representation of a first form document according to claim 13, wherein the first form document is an assessment including one or more questions to be completed by a student and the first digital representation of the first form document is one of a scanned version of a printed assessment, a .pdf (Portable Document Format) version of an assessment, a Microsoft Word .doc version of an assessment and a .tiff file.

16. The image processing system for converting a first digital representation of a first form document according to claim 13, wherein the image capture module captures the first area with one of a user controlled mouse device and a user controlled screen shot.

17. The image processing system for converting a first digital representation of a first form document according to claim 13, wherein the captured first area is associated with one of a layer and cell, and the metadata is assigned to one of the layer and cell.

18. The image processing system for converting a first digital representation of a first form document according to claim 13, wherein the assignor module is configured to assign metadata to the first area using one of a manual assignment process, a semi-automatic assignment process and an automatic assignment process.

19. The image processing system for converting a first digital representation of a first form document according to claim 13, wherein the assignor module is configured to extract one or more of numbers, characters, key words and key phrases from the first area, the numbers, characters, key words and key phrases associated with the one or more predefined selectable metadata fields,

the assignor module is configured to access one or more trained classifiers to determine the one or more predefined selectable metadata field entries associated with the first area, each of the trained classifiers associated with a respective predefined selectable metadata field entry;

and

the assignor module configured to assign the determined selectable metadata field entries as metadata associated with the first area.

20. The image processing system for converting a first digital representation of a first form document according to claim 19, wherein the one or more trained classifiers are derived from one or more heuristics applied to the extracted one or more numbers, characters, key works and key phrases from the first area.

21. The image processing system for converting a first digital representation of a first form document according to claim 19, wherein the one or more trained classifiers are trained using a machine learning process including a supervised training set.

22. A computer-implemented method of creating an assessment using an educational assessment analysis system including one or more questions to be answered by a student, the method comprising:

a) the educational assessment analysis system acquiring a first digital representation of a preexisting assessment not created with the educational assessment analysis system;

b) the educational assessment system capturing a first area of the first digital representation of the form document, the first area selected by a user of the educational assessment analysis system and the first area including one or more of a text, an image and a graphic associated with a question to be answered by a student;

c) the educational assessment system assigning metadata to the first area, the metadata including one or more predefined selectable metadata field entries associated with the first area, the predefined selectable metadata field entries defined by an independent assessment creation process associated with the educational assessment analysis system, the independent assessment creation process configured to generate an assessment based on one of a plurality of predefined assessment models and the user inputting the one or more selectable metadata field entries; and

d) the independent assessment creation process generating a second digital representation of the preexisting assessment based on the first area and the assigned metadata.

23. The computer-implemented method of creating an assessment according to claim 22, wherein all or part of the metadata is automatically assigned to the first area, step c) comprising:

c1) extracting one or more of numbers, characters, key words and key phrases from the first area, the numbers, characters, key words and key phrases associated with the one or more predefined selectable metadata fields;

c2) accessing one or more trained classifiers to determine the one or more predefined selectable metadata field entries associated with the first area, each of the trained classifiers associated with a respective predefined selectable metadata field entry; and

c3) assigning the determined selectable metadata field entries as metadata associated with the first area.

24. The computer-implemented method of creating an assessment according to claim 23, wherein the one or more trained classifiers are derived from one or more heuristics applied to the extracted one or more numbers, characters, key works and key phrases from the first area.

25. The computer-implemented method of creating an assessment according to claim 23, wherein the one or more trained classifiers are trained using a machine learning process including a supervised training set.