Method and system for automatically and transparently archiving documents and document meta data

• US 7,684,068 B2
• Filed: 01/14/2004
• Issued: 03/23/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/21/1996
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Piersol, Kurt, Cullen, John, Hull, Jonathan J., Baxter, Michael, Peairs, Mark
• Primary Examiner(s): NGUYEN, MADELEINE ANH VINH
• Application Number:
  US10/758,067
• Publication Number:
  US 20040160629A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,260 Days
• Field of Search: 358/1.12, 358/1.13, 358/1.14, 358/1.15, 358/404, 358/407, 358/442, 358/444, 358/402, 358/1.16, 358/1.18, 358/468, 358/403, 379/100.01
• US Class Current: 358/1.15
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 1/21 Intermediate information storage H04N1/387, H04N1/41 take precedence ; for control between transmitter and receiver or between image input and image output device H04N1/32358; indexing, editing G11B27/00
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99953 Recoverability

Abstract

According to the present invention, an automatic archiving system that makes document archiving largely transparent to the user. In one embodiment, documents scanned in or printed during the course of office equipment operation are automatically archived. For example, an office local area network (LAN) may interconnect a copier, a printer, a facsimile machine, and a document management workstation. Whenever, a document is copied, printed, or faxed, a document image is archived by the document management workstation without further user intervention. A single user command results in the document being copied and archived, printed and archived, or faxed and archived.

Claims

1. An email server for performing automatic capture archiving of electronic documents in a network environment, at least one client computer in the network environment being coupled over a network to at least one document management workstation having at least one database disposed to receive electronic copies of documents transferred over the network, the at least one document management workstation being in communication with at least one of a copy, print, and facsimile operation, said email server being operatively disposed to:

receive a copy of every email document transferred over the network from the at least one client computer, each email document being transferred over the network in response to a single user input command;

cause electronic image data to be generated for each received copy of an email document, the electronic image data being generated in a format acceptable for storage in the at least one database for the at least one document management workstation; and

cause the generated electronic image data to be stored in the at least one database to perform capture archiving of the email document,

wherein the at least one database further comprises image data from capture archiving of electronic document images from the at least one of a copy, print, and facsimile operation,

wherein the aforementioned steps are carried out transparent to the user and without further input from the user notwithstanding the single user input command,

wherein the aforementioned steps are carried out at substantially a time that the email document is transferred over the network.

2. The email server of claim 1, wherein the at least one of the copy, print, and facsimile operation comprises at least one of a copier operation, printer operation, and facsimile machine operation that archived image data for at least one of the copier operation, printer operation, and facsimile machine operation.

3. The email server of claim 2, wherein the image data is generated from hardcopy documents and electronic documents.

4. A method for automatically and transparently archiving electronic documents in a network environment, at least one client computer in the network environment being coupled over a network to at least one document management workstation having at least one database disposed to receive electronic copies of documents transferred over the network, the at least one document management workstation being in communication with at least one of a copier operation, a printer operation, and a facsimile machine operation, the method comprising:

receiving a copy of every email document transferred over the network from the at least one client computer, each email document being transferred over the network in response to a single user input command;

generating electronic image data for each received copy of an email document, the electronic image data being generated in a format acceptable for storage in the at least one database for the at least one document management workstation; and

causing the generated electronic image data of every received email document to be stored in the at least one database to perform image capture archiving of the email document,

wherein the aforementioned steps are performed transparent to the user and without further input from the user notwithstanding the single user input command,

wherein the at least one database is further configured to store image data that was archived from the at least one of a copier operation, a printer operation, and a facsimile machine operation, and

wherein the aforementioned steps are carried out at substantially a time that the email document is transferred over the network.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein causing the collected image data of every email to be stored comprises storing at least one of an origin address and destination address for an email.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein causing the collected image data of every email to be stored comprises storing at least one of a date of transmission and time of transmission for an email.

7. An email server for performing automatic capture archiving of electronic documents in a network environment, said email server operatively disposed to:

generate a copy of each email document transmitted over the network environment, the email document being transmitted in response to a single user input command configured to transmit the email document to a destination; and

forward each copy to a document management device, the forwarding of each copy causing the document management device to generate electronic image data for each copy of an email document, the electronic image data being generated in a compressed image format, the forwarding of each copy further causing the generated electronic image data to be stored in the at least one database to perform the capture archiving, the capture archiving being performed without further input from the user notwithstanding the single user input command for transmitting the email document to a destination, the storing of said image data in the at least one database being separate from the transmission of the email document to the destination and transparent to the user, the capture archiving for each email document occurring at substantially a time that the email document is transferred over the network.

8. The email server of claim 7, wherein the destination comprises a destination client system.

9. The email server of claim 7, wherein the email document comprises an email document that was at least one of received and sent.

10. The email server of claim 7, wherein at least one database is configured to store image data that was archived from at least one of a copier operation, a printer operation, and a facsimile machine operation.

11. A method for providing automatic and transparent archiving of electronic documents in a network environment, the method comprising:

generating a copy of each email document transmitted over the network environment, the email document being transmitted in response to a single user input configured to transmit the email document to a destination; and

forwarding each copy to a document management device, the forwarding of each copy causing the document management device to generate electronic image data for each copy of an email document, the electronic image data being generated in a format acceptable for storage in at least one database for the document management device, the forwarding of each copy further causing the generated electronic image data of the email document to be stored in at least one database to perform the capture archiving, the capture archiving being performed transparent to the user and without further input from the user notwithstanding the single user input command for transmitting the email document to a destination, the capture archiving for each email document occurring at substantially a time that the email document is transferred over the network.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the destination comprises a destination client system.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the email document comprises an email document that was at least one of received and sent.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein at least one database is configured to store image data that was archived from at least one of a copier operation, a printer operation, and a facsimile machine operation.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the image data is generated from a hardcopy.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the hardcopy is a paper printout.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the copier operation comprises a copy machine, the printer operation comprises a printer and the facsimile machine operation comprises a scanner, and wherein the copy machine, the printer and the scanner are configured to generate electronic image data based on the paper printout.