Document imaging system and method for imaging documents
AssigneeOpex Corporation
InventorRobert Montgomery
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A system is provided for processing documents. In particular, the system incorporates a feeder for feeding documents to a device for further processing of the documents. For instance, the system finds particular application in the field of document imaging in which a variety of documents of varying sizes and orientation are to be fed to an imaging system, such as a document scanner. The system may provide a sorting station that receives documents from a work station and sorts the documents to a plurality of sort locations. The system may export the image data for the documents to a fileserver so that a remote operator can provide instructions for the processing of the documents so that the documents can be subsequently processed according to the instructions provided by the operator.
Claims18
An apparatus for processing documents, comprising:
- a scanner for scanning documents to obtain image data for the documents;
- a fileserver configured to receive the image data for the documents and store the image data;
- a conveyor for receiving the documents from the scanner, wherein the conveyor is configured to convey documents along a document path without entraining the documents;
- a plurality of output locations configured to receive documents from the conveyor;
- a sorter for sorting documents to the output locations, wherein the sorter comprises:
- a length detector for detecting a characteristic indicative of the length of the documents;
- a first set of ejectors configured to displace documents on the conveyor transverse the document path, wherein ejectors in the first set of ejectors are independently actuable and each of the ejectors in the first set of ejectors is positioned to eject documents toward a first one of the output locations;
- a controller configured to selectively actuate one or more of the ejectors in the first set of ejectors to eject one of the documents based on the detected characteristic that is indicative of the length of the document.
An apparatus for processing documents, comprising:
- a conveyor for conveying a document along a document path;
- an imaging station configured to scan the document to obtain image data representative of the document as the document is conveyed along the document path;
- a printer configured to print an identification mark on the document as the document is conveyed along the document path;
- an image processor configured to process the image data to identify one or more candidate clear zones that are sufficiently clear of markings that the identification mark can be printed without overlapping markings on the document,
- wherein if the image processor identifies more than one candidate clear zones, the image processor is configured to select a print zone from among the candidate clear zones based upon a secondary criteria;
- wherein the printer is controlled to print the identification mark in the print zone.
A method for processing a batch of document, comprising the steps of:
- scanning a batch documents to obtain image data for each document;
- exporting the image data for each document so that a remote operator can provide processing instructions for each document;
- scanning the batch of documents a second time to obtain a second set of image data for each document;
- processing the second set of image data for each document to identify each document;
- after the step of processing the second set of image data for one of the documents in the batch, determining whether instructions for processing each document have been provided by the operator;
- sorting each document based on the instructions provided by the operator for the document or based on the lack of instructions provided by the operator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.