Zone Based Scanning and Optical Character Recognition for Metadata Acquisition

A multifunction peripheral comprising:

• a scanner for scanning a physical document in order to obtain a digital representation of the physical document as an electronic document;
• a user interface for receiving user input identifying a first zone and a second zone on a visible representation of the electronic document;
• and
• a controller for associating the first zone with a first database category and the second zone with a second database category, the association made using a metadata map, the controller further for performing optical character recognition on the first zone and the second zone on the electronic document to thereby obtain a first metadata element and a second metadata element, and the controller further for directing a server to store the electronic document along with the first metadata element and the second metadata element in a database, the first and second metadata elements stored in the database as directed by the metadata map.

Apparatus comprising a storage medium storing a program having instructions which when executed by a processor will cause the processor to:

• receive user input identifying a first zone and a second zone on a visible representation of an electronic document;
• associate the first zone with a first database category and the second zone with a second database category, the association made using a metadata map;
• scan a physical document in order to obtain a digital representation of the physical document as an electronic document;
• perform optical character recognition on the first zone and the second zone on the electronic document to thereby obtain a first metadata element and a second metadata element;
• and
• store the electronic document along with the first metadata element and the second metadata element in a database, the first and second metadata elements stored in the database as directed by the metadata map.