Method and apparatus for accessing and publishing electronic documents
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorGregory J. Wolff
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A document retrieval and accessing system in which documents are provided with links to other documents. Selection of one or more of the links causes the corresponding documents to be retrieved and sent to the requesting party. Then retrieved documents may also include links to yet even more documents.
Claims34
A method for accessing information comprising the steps of:
- receiving an image of a first document from a first location;
- extracting a document identifier from the image;
- retrieving a second document corresponding to the document identifier;
- and
- dynamically generating an image of the second document, including the step of encoding links to other documents in the second document into machine readable codes;
- sending the image of the second document to the first location.
A method for processing information comprising the steps of:
- receiving a facsimile of a first document from a location;
- extracting a resource identifier from the facsimile;
- retrieving a second document corresponding to the resource identifier;
- rendering hypertext links in machine readable information near link points in the image;
- and
- sending by facsimile the image of the second document to the location.
A method for viewing a document comprising the steps of:
- highlighting encoded information in an image on a piece of paper to select at least one document for retrieval wherein the encoded information represents links to other documents;
- sending by facsimile a copy of the paper with the highlighted encoded information to a server designed to retrieve said at least one document based on a decoded version of the highlighted encoded information;
- and
- creating an image of said at least one desired document including the step of dynamically generating encoded link information and including the encoded link information in the image, wherein the link information specifies at least one other document linked to said at least one document;
- receiving by facsimile said at least one desired document retrieved by the server.
An apparatus for retrieving documents from a source having a group of resources in response to a document request received from a facsimile machine, said apparatus comprising:
- a system having a bus;
- a processor coupled to the bus;
- and at least one memory coupled to the bus;
- a facsimile mechanism coupled to the system to send and receive facsimile images;
- and
- a connection mechanism coupling the system to the source;
- wherein the system receives a facsimile image from the facsimile machine, identifies encoded portions selected by a user, decodes the identified encoded portions into decoded data, retrieves at least one document from the source corresponding to the decoded data, dynamically generates an image of the document with encoded link information specifying links to other documents, and sends said at least one document by facsimile to the facsimile machine using the facsimile mechanism, such that the apparatus serves as a gateway between source and the facsimile machine.
An apparatus for retrieving documents from a source having a group of resources in response to a document request, said apparatus comprising:
- means for processing a document to obtain an identifier;
- means for retrieving a document corresponding to the identifier;
- means for rendering the document after retrieval, including means for encoding link information into machine readable information into the document being rendered such that links to other documents are available;
- and
- means for sending a facsimile image of the document after retrieval and rendering.
A method for publishing a document using a facsimile machine, said method comprising the steps of:
- receiving a facsimile image from a facsimile machine;
- parsing the image to create a document;
- storing the document with information indicating an association between the document and the facsimile machine;
- creating a resource locator for the document;
- adding links to the resource locator in the form of machine readable information;
- and
- servicing requests for the document.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.