Method for applying a physical seal authorization to documents in electronic workflows

A method comprising:

• sensing pressure from application of a physical seal to a capture device;
• generating a signal for activating illumination and capturing an image of the physical seal in response to the physical seal being pressed upon the capture device;
• capturing the image of the physical seal in response to the signal;
• generating and sending an authorization for a compound document including document metadata and page metadata associated with the image of the physical seal to a computing device, the document metadata being associated with the compound document and the page metadata being associated with each page of the compound document, the document metadata and the page metadata being stored in nested directories;
• transmitting the image of the physical seal to the computing device;
• receiving, from the computing device, a new hash that is computed based at least in part on the image of the physical seal;
• generating a rolling hash, with the capture device, using a hash function of previous hashes and the new hash;
• transmitting the rolling hash to the computing device;
• receiving the document metadata and the page metadata that were updated to include the rolling hash and the new hash;
• wherein the computing device updates the page metadata associated with a page of the compound document to include the rolling hash and the new hash;
• and
• wherein the document metadata is updated based on the update of the page metadata.

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory computer usable medium including a computer readable program, wherein the computer readable program when executed on a computer causes the computer to:

• sensing pressure from application of a physical seal to a capture device;
• generating a signal for activating illumination and capturing an image of the physical seal in response to the physical seal being pressed upon the capture device;
• capturing the image of the physical seal in response to the signal;
• generating and sending an authorization for a compound document including document metadata and page metadata associated with the image of the physical seal to a computing device, the document metadata being associated with the compound document and the page metadata being associated with each page of the compound document, the document metadata and the page metadata being stored in nested directories;
• transmitting the image of the physical seal to the computing device;
• receiving, from the computing device, a new hash that is computed based at least in part on the image of the physical seal;
• generating a rolling hash, with the capture device, using a hash function of previous hashes and the new hash;
• transmitting the rolling hash to the computing device;
• receiving the document metadata and page metadata that were updated to include the rolling hash and the new hash;
• wherein the computing device updates the page metadata associated with a page of the compound document to include the rolling hash and the new hash;
• and
• wherein the document metadata is updated based on the update of the page metadata.