Document processing system with improved image quality assurance
View Patent ↗A document processing system comprising an image capture subsystem for capturing selected image metrics and at least one image rendition from a plurality of documents and for determining if at least one of the selected image metrics for any of the at least one image rendition does not successfully compare against preselected image quality metric threshold values. An image quality flag is generated for any of the at least one image rendition if it does not successfully compare, and a record entry for each imaged document having at least one flagged image rendition is created in an image quality flag file. An image index file for individually accessing the image renditions is modified to include a reference to the corresponding image quality flag file record entry The document processing system may optionally compare selected document metrics against preselected document metrics in a similar manner. Image defects in the plurality of documents can be identified by examining the record entries in the image quality flag file.
1. A document processing system comprising a document transport for moving a plurality of documents and at least one computer running system software that interfaces with the document transport to provide document control, the document processing system further comprising:
an image capture subsystem connected to the document transport for capturing selected image metrics and at least one image rendition from the plurality of documents as they are moved by the document transport, the image capture subsystem determining if at least one of the selected image metrics for any of the at least one image rendition does not successfully compare against preselected image quality metric threshold values, generating an image quality flag for any of the at least one image rendition if it does not successfully compare, and creating in an image quality flag file, a record entry for each imaged document having at least one flagged image rendition, each record entry including information about the at least one flagged image rendition for that imaged document, whereby image defects in the plurality of documents can be identified by examining the record entries in the image quality flag file;
wherein the image capture subsystem further creates an image index file that, for each document, provides pointers to associated images and includes a global image quality flag for indicating image quality test results for the document and an image quality record index field that points to the associated record entry, if any, in the image quality flag file; and
wherein each record entry in the image quality flag file further includes a cross-reference to the corresponding part of the image index file for the document corresponding to that particular record entry.
2. The document processing system of claim 1 , wherein the image capture subsystem comprises:
imaging module hardware for capturing images; and,
an image capture server for processing and storing the captured images.
3. The document processing system of claim 1 , further comprising track hardware, wherein the track hardware provides selected document metrics from a plurality of documents as they are moved by the document transport, and further wherein the image capture subsystem determines if at least one of the selected document metrics for any of the documents does not successfully compare against preselected document metric threshold values, generates an image quality flag for any of the documents if it does not successfully compare, and creates in the image quality flag file, a record entry for each imaged document having at least one flagged document metric, wherein each record entry includes information about the at least one flagged document metric for that imaged document.
4. The document processing system of claim 2 , wherein the image capture server:
analyzes each of the at least one image rendition of each imaged document in an image quality metric generation process to provide selected image metrics;
compares the selected image metrics for each of the at least one image rendition of each imaged document against preselected image quality metric threshold values;
generates an image quality flag for any of the at least one image rendition of the plurality of imaged documents if at least one of the selected image metrics for that image rendition does not successfully compare against the preselected image quality metric threshold values; and,
creates a record entry in an image quality flag file for each of the plurality of imaged documents having at least one flagged image rendition, the record entry including information about the selected image metrics of the at least one flagged image rendition for that imaged document, wherein the image defects in a plurality of imaged documents can be identified by examining the record entries in the image quality flag file.
5. The document processing system of claim 1 , further comprising:
captured image storage means for storing according to type of image rendition, the at least one image rendition captured by the image capture subsystem for each of the plurality of documents;
image quality flag file storage storing the image quality flag file; and,
image index file storage means for storing the image index file.
6. The document processing system of claim 5 , wherein the captured image storage means includes first front image rendition storage.
7. The document processing system of claim 6 , wherein the captured image storage means further includes first rear image rendition storage.
8. The document processing system of claim 7 , wherein the captured image storage means further includes second front image rendition storage.
9. The document processing system of claim 8 , wherein the captured image storage means further includes second rear image rendition storage.
10. The document processing system of claim 5 , further comprising an imaging application executing in the image capture subsystem, wherein for each of the plurality of imaged documents, the method further comprising the step of:
setting the global image quality flag for an image index file record, the record corresponding to an imaged document, in the image index file, the global image quality flag indicating that the corresponding imaged document has been checked for image defects.
11. A document processing system comprising:
transport means for physically processing a plurality of documents;
track control means for controlling the transport means; and,
image capture subsystem means, including
imaging module hardware for capturing selected image metrics and a plurality of image renditions from documents as they are moved by the document transport;
an image capture server for receiving the captured selected image metrics and plurality of image renditions from the imaging module hardware, the image capture server including software running thereon, the software adapted to determine if at least one of the selected image metrics for any of the image renditions does not successfully compare against preselected image quality metric threshold values, to generate an image quality flag for any of the image renditions if it does not successfully compare, and to create an image quality flag file that contains a record entry for each imaged document having at least one flagged image rendition, wherein each record entry includes the at least one flagged image rendition for that imaged document;
wherein the image capture software creates an image index file that, for each document, provides pointers to associated images and includes a global image quality flag for indicating image quality test results for the document and an image quality record index field that points to the associated record entry, if any, in the image quality flag file; and
wherein each record entry in the image quality flag file further includes a cross-reference to the corresponding part of the image index file for the document corresponding to that particular record entry.
12. The document processing system of claim 11 , wherein the transport means provides selected document metrics from a plurality of documents, and further wherein the image capture subsystem determines if at least one of the selected document metrics for any of the documents does not successfully compare against preselected document metric threshold values, generates an image quality flag for any of the documents if it does not successfully compare, and creates in the image quality flag file, a record entry for each imaged document having at least one flagged document metric, wherein each record entry includes information about the at least one flagged document metric for that imaged document.
13. The document processing system of claim 12 , wherein the selected document metrics are selected from the group comprising information about the type and information about the physical dimensions of each of the plurality of imaged documents.
14. The document processing system of claim 13 , wherein the selected document metrics include a beam-of-light (BOL) “late” signal.
15. The document processing system of claim 14 , wherein the selected document metrics include a document spacing error signal.
16. The document processing system of claim 15 , wherein the selected document metrics include a double document signal.
17. The document processing system of claim 12 , further comprising:
captured image storage for storing according to type of image rendition, the image renditions captured by the image module hardware for each of the plurality of documents;
image quality flag file storage for storing the image quality flag file; and,
image index file storage for storing the image index file.