Image quality assurance system and methodologies in a post-image capture document processing environment
View Patent ↗An image quality assurance method for identifying image defects in a plurality of previously-imaged documents, where each previously-imaged document includes at least one image rendition stored in at least one image rendition file according to type of image rendition. The image renditions are analyzed to provide selected image metrics, the latter of which are compared against preselected image quality metric threshold values. An image quality flag is generated for any image rendition 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. A record entry is created in an image quality flag file for those 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. Image defects in a plurality of imaged 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 imaging subsystem connected to the document transport for accessing and analyzing previously-captured selected image metrics and at least one previously-captured image rendition from the plurality of documents, the imaging subsystem determining if at least one of the selected image metrics for any of the at least one previously-captured 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 previously-captured 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 previously-captured image rendition, wherein each record entry includes information about the at least one flagged previously-captured image rendition for that imaged document;
wherein the imaging 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 imaging subsystem:
retrieves the at least one previously-captured image rendition to provide at least one compressed image rendition; and,
decompresses the at least one compressed image rendition to provide at least one decompressed image rendition.
3. The document processing system of claim 1 , wherein the imaging subsystem comprises:
imaging module hardware for capturing images; and,
an image capture server for processing and storing the captured images.
4. The document processing system of claim 1 , further comprising image index file storage means for storing the image index file.
5. The document processing system of claim 4 , further comprising:
captured image storage means for storing according to type of image rendition, the at least one previously-captured image rendition; and,
image quality flag file storage storing the image quality flag file.
6. The document processing system of claim 5 , wherein the captured image storage means includes first front image rendition storage and first rear image rendition storage.
7. The document processing system of claim 6 , wherein the captured image storage means further includes second front image rendition storage and second rear image rendition storage.