System and method for digitizing documents and encoding information relating to same for display by handheld computing devices
A system and method are provided for processing scanned documents by digitizing the scanned documents, converting the digitized documents to a JPEG2000 file, encoding content information corresponding to the digitized documents using spatial capabilities of JPEG2000's Region of Interest feature, and creating an image file having the digitized documents and the region of interest information for forwarding to a computing device, such as a handheld computing device, for display. The system and method are especially useful in Digital Mail applications which entail digitizing and delivering mail documents to recipients.
1. A system comprising:
a scanner for scanning one or more original mail documents;
a processing system comprising one or more computer-readable media, wherein the computer-readable media contain instructions that, when executed by the processing system, cause the processing system to perform operations comprising:
creating one or more digitized documents based on the one or more original mail documents;
extracting textual information from the one or more digitized documents, wherein:
the textual information comprises intended recipient information of the one or more original mail documents; and
the intended recipient information is not an electronic mail address;
identifying and tagging the intended recipient information in the textual information based on a location of the intended recipient information within the one or more digitized documents;
identifying and tagging a region of interest in the textual information, wherein the region of interest is associated with a location within the one or more digitized documents;
creating an image file, wherein the image file comprises a graphical representation of the one or more digitized documents and the textual information;
encoding the region of interest and the location associated with the region of interest in the image file, such that when a user selects the location on a user device an enlarged version of the region of interest is displayed on the user device;
searching an electronically stored address record for an electronic mail address using the intended recipient information of the one or more original mail documents;
retrieving, from the electronically stored address record, the electronic mail address; and
sending an electronic mail message to the electronic mail address, wherein the electronic mail message comprises one or more of the image file and a reference to the image file.
2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein creating the image file comprises:
converting the one or more digitized documents to a JPEG2000 format; and
encoding the textual information and the region of interest as metadata using one or more predefined region of interest metadata tags of the JPEG2000 format.
3. The system according to claim 1 , further comprising a handheld computing device, wherein the image file and the textual information are configured for being displayed by a display of the handheld computing device.
4. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the textual information comprises one or more of addressee information, sender information, date information, subject information, and letter body information.
5. The system according to claim 1 , further comprising a document repository for storing image data corresponding to the image file.
6. The system according to claim 5 , further comprising a handheld computing device having a display and configured for receiving image data transferred from the document repository for displaying the image data on the display.
7. A method for processing digitized documents comprising:
creating one or more digitized documents based on one or more original mail documents;
extracting textual information from the one or more digitized documents, wherein:
the textual information comprises intended recipient information of the one or more original mail documents; and
the intended recipient information is not an electronic mail address;
identifying and tagging the intended recipient information in the textual information based on a location of the intended recipient information within the one or more digitized documents;
identifying and tagging a region of interest in the textual information, wherein the region of interest is associated with a location within the one or more digitized documents;
creating, using a processor, an image file, wherein the image file comprises a graphical representation of the one or more digitized documents and the textual information;
encoding the region of interest and the location associated with the region of interest in the image file, such that when a user selects the location on a user device an enlarged version of the region of interest is displayed on the user device;
searching an electronically stored address record for an electronic mail address using the intended recipient information of the one or more original mail documents;
retrieving, from the electronically stored address record, the electronic mail address; and
sending an electronic mail message to the electronic mail address, wherein the electronic mail message comprises one or more of the image file and a reference to the image file.
8. The method according to claim 7 , wherein creating the image file comprises:
converting the one or more digitized documents to a JPEG2000 format; and
encoding the textual information and the region of interest as metadata using one or more predefined region of interest metadata tags of the JPEG2000 format.
9. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising transferring the image file to a handheld computing device, wherein the image file and the textual information are configured for being displayed by a display of the handheld computing device.
10. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising transferring image data corresponding to the image file to a document repository.
11. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising transferring the image data from the document repository to a handheld computing device having a display and configured for receiving image data transferred from the document repository for displaying the image data on the display.
12. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing programmable instructions configured for execution by a processor for performing the method of:
creating one or more digitized documents based on one or more original mail documents;
extracting textual information from the one or more digitized documents, wherein:
the textual information comprises intended recipient information of the one or more original mail documents; and
the intended recipient information is not an electronic mail address;
identifying and tagging the intended recipient information in the textual information based on a location of the intended recipient information within the one or more digitized documents;
identifying and tagging a region of interest in the textual information, wherein the region of interest is associated with a location within the one or more digitized documents;
creating an image file, wherein the image file comprises a graphical representation of the one or more digitized documents and the textual information;
encoding the region of interest and the location associated with the region of interest in the image file, such that when a user selects the location on a user device an enlarged version of the region of interest is displayed on the user device;
searching an electronically stored address record for an electronic mail address using the intended recipient information of the one or more original mail documents;
retrieving, from the electronically stored address record, the electronic mail address; and
sending an electronic mail message to the electronic mail address, wherein the electronic mail message comprises one or more of the image file and a reference to the image file.
13. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 12 , wherein creating the image file comprises:
converting the one or more digitized documents to a JPEG2000 format; and
encoding the textual information and the region of interest as metadata using one or more predefined region of interest metadata tags of the JPEG2000 format.
14. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 12 , the method further comprising transferring the image file to a handheld computing device, wherein the image file and the textual information are configured for being displayed by a display of the handheld computing device.
15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 12 , the method further comprising transferring image data corresponding to the image file to a document repository.
16. The system according to claim 6 , wherein the image data is a lower resolution than the image file that corresponds with the image data.
17. The system according to claim 6 , wherein:
the handheld computing device requests the region of interest based on an input from a user associated with the location in the image file; and
the region of interest is displayed in a higher resolution than the image data transferred from the document repository.
18. The method according to claim 11 , wherein the image data is a lower resolution than the image file that corresponds with the image data.
19. The method according to claim 11 , wherein:
the handheld computing device requests the region of interest based on an input from a user associated with the location in the image file; and
the region of interest is displayed in a higher resolution than the image data transferred from the document repository.
20. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 12 , the method further comprising transferring the image data from the document repository to a handheld computing device having a display and configured for receiving image data transferred from the document repository for displaying the image data on the display.
21. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 20 , wherein the image data is a lower resolution than the image file that corresponds with the image data.
22. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 20 , wherein:
the handheld computing device requests the region of interest based on an input from a user associated with the location in the image file; and
the region of interest is displayed in a higher resolution than the image data transferred from the document repository.
23. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the region of interest in the textual information comprise one or more of the intended recipient information, sender information, date information, subject information, and letter body information.
24. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the enlarged version of the region of interest is displayed on the user device and a portion of the image file is also displayed on the user device.
25. The method according to claim 7 , wherein the enlarged version of the region of interest is displayed on the user device and a portion of the image file is also displayed on the user device.
26. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to claim 12 , wherein the enlarged version of the region of interest is displayed on the user device and a portion of the image file is also displayed on the user device.