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( INSERT/SUPERIMPOSE:

1. US 2005 0057779 1 74 8 OCR FUNCTION S ON CAPTURED SCANNED IMAGE S Wait For Image Composer To Be Ready INSERT SUPERIMPOSE INPUT FONT MATCHED TEXT SYMBOL HANDWRITING INTO PREDETERMINED INSERTION FIELD S OPTIONS No CROPPING OBJECT FIT TO FORM 828 IMAGE COMPOSER FORMS FiLE OF CAPTURED 5 RENDERED WITH INSERTION FIELD S FAX PRINT AND OR TRANSMIT TO EMAIL ADDRESS ES WITH TEXT MESSAGE AND ATTACHED FILE Patent Application Publication Mar 17 2005 902 DIGITAL TRANSMITTER ROUTINE 904 For Scanning Mechanism To Be Ready CAPTURE IMAGE AT SCANNING MECHANISM 906 910 908 No Terminate Detect A s Yes DISPLAY PROMPT S FOR INSERTION S INTO DETECTED INDICIA FiELD S TEXT MsG S FORM CODE 912 914 DISPLAY ne DIAGNOSTIC Access Input Yes 916 USE INPUT ACCESS DATABASE RETRIEVE DATA 918 Sheet 8 of 8 US 2005 0057779 1 OCR 920 FUNCTION S ON CAPTURED IMAGE S Y 922 Wait For Image Composer To Be Ready 924 Y INSERT SUPERIMPOSE INPUT FONT MATCHED TEXT SYMBOUHANDWRITING INTO PREDETERMINED INSERTION FIELD S OPTIONS No CROPPING OBJECT 928 e va IMAGE COMPOSER FORMS FILE OF CAPTURED IMAGE S RENDERED WITH INSERTION FIELD S
2. described above the detectable indicia is rep resentative of one or more insertion fields into which text is to be inserted The detection routine once having deter mined the presence of detectable indicia in the optically scanned image will use the detected presence to determine various characteristics respectively of the one or more insertion fields These characteristics can include the num ber location size and shape of the one or more insertions fields For example a user can apply sticky bar code labels of different types to a piece of paper that is to be scanned Alternatively the user can also edit a softcopy of the document so as to include images of the bar codes or like detectable indicia 0025 The types of bar codes placed on the hardcopy or its corresponding softcopy by the user can have respectively different significance in subsequent processing A particular bar code that is detected by a detection routine may be interpreted as an instruction to prompt a user to input a code at a user interface of the digital transmitter device For instance the prompt may direct the user to physically input text from a keypad and or touch screen Alternatively the input code might be used to look up text that is to be fit as a substitution for the detectable indicia into the correspond ing insertion field The input code may also be used to ascertain a predetermined shape and size of the insertion field As a further altern
3. 0092 Alternatively the digital transmitter device 102 may rotate text that was derived from an optically scanned image to better accommodate the size and orientation of the corresponding predefined insertion field Other more sophis ticated means of reshaping text derived from optically scanned images may also be employed as understood by those of ordinary skill in the art Exemplary Embodiments of Digital Transmitter Device Capture of Substitutions for Predetermined Insertion Fields 0093 FIG 8 shows a flow diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention depicting a method for using a digital transmitter device With this in mind CPU s 202 can be configured to perform the operations described below By way of further example the flow diagram is depicted in FIG 8 to illustrate certain exemplary functions that can be performed using CPU s 202 and the other resources in digital transmitter device 102 Here a process 800 15 provided 0094 FIG 8 shows process 800 beginning at step 802 which directs a process flow to step 804 At step 804 process 800 waits for the scanning mechanism 212 of the digital transmitter device 102 to be ready to perform a scanning operation When the scanning mechanism 212 is ready the process 800 moves control to step 806 At step 806 the digital transmitter device 102 displays one or more prompts upon touch sensitive menu screen 210 In order to display the prompt the server module 214
4. 506 and 518 into which textual representations of scanned images are to be inserted 0088 way of example a particular form code is input into digital transmitter device 102 that corresponds to form template 502 seen in FIG 5 Alternatively the user may be presented with a menu of the form templates existing on the system and prompted to select one of the form templates This may all be done with user interface device 210 on digital transmitter device 102 or from the server 106 Once the form template is selected by the user that form template will be retrieved from the memory 206 of the digital transmitter device 102 If the process is being controlled from the server 106 the form template may be downloaded to the digital transmitter device 102 via the connection to network 104 Alternatively parameters of the one or more predefined insertion fields for which the one or more images are to be scanned may be communicated to the digital transmitter device 102 from the server 106 The digital transmitter device 102 can ascertain the font number size and position of one or more predefined insertion fields in the form template for which font matched text is to be inserted The user can then begin scanning the images of the hand written signature and the address data that are to be included in the predefined insertion fields of the form template The digital transmitter device 102 can prompt the user by dis playing a request that the us
5. 930 x FAX PRINT AND OR TRANSMIT TO EMAIL ADDRESS ES WITH TEXT MESSAGE AND ATTACHED US 2005 0057779 1 DOCUMENT RENDERING WITH SUBSTITUTED MATCHING TEXT FIELD OF THE INVENTION 0001 The present invention relates generally to periph eral devices and more particularly to rendering a document having text with a digital transmitter device that receives matching text that is substituted in the document BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 0002 Many peripherals to computer networks include a scanner component One example of such a peripheral is an All in one also known as a multifunction peripheral in that it has the capability to perform the multiple functions of scanning hardcopy documents copying and printing Another example is a digital network copier that scans in documents from an automatic document feeder does high volume copying and has the capabilities of binding collating folding stacking stapling stitching edge trimming paginating and printing on substrates of varied composition Each of these peripherals when in communication with an interconnecting network can also be described as being a digital transmitter device A digital transmitter device typically has an input device e g a keyboard a display a scanner and an output device The output device of the digital transmitter device can be for sending a facsimile or an electronic mail message e mail A digital transmitter devic
6. adjacent to predetermined indicia and a size of the text that is adjacent to predetermined indicia 5 The computer readable medium as defined in claim 1 wherein the receiving a text input further comprises receiv ing the text input at a user interface 6 The computer readable medium as defined in claim 5 wherein the receiving a text input further comprises output ting a prompt for the text input at the user interface 7 The computer readable medium as defined in claim 6 wherein the outputting a prompt for the text input at the user interface further comprises determining the prompt for the text input by performing a lookup function using the pre determined indicia 8 The computer readable medium as defined claim 1 wherein the predetermined indicia is in the substrate and exhibit a predetermined range of reflectance values that are used to determine the location of the predetermined indicia in the document 9 The computer readable medium as defined in claim 8 wherein the predetermined range of reflectance values is detectable in the substrate when the substrate is illuminated by light having a predetermined range of wavelengths 10 The computer readable medium as defined in claim 1 wherein the predetermined indicia is in the substrate and includes a bar code used to determine the location of the predetermined indicia in the document 11 The computer readable medium as defined in claim 1 wherein the receiving a text inpu
7. can be an ink that is visible upon application by a user to a paper document but becomes invisible to the human eye when the ink dries Nevertheless the dry ink is still detect able by the detection routine that is performed upon the optically scanned image Invisible ink may be selected as the desirable detectable indicia in that the original paper docu ment is not obscured by a user s markings The dry ink when invisible to the human eye can be detected when it exhibits predetermined range of reflectance values or exhibits an inherent reflectivity property e g one or more US 2005 0057779 1 wavelengths A that can be found by the detection routine performed upon the optically scanned image The reflective property of the ink can be understood as a particular hue or color that is found within the optically scanned image by the detection routine The dry ink in another example may only be visible to the human eye when illuminated by a certain color of light such as a blue violet light As such the dry ink would only be detectable when illuminated by light of one or more predetermined ranges of wavelengths 0023 Alternatively the detectable indicia can be a bar code or other patterned indicia that can be detected within the optically scanned image by the detection routine Other detectable indicia are also contemplated any of which can be found by known detection routines performed upon an optically scanned image 0024
8. the input can be used to look up text that is to be inserted into the insertion fields that correspond to first second and third detectable indicia 504 506 and 518 The location size and shape and any rule governing the same can also be looked up for these insertion fields The text can be found by look ups in one or both of database and file codes storage 220 224 respectively at digital transmitter device 102 and server 106 0079 Once the text is found by the look ups the text can be inserted fitted into or otherwise superimposed into onto the size and shape of each of the corresponding insertion fields by execution of the image composer 217 and or the detection application 216 An example of a resultant modi fied scanned image having insertions therein is seen in FIG 7 The modified scanned image shows a superimposed watermark handwritten signature 702 that has been substi tuted for the insertion field corresponding to first detectable indicia 504 The superimposed watermark handwritten sig nature 702 reflects the handwritten signature that was input to menu screen 602 proximal to the reference numeral 608 A look up was performed on the User ID 304 that was entered prior to menu screen 302 to obtain the address data 704 that is seen inserted into an insertion field corresponding to the second detectable indicia 506 Block 718 in FIG 7 is intended to represent the insertion of the text message 406 that was entered on menu
9. 5 20050057779 1 a2 Patent Application Publication Pub No US 2005 0057779 1 United States Sesek et al 43 Pub Date Mar 17 2005 54 DOCUMENT RENDERING WITH SUBSTITUTED MATCHING TEXT 76 Inventors Robert Sesek Meridian ID US Travis J Parry Boise ID US Chad A Stevens Boise ID US Correspondence Address HEWLETT PACKARD COMPANY P O BOX 272400 3404 E HARMONY ROAD INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ADMINISTRATION FORT COLLINS CO 80527 2400 US 21 Appl No 10 652 003 22 Filed Aug 29 2003 DIGITAL TRANSMITTER ROUTINE 800 NE Ready CODE EMAIL MsG S DisPLAY DIAGNOSTIC USE INPUT TO ACCESS DATABASE RETRIEVE DATA CAPTURE IMAGE AT SCANNING MECHANISM Detect 5 Form Codels Wait For Scanning Mechanism To Be DISPLAY PROMPT S TN FoR UsER ID FORM ADDRESS ES TYPED HANDWRITING ETC Publication Classification GN cato tes cetus HO4N 1 00 y SC ct creer i tat er etd 358 400 57 ABSTRACT Text that is adjacent to predetermined indicia is detected in a digital image Alternatively or in addition a digital image can have text that is adjacent to a predefined insertion field Text that is input and or derived from an optically scanned image is substituted in the digital image for the predeter mined indicia and or for the predefined insertion field The substitut
10. by an optical character recognition routine at steps 816 818 0101 After step 818 acceptably locates the detectable indicia in the optically scanned image or acceptably locates the form code process 800 passes control to step 820 If the location is not acceptable process 800 moves to step 812 for displaying a diagnostic before returning to step 804 At step 820 an optical character recognition routine is performed on optically scanned images if any that were captured at step 816 The optical character recognition routine derives text from the optically scanned images 0102 Process 800 waits at step 822 for the image com poser component 217 and or CPU s 202 of the digital transmitter device 102 to be ready to compose a document Image composer component 217 of digital transmitter device 102 can be used in conjunction with scanning mechanism 212 to maintain data and or algorithms soft ware firmware or other process control means for compos ing a document from a softcopy therefrom and into which text has been inserted at predetermined insertion fields The softcopy of the document can be obtained at the digital transmitter device such as by performing an optical char acter recognition routine on an optically scanned document Alternatively the softcopy can be retrieved from a storage location such as a location at which softcopies of form templates are stored 0103 After step 822 the digital transmitter device 102 is pr
11. can be used to retrieve these data 0099 Process 800 then passes control to step 816 where the scanning mechanism scans in the document for storage as an optically scanned image at the digital transmitter device At step 818 the execution of detection application 216 locates detectable indicia in the optically scanned image of the document as discussed above When an insufficient detection results process 800 displays corresponding diag nostics at step 812 and return is made to step 804 A form code can be derived by predetermined criteria from an optically scanned image that is acquired from the scanning at step 816 or by a user entering the form code at step 806 The form code can be used at step 806 808 or at steps 816 818 to retrieve a form template and its corresponding predetermined insertion fields 0100 discussed above predetermined insertion fields can be determined for a form template or by detection of detectable indicia in an optically scanned page Once the predetermined insertion fields are known text can be retrieved and font matched to text adjacent to the predeter mined insertion fields These font matched text can then be correspondingly inserted into the predetermined insertion fields The text that is to be font matched and inserted can be retrieved in a variety of ways including by the user inputting same at block 806 or by the user scanning a paper to obtain an optical image from which the text is derived
12. hardcopy 0028 In addition to or as an alternative to bar codes a user can make marks or symbols on the hardcopy that is to be scanned such as with one or more types of non human visible inks such as the invisible ink described above For instance each ink can exhibit different inherent reflectivity properties e g a different wavelength A each having a significance similar to that of the different bar codes 0029 The different bar codes and markings as described above can represent different shapes and sizes of insertion fields For instance a user may use ink to mark a periphery of an insertion field or the user can make a mark on the hardcopy for which the periphery of an insertion field is predetermined For instance the mark x may be an indicator for an insertion field having a shape that is any of a circle having a one 1 inch radius a two 2 inch square an ellipse having two foci separated by one 1 inch etc Two dots made by a user on a paper document may be interpreted by a detection routine as indicating respectively the upper left and lower right corners of a rectangular insertion field The type shape and size of markings that correspond to insertion fields of various shapes sizes and positions are not limited by the examples given herein 0030 Upon detection of the detectable indicia corre sponding to each insertion field and the shape size and position thereof e g invisible ink bar code
13. includes a prompt for the font selection 49 A digital transmitter device comprising Or processors an optical scanner controlled by said one or more processors and a memory unit accessible to said one or more proces sors in which a program is stored wherein the one or more processors execute the program to US 2005 0057779 1 16 control the optical scanner to optically scanning substrate to form a digital image perform optical character recognition on the digital image to form a document having a word process ing format detect in the document predetermined indicia and text with a font that is adjacent to adjacent to the predetermined indicia receive a text input having a font at a user interface Mar 17 2005 substitute the text input for the predetermined indicia in the document such that both the text input and the text adjacent to the predetermined indicia have substantially the same font and output a rendering of the document 50 The digital transmitter device as defined in claim 49 wherein the one or more processors further execute the program to automatically shape said text input in accordance with a shape of said text that is adjacent to predetermined indicia
14. predefined insertion field and a size of the text that is adjacent to the predefined insertion field 26 The method as defined in claim 22 wherein the substituting further comprising esthetically arranging the text input in line with the text that is adjacent to the predefined insertion field 27 The method as defined in claim 22 wherein the predefined insertion field includes a bar code used to deter mine the location of the predefined insertion field in the form template 28 The method as defined in claim 22 wherein the substituting further comprising determining the font of at least one of the text input and the text adjacent to the predefined insertion field and changing the font of either the text input or the text in the document that is adjacent to the predefined insertion field to be that of the determined font 29 The method as defined in claim 22 wherein the substituting further comprising changing the font of both the text input and the text adjacent to the predefined insertion field to be substantially the same font 30 The method as defined in claim 22 wherein the outputting a rendering of the document is selected from the group consisting of a print out a facsimile transmission and an e mail message 31 The method as defined in claim 22 wherein the substantially the same font comprises one or more textual characteristics that are selected from the group consisting of case line spacing text color backgro
15. 14 and are configured to display textual and graphical information as menu pages on the touch sensitive menu screen 210 The menu documents driving the menu pages can include script code that is associated with graphical keys The term script code is intended herein to mean any one of a variety of different code types Various kinds of code are contemplated By way of example and not by way of limitation the code can be implemented in embedded script code in firmware in a native code such as code or can be JAVA script The code can be written in JavaScript code that is interpreted and executed on a Java Virtual Machine JVM The code can also be written in other script code languages such as VBScript or Perl 0062 Selecting a menu item by pressing a graphical key on the touch sensitive menu screen 210 triggers an event which causes a virtual machine 218 to interpret and US 2005 0057779 1 execute the script code associated with the selected graphi cal key The virtual machine 218 is a software module stored in memory 206 that executes on CPU s 202 to interpret and execute script code The script code can be associated with selectable menu items 1 graphical keys or buttons One menu item is configured to initiate a scan of an image using the scanning mechanism 212 Another menu item can be configured to perform the task of receiving input that includes a User ID a priority code and one or more e mail address es t
16. 908 as more fully described above the digital transmitter device 102 displays prompts upon touch sensitive menu screen 210 There can be one or more prompts corresponding to each of the one or more predetermined insertion fields As discussed above each predetermined insertion field is to have font matched text inserted therein The font matched text can be input by the user such as by a scanning operation with scanning mechanism 212 by directly entering the text with keyboard or by other input device associated with digital transmitter device 102 Any such text is matched as to the font thereof or vice a versa to the font of text that is adjacent to the predetermined insertion field into which the text is to be inserted When the text to be inserted has been derived from a scanning operation the resultant optically scanned image is subjected an optical character recognition routine to derive the corresponding text as discussed above 0109 Input from a user is tested for access control and for validity at step 914 similar to step 810 in FIG 8 Non access or invalidity results in a diagnostic display at step 916 and a termination of process 900 at step 910 When the result of the input and access control testing proves to be positive process 900 moves to step 918 which is functionally similar to step 814 of FIG 8 After step 918 process 900 moves through steps 920 930 that are functionally similar to steps 820 830 of FIG 8 Aft
17. R MODULE DETECTION APP 214 216 SCANNING ToucH SENSITIVE MECHANISM MENU SCREEN 210 VOLATILE MEMORY 204 DEVICE ENGINE 208 Patent Application Publication Mar 17 2005 Sheet 3 of 8 US 2005 0057779 A1 Fig 8 302 2 User ID A93B Enter Command elec Command 1 Thr h4 1 Scan 2 View Email Addresses Enter Text Msg Add Edit Enter Email Addresses 1002 1008 1004 1006 TIS rc ME _ Enter Text Message in the Sesek study that ouble blind te when the ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUZ12 3456789 _ COM NET CC GOV ORG Patent Application Publication Mar 17 2005 Sheet 4 of 8 US 2005 0057779 A1 gt 5 Patent Application Publication Mar 17 2005 Sheet 5 of 8 US 2005 0057779 A1 Fig 4 us User ID A93B mail Will Be Sent to Patent Application Publication Mar 17 2005 Sheet 6 of 8 US 2005 0057779 A1 Fig 7 555 123 432 Patent Application Publication Mar 17 2005 Sheet 7 of 8 802 DIGITAL TRANSMITTER ROUTINE 800 B Wait For Scanning Mechanism To Be Ready Y DISPLAY PROMPT S FOR USER ID FORM CODE EMAIL ADDRESS ES TYPED TEXT MSG S HANDWRITING ETC DisPLAY DIAGNOSTIC Yes 814 ACCESS DATABASE RETRIEVE DATA 816 CAPTURE IMAGE AT SCANNING MECHANISM 818 No Detect A s Form
18. a form template that incorporates a scanned image into a predefined insertion field the form template or parameters of said form template being stored in or accessible to said digital trans mitter device the form template having a word processing format and including text that is adjacent to the predefined insertion field the method comprising scanning an image for inclusion in said form template to form a digital image Mar 17 2005 performing optical character recognition on the digital image to form a text input substituting the text input in the form template for the predefined insertion field such that both the text input and the text that is adjacent to the predefined insertion field have substantially the same font and outputting a rendering of the document 23 The method as defined in claim 22 further comprising automatically shaping the text input in accordance with a shape of the text that is adjacent to the predefined insertion field 24 The method as defined in claim 22 further comprising repositioning reformatting reshaping or resizing elements of the text that is adjacent to the predefined insertion field in accordance with a predetermined position of the text input and a size of the text input 25 The method as defined in claim 22 further comprising repositioning reformatting reshaping or resizing elements of the text input in accordance with a predetermined position of the text that is adjacent to the
19. a sequence of menus that can be displayed upon touch sensitive menu screen 210 of digital transmitter device 102 is seen in FIGS 3 4 and 6 A menu screen 302 seen in FIG 3 is displayed upon touch sensitive menu screen 210 of digital transmitter device 102 Menu screen 302 shows various options to be selected by a user of digital transmitting device 102 In the example provided in FIG 3 a user has already input the character string A93B at reference numeral 304 on menu screen 302 This character string 304 can be used for any of a variety of purposes For instance the character string 304 can be a User ID that is to be compared against an access control data base to deter mine if the User ID corresponds to particular use privileges with respect to the digital transmitter device 102 Alterna tively the character string 304 can be a form code that by the input thereof is used to identify a form template having one or more predetermined insertion fields Once the pre determined insertion fields of the form template have been communicated to the digital transmitter device 102 one or more corresponding documents can be scanned by scanning mechanism 212 to form respective optically scanned images The optically scanned images are subjected to an optical character recognition routine to form respective Mar 17 2005 softcopies of the text therein These text softcopies can then be font matched as described above for respective fitting
20. acent to the predefined insertion field in the softcopy of the form template or vice a versa The font matched text can then be inserted into the softcopy of the form template 0033 In the first or the second implementation once text is inserted into corresponding predetermined insertion fields the resultant modified scanned image can be rendered as a hardcopy to a printer In an alternative implementation a user can be prompted at the digital transmitter device to input a code that is used to look up one or more e mail addresses or facsimile telephone numbers to which the modified scanned image is to be transmitted The modified scanned image can then be transmitted by e mail or by facsimile to a facsimile telephone number or it can then be rendered as a hardcopy to a printer or any combination of the forgoing 0034 network message can be transmitted so as to include the modified scanned image in a transmission of message data via an e mail message from the digital trans mitter device to one or more e mail address es When an e mail message is sent from a digital transmitter device message data including the modified scanned image can be attached to the e mail message 0035 e mail message is sent from the digital trans mitter device to an electronic address including an address of a network resource and a destination location thereat The modified scanned image in the message data can be com posed from the digitized
21. an electronic address including an address of a network resource and a destination location thereat 42 A digital transmitter device for producing a document based on a form template that incorporates a scanned image and that has a word processing format the digital transmitter device comprising processor an optical scanner controlled by said processor and a memory unit accessible to said processor in which a program and the form template or parameters of said Mar 17 2005 form template are stored said form template including text that is adjacent to a predetermined insertion field wherein said processor executes the program to control the scanner to scan an image to form a digital image performing optical character recognition on the digital image to form a text string having a word processing format substituting the text string for the predetermined inser tion field such that both the text string and the text adjacent to the predetermined insertion field have substantially the same font and output a rendering of the document 43 The digital transmitter device as defined in claim 42 wherein the output rendering of the document comprises a network message to be transmitted wherein the network message includes the digital image and is addressed to an electronic address including an address of a network resource and a destination location thereat 44 The digital transmitter device as defined in claim 42 wh
22. ative one or more other input codes might be used to retrieve a particular e mail address distri bution list from a particular database so that an e mail message can be addressed to each of the e mail addresses along with an attached file containing the optically scanned image as modified by the inserted text and objects 0026 different bar code that is detected by a detection routine may be interpreted as an instruction to prompt a user to make a handwritten mark using a stylus on a touch sensitive menu screen of a user interface with the digital transmitter device The handwritten mark can be processed in a variety of ways For instance the handwritten mark can be subjected to an optical character recognition routine so that a softcopy thereof can be formed This softcopy can then be substantially font matched to text in the softcopy of a document into which the handwriting is to be inserted into an insertion field 0027 handwritten mark input by a user can be pro cessed by fitting of the same into an insertion field of predetermined size and font at the location of a bar code in the optically scanned image The optically scanned image can be modified so as to show the handwritten mark such as Mar 17 2005 by obscuring the document beneath the handwritten mark or by watermarking the handwritten mark so that it does not obscure the document beneath the handwritten mark depending upon which bar code the user applied to the
23. canning mechanism 212 into digital transmitter device 102 Of course the image is not required to be on a piece of paper Rather the image can be on a substrate or other image bearing surface The image 502 seen on the paper has a double underlined heading and has text below the heading The text below the heading has a font a case a line spacing text color a background color a foreground color a particular character spacing certain text effects an align ment for each line and each paragraph text shadowing and text shading First second and third detectable indicia 504 US 2005 0057779 1 506 and 518 seen in the image paper 502 and are detectable by execution of a detection application 216 upon the optically scanned image by digital transmitter 102 As such the first second and third detectable indicia 504 506 and 518 can be for example bar codes invisible ink visible ink symbols hole punch sequences etc 0075 Phantom lines 520 and 522 indicate text that is adjacent to the predetermined insertion field 518 As such any text that is to be inserted into the predetermined inser tion field 518 should be substantially matched as to the font thereof with respect to the text that is present in the respec tive regions seen at phantom lines 520 and 522 0076 Reference numeral 508 points to a portion of the text on image 502 where second detectable indicia 506 overlaps a portion of the text The digita
24. capability of performing a variety of document composition routines for a plurality of data formats These data formats include an American Standard Code for Information Interchange ASCII format ted data format a word processor format a spread sheet data format a Portable Document Format PDF data format a slide show software data format such as the Power Point software data format from Microsoft Corporation of Red mond Wash USA a graphic image file format GIFF data format a tagged image file format TIFF data format a Joint Photographic Experts Group JPEG data format a bit map data format an optical character recognition OCR data format and or other forms of encoded data including e g encrypted data etc 0067 When the user enters a command displayed upon touch sensitive menu screen 210 to enter or retrieve an e mail address digital transmitter device 102 coordinates the input of the e mail address Controller 250 then executes a user message compositing routine which can be stored in memory 206 The user message compositing routine assembles message data The message data so assembled can include the e mail address es input or otherwise designated by the user the bit map or other output that is a digital representation of the modified scanned image and can also include any message text entered by the user upon touch sensitive menu screen 210 The message data is then sent by a wired and or wireless link from di
25. ce 102 or server 106 This query can be used for example as access control check that deter mines whether or not the input User ID matches a valid access record Other access control routines can also be used If the access control check results in a denial of access e g other than a positive result from the access control check then a diagnostic message or error code is displayed to the user on the user interface at step 812 and the process 800 returns control to step 804 Other alternatives for a denial of access are contemplated The digital transmitted device 102 can be disabled as to further access and or an alert message can be transmitted from the digital transmitter device 102 with or without a rendering of the manually input signature being attached to the message If access is per mitted then process 800 proceeds to step 814 0098 When various acceptable inputs are made by the user step 814 uses the input to access one or more databases so as to retrieve corresponding data These data can be the font size shape and characteristics of predetermined inser tion fields of a form template Other data that can be retrieved is one or more e mail addresses in a distribution list and or an optional text message to be sent with an e mail US 2005 0057779 1 message way of example and not by way of limitation database and file codes storage 220 224 respectively at the digital transmitter device 102 and at the server 106
26. ch sensitive menu screen 102e for receiving input and or outputting a display of diagnostics and or status Various menu buttons are also shown in Section 102b Section 102c shows copy start button to make a copy of one or more sheets of optically scanned paper Section 1024 shows a scan button to optically scan one or more pieces of paper As an alternative to the user interface depicted in FIG 15 digital transmitter device 102 can have a simpler front menu panel with a limited screen space and less input buttons or keys As another alternative to the user interface depicted in FIG 15 digital transmitter device 102 have an integrated keyboard such as a QWERTY keyboard to assist in entering data 0040 digital transmitter device 102 is typically ori ented toward performing one general task such as scanning and outputting that which was scanned By contrast devices such as desktop laptop and pocket PCs often provide multiple and varied means of input output such as a full screen display a keyboard a mouse speakers microphones PCMCIA Personal Computer Memory Card International Association slots portable media drives and the like These devices are capable of performing multiple functions through executing various software applications such as word processing applications spreadsheet applications financial applications network browsers and network mes saging applications 0041 Various digital tran
27. d in order to specify one or more e mail addresses and an optional message text for an e mail message that the user wishes to send Alternatively a default e mail address or a list of selectable e mail addresses can also be stored at each digital transmitter device 102 i Each digital transmitter device 102 has an imaging or scanning mechanism to receive images of an object e g a hardcopy A document com poser component in each digital transmitter device 102 then composes images of the scanned object as discussed below The detection of detectable indicia in the scanned hardcopy is followed by the insertion of various text and or objects into respective insertion fields corresponding to the detectable indicia After these insertions a modified scanned image of the hardcopy is composed as a document The composed document can then be output by digital transmit ter device 102 The output can be made by the document being printed out transmitted by a facsimile to a facsimile telephone number or sent in a file attached to an e mail message that is addressed to the input default or selected e mail address es from digital transmitter device 102 i through interconnected network 104 to one or more e mail servers 106 i for the respective e mail address es input or specified by the user 0045 user of digital transmitter device 102 seen in FIG 1a can transmit message data to interconnected net work 104 by a wired or wirele
28. d to compose a modified optically scanned version of the document containing the inserted font matched text This modified optically scanned version of the document can then be output or rendered Alternatively the modified optically scanned version of the document can be composed and stored in full or in part locally in and or remotely to scanning mechanism 212 0054 Controller 250 can execute a program so as to transform data to a driver format suitable for printing with integral optional printer device 310 such as a mark up language format e g SMGL HTML or XML or such as a job language format e g PCL or POSTSCRIPT Printer device 310 can have the capability of converting data and then outputting it onto an appropriate print media such as paper transparencies or glossy photo paper 0055 Digital transmitter 102 includes one or more CPUs 202 each of which is operatively coupled to memory 206 and a user interface that includes an input device Preferably the input device will be locally accessible at digital trans mitter device 102 By way of example the input device can be a touch sensitive menu screen 210 Digital transmitter device 102 also includes at least one communication port for interfacing with interconnecting network 104 through either wired or wireless link 0056 When included in MFP device 300 CPU s 202 would also be operatively coupled to printer device 310 for example CPU s 202 is representativ
29. de is com municated to the digital transmitter device The form code is used by the digital transmitter device to identify a softcopy of a form template that has one or more predetermined insertion fields The user is prompted to enter the text or representation s thereof that is to be respectively inserted into the one or more predetermined insertion fields Alter natively the text or representation s thereof can be opti cally scanned and subjected to optical character recognition routine to form a softcopy of the text that is to be respec tively inserted into the one or more predetermined insertion fields The softcopy of the text that is to be respectively inserted into the one or more predetermined insertion fields is then substantially font matched with the respective one or more predetermined insertion fields or vice a versa prior to the insertion thereof into the softcopy of the form template 0021 The first implementation relates to the scanning of a hardcopy to produce an optically scanned image at a digital transmitter device The optically scanned image is subjected to an optical character recognition routine at the digital transmitter device in order to produce a softcopy of the hardcopy The hardcopy also has certain detectable indicia on its face This detectable indicia is representative of one or more insertion fields into which text is to be inserted The optically scanned image is examined for the presence of the det
30. e to digital transmitter device 102 As such the digital trans mitter device 102 addresses in particular the situation in which the user wishes to produce a printed document based on a predetermined electronic form or template that includes material textual or graphic that has been or will be scanned and is then incorporated into the document The completed document may be printed faxed transmitted electronically or stored electronically depending on the desires of the user and the capabilities of the digital trans mitter device 102 used to create the completed document In one implementation the form template for the document being generated is preferably stored on a hard drive or other memory device of the digital transmitter device 102 The form template however may be stored on at server 106 or another network resource and downloaded to the digital transmitter device 102 via network 104 0086 With the form template that corresponds to a form code in memory when scanned images are to be inserted into the template the digital transmitter device 102 can access the form template from the memory and ascertain the front size and or position of one or more predefined inser tion fields into which the scanned image s and or input from the user can be fit Alternatively the font size and other parameters of the one or more predefined insertion fields can be communicated to the digital transmitter device 102 from the server 106 on w
31. e fields at predetermined positions and or one or more fields of detectable indicia 0015 FIG 6 illustrates an example according to an embodiment of the present invention of a menu page that might be displayed on the touch sensitive menu screen of the digital transmitter device in sequence after a transition from the menu page of FIG 4 0016 FIG 7 is a representation of the paper document of FIG 5 after it has been composed by the digital transmitter device where one of the fields on the paper document of FIG 5 has been substituted for a fitted field that includes a manually input signature that is superimposed as a water mark on the paper document where another field has address and telephone number data fitted therein and situ ated so as to avoid clipping an adjacent marking on the paper document and where the textual contents of another field was directly input by a user at a user interface as shown in FIG 4 according to an embodiment of the present inven tion 0017 FIGS 8 9 are flow diagrams depicting respective processes for use in a computing and communication envi ronment having a digital transmitter device as in FIG 1a for example in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the present invention DETAILED DESCRIPTION 0018 Implementations described herein provide control of a digital transmitter device based upon user input The user input corresponds to text that is inserted into a docu ment The inser
32. e mail addresses from a particular database so that respective e mail mes sages can be addressed for the transmission thereto of the modified scanned image A different mark that is detected by detection routine may be interpreted as an instruction to prompt a user to make a handwritten mark using a stylus on a touch sensitive menu screen of a user interface The handwritten mark can be processed in a variety of ways as described herein US 2005 0057779 1 0032 second implementation produces a document with a digital transmitter device The document is based on a softcopy of a form template that is a text document having predefined insertion field The form template or param eters thereof is stored in or accessible to the digital trans mitter device An image is scanned to form an optically scanned image thereof This optically scanned image is subjected to an optical character recognition routine to form softcopy of text that is located in the optically scanned image Alternatively the text softcopy of the text that is to be inserted into the form template can be obtained by a user directly keying in the text at a keyboard or other input device of the digital transmitter device Other ways can be used to obtain a softcopy of text that 15 to be inserted into the form template In either case once the softcopy of the text to be inserted is obtained the font thereof can be substantially matched as to the font of text adj
33. e menu pages The touch sensitive menu screen 210 can be used to display a menu page that asks for and receives the input such as an e mail address to which to image data that is scanned with scanning mechanism 212 is to be transmitted in an e mail message via interconnected network 104 0059 Controller 250 processes data and manages device functions by controlling device engine 208 and by respond ing to input from touch sensitive menu screen 210 Device driver software in a device server can be stored in memory 206 and executed on CPU s 202 Memory 206 also includes aserver module 214 configured to serve menu documents to the touch sensitive menu screen 210 The server module 214 is a local server in the sense that it is present within the same digital transmitter device 102 to which it serves menu documents 0060 As mentioned above controller 250 can optionally include a User ID Signature File and Code component that is stored in the database and file codes storage 220 in memory 206 This User ID Signature File and Code com ponent would in turn be used to validate a user identification code User ID and a corresponding digital representation of a signature for the purpose of ascertaining the access control rights of a user Alternatively server 106 can perform this function through a database and file codes storage 224 in memory 222 of server 106 0061 Menu documents stored in memory 206 can be interpreted by the server module 2
34. e need not have a printer 0003 In an exemplary scanning operation a hardcopy of a document or other physical object can be presented to the scanner portion of a digital transmitter device After scan ning the digital transmitter device transforms the scanned image into a digital representation If the digital transmitter device has a printer the digital representation can be ren dered to the printer to produce one or more hardcopies If the digital transmitter device has facsimile transmission capa bilities and a network over which to transmit a facsimile the digital transmitter device can render the digital representa tion of the scanned image into a facsimile image that can be transmitted over the network to a predetermined or input facsimile telephone number 0004 In an exemplary digital transmitting operation a hardcopy of a document or other physical object can be presented to the scanner portion of a digital transmitter device After scanning the digital transmitter device trans forms the scanned image into a digital representation that 15 then saved in a data format such as in a bit map data format or in a Portable Document Format PDF Electronic mes saging can be used to send an electronic mail e mail message from the digital transmitter device with an attach ment of the digitized representation in the data format The e mail message can be sent to recipients over an intercon necting network where the recipients ha
35. e of any hardware firmware and or software that is configured to perform certain functions associated with the operation of digital transmitter device 102 Hence as those skilled in the art will recognize CPU s 202 may include dedicated logic and or one or more processors configured in accord with software instructions for example 0057 Memory 206 is representative of any type of data storage mechanism that can be accessed by at least CPU s Mar 17 2005 202 Memory 206 may therefore include for example some form of random access memory RAM some form of read only memory ROM and or other like solid state data storage mechanism Memory 206 may include a magnetic and or optical data storage mechanism Scanning mecha nism 212 is representative of any optical scanner technology that may be employed to produce scanned object data upon scanning an object Such scanning technologies are well known The resulting scanned object data is provided to CPU 202 and or stored in memory 206 0058 Controller 250 of digital transmitter device 102 typically includes data processing unit or CPU 202 a volatile memory 204 ie RAM and a non volatile memory 206 e g ROM Flash Digital transmitter device 102 also includes a device engine 208 The touch sensitive menu screen 210 acts as a local user interface for digital transmitter device 102 by displaying menu pages and accepting user input based on selectable menu items dis played on th
36. ectable indicia corresponding to the one or more insertion fields Detectable indicia determined to be present is further examined to determine the position size and shape of each of the one or more insertion fields Upon this determination respective text is located identified and or retrieved for the purpose of fitting the same respectively into each of the one or more insertion fields The text and or objects are located identified and or retrieved using routines that call for inter active user input and or retrieval of data from a database based upon interactive user input such as where the user physically inputs data from a keypad and or touch screen The fitting of the text respectively into each of the one or more insertion fields includes a routine that substantially matches the font of the inserted text to that of its adjacent text in each of the one or more insertion fields for the softcopy of the document Once these font matched text insertions have been made into the softcopy the softcopy can then be used to produce a modified scanned image As such the modified scanned image represents the optically scanned hardcopy having font matched text inserted into the one or more insertion fields 0022 The detectable indicia can be quite diverse in type and kind The type and kind of detectable indicia need only be detectable by a detection routine that is performed upon an optically scanned image As such the detectable indicia
37. ed text matches the font of text adjacent thereto in the digital image The digital image having the substitution is rendered OCR FUNCTION S ON CAPTURED SCANNED IMAGE S Wait For image Composer To Be Ready 824 Y f INSERT SUPERIMPOSE IN PUT FONT MATCHED TEXT SYMBOL HANDWRITING INTO PREDETERMINED INSERTION FIELD S OPTIONS No CROPPING OBJECT Fit To FORM IMAGE COMPOSER FORMS FiLE OF CAPTURED IMAGE S RENDERED WITH INSERTION FIELD S Fax PRINT AND OR TRANSMIT TO EMAIL ADDRESS ES WITH TEXT MESSAGE AND ATTACHED FILE Patent Application Publication Mar 17 2005 Sheet 1 of 8 US 2005 0057779 A1 Fi 77 la 102 3 NETWORK 104 102a 1026 MW 102c 1024 Scan 5 def Touch Senstive send 2 Display Screen 4 5 amp B tuv 1028 G9 9 De D m cae start start scan Patent Application Publication Mar 17 2005 Sheet 2 of 8 US 2005 0057779 A1 MEMORY 222 200 SERVER 106 PROCESSOR DATABASE AND 232 DEVICE DRIVER FILE CODES 228 224 VOLATILE MEMORY APPLICATION 234 SERVER MODULE ROUTINES 230 226 NETWORK 104 DIGITAL TRANSMITTER DEVICE 102 CONTROLLER 250 MEMORY 206 IMAGE DATABASE AND CPU COMPOSER FILE CODES 202 217 220 2 VIRTUAL x 218 SERVE
38. epared to compose a document Process 800 then proceeds to step 824 At step 824 the execution of image composer component 217 and or detection application 216 of the digital transmitter device 102 performs a font matching routine on the text that 15 to be inserted into predetermined insertion fields as described above The font matched text is then correspondingly inserted into respective predetermined Mar 17 2005 insertion fields in a softcopy of the document These inser tions can include superimposing text symbols and or hand writing into the predetermined insertion fields that were determined as described above by the execution of detection application 216 0104 completion of the predetermined insertion fields is made by a step 826 that permits various options Once such option permits the digital transmitter device 102 to be configured so as to permit or prevent one or more specific insertion fields from cropping the underlying por tion of the optically scanned document as disclosed above e g the no cropping option As a further option the size and or shape of the derived text and their corresponding predetermined insertion fields can be adjusted to fit one another within the given size and shape of an optically scanned document 0105 After optional step 826 process 800 performs step 828 through the execution of the image composer 217 by digital transmitter device 102 The execution of the image compose
39. er scan one or more pieces of paper for each of the predefined insertion fields 504 506 518 as they are defined in the form template 502 This request may be displayed on the user interface 210 on the digital transmitter device 102 Naturally the user will be working directly with the digital transmitter device 102 to scan the desired images However the prompt s may be made with the connected server 106 0089 The user then sequentially scans data images on one or more pieces of paper where the images can represent handwritten character sequence or signature a text mes sage and address data The scanning takes place on the scanning mechanism 212 of the digital transmitter device 102 The digital transmitter device 102 or server 106 may prompt the user when it is ready to scan the next image if more than one image is to be included in more than one predetermined insertion field in the form template 502 The optically scanned images are each subjected to an optical character recognition routine to derive respective text thereof 0090 As shown in FIGS 5 having ascertained the font size position and perhaps the shape of the predetermined insertion fields 504 506 518 into which the scanned images will be placed the digital transmitter device 102 matches the font of the derived text to the text adjacent to the predeter mined insertion fields 504 506 518 As such the text in block 718 substantially matches the font of block
40. er step 930 process 900 returns to step 904 to repeat the foregoing procedure 0110 foregoing Detailed Description has set forth an example of transmitting an e mail message from a digital transmitter device Embodiments of the present invention contemplate other types of data that can also be addressed and transmitted from a digital transmitter device to an electronic address including those now known and those yet to be developed As such and in addition to an e mail transmission embodiments of the present invention include transmission from a digital transmitter device to an elec tronic address that includes an address of a network resource on a network and a destination location thereat By way of example and not by way of limitation the electronic address can be a file folder address at a server on a network and can also be a Web site address at a server on a network 0111 Although some implementations of the present invention have been illustrated in the accompanying Draw ings and described in the foregoing Detailed Description it will be understood that the present invention is not limited to the exemplary implementations disclosed but is capable of numerous rearrangements modifications and substitu tions without departing from the spirit of the invention as set forth and defined by the following claims What is claimed is 1 A computer readable medium having computer execut able instructions which when exec
41. erein the substituting further comprises determining the font of at least one of the text string and the text adjacent to the predetermined insertion field and changing the font of either the text string or the text adjacent to the predetermined insertion field to be that of the determined font 45 The digital transmitter device as defined in claim 42 wherein the substituting further comprises changing the font of both the text string and the text adjacent to the predeter mined insertion field to be substantially the same font 46 The digital transmitter device as defined in claim 42 wherein the substituting further comprises esthetically arranging the text input in line with the text adjacent to the predetermined indicia 47 The digital transmitter device as defined in claim 42 wherein the processor further executes the program to receive a font selection at a user interface wherein the substituting further comprises substantially matching the font of the text string and the text adjacent to the predeter mined insertion field to that of the font selection 48 The digital transmitter device medium as defined in claim 47 wherein the receiving of the font selection at the user interface further comprises determining the font of the text adjacent to the predeter mined insertion field and outputting a display at the user interface that identifies the font of the text adjacent to the predeter mined insertion field and
42. g of various imple mentations of the present invention may be had by reference to the following detailed description when taken in conjunc tion with the accompanying drawings wherein the same reference numbers are used throughout the drawings to reference like components and features and wherein 0010 FIG 1a is a block diagram according to an embodiment of the present invention depicting a computing and communication environment having various digital transmitter devices in a system environment suitable for providing local access to the digital transmitter devices 0011 FIG 15 is an example of a user interface accord ing to an embodiment of the present invention for a digital transmitter device in FIG 1a 0012 FIG 2 is a block diagram according to an embodi ment of the present invention illustrating a digital transmit US 2005 0057779 1 ter device communication through wired or wireless link to an interconnecting network to which a server is also in communication 0013 FIGS 3 4 illustrate an example of sequential menu pages that might be displayed on a touch sensitive menu screen of a digital transmitter device according to an embodiment of the present invention 0014 FIG 5 illustrates an example according to an embodiment of the present invention of a paper document to be optically scanned into a scanning mechanism of a digital transmitter device where the paper document has thereon one or mor
43. gital transmitter device 102 to interconnected network 104 From interconnected network 104 a communication is established with an e mail server 106 as seen in FIG 1 The e mail server 106 serves the e mail address to which the e mail message from digital transmitter device 102 is to be sent By way of example server 106 can but need not function as the e mail server of any e mail address of digital transmitter devices 102 i seen in FIG 1 Alternatively a server in communication with interconnected network 104 other than server 106 can be the e mail server for e mail addresses associated with digital transmitter devices 102 i US 2005 0057779 1 0068 CPU s 202 is configured to perform the operations described above using various executable modules of memory 206 These executable modules of memory 206 can include an e mail address storage retrieval routine a com municative link interface routine and a user message com positing routine any of which can each be implemented in software or firmware 0069 In one embodiment of the invention an e mail address storage retrieval routine executing on CPU s 202 receives input of an e mail address from a user at touch sensitive menu screen 210 or retrieves a list of stored e mail addresses by a look up that makes use of the user s input The list of e mail addresses can be displayed on touch sensitive menu screen 210 in a hierarchical list The list can be sorted alpha numerically T
44. has not made the required input to the user interface then the process 800 passes control to back to step 806 If however the user has made the required input using the user interface at step 806 then the process moves to step 810 Alternatively the first of a series of prompts at step 806 can require the user to enter a form code The form code can be used to look up a form template The form template can be retrieved and found to have one or more predetermined insertion fields therein For instance a user can enter a form code which when looked up in a forms specification table file or other logical structure retrieves the form template and identifies specific locations therein that correspond to one or more predeter mined insertion fields By way of non limiting example this lookup can find that predetermined insertion fields 504 506 and 518 in a form template that has the appearance at reference numeral 502 Further on in step 806 additional prompts can be displayed Each such addition prompt can direct the user to enter text that is to be inserted into a corresponding one of the predetermined insertion fields in the form template 0097 Process 800 then moves to step 810 where an access control check and or validity of the input data is tested By way of example the User ID 304 entered prior to the menu 302 seen in FIG 3 can be queried against the database and file code storage 220 and or 224 of either digital transmitter devi
45. he user can either select from among the displayed e mail addresses or input the characters of a specific e mail address using a drill down function of the menu as discussed below with respect to FIGS 3 4 The drill down menu format and the displayed list of retrieved e mail addresses assist the user in locating an e mail address of interest 0070 FIG 2 shows server 106 as being communica tion with interconnected network 104 and having a proces sor 232 a volatile memory 234 and memory 222 Memory 222 includes a device driver 228 a server module 230 optionally the database and file codes storage 224 discussed above and application routines 226 for storage of software or other machine executable code Application routines 226 are storage locations for programs that can be executed by processor 232 on server 106 0071 As mentioned in the examples above but not limited thereto a user interface device can be used to accept the input of a text insertion or representation thereof to be inserted into insertion field such as by being keyed in at a keyboard by a user of the digital transmitter device Another input can be an e mail address that is similarly entered Still other input can be a handwritten character string that is entered upon at a touch sensitive menu screen which handwriting is subjected to an optical character recognition routine to derive corresponding text therefrom By way of example of a user interface
46. herein by way of sub stitution for the detectable indicia Mar 17 2005 0065 Font matched text can be inserted in respective insertion fields in a variety of ways For instance an insertion field can be rendered in the modified scanned image to appear as a water mark of user specified font so that the one or more superimpositions do not substantially obscure any portion of the images on the rendered docu ments The superimpositions can appear to be integral with the images on the rendered document so that their appear ance thereon is easily noticed and could not be easily removed To further minimize obscuring any portion of the images on the rendered documents the superimpositions can be situated in a margin or scaled so as to be small relative to the rendered document page size To do so the digital transmitter device can be configured manually or otherwise to have control over the location and size of the inserted water mark on the rendered documents 0066 Once the document composition process has digi tized the scanned object data with the insertion fields as discussed above the composed documents can be printed out sent as a facsimile transmission to a facsimile telephone number specified by the user and or sent in an attached file to an e mail message that is transmitted to an e mail address es specified by the user Moreover the image composer 217 of memory 206 can provide the digital transmitter device 102 with the
47. hich a form template is resident The digital transmitter device 102 can then auto matically scan one or more images with scanning mecha nism 212 at an appropriate resolution scale and size The optically scanned one or more images are then subjected to an optical character recognition routine to derive one or more corresponding text messages Each text message can then be font matched to text adjacent to a corresponding predefined insertion field in the form template Each font matched text message is inserted into the corresponding predefined insertion field in the form template 0087 way of further example FIG 5 can be deemed to represent an illustration of a form template 502 As shown in FIG 5 the form template 502 includes standard elements that remain the same from use to use These standard elements are exemplified in FIG 5 by the non descript areas Mar 17 2005 outside of predefined insertion fields 504 506 and 518 The predefined form template 502 may also be a dynamic form that includes data items that will be obtained and added each time the form is completed For example a dynamic form may include a date or time stamp The dynamic form may also include a field for data that is pulled from an available data source for example the Internet and added to the form such a price quote for a particular security etc Additionally the exemplary form template 502 seen in FIG 5 includes predefined insertion fields 504
48. ights are based upon an optional access control check that is performed upon the users manual input of data and or a signature at touch sensitive menu screen 210 Prior to the scanning operation the user places a document into a sheet feeder device associated with digital transmitter device 102 The sheet feeder device then physically feeds each sheet in the docu ment to scanning mechanism 212 Alternatively the user can place a single sheet or substrate on to a glass platen associated with digital transmitter device 102 CPU s 202 process software or other machine executable code stored in image composer 217 The image composer 217 then gener ates a bit map or other output that is a digital representation of the scanned document in a document composition pro cess The bit map or other digital representation of the document is examined for the presence of detectable indicia and insertion fields corresponding thereto by execution of the detection application 216 and or other routines Text and or object s for each insertion field are obtained as described herein 0064 Once obtained the text and or objects are inserted into their respective insertion fields within the bit map or other output that is a digital representation of the scanned documents modified scanned image is then composed by image composer 217 The modified scanned image that is composed includes all insertion fields having the corre sponding text and objects inserted t
49. image composer 217 to compose all inser tion fields with the scanned document s and then assemble message data to be sent in an e mail message through interconnecting network 104 to the e mail address es that was were selected or otherwise entered by the user as discussed above US 2005 0057779 1 0083 Before a user places one or more pieces of paper a sheet feeder to be optically scanned with a scanning mechanism into a digital transmitter device one or more such pieces of paper can have an image an example of which has been discussed above with respect to FIG 5 After the document composition is performed by the digital transmitter device 102 each rendered page can have a representation such as has been discussed with respect to FIG 7 where a manually entered signature has been super imposed with an address and facsimile number also inserted into the image 0084 Whether one or all of the rendered pages are to show the handwritten superimposed entries can be an option that is left to the user who is placing the detectable indicia Other data can be superimposed by the document compo sition component of the digital transmitter device such as the time date e mail address of the sender etc 0085 form code can be input by a user at a touch sensitive menu screen 210 of digital transmitter device 102 The form code corresponds to a form template that is kept as a softcopy in storage The storage can be local or remot
50. image that was captured by the scanning mechanism which digital image was modified by any insertion fields as described above The e mail address es can be anyone of an electronic mail e mail address at an e mail server on a network a file folder address at a server on a network a Web site address at a server on a network and the like 0036 digitizing of the composition process for the message data can include handwriting or other indicia that was captured from a user s use of an input device such as touch sensitive menu screen a keyboard etc One result of the composition or digitizing process is that the input from the input device e g handwriting received at a touch sensitive menu screen can be superimposed on around or near the image that has been composed or digitized As such the resultant appearance of the rendered documents sent in the e mail message will be that the handwriting or other indicia appears to be integral to or a part of the original images on the documents that were captured by the scanning mechanism Mar 17 2005 0037 Exemplary System for Configuration of a Digital Transmitter Device 0038 FIG 1a illustrates an example of a system envi ronment 100 suitable for implementing an embodiment of the present invention The system environment 100 contem plates a plurality of digital transmitter devices 102 i e g 102 1 102 2 etc that can be in communication with an interconnected
51. included within a multiple function peripheral MFP device 300 As its name implies the MFP device 300 is configured to provide multiple functions In this example the functions provided by the device 300 include those provided by digital transmitter device 102 as well as an optional printer device 310 Consequently the user of digital transmitter device 102 may also print out a hardcopy of any applicable portions of data stored scanned or otherwise acquired by digital transmitter device 102 0048 In general digital transmitter device 102 uses a controller 250 to execute a program that can be stored in an image composer 217 of a memory 206 Execution of the image composer 217 will compose a document from images that are captured by scanning the document using a scanning mechanism 212 A detection application 216 in memory 206 when executed by controller 250 can be used to detect detectable indicia in an optically scanned image to deter mine the size shape and location of insertion fields from the detected indicia and to determine a process for obtaining text to be inserted into each insertion field in the optically scanned image Alternatively detection application 216 in memory 206 when executed by controller 250 can be used to process a form template to determine the size shape and location of insertion fields therein and to determine a process for obtaining text to be inserted into each insertion field in the form temp
52. into the one or more predetermined insertion fields in a softcopy of the form template 0072 When the user selects option 1 on menu screen 302 digital transmitter 102 activates scanning mechanism 212 to scan in documents as discussed above When the user selected option 3 on menu screen 302 menu screen 402 seen in FIG 4 is displayed Menu screen 402 can be used to receive input of text message 406 from the user The user can directly enter each character of the text message 406 using displayed virtual buttons Menu screen 402 shows a practical example of a user selecting characters for text message 406 Script code executing in CPU s 202 can be used to present menu screen 402 The execution of this script code allows the user to see alphabetic and symbolic char acters as the user depresses virtual buttons 1004 so as to move forward and backward through a displayed hierarchi cal list of available alphabetic and symbolic characters Script code executes in CPU s 202 to enable a user to select a displayed character by depressing virtual button 1006 Output area 406 on menu screen 402 shows that the user has entered various letters and symbols for text message 406 Then when the Select virtual button 1006 is depressed on touch sensitive menu screen 210 as represented by menu screen 402 the user sees a transition to a menu screen 602 in FIG 6 FIG 6 shows that the user has keyed the e mail address Sesek URL COM similarly to the e
53. l transmitter device 102 can be configured such that an insertion field corre sponding to the second detectable indicia 506 will be shifted in the position thereof such that the text on paper 502 will not be obscured by the filling in of the insertion field corresponding to the second detectable indicia 506 As such none of the text of image 502 will be cropped or otherwise obscured by inserted text or objects One routine for per forming such a cropping option is to shift the location of the insertion field corresponding to the second detectable indicia 506 such that the complete periphery around the insertion field is represented only by a white color e g a blank space This completely white periphery can be detected by detection application 216 in the optically scanned image Other known routines to avoid obscuring and or cropping an underlying image with inserted text and objects are also contemplated 0077 The detection of first second and third detectable indicia 504 506 and 518 can be interpreted by the execution of detection application 216 as an instruction to display a menu screen The menu screen that is displayed can prompt a user to enter text that is to be inserted respectively into fields that correspond to first second and third detectable indicia 504 506 and 518 Thus each menu screen 402 602 displays prompts that direct a user to manually enter text For instance menu screen 602 features a User ID pro
54. late 0049 Digital transmitter device 102 can use controller 250 to execute a program that performs an optical character recognition routine on an optically scanned image that is acquired by use of scanning mechanism 212 The optical character recognition routine forms a softcopy of text of the optically scanned image The font of the softcopy of text can be substantially matched with respect to text that is adjacent to the insertion field in a softcopy of the document When so matched the font matched text can be inserted into the insertion field of the softcopy of the document The modified softcopy of the document can then be rendered for output such as by forming a hardcopy of the modified softcopy of the document 0050 Depending upon the extent and type of text that is to be inserted into a document the hardcopy of the modified softcopy of the document might have more or less pages than that of the original unmodified hardcopy In this case digital transmitter device 102 can use controller 250 to execute a reflow routine that repaginates the resultant modi fied softcopy of the document and its corresponding hard copy As such the resultant modified hardcopy will be properly paginated and will have a consistent font appear ance at each field into which text had been inserted US 2005 0057779 1 0051 Input that is received from a user of the digital transmitter device and or the type and kind of the detected indicia that i
55. mpt 604 an email address prompt 606 a font type prompt 610 and a handwriting signature prompt 614 The user responds by entering respective response to which the prompts apply By way of example the user enters a User ID as A93B at entry field 304 in response to the User ID prompt 604 The user enters an email address at entry field 608 in response to the email address prompt 606 The user enters a font type at entry field 612 in response to the email address prompt 610 user can also enter a manual signature upon the touch sensitive menu screen 210 at entry field 614 in response to the The entries for fields 304 608 612 and 616 can be entered on touch sensitive menu screen 210 Alternatively alphanumeric entries at fields 304 608 and 612 could be made by the user at a keyboard if available to digital transmitter 102 The User ID A93B be entered at entry field 304 in a way that is similar to that of the text message seen at reference numeral 406 in menu screen 402 of in FIG 4 The handwritten signature can be entered by using a pen or stylus upon touch sensitive menu screen 210 Alterna tively the pen or stylus can also be used to make other inputs to menu screens 302 402 and 602 on touch sensitive menu Mar 17 2005 screen 210 As can be seen in menu screen 602 the result of the manually entered signature is displayed at entry field 616 0078 After input is accepted from the user of menu screen 602
56. network 104 Interconnected network 104 is in communication with one or more server s 106 Each server 106 i can be an e mail message server that serves one or more e mail addresses to which any digital transmitter device 102 can send an e mail message Digital transmitter devices 102 may be stand alone devices that have a scanning mechanism and may also have an output mecha nism such as a printer a copier or a fax machine As such each digital transmitter devices 102 is multifunction peripheral MFP device that combines the scanning mecha nism and the output mechanism into a single device A digital transmitter device 102 i can function while uncoupled or isolated from other devices A digital trans mitter device 102 therefore be a device such as a copier a scanner or a fax machine such as are shown in FIG 1a 0039 Digital transmitter devices 102 are generally dis tinguishable from devices such as desktop PCs personal computers laptop PCs and pocket PCs by their limited purpose and limited user interface or input output capabili ties For example FIG 15 shows a user interface for a digital transmitter device 102 The user interface includes various sections of input devices to perform respective functions with the digital transmitter device Section 102a allows input of alphanumeric strings with respective number keys in order perform input to send a facsimile and or an e mail Section 1025 shows a tou
57. ntering of the various letters and symbols for text message 406 FIG 6 also shows that the user has used a stylus to handwrite input on the touch sensitive menu in a signature field at reference numeral 608 Other virtual buttons on the touch sensitive menu screen 210 are also contemplated in order to provide for the initiation of other and or additional functions by the user such as a menu virtual item button 1002 seen in FIGS 3 4 and 6 0073 FIG 5 shows an image 502 that can be a form template containing predetermined insertion fields 504 506 and 518 into which text is to be inserted The form template is represented by softcopy having predetermined insertion fields 504 506 and 518 therein Input is received directly or indirectly from a user of digital transmitter device 102 that corresponds to the predetermined insertion fields 504 506 and 518 This input is converted where needed into respective softcopies of text corresponding to the predeter mined insertion fields 504 506 and 518 The respective softcopies of the text are then font matched to the respective text that are adjacent to each of the predetermined insertion fields 504 506 and 518 in the softcopy of the form template 0074 FIG 5 shows an image 502 that can be on a piece of paper Image 502 includes markings that indicate prede termined insertion fields 504 506 and 518 A user places the piece of paper in a sheet feeder to be optically scanned with s
58. o which e mail message data is to be sent via interconnected network 104 Still another menu item can be configured to perform the task of initiating a retrieval of an e mail address that was previously stored in memory 206 where memory 206 can optionally contain e mail address information in the database and file codes storage 220 in memory 206 that can be requested to be displayed upon touch sensitive menu screen 210 When the e mail address information is retrieved from memory 206 the user can select a displayed e mail address to which an e mail mes sage will be transmitted over interconnected network 104 to one or more recipients via server 106 from the memory 206 of another digital transmitter device 102 as seen in FIG 1a Alternatively the user can directly enter a specific e mail address into the digital transmitter device 102 using touch sensitive menu screen 210 Controller 250 executes pro cesses resident in a communicative link interface for a transmission e g an e mail message that can be transmitted over a wired and or wireless link to interconnected network 104 These transmitted email messages need not be sent to another digital transmission device 102 they may be sent to any device capable of receiving email 0063 The digital transmitter device can be configured such that the user can enter a command to initiate a scanning operation either before or after the user has obtained suffi cient access rights where the r
59. of memory 206 in digital transmitter device 102 can serve a menu page that is stored in memory 206 to CPU 202 for execution of script code The script code being executed by CPU 202 effects a function to be performed by digital transmitter device 102 such as receiving input from a user that is entered upon touch sensitive menu screen 210 or the initiation of a function by the user depressing a function related virtual button that is displayed upon touch sensitive menu screen 210 The script code will preferably be executed in conjunction with an interpretation of the menu page Note that in certain imple Mar 17 2005 mentations the menu page can be directly interpreted by script code executing on CPU 202 without any prior storage in menu documents in memory 206 or use of server module 214 in digital transmitter device 102 0095 prompts displayed at step 806 can direct a user to enter various inputs upon a user interface to the digital transmitter device By way of example such a user interface could be touch sensitive menu screen 210 of digital trans mitter device 102 as seen in FIG 2 The input can be entries that include a text message a User ID a handwritten string of characters and or a form code as discussed above 0096 After the entries of the user are accepted the entries are queried at step 808 At step 808 it can be determined whether or not the user has made required input to the user interface If the user
60. or other significant mark the detection routine can also determine what is to be inserted into each insertion field For instance the detection of ink having a specific reflective property may be recognized as a cue to prompt the user for input After the user has responded with input to the prompt the optically scanned image would then be modified to fit the user s input into the size shape and position of the insertion field so as to create a modified scanned image The modified scanned image can then be rendered as a hardcopy upon which the user s input is seen Other output renderings are also con templated 0031 The user can physically mark one or more fields such as by application of ink or by perforations on paper or another substrate that is to be optically scanned The shapes of the physical marks made by the user and the types of ink used by the user can have respectively different significan ces in subsequent processing by various detection routines A particular mark that is detected by a detection routine may be interpreted as an instruction to prompt a user to input code at a user interface of the digital transmitter device such as by using a keypad and or touch sensitive menu screen This input code can then be used to look up text that is to be fit into an insertion field of predetermined size at the location of the particular mark This or another input code might be used for the retrieval of a distribution list of
61. quence as will be discussed below 0107 FIG 9 shows process 900 beginning at step 902 which directs a process flow to step 904 At step 904 process 900 waits for the scanning mechanism 212 of the digital transmitter device 102 to be ready If so the process 900 moves control to step 906 where the scanning mechanism 212 scans in one or more pages e g a document for storage at the digital transmitter device as an optically scanned image Step 908 calls for the execution of detection application 216 to locate detectable indicia in the optically scanned image of the document as discussed above When an insufficient detection results process 900 displays corre sponding diagnostics at step 910 and then terminates Alter natively the detection application 216 can be configured to terminate after a diagnostic display at step 916 when it has been determined that a form code has not been detected in the optically scanned image captured at step 906 or entered at step 912 As such the form code can be entered in US 2005 0057779 1 response to prompt for same at step 912 form code be processed similarly to what has been discussed above with respect process 800 of FIG 8 so as to identify both a form template and its corresponding one or more predeter mined insertion fields into which font matched text is to be inserted 0108 When the location of the one or more predeter mined insertion fields have been determined at step
62. r 217 composes the softcopy document so as to include therein one or more font matched text strings that were input retrieved and or derived for insertion into e g substituted in the place of the one or more predetermined insertion fields thereby producing a modified softcopy of the document At step 830 the modified softcopy of the document can be output e g rendered by printing fac simile transmission or by one or more e mail messages that are assembled and transmitted to the e mail address es input or otherwise specified by the user at step 806 Attached to each e mail message is a file containing a digital rendering of the document Alternatively the user may be permitted an option at step 830 to preview the document with insertions prior to the output thereof After the step 830 process 800 returns to step 804 to repeat the foregoing procedure 0106 FIG 9 shows a flow diagram according to another embodiment of the present invention depicting a method for using a digital transmitter device With this in mind CPU s 202 can be configured to perform the operations described below By way of further example the flow diagram depicted in FIG 9 illustrates certain exemplary functions that can be performed using CPU s 202 and the other resources in digital transmitter device 102 Here a process 900 is provided Steps in process 900 have functional similarities to the steps in process 800 although set forth in a different se
63. r computing device SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 0007 In one implementation a digital transmitter device optically scans a substrate to form a digital image An optical character recognition of the digital image forms a document having text in a word processing format that is adjacent to predetermined indicia Text input is received and substituted for the predetermined indicia in the document such that both the text input and the text adjacent to the predetermined indicia have substantially the same font A rendering of the document is output 0008 In another implementation a document is produced by a digital transmitter device wherein the document includes a form template that incorporates a scanned image into a predefined insertion field The form template or parameters thereof are stored in or accessible to the digital transmitter device The form template has a word processing format and includes text that is adjacent to the predefined insertion field The digital transmitter device scans an image for inclusion in the form template to form a digital image An optical character recognition of the digital image forms a text input that is substituted in the form template for the predefined insertion field such that both the text input and the text that is adjacent to the predefined insertion field have substantially the same font A rendering of the document is output DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 0009 more complete understandin
64. s 720 722 digital transmitter device 102 will than electronically output the image seen in FIG 7 from a modified softcopy US 2005 0057779 1 in which font matched text insertions been made FIG 7 shows that fields 702 704 and 718 have the proportionally correct size and shape corresponding to predefined insertion fields 504 506 and 518 0091 completed document seen in FIG 7 can be rendered by the digital transmitter device 102 for the user transmitted as a facsimile sent in an email attached docu ment file e g a PDF format to an email message or stored and or transmitted as an electronic document file In this way predefined insertion fields can be fitted with font matched text derived from scanned images The text that corresponds to each scanned image can not only be substantially matched to a particular font of text adjacent to predefined insertion field but text can also be appropri ately sized and perhaps shaped automatically The user need not take time to edit a softcopy of the entire document in order to esthetically fit font matched text into a predefined insertion field in a form template If the text corresponding to the scanned image or its representation is provided with ashape that does not match the predefined insertion field the digital transmitter device 102 will preferably size text cor responding to the scanned image to generally fit the pre defined insertion field
65. s detected by the digital transmitter device can be used by the digital transmitter device as a key to look up corresponding text in a database and file codes storage 220 in memory 206 of digital transmitter device 102 and or in database and file codes storage 224 in memory 222 of server 106 Any text thus obtained can then be used for any of a variety of purposes For instance the input from the user can be a text message a User ID a character string or a sequence of codes that can be looked upon the database and file codes storage 220 for the purpose of obtaining a single email address and or an e mail address list 0052 The detected indicia can be a bar code or invisible ink symbol that can be looked up in the database and file codes storage 220 This look up operation can obtain a corresponding text softcopy The corresponding softcopy of the text can then be font matched for substitution into the one or more corresponding insertion fields having adjacent like font text in a softcopy of an optically scanned hardcopy As such the substituted text will take the place of the detected indicia Other such look ups are also contemplated 0053 Upon obtaining the text and its proper matching font the execution of the detection application 216 can also fit insert and or superimpose each such font matched text into around and or proximal to the corresponding insertion field of the optically scanned image The image composer 217 can be use
66. screen 402 0080 text in each block 718 720 and 722 has substantially the same font The font can be for instance specified in entry field 612 response to font type prompt 610 e g Time New Roman 12 Point Alternatively the text in each block 718 can be substantially matched to the original font of the text in blocks 720 and 722 The original font of the text in blocks 720 and 722 can be determined by performing an optical character recognition routine on an optically scanned image of the text in blocks 520 and 522 of FIG 5 As a further alternative the font of the handwriting at reference numeral 702 can be predetermined or can be as was specified for instance in entry field 612 in response to font type prompt 610 0081 cropping option has been used in the result ant modified scanned image in that the address data 704 is shifted to the right so as to avoid obscuring text in the image on the paper proximal to the reference numeral 706 in FIG 0082 modified scanned image seen in FIG 7 can be printed out sent to the displayed facsimile telephone num ber 555 123 4321 for rendering and or made into a docu ment e g a PDF file that can be attached to an e mail message addressed to the e mail address Sesek URL COM specified at reference numeral 606 In transmitting an e mail message after the foregoing input sequence from a user digital transmitter device 102 can use the execution of
67. smitter devices 102 are seen in FIG 1a including a facsimile machine 102 3 multifunc tional peripheral machine 102 2 with a printer device that US 2005 0057779 1 scan and print a hardcopy or send e mail message with an attached copy of the scanned hardcopy and a high volume copier 102 1 that includes the capabilities of print ing on substrates of varied composition binding collating folding stacking stapling stitching edge trimming and paginating 0042 Interconnecting network 104 is representative of one or more communication links either wired or wireless that are capable of carrying data between server s 106 and other network resources in communication with intercon necting network 104 In certain exemplary implementations interconnecting network 104 includes a local area network LAN a wide area network WAN an intranet the Inter net or other similar network 0043 Local access to each digital transmitter device 102 i can be provided through an input device such as a touch sensitive menu screen 210 on each digital transmitter device 102 A user may access the input device via an access control process that is initiated by input that is made to a user interface This input can be a handwritten signature upon a touch sensitive menu screen a command sequence and or User ID entered via a keyboard as well as other means of input 0044 Input to the user interface can be receive
68. ss link A wireless link can be through an Infrared IR data connection or other wireless data connections such as the Blue Tooth or 802 11 protocol The wireless link may be made through radio frequency RF or infra red IR data ports By way of example digital transmitter device 102 can include the capabilities of a cordless handset telephone a cellular telephone a personal digital assistant PDA a pager a watch and the like any of which is also capable of transmitting data in a wireless manner A wired link can be performed through a USB data connection a serial port connection a parallel port connec tion or via other known data transmission standards and modes The wired link may be implemented through stan Mar 17 2005 dard category V cable Universal Serial Bus USB cable or IEEE 1394 i link Lynx Fire Wire connection data ports As such digital transmitter device 102 can transmit by one or both of a wireless or wired link 0046 Exemplary System for a Digital Transmitting Device in Communication with a Server 0047 A system 200 of FIG 2 includes digital transmitter device 102 as a network resource coupled by a wired or wireless link to interconnecting network 104 and to server 106 through interconnected network 104 As such FIG 2 illustrates an embodiment of the system 100 of FIG 1a in greater detail In accordance with still further aspects of the present invention digital transmitter device 102 may be
69. t at a user interface further comprises optically scanning a second substrate to form a second digital image performing optical character recognition on the second digital image to form the text input 12 The computer readable medium as defined in claim 11 wherein the optically scanning a second substrate to form US 2005 0057779 1 second digital image further comprises outputting a prompt for the text input at a user interface 13 The computer readable medium as defined in claim 12 wherein the outputting a prompt for the text input at the user interface further comprises determining the prompt for the text input by performing a lookup function with the predetermined indicia 14 The computer readable medium as defined in claim 1 wherein the substituting further comprising determining the font of at least one of the text input and the text adjacent to the predetermined indicia and changing the font of either the text input or the text in the document that is adjacent to the predetermined indicia to be that of the determined font 15 The computer readable medium as defined in claim 1 wherein the substituting further comprising changing the font of both the text input and the text adjacent to the predetermined indicia to be substantially the same font 16 The computer readable medium as defined in claim 1 wherein the substituting further comprising esthetically arranging the text input in line with the text adjacen
70. t for the predetermined indicia in the document such that both the text input and the text adjacent to the predetermined indicia have substantially the same font and means for outputting a rendering of the document 37 The digital transmitter device as defined in claim 36 further comprising means for locating a portion of the digital image corresponding to the predetermined indicia wherein the portion exhibits a predetermined range of reflectance values 38 The digital transmitter device as defined in claim 37 wherein the predetermined range of reflectance values is detect able at the portion when the portion is illuminated by light having a predetermined range of wavelengths and the digital transmitter device further comprises means for illuminating the substrate with light having the prede termined range of wavelengths 39 digital transmitter device as defined in claim 36 further comprising means for locating a portion of the digital image corresponding to the predetermined indicia wherein the portion includes a bar code 40 The digital transmitter device as defined in claim 39 wherein the bar code is used to determine the location of the predetermined indicia in the document 41 The digital transmitter device as defined in claim 36 wherein the means for outputting further comprises means for forming a network message to be transmitted wherein the network message includes the digital image and is addressed to
71. t to the predetermined indicia 17 The computer readable medium as defined in claim 1 further comprising receiving a font selection at the user interface wherein the substituting further comprising sub stantially matching the font of the text input and the text adjacent to the predetermined indicia to that of the font selection 18 The computer readable medium as defined in claim 17 wherein the receiving a font selection at the user interface further comprises determining the font of the text adjacent to the predeter mined indicia outputting a display at the user interface that identifies the font of the text adjacent to the predeter mined indicia and prompts for the font selection 19 The computer readable medium as defined in claim 1 wherein the substrate includes the predetermined indicia 20 The computer readable medium as defined in claim 1 wherein the output of the rendering of the document is selected from the group consisting of a print out a facsimile transmission and an e mail message 21 The computer readable medium as defined in claim 1 wherein the substantially the same font comprises one or more textual characteristics that are selected from the group consisting of case line spacing text color background color foreground color character spacing text effects alignment shadowing and shading 22 A method of producing a document with a digital transmitter device wherein the document includes
72. ted text substantially matches the font of the document The font matched text is inserted into the docu ment at one or more predetermined insertion fields without editing the document with a word processor 0019 In a first implementation the document is marked up with detectable indicia at one or more predetermined insertion fields where the text is to be inserted The marked up document is scanned to form an optically scanned image The detectable indicia is detected in the optically scanned image to ascertain the one or more predetermined insertion fields The user is prompted at the digital transmitter device to enter the text or representation s thereof that is to be respectively inserted into the one or more predetermined insertion fields Alternatively the text or representation s thereof can be optically scanned and subjected to optical character recognition routine to form a softcopy of the text that is to be respectively inserted into the one or more predetermined insertion fields The optically scanned docu ment is subjected to optical character recognition form a softcopy of the document The text that is to be respectively inserted into the one or more predetermined insertion fields Mar 17 2005 is then substantially font matched with the respective one or more predetermined insertion fields or vice a versa prior to the insertion thereof into the softcopy of the document 0020 In a second implementation a form co
73. und color foreground color character spacing text effects alignment shadowing and shading 32 The method as defined in claim 22 further comprising receiving a font selection at a user interface wherein the substituting further comprising substantially matching the font of the text input and the text adjacent to the predefined insertion field to that of the font selection 33 The method as defined in claim 32 wherein the receiving a font selection at the user interface further com prises determining the font of the text adjacent to the predefined insertion field US 2005 0057779 1 outputting a display at the user interface that identifies the font of the text adjacent to the predefined insertion field and prompts for the font selection 34 The method as defined in claim 22 further comprising outputting a prompt for the text input 35 The method as defined in claim 35 wherein the outputting a prompt further comprises determining the prompt for the text input by performing a lookup function using the predefined insertion field 36 A digital transmitter device comprising means for optically scanning a substrate to form a digital image means for performing optical character recognition on the digital image to form a document having a word processing format wherein the document includes text that is adjacent to predetermined indicia means for receiving a text input means for substituting the text inpu
74. uted on one or more processors of a digital transmitter device direct the digital transmitter device to perform steps of a method at the digital transmitter device wherein the steps comprise Mar 17 2005 optically scanning a substrate to form a digital image performing optical character recognition on the digital image to form a document having a word processing format wherein the document includes text that is adjacent to predetermined indicia receiving a text input substituting the text input for the predetermined indicia in the document such that both the text input and the text adjacent to the predetermined indicia have substantially the same font and outputting a rendering of the document 2 The computer readable medium as defined in claim 1 wherein the steps further comprise automatically shaping said text input in accordance with a shape of said text that is adjacent to predetermined indicia 3 The computer readable medium as defined in claim 1 wherein the steps further comprise repositioning reformat ting reshaping or resizing elements of said text that is adjacent to predetermined indicia in accordance with a predetermined position of the text input and a size of the text input 4 The computer readable medium as defined in claim 1 wherein the steps further comprise repositioning reformat ting reshaping or resizing elements of the text input in accordance with a predetermined position of the text that is
75. ve an e mail address that a user manually enters at the digital transmitter device or that a user specifies using a predefined list of recipient e mail addresses that can be stored in a memory of the digital transmitter device 0005 hardcopy of a document that is to be scanned may need to be modified so that the resultant scanned document will contain the modifications For instance a user may wish to insert a word or a phrase into a paragraph of the hardcopy of the document To do so a softcopy of the Mar 17 2005 document is edited using a word processing application such as the WORD program provided by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond Wash When the user edits the softcopy the user will operate the word processing application so that the text that the user is inserting will have substantially the same font as any adjacent text Otherwise the inserted text would be lacking in esthetics As such text that the user inserts into asentence or paragraph will have substantially the same font that of the rest of the sentence or paragraph Accordingly the modification will be an esthetic modification Then a hard copy of the edited document is output for further use such as for scanning 0006 There is a need for scanner based device such as a digital transmitter device that provides for an esthetic modification of a document at the scanner based device without requiring the user to edit a softcopy of the document on anothe

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