Systems, processes and products for network storage and retrieval of physical paper documents, electro-optically generated electronic documents, and computer generated electronic documents

A network having a plurality of distributed systems at different geographical locations permits the random scanning of original documents at the different scanning locations and the storage of the original documents at precisely known storage locations. Original documents are identified by the date/time instances at which they have been scanned and are stored in containers that are marked with corresponding ranges of the date/time instances. Resulting images are identified by the date/time instances of scanning and may be organized electronically. The locations of original documents are immediately known to be in the containers that are marked with ranges of corresponding date/time instances.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to systems, processes and products for the storage and retrieval of documentary information, including: physical paper documents; corresponding electro-optically generated electronic documents, e.g. digital images produced by scanning or photography; and computer generated electronic documents, e.g. digital text produced by word processing and/or digital graphics produced by computer aided design.

2. The Prior Art

Numerous systems and processes have been proposed for the storage and retrieval of documentary information. Traditional practices over the centuries, of course, have involved storage and retrieval by manually accessing indexed arrangements of original papers and hard copies in folders, boxes, shelving and cabinets. Later practices have involved photographically reducing the original papers to produce indexed miniaturizations in microfilm spools or microfiche sheets, storing the spools or sheets in indexed containers, folders or other physical repositories, and retrieving images or hard copies of the miniaturizations by optical projection or photographic reproduction.

Now there are a proliferation of proposals for digital computer systems that opto-electronically scan original papers to create electronic representations in computer memory, to store digital records of these representations in magnetic and/or optical media, and to retrieve images or hard copies corresponding to these records electro-magnetically or electro-optically. It is common experience that effective paper filing systems have required unerring care by trustworthy persons who have some understanding of the business or other activity involved. Considerable reliance has been placed on the memory of such persons, who have a tendency to become indispensable in mission critical situations. Moreover, even a generally effective system often is not conducive to physical and logical arrangements capable of implementing prompt storage and retrieval without constant inquiries to and guidance by professional level personnel. Finally, of course, a paper file is available to only one person at a time unless hard copies are made, in which case undesired paper proliferation occurs.

Although a few, but not all, of these problems are alleviated by the use of microfilm and microfiche, new and different problems arise. It is true that a large number of photographic miniaturizations can be stored in a much smaller space than an equivalent number of original papers. However, problems of storing and retrieving containers and folders of microfilm and microfiche are not unlike problems of storing and retrieving batches of their paper counterparts. More important, producing, imaging and retrieving photographic miniaturizations often are costly procedures requiring unwieldy hardware. As a practical matter, microfilm and microfiche are limited to archival-type documentation that may not be compatible with a dynamic work environment.

Recent advances in low cost computer architecture, particularly, faster clock speeds, higher resolution displays, and denser storage media, have generated discussions of whether or not a paperless office is possible, and, indeed, what is the meaning of paperless office. The difficulties mentioned above in connection with the storage and retrieval of paper documents, in a work environment, make it clear that minimization of the use of paper must be a preeminent commercial and technological objective. A critical advantage of electronic files over paper and microfilm/microfiche files is that electronic files can be readily sorted, retrieved and reorganized.

It is apparent that electronic files are capable of obviating tedious manipulation of original paper files when there may be no further need ever to refer to them. Nevertheless, despite the rapid growth of electronic filing, paper documents continue to proliferate. One possible reason for this phenomenon is a natural reluctance on the part of many to discard original paper files even after they have been imaged and stored in electronic media. For many, it simply will be difficult to overcome a habitual predilection to keep paper documents, and to accept the idea that electronic media, in many cases, is a secure and relatively versatile substitute.

Furthermore, in many cases, reference to papers or other original physical documents, even if infrequent, may be essential. For example, original physical documents may be required or desired: (1) in litigation where rules of evidence pertain; (2) as backup in the event that lost or faulty images are discovered later; (3) in major commercial, financial and insurance dealings where physical signatures may be important or merely may be perceived to be important; (4) in internet transactions where the parties do not meet legal requirements for dispensing with paper records; (5) as backup for technical graphics, precision photographs, medical diagnostics, and the like, where differences in resolution between images and originals may become significant; (6) as backup in the event of corruption of electronic files; and (7) as complete copies of voluminous treatises in which only the table of contents and/or other selected portions have been imaged.

Modern society demands knowledge work that is appropriate for the information age. The requirements are that: relatively low paying manual work, like filing paper documents, must be phased out, and relatively high paying knowledge work, like processing electronic documents, must be phased in. The fact is that total elimination of paper documents may be unachievable or undesirable. Rather, the present invention is based on the insight that there is an essential interaction between minimizing the inherent inefficiency of paper documents, and maximizing the inherent efficiency of electronic documents.

Much confusion has been encountered in the implementation of systems that are based on: (1) imaged electronic documents of the type that is created by scanning or photographing paper documents and the like, (2) original paper documents themselves, and (3) computer generated electronic documents of the type that are created by word processors and the like. The following are some of the conflicts involved: whether to store bit maps based on simple scanning, or text resulting from optical character recognition, or both; whether to mix optically generated electronic documents and computer generated electronic documents; whether or not the storage of optically generated electronic image files should mirror the storage of the original paper documents; whether or not an original paper filing system should be retained without change; whether or not a system is so sophisticated that computer literate professional level operators and/or supervisors are required; and whether or not a system is so rudimentary that even entry level operators may be sufficiently trustworthy.

The foregoing problems are greatly magnified in networked systems, where difficulties may be encountered particularly in standardizing, at disparate locations, the storage and retrieval of original physical paper documents, and, possibly, hard paper copies of electro-optically generated and computer generated documents. There is a requirement for systems in which the physical filing of paper documents is radically simplified, in which access to infrequently needed paper documents is precisely indicated, and in which optically generated electronic documents and computer generated electronic documents are clearly differentiated.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The primary object of the present invention is to provide, for the storage and retrieval of original physical paper documents, electro-optically generated electronic documents, and computer generated electronic documents: systems, processes and products, which facilitate the use of electronic documents rather than paper documents whenever feasible or acceptable, and which facilitate the use of paper documents rather than electronic documents whenever necessary or preferred. The result is less physical and emotional frustration, and more creative use of time.

Pursuant to the present invention, at each location in an enterprise comprising a network or group of networks: (1) newly received or generated electronic documents are simply entered at random in a sequence of date/time instances by computer generation and/or by electro-optical processing of physical paper documents; (2) the records of electronic documents reference the date/time instances that constitute unique identifiers; (3) each of the paper documents is added to the beginning or end of a cumulative stack in which its location is indicated by its date/time instance; and (4) the electronic documents are processed and organized to provide the electronic equivalent of virtual files that include related paper and electronic documents.

In one preferred embodiment, a physical system includes a primary physical repository and a plurality of secondary physical repositories therein, which hold selected sequences of paper documents corresponding to selected ranges of the date/time instances. The selected ranges of the sequences of paper documents are contained by selected ones of the secondary physical repositories. The selected ones of the secondary physical repositories are visually marked with physical indicia corresponding to the selected ranges of the date/time instances. The electronic system presents an electronic table representing a grid containing rows of electronic records and columns of electronic fields, the electronic fields including a plurality of primary electronic fields and a plurality of secondary electronic fields. One of the primary field includes date/time entries that designate corresponding logical groups of paper documents and corresponding logical groups of electronic documents. The secondary fields include other entries that designate corresponding logical groups of the paper documents and electronic groups of the electronic documents.

The result is an interactive combination of electronic records, which specify the precise physical locations of selected paper documents in terms of their date/time instances. Selected date/time instances designate selected logical groups of the paper documents and selected logical groups of electronic images. The selected logical groups of the paper documents are virtual collections that are intermingled throughout the secondary repositories so as to be unadapted for immediate physical compilation. The selected logical groups of electronic images are immediately available for presentation.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

As shown in FIG. 1 , the illustrated embodiment of the present invention is an enterprise system that comprises: a plurality of distributed networks 21 , 23 , 25 , and a master network 27 . Networks 21 , 23 and 25 are physical accounts that are at different geographical locations A, B . . . N. Each of the distributed networks includes a physical system 29 and an electronic system 31 . The master network, which physically is at a central location X, includes a physical system 33 and an electronic system 35 .

Physical system 29 includes a scanner 37 for processing random sequences of paper documents 39 to produce sequences of electronic image documents in sequences of date/time instances. Sequences of paper or plastic folders 41 in turn store the sequences of paper documents. As is shown in FIG. 4 , each of folders 41 is marked with indicia 43 , 45 , which indicate the beginning and ending of the range of date/time instances of the paper documents therewithin, and additionally the physical location 47 of the relevant physical account. Sequences of cardboard boxes 49 store the sequences of folders 41 . As is shown in FIG. 5 , each of boxes 49 is marked with indicia 71 , 73 , which indicate the beginning and ending of the range of date/time instances of the folders therewithin, and additionally the physical location 75 of the relevant physical account.

Electronic system 31 includes a file server 53 that is operatively connected to scanner 37 for transmission to the scanner of control signals, and receipt from the scanner of data signals representing image documents and their unique date/time instance identifiers. A plurality of workstations 55 are operatively connected to server 53 via a hub 57 . Workstations 55 can call up electronic documents, including image documents, from server 53 and/or can generate electronic documents, including text, vector and bitmap documents for transmission to server 53 and recording in terms of the date/time instances of their creation. Server 53 in turn is operatively connected to a bridge 59 for further processing of its electronic image and computer generated documents. As shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 , workstations 55 can present the image documents generated by scanner 37 as thumbnail views 61 or blow-up views 63 .

As shown in FIGS. 1 , 5 and 6 , physical system 33 of master network 27 includes a plurality of off-site depositories 65 , 67 , each of which includes a plurality of shelves 69 . Stored on the shelves are boxes 49 and/or other bundles, which contain folders 41 and/or other physical objects. As stated previously in connection with FIG. 5 , each of boxes 49 is marked with indicia 71 , 73 , which indicate the beginning and ending of the range of date/time instances of the folders therewithin, and indicium 75 which indicates the location of the account from which the box was physically shipped.

Preferably, indicia 43 , 45 , 47 , 71 , 73 and 75 are presented in both date/time alphanumeric characters and date/time bar code. In an alternative embodiment, these indicia are presented in other alphanumeric characters and/or other bar codes that indirectly refer to date/time instances. The arrangement is such that any of the boxes themselves, or any of the folders they contain are available for convenient retrieval.

As shown in FIG. 1 , electronic system 35 includes a database server 77 , which is operatively connected to a bridge 79 . Bridge 79 in turn is operatively connected to the bridges 59 of distributed networks A, B . . . N. Server 77 also is operatively connected to a master electronic storage 81 , which is the central electronic repository of all relevant image generated electronic documents and all relevant computer generated electronic documents in the illustrated enterprise system.

Electronic system 35 provides and controls a relational database, which includes tables that are shown in FIGS. 7 , 8 and 9 , and a query that is shown in FIG. 10 . These tables and query are described in the following schedules.

SCHEDULE 1 (See Table 1, FIG. 7) Field Name Data Type Field Type - Description Entry Date/Time Date/Time Primary - unique entry date/time - in terms of yy/mm/dd/hh/nn/ss DocPublishDate Text Secondary - actual date of document DocImage/Test Text Secondary - generated by 1 scanner or 2 Computer ProjectNo Text Secondary - project identification EntityCode Text Secondary - entity identification DocAuthor/Source Text Secondary - name of author/source AccountLocation Text Secondary - ID of location of distri- buted server A, B . . . N DocWhole/Part Text Secondary - MANY field - Unique Identifier of associated organization or individual DocView OLE ONE field - object linking/embedding - image or text document presentation SCHEDULE 1 (See Table 1, FIG. 7) Field Name Data Type Field Type - Description Entry Date/Time Date/Time Primary - unique entry date/time - in terms of yy/mm/dd/hh/nn/ss DocPublishDate Text Secondary - actual date of document DocImage/Test Text Secondary - generated by 1 scanner or 2 Computer ProjectNo Text Secondary - project identification EntityCode Text Secondary - entity identification DocAuthor/Source Text Secondary - name of author/source AccountLocation Text Secondary - ID of location of distri- buted server A, B . . . N DocWhole/Part Text Secondary - MANY field - Unique Identifier of associated organization or individual DocView OLE ONE field - object linking/embedding - image or text document presentation SCHEDULE 3 (See Table 3, FIG. 10) Field Name Data Type Field Type - Description ProjectNo Text Primary - unique identifier of associated project ProjectKind Text Secondary - select from categories 1 , 2 . . . n ProjectName Text Secondary - name of project SecurityLevel Text Secondary - select from categories 1 , 2 . . . n ActionDueDate Date/Time Secondary - task performance date ActionDoneDate Date/Time Secondary - date task performed ReviewDueDate Date/Time Secondary - final review date ReviewDoneDate Date/Time Secondary - date review performed TransactionNo AutoNumber Secondary - all entries noted SCHEDULE 3 (See Table 3, FIG. 10) Field Name Data Type Field Type - Description ProjectNo Text Primary - unique identifier of associated project ProjectKind Text Secondary - select from categories 1 , 2 . . . n ProjectName Text Secondary - name of project SecurityLevel Text Secondary - select from categories 1 , 2 . . . n ActionDueDate Date/Time Secondary - task performance date ActionDoneDate Date/Time Secondary - date task performed ReviewDueDate Date/Time Secondary - final review date ReviewDoneDate Date/Time Secondary - date review performed TransactionNo AutoNumber Secondary - all entries noted Preferably, a value in the date/time field of TABLE 1 is automatically generated by the system during scanning or computer generation, preferably in terms of year, month, day, hour, minute and second (yy, mm, dd, hh, nn, ss). As a practical matter, a duplicate automatically generated value in the date/time field is precluded in a local area network since any slight automatic delay will cause the generation of a second nonduplicate value. Thus each electro-optically generated document or computer generated document is uniquely identified at the moment of its creation by a date/time entry.

The physical sub-system, assuming that hard (paper) copies of computer generated documents are not filed, comprises a simple stack of papers that are in the order of the date/time sequence of images, i.e. their electro-optical creation (scanning). The system also permits hard (paper) copies of computer generated documents to be printed and stored in the same date/time sequence. For convenience, this stack is separated by dividers or containers into date/time intervals. Since the precise location of any original is indicated by its date/time instance, its manual or machine accessibility is immediate and unambiguous. Each of the designated stacks is physically assigned a date/time interval, and each of the corresponding images is electronically assigned a date/time entry within that interval.

The integrity of any designated stack is maintained by monitoring the physical storage and retrieval of any processed document to and from that stack. The operation is such that scanning a series of randomly collected documents produces, interactively in real time, physical stacks of the processed documents and electronic groups of corresponding images. Each of the stacks is marked with a visual indicium of a date/time interval. Each of the images is identified by an electronic indicium of a date/time entry within that interval.

Operation

Pursuant to the present invention, at each geographical location, (1) electro-optically generated electronic documents are produced by scanning newly received paper documents at random, and computer generated electronic documents are produced at the distributed work stations or the distributed servers by newly received fax or e-mail documents, all in date/time sequence, (2) any original paper or other hard documents to be saved are stored in date/time sequence, and (3) the images are processed and organized to provide the electronic equivalent of organized files of paper documents. The result is an interactive combination of electronic and physical sub-systems that operate in the following manner. The hard documents are arranged in batches that are stacked in the secondary depositories, i.e. folders and boxes. Each of the batches of hard documents corresponds to a limited range of successive date/time instances and each of the secondary depositories is marked with visual indicia matching this limited range. Scattered through the various batches of hard documents are selected hard documents that are related logically by selected indicia other than date/time. The master electronic system computes and retrieves requested subsets of the electronic images corresponding to these selected hard documents.