Abstract:
A method for populating form with information includes providing an image of a form, identifying at least one blank area on the image of the form, displaying the image of the form, selecting the blank area, filling the blank area with information, and mapping the information and the position of the information on the image of the form.

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
       [0001]    1. Field of the Invention 
         [0002]    The present invention provides a method and an apparatus for mapping information and the position of the information on the form. 
         [0003]    2. Description of the Prior Art 
         [0004]    The current all-in-one multifunctional devices provide many functions for the user. However, when the user needs to transfer a large amount of information onto many forms, time and resources are generally wasted due to lack of appropriate methods. For example, when a personnel department wants to fill employee information onto a personnel form, manually filling the information for every employee wastes considerable time. In addition, if the above work is done by printing the information of employees provided from a computer database onto the personnel form, the employee information must be placed in specific positions on the personnel form. In the prior art methods and related apparatuses, however, the information is difficult to be specifically positioned and generally needs many trials. Therefore, both time and paper is wasted. As a result, how to solve the above-mentioned problems efficiently has become an important issue among manufacturers. 
       SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
       [0005]    It is one of the objectives of the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus for mapping information and the position of the information on the form. 
         [0006]    The present invention discloses a method for populating a form with information, and the method comprises: providing an image of the form; identifying at least one blank area on the image of the form; displaying the image of the form; selecting the blank area; filling the blank area with information; and mapping the information and the position of the information on the image of the form. 
         [0007]    The present invention discloses an apparatus for populating a form with information, and the apparatus comprises: a first providing unit for providing an image of the form; an identifying unit, coupled to the first providing unit, for identifying at least one blank area on the image of the form; a second providing unit for providing information; an acquisition unit, coupled to the second providing unit, for mapping the information and the position of the information on the image of the form; a display unit, coupled to the identifying unit and the acquisition unit, for displaying the image of the form and the information; a storage unit, respectively coupled to the identifying unit and the acquisition unit, for storing the information and either the position of the information on the image of the form or the image of the form; and a printing unit, coupled to the storage unit, for printing the information on the blank area of the form. 
         [0008]    These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings. 
     
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         [0009]      FIG. 1  is a flowchart of a method for populating the form with the information according to a first embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0010]      FIG. 2  is a flowchart of a method for populating the form with the information according to a second embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0011]      FIG. 3  is a flowchart of a method for populating the form with the information according to a third embodiment of the present invention. 
           [0012]      FIG. 4  is a circuit block diagram of an apparatus of the present invention. 
       
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
     First Embodiment 
       [0013]    Please refer to  FIG. 1  and  FIG. 4 .  FIG. 4  is a circuit block diagram of an apparatus of the present invention. As shown in  FIG. 4 , the apparatus  400  comprises at least a first providing unit  402 , an identifying unit  404 , a second providing unit  406 , an acquisition unit  410 , a display unit  408 , a storage unit  412  and a printing unit  414 . 
         [0014]    The first providing unit  402  is coupled to the identifying unit  404 . The first providing unit  402  is utilized for providing an image of the form, and the identifying unit  404  is utilized for identifying blank area(s) of the image of the form. 
         [0015]    The second providing unit  406  is coupled to the acquisition unit  410 . The user provides information such as letters, patterns or symbols to the blank area(s) on the image of the form required by the second providing unit  406 . The acquisition unit  410  then maps the information provided by the user and the position of the information on the image of the form. 
         [0016]    The display unit  408  is respectively coupled to the identifying unit  404  and the acquisition unit  410 , and is utilized for displaying the image of the form and the information. 
         [0017]    The storage unit  412  is respectively coupled to the identifying unit  404  and the acquisition unit  410 , and is utilized for storing the information and the position of the information on the image of the form or the image of the form. 
         [0018]    Please refer to  FIG. 1 .  FIG. 1  is a flowchart of a method for populating the form with the information according to a first embodiment of the present invention. In the beginning (Step  100 ), the user provides a form to the apparatus, and the apparatus transmits the form by the first providing unit  402  (Step  102 ). The first providing unit  402  can be a scanner, a device that can generate an image of the form or a storage device. In this embodiment, a scanner is taken as an example of the providing unit  402 . The providing unit  402  scans the form (Step  104 ) and generates an image of the form (Step  106 ), at the same time, the first providing unit  402  temporally stores the image of the form into the storage unit  108  (Step  108 ), and the form is closed (Step  110 ). The identifying unit  404  identifies the blank and the non-blank area(s) of the image of the form to obtain the position of the blank area to be filled with the information (Step  112 ). The identifying unit  404  can identify the blank area(s) of the black-white image or the color image; in this embodiment, the form with white background serves as the example. The display unit  408  receives the signal from the identifying unit  404  and displays the scanned image of the form (Step  114 ). The user selects a blank area either manually or using an automatic method according to a displayed image of the form. The manual method requires the user to select an appropriate blank area from the blank areas of the image of the form by the second providing unit  406 . The automatic method is that the system searches for the blank area(s) in the image of the form automatically, and when an appropriate blank area is found, the user provides an operation of the second providing unit  406 , to select the blank area (Step  116 ). The second providing unit  406  can be a keyboard, a mouse, a device that provides a manual input function, or a storage device. In this embodiment, the keyboard is used as an example. The user uses the keyboard to input the required information into the blank area (Step  118 ). When the user provides the information, the information is displayed on the display unit  408 . The acquisition unit  410  maps the information and its position on the image of the form (Step  120 ). At the same time, the acquisition unit  410  temporally stores the information and its position on the image of the form into the storage unit  412  (Step  122 ). Then the user determines whether the information needs to be printed or not (Step  124 ). When the information needs to be printed, the information and the position of the information on the image of the form are transmitted from the storage unit  412  to the printing unit  414  (Step  126 ), and the printing unit  414  prints the information on the selected blank area of the form (Step  128 ). After printing, the user determines whether the information and the position of the information on the image of the form or the image of the form need to be stored or not (Step  130 ). When the information does not need to be printed, the user directly determines whether the information and the position of the information on the image of the form or the image of the form needs to be stored or not (Step  130 ). When it needs to be stored, the information and the position of the information on the image of the form or the image of the form are stored in the storage unit  412  (Step  132 ), and then finish operations (Step  134 ). When storing is not needed, the process directly finishes the operations (Step  134 ). In addition, the user can add a step for storing the image of the form after the form is scanned by the first providing unit  402  according to the user&#39;s considerations; the user can also add a step for storing the information and the position of the information on the image of the form after the acquisition unit  410  temporally stores the information and the position of the information on the image of the form into the storage unit  412 . 
       Second Embodiment 
       [0019]    Please refer to  FIG. 2  and  FIG. 4 .  FIG. 2  is a flowchart of a method for populating the form with the information according to a second embodiment of the present invention. In the beginning (Step  200 ), the user obtains an image of the form by the first providing unit  402  (Step  206 ). The first providing unit  402  can be a scanner, a device which can generate an image of the form or a storage device. In this embodiment, a storage device is taken as an example of the providing unit  402 . The user can obtain the image of the form from the storage device, where the image of the form is generated by any method and is stored in the storage device. Then the identifying unit  404  identifies the blank and non-blank area(s) of the image of the form to obtain the position of the blank area required to be filled with the information (Step  212 ). The identifying unit  404  can identify the blank area(s) of the black-white image or the color image; in this embodiment, the form with white background is an example. The display unit  408  receives the signal from the identifying unit  404  and displays the image of the form (Step  214 ). The user selects a blank area by a manual or automatic method according to a displayed image of the form (Step  216 ). The user provides the required information to the blank area by the second providing unit  406 . The second providing unit  406  can be a keyboard, a mouse, a device that provides a manual input function, or a storage device. In this embodiment, the mouse and the storage device are as the second providing unit examples. The user can use the mouse to provide the appropriate information in the storage device to the blank area (Step  218 ). When the user provides the information, the information is displayed on the display unit  408 . The acquisition unit  410  maps the information and the position of the information on the image of the form (Step  220 ). At the same time, the acquisition unit  410  temporally stores the information and the position of the information on the image of the form into the storage unit  412 . Then the user determines whether the information needs to be printed or not. When the information needs to be printed, the information and its position on the image of the form are transmitted from the storage unit  412  to the printing unit  414  (Step  226 ). The printing unit  414  prints the information on the selected blank area of the form (Step  228 ). After printing, the user determines whether the information and its position or the image of the form need to be stored or not (Step  230 ). When the information does not need to be printed, the user directly determines whether the information and the position of the information on the image of the form or the image of the form need to be stored or not (Step  230 ). When it needs to be stored, the information and the position of the information on the image of the form or the image of the form are stored in the storage unit  412  (Step  232 ), and then the operations are completed (Step  234 ). When it does not need to be stored, directly complete operations (Step  234 ). In addition, the user can add a step of storing the image of the form after the image of the form is provided by the providing unit  402  according to the user&#39;s considerations; the user can also add a step for storing the information and the position of the information on the image of the form after the acquisition unit  410  stores the information and the position of the information on the image of the form into the storage unit  412 . 
       Third Embodiment 
       [0020]    Please refer to  FIG. 3  and  FIG. 4 .  FIG. 3  is a flowchart of a method for populating the form with the information according to a third embodiment of the present invention. In the beginning (Step  316 ), the user obtains information and a position of the information on an image of the form from the storage unit  412  (Step  318 ). At the same time, the information and the position of the information on the image of the form are displayed on the display unit  408 . The user determines whether the information will be edited or modified or not (Step  320 ). When the information needs to be edited or modified, edit or modify the information (Step  322 ), and then determine whether the information should be printed or not. When the information is not to be edited or modified, directly determine whether the information is to be printed or not (Step  324 ). When the information needs to be printed, the information and the position of the information on the image of the form are transmitted from the storage unit  412  to the printing unit  414  (Step  326 ). The printing unit  414  prints the information on the selected blank area of the form (Step  328 ). After printing, the user determines whether the information and the position of the information on the image of the form need to be stored or not (Step  330 ). When the information does not need to be printed, the user directly determines whether the information and the position of the information on the image of the form or the image of the form need to be stored or not (Step  330 ). When it needs to be stored, the information and the position of the information on the image of the form are stored in the storage unit  412  (Step  332 ), and then the operations are finished (Step  334 ). When the information and position do not need to be stored, directly finish the operations (Step  334 ). In this embodiment, the user can also obtain the image of the form while obtaining the information and a position of the information on the image of the form, and identify the position of the blank area(s) on the image of the form by the identifying unit  404 . When the user adds information in a new blank area, the acquisition unit  410  will map the added information and the position of the information onto the image of the form. Then the user can store the added information, the original information and the positions of the added and original information on the image of the form into the storage unit  412  and/or transmit them to the printing unit  414  to be printed. 
         [0021]    The above-mentioned embodiments are the preferred embodiments of the present invention. The modifications and the alternations of the claims of the present invention should be in the scope of the present invention. 
         [0022]    Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention.