Abstract:
An enterprise system for controlling the delivery of services. The system includes a recorder operable for making records of physical objects presented to the recorder, each record including information pertaining to certain potential users, a storage medium for retaining records made by the recorder, and a plurality of terminals dispersed about the enterprise. The terminals are operable when temporarily assigned to an individual for allowing the assigned individual to view certain retained records by entering specified information pertaining to the desired records at the assigned terminal, and the system only allows terminals to access records that are available to the individual to whom the terminal is assigned.

Description:
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS  
       [0001]    The present application is related to commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ [Attorney Docket No. 10018883-1] entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR CAPTURING IMAGES BASED UPON SUBJECT ORIENTATION,” U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ [Attorney Docket No. 10018884-1] entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MONITORING WITHIN A VEHICLE,” and U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______ [Attorney Docket No. 10018886-1] entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR WIRELESS VIEWING RESTRICTED DATA,” filed on the same date herewith, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties. 
     
    
     
       BACKGROUND  
         [0002]    Some enterprises, such as hospitals, have many people moving in and out of their facilities every day. A large percentage of these people have documents (including their own images) recorded in a data base and, from time to time, desire to view, copy, and/or send to third parties selected ones of these documents.  
           [0003]    Under current systems, this is difficult and time consuming to accomplish. In a typical situation the person who desires to obtain an image (or a copy) must go to a central location and order the image. In any such system, several problems are presented. One such problem is the identification of the document. A second problem pertains to security of the document in that often only certain people are allowed, by government regulation or otherwise, to obtain some images.  
           [0004]    When the requesting person is confined to a specific location, such as a hospital room, the procedure for obtaining copies of imaged data becomes difficult, if not impossible. In such a hospital setting, the images could be insurance identification, lists of medications, medical records and the like. The images also could be of new-born babies, or patients.  
           [0005]    Pictures of new-born babies are particularly important since parents wish to see their babies as soon as possible and on schedules that do not always coincide with the normal working procedure of the hospital. These pictures can be still pictures taken at random times or can be video images. Using the concepts discussed in the referenced copending applications, the images can be taken from the baby&#39;s perspective or of the babies face, regardless of the baby&#39;s orientation. Also using the concepts of the referenced copending applications, the images can be taken only when certain movements and/or noises are detected. In any event, the parents may wish to view, and/or print, some or all of the images as soon as possible.  
         SUMMARY  
         [0006]    Embodiments of the present invention provide an enterprise system for controlling the delivery of services comprising a recorder operable for making records of physical objects presented to the recorder, each record including information pertaining to certain potential users, a storage medium for retaining images of records made by the recorder, and a plurality of terminals dispersed about the enterprise. The terminals are operable when temporarily assigned to an individual for allowing the assigned individual to view certain retained records by entering specified information pertaining to the desired records at the assigned terminal. The system only allows terminals to access records that are available to the individual to whom the terminal is assigned.  
           [0007]    Additionally, embodiments of the present invention provide a method of allowing parents to view their children in a hospital setting comprising capturing images of the children, storing the images, receiving a request from a parent pertaining to images the parent desires to view, screening the request for proper identification for the desired image, and providing, under control of the screening process, the desired image to a TV monitor associated with the requesting parent.  
           [0008]    Further embodiments provide a system for providing visual monitoring of selected hospital patients comprising a device for capturing images of certain of the patients, a storage device for storing thereon for periods of time captured ones of the images, and a processor for accepting from potential viewers an identification of a desired image to be viewed. Wherein the processor is operable for comparing requests from the potential viewers against an identification of allowed viewers for a particular desired image to be viewed, and is further operable upon a positive comparison from a particular potential viewer for transmitting the desired image to a terminal pre-assigned to the potential viewer. 
       
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
       [0009]    [0009]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment in accordance with the teachings of the invention;  
         [0010]    [0010]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a capture method in accordance with the teachings of the invention;  
         [0011]    [0011]FIG. 3 is a flowchart of one embodiment of a processing method for controlling image presentation to a requesting viewer in accordance with the teachings of the invention;  
         [0012]    [0012]FIG. 4 is a flowchart of one embodiment of a processing method for controlling the requesting of images from a viewer in accordance with the teachings of the invention; and  
         [0013]    [0013]FIG. 5 is a flowchart of one embodiment of a processing method for controlling the disposition of selected images in accordance with the teachings of the invention. 
     
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION  
       [0014]    The present embodiments of the invention are directed to a system and method which stores images received from various sources in a data base, each such stored image having associated with it an identity of which allows users to access the image based on the identity of the user.  
         [0015]    In one embodiment, the images are accessed via a screen, such as a TV screen, remote from the image storage location. From that remote location the user may view, select, print, email selected ones of the images. The degree to which the user can make copies or otherwise dispose of a particular image is dependant upon the nature of the image. The system could be set so that only people “related” to an image, such as a relative or identified friend, of a patient (in the case of a new-born) or related to a parent, could view the image of the new-born or via the image of the patient. In this context the word related would include certain identified people, by family affiliation and by specific identity or by any affinity grouping, such as co-workers, police, etc.  
         [0016]    [0016]FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment in accordance with the teachings of the invention and shows system  10  which includes image capture device  11  for capturing images of various documents. In this regard, documents include paper documents, but also include credit card information, information contained on insurance cards, medical record cards, medical records, digital images of faces, fingerprints and other such information. The image captured by device  11 , which could be a camera, card reader, scanner, etc. is sent via connection  101  to processor  12  which may accept a digital image or convert accepted images into a suitable format, such as digital, for further processing according to the present invention. Processor  12  may add identification of the person to which an image belongs. Processor  12  could, if desired, add a code to each image to control the level of availability of the image. The information is then communicated over connection  102  to network  13 .  
         [0017]    Any of the connections, such as connections  101 ,  102 ,  103 ,  104 ,  105 ,  106 ,  107 ,  108  and  109  could be any suitable connection, eg. a link comprising a direct connection, a wireless connection or the like.  
         [0018]    Network  13  then distributes the image data to various different locations. For example, using connection  104 , the information can be sent to billing system  15  or other storage systems which could be either on site or off site. In addition, the captured image data could go to a medical insurance provider, perhaps using an Internet connection (not shown). The information, depending on its nature, could be posted on a web site.  
         [0019]    Additionally, or alternatively, network  13  could send the information, via connection  103 , to printer  14  which could be in a patient&#39;s room, at a central location on the floor, or in another facility.  
         [0020]    In operation, by using remote control  17 , a prospective viewer inputs into the remote control the user&#39;s identification. This identification could be a magnetic stripe on a card, a barcode, or other source of unique data, or it could be fingerprint, eyeprint, or other biometric data. The viewer&#39;s information would typically contain the user&#39;s name and other information pertaining to the user as shown at  18 . Remote control  17  would also have the ability to receive from the user information pertaining to which document, or set of documents, is desired. For example, this input could be by keypad or, if desired, could be by verbal communication.  
         [0021]    The information which is obtained from the user from remote control  17  is communicated via connection  106  and process  18  to the network via connection  107 , which then provides the desired image or images back to TV viewer  16  or other devices.  
         [0022]    Remote  17  can communicate TV  16  or directly to processor  12 , if desired, via links  108 ,  109  respectively.  
         [0023]    [0023]FIG. 2 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a capture method in accordance with the teachings of the invention and shows flow diagram  20  of one embodiment of elements  11 ,  12 ,  13  of FIG. 1 where the images are captured via capture device  21 , which could be, for example, camera  201 , scanner  202 , or any other device  203 . Identification is added to the captured images via process  22  and the data, including the captured images and identification information, is stored in database under control of process  23 .  
         [0024]    [0024]FIG. 3 is a flowchart of one embodiment of a processing method for controlling the requesting of images from a viewer in accordance with the teachings of the invention and shows flowchart  30  which is one embodiment of an operation of a system for receiving requests from a user, processing requests, and presenting images according to the present invention. Flow chart  30  begins at process  301  where general requests are received from a user. Process  302  identifies the user and valid identification is made at process  303 , this identification is made by comparing the user to the terminal. If the identification is not valid, processing is stopped. If the identification is valid, then a determination via process  304  is made as to whether the user has identified an image. If not, then the system identifies a universe of available images (those images available to this terminal and this user) via process  305  and, if desired by the user, sends such a list to the user via process  306 . Once the user has identified an image, the image is retrieved via process  307  and the image is sent to user via process  308 . When the image has been sent, then a check is made at process  310  as to whether the user needs further processing. When the answer is “yes”, then the requests are received via process  311 , the requests are processed via process  312 , and perhaps the user has identified that a particular image is to be printed ( 313 ), marked ( 314 ), e-mailed ( 316 ), or other operation is to be performed ( 315 ). An example of marking could be to keep the image, or other data, for a specific period of time, or for later recovery or transmission. At the completion of process  313 ,  314 ,  315 , or  316  the system repeats via process  310 .  
         [0025]    If the answer is “no” at process  310 , system  30  stops and waits for a re-initiation of the system by the same or another user.  
         [0026]    [0026]FIG. 4 is a flowchart of one embodiment of a processing method for controlling the requesting of images from a viewer in accordance with the teachings of the invention and shows flow chart  40 , which is typically operating at a TV viewer  16  (FIG. 1) such that the user can follow instructions presented on the screen to obtain an image or other data. This is enabled at process  401  and the identity of the user is established via any one of a number of systems and methods at process  402 . These systems and methods could be, for example, by identifying the device, by checking the manual entry of a viewer ID, by validating a fingerprint or other biometric of the user, by using a magnetic stripe or other identifying means or the like. Then a determination is made as to whether a user knows which image is desired via process  403 . If “yes”, then a request is sent via process  404  for the specific image, and that request is processed as discussed above with respect to FIG. 3. If the user does not know which image he/she desires, then the user requests available images via process  405 . This request is processed as discussed above in FIG. 3. When the universe of available images are received via process  406 , the user can select the desired image via process  407 . The selected image is processed via process  403  and  404  as discussed above.  
         [0027]    [0027]FIG. 5 is a flowchart of one embodiment of a processing method for controlling the disposition of selected images in accordance with the teachings of the invention and shows flowchart  50 , which is typically operating at viewer  16  (FIG. 1) under control of the user, as discussed above. When an image is received at process  501 , the question, “Does the user desire any other images?” is then presented at process  502 . If the answer is “yes”, then a request for the other images at process  503  is provided and processed as discussed above. If the user does not desire any other images the question becomes, “Does the user desire additional processing?” at process  504  If the user does not desire additional processing with respect to the images, the process of flowchart  50  stops. If the answer in process  504  is “yes”, then a determination is made as to whether the processing is local at process  505 . If the processing is not local then the request is transmitted via process  508  and this continues until all requests are finished. If the processing is local then process  506  performs the processing with respect to the images and process  507  stores the processed images.