Patent Publication Number: US-2010110464-A1

Title: Multi-function peripheral device with scanning customization

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     1. Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to multi-function peripheral devices and, in particular, concerns a multi-function peripheral device that permits a user to adjust various parameters of a scanned document using inputs or functionality of the multi-functional peripheral device. 
     2. Description of the Related Art 
     Multi-function peripheral devices (MFP) are devices that are commonly used in conjunction with computer networks. The typical MFP includes the functionality of printing, scanning, and copying. MFP&#39;s may also include communication-type functionalities such that documents can be transmitted with the MFP via fax, internet or other protocols. In one particular implementation, documents can be scanned into the MFP and the documents can then be routed either via email or fax or some other communication protocol to a desired email destination. 
     While MFPs are very useful tools for processing documents, in some circumstances, the use of MFPs is somewhat cumbersome. For example, when a document is scanned, a physical embodiment of the document is captured in an electronic format. Generally, the user then instructs the scanner to where to send the electronic representation of the scanned document. Oftentimes, the user will wish to format the scanned document prior to sending it to its final destination. As an example, if an individual is scanning a document to be sent to another person, the individual may wish to modify certain aspects of the document prior to sending it to the other person. 
     Presently, the only way that a user can modify an electronic version of a document prior to transmitting the document to another destination, is to send the electronic version of the document to a computer that the user has access to. The user then uses dedicated software on the computer to manipulate the scanned document into the format that the user so desires. Only upon completing this process can the user than transmit the scanned document onto another destination in the format that is desired by the user. 
     Hence, typical MFPs require the user to make use of an additional piece of equipment, the additional computer, in order to process a scanned document. This results in delays in transmitting documents and can also be somewhat tiresome for the user particularly when the format changes in the scanned document the user seeks to implement are relatively simple. 
     Hence, there is a need for a simplified process whereby individuals scanning documents can modify the scanned documents without requiring the individual to have the scanned document forwarded to another computer system prior to transmitting the document to it intended final destination. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The aforementioned needs are satisfied, in one implementation, by an MFP which incorporates a scanner. The MFP further incorporates a display and a plurality of user inputs. The MFP further includes a processor that is adapted to review the scanned version of the document and to recognize various components of the document. The processor is further configured to present options to the individual as to how to modify the display of the different components of the scanned document. The MFP is then configured to allow the user to provide instructions to the MFP to allow the MFP to modify the documents in accordance with the user&#39;s selections. Subsequently, the MFP can optionally display the modified document and can then further transmit the modified document to a desired destination. 
     In one implementation, the MFP is adapted to display the options for modifying the various components of the document to the user by printing a page via a printer which has written indications as to the various modification options available to the user. The user then graphically selects the desired option, e.g., by marking the desired option, and rescans the printed page using the scanning functionality of the MFP. The processor then reviews the graphic selections and modifies the electronically stored version of the scanned document according to the user&#39;s selections. In this way, an MFP with a limited display capability can be configured to allow a user to modify a scanned document using the MFP. 
     In another adaptation, the MFP includes a display and the modification options available to the user for the different components of the scanned documents that will be provided to the user via the display. The user can then select desired options using the user inputs off the MFP. 
     It will be appreciated that, by permitting the user to modify the electronic version of the document via the MFP itself, the user will be better able to modify electronic versions of scanned documents without having to resort to using additional computer systems. These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1A  is a simplified schematic representation of one embodiment of a multi-function peripheral device (MFP); 
         FIG. 1B  is a simplified block diagram of the multi-function peripheral device of  FIG. 1A ; 
         FIG. 2  is a simplified flow chart illustrating a process by which the MFP of  FIGS. 1A and 1B  will scan a particular document and allow the user to modify the electronic version of the scanned document via a control associated with the MFP; 
         FIGS. 3A and 3B  are exemplary flow charts illustrating two possible manners in which the MFP displays to the user various modification options; 
         FIGS. 4A-4C  are exemplary processes by which the MFP  102  may display various modification options to the user relating to a particular document; and 
         FIGS. 5A-5C  are the resulting document of  FIGS. 4A-4C  after the MFP has modified the document in accordance with the modification options selected by the user. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT 
     Reference will now be made to the drawings wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout. As is shown in  FIGS. 1A and 1B , the typical multi-function peripheral device (MFP)  102  includes a variety of different inputs and outputs for processing documents. For example, the MFP may include a scanner/copier  112 , whereby physical documents can be electronically captured and then reproduced or forwarded to another location. The forwarding can be provided either by a fax link  116  or via email  120 . The MFP may also include a printer  114  that can be used to print either a scanned document or can be used to print documents that are being electronically transmitted to the MFP  102  via the various communication links  116 ,  120 . As is also illustrated, a variety of user inputs  122 , such as buttons, touch screen menus, or any other known user input, is also provided to the MFP. Further, the MFP also has a display  126  which can be in a variety of different sizes. It will be appreciated that often the user inputs  122  are incorporated into the display  126  in the form of touch screen menus and the like. 
     The MFP  102  is controlled by one or more processors  110  that receive electronic signals and process the documents according to the user inputs and also according to internal commands in a known manner. The processor  110  further includes one or more memories  124  wherein various documents can be stored along with various other protocols for processing documents. It will be appreciated that the operation of the MFP  102  will permit the MFP  102  to perform any of a number of known functions that are currently implemented by MFP devices. 
     Advantageously, the MFP device  102  of the preferred embodiment is capable of allowing a user to selectively modify a scanned document using the controls of the MFP  102 . Thus, the user can modify documents without having to resort to the use of an additional computer. This further allows the user to modify the document and send the document directly in a desired modified state from the MFP device  102 .  FIG. 2  is an exemplary flow chart illustrating the operation of the MFP  102  as it implements a process whereby a user can modify the document. 
     From a start state  202 , the MFP proceeds to scan the document, in state  204 , in a known manner. Generally, the scanning results in an electronic version of the original physical document being captured by the processor  110  in the memory  124  of the MFP  102 . 
     Once the electronic version of the document is captured, the processor  110  then identifies the document components in state  206 . The processor  110  is preferably programmed so as to be able to identify a variety of different types of document components. These document components can include such things as photographs, graphs, images, regions of text, and the like. 
     For each of the different types of document components that are identified by the processor  110 , the processor  110  can access, in state,  210  a plurality of different options in the memory  124 . The options are, in one implementation, pre-set options whereby the processor  110  will adjust or otherwise modify the document component in accordance with instructions from the user via the input  122  of the MFP  102 . Examples of different options for document components includes such things as changing the size of a document component, changing the coloring or contrast or brightness of a particular document component, altering the shape of the particular document component, etc. Options can also include options for multiple document components or for the document in general and can include such things as specifying a particular location to which the document is to be transmitted or identifying a particular file structure or manner in which the document is to be saved. It will be appreciated from the following description that any of a number of different document or document component options can be implemented in this process without departing from the spirit of the present invention. 
     Once the different document components have been identified in state  206  and the various options have been retrieved in state  210 , the options for each of the document components can then be displayed, in state  212 , to the user. As will be discussed in greater detail below, the manner in which the document component options are displayed to the user can vary depending upon the display capabilities of the MFP  102 . 
     In one implementation, the MFP  102  is equipped with a very substantial display  126 , such that some or all of the document component options can be displayed to the user via the display  126  thereby allowing the user to select various options using the user inputs  122  of the MFP  102 . In another implementation, the MFP  102  has a limited or non-existent display such that the options are displayed to the user by printing an image of the document with overlaid options on the printed document. The user can then graphically select various component options and then re-scan the printed page thereby allowing the MFP  102  to modify the electronic version of the document in the manner that will be described in greater detail below. 
     The MFP  102  determines whether the user has selected particular display component options, in decision state  214 , and, if the user has selected different display component options, the MFP  102  then updates the electronic scanned image in state  216  according to the document component option selected by the user. Subsequently, the MFP  102  can optionally display the updated image in state  218  to the user. The display of the updated image can either be in the form of displaying it on the display  126  provided that the display  126  has the capability of rendering the image in sufficient detail or by printing a copy of the updated electronic image for the review of the user. 
     It will be appreciated that the user can thus approve the updated scanned image or disapprove it prior to the MFP  102  forwarding the updated image to a desired final destination in state  220 . Once the document has been forwarded, the processor  110  and the MFP then proceeds to an end state  222 . It will be appreciated that the foregoing process  200  allows the user to scan an image and then alter or change or modify the resulting scanned electronic image using the MFP  102 . This facilitates the user in being able to send an electronic version of the document to a destination in a desired format without having to use an additional computer system to modify the electronic version of the document. 
     As discussed above, there are a variety of different ways in which the different document component options can be displayed. Referring initially to  FIG. 3A , an exemplary process whereby document component options can be displayed using an MFP  102  with a non-existent or limited display  126  is illustrated. In the process  300 , the MFP  102  from a start state  302  initially prints a page in state  304  via the printer  114  which has printed document component options on the page. Preferably, the document component options are printed in predefined locations and the user is instructed to select predefined document component options by marking or coloring or otherwise graphically selecting the options on the page. The page is then scanned in state  306  using the scanner  112  so that the resultant image is scanned with the marked document component options. The MFP  102  then proceeds to update the electronic version of the document that was previously scanned and stored in the memory in state  216 . The MFP  102  may then optionally display the updated image in state  218 , e.g., by printing the modified document, and forward the updated electronic to the final destination in state  220  in the manner that was described above. It will be appreciated that this method of displaying the various document component options and allowing the user to select the various component options is readily adaptable to lower cost MFP devices that have limited display capability. 
     Referring to  FIG. 3B , an alternative manner of displaying the document component options to the user is provided by the process  350 . In the process  350 , the MFP  102  is equipped with the more elaborate display  122  such that the document component options can be displayed to the user via the display  126  as opposed to printing the options in the manner described above in conjunction with  FIG. 3A . In this particular implementation, the MFP  102 , from a start state  352 , proceeds to display the component options in state  354  on the display  126 . The manner in which the options can be displayed on the display  126  can vary greatly without departing from the spirit of the present invention. For example, if the display is sufficiently elaborate, pages of the scanned document can be displayed with various document component options overlaid with each of the various document components. The user can then select the various options either via touch screen or using any of the other user inputs  122 . Alternatively, for simpler displays, each of the document components recognized by the processor  110  can be serially provided to the user, often in an abbreviated format, and the user can then select various options for each of the components. The exact implementation of how the document and document components can be displayed to the user via the display  126  can vary greatly depending upon the capability of the display without departing from the present teachings. 
     The MFP then reads the user&#39;s selected options, in state  356 , by reading the user inputs  122 . Again, the user inputs  122  can comprise buttons that are mounted on the MFP  102 , touch screen buttons, or any of a number of other known user input devices that are implemented on MFP devices. 
     Once the user selected options are received, the MFP  102  then proceeds to update the electronic version of the document stored in memory in state  216  and optionally display the updated image in state  218  and forward the updated image to a final destination in state  220  in the manner described above. Hence, the processes  300 ,  350  allows for a wide variety of different ways in which a user can modify a scanned document without requiring the user to utilize a separate computer system. 
     The processes of  FIGS. 3A and 3B  will now be described in conjunction with the example of  FIGS. 4A-4C .  FIG. 4A  is a graphical representation of a typical document that can be scanned by the MFP device  102 . The document, in this particular implementation, comprises at least three separate components. One component is the upper photograph  402 . The second component is the lower photograph  404  and the third component comprises the text  406 . The MFP  102  is preferably programmed so as to be able to identify images such as the photos  402  and  404  and recognize them as separate document components. Similarly, the MFP  102  is also preferably adapted to be able to recognize the text  406  as at least one document component. 
     It will be appreciated that the MFP  102  may be programmed so as to be able to recognize subcomponents of the various document components as components in and of themselves. For example, separated sentences of text may be recognized as titles, individual paragraphs may be recognized as separate document components, similarly subcomponents of images, such as photographs, diagrams, and the like, may also be recognized as separate subcomponents for which options may be presented to the user for display. 
       FIG. 4B  provides some exemplary document component options that can be displayed to the user either as a result of the image of  FIG. 4B  being printed by the MFP in the printer  114  or by the image in  FIG. 4B  being displayed in some manner to the user via the display  126  in the previously described manner. 
     As indicated in  FIG. 4B , various different options  412 - 418  may be available for each of the components and these options are generally going to be displayed to the user in such a manner that they correlate to the particular document component. 
     For example, with respect to each of the document components, options such as image manipulation whereby the document component can be manipulated to fit the page or display options such as brightness whereby the brightness of a particular document component can be either increased or decreased or the like can be implemented as a result of the user selecting the various document component options. As is also shown in  FIG. 4B , the component options may also include options that allow the user to select the type of document component. In this example, the component option  418  allows the user to designate that a particular option is either an image or text. The MFP  102  can thus be programmed to provide additional options or do additional processing of the document based upon the user&#39;s selection. Again, the image of  FIG. 4B  can be displayed to the user by printing the image of  FIG. 4B  or by displaying the image of  FIG. 4B  or some facsimile thereof via the display  126 . As is also illustrated in  FIG. 4B , the various options can be subscribed to a variety of different document components and the document components are not necessarily to be limited to particular component types, e.g., images or text, but may also comprise generalize regions of the document  400 . Further, there can be document options  430  that can apply to the entire document as opposed to just components. These may include text manipulation or display manipulation or can also include such things as address information or location options, such as moving images to different pages, and the like. 
     As is illustrated in  FIG. 4C , the user has selected various options for particular regions of the document  400 . As indicated, the user can do text manipulation such as having the text fit to a page. In this particular exemplary implementation, the processor  110  is adapted to perform an optical character recognition on components of the document that are identified or recognized as text such that a dynamic document component is thus created out of the original scanned component. Similarly, the images can have their appearance altered by lightening the brightness of the image and by sizing the image to fit the page. 
     Again, the user can select these particular options by either marking them on the printed paper in the process of  FIG. 3A  and then rescanning the printed piece of paper or by electronically selecting the option via the inputs  122  in the manner described in conjunction with  FIG. 3B . In this exemplary implementation, the text has been identified as text, and one of the images has been selected to fit the page and the other image has been selected to have a lighter brightness characteristic.  FIGS. 5A-5C  are the resultant document that is created off of the original document. In this implementation, one of the photos is now fitting the page on one page  502 . The text is then contained on a second page  504  and a lighter image is presented on a third page  506 . Thus, the original image can be processed by the user using the MFP device and the MFP device  102  can then be used to transmit the modified image to a final destination in a more simplified manner. 
     Although the above disclosed embodiments have shown, described and pointed out the novel features of the invention as applied to the above-disclosed embodiments, it should be understood that various omissions, substitutions and changes in the form of the detail of the device, systems and methods shown, may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope of the present invention. Consequently, the scope of the invention should not be limited to the foregoing description, but should be defined by the appended claims.