Patent ID: 8797579

Claim:
One or more computer readable storage devices having executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed, perform a method comprising: extracting a printed identifier from a digital image of a scanned document, said printed identifier uniquely identifying the scanned document and said identifier uniquely associated with a particular user; querying a template database for a template information having an index corresponding to the printed identifier and having one or more regions on the scanned document, the regions having region information including a location and layout of the region and a type of data to which the region corresponds; comparing the digital image with the template information returned by the querying step to identify a handwritten annotation on the scanned document in at least one of the template regions made subsequent to a time when the scanned document was printed, said handwritten annotation comprising recognized handwriting; making one or more assumptions about the handwritten annotation based on the region in which it is located; associating the handwritten annotation with default information for each region as a function of the one or more assumptions, the default information being used to determine a particular type of data expected to be represented by the handwritten notation to assist in the recognition and analysis thereof; and recognizing the handwritten annotation, said recognizing comprising: determining the handwritten annotation has a plurality of possible interpretations using a handwriting recognition technique; applying the one or more assumptions about the handwritten annotation and the associated default information to the plurality of possible interpretations to select one interpretation from the plurality of possible interpretations; and associating the handwritten annotation with the selected interpretation.