Patent ID: 7397578

Claim:
Apparatus for creating a content-informative audit trail, including subject-representative reduced-image content, in relation to the implementation of a document-data data-stream which has been initiated by a user with regard to invoking an imaging job, said structure comprising a job initiator, document data-stream structure disposed to convey, and/or have access to, a collection of document data generated from said job initiator and deliverable and/or delivered to a job destination, functional elements within said data-stream structure intermediate said job initiator and the mentioned destination, including at least one of (a) a spooler, (b) an imaging processor, (c) an imaging assist, and (d) an imaging server, and data-stream content extractor structure operatively associated with said data-stream structure, operable to extract, from a region in said data-stream structure which is effectively located adjacent one of said functional elements, and to effect the retention of, a selectively retrievable audit-trail sub-collection of reduced-size, but nonetheless functionally informative, data-collection content surrogates, said extractor structure, with respect to the extraction of imagery content, functioning to perform such extraction utilizing techniques drawn from the list including (a) reduction of resolution, and (b) focus on luminance without focus on color.