Patent ID: 8566369

Claim:
Computer-based device for managing documents comprising a memory for storing document contents having time references, the device comprising: an extractor configured to break down a document content into document elements according to a given rule; a signature generator configured to process one or more of the document elements for returning a signature value characteristic of an element content of each of the one or more of the document elements; an imprint generator configured to establish, for the document content, an imprint including a time reference identifier for the time reference of the document content, and at least one or more of the signature values obtained in response to invoking the extractor for transforming the document content into the document elements, and in response to invoking the signature generator based on the one or more of the document elements; a time clock module configured to calculate a result value of a time election function based on a list of time reference identifiers; a supervisor module configured to: operate the imprint generator on at least two document contents for producing at least two imprints having a plurality of the signature values; for each particular signature value selected from the plurality of the signature values, invoke the time clock module with a list of a plurality of the time reference identifiers of the imprints containing the particular signature value for calculating the result value, the calculated result value identifying a unified time reference for the particular signature value, wherein for each particular signature value which is common to the at least two imprints of the at least two document contents, invoke the time clock module with a list of the time reference identifiers of the at least two imprints of the at least two document contents having said particular signature value which is common, said time reference identifiers in the list identifying a plurality of different times; and storing an association between each particular signature value and the corresponding unified time reference.