Patent Document ID: 9923949
Application ID: 14567516
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method referred to as e-design process, for automatically assessing quality of design work relative to each stage in a given design process, for the purpose of efficient learning and productive team design, a continuous improvement method operating on pages from standardized e-design notebooks, a method further utilizing: a recognition step for carrying out incremental recognition of graphics, text or equation objects, and for producing vector graphics, an image logic step, which is capable of producing an intermediate output containing the vector graphics, a data mining step, for extracting information relevant to the design process from the vector objects recognized, an assessment step, for assessing the information extracted and producing itemized grades with associated confidence levels, an evaluation step, for interpreting the itemized grades using a programmable assessment rubric, a decision making step, for producing itemized decisions based on the itemized grades, a configurable supervisor review step, for allowing supervisors track design progress, by reviewing logs of status or design alerts, derive budget or cost estimates, or project a completion date, a communication step, for communicating information about necessary actions among designers, to a mentor, supervisor or sponsor, and a database access step, for storing or retrieving information related to target outcomes, design objectives, the assessment rubric, design indicators, minimum relevance thresholds, design questions, summary of known pitfalls, reference designs, books, standards and websites, and other meaningful responses, as well as dictionaries with the valid objects supported by the graphics, text or equation recognition.