JP2001357039A - System and method for archiving document data - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily computerize a paper document and to make it possible to entrust its archiving to the outside. SOLUTION: The document of paper is read by using a digital copy machine 101 and an extended box 102 of a user site 10, and read document data are archived through a wide area communication line 20 to a document data archiving part 301 of an archiving site 30. The document archived in the document data archiving part 301 can be instructed to be retrieved/read/printed through the Internet 202 by using a web server 303. In accordance with the print instruction, an application server 302 sends a print job to an on-demand printer 312, the printer of a print center 40, the digital copy machine 101 and a printer 105 of the user site 10. Besides, the print job can be transmitted through a facsimile.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technique for storing document data.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Outsourcing business for storing documents and document data is known. For example, there is a service that connects a user's host computer and a backup center of a service provider via a high-speed optical communication line to automatically back up user data. Also,
A service is also provided in which a paper document is digitized by a predetermined capture center and stored in a server. There is also a service that deposits the document itself (recorded on a medium such as paper, CD, or tape) in a warehouse.

[0003] However, in such a service, 1
It is not possible to deal with cases where it is desired to digitize and store it outside at the discretion of each person.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and has as its object to propose a document data storage technology that allows a user to easily digitize a document and outsource the storage to an external device. I have.

[0005]

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above-mentioned object, a configuration as described in the claims is adopted.

Here, the description of the claims will be supplemented.

According to the present invention, there is provided a document data storage system comprising: a digital copying machine provided at a user site for optically scanning a document to generate electronic document data; Means for transmitting a storage command and the document data provided at the user site via a wide area communication line; storage instructions provided at a storage site remote from the user site and transmitted via the wide area communication line And means for receiving document data; means provided at the storage site for receiving a document print request generation command sent from a location other than the storage site via a wide area communication line; and provided at the storage site. Means for storing the document data based on the storage command; and document data provided at the storage site based on the document print request generation command. It is provided with means for transmitting to the printing means of the document data and print requests removed.

In this configuration, a user can easily digitize a document using a digital copying machine, store the digitized document data outside, and, if necessary, use a predetermined printing device such as a nearby digital device. A printout can be made by specifying a copier.

The request for document printing may be made at the user's site, or may be made on the go with a portable terminal, a portable telephone, or the like.

It is also possible to retrieve stored document data as sentence data. The stored document data may be searched by owner, storage date, keyword, or the like.

The digital copier is constructed by disposing components such as a scanner and a printer in a network (LAN or the like) in a distributed manner, and generates a copy command using a copy user interface of an information terminal such as a personal computer. Copying may be performed based on this copying instruction.

[0012] The wide area communication line is, for example, a subscriber line or a dedicated line, and may be the Internet, a VPN (virtual private network), an IP-VPN, or a virtual LAN.
It is possible to use communication services provided by various other communication carriers. Of course, the present invention can be applied to a mobile communication network and a packet switching network.

The present invention can be realized not only as an apparatus or a system, but also as a method, and it is needless to say that a part thereof can be realized as a computer program. Further, a computer program package (recording medium) for mounting such a computer program on a computer is also included in the technical scope of the present invention.

[0014]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the document data storage system of the present invention as a whole. The document data storage system of this embodiment is realized by using the computer resources of the user site 10, the wide area communication line 20, the computer resources of the storage site 30, and the computer resources of the external print center 40.

In FIG. 1, a user site 10 is a business facility of a company, a business facility of a government office, or a house of a general household.
A digital copier 101, an extension box 102, a client terminal 103, a scanner 10
4, a printer 105 and the like are provided.

The digital copier 101 is a general multifunctional copier, and includes a scanning unit for optically scanning a document to generate electronic document data, a processing unit for processing document data, and a latent unit based on the document data. The image forming apparatus includes an exposure unit that generates an image, a developing unit that develops a latent image to generate a toner image, a transfer unit that transfers a toner image to a sheet, and a fixing unit that fixes a transferred image to a sheet. Since these are ordinary ones, the description is omitted.

The digital copier 101 has an extension box 1
02 is provided. The expansion box 102 has basically the same configuration as a normal personal computer, and is connected to the digital copying machine 101 via a predetermined bus. The extension box 102 has a display unit composed of a liquid crystal display device or the like, and can instruct copying, printing, reading, and the like to the digital copying machine 101 using a user interface provided by the display unit. That is, a copy request, a print request, and a read request are sent from the extension box 102 to the digital copying machine 101,
It can copy, print electronic files, and read documents (convert to electronic data). The read document data is sent to and stored in the extension box 102. Further, in this embodiment, the storage of document data in the storage site 20 can be instructed. This will be described in detail later. Note that the digital copying machine 101 has a unique operation panel, and normal copying and the like can be performed using the operation panel. Of course, the function of the extension box 102 may be included in the digital copying machine 101. The extension box 102 may have a different specification from that of the personal computer.

The expansion box 102 is a communication control unit 106
Wide area communication line 20 (subscriber line or dedicated line 201)
It is connected to the. Also, the extension box 102 is LAN1
07 and is connected to the wide area communication line 20 (Internet 202) via the router 108.

The client terminal 1 is connected to the LAN 107.
03, a scanner 104, a printer 105, and the like. The client terminal 103 is an information terminal such as a personal computer or a workstation. Software for operating the scanner 104 and the printer 105 as a copying machine can be installed in the client terminal 103 to configure a virtual digital copying machine. The client terminal 103, the scanner 104, and the printer 105 constituting the virtual digital copier may be arranged at the same place or may be arranged separately. A virtual digital copying machine can be used as the digital copying machine 101 and the extension box 102.

It should be noted that there are usually a plurality of user sites 10 and receive a storage service from the storage site 30.

The storage site 30 is geographically separated from the user site 10 and is connected to (or is connectable to) the user site 10 via the wide area communication line 20. The storage site 30 includes a document data storage unit 301, an application server 302, a web server 303, a search engine 304, and the like. Further, an on-demand print system 312 that can execute a large amount of prints at high speed and with high quality is also provided. Further, a backup storage unit 305 is provided in association with the storage site 30. The backup storage unit 305 stores an earthquake,
This is for protecting the data in the document data storage unit 301 from damages such as fires, and is located at a safe predetermined remote place. Of course, predetermined data in the document data storage unit 301 is backed up to the backup storage unit 305 on a predetermined schedule according to the security level. The backup is performed via the communication control device 306 and the dedicated line 307.

The storage site 30 has a communication control device 3
08 is provided, and the communication control device 1
A job (storage command or document data) sent via the application 06 is received. Communication control device 30
8. The application server 302 and the document data storage unit 301 are connected to the LAN segment 309. LA
The N segment 310 is connected to the Internet 202 via the router 313. The application server 302 stores the document data sent from the user site 10 in the document data storage unit 301. The application server 302 can also perform optional services such as OCR (optical character recognition) processing, compression processing, editing, image processing, and the like. Further, the application server 302 sends a print request (with document data) to a predetermined printer (on-demand print system 312, digital copier 101, etc.) based on an instruction from the user. The document data storage unit 301 is basically composed of a file server, and has a large secondary storage device. Further, another backup storage device that supplements the backup of the backup storage unit 305 may be provided.

The web server 303 stores the document data storage unit 3
This provides a user interface for instructing a search service, a print service, and a transfer service for data stored in the storage device 01. Search engine 3
04 is for searching the document data of the document data storage unit 301. For search, for example, EDMS (Enterprise Document Management System).
Using VisualRecall (trademark), it is possible to search by storage date, creator, title, and the like.

The firewall 311 separates the LAN segment 310 on the web server 303 side from the LAN segment 309 on the document data storage section 301 side.

A print center 40 is also connected to the wide area communication line 20, and a printer (not shown) of the print center 40 can be used.

FIG. 2 shows an example of a procedure for selecting a menu displayed on the display of the extension box 102 by the user at the user site 10.

In FIG. 2, first, one of “copy”, “FAX”, “printer” and “solution menu” is selected from a function selection menu. “Copy”, “FAX”, and “printer” are provided by a conventional multifunction peripheral, and will not be described here. The service indicated by the “solution menu” is realized by the resources of the storage site 30 of this embodiment. Of course, the digital copying machine 101 itself may be designed so as to be able to issue such a service instruction, or the designation form may be read by the digital copying machine 101 to issue the service instruction. .

The "solution menu" has service options of "read" (read document data), "image processing", "edit", "storage", and "delivery". Further, a sub option is set for each service option, and a line is selected. After this,
The charge, security level, speed, etc. are displayed and the service starts. Thereafter, the report and the usage fee are notified.

When the document reading is designated, the paper document is digitized by the digital copying machine 101. Then, it requests the application server 302 of the storage site 30 to perform image processing, editing, and the like on the digitized document data. Then, such document data is stored in the document data storage unit 3.
01 can be requested. It is also possible to give an instruction to deliver the document data that has undergone image processing and editing processing by the Internet, facsimile, or normal delivery.

It is also possible to specify storage, image processing, editing, and delivery without specifying document reading. In this case, the electronic data held by the user is to be processed.

The delivery of document data can be designated by searching and browsing. Searching and browsing can be performed using the Internet.

FIG. 3 schematically shows the operation of this embodiment. First, a description will be given of a process when a paper document is digitized and stored. First, the electronic storage of a paper document is started at the user site 10 (S11). Then, a service is selected using the user interface provided by the extension box 102 (S12). The document is digitized by the digital copying machine 101 to generate document data (S1).
3). The storage site 30 performs user ID confirmation, data amount confirmation, service menu confirmation, service management, and billing management (S14). If the requested service is storage (S15), the storage is performed in the document data storage unit 301. At this time, OCR processing is optionally performed. If the request service is search / browse (S16), the document data storage unit 301 is accessed based on a search / browse condition instruction. If the request service is remote printing (S1
7) Access the document data storage unit 301 based on the remote print condition instruction. If the requested service is the on-demand print (S18), the document data storage unit 301 is accessed based on the on-demand print instruction. Search results, browsing data distribution, data distribution to remote printers (print request), data distribution to on-demand print systems in response to each request for search / browsing service, remote print service, and on-demand print service (Print request) is performed.

The search, browsing, and print instructions for the document data are performed via the web server 303 using the extension box 102 or another client terminal 103. Of course, on the premise that predetermined authentication is performed, search, browsing, and print instructions for document data can be performed from a portable terminal or the like wherever the user is going. Of course, search, browsing, and print instructions may be made via a subscriber line or a dedicated line.

In response to the remote print instruction, a printer provided at a place other than the user site 10 or the storage site 30, such as a digital copying machine 101, a printer 105, or a printer at an external print center (relatively close to the user site), is used. Can be specified.

It is also possible to store an existing electronic document (digitized data) instead of storing the paper document (S19, S20). In this case, an instruction can be given using the client terminal 103. When the extension box 102 holds document data, storage may be instructed from the extension box 102.

According to this embodiment, since a widely used digital copying machine is used, a paper document can be easily digitized and stored. In particular, it is possible to easily perform storage at the discretion of the individual level, not storage at the department level. Since the paper document is digitized and requested to be stored outside, complicated work such as management related to storage, for example, management of backup and files, management of a computer system, etc. is unnecessary. Of course, the physical space required for storing paper documents can be significantly reduced.

Also, existing digitized data can be stored in the same manner as a paper document, so that unified handling can be performed.

Since the data is stored as digitized data, it is easy to search and browse. In particular, by using a web server, processing can be performed transparently in a normal intranet environment or extranet environment.

Further, since the data is stored in the storage site, it is possible to sufficiently cope with a natural disaster or the like at a relatively small cost.

Further, it is also possible to enjoy services with higher added value at a lower cost by using resources other than the security of the storage site, for example, a printing apparatus, an OCR processing apparatus and the like.

The description of the embodiment has been completed. The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, but can be variously modified.

[0043]

As described above, according to the present invention, a digital copier that can be used by many people is used to digitize a document and store it in an external storage unit. It is possible to easily outsource the electronic storage of documents to the outside with almost no need.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention as a whole.

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a service provided by an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating the operation of the embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 User site 20 Wide area communication line 30 Storage site 40 Print center 101 Digital copier 102 Expansion box 103 Client terminal 104 Scanner 105 Printer 106 Communication controller 108 Router 201 Subscriber line 202 Dedicated line 203 Internet 301 Document data storage unit 302 Application Server 303 Web server 304 Search engine 305 Backup storage unit 306 Communication controller 307 Dedicated line 308 Communication controller 309 LAN segment 310 LAN segment 311 Firewall 312 On-demand print system 313 Router

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Kenichi Shirasaki 2274 Hongo, Ebina, Ebina-shi, Kanagawa Fuji Xerox Co., Ltd. (72) Kunihiro Takahashi 2274 Hongo, Ebina, Kanagawa-pref F-term (reference) 5B050 BA10 BA16 CA08 DA06 FA03 FA19 5B075 ND07 PQ02 PQ03 UU05 5C062 AA05 AA06 AA30 AA31 AA35 AB01 AC04 AC22

Claims (18)

[Claims] 1. A digital copier provided at a user site for optically scanning a document to generate electronic document data, and a storage command provided at the user site and a wide area communication line for transmitting the document data. Means for transmitting a storage command and document data provided at a storage site remote from the user site and transmitted via the wide area communication line; and provided at the storage site, A means for receiving a document print request generation command sent from a location other than the wide area communication line, a means provided at the storage site for storing the document data based on the storage command, Provided to retrieve document data based on the document print request generation command and send the document data and the document print request to a printing unit. Document data storage system, characterized by a means that. 2. The document data storage system according to claim 1, wherein said document print request generation command is generated at said user site. 3. The document according to claim 1, wherein the storage instruction can accompany a processing instruction for the document data, and the storage site processes the document data based on the instruction and stores the document data. Data storage system. 4. The document print request generation command is transmitted to at least one of a digital copying machine at the user site, a printing device at the user site, a printing device at the storage site, and a printing device at another site. 4. The document data storage system according to claim 1, wherein the request is generated. 5. The document data storage system according to claim 1, further comprising means for backing up the stored document. 6. The document data storage system according to claim 5, wherein the means for performing the backup is provided at a location remote from the storage site. 7. A printing system according to claim 1, wherein document data stored in a computer system of said user site is stored in said storage site and printed in addition to an electronic document generated by said digital copying machine. 3, 4,
5. The document data storage system according to 5 or 6. 8. The storage site provided with means for searching for document data stored in the storage site, so that the document data can be searched from a location other than the storage site. A document data storage system according to any one of claims 4, 5, 6, and 7. 9. The document data storage system according to claim 1, wherein said wide area communication line is a subscriber line. 10. The document data storage system according to claim 1, wherein said wide area communication line is a dedicated line. 11. A document management apparatus for storing document data in a computer system at a storage site via a wide area communication line, wherein a digital copier optically scans a document to generate electronic document data; Means for transmitting a storage command and the document data to the computer system at the storage site via a wide area communication line; and a document for transmitting a document print request and document data to a predetermined printing means via the wide area communication line. Means for transmitting a print request generation command to the computer system at the storage site. 12. The printing means is at least one of the digital copying machine, a printing device provided at the same site as the digital copying machine, a printing device provided at the storage site, and a printing device provided at another site. 12. The document management device according to claim 11, wherein: 13. A document data storage device for storing electronic document data transmitted via a wide area communication line, comprising: means for receiving a storage command and document data transmitted via the wide area communication line; Means for storing the document data based on the storage command; means for receiving a document print request generation command transmitted via the wide area communication line; and retrieval of document data based on the document print request generation command Means for sending the document data and the document print request to a printing means. 14. The printing means is at least one of the digital copying machine, a printing device provided at the same site as the digital copying machine, a printing device provided at the storage site, and a printing device provided at another site. 14. The document data storage device according to claim 13, wherein: 15. A digital copier provided at a user site for optically scanning a document to generate electronic document data, and a wide area communication line provided at said user site for storing instructions and said document data. Means for transmitting data via the wide area communication line and receiving the storage command and document data provided at a storage site remote from the user site; and receiving the storage command provided at the storage site. Means for storing the document data based on the document data. 16. A step of optically scanning a document by a digital copying machine at a user site to generate electronic document data; and providing a storage command and said document data provided at said user site to a wide area communication line. Transmitting the storage command and the document data transmitted via the wide area communication line at a storage site remote from the user site; and transmitting the storage command and document data from a location other than the storage site to the wide area communication line. Receiving, at the storage site, a document print request generation command transmitted via the storage site; storing the document data based on the storage command at the storage site; and printing the document data at the storage site. The document data is taken out based on the request generation command, and Document data storage method characterized by a step of transmitting bets request to predetermined print means. 17. A document management method for storing document data in a computer system at a storage site via a wide area communication line, wherein a digital copier optically scans a document to generate electronic document data. Transmitting a storage command and the document data to the computer system at the storage site via a wide area communication line; and transmitting a document print request and document data to a predetermined printing means via the wide area communication line. Transmitting a print request generation command to the computer system at the storage site. 18. A computer-readable recording medium storing a computer program used to store document data in a computer system at a storage site via a wide area communication line, wherein the digital copying machine optically scans the document. Generating electronic document data; transmitting a storage command and the document data to a computer system at the storage site via a wide area communication line; supplying a document print request and document data to a predetermined printing means Transmitting a document print request generation command to the computer system at the storage site via the wide area communication line.