JP2009048321A - Electronic application processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce the burden of a user when submitting a paper document to a plurality of facilities for procedures. <P>SOLUTION: A form provision device 200 outputs a form set including a plurality of application forms necessary for a procedure, document structure definition document for the interpretation of each application form, and a processing definition document including a processor 400 for processing each application form and the information of the processing procedure. A user fills necessary items in each form, and inputs it to an information desk device 300. The information desk device 300 reads the set, and recognizes the processing definition document and the document structure definition document, and decides whether or not all the necessary item columns have been filled from the read image of each application form according to them, and promotes filling when there is any unfilled column. When all the filling columns are filled, the data of the read form set are transferred to the first processor 400 of the processing order. The processor 400 processes the form to its own destination among the data, and transfers data in which the processing result is integrated to the next processor 400. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2009,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an electronic application processing system.

  In recent years, systems that electronically apply to governments and local governments via a data communication network such as the Internet are becoming popular.

  Some of these systems accept data input of application items processed by a plurality of processing departments from a user in a batch, and divide the input data and transmit it to the corresponding processing departments. .

  The electronic application system of Patent Document 1 accepts application data from an input device, etc., and determines whether the application data includes contents for allocating processes to a plurality of processing departments by applying the application data to a table or the like, If it is determined that the application data includes content that allocates processing to multiple processing departments, a step for dividing the application data, a consistent ID is set for each divided application data, and the user and the relevant processing department are divided into applications. A step of associating data with the database, a step of transmitting each divisional application data to the processing department terminal, a step of receiving the processing status for each divisional application data from the processing department terminal and recording it in the database, and a processing Applying a situation to a table or algorithm to select a corresponding process; And outputting destined for processing unit terminal or the like, and the execution. This method divides the input data and distributes it to each department, but cannot cope with the case where the processing result of the preceding processing department uses the processing result of the succeeding stage.

JP 2004-234256 A

  An object of the present invention is to reduce a user's work load when documents need to be submitted to a plurality of different organizations for one procedure.

  In the present invention, the document providing apparatus includes a plurality of forms for one procedure, entry field information including information for specifying an entry field included in each form, and a processing apparatus for processing each form. A set of application documents including processing definition information including information on the processing order of each processing device is provided. The user fills in the necessary items in the entry field of each form in the application document, and inputs a set of application documents including the completed form into the window device.

  The window device reads the image of the input application document, acquires the image of each form, entry field information, and process definition information from the read application document image, and then extracts each image from the form image based on the acquired entry field information. Extract the image contents of the entry fields, determine whether each entry field is filled based on the extracted image contents of each entry field, fill in the entry fields that are judged as not filled in, and fill in the entry When the display prompting the user to re-enter the result is performed and it is determined that all the entry fields have been filled, the first processing device in the processing order indicated by the process definition information is sent to each of the extracted forms. An image, entry field information, and process definition information are transmitted.

  The processing device receives the image of each form, entry field information, and process definition information, and based on the entry field information and the process definition information, identifies an image of the form to be processed by the processing apparatus from the form group image, Perform predetermined processing on the identified form image, and if there is a next processing device of the processing device in the processing order represented by the process definition information, the image of each form, the entry field The information and the process definition information are transferred.

  Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. In the drawings, similar components or steps are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description is omitted.

  First, an example of an electronic application processing system according to an embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. In this system, it is necessary to submit application forms to multiple institutions (for example, administrative agencies) for one procedure, and the processing results in the previous institution are processed for processing in the later institution. The case where it is necessary is assumed.

  This system includes a form providing apparatus 200, a window apparatus 300, and one or more processing apparatuses 400-1, 400-2,..., 400- that can communicate with each other via a network 100 such as a local area network or the Internet. n (hereinafter collectively referred to as the processing device 400 when there is no need for distinction). Each processing apparatus 400 is installed in a different organization or department (hereinafter simply referred to as “organization”). This system handles the case where it is necessary to sequentially submit applications to a plurality of institutions for one procedure.

  The form providing apparatus 200 provides the user with a set of application forms necessary for one procedure. This set includes application forms (blank application forms) that users must submit to each institution for the procedure. The form providing apparatus 200 is installed in a facility that is easily accessible to the user, such as an administrative organization, a public facility such as a station or a public hall, or a store such as a convenience store. The form providing apparatus 200 may print out a set of application forms or send it to a user's personal computer (PC) via the network 100 as a file or file set of a predetermined format such as PDF (Portable Document Format). May be. In the latter case, the user obtains a set of paper application forms by printing the file with his printer.

  A set of application forms for a single procedure includes a group of application forms to be filled in by the user, a document structure definition description describing the document structure of each application form, and a processing procedure for these application forms. And the described process definition description. The document structure definition description and the process definition description will be described in detail later.

  One form providing apparatus 200 may correspond to a plurality of types of procedures. In this case, the form providing apparatus 200 has application form set data necessary for each type of procedure. For example, the form providing apparatus 200 displays a list of procedure types, receives selection of a procedure desired by the user from the list, and outputs a set of application forms for the selected procedure.

  The user fills in the necessary items for each application form included in the application form set obtained as described above, for example, by handwriting, and the document structure definition description and the process definition description printed on the paper. Bring the completed application form set to the installation location of the window device 300 and put it into the window device 300.

  The window device 300 optically reads the completed application form set input by the user, and performs character recognition on the image of each page obtained as a result of the reading. Based on the character recognition result, the description contents of the document structure definition description and the process definition description are recognized. Further, the window device 300 identifies the corresponding image corresponding to each application form from the read image and the character recognition result thereof, and the image and character recognition result of each application form are stored in the document structure definition description document. Parse the description. Based on this analysis, it is determined whether all application forms necessary for the procedure have been entered and whether all the required entry fields are filled in each application form. If there is an application form that has not been entered, or if there is an entry field that is required but is not filled in, the window device 300 allows the user to enter the application form that has not been entered or fill in the entry field that has not been entered. Promotion processing (for example, displaying a message on the UI screen) is executed. The window apparatus 300 repeats the promotion process until it is confirmed that all application forms necessary for the procedure have been entered and all the required entry fields of the application forms have been filled. When the confirmation is made, the window apparatus 300 converts the form data set including the read image of each application form, the document structure definition description and the data of the description contents of the process definition description into the process definition description. Transfer to the first processing device 400 in the processing procedure shown via the network 100. The window device 300 analyzes the image of each application form and the result of character recognition for the image according to the document structure definition corresponding to the application form (this is described in the document structure definition document). Thus, the entry contents of each entry field of the application form may be structured into a logical structure indicated by the document structure definition. In this case, the window apparatus 300 sends the structured document of each application form obtained by the structuring to the first processing apparatus 400 in the processing procedure together with the image of each application form or instead of the image of each application form. May be transferred.

  The processing device 400 that has received the form data set from the window device 300 recognizes the processing to be performed by itself and the application form to be processed from the data of the description content of the processing definition description. Then, the process is executed using the image of the application form to be processed (or a structured document representing the form). During this processing, the processing device 400 recognizes each element (for example, the contents entered in the entry field) included in the application form (or structured document) to be processed according to the document structure definition corresponding to the application form. Processing according to the recognition result is executed. The processing performed by the processing device 400 is processing for a procedure performed by the organization in which the processing device 400 is installed based on the application form to be processed. For example, the processing device 400 prints out an image of an application form to be processed, and when the staff confirms and prints the print result and inputs it into the processing device 400, the processing device 400 reads the stamped form, Add the scanned image to the form dataset. In this example, the processing of the processing device 400 supports the staff's work, but the processing on the application form may be automatically performed only by the processing device 400 without human work. Then, the processing device 400 transfers the form data set to the next processing device 400 indicated in the processing definition description.

  The processing device 400 that has received this form data set, like the processing device 400 in the previous stage, recognizes the processing to be performed and the application form to be processed from the data of the processing definition description in the set. Execute the process for the application form. If the processing definition description further describes the processing in the next processing device 400, the form data set is transferred to the next processing device 400.

  Thus, when the processing of the last processing device 400 described in the processing definition description is completed, one application procedure is completed. The last processing device 400 may notify the user who applied for the result of the application procedure.

  As described above, in the present system, the window device 300 reads the paper application form set, confirms that there is no shortage of forms and entries, and transfers the read result to the processing device 400 group. With such a mechanism, the user does not have to perform an operation of sequentially submitting an application through the organization where the processing device 400 is located. In addition, since a shortage of forms and entries is checked by the window device 300, the user can deal with deficiencies at the location of the window device 300 without waiting for the processing of the individual processing devices 400.

  The overview of the system according to the embodiment has been described above. The form providing apparatus 200, the window apparatus 300, and the processing apparatus 400 constituting the system are, for example, an image forming apparatus such as a digital copying machine or a digital multifunction peripheral (an apparatus having a plurality of functions such as a copying machine, a printer, and a scanner). Can be realized.

  An example of the control mechanism of the image forming apparatus used as the form providing apparatus 200, the window apparatus 300, or the processing apparatus 400 is shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, a ROM (Read Only Memory) 12 stores digital information such as a control program for controlling the operation of the image forming apparatus. When a CPU (central processing unit) 10 executes a control program in the ROM 12, control of each part of the image forming apparatus described below is realized.

  A RAM (Random Access Memory) 14 is a main storage device of the image forming apparatus, and is also used as a work memory when the control program is executed. The RAM 14 can also be used, for example, as a page buffer that stores image data for one page supplied to the image output device 24.

  The mass storage device 16 is an auxiliary storage device for storing various data, and is a non-volatile storage device such as a hard disk or an EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory).

  The operation panel 18 is a user interface means for displaying the user interface of the image forming apparatus and receiving input of various instructions from the user. The operation panel 18 includes, for example, mechanical operation buttons such as a start button, and a liquid crystal touch panel for GUI (graphical user interface). The liquid crystal touch panel displays a GUI screen generated by a control program executed by the CPU 10, detects a user's touch position on the display, and passes the detected position to the control program. The control program interprets the input content of the user from the information on the touch position.

  The communication interface 20 is a device responsible for control when data communication is performed with another device via a network such as a LAN (local area network). A print instruction or the like from the remote host is input into the image forming apparatus via the communication interface 20. The communication interface 20 is also used when accessing an external server such as a language translation server on the network.

  The image reading device 22 is a device that optically reads a document and generates electronic image data. For example, a scanner using a line sensor or an area sensor is an example. Documents set on an automatic document feeder (ADF) (not shown) are fed one by one to the image reading device by the ADF function and optically read.

  The image output apparatus 24 is an apparatus that forms (prints) an image on paper using image data supplied under the control of the CPU 10, and is also called a print engine.

  The facsimile module 26 is a module that transmits and receives facsimile data.

  Heretofore, an example of the hardware configuration of the image forming apparatus has been shown. However, this is only an example. Of course, the image forming apparatus may include hardware elements other than those illustrated. For example, the image forming apparatus includes an image area separation circuit that separates the read bitmap image into areas for each type of image such as a character area and a photographic area, and gradation correction, edge enhancement, enlargement / reduction, An image processing circuit that performs image processing such as rotation may be provided.

  When an apparatus having such a configuration is used as the form providing apparatus 200, a program describing a procedure for providing a form such as providing a user interface screen is stored in the ROM 12 or the mass storage device 16. When the CPU 10 executes this program, the image forming apparatus functions as the form providing apparatus 200. The same applies to the window apparatus 300 and the processing apparatus 400.

  Note that the use of an image forming apparatus as hardware of the form providing apparatus 200, the window apparatus 300, and the processing apparatus 400 is merely an example. These apparatuses 200, 300, and 400 may basically include a computer, and may further include a printing apparatus and / or an image reading apparatus as necessary.

  Hereinafter, the details of the form providing apparatus 200, the window apparatus 300, and the processing apparatus 400 constituting the system will be described in order. First, the form providing apparatus 200 will be described with reference to FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the form providing apparatus 200 includes a document structure definition DB (database) 210, a process definition DB 215, an instruction receiving unit 220, a definition information acquiring unit 230, and a print instruction unit 240.

  In the document structure definition DB 210, data representing an image of the form and data of a document structure definition description corresponding to the form are registered for each application form. FIG. 4 is an example of an image of the application form 500. The illustrated application form 500 includes an application headline 502. The application form 500 includes an entry field 504 for filling in the name of the applicant, a entry field 506 for filling in the applicant's address, and a field 508 for stamping the applicant's approval mark. A column 510 for entering the detailed contents of each item necessary for the application and an entry column 512 for entering the application date are included. In addition, the application form 500 includes a field 514 for filling in the items approved by the institution for the application and a mark of the representative of the institution as a field for the institution (processing device or staff member) to process the form. And a column 516 to be stamped. Such an application form image is registered in the document structure definition DB 210 as image data, for example. Alternatively, the formatting style of each element of the application form is defined in the document structure definition description, and the form output program generates the application form image based on the style information. Good.

  The document structure definition description is a document describing the structure of the application form. The application form includes elements such as a headline, an explanation, and an entry field. The document structure definition description includes information on a logical structure formed by these element groups. In addition, for example, the document structure definition description form of the application form is filled in the position of each entry field included in the application form on the image of the application form, the type of information entered in the entry field, and these entry fields. Indicates information (for example, data type) for interpreting the entered contents. Further, the document structure definition includes information indicating whether or not entry in the entry field is essential for each entry field. Also, information on the formatting style of each element may be described in the document structure definition description.

  The document structure definition description is described in a schema language such as DTD (Document Type Definition), W3C XML schema, RELAX NG (Regular Language description for XML New Generation). FIG. 5 shows a description example of the document structure definition description. This example is an example in which the logical structure of the document element group is described in W3C XML schema in the application form for price change (“PriceChangeRQ”). This form includes one or more item change elements (“ChangeItem”) including elements of an item name (“ItemInfo”), a price (“PriceInfo”), and a consumption tax (“TaxInfo”).

  In the process definition DB 215, data of one or more process definition descriptions is registered. One process definition description represents a process definition (in other words, a workflow) that defines a flow of a series of processes performed in one procedure. The process definition includes, for example, identification information (for example, host name or URL (Uniform Resource Locator)) of the processing device 400 that performs each processing for one procedure, identification information of processing performed by the processing device 400, and each application form Describes the order of processing. This order information is equivalent to the processing order of each processing device in a series of processing described in the processing definition description. The process definition description may also be described using a schema language such as XML schema.

  FIG. 6 shows an example of the data contents of the process definition description. This example is an example of a process definition description 600 for an application procedure that needs to go through processes in three institutions in order. Description portions 602, 604, and 606 surrounded by broken lines are description portions of processes corresponding to the respective organizations “xxx.org”, “yyy.org”, and “zzz.org”. For example, in the description part 602 regarding the processing of the organization “xxx.org”, the schema definition to be referred to in the description part 602 is first declared. After this, identification information of the processing apparatus 400 of the institution, information for identifying an application form to be processed by the processing apparatus 400, and the like are included. The description portion 602 includes identification information indicating the document structure definition description of the application form processed by the processing device 400. Instead of the identification information, the document structure definition description data itself may be incorporated in the description portion 602. In this case, the document structure definition DB 210 and the process definition DB 215 are integrated into one. In the example of FIG. 6, the description order of the description parts 602, 604, and 606 represents the execution order of the processes corresponding to these parts.

  Returning to the description of FIG. 3 again, the instruction receiving unit 220 is a user interface mechanism that receives an output instruction of an application form set from a user. The instruction receiving unit 220 may be, for example, a simple button for instructing output. When the form providing apparatus 200 is compatible with a plurality of types of procedures, the instruction receiving unit 220 displays a list of each procedure and receives a designation of a desired procedure from the user. The definition information acquisition unit 230 acquires a process definition description corresponding to the procedure designated by the user from the process definition DB 215, and documents for each application form that is the target of each process described in the process definition description. A structure definition description and an image are acquired from the document structure definition DB 210. The print instruction unit 240 causes the image output device 24 to print the process definition description acquired by the definition information acquisition unit 230, the image of each application form, and the document structure definition description of each application form. The print result of the process definition description and the document structure definition description is, for example, a print of a character string of the document structure definition and the process definition described in the schema language.

  The print instruction unit 240 may instruct to embed and print identification information indicating the process definition in the process definition description, and identification information indicating the document structure definition in the document structure definition description. . Such identification information may be printed, for example, in a form of an image code such as a barcode or a character string at a predetermined location in a margin area around the paper.

  In addition, the print instruction unit 240 may print identification information indicating the type of the application form on each application form, for example, in the form of a barcode or a character string. The identification information of the type of application form can be used to specify a document structure definition used for recognition of the application form and a processing device that processes the application form. In this case, the correspondence between which identification information corresponds to which document structure definition and which processing device corresponds is fixedly defined in the system, and the correspondence is determined by the window device 300 or the processing device 400. You may register with. Alternatively, such association information may be described in a process definition description or a document structure definition description.

  The user receives the application form set output from the image output device 24, fills in the necessary items for each application form, and brings the form set of the entry result to the window device 300 for input. For example, for the application form illustrated in FIG. 4, the user (that is, the applicant) fills in the necessary items in the entry fields 504, 506, 508, 510 and 512.

  Next, the details of the window apparatus 300 will be described with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 7, the window apparatus 300 includes a character recognition unit 310, a document analysis unit 320, a UI unit 330, and a transfer unit 340. When the user causes the image reading device 22 of the window device 300 to read the completed application form set, the image data of each page of the reading result is input to the character recognition unit 310. The character recognition unit 310 extracts character information included in each page by performing a known character recognition (OCR: Optical Character Recognition) process on the image data of each page. The character recognition unit 310 associates the image of each page with the character recognition result and provides it to the document analysis unit 320. Note that the character recognition unit 310 may have a function of recognizing a code image such as a barcode included in the image of each page. In this case, the character recognition unit 310 may recognize the identification information from each page using this function and provide the recognition result to the document analysis unit 320.

  The document analysis unit 320 analyzes the application form set based on the recognition result supplied from the character recognition unit 310. In this analysis process, first, the process definition description and the document structure definition description are recognized from the page group of the read application form set. For example, when identification information indicating the document type is embedded in each of the process definition description and the document structure definition description, the process definition description and the document structure definition description are identified by recognizing the identification information. be able to. When special identification information is not printed, from the character recognition result of the image of each page, for example, a characteristic character string (for example, a character string representing the name of the process definition, which is always included in the process definition description, Alternatively, it may be determined whether or not the character string (which should be at the beginning of the process definition description) can be read from an appropriate place in the image, and if it can be read, the page is recognized as the process definition description. The same applies to the document structure definition description.

  Further, the document analysis unit 320 identifies an image of each application form from the page group of the read application form set. If identification information is embedded in the application form image, the document analysis unit 320 determines which application form the image corresponds to based on the recognition result of the identification information. However, this is only an example. In another example, for each recognized document structure definition description, an application form having a structure corresponding to the document structure definition may be found. For this purpose, for example, an XML tag is recognized from the character recognition result of each page, an element group included in the page is specified, and a document structure definition having the specified element group is specified.

  Further, the document analysis unit 320 determines whether all application forms necessary for the procedure are prepared based on the recognition result of each application form. For example, in this determination, it is only necessary to determine whether or not all application forms listed in the process definition description are included in the recognition result. As a result, if an insufficient application form is detected, a UI (user interface) unit 330 notifies the user to that effect. The UI unit 330 includes, for example, a display device and an input device. Here, the UI unit 330 may notify the user which form is insufficient, for example, by displaying an image of an insufficient application form on the screen. In addition, an application form that is insufficient at this time may be printed out from the image output device 24 to prompt the user to fill it out.

  In addition, the document analysis unit 320 compares the recognized image of each application form and the corresponding character recognition result with the document structure definition description corresponding to each application form. It is determined whether or not each entry field required for entry is completed. The required entry fields can be specified from the document structure definition description. For example, if a character recognition result for the entry field is obtained, it can be determined that the entry field has been entered. In addition, for an entry field for which no character recognition result has been obtained, it is determined whether or not the image in the entry field extracted from the application form image is blank. The range of the entry field in the application form can be known from the document structure definition description corresponding to the application form. If it is determined in this way that an unfilled entry field is found among the mandatory entry fields, the document analysis unit 320 notifies the user via the UI unit 330. In this notification, for example, an image in which an entry field for requesting entry by the user is marked on the image of the application form may be displayed on the display screen of the UI unit 330.

  In accordance with the above notification, the user fills in the application form that was forgotten to be entered, or fills in the entry field that was forgotten to be filled in, and inputs the result into the image reading device 22 for reading. . The document analysis unit 320 analyzes the input application forms and determines whether or not all required entry fields of the required application form group are filled in, and there are missing forms or unfilled entry fields. If there is, notification is performed again.

  When it is confirmed that all required entry fields of the required application form group have been filled by repeating the above, the document analysis unit 320 creates a form data set including the recognition result, and The form data set is transferred to the processing apparatus 400 of the first institution in the procedure via the transfer unit 340. Here, the processing apparatus 400 of the first institution in the procedure is, for example, the processing apparatus 400 described in the description part 602 (see FIG. 6) at the top of the process definition description.

  The form data set to be transferred has a data structure as shown in FIG. 8, for example. The form data set includes document identification information 702, process definition 704, and one or more form information 706. The document identification information 702 is unique identification information of the form data set, and is given by the window apparatus 300. The process definition 704 is data representing the contents of the process definition description read by the window apparatus 300. One form information 706 is information about one application form read by the window apparatus 300. One form information includes a form image 712 which is a reading result of the application form, a document structure definition 714 indicating the contents of the document structure definition description of the application form (recognized by the document analysis unit 320), and an application form. Of the analysis result 716. The analysis result 716 is a structured document obtained by analyzing the read application form image according to the document structure definition 714. For example, the analysis result 716 is a structured document obtained by incorporating, for each document element indicated by the document structure definition 714, an image or character recognition result of the element read from the application form.

  Note that the window apparatus 300 may encrypt the form information 706 to be processed by each processing apparatus 400 in the form data set with the public key of the processing apparatus 400. Thereby, the possibility that the information of the application form addressed to the organization to which a certain processing apparatus 400 belongs is less likely to be seen by other organizations.

  Next, the processing apparatus 400 will be described in detail with reference to FIG. The processing device 400 includes a receiving unit 410, a target form determination unit 420, a processing execution unit 430, a processing result DB 440, a transfer unit 450, and a response unit 460. The receiving unit 410 receives a form data set from the window apparatus 300 or another processing apparatus 400. The target form determination unit 420 recognizes a description portion corresponding to the processing device 400 from the processing definition 704 included in the form data set. Here, for example, in each description part included in the process definition 704, a part including the identification information of the processing apparatus 400 may be determined as a description part corresponding to the processing apparatus 400. Further, the target form determination unit 420 determines form information 706 to be processed by the processing apparatus 400 from the form data set. When each form information 706 in the form data set is encrypted with the public key of the corresponding processing device 400, the form information 706 decrypted with the private key of the processing device 400 is stored in the processing device 400. The corresponding form information 706 is determined. In another example, the form information 706 corresponding to the processing device 400 may be determined based on the form identification information included in the description portion corresponding to the processing device 400 in the process definition 704.

  The process execution unit 430 performs the process specified in the description part corresponding to the processing apparatus 400 in the process definition 704 on the form information 706 determined as the process target. As an example of such processing, an image of the application form (this image includes the contents of the applicant's entry) is printed, and the result of the person in charge of the organization filling or stamping the printed result is read and read. There is a process to incorporate the image into the form data set. For example, the example of the application form shown in FIG. 10 is the result of filling in the entry column 514 with a statement that the institution staff will accept the application, and stamping the column of the organization in the column 516.

  The processing result of the processing execution unit 430 is registered in the processing result DB 440. The processing result registered in the processing result DB 440 includes, for example, permission / rejection information as to whether or not the organization to which the processing device 400 belongs has given permission to the application content described in the application form submitted by the user. When an engineer makes a determination of permission, a determination result input by the employee to the processing device 400 is registered in the processing result DB 440. When the process execution unit 430 automatically determines whether or not to give permission to the application form, the determination result of the process execution unit 430 is registered in the process result DB 440. The permission / rejection information is registered in the processing result DB 440 in association with the document identification information 702 of the received form data set. In addition, the processing result DB 440 may register data of a document issued by the institution with respect to the application form (for example, a form describing the permission illustrated in FIG. 10). In the processing result DB 440, in addition to the permission information or the document data issued as a result of the processing, processing state data for the received form data set may be recorded in association with the document identification information 702. The processing state includes stages such as “received (waiting for processing)”, “processing”, “processed”, and the like.

  When the processing definition 704 includes a description portion for the processing device 400 next to the processing device 400, the transfer unit 450 transmits the form data set including the processing result of the processing execution unit 430 via the network 100. Transfer to the next processing device 400. The address of the next processing apparatus 400 on the network 100 can be obtained from the identification information described in the description part.

  The response unit 460 provides information registered in the processing result DB 440 in response to an inquiry from the user. In this system, when a user inputs an application form set into the window apparatus 300, the window apparatus 300 provides identification information (document identification information 702) of the form set. The output method of identification information does not matter. For example, the identification information may be printed out as a character string or sent to the user's mail by e-mail. For example, when the user inputs the value of the identification information to his / her PC or the window device 300 and designates a desired processing device 400 to instruct a situation inquiry, the PC or the window device 300 receives the value of the identification information. Is transmitted to the processing device 400. In response to this, in the processing device 400, the response unit 460 searches the processing result DB 440 for information registered in association with the identification information included in the inquiry, and sends response information corresponding to the search result to the PC or the contact point. Return to device 300. When the processing device 400 has not received the form data set corresponding to the identification information to be queried, the response information is “not received”, for example. If received, the response information includes, for example, processing state information. When the processing state corresponding to the identification information is “processed”, the response information may further include permission / rejection information, processing result document data, and the like.

  When the processing in the processing execution unit 430 is completed, the processing device 400 embeds the processing result in the form data set if the processing definition 704 describes the processing in the next processing device 400, and the form data The set is transferred from the transfer unit 450 to the next processing device 400. The transfer is repeated until the last processing device 400 in the processing definition 704 is reached. The processing result incorporated in the form data set is used in any of the later institutions. Therefore, the processing result is encrypted with the public key of the processing apparatus 400 of the institution that uses the processing result. Note that the processing device 400 with which the public key is used to encrypt the processing result may be described in the processing definition description.

  When the processing apparatus 400 that has executed the last process specified in the process definition 704 issues a document (for example, a permit) to the user as a result of the process, the processing apparatus 400 outputs the document. The user goes to get the document of the final result to an organization where the processing device 400 is located. Alternatively, the agency mails the final result document to the user. As the mailing address, the user address information described in the application form is used.

  When the user goes to the institution to obtain the final result document, the user is a legitimate user for the institution by bringing one of the original application form sets (for example, the cover). You may prove that. In this case, the window device 300 reads a predetermined sheet of paper fingerprint of the application form set (a fine structure formed by paper fibers or surface irregularities, which differs for each sheet of paper), and forms the information of the paper fingerprint as a form. When the paper fingerprint of the form brought by the user in the final processing device 400 matches the paper fingerprint incorporated in the form data set, it is determined that the user is a valid user. Also good. Note that the paper fingerprints of all the papers in the application form set may be read and incorporated into the form data set, and in this case, the user may bring any form. Instead of using paper fingerprints, the application form set is printed on a paper with an RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) tag incorporated, and the ID number of a predetermined one of the sets (or the entire set) is the RFID tag ID number. May be incorporated into the form data set and transferred. In this case, whether the user is legitimate may be determined based on whether the ID number of the paper RFID tag brought by the user matches the value incorporated in the form data set.

  In the above example, the document identification information 702 is given by the window device 300. Instead, the window device 300 reads the value representing the paper fingerprint or the ID number of the RFID tag embedded in the paper, and the document identification information 702 is read. It may be used as In this case, the user causes his / her PC or window device 300 to read the paper fingerprint or RFID of the paper in the form set, and uses the value of the read result as identification information for inquiring the processing status to the processing device 400. You can also.

  According to the embodiment described above, all the forms necessary for one procedure are read by the window apparatus 300, and the window apparatus 300 checks whether all the forms are prepared and all required fields are filled. When a missing entry is found, the user can deal with it immediately. The application form set includes a processing definition description and a document structure definition description, and the window device 300 reads them, so that the window device 300 and the processing device 400 receive information on the process definition and the document structure definition. There is no need to have it in advance. Therefore, when installing the window apparatus 300 in various places, the burden of maintenance management of these window apparatuses 300 is small. Further, since each piece of form information 706 included in the form set is encrypted with the public key of the processing device 400 that processes the form information 706, the possibility of individual form information 706 leaking to other organizations can be reduced.

It is a figure showing a schematic structure of an example of an electronic application processing system of an embodiment. It is a figure which shows an example of the hardware constitutions of the image processing apparatus used as the foundation of a form provision apparatus, a window apparatus, or a processing apparatus. It is a functional block diagram of an example of a form provision apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the image of an application form. It is a figure which shows an example of the data content of a document structure definition description. It is a figure which shows an example of the data content of a process definition description. It is a functional block diagram of an example of a window apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the data structure of the form set data which a window apparatus sends to a processing apparatus. It is a functional block diagram of an example of a processing apparatus. It is a figure which shows an example of the image of the application form after receiving the process by a processing apparatus.

Explanation of symbols

  100 network, 200 form providing device, 300 window device, 400 processing device.

Claims (4)

A plurality of forms for one procedure, entry field information including information for specifying an entry field included in each form, a processing device that processes each form, and a processing order of each processing device; A document providing device for providing a set of application documents including processing definition information including information;
Read the image of the input application document, obtain the image of each form, entry field information and process definition information from the read application image, and then enter each entry field from the image of each form based on the obtained entry field information The image contents are extracted, and it is determined whether or not each entry field is filled based on the extracted image contents of each entry field. Is displayed, and when it is determined that all the entry fields have been filled, the first processing device in the processing order indicated by the processing definition information A window device that transmits images, entry field information and process definition information;
Each form image, entry field information, and process definition information are received from the window apparatus or another processing apparatus, and the processing apparatus processes the form group image based on the entry field information and the process definition information. A form image to be identified is identified, a predetermined process is performed on the identified form image, and if there is a next processing apparatus in the processing order represented by the process definition information, the next processing apparatus One or more processing devices that transfer the image of each form, the entry field information, and the processing definition information;
An electronic application processing system. The window device, when transferring to the first processing device in the processing order together with the image of the form group, the entry field definition information and the processing definition information, transfers the application identification information for identifying the application document,
When each processing device transfers the image of the form group, the entry field definition information and the processing definition information to the next processing device, the application identification information received together with the image of the form group is transferred together,
At least one of the plurality of processing devices is
Storage means for storing the processing result or processing history information of the form by the processing execution means in association with the application identification information received together with the image of the form;
When receiving an output request including application identification information, output means for outputting processing result or processing history information corresponding to the application identification information from the storage means;
The electronic application processing system according to claim 1, further comprising: The counter device includes means for detecting paper identification information for identifying the paper from the input application paper, and transfers the paper identification information as the application identification information to the first processing device in the processing order. And
At least one of the plurality of processing devices includes means for detecting paper identification information from the input paper,
When application identification information corresponding to the paper identification information detected from the input paper is registered in the storage means, the output means is stored in the storage means in association with the application identification information. Output the processing result or processing history information of the form,
The electronic application processing system according to claim 2.   The window device encrypts the image of each form transmitted to the first processing device in the processing order so that only the processing device that processes the form indicated in the process definition information can decrypt the image. The electronic application processing system according to claim 1, further comprising an encryption unit.

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