Edward M Scanlon

US Patent:

6970267, Nov 29, 2005

Filed:

Jan 8, 2002

Appl. No.:

10/041166

Inventors:

Edward F. Scanlon - Enfield CT, US

Assignee:

Scan-Optics Inc. - Manchester CT

International Classification:

G06F015/00

US Classification:

358 14, 358 19

Abstract:

In a broad aspect of the invention, the master printed form is scanned and processed according to a forms definition program to produce a virtual form file comprising a virtual layout of the significant regions such as bubble targets of printed material on the form, on a virtual coordinate system. Production forms that have been marked by subjects (e. g. , students, voters, survey respondents, etc. ), are then scanned to produce a marked form file of gray scale darkness values for each marked form. The marked form file and the virtual form file, are compared and processed to determine the location and spatial relationships of the marks on the marked form, in relation to the virtual coordinate system of the virtual form. The raw scan of each marked form is also processed to determine whether darkened areas on the marked form image should be interpreted as intentional responses from the subject, at the virtual coordinates where targets are located on the virtual form.

US Patent:

7389152, Jun 17, 2008

Filed:

Jun 3, 2005

Appl. No.:

11/145319

Inventors:

Edward F. Scanlon - Enfield CT, US
Michael McAuliffe - Ellington CT, US
Lee Zuidema - Lebanon CT, US
Michael Wiggins - South Windsor CT, US
Alfred Basso - Winsted CT, US

Assignee:

Scan-Optics Inc. - Manchester CT

International Classification:

G05B 19/18
G06K 9/20

US Classification:

700 59, 382317, 382321

Abstract:

A document image scanner; a camera having a field of view, for sensing differentiated information areas on each physical document as the physical document is transported; an image processing system associated with the camera, for producing a virtual image data file from the differentiated information areas sensed by the camera; sensors for determining the position of the physical document relative to the camera field of view; of electro-mechanical devices for actuating the transporter; and a data interface controller for receiving data from the sensors and controlling the electro-mechanical devices. A communications link is provided between the data interface controller and the image processing system for synchronization by the data interface controller, of the physical document as conveyed and the virtual document image captured by the image processing system.

US Patent:

7564587, Jul 21, 2009

Filed:

May 24, 2006

Appl. No.:

11/439649

Inventors:

Edward F. Scanlon - Enfield CT, US

Assignee:

Scan-0ptics LLC - Manchester CT

International Classification:

G06F 15/00
G06K 7/10

US Classification:

358 301, 235454

Abstract:

A digital form scoring system that does not require that the targets on the marked form be digitally captured with a drop-out scanner. This is accomplished by locating each target, and in the mark interpretation logic, sensing an area within the outline of the target, then digitally removing all or most of thin lines of print that form a symbol or character within the outline, and removing the shading in the background, before applying the logic that determines whether a region of dark gray scale values in the sensing area should be considered a valid mark entered by the subject.

US Patent:

48130770, Mar 14, 1989

Filed:

Jul 30, 1986

Appl. No.:

6/891869

Inventors:

Daniel E. Woods - Vernon CT
Ronald E. Gocht - Manchester CT
Peter M. Higgins - Enfield CT
Anne M. Edwards - West Hartford CT
Hugh Rowlands - Hartford CT
Edward F. Scanlon - Ellington CT
Jerry Putzer - Rocky Hill CT

Assignee:

Scan-Optics, Inc. - East Hartford CT

International Classification:

G06K 900

US Classification:

382 7

Abstract:

The processing of documents evidencing business transactions is enhanced by optically scanning and imaging only specific areas of interest, amount fields for example, and simultaneously storing the imaged amount fields in two separate files. Subsequently, only those images which correspond to a dollar amount which has not been successfully read will initially be displayed to an operator for key entry of the amount. A balancing procedure is performed and if a comparison of the total of the individual imaged amounts equals the total entered on a summary document further key entry of amounts will be unnecessary.

US Patent:

58504800, Dec 15, 1998

Filed:

May 30, 1996

Appl. No.:

8/656417

Inventors:

Edward Francis Scanlon - Enfield CT

Assignee:

Scan-Optics, Inc. - East Hartford CT

International Classification:

G06K 972
G06K 900

US Classification:

382229

Abstract:

The present invention includes methods of correcting optical character recognition errors occurring during recognition of alphanumeric character strings contained within one or more predetermined types of alphanumeric character fields. The methods may be practiced with a document processing system having (1) a optical character recognition device for scanning documents and outputting bit-map image data; (2) a recognition engine for converting the bit-map image data into possibly correct alphanumeric characters with associated confidence values; and (3) at least one lexicon of character strings consisting of a list of at least a portion of all of the possible character string values for each of the fields being processed. The present invention corrects OCR errors by performing a contextual comparison analysis between the alphanumeric characters outputted from the recognition engine and the lexicon of character strings. A number of preferred embodiments, and several examples of the type of information which can be processed by those embodiments, are disclosed.