Datatreasury Corporation v. Small Value Payments Company

Filing 39

STATUS REPORT Opening Claims Construction Brief (REPLACES # 38 ) by Datatreasury Corporation. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit Ex A# 2 Exhibit EX B)(Cooper, Rodney) Modified on 2/1/2006 (mpv, ). Modified on 2/1/2006 (mpv, ). Additional attachment(s) added on 2/1/2006 (mpv, ).

atatreasury Corporation v. Small Value Payments Company

Doc. 39 Att. 4

D

68698 U . S . P T O

08/917761

U . 8 . DEPARTPENT OF COMWERCK PATENT AND T R A D M OFFICE

FEE WCORD SHEET

Dockets.Justia.com

REMOTE IMAGE CAPTURE
W T l X CENTRALIZED PROCl323SING AND STORAGE
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
5 T h i s i n v e n t i o n relates generally to the automated processing of documents and electronic data from different applications including sale, business, banking and general consumer transactions. More particularly, it pertains to an automated system to retrieve transaction data at remote 10 locations, to encrypt the data, to transmit the encrypted data to a central location, to transform the data to a usable form, to generate informative reports from the data and to transmit the informative reports to the remote locations.

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BACKGROUND

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This invention involves the processing of documents and electronic data which are generated, for example, from sale, b u s i n e s s and banking transactions including credit card transactions, smart card transactions, a u t o m a t e d teller 2 0 machine (ATM) transactions, consumer purchases, business forms, W 2 forms, birth certificates, deeds and insurance documents. The enormous number of paper and electronic records g e n e r a t e d from documents and electronic data from sale, 2 5 business and banking transactions contain valuable information. First, these paper and electronic records contain information which c a n be used t o verify the accuracy of the records maintained by consumers, merchants and bankers. For example, customers use paper receipts of sale 30 and banking transactions to verify the information on the periodic statements which they receive from their bank or credit card institution. Merchants use paper receipts to record sale t r a n s a c t i o n s for management of customer complaints. Taxpayers use paper receipts to record tax
35 deductible contributions for use in their tax return preparation. Employees use paper receipts to record business expenses f o r preparation of business expense forms.

Paper and electronic records also contain information
which can be used for m a r k e t analysis.
For example,

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manufacturers and retailers can determine consumer preferences in different regions as well as trends in consumer preferences from the information contained in paper

and electronic records.
However, the maintenance and processing of paper and e l e c t r o n i c records presents difficult challenges. First, paper receipts and documents could easily be lost, misplaced, stolen, damaged or destroyed. Further, the information contained in these paper and electronic records cannot be easily processed because it is scattered among individual records. For example, the market trend information contained in a group of sales records retained by merchants cannot easily be determined since this information is scattered among the individual records. Likewise, the t a x information contained in a group of paper receipts of sales transactions retained by consumers cannot easily be processed. Previous approaches have been proposed to meet the challenges associated with the maintenance and processing of paper and electronic records. For example, data archive service companies store the information from paper receipts and documents acquired from their customers on microfilm or compact disc read only memory (CD-ROM) at a central facility. Customers typically deliver the paper receipts and documents to the central facility. For sensitive documents which cannot leave the customer site, some data archive service companies perform data acquisition and transfer to magnetic tapes at the customer site and deliver the tapes to the central facility. The approach offered by these data archive service companies have disadvantages. First, the approach is costly and has poor performance because it requires an expensive,

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time consuming physical transportation of paper receipts or 35 magnetic tapes from the customer site to the central

facility. Further, the approach is not reliable as information can be lost or damaged during physical

transportation.
it does not process electronic records a l o n g with the paper

The approach also has limited capability as

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receipts within a single system. Other approaches have focused on the elimination of paper receipts and documents. U . S + Patent No. 5,590,038 discloses a universal electronic transaction card (UET card) or smart card which stores transaction information on a memory embedded on the card as a substitute for a paper receipt. Similarly, U . S . Patent No. 5,479,510 discloses a method of electronically transmitting and storing purchaser information at the time of purchase which is read at a later time to ensure that the purchased goods or services are delivered to the correct person. While these approaches avoid the problems associated with paper receipts, they have other disadvantages. First, these approaches do not offer independent verification of the accuracy of the r e c o r d s maintained by consumers, merchants and bankers with a third party recipient of the transaction data. For example, if a UET card is lost, stolen, damaged or deliberately altered by an unscrupulous holder after recording sale or banking transactions, these approaches would not be able to verify the remaining records which are maintained by the other parties to the transactions. Next, these approaches do not have the ability to pkocess both paper and electronic records of transactions within a single, comprehensive system. Accordingly, they do not address the task of processing the enormous number of paper receipts which have been generated from sales and banking transactions. The absence of the ability to process both paper and electronic records of these approaches is a significant limitation as paper receipts and documents will continue to be generated for the foreseeable future because of concerns over the reliability and security o f electronic transactions and the familiarity of consumers and merchants with paper receipts. These approaches a l s o have a s e c u r i t y d e f i c i e n c y as t h e y
do not offer signature verification which is typically used

on credit card purchases to avoid theft and fraud. For
example, a thief could misappropriate money from a UET card

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holder after obtaining by force, manipulation or theft the user's personal identification number (PIN). Similarly, it is not uncommon for criminals to acquire c r e d i t cards in victims1 names a n d make unlawful charges after obtaining the victim's social security number. This becomes a greater concern as that t y p e of p e r s o n a l i n f o r m a t i o n becomes available, e . g , , on the internet. Also, the signature verification performed m a n u a l l y by merchants for credit card purchases frequently misses forged signatures. Even if smart cards a r UET cards had the ability to store signature and other biometric data within the card for verification, the system would still have disadvantages. First, the stored biometric data on the card c o u l d be altered by a card thief to defeat the security measure. similarly, the biometric data c o u l d be corrupted i f t h e card is damaged. Finally, the security measure would be costly at it would require an expensive biometric comparison feature either on each card or on equipment at each merchant site. Additional biometric verification systems including signature verification systems have been proposed to address the security problem. For example, U.S. Patent 5,657,393 discloses a method and apparatus for verification of handwritten signatures involving the extraction and comparison of signature characteristics including the length and angle of select component lines. In addition, U.S. Patent 5,602,933 discloses a method and apparatus for the verification of remotely acquired data with corresponding data stored at a c e n t r a l facility. However, none of these verification systems offer general support for transaction initiation, remote paper and electronic data acquisition, data encryption, data communication , data archival, data retrieval, d a t a mining, manipulation and analytic services. Accordingly, there is a need for a single system w h i c h o f f e r s comprehensive support f o r the tasks involved in the automated processing of

documents, biometric and electronic data from sale, business,
banking and general consumer transactions.
Further, there is

a need for a single comprehensive system having the reliability, performance, fault tolerance, capacity, cost and
5 security to satisfy the requirements of the retail, business,

banking and general consumer industries. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The invention provides an automated, reliable, high performance, fault tolerant, and low cost system with maximal security and availability to process electronic and paper transactions, and has.been named the DataTreasurym system. It is an o b j e c t of the p r e s e n t invention to provide a system for central management, storage and verification of remotely captured electronic and paper transactions from credit cards, smart cards, debit cards, documents and receipts involving sales, business, banking and general purpose consumer applications comprising: at least one remote data access subsystem for capturing and sending electronic and paper transaction data; at least one data collecting subsystem for collecting and sending the electronic and paper transaction data comprising a first data management subsystem for managing the collecting and sending o f the transaction data; at least one central data processing subsystem for processing, sending and storing the electronic and paper transaction data comprising a second data management subsystem for managing the processing, sending and storing of the transaction data; and at least one communication network for the transmission of the transaction data within and between s a i d at least one data access subsystem and said at least one data processing subsystem. The DataTreasurym System processes paper and/or electronic receipts such as credit card receipts, Automated Teller Machine (ATM) receipts, business expense receipts and sales receipts and automatically generates reports such as

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credit card statements, bank statements, tax reports for tax return preparation, market analyses, and t h e like. It is a further abject of the DataTreasury" System to retrieve both paper and electronic transactions at remote locations. I t i s a f u r t h e r object of t h e DataTreasurym System to employ a scanner and a data entry terminal at a customer site to retrieve data from paper transactions and to e n a b l e a d d i t i o n s or modifications to the scanned information respectively. It is a further object of the DataTreasurym System to provide an input device for retrieving transaction data from the memory of smart cards for independent verification of the records maintained by consumers, merchants and bankers t o prevent the loss of data from the loss, theft, damage or deliberate alteration of the smart card. I t is a further object of the DataTreasury" System to retrieve and process transaction data from DataTreasurym System anonymous smart cards which are identified by an account number and password. Since DataTreasuryw System anonymous smart card transactions can be identified without the customer's name, a customer can add money to t h e DataTreasuryTY System anonymous smart card and make expenditures with the card with the same degree of privacy as cash acquisitions and expenditures. I t is a f u r t h e r object of the DataTreasuryTH System to retrieve customer billing data from employee time documents and to generate customer billing statements from the billing data. I t i s a further o b j e c t of the DataTreasurym System to initiate electronic transactions including transactions on t h e i n t e r n e t and to p r o v i d e identification verification by capturing and comparing signature and biometric data.

It is a further object of t h e DataTreasury" System of the invention to process electronic and paper transactions
w i t h a tiered architecture comprised o f DataTreasury" System

ccess Terminals (DATs), D a t a T r e a s u r y m System Access
ollectors ( D A C s ) and DataTreasuryTM System Processing

Concentrators ( D P C s ) .
5 BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS These and other objects and features of t h e invention will be more clearly u n d e r s t o o d from t h e following detailed description a l o n g with the a c c o m p a n y i n g drawing figures, where in : 10 FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the three major operational elements of the invention: the DataTreasury" System Access Terminal (DAT), the DataTreasury" System Access Collector (DAC) and t h e DataTreasurym S y s t e m Processing C o n c e n t r a t o r (DPC);

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FIG, 2 is a block diagram of the DAT architecture;

FIG. 3a i s a flow chart describing image c a p t u r e by a DAT ; F I G . 3 b d i s p l a y s a s a m p l e p a p e r receipt which i s processed by the DAT; 20 F I G . 4 is a block diagram of the DAC architecture; FIG. 5 is a flow chart describing the polling of t h e DATs by a DAC; FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the DPC architecture; FIG. 7 is a f l o w chart describing t h e p o l l i n g of t h e
2 5 DACs by the DPC; F I G . 8 is a performed by the F I G . 9 is a performed by the 30

flow.chart describing the data p r o c e s s i n g DPC; and flow chart describing the data retrieval DPC.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT FIG. 1 shows the architecture of the DataTreasuryM System 100. The DataTreasury" System 100 has three operational elements: t h e DataTreasurym System Access 3 5 Terminal (DAT) 200 (the remote data access subsystem), t h e DataTreasuryw System Access Collector (DAC) 400 (the

intermediate data collecting s u b s y s t e m ) , and the
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DataTreasusym System Processing Concentrator (DPC) 600 (the
central data processing subsystem).

The DataTreasurym S y s t e m 100 architecture consists of three tiers. At the bottom tier, the DATs 200 retrieve data from the customer sites. A t the next tier, the DACs 400 poll the DATs 200 to receive data which accumulates in the DATs 200. At the top tier, the DPCs 600 poll the DACs 400 to receive data which accumulates in the DACs 400. T h e DPCs 6 0 0 store the customer's data in a central location, generate informative reports from the data and transmit the informative reports to the customers at remote locations. In the preferred embodiment, the DataTreasurym System 100 complies with the Price Waterhouse SAS70 industry standard. Specifically, the DataTreasuryTMSystem 100 meets the software development standard, the system deployment standard and the reliability standard specified by Price Waterhouse SAS70. By a d h e r i n g t o t h e P r i c e Waterhouse SAS70 standard, the DataTreasuryM System 100 provides the security, availability and reliability r e q u i r e d by mission critical financial applications of banks and stock brokerage companies. A s is known to persons of ordinary skill in the art, t h e DataTreasurym System 100 could also use other software development standard, other system deployment standards and other reliability standards as long as adherence to t h e s e alternative standards provides the security, availability and reliability required by mission critical financial applications. FIG. 2 shows a b l o c k diagram of t h e DAT 200 architecture. DATs 200 are located at customer sites, The DataTreasuryn System 100 customers include merchants, consumers and bankers. The R A T S 200 act as the customer contact point to the suite of services provided by the DataTreasurym System 100. In t h e preferred embodiment, the DAT 200 is custom designed around a general purpose thin client Network Computer (NC) which runs SUN Microsystemls JAVA/OS operating system. The custom designed DAT 200

comprises a DAT scanner 202, a DAT modem 204, DAT digital storage 2 0 6 , a DAT controller 210 (workstation), a DAT card

interface 212, an optional DAT printer 208 and a signature
pad 214.
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As is known to persons of ordinary skill in the art, the DAT 200 could a l s o be custom designed around a general purpose network computer running other operating systems as long as the chosen operating system provides support for multiprocessing, memory management and dynamic Linking required by the Data~reasury* System 100. The DAT scanner 202 scans a paper receipt and generates a digital bitmap image representation called a B i t r n a p Image ( B I ) o f the receipt. In t h e preferred embodiment, the DAT scanner 202 has the ability to support a full range of image resolution values which are commonly measured in Dots Per Inch (DPI). Next, the DAT scanner 202 has the ability to perform full duplex imaging. With full duplex imaging, a scanner simultaneous captures both the front and back of a paper document. The DAT scanner 202 can also support gray scale and full color imaging at any bit per pixel d e p t h v a l u e . The DAT scanner 202 also supports the capture of h a n d - w r i t t e n signatures f o r identity verification. In addition to scanning images and text, the DAT scanner 202 also scans DataGlyphn elements, available from Xerox corporation. As is known to persons of ordinary skill in the art, the Xerox DataGlyphrM Technology represents digital information with machine readable data which is encoded into many, tiny, individual glyph elements. Each glyph element consists of a 45 degree diagonal line which could be as short as 1/100th of an inch depending on the resolution of the scanning and printing devices. Each glyph element represents a binary 0 or 1 depending on whether it slopes downward to the left or the right respectively. Accordingly, DataGlyphm elements can represent character strings as ASCII or EBCIDIC binary representations. Further, encryption methods, as known to persons of ordinary skill in the art encrypt the data represented by the DataGlyphW Technology.

The use of glyph technology in the DataTreasurym System 100 improves t h e accuracy, cost and performance of t h e system. Xerox DataGlyphm Technology includes error correction codes which can be referenced to correct scanning errors or to correct damage t o t h e document caused by ink
s p i l l s or ordinary wear.
D a t a G l y p h W Technology a l s o l e a d s to

decreased system cost since the system will require Less manual intervention for data entry and correction because of the improved accuracy associated with DataGlyphn elements. Since DataGlyphTM l e m e n t s represent a large amount of e information i n a small amount of space, t h e DAT scanner 100 will'require a small amount of time t o i n p u t a large amount of information. The DAT c a r d interface 2 1 2 and the DAT s i g n a t u r e pad 2 1 4 along with the internet and telephone a c c e s s through t h e DAT modem 204 e n a b l e the DataTreasurym S y s t e m 100 customer to initiate secure sale and banking transactions via the internet o r t e l e p h o n e with t h e DAT 200 using a variety of cards including debit cards, smart cards and c r e d i t cards. After selecting a p u r c h a s e or a banking transaction through a standard i n t e r n e t i n t e r f a d e , the DataTreasuryTM System 100 customer inserts or swipes the debit card, smart c a r d or credit card i n t o t h e DAT c a r d i n t e r f a c e 2 1 2 . The DAT card interface 212 retrieves the identification information from the card f o r s u b s e q u e n t transmission t o the destination of the internet transaction. Further, the DAT s c a n n e r 202 could capture a hand written signature from a document o r t h e DAT signature pad 214 could capture an electronic signature written on it with a special pen. Similarly, these security featurs a l l o w a c r e d i t c a r d recipient t o activate the card with a DAT 200 l o c a t e d a t a merchant site. T h e security features would detect unauthorized use of d e b i t c a r d s , credit cards and smart cards r e s u l t i n g from their u n l a w f u l interception, Accordingly, t h e DataTreasurym System's 100 s e c u r i t y features offer a more
secure alternative for internet and telephone transactions

than the typical methods which only require transmission of a
card account number and expiration date.

As is known to persons of ordinary skill in the art, the DATs 200 could also include additional devices for capturing other biometric data for additional security. These devices include facial scans, fingerprints, voice prints, iris scans, retina scans and hand geometry. In addition to initiating sale and banking transactions, the DAT card interface 212 also reads sale and banking transactions initiated elsewhere from the memory of smart cards to enable subsequent storage and processing by the DataTreasurym System. If a smart card is lost, stolen, damaged or deliberately altered by an unscrupulous holder after the DAT card interface 212 reads its transaction data, the DataTreasuryTHSystem 100 can reproduce the transaction data for the customer. Accordingly, the DAT card interface 212 provides support for independent verification o f the records maintained by consumers, merchants and bankers to prevent the loss of data from the loss, theft, damage or deliberate alteration of the smart card. The DAT card interface 212 also supports the initiation and retrieval of sale and banking transactions with the DataTreasurym system anonymous smart cards. In contrast to standard debit cards and credit cards, the DataTreasury" System anonymous smart card does not identify the card's holder by name. Instead, the DataTreasury" System anonymous smart card requires only an account number and a password. Since DataTreasury" System anonymous smart card transactions can be identified without the customer's name, a DataTreasuryTHSystem 1 0 0 customer can purchase a DataTreasurym System anonymous smart card, add money to the card, make expenditures with the card and monitor the cardis account with the same-.degreeof privacy as cash acquisition, expenditure and management. The DAT scanner 202, the internet access, the signature pad 214 and other biometric data capture devices also support the remote capture of survey information and purchase orders.

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For example, the DAT scanner 2 0 2 captures surveys a p p e a r i n g on the back of checks a t restaurants and b a r s . Similarly,

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the DAT scanner 202 could c a p t u r e purchase orders from residences, enabling customers to make i m m e d i a t e purchases 5 from t h e i r home of gooda promoted through the mail. Accordingly, home m a r k e t i n g merchant could t r a n s m i t sales i n a more cost efficient and reliable manner by using the DAT scanner 2 0 2 i n s t e a d of p r o v i d i n g envelopes w i t h prepaid postage t o r e s i d e n c e s . The DAT scanner 202 a l s o captures receipts which are
subsequently needed for tax return preparation o r t a x a u d i t s . S i m i l a r l y , the DAT s c a n n e r 2 0 2 captures sales r e c e i p t s f r o m
merchants, p r o v i d i n g a n o f f - s i t e s e c u r e , r e l i a b l e r e p o s i t o r y

t o g u a r d a g a i n s t l o s s , r e s u l t i n g from f l o o d i n g , f i r e o r o t h e r
1 5 circumstances.

T h i s f e a t u r e could also a l l o w a merchant to

a u t o m a t i c a l l y perform inventory i n a reliable and costeffective manner.
The DAT c o n t r o l l e r 2 1 0 p e r f o r m s p r o c e s s i n g tasks and

Input/Output (I/O) t a s k s which a r e typically p e r f o r m e d by a 20 processor. The DAT c o n t r o l l e r 210 compresses, encrypts and tags the BI to form a Tagged E n c r y p t e d Compressed Bitmap Image ( T E C B I ] . T h e DAT c o n t r o l l e r 2 1 0 also manages t h e XnpUt/Output (I/O). Specifically, t h e DAT controller 2 1 0 manages devices l i k e the DAT scanner 202, t h e DAT d i g i t a l the DAT modem

25 storage 2 0 6 , t h e o p t i o n a l DAT p r i n t e r 2 0 8 and 204.

T h e DAT d i g i t a l storage 2 0 8 h o l d s data such a s t h e TECBI. The DAT modem 2 0 4 t r a n s m i t s data f r o m t h e DAT 2 0 0 t o t h e a p p r o p r i a t e DAC 400 a s i n s t r u c t e d by t h e DAT controller 30 2 1 0 . S p e c i f i c a l l y , t h e DAT modem 2 0 4 t r a n s m i t s t h e TECBIs from t h e DAT d i g i t a l storage 2 0 8 t o the appropriate DAC 400. In t h e preferred embodiment, the DAT modem 2 0 4 is a h i g h

speed modem w i t h d i a l - u p c o n n e c t i v i t y . The DAT digital storage 2 0 8 i s s u f f i c i e n t l y l a r g e t o store the i n p u t d a t a
35 before t r a n s m i s s i o n t o a DAC 4 0 0 . T h e DAT d i g i t a l s t o r a g e
2 0 8 c a n be Random Access Memory (RAM)

or a h a r d drive.

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FIG. 3a is a flow c h a r t 3 0 0 describing t h e o p e r a t i o n of the DAT in detail. In step 310, t h e DAT s c a n n e r 202 scans paper receipts into the DAT 200 provided by an operator. In step 312, the DAT controller 210 determines whether the operation executed successfully. If the scanning i s successful, the DAT scanner 202 produces a Bitmap Image (BI), If the scanning is unsuccessful, the DAT c o n t r o l l e r 2 1 0 notifies t h e operator of the trouble and prompts the operator for repair in step 370. If a BI is created, the DAT controller 210 executes a conventional image compression algorithm like the Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) program to compress the BI in step 314. In step 316, the DAT controller 210 determines w h e t h e r the compression executed successfully. If the compression is successful, it produces a Compressed Bitmap Image (CBI). If the compression is unsuccessful, the DAT controller 210 notifies the operator of the trouble and prompts the operator for repair in step 370. If a C B I is created, the DAT controller 210 e x e c u t e s an encryption algorithm which is well known to an artisan of ordinary skill i n the field t o encrypt the CBI in step 318. Encryption protects against unauthorized access during the subsequent transmission of the data which will be discussed below. In step 320, the DAT controller 2 1 0 determines whether t h e encryption o p e r a t i o n executed successfully. I f the encryption is successful, it produces an Encrypted Compressed Bitmap Image (ECBI). If the encryption is
unsuccessful, the DAT controller 210 notifies t h e operator of

the trouble and prompts the operator for r e p a i r i n s t e p 3 7 0 . 30 I f an ECBI is created, the DAT controller 210 tags the ECBI with a time stamp which includes the scanning time, an identification number to identify the merchant originating the scan and any additional useful information in step 322, In step 324, the DAT controller 210 determines whether the 35 tagging operation e x e c u t e d successfully. If t h e tagging is successful, it produces a Tagged Encrypted Compressed s i t m a p If the tagging is unsuccessful, the DAT Image (TECBX).

controller 210 notifies the o p e r a t o r of the trouble and prompts the operator for repair in step 370.
I f a T E C B I is created, t h e DAT controller 210 stores the TECBf in the DAT digital storage 208 in step 326. In step 328, the DAT controller 210 determines whether the storing operation e x e c u t e d successfully. I f the storing operation is successful, the DAT digital storage 2 0 8 will contain t h e TEcBI. If the storing operation is u n s u c c e s s f u l , the DAT controller 210 notifies the operator af the trouble and prompts the operator for repair in step 3 7 0 . If the TECBI is properly stored i n the DAT digital storage 208, the DAT controller 210 determines whether all paper receipts have been scanned in s t e p 3 3 0 , If all paper receipts have not been scanned, control returns to step 310 where the next paper r e c e i p t will be processed as discussed above. If a l l paper r e c e i p t s have been scanned, the DAT controller 210 asks the operator to verify the number of scanned receipts in step 334. If the number of scanned receipts as determined by the DAT controller 21U does not e q u a l t h e number of scanned receipts as determined by the operator, the DAT controller 210 asks whether the operator desires to rescan all of the receipts in s t e p 338. I f t h e o p e r a t o r chooses to rescan all of the receipts in step 3 3 8 , the DAT controller 210 will delete all of the TECBIs associated w i t h the batch from the DAT digital storage 2 0 8 in step 342. After the operator prepares the batch of receipts for r e s c a n i n step 3 4 6 , control r e t u r n s to step 3 1 0 where t h e f i r s t receipt in t h e batch will be processed as discussed above, If the operator chooses not to rescan all of the receipts from t h e batch i n step 338, control returns to step 3 3 4 where t h e DAT controller 2 1 0 asks the operator to verify the number of scanned receipts as discussed above. If the number of scanned receipts as determined by the DAT controller 210 equals the number of scanned r e c e i p t s a s determined by the operator, the DAT controller 210 prints a batch ticket on t h e DAT p r i n t e r 2 0 6 i n step 350. The

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operator will attach this batch ticket to the batch of receipts which have been scanned. This batch ticket shall contain relevant session information such as scan time, number of receipts and an identification number for the data 5 operator. If processing difficulties occur for a batch of receipts after the image capture of flowchart 300, the batch ticket will enable them to be quickly located for rescanning with the DAT 200. In step 3 5 4 , the DAT controller 210 determines whether 10 the scan session has completed. If the scan session has not completed, control returns to step 310 where the first receipt in the next batch of the scan session will be processed as discussed above. If the scan session has completed, the DAT controller 210 selectively prints a 15 session report on the DAT printer 206 in Step 3 5 8 , T h e DAT controller 210 writes statistical information for the session to the DAT digital storage 208 in step 3 6 2 . In step 366, the DAT controller 210 terminates the session. FIG. 3b displays a sample paper receipt which i s . 2 0 processed by the DAT 200 as described by the flowchart in FIG. 3a. The sample paper receipt involves a credit card transaction which has four participants: A. The ISSUER: is an entity such as a bank or corporate financial institution such as GE Capital, GM or AT&T which 25 provides the credit behind the credit card and issues the card to the consumer. 8. The PROCESSOR: executes the processing of an
inbound credit card transaction by performing basic transaction validation that includes checking with the ISSUER 30 database to ensure that the credit card has sufficient credit
to allow approval of the transaction.

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C. The ACOUIRER: specializes in the m a r k e t i n g , installation and support of Point O f Sale (POS) credit card terminals. The acquirer, like the DAC 400 in the DataTreasurym System 100 acts as a n electronic collection point for the initial credit card transaction as the card is

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inserted into t h e POS terminal.
A f t e r acquisition, the
acquirer passes the transaction t o the PROCESSOR.

D. T h e MERCHANT: inserts a credit card into a POS terminal and enters the amount o f the t r a n s a c t i o n to i n i t i a t e
the credit card transaction.

In the preferred embodiment, the DAT 200 reads the following information from the sample paper receipt shown in
FIG. w
below.

d s t o r e s t h e information i n the format d e s c r i b e d

CUSTOMER-ID 370 : This field is a 7 position HEX numeric value. This field uniquely identifies the customer using the terminal. In t h i s sample, this field would identify the credit card merchant. TERMINAL-ID 372: This field is a 6 position decimal numeric v a l u e . T h i s field u n i q u e l y identifies the credit card terminal which is used to print t h e credit card receipt. TRANSACTION- DATE'^?^: This field contains the date and time of t h e credit c a r d transaction. TRAhTSACTION-LINE-ITEM 376: This field is a v a r i a b l e length character s t r i n g . The first three positions represent a right justified numeric field with leading zeros indicating the full length of this field. T h i s field contains all data pertaining to t h e purchased i t e m including t h e item's price. The DAT 200 will store a TRANSACTION-LINE-ITEM field for each transaction line item on t h e receipt. T h i s field is optional since not all credit card transactions will have line items. TRANSACTION-SUBTOTAL 378: This field is a double precision floating point number. his field i n d i c a t e s t h e subtotal of t h e TRANSACTION-LINE-ITEMS. TRANSACTION-SALES-TAX 380: This field is a double precision floating point number. This field contains the sales tax of the TWSACTfON-SUBTOTAL. TRANSACTION-AMOUNT 382: This field is a double precision floating p o i n t number. This f i e l d is t h e sum of and TRANSACTION-SALES-TAX.
the TRANSACTION-SUBTOTAL

CREDIT-CARD-ACCT-NUM
384:

~ h i s i e l d is a 12 p o s i t i o n f

d e c i m a l value. This f i e l d identifies t h e credit card which

was used to execute this transaction. CREDIT-CARD-EXP-DATE 386: This field identifies the 5 expiration date of the credit card. TRANSACTTON-APPROVAL-CODE 388: This field is a 6 position numeric value. This field indicates the approval code that was g i v e n for the particular transaction. The DAT 2 0 0 also s t o r e s additional items which are not
10 pictured in F I G . 3 b as described below: ISSUER-ID: This f i e l d is a 7 position decimal numeric

value. T h i s f i e l d identifies t h e credit card issuer. ACQUIRER-ID: This f i e l d is a 7 position decimal numeric

value. T h i s field identifies the acquirer. 15 PROCESSOR-ID: T h i s f i e l d is a 7 position decimal numeric value. This field identifies t h e processor. TRANSACTION-LINE-ITEM-CNT: This field is a 3 position decimal numeric value, This field identifies the number of t r a n s a c t i o n line i t e m s on the receipt. A value of ZERO
20

indicates the absence of any transaction line items an the
receipt.

25

TRANSACTION -GRATUITY: This f i e l d is a double precision floating number. This field is optional because it will only appear on restaurant 0.r bar receipts. FINRTRANSACTION-MOUNT: This f i e l d i s a d o u b l e precision floating number. This field is optional because it will only appear on restaurant and bar receipts. The field
is the sum of t h e TRANSACTION-AMOUNT and TRANSACTION-GRATUITY,

30 The tag prepended to the ECBI i n s t e p 3 2 2 o f the flowchart of FIG. 3 a identifies the time and place of the document's origination. Specifically, the tag consists of

the following fields:
35 numeric value.

DAT-TERMIN&-ID: This field is a 7 position hexadecimal This field uniquely identifies the DAT 200

which is used by the c u s t o m e r .

DAT-SESSION-DATE: This field identifies the d a t e and time of the DAT 200 session which generated the image of t h e document.
DAT-USER-ID:
4

This f i e l d is a
position decimal numeric

5

lo

IS

20

25

value, This field identifies the individual within the CUSTOMER'S organization who initiated the DAT 200 s e s s i o n . DATA-GLYPH-RESULT: This field is a v a r i a b l e length character string. The first four positions hold a right justified numeric position with leading zero which indicate the length of the field. The fifth position indicates the DataGlyphm element status. A v a l u e of 0 indicates that the data glyph was NOT PRESENT on the receipt. A v a l u e of 1 indicates that the data glyph WAS PRESENT and contained no errors. A value of 2 i n d i c a t e s that t h e data glyph WAS PRESENT and had nominal errors. If the fifth position of this field has a v a l u e of 2, the remaining portion of the string identifies the erroneous field numbers. As subsequently described, t h e DPC 6 0 0 will reference this portion o f the field to c a p t u r e the erroneous data from the receipt with alternate methods. A v a l u e of 3 indicates that the data glyph WAS PRESENT WITH SEVERE ERRORS. In other words, a value af 3 indicates the DataGlyph" element was badly damaged and unreadable. The receipt shown in FIG. 3b can also contain a signature which can be captured by the DAT scanner 202. A data glyph could identify the location of the signature on
the receipt.
As

is known to persons of ordinary skill in the a r t , the

D a t a T r e a s u r y r n S y s t e m 100 can a l s o process receipts with 30 alternate formats as long as the receipt contains the appropriate identification information such as the transaction amount, the customer, the DAT 200, the transaction date, the transaction t a x , the credit card number, the credit card expiration date, etc. 35 The DataTreasury" System 100 partitions the paper receipt into image snippets as illustrated by the sample on FIG. 3b. Partitioning facilitates an improvement in the

process to correct errors from the scanning operation.

If an

error occurred during scanning, the DataTreasurym S y s t e m 100

corrects the error using manual entry. With partitioning, the DataTreasurym System 100 focuses the correction effort on only the image s n i p p e t having t h e e r r o r instead of correcting the entire document. The subsequently discussed schema of the DataTreasuryW System 100 database describes the implementation of t h e partitioning c o n c e p t in detail. The DACs 4 0 0 form the backbone of the tiered architecture shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 4. As shown in F I G . 1, each DAC 400 supports a region containing a group of DATs 200, Each DAC 4 0 0 p o l l ' s the D A T s 2 0 0 in its region and receives T E C B I s which have accumulated in the DATs 200. The DACs 400 are located at key central sites of maximum merchant density. In t h e p r e f e r r e d embodiment, t h e DAC server 4 0 2 c o m p r i s e s stand-alone D i g i t a l Equipment corporation (DEC) SMP Alpha 4100 2 1 5 6 6 servers which are connected an a common network running Windows NT. The DEC Alpha servers manage the collection and intermediate storage of images and data which are received f r o m the DATs 200. As is known to p e r s o n s of ordinary skill in the art, the D a t a T r e a s u r y m System 1 0 0 could use any one of a number of different servers that are available from other computer vendors as long as the server meets the capacity, performance and reliability requirements of the system. I n the preferred embodiment, the DAC s e r v e r 402 also comprises EMC 3 3 0 0 SYMMETRIX CUBE D i s k Storage Systems, which store the images and data collected and managed by the DEC Alpha servers. The DAC 400 a r c h i t e c t u r e also uses a SYMMETRIX Remote D a t a F a c i l i t y {SRDF), available f r o m EMC, to enable multiple, physically separate data centers housing EMC Storage Systems to maintain redundant backups of each o t h e r

across a W i d e Area Network (WAN). Since SRDF performs the backup operations in the background, it does not affect the

DAC server

operational performance of the DataTreasurym System 100. has s e c o n d a r y memory 4 1 0 . In the
402 a l s o

The

5

1 0 art, t h e DataTreasurym System 1 0 0

preferred embodiment, the secondary memory 410 is a small scale DLT jukebox. T h e DAC Alpha servers of t h e DAC server 402 insert images and data received from the DATs 200 into a d a t a b a s e which is stored on t h e disk storage systems using a d a t a manipulation language as is w e l l known t o persons of ordinary s k i l l i n the a r t . I n the preferred embodiment, t h e database is a relational database a v a i l a b l e from O r a c l e . As is well known to persons of ordinary skill in the could use any one of a

number of different database models which are available from

o t h e r vendors i n c l u d i n g the entity r e l a t i o n s h i p model a s l o n g
as t h e selected database meets the storage and access

efficiency requirements of the system.
See, e . g . , Chapter
2

15 of Database System C o n c e p t s by Korth a n d Silberschatz. The DAC 400 architecture uses a WEB based paradigm using a n enhanced Domain N a m e Services ( D N S ) , t h e Microsoft Component Object Model (DCOM), and Windows N T Application Program interfaces (APXs) to facilitate communication and 20 load balancing among the s e r v e r s comprising t h e DAC server 402. A s is known to persons o f ordinary skill in the art, DNS, which is also known as Bind, statically translates name

requests to Internet Protocol 4 (IP4) addresses.

In the DAC

400 architecture, an enhanced DNS dynamically assigns IP4

25 addresses to balance the load among t h e servers comprising

the DAC server 402. In the p r e f e r r e d embodiment, the enhanced DNS i s designed and implemented using objects from Microsoft DCOM. Using the DCOM objects, the enhanced D N S acquires r e a l - t i m e 30 server load performance statistics on each server comprising the DAC server 402 from the Windows NT API at set intervals. Based on these load performance statistics, the enhanced DNS adjusts t h e mapping of name requests to IP4 addresses to
35

direct data toward the servers which are more lightly loaded. A large bank of m o d e m s 4 0 4 polls the DATs 200 at the

customer sites w i t h i n the DAC's 4 0 0 r e g i o n . I n the preferred embodiment, t h e bank of modems 404, available a s CISCO

AS5200, is an aggregate 48 modem device with Local Area Network (LAN) 406 connectivity which permits t h e DAC servers

402 to dial the DATs 200 without requiring 48 separate modems
and serial connections.

The DAC servers 402 and the bank of moderns 404 are connected on a LAN 4 0 6 . In the preferred embodiment, the LAN uses a switched 100BaseT/lQBaseT communication hardware layer protocol. As is known to persons of ordinary skill in the art, the 100BaseT/lOBaseT protocol is based on the Ethernet model. Further, the numbers 100 and 10 refer to the communication link speed in megabits p e r s e c o n d . I n the preferred embodiment, the CISCO Catalyst 2900 Network Switch supports the LAN 406 connectivity between the devices connected to the LAN 406 including the DAC servers 402 and the bank of modems 404. As is known to persons of ordinary skill in the art, alternate LAN architectures could be used t o facilitate camrnunication among the devices of the LAN 406. For example, the LAN 406 could use a hub architecture with a r o u n d robin allocation algorithm, a time division multiplexing algorithm or a statistical multiplexing algorithm. A Wide Area Network [WAN) router 408 connects the LAN 4 0 6 to the WAN to facilitate communication between t h e DACs 400 and the D P C ~600. In the preferred embodiment, the WAN router 408 is a C I S C O 4700 WAN Router. The WAN router 4 0 8 uses f r a m e r e l a y connectivity t o connect the DAC LAN 4 0 6 to the WAN. A s is known to persons of ordinary skill in the art, alternate devices, such as the NORTEL Magellen Passport " S O 1 ' Telecommunication Switch, could be used to facilitate 30 communication between the DACs 400 and t h e DPCs 6 0 0 a s long as the selected router meets the performance and quality communication requirements o f the system. A s is known to persons of ordinary skill in the art, frame relay is an interface p r o t o c o l for statistically
35 multiplexed packet-switched data communications in which

variable-sized packets (frames) are used that completely enclose the user packets which they transport. In contrast

10

to dedicated point to point links that guarantee a s p e c i f i c d a t a rate, frame relay c a m m u n i c a t i o n provides bandwidth ondemand with a guaranteed minimum data rate. Frame relay communication also allows occasional short h i g h data rate 5 bursts according to network availability. Each frame encloses one user packet and adds addressing and verification information. Frame relay data communication typically has transmission rates between 56 kilobytes per second (kb/s) and 1.544 megabytes per second (Mb/s). Frames may vary in length up to a design l i m i t of approximately 1
kilobyte.

I

The T e l c o C a r r i e r C l o u d 4 1 2 is a communication network which receives the frames destined for the DPC 600 sent by t h e WAN router 408 from the DACs 400. As is known to persons 1 5 of ordinary skill i n the art, carriers provide communication services at local central offices. These central o f f i c e s contain networking facilities and equipment to interconnect telephone and data communications to o t h e r central o f f i c e s within its own network and wlthin networks of other carriers. 20 Since carriers share the component links of the interconnection network, data communication must be dynamically assigned to links in t h e network according to availability. Because of the dynamic n a t u r e of the data routing, the interconnection network is referred to as a 2 5 carrier cloud of communication bandwidth. All the DAC 400 equipment is on fully redundant on-line UPS power s u p p l i e s t o i n s u r e maximum power availability. Further, to minimize the time for trouble detection, trouble analysis and repair, a11 the DAC 400 equipment incorporates 30 trouble detection and remote reporting/diagnostics as is known to an artisan of ordinary skill in the art. FIG, 5 is a flow chart 500 describing t h e polling of t h e DATs 200 by a DAC 400 and the transrnisslon of the T E C B I s from the DATs 200 to the DAC 400. In step 502, the DAC server 402 35 reads the address of the first DAT 200 in i t s region for polling. In step 504, a modem in the modem bank 404 d i a l s The DAC 400 determines whether t h e call

the f i r s t DAT 200.

to the DAT 200 was successful in step 506. If the c a l l to the first DAT 200 was unsuccessful, the DAC 400 wili record

the error condition in the session summary report and will report t h e error to t h e DPC 600 in step 522.
5

10

15

20

25

30

35

If t h e c a l l to the first DAT 200 was successful, the DAC 4 0 0 will verify that the DAT 200 is r e a d y t o transmit in step 508. If the DAT 200 is not ready to transmit, the DAC 400 will record the error condition in the session summary report and will report the error to the DPC 600 in step 522. If the DAT 200 is ready to transmit in step 5 0 8 , the DAT 200 will transmit a TECBI packet h e a d e r to t h e DAC 400 i n step 510. The DAC 4 0 0 will determine w h e t h e r t h e transmission of the TECBI packet header was successful in step 512. If the transmission o f the TECBI p a c k e t h e a d e r was unsuccessful, the DAC 400 w i l l r e c o r d the error condition in the session summary report and will report the e r r o r to the DPC 600 in step 522. If the transmission of the TECBI packet header was successful in step 512, the DAT 200 will transmit a TECBI packet to the DAC 400 in step 514. The DAC 4 0 0 will d e t e r m i n e whether t h e transmission of the TECBI packet was successful in step 516. If the transmission of t h e TECBI packet header was unsuccessful, the DAC 400 will record the error condition in the session summary report and will report the error to the DPC 600 in step 522. If t h e transmission of t h e TECBI packet w a s successful in step 516, the DAC 400, in step 518, will compare the TECBI packet header transmitted in step 510 to the TECBI packet transmitted in step 514. If t h e TECBI packet header does not m a t c h t h e TECBI packet, the DAC 400 will record t h e error condition in the session summary r e p o r t and w i l l r e p o r t the error t o the DPC 600 in step 522. If the T E C B I packet header m a t c h e d the T E C B I packet in step 518, t h e DAC 4 0 0 w i l l set the status of the TECBI packet to indicate that it is ready for transmission to the DPC 600 in step 520. The DAC 400 will also t r a n s m i t the status to
the DAT 200 to indicate successful completion of the polling

5 the DAC 400 w i l l compile a DAT 200 status report

and transmission s e s s i o n in step 5 2 0 . Next, the DAC 400 will determine whether TECBIs have been transmitted from a l l of the D A T ~200 in its r e g i o n in step 524. ~f a l l DATS 2 0 0 in the DAC's 400 region have transmitted TECBIs to the DAC 400, in step 528

before terminating the session. If one o r more D A T s 2 0 0 i n the D A C 1 s 4 0 0 region have n o t

transmitted TECBIs to the DAC 400, the DAC 400 w i l l get the address of the next DAT 200 in t h e region in step 526. Next,
10 control returns to step 504 where t h e next DAT 200 in the
D A C 1 s 4 0 0 region w i l l be polled as p r e v i o u s l y d i s c u s s e d .

rate times t o decrease the cost of data transmission.
15 addition to the raid drives and redundant servers, the DAC

In the preferred embodiment, the DAC server 402 initiates the polling and data transmission at optimum toll In

400 will also have dual tape backup units which will periodically backup the e n t i r e data set. I f there is a catastrophic failure of the DAC 400 , the tapes can be retrieved and sent directly to the DPC 600 for processing. 20 As the DAT 200 polling and data transmission progresses, the DAC 400 will periodically update t h e DPC 600 w i t h its status. I f there is a catastrophic failure with the DAC 400, the DPC 6 0 0 w o u l d know h o w much polling and backup has been done by the f a i l i n g DAC 4 0 0 . Accordingly, the DPC 600 can easily 2 5 assign a n o t h e r DAC 4 0 0 to complete the polling and data transmission for the DATs 200 i n the failed DAC's 400 region. FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the DPC 600 architecture. The DPC 6 0 0 accumulates, processes and stores images f o r later retrieval by DataTreasuryT" system retrieval customers
30 who have authorization to access relevant information.

D a t a T r e a s u r y T " System r e t r i e v a l customers i n c l u d e credit card

merchants, credit card companies, credit information companies and consumers. As shown in F I E . 6 and F I G .
35

1, the

DPC 600 polls t h e DACs 4 0 0 and receives T E C B I s which have accumulated in the D A C s 4 0 0 .

In the preferred embodiment, the DPC server 602 comprises stand-alone Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) SMP

5

to

15

20

25

Alpha 4100 4/566 servers which are connected on a common network running Windows NT. The DEC Alpha servers manage the collection and intermediate storage of images and data which are received from the DACs 400. In the preferred embodiment, the DPC server 602 also comprises EMC 3700 SYMMETRIX CUBE Disk Storage Systems, which store the images and data collected and managed by the DEC Alpha servers. L i k e the DAC 400 architecture, the DPC 600 architecture uses a SYMMETRIX Remote Data Facility (SRDF) , available from EMC, to enable multiple, physically separate data centers housing EMC Storage Systems t o maintain redundant backups of each other across a Wide Area Network (WAN). L i k e the DAC 400 architecture, the DPC 600 architecture uses a W E B based p a r a d i g m using an enhanced Domain Name Services (DNS), the Microsoft Component Object Model (DCOM), and Windows NT Application Program Interfaces (APIs) to facilitate communication and load balancing among the servers comprising the DPC server 602 as described above i n the discussion of the DAC 400 architecture. The workstation 604 performs operation control and system monitoring and management of the DPC 600 network. In the preferred embodiment, the workstation 604, available from Compaq, i s an Intel platform workstation running Microsoft Windows NT 4 . x . The workstation 604 should be able to run Microsoft Windows NT 5 . x when it becomes available. T h e workstation 604 e x e c u t e s CA Unicenter TNG software to perform network system monitoring and management. The workstation 604 executes SnoBound Imaging software to display and process

30

TECBIs.

35

The workstation 604 also performs identification verification by comparing signature data retrieved remotely by the D A T s 200 with s i g n a t u r e data stored at the DPC 600. In the preferred embodiment, signature verification software, available from Communications Intelligence Corporation of Redwood Shores, California executing on the workstation 604 performs the identification verification. As is known to

5

persons of ordinary skill in t h e a r t , the workstation 6 0 4 c o u l d execute o t h e r software to perform identification verification by comparing biornetric d a t a including f a c i a l scans, f i n g e r p r i n t s , retina scans, iris scans and hand geometry. Thus, the DPC 6 0 0 could verify the identity of a person who is making a purchase with a credit card by comparing the biometric data captured r e m o t e l y w i t h the biometric data stored at the DPC 600.
As is known to persons of o r d i n a r y skill in the a r t , the

10 D a t a T r e a s u r y m System 100 could use workstations with central p r o c e s s i n g units from other integrated circuit vendors a s long as the chosen workstation has the ability to perform standard operations such as fetching instructions, fetching data, executing the fetched instructions with the fetched 15 data and storing results. Similarly, the DataTreasurym System 10'0 could use alternate windows o p e r a t i n g systems and network monitoring software as long as t h e selected software can m o n i t o r the status a f the workstations and links in the network and display the determined status to the operator. 20 The Remote Data Entry Gateway 614 and the Remote Offsite Data Entry Facilities 616 correct errors which occurred during data capture by the DAT 200. Since the DataTreasurym System 100 partitions the document as described in the discussion of the sample receipt of FIG. 3 b , the operator at
2 5 t h e Remote Data Entry Gateway 614 or the R e m o t e Offsite Date

Entry Facilities 616 only needs to correct the portion of the document or image snippet which contained the error. Partitioning improves system performance, decreases system cost and improves system quality. With partitioning, 3 0 the DPC Server 602 only sends the portion of the document containing the error to the Remote Data Entry Gateway 614 or the Remote Offsite Data Entry Facilities 616. Since the operator at these data entry locations only s e e s the portion of the document which contained the error, she can quickly 35 recognize and correct the error. Without partitioning, the operator would have to search for the error in the entire document. With this inefficient process, the operator would

need more time and would be more likely to make a mistake by missing the error or making a modification in the wrong
location.
Accordingly, partitioning improves system

performance and quality by increasing the speed and accuracy
5 of

the e r r o r correction process.

Similarly, partitioning decreases the traffic on the DPC LAN 606 and the Telco Carrier Cloud 412 because the DPC Server 602 only sends the image snippet containing the error to the Remote O E E s l t e Data Entry Facility 616 or the Remote 10 Data Entry Gateway 614. Accordingly, partitioning decreases system cost by reducing the bandwidth requirement on the interconnection networks. A DPC LAN 606 facilitates communication among the d e v i c e s which are connected to the LAN 606 including the DPC 15 server 602 and the network workstation 604. In the preferred embodiment, the DPC LAN 606 uses a switched 100BaseT/lOBaseT

20

communication hardware layer protocol like the DAC LAN 406 discussed earlier. In the preferred embodiment, the DPC LAN 406 is a high speed OC2 network topology backbone supporting TCP/IP. The CISCO Catalyst 5500 Network Switch supports the

B"
1
9

1

t
#

I
t
i

DPC LAN 6 0 6 c o n n e c t i v i t y among the devices connected to the LAN 606. As is known to persons o f ordinary skill l n the art, alternate LAN architectures could be used to facilitate 25 communication among the devices of the LAN 406. For example, the LAN 406 could use a hub architecture with a round robin allocation algorithm, a time division multiplexing algorithm or a statistical multiplexing algorithm. A Wide Area Network (WAN) router 612 connects the DPC 30 LAN 606 to t h e WAN to facilitate communication between the DACs 4 0 0 and the DPCs 600. In the preferred embodiment, the WAN router 612 is a CISCO 7507 WAN Router. The WAN router 612 uses frame relay connectivity to connect the DPC LAN 612 to the WAN. A s is known t o persons of ordinary skill in the
3 5 art, alternate devices, such as the NORTEL Magellen Passport

" 5 0 " ~elecommunicationSwitch, could be used t o facilitate communication between the DACs 400 and the DPCs 6 0 0 as long

-

27

-

PEDC-939652

as the selected router meets the performance and quality
communication requirements of the s y s t e m

The DPC 600 has a three tier storage architecture to support the massive storage requirement on t h e DataTreasurym S y s t e m 100. In the preferred embodiment, the storage architecture consists of Fiber Channel R A I D t e c h n o l o g y based EMC Symmetrix Enterprise Storage Systems where individual cabinets support over 1 Terabyte of storage. A f t e r TECBI images have been processed and have been on-line for 30 days, they will be moved to DVD based jukebox systems. After the TECBI images have been on-line for -90days, t h e y will be moved to Write Once Read Many (WORM) based jukebox systems 608 f o r Longer t e r m storage of up to 3 years in a c c o r d a n c e with customer requirements. In an alternate embodiment, t h e DPC 600 is intended to a l s o configure a High Density Read Only Memory (HD-ROM) when it becomes available from NORSAM Technologies, Los Alamos, New Mexico, into optical storage jukebox systems 610, such as that which is available from Hewlett Packard, to r e p l a c e the DVD components for increased storage capacity. The HD-ROM conforms to CD-ROM form factor metallic WORM disc. The HDROM currently h a s a very large storage capacity of over 320 giga bytes (320 GB) on a single platter and has an anticipated capacity of several terabytes (TB) on a single platter. The DPC 600 uses IBM and Philips technology to read from the HD-ROM.and to write to the HD-ROM. T h e DPC Alpha servers of the DPC server 6 0 2 i n s e r t images and data received from the DACs 400 into a single d a t a b a s e which is s t a r e d on the Digital Storage Works Systems using a d a t a manipulation language as is well known to persons of ordinary skill in the art. In t h e preferred embodiment, the database is the V 8 . 0 Oracle relational database which was designed to support both data and image storage within a single repository, As known to persons of ordinary skill in the art, a relational database consists o f a collection of tables which have a unique name. See, e . g . , Chapter Three of Database

-

28

-

PEDC-93965.2

r
Each table in a

i s t h e logical d e s i g n of t h e database,

C
&

5

rL

10

h
P

15

20

25

B
I,

relational database has attributes. A row in a table represents a relationship among a set of values for the attributes in the table. Each table has one or more superkeys. A s u p e r k e y is a s e t of one or more attributes which uniquely identify a row i n t h e table. A candidate key is a superkey for which no proper subset is also a superkey. A primary key is a candidate k e y selected by the database designer as the means t o identify a row in a table. A s is w e l l known t o p e r s o n s of o r d i n a r y s k i l l in the art, t h e DataTreasuryW system 100 could use other database models available from other vendors i n c l u d i n g the entity relationship model as long as the s e l e c t e d database meets t h e storage and access efficiency requirements of the system. See, e.g., Chapter 2 of Database System Concepts by Korth and Silberschatz. An exemplary DPC 600 basic schema c o n s i s t s of the tables listed below. Since t h e names of t h e attributes a r e descriptive, t h e y adequately defxne t h e attributes1 contents. The p r i m a r y keys in each table are identified w i t h two asterisks ( * * ) . Numeric attributes which are unique for a particular value of a primary key are denoted w i t h the s u f f i x , l q N O f l . Numeric a t t r i b u t e s which a r e unique w i t h i n t h e entire relational database are denoted with the s u f f i x , "NUM"

.

CUSTOMER: This table describes the DataTreasurym System

customer.
30

A+

**CUSTOMER-ID

B.

COMPANY-NAME
CONTACT

i
C.
35

D. E. F. G.
ADDRI.

CONTACT-TITLE

ADDR2
CITY
STATE-CODE

H.

I*

i
.

!

Z IP-COD

E

COUNTRY-CODE

VOX-PHONE FAX-PHONE
CREATE-DATE

11.
A.
10
C.

CUSTOMER-MAIL-TO:
address of the DataTreasuryn System customer. **MAIL-TO -NO
**CUST-ID

This t a b l e describes t h e mailing

B.

CUSTOMER-NAME
CONTACT CONTACT-TILE ADDRl ADDR2 CITY STATE-CODE

15

D. E. F. G.
H. I.
3.

ZIP-CODE
COUNTRY-CODE

20

K. L M.
N.
0.

VOX-PHONE FAX-PHONE CREATE-DATE
COMMENTS

25 111. CUSTOMER-DAT -SITE: This table describes t h e DAT location of the DataTreasurym System customer. A. **DAT-SITE-NO

B.
**CUST-ID

C.
30

D. E. F.
ADDRl
ADDR2

CUSTOMER-NAME CONTACT CONTACT-TILE

G. H.
CITY

35
J.

I.

STATE-CODE
Z IP-CODE

K.

COUNTRY CODE

-

L. M, N
VOX-PHONE FAX-PHONE CREATE-DATE
COMMENTS
0.

This table describes the DAT site(s) CUSTOMER-SITE-DAT: of the ~ a t a ~ r e a s u System customer. r~~" A. **DAT-TERMINAL-ID 8. **DAT-SITE-NO
C. D. E. F.

* *CUST-ID
INSTALL-DATE
LAST-SERVICE-DATE CREATE-DATE COMMENTS

G.

DATA-SPEC: document partitioning and extraction. **DATA-SPEC-ID **CUST-ID
A,

This table provides data specifications for

3.

C.
DESCR

D. E.
RECORD-LAYOUT-RULES

CREATE-DATE
COMMENTS

F.
25

VI.

DATA-SPEC-FIELD: This table provides field d a t a specifications for document partitioning and extraction. A. **DATA-SPEC-NO B. **DATA-SPEC-ID
C.

FIELD-NAME
DESCR

30

D. E.
F.
G.

35

H. I. J.

DATA-TY PE VALUE-MAX VALUE-MIN START-POS
END-POS

FIELD-LENGTH

X.

RULES

L.
CREATE-DATE
COMMENTS

M.

5

C
I

1
i

VII. TEMPL-DOC: This table specifies the partitioning of a 5 predefined document. A. **TEMPL-DOC-NUM DATA-SPEC-ID

B.

C. D. RULES
CREATE-DATE COMMENTS

DESCR

<

10
F.

E.

1
VIII.
!
h .b

TEMPL-FORM:
of

This table defines the location

g
15

C

forms on a predefined document.

A.

**TEMPL-FORM-NO **TEMPL -DOC-NUM

k
B.
C. b
p

\. P

D.
E.
20

zr

SIDES-PER-FORM MASTER-IMAGE-SIDE-A MASTER-IMAGE-SIDE-B
DISPLAY-ROTATION-A

15
jE y
p

r =
F.
G.

DISPLAY-ROTATION-B
DESCR RULES

i.,
r
I

N.
I.
J.
25

d

-

CREATE-DATE

IX.

30

TEMPL-PANEL: This table specifies the location of panels within the forms of a predefined document. A. **TEMPL-PANEL-NO B. **TEMPE-SIDE-NO **TEMPL-FORM-NO
C.

D. E.
F.

**TEMPL -DOC-NUM

DISPLAY -ROTATION PANEL-UL -X
PANEL-UL-Y

G.
35

H.
1.

J.

PANEL-LR-X PANEL-LR-Y DESCR

K. L.
RULES CREATE-DATE
X.
5

10

TEMPL-FIELD: This t a b l e defines the location of fields w i t h i n the panels of a form of a predefined document. A. **TEMPL-FIELD-NO B. * *TEMPL-PANEL-NO C. **TEMPL-SIDE-NO **TEMPL-FORM-NO

D. E. F.

* *TEMPL-DOC-NUM
DISPLAY -ROTATION FLD-UL-X

G.
15

H. I.

FLD-UL-Y FLD-LR-X FLD-LR-Y
DESCR

J.
K.

L. M.
RULES CREATE-DATE
20

XI.
DAT-BATCH:

This table defines batches o f documents

which were processed d u r i n g a DAT session.
A.
0.

**DAT-BATCH-NO
**DAT-SESSION-NO
**DAT

25

C. D. E. F.

-SESSION-DATE

**DAT-TERMINAL-ID DAT-UNIT-CNT CREATE-DATE

30 X I I . DAT-UNIT: This table defines the unit in a batch of documents which were processed in a DAT session. A. **DAT-UNIT -NUM B. **DAT-BATCH-NO C. **DAT-SESSION-NO 35 **DAT-SESSION-DATE

D. E.

**DAT TERMINAL-ID -

/

F.
FOKCNT
DOC-CNT

G.

H.
CREATE-DATE
5

XIII. DAT-DOC: his table defines documents in t h e unit of documents which were processed in a DAT session.
A. B.
**DAT-DOC-NO

**DAT-UNIT-NUM
DOC-RECORD-DATA CREATE-DATE
DATA-SPEC-FIELD,

I0
C. D.
The DATA-SPEC,

TEMPL-DOC,

TEMPL-FORM, TEMPL-PANEL and TEMPL-FIELD tables implement
15the

document partitioning algorithm mentioned above in

the discussion of the sample receipt of F I G . 3b. T h e cross product of the DATA-SPEC and DATA-SPEC-FIELD tables partition arbitrary documents while the cross product of the TEMPL-DOC, TEMPL-FORM, TEMPL-PANEL and TEMPL-FIELD 20tables partition predefined documents of the DataTreasuryT" System 100. The TEMPL-FORM defines the location of forms on a predefined document. The TEMPLPANEL defines the location of panels within the forms of a predefined document. Finally, the TEMPL FIELD table 2 5 d e f i n e s t h e location of fields w i t h i n the p a n e l s of a form of a predefined document. The D P C 6 0 0 performs data mining and report generation for a wide .variety of applications by returning information from the data base. Far example, 3 0 t h e DPC 600 generates market trend analysis reports and inventory r e p o r t s for merchan