Patent Issued for Server Apparatus, Client Apparatus, Information Processing Method, And Storage Medium (USPTO 10,481,776)

2019 DEC 04 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Information Technology Business Daily -- A patent by the inventor Kato, Yutaka (Tokyo, Japan), filed on October 20, 2017, was published online on December 2, 2019, according to news reporting originating from Alexandria, Virginia, by NewsRx correspondents.

Patent number 10,481,776 is assigned to Canon Kabushiki Kaisha (Tokyo, Japan).

The following quote was obtained by the news editors from the background information supplied by the inventors: “Field of the Invention

“The present invention relates to a technique to browse a business form page.

“Description of the Related Art

“Conventionally, as a creation method of a business form, there is a method as follows. First, a form, which is the prototype of a business form, is created in advance by using a dedicated application to edit a form. Next, by overlaying the form with field data (applying corresponding field data by pouring the field data into each field within the form), a business form page (for example, a file in the PDF format) is generated and then the business form page is printed. In this method, for example, a server apparatus generates a business form page by performing overlay output processing and a client apparatus receives the business form page from the server apparatus, and displays and/or prints the business form page.

“Generally, in most cases, a business form page is generated from a form originally designed for printing. For example, an insurance business form that a life insurance company creates to explain an insurance plan to a client is the A3 size in many case and the configuration of the insurance business form premises that the insurance business form is printed on an A3 sheet and then explanation is given to a client. The size of the character font is designed based on this premise, and therefore, a small size font, for example, such as a 9-point font, is used in many cases. On the other hand, aiming at saving resources of paper, such operation is also considered in which at the time of explanation to a client, explanation is given by displaying the business form page on a tablet device, such as iPad (registered trademark), and then, only the necessary business form page is printed. However, the screen size and the screen resolution of the tablet device are small and low compared to those of the A3 sheet. Because of this, in the case where the entire business form created on the premise of printing is displayed on the tablet device, the characters and the like are very small and difficult to see. Consequently, at the time of browsing such a business form on the tablet device, it is necessary for a user to perform a pinch operation by extending the interval between two fingers to enlarge the business form page, and therefore, the user operation takes time and effort.

“Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2013-190870 has disclosed a technique to recognize objects (partial areas) within image data of a document read by a scanner and the like and to sequentially display each partial area at the time of browsing the document image.

“However, the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2013-190870 takes image data of a document as a processing target, and therefore, it is necessary to specify an object by performing object recognition processing for image data of each page of the document. Consequently, in the case where an attempt is made to browse business form data by using the technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2013-190870, after the business form data is temporarily converted into a bitmap image, the object recognition processing is performed for the bitmap image. Because of this, in the case where the object recognition processing is performed by performing bitmap conversion processing for a plurality of business form pages generated by the overlay output processing each time a business form page is generated, the load of the processing becomes heavy. Further, in the case where an object is erroneously recognized, a fine adjustment operation is necessary each time of erroneous recognition, and therefore, the load of a user also becomes heavy.

“Consequently, an object of the present invention is to provide a server apparatus, a client apparatus, an information processing method, and a storage medium storing a program, which can improve convenience of a user while suppressing an increase of the load imposed by enlarging a specific area within a business form page.”

In addition to the background information obtained for this patent, NewsRx journalists also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent: “The server apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a saving unit configured to save business form part information on a business form page, which includes information on a focus area to enlarge a specific area within the business form page; and a transmission unit configured to transmit the business form part information relating to a request to a client apparatus in response to the request from the client apparatus that displays the business form page. Based on the information on a focus area included in the business form part information, the specific area is enlarged on the client apparatus.

“Further features of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“What is claimed is:

“1. A server apparatus comprising: a memory that stores a program; and a processor that executes the program to perform: generating a business form page by overlaying field data and a form that is selected by a user of a client apparatus; generating a web form editing program which is run on a web browser of the client apparatus, wherein the generated web form editing program includes data of an editing screen, the generated business form page, and a first script program for controlling editing operations of the business form page; transmitting the generated web form editing program to the client apparatus, wherein the web browser of the client apparatus executes the web form editing program to display the editing screen, wherein the editing screen edits the business form page by arranging parts on the business form page based on an instruction of the user of the client apparatus, and wherein the arranged parts include a focus part that defines a focus area to enlarge a specific area within the business form page; receiving, from the client apparatus, business form part information of the parts arranged on the business form page, wherein the received business form part information includes information of the focus area that is defined by the focus part; saving the received business form part information associated with the form; generating a web form browse program which is run on the web browser of the client apparatus, wherein the generated web form browse program includes data of a browsing screen, a generated business form page, the information of the focus area, and a second script program for controlling browsing operations of the business form page; and transmitting the generated web form browse program to the client apparatus, wherein the web browser of the client apparatus executes the web form browse program to display the browsing screen, wherein the browsing screen browses the business form page, and wherein the specific area of the browsed business form page is enlarged based on the information of the focus area.

“2. The server apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the specific area is enlarged in a case where instructions to move into a focus mode are detected on the client apparatus that displays the business form page.

“3. The server apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the instructions to move into a focus mode are detected by a gesture input on the client apparatus that displays the business form page.

“4. The server apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information on a focus area includes a transition order of the focus area on the client apparatus that displays the business form page and in a case where focus transition instructions are detected on the client apparatus that displays the business form page, a transition is made into a next focus area in accordance with the transition order.

“5. The server apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the focus transition instructions are detected by a gesture input on the client apparatus that displays the business form page.

“6. The server apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information on a focus area includes a position and a size on the business form page.

“7. The server apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information on a focus area is saved individually for the business form page on which a focus area is specified.

“8. The server apparatus according to claim 1, wherein information on a focus area is saved as business form part information valid for all the business form pages.

“9. The server apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the information on a focus area is saved as business form part information valid for a business form page on which another piece of business form part information is not specified.

“10. An information processing method in a server apparatus, the method comprising the steps of: generating a business form page by overlaying field data and a form that is selected by a user of a client apparatus; generating a web form editing program which is run on a web browser of the client apparatus, wherein the generated web form editing program includes data of an editing screen, the generated business form page, and a first script program for controlling editing operations of the business form page; transmitting the generated web form editing program to the client apparatus, wherein the web browser of the client apparatus executes the web form editing program to display the editing screen, wherein the editing screen edits the business form page by arranging parts on the business form page based on an instruction of the user of the client apparatus, and wherein the arranged parts include a focus part that defines a focus area to enlarge a specific area within the business form page; receiving, from the client apparatus, business form part information of the parts arranged on the business form page, wherein the received business form part information includes information of the focus area that is defined by the focus part; saving the received business form part information associated with the form; generating a web form browse program which is run on the web browser of the client apparatus, wherein the generated web form browse program includes data of a browsing screen, a generated business form page, the information of the focus area, and a second script program for controlling browsing operations of the business form page; and transmitting the generated web form browse program to the client apparatus, wherein the web browser of the client apparatus executes the web form browse program to display the browsing screen, wherein the browsing screen browses the business form page, and wherein the specific area of the browsed business form page is enlarged based on the information of the focus area.

“11. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing a program for causing a computer to perform an information processing method in a server apparatus, the method comprising the steps of: generating a business form page by overlaying field data and a form that is selected by a user of a client apparatus; generating a web form editing program which is run on a web browser of the client apparatus, wherein the generated web form editing program includes data of an editing screen, the generated business form page, and a first script program for controlling editing operations of the business form page; transmitting the generated web form editing program to the client apparatus, wherein the web browser of the client apparatus executes the web form editing program to display the editing screen, wherein the editing screen edits the business form page by arranging parts on the business form page based on an instruction of the user of the client apparatus, and wherein the arranged parts include a focus part that defines a focus area to enlarge a specific area within the business form page; receiving, from the client apparatus, business form part information of the parts arranged on the business form page, wherein the received business form part information includes information of the focus area that is defined by the focus part; saving the received business form part information associated with the form; generating a web form browse program which is run on the web browser of the client apparatus, wherein the generated web form browse program includes data of a browsing screen, a generated business form page, the information of the focus area, and a second script program for controlling browsing operations of the business form page; and transmitting the generated web form browse program to the client apparatus, wherein the web browser of the client apparatus executes the web form browse program to display the browsing screen, wherein the browsing screen browses the business form page, and wherein the specific area of the browsed business form page is enlarged based on the information of the focus area.”

URL and more information on this patent, see: Kato, Yutaka. Server Apparatus, Client Apparatus, Information Processing Method, And Storage Medium. U.S. Patent Number 10,481,776, filed October 20, 2017, and published online on December 2, 2019. Patent URL: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.htm&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=10,481,776.PN.&OS=PN/10,481,776RS=PN/10,481,776

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