Researchers Submit Patent Application, “Integrated Digital-Analog Archiving Systems And Methods For Document Preservation”, for Approval (USPTO 20230185762): Patent Application

2023 JUN 29 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Washington, D.C., NewsRx journalists report that a patent application by the inventor Specht, Matthias (Grobenzell, DE), filed on February 7, 2023, was made available online on June 15, 2023.

No assignee for this patent application has been made.

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “There are many types of archives. Some may exist for historical purposes. For example, over the course of an individual or organization’s lifetime, documents may be kept to show a historical view of that person or organization. Some may be put in place by corporations or enterprises alike for compliance reasons. For example, in the United States, an employer is required to preserve for at least three years payroll records, collective bargaining agreements, sales and purchase records, etc.; the Internal Revenue Service requires all records of employment taxes be kept for at least four years; and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) requires a 6-year retention period for protected health information (PHI) such as patients’ medical records and other personal health information. Certain types of information, e.g., DNA work product, may be required to be preserved for even longer lengths of time, e.g., 99 years or more.

“Whatever the reason is for preserving such documents, they are traditionally assessed, collected, organized, and preserved by information professionals called archivists. The traditional document preservation process may entail reducing documents deemed worthy of long-term preservation and printing them onto microforms. Microforms can be films or paper that contain microreproductions (e.g., using microphotography or any suitable standard reproduction techniques known to those skilled in the art) of documents. Microform images are commonly reduced to about one twenty-fifth of the original document size. For special purposes, greater optical reductions may be used.

“Microforms can have different physical formats. For instance, microform images can be printed on microfilm (mounted on reels) or microfiche (flat sheets). The term “film” generally refers to a thin translucent strip or sheet of cellulose coated with a light-sensitive emulsion, used in a camera to take still pictures or photographs. The term “microfilm” generally refers to a film suitable for bearing a miniature photographic copy or a miniaturized reproduction of printed or other graphic matter, usually of a document, newspaper, or book pages, etc., made for a library, archive, or the like. The term “microfiche” generally refers to a flat sheet of microfilm in a form suitable for filing printed or graphic matter, typically measuring 4 by 6 inches, and containing microreproductions, in a grid pattern. These archival media can be cataloged and stored in archival facilities. Archivists may maintain control over and provide access to the archival media.

“A document that has been through this traditional document preservation (analog archiving) process has a physical representation (e.g., on a piece of film) that has a measurable physical quality (e.g., the piece of film is 4 by 6 inches). The digital document preservation (digital archiving) process commonly used in today’s electronic environments is entirely different from the analog archiving process described above.

“In practice, a digital archiving process can be viewed as a records management process that ensures the protection, maintenance, and accessibility of certain documents and that begins from the moment a document is created and ends with the document being destroyed or preserved. To this end, a records management system is usually responsible for maintaining information on the creation and management of electronic archives in accordance with applicable regulations, policies, rules, and/or laws. Such a records management system can be an essential part of a content management system, because certain managed content may need to be preserved for compliance reasons, as discussed above.

“A digital archiving system such as a records management system described above may have many components, including software tools for creating and classifying records, software tools for managing security and confidentiality policies applicable to the records, and long-term storage media for storing the records electronically. However, when compared with the long-term storage media used in an analog archiving system (e.g., microfilms), the long-term storage media used in a digital archiving system (e.g., optical discs, hard drives, tapes, etc., collectively referred to as digital data storage media) have a significantly shorter lifespan. For example, with appropriate storage conditions, preservation standard microfilms have a life expectancy of 500 years. By contrast, digital data storage media generally have a practical life expectancy between 2 to 5 years and published life expectancies of 10, 25, and up to 30 years. As such, relative to an analog archiving system, a digital archiving system may need to move a huge amount of data very frequently.

“Another issue relates to the cost of keeping digital data storage media up to date. Each time when an old digital archiving system becomes out of date (e.g., system obsolete) and/or when an old digital data storage medium expires (e.g., software obsolete, format obsolete, or end of life), a massive amount of electronic documents may need to be migrated to a new digital archiving system or a new digital data storage medium. Compared to analog data storage media, digital data storage media can be very expensive and hence the cost of preserving documents on digital data storage media can be very high relative to the cost of preserving documents on analog data storage media.

“Yet another issue relates to the need to verify and ensure that each document (in the massive amount of documents that need to be migrated) has not been modified during migration. Skilled artisans appreciate that migration of a document from one electronic data storage device to another may unavoidably involve data conversion of some sort. Furthermore, certain information such as timestamp may be automatically added to the document. Unlike analog archiving systems, such alterations are usually not visible to and/or not easily discoverable by human users.

“An analog archiving system stores an actual image of the original data, so it is easy to view and requires no software to decode the data stored thereon. The archived information cannot be modified and can be read and instantly comprehensible to those who are literate in the language of the archived information. The only equipment needed is a reader machine with a magnifying glass. This eliminates the issue of obsolescence discussed above.

“Analog archiving systems, however, are not without drawbacks. For example, reader machines used to view microforms are often difficult to use, requiring users to carefully wind and rewind until they have arrived at the point where the data they are looking for is stored. There is not an automated way to search and retrieve microforms.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent application, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventor’s summary information for this patent application: “An object of this disclosure is to provide an integrated digital-analog archiving solution that takes advantages of analog archiving systems as well as digital archiving systems, making it cheaper to store documents for a long time while providing the abilities to verify and search the stored documents.

“This and other objects can be achieved through embodiments of systems, methods and computer program products disclosed herein. For example, in some embodiments, a method may comprise an integrated digital-analog archiving system initiating a migration process to move a large volume of electronic documents from at least one digital (non-transitory) data storage medium to analog data storage media such as microforms or, particularly, microfilms.

“In some embodiments, the migration process may be performed by a rendering module of the integrated digital-analog archiving system. The render module may, for each document to be migrated, retrieve the document from a digital data storage medium, extract metadata, determine size, orientation, and format of the document, generate a first indicator for indicating the start of the document on a microfilm, generate a document identifier for identifying the document on the microfilm, generate a scaled (e.g., reduced) image of the document for the microfilm based on the size, orientation, and format of the document, generate technical text based on the metadata extracted from the document, generate a second indicator for indicating the end of the document on the microfilm, and render (e.g., translate or convert them for printing) the indicators, the document identifier, the scaled image of the document, and the technical information on the microfilm.

“In some embodiments, the integrated digital-analog archiving system may further include a retrieve module that is coupled to a media library where the microfilm is stored. The integrated digital-analog archiving system may maintain the identifier of the microfilm, the metadata extracted from the document, and positional information about the document. In some embodiments, responsive to a request to view the document, the retrieve module can locate the correct microfilm on which the document is stored, find the position number associated with the document, capture an image (e.g., utilizing a camera or scanner) of the microfilm at the position number, process the image, and determine whether the image correctly reflects the requested document. If the image is not correct, the retrieve module can reposition the microfilm by, for instance, moving the microfilm forward or backward, capture another image of the microfilm, and again process the image and determine whether the image correctly reflects the requested document. This process can be repeated until the correct image is found. Then, the retrieve module can take a final image which includes the document and the technical information (which is located proximate the document on the microfilm). The retrieve module processes the final image to generate an electronic file in the appropriate digital format and processes the technical information located proximate the document on the microfilm to generate metadata for the electronic file, and return the electronic file with the metadata to service the request.

“One embodiment comprises a system comprising a processor and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores computer instructions translatable by the processor to perform a method substantially as described herein. Another embodiment comprises a computer program product having a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores computer instructions translatable by a processor to perform a method substantially as described herein.

“Numerous other embodiments are also possible.

“These, and other, aspects of the disclosure will be better appreciated and understood when considered in conjunction with the following description and the accompanying drawings. It should be understood, however, that the following description, while indicating various embodiments of the disclosure and numerous specific details thereof, is given by way of illustration and not of limitation. Many substitutions, modifications, additions and/or rearrangements may be made within the scope of the disclosure without departing from the spirit thereof, and the disclosure includes all such substitutions, modifications, additions and/or rearrangements.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A method for integrated digital-analog archiving, the method comprising: retrieving, by a computer, an electronic document from a data storage; extracting, by the computer, metadata from the electronic document; generating, by the computer, a text string based at least in part on the metadata extracted from the electronic document; determining, by the computer, size, orientation, and format of the electronic document; generating, by the computer, a scaled image of the electronic document based on the size, orientation, and format of the electronic document; generating, by the computer, an analog document identifier for identifying the electronic document on an analog archiving medium; generating, by the computer, a first indicator for indicating a start of the electronic document on an analog archiving medium; generating, by the computer, a second indicator for indicating an end of the electronic document on the analog archiving medium; generating or obtaining, by the computer, a digital timestamp; adding, by the computer, an analog version of the digital timestamp to the text string so as to record a time when the scaled image of the electronic document is stored on the analog archiving medium; generating, by the computer, an analog rendition of the electronic document including the first indicator, the analog document identifier, the scaled image of the electronic document, the text string, and the second indicator; and communicating, by the computer, the analog rendition of the electronic document to a printer for printing the analog rendition of the electronic document on the analog archiving medium.

“2. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: storing, in a metadata database, a document identifier of the electronic document, the digital timestamp, and positional information indicating a position of the analog rendition of the electronic document printed on the analog archiving medium.

“3. The method according to claim 2, wherein the document identifier of the electronic document is printed on the analog archiving medium along with the analog rendition of the electronic document.

“4. The method according to claim 2, further comprising: receiving a request for a document stored on the analog archiving medium, the request containing searching criteria; based on the searching criteria, retrieving the positional information of the analog rendition of the electronic document from the metadata database; utilizing the positional information, determining the position of the analog rendition of the electronic document printed on the analog archiving medium; capturing an image of the analog rendition of the electronic document at the position; processing the image of the analog rendition of the electronic document; determining whether the image correctly reflects the electronic document; responsive to the image not correctly reflecting the electronic document, positioning the analog archiving medium and repeating the capturing, the processing, and the determining until a correct image that reflects the electronic document is found; capturing a final image of the analog rendition of the electronic document, the final image including a scaled image of the analog rendition of the electronic document and analog metadata located proximate the scaled image on the analog archiving medium; processing the final image of the analog rendition of the electronic document, the processing including transforming the scaled image of the analog rendition of the electronic document into an electronic file and transforming the analog metadata into electronic metadata; adding the electronic metadata to the electronic file; and returning the electronic file in response to the request.

“5. The method according to claim 4, wherein the searching criteria comprise at least one of the document identifier, a last modified date, or a user name.

“6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the retrieving further comprises verifying whether the last modified date matches what is contained in the analog version of the digital timestamp printed on the analog archiving medium along with the analog rendition of the electronic document.

“7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising: storing, in a metadata database, location information indicating a location of the analog archiving medium in a media library.

“8. A system for integrated digital-analog archiving, the system comprising: a processor; a non-transitory computer-readable medium; and instructions stored on the non-transitory computer-readable medium and translatable by the processor for: retrieving an electronic document from a data storage; extracting metadata from the electronic document; generating a text string based at least in part on the metadata extracted from the electronic document; determining size, orientation, and format of the electronic document; generating a scaled image of the electronic document based on the size, orientation, and format of the electronic document; generating analog document identifier for identifying the electronic document on an analog archiving medium; generating a first indicator for indicating a start of the electronic document on an analog archiving medium; generating a second indicator for indicating an end of the electronic document on the analog archiving medium; generating or obtaining a digital timestamp; adding an analog version of the digital timestamp to the text string so as to record a time when the scaled image of the electronic document is stored on the analog archiving medium; generating an analog rendition of the electronic document including the first indicator, the analog document identifier, the scaled image of the electronic document, the text string, and the second indicator; and communicating the analog rendition of the electronic document to a printer for printing the analog rendition of the electronic document on the analog archiving medium.

“9. The system of claim 8, wherein the instructions are further translatable by the processor for storing, in a metadata database, a document identifier of the electronic document, the digital timestamp, and positional information indicating a position of the analog rendition of the electronic document printed on the analog archiving medium.

“10. The system of claim 9, wherein the document identifier of the electronic document is printed on the analog archiving medium along with the analog rendition of the electronic document.

“11. The system of claim 9, wherein the instructions are further translatable by the processor for: receiving a request for a document stored on the analog archiving medium, the request containing searching criteria; based on the searching criteria, retrieving the positional information of the analog rendition of the electronic document from the metadata database; utilizing the positional information, determining the position of the analog rendition of the electronic document printed on the analog archiving medium; capturing an image of the analog rendition of the electronic document at the position; processing the image of the analog rendition of the electronic document; determining whether the image correctly reflects the electronic document; responsive to the image not correctly reflecting the electronic document, positioning the analog archiving medium and repeating the capturing, the processing, and the determining until a correct image that reflects the electronic document is found; capturing a final image of the analog rendition of the electronic document, the final image including a scaled image of the analog rendition of the electronic document and analog metadata located proximate the scaled image on the analog archiving medium; processing the final image of the analog rendition of the electronic document, the processing including transforming the scaled image of the analog rendition of the electronic document into an electronic file and transforming the analog metadata into electronic metadata; adding the electronic metadata to the electronic file; and returning the electronic file in response to the request.

“12. The system of claim 11, wherein the searching criteria comprise at least one of the document identifier, a last modified date, or a user name.

“13. The system of claim 12, wherein the retrieving further comprises verifying whether the last modified date matches what is contained in the analog version of the digital timestamp printed on the analog archiving medium along with the analog rendition of the electronic document.

“14. The system of claim 8, wherein the instructions are further translatable by the processor for storing, in a metadata database, location information indicating a location of the analog archiving medium in a media library.”

There are additional claims. Please visit full patent to read further.

For additional information on this patent application, see: Specht, Matthias. Integrated Digital-Analog Archiving Systems And Methods For Document Preservation. U.S. Patent Application Number 20230185762, filed February 7, 2023 and posted June 15, 2023. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(20230185762)&db=US-PGPUB&type=ids

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