Service processing device and method

Abstract

A plurality of equipment connected to a network are linked with each other to perform plural processing operations to document data. When, for example, a user defines a desired service linkage job flow by using, for example, a GUI screen displayed on a client terminal, job flow information is transmitted to a script creation server, and a script is created in which processing contents and a storage location of a document as a processing object are defined. The created script can be stored in a storage unit such as, for example, a script management server. When the user selects a desired script among plural scripts stored in the script management server, the selected script is transmitted to a linkage processing server. The linkage processing server interprets the script, makes a processing request to respective devices such as, for example, an image processing device so that the document is processed in accordance with the processing contents described in the script, and links the devices with each other to perform plural processing operations.

1 . A service processing apparatus comprising:
 a controller that:   receives, through a network, instruction data which specifies (i) different types of service processing operations to be executed by different types of services processing apparatus to document data and (ii) an execution sequence of the service processing operations, each of the different types of service processing operations being executed by one of the different types of service processing apparatus;   acquires the document data,   executes, according to the instruction data, image processing described in the instruction data as one of the service processing operations to the document data to produce modified document data, and   transmits, through the network according to the execution sequence, the instruction data and at least one of the modified document data and information specifying a location in which the modified document data is stored to subsequent service processing apparatus so that the subsequent service processing apparatus executes, according to the execution sequence, different service processing operation to the modified document.   
   
   
       2 . The service processing device according to  claim 1 , wherein the image processing includes at least one of a noise removal processing, an image rotation processing, and an OCR processing. 
   
   
       3 . The service processing device according to  claim 1 , wherein the image processing includes a noise removal processing. 
   
   
       4 . The service processing device according to  claim 1 , wherein the image processing includes an image rotation processing. 
   
   
       5 . The service processing device according to  claim 1 , wherein the image processing includes an OCR processing. 
   
   
       6 . The service processing device according to  claim 1 , wherein the modified document data includes text data which is extracted through an OCR processing. 
   
   
       7 . The service processing device according to  claim 1 , wherein the instruction data specifies at least one of a facsimile transmission operation and a mail delivery operation as a service processing operation for the modified document data to be executed by the subsequent service processing apparatus. 
   
   
       8 . A service processing apparatus comprising:
 a controller that:   receives, through a network, instruction data which specifies (i) different types of service processing operations to be executed to document data and (ii) an execution sequence of the service processing operations,   acquires the document data,   executes, according to the instruction data, image processing described in the instruction data as one of the service processing operations to the document data to produce modified document data, the image processing including at least one of a noise removal processing, an image rotation processing, and an OCR processing, and   executes, according to the instruction data, at least one of a facsimile transmission operation and a mail delivery operation as a service processing operation for the modified document data.   
   
   
       9 . The service processing device according to  claim 8 , wherein the modified document data includes text data which is extracted through an OCR processing. 
   
   
       10 . A service processing method using a processor comprising:
 receiving, through a network, instruction data which specifies (i) different types of service processing operations to be executed to document data and (ii) an execution sequence of the service processing operations,   acquiring the document data,   executing, according to the instruction data, image processing described in the instruction data as one of the service operations to the document data to produce modified document data, the image processing including at least one of a noise removal processing, an image rotation processing, and an OCR processing, and   executing, according to the instruction data, at least one of a facsimile transmission operation and a mail delivery operation as a service processing operation for the modified document data.