System and method for the creation and management of user-annotations associated with paper-based processes

Abstract

A computer-implemented method for identifying constraints to reducing consumable usage includes acquiring print job information for a set of print jobs submitted for printing by a set of users. A print job representation is computed for each of the print jobs from the print job information. Provision is made for user-annotation of a note associated with the submitted print jobs including a reason for printing the print job. User-annotations are received for at least some of the submitted print jobs. The print jobs may be clustered into clusters based on the print job representations and annotations. A representation of the set of print jobs includes a user dashboard and a group dashboard is generated which is based on the users' annotations and other users' included in a group to provide a structure for collaboration among the group members to identify the constraints to reducing consumable usage and/or provide solutions to reduce consumable usage.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A method for identifying constraints on reducing consumable usage comprising:
 acquiring print job information for a set of print jobs submitted for printing by a set of users, each print job including a document to be printed;   generating a print job contextual representation for each of the print jobs;   providing for user-annotation of the submitted print jobs with a user-annotated note expressing a reason for printing the print job;   receiving user-annotations for at least some of the submitted print jobs;   generating a user dashboard for each of the set of users, the user dashboard displaying the user's print consumption history, the set of users print consumption history and one or more received user-annotated notes for the set of users; and   generating a group dashboard, the group dashboard grouping user-annotations for the set of users by one or more of attributes associated with the print jobs;   wherein the generating a print job contextual representation, providing for user-annotations of a note, receiving user-annotated notes, and generating a user dashboard is performed with a computer processor.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the computing of the print job contextual representation for each of the print jobs is based on features extracted from the print job information including extracting features selected from a group including:
 user ID;   print job submission time;   document title;   document length;   print job type;   textual content features;   visual content features; and   page coverage features.   
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the features include visual features, the computing of the print job contextual representation including extracting low-level features from patches of a page of the document of the print job and generating a statistical representation of the page based on the extracted low-level features. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein the features include textual features, the computing of the print job contextual representation includes words from the print job and generating a statistical representation of the print job based on the extracted words. 
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the generating of the representation of the set of print jobs comprises generating a graphical representation. 
     
     
         6 . A method for identifying constraints on reducing consumable usage comprising:
 acquiring print job information for a set of print jobs submitted for printing by a set of users, each print job including a document to be printed;   generating a print job contextual representation for each of the print jobs;   providing for user-annotation of the submitted print jobs with a user-annotated note expressing a reason for printing the print job;   receiving user-annotations for at least some of the submitted print jobs;   generating a user dashboard for each of the set of users, the user dashboard displaying the user's print consumption history, the set of users print consumption history and one or more received user-annotated notes for the set of users; and   evaluating a transition from paper to digital documents, comprising: for first and second sets of the print jobs, performing the acquiring print job information, generating the print job contextual representation, providing for user-annotation, receiving user-annotations, and comparing the representation for the second set of print jobs with the representation for the first set of print jobs;   wherein generating a print job contextual representation, providing for user-annotations of a note, receiving user-annotated notes, generating a user dashboard, and evaluating a transition from paper to digital documents is performed with a computer processor.   
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 6 , wherein the information for the second set of print jobs is acquired for print jobs submitted after submission of the first set of print jobs. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the acquiring print job information for a set of print jobs submitted for printing comprises acquiring print logs from a plurality of printers for the submitted print jobs. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the providing for user-annotation of the submitted print jobs comprises providing a reward to users who provide user-annotations for at least some of their respective submitted print jobs. 
     
     
         10 . A method for identifying constraints on reducing consumable usage comprising:
 acquiring print job information for a set of print lobs submitted for printing by a set of users, each print job including a document to be printed;   generating a print job contextual representation for each of the print jobs;   providing for user-annotation of the submitted print jobs with a user-annotated note expressing a reason for printing the print job;   receiving user-annotations for at least some of the submitted print jobs;   generating a user dashboard for each of the set of users, the user dashboard displaying the user's print consumption history, the set of users print consumption history and one or more received user-annotated notes for the set of users; and   wherein generating a print job contextual representation, providing for user-annotations of a note, receiving user-annotated notes, and generating a user dashboard is performed with a computer processor, and wherein receiving user-annotations for at least some of the submitted print jobs includes receiving annotations for fewer than all of the print jobs in the set, and assigning print jobs without an annotation to a respective cluster based on the respective print job contextual representation.   
     
     
         11 . (canceled) 
     
     
         12 . The method according to  claim 1 , wherein user-annotation of the submitted print job is prompted immediately after a user issues the print job. 
     
     
         13 . The method according to  claim 1 , further comprising:
 providing for user-annotation of a note associated with a detected pattern of printing by a user.   
     
     
         14 . A computer program product comprising a non-transitory recording medium storing instructions which, when executed by a computer processor, perform the method of  claim 1 . 
     
     
         15 . A system comprising memory which stores instructions for performing the method of  claim 1  and a processor in communication with the memory which implements the instructions. 
     
     
         16 . A system for identifying constraints on reducing consumable usage comprising:
 a job tracking component for acquiring print job information for a set of print jobs submitted for printing by a set of users, each print job including a document to be printed;   a print job contextual representation generation component for generating a print job contextual representation for each of the print jobs;   an annotation component for receiving user-annotations for at least some of the submitted print jobs, the user user-annotations including a user-annotated note expressing a reason for printing the print job;   an analysis component for generating a representation of the set of print jobs which represents reasons for printing of print jobs based on the users' annotations;   a user dashboard component for generating a user dashboard for each of the set of users, the user dashboard displaying the user's print consumption history, the set of user's print consumption history and one or more user annotated notes for the set of users;   a group dashboard component for generating a group dashboard grouping user-annotations for the set of users by one or more attributes associated with the print jobs; and   a processor which implements the job tracking component, the print job contextual representation generation component, the annotation component, the analysis component, the user dashboard component, and the group dashboard component.   
     
     
         17 . The system according to  claim 16 , wherein the computing of the print job contextual representation for each of the print jobs is based on features extracted from the print job information including extracting features selected from a group including:
 user ID;   print job submission time;   document title;   document length;   print job type;   textual content features;   visual content features; and   page coverage features.   
     
     
         18 . (canceled) 
     
     
         19 . The system according to  claim 16 , wherein user-annotation of the submitted print job is prompted immediately after a user issues the print job. 
     
     
         20 . The system according to  claim 16 , wherein user-annotation of a note is associated with a detected pattern of printing by a user. 
     
     
         21 . A method for identifying constraints on reducing consumable usage comprising:
 acquiring print job information for a set of print jobs submitted for printing by a set of users, each print job comprising a document to be printed;   computing a print job representation for each of the print jobs based on features extracted from the print job information, the features including a statistical representation of low-level features extracted from patches of a page of the document;   receiving user-annotations for at least some of the submitted print jobs whereby submitted print jobs are annotated with a user annotated note expressing a reason for printing the print job;   partitioning the print jobs into clusters based on the print job representations and annotations; and   generating a representation of the set of print jobs which represents reasons for printing of print jobs in at least one of the clusters, based on the users' c annotations,   wherein the computing of the print job representation, receiving user-annotations, partitioning the print jobs, and generating of the representation of the set of print jobs are performed with a computer processor.   
     
     
         22 . A system for identifying constraints on reducing consumable usage and evaluating a transition from paper to digital documents comprising:
 a job tracking component for acquiring print job information for a set of print jobs submitted for printing by a set of users, each print job including a document to be printed;   a print job contextual representation generation component for generating a print job contextual representation for each of the print jobs;   an annotation component for receiving user-annotations for at least some of the submitted print jobs, the user user-annotations including a user-annotated note expressing a reason for printing the print job;   an analysis component for generating a representation of the set of print jobs which represents reasons for printing of print jobs based on the users' annotations;   a user dashboard component for generating a user dashboard for each of the set of users, the user dashboard displaying the user's print consumption history, the set of user's print consumption history and one or more user annotated notes for the set of users; and   a processor which implements the job tracking component, the print job contextual representation generation component, the annotation component, the analysis component, and the user dashboard component;   wherein for a first and a second set of the print jobs, the processor implements the job tracking component, the print job contextual representation generation component, the annotation component, the analysis component, and the user dashboard component, and compares a representation of the second set of print jobs with a representation of the first set of print jobs.   
     
     
         23 . A system for identifying constraints on reducing consumable usage comprising:
 a job tracking component for acquiring print job information for a set of print jobs submitted for printing by a set of users, each print job including a document to be printed;   a print job contextual representation generation component for generating a print job contextual representation for each of the print jobs;   an annotation component for receiving user-annotations for at least some of the submitted print jobs, the user user-annotations including a user-annotated note expressing a reason for printing the print job, wherein receiving user-annotations for at least some of the submitted print jobs includes receiving annotations for fewer than all of the print jobs in the set;   a clustering component for clustering the print jobs into clusters based on the print job contextual representations, wherein the annotation component receives user-annotations for fewer than all of the submitted print jobs, and the clustering component assigns the submitted print jobs without a user-annotation to a respective cluster based on the respective print job contextual representation;   an analysis component for generating a representation of the set of print jobs which represents reasons for printing of print jobs based on the users' annotations;   a user dashboard component for generating a user dashboard for each of the set of users, the user dashboard displaying the user's print consumption history, the set of user's print consumption history and one or more user annotated notes for the set of users; and   a processor which implements the job tracking component, the print job contextual representation annotation component, the clustering component, the analysis component, and the user dashboard component.