Device for performing secure and automatic flipping and scanning of documents

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11115551-B2
Application number	US-202016929938-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 15, 2020
Priority date	Jul 16, 2019
Publication date	Sep 7, 2021
Grant date	Sep 7, 2021

Abstract

Organizations and educational institutions are turning towards digitization of their examination processes. The existing devices are costly, time consuming and insecure for scanning the answer sheets. A device for performing secure and automatic flipping and scanning of documents has been provided. The device is configured to be assembled in the form of a box. The device comprising a scanning stand, a page flipping arm, one or more suction cups, one or more rollers, a controller and a mobile device. The controller is configured to control the operation of the scanning stand, the page flipper arm and the roller. The mobile device further comprises a mobile application which is further configured to control controller. The device further configured to scan the handwriting of a candidate to avoid malpractice during the examination.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A device for automatic flipping and scanning of a plurality of answer sheets, the device comprising:
a scanning stand configured to hold the plurality of answer sheets;
a page flipping arm connected to the scanning stand, wherein the page flipping arm is configured to flip one or more pages of the answer sheets;
one or more suction cups attached on the page flipper arm, the one or more suction cups are configured to hold the page for flipping;
a roller attached on the scanning stand configured to avoid flipping of more than one pages at a time;
a controller to control the operation of the scanning stand, the page flipper arm and the roller;
a mobile device configured to be attached on a holder present in the scanning stand, wherein the mobile device comprising a mobile application in communication with the controller, wherein the mobile application configured to:
command the controller to initiate the flipping of a particular page from amongst the one or more pages;
command, via the controller, the suction cup to hold the particular page and move the particular page up for flipping;
command, via the controller, the roller to avoid flipping of more than one page at a time;
command, via the controller, a camera present in the mobile device to scan the particular page;
send the scanned page to a cloud server; and
repetitively performing the step from “commanding the controller” to the “sending of scanned page”, until a predefined number of pages of the plurality of answer sheets are scanned.

2. The device of claim 1 , wherein the suction cup is using electromagnetic power to create a vacuum to hold the pages.

3. The device of claim 1 further configured to scan the one or more pages in one of a first direction and a second direction, the first direction being laterally opposite to the second direction from left to right or right to left direction.

4. The device of claim 1 further comprising one or more artificial lights configured to uniformly illuminate the answer sheets to be scanned.

5. The device of claim 1 , wherein the mobile application is configured to detect the identity of a candidate by scanning the handwriting written on the plurality of answer sheets.

6. The device of claim 1 , wherein the mobile application is configured to:
scanning the plurality of answer sheets to obtain scanned text, and
sending the text to the cloud server for analysis using an algorithm to mark the text.

7. The device of claim 1 , wherein the mobile application is configured to:
convert a plurality of drawings present in the plurality of answer sheets into digitized copy, and
sending the digitized copy to the cloud server for analysis using the algorithm to mark the drawings.

8. The device of claim 1 , wherein the mobile application further configured to generate a security token corresponding to each of the scanned pages.

9. The device of claim 1 , wherein the mobile device comprising a QR scanning sensor to scan one or more of a QR code or a bar code to capture corresponding metadata.

10. The device of claim 1 further comprising an early failure warning system for the scanning stand to alarm a user to avoid failure of the scanning stand, wherein the early failure warning system is generated using prior history of the scanning stand.

11. The device of claim 1 , wherein the mobile application is further configured to detect at least one of:
multiple scanning of similar pages in the plurality of answer sheets, and
missing of one or more pages from the plurality of answer sheets.

Assignees

• Tata Consultancy Services Ltd

Inventors

• Shah Viral Prakash
• Shukla Shobhit
• Pandit Nihar Nilax
• Naik Sachin Ramdas
• Sharma Ankush

Classifications

• G06V30/2455

  Discrimination between machine-print, hand-print and cursive writing · CPC title

• H04N1/00628

  Separating, e.g. preventing feeding of two sheets at a time · CPC title

• H04N1/00018

  Scanning arrangements · CPC title

• H04N1/00607

  Grippers or the like, e.g. suction grippers · CPC title

• G06K17/00 Primary

  Methods or arrangements for effecting co-operative working between equipments covered by two or more of main groups G06K1/00 - G06K15/00, e.g. automatic card files incorporating conveying and reading operations · CPC title