Abstract: A process for intelligent importation of information from a foreign application user interface includes extraction of raster data from a pre-designated region of a screen displayed in the foreign application, segmentation of the raster data into prospective sets of character raster data; application of the character raster data and a feature data set and a vector data set derived from the character raster data as inputs to respective raster, feature, and vector artificial neural networks to generate candidate characters; using a voting process to identify a character represented by the character raster data from the candidate characters; assembly of the remaining characters as recognized by the neural networks into a key; and association of the key with an external data file which may be stored and thereafter retrieved in association with the screen displayed in the foreign application.

Abstract: An interface for establishing an imaging functionality with a user application program includes an alternative data input channel/buffer/storage combination which intercepts data stream information of a user application program without interference therewith. The diversion of the data stream into a separate storage area enables a hierarchy of control actions to be performed on the data stream without interference with the application program. The control actions in the form of programmable process control logic includes means for establishing a data pattern of selectable indicia associated with each screen of the user application program. The data pattern is combined with a positional key provided by the imaging system which is indicative of the location of the image document data in a database. This combination is stored in a key database and is available for comparison with subsequently formed data patterns.