Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
CA 02617775 2008-01-11
METHOD, COMPUTER PROGRAM PRODUCT AND APPARATUS FOR
AUTHENTICATING ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to authenticating
electronic documents and, more particularly, relate to generating an authentic
digitally signed and sealed engineering drawing document from an engineering
drawing file.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In certain professional communities, such as the engineering community, it
is common for qualified engineers to be licensed by a professional association
that
may issue a seal to a licensed engineer that meets and maintains certain
professional and educational standards. The licensed engineer may then apply
the
seal and his or her signature to an engineering drawing to signify that the
drawing
has been reviewed and approved for use. By doing so, the engineer takes
professional responsibility for the drawings. Accordingly, given that some
projects
that impact public safety may be undertaken in reliance upon the competence of
the licensed engineer, it is easily appreciated that security with respect to
the seal
and signature of the engineer are of paramount importance.
Computer aided design (CAD), electronic document formats such as, for
example, PDF (portable document fonmat) and associated viewers (e.g., Adobe
Acrobat) have enabled designers and engineers to increase their productivity
in
relation to generation of design or engineering drawings. Furthermore,
techniques
have been developed that may enable the application of a digitized signature
or
seal to be applied to an electronic document. Accordingly, it might be
possible for
anyone with the ability to scan an existing signature and seal to apply the
seal and
signature indiscriminately or mistakenly to documents under inappropriate
circumstances.
Another problem that may be encountered, for example, in the context of
engineering drawings, relates to review of the drawings by one or more of
customers or third parties. In this regard, for example, one or more of a
building
department engineer, customer or another entity may be required or desired in
a
review chain for final approval of a particular plan or drawing. As such, one
or
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more of tracking or adoption of suggested changes by the building department
engineer may become complicated. Furthermore, such changes may be made on a
previously signed and sealed document thereby necessitating the production of
a
new signed and sealed document.
As a result, it may be desirable to provide a mechanism by which digitally
signed and sealed engineering drawing documents may be authenticated to enable
increased engineer productivity, while avoiding a sacrifice in tenms of
security.
Additionally, a mechanism for providing improved access to one or more of
reviewing or tracking of changes made during a review process may also be
desirable.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, in order to provide a mechanism by which to enable secure
control over electronic seal images and signature images, exemplary
embodiments
of the present invention provide a method, computer program product and
apparatus for generating a signed and sealed engineering drawing document from
an engineering drawing file securely. Exemplary embodiments may further
provide a mechanism for enabling one or more of the insertion, tracking or
review
of changes made with respect to a particular engineering drawing document.
In one exemplary embodiment, a method is provided for enabling secure
control over electronic seals and signatures. The method may include applying
a
digitized signature and seal and a unifonn resource identifier (URI) or
uniform
resource locator (URL) to a design drawing file to generate a design drawing
document including the digitized signature and seal and the URL, and storing
the
generated design drawing document at an access restricted location accessible
via
the URL. The location is associated with a signer of the digitized signature.
The
method may further include receiving input corresponding to the design drawing
file from an external source and providing the input on an overlay associated
with
the design drawing file.
In another exemplary embodiment, a computer program product is
provided for enabling secure control over electronic seals and signatures. The
computer program product includes at least one computer-readable storage
medium having computer-readable program code portions stored therein. The
computer-readable program code includes multiple executable portions. The
first
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executable portion may be for applying a digitized signature and seal and a
URL to
the design drawing file to generate the design drawing document including the
digitized signature and seal and the URL. The second executable portion may be
for storing the generated design drawing document at an access restricted
location
accessible via the URL. The location is associated with a signer of the
digitized
signature. The third executable portion may be for receiving input
corresponding
to the design drawing file from an extemal source and providing the input on
an
overlay associated with the design drawing file.
In yet another exemplary embodiment, an apparatus is provided for
enabling secure control over electronic seals and signatures. The apparatus
may
include a processing element. The processing element may be configured to
apply
a digitized signature and seal and a URL to a design drawing file to generate
a
design drawing document including the digitized signature and seal and the
URL,
and store the generated design drawing document at an access restricted
location
accessible via the URL. The location is associated with a signer of the
digitized
signature.
Exemplary embodiments of the invention enable securely applying a
digitized signature and a digitized seal to an electronic document in a manner
that
may permit authentication of the document. Exemplary embodiments may also
enable an individual to visually compare an engineering drawing to requested
changes that have been submitted and to access a history of transactions made
in
relation to the engineering drawing. Accordingly, for example, both security
with
respect to the application of electronic signatures and seals and productivity
of
engineers may be improved.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S)
Having thus described the invention in general terms, reference will now be
made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale,
and
wherein:
FIG. I is a basic block diagram illustrating a system that may benefit from
exemplary embodiments of the present invention;
FIG. 2 illustrates a basic block diagram of a terminal enabling secure
control over electronic seals and signatures according to an exemplary
embodiment
of the present invention;
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FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram providing an exemplary work flow for an
enhanced design reviewing solution according to an exemplary embodiment of the
present invention;
FIG. 4 is a flowchart including various operations of a method of securely
controlling over electronic seals and signatures according to one exemplary
embodiment of the present invention; and
FIGS. 5-15 illustrate various screenshots or examples of user interface
displays and options that may be encountered in an authentication website
operating in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the present inventions now will be described more fully
hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but
not
all embodiments of the inventions are shown. Indeed, these inventions may be
embodied in many different fonns and should not be construed as limited to the
embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that
this
disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Like reference numerals
refer
to like elements throughout. Furthermore, as used herein "or" may be
interpreted
as a logical operator that results in true whenever one or more of its
operands are
true.
FIG. 1 is a basic block diagram illustrating a system 10 that may benefit
from exemplary embodiments of the present invention. As shown and described
herein, the system 10 could be employed in the context of a network 20 over
which
numerous electronic devices may communicate via wired, wireless or a
combination of wired and wireless communication mechanisms. In an exemplary
embodiment, the electronic devices may be embodied as personal computers (PCs)
or other terminals that may enable individuals to nm applications or
communicate
with each other in accordance with embodiments of the present invention. In
this
regard, the system 10 may include a number of different communication
tenninals,
each of which may comprise any device or means embodied in either hardware,
software, or a combination of hardware and software configured to perform one
or
more functions, including those attributed to the respective terminals as
described
herein. For example, the system 10 may include an engineer terminal 12 and
possibly also numerous other peripheral devices or modules in communication
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with each other via the network 20. In this regard, for example, an
information
server or data processing center 18 may also be in communication with the
engineer terminal 12 via the network 20. However, it should be noted that some
portions of the data processing center 18 could also be collocated with or
even a
portion of the engineer terminal 12. Other devices that may be in
communication
with the network 20 may include one or more of a customer terminal 14 or at
least
one third party terminal 16. The network 20 may be any of a number of
different
communication backbones or frameworks including, for example, the Internet, a
local area network (LAN), an Intranet such as a personal area network (PAN), a
campus area network (CAN), a metropolitan area network (MAN), or the like. In
one exemplary embodiment, the engineer terminal 12 and the data processing
center 18 could be part of a LAN or other localized network (e.g., associated
with a
particular company) and one or both of the engineer terminal 12 and the data
processing center 18 may be in communication with the network 20 either
directly
or via a gateway device of the LAN.
FIG. 2 illustrates a basic block diagram of a terminal (e.g., engineer
terminal 12, customer terminal 14, third party terminal 16, etc.) according to
an
exemplary embodiment of the present invention. It should be understood,
however, that a terminal as illustrated and hereinafter described is merely
illustrative of one type of electronic device that may benefit from
embodiments of
the present invention and, therefore, should not be taken to limit the scope
of
embodiments of the present invention. Moreover, while FIG. 2 illustrates one
example of a configuration of a terminal, numerous other configurations may
also
be used to implement embodiments of the present invention. As such, it should
be
noted that the devices or elements described below may not be mandatory and
thus
some may be omitted in certain embodiments. In this regard, for example, the
terminal of FIG. 2 may also be representative of a server device (e.g., the
data
processing center 18) except that the server device may lack one or more of a
display or user interface.
In an exemplary embodiment, each of the terminals described above (e.g.,
the engineer tenminal 12, the customer terminal 14, and the third party
terminal 16)
may include a display 23 configured to display images, and a user interface 25
configured to receive an input from a user of the a corresponding one of the
terminals. The display 23 may be, for example, a conventional LCD (liquid
crystal
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display), a cathode ray tube display (CRT), or any other suitable display
known in
the art. And the user interface 25 may include, for example, one or more of a
keyboard, keypad, function keys, mouse, scrolling device, touch screen or any
other mechanism by which a user may interface with the corresponding terminal.
The terms engineer, customer, and third party are used herein for exemplary
purposes to associate each terminal with a corresponding entity for purposes
of
ease of explanation with regard to one exemplary embodiment. However, these
terms should not be considered limiting. In this regard, for example, the
engineer
terminal 12 could be any terminal, but the term "engineer" merely refers to an
entity associated with the terminal in one exemplary embodiment.
As indicated above, the terminals may be configured to receive data via the
network 20, and process or display the received data or other data. As shown,
in
addition to a display 23 and user interface 25, the terminals may include a
processing element 26, communication interface element 29 and memory device
33. The memory device 33 may include, for example, one or more of volatile or
non-volatile memory. The memory device 33 may be configured to store
information, data, applications, instructions or the like for enabling the
terminal to
carry out various functions in accordance with exemplary embodiments of the
present invention. For example, the memory device 33 could be configured to
buffer input data for processing by the processing element 26. Additionally or
alternatively, the memory device 33 could be configured to store other data
including, for example, an application for enabling the manipulation of one or
more of engineering drawings or an application for enabling secure control
over
electronic seals and signatures.
The processing element 26 may be embodied in a number of different
ways. For example, the processing element 26 may be embodied as a processor, a
coprocessor, a controller or various other processing means or devices
including
integrated circuits such as, for example, an ASIC (application specific
integrated
circuit) or an FPGA (field programmable gate array). In an exemplary
embodiment, the processing element 26 may be configured to execute
instructions
stored in the memory device 33 or otherwise accessible to the processing
element
26. Meanwhile, the communication interface element 29 may be embodied as any
device or means embodied in either hardware, software, or a combination of
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hardware and software that is configured to receive or transmit data from or
to the
network 20 or any other device or module in communication with the tenminal.
The data processing center 18 may be a server or other computing platform
including memory and processing capability (e.g., the memory device 33 and the
processing element 26) and in communication with the network 20 in order to
facilitate operation in accordance with embodiments of the present invention.
In
some embodiments, the data processing center 18 may host an authentication
website providing access to one or more of the functionalities, devices or
elements
described below in connection with the data processing center 18.
In an exemplary embodiment, the engineer terminal 12 may be utilized to
prepare, modify, review, manage, approve or otherwise interface with design
drawings (e.g., engineering drawings) which may be stored as corresponding
design drawing files. As such, a design drawing may be created at the engineer
terminal 12, for example, by a licensed professional engineer associated with
the
engineer terminal 12 and stored as a corresponding design drawing file.
However,
alternatively, the design drawing may be created by another entity such as,
for
example, a designer or fabricator associated with the third party terminal 16.
As
yet another alternative, the design drawing file could be downloaded from
another
source (e.g., via the Internet). The design drawing file could be stored at
the
memory device 33 of any one or more of the terminals or the data processing
center 18 along with other design drawing files. The design drawing file,
which
may be stored, for example, in a PDF fonnat or a local/proprietary format
associated with an application used to create the design drawing file, may be
shared electronically among various parties via the network 20. The other
parties
may be able to view the design drawing file via a viewer application that
corresponds to the format of the design drawing file (e.g., Adobe Acrobat for
PDF
files).
As discussed above, when a particular licensed professional engineer
(hereinafter "engineer") signs and seals the drawing associated with the
design
drawing file, the drawing may be relied upon by others as being approved for
use
by the engineer. The seal applied may be a seal bestowed upon the engineer by
a
professional association that has certified that the engineer has met
applicable
standards and is a member of the association in good standing. Accordingly, by
signing and sealing the drawing, the engineer may take professional
responsibility
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for the contents of the drawing. As such, although the design drawing file
could be
shared electronically via the network 20 (e.g., between one or more of the
engineer
terminal 12, the customer terminal 14 or one or more third party terminals
16), the
drawing could not be relied upon unless the drawing is signed and sealed by
the
engineer.
Embodiments of the present invention provide security measures that
enable the engineer (or other approval authority) to electronically sign and
seal the
drawing to review drawings and thereafter create a design drawing document
having the signature and seal of the signer/sealer of the document (e.g., the
engineer). Furthermore, embodiments of the present invention provide a
mechanism by which the design drawing document may be authenticated by other
parties to ensure that a particular design drawing document is authentic. Some
embodiments further enable modification or change requests, or the changes
themselves, to be tracked by individuals accessing the design drawing
document.
The engineer terminal 12 may be a terminal associated with a particular
engineer or a business enterprise employing or otherwise affiliated with the
particular engineer. The customer terminal 14 and the third party tenminal 16
may
each be terminals associated with a customer or other third party,
respectively,
which may include public or proprietary software to enable viewing of
documents
produced in accordance with embodiments of the present invention. Embodiments
of the present invention may enable an engineer to generate a design drawing
document having a digitally applied signature and seal associated with the
engineer
from a design drawing file. In this regard, the engineering terminal 12 may
include
or otherwise be in communication with one or more of a digital applicator 34
or a
design application 36.
The digital applicator 34 may be any means such as a device or circuitry
embodied in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software that
is
configured to apply an electronic signature and seal in accordance with
exemplary
embodiments of the present invention as described in greater detail below. The
digital applicator 34 may operate under the control of (or even be embodied
as) the
processing element 26. In some embodiments, such as the embodiment shown in
FIG. 1, the digital applicator 34 may be embodied in software at the data
processing center 18. As such, the engineer terminal 12 may communicate with
the digital applicator 34 in a client/server environment in order to access
electronic
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signature and seal services from the data processing center 18 for the
generation of
the design drawing document from the design drawing file.
The design application 36 may be any means such as a device or circuitry
embodied in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software that
is
configured to enable drawing creation, review, editing and, in combination
with
the digital applicator 34, electronic signing and sealing of documents. The
design
application 36 may be, for example, public or proprietary software for
enhancing
work flow with regard to engineering or design drawings. In an exemplary
embodiment, the design application 36 may be configured to present a display
of a
particular drawing associated with a design drawing file. The design
application
36 may also provide the engineer (e.g., via the user interface 25 and display
23)
with an ability to provide the design application 36 with commands or
instructions
related to one or more of creation, review, editing or electronic signing and
sealing
of documents. In this regard, for example, the design application 36 may
provide a
user interface or control console including commands or functions which, when
selected by the engineer, may be performed with respect to the particular
drawing.
In some embodiments, the user interface or control console functions may be
presented when a particular drawing is displayed. However, other functions
(e.g.,
selection of a particular drawing, selection of a job, creation of a job, or
the like)
may be performed in the absence of a display of any particular drawing.
One function that may be selected in association with a design drawing file
may be to generate a design drawing document having the signature and seal of
the
engineer thereon. In other words, one function may be to enable the engineer
to
approve a drawing or drawings. Accordingly, for a selected drawing (e.g., a
drawing currently displayed), a particular option may be selected from the
user
interface or control console to cause the digital applicator 34 to apply an
electronic
seal and signature to the corresponding design drawing file to generate the
respective design drawing document. When the engineer instracts the
application
of the electronic seal and signature (e.g., via selection of a function key
such as a
"greenlight" function of FIG. 6), the digital applicator 34 may, for example,
retrieve a digitized image of a seal and signature associated with the
engineer and
create a printable document (e.g., in a PDF format) comprising the design
drawing
document having the corresponding drawing images along with the seal and
signature of the engineer. A current date stamp may also be applied to the
design
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drawing document along with the seal and signature. According to exemplary
embodiments, after the seal and signature are applied to create the printable
document, the seal and signature are removed from the design drawing file
itself,
so that the design drawing file never has the seal and signature images stored
with
the design drawing file itself. Meanwhile, the design drawing document
includes
the digitized image of the seal and signature of the engineer thereby
indicating that
the engineer has taken professional responsibility for the document. In an
exemplary embodiment, the seal, signature, and date stamp may all be applied
independently of one another, for example, within a predefined zone to provide
a
unique aspect with regard to each and every application of seals and
signatures by
the digital applicator 34.
In an exemplary embodiment, to further provide for authentication of the
design drawing document, the digital applicator 34 may also apply a location
identifier indicative of a storage location of the design drawing document.
For
example, a uniform resource locator (URL) may be provided along with the
drawing in the design drawing document. The URL may be linked to or point to a
document at an access restricted location (e.g., an access restricted web site
or web
page). The access restricted location may be associated with the signer/sealer
of
the document (e.g., the engineer). Accordingly, for example, if a third party
or
customer is reviewing the design drawing document online, the third party or
customer can verify the authenticity of the design drawing document by
clicking or
selecting the URL on the document. The third party or customer may then be
linked to a web site or web page including the storage location of the design
drawing document and be enabled to verify whether the design drawing document
is indeed authentic. Alternatively, if the third party or customer is in
receipt of or
otherwise aware of a paper copy of the design drawing document, the third
party or
customer may type the URL from the paper copy into a web browser in order to
access the design drawing document for authentication purposes.
In some embodiments, one or more drawings may be associated with a
particular design drawing file. As such, for example, a plurality of drawings
may
be associated with a particular file, which may be identified or otherwise
associated with a particular job, job number or job title. Accordingly, for
example,
the engineer may select a plurality of drawings to be included in a particular
job,
such that the job (and the corresponding file) may be accessed to retrieve all
the
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associated drawings with a single retrieval operation. Similarly, after all
the
drawings for a particular job have been reviewed by the engineer using the
design
application 36 and the engineer is ready to take professional responsibility
for the
drawings, the engineer may select an option (e.g., via the design application
36) to
approve the drawings associated with the particular job. The digital
applicator 34
may then be engaged to apply the seal and signature along with the date stamp
and
URL to create the design drawing document. The design drawing document may
then be stored at a location corresponding to the URL. When a document is
accessed at the URL, the accessed document cannot be altered, except by the
engineer (e.g., after clearing security or proper identification) or as
further
provided below. Moreover, if the engineer changes a drawing and selects the
drawing for approval, a new signature and sealing operation may be performed
and
a new document with a new signature, seal and date stamp may be generated. The
new document may then replace the old document at the corresponding URL. A
history of the change may also be recorded and may be accessible when the URL
is
accessed.
In order to ensure security with regard to the granting of access to
electronic signature and sealing application, one or more of the engineer
terminal
12 or the data processing center 18 may include a security application 38,
which
may be any means such as a device or circuitry embodied in hardware, software,
or
a combination of hardware and software that is configured to provide
authentication services to ensure the identity of the engineer prior to
enabling the
engineer to access services of the digital applicator 34. The security
application 38
may, for example, require the engineer to login by providing a usemame or
other
identification and a corresponding password or code. In this regard, the
security
application 38 may provide for the maintenance of separate accounts or records
associated with each engineer. Each account may include a digitized or other
displayable or printable image of a seal associated with the engineer and one
or
more signatures of the engineer. For example, the memory device 33 may store a
plurality of accounts and corresponding seal and signature images.
Accordingly,
for example, although a particular organization may employ many engineers, the
signature and seal of each of the engineers may be separately stored and
secured in
association with each respective engineer.
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In an exemplary embodiment, the engineer terminal 12 (or another
terminal) may further include other peripherals or devices. For example, as
further
illustrated in FIG. l, the engineer tenminal 12 may include a security device
40. In
an exemplary embodiment, the security device 40 may be any means such as a
device or circuitry embodied in hardware, software, or a combination of
hardware
and software that is configured to provide an additional layer of security for
the
purpose of identifying a particular engineer. In some embodiments, the
security
device 40 may be one or more of a magnetic card reader, a radio frequency
identification (RFID) reader, a biometric identification device, smart card,
or the
like. Accordingly, a magnetic card, RFID tag or merely physiological or
behavioral traits associated with the particular engineer may be used to
assist in
identifying and authenticating the particular engineer prior to granting the
particular engineer access to the services of the digital applicator 34.
Accordingly, some embodiments may include at least two security levels
for access to signature and sealing functions. Thus, for example, in order for
the
engineer to sign and seal a drawing, the engineer may be required to provide a
login and password to pass a security check by the security application 38 and
provide further evidence of identity in relation to possession of a key,
access card
(e.g., magnetic, RFID, etc.), or other indicia of identity to pass a security
check by
the security device 40. As described in greater detail below, still further
security
may also be provided.
In this regard, for example, in order to enforce the integrity,
confidentiality
and authenticity of a design drawing with electronic signatures and digitized
seals,
a certificate issuer 42 may also be provided (e.g., at the data processing
center 18).
The certificate issuer 42 may be any means such as a device or circuitry
embodied
in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software that is
configured to provide a certification of the seal and signature applied by the
digital
applicator 34. In an exemplary embodiment, the certificate issuer 42 may act
as an
intermediate Certificate Authority to certify digital seals and signatures. In
this
regard, for example, the certificate issuer 42 may utilize a cryptographic
protocol
(e.g., secure sockets layer (SSL) or public key infrastructure (PKI)) and
issue a
certificate to accompany any seal and signature applied by the digital
applicator 34.
The certificate issued by the certificate issuer 42 may be used to further
verify the
authenticity of the seal and signature to provide document integrity for the
design
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drawing document. Furthermore, in an exemplary embodiment, the certificate
issuer 42 may be enabled to request a certificate from an outside agency to
include
instead of or in addition to the certificate otherwise issued by the
certificate issuer
42. In this regard, for example, if a professional agency or other certifying
agency
provides a particular static certificate to illustrate that a particular
electronic seal
and signature is authentic, the certificate issuer 42 may communicate with an
entity
at the professional agency for inclusion in the design drawing document as
further
evidence of the authenticity of the signature and seal thereon and as evidence
that
requirements of the professional agency or outside agency have also been met.
In some embodiments, in addition to enabling customers or third parties to
view drawings, one or more of the customer terminal 14 or the third party
terminal
16 may run public or proprietary software that enables other entities such as
the
customer or third parties to make comments and edit or change requests on one
or
more of the drawings associated with a particular job. In this regard, for
example,
if a fabricator has produced a drawing, then a building department engineer
may
wish to make notes on the drawing or request specific edits or changes (e.g.,
FIG. 6
illustrates user interface function keys to enable to provision of notes).
Such a
process may typically take days using conventional means as hard copies of the
drawing are exchanged with handwritten notes associated therewith. Embodiments
of the present invention may enable the building department engineer (or other
interested parties) to review documents or approve or request edits or changes
to
the documents electronically so that other parties may electronically receive
the
documents and make their own approval, edit requests or changes to the
documents
as well. Since the process can be done electronically, the review process may
be
shortened.
In order to implement a mechanism for an enhanced design reviewing
solution, embodiments of the present invention may further employ a notes
agent
44. In some embodiments, a notes agent may be embodied on each of the
tenminals. However, alternatively, a single notes agent may be embodied at the
data processing center 18 and services associated therewith may be provided to
the
terminals via a client/server relationship in which the tenminals act as
clients with
respect to the data processing center 18. The notes agent 44 may be any means
such as a device or circuitry embodied in hardware, software, or a combination
of
hardware and software that is configured to provide services and facilitate
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document exchange among jobs and comments in the data processing center 18
and t.enninals, including the engineer terminal 12, the customer terminal 14
or the
third party terminal 16. In this regard, in an exemplary embodiment, the notes
agent 44 may also enable a terminal to provide notes or provide access to
review of
notes posted by other parties with respect to a particular design drawing
file. As
such, a design drawing file, or series of files, which may be associated with
a
particularjob, may be accessed by interested (or authorized) parties and
comments
may be associated with the particular job (e.g., as a whole or on a drawing by
drawing basis) for review by other parties.
In an exemplary embodiment, a version of the security application 38 may
also be employed at one or more of the customer terminal 14 or the third party
terminal 16 in order to penmit access to the notes agent 44. When a customer
(e.g.,
the fabricator) or engineer logs in and selects a particular job, the design
drawing
file or files associated with the particular job may be retrieved. One or more
of the
customer or engineer may be enabled (e.g., via a user interface and control
console) to toggle through the drawings associated with the particular job.
The
notes agent 44 may provide an overlay to the design drawing file onto which
the
comments, edits or suggestions of the customer may be provided. In some
embodiments each party that has clearance to review the particular job may
have a
corresponding layer that is associated with the party. Thus, for example, if
there is
a customer, a third party, and an engineer associated with a particular job,
there
may be one or more of a customer overlay, a third party overlay or an engineer
overlay. As an alternative, there may be a single overlay onto which all
comments,
etc., are made.
Changes or comments in the overlay may be distinguished from the
underlying document by various mechanisms. For example, comments or changes
in the overlay may be color coded. In this regard, each overlay may be
associated
with a separate color. Alternatively, comments may have one color and edits or
change requests may have another color. Shading, highlighting, font
differences,
author or editor name and time stamp, and other mechanisms may also be used to
distinguish changes or comments in an overlay from a base document. In an
exemplary embodiment, layers may be selected for inclusion or exclusion so
that
changes to the base drawing may more easily be determined or tracked.
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Approval may also be indicated in the overlay. In this regard, in some
instances in which the approval of multiple approval authorities may be
desirable
prior to final approval by the engineer, it may be possible to further place
one or
more of seal or approval information that may be stored for other parties
(e.g.,
other approval authorities) on the design drawing document if the
corresponding
approval authority's approval is indicated on the overlay. As such, the data
processing center 18 may further store one or more of seal or approval stamp
images associated with respective other approval authorities, which may be
applied
to documents that have been finally approved.
In an exemplary embodiment, when a document is accessed at the URL,
information may be provided that is indicative of the change or comment
history
associated with the document. Thus, for example, a customer, reviewing
engineer
or third party may determine when changes were made or requested for the
document and by whom the changes were requested. Accordingly, for a particular
document having a seal and signature, an individual accessing the URL can
quickly detenmine whether changes were made since the issuance of the seal and
signature based on comparing the date stamp on the document to the document
history. Accordingly, the integrity of drawings may be maintained using the
URL.
The document history may be indicated along with design drawing files or may
be
accessible via a separate menu option.
FIG. 3 illustrates a block diagram providing an exemplary work flow for an
enhanced design reviewing solution according to an exemplary embodiment of the
present invention. Of note, FIG. 3 is illustrative of one exemplary embodiment
and therefore additional operations may be performed or some operations may be
omitted in some alternative embodiments. Referring now to FIG. 3, workflow may
begin at operation 100 or operation 120. In this regard, at operation 100, the
customer may send a request for design review/approval from an authentication
site (e.g., hosted by the data processing center 18). The request may be made
in
the form of a request document that may include one or more design drawing
files.
The files may be uploaded from the customer terminal 14 for inclusion in the
request. In an exemplary embodiment, the uploaded files may include comments,
edits, change requests, etc., in an overlay provided with an original drawing
or
drawings. Accordingly, the design drawing files uploaded by the customer may
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include a drawing (e.g., in a PDF format) and a separate overlay provided over
the
drawing.
The notes agent 44 may be triggered by submission of the request in order
to verify whether the request is complete (e.g., identifies a valid job
number,
includes design drawing files, etc.) at operation 102. If the request is not
complete
the notes agent 44 may return the request to the customer for completion.
Meanwhile, if the request is complete, files may be processed and packed into
a
corresponding job file at operation 104. The job file may then be sent to the
data
processing center 18 at operation 106 where an administrator application may
track
a job update status for the job at operation 108. The notes agent 44 may also
notify
the customer that the job has been sent at operation 110.
At operation 120, the engineer may send a request to get updated jobs for
review. The request may trigger a check of jobs in the system at the data
processing center 18 to determine if any jobs indicate an updated status at
operation 122. Updated jobs may then be checked to determine whether they are
already reviewed or need to be reviewed at operation 124. If new jobs or
updated
jobs (e.g., jobs that need to be reviewed) are located at operation 126, the
new or
updated job(s) may be downloaded and unpacked by the engineer at operation
128.
Once the job(s) are unpacked, or even if there are no new or updated jobs, but
a job
is selected by the engineer for review, the engineer may review the
corresponding
drawings, stamp them (e.g., using the sealing and signature mechanism
described
above) or provide comments on the drawings at operation 130. FIG. 5
illustrates
an exemplary display of a job selection screen via which selection of a
particular
job may be accomplished or various tasks may be performed. A determination
may be made at operation 132 as to whether the job review is complete. If the
job
review is complete, the job files may uploaded to the data processing center
at
operation 134. However, if the job review is not complete, the job may be
returned
to the engineer for completion of the review. Once files have been uploaded to
the
data processing center with review completed (or if the job was previously
reviewed), job files may be unpacked, processed and posted at operation 136.
The
customer may then be notified at operation 138. Of note, if a particular
document
is updated and is therefore resealed and resigned, the updated document may
also
be made available via the same URL that was used to access to original or
parent
document. A history of changes to the document may be indicated at the URL so
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that an individual may easily determine whether changes were made to the
document the individual currently has, or whether such document is the most
recent version. As such, any individual typing in the access restricted URL
will be
able to view not only the parent document, but each child document in order to
find the most recent or current version. As such, the document history may
indicate that the update occurred and may further indicate the nature of the
update
or provide access to prior document versions.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a system, method and computer program product
according to an exemplary embodiment of the invention. It will be understood
that
each block or step of the flowchart (and the diagram of FIG. 3), and
combinations
of blocks in the flowchart, can be implemented by various means, such as one
or
more of hardware, firmware, or software including one or more computer program
instructions. For example, one or more of the procedures described above may
be
embodied by computer program instructions. In this regard, the computer
program
instructions which embody the procedures described above may be stored by a
memory device of, for example, the terminal or server and executed by its
respective processing element 26. As will be appreciated, any such computer
program instructions may be loaded onto a computer or other programmable
apparatus (i.e., hardware) to produce a machine, such that the instructions
which
execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus create means for
implementing the functions specified in the flowchart block(s) or step(s).
These
computer program instructions may also be stored in a computer-readable memory
that can direct a computer or other programmable apparatus to function in a
particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable
memory produce an article of manufacture including instruction means which
implement the function specified in the flowchart block(s) or step(s). The
computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other
programmable apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed
on
the computer or other programmable apparatus to produce a computer-
implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer
or
other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions
specified in the flowchart block(s) or step(s).
Accordingly, blocks or steps of the flowchart support combinations of
means for performing the specified functions, combinations of steps for
performing
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the specified functions and program instruction means for performing the
specified
functions. It will also be understood that one or more blocks or steps of the
flowchart, and combinations of blocks or steps in the flowchart, can be
implemented by special purpose hardware-based computer systems which perform
the specified functions or steps, or combinations of special purpose hardware
and
computer instructions.
In this regard, one embodiment of a method of enabling secure control over
electronic seals and signatures, as shown in FIG. 4, may include selecting a
design
drawing file for generation of a corresponding design drawing document at
operation 200. At operation 210, a digitized signature and seal and a URL may
be
applied to the design drawing file to generate the design drawing document
including the digitized signature and seal and the URL (e.g., see URL 250 on
FIG.
13). The generated design drawing document may then be stored at a location
accessible via the URL at operation 220. The URL may point to an access
restricted location associated with a signer of the digitized signature.
In an exemplary embodiment, the method may include additional
operations. For example, the method may further include operations of
receiving
input conesponding to the design drawing file from an extenzal source and
providing the input on an overlay associated with the design drawing file. In
this
regard, receiving the input may include receiving changes, comments or
approval
of the design drawing file. In an alternative embodiment, an additional
operation
of generating a document history indicative of changes made with respect to
the
design drawing file may be included. The document history may be accessible
via
the URL. In some embodiments, the method may also include certifying the
digital signature and seal in accordance with a certificate authority or
obtaining a
certification from an external source for inclusion on the design drawing
document. In this regard, the certification may be obtained in response to
completion of an internal document certification.
FIGS. 5-15 illustrate various screenshots or examples of user interface
screens and options that may be encountered in an authentication website
hosted
by the data processing center 18 in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of
the present invention. In this regard, for example, FIG. 14 illustrates an
intermediate security setting and FIG. 15 illustrates a security setting that
may be
visible at a customer tenninal.
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Many modifications and other embodiments of the inventions set forth
herein will come to mind to one skilled in the art to which these embodiments
pertain having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing
descriptions
and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the
inventions
are not to be limited to the specific embodiments disclosed and that
modifications
and other embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the
appended claims.
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