Xerox shows off Smart Document Review table, a Surface that sifts through billions of docs (video)
You have a lot of documents you've acquired over the years, hundreds or thousands in some semblance of order thanks to folders and whatnot. Now, imagine taking the output from hundreds or thousands of others, all with their own ideas about organization, and finding only those pages relevant to a certain topic. That's what legal aides have to do in cases where a major corporation is being investigated, and we're thinking that's a major target market for Xerox's Smart Document Review. It's a prototype touchscreen table that enables users to collaboratively filter documents, starting by indexing a giant pool and then allowing for the creation of "magnets" that contain keywords or other heuristics and dynamically pull out matches, all happening courtesy of animations that look only slightly less sophisticated than those seen in Hackers. Search results can then be dumped to a thumb drive. The prototype table dates back to earlier this year, but Xerox is now making them available as part of a pilot program exclusively for trendy law offices with unisex bathrooms.
[Thanks, Pradeep]
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Inside Innovation at Xerox: Smart Document Review Technology Puts Millions of Documents at your Fingertips
Documents can be moved across digital table top, similar to real sheets of paper on your desk
GRENOBLE, France--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Imagine being able to find, open, sort, move and review thousands of documents at the touch of a finger. Or how about sorting through millions of documents in hours rather than weeks?
"We believe that a tool like this will have a major impact on the cost, accuracy and speed of document review."
Scientists at Xerox Corporation (NYSE: XRX) have created a prototype "smart document" review system where users can gather around a large touch-sensitive table top display and sort documents merely by moving their fingers across the screen. The interface is as familiar as using your iPhone or smartphone touch screen – but more than a 150 times larger, making it easy for several people to work together.
Developed by researchers at the Xerox Research Centre Europe, the document review technology assists users to quickly group similar documents. Documents can be put side-by-side for comparison, scaled up or down, or piled in a corner of the table, just as real sheets of papers are placed on a real desk, but with all the capabilities of digital documents. And, by simply pointing to a few relevant documents, the user "teaches" the system what information is important. The system then uses this knowledge to automatically categorize and sort millions of documents in a fraction of the time it takes to do so manually.
The research technology promises to significantly improve the document review process, one of the biggest challenges for document-intensive industries such as insurance, pharmaceutical, medical, financial and legal. For example in the e-discovery process attorneys can examine a small portion of the evidence documents, indicating which ones are relevant to the case and those that are not. The smart document review system then quickly scans the entire repository, automatically retrieving all documents to be read by a professional.
"When you consider the vast number of documents involved in litigation, patent searching, government security and intelligence analyst reports, it's easy to understand how some review efforts involve millions of documents," said Caroline Privault, project leader at the research center. "We believe that a tool like this will have a major impact on the cost, accuracy and speed of document review."
Xerox's document review system builds on previous technology called CategoriX, developed by a team of researchers at Xerox Research Centre Europe. CategoriX itself is currently available as part of Xerox Litigation Services suite of offerings for advanced e-discovery in the legal industry.
CategoriX is an automated document classification tool designed by scientists in linguistics and statistics. This technology combined with the touch-table screen from PQ Labs form the basis of this smart document review prototype.
The prototype system is going through a customer pilot phase before being further developed for commercialization. Availability will be announced at a later date.
View a video demo of the prototype document review system.
About Xerox
Xerox Corporation is a $22 billion leading global enterprise for business process and document management. Through its broad portfolio of technology and services, Xerox provides the essential back-office support that clears the way for clients to focus on what they do best: their real business. Headquartered in Norwalk, Conn., Xerox provides leading-edge document technology, services, software and genuine Xerox supplies for graphic communication and office printing environments of any size. Through ACS, A Xerox Company, which Xerox acquired in February 2010, Xerox also offers extensive business process outsourcing and IT outsourcing services, including data processing, HR benefits management, finance support, and customer relationship management services for commercial and government organizations worldwide. The 133,000 people of Xerox serve clients in more than 160 countries. For more information, visit http://www.xerox.com, http://news.xerox.com or http://www.acs-inc.com. For investor information, visit http://www.xerox.com/investor.
