BILDUNTERSTÜTZTES DOKUMENTENVERARBEITUNGSSYSTEM

An image-based document processing system comprised of a plurality of hardware components (Fig. 1) arranged as a platform for processing documents using document images. The system employs layered software architecture (Figs. 8-10) comprised of application programs, system services and a plurality of native operating systems provided for particular ones of the hardware components. The system services are callable by the application programs to provide an interface between the application programs and the native operating systems during operation of the system. A host computer (Fig. 1, 34) provides for operation of the system such that a document processor (Fig. 1, 3) captures images of documents while the documents are sorted into pockets (32a). The captured images are applied via a high throughout optical network (41) for storage on a storage and retrieval unit (42). Image workstations (50) retrieve the stored for viewing and entering of data from the document images, following which, the documents are taken to a power encoder (60) which encodes data on the documents based on the viewed document images.