Software that automatically indexes, categorises and posts electronic documents.

Scientists at Xerox's European research laboratories have invented software that is powerful enough to "read" an electronic document, decide how it should be classified by subject and then post it to the right person's e-mail address or online document management system--completely automatically. The software was developed and pioneered at the company's Xerox Research Centre Europe (XRCE) based in Grenoble, France.

The software, which is a categorising tool, is intended to help businesses keep their e-document collections orderly and easily accessible, and it is available for licensing from Xerox.

Technology Highlights

Three integrated functions make the Xerox categorisation technology unique:

* The system can start right away. Using advanced machine-learning techniques, with only a few examples it quickly learns by itself how to hierarchically classify documents in existing categories.

* The technology is easy to use and helps people create a comprehensive way to turn unorganised e-files into cleanly labeled document collections.

* The system can learn entirely new categories on its own. The categorisation technology detects new or emerging topics and dynamically suggests new categories to the people who are using the system. The Xerox categoriser system can handle documents written in up to 20 languages and can be adapted for specific customer requirements. The software intelligently routes documents to the right person based on a pre-set user profile.

The software is written in Java and can be deployed on multiple platforms including UNIX, Linux and Windows. The company anticipates the technology to be licensed by software vendors or corporations who wish to incorporate it into document systems focused on areas such as customer relationship management, information retrieval and data management.

www.xerox.com