Automated Travel Contract Analysis Using OCR and Machine Learning

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Companies face challenges in manually monitoring and optimizing numerous contracts with travel service providers due to varying contract terms and conditions, making it difficult to make advantageous travel purchase decisions and ensure compliance with contract terms.

Innovation Solution

An automated system for classifying and optimizing contract terms using optical character recognition (OCR) and machine learning, which processes document images, segments relevant text, classifies contract terms, and analyzes travel data to provide optimized travel and contract information.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Ease of operation

If manual monitoring of contracts is performed, then flexibility in understanding varying contract terms is maintained, but time consumption and labor effort increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

ImproveManual monitoring capabilityVSAvoidTime for contract monitoring

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of operationVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent replaces manual mechanical monitoring processes with an automated optical character recognition (OCR) system that captures contract images, extracts text, and analyzes terms automatically. This substitution eliminates the need for manual reading and interpretation of numerous contracts while maintaining accurate monitoring capabilities through computerized text processing and classification algorithms.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Solution Approach 2:

The system enables self-service automated contract monitoring where the OCR-based system independently captures, processes, and analyzes contract terms without requiring human intervention for each contract review. The system automatically categorizes contracts by type, extracts relevant terms, and provides monitoring reports, allowing the organization to monitor its own contracts autonomously.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

2Productivity

If automated OCR system is implemented, then processing speed and productivity increase, but system complexity and initial setup requirements increase

Engineering Contradiction:

ImproveContract processing speedVSAvoidOCR system complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent implements a universal OCR-based contract monitoring system that can handle multiple types of contracts (airline, hotel, car rental, etc.) through a single integrated platform. The system uses multi-functional modules including image capture, optical character recognition, text classification, and automated reporting that work together to process diverse contract types without requiring separate systems for each contract category.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #6Universality (Multi-functionality)

Solution Approach 2:

The system segments the contract monitoring process into distinct functional modules: image capture module, OCR text extraction module, classification module, and reporting module. This segmentation allows each component to be optimized independently while maintaining overall system productivity, and enables the complex monitoring task to be broken down into manageable automated steps.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

3Measurement precision

If comprehensive contract term analysis is performed, then compliance accuracy and optimization quality improve, but processing time and computational resources increase

Engineering Contradiction:

ImproveCompliance evaluation accuracyVSAvoidAnalysis processing time

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies preliminary action by pre-classifying contracts into categories (airline, hotel, car rental, etc.) and pre-identifying relevant contract terms using OCR text extraction before detailed compliance analysis. This preliminary processing organizes the data structure and identifies key parameters in advance, enabling faster and more accurate compliance evaluation without requiring comprehensive analysis of every contract detail from scratch.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system extracts only the relevant contract terms and data elements needed for compliance monitoring using OCR technology, separating essential information from unnecessary contract text. This extraction process pulls out specific parameters such as contract values, service types, and compliance criteria while leaving out extraneous information, thereby improving analysis accuracy while reducing processing time and computational resources required.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Data Source

PatentUS11462037B2System and method for automated analysis of electronic travel data

Publication Date: 2022.10.04 WALMART APOLLO LLC

AI summary

Exemplary embodiments relate to systems, methods and computer readable medium for automatically processing and classifying and optimizing travel contracts, travel data, and travel purchase decisions. An example system includes an image processing module, an image segmentation module, a segment filtering module, a classification module, a validation module, an analysis module, and an optimization module.