US20060041484A1 - Methods and systems for initiating application processes by data capture from rendered documents - Google Patents

Methods and systems for initiating application processes by data capture from rendered documents Download PDF

Info

Publication number
US20060041484A1
US20060041484A1 US11/097,961 US9796105A US2006041484A1 US 20060041484 A1 US20060041484 A1 US 20060041484A1 US 9796105 A US9796105 A US 9796105A US 2006041484 A1 US2006041484 A1 US 2006041484A1
Authority
US
United States
Prior art keywords
document
user
item
text
identifier
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Abandoned
Application number
US11/097,961
Inventor
Martin King
Dale Grover
Clifford Kushler
James Stafford-Fraser
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
Exbiblio BV
Original Assignee
Exbiblio BV
Priority date (The priority date is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the date listed.)
Filing date
Publication date
Priority to US11/004,637 priority Critical patent/US7707039B2/en
Priority claimed from US11/004,637 external-priority patent/US7707039B2/en
Application filed by Exbiblio BV filed Critical Exbiblio BV
Priority to PCT/US2005/011089 priority patent/WO2005098607A2/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/011043 priority patent/WO2005098603A2/en
Priority to US11/098,016 priority patent/US7421155B2/en
Priority to US11/097,103 priority patent/US7596269B2/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/011015 priority patent/WO2005098598A2/en
Priority to EP05732913A priority patent/EP1761841A4/en
Priority to EP05737714A priority patent/EP1763842A4/en
Priority to US11/096,704 priority patent/US7599580B2/en
Priority to EP05733819A priority patent/EP1759272A4/en
Priority to US11/097,836 priority patent/US20060041538A1/en
Priority to EP05746428A priority patent/EP1759281A4/en
Priority to EP05734996A priority patent/EP1759276A4/en
Priority to US11/098,014 priority patent/US8019648B2/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/011085 priority patent/WO2005098605A2/en
Priority to EP05733191A priority patent/EP1747508A4/en
Priority to EP05745611A priority patent/EP1756704A4/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/011084 priority patent/WO2005098604A2/en
Priority to US11/098,038 priority patent/US7599844B2/en
Priority to US11/097,833 priority patent/US8515816B2/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/011014 priority patent/WO2005098597A2/en
Priority to EP05734947A priority patent/EP1759275A4/en
Priority to US11/097,981 priority patent/US7606741B2/en
Priority to KR1020127033541A priority patent/KR101328766B1/en
Priority to EP05733851A priority patent/EP1759273A4/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/011013 priority patent/WO2005098596A2/en
Priority to EP05734796A priority patent/EP1759274A4/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/011042 priority patent/WO2005098602A2/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/011016 priority patent/WO2005098599A2/en
Priority to US11/098,042 priority patent/US7593605B2/en
Priority to EP05735008A priority patent/EP1759277A4/en
Priority to US11/097,835 priority patent/US7831912B2/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/011534 priority patent/WO2005098610A2/en
Priority to KR1020127004310A priority patent/KR101257206B1/en
Priority to EP05733915A priority patent/EP1756729A4/en
Priority to EP05731509A priority patent/EP1880301A4/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/011026 priority patent/WO2005098601A2/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/011090 priority patent/WO2005096755A2/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/011088 priority patent/WO2005098606A2/en
Priority to US11/097,828 priority patent/US7742953B2/en
Priority to US11/097,961 priority patent/US20060041484A1/en
Priority to US11/097,089 priority patent/US8214387B2/en
Priority to EP12002745A priority patent/EP2490152A1/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/011017 priority patent/WO2005098600A2/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/011012 priority patent/WO2005096750A2/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/013297 priority patent/WO2005101192A2/en
Priority to EP05742065A priority patent/EP1759278A4/en
Priority to US11/110,353 priority patent/US7702624B2/en
Priority to JP2007509565A priority patent/JP5102614B2/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/017333 priority patent/WO2005114380A2/en
Priority to US11/131,945 priority patent/US7818215B2/en
Priority to EP05753019A priority patent/EP1749260A4/en
Priority to US11/185,908 priority patent/US20060104515A1/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/025732 priority patent/WO2006014727A1/en
Priority to EP05776539A priority patent/EP1782230A4/en
Priority to US11/208,457 priority patent/US20060122983A1/en
Priority to US11/208,461 priority patent/US8005720B2/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/029537 priority patent/WO2006023717A2/en
Priority to US11/208,458 priority patent/US7437023B2/en
Priority to EP05812073A priority patent/EP1810222A4/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/029539 priority patent/WO2006023718A2/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/029536 priority patent/WO2006026188A2/en
Priority to US11/208,408 priority patent/US20060136629A1/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/029534 priority patent/WO2006023715A2/en
Priority to EP05789280A priority patent/EP1800208A4/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/030007 priority patent/WO2006023937A2/en
Priority to US11/209,333 priority patent/US20060081714A1/en
Priority to US11/210,260 priority patent/US7706611B2/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/029680 priority patent/WO2006023806A2/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/034319 priority patent/WO2006036853A2/en
Priority to KR1020077009691A priority patent/KR101212929B1/en
Priority to EP05800941.6A priority patent/EP1810496A4/en
Priority to PCT/US2005/034734 priority patent/WO2006037011A2/en
Assigned to EXBIBLIO B.V. reassignment EXBIBLIO B.V. ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: KUSHLER, CLIFFORD A., STAFFORD-FRASER, JAMES Q., GROVER, DALE L., KING, MARTIN T.
Publication of US20060041484A1 publication Critical patent/US20060041484A1/en
Priority to PCT/US2006/007108 priority patent/WO2006093971A2/en
Priority to US11/365,983 priority patent/US7990556B2/en
Priority to KR1020067024177A priority patent/KR101174536B1/en
Priority to US11/672,014 priority patent/US8081849B2/en
Priority to US12/203,103 priority patent/US8146156B2/en
Priority to US12/542,343 priority patent/US8619287B2/en
Priority to US12/542,816 priority patent/US8442331B2/en
Priority to US12/542,811 priority patent/US8447144B2/en
Priority to US12/696,599 priority patent/US8489624B2/en
Priority to US12/721,456 priority patent/US8064700B2/en
Priority to US12/721,477 priority patent/US20110019919A1/en
Priority to US12/729,045 priority patent/US8874504B2/en
Priority to US12/859,736 priority patent/US8261094B2/en
Priority to US12/889,321 priority patent/US20110075228A1/en
Priority to US12/892,840 priority patent/US8346620B2/en
Priority to US12/894,059 priority patent/US8179563B2/en
Priority to US12/899,462 priority patent/US8619147B2/en
Priority to US12/902,081 priority patent/US8620760B2/en
Priority to US12/904,064 priority patent/US8799303B2/en
Priority to US12/904,915 priority patent/US9454764B2/en
Priority to US13/186,908 priority patent/US10635723B2/en
Priority to US13/188,932 priority patent/US20110295842A1/en
Priority to US13/195,193 priority patent/US8531710B2/en
Priority to US13/253,632 priority patent/US8620083B2/en
Priority to JP2011248290A priority patent/JP5496987B2/en
Priority to US13/400,551 priority patent/US8505090B2/en
Priority to US13/468,830 priority patent/US8521772B2/en
Priority to US13/615,517 priority patent/US8799099B2/en
Priority to US13/614,473 priority patent/US9268852B2/en
Priority to US13/671,327 priority patent/US9275051B2/en
Priority to US13/792,501 priority patent/US8831365B2/en
Priority to US13/871,579 priority patent/US20130246128A1/en
Priority to US13/961,934 priority patent/US8953886B2/en
Priority to US13/965,099 priority patent/US9313349B2/en
Priority to US13/966,002 priority patent/US9030699B2/en
Priority to US13/966,236 priority patent/US9811728B2/en
Priority to US14/080,305 priority patent/US9460346B2/en
Priority to US14/144,335 priority patent/US9760938B2/en
Priority to US14/144,337 priority patent/US20140237342A1/en
Priority to US14/252,395 priority patent/US9319555B2/en
Priority to US14/328,015 priority patent/US9684902B2/en
Priority to US14/506,142 priority patent/US20150026162A1/en
Priority to US14/531,258 priority patent/US9721193B2/en
Priority to US15/241,988 priority patent/US10318995B2/en
Priority to US15/281,732 priority patent/US9773167B2/en
Priority to US15/594,932 priority patent/US10504162B2/en
Priority to US15/679,237 priority patent/US20170364746A1/en
Priority to US16/133,654 priority patent/US10769431B2/en
Abandoned legal-status Critical Current

Links

Images

Classifications

    • GPHYSICS
    • G06COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06QINFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q30/00Commerce
    • G06Q30/06Buying, selling or leasing transactions
    • G06Q30/0601Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
    • G06Q30/0633Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
    • GPHYSICS
    • G06COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06FELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
    • G06F40/00Handling natural language data
    • G06F40/10Text processing
    • G06F40/166Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting
    • G06F40/174Form filling; Merging
    • GPHYSICS
    • G06COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06QINFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q10/00Administration; Management
    • G06Q10/10Office automation; Time management
    • GPHYSICS
    • G06COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06QINFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q30/00Commerce
    • G06Q30/06Buying, selling or leasing transactions
    • G06Q30/0601Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
    • G06Q30/0603Catalogue ordering
    • GPHYSICS
    • G06COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06QINFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q30/00Commerce
    • G06Q30/06Buying, selling or leasing transactions
    • G06Q30/0601Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
    • G06Q30/0633Lists, e.g. purchase orders, compilation or processing
    • G06Q30/0635Processing of requisition or of purchase orders
    • GPHYSICS
    • G06COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06QINFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
    • G06Q30/00Commerce
    • G06Q30/06Buying, selling or leasing transactions
    • G06Q30/0601Electronic shopping [e-shopping]
    • G06Q30/0641Shopping interfaces
    • GPHYSICS
    • G06COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
    • G06VIMAGE OR VIDEO RECOGNITION OR UNDERSTANDING
    • G06V30/00Character recognition; Recognising digital ink; Document-oriented image-based pattern recognition
    • G06V30/10Character recognition
    • G06V30/14Image acquisition
    • G06V30/142Image acquisition using hand-held instruments; Constructional details of the instruments
    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04NPICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N1/00Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
    • H04N1/00127Connection or combination of a still picture apparatus with another apparatus, e.g. for storage, processing or transmission of still picture signals or of information associated with a still picture
    • H04N1/00204Connection or combination of a still picture apparatus with another apparatus, e.g. for storage, processing or transmission of still picture signals or of information associated with a still picture with a digital computer or a digital computer system, e.g. an internet server
    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04NPICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N1/00Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
    • H04N1/04Scanning arrangements, i.e. arrangements for the displacement of active reading or reproducing elements relative to the original or reproducing medium, or vice versa
    • H04N1/10Scanning arrangements, i.e. arrangements for the displacement of active reading or reproducing elements relative to the original or reproducing medium, or vice versa using flat picture-bearing surfaces
    • H04N1/107Scanning arrangements, i.e. arrangements for the displacement of active reading or reproducing elements relative to the original or reproducing medium, or vice versa using flat picture-bearing surfaces with manual scanning
    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04NPICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N2201/00Indexing scheme relating to scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, and to details thereof
    • H04N2201/0008Connection or combination of a still picture apparatus with another apparatus
    • H04N2201/0034Details of the connection, e.g. connector, interface
    • H04N2201/0037Topological details of the connection
    • H04N2201/0039Connection via a network
    • HELECTRICITY
    • H04ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04NPICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
    • H04N2201/00Indexing scheme relating to scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, and to details thereof
    • H04N2201/0008Connection or combination of a still picture apparatus with another apparatus
    • H04N2201/0034Details of the connection, e.g. connector, interface
    • H04N2201/0048Type of connection
    • H04N2201/0055By radio

Definitions

  • the described technology is directed to the field of document processing.
  • This disclosure relates generally to methods and systems for use with handheld document data capturing devices and, more particularly, relates to portable devices having the ability to capture data, such as portable optical scanners or voice input devices.
  • Paper documents have an enduring appeal, as can be seen by the proliferation of paper documents in the computer age. It has never been easier to print and publish paper documents than it is today. Paper documents prevail even though electronic documents are easier to duplicate, transmit, search and edit.
  • FIG. 1 is a data flow diagram that illustrates the flow of information in one embodiment of the core system.
  • FIG. 2 is a component diagram of components included in a typical implementation of the system in the context of a typical operating environment.
  • FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a scanner.
  • FIG. 4 illustrates a system view of an example operating environment suitable for use to practice the present invention, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • FIG. 5 illustrates an architectural view of a device suitable for use as an account server, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • FIG. 6 illustrates an overview of the protocol and methods for the various devices to interact with the scanning device for ordering an item, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • FIG. 7 illustrates the operational flow of relevant aspects of a process at the document server for determining a document context, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • FIG. 8 illustrates the operational flow of relevant aspects of a process at the account server for an item order, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • FIG. 9 illustrates an overview of the protocol and methods for the various devices to interact with the scanning device for ordering an item, in accordance with an alternative embodiment.
  • FIG. 10 illustrates the operational flow of relevant aspects of a process at the user device for an item order, in accordance with one embodiment
  • FIG. 11 illustrates an overview of the protocol and methods for the various devices to interact with the scanning device for ordering an item, in accordance with an alternative embodiment.
  • FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary catalog cover, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary catalog interior page, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • FIG. 14 illustrates an overview of an alternative protocol and methods for the various devices to interact with the scanning device, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • FIG. 15 illustrates the operational flow of relevant aspects of a process at the user device for an item order, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • FIG. 16 illustrates an exemplary contextual menu of a web page corresponding to a catalog interior page, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • One embodiment of a disclosed invention includes a user-friendly technique for ordering items from rendered documents (such as paper catalogs, advertisements, books, magazines, newspaper, flyers, signs and the like) using an optical capture device (such as a scanner, digital camera, cellular telephone camera, or other device capable of optically capturing at least a portion of the rendered document).
  • rendered documents such as paper catalogs, advertisements, books, magazines, newspaper, flyers, signs and the like
  • optical capture device such as a scanner, digital camera, cellular telephone camera, or other device capable of optically capturing at least a portion of the rendered document.
  • Another embodiment of a disclosed invention includes a user-friendly technique for ordering items from rendered documents (such as paper catalogs, advertisements, books, magazines, newspaper, flyers, signs and the like) using a voice capture device (such as voice recorder, cellular telephone, or other device capable of capturing at least a portion of the rendered document via voice input).
  • a voice capture device such as voice recorder, cellular telephone, or other device capable of capturing at least a portion of the rendered document via voice input.
  • capturing or optically capturing data from a rendered document it should be understood that some embodiments of this includes capturing the data by means of voice capture technology.
  • voice capture technology it should be understood that some embodiments of this includes capturing the data by means of voice capture technology.
  • image or to image data it should be understood that where appropriate this may be a voice image, for example a recording of the user's voice.
  • One embodiment of a disclosed invention is a method of placing an order for an item from a rendered document.
  • the rendered document contains at least one human-readable indication of an orderable item.
  • the method includes obtaining a captured fragment of the rendered document and communicating a representation of the captured fragment along with an identifier to a remote computer to order the item from a vendor via the Internet
  • This embodiment may further include using a document or data capture context to search for an electronic version of the rendered document.
  • Another embodiment discloses a method of ordering an item from a rendered document, the method including establishing a document context of the rendered document; capturing a human-readable document fragment of the rendered document; and generating an order for the item.
  • the order includes at least the document context, a representation of the document fragment and an identifier associated with a purchaser.
  • the system uses a sample of text captured from a paper document, for example using a handheld scanner, to identify and locate an electronic counterpart of the document.
  • the amount of text needed by the facility is very small in that a few words of text from a document can often function as an identifier for the paper document and as a link to its electronic counterpart.
  • the system may use those few words to identify not only the document, but also a location within the document.
  • the system implements these and many other examples of “paper/digital integration” without requiring changes to the current processes of writing, printing and publishing documents, giving such conventional rendered documents a whole new layer of digital functionality.
  • a rendered document is a printed document or a document shown on a display or monitor. It is a document that is perceptible to a human, whether in permanent form or on a transitory display.
  • Scanning or capturing is the process of systematic examination to obtain information from a rendered document.
  • the process may involve optical capture using a scanner or camera (for example a camera in a cellphone), or it may involve reading aloud from the document into an audio capture device or typing it on a keypad or keyboard.
  • a scanner or camera for example a camera in a cellphone
  • This section describes some of the devices, processes and systems that constitute a system for paper/digital integration.
  • the system builds a wide variety of services and applications on this underlying core that provides the basic functionality.
  • FIG. 1 is a data flow diagram that illustrates the flow of information in one embodiment of the core system. Other embodiments may not use all of the stages or elements illustrated here, while some will use many more.
  • Text from a rendered document is captured 100 , typically in optical form by an optical scanner or audio form by a voice recorder, and this image or sound data is then processed 102 , for example to remove artifacts of the capture process or to improve the signal-to-noise ratio.
  • a recognition process 104 such as OCR, speech recognition, or autocorrelation then converts the data into a signature, comprised in some embodiments of text, text offsets, or other symbols.
  • the system performs an alternate form of extracting document signature from the rendered document.
  • the signature represents a set of possible text transcriptions in some embodiments. This process may be influenced by feedback from other stages, for example, if the search process and context analysis 110 have identified some candidate documents from which the capture may originate, thus narrowing the possible interpretations of the original capture.
  • a post-processing 106 stage may take the output of the recognition process and filter it or perform such other operations upon it as may be useful. Depending upon the embodiment implemented, it may be possible at this stage to deduce some direct actions 107 to be taken immediately without reference to the later stages, such as where a phrase or symbol has been captured which contains sufficient information in itself to convey the user's intent. In these cases no digital counterpart document need be referenced, or even known to the system.
  • next stage will be to construct a query 108 or a set of queries for use in searching.
  • Some aspects of the query construction may depend on the search process used and so cannot be performed until the next stage, but there will typically be some operations, such as the removal of obviously misrecognized or irrelevant characters, which can be performed in advance.
  • the query or queries are then passed to the search and context analysis stage 110 .
  • the system optionally attempts to identify the document from which the original data was captured.
  • the system typically uses search indices and search engines 112 , knowledge about the user 114 and knowledge about the user's context or the context in which the capture occurred 116 .
  • Search engine 112 may employ and/or index information specifically about rendered documents, about their digital counterpart documents, and about documents that have a web (internet) presence). It may write to, as well as read from, many of these sources and, as has been mentioned, it may feed information into other stages of the process, for example by giving the recognition system 104 information about the language, font, rendering and likely next words based on its knowledge of the candidate documents.
  • the sources of the documents 124 may be directly accessible, for example from a local filing system or database or a web server, or they may need to be contacted via some access service 122 which might enforce authentication, security or payment or may provide other services such as conversion of the document into a desired format.
  • markup The next stage of the process 130 , then, is to identify any markup relevant to the captured data. Such markup may be provided by the user, the originator, or publisher of the document, or some other party, and may be directly accessible from some source 132 or may be generated by some service 134 . In various embodiments, markup can be associated with, and apply to, a rendered document and/or the digital counterpart to a rendered document, or to groups of either or both of these documents.
  • actions may be taken 140 .
  • These may be default actions such as simply recording the information found, they may be dependent on the data or document, or they may be derived from the markup analysis. Sometimes the action will simply be to pass the data to another system.
  • the various possible actions appropriate to a capture at a specific point in a rendered document will be presented to the user as a menu on an associated display, for example on a local display 332 , on a computer display 212 or a mobile phone or PDA display 216 . If the user doesn't respond to the menu, the default actions can be taken.
  • FIG. 2 is a component diagram of components included in a typical implementation of the system in the context of a typical operating environment.
  • the operating environment includes one or more optical scanning capture devices 202 or voice capture devices 204 .
  • Each capture device is able to communicate with other parts of the system such as a computer 212 and a mobile station 216 (e.g., a mobile phone or PDA) using either a direct wired or wireless connection, or through the network 220 , with which it can communicate using a wired or wireless connection, the latter typically involving a wireless base station 214 .
  • the capture device is integrated in the mobile station, and optionally shares some of the audio and/or optical components used in the device for voice communications and picture-taking.
  • Computer 212 may include a memory containing computer executable instructions for processing an order from scanning devices 202 and 204 .
  • an order can include an identifier (such as a serial number of the scanning device 202 / 204 or an identifier that partially or uniquely identifies the user of the scanner), scanning context information (e.g., time of scan, location of scan, etc.) and/or scanned information (such as a text string) that is used to uniquely identify the document being scanned.
  • scanning context information e.g., time of scan, location of scan, etc.
  • scanned information such as a text string
  • the operating environment may include more or less components.
  • the network 220 may be a corporate intranet, the public Internet, a mobile phone network or some other network, or any interconnection of the above.
  • the devices may all be operable in accordance with well-known commercial transaction and communication protocols (e.g., Internet Protocol (IP)).
  • IP Internet Protocol
  • the functions and capabilities of scanning device 202 , computer 212 , and mobile station 216 may be wholly or partially integrated into one device.
  • scanning device, computer, and mobile station can refer to the same device depending upon whether the device incorporates functions or capabilities of the scanning device 202 , computer 212 and mobile station 216 .
  • some or all of the functions of the search engines 232 , document sources 234 , user account services 236 , markup services 238 and other network services 239 may be implemented on any of the devices and/or other devices not shown.
  • the capture device may capture text using an optical scanner that captures image data from the rendered document, or using an audio recording device that captures a user's spoken reading of the text, or other methods. Some embodiments of the capture device may also capture images, graphical symbols and icons, etc., including machine readable codes such as barcodes.
  • the device may be exceedingly simple, consisting of little more than the transducer, some storage, and a data interface, relying on other functionality residing elsewhere in the system, or it may be a more full-featured device. For illustration, this section describes a device based around an optical scanner and with a reasonable number of features.
  • Scanners are well known devices that capture and digitize images.
  • portable optical scanners have been introduced in convenient form factors, such as a pen-shaped handheld device.
  • the portable scanner is used to scan text, graphics, or symbols from rendered documents.
  • the portable scanner has a scanning element that captures text, symbols, graphics, etc, from rendered documents.
  • rendered documents include documents that have been displayed on a screen such as a CRT monitor or LCD display.
  • FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a scanner 302 .
  • the scanner 302 comprises an optical scanning head 308 to scan information from rendered documents and convert it to machine-compatible data, and an optical path 306 , typically a lens, an aperture or an image conduit to convey the image from the rendered document to the scanning head.
  • the scanning head 308 may incorporate a Charge-Coupled Device (CCD), a Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) imaging device, or an optical sensor of another type.
  • CCD Charge-Coupled Device
  • CMOS Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor
  • a microphone 310 and associated circuitry convert the sound of the environment (including spoken words) into machine-compatible signals, and other input facilities exist in the form of buttons, scroll-wheels or other tactile sensors such as touch-pads 314 .
  • Feedback to the user is possible through a visual display or indicator lights 332 , through a loudspeaker or other audio transducer 334 and through a vibrate module 336 .
  • the scanner 302 comprises logic 326 to interact with the various other components, possibly processing the received signals into different formats and/or interpretations.
  • Logic 326 may be operable to read and write data and program instructions stored in associated storage 330 such as RAM, ROM, flash, or other suitable memory. It may read a time signal from the clock unit 328 .
  • the scanner 302 also includes an interface 316 to communicate scanned information and other signals to a network and/or an associated computing device.
  • the scanner 302 may have an on-board power supply 332 .
  • the scanner 302 may be powered from a tethered connection to another device, such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connection.
  • USB Universal Serial Bus
  • a reader may scan some text from a newspaper article with scanner 302 .
  • the text is scanned as a bit-mapped image via the scanning head 308 .
  • Logic 326 causes the bit-mapped image to be stored in memory 330 with an associated time-stamp read from the clock unit 328 .
  • Logic 326 may also perform optical character recognition (OCR) or other post-scan processing on the bit-mapped image to convert it to text.
  • Logic 326 may optionally extract a signature from the image, for example by performing a convolution-like process to locate repeating occurrences of characters, symbols or objects, and determine the distance or number of other characters, symbols, or objects between these repeated elements.
  • the reader may then upload the bit-mapped image (or text or other signature, if post-scan processing has been performed by logic 326 ) to an associated computer via interface 316 .
  • a reader may capture some text from an article as an audio file by using microphone 310 as an acoustic capture port.
  • Logic 326 causes audio file to be stored in memory 328 .
  • Logic 326 may also perform voice recognition or other post-scan processing on the audio file to convert it to text.
  • the reader may then upload the audio file (or text produced by post-scan processing performed by logic 326 ) to an associated computer via interface 316 .
  • End-to-end feedback can be applied by performing an approximation of the recognition or interpretation, identifying a set of one or more candidate matching documents, and then using information from the possible matches in the candidate documents to further refine or restrict the recognition or interpretation.
  • Candidate documents can be weighted according to their probable relevance (for example, based on then number of other users who have scanned in these documents, or their popularity on the Internet), and these weights can be applied in this iterative recognition process.
  • the selective power of a search query based on a few words is greatly enhanced when the relative positions of these words are known, only a small amount of text need be captured for the system to identify the text's location in a corpus.
  • the input text will be a contiguous sequence of words, such as a short phrase.
  • the system can identify the location in that document and can take action based on this knowledge.
  • the system may also employ other methods of discovering the document and location, such as by using watermarks or other special markings on the rendered document.
  • search query In addition to the captured text, other factors (i.e., information about user identity, profile, and context) may form part of the search query, such as the time of the capture, the identity and geographical location of the user, knowledge of the user's habits and recent activities, etc.
  • the document identity and other information related to previous captures, especially if they were quite recent, may form part of a search query.
  • the identity of the user may be determined from a unique identifier associated with a capturing device, and/or biometric or other supplemental information (speech patterns, fingerprints, etc.).
  • the search query can be constructed taking into account the types of errors likely to occur in the particular capture method used.
  • One example of this is an indication of suspected errors in the recognition of specific characters; in this instance a search engine may treat these characters as wildcards, or assign them a lower priority.
  • the capturing device may not be in communication with the search engine or corpus at the time of the data capture. For this reason, information helpful to the offline use of the device may be downloaded to the device in advance, or to some entity with which the device can communicate. In some cases, all or a substantial part of an index associated with a corpus may be downloaded. This topic is discussed further in Section 15.3.
  • this pre-loaded information can improve the performance of the local device, reduce communication costs, and provide helpful and timely user feedback.
  • the queries may be saved and transmitted to the rest of the system at such a time as communication is restored.
  • Section 13.1 discusses the importance of the time of capture in relation to earlier captures. It is important to note that the time of capture will not always be the same as the time that the query is executed.
  • multiple queries may be launched in response to a single capture, either in sequence or in parallel.
  • queries may be sent in response to a single capture, for example as new words are added to the capture, or to query multiple search engines in parallel.
  • the system sends queries to a special index for the current document, to a search engine on a local machine, to a search engine on the corporate network, and to remote search engines on the Internet.
  • the results of particular searches may be given higher priority than those from others.
  • the response to a given query may indicate that other pending queries are superfluous; these may be cancelled before completion.
  • search engines may be enhanced or modified in a number of ways to make them more suitable for use with the described system.
  • the search engine and/or other components of the system may create and maintain indices that have different or extra features.
  • the system may modify an incoming paper-originated query or change the way the query is handled in the resulting search, thus distinguishing these paper-originated queries from those coming from queries typed into web browsers and other sources.
  • the system may take different actions or offer different options when the results are returned by the searches originated from paper as compared to those from other sources.
  • the same index can be searched using either paper-originated or traditional queries, but the index may be enhanced for use in the current system in a variety of ways.
  • Extra fields can be added to such an index that will help in the case of a paper-based search.
  • the first example is a field indicating that the document is known to exist or be distributed in paper form.
  • the system may give such documents higher priority if the query comes from paper.
  • statistical data concerning the popularity of paper documents (and, optionally, concerning sub-regions within these documents)—for example the amount of scanning activity, circulation numbers provided by the publisher or other sources, etc—is used to give such documents higher priority, to boost the priority of digital counterpart documents (for example, for browser-based queries or web searches), etc.
  • Another important example may be recording information about the layout of a specific rendering of a document.
  • the index may include information about where the line breaks and page breaks occur, which fonts were used, any unusual capitalization.
  • the index may also include information about the proximity of other items on the page, such as images, text boxes, tables and advertisements.
  • semantic information that can be deduced from the source markup but is not apparent in the paper document, such as the fact that a particular piece of text refers to an item offered for sale, or that a certain paragraph contains program code, may also be recorded in the index.
  • a second factor that may modify the nature of the index is the knowledge of the type of capture likely to be used.
  • a search initiated by an optical scan may benefit if the index takes into account characters that are easily confused in the OCR process, or includes some knowledge of the fonts used in the document.
  • the query is from speech recognition, an index based on similar-sounding phonemes may be much more efficiently searched.
  • An additional factor that may affect the use of the index in the described model is the importance of iterative feedback during the recognition process. If the search engine is able to provide feedback from the index as the text is being captured, it can greatly increase the accuracy of the capture.
  • the system stores the appropriate offset or signature information in an index.
  • Indices may be maintained on several machines on a corporate network. Partial indices may be downloaded to the capture device, or to a machine close to the capture device. Separate indices may be created for users or groups of users with particular interests, habits or permissions. An index may exist for each filesystem, each directory, even each file on a user's hard disk. Indexes are published and subscribed to by users and by systems. It will be important, then, to construct indices that can be distributed, updated, merged and separated efficiently.
  • a search engine may take different actions when it recognizes that a search query originated from a paper document.
  • the engine might handle the query in a way that is more tolerant to the types of errors likely to appear in certain capture methods, for example.
  • some indicator included in the query for example a flag indicating the nature of the capture
  • it may deduce this from the query itself for example, it may recognize errors or uncertainties typical of the OCR process.
  • queries from a capture device can reach the engine by a different channel or port or type of connection than those from other sources, and can be distinguished in that way.
  • some embodiments of the system will route queries to the search engine by way of a dedicated gateway.
  • the search engine knows that all queries passing through the dedicated gateway were originated from a paper document.
  • Section 13 describes a variety of different factors which are external to the captured text itself, yet which can be a significant aid in identifying a document. These include such things as the history of recent scans, the longer-term reading habits of a particular user, the geographic location of a user and the user's recent use of particular electronic documents. Such factors are referred to herein as “context.”
  • search engine may keep track of a user's scanning history, and may also cross-reference this scanning history to conventional keyboard-based queries. In such cases, the search engine maintains and uses more state information about each individual user than do most conventional search engines, and each interaction with a search engine may be considered to extend over several searches and a longer period of time than is typical today.
  • Some of the context may be transmitted to the search engine in the search query (Section 3.3), and may possibly be stored at the engine so as to play a part in future queries. Lastly, some of the context will best be handled elsewhere, and so becomes a filter or secondary search applied to the results from the search engine.
  • the described system can emit and use not only information about documents as a whole, but also information about sub-regions of documents, even down to individual words.
  • Many existing search engines concentrate simply on locating a document or file that is relevant to a particular query. Those that can work on a finer grain and identify a location within a document will provide a significant benefit for the described system.
  • the search engine may use some of the further information it now maintains to affect the results returned.
  • the system may also return certain documents to which the user has access only as a result of being in possession of the paper copy (Section 7.4).
  • the search engine may also offer new actions or options appropriate to the described system, beyond simple retrieval of the text.
  • the described system In addition to performing the capture-search-retrieve process, the described system also associates extra functionality with a document, and in particular with specific locations or segments of text within a document. This extra functionality is often, though not exclusively, associated with the rendered document by being associated with its electronic counterpart. As an example, hyperlinks in a web page could have the same functionality when a printout of that web page is scanned. In some cases, the functionality is not defined in the electronic document, but is stored or generated elsewhere.
  • markup This layer of added functionality is referred to herein as “markup.”
  • the markup may include human-readable content, but is often invisible to a user and/or intended for machine use. Examples include options to be displayed in a popup-menu on a nearby display when a user captures text from a particular area in a rendered document, or audio samples that illustrate the pronunciation of a particular phrase.
  • Any document may have multiple overlays simultaneously, and these may be sourced from a variety of locations.
  • Markup data may be created or supplied by the author of the document, or by the user, or by some other party.
  • Markup data may be attached to the electronic document or embedded in it. It may be found in a conventional location (for example, in the same place as the document but with a different filename suffix). Markup data may be included in the search results of the query that located the original document, or may be found by a separate query to the same or another search engine. Markup data may be found using the original captured text and other capture information or contextual information, or it may be found using already-deduced information about the document and location of the capture. Markup data may be found in a location specified in the document, even if the markup itself is not included in the document.
  • markup may be largely static and specific to the document, similar to the way links on a traditional html web page are often embedded as static data within the html document, but markup may also be dynamically generated and/or applied to a large number of documents.
  • dynamic markup is information attached to a document that includes the up-to-date share price of companies mentioned in that document.
  • An example of broadly applied markup is translation information that is automatically available on multiple documents or sections of documents in a particular language.
  • Some elements in documents may have particular “markup” or functionality associated with them based on their own characteristics rather than their location in a particular document. Examples include special marks that are printed in the document purely for the purpose of being scanned, as well as logos and trademarks that can link the user to further information about the organization concerned. The same applies to “keywords” or “key phrases” in the text. Organizations might register particular phrases with which they are associated, or with which they would like to be associated, and attach certain markup to them that would be available wherever that phrase was scanned.
  • any word, phrase, etc. may have associated markup.
  • the system may add certain items to a pop-up menu (e.g., a link to an online bookstore) whenever the user captures the word “book,” or the title of a book, or a topic related to books.
  • digital counterpart documents or indices are consulted to determine whether a capture occurred near the word “book,” or the title of a book, or a topic related to books—and the system behavior is modified in accordance with this proximity to keyword elements.
  • markup enables data captured from non-commercial text or documents to trigger a commercial transaction.
  • Annotations are another type of electronic information that may be associated with a document.
  • a user can attach an audio file of his/her thoughts about a particular document for later retrieval as voice annotations.
  • a multimedia annotation a user may attach photographs of places referred to in the document.
  • the user generally supplies annotations for the document but the system can associate annotations from other sources (for example, other users in a work group may share annotations).
  • markup data may often be supplied by third parties, such as by other readers of the document. Online discussions and reviews are a good example, as are community-managed information relating to particular works, volunteer-contributed translations and explanations.
  • Another example of third-party markup is that provided by advertisers.
  • markup By analyzing the data captured from documents by several or all users of the system, markup can be generated based on the activities and interests of a community.
  • An example might be an online bookstore that creates markup or annotations that tell the user, in effect, “People who enjoyed this book also enjoyed . . . . ”
  • the markup may be less anonymous, and may tell the user which of the people in his/her contact list have also read this document recently.
  • Other examples of datastream analysis are included in Section 14.
  • Markup will often be based on external events and data sources, such as input from a corporate database, information from the public Internet, or statistics gathered by the local operating system.
  • Data sources may also be more local, and in particular may provide information about the user's context—his/her identity, location and activities.
  • the system might communicate with the user's mobile phone and offer a markup layer that gives the user the option to send a document to somebody that the user has recently spoken to on the phone.
  • the identity of the user will be known. Sometimes this will be an “anonymous identity,” where the user is identified only by the serial number of the capture device, for example. Typically, however, it is expected that the system will have a much more detailed knowledge of the user, which can be used for personalizing the system and to allow activities and transactions to be performed in the user's name.
  • One of the simplest and yet most useful functions that the system can perform is to keep a record for a user of the text that s/he has captured and any further information related to that capture, including the details of any documents found, the location within that document and any actions taken as a result.
  • This stored history is beneficial for both the user and the system.
  • the user can be presented with a “Life Library,” a record of everything s/he has read and captured. This may be simply for personal interest, but may be used, for example, in a library by an academic who is gathering material for the bibliography of his next paper.
  • the user may wish to make the library public, such as by publishing it on the web in a similar manner to a weblog, so that others may see what s/he is reading and finds of interest.
  • the capture can be stored in the library and can be processed later, either automatically or in response to a user request.
  • a user can also subscribe to new markup services and apply them to previously captured scans.
  • a record of a user's past captures is also useful for the system. Many aspects of the system operation can be enhanced by knowing the user's reading habits and history. The simplest example is that any scan made by a user is more likely to come from a document that the user has scanned in the recent past, and in particular if the previous scan was within the last few minutes it is very likely to be from the same document. Similarly, it is more likely that a document is being read in start-to-finish order. Thus, for English documents, it is also more likely that later scans will occur farther down in the document. Such factors can help the system establish the location of the capture in cases of ambiguity, and can also reduce the amount of text that needs to be captured.
  • this device may be used as a key that identifies the user and authorizes certain actions.
  • the device may be embedded in a mobile phone or in some other way associated with a mobile phone account.
  • a scanner may be associated with a mobile phone account by inserting a SIM card associated with the account into the scanner.
  • the device may be embedded in a credit card or other payment card, or have the facility for such a card to be connected to it. The device may therefore be used as a payment token, and financial transactions may be initiated by the capture from the rendered document.
  • the scanner may also be associated with a particular user or account through the process of scanning some token, symbol or text associated with that user or account.
  • scanner may be used for biometric identification, for example by scanning the fingerprint of the user.
  • the system may identify the user by matching the voice pattern of the user or by requiring the user to speak a certain password or phrase.
  • a user scans a quote from a book and is offered the option to buy the book from an online retailer
  • the user can select this option, and is then prompted to scan his/her fingerprint to confirm the transaction.
  • the capture device When the capture device is used to identify and authenticate the user, and to initiate transactions on behalf of the user, it is important that communications between the device and other parts of the system are secure. It is also important to guard against such situations as another device impersonating a scanner, and so-called “man in the middle” attacks where communications between the device and other components are intercepted.
  • An advantage of the described system is that there is no need to alter the traditional processes of creating, printing or publishing documents in order to gain many of the system's benefits. There are reasons, though, that the creators or publishers of a document—hereafter simply referred to as the “publishers”—may wish to create functionality to support the described system.
  • the system allows for printed documents to have an associated electronic presence.
  • Conventionally publishers often ship a CD-ROM with a book that contains further digital information, tutorial movies and other multimedia data, sample code or documents, or further reference materials.
  • some publishers maintain web sites associated with particular publications which provide such materials, as well as information which may be updated after the time of publishing, such as errata, further comments, updated reference materials, bibliographies and further sources of relevant data, and translations into other languages. Online forums allow readers to contribute their comments about the publication.
  • the described system allows such materials to be much more closely tied to the rendered document than ever before, and allows the discovery of and interaction with them to be much easier for the user.
  • the system can automatically connect the user to digital materials associated with the document, and more particularly associated with that specific part of the document.
  • the user can be connected to online communities that discuss that section of the text, or to annotations and commentaries by other readers. In the past, such information would typically need to be found by searching for a particular page number or chapter.
  • Some publishers may have mailing lists to which readers can subscribe if they wish to be notified of new relevant matter or when a new edition of the book is published.
  • the user can register an interest in particular documents or parts of documents more easily, in some cases even before the publisher has considered providing any such functionality.
  • the reader's interest can be fed to the publisher, possibly affecting their decision about when and where to provide updates, further information, new editions or even completely new publications on topics that have proved to be of interest in existing books.
  • Such symbols may be intended purely for the reader, or they may be recognized by the system when scanned and used to initiate some action. Sufficient data may be encoded in the symbol to identify more than just the symbol: it may also store information, for example about the document, edition, and location of the symbol, which could be recognized and read by the system.
  • the printed document is a gateway to extra materials and functionality, access to such features can also be time-limited. After the expiry date, a user may be required to pay a fee or obtain a newer version of the document to access the features again.
  • the paper document will, of course, still be usable, but will lose some of its enhanced electronic functionality. This may be desirable, for example, because there is profit for the publisher in receiving fees for access to electronic materials, or in requiring the user to purchase new editions from time to time, or because there are disadvantages associated with outdated versions of the printed document remaining in circulation. Coupons are an example of a type of commercial document that can have an expiration date.
  • Section 10.5 discusses the use of the system's statistics to influence compensation of authors and pricing of advertisements.
  • the system deduces the popularity of a publication from the activity in the electronic community associated with it as well as from the use of the paper document. These factors may help publishers to make decisions about what they will publish in future. If a chapter in an existing book, for example, turns out to be exceedingly popular, it may be worth expanding into a separate publication.
  • An important aspect of the described system is the ability to provide to a user who has access to a rendered copy of a document access to an electronic version of that document.
  • a document is freely available on a public network or a private network to which the user has access.
  • the system uses the captured text to identify, locate and retrieve the document, in some cases displaying it on the user's screen or depositing it in their email inbox.
  • a document will be available in electronic form, but for a variety of reasons may not be accessible to the user. There may not be sufficient connectivity to retrieve the document, the user may not be entitled to retrieve it, there may be a cost associated with gaining access to it, or the document may have been withdrawn and possibly replaced by a new version, to name just a few possibilities.
  • the system typically provides feedback to the user about these situations.
  • the degree or nature of the access granted to a particular user may be different if it is known that the user already has access to a printed copy of the document.
  • Access to the document may be restricted to specific users, or to those meeting particular criteria, or may only be available in certain circumstances, for example when the user is connected to a secure network.
  • Section 6 describes some of the ways in which the credentials of a user and scanner may be established.
  • Documents that are not freely available to the general public may still be accessible on payment of a fee, often as compensation to the publisher or copyright-holder.
  • the system may implement payment facilities directly or may make use of other payment methods associated with the user, including those described in Section 6.2.
  • Electronic documents are often transient; the digital source version of a rendered document may be available now but inaccessible in future.
  • the system may retrieve and store the existing version on behalf of the user, even if the user has not requested it, thus guaranteeing its availability should the user request it in future. This also makes it available for the system's use, for example for searching as part of the process of identifying future captures.
  • a trusted “document escrow” service can retrieve the document on behalf of the user, such as upon payment of a modest fee, with the assurance that the copyright holder will be fully compensated in future if the user should ever request the document from the service.
  • Variations on this theme can be implemented if the document is not available in electronic form at the time of capture.
  • the user can authorize the service to submit a request for or make a payment for the document on his/her behalf if the electronic document should become available at a later date.
  • payment may be waived, reduced or satisfied based on the user's existing association with another account or subscription. Subscribers to the printed version of a newspaper might automatically be entitled to retrieve the electronic version, for example.
  • association may not be quite so direct: a user may be granted access based on an account established by their employer, or based on their scanning of a printed copy owned by a friend who is a subscriber.
  • the paper document need not be in the same location as the final printout, and in any case need not be there at the same time
  • the quality of the copy is typically be much higher
  • records may be kept about which documents or portions of documents are the most frequently copied
  • the described system could be coupled to a database which records the location of an original document, for example in an archiving warehouse, making it easy for somebody with access to a copy to locate the archived original paper document.
  • OCR Optical Character Recognition
  • a scanning device for use with the described system will often be small, portable, and low power.
  • the scanning device may capture only a few words at a time, and in some implementations does not even capture a whole character at once, but rather a horizontal slice through the text, many such slices being stitched together to form a recognizable signal from which the text may be deduced.
  • the scanning device may also have very limited processing power or storage so, while in some embodiments it may perform all of the OCR process itself, many embodiments will depend on a connection to a more powerful device, possibly at a later time, to convert the captured signals into text. Lastly, it may have very limited facilities for user interaction, so may need to defer any requests for user input until later, or operate in a “best-guess” mode to a greater degree than is common now.
  • OCR optical character recognition
  • the OCR process can be informed by the contents of the document corpus as it progresses, potentially offering substantially greater recognition accuracy.
  • Such a connection will also allow the device to inform the user when sufficient text has been captured to identify the digital source.
  • the font may be downloaded to the device to help with the recognition.
  • While component characters of a text fragment may be the most recognized way to represent a fragment of text that may be used as a document signature, other representations of the text may work sufficiently well that the actual text of a text fragment need not be used when attempting to locate the text fragment in a digital document and/or database, or when disambiguating the representation of a text fragment into a readable form.
  • Other representations of text fragments may provide benefits that actual text representations lack. For example, optical character recognition of text fragments is often prone to errors, unlike other representations of captured text fragments that may be used to search for and/or recreate a text fragment without resorting to optical character recognition for the entire fragment. Such methods may be more appropriate for some devices used with the current system.
  • Such characterizations of text fragments may include, but are not limited to, word lengths, relative word lengths, character heights, character widths, character shapes, character frequencies, token frequencies, and the like.
  • the offsets between matching text tokens i.e., the number of intervening tokens plus one are used to characterize fragments of text.
  • Embodiments of the present invention are different; they employ a variety of methods that use the rendered text itself to assist in the recognition process. These embodiments use characters (or tokens) to “recognize each other.”
  • One way to refer to such self-recognition is “template matching,” and is similar to “convolution.” To perform such self-recognition, the system slides a copy of the text horizontally over itself and notes matching regions of the text images.
  • Prior template matching and convolution techniques encompass a variety of related techniques. These techniques to tokenize and/or recognize characters/tokens will be collectively referred to herein as “autocorrelation,” as the text is used to correlate with its own component parts when matching characters/tokens.
  • the offset number is the distance (number of tokens) to the next occurrence of the same token. If the token is unique within the text string, the offset is zero (0).
  • the sequence of token offsets thus generated is a signature that can be used to identify the scanned text.
  • the token offsets determined for a string of scanned tokens are compared to an index that indexes a corpus of electronic documents based upon the token offsets of their contents (Section 4.1.2). In other embodiments, the token offsets determined for a string of scanned tokens are converted to text, and compared to a more conventional index that indexes a corpus of electronic documents based upon their contents
  • a similar token-correlation process may be applied to speech fragments when the capture process consists of audio samples of spoken words.
  • the shapes of characters in most commonly used fonts are related. For example, in most fonts, the letter “c” and the letter “e” are visually related—as are “t” and “f,” etc.
  • the OCR process is enhanced by use of this relationship to construct templates for letters that have not been scanned yet. For example, where a reader scans a short string of text from a paper document in a previously unencountered font such that the system does not have a set of image templates with which to compare the scanned images the system can leverage the probable relationship between certain characters to construct the font template library even though it has not yet encountered all of the letters in the alphabet. The system can then use the constructed font template library to recognize subsequent scanned text and to further refine the constructed font library.
  • images cannot be machine-transcribed into a form suitable for use in a search process, the images themselves can be saved for later use by the user, for possible manual transcription, or for processing at a later date when different resources may be available to the system.
  • the user may be offered that document for purchase either in paper or electronic form.
  • the user may also be offered related documents, such as those quoted or otherwise referred to in the paper document, or those on a similar subject, or those by the same author.
  • the capture of text may be linked to other commercial activities in a variety of ways.
  • the captured text may be in a catalog that is explicitly designed to sell items, in which case the text will be associated fairly directly with the purchase of an item (Section 18.2).
  • the text may also be part of an advertisement, in which case a sale of the item being advertised may ensue.
  • the user captures other text from which their potential interest in a commercial transaction may be deduced.
  • a reader of a novel set in a particular country might be interested in a holiday there. Someone reading a review of a new car might be considering purchasing it.
  • the user may capture a particular fragment of text knowing that some commercial opportunity will be presented to them as a result, or it may be a side-effect of their capture activities.
  • the system allows for a new kind of advertising which is not necessarily explicitly in the rendered document, but is nonetheless based on what people are reading.
  • advertisements In a traditional paper publication, advertisements generally consume a large amount of space relative to the text of a newspaper article, and a limited number of them can be placed around a particular article.
  • advertising can be associated with individual words or phrases, and can selected according to the particular interest the user has shown by capturing that text and possibly taking into account their history of past scans.
  • the system may gather a large amount of information about other aspects of a user's context for its own use (Section 13); estimates of the geographical location of the user are a good example. Such data can also be used to tailor the advertising presented to a user of the system.
  • the system enables some new models of compensation for advertisers and marketers.
  • the publisher of a printed document containing advertisements may receive some income from a purchase that originated from their document. This may be true whether or not the advertisement existed in the original printed form; it may have been added electronically either by the publisher, the advertiser or some third party, and the sources of such advertising may have been subscribed to by the user.
  • Analysis of the statistics generated by the system can reveal the popularity of certain parts of a publication (Section 14.2).
  • a newspaper for example, it might reveal the amount of time readers spend looking at a particular page or article, or the popularity of a particular columnist.
  • An author whose work becomes a frequently read authority on a subject might be considered differently in future contracts from one whose books have sold the same number of copies but are rarely opened. (See also Section 7.6)
  • Decisions about advertising in a document may also be based on statistics about the readership.
  • the advertising space around the most popular columnists may be sold at a premium rate. Advertisers might even be charged or compensated some time after the document is published based on knowledge about how it was received.
  • the “Life Library” or scan history described in Sections 6.1 and 16.1 can be an extremely valuable source of information about the interests and habits of a user. Subject to the appropriate consent and privacy issues, such data can inform offers of goods or services to the user. Even in an anonymous form, the statistics gathered can be exceedingly useful.
  • Advertising and other opportunities for commercial transactions may not be presented to the user immediately at the time of text capture. For example, the opportunity to purchase a sequel to a novel may not be available at the time the user is reading the novel, but the system may present them with that opportunity when the sequel is published.
  • a user may capture data that relates to a purchase or other commercial transaction, but may choose not to initiate and/or complete the transaction at the time the capture is made.
  • data related to captures is stored in a user's Life Library, and these Life Library entries can remain “active” (i.e., capable of subsequent interactions similar to those available at the time the capture was made).
  • a user may review a capture at some later time, and optionally complete a transaction based on that capture. Because the system can keep track of when and where the original capture occurred, all parties involved in the transaction can be properly compensated.
  • the author who wrote the story—and the publisher who published the story—that appeared next to the advertisement from which the user captured data can be compensated when, six months later, the user visits their Life Library, selects that particular capture from the history, and chooses “Purchase this item at Amazon” from the pop-up menu (which can be similar or identical to the menu optionally presented at the time of the capture).
  • OSs Modern Operating Systems
  • other software packages have many characteristics that can be advantageously exploited for use with the described system, and may also be modified in various ways to provide an even better platform for its use.
  • New and upcoming file systems and their associated databases often have the ability to store a variety of metadata associated with each file.
  • this metadata has included such things as the ID of the user who created the file, the dates of creation, last modification, and last use.
  • Newer file systems allow such extra information as keywords, image characteristics, document sources and user comments to be stored, and in some systems this metadata can be arbitrarily extended. File systems can therefore be used to store information that would be useful in implementing the current system. For example, the date when a given document was last printed can be stored by the file system, as can details about which text from it has been captured from paper using the described system, and when and by whom.
  • capture devices such as pen scanners
  • the same will be true for other aspects of the system's operation. Some examples are discussed below.
  • the entire described system, or the core of it, is provided by the OS.
  • support for the system is provided by Application Programming Interfaces (APIS) that can be used by other software packages, including those directly implementing aspects of the system.
  • APIIS Application Programming Interfaces
  • OSs include support for speech or handwriting recognition, though it is less common for OSs to include support for OCR, since in the past the use of OCR has typically been limited to a small range of applications.
  • recognition components As recognition components become part of the OS, they can take better advantage of other facilities provided by the OS. Many systems include spelling dictionaries, grammar analysis tools, internationalization and localization facilities, for example, all of which can be advantageously employed by the described system for its recognition process, especially since they may have been customized for the particular user to include words and phrases that he/she would commonly encounter.
  • the operating system includes full-text indexing facilities, then these can also be used to inform the recognition process, as described in Section 9.3.
  • an optical scan or other capture occurs and is presented to the OS, it may have a default action to be taken under those circumstances in the event that no other subsystem claims ownership of the capture.
  • An example of a default action is presenting the user with a choice of alternatives, or submitting the captured text to the OS's built-in search facilities.
  • OS has Default Action for Particular Documents or Document Types
  • the OS may have a standard action that it will take when that particular document, or a document of that class, is scanned.
  • Applications and other subsystems may register with the OS as potential handlers of particular types of capture, in a similar manner to the announcement by applications of their ability to handle certain file types.
  • Markup data associated with a rendered document, or with a capture from a document can include instructions to the operating system to launch specific applications, pass applications arguments, parameters, or data, etc.
  • certain items of text or other symbols may, when scanned, cause standard actions to occur, and the OS may provide a selection of these.
  • An example might be that scanning the text “[print]” in any document would cause the OS to retrieve and print a copy of that document.
  • the OS may also provide a way to register such actions and associate them with particular scans.
  • a typical use of the system may be for the user to scan an area of a paper document, and for the system to open the electronic counterpart in a software package that is able to display or edit it, and cause that package to scroll to and highlight the scanned text (Section 12.2.1).
  • the first part of this process, finding and opening the electronic document is typically provided by the OS and is standard across software packages.
  • the availability of a standard API for this functionality could greatly enhance the operation of this aspect of the system.
  • the system may wish to perform a variety of operations upon that text.
  • the system may request the surrounding text, so that the user's capture of a few words could result in the system accessing the entire sentence or paragraph containing them.
  • this functionality can be usefully provided by the OS rather than being implemented in every piece of software that handles text.
  • the system uses the application pop-up menus traditionally associated with clicking the right mouse button on some text. The system inserts extra options into such menus, and causes them to be displayed as a result of activities such as scanning a paper document.
  • the OS keeps a simple record of when any document was printed and by whom.
  • the OS takes one or more further actions that would make it better suited for use with the system. Examples include:
  • An OS often maintains certain categories of folders or files that have particular significance.
  • a user's documents may, by convention or design, be found in a “My Documents” folder, for example.
  • Standard file-opening dialogs may automatically include a list of recently opened documents.
  • Categories may be enhanced or augmented in ways that take into account a user's interaction with paper versions of the stored files. Categories such as “My Printed Documents” or “My Recently-Read Documents” might usefully be identified and incorporated in its operations.
  • markup Since important aspects of the system are typically provided using the “markup” concepts discussed in Section 5, it would clearly be advantageous to have support for such markup provided by the OS in a way that was accessible to multiple applications as well as to the OS itself. In addition, layers of markup may be provided by the OS, based on its own knowledge of documents under its control and the facilities it is able to provide.
  • Digital Rights Management the ability to control the use of particular data according to the rights granted to a particular user, software entity or machine. It may inhibit unauthorized copying or distribution of a particular document, for example.
  • the user interface of the system may be entirely on a PC, if the capture device is relatively dumb and is connected to it by a cable, or entirely on the device, if it is sophisticated and with significant processing power of its own. In some cases, some functionality resides in each component. Part, or indeed all, of the system's functionality may also be implemented on other devices such as mobile phones or PDAs.
  • a handheld scanner may have a variety of ways of providing feedback to the user about particular conditions.
  • the most obvious types are direct visual, where the scanner incorporates indicator lights or even a full display, and auditory, where the scanner can make beeps, clicks or other sounds.
  • Important alternatives include tactile feedback, where the scanner can vibrate, buzz, or otherwise stimulate the user's sense of touch, and projected feedback, where it indicates a status by projecting onto the paper anything from a colored spot of light to a sophisticated display.
  • Important immediate feedback that may be provided on the device includes:
  • the device may provide a variety of ways for the user to provide input in addition to basic text capture. Even when the device is in close association with a host machine that has input options such as keyboards and mice, it can be disruptive for the user to switch back and forth between manipulating the scanner and using a mouse, for example.
  • the handheld scanner may have buttons, scroll/jog-wheels, touch-sensitive surfaces, and/or accelerometers for detecting the movement of the device. Some of these allow a richer set of interactions while still holding the scanner.
  • the system presents the user with a set of several possible matching documents.
  • the user uses a scroll-wheel on the side of the scanner is to select one from the list, and clicks a button to confirm the selection.
  • the user can indicate a large region of text by scanning the first few words in conventional left-to-right order, and the last few in reverse order, i.e. right to left.
  • the user can also indicate the vertical extent of the text of interest by moving the scanner down the page over several lines.
  • a backwards scan might indicate cancellation of the previous scan operation.
  • network connectivity may depend on network connectivity, either between components of the system such as a scanner and a host laptop, or with the outside world in the form of a connection to corporate databases and Internet search. This connectivity may not be present all the time, however, and so there will be occasions when part or all of the system may be considered to be “offline.” It is desirable to allow the system to continue to function usefully in those circumstances.
  • the device may be used to capture text when it is out of contact with other parts of the system.
  • a very simple device may simply be able to store the image or audio data associated with the capture, ideally with a timestamp indicating when it was captured.
  • the various captures may be uploaded to the rest of the system when the device is next in contact with it, and handled then.
  • the device may also upload other data associated with the captures, for example voice annotations associated with optical scans, or location information.
  • More sophisticated devices may be able to perform some or all of the system operations themselves despite being disconnected. Various techniques for improving their ability to do so are discussed in Section 15.3. Often it will be the case that some, but not all, of the desired actions can be performed while offline. For example, the text may be recognized, but identification of the source may depend on a connection to an Internet-based search engine. In some embodiments, the device therefore stores sufficient information about how far each operation has progressed for the rest of the system to proceed efficiently when connectivity is restored.
  • the operation of the system will, in general, benefit from immediately available connectivity, but there are some situations in which performing several captures and then processing them as a batch can have advantages. For example, as discussed in Section 13 below, the identification of the source of a particular capture may be greatly enhanced by examining other captures made by the user at approximately the same time. In a fully connected system where live feedback is being provided to the user, the system is only able to use past captures when processing the current one. If the capture is one of a batch stored by the device when offline, however, the system will be able to take into account any data available from later captures as well as earlier ones when doing its analysis.
  • a scanner will often communicate with some other device, such as a PC, PDA, phone or digital camera to perform many of the functions of the system, including more detailed interactions with the user.
  • some other device such as a PC, PDA, phone or digital camera to perform many of the functions of the system, including more detailed interactions with the user.
  • the host device When the host device receives a capture, it may initiate a variety of activities. An incomplete list of possible activities performed by the system after locating and electronic counterpart document associated with the capture and a location within that document follows.
  • the details of the capture may be stored in the user's history. (Section 6.1)
  • the document may be retrieved from local storage or a remote location. (Section 8)
  • the operating system's metadata and other records associated with the document may be updated. (Section 11.1)
  • Markup associated with the document may be examined to determine the next relevant operations. (Section 5)
  • a software application may be started to edit, view or otherwise operate on the document.
  • the choice of application may depend on the source document, or on the contents of the scan, or on some other aspect of the capture. (Section 11.2.2, 11.2.3)
  • the application may scroll to, highlight, move the insertion point to, or otherwise indicate the location of the capture. (Section 11.3)
  • the precise bounds of the captured text may be modified, for example to select whole words, sentences or paragraphs around the captured text.
  • the user may be given the option to copy the capture text to the clipboard or perform other standard operating system or application-specific operations upon it.
  • Annotations may be associated with the document or the captured text. These may come from immediate user input, or may have been captured earlier, for example in the case of voice annotations associated with an optical scan. (Section 19.4)
  • Markup may be examined to determine a set of further possible operations for the user to select.
  • the scanner device projects a popup menu onto the paper document.
  • a user may select from such menus using traditional methods such as a keyboard and mouse, or by using controls on the capture device (Section 12.1.2), gestures (Section 12.1.3), or by interacting with the computer display using the scanner (Section 12.2.4).
  • the popup menus which can appear as a result of a capture include default items representing actions which occur if the user does not respond—for example, if the user ignores the menu and makes another capture.
  • the system provides a real-time display of the documents or the locations found, for example in list, thumbnail-image or text-segment form, and for the number of elements in that display to reduce in number as capture continues.
  • the system displays thumbnails of all candidate documents, where the size or position of the thumbnail is dependent on the probability of it being the correct match.
  • this fact may be emphasized to the user, for example using audio feedback.
  • the system may indicate this on the screen, for example by grouping documents containing a quoted reference around the original source document.
  • Some optical scanners may be able to capture text displayed on a screen as well as on paper. Accordingly, the term rendered document is used herein to indicate that printing onto paper is not the only form of rendering, and that the capture of text or symbols for use by the system may be equally valuable when that text is displayed on an electronic display.
  • the user of the described system may be required to interact with a computer screen for a variety of other reasons, such as to select from a list of options. It can be inconvenient for the user to put down the scanner and start using the mouse or keyboard.
  • Other sections have described physical controls on the scanner (Section 12.1.2) or gestures (Section 12.1.3) as methods of input which do not require this change of tool, but using the scanner on the screen itself to scan some text or symbol is an important alternative provided by the system.
  • the optics of the scanner allow it to be used in a similar manner to a light-pen, directly sensing its position on the screen without the need for actual scanning of text, possibly with the aid of special hardware or software on the computer.
  • Another example of useful context is the user's geographical location.
  • a user in Paris is much more likely to be reading Le Monde than the Seattle Times, for example.
  • the timing, size and geographical distribution of printed versions of the documents can therefore be important, and can to some degree be deduced from the operation of the system.
  • the time of day may also be relevant, for example in the case of a user who always reads one type of publication on the way to work, and a different one at lunchtime or on the train going home.
  • the user's recent use of electronic documents can also be a helpful indicator.
  • Section 14 covers the analysis of the data stream resulting from paper-based searches, but it should be noted here that statistics about the popularity of documents with other readers, about the timing of that popularity, and about the parts of documents most frequently scanned are all examples of further factors which can be beneficial in the search process.
  • the system brings the possibility of Google-type page-ranking to the world of paper.
  • This stream is a record of what users are reading and when, and is in many cases a record of what they find particularly valuable in the things they read. Such data has never really been available before for paper documents.
  • Section 6.1 Some ways in which this data can be useful for the system, and for the user of the system, are described in Section 6.1. This section concentrates on its use for others. There are, of course, substantial privacy issues to be considered with any distribution of data about what people are reading, but such issues as preserving the anonymity of data are well known to those of skill in the art.
  • the system can also deduce who is reading any given document. This allows the tracking of a document through an organization, to allow analysis, for example, of who is reading it and when, how widely it was distributed, how long that distribution took, and who has seen current versions while others are still working from out-of-date copies.
  • the system can deduce the popularity of certain documents and of particular sub-regions of those documents. This forms a valuable input to the system itself (Section 4.2.2) and an important source of information for authors, publishers and advertisers (Section 7.6, Section 10.5). This data is also useful when integrated in search engines and search indices—for example, to assist in ranking search results for queries coming from rendered documents, and/or to assist in ranking conventional queries typed into a web browser.
  • One example is connecting one user with others who have related interests. These may be people already known to the user.
  • the system may ask a university professor, “Did you know that your colleague at XYZ University has also just read this paper?”
  • the system may ask a user, “Do you want to be linked up with other people in your neighborhood who are also how reading Jane Eyre?”
  • Such links may be the basis for the automatic formation of book clubs and similar social structures, either in the physical world or online.
  • Section 10.6 has already mentioned the idea of offering products and services to an individual user based on their interactions with the system.
  • Current online booksellers for example, often make recommendations to a user based on their previous interactions with the bookseller. Such recommendations become much more useful when they are based on interactions with the actual books.
  • the user will also not just be capturing some text, but will be causing some action to occur as a result. It might be emailing a reference to the document to an acquaintance, for example. Even in the absence of information about the identity of the user or the recipient of the email, the knowledge that somebody considered the document worth emailing is very useful.
  • the aggregated statistics of that group can be used to deduce the importance of a particular document to that group.
  • a capture device for use with the system needs little more than a way of capturing text from a rendered version of the document.
  • this capture may be achieved through a variety of methods including taking a photograph of part of the document or typing some words into a mobile phone keypad.
  • This capture may be achieved using a small hand-held optical scanner capable of recording a line or two of text at a time, or an audio capture device such as a voice-recorder into which the user is reading text from the document.
  • the device used may be a combination of these—an optical scanner which could also record voice annotations, for example—and the capturing functionality may be built into some other device such as a mobile phone, PDA, digital camera or portable music player.
  • the device implements the majority of the system itself. In some embodiments, however, it often communicates with a PC or other computing device and with the wider world using communications facilities.
  • these communications facilities are in the form of a general-purpose data network such as Ethernet, 802.11 or UWB or a standard peripheral-connecting network such as USB, IEEE-1394 (Firewire), BluetoothTM or infra-red.
  • a wired connection such as Firewire or USB
  • the capture device may appear to a connected machine to be a conventional peripheral such as a USB storage device.
  • the device may in some circumstances “dock” with another device, either to be used in conjunction with that device or for convenient storage.
  • Sections 3.5 and 12.1.4 have raised the topic of disconnected operation.
  • the device can still be useful, though the functionality available will sometimes be reduced.
  • the device can record the raw image or audio data being captured and this can be processed later.
  • it can be important to give feedback where possible about whether the data captured is likely to be sufficient for the task in hand, whether it can be recognized or is likely to be recognizable, and whether the source of the data can be identified or is likely to be identifiable later.
  • the user will then know whether their capturing activity is worthwhile. Even when all of the above are unknown, the raw data can still be stored so that, at the very least, the user can refer to them later.
  • the user may be presented with the image of a scan, for example, when the scan cannot be recognized by the OCR process.
  • the SimpleScanner has a scanning head able to read pixels from the page as it is moved along the length of a line of text. It can detect its movement along the page and record the pixels with some information about the movement. It also has a clock, which allows each scan to be time-stamped. The clock is synchronized with a host device when the SimpleScanner has connectivity. The clock may not represent the actual time of day, but relative times may be determined from it so that the host can deduce the actual time of a scan, or at worst the elapsed time between scans.
  • the SimpleScanner does not have sufficient processing power to perform any OCR itself, but it does have some basic knowledge about typical word-lengths, word-spacings, and their relationship to font size. It has some basic indicator lights which tell the user whether the scan is likely to be readable, whether the head is being moved too fast, too slowly or too inaccurately across the paper, and when it determines that sufficient words of a given size are likely to have been scanned for the document to be identified.
  • the SimpleScanner has a USB connector and can be plugged into the USB port on a computer, where it will be recharged. To the computer it appears to be a USB storage device on which time-stamped data files have been recorded, and the rest of the system software takes over from this point.
  • the SuperScanner also depends on connectivity for its full operation, but it has a significant amount of on-board storage and processing which can help it make better judgments about the data captured while offline.
  • the captured pixels are stitched together and passed to an OCR engine that attempts to recognize the text.
  • a number of fonts including those from the user's most-read publications, have been downloaded to it to help perform this task, as has a dictionary that is synchronized with the user's spelling-checker dictionary on their PC and so contains many of the words they frequently encounter.
  • Also stored on the scanner is a list of words and phrases with the typical frequency of their use—this may be combined with the dictionary. The scanner can use the frequency statistics both to help with the recognition process and also to inform its judgment about when a sufficient quantity of text has been captured; more frequently used phrases are less likely to be useful as the basis for a search query.
  • the full index for the articles in the recent issues of the newspapers and periodicals most commonly read by the user are stored on the device, as are the indices for the books the user has recently purchased from an online bookseller, or from which the user has scanned anything within the last few months.
  • the titles of several thousand of the most popular publications which have data available for the system are stored so that, in the absence of other information the user can scan the title and have a good idea as to whether or not captures from a particular work are likely to be retrievable in electronic form later.
  • the system informs user that the captured data has been of sufficient quality and of a sufficient nature to make it probable that the electronic copy can be retrieved when connectivity is restored. Often the system indicates to the user that the scan is known to have been successful and that the context has been recognized in one of the on-board indices, or that the publication concerned is known to be making its data available to the system, so the later retrieval ought to be successful.
  • the SuperScanner docks in a cradle connected to a PC's Firewire or USB port, at which point, in addition to the upload of captured data, its various onboard indices and other databases are updated based on recent user activity and new publications. It also has the facility to connect to wireless public networks or to communicate via Bluetooth to a mobile phone and thence with the public network when such facilities are available.
  • Some embodiments of the system use a scanner that scans in contact with the paper, and which, instead of lenses, uses an image conduit a bundle of optical fibers to transmit the image from the page to the optical sensor device.
  • a scanner that scans in contact with the paper, and which, instead of lenses, uses an image conduit a bundle of optical fibers to transmit the image from the page to the optical sensor device.
  • Such a device can be shaped to allow it to be held in a natural position; for example, in some embodiments, the part in contact with the page is wedge-shaped, allowing the user's hand to move more naturally over the page in a movement similar to the use of a highlighter pen.
  • the conduit is either in direct contact with the paper or in close proximity to it, and may have a replaceable transparent tip that can protect the image conduit from possible damage.
  • the scanner may be used to scan from a screen as well as from paper, and the material of the tip can be chosen to reduce the likelihood of damage to such displays.
  • some embodiments of the device will provide feedback to the user during the scanning process which will indicate through the use of light, sound or tactile feedback when the user is scanning too fast, too slow, too unevenly or is drifting too high or low on the scanned line.
  • the capture device may form an important part of identification and authorization for secure transactions, purchases, and a variety of other operations. It may therefore incorporate, in addition to the circuitry and software required for such a role, various hardware features that can make it more secure, such as a smartcard reader, RFID, or a keypad on which to type a PIN.
  • the scanning head may also be able to read a fingerprint.
  • the voice pattern of the user may be used.
  • the device is able to form an association with other nearby devices to increase either its own or their functionality.
  • it uses the display of a nearby PC or phone to give more detailed feedback about its operation, or uses their network connectivity.
  • the device may, on the other hand, operate in its role as a security and identification device to authenticate operations performed by the other device. Or it may simply form an association in order to function as a peripheral to that device.
  • An interesting aspect of such associations is that they may be initiated and authenticated using the capture facilities of the device. For example, a user wishing to identify themselves securely to a public computer terminal may use the scanning facilities of the device to scan a code or symbol displayed on a particular area of the terminal's screen and so effect a key transfer. An analogous process may be performed using audio signals picked up by a voice-recording device.
  • the functionality of the capture device is integrated into some other device that is already in use.
  • the integrated devices may be able to share a power supply, data capture and storage capabilities, and network interfaces. Such integration may be done simply for convenience, to reduce cost, or to enable functionality that would not otherwise be available.
  • Some examples of devices into which the capture functionality can be integrated include:
  • an existing peripheral such as a mouse, a stylus, a USB “webcam” camera, a BluetoothTM headset or a remote control
  • processing/storage device such as a PDA, an MP3 player, a voice recorder, a digital camera or a mobile phone
  • the phone hardware is not modified to support the system, such as where the text capture can be adequately done through voice recognition, where they can either be processed by the phone itself, or handled by a system at the other end of a telephone call, or stored in the phone's memory for future processing.
  • voice recognition can either be processed by the phone itself, or handled by a system at the other end of a telephone call, or stored in the phone's memory for future processing.
  • Many modern phones have the ability to download software that could implement some parts of the system.
  • voice capture is likely to be suboptimal in many situations, however, for example when there is substantial background noise, and accurate voice recognition is a difficult task at the best of times.
  • the audio facilities may best be used to capture voice annotations.
  • the camera built into many mobile phones is used to capture an image of the text.
  • the phone display which would normally act as a viewfinder for the camera, may overlay on the live camera image information about the quality of the image and its suitability for OCR, which segments of text are being captured, and even a transcription of the text if the OCR can be performed on the phone.
  • the phone is modified to add dedicated capture facilities, or to provide such functionality in a clip-on adaptor or a separate Bluetooth-connected peripheral in communication with the phone.
  • the phone has connectivity with the wider world, which means that queries can be submitted to remote search engines or other parts of the system, and copies of documents may be retrieved for immediate storage or viewing.
  • a phone typically has sufficient processing power for many of the functions of the system to be performed locally, and sufficient storage to capture a reasonable amount of data. The amount of storage can also often be expanded by the user. Phones have reasonably good displays and audio facilities to provide user feedback, and often a vibrate function for tactile feedback. They also have good power supplies.
  • the Life Library (see also Section 6.1.1) is a digital archive of any important documents that the subscriber wishes to save and is a set of embodiments of services of this system. Important books, magazine articles, newspaper clippings, etc., can all be saved in digital form in the Life Library. Additionally, the subscriber's annotations, comments, and notes can be saved with the documents.
  • the Life Library can be accessed via the Internet and World Wide Web.
  • the system creates and manages the Life Library document archive for subscribers.
  • the subscriber indicates which documents the subscriber wishes to have saved in his life library by scanning information from the document or by otherwise indicating to the system that the particular document is to be added to the subscriber's Life Library.
  • the scanned information is typically text from the document but can also be a barcode or other code identifying the document.
  • the system accepts the code and uses it to identify the source document. After the document is identified the system can store either a copy of the document in the user's Life Library or a link to a source where the document may be obtained.
  • One embodiment of the Life Library system can check whether the subscriber is authorized to obtain the electronic copy. For example, if a reader scans text or an identifier from a copy of an article in the New York Times (NYT) so that the article will be added to the reader's Life Library, the Life Library system will verify with the NYT whether the reader is subscribed to the online version of the NYT; if so, the reader gets a copy of the article stored in his Life Library account; if not, information identifying the document and how to order it is stored in his Life Library account.
  • NYT New York Times
  • the system maintains a subscriber profile for each subscriber that includes access privilege information.
  • Document access information can be compiled in several ways, two of which are: 1) the subscriber supplies the document access information to the Life Library system, along with his account names and passwords, etc., or 2) the Life Library service provider queries the publisher with the subscriber's information and the publisher responds by providing access to an electronic copy if the Life Library subscriber is authorized to access the material. If the Life Library subscriber is not authorized to have an electronic copy of the document, the publisher provides a price to the Life Library service provider, which then provides the customer with the option to purchase the electronic document.
  • the Life Library service provider either pays the publisher directly and bills the Life Library customer later or the Life Library service provider immediately bills the customer's credit card for the purchase.
  • the Life Library service provider would get a percentage of the purchase price or a small fixed fee for facilitating the transaction.
  • the system can archive the document in the subscriber's personal library and/or any other library to which the subscriber has archival privileges. For example, as a user scans text from a printed document, the Life Library system can identify the rendered document and its electronic counterpart. After the source document is identified, the Life Library system might record information about the source document in the user's personal library and in a group library to which the subscriber has archival privileges.
  • Group libraries are collaborative archives such as a document repository for: a group working together on a project, a group of academic researchers, a group web log, etc.
  • the life library can be organized in many ways: chronologically, by topic, by level of the subscriber's interest, by type of publication (newspaper, book, magazine, technical paper, etc.), where read, when read, by ISBN or by Dewey decimal, etc.
  • the system can learn classifications based on how other subscribers have classified the same document. The system can suggest classifications to the user or automatically classify the document for the user.
  • annotations may be inserted directly into the document or may be maintained in a separate file.
  • the article is archived in his Life Library with the scanned text highlighted.
  • the article is archived in his Life Library along with an associated annotation file (thus leaving the archived document unmodified).
  • Embodiments of the system can keep a copy of the source document in each subscriber's library, a copy in a master library that many subscribers can access, or link to a copy held by the publisher.
  • the Life Library stores only the user's modifications to the document (e.g., highlights, etc.) and a link to an online version of the document (stored elsewhere). The system or the subscriber merges the changes with the document when the subscriber subsequently retrieves the document.
  • the source document and the annotation file are provided to the subscriber and the subscriber combines them to create a modified document.
  • the system combines the two files prior to presenting them to the subscriber.
  • the annotation file is an overlay to the document file and can be overlaid on the document by software in the subscriber's computer.
  • Subscribers to the Life Library service pay a monthly fee to have the system maintain the subscriber's archive. Alternatively, the subscriber pays a small amount (e.g., a micro-payment) for each document stored in the archive. Alternatively, the subscriber pays to access the subscriber's archive on a per-access fee. Alternatively, subscribers can compile libraries and allow others to access the materials/annotations on a revenue share model with the Life Library service provider and copyright holders. Alternatively, the Life Library service provider receives a payment from the publisher when the Life Library subscriber orders a document (a revenue share model with the publisher, where the Life Library service provider gets a share of the publisher's revenue).
  • a small amount e.g., a micro-payment
  • subscribers can compile libraries and allow others to access the materials/annotations on a revenue share model with the Life Library service provider and copyright holders.
  • the Life Library service provider receives a payment from the publisher when the Life Library subscriber orders a document (a revenue share model with the publisher, where
  • the Life Library service provider acts as an intermediary between the subscriber and the copyright holder (or copyright holder's agent, such as the Copyright Clearance Center, a.k.a. CCC) to facilitate billing and payment for copyrighted materials.
  • the Life Library service provider uses the subscriber's billing information and other user account information to provide this intermediation service. Essentially, the Life Library service provider leverages the pre-existing relationship with the subscriber to enable purchase of copyrighted materials on behalf of the subscriber.
  • the Life Library system can store excerpts from documents. For example, when a subscriber scans text from a paper document, the regions around the scanned text are excerpted and placed in the Life Library, rather than the entire document being archived in the life library. This is especially advantageous when the document is long because preserving the circumstances of the original scan prevents the subscriber from re-reading the document to find the interesting portions. Of course, a hyperlink to the entire electronic counterpart of the paper document can be included with the excerpt materials.
  • the system also stores information about the document in the Life Library, such as author, publication title, publication date, publisher, copyright holder (or copyright holder's licensing agent), ISBN, links to public annotations of the document, readrank, etc.
  • information about the document is a form of paper document metadata.
  • Third parties may create public annotation files for access by persons other than themselves, such the general public. Linking to a third party's commentary on a document is advantageous because reading annotation files of other users enhances the subscriber's understanding of the document.
  • the system archives materials by class. This feature allows a Life Library subscriber to quickly store electronic counterparts to an entire class of paper documents without access to each paper document. For example, when the subscriber scans some text from a copy of National Geographic magazine, the system provides the subscriber with the option to archive all back issues of the National Geographic. If the subscriber elects to archive all back issues, the Life Library service provider would then verify with the National Geographic Society whether the subscriber is authorized to do so. If not, the Life Library service provider can mediate the purchase of the right to archive the National Geographic magazine collection.
  • a variation on, or enhancement of, the Life Library concept is the “Life Saver,” where the system uses the text captured by a user to deduce more about their other activities.
  • the scanning of a menu from a particular restaurant, a program from a particular theater performance, a timetable at a particular railway station, or an article from a local newspaper allows the system to make deductions about the user's location and social activities, and could construct an automatic diary for them, for example as a website.
  • the user would be able to edit and modify the diary, add additional materials such as photographs and, of course, look again at the items scanned.
  • Portable scanners supported by the described system have many compelling uses in the academic setting. They can enhance student/teacher interaction and augment the learning experience. Among other uses, students can annotate study materials to suit their unique needs; teachers can monitor classroom performance; and teachers can automatically verify source materials cited in student assignments.
  • a child's interaction with a paper document, such as a book, is monitored by a literacy acquisition system that employs a specific set of embodiments of this system.
  • the child uses a portable scanner that communicates with other elements of the literacy acquisition system.
  • the literacy acquisition system includes a computer having a display and speakers, and a database accessible by the computer.
  • the scanner is coupled with the computer (hardwired, short range RF, etc.).
  • the literacy acquisition system compares the scanned text with the resources in its database to identify the word.
  • the database includes a dictionary, thesaurus, and/or multimedia files (e.g., sound, graphics, etc.).
  • the system uses the computer speakers to pronounce the word and its definition to the child.
  • the word and its definition are displayed by the literacy acquisition system on the computer's monitor.
  • Multimedia files about the scanned word can also be played through the computer's monitor and speakers. For example, if a child reading “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” scanned the word “bear,” the system might pronounce the word “bear” and play a short video about bears on the computer's monitor. In this way, the child learns to pronounce the written word and is visually taught what the word means via the multimedia presentation.
  • the literacy acquisition system provides immediate auditory and/or visual information to enhance the learning process.
  • the child uses this supplementary information to quickly acquire a deeper understanding of the written material.
  • the system can be used to teach beginning readers to read, to help children acquire a larger vocabulary, etc. This system provides the child with information about words with which the child is unfamiliar or about which the child wants more information.
  • the system compiles personal dictionaries. If the reader sees a word that is new, interesting, or particularly useful or troublesome, the reader saves it (along with its definition) to a computer file. This computer file becomes the reader's personalized dictionary. This dictionary is generally smaller in size than a general dictionary so can be downloaded to a mobile station or associated device and thus be available even when the system isn't immediately accessible.
  • the personal dictionary entries include audio files to assist with proper word pronunciation and information identifying the paper document from which the word was scanned.
  • the system creates customized spelling and vocabulary tests for students. For example, as a student reads an assignment, the student may scan unfamiliar words with the portable scanner. The system stores a list of all the words that the student has scanned. Later, the system administers a customized spelling/vocabulary test to the student on an associated monitor (or prints such a test on an associated printer).
  • the arrangement of notes on a musical staff is similar to the arrangement of letters in a line of text.
  • the same scanning device discussed for capturing text in this system can be used to capture music notation, and an analogous process of constructing a search against databases of known musical pieces would allow the piece from which the capture occurred to be identified which can then be retrieved, played, or be the basis for some further action.
  • Teachers can use the system to detect plagiarism or to verify sources by scanning text from student papers and submitting the scanned text to the system. For example, a teacher who wishes to verify that a quote in a student paper came from the source that the student cited can scan a portion of the quote and compare the title of the document identified by the system with the title of the document cited by the student. Likewise, the system can use scans of text from assignments submitted as the student's original work to reveal if the text was instead copied.
  • capturing text from an academic textbook links students or staff to more detailed explanations, further exercises, student and staff discussions about the material, related example past exam questions, further reading on the subject, recordings of the lectures on the subject, and so forth. (See also Section 7.1.)
  • the system is used to teach foreign languages. Scanning a Spanish word, for example, might cause the word to be read aloud in Spanish along with its definition in English.
  • the system provides immediate auditory and/or visual information to enhance the new language acquisition process.
  • the reader uses this supplementary information to acquire quickly a deeper understanding of the material.
  • the system can be used to teach beginning students to read foreign languages, to help students acquire a larger vocabulary, etc.
  • the system provides information about foreign words with which the reader is unfamiliar or for which the reader wants more information.
  • Reader interaction with a paper document, such as a newspaper or book, is monitored by a language skills system.
  • the reader has a portable scanner that communicates with the language skills system.
  • the language skills system includes a computer having a display and speakers, and a database accessible by the computer.
  • the scanner communicates with the computer (hardwired, short range RF, etc.).
  • the database includes a foreign language dictionary, thesaurus, and/or multimedia files (sound, graphics, etc.).
  • the system compares the scanned text with the resources in its database to identify the scanned word. After the word has been identified, the system uses the computer speakers to pronounce the word and its definition to the reader.
  • the word and its definition are both displayed on the computer's monitor.
  • Multimedia files about grammar tips related to the scanned word can also be played through the computer's monitor and speakers. For example, if the words “to speak” are scanned, the system might pronounce the word “hablar,” play a short audio clip that demonstrates the proper Spanish pronunciation, and display a complete list of the various conjugations of “hablar.” In this way, the student learns to pronounce the written word, is visually taught the spelling of the word via the multimedia presentation, and learns how to conjugate the verb. The system can also present grammar tips about the proper usage of “hablar” along with common phrases.
  • the user scans a word or short phrase from a rendered document in a language other than the user's native language (or some other language that the user knows reasonably well).
  • the system maintains a prioritized list of the user's “preferred” languages. The system identifies the electronic counterpart of the rendered document, and determines the location of the scan within the document. The system also identifies a second electronic counterpart of the document that has been translated into one of the user's preferred languages, and determines the location in the translated document corresponding to the location of the scan in the original document. When the corresponding location is not known precisely, the system identifies a small region (e.g., a paragraph) that includes the corresponding location of the scanned location. The corresponding translated location is then presented to the user. This provides the user with a precise translation of the particular usage at the scanned location, including any slang or other idiomatic usage that is often difficult to accurately translate on a word-by-word basis.
  • a user researching a particular topic may encounter all sorts of material, both in print and on screen, which they might wish to record as relevant to the topic in some personal archive.
  • the system would enable this process to be automatic as a result of scanning a short phrase in any piece of material, and could also create a bibliography suitable for insertion into a publication on the subject.
  • Conventional Internet search engines typically provide free search of electronic documents, and also make no charge to the content providers for including their content in the index.
  • the system provides for charges to users and/or payments to search engines and/or content providers in connection with the operation and use of the system.
  • subscribers to the system's services pay a fee for searches originating from scans of paper documents.
  • a stockbroker may be reading a Wall Street Journal article about a new product offered by Company X.
  • the stockbroker uses the system to search special or proprietary databases to obtain premium information about the company, such as analyst's reports.
  • the system can also make arrangements to have priority indexing of the documents most likely to be read in paper form, for example by making sure all of the newspapers published on a particular day are indexed and available by the time they hit the streets.
  • Content providers may pay a fee to be associated with certain terms in search queries submitted from paper documents. For example, in one embodiment, the system chooses a most preferred content provider based on additional context about the provider (the context being, in this case, that the content provider has paid a fee to be moved up the results list). In essence, the search provider is adjusting paper document search results based on pre-existing financial arrangements with a content provider. See also the description of keywords and key phrases in Section 5.2.
  • Such content may be protected by a firewall and thus not generally indexable by third parties.
  • the content provider may nonetheless wish to provide an index to the protected content.
  • the content provider can pay a service provider to provide the content provider's index to system subscribers.
  • a law firm may index all of a client's documents. The documents are stored behind the law firm's firewall.
  • the law firm wants its employees and the client to have access to the documents through the portable scanner so it provides the index (or a pointer to the index) to the service provider, which in turn searches the law firm's index when employees or clients of the law firm submit paper-scanned search terms via their portable scanners.
  • the law firm can provide a list of employees and/or clients to the service provider's system to enable this function or the system can verify access rights by querying the law firm prior to searching the law firm's index.
  • the index provided by the law firm is only of that client's documents, not an index of all documents at the law firm.
  • the service provider can only grant the law firm's clients access to the documents that the law firm indexed for the client.
  • the search function revenue can be generated from paid subscriptions from the scanner users, but can also be generated on a per-search charge.
  • the content delivery revenue can be shared with the content provider or copyright holder (the service provider can take a percentage of the sale or a fixed fee, such as a micropayment, for each delivery), but also can be generated by a “referral” model in which the system gets a fee or percentage for every item that the subscriber orders from the online catalog and that the system has delivered or contributed to, regardless of whether the service provider intermediates the transaction.
  • the system service provider receives revenue for all purchases that the subscriber made from the content provider, either for some predetermined period of time or at any subsequent time when a purchase of an identified product is made.
  • the subscriber scans information from the catalog that identifies the catalog. This information is text from the catalog, a bar code, or another identifier of the catalog. The subscriber scans information identifying the products that s/he wishes to purchase.
  • the catalog mailing label may contain a customer identification number that identifies the customer to the catalog vendor. If so, the subscriber can also scan this customer identification number.
  • the system acts as an intermediary between the subscriber and the vendor to facilitate the catalog purchase by providing the customer's selection and customer identification number to the vendor.
  • a consumer scans paper coupons and saves an electronic copy of the coupon in the scanner, or in a remote device such as a computer, for later retrieval and use.
  • An advantage of electronic storage is that the consumer is freed from the burden of carrying paper coupons.
  • a further advantage is that the electronic coupons may be retrieved from any location.
  • the system can track coupon expiration dates, alert the consumer about coupons that will expire soon, and/or delete expired coupons from storage.
  • An advantage for the issuer of the coupons is the possibility of receiving more feedback about who is using the coupons and when and where they are captured and used.
  • the system may be used to auto-populate an electronic document that corresponds to a paper form.
  • a user scans in some text or a barcode that uniquely identifies the paper form.
  • the scanner communicates the identity of the form and information identifying the user to a nearby computer.
  • the nearby computer has an Internet connection.
  • the nearby computer can access a first database of forms and a second database having information about the user of the scanner (such as a service provider's subscriber information database).
  • the nearby computer accesses an electronic version of the paper form from the first database and auto-populates the fields of the form from the user's information obtained from the second database.
  • the nearby computer then emails the completed form to the intended recipient. Alternatively, the computer could print the completed form on a nearby printer.
  • the system has a portable scanner that contains the user's information, such as in an identity module, SIM, or security card.
  • the scanner provides information identifying the form to the nearby PC.
  • the nearby PC accesses the electronic form and queries the scanner for any necessary information to fill out the form.
  • the system can be used to automatically populate electronic address books or other contact lists from paper documents. For example, upon receiving a new acquaintance's business card, a user can capture an image of the card with his/her cellular phone. The system will locate an electronic copy of the card, which can be used to update the cellular phone's onboard address book with the new acquaintance's contact information. The electronic copy may contain more information about the new acquaintance than can be squeezed onto a business card. Further, the onboard address book may also store a link to the electronic copy such that any changes to the electronic copy will be automatically updated in the cell phone's address book.
  • the business card optionally includes a symbol or text that indicates the existence of an electronic copy.
  • the cellular phone can use OCR and knowledge of standard business card formats to fill out an entry in the address book for the new acquaintance. Symbols may also aid in the process of extracting information directly from the image. For example, a phone icon next to the phone number on the business card can be recognized to determine the location of the phone number.
  • the system can enhance the proofreading and editing process.
  • One way the system can enhance the editing process is by linking the editor's interactions with a paper document to its electronic counterpart.
  • the system will make the appropriate annotations or edits to an electronic counterpart of the paper document. For example, if the editor scans a portion of text and makes the “new paragraph” control gesture with the scanner, a computer in communication with the scanner would insert a “new paragraph” break at the location of the scanned text in the electronic copy of the document.
  • a user can make voice annotations to a document by scanning a portion of text from the document and then making a voice recording that is associated with the scanned text.
  • the scanner has a microphone to record the user's verbal annotations. After the verbal annotations are recorded, the system identifies the document from which the text was scanned, locates the scanned text within the document, and attaches the voice annotation at that point. In some embodiments, the system converts the speech to text and attaches the annotation as a textual comment.
  • the system keeps annotations separate from the document, with only a reference to the annotation kept with the document.
  • the annotations then become an annotation markup layer to the document for a specific subscriber or group of users.
  • the system identifies the document, opens it using a software package, scrolls to the location of the scan and plays the voice annotation. The user can then interact with a document while referring to voice annotations, suggested changes or other comments recorded either by themselves or by somebody else.
  • a markup layer associated with a paper document contains help menu information for the document. For example, when a user scans text from a certain portion of the document, the system checks the markup associated with the document and presents a help menu to the user. The help menu is presented on a display on the scanner or on an associated nearby display.
  • the portable scanner is used to scan information from computer monitors and televisions.
  • the portable optical scanner has an illumination sensor that is optimized to work with traditional cathode ray tube (CRT) display techniques such as rasterizing, screen blanking, etc.
  • CTR cathode ray tube
  • a voice capture device which operates by capturing audio of the user reading text from a document will typically work regardless of whether that document is on paper, on a display, or on some other medium.
  • a public kiosk displays a dynamic session ID on its monitor.
  • the kiosk is connected to a communication network such as the Internet or a corporate intranet.
  • the session ID changes periodically but at least every time that the kiosk is used so that a new session ID is displayed to every user.
  • the subscriber scans in the session ID displayed on the kiosk; by scanning the session ID, the user tells the system that he wishes to temporarily associate the kiosk with his scanner for the delivery of content resulting from scans of printed documents or from the kiosk screen itself.
  • the scanner may communicate the Session ID and other information authenticating the scanner (such as a serial number, account number, or other identifying information) directly to the system.
  • the scanner can communicate directly (where “directly” means without passing the message through the kiosk) with the system by sending the session initiation message through the user's cell phone (which is paired with the user's scanner via BluetoothTM).
  • the scanner can establish a wireless link with the kiosk and use the kiosk's communication link by transferring the session initiation information to the kiosk (perhaps via short range RF such as BluetoothTM, etc.); in response, the kiosk sends the session initiation information to the system via its Internet connection.
  • the system can prevent others from using a device that is already associated with a scanner during the period (or session) in which the device is associated with the scanner. This feature is useful to prevent others from using a public kiosk before another person's session has ended.
  • the user scans a barcode on a monitor of a PC which s/he desires to use; in response, the system sends a session ID to the monitor that it displays; the user initiates the session by scanning the session ID from the monitor (or entering it via a keypad or touch screen or microphone on the portable scanner); and the system associates in its databases the session ID with the serial number (or other identifier that uniquely identifies the user's scanner) of his/her scanner so another scanner cannot scan the session ID and use the monitor during his/her session.
  • the scanner is in communication (through wireless link such as BluetoothTM, a hardwired link such as a docking station, etc.) with a PC associated with the monitor or is in direct (i.e., w/o going through the PC) communication with the system via another means such as a cellular phone, etc.
  • One embodiment of a disclosed invention includes a user-friendly technique for ordering items from rendered documents (such as paper catalogs, advertisements, books, magazines, newspaper, flyers, signs and the like) using an optical capture device (such as a scanner, digital camera, cellular telephone camera, or other device capable of optically capturing at least a portion of the rendered document).
  • rendered documents such as paper catalogs, advertisements, books, magazines, newspaper, flyers, signs and the like
  • optical capture device such as a scanner, digital camera, cellular telephone camera, or other device capable of optically capturing at least a portion of the rendered document.
  • Another embodiment of a disclosed invention includes a user-friendly technique for ordering items from rendered documents (such as paper catalogs, advertisements, books, magazines, newspaper, flyers, signs and the like) using a voice capture device (such as voice recorder, cellular telephone, or other device capable of capturing at least a portion of the rendered document via voice input).
  • a voice capture device such as voice recorder, cellular telephone, or other device capable of capturing at least a portion of the rendered document via voice input.
  • capturing or optically capturing data from a rendered document it should be understood that some embodiments of this includes capturing the data by means of voice capture technology.
  • voice capture technology it should be understood that some embodiments of this includes capturing the data by means of voice capture technology.
  • image or to image data it should be understood that where appropriate this may be a voice image, for example a recording of the user's voice.
  • One embodiment of a disclosed invention is a method of placing an order for an item from a rendered document.
  • the rendered document contains at least one human-readable indication of an orderable item.
  • the method includes obtaining a captured fragment of the rendered document and communicating a representation of the captured fragment along with an identifier to a remote computer to order the item from a vendor via the Internet
  • This embodiment may further include using a document or data capture context to search for an electronic version of the rendered document.
  • Another embodiment discloses a method of ordering an item from a rendered document, the method including establishing a document context of the rendered document; capturing a human-readable document fragment of the rendered document; and generating an order for the item.
  • the order includes at least the document context, a representation of the document fragment and an identifier associated with a purchaser.
  • FIG. 4 is a system and operating environment according to the teachings of the present invention.
  • example operating environment 400 includes a scanning device 302 (operative to graphically capture a portion of document 495 ), user device 420 , wireless device 425 , account server 500 (having an account database 575 ), document server 440 (having a document database 445 ), vendor server 450 (having an item database 455 ), aggregator server 460 (having an aggregator database 465 ), all interconnected via a network such as the Internet 410 or wireless network 430 .
  • Many of the devices in the environment are computers.
  • One embodiment of a computer server has a memory containing computer executable instructions for processing an order request from a document capture device, the order request including an identifier, document context information, and a captured indication of an orderable item; identifying the orderable item from the captured indication and the document context; requesting fulfillment of the order request according to order fulfillment data associated with the identifier (e.g., user account data); and a processor to execute the computer executable instructions.
  • operating environment 400 may include more or less components.
  • the devices of operating environment 400 may comprise a number of components.
  • scanning device 302 , user device 420 , wireless device 425 , account server 500 , document server 440 , vendor server 450 and aggregator server 460 may be operable in accordance with well-known commercial transaction and communication protocols.
  • the functions and capabilities of scanning device 302 , user device 420 and wireless device 425 may be wholly or partially integrated into one device.
  • scanning device, user device and wireless device could refer to the same device depending upon whether the device incorporates functions or capabilities of the scanning device 302 , user device 420 and wireless device 425 roles.
  • user device 420 and account server 500 may be wholly or partially integrated.
  • user device and account server shall be interpreted with the meaning of an appropriately equipped device, operating in accordance with either a user device or an account server role.
  • FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary account server 500 suitable for use in an embodiment of the present invention.
  • the account server 500 may include many more components (or fewer) than those shown in FIG. 5 . However, it is not necessary that all of these generally conventional computing components be shown in order to disclose an enabling embodiment for practicing the present invention.
  • the account server 500 includes a communications interface 530 , which, in some embodiments of the present invention, may be a Network Interface Controller (“NIC”).
  • the inter-device communications of the communications interface 530 may be designed to support a local area network, wide area network, personal area network, telephone network, power line network, serial bus or wireless (e.g., BluetoothTM, IEEE 802.11 or 802.16 and the like) connection.
  • Such a communications interface 530 would also include the necessary circuitry, driver(s) and/or transceiver for such a connection and would be constructed for use with the appropriate transmission protocols for such connections.
  • the account server 500 also includes a processing unit 510 , an optional display 540 and a memory 550 , all interconnected along with the communications interface 530 via a bus 520 .
  • the memory 550 typically comprises RAM, ROM and a permanent mass storage device, such as a disk drive, flash RAM or the like.
  • the memory 550 stores an operating system 555 , one or more applications 560 , document data 565 and an account database 575 .
  • bus 520 may be a hierarchy of bridged buses.
  • operating system 555 one or more applications 560 , document data and an account database 575 are illustrated as separate software components; however in some embodiments they may be comprised of multiple software components, implemented in hardware, or may be subparts of one or more integrated software components.
  • the account database 575 contains account information for users of scanner devices 302 .
  • the account server 500 uses the account database 575 to correlate operations of a particular scanning device 302 with its associated account information stored in the account database 575 .
  • the software components may be loaded from a computer readable medium into memory 550 of the account server 500 using a mechanism (not shown) associated with the computer readable medium such as a floppy, tape, DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) /CD (Compact Disk)-ROM drive, flash RAM or communications interface 530 .
  • the loading may be performed during the manufacturing of device 500 , or in the field.
  • the software components may be downloaded from one or more networked servers.
  • the communications interface 530 may facilitate the connection of remote devices to the account server 500 .
  • remote devices can include devices for reading and/or writing in machine-readable media, digital cameras, printers and the like.
  • Various user input mechanisms may also be coupled to the account server 500 , such as, for example, keyboards, keypads, touch-pads, mice and the like (not shown).
  • a computer such as account server 500 or user device 420 , includes a memory containing computer executable instructions for processing an order request from a document capture device 302 .
  • the computer has a processor coupled to the memory operative to execute the computer executable instructions.
  • the order request includes an identifier, document context information, and a captured indication of an orderable item.
  • the computer identifies the orderable item from the captured indication of the orderable item and the document context. Then the computer requests fulfillment of the order in accordance with fulfillment data associated with the identifier.
  • the scanning device 302 initiates an item ordering (purchase) transaction involving the account server 500 by scanning a portion of a rendered document 495 .
  • FIG. 6 shows the flow of communications between a scanning device 302 , account server 500 and a vendor server 450 during an item ordering transaction according to the device and system parameters of FIGS. 3-5 .
  • scanned information is sent from the scanning device 302 to begin an item ordering transaction.
  • the specific communications between the devices are described in more detail below.
  • the order transaction begins with a capture of a portion of a rendered document 495 to set a context 605 . While some portion of the rendered document that is used to purchase an item includes human-readable information, in some embodiments, additional contextual information may be captured using machine-readable information such as barcode (1D, 2D, and/or multi-colored) information. Such barcode or other machine-readable information may also contain checksum information to verify captured human-readable portions of the rendered document.
  • the context data (processed though an image processing routine in some embodiments) is sent 610 along with a device identifier (e.g., an identifier typically stored in the handheld device's memory 330 such as an ESN, network address, etc.) to the document server 440 .
  • the document server 440 processes the context data to determine 615 a document identifier.
  • a document identifier comprises information identifying an electronic counterpart of the rendered document that corresponds to the captured context data supplied by the scanning device 302 . For example, if the scanning device 302 scans a magazine page, the document server 440 determines, from the scan, which issue of the magazine the scan came from and the location within the magazine where the scan occurred. If sufficient information was scanned, and no ambiguity exists, it may be possible to also identify an item to be ordered from the context scan. However, in some embodiments one or more additional scans are used to reduce ambiguity. Accordingly, if a context scan produces an ambiguous search result (more than one result matches the scan), then when item text is captured 635 , the additional item data may be used by the document server 440 to remove further ambiguity.
  • the document server 440 After determining a document context 615 , the document server 440 sends 620 the document context and the device identifier to the account server 500 .
  • the account server 500 associates 625 the document context with an account identified by the device identifier.
  • the identifier's account status is updated 630 to indicate that the scanning device 302 is now “in” a particular document context.
  • the scanning device 302 has captured 635 item text (or symbols) and sent 640 item data and device identifier to the document server 440 .
  • the document server 440 determines 645 which item has been scanned using the item data and the determined document context.
  • the document server then forwards 650 the item information and the device identifier to the account server 500 .
  • the account server 500 then begins the order request for the vendor server 450 .
  • Fulfillment data e.g., payment and delivery data such as billing information and a delivery address
  • the item information and the fulfillment data are then sent 660 to a vendor server 450 and the account server 500 updates 665 the status of the account associated with the device identifier.
  • the vendor server 450 processes 670 the item order and sends 675 an order confirmation to the account server 500 .
  • the account server 500 updates 680 the status of the account associated with the device identifier to indicate that the order was confirmed.
  • Fulfillment data may include anything necessary to complete a transaction, including: a user identifier, customer identifier, a capture device identifier, a catalog identifier, a vendor identifier, an aggregation identifier, an account identifier and a payment method identifier.
  • a user of the scanning device 302 may optionally receive an order status update by the account server 500 communicating 685 the current status of the order to the scanning device 302 (or a related device, such as user device 420 ) to cause the scanning device 302 to indicate 690 a current order status.
  • the user may access the order status by remotely accessing the account server 500 to view the order status without an indication on the scanning device 302 .
  • the communications described above and shown in FIG. 6 are merely one exemplary set of communications between the scanning device 302 , document server 440 , account server 500 and vendor server 450 .
  • Other communications both more and fewer, may be employed in other embodiments.
  • the order process includes delivering a prepared electronic order to an account associated with the scanning device identifier at the account server 500 (and/or a separate e-mail address account). Such an embodiment would allow a user to review the electronic order before transmitting it to a vendor for fulfillment.
  • Asynchronous (“online/offline” or “delayed”, see Section 17.3) communication allows use of some of the disclosed innovations even when the handheld devices are not connected to a network.
  • a user may capture a document fragment as a document context and may also capture a document fragment including a desired item, but not transmit the captured document fragments until a later point in time, perhaps when the communication link between scanner 302 and user device 420 is restored.
  • the order transaction communications are performed over connections using a HyperText Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”) connection in communication with one or more Common Gateway Interface (“CGI”) or other HTTP-accessible applications.
  • HTTP HyperText Transfer Protocol
  • CGI Common Gateway Interface
  • different transmission protocols and/or connections for order transactions may be employed.
  • Some well-known financial transaction protocols are Financial Information Exchange Markup Language (FIXML), Open Financial Exchange (OFX), and VISA'STM Secure Electronic Transaction (SET).
  • an order transaction contains the information necessary to identify the item being ordered and, optionally, the fulfillment information that allows a vendor to fulfill the order.
  • This may be accomplished by a variety of different transaction models in accordance with various embodiments.
  • various types of identifiers may be used to distinguish transactions, devices and/or users.
  • the type of transaction and related communications used during the transaction may determine the choice of the type of identifier used.
  • the generation of the identifiers may follow industry standard practices, however, they should typically provide sufficient identification for billing and order fulfillment.
  • One method for generating identifiers is to take a user name of the consumer and append a random number (e.g., “jim5435873934”).
  • GUID Globally Unique Identifier
  • the location of identifier generation may be at any of a variety of devices in the operating environment 400 , such as account server 500 , scanning device 302 , user device 420 , wireless device 425 and the like.
  • the appropriate identifier may be generated on demand or may be predetermined and associated with a particular device, as in device identifier 270 .
  • FIG. 7 illustrates a process within the document server 440 for determining a context of the context scan from a scanning device 302 in accordance with the above-described communications between a scanning device 302 , document server 440 , account server 500 and a vendor server 450 .
  • the context determination process 700 begins at block 705 where captured text (or a representation thereof) is obtained.
  • decision block 710 a determination is made whether the scanned text (or symbol) is recognized as special (e.g., a template match indicated that a special context setting symbol, or specially arranged text, such as an ISBN number has been captured).
  • decision block 710 If in decision block 710 it is determined that a special symbol or special text was scanned, then in decision block 725 a determination is made whether the special symbol and/or text has set a document context. If so, processing continues to block 730 where the document context is set. If, however, the special symbol and/or text do not set a context, processing ends at block 799 , returning any found results from the text processing.
  • processing continues to block 715 where the scanned text is processed.
  • decision block 720 a determination is made whether the processed scanned text provides sufficient information to set a document context. If so, processing continues to block 730 where the document context is set. After which processing ends at block 799 , returning the document context results. If however, no context was found in decision block 720 , processing ends at block 799 , returning any other results.
  • FIG. 8 illustrates a process within the account server 500 for ordering an item from a vendor server 450 in accordance with the above-described communications between scanning device 302 and vendor server 450 .
  • the item ordering process 800 begins at block 805 where human-readable (as opposed to machine readable, such as from a barcode) context data is obtained, along with a first (transaction or user or device) identifier.
  • the context data and first identifier are associated with a vendor in block 810 .
  • the determination of a document context may provide an indication of where to obtain an electronic counterpart of a document, and hence may also give an indication of a vendor equipped to respond to an electronic transaction.
  • a single vendor may be located, in block 810 , while in alternative embodiments, multiple vendors may be located, and may utilize further selections to determine which vendor (and associated vender server 450 ) to use for an item order transaction.
  • a transaction status for the first identifier (e.g., in an associated account in account database 575 ) is updated in block 815 to indicate that at least one vendor is associated with an item order transaction.
  • a human-readable indication of item data is obtained along with the first identifier.
  • the transaction status for the first identifier is further updated in block 825 to indicate the item associated with the item order transaction.
  • providing the item data allows further refinement of the vendor selection process, e.g., by comparing prices, availability and other order fulfillment information.
  • the item identified by the item data is ordered from a vendor.
  • the order comprises at least an identifier (possibly, but not necessarily, the first identical transaction/user/device identifier noted above) and fulfillment information.
  • fulfillment information may already be resident at a vendor server 450 , and accordingly the provision of an identifier may in and of itself provide sufficient information to enable the vendor to fulfill the order.
  • decision block 835 a determination is made whether the vendor confirmed the item order. If so, processing proceeds to block 840 , where the transaction status of the first identifier is updated to reflect a confirmed order for the item. In block 845 , the item order confirmation is conveyed to a user. If, however, in decision block 835 a determination is made that the vendor did not confirm the item order, processing proceeds to block 850 , where the transaction status of the first identifier is updated to reflect a failure to confirm the order for the item. In block 855 , failure of the vendor to confirm the item order is conveyed to a user. Of course, reporting transaction status to the user is optional under some embodiments of the disclosed innovations.
  • FIGS. 6-8 is one of a myriad of possible item ordering systems and methods employed by embodiments of the present invention.
  • FIGS. 9-10 illustrate an alternative embodiment where a first identifier is not resident within the scanning device 302 , rather, such an identifier is provided by an associated user device 420 .
  • FIGS. 9-10 additionally illustrate that various devices within the operating environment may, in different embodiments, reallocate processing of portions of item ordering transactions.
  • FIG. 9 illustrates a similar item ordering transaction to the one shown in FIG. 6 , however between a scanning device 302 , user device 420 , document server 440 and vendor server 450 .
  • the item ordering transaction begins with the scanning device 302 optically capturing 905 a portion of a rendered document for context data.
  • the context data is sent 910 as an image to the document server 440 via the user device 420 .
  • an identifier between the scanning device 302 and user device 420 is not necessary, as the scanning device and user device 420 may be closely coupled such that the user device 420 will know which scanning device provided the context image.
  • the document server 440 locates 915 an electronic counterpart of the rendered document from which the context image was captured.
  • the document server 440 determines 920 the context of/or within the located electronic document that was indicated by the context image.
  • the context corresponds to a region or location within the electronic document, while in other embodiments the context is the whole document.
  • the electronic document and determined context are returned 925 to the user device 420 .
  • the scanning device 302 is used to capture 930 an image (or portion of an image) of the desired item.
  • the item image is sent 935 to the user device 420 .
  • the user device 420 locates 940 the item within the electronic document.
  • the user may wish to purchase a shirt from an Eddie BauerTM catalog that he has received in the mail.
  • the user could scan text or a symbol (such as a special symbol representing the action “Purchase Now”) from the Eddie BauerTM catalog with the scanning device 302 .
  • the text or symbol is then transmitted to the document server 440 via the user device 420 (which perhaps is a personal computer in this example).
  • the document server 440 uses the scanned information to locate an electronic version of the Eddie BauerTM catalog and determine the context of the scanned text or symbol within the catalog.
  • the user could further identify the item he wishes to purchase by scanning at least a portion of the picture of the shirt from the catalog and sending it to the user device 420 .
  • the user device 420 may then match the scanned portion of the picture to its corresponding picture in the electronic version of the catalog to identify the shirt that the user wishes to purchase.
  • the user device 420 may complete the electronic transaction with vendor server 450 .
  • the vendor ships the shirt to the purchaser and, in a few days, the shirt arrives at the purchaser's house.
  • the item location and other functions that this example discusses as residing in the user device 420 could reside in document server 440 or even in vendor server 450 such that many variations of the described transaction are possible but still within the scope of the disclosed inventions.
  • the user device 420 Upon locating the item within the electronic document, the user device 420 sends 945 an item order with fulfillment data (such as payment and delivery information, or an identifier to a preexisting account) to a vendor server 450 .
  • the vendor server 450 processes 950 the item order and initiates order fulfillment 955 .
  • Order fulfillment may involve any delivery of the item specified in the item order according to the fulfillment data.
  • the vendor server 450 also confirms 960 the item order to the user device 420 .
  • the user device 420 (or possibly wireless device 425 ) may then indicate the order confirmation 965 on an associated display (or other output device).
  • the communications described above and shown in FIG. 9 are merely one exemplary set of communications between the scanning device 302 , user device 420 , document server 440 and the vendor server 450 .
  • Other communications both more and fewer, may be employed in various embodiments. Note, however, that unlike the communications shown in FIG. 6 , no account server 500 is required for such communications. Of course, some embodiments may employ an account server 500 in conjunction with the communications shown in FIG. 9 .
  • FIG. 10 illustrates a process within the user device 420 for an order transaction in accordance with the teachings of FIG. 9 .
  • the order transaction process 1000 begins at block 1005 where human-readable context data is obtained.
  • the context data is shared with a remote computer to locate an electronic document corresponding to the context data.
  • human-readable item data is obtained.
  • the item data is used to find an electronic representation of the item in the located electronic document in block 1020 .
  • the item is ordered from a vendor (e.g., via a vendor server 450 , or in some embodiments via an aggregator server 460 that may interface with a plurality of vendors and/or vendor servers 450 ).
  • a vendor e.g., via a vendor server 450 , or in some embodiments via an aggregator server 460 that may interface with a plurality of vendors and/or vendor servers 450 ).
  • decision block 1030 a determination is made whether the vendor has confirmed the order for the item. If so, processing proceeds to block 1035 , where the order confirmation is conveyed to a user. On the other hand, if no order confirmation is forthcoming from the vendor, a lack of confirmation is conveyed to the user in block 1040 .
  • FIGS. 11-12 illustrate an alternative embodiment to the disclosures of FIGS. 6-10 .
  • a document server 440 is allocated as the primary processing system, including having an awareness of a particular scanning device coupled for item ordering via the document server.
  • FIGS. 11-12 additionally illustrate that a vendor server may query a scanning device 302 as one form of authentication for item order transactions.
  • FIG. 11 illustrates an item ordering transaction between a scanning device 302 , document server 440 and vendor server 450 .
  • the item ordering transaction begins with the scanning device 302 capturing 1105 a portion of a rendered document 495 for item data (and possibly context data at the same time).
  • the item data is processed 1110 by the scanning device 302 to generate a fragment digest as a key to locate an electronic counterpart of the rendered document 495 .
  • Many different types of digest generation may be employed by various embodiments.
  • conventional OCR techniques may be employed to convert an optical representation of the document fragment to a text string or other representation of the document fragment.
  • the fragment digest is sent 1115 to the document server 440 .
  • the document server locates 1120 an electronic counterpart of the rendered document using the fragment digest as a key and/or search term(s).
  • the document server 440 next determines 1125 the item (or items), contained within the document fragment, in the located electronic counterpart of the rendered document.
  • the document server 440 creates 1130 a new transaction identifier (an identifier for identifying the transaction to the scanning device 302 and/or vendor server 450 ).
  • an order request is sent 1135 with the transaction identifier to the vendor server 450 ; where a new order transaction is created 1140 .
  • the vendor server 450 then sends 1145 an identifier request to the scanning device 302 (possibly via the document server 440 ) along with the transaction identifier.
  • the identifier request is verified 1150 at the scanning device 302 .
  • verification at the scanning device 302 comprises determining a cryptographic key with which to secure communications with the vendor server 450 .
  • verification 1150 may comprise other forms of authentication (e.g., biometrics data such as a fingerprint scan) to ensure that the identifier request is appropriate.
  • the scanning device 302 communicates 1155 an identifier request response back to the vendor server 450 , including the transaction identifier.
  • the communication 1155 is across an encrypted (or otherwise secured) communications channel.
  • the identifier request response 1155 may comprise fulfillment information if the vendor server 450 does not already possess fulfillment information for an identifier of the scanning device 302 .
  • the vendor server 450 processes 1160 the order request and returns 1165 a confirmation of the order to the scanning device 302 .
  • the above-described embodiment allows users to scan an item for purchase, but still know which vendor will be used to fulfill the order, and gives them an approval mechanism (the identifier request verification) before completing an order with a vendor.
  • the identifier request verification the identifier request verification
  • the communications described above and shown in FIG. 11 are merely one exemplary set of communications between the scanning device 302 , document server 440 and the vendor server 450 .
  • Other communications both more and fewer, may be employed in various embodiments.
  • Alternative embodiments may employ additional devices in conjunction with the communications shown in FIG. 11 .
  • FIGS. 12 and 13 illustrate a catalog as an exemplary rendered document 495 for use with various embodiments.
  • FIG. 12 illustrates a catalog cover 1200 with an address label 1210 that includes a catalog number 1220 and a customer number 1230 .
  • the customer number 1230 on the label 1210 may be used an identifier in purchase transactions with a vendor server 450 associated with the catalog 1200 .
  • the address label 1210 may also contain further information, such as a name and address of a recipient of the catalog.
  • FIG. 13 illustrates an interior page 1300 of the catalog 1200 with a number of items 1310 A-H and a purchase symbol 1320 .
  • further symbols may be used, for example a symbol to request special offers or sale items (not shown).
  • a user captures the catalog number 1220 (and possibly the customer number 1230 ) as context data using a handheld document data capture device such as scanner 302 .
  • the context data is processed at a document server 440 to locate an electronic counterpart of the catalog.
  • the user scans an item number, such an item number “789321” corresponding to item 1310 G (a refurbished iBook computer).
  • the item number scan identifies the item to be ordered within the electronic counterpart of the catalog.
  • a vendor server 450 (generally corresponding to the catalog supplier) is notified of an order for item 1310 G (a refurbished iBook computer with item number “789321”).
  • FIGS. 12 and 13 illustrate a conventional catalog 1200 with printed pages 1300
  • the catalog 1200 may actually be simplified to a minimal size, such as a postcard (or within a magazine, book, TV guide, letter and the like), thereby allowing a user to scan the address label 1210 and receive an electronically rendered (e.g., via e-mail, the web or even via a custom printed and mailed) version of the catalog 1200 .
  • the user may see a web page similar to the one shown in FIG. 16 and described below.
  • the vendor may also elect to provide a personalized discount to users of scanning devices. For example, a valued customer (as determined by identifiers associated with the scanning device 302 ) may get a 10% discount for ordering from the personalized catalog.
  • the scanning device 302 may be used in conjunction with an associated display, such as a display of a user device 420 . Accordingly, FIGS. 14-15 illustrate such an embodiment where the display of a user device is used to assist in ordering items using a scanning device 302 .
  • FIG. 14 illustrates an item ordering transaction between a scanning device 302 , user device 420 , document server 440 and vendor server 450 .
  • the item ordering transaction begins with the scanning device 302 capturing 1405 a portion of a rendered document 495 as symbolic data (e.g., text).
  • the capturing process may comprise conventional OCR or may employ alternative text recognition technologies such as those discussed in Section 11.
  • the captured text is sent 1410 to a document server 440 (possibly via a user device 420 ).
  • the document server 440 locates 1415 an electronic counterpart of the rendered document (see for example FIG. 16 ).
  • an electronic version of the document is sent 1420 to the user device 420 and displayed 1425 .
  • actions performed by the user in a paper version can be mirrored, interpreted, displayed, etc., in the displayed version.
  • highlighting of that same portion of text can appear concurrently in the displayed version of the document.
  • Item text is captured 1430 by the scanning device 302 and transmitted 1435 (possibly via the user device 420 ) to the document server 440 .
  • the document server 440 locates 1440 the item of the item text within the electronic counterpart of the rendered document.
  • the item location is sent 1445 to the user device 420 , thereby causing the user device to display 1450 the portion of the electronic counterpart of the rendered document.
  • the user next interacts 1455 with the displayed electronic counterpart of the rendered document (e.g., via a keyboard, mouse or the like) to display 1460 an item-relevant menu.
  • the user selects 1465 an order option from the menu.
  • the order for the item including fulfillment data (possibly requested in at the user device 420 ) is sent 1470 to the vendor server 450 .
  • the vendor server 450 processes 1275 the order, initiates 1480 order fulfillment and sends 1485 an order confirmation back to the user device 420 .
  • the confirmation is displayed 1490 at the user device 420 .
  • the communications described above and shown in FIG. 14 are merely one exemplary set of communications between the scanning device 302 , user device 420 , document server 440 and the vendor server 450 .
  • Other communications both more and fewer, may be employed in various embodiments.
  • Alternative embodiments may employ additional devices in conjunction with the communications shown in FIG. 14 .
  • FIG. 15 illustrates a process within the user device 420 for a document transaction using an associated display in accordance with the teachings of FIGS. 13 and 14 .
  • the transaction process 1500 begins at block 1505 where a captured text fragment of a rendered document is obtained.
  • the text fragment is processed to identify and obtain an electronic document corresponding to the document fragment.
  • the obtained electronic document is displayed.
  • decision block 1520 a determination is made whether a user requested a menu. If so, processing proceeds to block 1525 where a menu is displayed that is relevant to the currently displayed portion of the electronic document. As a user navigates the document, different menus may become relevant, e.g., as when different items are selected from within an electronic document).
  • a menu selection is received.
  • menu selection is performed in an appropriate manner. After which the transaction process ends in block 1599 .
  • decision block 1520 If, however, in decision block 1520 it was determined that a menu was not selected, then in decision block 1540 a determination is made whether a special symbol (e.g., the purchase symbol 1320 , or the like) was scanned. If so, processing proceeds to block 1545 where an action associated with the symbol is performed. After which, or if no symbol was scanned, processing proceeds to block 1599 and the transaction process ends.
  • a special symbol e.g., the purchase symbol 1320 , or the like
  • the scanning of a special symbol is a prefix to purchasing activity that “primes” the handheld document data capture device 302 to capture items to purchase.
  • the scanning device 302 is sensitive to predetermined gestures (see Section 14.1.3), which may be used to prime the scanning device 302 for purchasing, or may be used to confirm a purchase.
  • FIG. 16 illustrates an exemplary displayed electronic counterpart of a printed document.
  • the electronic counterpart is a web page 1600 corresponding to the interior catalog page 1300 shown in FIG. 13 .
  • the web page 1600 is displayed within a browser window 1605 (e.g., in a browser of a user device 420 ) and includes a menu 1650 that is relevant to a selected item 1610 .
  • the menu 1650 can include further options other than ordering a specific item.
  • the menu 1650 may be used to indicate that an item should be added to a wish list, that similar/alternative items should be shown, that the item should be removed from an order, that further information (or the manufacturer's web site) is desired, or the like.
  • One additional menu option (not shown) is that a user may be presented with the option to purchase the rendered document from which the menu is being presented.
  • a special symbol (e.g., “$”) is presented to a user in a rendered document, representing that an order activity (generally a software application for purchasing) may be activated by scanning the symbol.
  • an order activity generally a software application for purchasing
  • scanning the symbol By scanning one or more items individually presented, the user can indicate his decision to make the purchase.
  • scanning an item multiple times or scanning once and then indicating a quantity through another input method
  • ordering can be confirmed via buttons or keypads on the handheld device 302 , any associated display or host computer, via telephone, or by sending the user an e-mail requiring further action.
  • the user's email account information can be determined by reference to the user's account and billing information.
  • the user may be able to complete the purchase immediately by placing the order for an item with a single capture from the rendered document.
  • One relatively safe way to insure that the user actually intended to make the purchase is to have a separate action that the user is required to perform to complete the purchase. This action might be to push a special button on the scanning device 302 or to scan a special object or phrase printed in the document (for example, a statement like “I agree to purchase”).
  • the user may be able to complete the purchase immediately by making two or more captures from the rendered document.
  • the user may also identify himself (possibly via a username and/or password) and/or confirm a purchase by scanning a special code or mark printed on a card carried by the user.
  • Other forms of authentication/verification may be employed in various embodiments, including, but not limited to biometric authentication, PIN entry in a keypad, challenge/response, cryptographic tokens and the like.
  • a label or other scanning-device-readable indicator (not shown) that identifies the specific display and or device may be available to the user. Scanning this label informs a document server 440 (or account server) of the user's location. In some cases the identifying label can be generated and displayed on a user device 420 . Generally, only the user physically at the display device would then be able to scan this information, thereby providing an additional layer of security.

Abstract

Systems, apparatus and methods for implementing transaction applications using a handheld document data capture device are described herein. The handheld device captures information from a rendered document. The captured information is processed to identify an electronic document corresponding to the rendered document. Information captured from the rendered document by the handheld capture device is used to perform a transaction. In one embodiment, a portable scanner is used to select items from a catalog. Information scanned from the catalog is used to identify the catalog, the items to be purchased, and complete an order via the Internet.

Description

    CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
  • This application is a Continuation-In-Part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/004,637 filed on Dec. 3, 2004, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
  • This application is related to, and incorporates by reference in their entirety, the following U.S. Patent Applications, filed concurrently herewith: U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, entitled DETERMINING ACTIONS INVOLVING CAPTURED INFORMATION AND ELECTRONIC CONTENT ASSOCIATED WITH RENDERED DOCUMENTS (Attorney Docket No. 435188075US1), U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, entitled CONTENT ACCESS WITH HANDHELD DOCUMENT DATA CAPTURE DEVICES (Attorney Docket No. 435188018US1), U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, entitled SEARCH ENGINES AND SYSTEMS WITH HANDHELD DOCUMENT DATA CAPTURE DEVICES (Attorney Docket No. 435188021US1), U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, entitled TRIGGERING ACTIONS IN RESPONSE TO OPTICALLY OR ACOUSTICALLY CAPTURING KEYWORDS FROM A RENDERED DOCUMENT (Attorney Docket No. 435188003US1), U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, entitled SEARCHING AND ACCESSING DOCUMENTS ON PRIVATE NETWORKS FOR USE WITH CAPTURES FROM RENDERED DOCUMENTS (Attorney Docket No. 435188001US1), U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, entitled INFORMATION GATHERING SYSTEM AND METHOD (Attorney Docket No. 435188005US1), U.S. patent Application No. ______, entitled DOCUMENT ENHANCEMENT SYSTEM AND METHOD (Attorney Docket No. 43518.8009US1), U.S. patent Application No. ______, entitled PUBLISHING TECHNIQUES FOR ADDING VALUE TO A RENDERED DOCUMENT (Attorney Docket No. 435188115US), U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, entitled ARCHIVE OF TEXT CAPTURES FROM RENDERED DOCUMENTS (Attorney Docket No. 435188116US), U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, entitled ADDING INFORMATION OR FUNCTIONALITY TO A RENDERED DOCUMENT VIA ASSOCIATION WITH AN ELECTRONIC COUNTERPART (Attorney Docket No. 435188118US), U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, entitled AGGREGATE ANALYSIS OF TEXT CAPTURES PERFORMED BY MULTIPLE USERS FROM RENDERED DOCUMENTS (Attorney Docket No. 435188122US), U.S. patent Application No. ______, entitled ESTABLISHING AN INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENT FOR RENDERED DOCUMENTS (Attorney Docket No. 435188123US), U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, entitled DATA CAPTURE FROM RENDERED DOCUMENTS USING HANDHELD DEVICE (Attorney Docket No. 435188117US), and U.S. patent application Ser. No. ______, entitled CAPTURING TEXT FROM RENDERED DOCUMENTS USING SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION (Attorney Docket No. 435188120US).
  • This application claims priority to, and incorporates by reference in their entirety, the following U.S. Provisional patent Applications: Application No. 60/559,226 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/558,893 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/558,968 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/558,867 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/559,278 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/559,279 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/559,265 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/559,277 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/558,969 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/558,892 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/558,760 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/558,717 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/558,499 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/558,370 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/558,789 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/558,791 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/558,527 filed on Apr. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/559,125 filed on Apr. 2, 2004, Application No. 60/558,909 filed on Apr. 2, 2004, Application No. 60/559,033 filed on Apr. 2, 2004, Application No. 60/559,127 filed on Apr. 2, 2004, Application No. 60/559,087 filed on Apr. 2, 2004, Application No. 60/559,131 filed on Apr. 2, 2004, Application No. 60/559,766 filed on Apr. 6, 2004, Application No. 60/561,768 filed on Apr. 12, 2004, Application No. 60/563,520 filed on Apr. 19, 2004, Application No. 60/563,485 filed on Apr. 19, 2004, Application No. 60/564,688 filed on Apr. 23, 2004, Application No. 60/564.846 filed on Apr. 23, 2004, Application No. 60/556,667 filed on Apr. 30, 2004, Application No. 60/571,381 filed on May 14, 2004, Application No. 60/571,560 filed on May 14, 2004, Application No. 60/571,715 filed on May 17, 2004, Application No. 60/589,203 filed on Jul. 19, 2004, Application No. 60/589,201 filed on Jul. 19, 2004, Application No. 60/589,202 filed on Jul. 19, 2004, Application No. 60/598,821 filed on Aug. 2, 2004, Application No. 60/602,956 filed on Aug. 18, 2004, Application No. 60/602,925 filed on Aug. 18, 2004, Application No. 60/602,947 filed on Aug. 18, 2004, Application No. 60/602,897 filed on Aug. 18, 2004, Application No. 60/602,896 filed on Aug. 18, 2004, Application No. 60/602,930 filed on Aug. 18, 2004, Application No. 60/602,898 filed on Aug. 18, 2004, Application No. 60/603,466 filed on Aug. 19, 2004, Application No. 60/603,082 filed on Aug. 19, 2004, Application No. 60/603,081 filed on Aug. 19, 2004, Application No. 60/603,498 filed on Aug. 20, 2004, Application No. 60/603,358 filed on Aug. 20, 2004, Application No. 60/604,103 filed on Aug. 23, 2004, Application No. 60/604,098 filed on Aug. 23, 2004, Application No. 60/604,100 filed on Aug. 23, 2004, Application No. 60/604,102 filed on Aug. 23, 2004, Application No. 60/605,229 filed on Aug. 27, 2004, Application No. 60/605,105 filed on Aug. 27, 2004, Application No. 60/613,243 filed on Sep. 27, 2004, Application No. 60/613,628 filed on Sep. 27, 2004, Application No. 60/613,632 filed on Sep. 27, 2004, Application No. 60/613,589 filed on Sep. 27, 2004, Application No. 60/613,242 filed on Sep. 27, 2004, Application No. 60/613,602 filed on Sep. 27, 2004, Application No. 60/613,340 filed on Sep. 27, 2004, Application No. 60/613,634 filed on Sep. 27, 2004, Application No. 60/613,461 filed on Sep. 27, 2004, Application No. 60/613,455 filed on Sep. 27, 2004, Application No. 60/613,460 filed on Sep. 27, 2004, Application No. 60/613,400 filed on Sep. 27, 2004, Application No. 60/613,456 filed on Sep. 27, 2004, Application No. 60/613,341 filed on Sep. 27, 2004, Application No. 60/613,361 filed on Sep. 27, 2004, Application No. 60/613,454 filed on Sep. 27, 2004, Application No. 60/613,339 filed on Sep. 27, 2004, Application No. 60/613,633 filed on Sep. 27, 2004, Application No. 60/615,378 filed on Oct. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/615,112 filed on Oct. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/615,538 filed on Oct. 1, 2004, Application No. 60/617,122 filed on Oct. 7, 2004, Application No. 60/622,906 filed on Oct. 28, 2004, Application No. 60/633,452 filed on Dec. 6, 2004, Application No. 60/633,678 filed on Dec. 6, 2004, Application No. 60/633,486 filed on Dec. 6, 2004, Application No. 60/633,453 filed on Dec. 6, 2004, Application No. 60/634,627 filed on Dec. 9, 2004, Application No. 60/634,739 filed on Dec. 9, 2004, Application No. 60/647,684 filed on Jan. 26, 2005, Application No. 60/648,746 filed on Jan. 31, 2005, Application No. 60/653,372 filed on Feb. 15, 2005, Application No. 60/653,663 filed on Feb. 16, 2005, Application No. 60/653,669 filed on Feb. 16, 2005, Application No. 60/653,899 filed on Feb. 16, 2005, Application No. 60/653,679 filed on Feb. 16, 2005, Application No. 60/653,847 filed on Feb. 16, 2005, Application No. 60/654,379 filed on Feb. 17, 2005, Application No. 60/654,368 filed on Feb. 18, 2005, Application No. 60/654,326 filed on Feb. 18, 2005, Application No. 60/654,196 filed on Feb. 18, 2005, Application No. 60/655,279 filed on Feb. 22, 2005, Application No. 60/655,280 filed on Feb. 22, 2005, Application No. 60/655,987 filed on Feb. 22, 2005, Application No. 60/655,697 filed on Feb. 22, 2005, Application No. 60/655,281 filed on Feb. 22, 2005, and Application No. 60/657,309 filed on Feb. 28, 2005.
  • TECHNICAL FIELD
  • The described technology is directed to the field of document processing. This disclosure relates generally to methods and systems for use with handheld document data capturing devices and, more particularly, relates to portable devices having the ability to capture data, such as portable optical scanners or voice input devices.
  • BACKGROUND
  • Paper documents have an enduring appeal, as can be seen by the proliferation of paper documents in the computer age. It has never been easier to print and publish paper documents than it is today. Paper documents prevail even though electronic documents are easier to duplicate, transmit, search and edit.
  • Given the popularity of paper documents and the advantages of electronic documents, it would be useful to combine the benefits of both.
  • BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
  • FIG. 1 is a data flow diagram that illustrates the flow of information in one embodiment of the core system.
  • FIG. 2 is a component diagram of components included in a typical implementation of the system in the context of a typical operating environment.
  • FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a scanner.
  • FIG. 4 illustrates a system view of an example operating environment suitable for use to practice the present invention, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • FIG. 5 illustrates an architectural view of a device suitable for use as an account server, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • FIG. 6 illustrates an overview of the protocol and methods for the various devices to interact with the scanning device for ordering an item, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • FIG. 7 illustrates the operational flow of relevant aspects of a process at the document server for determining a document context, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • FIG. 8 illustrates the operational flow of relevant aspects of a process at the account server for an item order, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • FIG. 9 illustrates an overview of the protocol and methods for the various devices to interact with the scanning device for ordering an item, in accordance with an alternative embodiment.
  • FIG. 10 illustrates the operational flow of relevant aspects of a process at the user device for an item order, in accordance with one embodiment
  • FIG. 11 illustrates an overview of the protocol and methods for the various devices to interact with the scanning device for ordering an item, in accordance with an alternative embodiment.
  • FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary catalog cover, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary catalog interior page, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • FIG. 14 illustrates an overview of an alternative protocol and methods for the various devices to interact with the scanning device, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • FIG. 15 illustrates the operational flow of relevant aspects of a process at the user device for an item order, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • FIG. 16 illustrates an exemplary contextual menu of a web page corresponding to a catalog interior page, in accordance with one embodiment.
  • DETAILED DESCRIPTION
  • Overview
  • One embodiment of a disclosed invention includes a user-friendly technique for ordering items from rendered documents (such as paper catalogs, advertisements, books, magazines, newspaper, flyers, signs and the like) using an optical capture device (such as a scanner, digital camera, cellular telephone camera, or other device capable of optically capturing at least a portion of the rendered document).
  • Another embodiment of a disclosed invention includes a user-friendly technique for ordering items from rendered documents (such as paper catalogs, advertisements, books, magazines, newspaper, flyers, signs and the like) using a voice capture device (such as voice recorder, cellular telephone, or other device capable of capturing at least a portion of the rendered document via voice input).
  • Whenever in this disclosure we refer to capturing or optically capturing data from a rendered document, it should be understood that some embodiments of this includes capturing the data by means of voice capture technology. Similarly, whenever in this disclosure we refer to an image or to image data, it should be understood that where appropriate this may be a voice image, for example a recording of the user's voice.
  • One embodiment of a disclosed invention is a method of placing an order for an item from a rendered document. The rendered document contains at least one human-readable indication of an orderable item. The method includes obtaining a captured fragment of the rendered document and communicating a representation of the captured fragment along with an identifier to a remote computer to order the item from a vendor via the Internet This embodiment may further include using a document or data capture context to search for an electronic version of the rendered document.
  • Another embodiment discloses a method of ordering an item from a rendered document, the method including establishing a document context of the rendered document; capturing a human-readable document fragment of the rendered document; and generating an order for the item. The order includes at least the document context, a representation of the document fragment and an identifier associated with a purchaser.
  • PART I—INTRODUCTION
  • 1. Nature of the System
  • For every paper document that has an electronic counterpart, there exists a discrete amount of information in the paper document that can identify the electronic counterpart. In some embodiments, the system uses a sample of text captured from a paper document, for example using a handheld scanner, to identify and locate an electronic counterpart of the document. In most cases, the amount of text needed by the facility is very small in that a few words of text from a document can often function as an identifier for the paper document and as a link to its electronic counterpart. In addition, the system may use those few words to identify not only the document, but also a location within the document.
  • Thus, paper documents and their digital counterparts can be associated in many useful ways using the system discussed herein.
  • 1.1. A Quick Overview of the Future
  • Once the system has associated a piece of text in a paper document with a particular digital entity has been established, the system is able to build a huge amount of functionality on that association.
  • It is increasingly the case that most paper documents have an electronic counterpart that is accessible on the World Wide Web or from some other online database or document corpus, or can be made accessible, such as in response to the payment of a fee or subscription. At the simplest level, then, when a user scans a few words in a paper document, the system can retrieve that electronic document or some part of it, or display it, email it to somebody, purchase it, print it or post it to a web page. As additional examples, scanning a few words of a book that a person is reading over breakfast could cause the audio-book version in the person's car to begin reading from that point when s/he starts driving to work, or scanning the serial number on a printer cartridge could begin the process of ordering a replacement.
  • The system implements these and many other examples of “paper/digital integration” without requiring changes to the current processes of writing, printing and publishing documents, giving such conventional rendered documents a whole new layer of digital functionality.
  • 1.2. Terminology
  • A typical use of the system begins with using an optical scanner to scan text from a paper document, but it is important to note that other methods of capture from other types of document are equally applicable. The system is therefore sometimes described as scanning or capturing text from a rendered document, where those terms are defined as follows:
  • A rendered document is a printed document or a document shown on a display or monitor. It is a document that is perceptible to a human, whether in permanent form or on a transitory display.
  • Scanning or capturing is the process of systematic examination to obtain information from a rendered document. The process may involve optical capture using a scanner or camera (for example a camera in a cellphone), or it may involve reading aloud from the document into an audio capture device or typing it on a keypad or keyboard. For more examples, see Section 15.
  • 2. Introduction to the System
  • This section describes some of the devices, processes and systems that constitute a system for paper/digital integration. In various embodiments, the system builds a wide variety of services and applications on this underlying core that provides the basic functionality.
  • 2.1. The Processes
  • FIG. 1 is a data flow diagram that illustrates the flow of information in one embodiment of the core system. Other embodiments may not use all of the stages or elements illustrated here, while some will use many more.
  • Text from a rendered document is captured 100, typically in optical form by an optical scanner or audio form by a voice recorder, and this image or sound data is then processed 102, for example to remove artifacts of the capture process or to improve the signal-to-noise ratio. A recognition process 104 such as OCR, speech recognition, or autocorrelation then converts the data into a signature, comprised in some embodiments of text, text offsets, or other symbols. Alternatively, the system performs an alternate form of extracting document signature from the rendered document. The signature represents a set of possible text transcriptions in some embodiments. This process may be influenced by feedback from other stages, for example, if the search process and context analysis 110 have identified some candidate documents from which the capture may originate, thus narrowing the possible interpretations of the original capture.
  • A post-processing 106 stage may take the output of the recognition process and filter it or perform such other operations upon it as may be useful. Depending upon the embodiment implemented, it may be possible at this stage to deduce some direct actions 107 to be taken immediately without reference to the later stages, such as where a phrase or symbol has been captured which contains sufficient information in itself to convey the user's intent. In these cases no digital counterpart document need be referenced, or even known to the system.
  • Typically, however, the next stage will be to construct a query 108 or a set of queries for use in searching. Some aspects of the query construction may depend on the search process used and so cannot be performed until the next stage, but there will typically be some operations, such as the removal of obviously misrecognized or irrelevant characters, which can be performed in advance.
  • The query or queries are then passed to the search and context analysis stage 110. Here, the system optionally attempts to identify the document from which the original data was captured. To do so, the system typically uses search indices and search engines 112, knowledge about the user 114 and knowledge about the user's context or the context in which the capture occurred 116. Search engine 112 may employ and/or index information specifically about rendered documents, about their digital counterpart documents, and about documents that have a web (internet) presence). It may write to, as well as read from, many of these sources and, as has been mentioned, it may feed information into other stages of the process, for example by giving the recognition system 104 information about the language, font, rendering and likely next words based on its knowledge of the candidate documents.
  • In some circumstances the next stage will be to retrieve 120 a copy of the document or documents that have been identified. The sources of the documents 124 may be directly accessible, for example from a local filing system or database or a web server, or they may need to be contacted via some access service 122 which might enforce authentication, security or payment or may provide other services such as conversion of the document into a desired format.
  • Applications of the system may take advantage of the association of extra functionality or data with part or all of a document. For example, advertising applications discussed in Section 10.4 may use an association of particular advertising messages or subjects with portions of a document. This extra associated functionality or data can be thought of as one or more overlays on the document, and is referred to herein as “markup.” The next stage of the process 130, then, is to identify any markup relevant to the captured data. Such markup may be provided by the user, the originator, or publisher of the document, or some other party, and may be directly accessible from some source 132 or may be generated by some service 134. In various embodiments, markup can be associated with, and apply to, a rendered document and/or the digital counterpart to a rendered document, or to groups of either or both of these documents.
  • Lastly, as a result of the earlier stages, some actions may be taken 140. These may be default actions such as simply recording the information found, they may be dependent on the data or document, or they may be derived from the markup analysis. Sometimes the action will simply be to pass the data to another system. In some cases the various possible actions appropriate to a capture at a specific point in a rendered document will be presented to the user as a menu on an associated display, for example on a local display 332, on a computer display 212 or a mobile phone or PDA display 216. If the user doesn't respond to the menu, the default actions can be taken.
  • 2.2. The components
  • FIG. 2 is a component diagram of components included in a typical implementation of the system in the context of a typical operating environment. As illustrated, the operating environment includes one or more optical scanning capture devices 202 or voice capture devices 204. In some embodiments, the same device performs both functions. Each capture device is able to communicate with other parts of the system such as a computer 212 and a mobile station 216 (e.g., a mobile phone or PDA) using either a direct wired or wireless connection, or through the network 220, with which it can communicate using a wired or wireless connection, the latter typically involving a wireless base station 214. In some embodiments, the capture device is integrated in the mobile station, and optionally shares some of the audio and/or optical components used in the device for voice communications and picture-taking.
  • Computer 212 may include a memory containing computer executable instructions for processing an order from scanning devices 202 and 204. As an example, an order can include an identifier (such as a serial number of the scanning device 202/204 or an identifier that partially or uniquely identifies the user of the scanner), scanning context information (e.g., time of scan, location of scan, etc.) and/or scanned information (such as a text string) that is used to uniquely identify the document being scanned. In alternative embodiments, the operating environment may include more or less components.
  • Also available on the network 220 are search engines 232, document sources 234, user account services 236, markup services 238 and other network services 239. The network 220 may be a corporate intranet, the public Internet, a mobile phone network or some other network, or any interconnection of the above.
  • Regardless of the manner by which the devices are coupled to each other, they may all may be operable in accordance with well-known commercial transaction and communication protocols (e.g., Internet Protocol (IP)). In various embodiments, the functions and capabilities of scanning device 202, computer 212, and mobile station 216 may be wholly or partially integrated into one device. Thus, the terms scanning device, computer, and mobile station can refer to the same device depending upon whether the device incorporates functions or capabilities of the scanning device 202, computer 212 and mobile station 216. In addition, some or all of the functions of the search engines 232, document sources 234, user account services 236, markup services 238 and other network services 239 may be implemented on any of the devices and/or other devices not shown.
  • 2.3. The Capture Device
  • As described above, the capture device may capture text using an optical scanner that captures image data from the rendered document, or using an audio recording device that captures a user's spoken reading of the text, or other methods. Some embodiments of the capture device may also capture images, graphical symbols and icons, etc., including machine readable codes such as barcodes. The device may be exceedingly simple, consisting of little more than the transducer, some storage, and a data interface, relying on other functionality residing elsewhere in the system, or it may be a more full-featured device. For illustration, this section describes a device based around an optical scanner and with a reasonable number of features.
  • Scanners are well known devices that capture and digitize images. An offshoot of the photocopier industry, the first scanners were relatively large devices that captured an entire document page at once. Recently, portable optical scanners have been introduced in convenient form factors, such as a pen-shaped handheld device.
  • In some embodiments, the portable scanner is used to scan text, graphics, or symbols from rendered documents. The portable scanner has a scanning element that captures text, symbols, graphics, etc, from rendered documents. In addition to documents that have been printed on paper, in some embodiments, rendered documents include documents that have been displayed on a screen such as a CRT monitor or LCD display.
  • FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an embodiment of a scanner 302. The scanner 302 comprises an optical scanning head 308 to scan information from rendered documents and convert it to machine-compatible data, and an optical path 306, typically a lens, an aperture or an image conduit to convey the image from the rendered document to the scanning head. The scanning head 308 may incorporate a Charge-Coupled Device (CCD), a Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) imaging device, or an optical sensor of another type.
  • A microphone 310 and associated circuitry convert the sound of the environment (including spoken words) into machine-compatible signals, and other input facilities exist in the form of buttons, scroll-wheels or other tactile sensors such as touch-pads 314.
  • Feedback to the user is possible through a visual display or indicator lights 332, through a loudspeaker or other audio transducer 334 and through a vibrate module 336.
  • The scanner 302 comprises logic 326 to interact with the various other components, possibly processing the received signals into different formats and/or interpretations. Logic 326 may be operable to read and write data and program instructions stored in associated storage 330 such as RAM, ROM, flash, or other suitable memory. It may read a time signal from the clock unit 328. The scanner 302 also includes an interface 316 to communicate scanned information and other signals to a network and/or an associated computing device. In some embodiments, the scanner 302 may have an on-board power supply 332. In other embodiments, the scanner 302 may be powered from a tethered connection to another device, such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connection.
  • As an example of one use of scanner 302, a reader may scan some text from a newspaper article with scanner 302. The text is scanned as a bit-mapped image via the scanning head 308. Logic 326 causes the bit-mapped image to be stored in memory 330 with an associated time-stamp read from the clock unit 328. Logic 326 may also perform optical character recognition (OCR) or other post-scan processing on the bit-mapped image to convert it to text. Logic 326 may optionally extract a signature from the image, for example by performing a convolution-like process to locate repeating occurrences of characters, symbols or objects, and determine the distance or number of other characters, symbols, or objects between these repeated elements. The reader may then upload the bit-mapped image (or text or other signature, if post-scan processing has been performed by logic 326) to an associated computer via interface 316.
  • As an example of another use of scanner 302, a reader may capture some text from an article as an audio file by using microphone 310 as an acoustic capture port. Logic 326 causes audio file to be stored in memory 328. Logic 326 may also perform voice recognition or other post-scan processing on the audio file to convert it to text. As above, the reader may then upload the audio file (or text produced by post-scan processing performed by logic 326) to an associated computer via interface 316.
  • PART II—OVERVIEW OF THE AREAS OF THE CORE SYSTEM
  • As paper-digital integration becomes more common, there are many aspects of existing technologies that can be changed to take better advantage of this integration, or to enable it to be implemented more effectively. This section highlights some of those issues.
  • 3. Search
  • Searching a corpus of documents, even so large a corpus as the World Wide Web, has become commonplace for ordinary users, who use a keyboard to construct a search query which is sent to a search engine. This section and the next discuss the aspects of both the construction of a query originated by a capture from a rendered document, and the search engine that handles such a query.
  • 3.1. Scan/Speak/Type as Search Query
  • Use of the described system typically starts with a few words being captured from a rendered document using any of several methods, including those mentioned in Section 1.2 above. Where the input needs some interpretation to convert it to text, for example in the case of OCR or speech input, there may be end-to-end feedback in the system so that the document corpus can be used to enhance the recognition process. End-to-end feedback can be applied by performing an approximation of the recognition or interpretation, identifying a set of one or more candidate matching documents, and then using information from the possible matches in the candidate documents to further refine or restrict the recognition or interpretation. Candidate documents can be weighted according to their probable relevance (for example, based on then number of other users who have scanned in these documents, or their popularity on the Internet), and these weights can be applied in this iterative recognition process.
  • 3.2. Short Phrase Searching
  • Because the selective power of a search query based on a few words is greatly enhanced when the relative positions of these words are known, only a small amount of text need be captured for the system to identify the text's location in a corpus. Most commonly, the input text will be a contiguous sequence of words, such as a short phrase.
  • 3.2.1. Finding Document and Location in Document from Short Capture
  • In addition to locating the document from which a phrase originates, the system can identify the location in that document and can take action based on this knowledge.
  • 3.2.2. Other Methods of Finding Location
  • The system may also employ other methods of discovering the document and location, such as by using watermarks or other special markings on the rendered document.
  • 3.3. Incorporation of other Factors in Search Query
  • In addition to the captured text, other factors (i.e., information about user identity, profile, and context) may form part of the search query, such as the time of the capture, the identity and geographical location of the user, knowledge of the user's habits and recent activities, etc.
  • The document identity and other information related to previous captures, especially if they were quite recent, may form part of a search query.
  • The identity of the user may be determined from a unique identifier associated with a capturing device, and/or biometric or other supplemental information (speech patterns, fingerprints, etc.).
  • 3.4. Knowledge of Nature of Unreliability in Search Query (OCR Errors etc)
  • The search query can be constructed taking into account the types of errors likely to occur in the particular capture method used. One example of this is an indication of suspected errors in the recognition of specific characters; in this instance a search engine may treat these characters as wildcards, or assign them a lower priority.
  • 3.5. Local Caching of Index for Performance/Offline Use
  • Sometimes the capturing device may not be in communication with the search engine or corpus at the time of the data capture. For this reason, information helpful to the offline use of the device may be downloaded to the device in advance, or to some entity with which the device can communicate. In some cases, all or a substantial part of an index associated with a corpus may be downloaded. This topic is discussed further in Section 15.3.
  • 3.6. Queries, in Whatever Form, may be Recorded and Acted on Later
  • If there are likely to be delays or cost associated with communicating a query or receiving the results, this pre-loaded information can improve the performance of the local device, reduce communication costs, and provide helpful and timely user feedback.
  • In the situation where no communication is available (the local device is “offline”), the queries may be saved and transmitted to the rest of the system at such a time as communication is restored.
  • In these cases it may be important to transmit a timestamp with each query. The time of the capture can be a significant factor in the interpretation of the query. For example, Section 13.1 discusses the importance of the time of capture in relation to earlier captures. It is important to note that the time of capture will not always be the same as the time that the query is executed.
  • 3.7. Parallel Searching
  • For performance reasons, multiple queries may be launched in response to a single capture, either in sequence or in parallel. Several queries may be sent in response to a single capture, for example as new words are added to the capture, or to query multiple search engines in parallel.
  • For example, in some embodiments, the system sends queries to a special index for the current document, to a search engine on a local machine, to a search engine on the corporate network, and to remote search engines on the Internet.
  • The results of particular searches may be given higher priority than those from others.
  • The response to a given query may indicate that other pending queries are superfluous; these may be cancelled before completion.
  • 4. Paper and Search Engines
  • Often it is desirable for a search engine that handles traditional online queries also to handle those originating from rendered documents. Conventional search engines may be enhanced or modified in a number of ways to make them more suitable for use with the described system.
  • The search engine and/or other components of the system may create and maintain indices that have different or extra features. The system may modify an incoming paper-originated query or change the way the query is handled in the resulting search, thus distinguishing these paper-originated queries from those coming from queries typed into web browsers and other sources. And the system may take different actions or offer different options when the results are returned by the searches originated from paper as compared to those from other sources. Each of these approaches is discussed below.
  • 4.1. Indexing
  • Often, the same index can be searched using either paper-originated or traditional queries, but the index may be enhanced for use in the current system in a variety of ways.
  • 4.1.1. Knowledge about the Paper Form
  • Extra fields can be added to such an index that will help in the case of a paper-based search.
  • Index Entry Indicating Document Availability in Paper Form
  • The first example is a field indicating that the document is known to exist or be distributed in paper form. The system may give such documents higher priority if the query comes from paper.
  • Knowledge of Popularity Paper Form
  • In this example statistical data concerning the popularity of paper documents (and, optionally, concerning sub-regions within these documents)—for example the amount of scanning activity, circulation numbers provided by the publisher or other sources, etc—is used to give such documents higher priority, to boost the priority of digital counterpart documents (for example, for browser-based queries or web searches), etc.
  • Knowledge of Rendered Format
  • Another important example may be recording information about the layout of a specific rendering of a document.
  • For a particular edition of a book, for example, the index may include information about where the line breaks and page breaks occur, which fonts were used, any unusual capitalization.
  • The index may also include information about the proximity of other items on the page, such as images, text boxes, tables and advertisements.
  • Use of Semantic Information in Original
  • Lastly, semantic information that can be deduced from the source markup but is not apparent in the paper document, such as the fact that a particular piece of text refers to an item offered for sale, or that a certain paragraph contains program code, may also be recorded in the index.
  • 4.1.2. Indexing in the Knowledge of the Capture Method
  • A second factor that may modify the nature of the index is the knowledge of the type of capture likely to be used. A search initiated by an optical scan may benefit if the index takes into account characters that are easily confused in the OCR process, or includes some knowledge of the fonts used in the document. Similarly, if the query is from speech recognition, an index based on similar-sounding phonemes may be much more efficiently searched. An additional factor that may affect the use of the index in the described model is the importance of iterative feedback during the recognition process. If the search engine is able to provide feedback from the index as the text is being captured, it can greatly increase the accuracy of the capture.
  • Indexing Using Offsets
  • If the index is likely to be searched using the offset-based/autocorrelation OCR methods described in Section 9, in some embodiments, the system stores the appropriate offset or signature information in an index.
  • 4.1.3. Multiple Indices
  • Lastly, in the described system, it may be common to conduct searches on many indices. Indices may be maintained on several machines on a corporate network. Partial indices may be downloaded to the capture device, or to a machine close to the capture device. Separate indices may be created for users or groups of users with particular interests, habits or permissions. An index may exist for each filesystem, each directory, even each file on a user's hard disk. Indexes are published and subscribed to by users and by systems. It will be important, then, to construct indices that can be distributed, updated, merged and separated efficiently.
  • 4.2. Handling the Queries
  • 4.2.1. Knowing the Capture is from Paper
  • A search engine may take different actions when it recognizes that a search query originated from a paper document. The engine might handle the query in a way that is more tolerant to the types of errors likely to appear in certain capture methods, for example.
  • It may be able to deduce this from some indicator included in the query (for example a flag indicating the nature of the capture), or it may deduce this from the query itself (for example, it may recognize errors or uncertainties typical of the OCR process).
  • Alternatively, queries from a capture device can reach the engine by a different channel or port or type of connection than those from other sources, and can be distinguished in that way. For example, some embodiments of the system will route queries to the search engine by way of a dedicated gateway. Thus, the search engine knows that all queries passing through the dedicated gateway were originated from a paper document.
  • 4.2.2. Use of Context
  • Section 13 below describes a variety of different factors which are external to the captured text itself, yet which can be a significant aid in identifying a document. These include such things as the history of recent scans, the longer-term reading habits of a particular user, the geographic location of a user and the user's recent use of particular electronic documents. Such factors are referred to herein as “context.”
  • Some of the context may be handled by the search engine itself, and be reflected in the search results. For example, the search engine may keep track of a user's scanning history, and may also cross-reference this scanning history to conventional keyboard-based queries. In such cases, the search engine maintains and uses more state information about each individual user than do most conventional search engines, and each interaction with a search engine may be considered to extend over several searches and a longer period of time than is typical today.
  • Some of the context may be transmitted to the search engine in the search query (Section 3.3), and may possibly be stored at the engine so as to play a part in future queries. Lastly, some of the context will best be handled elsewhere, and so becomes a filter or secondary search applied to the results from the search engine.
  • Data-Stream Input to Search
  • An important input into the search process is the broader context of how the community of users is interacting with the rendered version of the document—for example, which documents are most widely read and by whom. There are analogies with a web search returning the pages that are most frequently linked to, or those that are most frequently selected from past search results. For further discussion of this topic, see Sections 13.4 and 14.2.
  • 4.2.3. Document Sub-Regions
  • The described system can emit and use not only information about documents as a whole, but also information about sub-regions of documents, even down to individual words. Many existing search engines concentrate simply on locating a document or file that is relevant to a particular query. Those that can work on a finer grain and identify a location within a document will provide a significant benefit for the described system.
  • 4.3. Returning the Results
  • The search engine may use some of the further information it now maintains to affect the results returned.
  • The system may also return certain documents to which the user has access only as a result of being in possession of the paper copy (Section 7.4).
  • The search engine may also offer new actions or options appropriate to the described system, beyond simple retrieval of the text.
  • 5. Markup Annotations and Metadata
  • In addition to performing the capture-search-retrieve process, the described system also associates extra functionality with a document, and in particular with specific locations or segments of text within a document. This extra functionality is often, though not exclusively, associated with the rendered document by being associated with its electronic counterpart. As an example, hyperlinks in a web page could have the same functionality when a printout of that web page is scanned. In some cases, the functionality is not defined in the electronic document, but is stored or generated elsewhere.
  • This layer of added functionality is referred to herein as “markup.”
  • 5.1. Overlays, Static and Dynamic
  • One way to think of the markup is as an “overlay” on the document, which provides further information about—and may specify actions associated with—the document or some portion of it. The markup may include human-readable content, but is often invisible to a user and/or intended for machine use. Examples include options to be displayed in a popup-menu on a nearby display when a user captures text from a particular area in a rendered document, or audio samples that illustrate the pronunciation of a particular phrase.
  • 5.1.1. Several Layers, Possibly from Several Sources
  • Any document may have multiple overlays simultaneously, and these may be sourced from a variety of locations. Markup data may be created or supplied by the author of the document, or by the user, or by some other party.
  • Markup data may be attached to the electronic document or embedded in it. It may be found in a conventional location (for example, in the same place as the document but with a different filename suffix). Markup data may be included in the search results of the query that located the original document, or may be found by a separate query to the same or another search engine. Markup data may be found using the original captured text and other capture information or contextual information, or it may be found using already-deduced information about the document and location of the capture. Markup data may be found in a location specified in the document, even if the markup itself is not included in the document.
  • The markup may be largely static and specific to the document, similar to the way links on a traditional html web page are often embedded as static data within the html document, but markup may also be dynamically generated and/or applied to a large number of documents. An example of dynamic markup is information attached to a document that includes the up-to-date share price of companies mentioned in that document. An example of broadly applied markup is translation information that is automatically available on multiple documents or sections of documents in a particular language.
  • 5.1.2. Personal “Plug-In” Layers
  • Users may also install, or subscribe to particular sources of, markup data, thus personalizing the system's response to particular captures. 5.2. Keywords and phrases, trademarks and logos
  • Some elements in documents may have particular “markup” or functionality associated with them based on their own characteristics rather than their location in a particular document. Examples include special marks that are printed in the document purely for the purpose of being scanned, as well as logos and trademarks that can link the user to further information about the organization concerned. The same applies to “keywords” or “key phrases” in the text. Organizations might register particular phrases with which they are associated, or with which they would like to be associated, and attach certain markup to them that would be available wherever that phrase was scanned.
  • Any word, phrase, etc. may have associated markup. For example, the system may add certain items to a pop-up menu (e.g., a link to an online bookstore) whenever the user captures the word “book,” or the title of a book, or a topic related to books. In some embodiments, of the system, digital counterpart documents or indices are consulted to determine whether a capture occurred near the word “book,” or the title of a book, or a topic related to books—and the system behavior is modified in accordance with this proximity to keyword elements. In the preceding example, note that markup enables data captured from non-commercial text or documents to trigger a commercial transaction.
  • 5.3. User-Supplied Content
  • 5.3.1. User Comments and Annotations, Including Multimedia
  • Annotations are another type of electronic information that may be associated with a document. For example, a user can attach an audio file of his/her thoughts about a particular document for later retrieval as voice annotations. As another example of a multimedia annotation, a user may attach photographs of places referred to in the document. The user generally supplies annotations for the document but the system can associate annotations from other sources (for example, other users in a work group may share annotations).
  • 5.3.2. Notes from Proof-Reading
  • An important example of user-sourced markup is the annotation of paper documents as part of a proofreading, editing or reviewing process.
  • 5.4. Third-Party Content
  • As mentioned earlier, markup data may often be supplied by third parties, such as by other readers of the document. Online discussions and reviews are a good example, as are community-managed information relating to particular works, volunteer-contributed translations and explanations.
  • Another example of third-party markup is that provided by advertisers.
  • 5.5. Dynamic Markup Based on other Users' Data Streams
  • By analyzing the data captured from documents by several or all users of the system, markup can be generated based on the activities and interests of a community. An example might be an online bookstore that creates markup or annotations that tell the user, in effect, “People who enjoyed this book also enjoyed . . . . ” The markup may be less anonymous, and may tell the user which of the people in his/her contact list have also read this document recently. Other examples of datastream analysis are included in Section 14.
  • 5.6. Markup Based on External Events and Data Sources
  • Markup will often be based on external events and data sources, such as input from a corporate database, information from the public Internet, or statistics gathered by the local operating system.
  • Data sources may also be more local, and in particular may provide information about the user's context—his/her identity, location and activities. For example, the system might communicate with the user's mobile phone and offer a markup layer that gives the user the option to send a document to somebody that the user has recently spoken to on the phone.
  • 6. Authentication, Personalization and Security
  • In many situations, the identity of the user will be known. Sometimes this will be an “anonymous identity,” where the user is identified only by the serial number of the capture device, for example. Typically, however, it is expected that the system will have a much more detailed knowledge of the user, which can be used for personalizing the system and to allow activities and transactions to be performed in the user's name.
  • 6.1. User History and “Life Library”
  • One of the simplest and yet most useful functions that the system can perform is to keep a record for a user of the text that s/he has captured and any further information related to that capture, including the details of any documents found, the location within that document and any actions taken as a result.
  • This stored history is beneficial for both the user and the system.
  • 6.1.1. For the User
  • The user can be presented with a “Life Library,” a record of everything s/he has read and captured. This may be simply for personal interest, but may be used, for example, in a library by an academic who is gathering material for the bibliography of his next paper.
  • In some circumstances, the user may wish to make the library public, such as by publishing it on the web in a similar manner to a weblog, so that others may see what s/he is reading and finds of interest.
  • Lastly, in situations where the user captures some text and the system cannot immediately act upon the capture (for example, because an electronic version of the document is not yet available) the capture can be stored in the library and can be processed later, either automatically or in response to a user request. A user can also subscribe to new markup services and apply them to previously captured scans.
  • 6.1.2. For the System
  • A record of a user's past captures is also useful for the system. Many aspects of the system operation can be enhanced by knowing the user's reading habits and history. The simplest example is that any scan made by a user is more likely to come from a document that the user has scanned in the recent past, and in particular if the previous scan was within the last few minutes it is very likely to be from the same document. Similarly, it is more likely that a document is being read in start-to-finish order. Thus, for English documents, it is also more likely that later scans will occur farther down in the document. Such factors can help the system establish the location of the capture in cases of ambiguity, and can also reduce the amount of text that needs to be captured.
  • 6.2. Scanner as Payment, Identity and Authentication Device
  • Because the capture process generally begins with a device of some sort, typically an optical scanner or voice recorder, this device may be used as a key that identifies the user and authorizes certain actions.
  • 6.2.1. Associate Scanner with Phone or Other Account
  • The device may be embedded in a mobile phone or in some other way associated with a mobile phone account. For example, a scanner may be associated with a mobile phone account by inserting a SIM card associated with the account into the scanner. Similarly, the device may be embedded in a credit card or other payment card, or have the facility for such a card to be connected to it. The device may therefore be used as a payment token, and financial transactions may be initiated by the capture from the rendered document.
  • 6.2.2. Using Scanner Input for Authentication
  • The scanner may also be associated with a particular user or account through the process of scanning some token, symbol or text associated with that user or account. In addition, scanner may be used for biometric identification, for example by scanning the fingerprint of the user. In the case of an audio-based capture device, the system may identify the user by matching the voice pattern of the user or by requiring the user to speak a certain password or phrase.
  • For example, where a user scans a quote from a book and is offered the option to buy the book from an online retailer, the user can select this option, and is then prompted to scan his/her fingerprint to confirm the transaction.
  • See also Sections 15.5 and 15.6.
  • 6.2.3. Secure Scanning Device
  • When the capture device is used to identify and authenticate the user, and to initiate transactions on behalf of the user, it is important that communications between the device and other parts of the system are secure. It is also important to guard against such situations as another device impersonating a scanner, and so-called “man in the middle” attacks where communications between the device and other components are intercepted.
  • Techniques for providing such security are well understood in the art; in various embodiments, the hardware and software in the device and elsewhere in the system are configured to implement such techniques.
  • 7. Publishing Models and Elements
  • An advantage of the described system is that there is no need to alter the traditional processes of creating, printing or publishing documents in order to gain many of the system's benefits. There are reasons, though, that the creators or publishers of a document—hereafter simply referred to as the “publishers”—may wish to create functionality to support the described system.
  • This section is primarily concerned with the published documents themselves. For information about other related commercial transactions, such as advertising, see Section 10 entitled “P-Commerce.”
  • 7.1. Electronic Companions to Printed Documents
  • The system allows for printed documents to have an associated electronic presence. Conventionally publishers often ship a CD-ROM with a book that contains further digital information, tutorial movies and other multimedia data, sample code or documents, or further reference materials. In addition, some publishers maintain web sites associated with particular publications which provide such materials, as well as information which may be updated after the time of publishing, such as errata, further comments, updated reference materials, bibliographies and further sources of relevant data, and translations into other languages. Online forums allow readers to contribute their comments about the publication.
  • The described system allows such materials to be much more closely tied to the rendered document than ever before, and allows the discovery of and interaction with them to be much easier for the user. By capturing a portion of text from the document, the system can automatically connect the user to digital materials associated with the document, and more particularly associated with that specific part of the document. Similarly, the user can be connected to online communities that discuss that section of the text, or to annotations and commentaries by other readers. In the past, such information would typically need to be found by searching for a particular page number or chapter.
  • An example application of this is in the area of academic textbooks (Section 17.5).
  • 7.2. “Subscriptions” to Printed Documents
  • Some publishers may have mailing lists to which readers can subscribe if they wish to be notified of new relevant matter or when a new edition of the book is published. With the described system, the user can register an interest in particular documents or parts of documents more easily, in some cases even before the publisher has considered providing any such functionality. The reader's interest can be fed to the publisher, possibly affecting their decision about when and where to provide updates, further information, new editions or even completely new publications on topics that have proved to be of interest in existing books.
  • 7.3. Printed Marks with Special Meaning or Containing Special Data
  • Many aspects of the system are enabled simply through the use of the text already existing in a document. If the document is produced in the knowledge that it may be used in conjunction with the system, however, extra functionality can be added by printing extra information in the form of special marks, which may be used to identify the text or a required action more closely, or otherwise enhance the document's interaction with the system. The simplest and most important example is an indication to the reader that the document is definitely accessible through the system. A special icon might be used, for example, to indicate that this document has an online discussion forum associated with it.
  • Such symbols may be intended purely for the reader, or they may be recognized by the system when scanned and used to initiate some action. Sufficient data may be encoded in the symbol to identify more than just the symbol: it may also store information, for example about the document, edition, and location of the symbol, which could be recognized and read by the system.
  • 7.4. Authorization through Possession of the Paper Document
  • There are some situations where possession of or access to the printed document would entitle the user to certain privileges, for example, the access to an electronic copy of the document or to additional materials. With the described system, such privileges could be granted simply as a result of the user capturing portions of text from the document, or scanning specially printed symbols. In cases where the system needed to ensure that the user was in possession of the entire document, it might prompt the user to scan particular items or phrases from particular pages, e.g. “the second line of page 46.”
  • 7.5. Documents which Expire
  • If the printed document is a gateway to extra materials and functionality, access to such features can also be time-limited. After the expiry date, a user may be required to pay a fee or obtain a newer version of the document to access the features again. The paper document will, of course, still be usable, but will lose some of its enhanced electronic functionality. This may be desirable, for example, because there is profit for the publisher in receiving fees for access to electronic materials, or in requiring the user to purchase new editions from time to time, or because there are disadvantages associated with outdated versions of the printed document remaining in circulation. Coupons are an example of a type of commercial document that can have an expiration date.
  • 7.6. Popularity Analysis and Publishing Decisions
  • Section 10.5 discusses the use of the system's statistics to influence compensation of authors and pricing of advertisements.
  • In some embodiments, the system deduces the popularity of a publication from the activity in the electronic community associated with it as well as from the use of the paper document. These factors may help publishers to make decisions about what they will publish in future. If a chapter in an existing book, for example, turns out to be exceedingly popular, it may be worth expanding into a separate publication.
  • 8.Document Access Services
  • An important aspect of the described system is the ability to provide to a user who has access to a rendered copy of a document access to an electronic version of that document. In some cases, a document is freely available on a public network or a private network to which the user has access. The system uses the captured text to identify, locate and retrieve the document, in some cases displaying it on the user's screen or depositing it in their email inbox.
  • In some cases, a document will be available in electronic form, but for a variety of reasons may not be accessible to the user. There may not be sufficient connectivity to retrieve the document, the user may not be entitled to retrieve it, there may be a cost associated with gaining access to it, or the document may have been withdrawn and possibly replaced by a new version, to name just a few possibilities. The system typically provides feedback to the user about these situations.
  • As mentioned in Section 7.4, the degree or nature of the access granted to a particular user may be different if it is known that the user already has access to a printed copy of the document.
  • 8.1. Authenticated Document Access
  • Access to the document may be restricted to specific users, or to those meeting particular criteria, or may only be available in certain circumstances, for example when the user is connected to a secure network. Section 6 describes some of the ways in which the credentials of a user and scanner may be established.
  • 8.2. Document Purchase—Copyright-Owner Compensation
  • Documents that are not freely available to the general public may still be accessible on payment of a fee, often as compensation to the publisher or copyright-holder. The system may implement payment facilities directly or may make use of other payment methods associated with the user, including those described in Section 6.2.
  • 8.3. Document Escrow and Proactive Retrieval
  • Electronic documents are often transient; the digital source version of a rendered document may be available now but inaccessible in future. The system may retrieve and store the existing version on behalf of the user, even if the user has not requested it, thus guaranteeing its availability should the user request it in future. This also makes it available for the system's use, for example for searching as part of the process of identifying future captures.
  • In the event that payment is required for access to the document, a trusted “document escrow” service can retrieve the document on behalf of the user, such as upon payment of a modest fee, with the assurance that the copyright holder will be fully compensated in future if the user should ever request the document from the service.
  • Variations on this theme can be implemented if the document is not available in electronic form at the time of capture. The user can authorize the service to submit a request for or make a payment for the document on his/her behalf if the electronic document should become available at a later date.
  • 8.4. Association with other Subscriptions and Accounts
  • Sometimes payment may be waived, reduced or satisfied based on the user's existing association with another account or subscription. Subscribers to the printed version of a newspaper might automatically be entitled to retrieve the electronic version, for example.
  • In other cases, the association may not be quite so direct: a user may be granted access based on an account established by their employer, or based on their scanning of a printed copy owned by a friend who is a subscriber.
  • 8.5. Replacing Photocopying with Scan-and-Print
  • The process of capturing text from a paper document, identifying an electronic original, and printing that original, or some portion of that original associated with the capture, forms an alternative to traditional photocopying with many advantages:
  • the paper document need not be in the same location as the final printout, and in any case need not be there at the same time
  • the wear and damage caused to documents by the photocopying process, especially to old, fragile and valuable documents, can be avoided
  • the quality of the copy is typically be much higher
  • records may be kept about which documents or portions of documents are the most frequently copied
  • payment may be made to the copyright owner as part of the process
  • unauthorized copying may be prohibited
  • 8.6. Locating Valuable Originals from Photocopies
  • When documents are particularly valuable, as in the case of legal instruments or documents that have historical or other particular significance, people may typically work from copies of those documents, often for many years, while the originals are kept in a safe location.
  • The described system could be coupled to a database which records the location of an original document, for example in an archiving warehouse, making it easy for somebody with access to a copy to locate the archived original paper document.
  • 9. Text Recognition Technologies
  • Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technologies have traditionally focused on images that include a large amount of text, for example from a flat-bed scanner capturing a whole page. OCR technologies often need substantial training and correcting by the user to produce useful text. OCR technologies often require substantial processing power on the machine doing the OCR, and, while many systems use a dictionary, they are generally expected to operate on an effectively infinite vocabulary.
  • All of the above traditional characteristics may be improved upon in the described system.
  • While this section focuses on OCR, many of the issues discussed map directly onto other recognition technologies, in particular speech recognition. As mentioned in Section 3.1, the process of capturing from paper may be achieved by a user reading the text aloud into a device which captures audio. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that principles discussed here with respect to images, fonts, and text fragments often also apply to audio samples, user speech models and phonemes.
  • 9.1. Optimization for Appropriate Devices
  • A scanning device for use with the described system will often be small, portable, and low power. The scanning device may capture only a few words at a time, and in some implementations does not even capture a whole character at once, but rather a horizontal slice through the text, many such slices being stitched together to form a recognizable signal from which the text may be deduced. The scanning device may also have very limited processing power or storage so, while in some embodiments it may perform all of the OCR process itself, many embodiments will depend on a connection to a more powerful device, possibly at a later time, to convert the captured signals into text. Lastly, it may have very limited facilities for user interaction, so may need to defer any requests for user input until later, or operate in a “best-guess” mode to a greater degree than is common now.
  • 9.2. “Uncertain” OCR
  • The primary new characteristic of OCR within the described system is the fact that it will, in general, examine images of text which exists elsewhere and which may be retrieved in digital form. An exact transcription of the text is therefore not always required from the OCR engine. The OCR system may output a set or a matrix of possible matches, in some cases including probability weightings, which can still be used to search for the digital original.
  • 9.3. Iterative OCR—Guess, Disambiguate, Guess
  • If the device performing the recognition is able to contact the document index at the time of processing, then the OCR process can be informed by the contents of the document corpus as it progresses, potentially offering substantially greater recognition accuracy.
  • Such a connection will also allow the device to inform the user when sufficient text has been captured to identify the digital source.
  • 9.4. Using Knowledge of Likely Rendering
  • When the system has knowledge of aspects of the likely printed rendering of a document—such as the font typeface used in printing, or the layout of the page, or which sections are in italics—this too can help in the recognition process. (Section 4.1.1)
  • 9.5. Font Caching—Determine Font on Host, Download to Client
  • As candidate source texts in the document corpus are identified, the font, or a rendering of it, may be downloaded to the device to help with the recognition.
  • 9.6. Autocorrelation and Character Offsets
  • While component characters of a text fragment may be the most recognized way to represent a fragment of text that may be used as a document signature, other representations of the text may work sufficiently well that the actual text of a text fragment need not be used when attempting to locate the text fragment in a digital document and/or database, or when disambiguating the representation of a text fragment into a readable form. Other representations of text fragments may provide benefits that actual text representations lack. For example, optical character recognition of text fragments is often prone to errors, unlike other representations of captured text fragments that may be used to search for and/or recreate a text fragment without resorting to optical character recognition for the entire fragment. Such methods may be more appropriate for some devices used with the current system.
  • Those of ordinary skill in the art and others will appreciate that there are many ways of describing the appearance of text fragments. Such characterizations of text fragments may include, but are not limited to, word lengths, relative word lengths, character heights, character widths, character shapes, character frequencies, token frequencies, and the like. In some embodiments, the offsets between matching text tokens (i.e., the number of intervening tokens plus one) are used to characterize fragments of text.
  • Conventional OCR uses knowledge about fonts, letter structure and shape to attempt to determine characters in scanned text. Embodiments of the present invention are different; they employ a variety of methods that use the rendered text itself to assist in the recognition process. These embodiments use characters (or tokens) to “recognize each other.” One way to refer to such self-recognition is “template matching,” and is similar to “convolution.” To perform such self-recognition, the system slides a copy of the text horizontally over itself and notes matching regions of the text images. Prior template matching and convolution techniques encompass a variety of related techniques. These techniques to tokenize and/or recognize characters/tokens will be collectively referred to herein as “autocorrelation,” as the text is used to correlate with its own component parts when matching characters/tokens.
  • When autocorrelating, complete connected regions that match are of interest. This occurs when characters (or groups of characters) overlay other instances of the same character (or group). Complete connected regions that match automatically provide tokenizing of the text into component tokens. As the two copies of the text are slid past each other, the regions where perfect matching occurs (i.e., all pixels in a vertical slice are matched) are noted. When a character/token matches itself, the horizontal extent of this matching (e.g., the connected matching portion of the text) also matches.
  • Note that at this stage there is no need to determine the actual identity of each token (i.e., the particular letter, digit or symbol, or group of these, that corresponds to the token image), only the offset to the next occurrence of the same token in the scanned text. The offset number is the distance (number of tokens) to the next occurrence of the same token. If the token is unique within the text string, the offset is zero (0). The sequence of token offsets thus generated is a signature that can be used to identify the scanned text.
  • In some embodiments, the token offsets determined for a string of scanned tokens are compared to an index that indexes a corpus of electronic documents based upon the token offsets of their contents (Section 4.1.2). In other embodiments, the token offsets determined for a string of scanned tokens are converted to text, and compared to a more conventional index that indexes a corpus of electronic documents based upon their contents
  • As has been noted earlier, a similar token-correlation process may be applied to speech fragments when the capture process consists of audio samples of spoken words.
  • 9.7. Font/Character “Self-Recognition”
  • Conventional template-matching OCR compares scanned images to a library of character images. In essence, the alphabet is stored for each font and newly scanned images are compared to the stored images to find matching characters. The process generally has an initial delay until the correct font has been identified. After that, the OCR process is relatively quick because most documents use the same font throughout. Subsequent images can therefore be converted to text by comparison with the most recently identified font library.
  • The shapes of characters in most commonly used fonts are related. For example, in most fonts, the letter “c” and the letter “e” are visually related—as are “t” and “f,” etc. The OCR process is enhanced by use of this relationship to construct templates for letters that have not been scanned yet. For example, where a reader scans a short string of text from a paper document in a previously unencountered font such that the system does not have a set of image templates with which to compare the scanned images the system can leverage the probable relationship between certain characters to construct the font template library even though it has not yet encountered all of the letters in the alphabet. The system can then use the constructed font template library to recognize subsequent scanned text and to further refine the constructed font library.
  • 9.8. Send Anything Unrecognized (Including Graphics) to Server
  • When images cannot be machine-transcribed into a form suitable for use in a search process, the images themselves can be saved for later use by the user, for possible manual transcription, or for processing at a later date when different resources may be available to the system.
  • 10. P-Commerce
  • Many of the actions made possible by the system result in some commercial transaction taking place. The phrase p-commerce is used herein to describe commercial activities initiated from paper via the system.
  • 10.1. Sales Of Documents from Their Physical Printed Copies.
  • When a user captures text from a document, the user may be offered that document for purchase either in paper or electronic form. The user may also be offered related documents, such as those quoted or otherwise referred to in the paper document, or those on a similar subject, or those by the same author.
  • 10.2. Sales of Anything Else Initiated or Aided by Paper
  • The capture of text may be linked to other commercial activities in a variety of ways. The captured text may be in a catalog that is explicitly designed to sell items, in which case the text will be associated fairly directly with the purchase of an item (Section 18.2). The text may also be part of an advertisement, in which case a sale of the item being advertised may ensue.
  • In other cases, the user captures other text from which their potential interest in a commercial transaction may be deduced. A reader of a novel set in a particular country, for example, might be interested in a holiday there. Someone reading a review of a new car might be considering purchasing it. The user may capture a particular fragment of text knowing that some commercial opportunity will be presented to them as a result, or it may be a side-effect of their capture activities.
  • 10.3. Capture of Labels, Icons, Serial Numbers, Barcodes on an Item Resulting in a Sale
  • Sometimes text or symbols are actually printed on an item or its packaging. An example is the serial number or product id often found on a label on the back or underside of a piece of electronic equipment. The system can offer the user a convenient way to purchase one or more of the same items by capturing that text. They may also be offered manuals, support or repair services.
  • 10.4. Contextual Advertisements
  • In addition to the direct capture of text from an advertisement, the system allows for a new kind of advertising which is not necessarily explicitly in the rendered document, but is nonetheless based on what people are reading.
  • 10.4.1. Advertising Based on Scan Context and History
  • In a traditional paper publication, advertisements generally consume a large amount of space relative to the text of a newspaper article, and a limited number of them can be placed around a particular article. In the described system, advertising can be associated with individual words or phrases, and can selected according to the particular interest the user has shown by capturing that text and possibly taking into account their history of past scans.
  • With the described system, it is possible for a purchase to be tied to a particular printed document and for an advertiser to get significantly more feedback about the effectiveness of their advertising in particular print publications.
  • 10.4.2. Advertising Based on User Context and History
  • The system may gather a large amount of information about other aspects of a user's context for its own use (Section 13); estimates of the geographical location of the user are a good example. Such data can also be used to tailor the advertising presented to a user of the system.
  • 10.5. Models of Compensation
  • The system enables some new models of compensation for advertisers and marketers. The publisher of a printed document containing advertisements may receive some income from a purchase that originated from their document. This may be true whether or not the advertisement existed in the original printed form; it may have been added electronically either by the publisher, the advertiser or some third party, and the sources of such advertising may have been subscribed to by the user.
  • 10.5.1. Popularity-Based Compensation
  • Analysis of the statistics generated by the system can reveal the popularity of certain parts of a publication (Section 14.2). In a newspaper, for example, it might reveal the amount of time readers spend looking at a particular page or article, or the popularity of a particular columnist. In some circumstances, it may be appropriate for an author or publisher to receive compensation based on the activities of the readers rather than on more traditional metrics such as words written or number of copies distributed. An author whose work becomes a frequently read authority on a subject might be considered differently in future contracts from one whose books have sold the same number of copies but are rarely opened. (See also Section 7.6)
  • 10.5.2. Popularity-Based Advertising
  • Decisions about advertising in a document may also be based on statistics about the readership. The advertising space around the most popular columnists may be sold at a premium rate. Advertisers might even be charged or compensated some time after the document is published based on knowledge about how it was received.
  • 10.6. Marketing Based on Life Library
  • The “Life Library” or scan history described in Sections 6.1 and 16.1 can be an extremely valuable source of information about the interests and habits of a user. Subject to the appropriate consent and privacy issues, such data can inform offers of goods or services to the user. Even in an anonymous form, the statistics gathered can be exceedingly useful.
  • 10.7. Sale/Information at Later Date (When Available)
  • Advertising and other opportunities for commercial transactions may not be presented to the user immediately at the time of text capture. For example, the opportunity to purchase a sequel to a novel may not be available at the time the user is reading the novel, but the system may present them with that opportunity when the sequel is published.
  • A user may capture data that relates to a purchase or other commercial transaction, but may choose not to initiate and/or complete the transaction at the time the capture is made. In some embodiments, data related to captures is stored in a user's Life Library, and these Life Library entries can remain “active” (i.e., capable of subsequent interactions similar to those available at the time the capture was made). Thus a user may review a capture at some later time, and optionally complete a transaction based on that capture. Because the system can keep track of when and where the original capture occurred, all parties involved in the transaction can be properly compensated. For example, the author who wrote the story—and the publisher who published the story—that appeared next to the advertisement from which the user captured data can be compensated when, six months later, the user visits their Life Library, selects that particular capture from the history, and chooses “Purchase this item at Amazon” from the pop-up menu (which can be similar or identical to the menu optionally presented at the time of the capture).
  • 11. Operating System and Application Integration
  • Modern Operating Systems (OSs) and other software packages have many characteristics that can be advantageously exploited for use with the described system, and may also be modified in various ways to provide an even better platform for its use.
  • 11.1. Incorporation of Scan and Print-Related Information in Metadata and Indexing
  • New and upcoming file systems and their associated databases often have the ability to store a variety of metadata associated with each file. Traditionally, this metadata has included such things as the ID of the user who created the file, the dates of creation, last modification, and last use. Newer file systems allow such extra information as keywords, image characteristics, document sources and user comments to be stored, and in some systems this metadata can be arbitrarily extended. File systems can therefore be used to store information that would be useful in implementing the current system. For example, the date when a given document was last printed can be stored by the file system, as can details about which text from it has been captured from paper using the described system, and when and by whom.
  • Operating systems are also starting to incorporate search engine facilities that allow users to find local files more easily. These facilities can be advantageously used by the system. It means that many of the search-related concepts discussed in Sections 3 and 4 apply not just to today's Internet-based and similar search engines, but also to every personal computer.
  • In some cases specific software applications will also include support for the system above and beyond the facilities provided by the OS.
  • 11.2. OS Support for Capture Devices
  • As the use of capture devices such as pen scanners becomes increasingly common, it will become desirable to build support for them into the operating system, in much the same way as support is provided for mice and printers, since the applicability of capture devices extends beyond a single software application. The same will be true for other aspects of the system's operation. Some examples are discussed below. In some embodiments, the entire described system, or the core of it, is provided by the OS. In some embodiments, support for the system is provided by Application Programming Interfaces (APIS) that can be used by other software packages, including those directly implementing aspects of the system.
  • 11.2.1. Support for OCR and other Recognition Technologies
  • Most of the methods of capturing text from a rendered document require some recognition software to interpret the source data, typically a scanned image or some spoken words, as text suitable for use in the system. Some OSs include support for speech or handwriting recognition, though it is less common for OSs to include support for OCR, since in the past the use of OCR has typically been limited to a small range of applications.
  • As recognition components become part of the OS, they can take better advantage of other facilities provided by the OS. Many systems include spelling dictionaries, grammar analysis tools, internationalization and localization facilities, for example, all of which can be advantageously employed by the described system for its recognition process, especially since they may have been customized for the particular user to include words and phrases that he/she would commonly encounter.
  • If the operating system includes full-text indexing facilities, then these can also be used to inform the recognition process, as described in Section 9.3.
  • 11.2.2. Action to be Taken on Scans
  • If an optical scan or other capture occurs and is presented to the OS, it may have a default action to be taken under those circumstances in the event that no other subsystem claims ownership of the capture. An example of a default action is presenting the user with a choice of alternatives, or submitting the captured text to the OS's built-in search facilities.
  • 11.2.3. OS has Default Action for Particular Documents or Document Types
  • If the digital source of the rendered document is found, the OS may have a standard action that it will take when that particular document, or a document of that class, is scanned. Applications and other subsystems may register with the OS as potential handlers of particular types of capture, in a similar manner to the announcement by applications of their ability to handle certain file types.
  • Markup data associated with a rendered document, or with a capture from a document, can include instructions to the operating system to launch specific applications, pass applications arguments, parameters, or data, etc.
  • 11.2.4. Interpretation of Gestures and Mapping into Standard Actions
  • In Section 12.1.3 the use of “gestures” is discussed, particularly in the case of optical scanning, where particular movements made with a handheld scanner might represent standard actions such as marking the start and end of a region of text.
  • This is analogous to actions such as pressing the shift key on a keyboard while using the cursor keys to select a region of text, or using the wheel on a mouse to scroll a document. Such actions by the user are sufficiently standard that they are interpreted in a system-wide way by the OS, thus ensuring consistent behavior. The same is desirable for scanner gestures and other scanner-related actions.
  • 11.2.5. Set Response to Standard (and Non-Standard) Iconic/Text Printed Menu Items
  • In a similar way, certain items of text or other symbols may, when scanned, cause standard actions to occur, and the OS may provide a selection of these. An example might be that scanning the text “[print]” in any document would cause the OS to retrieve and print a copy of that document. The OS may also provide a way to register such actions and associate them with particular scans.
  • 11.3. Support in System GUI Components for Typical Scan-Initiated Activities
  • Most software applications are based substantially on standard Graphical User Interface components provided by the OS.
  • Use of these components by developers helps to ensure consistent behavior across multiple packages, for example that pressing the left-cursor key in any text-editing context should move the cursor to the left, without every programmer having to implement the same functionality independently.
  • A similar consistency in these components is desirable when the activities are initiated by text-capture or other aspects of the described system. Some examples are given below.
  • 11.3.1. Interface to find Particular Text Content
  • A typical use of the system may be for the user to scan an area of a paper document, and for the system to open the electronic counterpart in a software package that is able to display or edit it, and cause that package to scroll to and highlight the scanned text (Section 12.2.1). The first part of this process, finding and opening the electronic document, is typically provided by the OS and is standard across software packages. The second part, however—locating a particular piece of text within a document and causing the package to scroll to it and highlight it—is not yet standardized and is often implemented differently by each package. The availability of a standard API for this functionality could greatly enhance the operation of this aspect of the system.
  • 11.3.2. Text Interactions
  • Once a piece of text has been located within a document, the system may wish to perform a variety of operations upon that text. As an example, the system may request the surrounding text, so that the user's capture of a few words could result in the system accessing the entire sentence or paragraph containing them. Again, this functionality can be usefully provided by the OS rather than being implemented in every piece of software that handles text.
  • 11.3.3. Contextual (Popup) Menus
  • Some of the operations that are enabled by the system will require user feedback, and this may be optimally requested within the context of the application handling the data. In some embodiments, the system uses the application pop-up menus traditionally associated with clicking the right mouse button on some text. The system inserts extra options into such menus, and causes them to be displayed as a result of activities such as scanning a paper document.
  • 11.4. Web/network Interfaces
  • In today's increasingly networked world, much of the functionality available on individual machines can also be accessed over a network, and the functionality associated with the described system is no exception. As an example, in an office environment, many paper documents received by a user may have been printed by other users' machines on the same corporate network. The system on one computer, in response to a capture, may be able to query those other machines for documents which may correspond to that capture, subject to the appropriate permission controls.
  • 11.5. Printing of Document Causes Saving
  • An important factor in the integration of paper and digital documents is maintaining as much information as possible about the transitions between the two. In some embodiments, the OS keeps a simple record of when any document was printed and by whom. In some embodiments, the OS takes one or more further actions that would make it better suited for use with the system. Examples include:
  • Saving the digital rendered version of every document printed along with information about the source from which it was printed
  • Saving a subset of useful information about the printed version—for example, the fonts used and where the line breaks occur—which might aid future scan interpretation
  • Saving the version of the source document associated with any printed copy
  • Indexing the document automatically at the time of printing and storing the results for future searching
  • 11.6. MY (Printed/Scanned) Documents
  • An OS often maintains certain categories of folders or files that have particular significance. A user's documents may, by convention or design, be found in a “My Documents” folder, for example. Standard file-opening dialogs may automatically include a list of recently opened documents.
  • On an OS optimized for use with the described system, such categories may be enhanced or augmented in ways that take into account a user's interaction with paper versions of the stored files. Categories such as “My Printed Documents” or “My Recently-Read Documents” might usefully be identified and incorporated in its operations.
  • 11.7. OS-Level Markup Hierarchies
  • Since important aspects of the system are typically provided using the “markup” concepts discussed in Section 5, it would clearly be advantageous to have support for such markup provided by the OS in a way that was accessible to multiple applications as well as to the OS itself. In addition, layers of markup may be provided by the OS, based on its own knowledge of documents under its control and the facilities it is able to provide.
  • 11.8. Use of OS DRM Facilities
  • An increasing number of operating systems support some form of “Digital Rights Management”: the ability to control the use of particular data according to the rights granted to a particular user, software entity or machine. It may inhibit unauthorized copying or distribution of a particular document, for example.
  • 12. User Interface
  • The user interface of the system may be entirely on a PC, if the capture device is relatively dumb and is connected to it by a cable, or entirely on the device, if it is sophisticated and with significant processing power of its own. In some cases, some functionality resides in each component. Part, or indeed all, of the system's functionality may also be implemented on other devices such as mobile phones or PDAs.
  • The descriptions in the following sections are therefore indications of what may be desirable in certain implementations, but they are not necessarily appropriate for all and may be modified in several ways.
  • 12.1. On the Capture Device
  • With all capture devices, but particularly in the case of an optical scanner, the user's attention will generally be on the device and the paper at the time of scanning. It is very desirable, then, that any input and feedback needed as part of the process of scanning do not require the user's attention to be elsewhere, for example on the screen of a computer, more than is necessary.
  • 12.1.1. Feedback on Scanner
  • A handheld scanner may have a variety of ways of providing feedback to the user about particular conditions. The most obvious types are direct visual, where the scanner incorporates indicator lights or even a full display, and auditory, where the scanner can make beeps, clicks or other sounds. Important alternatives include tactile feedback, where the scanner can vibrate, buzz, or otherwise stimulate the user's sense of touch, and projected feedback, where it indicates a status by projecting onto the paper anything from a colored spot of light to a sophisticated display.
  • Important immediate feedback that may be provided on the device includes:
  • feedback on the scanning process—user scanning too fast, at too great an angle, or drifting too high or low on a particular line
  • sufficient content—enough has been scanned to be pretty certain of finding a match if one exists—important for disconnected operation
  • context known—a source of the text has been located
  • unique context known—one unique source of the text has been located
  • availability of content—indication of whether the content is freely available to the user, or at a cost
  • Many of the user interactions normally associated with the later stages of the system may also take place on the capture device if it has sufficient abilities, for example, to display part or all of a document.
  • 12.1.2. Controls on Scanner
  • The device may provide a variety of ways for the user to provide input in addition to basic text capture. Even when the device is in close association with a host machine that has input options such as keyboards and mice, it can be disruptive for the user to switch back and forth between manipulating the scanner and using a mouse, for example.
  • The handheld scanner may have buttons, scroll/jog-wheels, touch-sensitive surfaces, and/or accelerometers for detecting the movement of the device. Some of these allow a richer set of interactions while still holding the scanner.
  • For example, in response to scanning some text, the system presents the user with a set of several possible matching documents. The user uses a scroll-wheel on the side of the scanner is to select one from the list, and clicks a button to confirm the selection.
  • 12.1.3. Gestures
  • The primary reason for moving a scanner across the paper is to capture text, but some movements may be detected by the device and used to indicate other user intentions. Such movements are referred to herein as “gestures.”
  • As an example, the user can indicate a large region of text by scanning the first few words in conventional left-to-right order, and the last few in reverse order, i.e. right to left. The user can also indicate the vertical extent of the text of interest by moving the scanner down the page over several lines. A backwards scan might indicate cancellation of the previous scan operation.
  • 12.1.4. Online/Offline Behavior
  • Many aspects of the system may depend on network connectivity, either between components of the system such as a scanner and a host laptop, or with the outside world in the form of a connection to corporate databases and Internet search. This connectivity may not be present all the time, however, and so there will be occasions when part or all of the system may be considered to be “offline.” It is desirable to allow the system to continue to function usefully in those circumstances.
  • The device may be used to capture text when it is out of contact with other parts of the system. A very simple device may simply be able to store the image or audio data associated with the capture, ideally with a timestamp indicating when it was captured. The various captures may be uploaded to the rest of the system when the device is next in contact with it, and handled then. The device may also upload other data associated with the captures, for example voice annotations associated with optical scans, or location information.
  • More sophisticated devices may be able to perform some or all of the system operations themselves despite being disconnected. Various techniques for improving their ability to do so are discussed in Section 15.3. Often it will be the case that some, but not all, of the desired actions can be performed while offline. For example, the text may be recognized, but identification of the source may depend on a connection to an Internet-based search engine. In some embodiments, the device therefore stores sufficient information about how far each operation has progressed for the rest of the system to proceed efficiently when connectivity is restored.
  • The operation of the system will, in general, benefit from immediately available connectivity, but there are some situations in which performing several captures and then processing them as a batch can have advantages. For example, as discussed in Section 13 below, the identification of the source of a particular capture may be greatly enhanced by examining other captures made by the user at approximately the same time. In a fully connected system where live feedback is being provided to the user, the system is only able to use past captures when processing the current one. If the capture is one of a batch stored by the device when offline, however, the system will be able to take into account any data available from later captures as well as earlier ones when doing its analysis.
  • 12.2. On a Host Device
  • A scanner will often communicate with some other device, such as a PC, PDA, phone or digital camera to perform many of the functions of the system, including more detailed interactions with the user.
  • 12.2.1. Activities Performed In Response to a Capture
  • When the host device receives a capture, it may initiate a variety of activities. An incomplete list of possible activities performed by the system after locating and electronic counterpart document associated with the capture and a location within that document follows.
  • The details of the capture may be stored in the user's history. (Section 6.1)
  • The document may be retrieved from local storage or a remote location. (Section 8)
  • The operating system's metadata and other records associated with the document may be updated. (Section 11.1)
  • Markup associated with the document may be examined to determine the next relevant operations. (Section 5)
  • A software application may be started to edit, view or otherwise operate on the document. The choice of application may depend on the source document, or on the contents of the scan, or on some other aspect of the capture. (Section 11.2.2, 11.2.3)
  • The application may scroll to, highlight, move the insertion point to, or otherwise indicate the location of the capture. (Section 11.3)
  • The precise bounds of the captured text may be modified, for example to select whole words, sentences or paragraphs around the captured text. (Section 11.3.2)
  • The user may be given the option to copy the capture text to the clipboard or perform other standard operating system or application-specific operations upon it.
  • Annotations may be associated with the document or the captured text. These may come from immediate user input, or may have been captured earlier, for example in the case of voice annotations associated with an optical scan. (Section 19.4)
  • Markup may be examined to determine a set of further possible operations for the user to select.
  • 12.2.2. Contextual Popup Menus
  • Sometimes the appropriate action to be taken by the system will be obvious, but sometimes it will require a choice to be made by the user. One good way to do this is through the use of “popup menus” or, in cases where the content is also being displayed on a screen, with so-called “contextual menus” that appear close to the content. (See Section 11.3.3). In some embodiments, the scanner device projects a popup menu onto the paper document. A user may select from such menus using traditional methods such as a keyboard and mouse, or by using controls on the capture device (Section 12.1.2), gestures (Section 12.1.3), or by interacting with the computer display using the scanner (Section 12.2.4). In some embodiments, the popup menus which can appear as a result of a capture include default items representing actions which occur if the user does not respond—for example, if the user ignores the menu and makes another capture.
  • 12.2.3. Feedback on Disambiguation
  • When a user starts capturing text, there will initially be several documents or other text locations that it could match. As more text is captured, and other factors are taken into account (Section 13), the number of candidate locations will decrease until the actual location is identified, or further disambiguation is not possible without user input. In some embodiments, the system provides a real-time display of the documents or the locations found, for example in list, thumbnail-image or text-segment form, and for the number of elements in that display to reduce in number as capture continues. In some embodiments, the system displays thumbnails of all candidate documents, where the size or position of the thumbnail is dependent on the probability of it being the correct match.
  • When a capture is unambiguously identified, this fact may be emphasized to the user, for example using audio feedback.
  • Sometimes the text captured will occur in many documents and will be recognized to be a quotation. The system may indicate this on the screen, for example by grouping documents containing a quoted reference around the original source document.
  • 12.2.4. Scanning from Screen
  • Some optical scanners may be able to capture text displayed on a screen as well as on paper. Accordingly, the term rendered document is used herein to indicate that printing onto paper is not the only form of rendering, and that the capture of text or symbols for use by the system may be equally valuable when that text is displayed on an electronic display.
  • The user of the described system may be required to interact with a computer screen for a variety of other reasons, such as to select from a list of options. It can be inconvenient for the user to put down the scanner and start using the mouse or keyboard. Other sections have described physical controls on the scanner (Section 12.1.2) or gestures (Section 12.1.3) as methods of input which do not require this change of tool, but using the scanner on the screen itself to scan some text or symbol is an important alternative provided by the system.
  • In some embodiments, the optics of the scanner allow it to be used in a similar manner to a light-pen, directly sensing its position on the screen without the need for actual scanning of text, possibly with the aid of special hardware or software on the computer.
  • 13. Context Interpretation
  • An important aspect of the described system is the use of other factors, beyond the simple capture of a string of text, to help identify the document in use. A capture of a modest amount of text may often identify the document uniquely, but in many situations it will identify a few candidate documents. One solution is to prompt the user to confirm the document being scanned, but a preferable alternative is to make use of other factors to narrow down the possibilities automatically. Such supplemental information can dramatically reduce the amount of text that needs to be captured and/or increase the reliability and speed with which the location in the electronic counterpart can be identified. This extra material is referred to as “context,” and it was discussed briefly in Section 4.2.2. We now consider it in more depth.
  • 13.1. System and Capture Context
  • Perhaps the most important example of such information is the user's capture history.
  • It is highly probable that any given capture comes from the same document as the previous one, or from an associated document, especially if the previous capture took place in the last few minutes (Section 6.1.2). Conversely, if the system detects that the font has changed between two scans, it is more likely that they are from different documents.
  • Also useful are the user's longer-term capture history and reading habits. These can also be used to develop a model of the user's interests and associations.
  • 13.2. User's Real-World Context
  • Another example of useful context is the user's geographical location. A user in Paris is much more likely to be reading Le Monde than the Seattle Times, for example. The timing, size and geographical distribution of printed versions of the documents can therefore be important, and can to some degree be deduced from the operation of the system.
  • The time of day may also be relevant, for example in the case of a user who always reads one type of publication on the way to work, and a different one at lunchtime or on the train going home.
  • 13.3. Related Digital Context
  • The user's recent use of electronic documents, including those searched for or retrieved by more conventional means, can also be a helpful indicator.
  • In some cases, such as on a corporate network, other factors may be usefully considered:
  • Which documents have been printed recently?
  • Which documents have been modified recently on the corporate file server?
  • Which documents have been emailed recently?
  • All of these examples might suggest that a user was more likely to be reading a paper version of those documents. In contrast, if the repository in which a document resides can affirm that the document has never been printed or sent anywhere where it might have been printed, then it can be safely eliminated in any searches originating from paper.
  • 13.4. Other Statistics—the Global Context
  • Section 14 covers the analysis of the data stream resulting from paper-based searches, but it should be noted here that statistics about the popularity of documents with other readers, about the timing of that popularity, and about the parts of documents most frequently scanned are all examples of further factors which can be beneficial in the search process. The system brings the possibility of Google-type page-ranking to the world of paper.
  • See also Section 4.2.2 for some other implications of the use of context for search engines.
  • 14. Data-Stream Analysis
  • The use of the system generates an exceedingly valuable data-stream as a side effect. This stream is a record of what users are reading and when, and is in many cases a record of what they find particularly valuable in the things they read. Such data has never really been available before for paper documents.
  • Some ways in which this data can be useful for the system, and for the user of the system, are described in Section 6.1. This section concentrates on its use for others. There are, of course, substantial privacy issues to be considered with any distribution of data about what people are reading, but such issues as preserving the anonymity of data are well known to those of skill in the art.
  • 14.1. Document Tracking
  • When the system knows which documents any given user is reading, it can also deduce who is reading any given document. This allows the tracking of a document through an organization, to allow analysis, for example, of who is reading it and when, how widely it was distributed, how long that distribution took, and who has seen current versions while others are still working from out-of-date copies.
  • For published documents that have a wider distribution, the tracking of individual copies is more difficult, but the analysis of the distribution of readership is still possible.
  • 14.2. Read Ranking—Popularity of Documents and Sub-Regions
  • In situations where users are capturing text or other data that is of particular interest to them, the system can deduce the popularity of certain documents and of particular sub-regions of those documents. This forms a valuable input to the system itself (Section 4.2.2) and an important source of information for authors, publishers and advertisers (Section 7.6, Section 10.5). This data is also useful when integrated in search engines and search indices—for example, to assist in ranking search results for queries coming from rendered documents, and/or to assist in ranking conventional queries typed into a web browser.
  • 14.3. Analysis of Users—Building Profiles
  • Knowledge of what a user is reading enables the system to create a quite detailed model of the user's interests and activities. This can be useful on an abstract statistical basis—“35% of users who buy this newspaper also read the latest book by that author”—but it can also allow other interactions with the individual user, as discussed below.
  • 14.3.1. Social Networking
  • One example is connecting one user with others who have related interests. These may be people already known to the user. The system may ask a university professor, “Did you know that your colleague at XYZ University has also just read this paper?” The system may ask a user, “Do you want to be linked up with other people in your neighborhood who are also how reading Jane Eyre?” Such links may be the basis for the automatic formation of book clubs and similar social structures, either in the physical world or online.
  • 14.3.2. Marketing
  • Section 10.6 has already mentioned the idea of offering products and services to an individual user based on their interactions with the system. Current online booksellers, for example, often make recommendations to a user based on their previous interactions with the bookseller. Such recommendations become much more useful when they are based on interactions with the actual books.
  • 14.4. Marketing Based on Other Aspects of the Data-Stream
  • We have discussed some of the ways in which the system may influence those publishing documents, those advertising through them, and other sales initiated from paper (Section 10). Some commercial activities may have no direct interaction with the paper documents at all and yet may be influenced by them. For example, the knowledge that people in one community spend more time reading the sports section of the newspaper than they do the financial section might be of interest to somebody setting up a health club.
  • 14.5. Types of Data that may be Captured
  • In addition to the statistics discussed, such as who is reading which bits of which documents, and when and where, it can be of interest to examine the actual contents of the text captured, regardless of whether or not the document has been located.
  • In many situations, the user will also not just be capturing some text, but will be causing some action to occur as a result. It might be emailing a reference to the document to an acquaintance, for example. Even in the absence of information about the identity of the user or the recipient of the email, the knowledge that somebody considered the document worth emailing is very useful.
  • In addition to the various methods discussed for deducing the value of a particular document or piece of text, in some circumstances the user will explicitly indicate the value by assigning it a rating.
  • Lastly, when a particular set of users are known to form a group, for example when they are known to be employees of a particular company, the aggregated statistics of that group can be used to deduce the importance of a particular document to that group.
  • 15. Device Features and Functions
  • A capture device for use with the system needs little more than a way of capturing text from a rendered version of the document. As described earlier (Section 1.2), this capture may be achieved through a variety of methods including taking a photograph of part of the document or typing some words into a mobile phone keypad. This capture may be achieved using a small hand-held optical scanner capable of recording a line or two of text at a time, or an audio capture device such as a voice-recorder into which the user is reading text from the document. The device used may be a combination of these—an optical scanner which could also record voice annotations, for example—and the capturing functionality may be built into some other device such as a mobile phone, PDA, digital camera or portable music player.
  • 15.1. Input and Output
  • Many of the possibly beneficial additional input and output facilities for such a device have been described in Section 12.1. They include buttons, scroll-wheels and touch-pads for input, and displays, indicator lights, audio and tactile transducers for output. Sometimes the device will incorporate many of these, sometimes very few. Sometimes the capture device will be able to communicate with another device that already has them (Section 15.6), for example using a wireless link, and sometimes the capture functionality will be incorporated into such other device (Section 15.7).
  • 15.2. Connectivity
  • In some embodiments, the device implements the majority of the system itself. In some embodiments, however, it often communicates with a PC or other computing device and with the wider world using communications facilities.
  • Often these communications facilities are in the form of a general-purpose data network such as Ethernet, 802.11 or UWB or a standard peripheral-connecting network such as USB, IEEE-1394 (Firewire), Bluetooth™ or infra-red. When a wired connection such as Firewire or USB is used, the device may receive electrical power though the same connection. In some circumstances, the capture device may appear to a connected machine to be a conventional peripheral such as a USB storage device.
  • Lastly, the device may in some circumstances “dock” with another device, either to be used in conjunction with that device or for convenient storage.
  • 15.3. Caching and Other Online/Offline Functionality
  • Sections 3.5 and 12.1.4 have raised the topic of disconnected operation. When a capture device has a limited subset of the total system's functionality, and is not in communication with the other parts of the system, the device can still be useful, though the functionality available will sometimes be reduced. At the simplest level, the device can record the raw image or audio data being captured and this can be processed later. For the user's benefit, however, it can be important to give feedback where possible about whether the data captured is likely to be sufficient for the task in hand, whether it can be recognized or is likely to be recognizable, and whether the source of the data can be identified or is likely to be identifiable later. The user will then know whether their capturing activity is worthwhile. Even when all of the above are unknown, the raw data can still be stored so that, at the very least, the user can refer to them later. The user may be presented with the image of a scan, for example, when the scan cannot be recognized by the OCR process.
  • To illustrate some of the range of options available, both a rather minimal optical scanning device and then a much more full-featured one are described below. Many devices occupy a middle ground between the two.
  • 15.3.1. The SimpleScanner—a Low-End Offline Example
  • The SimpleScanner has a scanning head able to read pixels from the page as it is moved along the length of a line of text. It can detect its movement along the page and record the pixels with some information about the movement. It also has a clock, which allows each scan to be time-stamped. The clock is synchronized with a host device when the SimpleScanner has connectivity. The clock may not represent the actual time of day, but relative times may be determined from it so that the host can deduce the actual time of a scan, or at worst the elapsed time between scans.
  • The SimpleScanner does not have sufficient processing power to perform any OCR itself, but it does have some basic knowledge about typical word-lengths, word-spacings, and their relationship to font size. It has some basic indicator lights which tell the user whether the scan is likely to be readable, whether the head is being moved too fast, too slowly or too inaccurately across the paper, and when it determines that sufficient words of a given size are likely to have been scanned for the document to be identified.
  • The SimpleScanner has a USB connector and can be plugged into the USB port on a computer, where it will be recharged. To the computer it appears to be a USB storage device on which time-stamped data files have been recorded, and the rest of the system software takes over from this point.
  • 15.3.2. The SuperScanner—a High-End Offline Example
  • The SuperScanner also depends on connectivity for its full operation, but it has a significant amount of on-board storage and processing which can help it make better judgments about the data captured while offline.
  • As it moves along the line of text, the captured pixels are stitched together and passed to an OCR engine that attempts to recognize the text. A number of fonts, including those from the user's most-read publications, have been downloaded to it to help perform this task, as has a dictionary that is synchronized with the user's spelling-checker dictionary on their PC and so contains many of the words they frequently encounter. Also stored on the scanner is a list of words and phrases with the typical frequency of their use—this may be combined with the dictionary. The scanner can use the frequency statistics both to help with the recognition process and also to inform its judgment about when a sufficient quantity of text has been captured; more frequently used phrases are less likely to be useful as the basis for a search query.
  • In addition, the full index for the articles in the recent issues of the newspapers and periodicals most commonly read by the user are stored on the device, as are the indices for the books the user has recently purchased from an online bookseller, or from which the user has scanned anything within the last few months. Lastly, the titles of several thousand of the most popular publications which have data available for the system are stored so that, in the absence of other information the user can scan the title and have a good idea as to whether or not captures from a particular work are likely to be retrievable in electronic form later.
  • During the scanning process, the system informs user that the captured data has been of sufficient quality and of a sufficient nature to make it probable that the electronic copy can be retrieved when connectivity is restored. Often the system indicates to the user that the scan is known to have been successful and that the context has been recognized in one of the on-board indices, or that the publication concerned is known to be making its data available to the system, so the later retrieval ought to be successful.
  • The SuperScanner docks in a cradle connected to a PC's Firewire or USB port, at which point, in addition to the upload of captured data, its various onboard indices and other databases are updated based on recent user activity and new publications. It also has the facility to connect to wireless public networks or to communicate via Bluetooth to a mobile phone and thence with the public network when such facilities are available.
  • 15.4. Features For Optical Scanning
  • We now consider some of the features that may be particularly desirable in an optical scanner device.
  • 15.4.1. Flexible Positioning and Convenient Optics
  • One of the reasons for the continuing popularity of paper is the ease of its use in a wide variety of situations where a computer, for example, would be impractical or inconvenient. A device intended to capture a substantial part of a user's interaction with paper should therefore be similarly convenient in use. This has not been the case for scanners in the past; even the smallest hand-held devices have been somewhat unwieldy. Those designed to be in contact with the page have to be held at a precise angle to the paper and moved very carefully along the length of the text to be scanned. This is acceptable when scanning a business report on an office desk, but may be impractical when scanning a phrase from a novel while waiting for a train. Scanners based on camera-type optics that operate at a distance from the paper may similarly be useful in some circumstances.
  • Some embodiments of the system use a scanner that scans in contact with the paper, and which, instead of lenses, uses an image conduit a bundle of optical fibers to transmit the image from the page to the optical sensor device. Such a device can be shaped to allow it to be held in a natural position; for example, in some embodiments, the part in contact with the page is wedge-shaped, allowing the user's hand to move more naturally over the page in a movement similar to the use of a highlighter pen. The conduit is either in direct contact with the paper or in close proximity to it, and may have a replaceable transparent tip that can protect the image conduit from possible damage. As has been mentioned in Section 12.2.4, the scanner may be used to scan from a screen as well as from paper, and the material of the tip can be chosen to reduce the likelihood of damage to such displays.
  • Lastly, some embodiments of the device will provide feedback to the user during the scanning process which will indicate through the use of light, sound or tactile feedback when the user is scanning too fast, too slow, too unevenly or is drifting too high or low on the scanned line.
  • 15.5. Security, Identity, Authentication, Personalization and Billing
  • As described in Section 6, the capture device may form an important part of identification and authorization for secure transactions, purchases, and a variety of other operations. It may therefore incorporate, in addition to the circuitry and software required for such a role, various hardware features that can make it more secure, such as a smartcard reader, RFID, or a keypad on which to type a PIN.
  • It may also include various biometric sensors to help identify the user. In the case of an optical scanner, for example, the scanning head may also be able to read a fingerprint. For a voice recorder, the voice pattern of the user may be used.
  • 15.6. Device Associations
  • In some embodiments, the device is able to form an association with other nearby devices to increase either its own or their functionality. In some embodiments, for example, it uses the display of a nearby PC or phone to give more detailed feedback about its operation, or uses their network connectivity. The device may, on the other hand, operate in its role as a security and identification device to authenticate operations performed by the other device. Or it may simply form an association in order to function as a peripheral to that device.
  • An interesting aspect of such associations is that they may be initiated and authenticated using the capture facilities of the device. For example, a user wishing to identify themselves securely to a public computer terminal may use the scanning facilities of the device to scan a code or symbol displayed on a particular area of the terminal's screen and so effect a key transfer. An analogous process may be performed using audio signals picked up by a voice-recording device.
  • 15.7. Integration with Other Devices
  • In some embodiments, the functionality of the capture device is integrated into some other device that is already in use. The integrated devices may be able to share a power supply, data capture and storage capabilities, and network interfaces. Such integration may be done simply for convenience, to reduce cost, or to enable functionality that would not otherwise be available.
  • Some examples of devices into which the capture functionality can be integrated include:
  • an existing peripheral such as a mouse, a stylus, a USB “webcam” camera, a Bluetooth™ headset or a remote control
  • another processing/storage device, such as a PDA, an MP3 player, a voice recorder, a digital camera or a mobile phone
  • other often-carried items, just for convenience—a watch, a piece of jewelry, a pen, a car key fob
  • 15.7.1. Mobile Phone Integration
  • As an example of the benefits of integration, we consider the use of a modified mobile phone as the capture device.
  • In some embodiments, the phone hardware is not modified to support the system, such as where the text capture can be adequately done through voice recognition, where they can either be processed by the phone itself, or handled by a system at the other end of a telephone call, or stored in the phone's memory for future processing. Many modern phones have the ability to download software that could implement some parts of the system. Such voice capture is likely to be suboptimal in many situations, however, for example when there is substantial background noise, and accurate voice recognition is a difficult task at the best of times. The audio facilities may best be used to capture voice annotations.
  • In some embodiments, the camera built into many mobile phones is used to capture an image of the text. The phone display, which would normally act as a viewfinder for the camera, may overlay on the live camera image information about the quality of the image and its suitability for OCR, which segments of text are being captured, and even a transcription of the text if the OCR can be performed on the phone.
  • In some embodiments, the phone is modified to add dedicated capture facilities, or to provide such functionality in a clip-on adaptor or a separate Bluetooth-connected peripheral in communication with the phone. Whatever the nature of the capture mechanism, the integration with a modern cellphone has many other advantages. The phone has connectivity with the wider world, which means that queries can be submitted to remote search engines or other parts of the system, and copies of documents may be retrieved for immediate storage or viewing. A phone typically has sufficient processing power for many of the functions of the system to be performed locally, and sufficient storage to capture a reasonable amount of data. The amount of storage can also often be expanded by the user. Phones have reasonably good displays and audio facilities to provide user feedback, and often a vibrate function for tactile feedback. They also have good power supplies.
  • Most significantly of all, they are a device that most users are already carrying.
  • PART III—EXAMPLE APPLICATIONS OF THE SYSTEM
  • This section lists example uses of the system and applications that may be built on it. This list is intended to be purely illustrative and in no sense exhaustive.
  • 16. Personal Applications
  • 16.1. Life Library
  • The Life Library (see also Section 6.1.1) is a digital archive of any important documents that the subscriber wishes to save and is a set of embodiments of services of this system. Important books, magazine articles, newspaper clippings, etc., can all be saved in digital form in the Life Library. Additionally, the subscriber's annotations, comments, and notes can be saved with the documents. The Life Library can be accessed via the Internet and World Wide Web.
  • The system creates and manages the Life Library document archive for subscribers. The subscriber indicates which documents the subscriber wishes to have saved in his life library by scanning information from the document or by otherwise indicating to the system that the particular document is to be added to the subscriber's Life Library. The scanned information is typically text from the document but can also be a barcode or other code identifying the document. The system accepts the code and uses it to identify the source document. After the document is identified the system can store either a copy of the document in the user's Life Library or a link to a source where the document may be obtained.
  • One embodiment of the Life Library system can check whether the subscriber is authorized to obtain the electronic copy. For example, if a reader scans text or an identifier from a copy of an article in the New York Times (NYT) so that the article will be added to the reader's Life Library, the Life Library system will verify with the NYT whether the reader is subscribed to the online version of the NYT; if so, the reader gets a copy of the article stored in his Life Library account; if not, information identifying the document and how to order it is stored in his Life Library account.
  • In some embodiments, the system maintains a subscriber profile for each subscriber that includes access privilege information. Document access information can be compiled in several ways, two of which are: 1) the subscriber supplies the document access information to the Life Library system, along with his account names and passwords, etc., or 2) the Life Library service provider queries the publisher with the subscriber's information and the publisher responds by providing access to an electronic copy if the Life Library subscriber is authorized to access the material. If the Life Library subscriber is not authorized to have an electronic copy of the document, the publisher provides a price to the Life Library service provider, which then provides the customer with the option to purchase the electronic document. If so, the Life Library service provider either pays the publisher directly and bills the Life Library customer later or the Life Library service provider immediately bills the customer's credit card for the purchase. The Life Library service provider would get a percentage of the purchase price or a small fixed fee for facilitating the transaction.
  • The system can archive the document in the subscriber's personal library and/or any other library to which the subscriber has archival privileges. For example, as a user scans text from a printed document, the Life Library system can identify the rendered document and its electronic counterpart. After the source document is identified, the Life Library system might record information about the source document in the user's personal library and in a group library to which the subscriber has archival privileges. Group libraries are collaborative archives such as a document repository for: a group working together on a project, a group of academic researchers, a group web log, etc.
  • The life library can be organized in many ways: chronologically, by topic, by level of the subscriber's interest, by type of publication (newspaper, book, magazine, technical paper, etc.), where read, when read, by ISBN or by Dewey decimal, etc. In one alternative, the system can learn classifications based on how other subscribers have classified the same document. The system can suggest classifications to the user or automatically classify the document for the user.
  • In various embodiments, annotations may be inserted directly into the document or may be maintained in a separate file. For example, when a subscriber scans text from a newspaper article, the article is archived in his Life Library with the scanned text highlighted. Alternatively, the article is archived in his Life Library along with an associated annotation file (thus leaving the archived document unmodified). Embodiments of the system can keep a copy of the source document in each subscriber's library, a copy in a master library that many subscribers can access, or link to a copy held by the publisher.
  • In some embodiments, the Life Library stores only the user's modifications to the document (e.g., highlights, etc.) and a link to an online version of the document (stored elsewhere). The system or the subscriber merges the changes with the document when the subscriber subsequently retrieves the document.
  • If the annotations are kept in a separate file, the source document and the annotation file are provided to the subscriber and the subscriber combines them to create a modified document. Alternatively, the system combines the two files prior to presenting them to the subscriber. In another alternative, the annotation file is an overlay to the document file and can be overlaid on the document by software in the subscriber's computer.
  • Subscribers to the Life Library service pay a monthly fee to have the system maintain the subscriber's archive. Alternatively, the subscriber pays a small amount (e.g., a micro-payment) for each document stored in the archive. Alternatively, the subscriber pays to access the subscriber's archive on a per-access fee. Alternatively, subscribers can compile libraries and allow others to access the materials/annotations on a revenue share model with the Life Library service provider and copyright holders. Alternatively, the Life Library service provider receives a payment from the publisher when the Life Library subscriber orders a document (a revenue share model with the publisher, where the Life Library service provider gets a share of the publisher's revenue).
  • In some embodiments, the Life Library service provider acts as an intermediary between the subscriber and the copyright holder (or copyright holder's agent, such as the Copyright Clearance Center, a.k.a. CCC) to facilitate billing and payment for copyrighted materials. The Life Library service provider uses the subscriber's billing information and other user account information to provide this intermediation service. Essentially, the Life Library service provider leverages the pre-existing relationship with the subscriber to enable purchase of copyrighted materials on behalf of the subscriber.
  • In some embodiments, the Life Library system can store excerpts from documents. For example, when a subscriber scans text from a paper document, the regions around the scanned text are excerpted and placed in the Life Library, rather than the entire document being archived in the life library. This is especially advantageous when the document is long because preserving the circumstances of the original scan prevents the subscriber from re-reading the document to find the interesting portions. Of course, a hyperlink to the entire electronic counterpart of the paper document can be included with the excerpt materials.
  • In some embodiments, the system also stores information about the document in the Life Library, such as author, publication title, publication date, publisher, copyright holder (or copyright holder's licensing agent), ISBN, links to public annotations of the document, readrank, etc. Some of this additional information about the document is a form of paper document metadata. Third parties may create public annotation files for access by persons other than themselves, such the general public. Linking to a third party's commentary on a document is advantageous because reading annotation files of other users enhances the subscriber's understanding of the document.
  • In some embodiments, the system archives materials by class. This feature allows a Life Library subscriber to quickly store electronic counterparts to an entire class of paper documents without access to each paper document. For example, when the subscriber scans some text from a copy of National Geographic magazine, the system provides the subscriber with the option to archive all back issues of the National Geographic. If the subscriber elects to archive all back issues, the Life Library service provider would then verify with the National Geographic Society whether the subscriber is authorized to do so. If not, the Life Library service provider can mediate the purchase of the right to archive the National Geographic magazine collection.
  • 16.2. Life Saver
  • A variation on, or enhancement of, the Life Library concept is the “Life Saver,” where the system uses the text captured by a user to deduce more about their other activities. The scanning of a menu from a particular restaurant, a program from a particular theater performance, a timetable at a particular railway station, or an article from a local newspaper allows the system to make deductions about the user's location and social activities, and could construct an automatic diary for them, for example as a website. The user would be able to edit and modify the diary, add additional materials such as photographs and, of course, look again at the items scanned.
  • 17. Academic Applications
  • Portable scanners supported by the described system have many compelling uses in the academic setting. They can enhance student/teacher interaction and augment the learning experience. Among other uses, students can annotate study materials to suit their unique needs; teachers can monitor classroom performance; and teachers can automatically verify source materials cited in student assignments.
  • 17.1. Children's Books
  • A child's interaction with a paper document, such as a book, is monitored by a literacy acquisition system that employs a specific set of embodiments of this system. The child uses a portable scanner that communicates with other elements of the literacy acquisition system. In addition to the portable scanner, the literacy acquisition system includes a computer having a display and speakers, and a database accessible by the computer. The scanner is coupled with the computer (hardwired, short range RF, etc.). When the child sees an unknown word in the book, the child scans it with the scanner. In one embodiment, the literacy acquisition system compares the scanned text with the resources in its database to identify the word. The database includes a dictionary, thesaurus, and/or multimedia files (e.g., sound, graphics, etc.). After the word has been identified, the system uses the computer speakers to pronounce the word and its definition to the child. In another embodiment, the word and its definition are displayed by the literacy acquisition system on the computer's monitor. Multimedia files about the scanned word can also be played through the computer's monitor and speakers. For example, if a child reading “Goldilocks and the Three Bears” scanned the word “bear,” the system might pronounce the word “bear” and play a short video about bears on the computer's monitor. In this way, the child learns to pronounce the written word and is visually taught what the word means via the multimedia presentation.
  • The literacy acquisition system provides immediate auditory and/or visual information to enhance the learning process. The child uses this supplementary information to quickly acquire a deeper understanding of the written material. The system can be used to teach beginning readers to read, to help children acquire a larger vocabulary, etc. This system provides the child with information about words with which the child is unfamiliar or about which the child wants more information.
  • 17.2. Literacy Acquisition
  • In some embodiments, the system compiles personal dictionaries. If the reader sees a word that is new, interesting, or particularly useful or troublesome, the reader saves it (along with its definition) to a computer file. This computer file becomes the reader's personalized dictionary. This dictionary is generally smaller in size than a general dictionary so can be downloaded to a mobile station or associated device and thus be available even when the system isn't immediately accessible. In some embodiments, the personal dictionary entries include audio files to assist with proper word pronunciation and information identifying the paper document from which the word was scanned.
  • In some embodiments, the system creates customized spelling and vocabulary tests for students. For example, as a student reads an assignment, the student may scan unfamiliar words with the portable scanner. The system stores a list of all the words that the student has scanned. Later, the system administers a customized spelling/vocabulary test to the student on an associated monitor (or prints such a test on an associated printer).
  • 17.3. Music Teaching
  • The arrangement of notes on a musical staff is similar to the arrangement of letters in a line of text. The same scanning device discussed for capturing text in this system can be used to capture music notation, and an analogous process of constructing a search against databases of known musical pieces would allow the piece from which the capture occurred to be identified which can then be retrieved, played, or be the basis for some further action.
  • 17.4. Detecting Plagiarism
  • Teachers can use the system to detect plagiarism or to verify sources by scanning text from student papers and submitting the scanned text to the system. For example, a teacher who wishes to verify that a quote in a student paper came from the source that the student cited can scan a portion of the quote and compare the title of the document identified by the system with the title of the document cited by the student. Likewise, the system can use scans of text from assignments submitted as the student's original work to reveal if the text was instead copied.
  • 17.5. Enhanced Textbook
  • In some embodiments, capturing text from an academic textbook links students or staff to more detailed explanations, further exercises, student and staff discussions about the material, related example past exam questions, further reading on the subject, recordings of the lectures on the subject, and so forth. (See also Section 7.1.)
  • 17.6. Language Learning
  • In some embodiments, the system is used to teach foreign languages. Scanning a Spanish word, for example, might cause the word to be read aloud in Spanish along with its definition in English.
  • The system provides immediate auditory and/or visual information to enhance the new language acquisition process. The reader uses this supplementary information to acquire quickly a deeper understanding of the material. The system can be used to teach beginning students to read foreign languages, to help students acquire a larger vocabulary, etc. The system provides information about foreign words with which the reader is unfamiliar or for which the reader wants more information.
  • Reader interaction with a paper document, such as a newspaper or book, is monitored by a language skills system. The reader has a portable scanner that communicates with the language skills system. In some embodiments, the language skills system includes a computer having a display and speakers, and a database accessible by the computer. The scanner communicates with the computer (hardwired, short range RF, etc.). When the reader sees an unknown word in an article, the reader scans it with the scanner. The database includes a foreign language dictionary, thesaurus, and/or multimedia files (sound, graphics, etc.). In one embodiment, the system compares the scanned text with the resources in its database to identify the scanned word. After the word has been identified, the system uses the computer speakers to pronounce the word and its definition to the reader. In some embodiments, the word and its definition are both displayed on the computer's monitor. Multimedia files about grammar tips related to the scanned word can also be played through the computer's monitor and speakers. For example, if the words “to speak” are scanned, the system might pronounce the word “hablar,” play a short audio clip that demonstrates the proper Spanish pronunciation, and display a complete list of the various conjugations of “hablar.” In this way, the student learns to pronounce the written word, is visually taught the spelling of the word via the multimedia presentation, and learns how to conjugate the verb. The system can also present grammar tips about the proper usage of “hablar” along with common phrases.
  • In some embodiments, the user scans a word or short phrase from a rendered document in a language other than the user's native language (or some other language that the user knows reasonably well). In some embodiments, the system maintains a prioritized list of the user's “preferred” languages. The system identifies the electronic counterpart of the rendered document, and determines the location of the scan within the document. The system also identifies a second electronic counterpart of the document that has been translated into one of the user's preferred languages, and determines the location in the translated document corresponding to the location of the scan in the original document. When the corresponding location is not known precisely, the system identifies a small region (e.g., a paragraph) that includes the corresponding location of the scanned location. The corresponding translated location is then presented to the user. This provides the user with a precise translation of the particular usage at the scanned location, including any slang or other idiomatic usage that is often difficult to accurately translate on a word-by-word basis.
  • 17.7. Gathering Research Materials
  • A user researching a particular topic may encounter all sorts of material, both in print and on screen, which they might wish to record as relevant to the topic in some personal archive. The system would enable this process to be automatic as a result of scanning a short phrase in any piece of material, and could also create a bibliography suitable for insertion into a publication on the subject.
  • 18. Commercial Applications
  • Obviously, commercial activities could be made out of almost any process discussed in this document, but here we concentrate on a few obvious revenue streams.
  • 18.1. Fee-Based Searching and Indexing
  • Conventional Internet search engines typically provide free search of electronic documents, and also make no charge to the content providers for including their content in the index. In some embodiments, the system provides for charges to users and/or payments to search engines and/or content providers in connection with the operation and use of the system.
  • In some embodiments, subscribers to the system's services pay a fee for searches originating from scans of paper documents. For example, a stockbroker may be reading a Wall Street Journal article about a new product offered by Company X. By scanning the Company X name from the paper document and agreeing to pay the necessary fees, the stockbroker uses the system to search special or proprietary databases to obtain premium information about the company, such as analyst's reports. The system can also make arrangements to have priority indexing of the documents most likely to be read in paper form, for example by making sure all of the newspapers published on a particular day are indexed and available by the time they hit the streets.
  • Content providers may pay a fee to be associated with certain terms in search queries submitted from paper documents. For example, in one embodiment, the system chooses a most preferred content provider based on additional context about the provider (the context being, in this case, that the content provider has paid a fee to be moved up the results list). In essence, the search provider is adjusting paper document search results based on pre-existing financial arrangements with a content provider. See also the description of keywords and key phrases in Section 5.2.
  • Where access to particular content is to be restricted to certain groups of people (such as clients or employees), such content may be protected by a firewall and thus not generally indexable by third parties. The content provider may nonetheless wish to provide an index to the protected content. In such a case, the content provider can pay a service provider to provide the content provider's index to system subscribers. For example, a law firm may index all of a client's documents. The documents are stored behind the law firm's firewall. However, the law firm wants its employees and the client to have access to the documents through the portable scanner so it provides the index (or a pointer to the index) to the service provider, which in turn searches the law firm's index when employees or clients of the law firm submit paper-scanned search terms via their portable scanners. The law firm can provide a list of employees and/or clients to the service provider's system to enable this function or the system can verify access rights by querying the law firm prior to searching the law firm's index. Note that in the preceding example, the index provided by the law firm is only of that client's documents, not an index of all documents at the law firm. Thus, the service provider can only grant the law firm's clients access to the documents that the law firm indexed for the client.
  • There are at least two separate revenue streams that can result from searches originating from paper documents: one revenue stream from the search function, and another from the content delivery function. The search function revenue can be generated from paid subscriptions from the scanner users, but can also be generated on a per-search charge. The content delivery revenue can be shared with the content provider or copyright holder (the service provider can take a percentage of the sale or a fixed fee, such as a micropayment, for each delivery), but also can be generated by a “referral” model in which the system gets a fee or percentage for every item that the subscriber orders from the online catalog and that the system has delivered or contributed to, regardless of whether the service provider intermediates the transaction. In some embodiments, the system service provider receives revenue for all purchases that the subscriber made from the content provider, either for some predetermined period of time or at any subsequent time when a purchase of an identified product is made.
  • 18.2. Catalogs
  • Consumers may use the portable scanner to make purchases from paper catalogs. The subscriber scans information from the catalog that identifies the catalog. This information is text from the catalog, a bar code, or another identifier of the catalog. The subscriber scans information identifying the products that s/he wishes to purchase. The catalog mailing label may contain a customer identification number that identifies the customer to the catalog vendor. If so, the subscriber can also scan this customer identification number. The system acts as an intermediary between the subscriber and the vendor to facilitate the catalog purchase by providing the customer's selection and customer identification number to the vendor.
  • 18.3. Coupons
  • A consumer scans paper coupons and saves an electronic copy of the coupon in the scanner, or in a remote device such as a computer, for later retrieval and use. An advantage of electronic storage is that the consumer is freed from the burden of carrying paper coupons. A further advantage is that the electronic coupons may be retrieved from any location. In some embodiments, the system can track coupon expiration dates, alert the consumer about coupons that will expire soon, and/or delete expired coupons from storage. An advantage for the issuer of the coupons is the possibility of receiving more feedback about who is using the coupons and when and where they are captured and used.
  • 19. General Applications
  • 19.1. Forms
  • The system may be used to auto-populate an electronic document that corresponds to a paper form. A user scans in some text or a barcode that uniquely identifies the paper form. The scanner communicates the identity of the form and information identifying the user to a nearby computer. The nearby computer has an Internet connection. The nearby computer can access a first database of forms and a second database having information about the user of the scanner (such as a service provider's subscriber information database). The nearby computer accesses an electronic version of the paper form from the first database and auto-populates the fields of the form from the user's information obtained from the second database. The nearby computer then emails the completed form to the intended recipient. Alternatively, the computer could print the completed form on a nearby printer.
  • Rather than access an external database, in some embodiments, the system has a portable scanner that contains the user's information, such as in an identity module, SIM, or security card. The scanner provides information identifying the form to the nearby PC. The nearby PC accesses the electronic form and queries the scanner for any necessary information to fill out the form.
  • 19.2. Business Cards
  • The system can be used to automatically populate electronic address books or other contact lists from paper documents. For example, upon receiving a new acquaintance's business card, a user can capture an image of the card with his/her cellular phone. The system will locate an electronic copy of the card, which can be used to update the cellular phone's onboard address book with the new acquaintance's contact information. The electronic copy may contain more information about the new acquaintance than can be squeezed onto a business card. Further, the onboard address book may also store a link to the electronic copy such that any changes to the electronic copy will be automatically updated in the cell phone's address book. In this example, the business card optionally includes a symbol or text that indicates the existence of an electronic copy. If no electronic copy exists, the cellular phone can use OCR and knowledge of standard business card formats to fill out an entry in the address book for the new acquaintance. Symbols may also aid in the process of extracting information directly from the image. For example, a phone icon next to the phone number on the business card can be recognized to determine the location of the phone number.
  • 19.3. Proofreading/Editing
  • The system can enhance the proofreading and editing process. One way the system can enhance the editing process is by linking the editor's interactions with a paper document to its electronic counterpart. As an editor reads a paper document and scans various parts of the document, the system will make the appropriate annotations or edits to an electronic counterpart of the paper document. For example, if the editor scans a portion of text and makes the “new paragraph” control gesture with the scanner, a computer in communication with the scanner would insert a “new paragraph” break at the location of the scanned text in the electronic copy of the document.
  • 19.4. Voice Annotation
  • A user can make voice annotations to a document by scanning a portion of text from the document and then making a voice recording that is associated with the scanned text. In some embodiments, the scanner has a microphone to record the user's verbal annotations. After the verbal annotations are recorded, the system identifies the document from which the text was scanned, locates the scanned text within the document, and attaches the voice annotation at that point. In some embodiments, the system converts the speech to text and attaches the annotation as a textual comment.
  • In some embodiments, the system keeps annotations separate from the document, with only a reference to the annotation kept with the document. The annotations then become an annotation markup layer to the document for a specific subscriber or group of users.
  • In some embodiments, for each capture and associated annotation, the system identifies the document, opens it using a software package, scrolls to the location of the scan and plays the voice annotation. The user can then interact with a document while referring to voice annotations, suggested changes or other comments recorded either by themselves or by somebody else.
  • 19.5. Help In Text
  • The described system can be used to enhance paper documents with electronic help menus. In some embodiments, a markup layer associated with a paper document contains help menu information for the document. For example, when a user scans text from a certain portion of the document, the system checks the markup associated with the document and presents a help menu to the user. The help menu is presented on a display on the scanner or on an associated nearby display.
  • 19.6. Use with Displays
  • In some situations, it is advantageous to be able to scan information from a television, computer monitor, or other similar display. In some embodiments, the portable scanner is used to scan information from computer monitors and televisions. In some embodiments, the portable optical scanner has an illumination sensor that is optimized to work with traditional cathode ray tube (CRT) display techniques such as rasterizing, screen blanking, etc.
  • A voice capture device which operates by capturing audio of the user reading text from a document will typically work regardless of whether that document is on paper, on a display, or on some other medium.
  • 19.6.1. Public Kiosks and Dynamic Session IDs
  • One use of the direct scanning of displays is the association of devices as described in Section 15.6. For example, in some embodiments, a public kiosk displays a dynamic session ID on its monitor. The kiosk is connected to a communication network such as the Internet or a corporate intranet. The session ID changes periodically but at least every time that the kiosk is used so that a new session ID is displayed to every user. To use the kiosk, the subscriber scans in the session ID displayed on the kiosk; by scanning the session ID, the user tells the system that he wishes to temporarily associate the kiosk with his scanner for the delivery of content resulting from scans of printed documents or from the kiosk screen itself. The scanner may communicate the Session ID and other information authenticating the scanner (such as a serial number, account number, or other identifying information) directly to the system. For example, the scanner can communicate directly (where “directly” means without passing the message through the kiosk) with the system by sending the session initiation message through the user's cell phone (which is paired with the user's scanner via Bluetooth™). Alternatively, the scanner can establish a wireless link with the kiosk and use the kiosk's communication link by transferring the session initiation information to the kiosk (perhaps via short range RF such as Bluetooth™, etc.); in response, the kiosk sends the session initiation information to the system via its Internet connection.
  • The system can prevent others from using a device that is already associated with a scanner during the period (or session) in which the device is associated with the scanner. This feature is useful to prevent others from using a public kiosk before another person's session has ended. As an example of this concept related to use of a computer at an Internet cafe, the user scans a barcode on a monitor of a PC which s/he desires to use; in response, the system sends a session ID to the monitor that it displays; the user initiates the session by scanning the session ID from the monitor (or entering it via a keypad or touch screen or microphone on the portable scanner); and the system associates in its databases the session ID with the serial number (or other identifier that uniquely identifies the user's scanner) of his/her scanner so another scanner cannot scan the session ID and use the monitor during his/her session. The scanner is in communication (through wireless link such as Bluetooth™, a hardwired link such as a docking station, etc.) with a PC associated with the monitor or is in direct (i.e., w/o going through the PC) communication with the system via another means such as a cellular phone, etc.
  • PART IV—SYSTEM DETAILS
  • One embodiment of a disclosed invention includes a user-friendly technique for ordering items from rendered documents (such as paper catalogs, advertisements, books, magazines, newspaper, flyers, signs and the like) using an optical capture device (such as a scanner, digital camera, cellular telephone camera, or other device capable of optically capturing at least a portion of the rendered document).
  • Another embodiment of a disclosed invention includes a user-friendly technique for ordering items from rendered documents (such as paper catalogs, advertisements, books, magazines, newspaper, flyers, signs and the like) using a voice capture device (such as voice recorder, cellular telephone, or other device capable of capturing at least a portion of the rendered document via voice input).
  • Whenever in this disclosure we refer to capturing or optically capturing data from a rendered document, it should be understood that some embodiments of this includes capturing the data by means of voice capture technology. Similarly, whenever in this disclosure we refer to an image or to image data, it should be understood that where appropriate this may be a voice image, for example a recording of the user's voice.
  • One embodiment of a disclosed invention is a method of placing an order for an item from a rendered document. The rendered document contains at least one human-readable indication of an orderable item. The method includes obtaining a captured fragment of the rendered document and communicating a representation of the captured fragment along with an identifier to a remote computer to order the item from a vendor via the Internet This embodiment may further include using a document or data capture context to search for an electronic version of the rendered document.
  • Another embodiment discloses a method of ordering an item from a rendered document, the method including establishing a document context of the rendered document; capturing a human-readable document fragment of the rendered document; and generating an order for the item. The order includes at least the document context, a representation of the document fragment and an identifier associated with a purchaser.
  • FIG. 4, is a system and operating environment according to the teachings of the present invention. As illustrated, example operating environment 400 includes a scanning device 302 (operative to graphically capture a portion of document 495), user device 420, wireless device 425, account server 500 (having an account database 575), document server 440 (having a document database 445), vendor server 450 (having an item database 455), aggregator server 460 (having an aggregator database 465), all interconnected via a network such as the Internet 410 or wireless network 430. Many of the devices in the environment are computers. One embodiment of a computer server has a memory containing computer executable instructions for processing an order request from a document capture device, the order request including an identifier, document context information, and a captured indication of an orderable item; identifying the orderable item from the captured indication and the document context; requesting fulfillment of the order request according to order fulfillment data associated with the identifier (e.g., user account data); and a processor to execute the computer executable instructions. In some embodiments, operating environment 400 may include more or less components. The devices of operating environment 400 may comprise a number of components.
  • Regardless of the manner in which the devices are coupled to each other, scanning device 302, user device 420, wireless device 425, account server 500, document server 440, vendor server 450 and aggregator server 460 may be operable in accordance with well-known commercial transaction and communication protocols. In some embodiments, the functions and capabilities of scanning device 302, user device 420 and wireless device 425 may be wholly or partially integrated into one device. Thus, the terms scanning device, user device and wireless device, could refer to the same device depending upon whether the device incorporates functions or capabilities of the scanning device 302, user device 420 and wireless device 425 roles.
  • Additionally, in various embodiments, user device 420 and account server 500 may be wholly or partially integrated. Thus, the terms user device and account server, as used herein, shall be interpreted with the meaning of an appropriately equipped device, operating in accordance with either a user device or an account server role.
  • FIG. 5 illustrates an exemplary account server 500 suitable for use in an embodiment of the present invention. In alternative embodiments, the account server 500 may include many more components (or fewer) than those shown in FIG. 5. However, it is not necessary that all of these generally conventional computing components be shown in order to disclose an enabling embodiment for practicing the present invention. As shown in FIG. 5, the account server 500 includes a communications interface 530, which, in some embodiments of the present invention, may be a Network Interface Controller (“NIC”). The inter-device communications of the communications interface 530 may be designed to support a local area network, wide area network, personal area network, telephone network, power line network, serial bus or wireless (e.g., Bluetooth™, IEEE 802.11 or 802.16 and the like) connection. Such a communications interface 530 would also include the necessary circuitry, driver(s) and/or transceiver for such a connection and would be constructed for use with the appropriate transmission protocols for such connections.
  • The account server 500 also includes a processing unit 510, an optional display 540 and a memory 550, all interconnected along with the communications interface 530 via a bus 520. The memory 550 typically comprises RAM, ROM and a permanent mass storage device, such as a disk drive, flash RAM or the like. The memory 550 stores an operating system 555, one or more applications 560, document data 565 and an account database 575. In some embodiments, bus 520 may be a hierarchy of bridged buses. For ease of understanding, operating system 555, one or more applications 560, document data and an account database 575 are illustrated as separate software components; however in some embodiments they may be comprised of multiple software components, implemented in hardware, or may be subparts of one or more integrated software components.
  • In some embodiments, the account database 575 contains account information for users of scanner devices 302. The account server 500 uses the account database 575 to correlate operations of a particular scanning device 302 with its associated account information stored in the account database 575.
  • It will be appreciated that the software components may be loaded from a computer readable medium into memory 550 of the account server 500 using a mechanism (not shown) associated with the computer readable medium such as a floppy, tape, DVD (Digital Versatile Disk) /CD (Compact Disk)-ROM drive, flash RAM or communications interface 530. In some embodiments, the loading may be performed during the manufacturing of device 500, or in the field. In some embodiments, the software components may be downloaded from one or more networked servers.
  • In various embodiments, the communications interface 530 may facilitate the connection of remote devices to the account server 500. For example, remote devices can include devices for reading and/or writing in machine-readable media, digital cameras, printers and the like. Various user input mechanisms may also be coupled to the account server 500, such as, for example, keyboards, keypads, touch-pads, mice and the like (not shown).
  • In some embodiments, a computer, such as account server 500 or user device 420, includes a memory containing computer executable instructions for processing an order request from a document capture device 302. The computer has a processor coupled to the memory operative to execute the computer executable instructions. The order request includes an identifier, document context information, and a captured indication of an orderable item. The computer identifies the orderable item from the captured indication of the orderable item and the document context. Then the computer requests fulfillment of the order in accordance with fulfillment data associated with the identifier.
  • In some embodiments, the scanning device 302 initiates an item ordering (purchase) transaction involving the account server 500 by scanning a portion of a rendered document 495.
  • FIG. 6 shows the flow of communications between a scanning device 302, account server 500 and a vendor server 450 during an item ordering transaction according to the device and system parameters of FIGS. 3-5. In the embodiment shown, scanned information is sent from the scanning device 302 to begin an item ordering transaction. The specific communications between the devices are described in more detail below.
  • In FIG. 6, the order transaction begins with a capture of a portion of a rendered document 495 to set a context 605. While some portion of the rendered document that is used to purchase an item includes human-readable information, in some embodiments, additional contextual information may be captured using machine-readable information such as barcode (1D, 2D, and/or multi-colored) information. Such barcode or other machine-readable information may also contain checksum information to verify captured human-readable portions of the rendered document. The context data (processed though an image processing routine in some embodiments) is sent 610 along with a device identifier (e.g., an identifier typically stored in the handheld device's memory 330 such as an ESN, network address, etc.) to the document server 440. The document server 440 processes the context data to determine 615 a document identifier.
  • A document identifier comprises information identifying an electronic counterpart of the rendered document that corresponds to the captured context data supplied by the scanning device 302. For example, if the scanning device 302 scans a magazine page, the document server 440 determines, from the scan, which issue of the magazine the scan came from and the location within the magazine where the scan occurred. If sufficient information was scanned, and no ambiguity exists, it may be possible to also identify an item to be ordered from the context scan. However, in some embodiments one or more additional scans are used to reduce ambiguity. Accordingly, if a context scan produces an ambiguous search result (more than one result matches the scan), then when item text is captured 635, the additional item data may be used by the document server 440 to remove further ambiguity.
  • After determining a document context 615, the document server 440 sends 620 the document context and the device identifier to the account server 500. The account server 500 associates 625 the document context with an account identified by the device identifier. The identifier's account status is updated 630 to indicate that the scanning device 302 is now “in” a particular document context.
  • Meanwhile, the scanning device 302 has captured 635 item text (or symbols) and sent 640 item data and device identifier to the document server 440. The document server 440 determines 645 which item has been scanned using the item data and the determined document context. The document server then forwards 650 the item information and the device identifier to the account server 500.
  • The account server 500 then begins the order request for the vendor server 450. Fulfillment data (e.g., payment and delivery data such as billing information and a delivery address) specific to the device identifier is obtained 655 from an associated account. The item information and the fulfillment data are then sent 660 to a vendor server 450 and the account server 500 updates 665 the status of the account associated with the device identifier. Meanwhile, the vendor server 450 processes 670 the item order and sends 675 an order confirmation to the account server 500. The account server 500 updates 680 the status of the account associated with the device identifier to indicate that the order was confirmed. Fulfillment data may include anything necessary to complete a transaction, including: a user identifier, customer identifier, a capture device identifier, a catalog identifier, a vendor identifier, an aggregation identifier, an account identifier and a payment method identifier.
  • A user of the scanning device 302 may optionally receive an order status update by the account server 500 communicating 685 the current status of the order to the scanning device 302 (or a related device, such as user device 420) to cause the scanning device 302 to indicate 690 a current order status. In one alternative embodiment, the user may access the order status by remotely accessing the account server 500 to view the order status without an indication on the scanning device 302.
  • In various embodiments, the communications described above and shown in FIG. 6 are merely one exemplary set of communications between the scanning device 302, document server 440, account server 500 and vendor server 450. Other communications, both more and fewer, may be employed in other embodiments. For example, in one alternative embodiment, the order process includes delivering a prepared electronic order to an account associated with the scanning device identifier at the account server 500 (and/or a separate e-mail address account). Such an embodiment would allow a user to review the electronic order before transmitting it to a vendor for fulfillment.
  • Similarly, while the order transactions are shown as occurring in a particular succession, they may occur in other sequences. Furthermore, there may be delays between steps (i.e., a step may not be performed immediately after the step which preceded it), especially when scanning device 302 is temporarily unable to communicate with the other elements of system 400. Asynchronous (“online/offline” or “delayed”, see Section 17.3) communication allows use of some of the disclosed innovations even when the handheld devices are not connected to a network. In one “asynchronous” example, a user may capture a document fragment as a document context and may also capture a document fragment including a desired item, but not transmit the captured document fragments until a later point in time, perhaps when the communication link between scanner 302 and user device 420 is restored.
  • Various types of well-known communication and financial transaction protocols may be employed without limiting the scope of the disclosed inventions. In some embodiments, the order transaction communications are performed over connections using a HyperText Transfer Protocol (“HTTP”) connection in communication with one or more Common Gateway Interface (“CGI”) or other HTTP-accessible applications. In other embodiments, different transmission protocols and/or connections for order transactions may be employed. Some well-known financial transaction protocols are Financial Information Exchange Markup Language (FIXML), Open Financial Exchange (OFX), and VISA'S™ Secure Electronic Transaction (SET).
  • In general, an order transaction contains the information necessary to identify the item being ordered and, optionally, the fulfillment information that allows a vendor to fulfill the order. This may be accomplished by a variety of different transaction models in accordance with various embodiments. In some embodiments, various types of identifiers (such a device identifier) may be used to distinguish transactions, devices and/or users. The type of transaction and related communications used during the transaction may determine the choice of the type of identifier used. The generation of the identifiers may follow industry standard practices, however, they should typically provide sufficient identification for billing and order fulfillment. One method for generating identifiers is to take a user name of the consumer and append a random number (e.g., “jim5435873934”). Another method is to generate a Globally Unique Identifier (“GUID”), using well-known algorithms. The location of identifier generation may be at any of a variety of devices in the operating environment 400, such as account server 500, scanning device 302, user device 420, wireless device 425 and the like. The appropriate identifier may be generated on demand or may be predetermined and associated with a particular device, as in device identifier 270.
  • FIG. 7 illustrates a process within the document server 440 for determining a context of the context scan from a scanning device 302 in accordance with the above-described communications between a scanning device 302, document server 440, account server 500 and a vendor server 450. The context determination process 700 begins at block 705 where captured text (or a representation thereof) is obtained. In decision block 710 a determination is made whether the scanned text (or symbol) is recognized as special (e.g., a template match indicated that a special context setting symbol, or specially arranged text, such as an ISBN number has been captured). If in decision block 710 it is determined that a special symbol or special text was scanned, then in decision block 725 a determination is made whether the special symbol and/or text has set a document context. If so, processing continues to block 730 where the document context is set. If, however, the special symbol and/or text do not set a context, processing ends at block 799, returning any found results from the text processing.
  • If, however, in decision block 710 no special symbol or text was recognized, processing continues to block 715 where the scanned text is processed. Next, in decision block 720 a determination is made whether the processed scanned text provides sufficient information to set a document context. If so, processing continues to block 730 where the document context is set. After which processing ends at block 799, returning the document context results. If however, no context was found in decision block 720, processing ends at block 799, returning any other results.
  • FIG. 8 illustrates a process within the account server 500 for ordering an item from a vendor server 450 in accordance with the above-described communications between scanning device 302 and vendor server 450. The item ordering process 800 begins at block 805 where human-readable (as opposed to machine readable, such as from a barcode) context data is obtained, along with a first (transaction or user or device) identifier. Next, the context data and first identifier are associated with a vendor in block 810. The determination of a document context may provide an indication of where to obtain an electronic counterpart of a document, and hence may also give an indication of a vendor equipped to respond to an electronic transaction. In some embodiments a single vendor may be located, in block 810, while in alternative embodiments, multiple vendors may be located, and may utilize further selections to determine which vendor (and associated vender server 450) to use for an item order transaction.
  • A transaction status for the first identifier (e.g., in an associated account in account database 575) is updated in block 815 to indicate that at least one vendor is associated with an item order transaction. Next, in block 820 a human-readable indication of item data is obtained along with the first identifier. The transaction status for the first identifier is further updated in block 825 to indicate the item associated with the item order transaction. Furthermore, in embodiments with multiple vendors, providing the item data allows further refinement of the vendor selection process, e.g., by comparing prices, availability and other order fulfillment information.
  • In block 830, the item identified by the item data is ordered from a vendor. The order comprises at least an identifier (possibly, but not necessarily, the first identical transaction/user/device identifier noted above) and fulfillment information. In one exemplary embodiment, fulfillment information may already be resident at a vendor server 450, and accordingly the provision of an identifier may in and of itself provide sufficient information to enable the vendor to fulfill the order.
  • In decision block 835 a determination is made whether the vendor confirmed the item order. If so, processing proceeds to block 840, where the transaction status of the first identifier is updated to reflect a confirmed order for the item. In block 845, the item order confirmation is conveyed to a user. If, however, in decision block 835 a determination is made that the vendor did not confirm the item order, processing proceeds to block 850, where the transaction status of the first identifier is updated to reflect a failure to confirm the order for the item. In block 855, failure of the vendor to confirm the item order is conveyed to a user. Of course, reporting transaction status to the user is optional under some embodiments of the disclosed innovations.
  • The embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 6-8 is one of a myriad of possible item ordering systems and methods employed by embodiments of the present invention. FIGS. 9-10 illustrate an alternative embodiment where a first identifier is not resident within the scanning device 302, rather, such an identifier is provided by an associated user device 420. FIGS. 9-10 additionally illustrate that various devices within the operating environment may, in different embodiments, reallocate processing of portions of item ordering transactions.
  • Accordingly, FIG. 9 illustrates a similar item ordering transaction to the one shown in FIG. 6, however between a scanning device 302, user device 420, document server 440 and vendor server 450. In FIG. 9, in like manner, the item ordering transaction begins with the scanning device 302 optically capturing 905 a portion of a rendered document for context data. The context data is sent 910 as an image to the document server 440 via the user device 420. Note that an identifier between the scanning device 302 and user device 420 is not necessary, as the scanning device and user device 420 may be closely coupled such that the user device 420 will know which scanning device provided the context image. The document server 440 locates 915 an electronic counterpart of the rendered document from which the context image was captured. A number of different methods may be employed when locating 915 electronic documents in various embodiments as discussed elsewhere in this document. Next, the document server 440 determines 920 the context of/or within the located electronic document that was indicated by the context image. In one embodiment, the context corresponds to a region or location within the electronic document, while in other embodiments the context is the whole document. Next, the electronic document and determined context are returned 925 to the user device 420.
  • Meanwhile, the scanning device 302 is used to capture 930 an image (or portion of an image) of the desired item. The item image is sent 935 to the user device 420. Once the user device 420 is in possession of both the item image and the electronic counterpart of the rendered document (and the identified context), the user device 420 locates 940 the item within the electronic document. In one example, the user may wish to purchase a shirt from an Eddie Bauer™ catalog that he has received in the mail. The user could scan text or a symbol (such as a special symbol representing the action “Purchase Now”) from the Eddie Bauer™ catalog with the scanning device 302. The text or symbol is then transmitted to the document server 440 via the user device 420 (which perhaps is a personal computer in this example). The document server 440 uses the scanned information to locate an electronic version of the Eddie Bauer™ catalog and determine the context of the scanned text or symbol within the catalog. The user could further identify the item he wishes to purchase by scanning at least a portion of the picture of the shirt from the catalog and sending it to the user device 420. The user device 420 may then match the scanned portion of the picture to its corresponding picture in the electronic version of the catalog to identify the shirt that the user wishes to purchase. Finally, the user device 420 may complete the electronic transaction with vendor server 450. The vendor ships the shirt to the purchaser and, in a few days, the shirt arrives at the purchaser's house. Of course, the item location and other functions that this example discusses as residing in the user device 420 could reside in document server 440 or even in vendor server 450 such that many variations of the described transaction are possible but still within the scope of the disclosed inventions.
  • While, in alternative embodiments, conventional forms of OCR and/or image matching may be employed to locate an item within the electronic document, the inclusion of context information allows more efficient and less ambiguous matching techniques to be employed by narrowing the domain in which to search for an item corresponding to the item image.
  • Upon locating the item within the electronic document, the user device 420 sends 945 an item order with fulfillment data (such as payment and delivery information, or an identifier to a preexisting account) to a vendor server 450. The vendor server 450 processes 950 the item order and initiates order fulfillment 955. Order fulfillment may involve any delivery of the item specified in the item order according to the fulfillment data. The vendor server 450 also confirms 960 the item order to the user device 420. The user device 420 (or possibly wireless device 425) may then indicate the order confirmation 965 on an associated display (or other output device).
  • The communications described above and shown in FIG. 9 are merely one exemplary set of communications between the scanning device 302, user device 420, document server 440 and the vendor server 450. Other communications, both more and fewer, may be employed in various embodiments. Note, however, that unlike the communications shown in FIG. 6, no account server 500 is required for such communications. Of course, some embodiments may employ an account server 500 in conjunction with the communications shown in FIG. 9.
  • FIG. 10 illustrates a process within the user device 420 for an order transaction in accordance with the teachings of FIG. 9. The order transaction process 1000 begins at block 1005 where human-readable context data is obtained. In block 1010, the context data is shared with a remote computer to locate an electronic document corresponding to the context data. Additionally, in block 1015, human-readable item data is obtained. The item data is used to find an electronic representation of the item in the located electronic document in block 1020. Next, in block 1025, the item is ordered from a vendor (e.g., via a vendor server 450, or in some embodiments via an aggregator server 460 that may interface with a plurality of vendors and/or vendor servers 450). In decision block 1030, a determination is made whether the vendor has confirmed the order for the item. If so, processing proceeds to block 1035, where the order confirmation is conveyed to a user. On the other hand, if no order confirmation is forthcoming from the vendor, a lack of confirmation is conveyed to the user in block 1040.
  • FIGS. 11-12 illustrate an alternative embodiment to the disclosures of FIGS. 6-10. In FIGS. 11-12, a document server 440 is allocated as the primary processing system, including having an awareness of a particular scanning device coupled for item ordering via the document server. FIGS. 11-12 additionally illustrate that a vendor server may query a scanning device 302 as one form of authentication for item order transactions.
  • Accordingly, FIG. 11 illustrates an item ordering transaction between a scanning device 302, document server 440 and vendor server 450. In FIG. 11, the item ordering transaction begins with the scanning device 302 capturing 1105 a portion of a rendered document 495 for item data (and possibly context data at the same time). The item data is processed 1110 by the scanning device 302 to generate a fragment digest as a key to locate an electronic counterpart of the rendered document 495. Many different types of digest generation may be employed by various embodiments. Alternatively, conventional OCR techniques may be employed to convert an optical representation of the document fragment to a text string or other representation of the document fragment.
  • The fragment digest is sent 1115 to the document server 440. The document server then locates 1120 an electronic counterpart of the rendered document using the fragment digest as a key and/or search term(s). The document server 440 next determines 1125 the item (or items), contained within the document fragment, in the located electronic counterpart of the rendered document. The document server 440 creates 1130 a new transaction identifier (an identifier for identifying the transaction to the scanning device 302 and/or vendor server 450). Next, an order request is sent 1135 with the transaction identifier to the vendor server 450; where a new order transaction is created 1140. The vendor server 450 then sends 1145 an identifier request to the scanning device 302 (possibly via the document server 440) along with the transaction identifier.
  • The identifier request is verified 1150 at the scanning device 302. In one exemplary embodiment, verification at the scanning device 302 comprises determining a cryptographic key with which to secure communications with the vendor server 450. In some embodiments, verification 1150 may comprise other forms of authentication (e.g., biometrics data such as a fingerprint scan) to ensure that the identifier request is appropriate.
  • The scanning device 302 communicates 1155 an identifier request response back to the vendor server 450, including the transaction identifier. In various embodiments, the communication 1155 is across an encrypted (or otherwise secured) communications channel. Additionally, the identifier request response 1155 may comprise fulfillment information if the vendor server 450 does not already possess fulfillment information for an identifier of the scanning device 302. Upon receipt of the identifier request response, the vendor server 450 processes 1160 the order request and returns 1165 a confirmation of the order to the scanning device 302.
  • By having the vendor server 450 request an identifier from the scanning device 302, the above-described embodiment allows users to scan an item for purchase, but still know which vendor will be used to fulfill the order, and gives them an approval mechanism (the identifier request verification) before completing an order with a vendor. Many variations for ordering an item may be employed without departing from the spirit or scope of the present invention.
  • The communications described above and shown in FIG. 11 are merely one exemplary set of communications between the scanning device 302, document server 440 and the vendor server 450. Other communications, both more and fewer, may be employed in various embodiments. Alternative embodiments may employ additional devices in conjunction with the communications shown in FIG. 11.
  • FIGS. 12 and 13 illustrate a catalog as an exemplary rendered document 495 for use with various embodiments. Accordingly, FIG. 12 illustrates a catalog cover 1200 with an address label 1210 that includes a catalog number 1220 and a customer number 1230. In one embodiment, the customer number 1230 on the label 1210 may be used an identifier in purchase transactions with a vendor server 450 associated with the catalog 1200. The address label 1210 may also contain further information, such as a name and address of a recipient of the catalog.
  • FIG. 13 illustrates an interior page 1300 of the catalog 1200 with a number of items 1310A-H and a purchase symbol 1320. In alternative embodiments, further symbols may be used, for example a symbol to request special offers or sale items (not shown).
  • In one illustrative example of the operation of an embodiment, a user captures the catalog number 1220 (and possibly the customer number 1230) as context data using a handheld document data capture device such as scanner 302. The context data is processed at a document server 440 to locate an electronic counterpart of the catalog. Next, the user scans an item number, such an item number “789321” corresponding to item 1310G (a refurbished iBook computer). The item number scan identifies the item to be ordered within the electronic counterpart of the catalog. A vendor server 450 (generally corresponding to the catalog supplier) is notified of an order for item 1310G (a refurbished iBook computer with item number “789321”). By using the two stage (context and item) scanning, the number of ambiguous scans is greatly reduced. As the catalog provider is in control of the size of catalog identifier 1220 (context data) and item numbers, it is possible for the catalog provider to ensure unambiguous designations.
  • It will be appreciated that, in alternative embodiments, specific catalog numbers and item numbers need not be employed, but are simply used for illustrative purposes. Any human-readable information may be used to disambiguate between rendered documents and to correlate them with electronic counterparts of the same.
  • While FIGS. 12 and 13 illustrate a conventional catalog 1200 with printed pages 1300, in an alternative embodiment the catalog 1200 may actually be simplified to a minimal size, such as a postcard (or within a magazine, book, TV guide, letter and the like), thereby allowing a user to scan the address label 1210 and receive an electronically rendered (e.g., via e-mail, the web or even via a custom printed and mailed) version of the catalog 1200. In such an embodiment, the user may see a web page similar to the one shown in FIG. 16 and described below. By having a dynamically generated catalog presented to the user of the scanning device 302, it is possible for vendors to personalize the catalog to a particular user of a scanning device by selecting the items, prices and fulfillment requirements in a dynamic manner. As the scanning devices 302 enable this catalog personalization, the vendor may also elect to provide a personalized discount to users of scanning devices. For example, a valued customer (as determined by identifiers associated with the scanning device 302) may get a 10% discount for ordering from the personalized catalog.
  • In a further alternative embodiment, the scanning device 302 may be used in conjunction with an associated display, such as a display of a user device 420. Accordingly, FIGS. 14-15 illustrate such an embodiment where the display of a user device is used to assist in ordering items using a scanning device 302.
  • FIG. 14 illustrates an item ordering transaction between a scanning device 302, user device 420, document server 440 and vendor server 450. In FIG. 14, the item ordering transaction begins with the scanning device 302 capturing 1405 a portion of a rendered document 495 as symbolic data (e.g., text). The capturing process may comprise conventional OCR or may employ alternative text recognition technologies such as those discussed in Section 11.
  • The captured text is sent 1410 to a document server 440 (possibly via a user device 420). The document server 440 locates 1415 an electronic counterpart of the rendered document (see for example FIG. 16). Next, an electronic version of the document is sent 1420 to the user device 420 and displayed 1425. Once the electronic counterpart of the rendered document is displayed, actions performed by the user in a paper version can be mirrored, interpreted, displayed, etc., in the displayed version. Thus, for example, as the user captures a section of text, highlighting of that same portion of text can appear concurrently in the displayed version of the document. Alternatively a symbol representing an order request—perhaps a small currency icon—can appear in the dynamically displayed version.
  • Item text is captured 1430 by the scanning device 302 and transmitted 1435 (possibly via the user device 420) to the document server 440. The document server 440 locates 1440 the item of the item text within the electronic counterpart of the rendered document. The item location is sent 1445 to the user device 420, thereby causing the user device to display 1450 the portion of the electronic counterpart of the rendered document. The user next interacts 1455 with the displayed electronic counterpart of the rendered document (e.g., via a keyboard, mouse or the like) to display 1460 an item-relevant menu. The user selects 1465 an order option from the menu. The order for the item including fulfillment data (possibly requested in at the user device 420) is sent 1470 to the vendor server 450. The vendor server 450 processes 1275 the order, initiates 1480 order fulfillment and sends 1485 an order confirmation back to the user device 420. The confirmation is displayed 1490 at the user device 420.
  • The communications described above and shown in FIG. 14 are merely one exemplary set of communications between the scanning device 302, user device 420, document server 440 and the vendor server 450. Other communications, both more and fewer, may be employed in various embodiments. Alternative embodiments may employ additional devices in conjunction with the communications shown in FIG. 14.
  • FIG. 15 illustrates a process within the user device 420 for a document transaction using an associated display in accordance with the teachings of FIGS. 13 and 14. The transaction process 1500 begins at block 1505 where a captured text fragment of a rendered document is obtained. In block 1510, the text fragment is processed to identify and obtain an electronic document corresponding to the document fragment. Next, in block 1515, the obtained electronic document is displayed. In decision block 1520 a determination is made whether a user requested a menu. If so, processing proceeds to block 1525 where a menu is displayed that is relevant to the currently displayed portion of the electronic document. As a user navigates the document, different menus may become relevant, e.g., as when different items are selected from within an electronic document). In block 1530, a menu selection is received. In block 1535, menu selection is performed in an appropriate manner. After which the transaction process ends in block 1599.
  • If, however, in decision block 1520 it was determined that a menu was not selected, then in decision block 1540 a determination is made whether a special symbol (e.g., the purchase symbol 1320, or the like) was scanned. If so, processing proceeds to block 1545 where an action associated with the symbol is performed. After which, or if no symbol was scanned, processing proceeds to block 1599 and the transaction process ends.
  • In some embodiments, the scanning of a special symbol (e.g., purchase symbol 1320) is a prefix to purchasing activity that “primes” the handheld document data capture device 302 to capture items to purchase. In some embodiments, the scanning device 302 is sensitive to predetermined gestures (see Section 14.1.3), which may be used to prime the scanning device 302 for purchasing, or may be used to confirm a purchase.
  • FIG. 16 illustrates an exemplary displayed electronic counterpart of a printed document. In this example, the electronic counterpart is a web page 1600 corresponding to the interior catalog page 1300 shown in FIG. 13. The web page 1600 is displayed within a browser window 1605 (e.g., in a browser of a user device 420) and includes a menu 1650 that is relevant to a selected item 1610. Note that the menu 1650 can include further options other than ordering a specific item. The menu 1650 may be used to indicate that an item should be added to a wish list, that similar/alternative items should be shown, that the item should be removed from an order, that further information (or the manufacturer's web site) is desired, or the like. One additional menu option (not shown) is that a user may be presented with the option to purchase the rendered document from which the menu is being presented.
  • In one exemplary embodiment, a special symbol (e.g., “$”) is presented to a user in a rendered document, representing that an order activity (generally a software application for purchasing) may be activated by scanning the symbol. By scanning one or more items individually presented, the user can indicate his decision to make the purchase. In some embodiments, scanning an item multiple times (or scanning once and then indicating a quantity through another input method) may be used to indicate a purchase of multiple items. Orders can be confirmed via buttons or keypads on the handheld device 302, any associated display or host computer, via telephone, or by sending the user an e-mail requiring further action. The user's email account information can be determined by reference to the user's account and billing information.
  • In some embodiments, the user may be able to complete the purchase immediately by placing the order for an item with a single capture from the rendered document. One relatively safe way to insure that the user actually intended to make the purchase is to have a separate action that the user is required to perform to complete the purchase. This action might be to push a special button on the scanning device 302 or to scan a special object or phrase printed in the document (for example, a statement like “I agree to purchase”). Thus, in some embodiments, the user may be able to complete the purchase immediately by making two or more captures from the rendered document. The user may also identify himself (possibly via a username and/or password) and/or confirm a purchase by scanning a special code or mark printed on a card carried by the user. Other forms of authentication/verification may be employed in various embodiments, including, but not limited to biometric authentication, PIN entry in a keypad, challenge/response, cryptographic tokens and the like.
  • In many cases, it is helpful to know the location of the user. This would be useful, for example, when the user has access to a display device and wants their content delivered there. A label or other scanning-device-readable indicator (not shown) that identifies the specific display and or device may be available to the user. Scanning this label informs a document server 440 (or account server) of the user's location. In some cases the identifying label can be generated and displayed on a user device 420. Generally, only the user physically at the display device would then be able to scan this information, thereby providing an additional layer of security.
  • CONCLUSION
  • It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the above-described system may be straightforwardly adapted or extended in various ways. While the foregoing description makes reference to particular embodiments, the scope of the invention is defined solely by the claims that following and the elements recited therein.

Claims (28)

1. A method of placing an order for an item from a rendered document containing a human-readable indication of an orderable item, the method comprising:
obtaining a captured fragment of the rendered document containing a human-readable indication of an orderable item; and
communicating a representation of said captured fragment along with an identifier to a remote computer to order said item.
2. The method of claim 1, further comprising obtaining a document context from the rendered document.
3. The method of claim 2, further comprising confirming that at least one of said document context and said representation was obtained.
4. The method of claim 2, wherein obtaining said document context comprises searching for an electronic version of the rendered document and determining the context of the captured fragment in the electronic version of the rendered document.
5. The method of claim 2, wherein said document context comprises a location of the rendered document.
6. The method of claim 2, wherein said document context comprises a time of obtaining said captured fragment.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein placing the order for an item comprises at most a single optical or voice capture from the rendered document.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein placing the order comprises at most two optical or voice captures from the rendered document.
9. The method of claim 2, further comprising displaying a representation of the rendered document on a display device.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the order is placed via at least one selected from the group of an optical capture device, a wireless mobile phone, a vendor server, an e-mail and a document server.
11. The method of claim 1, further comprising communicating fulfillment data to said remote computer.
12. The method of claim 11, wherein said fulfillment data comprises at least one selected from the group of an identifier, payment data and a delivery address.
13. The method of claim 11, wherein said fulfillment data comprises an identifier selected from: a user identifier, customer identifier, an optical or voice capture device identifier, a catalog identifier, a vendor identifier, and aggregation identifier, an account identifier and a payment method identifier.
14. The method of claim 1, further comprising confirming the placement of the order.
15. The method of claim 14, wherein confirming comprises capturing a predetermined symbol or phrase.
16. The method of claim 14, wherein confirming comprises gesturing with an optical capture device.
17. The method of claim 1, further comprising priming a capture device to order at least one item.
18. The method of claim 17, wherein priming comprises capturing a predetermined symbol or phrase.
19. The method of claim 2, wherein the rendered document has a mailing label.
20. The method of claim 19, wherein obtaining said document context comprises capturing said mailing label.
21. The method of claim 20, wherein capturing said mailing label provides fulfillment data.
22. The method of claim 1, wherein said rendered document is selected from the group consisting of: a magazine, a book, a catalog, a postcard, a dynamic display, a newspaper, an ad, a sign and a paper document.
23. A capture device comprising:
a sensor;
a memory including an identifier;
a communications interface; and
a processor coupled to said sensor, memory and said communications interface; and operative to:
establish a document context by capturing, through said sensor, a document fragment of a rendered document;
capture, through said sensor, a human-readable indication of an orderable item from said rendered document; and
communicate said identifier, a representation of said document context and a representation of said orderable item to a remote computing device via said communications interface.
24. A method of processing an order request from a document capture device, the method comprising:
obtaining an identifier, a representation of a document context and a representation of an orderable item;
identifying the orderable item from said representation of the orderable item in relation to said document context;
processing a payment associated with said identifier for the orderable item; and
fulfilling said order in accordance with fulfillment data associated with said identifier.
25. A computer comprising:
a memory containing computer executable instructions for processing an order request from a document capture device by:
obtaining an order comprising an identifier, a representation of a document context and a representation of a captured indication of an orderable item;
identifying the orderable item from said representation of the a captured indication of the orderable item in relation to said document context;
requesting fulfillment of said order in accordance with fulfillment data associated with said identifier; and
a processor coupled to said memory operative to execute said computer executable instructions.
26. A computer system comprising:
an optical or voice capture device;
a computing device coupled to said capture device and operative to:
obtain a representation of a document context of a rendered document from said document capture device;
determine from said document context an electronic counterpart of said rendered document;
obtain an indication of a desired item from said capture device;
locate the desired item in said electronic counterpart of said rendered document; and
generate an order for the desired item, including fulfillment data.
27. A method of ordering an item from a rendered document, the method comprising:
establishing a document context of the rendered document;
capturing a human-readable document fragment of the rendered document containing an indication of an orderable item; and
generating an order for said orderable item comprising said document context, a representation of said document fragment and an identifier associated with a purchaser.
28. An electronic order placement system comprising:
a means for capturing a portion of a rendered document;
a means for obtaining a representation of a document context of a rendered document from said capturing means;
a means for determining from said representation of a document context an electronic counterpart of said rendered document;
a means for obtaining an indication of a desired item from said capturing means;
a means for locating the desired item in said electronic counterpart of said rendered document; and
a means for generating an order for the desired item.
US11/097,961 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Methods and systems for initiating application processes by data capture from rendered documents Abandoned US20060041484A1 (en)

Priority Applications (121)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US11/004,637 US7707039B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2004-12-03 Automatic modification of web pages
PCT/US2005/011089 WO2005098607A2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Document enhancement system and method
PCT/US2005/011043 WO2005098603A2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Establishing an interactive environment for rendered documents
US11/098,016 US7421155B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Archive of text captures from rendered documents
US11/097,103 US7596269B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Triggering actions in response to optically or acoustically capturing keywords from a rendered document
PCT/US2005/011015 WO2005098598A2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Publishing techniques for adding value to a rendered document
EP05732913A EP1761841A4 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Methods and systems for initiating application processes by data capture from rendered documents
EP05737714A EP1763842A4 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Content access with handheld document data capture devices
US11/096,704 US7599580B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Capturing text from rendered documents using supplemental information
EP05733819A EP1759272A4 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Search engines and systems with handheld document data capture devices
US11/097,836 US20060041538A1 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Establishing an interactive environment for rendered documents
EP05746428A EP1759281A4 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Adding information or functionality to a rendered document via association with an electronic counterpart
EP05734996A EP1759276A4 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Establishing an interactive environment for rendered documents
US11/098,014 US8019648B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Search engines and systems with handheld document data capture devices
PCT/US2005/011085 WO2005098605A2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Capturing text from rendered documents using supplemental information
EP05733191A EP1747508A4 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Archive of text captures from rendered documents
EP05745611A EP1756704A4 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Publishing techniques for adding value to a rendered document
PCT/US2005/011084 WO2005098604A2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Determining actions involving captured information and electronic content associated with rendered documents
US11/098,038 US7599844B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Content access with handheld document data capture devices
US11/097,833 US8515816B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Aggregate analysis of text captures performed by multiple users from rendered documents
PCT/US2005/011014 WO2005098597A2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Data capture from rendered documents using handheld device
EP05734947A EP1759275A4 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Capturing text from rendered documents using supplemental information
US11/097,981 US7606741B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Information gathering system and method
KR1020127033541A KR101328766B1 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 System, and method for identifying a rendered documents
EP05733851A EP1759273A4 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Determining actions involving captured information and electronic content associated with rendered documents
PCT/US2005/011013 WO2005098596A2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Archive of text captures from rendered documents
EP05734796A EP1759274A4 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Aggregate analysis of text captures performed by multiple users from rendered documents
PCT/US2005/011042 WO2005098602A2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Search engines and systems with handheld document data capture devices
PCT/US2005/011016 WO2005098599A2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Triggering actions in response to optically or acoustically capturing keywords from a rendered document
US11/098,042 US7593605B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Data capture from rendered documents using handheld device
EP05735008A EP1759277A4 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Document enhancement system and method
US11/097,835 US7831912B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Publishing techniques for adding value to a rendered document
PCT/US2005/011534 WO2005098610A2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Searching and accessing documents on private networks
KR1020127004310A KR101257206B1 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Device, and method for identifying a rendered documents
EP05733915A EP1756729A4 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Searching and accessing documents on private networks for use with captures from rendered documents
EP05731509A EP1880301A4 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Information gathering system and method
PCT/US2005/011026 WO2005098601A2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Initiating order placement by capturing information from rendered documents via handheld device
PCT/US2005/011090 WO2005096755A2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Content access with handheld document data capture devices
PCT/US2005/011088 WO2005098606A2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Aggregate analysis of text captures performed by multiple users from rendered documents
US11/097,828 US7742953B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Adding information or functionality to a rendered document via association with an electronic counterpart
US11/097,961 US20060041484A1 (en) 2004-04-01 2005-04-01 Methods and systems for initiating application processes by data capture from rendered documents
US11/097,089 US8214387B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Document enhancement system and method
EP12002745A EP2490152A1 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Triggering actions in response to optically or acoustically capturing keywords from a rendered document
PCT/US2005/011017 WO2005098600A2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Adding information or functionality to a rendered document via association with an electronic counterpart
PCT/US2005/011012 WO2005096750A2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Information gathering system and method
PCT/US2005/013297 WO2005101192A2 (en) 2004-04-19 2005-04-19 Processing techniques for visual capture data from a rendered document
EP05742065A EP1759278A4 (en) 2004-04-19 2005-04-19 Processing techniques for visual capture data from a rendered document
US11/110,353 US7702624B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-19 Processing techniques for visual capture data from a rendered document
JP2007509565A JP5102614B2 (en) 2004-04-19 2005-04-19 Processing techniques for visually acquired data from rendered documents
PCT/US2005/017333 WO2005114380A2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-05-17 Processing techniques for text capture from a rendered document
US11/131,945 US7818215B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-05-17 Processing techniques for text capture from a rendered document
EP05753019A EP1749260A4 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-05-17 Processing techniques for text capture from a rendered document
US11/185,908 US20060104515A1 (en) 2004-07-19 2005-07-19 Automatic modification of WEB pages
PCT/US2005/025732 WO2006014727A1 (en) 2004-07-19 2005-07-19 Automatic modification of web pages
EP05776539A EP1782230A4 (en) 2004-07-19 2005-07-19 Automatic modification of web pages
US11/208,457 US20060122983A1 (en) 2004-12-03 2005-08-18 Locating electronic instances of documents based on rendered instances, document fragment digest generation, and digest based document fragment determination
US11/208,461 US8005720B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-08-18 Applying scanned information to identify content
PCT/US2005/029537 WO2006023717A2 (en) 2004-08-18 2005-08-18 Scanner having connected and unconnected operational behaviors
US11/208,458 US7437023B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-08-18 Methods, systems and computer program products for data gathering in a digital and hard copy document environment
EP05812073A EP1810222A4 (en) 2004-08-18 2005-08-18 Methods, systems and computer program products for data gathering in a digital and hard copy document environment
PCT/US2005/029539 WO2006023718A2 (en) 2004-08-18 2005-08-18 Locating electronic instances of documents based on rendered instances, document fragment digest generation, and digest based document fragment determination
PCT/US2005/029536 WO2006026188A2 (en) 2004-08-18 2005-08-18 A system and method of determining readership of data gathered in a published document
US11/208,408 US20060136629A1 (en) 2004-08-18 2005-08-18 Scanner having connected and unconnected operational behaviors
PCT/US2005/029534 WO2006023715A2 (en) 2004-08-18 2005-08-18 Applying scanned information to identify content
EP05789280A EP1800208A4 (en) 2004-08-18 2005-08-18 Applying scanned information to identify content
PCT/US2005/030007 WO2006023937A2 (en) 2004-08-23 2005-08-23 A portable scanning device
US11/209,333 US20060081714A1 (en) 2004-08-23 2005-08-23 Portable scanning device
US11/210,260 US7706611B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-08-23 Method and system for character recognition
PCT/US2005/029680 WO2006023806A2 (en) 2004-08-23 2005-08-23 A method and system for character recognition
PCT/US2005/034319 WO2006036853A2 (en) 2004-09-27 2005-09-27 Handheld device for capturing
KR1020077009691A KR101212929B1 (en) 2004-09-27 2005-09-27 Secure data gathering from rendered documents
EP05800941.6A EP1810496A4 (en) 2004-09-27 2005-09-27 Secure data gathering from rendered documents
PCT/US2005/034734 WO2006037011A2 (en) 2004-09-27 2005-09-27 Secure data gathering from rendered documents
PCT/US2006/007108 WO2006093971A2 (en) 2005-02-28 2006-02-28 Association of a portable scanner with input/output and storage devices
US11/365,983 US7990556B2 (en) 2004-12-03 2006-02-28 Association of a portable scanner with input/output and storage devices
KR1020067024177A KR101174536B1 (en) 2004-04-19 2006-11-17 Processing techniques for visual capture data from a rendered document
US11/672,014 US8081849B2 (en) 2004-12-03 2007-02-06 Portable scanning and memory device
US12/203,103 US8146156B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2008-09-02 Archive of text captures from rendered documents
US12/542,343 US8619287B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2009-08-17 System and method for information gathering utilizing form identifiers
US12/542,816 US8442331B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2009-08-18 Capturing text from rendered documents using supplemental information
US12/542,811 US8447144B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2009-08-18 Data capture from rendered documents using handheld device
US12/696,599 US8489624B2 (en) 2004-05-17 2010-01-29 Processing techniques for text capture from a rendered document
US12/721,456 US8064700B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2010-03-10 Method and system for character recognition
US12/721,477 US20110019919A1 (en) 2004-02-15 2010-03-10 Automatic modification of web pages
US12/729,045 US8874504B2 (en) 2004-12-03 2010-03-22 Processing techniques for visual capture data from a rendered document
US12/859,736 US8261094B2 (en) 2004-04-19 2010-08-19 Secure data gathering from rendered documents
US12/889,321 US20110075228A1 (en) 2004-12-03 2010-09-23 Scanner having connected and unconnected operational behaviors
US12/892,840 US8346620B2 (en) 2004-07-19 2010-09-28 Automatic modification of web pages
US12/894,059 US8179563B2 (en) 2004-08-23 2010-09-29 Portable scanning device
US12/899,462 US8619147B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2010-10-06 Handheld device for capturing text from both a document printed on paper and a document displayed on a dynamic display device
US12/902,081 US8620760B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2010-10-11 Methods and systems for initiating application processes by data capture from rendered documents
US12/904,064 US8799303B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2010-10-13 Establishing an interactive environment for rendered documents
US12/904,915 US9454764B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2010-10-14 Contextual dynamic advertising based upon captured rendered text
US13/186,908 US10635723B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2011-07-20 Search engines and systems with handheld document data capture devices
US13/188,932 US20110295842A1 (en) 2004-08-18 2011-07-22 Applying Scanned Information to Identify Content
US13/195,193 US8531710B2 (en) 2004-12-03 2011-08-01 Association of a portable scanner with input/output and storage devices
US13/253,632 US8620083B2 (en) 2004-12-03 2011-10-05 Method and system for character recognition
JP2011248290A JP5496987B2 (en) 2004-04-19 2011-11-14 Processing techniques for visually acquired data from rendered documents
US13/400,551 US8505090B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2012-02-20 Archive of text captures from rendered documents
US13/468,830 US8521772B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2012-05-10 Document enhancement system and method
US13/615,517 US8799099B2 (en) 2004-05-17 2012-09-13 Processing techniques for text capture from a rendered document
US13/614,473 US9268852B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2012-09-13 Search engines and systems with handheld document data capture devices
US13/671,327 US9275051B2 (en) 2004-07-19 2012-11-07 Automatic modification of web pages
US13/792,501 US8831365B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2013-03-11 Capturing text from rendered documents using supplement information
US13/871,579 US20130246128A1 (en) 2004-08-18 2013-04-26 Data gathering in digital and rendered document environments
US13/961,934 US8953886B2 (en) 2004-12-03 2013-08-08 Method and system for character recognition
US13/965,099 US9313349B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2013-08-12 Optical scanners, such as hand-held optical scanners
US13/966,002 US9030699B2 (en) 2004-04-19 2013-08-13 Association of a portable scanner with input/output and storage devices
US13/966,236 US9811728B2 (en) 2004-04-12 2013-08-13 Adding value to a rendered document
US14/080,305 US9460346B2 (en) 2004-04-19 2013-11-14 Handheld device for capturing text from both a document printed on paper and a document displayed on a dynamic display device
US14/144,335 US9760938B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2013-12-30 Methods and systems for initiating application processes by data capture from rendered documents
US14/144,337 US20140237342A1 (en) 2004-04-01 2013-12-30 System and method for information gathering utilizing form identifiers
US14/252,395 US9319555B2 (en) 2004-04-19 2014-04-14 Handheld device for capturing text from both a document printed on paper and a document displayed on a dynamic display device
US14/328,015 US9684902B2 (en) 2004-04-19 2014-07-10 Processing techniques for text capture from a rendered document
US14/506,142 US20150026162A1 (en) 2004-04-19 2014-10-03 Processing techniques for visual capture data from a rendered document
US14/531,258 US9721193B2 (en) 2004-04-19 2014-11-03 Method and system for character recognition
US15/241,988 US10318995B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2016-08-19 Contextual dynamic advertising based upon captured rendered text
US15/281,732 US9773167B2 (en) 2004-04-19 2016-09-30 Handheld device for capturing text from both a document printed on paper and a document displayed on a dynamic display device
US15/594,932 US10504162B2 (en) 2004-05-17 2017-05-15 Processing techniques for text capture from a rendered document
US15/679,237 US20170364746A1 (en) 2004-09-27 2017-08-17 Handheld device for capturing text from both a document printed on paper and a document displayed on a dynamic display device
US16/133,654 US10769431B2 (en) 2004-09-27 2018-09-17 Handheld device for capturing text from both a document printed on paper and a document displayed on a dynamic display device

Applications Claiming Priority (103)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
US55878904P 2004-04-01 2004-04-01
US55922604P 2004-04-01 2004-04-01
US55927804P 2004-04-01 2004-04-01
US55896804P 2004-04-01 2004-04-01
US55876004P 2004-04-01 2004-04-01
US55879104P 2004-04-01 2004-04-01
US55896904P 2004-04-01 2004-04-01
US55886704P 2004-04-01 2004-04-01
US55837004P 2004-04-01 2004-04-01
US55927704P 2004-04-01 2004-04-01
US55927904P 2004-04-01 2004-04-01
US55852704P 2004-04-01 2004-04-01
US55889304P 2004-04-01 2004-04-01
US55926504P 2004-04-01 2004-04-01
US55871704P 2004-04-01 2004-04-01
US55849904P 2004-04-01 2004-04-01
US55889204P 2004-04-01 2004-04-01
US55913104P 2004-04-02 2004-04-02
US55912504P 2004-04-02 2004-04-02
US55912704P 2004-04-02 2004-04-02
US55903304P 2004-04-02 2004-04-02
US55908704P 2004-04-02 2004-04-02
US55890904P 2004-04-02 2004-04-02
US55976604P 2004-04-06 2004-04-06
US56176804P 2004-04-12 2004-04-12
US56352004P 2004-04-19 2004-04-19
US56348504P 2004-04-19 2004-04-19
US56468804P 2004-04-23 2004-04-23
US56484604P 2004-04-23 2004-04-23
US57138104P 2004-05-14 2004-05-14
US57156004P 2004-05-14 2004-05-14
US57171504P 2004-05-17 2004-05-17
US58920104P 2004-07-19 2004-07-19
US58920304P 2004-07-19 2004-07-19
US58920204P 2004-07-19 2004-07-19
US59882104P 2004-08-02 2004-08-02
US60289704P 2004-08-18 2004-08-18
US60292504P 2004-08-18 2004-08-18
US60293004P 2004-08-18 2004-08-18
US60294704P 2004-08-18 2004-08-18
US60295604P 2004-08-18 2004-08-18
US60289804P 2004-08-18 2004-08-18
US60289604P 2004-08-18 2004-08-18
US60308104P 2004-08-19 2004-08-19
US60308204P 2004-08-19 2004-08-19
US60346604P 2004-08-19 2004-08-19
US60349804P 2004-08-20 2004-08-20
US60335804P 2004-08-20 2004-08-20
US60410304P 2004-08-23 2004-08-23
US60409804P 2004-08-23 2004-08-23
US60410004P 2004-08-23 2004-08-23
US60410204P 2004-08-23 2004-08-23
US60510504P 2004-08-27 2004-08-27
US60522904P 2004-08-27 2004-08-27
US61345404P 2004-09-27 2004-09-27
US61346004P 2004-09-27 2004-09-27
US61358904P 2004-09-27 2004-09-27
US61345504P 2004-09-27 2004-09-27
US61363204P 2004-09-27 2004-09-27
US61362804P 2004-09-27 2004-09-27
US61333904P 2004-09-27 2004-09-27
US61334104P 2004-09-27 2004-09-27
US61340004P 2004-09-27 2004-09-27
US61336104P 2004-09-27 2004-09-27
US61360204P 2004-09-27 2004-09-27
US61334004P 2004-09-27 2004-09-27
US61324204P 2004-09-27 2004-09-27
US61324304P 2004-09-27 2004-09-27
US61363304P 2004-09-27 2004-09-27
US61346104P 2004-09-27 2004-09-27
US61363404P 2004-09-27 2004-09-27
US61345604P 2004-09-27 2004-09-27
US61511204P 2004-10-01 2004-10-01
US61553804P 2004-10-01 2004-10-01
US61537804P 2004-10-01 2004-10-01
US61712204P 2004-10-07 2004-10-07
US62290604P 2004-10-28 2004-10-28
US11/004,637 US7707039B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2004-12-03 Automatic modification of web pages
US63345304P 2004-12-06 2004-12-06
US63348604P 2004-12-06 2004-12-06
US63367804P 2004-12-06 2004-12-06
US63345204P 2004-12-06 2004-12-06
US63473904P 2004-12-09 2004-12-09
US63462704P 2004-12-09 2004-12-09
US64768405P 2005-01-26 2005-01-26
US64874605P 2005-01-31 2005-01-31
US65337205P 2005-02-15 2005-02-15
US65367905P 2005-02-16 2005-02-16
US65389905P 2005-02-16 2005-02-16
US65384705P 2005-02-16 2005-02-16
US65366305P 2005-02-16 2005-02-16
US65366905P 2005-02-16 2005-02-16
US65437905P 2005-02-17 2005-02-17
US65419605P 2005-02-18 2005-02-18
US65436805P 2005-02-18 2005-02-18
US65432605P 2005-02-18 2005-02-18
US65528005P 2005-02-22 2005-02-22
US65528105P 2005-02-22 2005-02-22
US65527905P 2005-02-22 2005-02-22
US65598705P 2005-02-22 2005-02-22
US65569705P 2005-02-22 2005-02-22
US65730905P 2005-02-28 2005-02-28
US11/097,961 US20060041484A1 (en) 2004-04-01 2005-04-01 Methods and systems for initiating application processes by data capture from rendered documents

Related Parent Applications (4)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US11/004,637 Continuation-In-Part US7707039B2 (en) 2004-01-26 2004-12-03 Automatic modification of web pages
US11/098,038 Continuation-In-Part US7599844B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Content access with handheld document data capture devices
PCT/US2005/011533 Continuation-In-Part WO2005098609A2 (en) 2004-04-01 2005-04-01 A method and system for character recognition
US11/097,093 Continuation-In-Part US20060041605A1 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Determining actions involving captured information and electronic content associated with rendered documents

Related Child Applications (16)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US11/004,637 Continuation-In-Part US7707039B2 (en) 2004-01-26 2004-12-03 Automatic modification of web pages
US11/098,016 Continuation-In-Part US7421155B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Archive of text captures from rendered documents
US11/097,093 Continuation-In-Part US20060041605A1 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Determining actions involving captured information and electronic content associated with rendered documents
US11/110,353 Continuation-In-Part US7702624B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-19 Processing techniques for visual capture data from a rendered document
US11/131,945 Continuation-In-Part US7818215B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-05-17 Processing techniques for text capture from a rendered document
US11/185,908 Continuation-In-Part US20060104515A1 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-07-19 Automatic modification of WEB pages
US11/208,461 Continuation-In-Part US8005720B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-08-18 Applying scanned information to identify content
US11/208,408 Continuation-In-Part US20060136629A1 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-08-18 Scanner having connected and unconnected operational behaviors
US11/208,457 Continuation-In-Part US20060122983A1 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-08-18 Locating electronic instances of documents based on rendered instances, document fragment digest generation, and digest based document fragment determination
US11/208,458 Continuation-In-Part US7437023B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-08-18 Methods, systems and computer program products for data gathering in a digital and hard copy document environment
US11/210,260 Continuation-In-Part US7706611B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-08-23 Method and system for character recognition
US11/209,333 Continuation-In-Part US20060081714A1 (en) 2004-04-01 2005-08-23 Portable scanning device
US11/365,983 Continuation-In-Part US7990556B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2006-02-28 Association of a portable scanner with input/output and storage devices
US43273106A Continuation-In-Part 2004-04-01 2006-05-11
US12/542,343 Continuation US8619287B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2009-08-17 System and method for information gathering utilizing form identifiers
US12/902,081 Continuation US8620760B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2010-10-11 Methods and systems for initiating application processes by data capture from rendered documents

Publications (1)

Publication Number Publication Date
US20060041484A1 true US20060041484A1 (en) 2006-02-23

Family

ID=35910727

Family Applications (4)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US11/097,961 Abandoned US20060041484A1 (en) 2004-02-15 2005-04-01 Methods and systems for initiating application processes by data capture from rendered documents
US12/542,343 Active 2026-01-08 US8619287B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2009-08-17 System and method for information gathering utilizing form identifiers
US12/902,081 Active 2025-10-08 US8620760B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2010-10-11 Methods and systems for initiating application processes by data capture from rendered documents
US14/144,335 Active 2027-01-06 US9760938B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2013-12-30 Methods and systems for initiating application processes by data capture from rendered documents

Family Applications After (3)

Application Number Title Priority Date Filing Date
US12/542,343 Active 2026-01-08 US8619287B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2009-08-17 System and method for information gathering utilizing form identifiers
US12/902,081 Active 2025-10-08 US8620760B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2010-10-11 Methods and systems for initiating application processes by data capture from rendered documents
US14/144,335 Active 2027-01-06 US9760938B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2013-12-30 Methods and systems for initiating application processes by data capture from rendered documents

Country Status (1)

Country Link
US (4) US20060041484A1 (en)

Cited By (54)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US20070050360A1 (en) * 2005-08-23 2007-03-01 Hull Jonathan J Triggering applications based on a captured text in a mixed media environment
US20070164554A1 (en) * 2005-12-16 2007-07-19 Krone Craig E Order fulfillment system and method for printing products including individualized information
US20070233754A1 (en) * 2006-04-03 2007-10-04 Stefan Baeuerle Process integration error and conflict handling
US20080256071A1 (en) * 2005-10-31 2008-10-16 Prasad Datta G Method And System For Selection Of Text For Editing
US20090077658A1 (en) * 2004-04-01 2009-03-19 Exbiblio B.V. Archive of text captures from rendered documents
US20090089293A1 (en) * 2007-09-28 2009-04-02 Bccg Ventures, Llc Selfish data browsing
US20090300068A1 (en) * 2008-05-30 2009-12-03 Tang ding-yuan System and method for processing structured documents
US20100092095A1 (en) * 2008-10-14 2010-04-15 Exbiblio B.V. Data gathering in digital and rendered document environments
US20100183246A1 (en) * 2004-02-15 2010-07-22 Exbiblio B.V. Data capture from rendered documents using handheld device
US20100185538A1 (en) * 2004-04-01 2010-07-22 Exbiblio B.V. Content access with handheld document data capture devices
US20100228989A1 (en) * 2009-03-03 2010-09-09 Microsoft Corporation Access control using identifiers in links
US20110019020A1 (en) * 2004-04-01 2011-01-27 King Martin T Adding information or functionality to a rendered document via association with an electronic counterpart
US20110026838A1 (en) * 2004-04-01 2011-02-03 King Martin T Publishing techniques for adding value to a rendered document
US20110035289A1 (en) * 2004-04-01 2011-02-10 King Martin T Contextual dynamic advertising based upon captured rendered text
US20110072395A1 (en) * 2004-12-03 2011-03-24 King Martin T Determining actions involving captured information and electronic content associated with rendered documents
US20110085211A1 (en) * 2004-02-15 2011-04-14 King Martin T Handheld device for capturing text from both a document printed on paper and a document displayed on a dynamic display device
US20110145102A1 (en) * 2004-04-01 2011-06-16 King Martin T Methods and systems for initiating application processes by data capture from rendered documents
US20110154507A1 (en) * 2004-02-15 2011-06-23 King Martin T Establishing an interactive environment for rendered documents
US20110150335A1 (en) * 2004-04-01 2011-06-23 Google Inc. Triggering Actions in Response to Optically or Acoustically Capturing Keywords from a Rendered Document
US20110169970A1 (en) * 2007-05-08 2011-07-14 Philip Wesby System and Method for Data Acquisition and Processing
US7990556B2 (en) 2004-12-03 2011-08-02 Google Inc. Association of a portable scanner with input/output and storage devices
US8081849B2 (en) 2004-12-03 2011-12-20 Google Inc. Portable scanning and memory device
US8179563B2 (en) 2004-08-23 2012-05-15 Google Inc. Portable scanning device
US8261094B2 (en) 2004-04-19 2012-09-04 Google Inc. Secure data gathering from rendered documents
US8346620B2 (en) 2004-07-19 2013-01-01 Google Inc. Automatic modification of web pages
US8418055B2 (en) 2009-02-18 2013-04-09 Google Inc. Identifying a document by performing spectral analysis on the contents of the document
US8442331B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2013-05-14 Google Inc. Capturing text from rendered documents using supplemental information
WO2013070527A1 (en) * 2011-11-07 2013-05-16 LaVoult.com, LLC Messaging system
US8447066B2 (en) 2009-03-12 2013-05-21 Google Inc. Performing actions based on capturing information from rendered documents, such as documents under copyright
US8448072B1 (en) 2010-04-07 2013-05-21 Sprint Communications Company L.P. Interception of automatic status updates for a social networking system
US8489624B2 (en) 2004-05-17 2013-07-16 Google, Inc. Processing techniques for text capture from a rendered document
US8600196B2 (en) 2006-09-08 2013-12-03 Google Inc. Optical scanners, such as hand-held optical scanners
US8620083B2 (en) 2004-12-03 2013-12-31 Google Inc. Method and system for character recognition
US20140067619A1 (en) * 2012-09-05 2014-03-06 Cadenas Gmbh Product Catalog, Method For Ordering Products Presented In A Product Catalog And Computer Program Product Therefor
US8713418B2 (en) 2004-04-12 2014-04-29 Google Inc. Adding value to a rendered document
US8874504B2 (en) 2004-12-03 2014-10-28 Google Inc. Processing techniques for visual capture data from a rendered document
US8892495B2 (en) 1991-12-23 2014-11-18 Blanding Hovenweep, Llc Adaptive pattern recognition based controller apparatus and method and human-interface therefore
US8990235B2 (en) 2009-03-12 2015-03-24 Google Inc. Automatically providing content associated with captured information, such as information captured in real-time
US20150178728A1 (en) * 2013-12-20 2015-06-25 Chacha Search, Inc Method and system of selective content delivery
US9081799B2 (en) 2009-12-04 2015-07-14 Google Inc. Using gestalt information to identify locations in printed information
US9116890B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2015-08-25 Google Inc. Triggering actions in response to optically or acoustically capturing keywords from a rendered document
US9143638B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2015-09-22 Google Inc. Data capture from rendered documents using handheld device
US9268852B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2016-02-23 Google Inc. Search engines and systems with handheld document data capture devices
US20160063109A1 (en) * 2014-08-29 2016-03-03 Yuanjie Liu Query-breadth selected search result sorting mechanism
US9323784B2 (en) 2009-12-09 2016-04-26 Google Inc. Image search using text-based elements within the contents of images
US9418385B1 (en) * 2011-01-24 2016-08-16 Intuit Inc. Assembling a tax-information data structure
US9535563B2 (en) 1999-02-01 2017-01-03 Blanding Hovenweep, Llc Internet appliance system and method
EP3133507A1 (en) 2015-03-31 2017-02-22 Secude AG Context-based data classification
US20170091750A1 (en) * 2014-03-12 2017-03-30 Enrico Maim Transactional system with peer-to-peer distributed architecture for exchanging units of account
US20180005154A1 (en) * 2016-07-01 2018-01-04 Bradford H. Needham Tool experience aggregator
US10769431B2 (en) 2004-09-27 2020-09-08 Google Llc Handheld device for capturing text from both a document printed on paper and a document displayed on a dynamic display device
US20210012062A1 (en) * 2016-03-30 2021-01-14 Evernote Corporation Extracting Structured Data from Handwritten and Audio Notes
US11341318B2 (en) 2020-07-07 2022-05-24 Kudzu Software Llc Interactive tool for modifying an automatically generated electronic form
US11403455B2 (en) * 2020-07-07 2022-08-02 Kudzu Software Llc Electronic form generation from electronic documents

Families Citing this family (50)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US8874477B2 (en) 2005-10-04 2014-10-28 Steven Mark Hoffberg Multifactorial optimization system and method
US8762364B2 (en) * 2008-03-18 2014-06-24 Yahoo! Inc. Personalizing sponsored search advertising layout using user behavior history
US8412529B2 (en) * 2008-10-29 2013-04-02 Verizon Patent And Licensing Inc. Method and system for enhancing verbal communication sessions
US20100132044A1 (en) * 2008-11-25 2010-05-27 International Business Machines Corporation Computer Method and Apparatus Providing Brokered Privacy of User Data During Searches
WO2010089235A1 (en) * 2009-02-06 2010-08-12 Oce-Technologies B.V. Method for processing documents on an image-processing apparatus
KR20110047398A (en) * 2009-10-30 2011-05-09 삼성전자주식회사 Image providing system and image providing mehtod of the same
WO2011115671A2 (en) * 2010-03-15 2011-09-22 Ribbit Corporation Voting communicating system
US9081412B2 (en) 2010-07-31 2015-07-14 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. System and method for using paper as an interface to computer applications
US8542889B2 (en) 2010-10-19 2013-09-24 Apple Inc. Systems, methods, and computer-readable media for capturing a signature for use in a document
US20120131131A1 (en) * 2010-11-18 2012-05-24 Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. Sharing of mobile code information
US8856807B1 (en) 2011-01-04 2014-10-07 The Pnc Financial Services Group, Inc. Alert event platform
US11055754B1 (en) 2011-01-04 2021-07-06 The Pnc Financial Services Group, Inc. Alert event platform
US20120191817A1 (en) * 2011-01-20 2012-07-26 Eugene Sayan Product tracking based on scanned indicia
WO2012148770A2 (en) * 2011-04-28 2012-11-01 United Video Properties, Inc. Systems and methods for deducing user information from input device behavior
US20120278179A1 (en) 2011-04-28 2012-11-01 Ray Campbell Systems and methods for deducing user information from input device behavior
US9135512B2 (en) 2011-04-30 2015-09-15 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Fiducial marks on scanned image of document
WO2012175758A1 (en) * 2011-06-24 2012-12-27 Indra Sistemas, S.A. Method for preparing, filling in and managing electoral documentation
US9760548B2 (en) * 2011-11-30 2017-09-12 The University Of Surrey System, process and method for the detection of common content in multiple documents in an electronic system
FR2984659B1 (en) * 2011-12-20 2016-01-29 Sagemcom Documents Sas METHOD OF PAIRING BETWEEN A SINGLE IDENTIFIER OF A DOCUMENT SCANNING DEVICE AND A USER ACCOUNT IDENTIFIER
US9111140B2 (en) * 2012-01-10 2015-08-18 Dst Technologies, Inc. Identification and separation of form and feature elements from handwritten and other user supplied elements
US20140298151A1 (en) * 2012-05-11 2014-10-02 FitzForm LLC Creation and distribution of forms
JP2014036314A (en) * 2012-08-08 2014-02-24 Canon Inc Scan service system, scan service method, and scan service program
US9946713B1 (en) * 2012-11-08 2018-04-17 Amazon Technologies, Inc. Digital media relationship analyzer and recommender
US8908210B2 (en) * 2012-12-31 2014-12-09 Lexmark International, Inc. Process enablement in network downtime condition
US9285948B2 (en) * 2013-03-15 2016-03-15 Assima Switzerland Sa System and method for interface display screen manipulation
US9098217B2 (en) * 2013-03-22 2015-08-04 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Causing an action to occur in response to scanned data
JP6132617B2 (en) * 2013-03-26 2017-05-24 キヤノン株式会社 Image processing system, image processing method, and program for storing received image data in folder
US10445417B2 (en) * 2013-08-01 2019-10-15 Oracle International Corporation Entry of values into multiple fields of a form using touch screens
KR102092164B1 (en) * 2013-12-27 2020-03-23 삼성전자주식회사 Display device, server device, display system comprising them and methods thereof
US10028658B2 (en) * 2013-12-30 2018-07-24 Welch Allyn, Inc. Imager for medical device
US10311528B1 (en) 2014-04-10 2019-06-04 Hyphen Solutions, Llc Closed network PO detail communication
US10121112B1 (en) * 2014-04-10 2018-11-06 Hyphen Solutions, Llc Systems and methods for improved management of construction project data
JP6066108B2 (en) * 2014-04-16 2017-01-25 コニカミノルタ株式会社 Electronic document generation system and program
US10176159B2 (en) * 2014-05-05 2019-01-08 Adobe Systems Incorporated Identify data types and locations of form fields entered by different previous users on different copies of a scanned document to generate an interactive form field
WO2016069006A1 (en) * 2014-10-31 2016-05-06 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Print client based marking
US10558880B2 (en) * 2015-11-29 2020-02-11 Vatbox, Ltd. System and method for finding evidencing electronic documents based on unstructured data
US11138372B2 (en) 2015-11-29 2021-10-05 Vatbox, Ltd. System and method for reporting based on electronic documents
US10387561B2 (en) 2015-11-29 2019-08-20 Vatbox, Ltd. System and method for obtaining reissues of electronic documents lacking required data
US10509811B2 (en) 2015-11-29 2019-12-17 Vatbox, Ltd. System and method for improved analysis of travel-indicating unstructured electronic documents
WO2018009200A1 (en) * 2016-07-07 2018-01-11 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Scanning with destination marks
US10089293B2 (en) * 2016-10-10 2018-10-02 International Business Machines Corporation QR code loading of form elements
WO2018071511A1 (en) 2016-10-11 2018-04-19 Orion Labs Group communication forwarding to a secondary service
US11295396B1 (en) 2017-01-30 2022-04-05 Intuit Inc. Computer-implemented methods systems and articles of manufacture for image-initiated preparation of electronic tax return
US11176621B1 (en) * 2017-01-30 2021-11-16 Intuit Inc. Computer-implemented methods systems and articles of manufacture for addressing optical character recognition triggered import errors during preparation of electronic tax return
US10977744B1 (en) 2017-01-30 2021-04-13 Intuit Inc. Computer-implemented methods systems and articles of manufacture for validating electronic tax return data
EP3526684A4 (en) * 2017-05-23 2020-07-08 Vatbox, Ltd. System and method for identification of missing data elements in electronic documents
US10742662B2 (en) * 2017-09-28 2020-08-11 Apple Inc. Non-transaction enabling data security
CN108021954B (en) 2017-11-01 2020-06-05 阿里巴巴集团控股有限公司 Method and device for starting business process
US10839181B1 (en) 2020-01-07 2020-11-17 Zebra Technologies Corporation Method to synchronize a barcode decode with a video camera to improve accuracy of retail POS loss prevention
US11675552B1 (en) * 2021-02-15 2023-06-13 egrafa, inc. Printing system operated responsive to data bearing records

Citations (99)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4716804A (en) * 1982-09-23 1988-01-05 Joel Chadabe Interactive music performance system
US4804949A (en) * 1987-03-20 1989-02-14 Everex Ti Corporation Hand-held optical scanner and computer mouse
US4805099A (en) * 1987-04-17 1989-02-14 Wang Laboratories, Inc. Retrieval of related records from a relational database
US4901364A (en) * 1986-09-26 1990-02-13 Everex Ti Corporation Interactive optical scanner system
USD306162S (en) * 1987-10-20 1990-02-20 Everex Ti Corporation Hand-held OCR scanner
US4985863A (en) * 1985-08-23 1991-01-15 Hitachi, Ltd. Document storage and retrieval system
US4988981A (en) * 1987-03-17 1991-01-29 Vpl Research, Inc. Computer data entry and manipulation apparatus and method
US5083218A (en) * 1989-02-08 1992-01-21 Casio Computer Co., Ltd. Hand-held image reading apparatus
US5179652A (en) * 1989-12-13 1993-01-12 Anthony I. Rozmanith Method and apparatus for storing, transmitting and retrieving graphical and tabular data
US5185857A (en) * 1989-12-13 1993-02-09 Rozmanith A Martin Method and apparatus for multi-optional processing, storing, transmitting and retrieving graphical and tabular data in a mobile transportation distributable and/or networkable communications and/or data processing system
US5288938A (en) * 1990-12-05 1994-02-22 Yamaha Corporation Method and apparatus for controlling electronic tone generation in accordance with a detected type of performance gesture
US5377706A (en) * 1993-05-21 1995-01-03 Huang; Jih-Tung Garbage collecting device
US5481278A (en) * 1992-10-21 1996-01-02 Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Information processing apparatus
US5485565A (en) * 1993-08-04 1996-01-16 Xerox Corporation Gestural indicators for selecting graphic objects
US5488196A (en) * 1994-01-19 1996-01-30 Zimmerman; Thomas G. Electronic musical re-performance and editing system
US5592566A (en) * 1992-05-27 1997-01-07 Apple Computer, Incorporated Method and apparatus for computerized recognition
US5594810A (en) * 1993-09-30 1997-01-14 Apple Computer, Inc. Method and apparatus for recognizing gestures on a computer system
US5594469A (en) * 1995-02-21 1997-01-14 Mitsubishi Electric Information Technology Center America Inc. Hand gesture machine control system
US5594640A (en) * 1993-08-02 1997-01-14 Apple Computer, Incorporated Method and apparatus for correcting words
US5595445A (en) * 1995-12-27 1997-01-21 Bobry; Howard H. Hand-held optical scanner
US5596697A (en) * 1993-09-30 1997-01-21 Apple Computer, Inc. Method for routing items within a computer system
US5600765A (en) * 1992-10-20 1997-02-04 Hitachi, Ltd. Display system capable of accepting user commands by use of voice and gesture inputs
US5602570A (en) * 1992-05-26 1997-02-11 Capps; Stephen P. Method for deleting objects on a computer display
US5710831A (en) * 1993-07-30 1998-01-20 Apple Computer, Inc. Method for correcting handwriting on a pen-based computer
US5713045A (en) * 1995-06-29 1998-01-27 Object Technology Licensing Corporation System for processing user events with input device entity associated with event producer which further links communication from event consumer to the event producer
US5714698A (en) * 1994-02-03 1998-02-03 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Gesture input method and apparatus
US5717846A (en) * 1993-09-30 1998-02-10 Hitachi Software Engineering Co., Ltd. Method and system for drawing network diagrams
US5861886A (en) * 1996-06-26 1999-01-19 Xerox Corporation Method and apparatus for grouping graphic objects on a computer based system having a graphical user interface
US5862256A (en) * 1996-06-14 1999-01-19 International Business Machines Corporation Distinguishing gestures from handwriting in a pen based computer by size discrimination
US5862260A (en) * 1993-11-18 1999-01-19 Digimarc Corporation Methods for surveying dissemination of proprietary empirical data
US5864848A (en) * 1997-01-31 1999-01-26 Microsoft Corporation Goal-driven information interpretation and extraction system
US5864635A (en) * 1996-06-14 1999-01-26 International Business Machines Corporation Distinguishing gestures from handwriting in a pen based computer by stroke analysis
US5867150A (en) * 1992-02-10 1999-02-02 Compaq Computer Corporation Graphic indexing system
US5867795A (en) * 1996-08-23 1999-02-02 Motorola, Inc. Portable electronic device with transceiver and visual image display
US5867597A (en) * 1995-09-05 1999-02-02 Ricoh Corporation High-speed retrieval by example
US6012071A (en) * 1996-01-29 2000-01-04 Futuretense, Inc. Distributed electronic publishing system
US6018346A (en) * 1998-01-12 2000-01-25 Xerox Corporation Freeform graphics system having meeting objects for supporting meeting objectives
US6018342A (en) * 1995-07-03 2000-01-25 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Automatically generated content-based history mechanism
US6021218A (en) * 1993-09-07 2000-02-01 Apple Computer, Inc. System and method for organizing recognized and unrecognized objects on a computer display
US6021403A (en) * 1996-07-19 2000-02-01 Microsoft Corporation Intelligent user assistance facility
US6026388A (en) * 1995-08-16 2000-02-15 Textwise, Llc User interface and other enhancements for natural language information retrieval system and method
US6025844A (en) * 1997-06-12 2000-02-15 Netscape Communications Corporation Method and system for creating dynamic link views
US6029195A (en) * 1994-11-29 2000-02-22 Herz; Frederick S. M. System for customized electronic identification of desirable objects
US6028271A (en) * 1992-06-08 2000-02-22 Synaptics, Inc. Object position detector with edge motion feature and gesture recognition
US6031525A (en) * 1998-04-01 2000-02-29 New York University Method and apparatus for writing
US6169969B1 (en) * 1998-08-07 2001-01-02 The United States Of America As Represented By The Director Of The National Security Agency Device and method for full-text large-dictionary string matching using n-gram hashing
US6175922B1 (en) * 1996-12-04 2001-01-16 Esign, Inc. Electronic transaction systems and methods therefor
US6175772B1 (en) * 1997-04-11 2001-01-16 Yamaha Hatsudoki Kabushiki Kaisha User adaptive control of object having pseudo-emotions by learning adjustments of emotion generating and behavior generating algorithms
US6181778B1 (en) * 1995-08-30 2001-01-30 Hitachi, Ltd. Chronological telephone system
US6181343B1 (en) * 1997-12-23 2001-01-30 Philips Electronics North America Corp. System and method for permitting three-dimensional navigation through a virtual reality environment using camera-based gesture inputs
US6184847B1 (en) * 1998-09-22 2001-02-06 Vega Vista, Inc. Intuitive control of portable data displays
US6192478B1 (en) * 1998-03-02 2001-02-20 Micron Electronics, Inc. Securing restricted operations of a computer program using a visual key feature
US6192165B1 (en) * 1997-12-30 2001-02-20 Imagetag, Inc. Apparatus and method for digital filing
US6195475B1 (en) * 1998-09-15 2001-02-27 Hewlett-Packard Company Navigation system for handheld scanner
US6195104B1 (en) * 1997-12-23 2001-02-27 Philips Electronics North America Corp. System and method for permitting three-dimensional navigation through a virtual reality environment using camera-based gesture inputs
US6335725B1 (en) * 1999-07-14 2002-01-01 Hewlett-Packard Company Method of partitioning a touch screen for data input
US20020002504A1 (en) * 2000-05-05 2002-01-03 Andrew Engel Mobile shopping assistant system and device
US6341280B1 (en) * 1998-10-30 2002-01-22 Netscape Communications Corporation Inline tree filters
US20020013781A1 (en) * 2000-01-13 2002-01-31 Erik Petersen System and method of searchin and gathering information on-line and off-line
US6344906B1 (en) * 1997-09-16 2002-02-05 Cyberscan Technology, Inc. Universal document scanner controller
US20020016750A1 (en) * 2000-06-20 2002-02-07 Olivier Attia System and method for scan-based input, storage and retrieval of information over an interactive communication network
US6347290B1 (en) * 1998-06-24 2002-02-12 Compaq Information Technologies Group, L.P. Apparatus and method for detecting and executing positional and gesture commands corresponding to movement of handheld computing device
US6346933B1 (en) * 1999-09-21 2002-02-12 Seiko Epson Corporation Interactive display presentation system
US20020020750A1 (en) * 1998-04-01 2002-02-21 Xerox Corporation Marking medium area with encoded identifier for producing action through network
US20020023215A1 (en) * 1996-12-04 2002-02-21 Wang Ynjiun P. Electronic transaction systems and methods therefor
US20020023158A1 (en) * 2000-04-27 2002-02-21 Polizzi Kathleen Riddell Method and apparatus for implementing search and channel features in an enterprise-wide computer system
US6351222B1 (en) * 1998-10-30 2002-02-26 Ati International Srl Method and apparatus for receiving an input by an entertainment device
US20020023959A1 (en) * 1999-04-22 2002-02-28 Miller Michael R. Multipurpose bar code scanner
US20030001018A1 (en) * 2001-05-02 2003-01-02 Hand Held Products, Inc. Optical reader comprising good read indicator
US20030004724A1 (en) * 1999-02-05 2003-01-02 Jonathan Kahn Speech recognition program mapping tool to align an audio file to verbatim text
US6504138B1 (en) * 1999-08-30 2003-01-07 Gateway, Inc. Media scanner
US20030009495A1 (en) * 2001-06-29 2003-01-09 Akli Adjaoute Systems and methods for filtering electronic content
US6507349B1 (en) * 2000-01-06 2003-01-14 Becomm Corporation Direct manipulation of displayed content
US6508706B2 (en) * 2001-06-21 2003-01-21 David Howard Sitrick Electronic interactive gaming apparatus, system and methodology
US6510387B2 (en) * 1999-04-23 2003-01-21 Global Locate, Inc. Correction of a pseudo-range model from a GPS almanac
US6509707B2 (en) * 1999-12-28 2003-01-21 Sony Corporation Information processing device, information processing method and storage medium
US6510417B1 (en) * 2000-03-21 2003-01-21 America Online, Inc. System and method for voice access to internet-based information
US6509912B1 (en) * 1998-01-12 2003-01-21 Xerox Corporation Domain objects for use in a freeform graphics system
US6518950B1 (en) * 1997-10-07 2003-02-11 Interval Research Corporation Methods and systems for providing human/computer interfaces
US6522333B1 (en) * 1999-10-08 2003-02-18 Electronic Arts Inc. Remote communication through visual representations
US6525749B1 (en) * 1993-12-30 2003-02-25 Xerox Corporation Apparatus and method for supporting the implicit structure of freeform lists, outlines, text, tables and diagrams in a gesture-based input system and editing system
US6526395B1 (en) * 1999-12-31 2003-02-25 Intel Corporation Application of personality models and interaction with synthetic characters in a computing system
US6526449B1 (en) * 1998-09-11 2003-02-25 Digital Convergence Corporation Method and apparatus for controlling a computer from a remote location
US20030040957A1 (en) * 1995-07-27 2003-02-27 Willam Y. Conwell Advertising employing watermarking
US6678664B1 (en) * 1999-04-26 2004-01-13 Checkfree Corporation Cashless transactions without credit cards, debit cards or checks
US6677696B1 (en) * 1997-12-30 2004-01-13 Epcos Ag Surface acoustic wave component on a monocrystal substrate which is also pyroelectric
US6681031B2 (en) * 1998-08-10 2004-01-20 Cybernet Systems Corporation Gesture-controlled interfaces for self-service machines and other applications
US20040015606A1 (en) * 1998-09-11 2004-01-22 Philyaw Jeffry Jovan Method and apparatus for utilizing an audibly coded signal to conduct commerce over the Internet
US6687612B2 (en) * 2002-01-10 2004-02-03 Navigation Technologies Corp. Method and system using a hand-gesture responsive device for collecting data for a geographic database
US6686844B2 (en) * 2001-02-23 2004-02-03 Fujitsu Limited Human interface system using a plurality of sensors
US6688525B1 (en) * 1999-09-22 2004-02-10 Eastman Kodak Company Apparatus and method for reading a coded pattern
US6688522B1 (en) * 1998-09-11 2004-02-10 L. V. Partners, L.P. Unique bar code
US6688081B2 (en) * 2001-12-18 2004-02-10 Schmalbach-Lubeca Ag Method for reducing headspace gas
US6690358B2 (en) * 2000-11-30 2004-02-10 Alan Edward Kaplan Display control for hand-held devices
US6688523B1 (en) * 1988-08-31 2004-02-10 Intermec Ip Corp. System for reading optical indicia
US20040036718A1 (en) * 2002-08-26 2004-02-26 Peter Warren Dynamic data item viewer
US20050005168A1 (en) * 2003-03-11 2005-01-06 Richard Dick Verified personal information database
US6993580B2 (en) * 1999-01-25 2006-01-31 Airclic Inc. Method and system for sharing end user information on network
US20070005570A1 (en) * 2005-06-30 2007-01-04 Microsoft Corporation Searching for content using voice search queries

Family Cites Families (444)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US3017317A (en) 1957-02-12 1962-01-16 Kimberly Clark Co Method of creping tissue and product thereof
US3899687A (en) 1972-07-10 1975-08-12 Identicon Corp Optical label scanning
US3917317A (en) 1974-02-25 1975-11-04 Univ California Book indexing and processing system
US4135791A (en) 1974-12-02 1979-01-23 Varian Associates, Inc. Reduced glare scanner
US4065778A (en) 1976-06-17 1977-12-27 Eastman Kodak Company Automatic rangefinder and focusing apparatus
US4358824A (en) 1979-12-28 1982-11-09 International Business Machines Corporation Office correspondence storage and retrieval system
US5262628A (en) 1982-01-25 1993-11-16 Symbol Technologies, Inc. Narrow-bodied, single- and twin-windowed portable laser scanning head for reading bar code symbols
JPS5955574A (en) 1982-09-17 1984-03-30 インタ−ナショナル ビジネス マシ−ンズ コ−ポレ−ション Mark sheet reader
US4553261A (en) 1983-05-31 1985-11-12 Horst Froessl Document and data handling and retrieval system
US4903229A (en) 1987-03-13 1990-02-20 Pitney Bowes Inc. Forms generating and information retrieval system
US5107256A (en) 1987-11-02 1992-04-21 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Method and apparatus for controlling terminals on communication network
JP2553608B2 (en) 1988-01-04 1996-11-13 住友電気工業 株式会社 Optical character reader
US7512254B2 (en) * 2001-11-07 2009-03-31 Symbol Technologies, Inc. System and method for mobile biometric authentication
US5201010A (en) * 1989-05-01 1993-04-06 Credit Verification Corporation Method and system for building a database and performing marketing based upon prior shopping history
US5159668A (en) 1989-05-08 1992-10-27 Apple Computer, Inc. Method and apparatus for manipulating outlines in improving digital typeface on raster output devices
US4914709A (en) 1989-06-02 1990-04-03 Eastman Kodak Company Method for identifying unrecognizable characters in optical character recognition machines
US4955693A (en) 1989-06-09 1990-09-11 Spectra-Physics, Inc. Laser scanner having improved optical scanning window
US6053413A (en) 1989-06-16 2000-04-25 Symbol Technologies, Inc. Optical scanner with hand-held and hands-free modes of use
US6002491A (en) * 1990-01-05 1999-12-14 Symbol Technologies, Inc. Apparatus for processing human-readable and machine-readable documents
US5048097A (en) 1990-02-02 1991-09-10 Eastman Kodak Company Optical character recognition neural network system for machine-printed characters
US5040229A (en) 1990-02-02 1991-08-13 Eastman Kodak Company Contour feature-based method for identification and segmentation of touching characters
US5151951A (en) 1990-03-15 1992-09-29 Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Character recognition device which divides a single character region into subregions to obtain a character code
US5271068A (en) 1990-03-15 1993-12-14 Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Character recognition device which divides a single character region into subregions to obtain a character code
US5142161A (en) 1990-04-26 1992-08-25 Brackmann Rogers F Hand-held optical scanner and highlighter
US5140644A (en) 1990-07-23 1992-08-18 Hitachi, Ltd. Character string retrieving system and method
US5168147A (en) 1990-07-31 1992-12-01 Xerox Corporation Binary image processing for decoding self-clocking glyph shape codes
US5272324A (en) 1990-08-10 1993-12-21 Interlink Technologies, Inc. Portable scanner system with transceiver for two-way radio frequency communication
US5212739A (en) 1990-10-17 1993-05-18 Hewlett-Packard Company Noise tolerant optical character recognition system
EP0539158A2 (en) 1991-10-21 1993-04-28 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Method and apparatus for character recognition
CA2078423C (en) 1991-11-19 1997-01-14 Per-Kristian Halvorsen Method and apparatus for supplementing significant portions of a document selected without document image decoding with retrieved information
US6850252B1 (en) 1999-10-05 2005-02-01 Steven M. Hoffberg Intelligent electronic appliance system and method
US7006881B1 (en) 1991-12-23 2006-02-28 Steven Hoffberg Media recording device with remote graphic user interface
US6400996B1 (en) 1999-02-01 2002-06-04 Steven M. Hoffberg Adaptive pattern recognition based control system and method
US5756981A (en) 1992-02-27 1998-05-26 Symbol Technologies, Inc. Optical scanner for reading and decoding one- and-two-dimensional symbologies at variable depths of field including memory efficient high speed image processing means and high accuracy image analysis means
EP0576226B1 (en) 1992-06-22 1998-12-02 Fujitsu Limited Method and apparatus for reading image of image scanner-reader
US5978784A (en) 1992-10-05 1999-11-02 Expert Systems Publishing Co. Computer-implemented decision management system with dynamically generated questions and answer choices
US5371348A (en) 1992-10-16 1994-12-06 Khyber Technologies Corporation Portable device for handsfree data entry with variably-positionable display/scanner module detachable for handheld use
US6212299B1 (en) 1992-12-11 2001-04-03 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Method and apparatus for recognizing a character
US5602376A (en) 1993-05-07 1997-02-11 Psc Inc. Hand-mounted optical scanner system
DE69423838T2 (en) 1993-09-23 2000-08-03 Xerox Corp Semantic match event filtering for speech recognition and signal translation applications
GB2282906B (en) 1993-10-13 1996-11-06 Dataquill Ltd Data enty systems
CA2129075C (en) 1993-10-18 1999-04-20 Joseph J. Daniele Electronic copyright royalty accounting system using glyphs
GB2283591B (en) 1993-11-04 1998-04-15 Northern Telecom Ltd Database management
US6345104B1 (en) 1994-03-17 2002-02-05 Digimarc Corporation Digital watermarks and methods for security documents
US6095418A (en) 1994-01-27 2000-08-01 Symbol Technologies, Inc. Apparatus for processing symbol-encoded document information
US5889896A (en) 1994-02-09 1999-03-30 Meshinsky; John System for performing multiple processes on images of scanned documents
US5577135A (en) 1994-03-01 1996-11-19 Apple Computer, Inc. Handwriting signal processing front-end for handwriting recognizers
US6522770B1 (en) 1999-05-19 2003-02-18 Digimarc Corporation Management of documents and other objects using optical devices
US5541419A (en) 1994-03-21 1996-07-30 Intermec Corporation Symbology reader wth reduced specular reflection
US5465353A (en) 1994-04-01 1995-11-07 Ricoh Company, Ltd. Image matching and retrieval by multi-access redundant hashing
US6961712B1 (en) 1996-10-25 2005-11-01 Ipf, Inc. Consumer product information request (CPIR) enabling servlets and web-based consumer product information catalogs employing the same
JP3423413B2 (en) 1994-06-21 2003-07-07 キヤノン株式会社 Handwritten information recognition apparatus and method
US5624265A (en) * 1994-07-01 1997-04-29 Tv Interactive Data Corporation Printed publication remote contol for accessing interactive media
US5949921A (en) 1994-08-09 1999-09-07 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. Image processing apparatus for reading an image by hand scanning
US5640193A (en) 1994-08-15 1997-06-17 Lucent Technologies Inc. Multimedia service access by reading marks on an object
US5574840A (en) 1994-08-29 1996-11-12 Microsoft Corporation Method and system for selecting text utilizing a plurality of text using switchable minimum granularity of selection
US5625711A (en) 1994-08-31 1997-04-29 Adobe Systems Incorporated Method and apparatus for producing a hybrid data structure for displaying a raster image
US5522798A (en) 1994-10-17 1996-06-04 Abbott Laboratories Control of a multi-channel drug infusion pump using a pharmacokinetic model
US5724521A (en) 1994-11-03 1998-03-03 Intel Corporation Method and apparatus for providing electronic advertisements to end users in a consumer best-fit pricing manner
US5818612A (en) 1994-11-29 1998-10-06 Nec Corporation Scanning method and apparatus for pre-scanning document to allow manual adjustment of its orientation
US5668891A (en) 1995-01-06 1997-09-16 Xerox Corporation Methods for determining font attributes of characters
US7093759B2 (en) 1995-02-13 2006-08-22 E-Comm Incorporated Low-power hand-held transaction device
US6745937B2 (en) 1995-06-07 2004-06-08 E-Comm, Inc. Low-power hand-held transaction device
US5757360A (en) 1995-05-03 1998-05-26 Mitsubishi Electric Information Technology Center America, Inc. Hand held computer control device
US5708825A (en) 1995-05-26 1998-01-13 Iconovex Corporation Automatic summary page creation and hyperlink generation
US6505160B1 (en) * 1995-07-27 2003-01-07 Digimarc Corporation Connected audio and other media objects
US6788800B1 (en) 2000-07-25 2004-09-07 Digimarc Corporation Authenticating objects using embedded data
US6360949B1 (en) 1995-10-10 2002-03-26 Symbol Technologies, Inc. Retro-reflective scan module for electro-optical readers
US5963966A (en) 1995-11-08 1999-10-05 Cybernet Systems Corporation Automated capture of technical documents for electronic review and distribution
US5818965A (en) 1995-12-20 1998-10-06 Xerox Corporation Consolidation of equivalence classes of scanned symbols
US6055333A (en) * 1995-12-28 2000-04-25 Motorola, Inc. Handwriting recognition method and apparatus having multiple selectable dictionaries
JP3254642B2 (en) 1996-01-11 2002-02-12 株式会社日立製作所 How to display the index
US5893095A (en) * 1996-03-29 1999-04-06 Virage, Inc. Similarity engine for content-based retrieval of images
JPH1049549A (en) 1996-05-29 1998-02-20 Matsushita Electric Ind Co Ltd Document retrieving device
US5923848A (en) 1996-05-31 1999-07-13 Microsoft Corporation System and method for resolving names in an electronic messaging environment
US6314406B1 (en) 1996-06-26 2001-11-06 Telxon Corporation Customer information network
US6236767B1 (en) 1996-06-27 2001-05-22 Papercomp, Inc. System and method for storing and retrieving matched paper documents and electronic images
US5913185A (en) 1996-08-19 1999-06-15 International Business Machines Corporation Determining a natural language shift in a computer document
US6081621A (en) 1996-10-01 2000-06-27 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Positioning templates in optical character recognition systems
US6616038B1 (en) 1996-10-28 2003-09-09 Francis Olschafskie Selective text retrieval system
KR100533143B1 (en) 1996-11-15 2006-04-17 카부시키가이샤 토호비지네스간리센타 Work management system
US5937110A (en) 1996-12-20 1999-08-10 Xerox Corporation Parallel propagating embedded binary sequences for characterizing objects in N-dimensional address space
JPH10240552A (en) 1996-12-26 1998-09-11 Canon Inc Information processor and its method
JP3634099B2 (en) * 1997-02-17 2005-03-30 株式会社リコー Document information management system, media sheet information creation device, and document information management device
US5890147A (en) 1997-03-07 1999-03-30 Microsoft Corporation Scope testing of documents in a search engine using document to folder mapping
CA2199999A1 (en) 1997-03-14 1998-09-14 Peter Johann Kielland Parking regulation enforcement system
AUPO799197A0 (en) 1997-07-15 1997-08-07 Silverbrook Research Pty Ltd Image processing method and apparatus (ART01)
US6643696B2 (en) 1997-03-21 2003-11-04 Owen Davis Method and apparatus for tracking client interaction with a network resource and creating client profiles and resource database
US6036086A (en) 1997-03-28 2000-03-14 Lucent Technologies Inc. Apparatus and method for initiating a telephone transaction using a scanner
US5937422A (en) 1997-04-15 1999-08-10 The United States Of America As Represented By The National Security Agency Automatically generating a topic description for text and searching and sorting text by topic using the same
US6546378B1 (en) 1997-04-24 2003-04-08 Bright Ideas, L.L.C. Signal interpretation engine
US6029141A (en) * 1997-06-27 2000-02-22 Amazon.Com, Inc. Internet-based customer referral system
US5970483A (en) 1997-07-25 1999-10-19 Claritech Corporation Apparatus and methodology for submitting search queries
US6178261B1 (en) 1997-08-05 2001-01-23 The Regents Of The University Of Michigan Method and system for extracting features in a pattern recognition system
US5899700A (en) 1997-09-22 1999-05-04 Didacticom Partners Embedded multimedia control code method and apparatus
US6044378A (en) 1997-09-29 2000-03-28 International Business Machines Corporation Method and system for a federated digital library by managing links
US6201903B1 (en) 1997-09-30 2001-03-13 Ricoh Company, Ltd. Method and apparatus for pen-based faxing
US5983295A (en) 1997-10-31 1999-11-09 Unisys Corporation Method and system for wrapping single files for burning into compact disk
DE19748702C1 (en) 1997-11-04 1998-11-05 Siemens Ag Distributed transmission information pattern recognition method
US6134532A (en) 1997-11-14 2000-10-17 Aptex Software, Inc. System and method for optimal adaptive matching of users to most relevant entity and information in real-time
US20030173405A1 (en) 2000-01-12 2003-09-18 Metrologic Instruments, Inc. Bar code symbol driven systems for accessing information resources on the internet
US6145003A (en) 1997-12-17 2000-11-07 Microsoft Corporation Method of web crawling utilizing address mapping
US6925182B1 (en) 1997-12-19 2005-08-02 Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. Administration and utilization of private keys in a networked environment
JP4183311B2 (en) 1997-12-22 2008-11-19 株式会社リコー Document annotation method, annotation device, and recording medium
US6744936B2 (en) 1997-12-30 2004-06-01 Imagetag, Inc. Apparatus and method for simultaneously managing paper-based documents and digital images of the same
US6427032B1 (en) 1997-12-30 2002-07-30 Imagetag, Inc. Apparatus and method for digital filing
US6212504B1 (en) 1998-01-12 2001-04-03 Unisys Corporation Self-authentication of value documents using encoded indices
JP3849279B2 (en) 1998-01-23 2006-11-22 富士ゼロックス株式会社 Index creation method and search method
US6985169B1 (en) 1998-02-09 2006-01-10 Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. Image capture system for mobile communications
US6094689A (en) 1998-02-13 2000-07-25 Hewlett-Packard Company System for coupling a host computer to an image scanner in which high level functions are migrated to the attached host computer
KR100285265B1 (en) 1998-02-25 2001-04-02 윤덕용 Db management system and inverted index storage structure using sub-index and large-capacity object
US6033086A (en) 1998-04-30 2000-03-07 Hewlett-Packard Company Compact illumination system for image scanner
GB9809679D0 (en) 1998-05-06 1998-07-01 Xerox Corp Portable text capturing method and device therefor
US6571025B2 (en) 1998-05-18 2003-05-27 Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. Handheld code reader with optimal optical reading distance
US6265844B1 (en) 1998-07-02 2001-07-24 Ericsson Inc. Battery pack with photo means for enabling integral circuitry
JP3952599B2 (en) 1998-07-16 2007-08-01 松下電器産業株式会社 Video display device and video display method
US6877032B1 (en) 1998-09-11 2005-04-05 L.V. Partners, L.P. Launching a web site using a portable scanner
US6229137B1 (en) 1998-09-14 2001-05-08 Hewlett-Packard Company Scan line illumination system utilizing hollow reflector
US6140140A (en) 1998-09-16 2000-10-31 Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Method for detecting process sensitivity to integrated circuit layout by compound processing
JP2000123114A (en) 1998-10-15 2000-04-28 Casio Comput Co Ltd Handwritten character input device and storage medium
US6459823B2 (en) 1998-10-28 2002-10-01 Hewlett-Packard Company Apparatus and method of increasing scanner resolution
US6978297B1 (en) 1998-11-12 2005-12-20 Ricoh, Co., Ltd. System and method of managing queues by maintaining metadata files having attributes corresponding to capture of electronic document and using the metadata files to selectively lock the electronic document
US6292274B1 (en) 1998-12-11 2001-09-18 Hewlett-Packard Company Portable scanner with tilting body design
US6675356B1 (en) 1998-12-22 2004-01-06 Xerox Corporation Distributed document-based calendaring system
US6342901B1 (en) 1998-12-22 2002-01-29 Xerox Corporation Interactive device for displaying information from multiple sources
US6845913B2 (en) 1999-02-11 2005-01-25 Flir Systems, Inc. Method and apparatus for barcode selection of themographic survey images
US6883000B1 (en) 1999-02-12 2005-04-19 Robert L. Gropper Business card and contact management system
US7552075B1 (en) 1999-02-22 2009-06-23 Walsh William F Method, apparatus and computer-based program for exclusive investment of debenture credit
JP2000251012A (en) 1999-03-01 2000-09-14 Hitachi Ltd Method and system for document processing
US7353199B1 (en) 1999-03-22 2008-04-01 Perfect Web Technologies, Inc. Method of moderating external access to an electronic document authoring development and distribution system
KR101145534B1 (en) 1999-05-19 2012-06-01 디지맥 코포레이션 Methods and systems for controlling computers or linking to internet resources from physical and electronic objects
AUPQ439299A0 (en) 1999-12-01 1999-12-23 Silverbrook Research Pty Ltd Interface system
US6341290B1 (en) 1999-05-28 2002-01-22 Electronic Data Systems Corporation Method and system for automating the communication of business information
US6597812B1 (en) 1999-05-28 2003-07-22 Realtime Data, Llc System and method for lossless data compression and decompression
US6880124B1 (en) * 1999-06-04 2005-04-12 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Methods of storing and retrieving information, and methods of document retrieval
JP2000353215A (en) 1999-06-11 2000-12-19 Nec Corp Character recognition device and recording medium where character recognizing program is recorded
US7339467B2 (en) 1999-06-11 2008-03-04 At&T Delaware Intellectual Property, Inc. Apparatus and method for providing weather and other alerts
JP2003504717A (en) 1999-06-30 2003-02-04 シルバーブルック リサーチ ピーティーワイ リミテッド Interactive printer account
ATE404945T1 (en) 1999-06-30 2008-08-15 Silverbrook Res Pty Ltd METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR SENSING DEVICE REGISTRATION.
US6813395B1 (en) 1999-07-14 2004-11-02 Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. Image searching method and image processing method
US6546385B1 (en) 1999-08-13 2003-04-08 International Business Machines Corporation Method and apparatus for indexing and searching content in hardcopy documents
US6466336B1 (en) 1999-08-30 2002-10-15 Compaq Computer Corporation Method and apparatus for organizing scanned images
US7424543B2 (en) 1999-09-08 2008-09-09 Rice Iii James L System and method of permissive data flow and application transfer
US6970583B2 (en) 2000-05-25 2005-11-29 Black Gerald R Identity authentication device
US7225979B2 (en) 1999-09-17 2007-06-05 Silverbrook Research Pty Ltd Methods and systems for object identification and interaction
GB9922214D0 (en) 1999-09-20 1999-11-17 Ncr Int Inc Creation transmission and retrieval of information
US8429005B2 (en) 1999-09-23 2013-04-23 Activ8Now, Llc Method for determining effectiveness of display of objects in advertising images
EP1087306A3 (en) 1999-09-24 2004-11-10 Xerox Corporation Meta-documents and method of managing them
US6493707B1 (en) 1999-10-29 2002-12-10 Verizon Laboratories Inc. Hypervideo: information retrieval using realtime buffers
CA2392229C (en) * 1999-11-30 2016-08-30 Transforming Technologies, Inc. Methods, systems, and apparatuses for secure interactions
US7337389B1 (en) 1999-12-07 2008-02-26 Microsoft Corporation System and method for annotating an electronic document independently of its content
US6360951B1 (en) 1999-12-16 2002-03-26 Xerox Corporation Hand-held scanning system for heuristically organizing scanned information
US6714677B1 (en) 1999-12-17 2004-03-30 Xerox Corporation Use of correlation histograms for improved glyph decoding
US6496802B1 (en) 2000-01-07 2002-12-17 Mp3.Com, Inc. System and method for providing access to electronic works
US20040193488A1 (en) 2000-01-19 2004-09-30 Denis Khoo Method and system for advertising over a data network
US6820237B1 (en) 2000-01-21 2004-11-16 Amikanow! Corporation Apparatus and method for context-based highlighting of an electronic document
US20010034237A1 (en) 2000-03-01 2001-10-25 Masood Garahi Interactive wagering system with control of unauthorized wagering
US6992655B2 (en) 2000-02-18 2006-01-31 Anoto Ab Input unit arrangement
AU2001238354A1 (en) 2000-02-18 2001-08-27 The University Of Maryland Methods for the electronic annotation, retrieval, and use of electronic images
US6615209B1 (en) 2000-02-22 2003-09-02 Google, Inc. Detecting query-specific duplicate documents
GB2366033B (en) 2000-02-29 2004-08-04 Ibm Method and apparatus for processing acquired data and contextual information and associating the same with available multimedia resources
US6650442B1 (en) 2000-03-06 2003-11-18 Umax Data Systems, Inc. Multiple non-directional scanning
US7117374B2 (en) 2000-03-24 2006-10-03 Intermec Ip Corp Apparatus and method for gathering and utilizing data
US6409401B1 (en) 2000-03-30 2002-06-25 Zih Corp. Portable printer with RFID encoder
JP4261779B2 (en) 2000-03-31 2009-04-30 富士通株式会社 Data compression apparatus and method
WO2001075640A2 (en) 2000-03-31 2001-10-11 Xanalys Incorporated Method and system for gathering, organizing, and displaying information from data searches
US6801907B1 (en) 2000-04-10 2004-10-05 Security Identification Systems Corporation System for verification and association of documents and digital images
US6771283B2 (en) 2000-04-26 2004-08-03 International Business Machines Corporation Method and system for accessing interactive multimedia information or services by touching highlighted items on physical documents
JP3938833B2 (en) 2000-04-27 2007-06-27 株式会社リコー Exposure control device
US6778988B2 (en) 2000-05-01 2004-08-17 R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company Method and apparatus for delivering a web page to a client device based on printed publications and publisher controlled links
US20020073000A1 (en) 2000-05-05 2002-06-13 Mike Sage System and method for implementing a wireless network in a service center for generating a repair order
US6812961B1 (en) 2000-05-11 2004-11-02 Eastman Kodak Company System and camera for automatically forwarding digital images to a service provider
WO2001088661A2 (en) 2000-05-16 2001-11-22 U.S. Army Medical Research And Material Command System and method for providing access to forms and maintaining the data used to complete the forms
US6505153B1 (en) 2000-05-22 2003-01-07 Compaq Information Technologies Group, L.P. Efficient method for producing off-line closed captions
US6785421B1 (en) 2000-05-22 2004-08-31 Eastman Kodak Company Analyzing images to determine if one or more sets of materials correspond to the analyzed images
US6968332B1 (en) 2000-05-25 2005-11-22 Microsoft Corporation Facility for highlighting documents accessed through search or browsing
US6678075B1 (en) 2000-06-07 2004-01-13 Mustek Systems Inc. Slide securing device for flatbed scanning system
KR20000071993A (en) * 2000-06-10 2000-12-05 최제형 Authentication method and device, and operation method for medium with specified period and anthorization for payment method of internet payinformation service
US6990548B1 (en) * 2000-06-15 2006-01-24 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Methods and arrangements for configuring a printer over a wireless communication link using a wireless communication device
US7487112B2 (en) 2000-06-29 2009-02-03 Barnes Jr Melvin L System, method, and computer program product for providing location based services and mobile e-commerce
AU2001271763A1 (en) 2000-06-30 2002-01-14 Zinio Systems, Inc. System and method for encrypting, distributing and viewing electronic documents
US6691107B1 (en) 2000-07-21 2004-02-10 International Business Machines Corporation Method and system for improving a text search
US7523067B1 (en) 2000-08-02 2009-04-21 Softbankbb Corporation Electronic settlement system, settlement apparatus, and terminal
US20020023957A1 (en) 2000-08-21 2002-02-28 A. John Michaelis Method and apparatus for providing audio/visual feedback to scanning pen users
US7689832B2 (en) 2000-09-11 2010-03-30 Sentrycom Ltd. Biometric-based system and method for enabling authentication of electronic messages sent over a network
US7058223B2 (en) 2000-09-14 2006-06-06 Cox Ingemar J Identifying works for initiating a work-based action, such as an action on the internet
US7089330B1 (en) 2000-09-28 2006-08-08 I2 Technologies Us, Inc. System and method for transforming custom content generation tags associated with web pages
GB0023938D0 (en) 2000-09-29 2000-11-15 British Telecomm Information access
WO2002030041A2 (en) 2000-10-03 2002-04-11 Omtool, Ltd Electronically verified digital signature and document delivery system and method
US7165268B1 (en) 2000-10-17 2007-01-16 Moore Keith E Digital signatures for tangible medium delivery
US6904408B1 (en) 2000-10-19 2005-06-07 Mccarthy John Bionet method, system and personalized web content manager responsive to browser viewers' psychological preferences, behavioral responses and physiological stress indicators
US20020091671A1 (en) 2000-11-23 2002-07-11 Andreas Prokoph Method and system for data retrieval in large collections of data
JP4095243B2 (en) * 2000-11-28 2008-06-04 キヤノン株式会社 A storage medium storing a URL acquisition and processing system and method and a program for executing the method.
US7047491B2 (en) 2000-12-05 2006-05-16 Schubert Daniel M Electronic information management system for abstracting and reporting document information
US7203158B2 (en) 2000-12-06 2007-04-10 Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd. OFDM signal transmission system, portable terminal, and e-commerce system
US20020067308A1 (en) 2000-12-06 2002-06-06 Xerox Corporation Location/time-based reminder for personal electronic devices
US7613634B2 (en) 2000-12-21 2009-11-03 Sony Corporation Method and system for performing electronic retailing
US7197716B2 (en) 2000-12-22 2007-03-27 Merchant & Gould, P.C. Litigation management system and method
US6957384B2 (en) 2000-12-27 2005-10-18 Tractmanager, Llc Document management system
JP2002236808A (en) 2001-02-07 2002-08-23 Sony Corp Information processing device and method, program storage medium and program
US7062437B2 (en) 2001-02-13 2006-06-13 International Business Machines Corporation Audio renderings for expressing non-audio nuances
US7185275B2 (en) 2001-02-27 2007-02-27 International Business Machines Corporation Method and computer system for enabling a user to construct a web-site navigation
US20020125411A1 (en) 2001-03-08 2002-09-12 Christy Orrin D. Method and apparatus for reducing specular reflection from a scannable surface
US7711547B2 (en) 2001-03-16 2010-05-04 Meaningful Machines, L.L.C. Word association method and apparatus
JP2002278984A (en) 2001-03-22 2002-09-27 Fujitsu Ltd Document managing device
US7392287B2 (en) 2001-03-27 2008-06-24 Hemisphere Ii Investment Lp Method and apparatus for sharing information using a handheld device
US6616047B2 (en) 2001-03-31 2003-09-09 Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. Machine readable label reader system with robust context generation
JP4421134B2 (en) 2001-04-18 2010-02-24 富士通株式会社 Document image search device
TW560164B (en) 2001-05-11 2003-11-01 Veutron Corp Palmtop office machine with scanning function
US7111787B2 (en) 2001-05-15 2006-09-26 Hand Held Products, Inc. Multimode image capturing and decoding optical reader
GB2375866B (en) 2001-05-25 2005-02-09 At & T Lab Cambridge Ltd User interface systems
US7020663B2 (en) 2001-05-30 2006-03-28 George M. Hay System and method for the delivery of electronic books
KR100725500B1 (en) 2001-06-13 2007-06-08 삼성전자주식회사 Display and controlling method thereof
US6783071B2 (en) 2001-06-18 2004-08-31 Symbol Technologies, Inc Scanner pairing in a bluetooth POS network
US7945935B2 (en) 2001-06-20 2011-05-17 Dale Stonedahl System and method for selecting, capturing, and distributing customized event recordings
US6748306B2 (en) 2001-06-28 2004-06-08 Xerox Corporation Document communication systems for use in automobiles
US20030004991A1 (en) 2001-06-29 2003-01-02 Keskar Dhananjay V. Correlating handwritten annotations to a document
US7331523B2 (en) 2001-07-13 2008-02-19 Hand Held Products, Inc. Adaptive optical image reader
JP2003036093A (en) 2001-07-23 2003-02-07 Japan Science & Technology Corp Speech input retrieval system
GB2378008A (en) 2001-07-27 2003-01-29 Hewlett Packard Co Data acquisition and processing system and method
US7133862B2 (en) 2001-08-13 2006-11-07 Xerox Corporation System with user directed enrichment and import/export control
US20050022114A1 (en) 2001-08-13 2005-01-27 Xerox Corporation Meta-document management system with personality identifiers
US20030043042A1 (en) 2001-08-21 2003-03-06 Tabula Rasa, Inc. Method and apparatus for facilitating personal attention via wireless networks
US7001681B2 (en) 2001-08-28 2006-02-21 Honeywell International Inc. Water vapor transport power generator
US6922725B2 (en) 2001-09-07 2005-07-26 Xerox Corporation Method and apparatus for processing document service requests originating from a mobile computing device
US7409434B2 (en) 2001-09-07 2008-08-05 Xerox Corporation Method and apparatus for controlling document service requests using a mobile computing device
US7262798B2 (en) 2001-09-17 2007-08-28 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. System and method for simulating fill flash in photography
US6892264B2 (en) 2001-10-05 2005-05-10 International Business Machines Corporation Storage area network methods and apparatus for associating a logical identification with a physical identification
US6854642B2 (en) 2001-10-19 2005-02-15 Chesterfield Holdings, L.L.C. System for vending products and services using an identification card and associated methods
US7225399B2 (en) 2001-10-31 2007-05-29 Engineered Support System, Inc. Systems and methods for generating interactive electronic reference materials
JP3840091B2 (en) 2001-10-31 2006-11-01 キヤノン株式会社 IMAGING DEVICE, SYSTEM HAVING IMAGING DEVICE AND RECORDING DEVICE AND CONTROL METHOD THEREOF
US7426486B2 (en) 2001-10-31 2008-09-16 Call-Tell Llc Multi-party reporting system and method
US8429201B2 (en) 2001-11-13 2013-04-23 International Business Machines Corporation Updating a database from a browser
KR100450080B1 (en) 2001-11-13 2004-10-06 (주)지에스텔레텍 Portable storage medium based on Universal Serial Bus standard and Control Method therefor
US20030093545A1 (en) 2001-11-14 2003-05-15 Inventec Tomorrow Work Studio Corporation, Taiwan Method and system for downloading data to portable electronic device
NO316480B1 (en) 2001-11-15 2004-01-26 Forinnova As Method and system for textual examination and discovery
US7415670B2 (en) 2001-11-19 2008-08-19 Ricoh Co., Ltd. Printer with audio/video localization
US7283992B2 (en) 2001-11-30 2007-10-16 Microsoft Corporation Media agent to suggest contextually related media content
US7131061B2 (en) 2001-11-30 2006-10-31 Xerox Corporation System for processing electronic documents using physical documents
GB2382879A (en) 2001-12-06 2003-06-11 Hewlett Packard Co Image capture device with capture field illumination
US6641037B2 (en) 2001-12-13 2003-11-04 Peter Williams Method and system for interactively providing product related information on demand and providing personalized transactional benefits at a point of purchase
US7680859B2 (en) 2001-12-21 2010-03-16 Location Inc. Group Corporation a Massachusetts corporation Method for analyzing demographic data
GB0200980D0 (en) * 2002-01-15 2002-03-06 Ibm Method and apparatus for classification
US7239747B2 (en) 2002-01-24 2007-07-03 Chatterbox Systems, Inc. Method and system for locating position in printed texts and delivering multimedia information
US7242492B2 (en) 2002-01-25 2007-07-10 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Proxied printing services
US20030160975A1 (en) 2002-02-26 2003-08-28 Skurdal Vincent C. N-up printing methods and systems
CA2375355A1 (en) 2002-03-11 2003-09-11 Neo Systems Inc. Character recognition system and method
US20030182399A1 (en) 2002-03-21 2003-09-25 Silber Matthew A. Method and apparatus for monitoring web access
US20030195851A1 (en) 2002-04-11 2003-10-16 Ong Lance D. System for managing distribution of digital audio content
US6877001B2 (en) 2002-04-25 2005-04-05 Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc. Method and system for retrieving documents with spoken queries
US20050108195A1 (en) 2002-05-07 2005-05-19 Microsoft Corporation Method, system, and apparatus for processing information based on the discovery of semantically labeled strings
US7325194B2 (en) 2002-05-07 2008-01-29 Microsoft Corporation Method, system, and apparatus for converting numbers between measurement systems based upon semantically labeled strings
US8611919B2 (en) 2002-05-23 2013-12-17 Wounder Gmbh., Llc System, method, and computer program product for providing location based services and mobile e-commerce
US6678579B2 (en) 2002-05-23 2004-01-13 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Publication-dispensing apparatus
US7050630B2 (en) 2002-05-29 2006-05-23 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. System and method of locating a non-textual region of an electronic document or image that matches a user-defined description of the region
US20030225547A1 (en) 2002-05-30 2003-12-04 International Business Machines Corporation Wireless feeder verification system
US7174332B2 (en) * 2002-06-11 2007-02-06 Ip. Com, Inc. Method and apparatus for safeguarding files
US20040001217A1 (en) 2002-06-26 2004-01-01 Microsoft Corporation System and method for users of mobile computing devices to print documents
US7260534B2 (en) 2002-07-16 2007-08-21 International Business Machines Corporation Graphical user interface for determining speech recognition accuracy
US20040204953A1 (en) 2002-07-17 2004-10-14 Lincoln Muir Subscription based systems, methods and components for providing genomic and proteomic products and services
ES2287553T3 (en) 2002-07-19 2007-12-16 Gavitec Ag APPARATUS FOR PICTURE CAPTURE AS WELL AS USING THE APPLIANCE FOR PICTURE CAPTURE.
JP2004050722A (en) 2002-07-23 2004-02-19 Canon Inc Printer
US7058902B2 (en) 2002-07-30 2006-06-06 Microsoft Corporation Enhanced on-object context menus
US7137077B2 (en) 2002-07-30 2006-11-14 Microsoft Corporation Freeform encounter selection tool
US6915103B2 (en) 2002-07-31 2005-07-05 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. System for enhancing books with special paper
DE10335943A1 (en) 2002-08-06 2004-06-03 Brainshield Technologies Inc. Device for copy-protected distribution of electronic documents via public electronic data network e.g. the internet, with time-limited access to reconstruction server for reconstruction of encrypted document
US7167604B2 (en) 2002-08-07 2007-01-23 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Portable document scan accessory for use with a wireless handheld communications device
US7433068B2 (en) 2002-08-15 2008-10-07 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Digital transmitter device
JP2004102707A (en) 2002-09-10 2004-04-02 Ntt Docomo Inc Information inquiry system, server, program and recording medium
JP4137566B2 (en) 2002-09-19 2008-08-20 大日本印刷株式会社 Electronic pen, form processing system, and unit data division processing program
US7167586B2 (en) 2002-09-30 2007-01-23 Pitney Bowes Inc. Method and system for remote form completion
US7069272B2 (en) 2002-10-09 2006-06-27 Blackrock Financial Management, Inc. System and method for implementing dynamic set operations on data stored in a sorted array
AU2003266303A1 (en) 2002-10-10 2004-05-04 Ibm France System and method for selecting, ordering and accessing copyrighted information from physical documents
WO2004035321A1 (en) 2002-10-15 2004-04-29 Digimarc Corporation Identification document and related methods
US20040080795A1 (en) 2002-10-23 2004-04-29 Bean Heather N. Apparatus and method for image capture device assisted scanning
US20040139400A1 (en) 2002-10-23 2004-07-15 Allam Scott Gerald Method and apparatus for displaying and viewing information
US7085755B2 (en) 2002-11-07 2006-08-01 Thomson Global Resources Ag Electronic document repository management and access system
ATE540373T1 (en) 2002-11-29 2012-01-15 Sap Ag METHOD AND COMPUTER SYSTEM FOR PROTECTING ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTS
US7216121B2 (en) 2002-12-31 2007-05-08 International Business Machines Corporation Search engine facility with automated knowledge retrieval, generation and maintenance
US20040139107A1 (en) 2002-12-31 2004-07-15 International Business Machines Corp. Dynamically updating a search engine's knowledge and process database by tracking and saving user interactions
US7305129B2 (en) * 2003-01-29 2007-12-04 Microsoft Corporation Methods and apparatus for populating electronic forms from scanned documents
US7203384B2 (en) 2003-02-24 2007-04-10 Electronic Scripting Products, Inc. Implement for optically inferring information from a planar jotting surface
JP4823890B2 (en) 2003-03-06 2011-11-24 ディジマーク コーポレイション Document authentication method
US20040186766A1 (en) 2003-03-19 2004-09-23 International Business Machines Corporation Apparatus and method for marketing to instant messaging service users
US7152209B2 (en) 2003-03-28 2006-12-19 Microsoft Corporation User interface for adaptive video fast forward
US7552381B2 (en) 2003-03-31 2009-06-23 Ricoh Co., Ltd. Check boxes for identifying and processing stored documents
US7664733B2 (en) 2003-04-11 2010-02-16 Ricoh Company, Ltd. Techniques for performing operations on a source symbolic document
US7266568B1 (en) 2003-04-11 2007-09-04 Ricoh Company, Ltd. Techniques for storing multimedia information with source documents
US7783617B2 (en) 2003-04-16 2010-08-24 Yahoo! Inc. Personals advertisement affinities in a networked computer system
US7149748B1 (en) 2003-05-06 2006-12-12 Sap Ag Expanded inverted index
US7392475B1 (en) 2003-05-23 2008-06-24 Microsoft Corporation Method and system for automatic insertion of context information into an application program module
US7257769B2 (en) 2003-06-05 2007-08-14 Siemens Communications, Inc. System and method for indicating an annotation for a document
US7591597B2 (en) 2003-06-24 2009-09-22 Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. Method of moving a device provided with a camera to a desired position by means of a control system, and such a system
US7739588B2 (en) 2003-06-27 2010-06-15 Microsoft Corporation Leveraging markup language data for semantically labeling text strings and data and for providing actions based on semantically labeled text strings and data
US7542160B2 (en) * 2003-08-29 2009-06-02 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Rendering with substituted validation input
CN100555264C (en) 2003-10-21 2009-10-28 国际商业机器公司 The annotate method of electronic document, device and system
US20050091578A1 (en) 2003-10-24 2005-04-28 Microsoft Corporation Electronic sticky notes
US20050097335A1 (en) 2003-10-31 2005-05-05 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Secure document access method and apparatus
US7110100B2 (en) 2003-11-04 2006-09-19 Electronic Scripting Products, Inc. Apparatus and method for determining an inclination of an elongate object contacting a plane surface
US7038846B2 (en) 2003-11-24 2006-05-02 Electronic Scripting Products, Inc. Solid catadioptric lens with a single viewpoint
US7268956B2 (en) 2003-11-24 2007-09-11 Electronic Scripting Products, Inc. Solid catadioptric lens with two viewpoints
US7689712B2 (en) 2003-11-26 2010-03-30 Ricoh Company, Ltd. Techniques for integrating note-taking and multimedia information
EP1536305A1 (en) 2003-11-27 2005-06-01 Océ-Technologies B.V. Secure transmission of electronic documents
US7088440B2 (en) 2003-12-22 2006-08-08 Electronic Scripting Products, Inc. Method and apparatus for determining absolute position of a tip of an elongate object on a plane surface with invariant features
US20050154760A1 (en) 2004-01-12 2005-07-14 International Business Machines Corporation Capturing portions of an electronic document
US7872669B2 (en) 2004-01-22 2011-01-18 Massachusetts Institute Of Technology Photo-based mobile deixis system and related techniques
US8442331B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2013-05-14 Google Inc. Capturing text from rendered documents using supplemental information
US7707039B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2010-04-27 Exbiblio B.V. Automatic modification of web pages
US7826641B2 (en) 2004-01-30 2010-11-02 Electronic Scripting Products, Inc. Apparatus and method for determining an absolute pose of a manipulated object in a real three-dimensional environment with invariant features
US9229540B2 (en) 2004-01-30 2016-01-05 Electronic Scripting Products, Inc. Deriving input from six degrees of freedom interfaces
US8542219B2 (en) 2004-01-30 2013-09-24 Electronic Scripting Products, Inc. Processing pose data derived from the pose of an elongate object
US7961909B2 (en) 2006-03-08 2011-06-14 Electronic Scripting Products, Inc. Computer interface employing a manipulated object with absolute pose detection component and a display
US7729515B2 (en) 2006-03-08 2010-06-01 Electronic Scripting Products, Inc. Optical navigation apparatus using fixed beacons and a centroid sensing device
US7855812B2 (en) 2004-02-13 2010-12-21 Texas Instruments Incorporated Cellular phone with scanning capability
US20060136629A1 (en) 2004-08-18 2006-06-22 King Martin T Scanner having connected and unconnected operational behaviors
US20060122983A1 (en) 2004-12-03 2006-06-08 King Martin T Locating electronic instances of documents based on rendered instances, document fragment digest generation, and digest based document fragment determination
US8799303B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2014-08-05 Google Inc. Establishing an interactive environment for rendered documents
US20060041484A1 (en) 2004-04-01 2006-02-23 King Martin T Methods and systems for initiating application processes by data capture from rendered documents
US20060053097A1 (en) 2004-04-01 2006-03-09 King Martin T Searching and accessing documents on private networks for use with captures from rendered documents
US7812860B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2010-10-12 Exbiblio B.V. Handheld device for capturing text from both a document printed on paper and a document displayed on a dynamic display device
US20060104515A1 (en) 2004-07-19 2006-05-18 King Martin T Automatic modification of WEB pages
US20060041605A1 (en) 2004-04-01 2006-02-23 King Martin T Determining actions involving captured information and electronic content associated with rendered documents
US7433893B2 (en) 2004-03-08 2008-10-07 Marpex Inc. Method and system for compression indexing and efficient proximity search of text data
US7023536B2 (en) 2004-03-08 2006-04-04 Electronic Scripting Products, Inc. Apparatus and method for determining orientation parameters of an elongate object
WO2005091235A1 (en) 2004-03-16 2005-09-29 Maximilian Munte Mobile paper record processing system
US20050214730A1 (en) 2004-03-24 2005-09-29 Rines Robert H Method of and apparatus for supplementing the reading of selected passages of printed material in a book or the like by electronically reading coded indicia provided in the book at such passages to access the playing of corresponding coded tracks of pre-recorded video/audio supplemental material respectively related to the selected passages
US7181761B2 (en) 2004-03-26 2007-02-20 Micosoft Corporation Rights management inter-entity message policies and enforcement
US7779355B1 (en) * 2004-03-30 2010-08-17 Ricoh Company, Ltd. Techniques for using paper documents as media templates
US7289806B2 (en) 2004-03-30 2007-10-30 Intel Corporation Method and apparatus for context enabled search
US7664734B2 (en) 2004-03-31 2010-02-16 Google Inc. Systems and methods for generating multiple implicit search queries
US8146156B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2012-03-27 Google Inc. Archive of text captures from rendered documents
US8081849B2 (en) 2004-12-03 2011-12-20 Google Inc. Portable scanning and memory device
US7894670B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2011-02-22 Exbiblio B.V. Triggering actions in response to optically or acoustically capturing keywords from a rendered document
US20060098900A1 (en) 2004-09-27 2006-05-11 King Martin T Secure data gathering from rendered documents
US9008447B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2015-04-14 Google Inc. Method and system for character recognition
US8621349B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2013-12-31 Google Inc. Publishing techniques for adding value to a rendered document
US8793162B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2014-07-29 Google Inc. Adding information or functionality to a rendered document via association with an electronic counterpart
EP1743239A4 (en) 2004-04-01 2012-07-11 Google Inc A method and system for character recognition
US7317843B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2008-01-08 Microsoft Corporation Luminance correction
US20100185538A1 (en) 2004-04-01 2010-07-22 Exbiblio B.V. Content access with handheld document data capture devices
US20060081714A1 (en) 2004-08-23 2006-04-20 King Martin T Portable scanning device
US20080313172A1 (en) 2004-12-03 2008-12-18 King Martin T Determining actions involving captured information and electronic content associated with rendered documents
US20070300142A1 (en) 2005-04-01 2007-12-27 King Martin T Contextual dynamic advertising based upon captured rendered text
US7990556B2 (en) 2004-12-03 2011-08-02 Google Inc. Association of a portable scanner with input/output and storage devices
WO2005101193A2 (en) 2004-04-06 2005-10-27 King Martin T Scanning apparatus and related techniques
US20050222801A1 (en) 2004-04-06 2005-10-06 Thomas Wulff System and method for monitoring a mobile computing product/arrangement
WO2005106643A2 (en) 2004-04-12 2005-11-10 Exbiblio, B.V. Adding value to a rendered document
US8713418B2 (en) 2004-04-12 2014-04-29 Google Inc. Adding value to a rendered document
US7161664B2 (en) 2004-04-13 2007-01-09 Electronic Scripting Products, Inc. Apparatus and method for optical determination of intermediate distances
US8874504B2 (en) 2004-12-03 2014-10-28 Google Inc. Processing techniques for visual capture data from a rendered document
EP1759278A4 (en) 2004-04-19 2009-05-06 Exbiblio Bv Processing techniques for visual capture data from a rendered document
US8489624B2 (en) 2004-05-17 2013-07-16 Google, Inc. Processing techniques for text capture from a rendered document
US7404520B2 (en) 2004-04-28 2008-07-29 Symbol Technologies, Inc. System and method for providing location information in transaction processing
TWM262937U (en) 2004-04-30 2005-04-21 Avision Inc A book scanner with a uniform light source structure
US20050262058A1 (en) 2004-05-24 2005-11-24 Microsoft Corporation Query to task mapping
US7362902B1 (en) 2004-05-28 2008-04-22 Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. Resolving character data boundaries
US20050278314A1 (en) 2004-06-09 2005-12-15 Paul Buchheit Variable length snippet generation
US7113270B2 (en) 2004-06-18 2006-09-26 Electronics Scripting Products, Inc. Determination of an orientation parameter of an elongate object with a scan beam apparatus
US7284192B2 (en) 2004-06-24 2007-10-16 Avaya Technology Corp. Architecture for ink annotations on web documents
SE0401737D0 (en) 2004-07-03 2004-07-03 Tomas Hultgren Tools for skills acquisition and increased amount of solutions for development and production applications
CN100399241C (en) 2004-07-08 2008-07-02 微软公司 Automatic text generation
US7309015B2 (en) 2004-07-14 2007-12-18 Scanbuy, Inc. Mobile device gateway providing access to instant information
US8346620B2 (en) 2004-07-19 2013-01-01 Google Inc. Automatic modification of web pages
EP1782230A4 (en) 2004-07-19 2009-11-04 Exbiblio Bv Automatic modification of web pages
US20100092095A1 (en) 2008-10-14 2010-04-15 Exbiblio B.V. Data gathering in digital and rendered document environments
US20110295842A1 (en) 2004-08-18 2011-12-01 Google Inc. Applying Scanned Information to Identify Content
WO2006026188A2 (en) 2004-08-18 2006-03-09 Exbiblio B.V. A system and method of determining readership of data gathered in a published document
US7710598B2 (en) 2004-08-23 2010-05-04 Harrison Jr Shelton E Polychromatic encoding system, method and device
WO2006023806A2 (en) 2004-08-23 2006-03-02 Exbiblio B.V. A method and system for character recognition
US7299407B2 (en) 2004-08-24 2007-11-20 International Business Machines Corporation Marking and annotating electronic documents
KR20060050729A (en) 2004-08-31 2006-05-19 엘지전자 주식회사 Method and apparatus for processing document image captured by camera
EP1800222A4 (en) 2004-09-08 2009-08-05 Sharedbook Ltd Shared annotation system and method
WO2006037011A2 (en) 2004-09-27 2006-04-06 Exibiblio B.V. Secure data gathering from rendered documents
US20060075327A1 (en) 2004-09-29 2006-04-06 Joe Sriver User interface for presentation of a document
US7587412B2 (en) 2005-08-23 2009-09-08 Ricoh Company, Ltd. Mixed media reality brokerage network and methods of use
US7672543B2 (en) 2005-08-23 2010-03-02 Ricoh Co., Ltd. Triggering applications based on a captured text in a mixed media environment
US7917554B2 (en) 2005-08-23 2011-03-29 Ricoh Co. Ltd. Visibly-perceptible hot spots in documents
US8176054B2 (en) 2007-07-12 2012-05-08 Ricoh Co. Ltd Retrieving electronic documents by converting them to synthetic text
US8489583B2 (en) 2004-10-01 2013-07-16 Ricoh Company, Ltd. Techniques for retrieving documents using an image capture device
US7561312B1 (en) 2004-10-04 2009-07-14 Google Inc. Systems and methods for glare removal using polarized filtering in document scanning
US7493487B2 (en) 2004-10-15 2009-02-17 Microsoft Corporation Portable computing environment
US7512814B2 (en) 2004-11-09 2009-03-31 Fortiva Inc. Secure and searchable storage system and method
US20060103893A1 (en) 2004-11-15 2006-05-18 Kouros Azimi Cellular telephone based document scanner
US20110075228A1 (en) 2004-12-03 2011-03-31 King Martin T Scanner having connected and unconnected operational behaviors
US20110029504A1 (en) 2004-12-03 2011-02-03 King Martin T Searching and accessing documents on private networks for use with captures from rendered documents
US20060138219A1 (en) 2004-12-29 2006-06-29 John Brzezniak Handset shopping tool and method thereof
KR20060077988A (en) 2004-12-30 2006-07-05 삼성전자주식회사 System and method for information providing service through retrieving of context in multimedia communication system
US7535498B2 (en) 2005-01-03 2009-05-19 Cnoga Medical Ltd. Electronic viewing device
US7796116B2 (en) 2005-01-12 2010-09-14 Thinkoptics, Inc. Electronic equipment for handheld vision based absolute pointing system
US20060195695A1 (en) 2005-02-25 2006-08-31 John Keys Techniques for verification of electronic device pairing
WO2006093971A2 (en) 2005-02-28 2006-09-08 Exbiblio B.V. Association of a portable scanner with input/output and storage devices
US7788248B2 (en) 2005-03-08 2010-08-31 Apple Inc. Immediate search feedback
US7477052B2 (en) 2005-03-14 2009-01-13 Continental Automotive Systems Us, Inc. Two-pole magnet wheel increment position sensing in an actuator
KR100741368B1 (en) 2005-03-21 2007-07-20 유니챌(주) Apparatus and method for automatic recognition of character
US20060224895A1 (en) 2005-03-31 2006-10-05 Xerox Corporation System and methods for electronically notarizing scanned documents
US20060239579A1 (en) 2005-04-22 2006-10-26 Ritter Bradford A Non Uniform Blending of Exposure and/or Focus Bracketed Photographic Images
WO2006116715A2 (en) 2005-04-27 2006-11-02 Therapeias Health Management, Llc Methods and systems for clinical trial data management
US7634407B2 (en) 2005-05-20 2009-12-15 Microsoft Corporation Method and apparatus for indexing speech
US7204424B2 (en) 2005-05-31 2007-04-17 Symbol Technologies, Inc. Retro-reflective scanner having exit window with positive optical power
US7770799B2 (en) 2005-06-03 2010-08-10 Hand Held Products, Inc. Optical reader having reduced specular reflection read failures
US7761451B2 (en) 2005-06-17 2010-07-20 Microsoft Corporation Efficient querying and paging in databases
JP2007019973A (en) 2005-07-08 2007-01-25 Fujifilm Holdings Corp Imaging device and imaging method
US7412158B2 (en) 2005-08-08 2008-08-12 Nokia Corporation Deeper depth of field for video
US20070219940A1 (en) 2005-10-14 2007-09-20 Leviathan Entertainment, Llc Merchant Tool for Embedding Advertisement Hyperlinks to Words in a Database of Documents
WO2007084790A2 (en) 2006-01-20 2007-07-26 Glenbrook Associates, Inc. System and method for context-rich database optimized for processing of concepts
US7571854B2 (en) 2006-02-22 2009-08-11 Symbol Technologies Inc. Imaging reader and method with internal window reflections directed away from imager
US20110096174A1 (en) 2006-02-28 2011-04-28 King Martin T Accessing resources based on capturing information from a rendered document
US8239762B2 (en) 2006-03-20 2012-08-07 Educational Testing Service Method and system for automatic generation of adapted content to facilitate reading skill development for language learners
US20070233806A1 (en) 2006-03-29 2007-10-04 Mehrzad Asadi Method and system for conducting an internet search using a mobile radio terminal
US7705288B2 (en) 2006-03-31 2010-04-27 Hand Held Products, Inc. Optical reading device with light blocking gasket
KR100761912B1 (en) 2006-04-05 2007-09-28 (주)첫눈 Document information extraction method and system based on body text identification
WO2007141020A1 (en) 2006-06-06 2007-12-13 Exbiblio B.V. Contextual dynamic advertising based upon captured rendered text
WO2008014255A2 (en) 2006-07-24 2008-01-31 Exbiblio B.V. Referral award system for portable devices
US20080023550A1 (en) 2006-07-31 2008-01-31 Ming Yu Curved window in electro-optical reader
US7646921B2 (en) 2006-09-11 2010-01-12 Google Inc. High resolution replication of document based on shape clustering
US8175394B2 (en) 2006-09-08 2012-05-08 Google Inc. Shape clustering in post optical character recognition processing
US7697758B2 (en) 2006-09-11 2010-04-13 Google Inc. Shape clustering and cluster-level manual identification in post optical character recognition processing
US7650035B2 (en) 2006-09-11 2010-01-19 Google Inc. Optical character recognition based on shape clustering and multiple optical character recognition processes
EP2067119A2 (en) 2006-09-08 2009-06-10 Exbiblio B.V. Optical scanners, such as hand-held optical scanners
WO2008031625A2 (en) 2006-09-15 2008-03-20 Exbiblio B.V. Capture and display of annotations in paper and electronic documents
US20080072134A1 (en) 2006-09-19 2008-03-20 Sreeram Viswanath Balakrishnan Annotating token sequences within documents
US10452756B2 (en) 2006-09-29 2019-10-22 Oath Inc. Platform for rendering content for a remote device
US20080091954A1 (en) 2006-10-17 2008-04-17 Morris Daniel R Method and system for facilitating printed page authentication, unique code generation and content integrity verification of documents
US7986843B2 (en) 2006-11-29 2011-07-26 Google Inc. Digital image archiving and retrieval in a mobile device system
KR100916717B1 (en) 2006-12-11 2009-09-09 강민수 Advertisement Providing Method and System for Moving Picture Oriented Contents Which Is Playing
US8671021B2 (en) 2006-12-13 2014-03-11 Quickplay Media Inc. Consumption profile for mobile media
US20080170674A1 (en) 2007-01-12 2008-07-17 Babur Ozden Retrieving electronic mail using a cellular telephone
US7680067B2 (en) 2007-03-09 2010-03-16 Palm, Inc. Peer-to-peer data synchronization architecture
US20080235093A1 (en) 2007-03-22 2008-09-25 W.S. Packaging Group, Inc. Mobile phone image processing for promotional enterprise
US7698344B2 (en) 2007-04-02 2010-04-13 Microsoft Corporation Search macro suggestions relevant to search queries
US7949191B1 (en) 2007-04-04 2011-05-24 A9.Com, Inc. Method and system for searching for information on a network in response to an image query sent by a user from a mobile communications device
US20090012806A1 (en) 2007-06-10 2009-01-08 Camillo Ricordi System, method and apparatus for data capture and management
US20110145068A1 (en) 2007-09-17 2011-06-16 King Martin T Associating rendered advertisements with digital content
US8638363B2 (en) 2009-02-18 2014-01-28 Google Inc. Automatically capturing information, such as capturing information using a document-aware device
US20090247219A1 (en) 2008-03-25 2009-10-01 Jian-Liang Lin Method of generating a function output from a photographed image and related mobile computing device
US9129004B2 (en) 2008-11-12 2015-09-08 Oracle America, Inc. Multi-interval quicksort algorithm for complex objects
US8082258B2 (en) 2009-02-10 2011-12-20 Microsoft Corporation Updating an inverted index in a real time fashion
DE202010018551U1 (en) 2009-03-12 2017-08-24 Google, Inc. Automatically deliver content associated with captured information, such as information collected in real-time
US8447066B2 (en) 2009-03-12 2013-05-21 Google Inc. Performing actions based on capturing information from rendered documents, such as documents under copyright
EP2409269B1 (en) 2009-03-20 2019-06-05 Google LLC Associating rendered advertisements with digital content
US8489774B2 (en) 2009-05-27 2013-07-16 Spot411 Technologies, Inc. Synchronized delivery of interactive content
US8171049B2 (en) 2009-09-18 2012-05-01 Xerox Corporation System and method for information seeking in a multimedia collection
US9081799B2 (en) 2009-12-04 2015-07-14 Google Inc. Using gestalt information to identify locations in printed information
US9323784B2 (en) 2009-12-09 2016-04-26 Google Inc. Image search using text-based elements within the contents of images

Patent Citations (100)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US4716804A (en) * 1982-09-23 1988-01-05 Joel Chadabe Interactive music performance system
US4985863A (en) * 1985-08-23 1991-01-15 Hitachi, Ltd. Document storage and retrieval system
US4901364A (en) * 1986-09-26 1990-02-13 Everex Ti Corporation Interactive optical scanner system
US4988981B1 (en) * 1987-03-17 1999-05-18 Vpl Newco Inc Computer data entry and manipulation apparatus and method
US4988981A (en) * 1987-03-17 1991-01-29 Vpl Research, Inc. Computer data entry and manipulation apparatus and method
US4804949A (en) * 1987-03-20 1989-02-14 Everex Ti Corporation Hand-held optical scanner and computer mouse
US4805099A (en) * 1987-04-17 1989-02-14 Wang Laboratories, Inc. Retrieval of related records from a relational database
USD306162S (en) * 1987-10-20 1990-02-20 Everex Ti Corporation Hand-held OCR scanner
US6688523B1 (en) * 1988-08-31 2004-02-10 Intermec Ip Corp. System for reading optical indicia
US5083218A (en) * 1989-02-08 1992-01-21 Casio Computer Co., Ltd. Hand-held image reading apparatus
US5185857A (en) * 1989-12-13 1993-02-09 Rozmanith A Martin Method and apparatus for multi-optional processing, storing, transmitting and retrieving graphical and tabular data in a mobile transportation distributable and/or networkable communications and/or data processing system
US5179652A (en) * 1989-12-13 1993-01-12 Anthony I. Rozmanith Method and apparatus for storing, transmitting and retrieving graphical and tabular data
US5288938A (en) * 1990-12-05 1994-02-22 Yamaha Corporation Method and apparatus for controlling electronic tone generation in accordance with a detected type of performance gesture
US5867150A (en) * 1992-02-10 1999-02-02 Compaq Computer Corporation Graphic indexing system
US5602570A (en) * 1992-05-26 1997-02-11 Capps; Stephen P. Method for deleting objects on a computer display
US5592566A (en) * 1992-05-27 1997-01-07 Apple Computer, Incorporated Method and apparatus for computerized recognition
US6028271A (en) * 1992-06-08 2000-02-22 Synaptics, Inc. Object position detector with edge motion feature and gesture recognition
US5600765A (en) * 1992-10-20 1997-02-04 Hitachi, Ltd. Display system capable of accepting user commands by use of voice and gesture inputs
US5481278A (en) * 1992-10-21 1996-01-02 Sharp Kabushiki Kaisha Information processing apparatus
US5377706A (en) * 1993-05-21 1995-01-03 Huang; Jih-Tung Garbage collecting device
US5710831A (en) * 1993-07-30 1998-01-20 Apple Computer, Inc. Method for correcting handwriting on a pen-based computer
US5594640A (en) * 1993-08-02 1997-01-14 Apple Computer, Incorporated Method and apparatus for correcting words
US5485565A (en) * 1993-08-04 1996-01-16 Xerox Corporation Gestural indicators for selecting graphic objects
US6021218A (en) * 1993-09-07 2000-02-01 Apple Computer, Inc. System and method for organizing recognized and unrecognized objects on a computer display
US5596697A (en) * 1993-09-30 1997-01-21 Apple Computer, Inc. Method for routing items within a computer system
US5594810A (en) * 1993-09-30 1997-01-14 Apple Computer, Inc. Method and apparatus for recognizing gestures on a computer system
US5717846A (en) * 1993-09-30 1998-02-10 Hitachi Software Engineering Co., Ltd. Method and system for drawing network diagrams
US5862260A (en) * 1993-11-18 1999-01-19 Digimarc Corporation Methods for surveying dissemination of proprietary empirical data
US6525749B1 (en) * 1993-12-30 2003-02-25 Xerox Corporation Apparatus and method for supporting the implicit structure of freeform lists, outlines, text, tables and diagrams in a gesture-based input system and editing system
US5488196A (en) * 1994-01-19 1996-01-30 Zimmerman; Thomas G. Electronic musical re-performance and editing system
US5714698A (en) * 1994-02-03 1998-02-03 Canon Kabushiki Kaisha Gesture input method and apparatus
US6029195A (en) * 1994-11-29 2000-02-22 Herz; Frederick S. M. System for customized electronic identification of desirable objects
US5594469A (en) * 1995-02-21 1997-01-14 Mitsubishi Electric Information Technology Center America Inc. Hand gesture machine control system
US5713045A (en) * 1995-06-29 1998-01-27 Object Technology Licensing Corporation System for processing user events with input device entity associated with event producer which further links communication from event consumer to the event producer
US6018342A (en) * 1995-07-03 2000-01-25 Sun Microsystems, Inc. Automatically generated content-based history mechanism
US20030040957A1 (en) * 1995-07-27 2003-02-27 Willam Y. Conwell Advertising employing watermarking
US6026388A (en) * 1995-08-16 2000-02-15 Textwise, Llc User interface and other enhancements for natural language information retrieval system and method
US6181778B1 (en) * 1995-08-30 2001-01-30 Hitachi, Ltd. Chronological telephone system
US5867597A (en) * 1995-09-05 1999-02-02 Ricoh Corporation High-speed retrieval by example
US5595445A (en) * 1995-12-27 1997-01-21 Bobry; Howard H. Hand-held optical scanner
US6012071A (en) * 1996-01-29 2000-01-04 Futuretense, Inc. Distributed electronic publishing system
US5864635A (en) * 1996-06-14 1999-01-26 International Business Machines Corporation Distinguishing gestures from handwriting in a pen based computer by stroke analysis
US5862256A (en) * 1996-06-14 1999-01-19 International Business Machines Corporation Distinguishing gestures from handwriting in a pen based computer by size discrimination
US5861886A (en) * 1996-06-26 1999-01-19 Xerox Corporation Method and apparatus for grouping graphic objects on a computer based system having a graphical user interface
US6021403A (en) * 1996-07-19 2000-02-01 Microsoft Corporation Intelligent user assistance facility
US5867795A (en) * 1996-08-23 1999-02-02 Motorola, Inc. Portable electronic device with transceiver and visual image display
US6175922B1 (en) * 1996-12-04 2001-01-16 Esign, Inc. Electronic transaction systems and methods therefor
US20020023215A1 (en) * 1996-12-04 2002-02-21 Wang Ynjiun P. Electronic transaction systems and methods therefor
US5864848A (en) * 1997-01-31 1999-01-26 Microsoft Corporation Goal-driven information interpretation and extraction system
US6175772B1 (en) * 1997-04-11 2001-01-16 Yamaha Hatsudoki Kabushiki Kaisha User adaptive control of object having pseudo-emotions by learning adjustments of emotion generating and behavior generating algorithms
US6025844A (en) * 1997-06-12 2000-02-15 Netscape Communications Corporation Method and system for creating dynamic link views
US6344906B1 (en) * 1997-09-16 2002-02-05 Cyberscan Technology, Inc. Universal document scanner controller
US6518950B1 (en) * 1997-10-07 2003-02-11 Interval Research Corporation Methods and systems for providing human/computer interfaces
US6181343B1 (en) * 1997-12-23 2001-01-30 Philips Electronics North America Corp. System and method for permitting three-dimensional navigation through a virtual reality environment using camera-based gesture inputs
US6195104B1 (en) * 1997-12-23 2001-02-27 Philips Electronics North America Corp. System and method for permitting three-dimensional navigation through a virtual reality environment using camera-based gesture inputs
US6677696B1 (en) * 1997-12-30 2004-01-13 Epcos Ag Surface acoustic wave component on a monocrystal substrate which is also pyroelectric
US6192165B1 (en) * 1997-12-30 2001-02-20 Imagetag, Inc. Apparatus and method for digital filing
US6018346A (en) * 1998-01-12 2000-01-25 Xerox Corporation Freeform graphics system having meeting objects for supporting meeting objectives
US6509912B1 (en) * 1998-01-12 2003-01-21 Xerox Corporation Domain objects for use in a freeform graphics system
US6192478B1 (en) * 1998-03-02 2001-02-20 Micron Electronics, Inc. Securing restricted operations of a computer program using a visual key feature
US20020020750A1 (en) * 1998-04-01 2002-02-21 Xerox Corporation Marking medium area with encoded identifier for producing action through network
US6031525A (en) * 1998-04-01 2000-02-29 New York University Method and apparatus for writing
US6347290B1 (en) * 1998-06-24 2002-02-12 Compaq Information Technologies Group, L.P. Apparatus and method for detecting and executing positional and gesture commands corresponding to movement of handheld computing device
US6169969B1 (en) * 1998-08-07 2001-01-02 The United States Of America As Represented By The Director Of The National Security Agency Device and method for full-text large-dictionary string matching using n-gram hashing
US6681031B2 (en) * 1998-08-10 2004-01-20 Cybernet Systems Corporation Gesture-controlled interfaces for self-service machines and other applications
US20040015606A1 (en) * 1998-09-11 2004-01-22 Philyaw Jeffry Jovan Method and apparatus for utilizing an audibly coded signal to conduct commerce over the Internet
US6526449B1 (en) * 1998-09-11 2003-02-25 Digital Convergence Corporation Method and apparatus for controlling a computer from a remote location
US6688522B1 (en) * 1998-09-11 2004-02-10 L. V. Partners, L.P. Unique bar code
US6195475B1 (en) * 1998-09-15 2001-02-27 Hewlett-Packard Company Navigation system for handheld scanner
US6184847B1 (en) * 1998-09-22 2001-02-06 Vega Vista, Inc. Intuitive control of portable data displays
US6351222B1 (en) * 1998-10-30 2002-02-26 Ati International Srl Method and apparatus for receiving an input by an entertainment device
US6341280B1 (en) * 1998-10-30 2002-01-22 Netscape Communications Corporation Inline tree filters
US6993580B2 (en) * 1999-01-25 2006-01-31 Airclic Inc. Method and system for sharing end user information on network
US20030004724A1 (en) * 1999-02-05 2003-01-02 Jonathan Kahn Speech recognition program mapping tool to align an audio file to verbatim text
US20020023959A1 (en) * 1999-04-22 2002-02-28 Miller Michael R. Multipurpose bar code scanner
US6510387B2 (en) * 1999-04-23 2003-01-21 Global Locate, Inc. Correction of a pseudo-range model from a GPS almanac
US6678664B1 (en) * 1999-04-26 2004-01-13 Checkfree Corporation Cashless transactions without credit cards, debit cards or checks
US6335725B1 (en) * 1999-07-14 2002-01-01 Hewlett-Packard Company Method of partitioning a touch screen for data input
US6504138B1 (en) * 1999-08-30 2003-01-07 Gateway, Inc. Media scanner
US6346933B1 (en) * 1999-09-21 2002-02-12 Seiko Epson Corporation Interactive display presentation system
US6688525B1 (en) * 1999-09-22 2004-02-10 Eastman Kodak Company Apparatus and method for reading a coded pattern
US6522333B1 (en) * 1999-10-08 2003-02-18 Electronic Arts Inc. Remote communication through visual representations
US6509707B2 (en) * 1999-12-28 2003-01-21 Sony Corporation Information processing device, information processing method and storage medium
US6526395B1 (en) * 1999-12-31 2003-02-25 Intel Corporation Application of personality models and interaction with synthetic characters in a computing system
US6507349B1 (en) * 2000-01-06 2003-01-14 Becomm Corporation Direct manipulation of displayed content
US20020013781A1 (en) * 2000-01-13 2002-01-31 Erik Petersen System and method of searchin and gathering information on-line and off-line
US6510417B1 (en) * 2000-03-21 2003-01-21 America Online, Inc. System and method for voice access to internet-based information
US20020023158A1 (en) * 2000-04-27 2002-02-21 Polizzi Kathleen Riddell Method and apparatus for implementing search and channel features in an enterprise-wide computer system
US20020002504A1 (en) * 2000-05-05 2002-01-03 Andrew Engel Mobile shopping assistant system and device
US20020016750A1 (en) * 2000-06-20 2002-02-07 Olivier Attia System and method for scan-based input, storage and retrieval of information over an interactive communication network
US6690358B2 (en) * 2000-11-30 2004-02-10 Alan Edward Kaplan Display control for hand-held devices
US6686844B2 (en) * 2001-02-23 2004-02-03 Fujitsu Limited Human interface system using a plurality of sensors
US20030001018A1 (en) * 2001-05-02 2003-01-02 Hand Held Products, Inc. Optical reader comprising good read indicator
US6508706B2 (en) * 2001-06-21 2003-01-21 David Howard Sitrick Electronic interactive gaming apparatus, system and methodology
US20030009495A1 (en) * 2001-06-29 2003-01-09 Akli Adjaoute Systems and methods for filtering electronic content
US6688081B2 (en) * 2001-12-18 2004-02-10 Schmalbach-Lubeca Ag Method for reducing headspace gas
US6687612B2 (en) * 2002-01-10 2004-02-03 Navigation Technologies Corp. Method and system using a hand-gesture responsive device for collecting data for a geographic database
US20040036718A1 (en) * 2002-08-26 2004-02-26 Peter Warren Dynamic data item viewer
US20050005168A1 (en) * 2003-03-11 2005-01-06 Richard Dick Verified personal information database
US20070005570A1 (en) * 2005-06-30 2007-01-04 Microsoft Corporation Searching for content using voice search queries

Cited By (89)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
US8892495B2 (en) 1991-12-23 2014-11-18 Blanding Hovenweep, Llc Adaptive pattern recognition based controller apparatus and method and human-interface therefore
US9535563B2 (en) 1999-02-01 2017-01-03 Blanding Hovenweep, Llc Internet appliance system and method
US8447144B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2013-05-21 Google Inc. Data capture from rendered documents using handheld device
US20100183246A1 (en) * 2004-02-15 2010-07-22 Exbiblio B.V. Data capture from rendered documents using handheld device
US8831365B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2014-09-09 Google Inc. Capturing text from rendered documents using supplement information
US8799303B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2014-08-05 Google Inc. Establishing an interactive environment for rendered documents
US8619147B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2013-12-31 Google Inc. Handheld device for capturing text from both a document printed on paper and a document displayed on a dynamic display device
US8515816B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2013-08-20 Google Inc. Aggregate analysis of text captures performed by multiple users from rendered documents
US20110085211A1 (en) * 2004-02-15 2011-04-14 King Martin T Handheld device for capturing text from both a document printed on paper and a document displayed on a dynamic display device
US9268852B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2016-02-23 Google Inc. Search engines and systems with handheld document data capture devices
US8442331B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2013-05-14 Google Inc. Capturing text from rendered documents using supplemental information
US8214387B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2012-07-03 Google Inc. Document enhancement system and method
US8064700B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2011-11-22 Google Inc. Method and system for character recognition
US8019648B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2011-09-13 Google Inc. Search engines and systems with handheld document data capture devices
US8005720B2 (en) 2004-02-15 2011-08-23 Google Inc. Applying scanned information to identify content
US20110154507A1 (en) * 2004-02-15 2011-06-23 King Martin T Establishing an interactive environment for rendered documents
US8620760B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2013-12-31 Google Inc. Methods and systems for initiating application processes by data capture from rendered documents
US9143638B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2015-09-22 Google Inc. Data capture from rendered documents using handheld device
US20090077658A1 (en) * 2004-04-01 2009-03-19 Exbiblio B.V. Archive of text captures from rendered documents
US20110150335A1 (en) * 2004-04-01 2011-06-23 Google Inc. Triggering Actions in Response to Optically or Acoustically Capturing Keywords from a Rendered Document
US8793162B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2014-07-29 Google Inc. Adding information or functionality to a rendered document via association with an electronic counterpart
US8781228B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2014-07-15 Google Inc. Triggering actions in response to optically or acoustically capturing keywords from a rendered document
US20110035289A1 (en) * 2004-04-01 2011-02-10 King Martin T Contextual dynamic advertising based upon captured rendered text
US20110026838A1 (en) * 2004-04-01 2011-02-03 King Martin T Publishing techniques for adding value to a rendered document
US20110019020A1 (en) * 2004-04-01 2011-01-27 King Martin T Adding information or functionality to a rendered document via association with an electronic counterpart
US9116890B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2015-08-25 Google Inc. Triggering actions in response to optically or acoustically capturing keywords from a rendered document
US8146156B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2012-03-27 Google Inc. Archive of text captures from rendered documents
US8619287B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2013-12-31 Google Inc. System and method for information gathering utilizing form identifiers
US8621349B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2013-12-31 Google Inc. Publishing techniques for adding value to a rendered document
US8505090B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2013-08-06 Google Inc. Archive of text captures from rendered documents
US9454764B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2016-09-27 Google Inc. Contextual dynamic advertising based upon captured rendered text
US9633013B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2017-04-25 Google Inc. Triggering actions in response to optically or acoustically capturing keywords from a rendered document
US20100185538A1 (en) * 2004-04-01 2010-07-22 Exbiblio B.V. Content access with handheld document data capture devices
US20110145102A1 (en) * 2004-04-01 2011-06-16 King Martin T Methods and systems for initiating application processes by data capture from rendered documents
US9514134B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2016-12-06 Google Inc. Triggering actions in response to optically or acoustically capturing keywords from a rendered document
US8447111B2 (en) 2004-04-01 2013-05-21 Google Inc. Triggering actions in response to optically or acoustically capturing keywords from a rendered document
US8713418B2 (en) 2004-04-12 2014-04-29 Google Inc. Adding value to a rendered document
US8261094B2 (en) 2004-04-19 2012-09-04 Google Inc. Secure data gathering from rendered documents
US9030699B2 (en) 2004-04-19 2015-05-12 Google Inc. Association of a portable scanner with input/output and storage devices
US8489624B2 (en) 2004-05-17 2013-07-16 Google, Inc. Processing techniques for text capture from a rendered document
US8799099B2 (en) 2004-05-17 2014-08-05 Google Inc. Processing techniques for text capture from a rendered document
US8346620B2 (en) 2004-07-19 2013-01-01 Google Inc. Automatic modification of web pages
US9275051B2 (en) 2004-07-19 2016-03-01 Google Inc. Automatic modification of web pages
US8179563B2 (en) 2004-08-23 2012-05-15 Google Inc. Portable scanning device
US10769431B2 (en) 2004-09-27 2020-09-08 Google Llc Handheld device for capturing text from both a document printed on paper and a document displayed on a dynamic display device
US20110072395A1 (en) * 2004-12-03 2011-03-24 King Martin T Determining actions involving captured information and electronic content associated with rendered documents
US8620083B2 (en) 2004-12-03 2013-12-31 Google Inc. Method and system for character recognition
US8953886B2 (en) 2004-12-03 2015-02-10 Google Inc. Method and system for character recognition
US8903759B2 (en) 2004-12-03 2014-12-02 Google Inc. Determining actions involving captured information and electronic content associated with rendered documents
US8081849B2 (en) 2004-12-03 2011-12-20 Google Inc. Portable scanning and memory device
US7990556B2 (en) 2004-12-03 2011-08-02 Google Inc. Association of a portable scanner with input/output and storage devices
US8874504B2 (en) 2004-12-03 2014-10-28 Google Inc. Processing techniques for visual capture data from a rendered document
US20070050360A1 (en) * 2005-08-23 2007-03-01 Hull Jonathan J Triggering applications based on a captured text in a mixed media environment
US20080256071A1 (en) * 2005-10-31 2008-10-16 Prasad Datta G Method And System For Selection Of Text For Editing
US20070164554A1 (en) * 2005-12-16 2007-07-19 Krone Craig E Order fulfillment system and method for printing products including individualized information
US9070142B2 (en) 2005-12-16 2015-06-30 Taylor Corporation Order fulfillment system and method for printing products including individualized information
US7647251B2 (en) * 2006-04-03 2010-01-12 Sap Ag Process integration error and conflict handling
US20070233754A1 (en) * 2006-04-03 2007-10-04 Stefan Baeuerle Process integration error and conflict handling
US8600196B2 (en) 2006-09-08 2013-12-03 Google Inc. Optical scanners, such as hand-held optical scanners
US20110169970A1 (en) * 2007-05-08 2011-07-14 Philip Wesby System and Method for Data Acquisition and Processing
US20090089293A1 (en) * 2007-09-28 2009-04-02 Bccg Ventures, Llc Selfish data browsing
US20090300068A1 (en) * 2008-05-30 2009-12-03 Tang ding-yuan System and method for processing structured documents
US20100092095A1 (en) * 2008-10-14 2010-04-15 Exbiblio B.V. Data gathering in digital and rendered document environments
US8638363B2 (en) 2009-02-18 2014-01-28 Google Inc. Automatically capturing information, such as capturing information using a document-aware device
US8418055B2 (en) 2009-02-18 2013-04-09 Google Inc. Identifying a document by performing spectral analysis on the contents of the document
US8719582B2 (en) 2009-03-03 2014-05-06 Microsoft Corporation Access control using identifiers in links
US20100228989A1 (en) * 2009-03-03 2010-09-09 Microsoft Corporation Access control using identifiers in links
US8990235B2 (en) 2009-03-12 2015-03-24 Google Inc. Automatically providing content associated with captured information, such as information captured in real-time
US9075779B2 (en) 2009-03-12 2015-07-07 Google Inc. Performing actions based on capturing information from rendered documents, such as documents under copyright
US8447066B2 (en) 2009-03-12 2013-05-21 Google Inc. Performing actions based on capturing information from rendered documents, such as documents under copyright
US9081799B2 (en) 2009-12-04 2015-07-14 Google Inc. Using gestalt information to identify locations in printed information
US9323784B2 (en) 2009-12-09 2016-04-26 Google Inc. Image search using text-based elements within the contents of images
US8448072B1 (en) 2010-04-07 2013-05-21 Sprint Communications Company L.P. Interception of automatic status updates for a social networking system
US9418385B1 (en) * 2011-01-24 2016-08-16 Intuit Inc. Assembling a tax-information data structure
US8751594B2 (en) 2011-11-07 2014-06-10 LaVoult.com, LLC Messaging system
WO2013070527A1 (en) * 2011-11-07 2013-05-16 LaVoult.com, LLC Messaging system
US20140067619A1 (en) * 2012-09-05 2014-03-06 Cadenas Gmbh Product Catalog, Method For Ordering Products Presented In A Product Catalog And Computer Program Product Therefor
US20150178728A1 (en) * 2013-12-20 2015-06-25 Chacha Search, Inc Method and system of selective content delivery
US20170091750A1 (en) * 2014-03-12 2017-03-30 Enrico Maim Transactional system with peer-to-peer distributed architecture for exchanging units of account
US11210647B2 (en) * 2014-03-12 2021-12-28 Enrico Maim Transactional system with peer-to-peer distributed architecture for exchanging units of account
US20160063109A1 (en) * 2014-08-29 2016-03-03 Yuanjie Liu Query-breadth selected search result sorting mechanism
EP3133507A1 (en) 2015-03-31 2017-02-22 Secude AG Context-based data classification
US20210012062A1 (en) * 2016-03-30 2021-01-14 Evernote Corporation Extracting Structured Data from Handwritten and Audio Notes
US11550995B2 (en) * 2016-03-30 2023-01-10 Evernote Corporation Extracting structured data from handwritten and audio notes
US20230099963A1 (en) * 2016-03-30 2023-03-30 Evernote Corporation Extracting structured data from handwritten and audio notes
US20180005154A1 (en) * 2016-07-01 2018-01-04 Bradford H. Needham Tool experience aggregator
US10572839B2 (en) * 2016-07-01 2020-02-25 Intel Corporation Tool experience aggregator
US11341318B2 (en) 2020-07-07 2022-05-24 Kudzu Software Llc Interactive tool for modifying an automatically generated electronic form
US11403455B2 (en) * 2020-07-07 2022-08-02 Kudzu Software Llc Electronic form generation from electronic documents

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
US20140236758A1 (en) 2014-08-21
US8620760B2 (en) 2013-12-31
US20100182631A1 (en) 2010-07-22
US8619287B2 (en) 2013-12-31
US20110145102A1 (en) 2011-06-16
US9760938B2 (en) 2017-09-12
US20110246333A9 (en) 2011-10-06

Similar Documents

Publication Publication Date Title
US10275455B2 (en) Triggering actions in response to optically or acoustically capturing keywords from a rendered document
US10438251B2 (en) Content access with handheld document data capture devices
US9760938B2 (en) Methods and systems for initiating application processes by data capture from rendered documents
US7599844B2 (en) Content access with handheld document data capture devices
US8781228B2 (en) Triggering actions in response to optically or acoustically capturing keywords from a rendered document
US9919209B2 (en) Document enhancement system and method
US20100185538A1 (en) Content access with handheld document data capture devices
US20060122983A1 (en) Locating electronic instances of documents based on rendered instances, document fragment digest generation, and digest based document fragment determination
US8521772B2 (en) Document enhancement system and method
US20060136629A1 (en) Scanner having connected and unconnected operational behaviors
US20110075228A1 (en) Scanner having connected and unconnected operational behaviors
WO2006023717A2 (en) Scanner having connected and unconnected operational behaviors
EP1771784A2 (en) Triggering actions in response to optically or acoustically capturing keywords from a rendered document

Legal Events

Date Code Title Description
AS Assignment

Owner name: EXBIBLIO B.V., NETHERLANDS

Free format text: ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST;ASSIGNORS:KING, MARTIN T.;GROVER, DALE L.;KUSHLER, CLIFFORD A.;AND OTHERS;REEL/FRAME:017189/0102;SIGNING DATES FROM 20050909 TO 20050916

STCB Information on status: application discontinuation

Free format text: ABANDONED -- FAILURE TO RESPOND TO AN OFFICE ACTION