EP0544432A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Method and apparatus for document processing
Assignee: Xerox Corp
•
Filing: 1992-11-16
•
Granted: —
•
Expires: 2012-11-16
Abstract
Abstract A method and apparatus for excerpting and summarizing an undecoded document image, without first converting the document image to optical character codes such as ASCII text, identifies significant words, phrases and graphics in the document image using automatic or interactive morphological image recognition techniques, document summaries or indices are produced based on the identified significant portions of the document image. The disclosed method is particularly adept for improvement of reading machines for the blind.
Inventors
- 👤 Margaret M. Withgott
- 👤 Daniel P. Huttenlocher
- 👤 Steven C. Bagley
- 👤 Per Kristian Halvorsen
- 👤 Dan S. Bloomberg
- 👤 Ronald M. Kaplan
- 👤 Todd A. Cass
- 👤 Ramana R. Rao
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-10-31 14:59
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06V; G06V30/00; G06V30/10; G06V30/26; G06V30/262
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 10
Claim 1
Independent Claim
50 words
A method for electronically processing an electronic document image, characterised by segmenting the document image into image units without decoding the document image; identifying significant ones of said image units in accordance with selected morphological image characteristics; and creating an abbreviated document image based on said identified significant image units.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
35 words
A method as claimed in claim 1, characterised in that said step of identifying significant image units comprises classifying said image units according to frequency of occurrence, and/or according to location within the document image.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
83 words
A method as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, characterised in that said selected morphological image characteristics include image characteristics defining image units having predetermined linguistic criteria, and/or said selected morphological image characteristics include at least one of an image unit shape dimension, font, typeface, number of ascender elements, number of descender elements, pixel density, pixel cross-sectional characteristic, the location of image units with respect to neighboring image units, vertical position, horizontal interimage unit spacing, and contour characteristic of said image units.
Claim 4
Independent Claim
57 words
A method of excerpting significant information from an undecoded document image without decoding the document image, characterised by: segmenting the document image into image units without decoding the document image; identifying significant ones of said image units in accordance with selected morphological image characteristics; and outputting selected ones of said identified significant image units for further processing.
Claim 5
Dependent Claim
80 words
A method as claimed in claim 4, characterised in that said step of outputting selected ones of identified significant image units comprises generating a document index based on said selected ones of identified significant image units, and/or producing a speech synthesized output corresponding to said selected ones of identified significant image units, and/or producing said selected ones of identified significant image units in printed Braille format, and/or generating a document summary from said selected ones of identified significant image units.
Claim 6
Independent Claim
94 words
A method for electronically processing an undecoded document image containing word text, comprising: segmenting the document image into word image units without decoding the document image; evaluating selected word image units according to at least one morphological image characteristic thereof without decoding the word image units to identify significant word image units; forming phrase image units based on selected identified significant word units, said phrase image units each incorporating one of said selected identified significant word units and adjacent word image units linked in reading order sequence; and and outputting said phrase image units.
Claim 7
Independent Claim
68 words
An apparatus for automatically summarizing the information content of an undecoded document image without decoding the document image, characterised by means for segmenting the document image into image units without decoding the document image; means for evaluating selected image units according to at least one morphological image characteristic thereof to identify significant image units, means for creating a supplemental document image based on said identified significant image units.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
94 words
An apparatus as claimed in claim 7, characterised by scanning means for scanning an original document to produce said document image, said scanning means being incorporated in a document copier machine which produces printed document copies; and means for controlling said document copier machine to produce a printed document copy of said supplemental document image, or said scanning means being incorporated in a reading machine for the blind having means for communicating data to the user; and means for controlling said reading machine communication means to communicate the contents of said supplemental document image.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
42 words
An apparatus as claimed in claim 8, characterised in that said communicating means comprises a printer for producing document copies in Braille format, or said communicating means comprises a speech synthesizer for producing synthesized speech output corresponding to said supplemental document image.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
43 words
An apparatus as claimed in claim 8, characterised in that said reading machine includes operator responsive means for accessing the scanned document or a selected portion thereof corresponding to a supplemental document image following communication of the supplemental document image to the user.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
USPTO Annuity & Maintenance Windows
Maintenance schedule is calculated for granted US utility patents.