EP0544434A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
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Method and apparatus for processing a document image
Assignee: Xerox Corp
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Filing: 1992-11-16
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2012-11-16
Abstract
Abstract A method and apparatus for applying morphological image criteria that identify image units in an undecoded document image having significant information content, and for retrieving related data that supplements the document either from elsewhere within the document or a source external to the document. The retrieved data can result from character code recognition or template matching of the identified significant image units, or the retrieved data can result directly from an analysis of the morphological image characteristics of the identified significant image units. A reading machine can allow a user to browse and select documents or segments thereof, and to obtain interactive retrieval of documents and supplemental data.
Inventors
- 👤 M. Margaret Withgott
- 👤 Daniel P. Huttenlocher
- 👤 Martin Kay
- 👤 Steven C. Bagley
- 👤 Per Kristian Halvorsen
- 👤 John Seely Brown
- 👤 Ronald M. Kaplan
- 👤 Todd A. Cass
- 👤 William Newman
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-05 09:49
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06F; G06F40/00; G06F40/20; G06F40/268; G06F40/10; G06F40/166; G06F40/169; G06F40/30; G06F40/40; G06F40/55; G06V; G06V30/00; G06V30/10; G06V30/14; G06V30/1444; G06V30/40; G06V30/41; G06V30/416
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 10
Claim 1
Independent Claim
48 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 retrieving supplemental data related to the identified significant image units.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
52 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 classifying said image units according to location within the document image, and/or identifying image units having an associated hand-drawn marking created by a user.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
78 words
A method as claimed in claim 2 or claim 2, characterised in that said selected morphological image characteristics include image characteristics defining image units having predetermined linguistic criteria, and/or 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 inter-image unit spacing, and contour characteristic of said image units.
Claim 4
Independent Claim
65 words
A method as claimed in claims 1 to 3, characterised in that said step of retrieving supplemental data comprises retrieving foreign language data corresponding to said identified significant image units, and/or retrieving data from within the document, and/or retrieving data external to the document, and/or retrieving Braille versions of the identified significant image units, and/or retrieving synthesized speech versions of the identified significant image units.
Claim 5
Independent Claim
93 words
A method for translating a selected word in a text document, characterised by marking the selected word in the document text with a hand-drawn graphical notation; scanning the text document to produce an undecoded document image; segmenting the document image into image segments without decoding of the document image; evaluating the morphological image characteristics of scanned document image to identify said graphical notation; identifying the image unit associated with said identified graphical notation; retrieving translation data related to said identified image unit; and incorporating said retrieved translation data in said scanned document image.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
32 words
A method as claimed in claim 5, characterised by said retrieving step includes decoding the identified image unit and matching the decoded image unit with decoded data entries in a dictionary database.
Claim 7
Independent Claim
70 words
A method for electronically processing an undecoded document image containing word text, characterised by 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; retrieving supplemental data related to the identified significant word image units; and outputting said retrieved supplemental data.
Claim 8
Independent Claim
83 words
An apparatus for retrieving data to supplement a document, characterised by a means for inputting the document to produce an undecoded document image; means for segmenting the document image into image units having undecoded information content 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 retrieving supplemental data related to the identified significant image units; and an output device which utilizes the retrieved supplemental data.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
55 words
An apparatus as claimed in claim 8, characterised in that said input means and output device are part of a copier machine in which said output device produces printed document copies; and said apparatus comprises means for incorporating said retrieved supplemental data into a document image for printing as part of a printed document copy.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
39 words
An apparatus as claimed in claim 8 or claim 9, characterised in that said input means and output device are part of a Braille reading machine in which said output device produces an output intelligible to a blind user.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
No citation records indexed.
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