EP0686931A2
Expired / Lapsed
EP
⏱️ 0.0 years remaining
Searching and matching unrecognized handwriting
Assignee: Xerox Corp
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Filing: 1995-06-02
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Granted: —
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Expires: 2015-06-02
Abstract
Abstract A method and system are disclosed for searching and matching gesture-based data such as handwriting without performing a recognition process on the handwritten gesture data to convert it to a standard computer-coded form. Target data (16) collected as sample data points (20,22) of spatial coordinates over time are concatenated into a single target gesture sequence of sample data points. The sample data points comprising the gesture-based data structure to be searched (the corpus) are grouped into corpus gesture sequences for matching against the target gesture sequence. Matching may be done by any suitable method, and a novel signal comparison technique based on dynamic time warping concepts is illustrated. The result of the matching is a list of the locations of the matching corpus gesture sequences in the corpus, which in turn may be used for further processing, such as the display of an image of the matching corpus gestures for a system user. The ability to determine the existence and location of a gesture in the corpus that matches a target gesture (10) is the basis for performing a variety of additional functions, such as a "find and replace" function and the ability to use gestures as keywords to index a gesture-based data structure without performing recognition on either the keyword gestures or the gesture-based data structure. The technique is suitable for inclusion in any system that accepts gesture-based data, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA) or other pen-based computing device.
Inventors
- 👤 Alex D. Poon
- 👤 Todd A. Cass
- 👤 Karon Anne Weber
Bibliographic Details
Application Number
—
Jurisdiction
EP
Data Source
google_patents
Last Synchronized
2026-11-10 00:53
CPC Classifications
G; G06; G06V; G06V30/00; G06V30/10; G06V30/32; G06V30/36; G06V30/373; G06V40/00; G06V40/20
Claims Analysis
Total Claims: 10
Claim 1
Independent Claim
227 words
A method of operating a system including a signal source for providing data based on gestures, memory for storing data based on gestures, and a processor connected for receiving signals; the method comprising: receiving target gesture-based data from the signal source; the target gesture-based data including a plurality of target sample data points indicating a first path of motion over a first interval of time of a target gesture; providing a gesture-based data structure, referred to hereafter as a corpus data structure, stored in the system memory; the corpus data structure indicating information about a plurality of corpus gestures and including, for each respective corpus gesture, a plurality of corpus sample data points indicating a respective path of motion over a respective interval of time of the respective corpus gesture; grouping the respective pluralities of corpus sample data points into a plurality of corpus gesture sequences of sample data points; each corpus gesture sequence including at least two sample data points; comparing the target gesture-based data to each of the corpus gesture sequences to determine whether the target gesture-based data matches at least one of the corpus gesture sequences; and producing a matching list of matching corpus gesture sequences that match the target gesture-based data; the list including, for each matching corpus gesture sequence, a location in the corpus data structure of the matching corpus gesture sequence.
Claim 2
Dependent Claim
87 words
A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the target gesture-based data includes first and second strokes that are consecutive in time; and wherein the method further includes, prior to comparing the target gesture-based data to each of the corpus gesture sequences, concatenating together the last sample data point of the first stroke with the first sample data point of the second stroke into a target gesture sequence of the first plurality of sample data points; each corpus gesture sequence being compared to the target gesture sequence.
Claim 3
Dependent Claim
53 words
A method as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, further including producing an image using the matching list; the image including display features indicating at least one matching corpus gesture sequence included in the matching list; and presenting the image to a system user on a display device included in the system.
Claim 4
Independent Claim
33 words
A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein, when the target gesture-based data does not match any one of the corpus gesture sequences, the matching list is empty.
Claim 5
Independent Claim
71 words
A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the signal source is an image scanning device providing image definition data defining an image including a plurality of display features; and wherein the method further includes a converting step for converting the image definition data defining the image including a plurality of display features to the target gesture-based data including the first plurality of sample data points.
Claim 6
Dependent Claim
17 words
A method as claimed in claim 5, wherein the display features included in the image represent gestures.
Claim 7
Independent Claim
37 words
A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the gesture-based data structure stored in the system memory was converted from image definition data defining an image including a plurality of display features.
Claim 8
Dependent Claim
17 words
A method as claimed in claim 7, wherein the display features included in the image represent gestures.
Claim 9
Dependent Claim
230 words
A processor-controlled system comprising: a signal source for providing target gesture-based data including a first plurality of sample data points indicating a first path of motion over a first interval of time of a first gesture; a processor connected for receiving the target gesture-based data from the signal source; and memory for storing data; the data stored in the memory including instruction data indicating instructions the processor can execute, and a gesture-based data structure; the gesture-based data structure indicating information about gestures and including, for each respective gesture, a plurality of sample data points indicating a respective path of motion over a respective interval of time of the respective gesture; a processor being further connected for accessing the data stored in the memory; the processor, in executing the instructions in response to receiving the target gesture-based data from the signal source, grouping the second plurality of sample data points into a plurality of corpus gesture sequences; each corpus gesture sequence including at least two sample data points; comparing the target gesture-based data to each of the corpus gesture sequences to determine whether the target gesture-based data matches one of the corpus gesture sequences; and producing a matching list of corpus gesture sequences that match the target gesture-based data; the matching list including, for each corpus gesture sequence, the location in the gesture-based data structure of the matching corpus gesture sequence.
Claim 10
Dependent Claim
303 words
An article of manufacture for use in a processor-controlled system that includes a user input device for receiving signals indicating actions and requests of a system user; memory for storing data; a storage medium access device for accessing a medium that stores data; and a processor connected for receiving data from the user input device and for accessing the data stored in the memory; the processor further being connected for receiving data from the storage medium access device; the article comprising: a data storage medium that can be accessed by the storage medium access device when the article is used in the system; and data stored in the data storage medium so that the storage medium access device can provide the stored data to the processor when the article is used in the system; the stored data comprising target gesture receiving instruction data indicating input instructions the processor can execute to receive target gesture-based data from the user input device; and operation performing instruction data indicating response instructions the processor can execute to perform operations for searching for the target gesture-based data in a gesture-based data structure stored in the memory in response to the target gesture-based data; when the target gesture-based data is received, execution of the response instructions causing the processor to group a plurality of sample data points included in the gesture-based data structure into a plurality of corpus gesture sequences of sample data points, and to compare the target gesture-based data to each of the corpus gesture sequences to determine whether the target gesture-based data matches at least one of the corpus gesture sequences; when a matching corpus gesture sequence is matched to the target gesture-based data, execution of the response instructions causing the processor to produce a matching list including the location of the matching corpus gesture sequence.
References Cited (Backward Citations)
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