Nova Patents
EP1759282A2

Data capture from rendered documents using handheld device

Abstract

This record has no abstract on file.

Term

Term ended

Projected expiry passed 1 April 2025, 1.5 years ago.

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  3. Projected expiry
  4. Today

1 claim: 1 independent, 0 dependent

  1. 1
    Claims of equivalent WO 2005098597 A2 CLAIMS We claim:[d] 1. A portable data capture device, comprising: control logic;memory coupled with the control logic for storing data and instructions executable by the control logic;a data capture element for capturing data from a paper document;instructions stored in memory that, when executed by the control logic, cause data capture element to capture text from a paper document;instructions stored in memory that, when executed by the control logic, cause the portable data capture device to automatically submit at least a portion of the captured text to a search engine. [c2] 2. A portable device having scanning capability, comprising: an image capture device for acquiring images;a processor for processing the images captured by the image capture device;a memory for storing the images acquired by the image capture device;a communications interface for transmitting information to external devices and receiving information from external devices;and a user interface operable to indicate to a user that enough information has been acquired to identify a source document of an acquired image. [c3] 3. The portable device of claim 2 further comprising image compression logic for compressing the images captured by the image capture device. [c4] 4. The portable device of claim 2 further comprising an internal power supply. [c5] 5. The portable device of claim 4 further comprising power management logic for monitoring power consumption of the portable device and prolonging operational life of the internal power supply. [c6] 6. The portable device of claim 2 further comprising an illumination source. [c7] 7. The portable device of claim 2 further comprising a location module. [c8] 8. The portable device of claim 7 in which the location module comprises at least one location determination capability selected from the group of GPS, A-GPS, DGPS, triangulation, monitoring of local transceiver pilot signals, TDOA, EOTD, and angle of arrival. [c9] 9. In a portable device having scanning capability, a method for controlling the portable device, the method comprising: scanning control data;processing the control data;identifying an application that corresponds to the control data;accessing the application in response to the control data;and performing the application. [do] 10. The method of claim 9 in which the application causes the portable device to store data in memory. [cH] 11. The method of claim 9 in which the application causes the portable device to erase data from memory . [ci2] 12. The method of claim 9 in which the application causes text in an electronic document to be highlighted. [ci3] 13. A portable scanner, comprising: a processor;a first memory operatively connected with the processor;a second memory operatively connected with the processor for storing at least one selected from the group of billing information, content subscription information, service subscription information, and device identifier. [ci4] 14. The portable scanner of claim 13 in which the second memory is a subscriber identity module. [ci5] 15. The portable scanner of claim 13 in which the second memory is a smart card. [d6] 16. In computer readable medium, a portable device control application, comprising: a control identifier that identifies a command associated with short scanned images;and an processor that acts on the command associated with the short scanned images. [d7] 17. In a portable device having scanning capability, a method of informing a user that sufficient data has been scanned from a document to identify the document, comprising: scanning symbols from the document;estimating how many symbols have been scanned from the document;comparing the estimate to a threshold number for identifying a document;and indicating that sufficient symbols have been scanned to identify the document. [ci8] 18. The method of claim 17 in which the indicating is a visual signal discernible by a user of the portable scanning device. [d9] 19. The method of claim 17 in which the threshold number for identifying a document is within the range of twenty to forty symbols, inclusive. [c20] 20. The method of claim 17 in which the threshold number is less than forty-one symbols. [c2i] 21. The method of claim 17 in which the indicating is an audio signal discernible by a user of the portable scanning device. [c22] 22. A method in a computing system for processing a text capture operation, comprising: determining that a user has used a handheld text capture device to perform a text capture operation from a rendered document that yielded a text sequence;and acting on the text capture operation. [c23] 23. The method of claim 22 wherein the rendered document contains at least one line of text, and wherein the text sequence yielded by the text capture operation is a proper subset of the text contained in a single line of the rendered document. [c24] 24. The method of claim 22 wherein the rendered document contains at least one page of text, and wherein the text sequence yielded by the text capture operation is a proper subset of the text contained in a single page of the rendered document. [c25] 25. The method of claim 22 wherein the yielded text sequence is comprised of words, and wherein the text capture operation involved specific user interactions with each of the words of the yielded text sequence. [c26] 26. The method of claim 25 wherein the user spoke each of the words of the yielded text sequence. [c27] 27. The method of claim 25 wherein the user directed an optical sensor at each of the words of the yielded text sequence. [c28] 28. The method of claim 22 wherein the yielded text sequence is comprised of ordered words, and wherein the text capture operation involved capturing physical phenomenon corresponding to each of the words of the yielded text sequence in the order of the yielded text sequence. [c29] 29. The method of claim 22 wherein the yielded text sequence is comprised of ordered words, and wherein the text capture operation involved capturing physical phenomenon corresponding to each of the words of the yielded text sequence in the reverse order of the yielded text sequence. [c30] 30. The method of claim 22 wherein the text capture operation involved manually moving an optical sensor across the rendered document. [c3i] 31. The method of claim 22 wherein the text capture operation involved capturing image data from a non-rectangular region of the rendered document. [c32] 32. The method of claim 22 wherein the text sequence yielded by the text capture operation comprises fewer than ten words. [c33] 33. The method of claim 22 wherein the text capture operation involved capturing an image of fewer than ten words.