Device and method for communication

• US 20020000981A1
• Filed: 03/21/2001
• Published: 01/03/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 03/21/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Anoto Group AB
• Original Assignee: Anoto IP LIC Handelsbolag (Anoto Group AB)
• Inventors: Ericson, Petter, Hugosson, Ola
• Granted Patent: US 6,864,880 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 345/179
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0321 by optically sensing the absolute position with respect to a regularly patterned surface forming a passive digitiser, e.g. pen optically detecting position indicative tags printed on a paper sheet constructional details of pen-shaped pointing devices G06F3/03545, G06F3/03542, G06F3/037
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/033 Pointing devices displaced or positioned by the user , e.g. mice, trackballs, pens or joysticks; Accessories therefor digitisers characterised by the transducing means G06F3/041
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03542 Light pens for emitting or receiving light
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03545 Pens or stylus
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/17 using hand-held instruments
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/19 by sensing codes defining pattern positions

Abstract

A product for electronic transmission of handwritten information, a user unit for recording and sending the information, and a computer program for controlling a user unit are disclosed. The product may include at least one writing area for the handwritten information and an address area indicating an address to which the handwritten information is to be sent. A position-coding pattern in the form of a plurality of symbols may be reproduced in the writing area, an arbitrary position area of a predetermined size of the position-coding pattern unambiguously defining a position on the product. The address area may include an address-coding pattern with a plurality of symbols, an arbitrary address portion of a predetermined size of the address-coding pattern unambiguously defining part of the address.

Claims

1. A product for electronic transmission of handwritten information, comprising:

at least one writing area for the handwritten information, wherein the writing area comprises a position-coding pattern comprising a plurality of first symbols and wherein an arbitrary position area of a predetermined first size of the position-coding pattern unambiguously defines a position on the product; and

an address area indicating an address to which the handwritten information is to be sent, wherein the address area comprises an address-coding pattern comprising a plurality of second symbols and wherein an arbitrary address portion of a predetermined second size of the address-coding pattern unambiguously defines part of the address.

2. A product as claimed in claim 1, wherein the predetermined first size of the arbitrary position area required to unambiguously determine a position from the position-coding pattern is at least the same size as the predetermined second size of the arbitrary address portion required to unambiguously define part of the address from the address-coding pattern.

3. A product as claimed in claim 1, wherein the part of the address is an individual character.

4. A product as claimed in claim 1, wherein the address area further comprises information that defines a communication medium for transmission of the handwritten information.

5. A product as claimed in claim 1, wherein the position-coding pattern defines coordinates within a partial code area, which is part of a larger virtual code area, and the address area further comprises information that defines the coordinates for at least part of the writing area.

6. A product as claimed in claim 1, wherein the address-coding pattern comprises a plurality of sequence portions based on the plurality of second symbols and wherein the arbitrary address portion that is required to define part of the address comprises a predetermined number of sequence portions of a predetermined length.

7. A product as claimed in claim 6, wherein each sequence portion comprises at least one subsequence of a sequence and wherein each subsequence is of a predetermined length and unambiguously defines a sequence value, which corresponds to the position of the subsequence in the sequence.

8. A product as claimed in claim 7, wherein a difference between a sequence value defined by a subsequence of a first sequence portion and a sequence value defined by a subsequence of a second sequence portion is constant and independent of parts of the sequence portions from which subsequences are selected when the subsequences are fetched from corresponding parts of the sequence portions.

9. A product as claimed in claim 8, wherein the difference value is represented as a binary value, a first part of the binary value representing a character and a second part of the binary value representing part of a position indication for the sequence portions in a matrix.

10. A product as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second symbols in the address-coding pattern are of a different size from the size of the first symbols in the position-coding pattern.

11. A product as claimed in claim 1, wherein the second symbols in the address-coding pattern are arranged with an interspace different from that of the first symbols in the position-coding pattern.

12. A product as claimed in claim 1, wherein the address area also codes a public key, wherein a receiver specified by the address can decode a message that has been coded with the public key.

13. A product as claimed in claim 1, wherein the address area is divided into a plurality of code fields each of which codes a partial code area of a virtual code area, each partial code area corresponding to a character.

14. A product as claimed in claim 13, wherein the code fields are separated by separation fields means.

15. An apparatus for electronically transmitting handwritten information comprising:

a reading head adapted to optically record images from a surface;

a memory;

means for converting the recorded image to at least one position and storing the position in the memory based on a position-coding pattern contained in the recorded image which codes at least one position;

means for converting the recorded image to at least one character and storing the character in the memory based on an address-coding pattern contained in the recorded image which codes at least one character; and

means for transmitting at least part of positions stored in the memory to an address corresponding to characters stored in the memory.

16. An apparatus as claimed in claim 15, further comprising a pen point, wherein the reading head is adapted to record images when the pen point is pressed against a surface.

17. A apparatus as claimed in claim 15 further comprising:

means for converting a first part of characters stored in the memory to an address and a second part of characters stored in the memory to position information which defines a writing area; and

means for transmitting only positions contained in the writing area to the address.

18. An apparatus according to claim 15, further comprising means for converting recorded images of the address-coding pattern to a set of sequence portions, converting the set of sequence portions to a set of sequence values, and converting the sequence values to characters based on information stored in the memory.

19. An apparatus as claimed in claim 15, further comprising means for enclosing an identification number when transmitting information to the address wherein the identification number is unique for each user unit.

20. A method for entering handwritten information and transmitting the handwritten information, the method comprising:

reading an input signal corresponding to a recorded image;

converting the recorded image to at least one position and storing the position based on a position-coding pattern corresponding to the recorded image;

converting the recorded image to at least one character and storing the character based on an address-coding pattern corresponding to the recorded image; and

transmitting stored positions to an address corresponding to characters stored in the memory.

21. A method as claimed in claim 20, further comprising the steps of converting part of the stored characters to writing position information that defines a writing area, and transmitting only positions contained in the writing area to the address.

22. A product for electronic transmission of handwritten information, comprising:

at least one writing area for the handwritten information, wherein the writing area comprises a position-coding pattern in the form of a plurality of first symbols wherein an arbitrary position area of a predetermined size of the position-coding pattern unambiguously defines a position on the product; and

an address area indicating an address to which the handwritten information is to be sent, wherein the address area comprises an address-coding pattern with a plurality of second symbols, wherein an arbitrary address portion of a predetermined size of the address-coding pattern unambiguously defines an individual character.