Methods and systems for selecting objects by grouping annotations on the objects

• US 20040255242A1
• Filed: 06/16/2003
• Published: 12/16/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 06/16/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Fuji Xerox Company Limited (Xerox Holdings Corp.)
• Inventors: Tanaka, Kei, Chiu, Patrick, Golovchinsky, Gene, Marshall, Catherine C., Schilit, William N., Price, Morgan N.
• Granted Patent: US 7,519,901 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/512
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes

Abstract

The technique for selecting at least a part of object on an electronic media includes, providing annotations on the object, grouping the annotation on the object, and selecting one or both of the object and the annotations based on the grouping of the annotations on the object. The techniques also provide the system that selects a part of object on a media, that includes an annotation grouping circuit that provides annotations on the object and groups the annotations on the object, and an object selection circuit that selects at least one of the object and the annotations based on the grouping of the annotation on the object.

Claims

1. A method for selecting at least a part of at least one object of an electronic media, comprising:

providing at least one annotation on the at least a part of the at least one object;

grouping at least some of the at least one annotation with the at least one object; and

selecting at least one of the at least a part of the at least one object and the at least one grouped annotation based on the grouping of the at least one annotation on the at least a part of the at least one object.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

modifying the selected at least a part of the at least one object based on a condition for grouping.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein, when the at least a part of the at least one object is a text, the modifying step includes replacing each of at least one non-annotated section of the at least a part of the at least one object with an ellipsis.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein, when the at least a part of the at least one object is a text, the modifying step includes changing appearance of at least one of the selected at least a part of the at least one object and the selected at least one annotation.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein, when the at least a part of the at least one object is an image, the modifying step includes adding an indication of selection around the selected at least a part of the at least one object.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein, when the at least a part of the at least one object is a CAD drawing, the modifying step includes providing a cut-out view of the selected at least a part of the at least one object.

7. The method of claim 2, wherein, when the at least a part of the at least one object is a CAD drawing, the selection step includes selecting at least one other objects associated with the selected at least a part of the at least one object.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising copying the selected at least one of the at least a part of the at least one object and the at least one annotation to at least one of a different part of the electronic media and another media.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising copying at least one of the most recent one of the selected at least one annotation.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a type of the provided at least one annotation; and

selecting the at least a part of at least one object based on the type.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein, if the annotation type is handwritten, the selecting step further comprises not selecting the at least one annotation.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining a layout of at least one of the selected at least a part of the at least one object and the at least one annotation; and

copying at least one of the selected at least a part of the at least one object and the at least one annotation to another media according to the layout.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

determining reference information in at least one of the selected at least a part of the at least one object and the selected at least one annotation;

retrieving a reference cited in the reference information; and

associating the reference information with at least one of the selected at least a part of the at least one object and the selected at least one of the annotations.

43. The method of claim 4, wherein the appearance includes at least one of color, size, font, underlining, capitalization, and brackets.

44. The method of claim 5, wherein the indication includes at least one of a solid line, a bold line, a dotted line, and highlighting an outline of the selected at least a part of the at least one object.

14. A system for selecting at least a part of at least one object of an electronic media, comprising:

an annotation grouping circuit that groups, for at least one annotation provided on the at least a part of the at least one object, the at least one annotation with the at least one object; and

an object selection circuit that selects at least one of the at least a part of the at least one object and the at least one annotation based on the grouping of the at least one grouped annotation on the at least a part of the at least one object.

15. The system of claim 14, further comprising an object modification circuit that modifies the selected at least a part of the at least one object based on a condition.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein, when the at least a part of the at least one object is a text, the object modification circuit replaces each of at least one non-annotated section of the selected at least a part of the at least one object with an ellipsis.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein, when the at least a part of the at least one object is a text, the object modification circuit changes appearance of at least one of the selected at least a part of the at least one object and the selected at least one annotation.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein, when the at least a part of the at least one object is an image, the object modification circuit adds an indication of selection around the selected at least a part of the at least one object.

19. The system of claim 15, wherein, when the at least a part of the at least one object is a CAD drawing, the object modification circuit provides a cut-out view of the selected at least a part of the at least one object.

20. The system of claim 15, wherein, when the at least a part of the at least one object is a CAD drawing, the object selection circuit selects at least one of other objects associated with the selected at least a part of the at least one object.

21. The system of claim 14, further comprising an object and annotation copying circuit that copies the selected at least one of the at least a part of the at least one object and the at least one annotation to at least one of a different part of the electronic media and another media.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the object and annotation copying circuit copies at least one of the most recent one of the selected at least one annotation.

23. The system of claim 14, wherein the object selection circuit determines a type of the provided at least one annotation and selects the at least a part of at least one object based on the type.

24. The system of claim 23, wherein, if the annotation type is handwritten, the object selection circuit does not select that at least one annotation.

25. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

a object and annotation layout determining circuit that determines a layout of at least one of the selected at least a part of the at least one object and the at least one annotation; and

a object and annotation copying circuit that copies at least one of the selected at least a part of the at least one object and the at least one annotation to another media according to the layout.

26. The system of claim 14, further comprising:

a fetching circuit that determines reference information in at least one of the selected at least a part of the at least one object and the selected at least one annotation, retrieves a reference cited in the reference information, and associating the reference information with at least one of the selected at least a part of the at least one object and the selected at least one of the annotations.

45. The method of claim 17, wherein the appearance includes at least one of color, size, font, underlining, capitalization, and brackets.

46. The method of claim 18, wherein the indication includes at least one of a solid line, a bold line, a dotted line, and highlighting an outline of the selected at least a part of the at least one object.

27. A computer readable storage medium, comprising:

computer readable program code embodied on the computer readable storage medium, the computer readable program code usable to program a computer to program a method for selecting at least a part of at least one object of an electronic media, comprising;

providing at least one annotation on the at least a part of the at least one object;

grouping at least some of the at least one annotation with the at least one object; and

selecting at least one of the at least a part of the at least one object and the at least one grouped annotation based on the grouping of the at least one annotation on the at least a part of the at least one object.

28. The computer readable storage medium of claim 27, further comprising:

modifying the selected at least a part of the at least one object based on a condition.

29. The computer readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein, when the at least a part of the at least one object is a text, the modifying step includes replacing each of at least one non-annotated section of the at least a part of the at least one object with an ellipsis.

30. The computer readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein, when the at least a part of the at least one object is a text, the modifying step includes changing appearance of at least one of the selected at least a part of the at least one object and the selected at least one annotation.

31. The computer readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein, when the at least a part of the at least one object is an image, the modifying step includes adding an indication of selection around the selected at least a part of the at least one object.

32. The computer readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein, when the at least a part of the at least one object is a CAD drawing, the modifying step includes providing a cut-out view of the selected at least a part of the at least one object.

33. The computer readable storage medium of claim 28, wherein, when the at least a part of the at least one object is a CAD drawing, the selection step includes selecting at least one other objects associated with the selected at least a part of the at least one object.

34. The computer readable storage medium of claim 27, further comprising copying the selected at least one of the at least a part of the at least one object and the at least one annotation to at least one of a different part of the electronic media and another media.

35. The computer readable storage medium of claim 34, further comprising copying at least one of the most recent one of the selected at least one annotation.

36. The computer readable storage medium of claim 27, further comprising:

determining a type of the provided at least one annotation; and

selecting the at least a part of at least one object based on the type.

37. The computer readable storage medium of claim 36, wherein, if the annotation type is handwritten, the selecting step further comprises not selecting the at least one annotation.

38. The computer readable storage medium of claim 27, further comprising:

determining a layout of at least one of the selected at least a part of the at least one object and the at least one annotation; and

copying at least one of the selected at least a part of the at least one object and the at least one annotation to another media according to the layout.

39. The computer readable storage medium of claim 27, further comprising:

determining a reference in at least one of the selected at least a part of the at least one object and the selected at least one annotation;

retrieving reference information cited in the reference information; and

associating the reference information with at least one of the selected at least a part of the at least one object and the selected at least one of the annotations.

47. The computer readable storage medium of claim 30, wherein the appearance includes at least one of color, size, font, underlining, capitalization, and brackets.

48. The computer readable storage medium of claim 31, wherein the indication includes at least one of a solid line, a dotted line, and highlighting an outline of the selected at least a part of the at least one object.

40. A carrier wave encoded to transmit a control program usable for managing selecting at least a part of at least one object of an electronic media, comprising:

instructions for providing at least one annotation on the at least a part of the at least one object;

instructions for grouping at least some of the at least one annotation with the at least one object; and

instructions for selecting at least one of the at least a part of the at least one object and the at least one grouped annotation based on the grouping of the at least one annotation on the at least a part of the at least one object.

41. A method for selecting at least a part of at least one object of an electronic media, comprising:

providing at least one annotation on the at least a part of the at least one object;

grouping at least some of the at least one annotation with the at least one object; and

selecting at least one of the at least a part of the at least one object and the at least one grouped annotation based on the grouping of the at least one annotation on the at least a part of the at least one object; and

modifying the selected at least a part of the at least one object based on a condition, wherein, when the at least a part of the at least one object is a text, the modifying step includes replacing each of at least one non-annotated section of the at least a part of the at least one object with an ellipsis.

42. A method for selecting at least a part of at least one object of an electronic media, comprising:

providing at least one annotation on the at least a part of the at least one object;

grouping at least some of the at least one annotation with the at least one object;

selecting at least one of the at least a part of the at least one object and the at least one grouped annotation based on the grouping of the at least one annotation on the at least a part of the at least one object;

determining a type of the provided at least one annotation; and

selecting the at least a part of at least one object based on the type.