Optical character recognition technique for protected viewing of digital files

• US 20070043678A1
• Filed: 08/17/2005
• Published: 02/22/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 08/17/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kurzweil Educational Systems Incorporated (Cambium Learning Group Incorporated)
• Original Assignee: Kurzweil Educational Systems Incorporated (Cambium Learning Group Incorporated)
• Inventors: Dionne, Mark
• Granted Patent: US 9,009,078 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/55
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/224 of printed characters having additional code marks or containing code marks
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/006 using audible presentation of the information
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/26 Speech to text systems G10L15/08 takes precedence

Abstract

Unlocking digital content embodied in digital readable form on a digital media carrier includes receiving a scanned image of a page from scanning a physical copy of content, evaluating the scanned image; and if the scanned image corresponds to a selected page of the digital content, unlocking the digital content.

Claims

1. A method for unlocking digital content embodied in digital readable form on a digital media carrier, the method comprises:

receiving a scanned image of a page from scanning a physical copy of a printed publication associated with the digital content;

evaluating the scanned image; and

if the scanned image corresponds to a selected page of the printed publication,

unlocking the digital content.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein evaluating further comprises:

applying optical character recognition to the scanned image to produce a text representation of the scanned image; and

comparing text representation to a stored version of the text to determine if the scanned image corresponds to the selected page of the printed publication.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein evaluating further comprises:

applying optical character recognition to the scanned image to produce data that represents an arrangement of text in the scanned image; and

comparing the data representing the arrangement of text to a stored version of the arrangement to determine if the scanned image file corresponds to the selected page of the printed publication.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein the page is selected at random.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein a digital camera or a web cam is used to scan the page and evaluating comprises

detecting a pattern of color in the data from the digital camera or web cam.

6. The method of claim 2 wherein a scanner is used to scan the page.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the digital content is unlocked to provide a text based searchable file.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein applying optical character recognition generates a signature that is compared to a signature generated from the stored file to determine whether the user had the book.

9. The method of claim 1 wherein the digital content is a book stored on a digital storage media and the physical copy of the digital media is a printed copy of the book.

10. The method of claim 1 wherein the digital content is unlocked to provide text.

11. The method of claim 10 further comprising:

apply speech synthesis to convert the text from the digital content into speech that is read aloud to the user.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

displaying a representation of a portion of the digital media on a display;

applying a highlighting indicia to an item in the displayed portion of the printed content, in synchronization with reading the item to the user.

13. The method of claim 10 wherein the digital content includes a book stored in a digital representation on the digital storage media and the printed publication of the digital media is a printed copy of the book.

14. The method of claim 10 wherein displaying displays an image representation from the digital media, and the method further comprises:

applying speech synthesis to convert the digital media into speech that is read aloud to the user, while

applying a highlighting indicia to an item in the image representation in synchronization with reading the text.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

displaying a representation of a portion of the digital media on a display;

using speech synthesis to convert text corresponding to the digital media into speech that is read aloud to the user, while

applying a highlighting indicia to an item in the displayed portion in synchronization with text corresponding to the item being read.

25. The computer program product of claim 10 wherein the digital content includes a book stored in a digital representation on the digital storage media and the physical copy of the digital media is a printed copy of the book.

26. The computer program product of claim 10, wherein displaying, displays an image representation from the digital media, and the computer program product further comprises instructions to:

apply speech synthesis to convert the digital media into speech that is read aloud to the user, while

apply a highlighting indicia to an item in the image representation in synchronization with reading the text.

16. A computer program product for unlocking digital content embodied in digital readable form on a digital media carrier, the computer program product comprises instructions for causing a machine to:

receive a scanned image of a page from scanning a physical copy of the content;

evaluate the scanned image; and

if the scanned image corresponds to a selected page of the digital content,

unlock the digital content.

17. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein instructions to evaluate further comprises instructions to:

apply optical character recognition to the scanned image to produce a text representation of the scanned image; and

compare text representation to a stored version of the text to determine if the scanned image corresponds to the selected page of the digital content.

18. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein instructions to evaluate further comprises instructions to:

apply optical character recognition to the scanned image to produce data that represents an arrangement of features in the scanned image; and

compare the data representing the arrangement of features to a stored version of the arrangement to determine if the scanned image file corresponds to the selected page of the digital content.

19. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein a digital camera or a web cam is used to scan the page and instructions to evaluate further comprises instructions to:

detect a pattern of color in the data from the digital camera or web cam.

20. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein the digital content is unlocked to provide a text based searchable file.

21. The computer program product of claim 16 further comprising:

generating a signature that is compared to a signature generated from the digital media to determine whether the user had the book.

22. The computer program product of claim 16 wherein the digital content is unlocked to provide text.

23. The computer program product of claim 22 further comprising instructions to:

apply speech synthesis to convert the text from the digital content into speech that is read aloud to the user.

24. The computer program product of claim 22 further comprising instructions to:

display a representation of a portion of the printed copy of the digital media on a display;

apply a highlighting indicia to an item in the displayed portion of the printed content, in synchronization with reading the item to the user.

27. The computer program product of claim 16, further comprising instructions to:

display a representation of a portion of the digital media on a display;

apply speech synthesis to convert text corresponding to the digital media into speech that is read aloud to the user, while

apply a highlighting indicia to an item in the displayed portion in synchronization with text corresponding to the item being read.

28. An apparatus comprising:

a computing processing device; and

a computer readable medium storing a computer program product for unlocking digital content embodied in digital readable form on a digital media carrier, the computer program product comprises instructions for causing the device to;

receive a scanned image of a page from scanning a physical copy of content;

evaluate the scanned image; and

if the scanned image corresponds to a selected page of the digital content,

unlock the digital content.

29. The apparatus of claim 28 wherein the computer program product further comprises instructions to:

apply optical character recognition to the scanned image to produce a text representation of the scanned image; and

compare text representation to a stored version of the text to determine if the scanned image corresponds to the selected page of the digital content.

30. The apparatus of claim 28 wherein the computer program product further comprises instructions to:

apply optical character recognition to the scanned image to produce data that represents an arrangement of features in the scanned image; and

compare the data representing the arrangement of features to a stored version of the arrangement to determine if the scanned image file corresponds to the selected page of the digital content.

31. The apparatus of claim 28, further comprising:

a digital camera or a web cam to produce the scanned image of the page and instructions to evaluate further comprises instructions to;

detect a pattern of color in the data from the digital camera or web cam.

32. The apparatus of claim 28 wherein the digital content is unlocked to provide a text based searchable file.

33. The apparatus of claim 28 wherein the computer program product further comprises instructions to:

apply speech synthesis to convert the text from the digital content into speech that is read aloud to the user.

34. The apparatus of claim 28 wherein the computer program product further comprises instructions to:

display a representation of a portion of the printed copy of the digital media on a display;

apply a highlighting indicia to an item in the displayed portion of the printed content, in synchronization with reading the item to the user.

35. The apparatus of claim 28, wherein displaying, displays an image representation from the digital media, and the computer program product further comprises instructions to:

apply speech synthesis to convert the digital media into speech that is read aloud to the user, while

apply a highlighting indicia to an item in the image representation in synchronization with reading the text.