Document content and structure conversion

• US 20070192687A1
• Filed: 02/14/2006
• Published: 08/16/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Patrice Simard, Radoslav Nickolov
• Inventors: Nickolov, Radoslav, Simard, Patrice
• Granted Patent: US 7,623,710 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/234
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/40 Document-oriented image-based pattern recognition

Abstract

A system that can convert content and structure of a document from an original format into a target format irrespective of the functional specifics of the original format. The system can automatically infer the content and structure of a document via a rendered format thereby restoring the programmatic functionality of the original file (or generating programmatic functionality of a desired target format) through the novel conversion/import process. The system can extract the document structure (e.g., layout) together with the content in order to effectuate the conversion. Heuristics (e.g., logic and/or reasoning) can be employed to make decisions with respect to importing the document into a target format and/or formats.

Claims

1. A system that facilitates converting a document from a first format to a second format, comprising:

a receiving component that accepts a rendered representation of the document in the first format; and

an import component that generates a programmatically functional translation of content and structure associated with the document into the second format.

2. The system of claim 1, the import component includes a detection component that identifies the content and the structure associated with the document.

3. The system of claim 1, the import component includes an analyzer component that generates an output based at least in part upon a heuristic analysis of the content and the structure of the document with respect to the second format.

4. The system of claim 3, the heuristic analysis is based at least in part upon a functional capability of the second format.

5. The system of claim 4, the import component includes a translation component that converts the content and the structure of the document in the first format into the second format based at least in part upon the output from the analyzer component.

6. The system of claim 5, the translation component includes a content translator component and a structure translator component.

7. The system of claim 6, the content translator component includes an optical character recognition component that converts a subset of the content of the document from the first format into the second format.

8. The system of claim 7, the content translator component includes a font hashing component that facilitates translation of the subset of the content of the first format to the second format.

9. The system of claim 6, the structure translator component includes a format identifier that recognizes a plurality of layout-related characteristics.

10. The system of claim 9, the structure translator component includes an import component that transfers a subset of the plurality of layout-related characteristics to the second format.

11. The system of claim 10, the plurality of layout-related characteristics is at least one of a margin, a bitmap location, a paragraph designator, a column designator, a table and a border.

12. The system of claim 1, further comprising a machine learning component that employs a statistical-based analysis to infer an action that a user desires to be automatically performed.

13. A computer-implemented method of converting a document from a first format to a second format, comprising:

determining content of the document via parsing a visual representation of the document in the first format;

inferring structure of the document via parsing the visual representation of the document in the first format;

converting the content of the document to the second format; and

converting the structure of the document to the second format.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 13, further comprising generating the visual representation of the document.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 14, further comprising heuristically analyzing the content and structure of the first format with respect to the second format.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15, further comprising translating the content and the structure from the first format to the second format based at least in part upon a result of the heuristic analysis.

17. A computer-executable system that facilitates converting a document from a first format to a second format, comprising:

computer-implemented means for determining content and structure via a visual representation of the document in the first format;

computer-implemented means for converting the content and the structure into the second format; and

computer-implemented means for importing the content and the structure into the second format.

18. The computer-executable system of claim 17, further comprising computer-implemented means for heuristically determining if the content and structure from the first format is recognizable in the second format.

19. The computer-executable system of claim 18, further comprising computer-implemented means for generating the visual representation of the document.

20. The computer-executable system of claim 19, further comprising means for converting a subset of the content and the structure of the document from the first format into a third format associated with the document.