Automated document layout design

• US 20070208996A1
• Filed: 03/06/2006
• Published: 09/06/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 03/06/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Berkner, Kathrin, Mariotti, Andrea, Joshi, Siddharth, Schwartz, Edward
• Granted Patent: US 7,788,579 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/210
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing

Abstract

A method and apparatus for automated document layout creation is disclosed. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving a first layout of document image objects and creating a second layout of document image objects subject to placement constraints corresponding to placement of document image objects, at least one of the placement constraints being based on object content in one or more of the document image objects.

Claims

1. A method for automated document layout creation comprising:

receiving a first layout of document image objects; and

creating a second layout of document image objects subject to placement constraints corresponding to placement of document image objects, at least one of the placement constraints being based on object content in one or more of the document image objects.

2. The method defined in claim 1 wherein creating a second layout is performed using a convex optimization algorithm to seek a solution to at least one cost function.

3. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the placement constraints comprise relative positioning constraints corresponding to the relative positioning of the document image objects.

4. The method defined in claim 3 further comprising creating the relative positioning constraints based on a first layout of document image objects.

5. The method defined in claim 4 wherein creating the relative positioning constraints is from relative positioning graphs developed from logical document analysis results.

6. The method defined in claim 4 wherein the relative positioning constraints restrict location of an object based on a purpose associated with the object.

7. The method defined in claim 4 wherein creating the relative positioning constraints comprises creating a structure to capture logical positioning of groups of objects that imposes a hierarchy of ordering on objects.

8. The method defined in claim 4 wherein the relative positioning constraints are represented by graph models.

9. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the placement constraints include user and application input.

10. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising adapting constraints based on object content in one or more document image objects.

11. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising deriving constraints from the content of the document image objects and meta data results of logical layout analysis.

12. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising defining the cost function.

13. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising determining a set of one or more document objects for scaling and determining one or more scaling parameters.

14. The method defined in claim 13 wherein determining the set of one or more document objects for scaling is based on presence or absence of one or more of text, font size of text, results of image content analysis.

15. The method defined in claim 1 wherein the second layout includes a non-overlapping placement of the document image objects while maintaining relative positioning of the document image objects with respect to aesthetic layout criterion.

16. The method defined in claim 1 further comprising setting up an optimization framework that formulates design of the second layout as a convex optimization problem.

17. The method defined in claim 16 wherein the optimization framework includes one or more constraints and one or more costs that are dependent on object content and are based on aesthetic measures.

18. The method defined in claim 16 wherein the optimization framework includes one or more constraints and one or more costs, and wherein at least one of the constraints is dependent upon placement positions of document image objects in the first layout and attributes derived from the individual document image objects.

19. The method defined in claim 16 wherein the optimization framework uses geometric aesthetic layout measures.

20. An article of manufacture having one or more computer-readable media storing instructions thereon which, when executed by a system, cause the system to perform a method for automated document layout creation comprising:

receiving a first layout of document image objects; and

creating a second layout of document image objects subject to placement constraints corresponding to placement of document image objects, at least one of the placement constraints being based on object content in one or more of the document image objects.

21. An apparatus for automated document layout creation comprising:

an input to receive a first layout of document image objects; and

an image processing unit to create a second layout of document image objects subject to placement constraints corresponding to placement of document image objects, at least one of the placement constraints being based on object content in one or more of the document image objects.

22. A method comprising:

receiving a first layout of document image objects; and

computing a layout representation from the first layout of the document image objects that is optimal with respect to selective aesthetic measures, using a convex optimization framework that operates using constraints and an objective function, where the constraints depend on the initial placement positions and attributes derived from the individual objects and the objective function includes aesthetic layout measures.

23. A method comprising:

extracting a seed layout from an arrangement of document image objects;

transforming the seed layout into a complete layout via an optimization algorithm.

24. An apparatus comprising:

an extraction unit to extract a seed layout from an arrangement of document image objects; and

an image processing unit to transform the seed layout into a complete layout via an optimization algorithm.