Conversion of Mathematical Statements

• US 20080263403A1
• Filed: 09/19/2005
• Published: 10/23/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 09/18/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: John Michael Wisbey
• Original Assignee: John Michael Wisbey
• Inventors: Soklakov, Andrei Nikolaevich
• Application Number:
  US11/663,132
• Publication Number:
  US 20080263403A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/38
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/111 Mathematical or scientific formatting; Subscripts; Superscripts
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/274 Syntactic or semantic context, e.g. balancing

Abstract

A method for computer-assisted conversion of mathematical statements from one data format to another and an apparatus for carrying out the method are particularly useful for computer recognition of visual images of mathematical statements. There are difficulties in converting a mathematical statement perfectly from, say, a hand-written document into a mathematical computer code, especially if scanning and recognition software is used. Errors may also occur where electronic documents are transmitted over noisy communications channels. To overcome these difficulties, the method comprises inputting to a computer a mathematical statement expressed by a binary relation operator in a data file in the first format; passing the file through a recognition means to convert the file with the statement to a different data format; partitioning the statement into mathematical blocks using the binary relation operators; checking a mathematical block against at least one other block using the analytic manipulation means; identifying errors found by the checking; and reporting the errors.

Claims

1. A method for computer-assisted conversion of a mathematical statement from one data format to another comprising:

inputting to a computer a mathematical statement containing one or more binary relation operators in a data file in the first format;

passing the file through a recognition means to convert the file with the statement to a different data format;

partitioning the statement into mathematical blocks using the binary relation operators;

checking a mathematical block against at least one other block using the analytic manipulation means;

identifying errors found by the checking; and

reporting the errors.

2. A method according to claim 1, comprising binary relation operators selected from the group consisting of =, >

and <

(equals, greater than and less than).

3. A method according to claim 1, wherein the analytic manipulation means for checking is a standard commercially-available software package.

4. A method according to claim 3, comprising the software package is Mathematica.

5. A method according to claim 1, including after identification of an error, determining the type of error by further checking.

6. A method according to claim 5, further comprising reporting the correction needed.

7. A method according to claim 5, wherein the error is corrected automatically.

8. A method according to claim 1, wherein a visual image of a statement is to be converted into a mathematical computer code, and wherein the mathematical statement is input via scanning and/or other graphic data input device and/or recognition software, and the type of error identified is used to review predictions given by the recognition routine, or to repeat the scanning and recognition routine with different control parameters to provide more accurate recognition.

15. A computer-readable medium having thereon computer-executable instructions for performing the steps of the method of claim 1.

9. An apparatus for conversion of a mathematical statement from one data format to another comprising:

an input device for receiving a mathematical statement containing one or more binary relation operators in a data file in a first format;

a memory for storing the statement;

an output device for outputting the result of checking; and

a processor for checking the statement, including

recognition means for converting the data file with the statement to a different data format;

partitioning means for partitioning the statement into mathematical blocks using the binary relation operators;

checking means for checking a mathematical block against at least one other block using analytic manipulation means;

identifying means for identifying errors found by the checking means; and

reporting means for reporting the errors to the output device.

10. An apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the identifying means comprises means for changing the way the two blocks are checked against each other when an error is found, to identify the correction needed.

11. An apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the correction is then also reported by the reporting means.

12. An apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the identifying means includes a correcting means for correcting the error automatically.

13. An apparatus according to claim 9, wherein the analytic manipulation means for checking preferably comprises a commercially-available software package running on the processor.

14. An apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the software package is Mathematica.