Device And Method For Generating A Text Object

• US 20080276167A1
• Filed: 04/18/2008
• Published: 11/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 05/03/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Navigon AG (Garmin Limited)
• Original Assignee: Navigon AG (Garmin Limited)
• Inventors: Michael, Oliver
• Granted Patent: US 8,225,201 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/273
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/268 Morphological analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/30 Semantic analysis

Abstract

A graphic output device for generating a mixed graphic-textual depiction having at least one text object consisting of multiple letters for identifying a geographic feature, the output device comprising a processor unit, which is set up to reshape the text object in such a manner that the reshaped text object comprises, in addition to a normal text area having letters in the original size, a compressed text area having letters shrunken and/or compressed in relation to the original size, the boundary between the normal text area and the compressed text area running along a semantic jump point of the text object. A method for preparing a text object consisting of multiple letters using a processor unit, for the purpose of depicting the text object using a graphic output device.

Claims

1. A graphic output device for generating a mixed graphic-textual depiction having at least one text object consisting of multiple letters for the identification of a geographic feature, the output device comprising:

a processor unit, which is set up to reshape the text object in such a manner that the reshaped text object comprises, in addition to a normal text area having letters in the original size, a compressed text area having letters shrunken and/or compressed in relation to the original size,

wherein the boundary between the normal text area and the compressed text area runs along a semantic jump point of the text object.

2. The output device of claim 1, wherein the output device is set up for depicting letters using more than two different size dimensions within a text object.

3. The output device of claim 1, wherein the size dimensions of letters within defined surroundings of the jump point are changed steadily and/or continuously between the size dimension of the letters of the normal text area and the size dimension of the letters of the compressed text area.

4. The output device of claim 1, further comprising a storage unit having a collection of semantic, morphological and/or linguistic rules of grammar.

5. The output device of claim 1, wherein the output device contains lists of text components having fixed, in particular lower semantic relevance.

6. The output device of claim 1, wherein a relevance notation is stored for every normal text area and for every text area of the text object to be compressed.

7. The output device of claim 1, wherein a relevance notation is only stored for text areas of the text object to be compressed.

8. The output device of claim 1, wherein the size dimensions of the letters of the compressed text area are only changed in one dimension.

9. The output device of claim 1, wherein the device is set up to automatically ascertain the maximal original size of the letters of the normal text area as a function of the space available for the text object.

10. The output device of claim 1, wherein the output device is a transportable navigation device, a terminal for an online navigation service, desktop or mobile fleet software, or a desktop publishing unit.

11. A method for preparing a text object consisting of multiple letters using a processor unit, for the purpose of depicting the text object using a graphic output device, the text object comprising a normal text area having letters in the original size and a text area to be compressed having letters shrunken and/or compressed in relation to the original size, the method comprising:

a) analysis of the text object to be depicted on the basis of stored semantic, morphological, and/or linguistic rules and/or stored auxiliary information;

b) morphological division of the text object to be depicted into text areas and/or morphemes;

c) ascertainment of the semantic relevance of the text areas and/or morphemes;

d) storage of the relevance analysis results for each text area having reduced semantic relevance;

e) rendering of the letters of text areas having normal semantic relevance in the original size and the letters of text areas having reduced semantic relevance using shrunken size dimensions on the basis of the relevance analysis results;

f) output of the rendered text object on the graphic output device.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the auxiliary information in method step a) comprises current country, language, object type, location type and/or location size, street type and street significance and/or text position of the object type in the object name.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein the auxiliary information in method step a) comprises lists of text components having reduced semantic relevance, such as prefixes, infixes, suffixes, initial syllables and terminal syllables, language-specific articles and prepositions, abbreviations and business forms, lists of separators, and/or rules for composite formation and syllable separation.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein in method step e), letters within defined surroundings of the jump point between normal and compressed text areas are rendered steadily and/or continuously between the size dimension of the letters of the normal text area and the size dimension of the letters of the compressed text area.

15. The method of claim 11, wherein if a separator is present at the jump point in method step e), a discontinuous, sudden change of the letter size occurs.

16. The method of claim 11, wherein ascertaining and storing the relevance analysis results in method steps c) and d) occurs in the form of the assignment of a more than two-stage relevance value to the particular text area.

17. The method of claim 11, wherein the storage of the relevance analysis results in method step d) is performed with data compression using runlength coding.

18. The method of claim 11, wherein method steps a) through d) are performed at the runtime directly preceding the letter rendering.

19. The method of claim 11, wherein method steps a) through d) are performed in the scope of preprocessing of a database comprising the text object.

20. The method of claim 11, wherein the original size is a variable, the original size being fixed as a function of the space available for depicting the text object and/or as a function of the object significance of the text object.