READING DEVICE WITH HIERARCHAL NAVIGATION

• US 20090169061A1
• Filed: 12/27/2007
• Published: 07/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Original Assignee: Intel-GE Care Innovations, LLC (Intel Corporation)
• Inventors: Anderson, Gretchen, Foss, Ben, Thong, JM Van, Witt, Jeff
• Granted Patent: US 8,233,671 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/114
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/414 Extracting the geometrical structure, e.g. layout tree; Block segmentation, e.g. bounding boxes for graphics or text
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/006 using audible presentation of the information
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 21/008 using visual presentation of the information for the partially sighted

Abstract

In some embodiments, disclosed is reading device that comprises a camera, at least one processor, and a user interface. The camera scans at least a portion of a document having text to generate a raster file. The processor processes the raster file to identify text blocks. The user interface allows a user to hierarchically navigate the text blocks when they are read to the user.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

an acquisition device to acquire a digitization of at least a portion of a document; and

at least one processor to characterize blocks of text from the document into different hierarchal levels based at least on relative format attributes and to provide to a user an option to navigate the text blocks, as they are read to the user, based on the hierarchal levels.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, in which the processor is to characterize at least some of the text blocks as main or ancillary text blocks.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, in which the processor discerns different hierarchal levels based on the size of text characters within the text blocks.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, wherein the processor discerns different hierarchal levels based on the position of the text blocks relative to one another.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, in which the processor discerns different hierarchal levels based on text content within the text blocks.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising memory having an OCR module to generate the text blocks when executed by the at least one processor.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, comprising memory having a characterization module to characterize the text blocks when executed by at least one processor.

8. The apparatus of claim 1, comprising an auditory device to provide to the user the read text in auditory form.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, in which the auditory device is a speaker.

10. A method, comprising:

in a portable reading device, scanning at least a portion of a document having text to generate a raster file;

processing the raster file to delineate text blocks; and

providing to a user an interface allowing the user to hierarchically navigate the text blocks as they are read to the user.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein processing includes OCR'"'"'ing the raster file.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein processing includes refining text blocks identified by the OCR'"'"'ing into more logically uniform text blocks.

13. The method of claim 12, in which the more logically uniform text blocks comprise sub text blocks.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein processing includes characterizing at least some of the text blocks into different hierarchal levels based at least on text format attributes.

15. The method of claim 14, in which the characterizing is further based on relative text block position.

16. The method of claim 15, in which the characterizing is further based on text content.

17. The method of claim 11, in which the processing depends on input identifying whether the scanned document portion includes more than one article.

18. A reading device, comprising:

a camera to scan at least a portion of a document having text to generate a raster file;

at least one processor to process the raster file to identify text blocks; and

a user interface to allow a user to hierarchically navigate the text blocks when read to the user.

19. The device of claim 18, comprising memory with an OCR module to process the raster file when executed by the at least one processor.

20. The device of claim 19, comprising memory with executable code to refine text blocks identified by the OCR module into more logically uniform text blocks.

21. The device of claim 20, in which the more logically uniform text blocks comprise sub text blocks.

22. The device of claim 18, comprising memory with executable instructions for the at least one processor to characterize at least some of the text blocks into different hierarchal levels based at least on text format attributes.

23. The device of claim 22, in which the characterizing is based on relative text block position.