PROCESSING A REUSABLE GRAPHIC IN A DOCUMENT

• US 20120078908A1
• Filed: 09/13/2011
• Published: 03/29/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Ghani, Rayid, Djordjevic, Divna
• Granted Patent: US 8,862,583 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 707/737
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5846 using extracted text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/5854 using shape and object relationship
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/166 Editing, e.g. inserting or deleting

Abstract

A method and apparatus are provided for processing a graphic in a document so that the graphic may be reused in a different application than the one it was originally used in. For a given document, a graphic may be identified from within the document and extracted from the document. The extracted graphic may be stored in a suitable storage medium, such as a reusable graphic repository. A structural feature associated with the extracted graphic may also be extracted. The extracted graphic may then be classified based on the extracted structural feature. Furthermore, a method and apparatus are provided for generating a reusable graphic from a document.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for processing a reusable graphic in a document, the method comprising:

extracting an identified graphic from the document to provide an extracted graphic;

storing the extracted graphic in a reusable graphic repository;

extracting at least one structural feature associated with the extracted graphic; and

classifying the extracted graphic based on the at least one structural feature.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising extracting at least one textual feature from the document or the extracted graphic, extracting at least one visual feature from the extracted graphic, and classifying the extracted graphic based on the at least one extracted textual or visual feature.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein extracting the at least one textual feature includes extracting at least one of:

text residing within the document containing the extracted graphic;

text residing within the extracted graphic itself;

text residing in metadata associated with the extracted graphic; and

text residing in metadata associated with the document.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein extracting the at least one structural feature includes extracting at least one of:

a name of at least one graphical construct element within the extracted graphic;

coordinates of the at least one graphical construct element; and

size of the extracted graphic in relation to a structural characteristic of the document.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein classifying the extracted graphic further comprises at least one of:

classifying the extracted graphic using a supervised or semi-supervised classification algorithm; and

classifying the extracted graphic based on a pre-defined taxonomy structure.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein extracting an identified graphic from the document to provide an extracted graphic comprises:

identifying candidate reusable graphic components contained within the document to provide identified candidate reusable graphic components;

extracting feature information about each identified candidate reusable graphic component to provide extracted feature information;

extracting environment information about each identified candidate reusable graphic component'"'"'s environment to provide extracted environment information; and

synthesizing a reusable graphic from at least one identified candidate reusable graphic component based on the extracted feature information and the extracted environment information.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein identifying candidate reusable graphic components contained within the document comprises, for each identified candidate reusable graphic component:

analyzing the identified candidate reusable graphic component to determine if at least one additional candidate reusable graphic component is within the identified candidate reusable graphic component; and

when at least one additional candidate reusable graphic component is determined to be within the identified candidate reusable graphic component, treating each at least one additional candidate reusable graphic component as an identified candidate reusable graphic component.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein the extracted feature information comprises at least one of:

candidate reusable graphic component type information, wherein a particular identified candidate reusable graphic component may be of a synthetic type or a natural type;

textual information;

structural information; and

visual information.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the textual information comprises at least one of:

text residing within a synthetic-type identified candidate reusable graphic component;

text residing within a natural-type identified candidate reusable graphic component preferably extracted using optical character recognition; and

text format information preferably comprising at least one of a font name associated with the extracted text;

a font size associated with the extracted text; and

a text modification indicia.

10. The method of claim 8, wherein the structural information comprises at least one of:

a name of an identified candidate reusable graphic component;

coordinates of a synthetic-type identified candidate reusable graphic component, representing the synthetic-type identified candidate reusable graphic component'"'"'s location within the document; and

size of a natural-type identified candidate reusable graphic component, representing the natural-type identified candidate reusable graphic component'"'"'s size in relation to a structural characteristic of the document that the natural-type identified candidate reusable graphic component is contained in.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the extracted environment information comprises at least one of:

text residing outside of the identified candidate reusable graphic component but within in the document itself;

text residing in metadata associated with the identified candidate reusable graphic component;

text residing in metadata associated with the document containing the identified candidate reusable graphic component; and

structural characteristics of the document, preferably comprising spatial dimensions of each section of the document containing at least one identified candidate reusable graphic component.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein synthesizing a reusable graphic from at least one identified candidate reusable graphic component based on the extracted feature information and the extracted environment information comprises:

evaluating the extracted feature information and the extracted environment information associated with each identified candidate reusable graphic component to determine if individual candidate reusable graphic components should be consolidated into a single reusable graphic.

13. A computer-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed, cause at least one processor to perform the method of any of claim 1.

14. An apparatus for processing a reusable graphic in a document, the apparatus comprising:

a graphic extraction module operative to extract an identified graphic from the document to provide an extracted graphic;

a reusable graphic repository, operatively connected to the graphic extraction module, operative to store the extracted graphic;

a feature extraction module, operatively connected to the reusable graphic repository, operative to extract at least one structural feature associated with the extracted graphic; and

a classification module, operatively connected to the feature extraction module and the reusable graphic repository, operative to classify the extracted graphic based on the at least one structural feature.

15. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the feature extraction module is further operative to extract at least one textual feature from the document or the extracted graphic and extract at least one visual feature from the extracted graphic, and the classification module is further operative to classify the extracted graphic based on the at least one extracted textual or visual feature.

16. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:

a candidate reusable graphic identification module operative to identify candidate reusable graphic components contained within the document;

a feature information extracting module, operatively connected to the candidate reusable graphic identification module, operative to extract feature information about each identified candidate reusable graphic component;

an environment information extracting module, operatively connected to the candidate reusable graphic identification module, operative to extract environment information about each identified candidate reusable graphic component; and

a reusable graphic synthesizing module, operatively connected to the feature information extracting module and the environment information extracting module, operative to synthesize a reusable graphic from at least one identified candidate reusable graphic component based on the extracted feature information and the extracted environment information.