SYSTEM AND METHOD TO FACILITATE CONTENT DISTRIBUTION

• US 20180165255A1
• Filed: 12/08/2017
• Published: 06/14/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 12/08/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: ViaTech Publishing Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: ViaTech Publishing Solutions, Inc.
• Inventors: Gafford, Elizabeth, Strano, Dana
• Granted Patent: US 10,642,925 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/10 Protecting distributed programs or content, e.g. vending or licensing of copyrighted material protection in video systems or pay television H04N7/16 ; Digital rights management [DRM]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/151 Transformation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/169 Annotation, e.g. comment data or footnotes
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/174 Form filling; Merging
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/10 Character recognition
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1456 based on user interactions
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/224 of printed characters having additional code marks or containing code marks
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/02 with visual presentation of the material to be studied, e.g. using film strip
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/06 with both visual and audible presentation of the material to be studied
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/065 Combinations of audio and video presentations, e.g. videotapes, videodiscs, television systems
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/12 different stations being capable of presenting different information simultaneously G09B5/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 5/125 the stations being mobile
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/02 of the type wherein the student is expected to construct an answer to the question which is presented or wherein the machine gives an answer to the question presented by a student
• CPC Class Codes: G09B 7/077 different stations being capable of presenting different questions simultaneously

Abstract

Systems and methods are provided that facilitate publishing, distributing, and reading of electronic content. In some embodiments, the systems and methods may include a document conversion module for converting documents uploaded by publishers into an e-reader friendly format (an e-document). The systems and methods may also include a virtual library for making the e-documents available to end users and an active reader module to allow an end user to download and read the e-documents on an end user device. In some embodiments, the systems and methods may include a user management module for digital rights management and control of end user access to the e-documents. In some embodiments, the active reader may include functionality that allows an end user to annotate the e-document and share comments among users.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of creating an electronic workbook, the method comprising:

receiving a source document in a first format, the source document having a layout comprising content and form fillable data fields disposed at locations in the source document;

converting the source document to a second format to generate an electronically fillable e-workbook that replicates the layout of the source document, the converting comprising;

generating a digital image of a page of the source document;

determining the locations of the form fillable data fields on the page;

generating a transparent canvas layer linked to the digital image and dimensioned to overlay the digital image; and

defining a plurality of modifiable regions on the transparent canvas layer, the modifiable regions having a one-to-one correspondence with the form fillable data fields on the page; and

storing the e-workbook in a database, wherein the digital image is stored separately from the modifiable regions.

2. The method of claim 1 and further comprising:

displaying the e-workbook on a display device wherein the digital image and the transparent canvas layer are displayed simultaneously on the display device;

receiving client data indicating a user input in one or more of the modifiable regions within the transparent canvas layer overlaying the digital image; and

storing the received client data in a file associated with the user.

3. The method of claim 1 and further comprising:

electronically distributing the e-workbook to a plurality of users;

receiving data from the plurality of users indicating each user'"'"'s input in the modifiable regions of the e-workbook; and

storing the received data separate from the e-workbook.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first format is a portable document format and the second format is a Joint Picture Expert Group format.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the converting the source document to the second format includes automatically detecting the form fillable data fields on the page.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the determining the locations of the form fillable data fields on the page includes identifying a blank space on the page as a form fillable data field.

7. A computer-implemented method for creating electronic workbooks, the method comprising:

receiving a source document having a plurality of form fillable objects disposed at locations in the source document;

generating a digital image of a page of the source document;

scanning the page of the source document to determine the locations of the form fillable objects in the page of the source document;

generating a transparent canvas layer dimensioned to overlay the digital image, the transparent canvas layer having a plurality of bounded modifiable regions disposed at positions on the transparent canvas layer, the positions being correlated to the locations such that, when the digital image is displayed on a display device, the digital image visually replicates the page and the plurality of bounded modifiable regions functionally replicate the plurality of form fillable objects; and

storing the digital image in a first file and the transparent canvas layer in a second file linked to the first file, wherein, in response to a request from a user for the digital image, the first file is provided to the user in an unmodifiable format and the second file is provided to the user in a modifiable format.

8. The method of creating electronic workbooks of claim 7 and further comprising:

displaying the digital image on a user interface with the transparent canvas layer superimposed over the digital image;

receiving client data indicating a user input in one or more of the bounded modifiable regions within the canvas layer overlaying the digital image; and

storing the received client data in a third file associated with the user.

9. The method of creating electronic workbooks of claim 7 and further comprising:

electronically distributing the first file and second file to a plurality of users;

receiving data from the plurality of users indicating each user'"'"'s input in the bounded modifiable regions; and

storing the received data separate from the first file and the second file.

10. The method of creating electronic workbooks of claim 7, wherein the source document is a test having questions and the form fillable objects are spaces for providing answers to the questions.

11. A computer-implemented method of annotating pages of an electronic document, the computer-implemented method comprising:

converting a source document in a first format into an electronic document in a second format, wherein the converting comprises;

generating a plurality of linked digital images corresponding to pages of the source document;

performing optical character recognition (OCR) on the plurality of linked digital images to generate a text file that includes recognized text corresponding to text included in the source document;

correlating the recognized text with corresponding locations in the digital images; and

generating a plurality of transparent canvas layers, each transparent canvas layer being linked to a digital image of the plurality of digital images and being dimensioned such that the transparent canvas layer can be superimposed over the linked digital image when displayed;

in response to a request from a user to view a page of the electronic document, displaying on a computer display a digital image corresponding to the page of the electronic document overlaid with the transparent canvas layer linked to the displayed digital image;

detecting a selection of an annotation mode that permits the user to annotate the currently displayed digital image;

receiving a first annotation input from a user input device indicating that the user has made a first annotation to the currently displayed image;

storing the first annotation as a first object on the transparent canvas layer, wherein the transparent canvas layer containing the first annotation is stored in a first annotation file as a first canvas layer;

receiving a second annotation input from the user input device indicating that the user has made a second annotation to the currently displayed image; and

storing the second annotation as a second object on the transparent canvas layer, wherein the transparent canvas layer containing the first annotation and the second annotation is stored in a second annotation file as a second canvas layer.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 11 and further comprising:

in response to a user request to undo the second annotation, removing the second canvas layer from the computer display and displaying the first canvas layer in the computer display.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the source document is one of an HTML file, a PDF file, or a native word processing application file.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the digital images are JPEG files and the transparent canvas layer is a bitmap image.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the first annotation is one or more of an image annotation, a voice annotation, a video annotation, a structured text annotation, a free hand text annotation, a free hand sketch annotation, and an audio annotation.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein the first annotation file contains a user identifier associated with the user.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 11, wherein in response to the request from the user to view the page of the electronic document, the annotation database is checked for any annotation files associated with the user.