Method and apparatus for synchronizing, displaying and manipulating text and image documents
First Claim
1. A computer controlled display system including at least one central processing unit (CPU), said CPU coupled to a display for displaying a patent document and a patent image on said display, comprising:
- (1) storage means coupled to said CPU for storing at least one patent document comprised of an equivalent text file, and at least one patent image document comprised of a patent image file, said equivalent text file including linking information that links at least one portion of said equivalent text file to at least one portion of said patent image file, said equivalent text file also including equivalency information detailing an equivalency relationship between said patent image file and a corresponding patent text file, said equivalency information comprising at least one of(A) special character information specifying at least one mapping of a group of characters in said patent text file to a special character in said patent image file, and(B) graphical item location information specifying locations in said patent image file of graphical items referred to in said patent text file, said graphical items including any combination of figures, figure elements, equations, non-text tables, structures and diagrams,said patent image file being a data file having stored therein one or more image pages from a patent, each of said image pages being an electronic image of a page of said patent or a page of a document related to said patent, wherein said image pages are stored in a compressed format, said patent text file being a data file having stored therein ASCII text data representing at least a portion of textual data in said patent, including patent bibliography information and patent text paragraphs; and
(2) a user interface generated by said CPU for display by display means, said user interface selectively displaying said equivalent text file and said patent image file on said display, such that said equivalent text file is displayed in a first window and said patent image file is displayed in a second window and both of said windows may be selectively viewed simultaneously on said display.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for extracting, synchronizing, displaying, and manipulating text and image documents in electronic form for display. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, text and image files for documents, such as for example patent documents, are initially stored on separate magnetic tape media. These data files are extracted from the respective tapes and placed onto a faster medium, such as a hard disk drive. The text and image files are synchronized to produce Equivalent Files using heuristic algorithms to create an approximate equivalence relationship between the text and the image files. The Equivalent Files and image files residing on, for example, a hard disk drive or compact disk (CD), are coupled as a resource to a computer display system. The graphic user interface of the present invention permits the user to display, manipulate, and edit the Equivalent File created using the process of the present invention, and to simultaneously view the image file on the display. Using the graphic user interface of the present invention, a user may create libraries of patent Equivalent Files and image files or documents of another type, as well as open cases to include a plurality of different patents or other documents. The Equivalent File may be selectively viewed on the display in an equivalent window. Simultaneous with the viewing of the Equivalent File within the equivalent window, the user may view any portion of an image file within one or more image windows on the display. A variety of other features and functions are provided by the present invention for the manipulation and display of patent documents and other documents on the user interface.
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Citations
51 Claims
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1. A computer controlled display system including at least one central processing unit (CPU), said CPU coupled to a display for displaying a patent document and a patent image on said display, comprising:
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(1) storage means coupled to said CPU for storing at least one patent document comprised of an equivalent text file, and at least one patent image document comprised of a patent image file, said equivalent text file including linking information that links at least one portion of said equivalent text file to at least one portion of said patent image file, said equivalent text file also including equivalency information detailing an equivalency relationship between said patent image file and a corresponding patent text file, said equivalency information comprising at least one of (A) special character information specifying at least one mapping of a group of characters in said patent text file to a special character in said patent image file, and (B) graphical item location information specifying locations in said patent image file of graphical items referred to in said patent text file, said graphical items including any combination of figures, figure elements, equations, non-text tables, structures and diagrams, said patent image file being a data file having stored therein one or more image pages from a patent, each of said image pages being an electronic image of a page of said patent or a page of a document related to said patent, wherein said image pages are stored in a compressed format, said patent text file being a data file having stored therein ASCII text data representing at least a portion of textual data in said patent, including patent bibliography information and patent text paragraphs; and (2) a user interface generated by said CPU for display by display means, said user interface selectively displaying said equivalent text file and said patent image file on said display, such that said equivalent text file is displayed in a first window and said patent image file is displayed in a second window and both of said windows may be selectively viewed simultaneously on said display. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A display method for displaying a patent document and a patent image, comprising the steps of:
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(1) storing at least one patent document comprised of an equivalent text file, and at least one patent image document comprised of a patent image file, said equivalent text file including linking information that links at least one portion of said equivalent text file to at least one portion of said patent image file, said equivalent text file also including equivalency information detailing an equivalency relationship between said patent image file and a corresponding patent text file, said equivalency information comprising at least one of (A) special character information specifying at least one mapping of a group of characters in said patent text file to a special character in said patent image file, and (B) graphical item location information specifying locations in said patent image file of graphical items referred to in said patent text file, said graphical items including any combination of figures, figure elements, equations, non-text tables, structures and diagrams, said patent image file being a data file having stored therein one or more image pages from a patent, each of said image pages being an electronic image of a page of said patent or a page of a document related to said patent, wherein said image pages are stored in a compressed format, said patent text file being a data file having stored therein ASCII text data representing at least a portion of textual data in said patent, including patent bibliography information and patent text paragraphs; (2) generating a user interlace for display on a display; and (3) selectively displaying said equivalent text file and said patent image file on said display, such that said equivalent text file is displayed in a first window and said patent image file is displayed in a second window and both of said windows may be selectively viewed simultaneously on said display. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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37. A computer program product comprising a computer useable medium having computer program logic recorded thereon for enabling a central processing unit (CPU) in a computer system to display a patent document and a patent image on a display, said computer program logic comprising:
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(1) storage access means for enabling said CPU to access from a storage device at least one patent document comprised of an equivalent text file, and at least one patent image document comprised of a patent image file, said equivalent text file including linking information that links at least one portion of said equivalent text file to at least one portion of said patent image file, said equivalent text file also including equivalency information detailing an equivalency relationship between said patent image file and a corresponding patent text file, said equivalency information comprising at least one of (A) special character information specifying at least one mapping of a group of characters in said patent text file to a special character in said patent image file, and (B) graphical item location information specifying locations in said patent image file of graphical items referred to in said patent text file, said graphical items including any combination of figures, figure elements, equations, non-text tables, structures and diagrams, said patent image file being a data file having stored therein one or more image pages from a patent, each of said images pages being an electronic image of a page of said patent or a page of a document related to said patent, wherein said image pages are stored in a compressed format, said patent text file being a data file having stored therein ASCII text data representing at least a portion of textual data in said patent, including patent bibliography information and patent text paragraphs; and (2) user interface means for enabling said CPU to generate a user interface for display on said display, said user interface selectively displaying said equivalent text file and said patent image file on said display. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51)
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Specification