Method and apparatus for providing automated searching and linking of electronic documents

• US 6,138,129 A
• Filed: 12/16/1997
• Issued: 10/24/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/1997
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Interlinear Technology, Inc.
• Original Assignee: World One Telecom, Ltd.
• Inventors: Combs, J. Andrew
• Primary Examiner(s): Feild, Joseph H.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Kindred, Alford W.
• Application Number:
  US08/991,451
• Time in Patent Office: 1,043 Days
• Field of Search: 707/501, 707/500, 707/513, 707/1-7, 707/100-102, 707/515, 707/529, 707/104, 707/10
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/90344 by using string matching techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9558 Details of hyperlinks; Management of linked annotations
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99933 Query processing, i.e. searching
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99936 Pattern matching access

Abstract

A method and apparatus for a relatively meaningful search and/or link operation to be performed within and/or between one or more electronic documents. According to one aspect of the invention, a method and apparatus is provided for extracting and storing text, image and/or location information of an electronic document. According to another aspect of the invention, a tag may be specified as label for a set of search and/or link (e.g., source and target) parameters, each having a set of "rules" associated therewith, for searching the stored text, image, and/or location information. According to yet another aspect of the invention, the set of parameters may include context (e.g., specified character/text patterns that may occur within and/or adjacent to one or more specified patterns) and/or location (e.g., a page number/range, a box on a page, a filename, tag, character/line offset, etc.) information/rules.

Claims

1. In a computer system, a method for performing a search of a set of electronic documents comprising:

accessing data that correlates a plurality of character patterns in the set of electronic documents with relative displacement of the plurality of character patterns in the document;

defining a tag to search the set of electronic documents;

defining a set of one or more context rules to be associated with the tag, the set of context rules to specify relative displacement of a subset of the plurality of character patterns in the set of electronic documents;

searching the set of electronic documents based on the set of context rules;

upon searching the document, creating a link based on the context and the relative displacement of the predetermined pattern; and

displaying the link as a hotspot.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the relative displacement includes the location of first set of one or more characters relative to a second set of one or more characters.

3. A computer-readable medium having stored thereon a set of instructions, the set of instructions for searching an electronic document, the set of instructions, which, when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform the steps of:

accessing data that correlates a plurality of character patterns in the set of electronic document with relative displacement of the plurality of character patterns in the electronic document;

defining a tag to search the electronic document;

defining a set of one or more context rules to be associated with the tag "defining a predetermined pattern", the set of context rules to specify relative displacement of a subset of the plurality of character patterns in the electronic document;

searching the electronic document based on the set of context rules

upon searching the document, creating a link based on the context and the relative displacement of the predetermined pattern; and

displaying the link as a hotspot.

4. The computer-readable medium of claim 3, wherein execution of the set of instructions further causes the processor to perform the steps of:

obtaining a set of search hits, based on searching the electronic document; and

creating a link between the set of search hits.

5. The computer-readable medium of claim 4, wherein the link is created between the electronic document and another electronic document.

6. The computer-readable medium of claim 4, wherein the set of context rules further specifies a character pattern to define the tag.