Visual indexing of displayable digital documents

• US 6,678,699 B2
• Filed: 10/09/2001
• Issued: 01/13/2004
• Est. Priority Date: 10/09/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Stephens, Mark Andrew, Wagner, Debra Kathleen
• Primary Examiner(s): Mizrahi, Diane D.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mofiz, Apu M
• Application Number:
  US09/973,353
• Publication Number:
  US 20030069895A1
• Time in Patent Office: 826 Days
• Field of Search: 707/103.R, 707/10, 707/104.1, 707/2, 707/3, 707/5, 707/205, 382/176, 382/219, 709/206, 709/229, 715/500, 715/513, 715/519, 715/523, 715/526, 715/542
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99945 Object-oriented database structure processing
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 707/99948 Application of database or data structure, e.g. distributed, multimedia, or image

Abstract

A displayable digital document such as a .PDF document is indexed by displaying it on a viewer. A database field is provided in a relational database. A user selects a field in the digital document for indexing using a pointing device and defines a bounding rectangle for this field. Offsets are recorded and compared to other bounding rectangles. Comparisons are recorded in a parameter file for each document. An indexer is run to insert the offsets and other data into the relational database and also store the digital image in the relational database. A query is made of the database and part or all of the digital document is displayed based on the results of the query.

Claims

1. A method of indexing a displayable digital document, comprising the steps of:

providing a displayable digital document;

displaying said document with a displayable digital document viewer and selecting a field for indexing using a pointing device;

recording offsets and a bounding rectangle of said selected field;

comparing said bounding rectangle with other bounding rectangles in said displayable digital document; and

recording in a relational database, a page number and offsets of said other bounding rectangles which compare.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said displayable digital document is a .PDF document.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said pointing device is a mouse.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising selecting an index value by clicking said mouse button in an outlined area.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein said relational database is a DB2 database.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising the steps of:

querying said relational database; and

using retrieved offsets from said querying to display a portion of said displayable digital document using said displayable digital document viewer.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein said relational database is a DB2 database.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein said querying is performed using the SQL language.

9. A method of indexing a displayable digital document, comprising the steps of:

providing a displayable digital document having one or more document fields;

providing a database field in a relational database;

displaying said document with a displayable digital document viewer and selecting one of said document fields for indexing corresponding to said database field, using a pointing device;

recording offsets and a bounding rectangle of said selected field;

comparing said bounding rectangle with other bounding rectangles in said displayable digital document; and

recording in a relational database, a page number and offsets of said other bounding rectangles which compare.

10. A system for indexing a displayable digital document, comprising:

a displayable digital document;

a displayable digital document viewer having a pointing device, said viewer adapted for selecting a field of said displayable digital document for indexing using said pointing device;

means for recording offsets and a bounding rectangle of said selected field;

means for comparing said bounding rectangle with other bounding rectangles in said displayable digital document; and

means for recording in a relational database, a page number and offsets of said other bounding rectangles which compare.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein said displayable digital document is a PDF document.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein said pointing device is a mouse.

13. The system of claim 10, further comprising means for selecting an index value by clicking a button of said mouse in an outlined area.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein said relational database is a DB2 database.

15. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

means for querying said relational database; and

means for using retrieved offsets from said querying to display a portion of said displayable digital document using said displayable digital document viewer.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein said relational database is a DB2 database.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein said means for querying comprises the SQL language.

18. A computer program product for instructing a processor to index a displayable digital document, said computer program product comprising:

a computer readable medium;

first program instruction means for providing a displayable digital document;

second program instruction means for displaying said document with a displayable digital document viewer and for selecting a field for indexing using a pointing device;

third program instruction means for recording offsets and a bounding rectangle of said selected field;

fourth program instruction means for comparing said bounding rectangle with other bounding rectangles in said displayable digital document; and

fifth program instruction means for recording in a relational database, a page number and offsets of said other bounding rectangles which compare; and

wherein

all of said program instruction means are recorded on said medium.

19. The computer program product of claim 18, further comprising sixth program instruction means for querying said relational database, and seventh program instruction means for using retrieved offsets from said querying to display a portion of said displayable digital document using said displayable digital document viewer.