Document content and structure conversion

• US 7,623,710 B2
• Filed: 02/14/2006
• Issued: 11/24/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 02/14/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Simard, Patrice Y., Nickolov, Radoslav Petrov
• Primary Examiner(s): Couso; Jose L
• Application Number:
  US11/353,915
• Publication Number:
  US 20070192687A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,379 Days
• Field of Search: 382/173, 382175-180, 382226-231, 382305-306, 358/403, 358537-538
• US Class Current: 382/175
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/40 Document-oriented image-based pattern recognition

Abstract

A system that can convert content and structure of a document from an original format into a target format irrespective of the functional specifics of the original format. The system can automatically infer the content and structure of a document via a rendered format thereby restoring the programmatic functionality of the original file (or generating programmatic functionality of a desired target format) through the novel conversion/import process. The system can extract the document structure (e.g., layout) together with the content in order to effectuate the conversion. Heuristics (e.g., logic and/or reasoning) can be employed to make decisions with respect to importing the document into a target format and/or formats.

Claims

1. A computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable components executable via a processor, the computer-executable components comprising:

a print driver to render a visual representation of a document having a first format, the print driver intercepting at least one print call;

a receiving component to accept the rendered visual representation of the document in the first format;

an import component to generate a programmatically functional translation of content and structure associated with the document into the second format based on the at least one intercepted print call; and

a display device to display the programmatically functional translation of content and structure.

2. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the at least one intercepted print call includes a text output print call such that the import component generates the programmatically functional translation of content by performing object character recognition text analysis on the document.

3. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, the import component includes:

a detection component to identify the content and the structure associated with the document; and

an analyzer component to generate an output based at least in part upon a heuristic analysis of the content and the structure of the document with respect to the second format, the heuristic analysis based at least in part upon a functional capability of the second format.

4. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, wherein the print driver intercepts the at least one print call prior to a full rasterization of the document.

5. The computer-readable storage media of claim 4, wherein the import component includes a translation component that converts the content and the structure of the document in the first format into the second format based at least in part upon the output from the analyzer component.

6. The computer-readable storage media of claim 5, wherein the translation component includes a content translator component and a structure translator component.

7. The computer-readable storage media of claim 6, wherein the content translator component includes an optical character recognition component that converts a subset of the content of the document from the first format into the second format.

8. The computer-readable storage media of claim 7, wherein the content translator component includes a font hashing component that facilitates translation of the subset of the content of the first format to the second format.

9. The computer-readable storage media of claim 6, wherein the structure translator component includes a format identifier that recognizes a plurality of layout-related characteristics.

10. The computer-readable storage media of claim 9, wherein the structure translator component includes an import component that transfers a subset of the plurality of layout-related characteristics to the second format.

11. The computer-readable storage media of claim 10, wherein the plurality of layout-related characteristics is at least one of a margin, a bitmap location, a paragraph designator, a column designator, a table and a border.

12. The computer-readable storage media of claim 1, further comprising a machine learning component that employs a statistical-based analysis to infer an action that a user desires to be automatically performed.

13. A tangible computer-readable storage media comprising computer-program instructions executable by a processor, the computer-program instructions, when executed by the processor, to perform operations comprising:

determining content of the document via parsing a visual representation of the document in a first format, the content including textual content and pictorial characters;

inferring structure of the document via parsing the visual representation of the document in the first format, the structure including document layout characteristics; and

converting the document from the first format to a second format, wherein the converting the document from the first format to the second format comprises;

translating textual content of the document into machine-editable text;

translating pictorial characters of the document into a standard encoding scheme, wherein the translated machine-editable text and the translated standard encoding scheme are characteristics of the second format; and

translating document layout characteristics of the document to the second format.

14. The tangible computer-readable storage media of claim 13, wherein the textual content, pictorial characters, and document layout characteristics are translated together to convert the document from the first format to the second format.

15. The tangible computer-readable storage media of claim 14, wherein the converting the document from the first format to the second format further translates an embedded image of the document from a first embedded image format to a second embedded image format such that the second embedded image format is a further characteristic of the second format.

16. The tangible computer-readable storage media of claim 15, further comprising;

heuristically analyzing the content and structure of the first format with respect to the second format; and

translating the content and the structure from the first format to the second format based at least in part upon a result of the heuristic analysis.

17. A computer device comprising:

a processor; and

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory comprising computer-readable instructions executable by the processor, the computer-readable instructions, when executed by the processor, perform operations comprising;

determining a content and structure via a visual representation of the document in the first format, the content including textual content and the structure including document layout characteristics;

translating the textual content of the document into machine-editable text;

translating the document layout characteristics to a second format; and

importing the translated machine-editable text together with the translated document layout characteristics into the second format.

18. The computing device of claim 17, wherein the computer-readable instructions further perform operations comprising heuristically determining if the content and structure from the first format is recognizable in the second format.

19. The computing device of claim 18, wherein the computer-readable instructions further perform operations comprising generating the visual representation of the document.

20. The computing device of claim 19, wherein the computer-readable instructions further perform operations comprising converting a subset of the content and the structure of the document from the first format into a third format associated with the document.