Method for producing indicators and processing apparatus and system utilizing the indicators

• US 8,002,198 B2
• Filed: 11/19/2009
• Issued: 08/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 01/11/2002
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Sonix Technology Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Sonix Technology Company Limited
• Inventors: Tsai, Yao-Hung
• Primary Examiner(s): Hess; Daniel A
• Application Number:
  US12/591,420
• Publication Number:
  US 20100076766A1
• Time in Patent Office: 642 Days
• Field of Search: 235/454, 235/494
• US Class Current: 235/494
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0317 in co-operation with a patterned surface, e.g. absolute position or relative movement detection for an optical mouse or pen positioned with respect to a coded surface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0321 by optically sensing the absolute position with respect to a regularly patterned surface forming a passive digitiser, e.g. pen optically detecting position indicative tags printed on a paper sheet constructional details of pen-shaped pointing devices G06F3/03545, G06F3/03542, G06F3/037
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/03545 Pens or stylus
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06 characterised by the kind of the digital marking, e.g. shape, nature, code
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06009 with optically detectable marking G06K19/063, G06K19/08 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06037 multi-dimensional coding
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 19/06178 the marking having a feature size being smaller than can be seen by the unaided human eye
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 2019/06234 miniature-code
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 2019/06262 with target- or other orientation-indicating feature
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/12 using a selected wavelength, e.g. to sense red marks and ignore blue marks
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1408 the method being specifically adapted for the type of code
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1417 2D bar codes
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1447 extracting optical codes from image or text carrying said optical code
• CPC Class Codes: G06K 7/1456 determining the orientation of the optical code with respect to the reader and correcting therefore
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42206 characterized by hardware details
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42221 Transmission circuitry, e.g. infrared [IR] or radio frequency [RF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42222 Additional components integrated in the remote control device, e.g. timer, speaker, sensors for detecting position, direction or movement of the remote control, microphone or battery charging device
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/482 End-user interface for program selection broadcast systems using EPGs H04H60/72

Abstract

The present invention discloses a method for producing graphical indicators and interactive systems for utilizing the graphical indicators. On the surface of an object, visually negligible graphical indicators are provided. The graphical indicators and main information, i.e. text or pictures, co-exist on the surface of object. The graphical indicators do not interfere with the main information when the perception of human eyes are concerned. With the graphical indicators, further information other than the main information on the surface of object are carried. In addition to the main information on the surface of object, one is able to obtain additional information through an auxiliary electronic device or trigger an interactive operation.

Claims

1. An electronic book system comprising:

an optical device for capturing an image from a selected zone on a surface of a page of a book by a user, the image including a graphical indicator that has a visually negligible size and is affixed on the surface of the page of the book, the surface of the page of the book comprising a main information that overlaps and co-exists with the graphical micro-units on the surface of the page of the book, the graphical micro-units being negligible when the user observes the main information, each graphical micro-unit being printed in an ink that substantially absorbs infrared ray, the main information being printed in an ink that hardly absorbs infrared ray, and the optical device emitting infrared ray onto the surface of the page of the book and then receiving a response image from the surface of the page of the book as the image;

a processing circuitry coupled to the optical device for receiving the image, the processing circuitry retrieving the graphical indicator from the image and acquiring an additional information corresponding to the graphical indicator by processing and/or transforming the graphical indicators;

a speech circuitry retrieving the additional information and acquiring an audio information corresponding to the additional information by processing and/or transforming the additional information; and

a speaker coupled to the speech circuitry for outputting a sound corresponding to the audio information.

2. The electronic book system of claim 1, wherein the graphical indicator comprises a plurality of graphical micro-units arranged in a layout, the layout corresponds to an indicator information, the processing circuitry analyses the layout of the graphical micro-units to retrieve the indicator information and further to acquire the additional information from the indicator information by processing and/or transforming the graphical indicators.

3. The electronic book system of claim 2, wherein each graphical indicator occupies very small amount of area, and each graphical micro-unit occupies very small amount of area, and number of graphic micro-units of each graphical indicator is substantially equal to each other.

4. The electronic book system of claim 1, wherein the graphical indicator comprises a plurality of state zones for selectively respectively storing the graphical micro-units, wherein each of the state zones displays a state from at least two candidate states.

5. The electronic book system of claim 4, wherein the candidate states comprise a first state and a second state, as in the first state, the state zone includes one graphical micro-unit, and as in the second state, the state zone does not include the graphical micro-unit.

6. The electronic book system of claim 5, wherein each square centimeter of the selected zone includes more than 3000 state zones of which less than seventy percent are in the first state, and percentage of area occupied by the graphical micro-unit in the state zone is less than 80.

7. The electronic book system of claim 5, wherein each square centimeter of the selected zone includes more than 6000 state zones of which less than seventy percent are in the first state, and percentage of area occupied by the graphical micro-unit in the state zone is less than 80.

8. The electronic book system of claim 5, wherein the state zones are arranged in a two-dimensional matrix form and the graphical indicator comprises a header information and a content information, each header information within each graphical indicator is capable of distinguishing the corresponding graphical indicator from adjacent graphical indicators and indicating the orientation of the corresponding graphical indicator to the optical device.

9. The electronic book system of claim 1, wherein the ink is a black oil ink, while the main information is printed in a Near-K ink that hardly absorb infrared ray.

10. The electronic book system of claim 1, wherein the surface of the page of the book comprises multiple index zones, each index zone corresponds to one index value, and multiple identical graphical indicators are arranged in each index zone.

11. The electronic book system of claim 1, wherein the main information is imperceptible to the optical device.

12. An electronic book system comprising:

an optical device for capturing an image from a selected zone on a surface of a page of a book by a user, the image including a graphical indicator that has a visually negligible size and is affixed on the surface of the page of the book, the surface of the page of the book comprising a main information that overlaps and co-exists with the graphical micro-units on the surface of the page of the book, the graphical micro-units being negligible when the user observes the main information, each graphical micro-unit being printed in a fluorescent ink, and the main information being printed in a typical oil ink, the optical device emitting ultraviolet ray or blue ray onto the surface of the page of the book and then receiving a response image from the surface of the page of the book as the image;

a processing circuitry coupled to the optical device for receiving the image, the processing circuitry retrieving the graphical indicator from the image and acquiring an additional information corresponding to the graphical indicator by processing and/or transforming the graphical indicators;

a speech circuitry retrieving the additional information and acquiring an audio information corresponding to the additional information by processing and/or transforming the additional information; and

a speaker coupled to the speech circuirty for outputting a sound corresponding into the audio information.

13. An electronic book system comprising:

an optical device for capturing an image from a selected zone on a surface of a page of a book by a user, the image including a graphical indicator that has a visually negligible size and is affixed on the surface of the page of the book, the surface of the page of the book comprising a main information that overlaps and co-exists with the graphical micro-units on the surface of the page of the book, the graphical micro-units being negligible when the user observes the main information, each graphical micro-unit being printed in the Black (K) primitive color ink, and the main information being printed in the Cyan (C), Magenta (M), Yellow (Y), primitive color ink, or a combination thereof;

processing circuitry coupled to the optical device for receiving the image, the processing circuitry retrieving the graphical indicator from the image and acquiring an additional information corresponding to the graphical indicator by processing and/or transforming the graphical indicators;

a speech circuitry retrieving the additional information and acquiring an audio information corresponding to the additional information by processing and/or transforming the additional information; and

a speaker coupled to the speech circuitry for outputting a sound corresponding to the audio information.

14. An object bearing an image to be read by an optical device, the object comprising:

a surface, wherein the image includes a graphical indicator that has a visually negligible size and is affixed on the surface of the object;

wherein the graphical indicator comprises a plurality of graphical micro-units arranged in a layout, the layout corresponds to an indicator information,

wherein the surface of the object comprises a main information that overlaps and co-exists with the graphical micro-units on the surface of the object, wherein the graphical micro-units are negligible when the user observes the main information and the main information is imperceptible to the optical device,

wherein each graphical micro-unit is printed in the Black (K) primitive color ink for being read by the optical device, and the main information is colorful and printed in the Cyan (C), Magenta (M), Yellow (Y) primitive color ink, or a combination thereof.

15. The object of claim 14, wherein the surface comprises multiple index zones, each index zone corresponds to one index value, and multiple identical graphical indicators are arranged in each index zone.

16. An object bearing an image to be read by an optical device, the object comprising:

a surface, wherein the image includes a graphical indicator that has a visually negligible size and is affixed on the surface of the object;

wherein the graphical indicator comprises a graphical micro-units arranged in a layout, the layout corresponds to an indicator information,

wherein the surface of the object comprises a main information that overlaps and co-exists with the graphical micro-units on the surface of the object, wherein the graphical micro-units are negligible when the user observes the main information and the main information is imperceptible to the optical device, wherein each graphical micro-unit is printed in an ink that substantially absorbs infrared ray, and the main information is printed in an ink that hardly absorbs infrared ray.

17. The object of claim 16, wherein the ink is a black oil ink, while the main information is printed in a Near-K ink that hardly absorb infrared ray.