Triggering actions in response to optically or acoustically capturing keywords from a rendered document

• US 8,781,228 B2
• Filed: 09/13/2012
• Issued: 07/15/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Kyocera Corporation
• Original Assignee: Google Inc. (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: King, Martin T., Grover, Dale L., Kushler, Clifford A., Stafford-Fraser, James Q.
• Primary Examiner(s): COUSO, JOSE L
• Application Number:
  US13/614,770
• Publication Number:
  US 20130124549A1
• Time in Patent Office: 670 Days
• Field of Search: 382/100, 382/181, 382187-188, 382/209, 382305-306, 382312-313, 178/18.01, 178/18.03, 178/18.09, 178/19.01, 178/20.01, 235375-376, 705 26- 27, 707/10, 709/225, 358/473
• US Class Current: 382/177
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/41 Indexing; Data structures therefor; Storage structures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/433 using audio data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/434 using image data, e.g. images, photos, pictures taken by a user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/435 Filtering based on additional data, e.g. user or group profiles
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/93 Document management systems

Abstract

A system for processing text captured from rendered documents is described. The system receives a sequence of one or more words optically or acoustically captured from a rendered document by a user. The system identifies among words of the sequence a word with which an action has been associated. The system then performs the associated action with respect to the user.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

accessing a data structure stored on a computer memory device, the data structure storing data representing a plurality of keyword-condition pairs and, for each keyword-condition pair, an associated action;

receiving a sequence of characters captured by a capture device;

determining that the received sequence of characters includes a keyword that matches a first keyword of a first keyword-condition pair in the data structure, the first keyword-condition pair comprising the first keyword and a first condition, and determining that the first condition is satisfied; and

performing a first action associated with the first keyword-condition pair in the data structure.

2. The method of claim 1,

wherein the plurality of keyword-condition pairs includes two or more keyword-condition pairs that differ only in their respective conditions.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein performing the first action comprises the capture device performing the first action.

4. The method of claim 1,

wherein performing the first action comprises a server device distinct from the capture device performing the first action.

5. The method of claim 1,

wherein the sequence of characters captured by the capture device is captured from a rendered document, and

wherein the first condition is satisfied if a document identifier of the rendered document matches a document identifier specified by the first condition.

6. The method of claim 1,

wherein the sequence of characters captured by the capture device is captured from a rendered document, and

wherein the first condition is satisfied if the rendered document is a type of document that is specified by the first condition.

7. The method of claim 1,

wherein the first condition is satisfied if the capture device captured the sequence of characters at a time of day within a time-of-day interval specified by the first condition.

8. The method of claim 1,

wherein the first condition is satisfied if the capture device captured the sequence of characters while the capture device was at a location within an area associated with a zip code within a zip code range specified by the first condition.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

obtaining a user-profile associated with the capture device;

wherein the first condition is satisfied if the user profile associated with the capture device comprises a user-interest specified by the first condition.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the actions associated with each of the keyword-condition pairs comprises at least a respective action verb and a respective action object.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the actions associated with each of the keyword-condition pairs comprises a respective action type selected from the group consisting of (i) sending an e-mail, (ii) displaying a hypertext link, and (iii) going to a web page.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the actions associated with each of the keyword-condition pairs comprises a respective action object selected from the group consisting of (i) an email address, (ii) a web page uniform resource locator, and (iii) a text message for displaying on a display device.

13. A server device comprising:

a processor;

a computer memory device storing a data structure, the data structure storing data representing a plurality of keyword-condition pairs and, for each keyword-condition pair, an associated action; and

a network connection operable to receive from a network sequences of characters captured by a capture device,

wherein the processor is configured to determine that a sequence of characters captured by the capture device includes a keyword that matches a first keyword of a first keyword-condition pair in the data structure, the first keyword-condition pair comprising the first keyword and first condition, and wherein the processor determines that the first condition is satisfied, and

wherein the processor is configured to identify a first action associated with the first keyword-condition pair in the data structure.

14. The server device of claim 13, wherein the sequence of characters is captured from a rendered document,

wherein the computer memory stores a document identification index for identifying the rendered document based on the received sequence of characters, and

wherein the first condition is satisfied if a document identifier of the rendered document is specified by the first condition.

15. The server device of claim 13, wherein the processor is configured to perform the first action associated with the first keyword-condition pair in the data structure.

16. A capture device comprising:

a processor;

a computer memory device storing a data structure, the data structure storing data representing a plurality of keyword-condition pairs and, for each keyword-condition pair, an associated action; and

a capture component configured to capture a sequence of characters,

wherein the processor is configured to determine that the captured sequence of characters includes a keyword that matches a first keyword of a first keyword-condition pair in the data structure, the first keyword-condition pair comprising the first keyword and a first condition, and wherein the processor is configured to determine that the first condition is satisfied, and

wherein the processor is configured to identify a first action associated with the first keyword-condition pair in the data structure.

17. The capture device of claim 16, wherein the capture device is integrated within a mobile phone.

18. The capture device of claim 16, wherein the capture device is configured to perform the first action associated with the first keyword-condition pair in the data structure.