Embedding hot spots in electronic documents

• US 8,838,591 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2006
• Issued: 09/16/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Hull, Jonathan J., Erol, Berna, Graham, Jamey, Van Olst, Daniel G.
• Primary Examiner(s): Reyes, Mariela
• Assistant Examiner(s): Liu, Hexing
• Application Number:
  US11/461,037
• Publication Number:
  US 20070047002A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,969 Days
• Field of Search: 707/712, 707/756, 707/796, 707/899
• US Class Current: 707/736
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/434 using image data, e.g. images, photos, pictures taken by a user
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191

Abstract

A Mixed Media Reality (MMR) system and associated techniques are disclosed. The MMR system provides mechanisms for forming a mixed media document that includes media of at least two types (e.g., printed paper as a first medium and digital content and/or web link as a second medium). In one particular embodiment, the MMR system includes a method, system, and computer readable medium for embedding a hot spot in an electronic document. Marks corresponding to a designation for a hot spot in an electronic document are embedded, allowing for later capture of coordinates corresponding to a printed representation of the electronic document and the hot spot.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of embedding a hot spot in an electronic document, the method executed by a computer and comprising:

using the computer to perform the steps of;

embedding in the electronic document a fiducial mark that is imperceptible to an end user and detectable by the computer, the fiducial mark comprising a unique identifier of the hot spot, a begin mark designating a beginning point for the hot spot and an end mark designating an ending point for the hot spot, wherein the begin mark and the end mark include a special font that renders each character of the begin mark and the end mark as an empty space;

in response to a print command, capturing from the fiducial mark coordinates corresponding to a printed representation of the electronic document and coordinates corresponding to the hot spot by parsing the printed representation for a subset of the coordinates corresponding to the hot spot;

in response to the print command, identifying the begin mark and the end mark for applying a transformation rule to a portion of the electronic document between the begin mark and the end mark;

creating a visible modification to preexisting document objects in the printed representation of the electronic document using the transformation rule, the visible modification corresponding to the hotspot; and

rendering a page layout comprising the printed representation including the visible modification corresponding to the hot spot, wherein the hot spot is associated with an action.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein embedding in the electronic document the begin mark designating the beginning point for the hot spot and the end mark designating the ending point for the hot spot further comprises:

receiving the electronic document for display in a browser;

modifying the electronic document by embedding the begin mark and the end mark in the electronic document; and

transmitting the modified electronic document for display in the browser.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2, wherein the browser is a Windows application.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the begin mark and the end mark are individually distinguishable from each other and surround the portion corresponding to the hot spot.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the action retrieves a product specification linked to an x-y location in the electronic document.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the fiducial mark is imperceptible to the end user in the printed representation of the electronic document.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein the hot spot is a uniform resource locator.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein rendering the page layout comprising the printed representation further comprises performing feature extraction on the printed representation.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein parsing further comprises tapping print commands using a forwarding dynamically linked library.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising associating one or more clips with the hot spot.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising storing the page layout.

12. A computer-implemented method of embedding a hot spot in an electronic document, the method executed by a computer and comprising:

using the computer to perform the steps of;

receiving the electronic document for display in a browser, the electronic document comprising a designation for the hot spot in the electronic document;

modifying the electronic document by embedding in the electronic document a fiducial mark that is imperceptible to an end user and detectable by the computer, the fiducial mark comprising a unique identifier of the hot spot, a begin mark designating a beginning point for the hot spot and an end mark designating an ending point for the hot spot according to the designation for the hot spot, wherein the begin mark and the end mark include a special font that renders each character of the begin mark and the end mark as an empty space;

in response to a print command, identifying the begin mark and the end mark for applying a transformation rule to a portion of the electronic document between the begin mark and the end mark;

creating a visible modification to preexisting document objects in the printed representation of the electronic document using the transformation rule, the visible modification corresponding to the hotspot; and

transmitting the modified electronic document for display in the browser, the modified electronic document including the visible modification corresponding to the hot spot, wherein the hot spot is associated with an action.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the action retrieves a product specification linked to an x-y location in the electronic document.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 12, wherein the fiducial mark is imperceptible to the end user in a printed representation of the electronic document.

15. A computer program product for embedding a hot spot in an electronic document, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium; and

computer program code, coded on the machine-readable storage medium, for;

embedding in the electronic document a fiducial mark that is imperceptible to an end user and detectable by the computer, the fiducial mark comprising a unique identifier of the hot spot, a begin mark designating a beginning point for the hot spot and an end mark designating an ending point for the hot spot, wherein the begin mark and the end mark include a special font that renders each character of the begin mark and the end mark as an empty space;

in response to a print command, capturing from the fiducial mark coordinates corresponding to a printed representation of the electronic document and coordinates corresponding to the hot spot by parsing the printed representation for a subset of the coordinates corresponding to the hot spot;

in response to the print command, identifying the begin mark and the end mark for applying a transformation rule to a portion of the electronic document between the begin mark and the end mark;

creating a visible modification to preexisting document objects in the printed representation of the electronic document using the transformation rule, the visible modification corresponding to the hotspot; and

rendering a page layout comprising the printed representation including the visible modification corresponding to the hot spot, wherein the hot spot is associated with an action.

16. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the computer program code coded on the machine-readable storage medium for embedding in the electronic document the begin mark designating the beginning point for the hot spot and the end mark designating the ending point for the hot spot is further coded for:

receiving the electronic document for display in a browser;

modifying the electronic document by embedding the begin mark and the end mark in the electronic document; and

transmitting the modified electronic document for display in the browser, wherein the hot spot is visually distinct from the begin mark and the end mark.

17. The computer program product of claim 16, wherein the browser is a Windows application.

18. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the begin mark and the end mark are individually distinguishable from each other and surround the hot spot.

19. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the action retrieves a product specification linked to an x-y location in the electronic document.

20. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the fiducial mark is imperceptible to the end user in the printed representation of the electronic document.

21. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein the hot spot is a uniform resource locator.

22. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein rendering the page layout comprising the printed representation further comprises performing feature extraction on the printed representation.

23. The computer program product of claim 15, wherein parsing further comprises tapping print commands using a forwarding dynamically linked library.

24. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising computer program code coded on the machine-readable storage medium for associating one or more clips with the hot spot.

25. The computer program product of claim 15, further comprising computer program code coded on the machine-readable storage medium for storing the page layout.

26. A computer program product for embedding a hot spot in an electronic document, the computer program product comprising:

a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium; and

computer program code, coded on the machine-readable storage medium, for;

receiving the electronic document for display in a browser, the electronic document comprising a designation for the hot spot in the electronic document;

modifying the electronic document by embedding in the electronic document a fiducial mark that is imperceptible to an end user and detectable by the computer, the fiducial mark comprising a unique identifier of the hot spot, a begin mark designating a beginning point for the hot spot and an end mark designating an ending point for the hot spot according to the designation for the hot spot, wherein the begin mark and the end mark include a special font that renders each character of the begin mark and the end mark as an empty space;

in response to a print command, identifying the begin mark and the end mark for applying a transformation rule to a portion of the electronic document between the begin mark and the end mark, wherein the transformation rule causes a visible modification to the portion of the electronic document;

creating a visible modification to preexisting document objects in the printed representation of the electronic document using the transformation rule, the visible modification corresponding to the hotspot; and

transmitting the modified electronic document for display in the browser, the modified electronic document including the visible modification corresponding to the hot spot, wherein the hot spot is associated with an action.

27. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein the action retrieves a product specification linked to an x-y location in the electronic document.

28. The computer program product of claim 26, wherein the fiducial mark is imperceptible to the end user in a printed representation of the electronic document.

29. A system for embedding a hot spot in an electronic document, comprising:

a computer processor; and

a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing computer program modules configured to execute on the computer processor, the computer program modules comprising;

an embed module for embedding in the electronic document a fiducial mark that is imperceptible to an end user and detectable by the computer, the fiducial mark comprising a unique identifier of the hot spot, a begin mark designating a beginning point for the hot spot and an end mark designating an ending point for the hot spot, wherein the begin mark and the end mark include a special font that renders each character of the begin mark and the end mark as an empty space;

a feature extraction module for, in response to a print command, capturing from the fiducial mark coordinates corresponding to a printed representation of the electronic document and coordinates corresponding to the hot spot by parsing the printed representation for a subset of the coordinates corresponding to the hot spot;

a transformation module for, in response to the print command, identifying the begin mark and the end mark for applying a transformation rule to a portion of the electronic document between the begin mark and the end mark and creating a visible modification to preexisting document objects in the printed representation of the electronic document using the transformation rule, the visible modification including visibly modified document objects corresponding to the hotspot; and

a render module for rendering a page layout comprising the printed representation including the visible modification corresponding to the hot spot, wherein the hot spot is associated with an action.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein the embed module is further configured for:

receiving the electronic document for display in a browser;

modifying the electronic document by embedding the begin mark and the end mark in the electronic document; and

transmitting the modified electronic document for display in the browser.

31. The system of claim 30, wherein the browser is a Windows application.

32. The system of claim 29, wherein the begin mark and the end mark are individually distinguishable from each other and surround the portion corresponding to the hot spot.

33. The system of claim 29, wherein the action retrieves a product specification linked to an x-y location in the electronic document.

34. The system of claim 29, wherein the fiducial mark is imperceptible to the end user in the printed representation of the electronic document.

35. The system of claim 29, wherein the hot spot is a uniform resource locator.

36. The system of claim 29, wherein the feature extraction module is further configured for performing feature extraction on the printed representation.

37. The system of claim 29, wherein the feature extraction module is further configured for tapping print commands using a forwarding dynamically linked library.

38. The system of claim 29, wherein the machine-readable storage medium further stores a hot spot module for associating one or more clips with the hot spot.

39. The system of claim 29, wherein the machine-readable storage medium further stores a storage module for storing the page layout.