Column zoom

• US 9,007,405 B1
• Filed: 03/28/2011
• Issued: 04/14/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/28/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc. (Amazon.com, Inc.)
• Inventors: Kejriwal, Parmanand P., Eldar, Shalom Dov
• Primary Examiner(s): McDowell, Jr., Maurice L
• Assistant Examiner(s): Zhai, Kyle
• Application Number:
  US13/073,909
• Time in Patent Office: 1,478 Days
• Field of Search: 345/666, 715/243
• US Class Current: 345/666
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/9577 Optimising the visualization of content, e.g. distillation of HTML documents
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04806 Zoom, i.e. interaction techniques or interactors for controlling the zooming operation
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0485 Scrolling or panning
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/106 Display of layout of documents; Previewing
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/163 Handling of whitespace
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 2340/045 Zooming at least part of an image, i.e. enlarging it or shrinking it
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/02 characterised by the way in which colour is displayed details of colour display specific for CRTs G09G1/28; specific for flat matrix panels other than liquid crystal displays G09G3/2003; specific for liquid crystal displays G09G3/3607
• CPC Class Codes: G09G 5/34 for rolling or scrolling

Abstract

An image-based document may include text that is presented in a multicolumn format that is not structured or associated with metadata of the document. A zoom manager may analyze the image-based document, identify a presence and location of a column of text, and then enable automatic zooming-in on the column of text to fill a display space without further interaction by a user. In various aspects, the zoom manager may order the columns to enable the user to continuously scroll from column to column while navigating the document in a column-viewing (zoomed-in) mode. The zoom manager may also selectively maintain or remove information or objects from the columns while in the column-viewing mode, such as images, headers, footers, page numbers, or other types of information or objects.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining for an image-based document, by at least one of one or more computing systems, a color value of each pixel of a plurality of pixels;

associating, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, a dominant color value to content within the image-based document, the content comprising at least text having a text color value within a predetermined deviation of the dominant color value;

identifying, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, an image within the image-based document, the image comprising a group of pixels having a color value within the predetermined deviation of the dominant color value;

determining, a layout of the text by identifying bounds of columns in a multicolumn presentation of the text within the image-based document, the determining based at least in part on the dominant color value;

determining, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, a flow of the text between the columns by performing character recognition on a portion of the text in the columns;

ordering, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, the columns based at least in part on the determined flow of the text;

receiving, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, a zoom-in command associated with a selected column;

zooming-in, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, on the selected column to initiate a column-viewing mode to enlarge the selected column such that the bounds of the selected column are enlarged to approximately span a width of a display space; and

presenting, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, another column in line with the selected column based at least in part on the ordering of the columns to enable continuous scrolling through the columns in the column-viewing mode.

2. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

detecting, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, a non-text object within the selected column; and

removing, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, the non-text object prior to zooming-in on the selected column in the column-viewing mode.

3. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

detecting, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, a non-text object within the selected column; and

replacing, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, the non-text object in the column-viewing mode with a link that, when selected in the column-viewing mode, zooms in on the associated non-text object.

4. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

detecting, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, a non-column object in the image-based document that is not associated with the column; and

inserting, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, the non-column object in the selected column in the column-viewing mode.

5. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein performing the character recognition on the portion of the text in the columns further comprises grouping the characters into words by detecting white-spaces between characters of the portion of the text.

6. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the predetermined deviation is based on a predetermined percentage hue deviation.

7. The method as recited in claim 1, further comprising:

in response to determining that the color value of a pixel is not within the predetermined deviation of the dominant color value;

determining whether at least a predetermined percentage of other pixels adjacent to the pixel have different color values than the color value of the pixel;

in response to determining that at least the predetermined percentage of the other pixels have different color values than the color value of the pixel,

associating the pixel with an artifact of the image-based document; and

removing the artifact from the image-based document.

8. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the character recognition on the portion of the text further determines a language of the text;

and wherein the ordering the columns is further based at least in part on the language of the text.

9. The method as recited in claim 1, wherein the identifying is further based at least in part on a shape of the group of pixels or the group of pixels including a number of pixels that exceed a predetermined threshold.

10. A method comprising:

determining for an image-based document, by at least one of one or more computing systems, a color value of each pixel of a plurality of pixels;

associating, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, a dominant color value to content within the image-based document, the content comprising at least text having a text color value within a predetermined deviation of the dominant color value;

identifying, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, an image within the image-based document, the image comprising a group of pixels having a color value within the predetermined deviation of the dominant color value;

determining, a layout of the text by identifying bounds of objects in a multicolumn presentation of the text within the image-based document, the determining based at least in part on the dominant color value;

analyzing, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, the objects to classify at least a portion of the objects as columns;

ordering, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, the columns based at least in part on the layout of the text;

receiving, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, a selection of one of the columns as a selected column; and

zooming-in, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, on the selected column to initiate a column-viewing mode to enlarge the selected column such that the bounds of the selected column are enlarged to approximately span a width of a display space.

11. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising,

presenting, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, another column before or after the selected column based at least in part on the ordering of the columns to enable continuous scrolling through the columns in the column-viewing mode.

12. The method as recited in claim 11, wherein the ordering of the columns based at least in part on sampling, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, a portion of the text using character recognition.

13. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising zooming-in within the column-viewing mode, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, to enlarge a font of the text in the selected column while maintaining a width of the column in the column-viewing mode.

14. The method as recited in claim 13, further comprising reflowing the text, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, in the selected column prior to zooming-in within the column-viewing mode to move blocks of the text to other lines within the selected column.

15. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising receiving, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, a selection from a user via a touch screen to initiate the zooming-in.

16. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the image-based document is a portable format document (PDF) document.

17. The method as recited in claim 10, further comprising generating, by at least one of the one or more computing systems, a border around the selected column prior to the zooming-in on the selected column.

18. One or more non-transitory computer-readable storage media storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed on one or more processors, performs acts comprising:

determining for an image-based document, a color value of each pixel of a plurality of pixels, the image-based document comprising multiple columns of text;

associating a dominant color value to content within the image-based document, the content comprising at least text having a text color value within a predetermined deviation of the dominant color value;

identifying an image within the image-based document, the image comprising a group of pixels having a color value within the predetermined deviation of the dominant color value;

determining, bounds of individual columns of the multiple columns of text, the determining based at least in part on the dominant color value;

ordering the individual columns of the text based at least in part on the determined bounds of the individual columns;

receiving a selection within an area of one of the bounds; and

in response to the selection, zooming-in on a selected column of the text associated with the bounds to enlarge the selected column of the text to approximately fill a display space.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 18, further comprising:

receiving another selection associated with the selected column of the text; and

zooming-out of the selected column of the text and back to a multicolumn view of the image-based document in response to the other selection associated with the selected column of the text.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media as recited in claim 19, wherein the zooming-in further includes centering the selected column of the text horizontally within the display space.

21. A system comprising:

one or more processors; and

memory, accessible by the one or more processors;

a document analysis module, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to;

determine for an image-based document, a color value for each pixel of a plurality of pixels;

determine a dominant color value associated with objects in the image-based document, the objects having an object color value within a predetermined deviation of the dominant color value;

identify bounds of the objects in the image-based document based at least in part on the dominant color value;

an object identifier module, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to label objects within the bounds as one of a text or an image, the image comprising a group of pixels having a color value within the predetermined deviation of the dominant color value;

a layout module, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to determine a flow of the text between the multiple columns of the text based at least in part on a layout of the text; and

a zoom module, stored in the memory and executable on the one or more processors, to zoom-in on a selected column of the text to enlarge bounds of the selected column of the text to approximately fill a display space.

22. The system as recited in claim 21, wherein the layout module is to further reflow the text in the selected column to remove an image prior to the zooming-in on the selected column by the zoom module.

23. The system as recited in claim 21, wherein the layout module is to further add a link to an object in the selected column prior to the zooming-in on the selected column by the zoom module.

24. The system as recited in claim 21, wherein the layout module is to further determine a header or a footer for the selected column, and in response to the zoom module zooming-in on the selected column, the zooming-in module to selectively maintain the header or the footer in a column-viewing mode of the selected column during a continuous scrolling operation.

25. The system as recited in claim 21, wherein the object identifier module further labels objects within the bounds as at least one of an image, a header, or a footer.