Interfacing with ink

• US 20030215140A1
• Filed: 06/28/2002
• Published: 11/20/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 05/14/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Chambers, Robert L., Dresevic, Bodin, Gounares, Alexander, Bhattacharyay, Subha, Dodge, Steve, Torset, Todd A., Goldberg, Arin J., Balaz, Rudolph, Kannapel, Timothy H., Biswas, Manoj K., Turner, Jerome J., Krantz, Brigette E., Fisher, Stephen A., Silverman, Andrew, Hullender, Gregory, Somji, Shiraz M.
• Granted Patent: US 7,158,675 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/187
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2203/04804 Transparency, e.g. transparent or translucent windows
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0481 based on specific properties of the displayed interaction object or a metaphor-based environment, e.g. interaction with desktop elements like windows or icons, or assisted by a cursor's changing behaviour or appearance
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/04883 for inputting data by handwriting, e.g. gesture or text
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/171 by use of digital ink
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 30/1423 the instrument generating sequences of position coordinates corresponding to handwriting preprocessing or recognising digital ink G06V30/32

Abstract

The present invention relates to interfacing with electronic ink. Ink is stored in a data structure that permits later retrieval by applications. The ink includes stroke information and may include property information. Through various programming interfaces, one may interact with the ink through methods and setting or retrieving properties. Other objects and collections may be used as well in conjunction with the ink objects.

Claims

1. A method of communicating between an application and an ink object, said ink object storing electronic ink, comprising the steps of:

issuing, by said application, a request to said ink object;

processing said request by said ink object;

returning information in response to said request to said ink object.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein said method is a clone request.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein said method is a hit test request.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein said method is a request to obtain a bounding box request.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein said method is a request for the nearest point to a submitted point.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein said method is a request to extract the strokes for placement into another ink object.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein said method is a request to determine whether said ink object can based ink from information to a clipboard.

10. The method according to claim 1, wherein said method is a request to delete at least one stroke from said ink object.

11. The method according to claim 1, wherein said method is a request to clip strokes in said ink object to a provided rectangle.

8. A method of communicating between an application and an ink object, said ink object storing electronic ink, comprising the steps of:

issuing, by said application, a request to said ink object;

processing said request by said ink object; and

returning an indication that said request has been successfully processed.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein said method is a request to add strokes at a rectangle in said ink object.

12. A method for recognizing ink strokes comprising the steps of:

issuing a request to recognize strokes from an application;

receiving said request at a recognizer entity;

returning at least one set of recognition results relating to said ink strokes.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein said recognizer entity includes at least one of a recognizer object and a recognition context object.

14. A method for interacting with ink strokes comprising:

issuing a request to a stroke object;

processing said request; and

returning the result of said request.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein said request is a request to modify one or more strokes in said stroke object.

16. The method according to claim 14, wherein said request is a request to obtain information regarding one or more strokes in said ink object.

17. A method of storing ink strokes comprising the steps of:

creating a stroke container;

receiving stroke information;

creating a stroke from said stroke information; and

storing said stroke in said stroke container.

18. A method of operating on stroke objects comprising the steps of:

storing said stroke objects in a stroke collection;

performing an operation on at least one stroke object in said stroke collection.

19. The method of operating on stroke objects according to claim 18, wherein said operation includes deleting stroke objects from said stroke collection.

20. The method of operating on stroke objects according to claim 18, wherein said operation includes modifying at least one stroke object in said stroke collection.

21. The method of operating on stroke objects according to claim 18, further comprising the step of:

returning stroke information to a requesting program regarding at least one stroke object.

22. A method of receiving information from a recognizer, comprising the steps of:

sending a request for information to a recognizer object;

said recognizer object returning information regarding recognizer.

23. The method of receiving information from said recognizer according to claim 22, wherein the information regarding said recognizer includes the capabilities of said recognizer.

24. The method of receiving information from said recognizer according to claim 22, wherein the information regarding said recognizer includes the language or languages recognized by said recognizer.

25. The method of receiving information from said recognizer according to claim 22, wherein the information regarding said recognizer includes the name of said recognizer.

26. The method of receiving information from said recognizer according to claim 22, wherein the information regarding said recognizer includes the properties supported by the recognizer.

27. The method of receiving information from said recognizer according to claim 22, wherein said recognizer object is identified as part of a recognizer collection.

28. A method of exchanging information regarding how ink should be recognized, comprising the steps of:

sending a request for information to a recognizer context object;

receiving a response from recognizer context object that indicates information about how ink should be recognized.

29. The method according to claim 28, wherein said information includes whether recognition of said ink for during a background operation.

30. The method according to claim 28, wherein said information includes whether recognition results should be returned with alternatives.

31. The method according to claim 28, wherein said information includes the all information in said recognizer context object.

32. The method according to claim 28, further comprising the step of requesting said recognizer context object to stop background recognition of ink.

33. The method according to claim 28, wherein the response from said recognizer context object includes a recognition result of ink strokes.

34. The method according to claim 33, said recognition result includes alternative recognition results.

35. A method for exchanging information with the results of a recognition process comprising the steps of:

sending information to a recognition result object;

performing an operation in response to said sending step.

36. The method according to claim 35, wherein said information includes a request to modify up alternate of said results of said recognition process.

37. The method according to claim 35, wherein said information includes a request to assign recognition results to strokes.

38. The method according to claim 35, wherein said operation includes returning the ink strokes associated with the recognition.

39. The method according to claim 35, wherein said operation includes returning recognition results.

40. The method according to claim 35, wherein said operation includes returning at least one confidence level associate with at least one recognition result.

41. The method according to claim 35, wherein said operation includes returning at least one alternate recognition result.

42. The method according to claim 35, wherein said operation includes a request to get recognition results for at least one ink stroke.

43. A computer readable medium having a data structure stored thereon, said data structure comprising:

an ink object;

said ink object including at least one stroke;

said at least one stroke having associated with it at least one recognizer.

44. The computer readable medium according to claim 43, wherein at least two recognizers are associated with each at least one stroke.

45. The computer readable medium according to claim 43, wherein a first stroke and a second stroke are associated with at least one recognizer, with said at least one recognizer different for said first stroke and said second stroke.