Text acquisition and organizing system
First Claim
1. An apparatus for acquiring discrete text strings and for organizing the acquired text strings into a format structure as the text strings are acquired, the apparatus comprising:
- a housing of a size small enough to be portable;
a scanner connected to the housing that scans printed text strings and acquires the text strings;
manual format structure select means mounted in the housing for providing a structure select signal corresponding to one of a plurality of predetermined selectable format structures;
a memory in the housing in which are stored the plurality of format structures each of which comprises a plurality of predetermined formatting commands for assignment to the text strings in a predetermined order as the text strings are acquired to position acquired text strings in relation to other acquired text strings in a predetermined order;
a processor mounted in the housing, wherein the processor is;
responsive to the structure select signal to retrieve the corresponding format structure from the memory;
responsive to the retrieved format structure for automatically formatting the acquired text strings to position said acquired text strings according to the retrieved format structure as the text strings are acquired;
a memory mounted in the housing for storing the series of text strings after having been formatted by the processor in accordance with the selected text format structure; and
a display mounted on the housing for displaying the formatted text strings in the selected format structure.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A portable apparatus for directly acquiring text with a portable line scanner and organizing the acquired text in a selected format structure. The text is placed into the format structure as it is acquired. Control over the position of the acquired text in the format structure is provided by use of an ENTER key as well as other keys. Text attribute keys are provided for applying various attributes to the acquired text, such as italics, size, underlining, etc. Comments may be inserted by the user as desired and such comments are automatically placed inside a rectangular box and in a predetermined position. Footnotes having predefined text fields may also be inserted in the format structure by the user and the system displays a footnote panel to assist in creating the footnote.
52 Citations
23 Claims
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1. An apparatus for acquiring discrete text strings and for organizing the acquired text strings into a format structure as the text strings are acquired, the apparatus comprising:
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a housing of a size small enough to be portable; a scanner connected to the housing that scans printed text strings and acquires the text strings; manual format structure select means mounted in the housing for providing a structure select signal corresponding to one of a plurality of predetermined selectable format structures; a memory in the housing in which are stored the plurality of format structures each of which comprises a plurality of predetermined formatting commands for assignment to the text strings in a predetermined order as the text strings are acquired to position acquired text strings in relation to other acquired text strings in a predetermined order; a processor mounted in the housing, wherein the processor is; responsive to the structure select signal to retrieve the corresponding format structure from the memory; responsive to the retrieved format structure for automatically formatting the acquired text strings to position said acquired text strings according to the retrieved format structure as the text strings are acquired; a memory mounted in the housing for storing the series of text strings after having been formatted by the processor in accordance with the selected text format structure; and a display mounted on the housing for displaying the formatted text strings in the selected format structure. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A note-taking apparatus for acquiring existing text from an external text source, for organizing the acquired text into a format structure as the text is acquired, and for adding notes to the format structure concerning the acquired text, the apparatus comprising:
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a housing; a portable scanner connected to the housing, the scanner adapted to scan a single text line at a time to acquire text; manual format structure select means mounted in the housing for providing a structure select signal corresponding to one of a plurality of predetermined selectable format structures; a memory in the housing in which are stored the plurality of format structures each of which comprises a plurality of predetermined formatting controls for assignment to the acquired text in a predetermined order as the text is acquired to position acquired text in relation to other acquired text in a predetermined order; a manual format control switch mounted in the housing, actuation of which provides a format control signal; a processor mounted in the housing, wherein the processor is; responsive to the structure select signal to retrieve the corresponding format structure from the memory; responsive to the retrieved format structure for automatically formatting the acquired text to position said acquired text according to the retrieved format structure as the text is acquired; responsive to the format control signal to alter the predetermined order of application of formatting controls within the selected format structure to subsequently acquired text; a memory mounted in the housing for storing the text after having been formatted by the processor in accordance with the selected text format structure; and a display mounted on the housing for displaying the formatted text in the selected format structure. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification