WO2001022262A2 - Device enabling rapid reading and accessing of web pages - Google Patents
Device enabling rapid reading and accessing of web pages Download PDFInfo
- Publication number
- WO2001022262A2 WO2001022262A2 PCT/US2000/026142 US0026142W WO0122262A2 WO 2001022262 A2 WO2001022262 A2 WO 2001022262A2 US 0026142 W US0026142 W US 0026142W WO 0122262 A2 WO0122262 A2 WO 0122262A2
- Authority
- WO
- WIPO (PCT)
- Prior art keywords
- internet
- address
- indicia
- destination
- address indicia
- Prior art date
Links
Classifications
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F16/00—Information retrieval; Database structures therefor; File system structures therefor
- G06F16/90—Details of database functions independent of the retrieved data types
- G06F16/95—Retrieval from the web
- G06F16/955—Retrieval from the web using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL]
- G06F16/9554—Retrieval from the web using information identifiers, e.g. uniform resource locators [URL] by using bar codes
Definitions
- the present invention generally relates to the subjects of the Internet, the World Wide Web, browsing software ("browsers”), electronic mail software ("e-mail programs”) and, more particularly, to handheld devices designed to scan Web page addresses (also known as universal resource locators, or "URLs") and/or e-mail addresses and to communicate those addresses automatically to a computer to allow the computer to automatically access the resource (whether an Internet Web page or a local or private ["Internet”] web page or to invoke an e-mail program to create an e-mail addressed to the address scanned.
- Web page addresses also known as universal resource locators, or "URLs”
- URLs universal resource locators
- the browser has become a standard mechanism for viewing virtual "documents" and files of all kind
- the URL has become a truly universal standard for conveying the location of such files to the browser, whether that resource physically resides as an electronic file on the user's own computer, on a computer to which the user is temporarily or permanently attached via a local area network (LAN) , a wide area network (WAN) , or the Internet, or whether in fact the document specified by the URL is created on the fly and exists only as long as the user is browsing it.
- LAN local area network
- WAN wide area network
- the Internet or whether in fact the document specified by the URL is created on the fly and exists only as long as the user is browsing it.
- the so-called address is actually a complex specification of parameters that drive the creation of a virtual document .
- Such URLs are often very long and complicated, and must be entered in exactly the correct format or will not work.
- e-mail addresses become increasingly as common and important as telephone numbers. Again, such e-mail addresses must be entered in exactly the correct format or will not work. However, people often encounter e-mail addresses in non-electronic forms (such as on business cards, in advertisements, in magazine or newspaper articles, on business stationary, etc.) where they cannot be automatically captured.
- a handheld optical scanning device such as a handheld scanner, light pen, bar code reader, etc .
- Specialized software to support Lhe optical scanning device including optical character recognition (OCR) , bar code reading software, and/or digital symbol -reading software, as appropriate;
- OCR optical character recognition
- a web browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, etc.
- the interface program of proprietary network such as America Online
- an e-mail program such as Microsoft Outlook
- Interface software between the specialized software and the web browser and/or the e- mail program capable of:
- Figure 1 shows a computer and an attached scanning device of the type to which the invention relates .
- FIG. 2 shows a simplified block diagram of the system of the present invention.
- Figure 3 shows a connector which can accommodate both a mouse and the scanning device of the present invention.
- Figure 4 is a block diagram of software that operates in accordance with one embodiment of the invention .
- Light -pen technology for example, in the form of a wand for a hand-held, combined light pen and bar code reader, is not new in and of itself. The same comment applies to hand held scanners that read text or information in a batch. These products have been sold and described for use in scanning information such as text or images into a computer. Exemplifying such technology are United States Patent Nos . 5,932,860; 5,710,844; 5,656,805; 5,630,168; 5,506,394; 5,115,230; 4,748,318; 4,677,428; and 4 , 146 , 782. The contents of the aforementioned patents are incorporated by reference herein.
- Figure 1 shows an otherwise conventional personal computer such as a PC 10 which comprises a monitor 12, connected to a chassis 14 and operating in conjunction with a keyboard 16.
- a light pen 18 is schematically shown connected to the chassis 14.
- the preferred device is a scanning device that captures the image of a portion of a page or text in chunks, without having to be swept or scanned mechanically by hand over the information. See the scanner 17 shown in dotted lines in Figure 1.
- block 20 represents the prior art, namely existing software that is commonly installed in PCs for handling hypertext links and for carrying out the instruction sequences that automatically connect a computer to a web site or the like upon the clicking on a highlighted web address.
- the scanning device captures the image in the area scanned as a graphic image; second, optical character recognition (OCR) software turns the graphic into text; and third, heuristic software makes a "best guess" as to what the likeliest URL , keyword, or email address the user had intended to scan.
- OCR optical character recognition
- heuristic software makes a "best guess" as to what the likeliest URL , keyword, or email address the user had intended to scan.
- the scanned image may be the trademark or logo of a company. It may also be the name and/or address of a company that uniquely identifies it.
- the invention optionally includes a database of known URL's, keywords, company trademarks/logos/names and the like against which the scanned URL or scanned trademark etc. is matched in order to make the aforementioned "best guess" as to what is, if any, the likeliest Internet URL or e-mail address.
- URL's can be encoded in bar codes and/or bar codes of various types, e.g. UPC, ISBN, etc., may be scanned to identify a product and the corresponding Internet destination "looked up" in the database .
- the figures show the light pen 18 (and again, the preferred device is a hand-held scanner 17) which interfaces with software 22 which receives inputs from the light pen and operates on the input from the light pen to evolve a web address (and/or an e-mail address) . That address is then communicated to the existing software 20 and installed in one or more registers of that software which point to a desired web site. If desired, the light pen can temporarily store a plurality of web site addresses and/or e-mail addresses in a storage or memory 23.
- the invention permits a user to recall web site addresses from the light pen storage 23 for accessing any of several web sites at the point delayed relative to the time when these web site addresses have been scanned and stored in the storage 23.
- the software in the block 22 can be resident in the light pen itself or it can wholly or partially reside in the memory or storage of the PC 10, or any other convenient location.
- the terms "light pen” or “pen” or “scanning device” are used herein interchangeably.
- a scanning device can be substituted for the illustrated light pen.
- Figure 3 illustrates one mode of connecting the light pen 18 to the computer 10. It is common for computers to include a mouse 24 which is connected via a cable 25 through a connector 26 to the computer, in well known manner.
- the light pen of the present invention may be connected to the computer through its own connector, i.e. through its own serial port. Alternatively, the invention provides a modified connector 28 which can accommodate both the mouse 24 and the light pen 18.
- the light pen 18 may include several actuating buttons 30, through the actuation of which circuitry can be enabled to allow the computer 10 to receive inputs from either the mouse or the pen on a mutually exclusive basis.
- Figure 4 is a block diagram of one form of implementing the software process of the present invention.
- the start block 40 attends to the initialization of registers and configuring data sets, tables, and working parameters for the light pen 18.
- the software awaits receipt of information scanned by the light pen 18. As information is received from the light pen, it is analyzed and packaged to allow determining whether it is in a form that represents a web page and/or possibly an e-mail address and/or a keyword.
- the program either returns to receive fresh scanning information at block 42 or, if the data has the format of either a web page or an e-mail address, the program proceeds to block
- decisional block 50 determines whether the format is that of an e-mail. If it is, the program proceeds to block 52 where the software automatically interfaces with an e-mail program, for example the GroupWise product, and opens an e-mail screen which it pre- addressed to the party whose address the light pen has scanned. The operator can then compose an e-mail message and send it to its destination, without having to manually enter addressing information.
- the operation of the invention is now complete and the system returns to its initial state.
- the program returns to block 40 to await further input from the light pen.
- the program determines, at decision block 56, whether the web page has been successfully accessed. If the accessing of the web page has been successful, the program returns to block 42. If not, the program proceeds to the decision block 58 where the program checks to see if the program has been set up to search for close matches to the web page address whose accessing has been unsuccessful. If the answer is no, the program returns to the block 42 to await further input. If the answer is yes, the program proceeds to block 62 where it accesses a special web site that contains a library of URL addresses and proceeds to find the closest match to the web page address characters that it has previously processed.
- the program proceeds to block 62 where the accessing of that web page is automatically handled and thereafter the program returns to the block 42 to receive additional inputs from the light pen.
- the present invention uses known light pen technology to provide PC users with a powerful technique to rapidly accesses web sites or e-mail addresses that one encounters through reading materials such as newspapers and the like, without need to manually type long cumbersome and difficult to memorize web addresses and without being frustrated by spelling errors and the like.
- the invention as described above includes the possibility of incorporating the light pen 18, i.e. scanning device, into a computer mouse 24. It also contemplates incorporating the scanning device into a cellular cordless telephone.
- the invention further allows the scanning device to store URLs when not connected to the computer (or otherwise unable to open the web page) for later uploading, retrieval and/or use) .
- the scanning device When the scanning device is positioned over a word or phrase not recognizable as a URL, the software allows it to link to a site that searches for the neatest match in a URL and then go directly to the best match.
- the scanning device contains a window directly showing what is being scanned as shown for example in the c.Pen commercial product.
- the scanning device displays what has been scanned (and/or the name or description being linked) on a electronic display.
- the scanning device can be incorporated into a pen-device that is swiped across a URL or a bar code which designates a URL or e-mail or the like.
- the functionality of the present invention can be incorporated in or consists of a digital camera, allowing capture of URL's without physical contact with a page or item on which a URL is printed (for example, on a billboard) .
- the invention allows the optional editing of scanned URL before linking to the web page .
- the present invention involves four main functions.
- the first is to carry out the scanning process which may create bit map or the like to create information that is inputted into the computer.
- the second function involves optical character recognition in order to allow operating on the input information by the system' s software programs.
- the third function involves the heuristics of extracting a web page, e-mail address, a key word associated with the web address, etc. from the received information.
- the fourth function involves effecting a connection to a destination by invoking a web browser, an e-mail program, a LAN (Local Area Network) , etc .
- LAN Local Area Network
- the scanning device Relative to the scanning device, it should be evident that it is generally preferred that it be a handheld scanner. It is advantageous for it to incorporate a flat bed scanner, similar to those used in copy machine technology.
- the scanning device it might be preferred that the scanning device have a "mini flatbed” style component with a screen that is able to take in a rectangular area measuring about one-half to one inch in height and about two inches in width, to allow for easy and rapid pointing to and scanning of a desired web page or e-mail address or the like, without requiring the user to "swipe" the scanner over the information to be captured.
- Such a scanning device can be either an existing device or it can be incorporated into existing handheld devices, such as the familiar computer mouse.
- PDAs Personal digital assistants
- Other devices can be electronic organizers or handheld PCs or bar code scanners, indeed, anything that is attachable to computers by cable or wireless.
- the invention can be incorporated into devices known as the "palm" computers, such as the Palm Pilot series.
- Several commercially available devices incorporate the scanning device of the present invention.
- One is the Phillips Nino 510 model, a second the HP Jornada 420 device, a third the Compaq AERO 2130, and a fourth the Casio E-100 model. These devices have been advertised in the September 2, 1999 copy of The New York Times .
- the present invention is not strictly limited to web page addresses as such. For example, there is now a trend to move away from cumbersome URL addresses as such.
- the RealNames Corporation provides a system of using keywords which are then translated by an intermediate web page to the ultimate web page address.
- the present invention can detect these keywords and cause the accessing process to automatically reach the ultimate web address.
- the scanning device of the invention can scan keywords and the software may contain a library or knowledge base of such keywords and contain the software instructions for accessing the corresponding web address. Alternatively, it may reach the destination via the RealNames web page or the like.
- the software of the invention preferably incorporates the ability to recognize numerically coded web (or email) addresses, (to the extent they exit) .
- the software recognizes from the context of certain numerical data that the data represents an address and automatically translates the same into a character string that is usable by a web browser to reach the ultimate destination.
- a file name may be C: ⁇ DOC ⁇ ABC.DOC.
- Another standard form can be a telephone number or a fax number which the software then recognizes as such, and automatically dials for the user.
- Another expedient provided by the invention is that it may scan addresses that are not necessarily visibly rendered.
- web addresses can be provided (at some future date) next to a company name, rendered in unobtrusive or invisible ink and the scanning device of the present invention may be constructed to recognize and read such addresses.
- the invention can also access web sites, such as the one owned by Netcraft which allows finding web addresses, i.e., URLs.
- Information concerning data such as conventional URLs can be numerically encoded or bar coded and the present invention will detect the same regardless of the form in which it is presented.
- the information to be detected can be located anywhere near a trademark, a company or product name, logo, conventional URLs, e-mail address, picture, etc. It can be located in a header or footer of a document or it can appear on labels to be placed on existing documents, objects, etc.
Abstract
Description
Claims
Priority Applications (2)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
EP00966819A EP1433081A2 (en) | 1999-09-24 | 2000-09-22 | Device enabling rapid reading and accessing of web pages |
AU77106/00A AU7710600A (en) | 1999-09-24 | 2000-09-22 | Device enabling rapid reading and accessing of web pages |
Applications Claiming Priority (4)
Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
---|---|---|---|
US15609299P | 1999-09-24 | 1999-09-24 | |
US60/156,092 | 1999-09-24 | ||
US66741600A | 2000-09-21 | 2000-09-21 | |
US09/667,416 | 2000-09-21 |
Publications (2)
Publication Number | Publication Date |
---|---|
WO2001022262A2 true WO2001022262A2 (en) | 2001-03-29 |
WO2001022262A3 WO2001022262A3 (en) | 2004-04-15 |
Family
ID=26852860
Family Applications (1)
Application Number | Title | Priority Date | Filing Date |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/US2000/026142 WO2001022262A2 (en) | 1999-09-24 | 2000-09-22 | Device enabling rapid reading and accessing of web pages |
Country Status (3)
Country | Link |
---|---|
EP (1) | EP1433081A2 (en) |
AU (1) | AU7710600A (en) |
WO (1) | WO2001022262A2 (en) |
Cited By (4)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
EP1087305A2 (en) * | 1999-09-20 | 2001-03-28 | NCR International, Inc. | Creation, transmission and retrieval of information |
WO2002035808A2 (en) * | 2000-10-28 | 2002-05-02 | Web.De Ag | Computerised device, method for operating a computerised device and computer program product |
EP1786186A2 (en) | 2005-11-09 | 2007-05-16 | Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | Running an application dependent on the user input |
US8244288B2 (en) | 2005-06-30 | 2012-08-14 | Nokia Corporation | Context-sensitive data handling |
Citations (6)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
EP0817099A2 (en) * | 1996-06-24 | 1998-01-07 | Sun Microsystems, Inc. | Client-side, Server-side and collaborative spell check of URL's |
EP0837406A2 (en) * | 1996-08-02 | 1998-04-22 | Symbol Technologies, Inc. | Data retrieval system and method |
US5929849A (en) * | 1996-05-02 | 1999-07-27 | Phoenix Technologies, Ltd. | Integration of dynamic universal resource locators with television presentations |
WO1999039281A2 (en) * | 1998-01-30 | 1999-08-05 | Easynet Access Inc. | Personalized internet interaction |
US5940595A (en) * | 1996-09-23 | 1999-08-17 | Motorola, Inc. | Electronic network navigation device and method for linking to an electronic address therewith |
US5938727A (en) * | 1996-02-01 | 1999-08-17 | Ikeda; Takashi | Communication system and method via digital codes |
-
2000
- 2000-09-22 AU AU77106/00A patent/AU7710600A/en not_active Abandoned
- 2000-09-22 EP EP00966819A patent/EP1433081A2/en not_active Withdrawn
- 2000-09-22 WO PCT/US2000/026142 patent/WO2001022262A2/en not_active Application Discontinuation
Patent Citations (6)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
US5938727A (en) * | 1996-02-01 | 1999-08-17 | Ikeda; Takashi | Communication system and method via digital codes |
US5929849A (en) * | 1996-05-02 | 1999-07-27 | Phoenix Technologies, Ltd. | Integration of dynamic universal resource locators with television presentations |
EP0817099A2 (en) * | 1996-06-24 | 1998-01-07 | Sun Microsystems, Inc. | Client-side, Server-side and collaborative spell check of URL's |
EP0837406A2 (en) * | 1996-08-02 | 1998-04-22 | Symbol Technologies, Inc. | Data retrieval system and method |
US5940595A (en) * | 1996-09-23 | 1999-08-17 | Motorola, Inc. | Electronic network navigation device and method for linking to an electronic address therewith |
WO1999039281A2 (en) * | 1998-01-30 | 1999-08-05 | Easynet Access Inc. | Personalized internet interaction |
Cited By (8)
Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
---|---|---|---|---|
EP1087305A2 (en) * | 1999-09-20 | 2001-03-28 | NCR International, Inc. | Creation, transmission and retrieval of information |
EP1087305A3 (en) * | 1999-09-20 | 2006-06-28 | NCR International, Inc. | Creation, transmission and retrieval of information |
WO2002035808A2 (en) * | 2000-10-28 | 2002-05-02 | Web.De Ag | Computerised device, method for operating a computerised device and computer program product |
WO2002035808A3 (en) * | 2000-10-28 | 2002-12-27 | Web De Ag | Computerised device, method for operating a computerised device and computer program product |
US8244288B2 (en) | 2005-06-30 | 2012-08-14 | Nokia Corporation | Context-sensitive data handling |
EP1786186A2 (en) | 2005-11-09 | 2007-05-16 | Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | Running an application dependent on the user input |
EP1786186A3 (en) * | 2005-11-09 | 2011-04-27 | Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. | Running an application dependent on the user input |
US8265703B2 (en) | 2005-11-09 | 2012-09-11 | Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd | Method of running application and mobile communication terminal using the same |
Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
AU7710600A (en) | 2001-04-24 |
EP1433081A2 (en) | 2004-06-30 |
WO2001022262A3 (en) | 2004-04-15 |
Similar Documents
Publication | Publication Date | Title |
---|---|---|
US6546385B1 (en) | Method and apparatus for indexing and searching content in hardcopy documents | |
US6366698B1 (en) | Portable terminal device for transmitting image data via network and image processing device for performing an image processing based on recognition result of received image data | |
JP4260790B2 (en) | Filing / retrieval apparatus and filing / retrieval method | |
US5938727A (en) | Communication system and method via digital codes | |
US5902353A (en) | Method, system, and article of manufacture for navigating to a resource in an electronic network | |
US5903729A (en) | Method, system, and article of manufacture for navigating to a resource in an electronic network | |
EP0832453B2 (en) | System for using article of commerce to access remote computer | |
US6563913B1 (en) | Selective sending of portions of electronic content | |
US6360951B1 (en) | Hand-held scanning system for heuristically organizing scanned information | |
US5448375A (en) | Method and system for labeling a document for storage, manipulation, and retrieval | |
US8489583B2 (en) | Techniques for retrieving documents using an image capture device | |
US8244037B2 (en) | Image-based data management method and system | |
US7050629B2 (en) | Methods and systems to index and retrieve pixel data | |
US6348970B1 (en) | Apparatus and method for interfacing a computer network to a facsimile machine | |
US20050162686A1 (en) | Check boxes for identifying and processing stored documents | |
WO1998040823A1 (en) | METHOD FOR COLLECTING URLs FROM PRINTED MEDIA | |
EP1672473A2 (en) | Stamp sheet | |
WO2000026792A1 (en) | System and method for specifying www site | |
EP1435034A1 (en) | Method, computer program product and device for arranging coordinate areas relative to each other | |
WO2001061449A2 (en) | Specially formatted paper based applications of a mobile phone | |
EP1433081A2 (en) | Device enabling rapid reading and accessing of web pages | |
KR200207210Y1 (en) | Information card | |
JP2002298101A (en) | Method and device for recognizing character information | |
KR200212379Y1 (en) | Portable data input device for internet | |
JP2003016376A (en) | Data input management system with automatic identification number imparting function |
Legal Events
Date | Code | Title | Description |
---|---|---|---|
AK | Designated states |
Kind code of ref document: A2 Designated state(s): AE AG AL AM AT AU AZ BA BB BG BR BY CA CH CN CR CU CZ DE DK DM DZ EE ES FI GB GD GE GH GM HR HU ID IL IN IS JP KE KG KP KR KZ LC LK LR LS LT LU LV MA MD MG MK MN MW MX NO NZ PL PT RO RU SD SE SG SI SK SL TJ TM TR TT TZ UA UG UZ VN YU ZA ZW |
|
AL | Designated countries for regional patents |
Kind code of ref document: A2 Designated state(s): GH GM KE LS MW MZ SD SL SZ TZ UG ZW AM AZ BY KG KZ MD RU TJ TM AT BE CH CY DE DK ES FI FR GB GR IE IT LU MC NL PT SE BF BJ CF CG CI CM GA GN GW ML MR NE SN TD TG |
|
121 | Ep: the epo has been informed by wipo that ep was designated in this application | ||
DFPE | Request for preliminary examination filed prior to expiration of 19th month from priority date (pct application filed before 20040101) | ||
WWE | Wipo information: entry into national phase |
Ref document number: 2000966819 Country of ref document: EP |
|
REG | Reference to national code |
Ref country code: DE Ref legal event code: 8642 |
|
NENP | Non-entry into the national phase in: |
Ref country code: JP |
|
WWP | Wipo information: published in national office |
Ref document number: 2000966819 Country of ref document: EP |
|
WWW | Wipo information: withdrawn in national office |
Ref document number: 2000966819 Country of ref document: EP |