Patent Application
20080077858
The present invention is directed to data editing techniques, and more particularly to data editing systems and methods for improving readability of a display.
With the development of the Internet, information distribution through web pages has become an important social key technology. Therefore, it is desired that web pages be easy to view even for users (viewers of web pages) having trouble with their eyesight, such as visually impaired people and senior citizens. Measures have been taken for readability of a web page, such as providing a style sheet for each user on a client or providing a transcoding system on a network. However, it will be more advantageous as fundamental measures that an original web page be designed to be easy to view.
Accessibility checkers have been used as a technique by which web page creators can improve accessibility of web pages. An accessibility checker analyzes an HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) document and checks its accessibility in accordance with a guideline established by WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative) of W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). Modifying the web page based on the result of this checking can produce a web page that conforms to the WAI guideline.
As to techniques not limited to web pages but generally related to image display using a computer, there are other techniques in the art regarding the eyesight of visually impaired people and senior citizens. One technique involves generating an image and subjecting it to image processing corresponding to a visually impaired person, an aged person, or any of various symptoms of visual impairment (such as weakening eyesight, astigmatism, diplopia, contrast, scattering, tunnel vision, visual field defect, etc.) for displaying it on a screen. Another technique discloses means for not only simulating and displaying how a certain image is viewed by senior citizens, but also making modifications by pixel-by-pixel image processing so that the image becomes easy to view for them.
As described above, it would be desirable to create an easily viewable image for displaying on a computer, for example a web page. However, the technique of using the accessibility checker to check the accessibility of a web page has the following problems. One first problem is that the analysis of an HTML document has a limitation. The checker cannot provide a specific direction about how to modify the image, so that the analysis predominantly relies on human eyes in the end. For example, the above mentioned Bobby can exactly indicate a position having a problem that “there is an image without an ALT attribute”, because the problem can be found simply by checking tags. However, it cannot indicate a position having a problem that “the contrast is insufficient between the foreground color and the background color.” Therefore, checking problems such as the latter has to rely on a web page creator's eyes. Such check items left to human eyes actually occur in large numbers, which makes efficient checking quite difficult.
Another problem is that, even if a web page is modified for all its check items to ensure that the web page conforms to the WAI guideline, the web page may not actually become easily viewable by a user having problem with his/her eyesight. Because the guideline is intended to address various disabilities like the highest common factor and is limited to a feasible number of items, it naturally fails to accommodate every web page to perfection.
The fundamental cause of these problems with the accessibility checker lies in that the readability to be achieved when an image is displayed on a screen is checked on an HTML document (text) basis.
On the other hand, prior art apparently simulates how a generated image is viewed by a user having problem with his/her eyesight and displays the result on a screen. However, these techniques only performs simulation for purposes such as virtual experience education and do not take into consideration measures to modify the image so that the user having problem with his/her eyesight can easily view the image.
Another technique has means for modifying the image to be easily viewed by senior citizens, but the technique cannot be applied to web page creation because the modification is based on pixel-by-pixel image processing. The reason is that, for a web page, a web page creator can modify only an HTML document (text) but not a raster image resulted from rendering the HTML document.
Also, the prior art apparently is designed to modify an original image uniformly based on the age of an expected aged user and to display the modified image to the user. It does not indicate which and how portions of the original image are hard to view. In other words, it does not provide an advice or hint about how to configure the original image.
Therefore, if the original image has a bad quality, the readability of the image cannot be improved beyond the limitation of the modification means. For example, if characters in the image are too small to be legible, pixel-by-pixel image processing (such as edge emphasis or contrast improvement) can hardly improve the legibility.
In view of these problems, an aspect of the present invention is to provide an ability to analyze the readability of an image to be displayed on a screen such as a web page and appropriately modify the image.
Another aspect of the invention is to provide a data editing system for supporting creation of a screen that is easy to view for a user having trouble with his/her eyesight, such as a visually impaired person or an aged person.
An example embodiment of the present invention for achieving the above aspects is implemented as a data editing apparatus. The apparatus comprising: a rendering section for generating an image by rendering certain data; an image processing section for performing image processing on the image generated by the rendering section to simulate how the image is viewed under a certain visual characteristic; a modification portion locating section for locating a modification portion that needs to be modified in the data, the step of locating being based on a processing result of the image processing section; and a modification processing section for modifying the modification portion in the data located by the modification portion locating section.
Another example is a data editing apparatus according to this invention comprises: a rendering section for generating an image by rendering an HTML document; an image processing section for performing image processing on the image generated by the rendering section and evaluating the processed image; a modification element locating section for locating an HTML element that needs to be modified in the HTML document to be modified, the step of locating being based on an evaluation result of the image processing section; a modification method retrieval section for searching a database for modification methods for the HTML element that needs to be modified located by the modification element locating section; and a display control section for outputting the HTML element that needs to be modified and the modification methods retrieved by the modification method retrieval section on a display.
Another example embodiment of the present invention is implemented as a data editing method for editing certain data by using a computer. The method comprises the steps of: generating an image by rendering the data and storing the image in a certain storage; performing image processing on the image stored in the storage to simulate how the image is viewed under a certain visual characteristic; locating a modification portion that needs to be modified in the data, the step of locating being based on a result of the simulation on the image; and modifying the located modification portion located by locating the modification portion in the data.
For a more complete understanding of the present invention and the advantages thereof, reference is now made to the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
The present invention provides an ability to analyze the readability of an image to be displayed on a screen, such as a web page, and appropriately modify the image. The invention also provides a data editing system for supporting creation of a screen that is easy to view for a user having trouble with his/her eyesight, such as a visually impaired person or an aged person.
In one embodiment, the invention is implemented as a data editing apparatus comprising: a rendering section for generating an image by rendering certain data; an image processing section for performing image processing on the image generated by the rendering section to simulate how the image is viewed under a certain visual characteristic; a modification portion locating section for locating a modification portion that needs to be modified in the data, the step of locating being based on a processing result of the image processing section; and a modification processing section for modifying the modification portion in the data located by the modification portion locating section.
In some embodiments, the image processing section comprises: an image quality changing section for changing the quality of the image generated by the rendering section, the change being made according to the visual characteristic; and an image quality determining section for determining the quality of the image processed by the image quality changing section. Further specifically, the image quality determining section determines the degree to which the shape of elements in the image generated by the rendering section is preserved in the image processed by the image quality changing section. It also evaluates the difference of color between predetermined elements and their adjacent part in the image processed by the image quality changing section.
The data editing apparatus may further comprise a modification method retrieval section for searching a database for modification methods for the modification portion located by the modification portion locating section. The modification processing section modifies the modification portion located by the modification portion locating section according to a modification method selected from the modification methods retrieved by the modification method retrieval section.
Another example of a data editing apparatus according to this invention comprises: a rendering section for generating an image by rendering an HTML document; an image processing section for performing image processing on the image generated by the rendering section and evaluating the processed image; a modification element locating section for locating an HTML element that needs to be modified in the HTML document to be modified, the step of locating being based on an evaluation result of the image processing section; a modification method retrieval section for searching a database for modification methods for the HTML element that needs to be modified located by the modification element locating section; and a display control section for outputting the HTML element that needs to be modified and the modification methods retrieved by the modification method retrieval section on a display.
The data editing apparatus may comprise a document modification processing section for actually modifying the HTML document to be processed. For example, the document modification processing section modifies a description of the HTML element that needs to be modified in the HTML document to be processed according to a modification method selected from the modification methods retrieved by the modification method retrieval section. Alternatively, it may automatically modify the description of the HTML element that needs to be modified according to a preset modification method.
Another example of a data editing apparatus according to this invention comprises: a database that stores a processing result for each character that constitutes a character font set, the processing result being obtained by performing image processing on a raster image of each character to simulate how the image is viewed under a certain visual characteristic; an HTML analysis section for analyzing an HTML document to be processed and retrieving processing results for characters corresponding to characters contained in the HTML document from the database; and a modification element locating section for locating an HTML element that needs to be modified in the HTML document to be processed, the step of locating being based on the processing results for the characters retrieved by the HTML analysis section.
The data editing apparatus may further comprise: a rendering section for generating an image by rendering an HTML document; and an image processing section for performing image processing on the image generated by the rendering section to simulate how the image is viewed under a certain visual characteristic. The modification element locating section may locate the HTML element that needs to be modified in all or part of the HTML document being processed, the step of locating being based on the processing results for the characters retrieved by the HTML analysis section or based on a processing result of the image processing section.
This invention may also be implemented as a data editing method for editing certain data by using a computer. The method comprises the steps of: generating an image by rendering the data and storing the image in a certain storage; performing image processing on the image stored in the storage to simulate how the image is viewed under a certain visual characteristic; locating a modification portion that needs to be modified in the data, the step of locating being based on a result of the simulation on the image; and modifying the located modification portion located by locating the modification portion in the data.
Another embodiment of a data editing method according to this invention comprises the steps of: analyzing an HTML document to be processed; retrieving processing results for characters corresponding to characters contained in the HTML document from a certain storage that stores a processing result for each character that constitutes a certain character font set, the processing result being obtained by performing image processing on a raster image of each character to simulate how the image is viewed under a certain visual characteristic; locating an HTML element that needs to be modified in the HTML document, the step of locating being based on the retrieved processing results for the characters; and modifying the HTML document to be processed based on the result of locating the HTML element that needs to be modified.
This invention may further be implemented as a program for controlling a computer and causing the computer to implement the functions of the above described data editing apparatus, causing the computer to execute processing corresponding to the steps in the above described data editing method. The program may be provided by distributing in the form of a magnetic disk, optical disk, semiconductor memory, or other recording media, or by distributing over a network.
Now, this invention will be described in detail based on an advantageous embodiment illustrated in the appended drawings. This invention simulates how a screen is viewed by a user having trouble with his/her eyesight, such as a visually impaired person or an aged person, by rendering an HTML document to be processed and actually generating an image of the document, which is then subjected to image processing according to a specific visual symptom (e.g., decreased focusing ability such as myopia and presbyopia, or color vision deficiency). The image is then analyzed to determine how it can be modified to improve the readability. Thus, this invention supports a web page creator in creating a web page.
Here, the “web page creator” is not limited to be a person who creates the original web page to be processed. Rather, it includes those who check the accessibility of the web page and modify the web page, such as a website accessibility supervisor. In addition, the visual “symptom” may be a single symptom or a combination of several symptoms.
This embodiment aims at improving the readability of a raster image of a web page obtained by rendering an HTML document, and it mainly addresses the legibility of characters on the web page. The legibility of a character on the web page is determined based on the difference between the foreground color and the background color, and on whether the character shape is preserved on the web page after image processing (simulation). That is, if the difference between the foreground color and the background color is small or if the character shape has changed on the web page after the image processing, the character is considered illegible for a user who has a symptom simulated by the image processing.
In the configuration of
The symptom model storage section 10 contains models of visual characteristics of users having trouble with their eyesight, such as visually impaired people and senior citizens. That is, models of symptoms such as “decreased focusing ability (myopia, presbyopia)” and “color vision deficiency” are set in it (symptom models). For each symptom model, it stores the following information:
The rendering section 20 generates an image by rendering an HTML document to be processed. The generated image is stored in, for example, a work area of the main memory 103 or of the video memory in the video card 104 shown in
The image processing section 30, based on a symptom to be addressed and its degree indicated by a person such as a web page creator, retrieves the “image processing method” for the symptom from the symptom model storage section 10. The image processing section 30 then performs image quality degradation processing on the image (original image) generated by the rendering section 20 to generate an image that simulates the visual degradation (simulation image). The generated simulation image is stored in, for example, a work area of the main memory 103 or of the video memory in the video card 104, or in storage means such as the hard disk 105, shown in
The result presentation section 40 locates HTML elements that may cause problems in viewing the image rendered from the HTML document. This location is based on the comparison result between the original image and the simulation image provided by the image processing section 30, and information on the correspondences between the HTML elements and their positions (coordinates) in the image provided by the rendering section 20 (referred to as coordinates-elements correspondence information hereafter). The result presentation section 40 also retrieves the modification methods for the symptom from the symptom model storage section 10. Then, for all or part of the problematic HTML elements, the result presentation section 40 lists the modification methods along with their positions to present them to the web page creator on a display, for example, the display device 110 shown in FIG. 1. The web page creator can select and indicate one or more of the listed modification methods. This information (the positions of the problematic HTML elements and the modification methods) is also passed to the document modification processing section 50. The details of functions of the result presentation section 40 will be described later.
The document modification processing section 50 applies the modification method specified by the web page creator or by the system to the problematic HTML elements located by the result presentation section 40 and modifies the HTML document to be processed.
The HTML document modified by the document modification processing section 50 is recursively sent to the rendering section 20. Thus, a processing loop is formed by the processing of the rendering section 20, the image processing section 30, the result presentation section 40, and the document modification processing section 50. Repeating this processing loop can progressively improve the HTML document.
Now, the image processing section 30 and the result presentation section 40 will be described in more detail.
The image quality changing section 31 retrieves an image processing method and its parameter from the symptom model storage section 10 correspondingly to a symptom and its degree specified by the web page creator inputting a command or otherwise. The image quality changing section 31 then generates a simulation image by applying image processing based on the image processing method to the original image generated by the rendering section 20.
The symptom intended to be addressed and its degree may be specified by, for example, the web page creator inputting a predetermined command with an input device such as the keyboard/mouse 109 shown in
The image quality determining section 32 analyzes the original image generated by the rendering section 20 and the simulation image generated by the image quality changing section 31 to determine and compare their respective characteristics. The image quality determining section 32 also evaluates the differences between the color of elements in the simulation image (foreground color) and the color of their adjacent part (background color). This processing allows determination of portions in the original image that are hard to view for the user having the symptom given as a condition for processing of the image quality changing section 31. The operation of the image quality determining section 32 will be described in more detail below using a flowchart.
A possible variation of this discovery of connected components involves using connected components occupying a large amount of areas in the image as the background and connected components of other colors surrounded by the background connected components as the foreground and discovering connected components again. There may be a case where each character written in an image (e.g., characters on an icon) in the HTML document is not represented in a single color due to gradation. Even in this case, this alternative processing allows the character or part of the character to be extracted as a connected component if the background is represented in a single color. The discovery of connected components may use any technique known in the art of image processing.
The image quality determining section 32 then eliminates those that are not regarded as a character from the connected components extracted in step 502 based on their dimension, ratio between their height and width, or other features (step 503). Because determination of readability in this embodiment mainly concerns characters, this post processing is performed for excluding elements (HTML elements) other than characters from consideration. Sometimes several characters may be extracted as one large connected component by a cause such as an underline representing a link in the web page. Therefore, the image quality determining section 32 obtains the connected components representing characters by detecting and eliminating such underlines based on whether a connected component has an underline in the bottom or based on the ratio between its height and width. Depending on the purpose of use of the data editing apparatus, elements other than characters may also need to be modified at portions that are hard to view. In that case, the processing of this step may be skipped.
Next, the image quality determining section 32 performs thinning of each obtained connected component (step 504). The image quality determining section 32 then extracts characteristic points from the thinned connected components (step 505). Exemplary characteristic points are points where the connectivity number is zero, one, three, or four. The connectivity number indicates the number of points passed when the outline of a connected component is traced.
Next, the image quality determining section 32 checks the color difference between pixels likely to be the foreground and pixels likely to be the background in the partial image cut out from the simulation image (step 602). This is done based on the shape of the connected component in the original image stored in certain storage means in step 506 of
Here, the color difference will be described. Colors may be represented in various ways, such as by luminance, saturation, and hue, or by RGB (Red, Green, and Blue: the primary colors of light). For example, consider the case where colors are represented by L*a*b* color system. L*a*b* color system represents a color with three values of L*, a*, and b*, where L* indicates luminance, and a* and b* indicate perceptible color values as a total of hue and saturation.
If the color of pixels considered as the foreground and the color of pixels considered as the background are (L1, a1, b1) and (L2, a2, b2) respectively, the color difference ΔE and the luminance difference ΔL between the two colors are represented as follows.
ΔE=((L1−L2)2+(a1−a2)2+(b1−b2)2)1/2
ΔL=L1−L2
Then, appropriate values are set. For example, if
ΔE<100.0 and |ΔL|<30.0,
then it can be determined that the color difference is small and the two colors are hard to distinguish from each other, that is, that portion is hard to view.
If it is determined that the difference between the foreground color and the background color is above a certain degree in step 602, then the image quality determining section 32 generates a binary image of the partial image by setting an appropriate threshold (step 603). The threshold may be set by using a technique known in the art, such as an automatic technique or by using an occurrence histogram of colors. For example, the threshold may be set automatically by the following manner. A pixel considered as the foreground is chosen and its color is determined, and a pixel considered as the background is chosen and its color is determined. Computation is performed to approximate all other pixels to one of the two colors, so that each pixel is converted into a binary value of the closer color. To determine the “closeness” of color, the color difference in the above described L*a*b* space may be used. Alternatively, the distance in the RGB space may simply be used. When the occurrence histogram of colors is used, the histogram of colors taken for all pixels in the partial image to be processed tends to show two peaks (corresponding to the foreground and the background). The slopes are gentle for a blurred image, while steep for a clear image (the values concentrates to a particular color). Then, a trough between the two peaks can be found and set as the threshold that divides the color space into two halves for generating a binary image.
The image quality determining section 32 then discovers connected components in the binary image (step 604), performs thinning of the obtained connected components (step 605), and further extracts characteristic points from the result of thinning (step 606).
Finally, the image quality determining section 32 compares the information on the character points of each connected component in the original image stored in certain storage means in step 506 of
Now, the result presentation section 40 will be described.
The modification element locating section 41 is a means for locating portions that need to be modified in the HTML document. That is, it obtains the positions of connected components that are hard to view as determined by the image quality determining section 32 of the image processing section 30. It then locates HTML elements that need to be modified based on the coordinates-elements correspondence information previously obtained and stored in certain storage means by the rendering section 20.
The modification method retrieval section 42 searches the symptom model storage section 10 and retrieves modification methods for the visual symptom used in the simulation by the image quality changing section 31 of the image processing section 30. It then passes to the display control section 43 information on the retrieved modification methods and on the HTML elements to which the modification methods are applied. This information is also passed to the document modification processing section 50.
The display control section 43 lists the HTML elements and the corresponding modification methods received from the modification method retrieval section 42. The display control section 43 generates a user interface screen with input means such as checkboxes and presents it to the web page creator on a display, for example, the display device 110 of
Now, an overall flow of editing data of a web page according to this embodiment will be described.
When the web page creator inputs a direction to modify the image, the image quality changing section 31 of the image processing section 30 responds to the direction and performs image processing. That is, the original image generated in step 901 is subjected to image processing corresponding to a symptom specified by the direction, and a simulation image is generated (step 902). The image quality determining section 32 analyzes the original image and the simulation image and compares the analyzed results. Thus, portions that are hard to view for a user having the symptom simulated in the simulation image are detected (step 903).
Next, the modification element locating section 41 of the result presentation section 40 locates problematic HTML elements (i.e., that make the web page hard to view) as portions that need to be modified (step 904) based on the coordinates of the portions detected in step 903. Then, the modification method retrieval section 42 and the display control section 43 present modification methods for the HTML document to the web page creator (step 905).
When the web page creator selects a desired one or more of the presented modification methods and inputs a direction, the document modification processing section 50 modifies the HTML document according to the directed modification method(s) (step 906, 907). The process returns to step 901 and repeats the data editing by using a raster image of the modified HTML document as the original image. Repeating the above process can progressively improve the readability of the web page resulting from the HTML document. In step 906, if the web page creator determines that no more modification of the HTML document is required, the data editing is terminated by an input of a termination command or otherwise.
Various symptoms can be observed as visual characteristics of visually impaired people and senior citizens, and sometimes they have multiple symptoms. Now, addressing a plurality of symptoms in this embodiment will be described.
For a user having a plurality of symptoms, image processing is performed that combines a plurality of corresponding symptoms. In this case, the “image processing method” of the symptom model will be a combination of image processing methods for the corresponding symptoms. The “modification method” of the symptom model will also be a combination of modification methods for the combined symptoms.
Instead of combining information on a plurality of symptoms, it is also possible to simultaneously address a plurality of symptoms in parallel in one modification processing. In this case, the image processing section 30 performs the image quality degradation processing as many times as the number of symptoms to be addressed, thereby comparing image characteristics for each degradation result. Also in this case, the result presentation section 40 has to present the modification methods along with information about which symptom each modification method corresponds to.
Thus, in this example embodiment, an HTML document is rendered into an actual image, for which image processing is performed that simulates visual characteristics of a user such as a visually impaired person or an aged person. From analysis and comparison of the original image and the simulation image, it is determined how the image is viewed by the user having the visual characteristics simulated in the simulation image, and whether there are portions that are hard to view in the image. Appropriate modification methods are then presented according to various visual characteristics. Therefore, detailed directions are provided about how to modify the image so that the user having trouble with his/her eyesight can easily view the image. This can effectively support web page creation.
Now, an alternative configuration of the data editing apparatus according to this embodiment will be described. In this alternative embodiment, the readability of an image of a web page is determined mainly based on how characters appear on the web page. Furthermore, a text in an HTML document is displayed after converted into an image (converted into a bitmap) according to character font information included in a browser. Therefore, the above described image processing may be performed in advance for each character constituting character font sets that are probably used on web pages. It is then possible to determine which portions are hard to view without rendering the entire HTML document. This eliminates the process steps required for rendering and enables faster processing in comparison with the case of rendering the entire HTML document.
In the configuration of
The character font database 60 and the font evaluation result database 70 are implemented by storage, for example, the main memory 103 or the hard disk 105 shown in
The font evaluation result database 70 stores evaluation results obtained from processing of the image processing section 30 for each character that constitutes the typical character font sets. In response to a query from a constituent character evaluation section 83 of the HTML analysis section 80 (to be described later), the font evaluation result database 70 returns evaluation results as to whether characters in a character font set appearing in the HTML document are hard to view for a person having a specified symptom. For a query about a character font set having shapes similar to a typical character font set, the evaluation results of that character font set may be substituted with those of the typical character font set.
The HTML analysis section 80 analyzes the HTML document to be processed and investigates the style of the HTML document. Based on the analysis, it determines how to apply image processing by the data editing apparatus.
The constituent element analysis section 81 analyzes the HTML document to be processed and investigates the type and layout of all HTML elements that constitute the HTML document. Then, to determine the readability of the web page to be generated from the HTML document, it determines whether to
For example, if a background image is used in the entire web page and can interfere with characters, it is determined that rendering and image processing are required for the entire HTML document. If the web page does not contain a background image over the web page but partially contains images, it is determined that rendering and image processing for the relevant portions are appropriate. If the HTML document contains only characters, it is determined that no rendering and image processing is required.
As a result of the analysis of the HTML document to be processed, if the constituent element analysis section 81 determines that rendering and image processing of the entire HTML document is required, it passes the entire HTML document to the rendering section 20. Further processing of the HTML document is the same as that described with reference to the flowchart of
If the constituent element analysis section 81 determines that rendering and image processing of part of HTML document is appropriate, it passes the analysis result including information that specifies portions that require rendering and image processing to the HTML portion extraction section 82 along with the HTML document. It also passes the analysis result including information that specifies the other portions in the HTML document to the constituent character evaluation section 83 along with the HTML document. It then transfers the process to the HTML portion extraction section 82 and the constituent character evaluation section 83. If the constituent element analysis section 81 determines that no rendering and image processing of the HTML document is required, it passes the HTML document to the constituent character evaluation section 83 and transfers the process to the constituent character evaluation section 83.
The HTML portion extraction section 82, based on the analysis result of the constituent element analysis section 81, extracts the HTML elements that require rendering and image processing from the HTML document to be processed and passes the HTML elements to the rendering section 20. Further processing of these relevant portions of the HTML document is the same as that described with reference to the flowchart of
The constituent character evaluation section 83 queries the font evaluation result database 70 about all characters that constitute the HTML document, or only those characters at the portions that require no rendering and image processing based on the analysis result of the constituent element analysis section 81. Based on the character font and the symptom, it obtains evaluation information on the readability of the characters that would be achieved if the characters were actually rendered, thereby evaluating the readability of the characters. The evaluation result is sent to the result presentation section 40 on the basis of HTML elements made up of the characters.
As shown in
For HTML elements determined to be evaluated by the rendering and image processing, the HTML elements are processed in the same manner as in steps 901-904 of
When the web page creator selects a desired one or more of the presented modification methods and inputs a direction, the document modification processing section 50 modifies the HTML document according to the direction of the modification method(s). (steps 1409, 1410). The process returns to step 1401 and repeats the data editing. In step 1409, if the web page creator determines that no more modification of the HTML document is required, the data edit processing is terminated by an input of a termination command or otherwise.
Thus, in the data editing apparatus configured as shown in
The data editing apparatus shown in
Depending on the content of the web page to be processed, a large number of modifications may be presented by the result presentation section 40 (the number of HTML elements that need to be modified x the number of modification methods for each HTML element). This situation can be efficiently addressed by prioritizing processing items.
Based on a predetermined priority criterion, the priority determining section 44 determines the priority of HTML elements that need to be modified as located by the modification element locating section 41. The priority is used to determine the order in which modification methods are searched for by the modification method retrieval section 42, and the order in which the modification methods are displayed by the display control section 43.
Examples of priority criteria may include the following.
Each criterion may be used by itself or in combination with other criterion. When several criteria are combined for determination of priority, each criterion may be given a different weight. Providing such priority allows display control, such as presenting the modification portions and modification methods listed according to priority, neglecting HTML elements with priority below a certain threshold (not presenting as modification portions), and so on. Therefore, if a large number of modifications occur, it can be efficiently addressed.
Thus, description has been given of the support system for designing a web page that takes into consideration a user having particular visual characteristics, such as a visually impaired person or an aged person, in web page creation. This technique may also be utilized in viewing a web page. Designing with consideration for particular visual characteristics cannot be forced on all web pages existing on the Internet. Therefore, the technique of this embodiment is used to modify a web page when the web page is displayed on a terminal of a user who views the web page.
In the stage of creating a web page, it is not generally advantageous to automatically modify the web page regardless of the intention of the web page creator. Therefore, in the above described embodiment, the result presentation section 40 indicates modification portions on the web page and lists possible modification methods to the web page creator for prompting him/her to select a modification method. However, if a user uses his/her own terminal to view web pages, the user of the terminal is limited to that person. Therefore, for a user having certain visual characteristics, web pages to be displayed on a display of the user's terminal may be automatically subjected to modification corresponding to the user's visual characteristics. In this case, modification portions and modification methods are not presented to the user: rather, an image processing method and an appropriate modification method corresponding to the user's visual characteristics are preset. The image processing section 30 and the result presentation section 40 automatically execute the preset processing when displaying web pages. This configuration can eliminate user's operation such as indicating an image processing method to the image processing section 30 and indicating a modification method to the result presentation section 40 every time a web page is displayed, which may be cumbersome for the user.
This embodiment has been described for the system that processes HTML documents. However, this embodiment may also be applied to documents written in languages other than HTML, for example, XML (Extensible Markup Language) documents, SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) files, and PDF (Portable Document Format) files, if they are displayed and viewed as an image on a display device. In addition, this embodiment simulates desired visual characteristics by actually generating an image and performing image processing. Then, portions considered hard to view for a user having the simulated visual characteristics are located as modification portions, based on which a document file (original data of the image) is modified. However, processing up to the point of performing simulation with the actually processed image and indicating modification portions may be applied not only to these document files but also to image data in general.
Thus, the present invention enables analyzing the readability of an image to be displayed on a terminal and appropriately modifying the image. The present invention also enables providing a data editing system for supporting creation of a screen easily viewed by a user having trouble with his/her eyesight, such as a visually impaired person or an aged person.
Variations described for the present invention can be realized in any combination desirable for each particular application. Thus particular limitations, and/or embodiment enhancements described herein, which may have particular advantages to the particular application need not be used for all applications. Also, not all limitations need be implemented in methods, systems and/or apparatus including one or more concepts of the present invention.
The present invention can be realized in hardware, software, or a combination of hardware and software. A visualization tool according to the present invention can be realized in a centralized fashion in one computer system, or in a distributed fashion where different elements are spread across several interconnected computer systems. Any kind of computer system—or other apparatus adapted for carrying out the methods and/or functions described herein—is suitable. A typical combination of hardware and software could be a general purpose computer system with a computer program that, when being loaded and executed, controls the computer system such that it carries out the methods described herein. The present invention can also be embedded in a computer program product, which comprises all the features enabling the implementation of the methods described herein, and which—when loaded in a computer system—is able to carry out these methods.
Computer program means or computer program in the present context include any expression, in any language, code or notation, of a set of instructions intended to cause a system having an information processing capability to perform a particular function either directly or after conversion to another language, code or notation, and/or reproduction in a different material form.
Thus the invention includes an article of manufacture which comprises a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing a function described above. The computer readable program code means in the article of manufacture comprises computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect the steps of a method of this invention. Similarly, the present invention may be implemented as a computer program product comprising a computer usable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing a function described above. The computer readable program code means in the computer program product comprising computer readable program code means for causing a computer to effect one or more functions of this invention. Furthermore, the present invention may be implemented as a program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by the machine to perform method steps for causing one or more functions of this invention.
It is noted that the foregoing has outlined some of the more pertinent objects and embodiments of the present invention. This invention may be used for many applications. Thus, although the description is made for particular arrangements and methods, the intent and concept of the invention is suitable and applicable to other arrangements and applications. It will be clear to those skilled in the art that modifications to the disclosed embodiments can be effected without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. The described embodiments ought to be construed to be merely illustrative of some of the more prominent features and applications of the invention. Other beneficial results can be realized by applying the disclosed invention in a different manner or modifying the invention in ways known to those familiar with the art.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2003-141588 | May 2003 | JP | national |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Parent | 10845919 | May 2004 | US |
| Child | 11840155 | Aug 2007 | US |
