Patent Grant
7826074
The present invention relates to printing a document for use with a digital pen. More particularly, the present invention relates to printing a document on a postscript printer using customized postscript commands.
Computer users are accustomed to using a mouse and keyboard as a way of interacting with a personal computer. While personal computers provide a number of advantages over written documents, most users continue to perform certain functions using printed paper. Some of these functions include reading and annotating written documents. In the case of annotations, the printed document assumes a greater significance because of the annotations placed on it by the user. One of the difficulties, however, with having a printed document with annotations is the later need to have the annotations entered back into the electronic form of the document. This requires the original user or another user to wade through the annotations and enter them into a personal computer. In some cases, a user will scan in the annotations and the original text, thereby creating a new document. These multiple steps make the interaction between the printed document and the electronic version of the document difficult to handle on a repeated basis. Further, scanned-in images are frequently non-modifiable. There may be no way to separate the annotations from the original text. This makes using the annotations difficult. Accordingly, an improved way of handling annotations is needed.
One technique of capturing handwritten information is by using an image capturing pen whose location may be determined during writing. One image capturing pen that provides this capability is the Anoto pen by Anoto Inc. This pen functions by using a camera to capture an image of paper encoded with a predefined pattern. An example of the image pattern is shown in
In order to synchronize annotations and associate the annotations with content on a digital document, the corresponding paper document is typically printed with a representation of the underlying grid structure, e.g., an electronic interactive code (EIC) pattern. However, the task of printing the EIC pattern may be very demanding on the printer, requiring both an inordinate amount of memory as well as extensive processing times. The printing of an EIC pattern typically causes common GDI printing to be time consuming for the user.
Thus, it would be desirable to facilitate printing the corresponding paper document that contains both page content and the corresponding representation of the underlying grid structure. Any effective solution should consider both required memory and print times. Also, it is advantageous that the solution be printer independent for portability.
Aspects of the present invention provide solutions to at least one of the issues mentioned above, supporting the printing of an electronic document with an electronic interactive code (EIC) pattern. Processes and apparatuses print documents containing embedded interactive code information by the use of custom postscript commands that are printer independent, with little overhead when printing, smaller print file size, and faster print times.
With one aspect of the invention, a document is printed one page at a time. For each page, the page content is first printed and followed by printing the associated EIC pattern. The printing of the associated EIC pattern utilizes custom postscript commands.
With another aspect of the invention, postscript commands are customized by representing each point of an EIC pattern. The processed EIC data is compressed and encoded to further reduce the data size.
With another aspect of the invention, a set of EIC symbols is treated as one font with each kind of EIC symbol being a glyph in the font. Each EIC symbol includes several dots, and each dot is represented in a glyph by an outline such as a rectangle.
With another aspect of the invention, the EIC pattern is represented with graphics procedures. A different procedure is associated with a different code.
With another aspect of the invention, the method for representing the EIC pattern is selected by memory and printing time requirements.
These and other aspects of the present invention will become known through the following drawings and associated description.
The foregoing summary of the invention, as well as the following detailed description of preferred embodiments, is better understood when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which are included by way of example, and not by way of limitation with regard to the claimed invention.
Aspects of the present invention relate to printing an electronic document with an electronic interactive code (EIC) pattern. The EIC pattern enables a computer system to locate annotations (strokes) drawn by a user with an image capturing pen within text and graphics of the electronic document.
The following is separated by subheadings for the benefit of the reader. The subheadings include: Terms, General-Purpose Computer, Image Capturing Pen, Encoding of Array, Decoding, Error Correction, Location Determination, Embedded Interaction Code (EIC) Document, Printing with Custom Postscript Commands, and EIC Printing with Microsoft Office commands.
Pen—any writing implement that may or may not include the ability to store ink. In some examples, a stylus with no ink capability may be used as a pen in accordance with embodiments of the present invention. An example is Microsoft's Universal Pen (uPen).
Camera—an image capture system that may capture an image from paper or any other medium.
Device Driver Interface (DDI)—includes a set of functions that are implemented by the operating system for use by drivers. Through DDI functions, drivers can access device properties and manipulate devices.
DDI Hook—a custom function that replaces or extends a DDI functions.
Enhanced Metafile (EMF)—a type of spool file used by print spoolers on Windows NT, Windows 2000, and Windows XP operating systems. An EMF reduces the time it takes for control to be returned to an application that makes a print request. A Graphical Device Interface (GDI) function call that produce the application's graphics object are stored directly in the EMF. (Graphical Device Interface is a Windows® standard for representing graphical objects and transmitting the graphical objects to output devices.) The time-consuming execution of these stored GDI functions is carried out later, in the background, when the spool file is played back. Using EMF spool files also promotes printer device independence. For example, a picture that measures 2 inches by 4 inches on a VGA display and that is stored in an EMF maintains these original dimensions, regardless of the printer's resolution.
Device Context (DC)—defines a set of graphic objects and their associated attributes, and the graphic modes that affect output. The graphic objects include a pen for line drawing, a brush for painting and filling, a bitmap for copying or scrolling parts of the screen, a palette for defining the set of available colors, a region for clipping and other operations, and a path for painting and drawing operations. Conceptually, a device context is a link between a Windows-based application, a device driver, and an output device such as a display, printer, or plotter.
XML Document Object Document—an XML file can be loaded into memory and described as an XMLDOMDocument object. The XMLDOMDocument is a kind of hierarchical structure: it contains an XMLDOMNode object as its child, and each XMLDOMNode object can contain one or more XMLDOMNode objects as its children.
Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformation (XSLT)—an XML-based language that enables you to transform one class of XML document to another class of XML document. It can also transform an XML document to an HTML document.
XML Document Object Node—the principal object with the Document Object Model (DOM). Elements, attributes, comments, processing instructions, and every other document component can be represented as an XMLDOMNode object. An XMLDOMNode can have one or more XMLDOMNode objects as it children.
XML Path—an expression that can address a part of an XML document.
Print Template—the mechanism for printing and previewing is controlled by print templates. Print template is also an HTML document, and it can print other HTML documents.
DeviceRect—a type of HTML element in a print template. It represents a page of an HTML document to be printed or viewed in print preview.
LayoutRect—a type of HTML element in print template. It represents the area or areas on a page where an HTML document's content is displayed when printed or during print preview.
OpenDoc Method—this method can start Microsoft® Word, and open a specified Microsoft Word document. Input: the file path of the Word document.
GetDocPageSize Method—This method can get page size of a Word document according to the full path of the Word document. Input: the file path of the Word document. Output: the page size of the Word document.
SHELLEXECUTEINFO Structure: Structure that contains information used by ShellExecuteEx.
ShellExecuteEx Method: This is a Windows shell function. It performs an action on a file. For example, one can set a SHELLEXECUTEINFO object with “printto\\command” command, a printer device name, a port name, and a Microsoft Word document file path, and then call ShellExecuteEx passing the SHELLEXECUTEINFO object as the parameter. Microsoft Word will be automatically launched and print the specified file to the printer. Input: address of a SHELLEXECUTEINFO structure.
IHTMLPainter Interface: This custom interface provides methods to MSHTML so that it can draw a rendering behavior.
MSHTML calls the methods of IHTMLPainter whenever a rendered behavior needs to be redrawn or when a mouse click occurs on the element to which the behavior is attached. A rendering behavior must supply an implementation of this interface to MSHTML. Members—Draw: Called by MSHTML to render a behavior.
IHTMLElementRender Interface: This interface is used to draw the contents of an element to a specified device context, normally a printer. Members—DrawToDC: Draws the contents of the element to the specified device context.
General Purpose Computer
A basic input/output system 160 (BIOS), containing the basic routines that help to transfer information between elements within the computer 100, such as during start-up, is stored in the ROM 140. The computer 100 also includes a hard disk drive 170 for reading from and writing to a hard disk (not shown), a magnetic disk drive 180 for reading from or writing to a removable magnetic disk 190, and an optical disk drive 191 for reading from or writing to a removable optical disk 192 such as a CD ROM or other optical media. The hard disk drive 170, magnetic disk drive 180, and optical disk drive 191 are connected to the system bus 130 by a hard disk drive interface 192, a magnetic disk drive interface 193, and an optical disk drive interface 194, respectively. The drives and their associated computer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage of computer readable instructions, data structures, program modules and other data for the personal computer 100. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that other types of computer readable media that can store data that is accessible by a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital video disks, Bernoulli cartridges, random access memories (RAMs), read only memories (ROMs), and the like, may also be used in the example operating environment.
A number of program modules can be stored on the hard disk drive 170, magnetic disk 190, optical disk 192, ROM 140 or RAM 150, including an operating system 195, one or more application programs 196, other program modules 197, and program data 198. A user can enter commands and information into the computer 100 through input devices such as a keyboard 101 and pointing device 102. Other input devices (not shown) may include a microphone, joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner or the like. These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit 110 through a serial port interface 106 that is coupled to the system bus, but may be connected by other interfaces, such as a parallel port, game port or a universal serial bus (USB). Further still, these devices may be coupled directly to the system bus 130 via an appropriate interface (not shown). A monitor 107 or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus 130 via an interface, such as a video adapter 108. In addition to the monitor, personal computers typically include other peripheral output devices (not shown), such as speakers and printers. In a preferred embodiment, a pen digitizer 165 and accompanying pen or stylus 166 are provided in order to digitally capture freehand input. Although a direct connection between the pen digitizer 165 and the serial port is shown, in practice, the pen digitizer 165 may be coupled to the processing unit 110 directly, via a parallel port or other interface and the system bus 130 as known in the art. Furthermore, although the digitizer 165 is shown apart from the monitor 107, it is preferred that the usable input area of the digitizer 165 be co-extensive with the display area of the monitor 107. Further still, the digitizer 165 may be integrated in the monitor 107, or may exist as a separate device overlaying or otherwise appended to the monitor 107.
The computer 100 can operate in a networked environment using logical connections to one or more remote computers, such as a remote computer 109. The remote computer 109 can be a server, a router, a network PC, a peer device or other common network node, and typically includes many or all of the elements described above relative to the computer 100, although only a memory storage device 111 has been illustrated in
When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 100 is connected to the local network 112 through a network interface or adapter 114. When used in a WAN networking environment, the personal computer 100 typically includes a modem 115 or other means for establishing a communications over the wide area network 113, such as the Internet. The modem 115, which may be internal or external, is connected to the system bus 130 via the serial port interface 106. In a networked environment, program modules depicted relative to the personal computer 100, or portions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device.
It will be appreciated that the network connections shown are illustrative and other techniques for establishing a communications link between the computers can be used. The existence of any of various well-known protocols such as TCP/IP, Ethernet, FTP, HTTP, Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11x and the like is presumed, and the system can be operated in a client-server configuration to permit a user to retrieve web pages from a web-based server. Any of various conventional web browsers can be used to display and manipulate data on web pages.
Image Capturing Pen
Aspects of the present invention include placing an encoded data stream in a displayed form that represents the encoded data stream. (For example, as will be discussed with
This determination of the location of a captured image may be used to determine the location of a user's interaction with the paper, medium, or display screen. In some aspects of the present invention, the pen may be an ink pen writing on paper. In other aspects, the pen may be a stylus with the user writing on the surface of a computer display. Any interaction may be provided back to the system with knowledge of the encoded image on the document or supporting the document displayed on the computer screen. By repeatedly capturing images with a camera in the pen or stylus as the pen or stylus traverses a document, the system can track movement of the stylus being controlled by the user. The displayed or printed image may be a watermark associated with the blank or content-rich paper or may be a watermark associated with a displayed image or a fixed coding overlying a screen or built into a screen.
The images captured by camera 203 may be defined as a sequence of image frames {Ii}, where Ii is captured by the pen 201 at sampling time ti. The sampling rate may be large or small, depending on system configuration and performance requirement. The size of the captured image frame may be large or small, depending on system configuration and performance requirement.
The image captured by camera 203 may be used directly by the processing system or may undergo ire-filtering. This pre-filtering may occur in pen 201 or may occur outside of pen 201 (for example, in a personal computer).
The image size of
The image sensor 211 may be large enough to capture the image 210. Alternatively, the image sensor 211 may be large enough to capture an image of the pen tip 202 at location 212. For reference, the image at location 212 is referred to as the virtual pen tip. It is noted that the virtual pen tip location with respect to image sensor 211 is fixed because of the constant relationship between the pen tip, the lens 208, and the image sensor 211.
The following transformation FS→P transforms position coordinates in the image captured by camera to position coordinates in the real image on the paper:
Lpaper=FS→P(LSensor)
During writing, the pen tip and the paper are on the same plane. Accordingly, the transformation from the virtual pen tip to the real pen tip is also FS→P:
Lpentip=FS→P(Lvirtual-pentip)
The transformation FS→P may be estimated as an affine transform. This simplifies as:
as the estimation of FS→P, in which θx, θy, sx, and sy are the rotation and scale of two orientations of the pattern captured at location 204. Further, one can refine F′S→P by matching the captured image with the corresponding real image on paper. “Refine” means to get a more precise estimation of the transformation FS→P by a type of optimization algorithm referred to as a recursive method. The recursive method treats the matrix F′S→P as the initial value. The refined estimation describes the transformation between S and P more precisely.
Next, one can determine the location of virtual pen tip by calibration.
One places the pen tip 202 on a fixed location Lpentip on paper. Next, one tilts the pen, allowing the camera 203 to capture a series of images with different pen poses. For each image captured, one may obtain the transformation FS→P. From this transformation, one can obtain the location of the virtual pen tip Lvirtual-pentip:
Lvirtual-pentip=FS→P(Lpentip)
where Lpentip is initialized as (0, 0) and
FP→S=(FS→P)−1
By averaging the Lvirtual-pentip obtained from each image, a location of the virtual pen tip Lvirtual-pentip may be determined. With Lvirtual-pentip, one can get a more accurate estimation of Lpentip. After several times of iteration, an accurate location of virtual pen tip Lvirtual-pentip pentip may be determined.
The location of the virtual pen tip Lvirtual-pentip now known. One can also obtain the transformation FS→P from the images captured. Finally, one can use this information to determine the location of the real pen tip Lpentip:
Lpentip=FS→P(Lvirtual-pentip)
Encoding of Array
A two-dimensional array may be constructed by folding a one-dimensional sequence. Any portion of the two-dimensional array containing a large enough number of bits may be used to determine its location in the complete two-dimensional array. However, it may be necessary to determine the location from a captured image or a few captured images. So as to minimize the possibility of a captured image portion being associated with two or more locations in the two-dimensional array, a non-repeating sequence may be used to create the array. One property of a created sequence is that the sequence does not repeat over a length (or window) n. The following describes the creation of the one-dimensional sequence then the folding of the sequence into an array.
A sequence of numbers may be used as the starting point of the encoding system. For example, a sequence (also referred to as an m-sequence) may be represented as a q-element set in field Fq. Here, q=pn where n 1 and p is a prime number. The sequence or m-sequence may be generated by a variety of different techniques including, but not limited to, polynomial division. Using polynomial division, the sequence may be defined as follows:
where Pn(x) is a primitive polynomial of degree n in field Fq[x] (having qn elements). Rl(x) is a nonzero polynomial of degree l (where l<n) in field Fq[x]. The sequence may be created using an iterative procedure with two steps: first, dividing the two polynomials (resulting in an element of field Fq) and, second, multiplying the remainder by x. The computation stops when the output begins to repeat. This process may be implemented using a linear feedback shift register as set forth in an article by Douglas W. Clark and Lih-Jyh Weng, “Maximal and Near-Maximal Shift Register Sequences: Efficient Event Counters and Easy Discrete Logarithms,” IEEE Transactions on Computers 43.5 (May 1994, pp 560-568). In this environment, a relationship is established between cyclical shifting of the sequence and polynomial Rl(x): changing Rl(x) only cyclically shifts the sequence and every cyclical shifting corresponds to a polynomial Rl(x). One of the properties of the resulting sequence is that, the sequence has a period of qn−1 and within a period, over a width (or length) n, any portion exists once and only once in the sequence. This is called the “window property”. Period qn−1 is also referred to as the length of the sequence and n as the order of the sequence.
The process described above is but one of a variety of processes that may be used to create a sequence with the window property.
The array (or m-array) that may be used to create the image (of which a portion may be captured by the camera) is an extension of the one-dimensional sequence or m-sequence. Let A be an array of period (m1, m2), namely A(k+m1,l)=A(k,l+m2)=A(k,l). When an n1×n2 window shifts through a period of A, all the nonzero n1×n2 matrices over Fq appear once and only once. This property is also referred to as a “window property” in that each window is unique. A window may then be expressed as an array of period (m1, m2) (with m1 and m2 being the horizontal and vertical number of bits present in the array) and order (n1, n2).
A binary array (or m-array) may be constructed by folding the sequence. One approach is to obtain a sequence then fold it to a size of m1×m2 where the length of the array is L=m1×m2=2n−1. Alternatively, one may start with a predetermined size of the space that one wants to cover (for example, one sheet of paper, 30 sheets of paper or the size of a computer monitor), determine the area (m1×m2), then use the size to let L m1×m2, where L=2n−1.
A variety of different folding techniques may be used. For example,
To create the folding method as shown in
bkl=ai, where k=i mod(m1), l=i mod(m2), i=0, . . . , L−1. (1)
This folding approach may be alternatively expressed as laying the sequence on the diagonal of the array, then continuing from the opposite edge when an edge is reached.
Referring to
Referring back to
Here, more than one pixel or dot is used to represent a bit. Using a single pixel (or bit) to represent a bit is fragile. Dust, creases in paper, non-planar surfaces, and the like create difficulties in reading single bit representations of data units. However, it is appreciated that different approaches may be used to graphically represent the array on a surface. Some approaches are shown in
A bit stream is used to create the graphical pattern 403 of
Decoding
When a person writes with the pen of
For the determination of the orientation of the captured image relative to the whole encoded area, one may notice that not all the four conceivable corners shown in
Continuing to
Next, image 601 is analyzed to determine which corner is missing. The rotation amount o needed to rotate image 601 to an image ready for decoding 603 is shown as o=(θ plus a rotation amount {defined by which corner missing}). The rotation amount is shown by the equation in
It is appreciated that the rotation angle θ may be applied before or after rotation of the image 601 to account for the missing corner. It is also appreciated that by considering noise in the captured image, all four types of corners may be present. We may count the number of corners of each type and choose the type that has the least number as the corner type that is missing.
Finally, the code in image 603 is read out and correlated with the original bit stream used to create image 403. The correlation may be performed in a number of ways. For example, it may be performed by a recursive approach in which a recovered bit stream is compared against all other bit stream fragments within the original bit stream. Second, a statistical analysis may be performed between the recovered bit stream and the original bit stream, for example, by using a Hamming distance between the two bit streams. It is appreciated that a variety of approaches may be used to determine the location of the recovered bit stream within the original bit stream.
As will be discussed, maze pattern analysis obtains recovered bits from image 603. Once one has the recovered bits, one needs to locate the captured image within the original array (for example, the one shown in
Let the sequence (or m-sequence) I correspond to the power series I(x)=1/Pn(x), where n is the order of the m-sequence, and the captured image contains K bits of I b=(b0 b1 b2 . . . bK−1)t, where K≧n and the superscript t represents a transpose of the matrix or vector. The location s of the K bits is just the number of cyclic shifts of I so that b0 is shifted to the beginning of the sequence. Then this shifted sequence R corresponds to the power series xs/Pn(x), or R=Ts(I), where T is the cyclic shift operator. We find this s indirectly. The polynomials modulo Pn(x) form a field. It is guaranteed that xs≡r0+r1x+ . . . rn−1xn−1 mod(Pn(x)). Therefore, we may find (r0, r1, . . . , rn−1) and then solve for s.
The relationship xs≡r0+r1x+ . . . rn−1xn−1 mod(Pn(x)) implies that R=r0+r1T(I)+ . . . +rn−1Tn−1(I). Written in a binary linear equation, it becomes:
R=rtA (2)
where r=(r0 r1 r2 . . . rn−1)t, and A=(I T(I) . . . Tn−1(I))t which consists of the cyclic shifts of I from 0-shift to (n−1)-shift. Now only sparse K bits are available in R to solve r. Let the index differences between bi and b0 in R be ki, i=1, 2, . . . , k−1, then the 1st and (ki+1)-th elements of R, i=1, 2, . . . , k−1, are exactly b0, b1, . . . , bk−1. By selecting the 1st and (ki+1)-th columns of A, i=1, 2, . . . , k−1, the following binary linear equation is formed:
bt=rtM (3)
If b is error-free, the solution of r may be expressed as:
rt={tilde over (b)}t{tilde over (M)}−1 (4)
where {tilde over (M)} is any non-degenerate n×n sub-matrix of M and {tilde over (b)} is the corresponding sub-vector of b.
With known r, we may use the Pohlig-Hellman-Silver algorithm as noted by Douglas W. Clark and Lih-Jyh Weng, “Maximal and Near-Maximal Shift Register Sequences: Efficient Event Counters and Easy Discrete Logorithms,” IEEE Transactions on Computers 43.5 (May 1994, pp 560-568) to find s so that xs≡r0+r1x+ . . . rn−1xn−1 mod(Pn(x)).
As matrix A (with the size of n by L, where L=2n−1) may be huge, we should avoid storing the entire matrix A. In fact, as we have seen in the above process, given extracted bits with index difference ki, only the first and (ki+1)-th columns of A are relevant to the computation. Such choices of ki is quite limited, given the size of the captured image. Thus, only those columns that may be involved in computation need to saved. The total number of such columns is much smaller than L (where L=2n−1 is the length of the m-sequence).
Error Correction
If errors exist in b, then the solution of r becomes more complex. Traditional methods of decoding with error correction may not readily apply, because the matrix M associated with the captured bits may change from one captured image to another.
We adopt a stochastic approach. Assuming that the number of error bits in b, ne, is relatively small compared to K, then the probability of choosing correct n bits from the K bits of b and the corresponding sub-matrix {tilde over (M)} of M being non-degenerate is high.
When the n bits chosen are all correct, the Hamming distance between bt and rtM, or the number of error bits associated with r, should be minimal, where r is computed via equation (4). Repeating the process for several times, it is likely that the correct r that results in the minimal error bits can be identified.
If there is only one r that is associated with the minimum number of error bits, then it is regarded as the correct solution. Otherwise, if there is more than one r that is associated with the minimum number of error bits, the probability that ne exceeds the error correcting ability of the code generated by M is high and the decoding process fails. The system then may move on to process the next captured image. In another implementation, information about previous locations of the pen can be taken into consideration. That is, for each captured image, a destination area where the pen may be expected next can be identified. For example, if the user has not lifted the pen between two image captures by the camera, the location of the pen as determined by the second image capture should not be too far away from the first location. Each r that is associated with the minimum number of error bits can then be checked to see if the location s computed from r satisfies the local constraint, i.e., whether the location is within the destination area specified.
If the location s satisfies the local constraint, the X, Y positions of the extracted bits in the array are returned. If not, the decoding process fails.
In step 803, n independent column vectors are randomly selected from the matrix M and vector r is determined by solving equation (4). This process is performed Q times (for example, 100 times) in step 804. The determination of the number of loop times is discussed in the section Loop Times Calculation.
In step 805, r is sorted according to its associated number of error bits. The sorting can be done using a variety of sorting algorithms as known in the art. For example, a selection sorting algorithm may be used. The selection sorting algorithm is beneficial when the number Q is not large. However, if Q becomes large, other sorting algorithms (for example, a merge sort) that handle larger numbers of items more efficiently may be used.
The system then determines in step 806 whether error correction was performed successfully, by checking whether multiple r′s are associated with the minimum number of error bits. If yes, an error is returned in step 809, indicating the decoding process failed. If not, the position s of the extracted bits in the sequence (or m-sequence) is calculated in step 807, for example, by using the Pohig-Hellman-Silver algorithm.
Next, the (X,Y) position in the array is calculated as: x=s mod m1 and y=s mod m2 and the results are returned in step 808.
Location Determination
In step 901, an image is received from a camera. Next, the received image may be optionally preprocessed in step 902 (as shown by the broken outline of step 902) to adjust the contrast between the light and dark pixels and the like.
Next, in step 903, the image is analyzed to determine the bit stream within it.
Next, in step 904, n bits are randomly selected from the bit stream for multiple times and the location of the received bit stream within the original sequence (or m-sequence) is determined.
Finally, once the location of the captured image is determined in step 904, the location of the pen tip may be determined in step 905.
Next, the received image is analyzed in step 1004 to determine the underlying grid lines. If grid lines are found in step 1005, then the code is extracted from the pattern in step 1006. The code is then decoded in step 1007 and the location of the pen tip is determined in step 1008. If no grid lines were found in step 1005, then an error is returned in step 1009.
Embedded Interaction Code (EIC) Document
To achieve the synchronization from a paper document to a digital document, it is desirable to establish a mapping between the paper document and the digital document. An EIC pattern may support embedded metadata as well as (x, y) position information. The metadata may include associated information, such as the URL of the digital document. However, the quantity of metadata, which can be embedded in the EIC pattern, is relatively limited. As a result, the information, which is bound together with the paper document, is not easy to modify and extend.
To improve flexibility and extensibility, an embodiment of the invention incorporates an EIC document that facilitates the integration between an image capturing pen and applications. An EIC document is a kind of digital file that serves as an intermediate tier between a paper document and a digital document. Both the paper document and the EIC document are typically generated during the printing process. An EIC document meets requirements of both the paper document and the digital document as much as possible, and plays an important role between them. There is typically an intrinsic incompatibility between the paper document and the digital document for the following reasons:
The association between a paper document and a corresponding EIC document is through a DocumentID. An EIC document is uniquely identified by the DocumentID, which may be embedded as metadata into the EIC pattern of the corresponding paper document. In one embodiment of the invention, the metadata capacity is 196 bits. The DocumentID may be a globally unique ID (GUID). In the embodiment, the DocumentID is formed from a serial number component (e.g., an image capturing pen's serial number), a generated random identification component (which may comprise a plurality of random numbers), and a time stamp component (which may comprise a plurality of time stamps). In other embodiments of the invention, the uniqueness of a DocumentID may be guaranteed by an EIC Document Center (as will be discussed below) or by an application itself.
The EIC document records the EIC Array allocations. When an image capturing pen makes a stroke on a page of paper document, the EIC document may transform the stroke (ink) and inform an application which page the user is writing on and where the ink is on that page.
Although one can decode and then calculate a stroke in paper document 1305, one needs a mechanism to determine where to insert the stroke in digital document 1301 and how to handle the stroke in an application. This issue is resolved by EIC document objects 1311. EIC document objects 1311 are defined and instantiated by an application and are then delegated to EIC document 1303. EIC document object 1311 includes an application-defined data object (which may be of any type), and binding context (which is typically of rectangular region). EIC document object 1311 can install an association between regions on paper document 1305 and objects in digital document 1301. For example, a line/word in a Microsoft® Word document may be associated with an associated printing region in paper document 1305 through EIC document object 1311. When an image capturing pen makes a stroke on the line/word, both the stroke and EIC document object 1311 are sent together as the decoding result to the corresponding application. Referring to EIC document object 1311, the application can process the stroke correctly.
The relationship among paper document 1305, digital document 1301 and EIC document 1303 can be illustrated as below:
EIC document 1303 may contain five categories of information: basic information, EIC document image (not shown and as discussed later), EIC command control (not shown and as discussed later), EIC document objects 1311, and strokes objects (not shown and as discussed later).
Basic information includes:
An EIC document image refers to the compressed images of pages of paper document 1305 with one image for every page. This property may be optional or may be mandatory according to an embodiment of the invention.
On the client side, uPenInkCollector object 1405 is responsible for receiving uPen strokes from low layer module 1409, receiving EIC Document 1407 from EIC document center 1451, and notifying the decoding result to applications 1401.
On the server side, substantially all EIC documents (1419, 1421, and 1423) are maintained by EIC document center 1415. In the embodiment, lookup table 1417 records relationships from DocumentID to the corresponding EIC document. (Other embodiments of the invention may use other techniques for identifying the relationship.) When client 1451 requests an EIC document, EIC document center 1415 simply looks up the specified DocumentID in lookup table 1417, and subsequently returns the corresponding EIC Document to client 1451.
In scenario 1500, application 1551 generates request 1501 to EIC renderer 1553 (which is typically implemented at client 1451) to create an EIC document. With request 1501, application 1551 provides EIC renderer 1553 the URL and the version information (if available) of the corresponding digital document. Application 1551 may implement command controls as described later. Also, application 1551 may delegate EIC document objects to the EIC document.
EIC renderer 1553 asks EIC document center 1555 (which is typically implemented at the server) to create the EIC document by sending request 1503 to EIC document center 1555. After the EIC document is generated by EIC document center 1555, EIC array allocations 1505 are returned to EIC renderer 1553. EIC renderer 1553 subsequently forwards the EIC Array allocations to application 1551 with response 1507.
In scenario 1500, application 1551 sends request 1509 to printer 1557 in order to print the document page by page, with a respective corresponding EIC pattern on each page. Subsequently, application 1551 generates request 1511 to EIC renderer 1553 to save the resulting EIC document. (In the embodiment, the document may or may not be printed even though the document is saved.) EIC renderer 1553 then sends request 1513 to EIC document center 1553 in order to save the EIC document.
From the structure of an EIC document object, one observes that the EIC document provides a mechanism to associate a part of a paper document with an application-defined object in the corresponding digital document. Consequently, an uPen operation may be associated with one or more application-defined objects in the corresponding digital document. As a result, even though the digital document looks different from the paper document or may change, an uPen operation is interpreted and synchronized to the digital document if corresponding EIC document objects exist.
A typical application of EIC document object is InfoPath®. InfoPath should be informed of which form field (e.g., fields 1701-1723) that the new ink (stroke) belongs to. InfoPath should also recognize the ink according to the type of the field and then fill the recognized results into the field automatically. (For example, a converted character string may be inserted in field 1701 while the strokes that correspond to a signature remain in field 1723 to preserve the original signature.) While the ink positions may not be related to the screen view of the digital document, the ink positions are related to the printing view of the paper document. Moreover, the screen display may continually change during form filling. The application should be informed of the positions of the field on the printed paper. The application may then correctly determine which field should be filled by the new ink. If an EIC document object is used, an association process can be handled as follows: calculating the printing position of fields, wrapping relevant information such as the position and type of field into an EIC document object, and delegating the EIC document objects to the EIC document during the printing process. Subsequently, InfoPath may retrieve the EIC document objects for recognizing and filling.
In the embodiment, every EIC document object contains corresponding information, including the position (x,y) of the field on paper and the XPath of the field in InfoPath form 1801. (The primary purpose of)(Path is to address parts of an Extensible Markup Language (XML) document.) When a stroke (ink) is written, InfoPath receives the stroke information. The stroke (e.g., stroke 1809) corresponds to a stroke object. The strokes object stores stroke data. The stroke object may include a Pen ID, which is a unique ID identifying the pen that writes the stroke, and binding information for binding the stroke object to one or more EIC document objects.
InfoPath then iterates over substantially all EIC document objects in the EIC document and finds the EIC document object that is nearest to the stroke (according to position information of fields on paper). By this means, InfoPath can figure out which EIC document object each stroke belongs to. The embodiment may associate different strokes with each other if the different strokes are associated with the same document entity, e.g., a user's signature. Each stroke may be associated with multiple stroke objects, which are mapped to the same or different EIC document objects. A stroke object is typically mapped to an EIC document object, although a stroke object may be mapped to a plurality of EIC document objects.
When a user requests InfoPath to convert strokes into character strings and to put the character strings (e.g., character string 1815) into fields (e.g., field 1813) of the InfoPath form 1801, InfoPath performs the conversion by the following:
In the examples shown in
Printing with Custom PostScript Commands
Embedded Interaction Code (EIC) relates to data-embedding technology for encoding data and embedding the data into a digital document for device-surface interaction. Printing performance is important to EIC technology. The data size may present a significant problem and may pose a significant overhead to EIC printing. For example, there may be more than 100,000 coding characters in one A4 page of paper with EIC. The data size may be approximately 100 Mbytes when printing using common GDI functions. The printing process may occupy more than 100 Mbytes memory and may require more than 5 minutes to print one page. Furthermore, the data size increases with an increase of paper size and printer DPI. With such approaches, EIC printing is typically device dependent since most printers and computers can not satisfy the associated high demands. The printing overhead makes EIC page printing tedious and inconvenient to the user, especially for low bandwidth network printing.
Fast Embedded Interaction Code printing with custom postscript commands enables one to print EIC pages substantially faster and with less overhead than with GDI functions. Advantages of fast EIC printing with custom postscript commands include printer independence and overhead reduction when printing. With an embodiment of the invention, the data size is approximately 1 Mbyte per page, the printing process occupies approximately 10 Mbytes of memory, and the printing process requires approximately 1 minute to print one page.
The inclusion of an EIC pattern may cause common GDI printing to execute slowly from the perspective of the user. Printing poses a serious problem for the application of EIC documents. Fast Embedded Interaction Code printing with custom postscript commands addresses the problem.
Fast EIC printing creates well defined postscript commands and sends the postscript commands directly to a printer as will be discussed with
The first postscript command type utilizes an imagemask command to represent an EIC array. The imagemask command represents every point of the EIC pattern using one bit, so the data size of printing is reduced to approximately 10 percent of the original size. (Prior art typically uses 3 bytes to represent each dot of an EIC pattern.) The datasource of the imagemask command may also be a file, so that a compression filter can be used to achieve an even smaller data size. The data size may be further reduced to approximately 1 percent of the original size after using filters. FlateEncode compresses data using the public-domain zlib/deflate compression method. FlateEncode is a good general-purpose encoding that is useful for image data. An embodiment of the invention compresses the data using zlib compression and uncompresses the data using FlateDecode filter.
To improve the portability of the resulting data and avoid the problem of interference by operating systems or communication channels that preempt the use of control characters, the embodiment represents text as 7-bit characters and imposes line-length restrictions. The embodiment utilizes ASCII85Encode because the encoding is efficient. The embodiment cascades the FlateEncode filter and the ASCII85Encode filter to form a pipeline to pass portable data with a significantly reduced size.
The second postscript command type utilizes EIC codes (EIC symbols) that can be represented by user defined fonts. Every EIC array type comprises a set of EIC symbols. For example, a two bit-EIC array contains four kinds of EIC symbols, and an eight bit-EIC array contains 256 kinds of EIC symbols. (While an EIC representation, e.g., the EIC representation shown in
Since there are at most 256 kinds of codes (EIC symbols) in one document with an eight bit-EIC array, one Type3 font is used to avoid the overhead of changing the font. A font character that has a value less than 33 is encoded by means of the \ddd escape convention. Since the length of one code is m*n bits (e.g., 8 dots wide and 8 dots high as shown in
The third postscript command type is defined by graphics procedures. With the embodiment, one defines a procedure for each EIC symbol and inserts the associated procedure to an array object. For example, a point may be represented with command “rectfill” or “lineto”. A code is outputted in the following steps: read data from the current file, transform the data to the relevant procedure, and execute the procedure. To output all codes, loops for line and column are needed. This method has the same advantages as the font approach. Because the third postscript command type is implemented using only basic graphics commands, there is no overhead as with font operations. The printing speed using graphics commands is the fastest among the three kinds of postscript commands as discussed above.
After data is created, the program sends the data to printer using GDI function ExtEscape with an escape function PASSTHROUGH.
Table 1 is the comparison among GDI printing and three postscript printing. Table 1 suggests that postscript printing achieves faster printing, much smaller data size, and less memory overhead with respect to GDI printing. From Table 1, the most appropriate postscript approach may be selected from the projected data size, printing speed, and memory size.
The following listing is an example of a customized PostScript Type3 font, which comprises 256 characters. The example provides details for two of the 256 characters.
The following listing illustrates an example of a customized PostScript according to an embodiment of the invention.
The following listing illustrates an example of a customized PostScript command to output EIC symbols.
EIC Printing with Microsoft Office Documents
The ability to print an Office document with an EIC pattern facilitates integration of an image capturing pen (e.g., uPen) with Microsoft Office applications. Some special methods may be used when printing the documents of Microsoft® Word, PowerPoint® and InfoPath™. Corresponding methods will be discussed.
Process 2400 performs the following:
Referring to
In step 2407, Windows shell 2457 asks Microsoft Word to print the document using virtual printer 2455. Virtual printer executes printing, and generates EMF of all pages in response to Microsoft Word sending the contents in step 2409. In step 2411, DDI hook notifies that EMF of all pages has been generated.
Application 2451 repeatedly initiates printing a page on printer 2459 for each page of the document by executing the following steps, one time per page. In step 2413, application 2451 instructs printer 2459 to print the EMF of one page. Application 2451 subsequently instructs printer 2459 to print the EIC pattern of the page in step 2415.
Referring to
Application 2551 allocates and arranges the image of one page. Referring to
In the embodiment, an InfoPath document has an XML format. The document is transformed by XSLT to an HTML document before printing, and the resulting HTML document is printed. The synchronization from a paper document to an InfoPath digital document is more than ink recovery. For example, the ink (i.e., associated strokes) should be recognized and the result inserted into the corresponding XMLDOMNode. The relationship between every HTML element and the corresponding XMLDOMNode, i.e., XPath should be recorded. First, XMLDOMDocument is modified to assure that every XMLDOMNode possesses an attribute for its XPath, e.g., xpath=“/my:myFields/my:group1/my:field1”. XSL transformation is modified, using xsl:attribute, to create attribute nodes and attach the attribute nodes to the corresponding output HTML elements.
Another consideration is to obtain the position of every field (strictly speaking, HTML element) on the printed paper. A rendering behavior object is implemented and attaches its instance to every concerned HTML element. The behavior object has implemented and exposed an IHTMLPainter interface. Thus, a bounding box is obtained for every HTML element when the IHTMLPainter::Draw is called during printing process 2600.
With InfoPath, the printing of an HTML document is based on the print template, which loads the HTML document and separates the HTML document into pages. After the HTML document is completely loaded by the print template, one obtains layout information of pages, e.g., the DeviceRect and LayoutRect element of every page. Since the DeviceRect implements the IHTMLElementRender interface, process 2600 may call IHTMLElementRender::DrawToDC to print the content of every page. Thus, process 2600 may create a memory device context and subsequently call IHTMLElementRender::DrawToDC to draw a page to the memory device context. Finally, process 2600 obtains a page image. As discussed above, one creates a printer device context (DC and designated as IHTMLElementRender::DrawToDC) to print the content of every page and immediately followed by a call to print the EIC pattern.
For every field, process 2600 wraps relevant information, e.g., XPath and the position in paper document with an object, and delegates the object as an EIC document object to the EIC document.
Referring to
InfoPath 2651 attaches a rendering behavior object to every HTML element in step 2605. Every rendering behavior implements an interface called IHTMLPainter.
InfoPath utilizes a print template to process the HTML document. In step 2607, InfoPath 2651 loads the HTML document into a print template. In step 2609, InfoPath 2651 obtains a collection of DeviceRect through the print template. Each DeviceRect contains contents of a page of the HTML document.
Steps 2611-2623, as will be discussed, are repeatedly executed for each page.
InfoPath 2651 generates images of all pages. Every DeviceRect implements an interface called IHTMLElementRender. By calling the DrawToDC method of this interface in step 2611, InfoPath 2651 can obtain the image of each page. In step 2613, the Draw method of IHTMLPainter of HTML elements is called. With the Draw method, process 2600 obtains bounding boxes of the HTML elements.
InfoPath 2651 subsequently prints one page. In step 2615, InfoPath 2651 prints the image of one page. InfoPath 2651 then prints the EIC pattern of the page in step 2617.
For each HTML element, InfoPath 2651 wraps information into an EICDocumentObject. In step 2619, InfoPath 2651 gets the bounding box of an HTML element. In step 2621, InfoPath 2651 obtains the XPath from the xpath attribute of the HTML element. InfoPath 2651 wraps corresponding information (XPath and bounding box) into an EICDocumentObject in step 2623.
As can be appreciated by one skilled in the art, a computer system with an associated computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling the computer system can be utilized to implement the exemplary embodiments that are disclosed herein. The computer system may include at least one computer such as a microprocessor, digital signal processor, and associated peripheral electronic circuitry.
Although the invention has been defined using the appended claims, these claims are illustrative in that the invention is intended to include the elements and steps described herein in any combination or sub combination. Accordingly, there are any number of alternative combinations for defining the invention, which incorporate one or more elements from the specification, including the description, claims, and drawings, in various combinations or sub combinations. It will be apparent to those skilled in the relevant technology, in light of the present specification, that alternate combinations of aspects of the invention, either alone or in combination with one or more elements or steps defined herein, may be utilized as modifications or alterations of the invention or as part of the invention. It may be intended that the written description of the invention contained herein covers all such modifications and alterations.
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