Patent Application
20070124700
The invention relates to a method for generating icons for content items, to an electronic device, and to a computer program product.
Computing devices include a number of applications for various purposes. Many of these applications are for processing content items, such as document files, image files or presentation files. Typically, an operating system of an electronic device provides a specific file management view in which different content items and their storage locations in a folder structure are identified. Since a user may have a large number of content items in his electronic device, for instance a large number of images or presentations, there should be more descriptive identification methods besides file names. A common feature of operating systems is that a file type specific icon identifies the file type of a file.
A solution is known for extracting icons from various types of files. IconCool-shareware (www.iconcool.net) enables a user to extract icons in PC environment. Another icon creation solution has been suggested in which a context of a file is first established by parsing its name, location and text. Frequent terms and noun phrases found in the text are used to generate a query to an image database. An icon is created from an image from the database. A drawback in this solution is that a large database may be needed in order to have appropriate images for various contexts. An image selected on the basis of a frequently occurring word may also be misleading.
There is now provided an enhanced solution for icon creation in an electronic device. This solution may be achieved by a method, an electronic device, a computer program product, and an arrangement, which are characterized by what is disclosed in the independent claims. Some embodiments of the invention are set forth in the dependent claims.
According to an aspect of the invention, an icon generation module has been developed for an electronic device, the module being configured to: analyse at least some contents of a content item, select a portion of the content item on the basis of an algorithm, and specify an icon from the selected content item portion.
The term “icon” is to be understood broadly and refers to any kind of displayable representation of a content item. The term “content item” is to be understood broadly and it may refer to a data item comprising multiple or single media components or types, to a complete presentation, or even to a data entity in a multimedia file, for instance. The specification of an icon is to be understood to cover one or more icon definition or generation functions, and may involve storing of the selected content item portion and associating the content item portion to the content item, for instance.
According to an embodiment of the invention, the electronic device is configured to determine if there is a portion of a given media type in the content item. The electronic device is further configured to select for the icon a portion comprising data of the given media type.
According to another embodiment of the invention, the electronic device is configured to check if there is a portion in the content item meeting a primary criterion. The electronic device is configured to check if any other objects meeting a given secondary criterion exist if there is no appropriate content item portion meeting the primary criterion. The electronic device is then configured to form the icon from one or more objects meeting the given secondary criterion.
The embodiments of the invention provide several advantages. An improved visualisation in icons is possible on the basis of file contents. This is especially useful when searching for a specific content item amongst a large number of content items, for instance when searching for a specific presentation file in a file folder. Specific portions of content items may be searched from the content item. An icon generated from a specific portion of the content item, such as an image, enables to generate better descriptive icons as compared to earlier solutions. Further, the generation of the content-based icons may be automatic and no specific image database is required for icon generation.
In the following, the invention will be described in greater detail with reference to exemplary embodiments and the accompanying drawings, in which
a and 4b illustrate page content processing according to an embodiment of the invention.
The embodiments of the invention are applicable to a wide variety of electronic devices with graphical user interfaces. For instance, the present electronic device may be a mobile station used as a terminal in telecommunication systems comprising one or more base stations. The device could be used for short-range communication, such as one implemented with a Bluetooth chip, an infrared or a WLAN connection. The portable electronic device could be a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) device including the necessary telecommunication means for establishing a network connection, or a PDA device that can be coupled to a mobile telephone, for instance, for a network connection. However, the present features could be implemented in a laptop or desktop computer, an accessory device, or a computing device including no telecommunication means. To name some further examples, the electronic device could be a browsing device or a digital entertainment device, such as a personal or a domestic media player device or a game console.
Inputs from the user of the electronic device are received by means of the input device 106. The processing unit 102 is connected to the display 104 and configured to control different application views on the display 102. The processing unit 102 receives user input commands from the input device 106. The input device 106 receives user inputs for selecting available options in application specific views, such as a file folder view showing available content item files and associated icons, and for navigating in different operating modes of the electronic device. The processing unit 102 interprets the detected selections to the user input device 106, performs given software functions based thereon and, as a result of the performed software functions, defines and displays an updated view on the display 104, including an icon associated with a content item, for instance.
The processing unit 102 comprises one or more processors. One embodiment of the electronic device 100 is a computer program product to generate icons for content items. Computer program codes executed in the processing unit 102 may be used for causing the electronic device 100 to implement means for providing inventive functions relating to generating content specific icons, some embodiments of the inventive functions being illustrated below in association with the following figures. The computer program product may be embodied on a distribution medium. The distribution medium may be any means for distributing software to customers, such as a (computer readable) program storage medium, a (computer readable) memory, a (computer readable) software distribution package, a (computer readable) signal, or a (computer readable) telecommunications signal.
In principle, hardware solutions or a combination of hardware and software solutions may also be used to implement the inventive functions in the electronic device 100. For instance, one or more integrated circuits, such as application-specific integrated circuits ASIC, may be used.
A chip unit or some other kind of hardware module for controlling the electronic device 100 may, in one embodiment, cause the device to perform the inventive functions. Such a hardware module comprises connecting means for connection to the electronic device 100 mechanically and/or functionally. Thus, the hardware module may form part of the device and could be removable. Some examples of such a hardware module are a sub-assembly, a portable data storage medium, an IC card, or an accessory device.
In a further embodiment illustrated in
The modules in
In one embodiment, the icon generation module 200 is configured to search for and select a specific content type in the content item. Hence the analysing module 202 may be configured to search for specific file types included in the content item. In one further embodiment, the icon generation module 200 is configured to determine if an image exists in the content item, and select an image for icon specification as a response to the content item comprising an image. For instance, the icon generation module 200 may be configured to search for any JPEG files included in the content item.
In one embodiment, the icon generation module 200, or an application in or for which the content item module 200 is applied, first opens the content item. For instance, a presentation is first opened or created in a presentation editor, and then the contents of the presentation are analysed. Hence, the icon may be created from a content item being viewed or edited.
In one embodiment, the icon generation module 200 is implemented as part of a presentation editor application. An icon may be associated with a content item in various ways. In one embodiment, the icon is part of the content item itself. The icon may be stored in a separate file. The icon generation may be initiated by user input or automatically. The icon may be generated for a presentation when editing or finalizing the presentation and the present icon generation features may be implemented by an authoring tool. This embodiment enables to utilize information available at the presentation edit time for icon generation and also an easy implementation of content item analysing and portion selection.
In one embodiment, the icon generation is performed in connection with storing the content item as a file. For instance, when an input for closing the content item or for storing the content item is detected from the user, the electronic device 100 is arranged to initiate an icon generation process by the icon generation module 200.
In another embodiment, the icon generation features are not application specific but part of an underlying operating system or a higher level software component, such as a desktop manager. Icons may be generated by system specific functions for various types of content items. However, certain application or content item specific features may be used for icon generation, in particular for analysing content items and selecting suitable portions for icons. A plug-in owned by the operating system or the desktop manager may provide present icon generation features. The icons may be stored in a general-purpose repository.
One criterion that may be applied when selecting an appropriate content item portion is the size of an available content item. Thus, the icon generation module 200 may be configured to select an available content item portion if it is large enough. For instance, the analysing module 202 may be configured to determine the size of an available content item portion. In an embodiment, the icon generation module 200, in the embodiment of
The algorithm may involve a plurality of checking rules or steps for selecting an appropriate content item portion. In one embodiment, the icon generation module 200 is first configured to check if there is a portion in the content item (or at least in the examined part of the content item) meeting a primary criterion. If not, the icon generation module 200 is configured to check if any other content item portions meeting a predetermined secondary criterion exist. If a content item meeting the secondary criterion is found, the icon generation module 200 is configured to form the icon from one or more objects meeting the predetermined secondary criterion. In one embodiment, on the basis of the secondary criterion, the icon generation module 200 is arranged to search for a second type of content portions. There are many available objects that may be searched for and used as a secondary basis for the icon. For instance, the icon generation module 200 may be arranged to search a text with a specific property or a keyword.
The content item may be a presentation or a document comprising multiple pages or other portions that are separate from each other. In one embodiment, the icon generation module 200 is configured to analyse a content item with one such portion or page at a time. Thus, a second page following a first page may be analysed if, on the basis of the analysing of the first page, the contents of the first page do not comprise a portion meeting the at least one predetermined selection criterion to be selected for icon creation. It is to be noted that the analysing does not have to start from the first page of the presentation or the document and pages may also be omitted.
The icon generation module 200 may be configured to search the contents of a page being analysed for object(s) meeting predetermined criterion for icon generation. In one embodiment, a page comprising an appropriate object, for instance an image large enough, is as a whole used for creating an icon. In an alternative embodiment, an icon is generated using only a portion of such a page. In a further embodiment, the icon generation module 200 is configured to generate an icon by using only an object appropriate for icon generation and discarding other page contents.
If no large enough images are found, a checking step 312 is carried out to find one or more other appropriate objects. If there are other appropriate objects, their appropriateness is checked, in the embodiment of
It is to be noted that instead of certain portions of a page, the whole page may be considered and selected as an appropriate object in steps 312 and 314. Thus, the overall size determines the validity of the page. In an alternative embodiment, there is a third examination step if in step 512 there are no appropriate objects in the analysed page. The third examination step may check if the whole page may be used for icon formation, and if not, current step 318 may be entered. Further, if none of the pages of the presentation is found valid, then the icon generation module 200 may be configured to select the first page for image generation regardless of its contents.
The icon generation module 200, in the embodiment of
b illustrates one text object processing example that may be applied in step 316. If the icon is made out of all contents of the page, no cropping is used. Instead, the contents are copied into a single image, which has the same shape as the icon (usually square) and is large enough to cover all the contents. The copied content fills the center of the icon. The unused space around the contents is filled with the background colour used on that particular page. The resulting image is scaled down to be exactly the size of the wanted icon.
As already mentioned, in one embodiment the icon generation process is initiated automatically on the basis of a predetermined trigger, whereby very illustrative icons can be created without further actions from the user.
The above illustrated rules for content item analysing and content item portion selection are some embodiments of the invention and also other rules and algorithms may be applied.
In one embodiment, the content based icon generation is applied in creating icons from content items in SMIL (synchronized multimedia integration language) format. The SMIL is an XML (extensible mark-up language) based format enabling authoring of interactive audiovisual presentations. The SMIL is typically used for multimedia presentations integrating streaming audio and video with images, text or some other media type. For instance, the 3GPP MMS uses a subset of SMIL version 2.0 for media synchronization and scene description. More details on SMIL are available at http://www.w3.org/AudioVideo/ and from W3C specification “Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL 2.1)”, 27 Sep. 2005. The above illustrated icon generating features may be applied in an SMIL editor application. Since media objects are referred to in SMIL documents, the icon generation is arranged by applying references to media objects, for instance to image files. However, it is to be noted that the present invention may be applied for generating icons from other media formats.
In one embodiment, the icon comprises multiple parts or images. Such an icon may be generated by applying the above illustrated features such that an appropriate content item portion is selected for each icon part or image. It is feasible to apply different criteria for different icon parts for defining the contents from which a respective icon part is generated. The icon parts or images may be successively displayed. The icon generation module 200 may be arranged to generate an animated icon suggesting the sequence of pages in an associated presentation. This embodiment further enables to better illustrate the contents of a presentation by icons.
Icons may be generated by applying at least some of the above illustrated features for various purposes. One embodiment is a view of a file manager or a specific media gallery, displaying information on folder contents in memory 108. Icons generated by applying the above illustrated features may be applied in various file managament applications, for instance in a file list view. Another examplary application in which the icons may be displayed is a desktop manager displaying a desktop view on a screen of an electronic device 100, such as a PC, a PDA, a laptop computer, or a mobile communications device. In one embodiment, at least some of the above illustrated features related to icon generation are implemented by such applications by which the icons are displayed.
An icon represeting a content item, such as a presentation file, may be presented in a format appropriate for the display 108, current usage context and application. In one embodiment, the icon is displayed as a thumbnail. An icon may be presented with other content item information, such as file name, type, size, location, date, etc.
In one embodiment, besides content item contents, supplementary (metadata) information is used as part of or determines a property of an icon. For instance, supplementary information may be added in step 510, 516 to form a predetermined part of the content based icon. Such supplementary information could include additional content item information, such as those mentioned above. For instance, specific graphics may be used in the icon to illustrate the season when the content item was created. A portion of the space for an icon may be reserved for supplementary information. One further example of such additional information for icon generation is a specific file type thumbnail or another content item property specific information element that is included in or combined with the content based icon. For instance, a specific logo is added to a corner of the icon when the content item comprises audio. It is also feasible to apply specific backround images, frames or templates in icons to provide further information besides content information. An example is that a specific frame is selected for a birthday card or an event invitation.
Even though the invention has been described above with reference to an example according to the accompanying drawings, it is clear that the invention is not restricted thereto but can be modified in several ways within the scope of the appended claims. Different features may thus be omitted, modified or replaced by equivalents.
