Document matching using structural information
AssigneeRicoh Company, Ltd.
InventorMark Peairs
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method and apparatus for document matching using structural information. The present invention provides a method and apparatus for identifying documents based on the visual structure of the document. Structural information describing a document is generated and used to search for matching stored documents. In one embodiment, images are converted to a point set and the point sets are compared. For example, an image of a document that is sought is converted to a point set and the point set is compared to point sets corresponding to stored documents. When point sets match within a predetermined tolerance, the documents match. In one embodiment, the Hausdorff measure is used to compare point sets.
Claims17
A method comprising:
- generating structural information, including a point set, describing a target document;
- comparing the structural information describing the target document to a set of structural information describing a set of stored electronic documents;
- and
- retrieving one or more stored electronic documents from the set of stored electronic documents if the structural information describing the stored electronic documents matches the structural information describing the target document within a predetermined tolerance;
- analyzing the target document to determine the structural information describing the target document, wherein the analyzing comprises:
- receiving a raster image;
- and
- removing text from the raster image.
A machine-readable medium having stored thereon sequences of instructions, which when executed by a processor cause the processor to perform the following comprising:
- generating structural information, including a point set, describing a target document;
- comparing the structural information describing the target document to a set of structural information describing a set of stored electronic documents;
- and
- retrieving one or more stored electronic documents from the set of stored electronic documents if the structural information describing the stored electronic documents matches the structural information describing the target document within a predetermined tolerance;
- and
- analyzing the target document to determine structural information describing the target document, comprising:
- receiving a raster image;
- and
- removing text from the raster image.
An apparatus, comprising:
- means for generating structural information, including a point set, describing a target document;
- means for comparing the structural information describing the target document to a set of structural information describing a set of stored electronic documents;
- means for retrieving one or more stored electronic documents from the set of stored electronic documents if the structural information describing the stored electronic documents matches the structural information describing the target document within a predetermined tolerance;
- means for analyzing the target document to determine structural information describing the target document;
- means for receiving a raster image;
- and
- means for removing text from the raster image.
A document matching apparatus comprising:
- a processor to generate structural information, including a point set, based on a target document;
- a storage device coupled to the processor to store multiple electronic documents and structural information based on each of a set of one or more electronic documents;
- wherein the processor is configured to compare the structural information based on the target document to the structural information based on the electronic documents to determine whether the structural information based on the target document and structural information of one or more electronic documents matches within a predetermined tolerance, and wherein the processor is configured to analyze the target document to determine structural information describing the target document, including receiving a raster image and removing text from the raster image.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.