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US 6,546,385 B1Granted
Method and apparatus for indexing and searching content in hardcopy documents
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsJianchang Mao, Carlton Wayne Niblack
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and apparatus for indexing and searching content in a hardcopy document utilizes a searching assistant computing device (402) with an index table (420) stored in memory (412). The index table (420) is created in memory by scanning a 2-D barcode from a hardcopy document or alternatively by downloading indexing information from a web page via the Internet (430). A search engine (410) in the searching assistant (402) searches the index table (420) to locate a data element found in the content of the hardcopy document. The indexing information corresponding to the data element is displayed to a user as part of the search results to indicate the location of the data element in the hardcopy document.
Claims21
A system for index searching content in a hardcopy document comprising:
- a display for displaying information to a user;
- a user input for accepting input from the user;
- a memory for storing indexing information, the indexing information comprising index entries that are searchable by a search engine, each of the index entries identifying at least one data element and its specific location in a hardcopy document;
- a search engine electrically coupled to the display, the user input, and the memory, for searching the indexing information, in response to an input from the user requesting the specific location of a data element in the hardcopy document, to find at least one of the index entries in the indexing information identifying the requested data element and its specific location in the hardcopy document, to display to the user a representation of the specific location in the hardcopy document of the found at least one of the index entries in the indexing information to identify to the user the specific location of the requested data element in the hardcopy document;
- a barcode scanner for scanning barcode encoded indexing information from a hardcopy document;
- and
- a barcode decoder electrically coupled to the barcode scanner and to the memory for decoding barcode encoded information from the barcode scanner and for storing the decoded indexing information in the memory, the indexing information being searchable by the search engine to find the requested data element in the hardcopy document.
4 more elements
A system comprising:
- a display for displaying information to a user;
- a memory for storing indexing information corresponding to at least one data element that is part of content in a hardcopy document;
- and
- a search engine electrically coupled to the display and the memory, for searching the indexing information to locate one data element of the at least one data element that is part of the content in a hardcopy document and displaying indexing information corresponding to the one data element as part of the results of the search, and wherein the search engine performs a boolean search of the indexing information to locate the one data element of the at least one data element.
1 more element
A method comprising the steps of:
- reading data elements from the content of a document;
- creating an index table including index entries that are searchable by a search engine, each of the index entries identifying at least one of the data elements and its specific location in a hardcopy representation of the document, a representation of an index entry found by the search engine in the index table being displayable to a person to identify to the person the specific location of an associated at least one of the data elements in the hardcopy representation of the document;
- and
- printing a compressed hardcopy representation of the index table in a 2-D barcode encoded form on a hardcopy document for
- a 2-D barcode scanner to scan 2-D barcode encoded information from the 2-D barcode encoded form of the index table on the hardcopy document;
- and
- a 2-D barcode decoder to decode the 2-D barcode encoded information from the 2-D barcode scanner for storing the decoded indexing information in memory, the indexing information being searchable by a search engine to find a requested data element in the hardcopy document.
4 more elements
A method comprising the steps of:
- downloading, from a network server, indexing information comprising index entries that are searchable by a search engine, each of the index entries identifying at least one data element and its specific location in a hardcopy document;
- storing the indexing information in a memory;
- in response to a user request for a specific location of a data element in the hardcopy document, searching the indexing information to find an index entry that identifies the specific location in the hardcopy document of the requested data element;
- and
- displaying to the user a representation of the found index entry to identify to the user the specific location in the hardcopy document of the requested data element;
- and wherein the indexing information is stored in the network server after being created from at least one of reading and scanning at least one of a 2-D barcode encoded information from a hardcopy document and a representation of the hardcopy document.
3 more elements
A computer readable medium including computer instruction for:
- downloading, from a network server, indexing information comprising index entries that are searchable by a search engine, each of the index entries identifying at least one data element and its specific location in a hardcopy document;
- storing the indexing information in a memory;
- in response to a user request for a specific location of a data element in the hardcopy document, searching the indexing information to find an index entry that identifies the specific location in the hardcopy document of the requested data element;
- and
- displaying to the user a representation of the found index entry to identify to the user the specific location in the hardcopy document of the requested data element;
- and wherein the indexing information is stored in the network server after being created from at least one of reading and scanning at least one of a 2-D barcode encoded information from a hardcopy document and a representation of the hardcopy document.
3 more elements
A computer readable medium including computer instructions for:
- scanning a 2-D barcode information to extract indexing information comprising index entries that are searchable by a search engine, each of the index entries identifying at least one data element and its specific location in a hardcopy document;
- storing the indexing information in a memory;
- in response to a user request for a specific location of a data element in the hardcopy document, searching the indexing information to find an index entry that identifies the specific location in the hardcopy document of the requested data element;
- and
- displaying to the user a representation of the found index entry to identify to the user the specific location in the hardcopy document of the requested data element;
- and wherein the scanning step comprises the steps of:
- scanning 2-D barcode encoded information from a hardcopy document;
- and
- decoding the scanned 2-D barcode encoded information to extract the indexing information for storing the decoded indexing information in the memory.
6 more elements
A method comprising the steps of:
- reading data elements from the content of a document;
- creating an index table including index entries that are searchable by a search engine, each of the index entries identifying at least one of the data elements and its specific location in a hardcopy representation of the document, a representation of an index entry found by the search engine in the index table being displayable to a person to identify to the person the specific location of an associated at least one of the data elements in the hardcopy representation of the document;
- and
- printing a compressed hardcopy representation of the index table associated with the hardcopy document that allows a searching assistant equipped with a computing system to read the hardcopy representation of the index table and to search the index entries to find an index entry that identifies the specific location in the hardcopy document of a data element requested by a user and to display a representation of the index entry to the user;
- and wherein the compressed hardcopy representation of the index table is printed as barcode encoded information on a hardcopy document.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.