Systems and methods that utilize a dynamic digital zooming interface in connection with digital inking

Abstract

The present invention relates to systems and methods that facilitate annotating digital documents (e.g., digital inking) with devices such as Tablet PCs, PDAs, cell phones, and the like. The systems and methods provide for multi-scale navigation during document annotating via a space-scale framework that fluidly generates and moves a zoom region relative to a document and writing utensil. A user can employ this zoom region to annotate various portions of the document at a size comfortable to the user and suitably scaled to the device display. The space-scale framework enables dynamic navigation, wherein the zoom region location, size, and shape, for example, can automatically adjust as the user annotates. When the user finishes annotating the document, the annotations scale back with the zoom region to original page size. These novel features provide advantages over conventional techniques that do not contemplate multi-scale navigation during document annotating.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates generally to digital document annotation, and more particularly to systems and methods employing zoom windows to facilitate multi-scale navigation during free-form digital inking of documents. Background technique [0002] Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are typically used in conjunction with microprocessor-based computing devices to edit digital documents (eg, word processing documents, images, etc.). Many of these computing devices (eg, Tablet PCs, PDAs, cell phones, etc.) attempt to provide a natural and expressive way to annotate documents with free-form digital ink through digital pens, mice, and the like. Ideally, using such a device should feel like writing on actual paper, and the resulting notes should look similar to their ink counterparts. Therefore, the goal of such computing devices is to provide a surface that mimics actual paper. [0003] However, various ergonomic factors make it difficult to fully achie...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

While many conventional technologies attempt to provide natural and expressive ways to annotate documents and images using free-form digital ink (via digital pen, mouse, etc.), these technologies cannot overcome problems such as Tablets PCs, PDAs, cell phones, etc. the aforementioned problems with annotations on devices with small screens such as

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