Document Stroke Annotation via Image Patch Association
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing document image processing systems require the screen to freeze or be modified to capture and associate strokes with documents, making it inconvenient to scroll or transform the document while maintaining annotations.
Innovation Solution
A method that captures strokes on a screen and associates them with underlying image patches, allowing the strokes to be redrawn on transformed document images without freezing the screen, using techniques like Ricoh Visual Search to identify and match image patches and adjust the strokes accordingly.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If the screen is frozen to capture strokes, then stroke capture accuracy is improved, but document scrolling and transformation are blocked
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the stroke capture process from the document display process. Instead of freezing the entire screen, the system captures strokes independently and associates them with specific image patches. This allows the document to continue scrolling and transforming while strokes are being captured and will be redrawn on the appropriate patches.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces image patches as an intermediary between strokes and the document. Strokes are captured and associated with image patches rather than being directly overlaid on the frozen screen. The patches serve as mediators that can be independently tracked and redrawn, allowing the document to scroll and transform freely while maintaining stroke associations.
2Stability of the object's composition
If the screen is frozen to capture strokes, then annotation stability is improved, but productivity is reduced due to repeated freezing and unfreezing
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary association of strokes with image patches during the capture phase. Instead of freezing the screen to maintain stability, the system pre-associates strokes with their corresponding patches and stores this information. When the document scrolls or transforms, the system retrieves and redraws strokes on the appropriate patches, maintaining annotation stability without requiring screen freezing.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent enables continuous document scrolling and transformation while stroke capture and association operations continue in the background. The system maintains continuous tracking of image patches and their corresponding strokes, allowing the document markup process to proceed without interruption from freezing and unfreezing cycles.
3Reliability
If application modification is required to integrate stroke input, then integration reliability is improved, but adaptability is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces image patches as an intermediary layer between the stroke input system and the application displaying the document. Instead of modifying the application to integrate stroke input, the system captures strokes and associates them with patches independently. The patches serve as a universal interface that can work with any application displaying images, providing broad adaptability while maintaining reliable stroke association through the patch mediation mechanism.
Data Source
AI summary
A method and apparatus is disclosed herein for associating strokes with a document image. In one embodiment, the method comprises capturing strokes written on a screen over a first document image while the document image is being displayed, associating captured stroke data of the captured strokes with underlying image patches of the document image being displayed, determining that a second document image is being displayed on the screen, determining whether one or more image patches of the second document image, or parts thereof, had previously been associated with captured stroke data, and drawing one or more previously captured strokes, or portions thereof, on image patches of the second document image based on results of determining whether one or more image patches of the second document image, or parts thereof, had previously been associated with captured stroke data.