Hierarchical Ink Document Selection for Precise Boundaries
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing user interface solutions struggle to unambiguously select portions of ink documents due to their free-form nature, particularly on devices with small displays and varying ink representation formats, making it difficult for users to pinpoint boundaries accurately.
Innovation Solution
A hierarchical data structure is used to represent ink documents, allowing users to iteratively select elements by traversing the structure, with a node-traversing component identifying and highlighting corresponding elements, and a supplemental search component identifying spatially related elements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional text-processing selection methods are applied to ink documents, then the selection operation can be performed, but the selection becomes ambiguous and inaccurate due to the free-form nature of ink objects
Solution Approach 1:
The ink document is segmented into a hierarchical structure of nodes representing different levels of content organization (e.g., individual ink objects, groups, pages). This segmentation allows the system to identify and select specific portions of the ink document unambiguously by traversing the hierarchical node structure, resolving the ambiguity caused by free-form ink objects.
Solution Approach 2:
A hierarchical node structure serves as an intermediary layer between the user's selection input and the actual ink objects. Instead of directly selecting from free-form ink objects, the system uses nodes as mediators to represent and manage selection boundaries, enabling precise selection without requiring the user to manually define complex boundaries.
2Measurement precision
If manual dragging of selection boundaries is required, then the user can define a selection window, but the operation becomes cumbersome and imprecise on small display surfaces
Solution Approach 1:
The selection process is segmented into discrete hierarchical levels represented by nodes. Instead of requiring continuous manual dragging to define boundaries, the system presents users with discrete selection options at each hierarchical level, making boundary definition simpler and more accurate on small displays.
Solution Approach 2:
The selection interface dynamically adapts to the user's input by traversing the hierarchical node structure. As the user interacts with the system, the available selection options dynamically update based on the current selection state and hierarchical level, providing context-appropriate choices without requiring precise manual boundary drawing.
3Adaptability or versatility
If different custom formats are used to represent ink strokes, then each application can optimize its internal representation, but interoperability and universal selection mechanisms become difficult to implement
Solution Approach 1:
The hierarchical node structure serves as a universal representation that can accommodate multiple ink formats and styles. Each node is designed to be format-agnostic, capable of representing different types of ink objects (handwritten text, drawings, annotations) regardless of their original format, enabling universal selection mechanisms across diverse ink document types.
Solution Approach 2:
The hierarchical node structure acts as an intermediary layer that decouples the selection mechanism from the underlying ink representation formats. By converting various ink formats into a unified hierarchical node structure, the system enables format-independent selection operations while preserving the original ink data integrity.
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A~2D
Figure 3
AI summary
Technology is described herein for facilitating a user's interaction with a digital ink document. The technology internally represents the ink document using a data structure having a hierarchy of nodes. The nodes describe respective elements in the ink document. The technology leverages the data structure to identify a set of nodes that grows upon the user's repeated selection of a particular part of the ink document. At each stage of the selection, the technology highlights a set of elements in the ink document that correspond to the current set of identified nodes. According to another illustrative aspect, the technology produces the data structure by modifying an original data structure provided by a text analysis engine. The technology performs this task with the objective of accommodating structured interaction by the user with the ink document.