Web Document Content Selection via DOM and Optical Region Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing techniques for selecting content within web documents are crude and often result in unintended and incorrect selections, particularly in web pages with complex content structures and multiple types of content, making it difficult to use click and drag techniques precisely.
Innovation Solution
A selection tool for browsers or client applications that analyzes the underlying structure of web pages using mark-up code and DOM, combined with optical recognition techniques to identify and visually analyze discrete regions, allowing users to toggle and refine selections through check boxes, icons, and other UI controls.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If click and drag techniques are used to select content in web pages with complex content structures, then the operation method is simple and familiar to users, but the selection precision deteriorates and results in unintended selections
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the web page content into distinct selectable regions based on the DOM structure. Each region corresponds to a logical content unit (e.g., article body, sidebar, navigation) that can be independently selected. This segmentation allows users to select entire logical regions rather than attempting to manually drag across complex layouts, thereby maintaining ease of operation while dramatically improving selection precision.
2Device complexity
If traditional selection methods are used in web pages with multiple frames and content types, then the operation process is simple, but the selection accuracy deteriorates due to complex content structure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces an intermediary layer between the user and the complex web page structure. This intermediary is the region-based selection system that translates user intent into precise selections by identifying and selecting complete DOM regions. The intermediary handles the complexity of nested frames, multiple content types, and varied alignments automatically, allowing simple user interactions to produce accurate selections without requiring users to understand or navigate the underlying structural complexity.
3Adaptability or versatility
If users manually adjust selections in complex web documents, then the selection can be customized, but the time required for selection increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary action by pre-identifying and structuring all selectable regions in the web document based on its DOM hierarchy before user interaction. Regions are pre-defined as complete logical units (paragraphs, articles, sections) that can be selected atomically. When users interact with the system, they simply choose from these pre-prepared regions or use refinement controls to adjust the selection level, eliminating the need for time-consuming manual dragging and adjusting while maintaining full flexibility to select any combination of regions.
Data Source
AI summary
Techniques for selection of content within web documents are described herein. In implementations, a selection tool for a browser or other client application is configured to analyze web documents to recognize different regions in the arrangement of content for the document. The selection tool may parse the underlying structure of a webpage (e.g., the mark-up code and DOM structure) to identify different discrete regions in the webpage. In addition or alternatively, the selection tool may use optical recognition techniques to visually analyze the webpage as it appears when rendered and detect different discrete regions based on the visual analysis. Recognized regions are configured as portions of the content that are individually selectable. These selectable regions may be exposed and made accessible in various ways to enable users to toggle selection of the regions quickly and easily.