Image analysis – Image sensing – Hand-held
Reexamination Certificate
1998-12-23
2001-09-25
Couso, Jose L. (Department: 2624)
Image analysis
Image sensing
Hand-held
C382S312000, C382S321000, C381S110000, C704S275000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06295391
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
This invention relates to devices such as digital cameras, personal digital assistants, laptop computers, hand held document scanners, and any other device that stores data and uploads or copies the data to a personal computer. Even more particularly, the invention relates to voice command annotation of data captured by one of these devices for automatic data routing upon uploading or copying to a personal computer.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Many devices, such as digital cameras, personal digital assistants, laptop computers, and hand held document scanners, have the ability to collect many different images or documents from a variety of sources. In many cases the user may want to accomplish different tasks with each image or document captured. Some may be faxed or e-mailed to business associates or friends. Others may become part of a word processing document. Still others may need to be stored in a specific location. Normally, such devices are periodically connected to a personal computer, and the collected image data files or document data files are copied to the personal computer from the device as a group, or copied individually to the personal computer. In either case, the user must look at each specific image data file or document data file after copying and take action to have that image or document processed or sent to the right place: save image A in this format here; save document B in that format there; attach image C to an e-mail message; fax document D to a business associate, etc. This can be a very time consuming process, especially if a large number of image data files and document data files have been captured. In addition, if the images and documents are collected over an extended period of time, such as on a business trip, by the time the individual copies them to the personal computer for processing and routing, the individual may have difficulty remembering exactly what action was intended for each one. The best time, in most cases, for an individual to determine the disposition of a captured image or document is at the time of capture.
It is thus apparent that there is a need in the art for an improved method or apparatus which will enable a user to annotate a captured image or document, at the time of capture, with voice disposition commands for processing and disposing of the image or document, so that upon copying, or uploading, the image data file or document data file to a personal computer, the image data file or document data file will automatically be processed and disposed of according to the voice disposition commands stored in a voice command annotation file. The present invention meets these and other needs in the art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an aspect of the present invention to use a voice pickup component integrated into a device to enable disposition commands to be made by voice and stored in a voice command annotation file for each image or document captured.
It is another aspect of the invention to copy an image data file or document data file, with its corresponding voice command annotation file, to a host computer.
Yet another aspect of the invention is to automatically process the voice command annotation file within the host computer after copying its associated image data file or document data file to a host computer, and execute a set of instructions corresponding to the voice disposition commands in the voice command annotation file.
Still another aspect of the invention is to distinguish a voice disposition command and a voice command annotation file, for an image data file or document data file, from a descriptive voice annotation and a voice annotation file for the same image data file or document data file.
A further aspect of the invention is to process the voice disposition command with voice analysis software within the device.
A still further aspect in another embodiment of the invention is to process the voice disposition command with voice analysis software within a host computer.
Another aspect of the invention is to make multiple voice disposition commands for the same image data file or document data file, and store the multiple voice disposition commands in the associated voice command annotation file.
A still further aspect of the invention is to process a voice command annotation file associated with a copied image data file or document data file, and execute instructions associated with the voice disposition commands in the voice command annotation file, wherein the user may be prompted for additional data input necessary to carry out the execution of the set of instructions.
Yet still another aspect of the invention is to distinguish between a voice disposition command and voice data input that is captured and stored in the voice command annotation file that is to be acted upon by instructions associated with the voice disposition command.
The above and other aspects of the invention are accomplished in devices that capture images or documents and store them as image data files or document data files in an internal memory. At the time the image or document is captured, the devices can receive voice disposition commands from the user that will govern the processing and disposition of the image data files or document data files after copying or uploading them to a host computer. Voice input is ideal for small devices which may not have enough space to provide any other kind of user interface.
For example, after scanning a document with a portable hand held document scanner, the user may make a voice disposition command, such as “fax” or “e-mail” or “print and save”, by speaking into a voice pickup component, typically a microphone, in the portable scanner. The voice pickup component converts the captured audio input into an analog signal. The analog signal is converted into a digital signal through an analog-to-digital converter. The digital signal is processed by a controller, accessing voice analysis software, into a recognition pattern. The recognition pattern is then compared to a predetermined set of recognition patterns stored in internal memory. If there is no match, then the device outputs a message to the user that the voice disposition command is not valid. This may occur as a result of the user speaking too fast, too slow, too faint, too far away from the voice pickup component
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, or with an accent such that the resulting recognition pattern falls outside the tolerances built into the voice analysis software. Or, the user may be using a word for a command that has not been set up to be recognized by the device. In either case, the user may then try again to make a proper voice disposition command.
A valid recognition pattern is translated into a command number or command text and stored in a voice command annotation file in memory within the portable scanner in a way that associates the voice command annotation file to the document data file. Upon copying the document data file to a host computer, the voice command annotation file is automatically copied along with the document data file, and is detected by file transfer software running in the host computer. The file transfer software reads the command number or command text from the voice command annotation file and then executes one or more instructions associated with the command number or command text. In another embodiment of the invention, the voice disposition command is captured by the device and stored in an industry standard audio file format, such as WAV file. The WAV file is copied to the host computer along with the document data file. The WAV file is then converted by the file transfer software in the host computer into a recognition pattern and compared to the set of predetermined recognition patterns held in memory in the host computer. This embodiment reduces the complexity necessary within the device, but does not provide immediate feedback to the user regarding the validity of the voice command when given. If for some reason the recognition pattern generated from the WAV file does not match any of the pr
Oliver Thomas C
Rudd Michael L
Couso Jose L.
Do Anh Hong
Hewlett--Packard Company
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