EP1894404A2

EP1894404A2 - Digital tracing device for digitizing and displaying a document

Info

Publication number: EP1894404A2
Application number: EP06778923A
Authority: EP
Inventors: Joël GARDES
Original assignee: France Telecom SA
Current assignee: Orange SA
Priority date: 2005-06-13
Filing date: 2006-06-12
Publication date: 2008-03-05
Also published as: KR20080038295A; JP2008547077A; WO2006134296A2; CN101194497A; US20090135454A1; WO2006134296A3; US7843591B2

Abstract

The invention concerns a digital tracing method and device, comprising a flat acquisition element (3) for digitizing a document (7), and a flat viewing element (5) mounted on said flat acquisition element (3) for displaying said digitized document.

Description

Digital layer device for scanning and displaying a document.

Background of [Invention

The invention relates to a digital layer device and more particularly to a portable device for capturing documents.

The digital document has become one of the main objects of communication of information, that this one is in a strongly structured form (for example XML, HTML, Word), weakly structured (PDF) or unstructured (for example, image a scanned document).

Currently, to scan a document, the best way is to use a scanner. However, the scanner is unsuitable for scanning large documents and / or non-transportable documents.

One possibility is to use a camera, a digital camera or on-board terminals (cell phones, personal assistants) equipped with digital cameras. However, this type of camera clearly poses shooting condition problems, including framing the document, which can be insurmountable for the user. In addition, the resolution of these digital image capture devices has not yet reached a level of performance compatible with recognition of the content of a scanned document.

In addition, embedded terminals have small screens limiting the ability to read documents to small media often less than A6 format.

Object and summary of the invention

The object of the invention is to overcome the above disadvantages and to provide a digital layer device comprising a planar element acquisition device for digitizing a document, and a display plane element mounted on said acquisition plan element for displaying said scanned document.

The low-weight digital layer device thus designed makes it possible to capture the document under a wide variety of conditions without also having framing problems by making it possible to directly press the device onto the document to be digitized. In addition, it allows a direct, local and instant display of the scanned document for immediate verification of the quality of the scan.

According to a feature of the present invention, the display plane element comprises lighting means for transmitting a scanning illumination enabling the scanning of said document by the acquisition plan element.

Thus, it is not necessary for the acquisition element to have its own lighting device further decreasing the weight of the device.

Advantageously, said acquisition plan element digitizes the document on which it is positioned.

Thus, the digital layer device can easily scan a large or non-transportable document.

The device further comprises a data processing element coupled to said viewing and acquisition planar elements.

Thus, the device can be managed autonomously and locally.

According to a feature of the present invention, the device further comprises an interaction plane element mounted on said viewing plane element and coupled to a data processing element.

The device thus obtained gathers a function of digital acquisition of a document, a function of displaying the document digitized and an interaction function with the content of the document displayed to annotate, recognize and possibly correct it.

In addition, this device combining the input of information and the display of digital documents can have a viewing area much larger than that of any portable terminal type personal assistant or mobile phone.

Advantageously, said interaction plane element is transparent and covers at least a portion of said viewing plane element displaying the scanned document.

This provides a user with a context of use that approximates the natural reading / writing conditions similar to those with a paper and a pen.

According to a feature of the present invention, the data processing element is intended to interact with at least a portion of the document scanned or digitized.

This offers a wide range of interactions with the document.

Advantageously, all the elements pians acquisition, visualization, and interaction are flexible.

Thus, the digital layer device can flatten, thanks to its plasticity, against the document by marrying any curvatures and can capture the document in good conditions. In addition, by pressing against a rounded document, it eliminates the distortions due to the curvature effect and thus allows a digital acquisition of good quality unlike a flatbed scanner or a digital camera. In fact, the traditional scanner is unsuitable for scanning non-plan documents or non-transportable documents and, moreover, the curvature effect of a document having a rounded shape deteriorates the quality of the digital acquisition of a camera digital. According to another feature of the present invention, the data processing element is a flexible element.

Thus, an entire plasticity of the device allows to store it compactly.

Advantageously, the device further comprises a connection interface enabling it to communicate with an external terminal directly and / or via a telecommunication network.

The invention also aims at a digital layer method comprising the following steps:

-positioning an acquisition plan item with respect to a document to be digitized,

-Numerizing said document by the acquisition plan element, and -displaying the scanned document on a viewing plane element mounted on the acquisition plan element.

Thus, the method makes it possible to digitally copy a source document under a wide variety of conditions without having problems with framing.

Advantageously, the scanning step comprises a transmission of a scanning light by said viewing plane element.

According to one particularity of the invention, the planar and flexible acquisition and display elements are positioned on a document to be digitized having a non-planar surface.

The method further comprises an interaction step via an interaction plan element with the scanned document or the document to be digitized.

The invention also relates to a method of manufacturing a digital layer comprising the mounting of a viewing plane element on an acquisition plane element so that a document scanned by the acquisition plan element is displayed on the viewing plane element. The manufacturing method further comprises mounting an interaction plane element on at least a portion of the viewing plane element.

Advantageously, the manufacturing method furthermore comprises coupling a data processing element to one or more of the acquisition, viewing and interaction planar elements, said data processing element comprising at least one program of data acquisition. computer comprising at least instructions for interaction of one of the viewing and interacting planar elements with another of the acquisition or viewing planar elements.

The invention is also directed to a computer program implemented in a data processing element, comprising instructions necessary for performing one or more of the above steps of digitizing, displaying, lighting, or 'interaction.

Brief description of the drawings

Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent on reading the description given below, by way of indication but not limitation, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a digital layer device comprising flexible planes acquisition and display elements, according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing in more detail the digital layer device of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 3A and 3B are schematic views showing two variants of the flexible acquisition plane element of FIG. 2; FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic view of a digital layer device comprising flexible planar acquisition, display, and capture elements, according to the invention; FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a digital layer device comprising a flexible data processing element, according to the invention; and

FIG 6 is a schematic view of a digital layer device according to the invention pressed against a page of a large book.

Detailed description of embodiments

According to the invention, FIGS. 1 and 2 very schematically show a digital layer device 1 comprising an acquisition plane element 3 and a viewing plane element 5 mounted on the acquisition plane element 3. The element Acquisition plan 5 is intended to digitize a document 7 by placing it directly on this document 7. Thus, the acquisition plan item scans the document on which it is positioned. Moreover, the viewing plane element 5 is intended to display the document scanned by the acquisition plan element 3.

Of course, the acquisition plane element 5 can be placed on a transparent surface allowing the reading of the document 7. For example, the document 7 can be protected by a plastic film or enclosed in a box whose upper surface is transparent.

The acquisition plane element 3 is light-sensitive so that the scanning can be performed by ambient lighting, scrolling lighting, or any other lighting mode.

By way of example, the acquisition plane element 3 is formed of a light-sensitive electronic sheet. Such a digitization film is known and was for example presented in San Francisco in December 2004 at the IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM).

In fact, according to a first example, FIG. 3A shows that the acquisition plan element 3 may comprise an acquisition matrix. This acquisition matrix may include photodiodes 11, for example, of organic type. An array of organic photodiodes can to be a polymer matrix comprising thousands of photodiodes 11 so that each photodiode 11 produces a current intensity as a function of the light reflected by the document 7 and which is absorbed by the photodiode 11. The currents produced by the photodiodes 11 can be stored in a memory 13 as a digital image of the document 7.

Advantageously, the acquisition plan element 3 is transparent to certain predetermined lighting. This transparency can allow two separate actions. A first action is the visualization of the document to be scanned through the acquisition plan 3. A second action is the activation of the scanning by the acquisition plan 3 thanks to at least one of these predetermined lighting. Thus, the photodiodes 11 of the acquisition plane element 3 can recover the light rays reflected by this document 7.

It should be noted that each photodiode 11 is covered with an opaque screen 15 on the interface side between the acquisition planar 3 and display 5 elements. Thus, the photodiodes 11 are only sensitive to the light rays reflected by the document 7. and not to the direct light generated by the viewing plane element 5. Advantageously, each opaque screen 15 associated with each photodiode 11 may correspond to an organic transistor 15 coupled to this photodiode 11 so that the current produced by the photodiode 11 is stored in the form of an electric charge on the corresponding transistor 15. In this case, the acquisition plane element 3 may be formed by two electronic sheets, one comprising the matrix of photodiodes 11 and the other comprising the corresponding matrix of transistors 15 with the necessary electrical connections between the two sheets.

Of course, the opaque screens or transistors 15, which optically isolate one side of the photodiodes 11, do not cover the entire surface of the acquisition plane element 3 and provide zones or transparent channels 17 to let the light to illuminate the document 7 to be scanned.

Thus, the acquisition plan element 3 plays a role similar to a scanner for digitizing a document. In addition, it has a transparency that allows scanning with certain predetermined lighting.

As a variant, FIG. 3B shows an acquisition plane element 3 comprising an array of digitizing organic units 19 each unit of which comprises a photodiode 11 and a corresponding light-emitting diode 21. Thus, the light-emitting diodes 21 illuminate the document 7 to be digitized and the photodiodes 11 absorb the lights reflected by this document 7. In this case, it is not necessary for the acquisition plane element 3 to be transparent.

Moreover, the viewing plane element 5 may be formed of an electronic sheet comprising a display matrix. This display matrix may comprise pixels, for example of organic type (not shown) according to, for example, TFT technology. Such flexible screens are well known and manufactured among others by SAMSUNG and PHILIPS companies.

Optionally, the viewing plane element 5 may comprise liquid crystals or particles of different colors (for example black and white) and different charges or micro pearls divided into two hemispheres of distinct colors that react to an electric field.

Advantageously, the viewing plane element 5 comprises a lighting means (not shown) intended to emit a so-called scanning illumination enabling the digitization of the document 7 to be activated by the acquisition plane element 3. Of course, this Medium of illumination can be the display matrix itself. Thus, the display matrix of the viewing plane element 5 makes it possible to display the scanned document and possibly enables the document 7 to be illuminated so that it is scanned by the transparent acquisition plane element 3 (according to FIG. Figure 3A) before displaying the scanned document.

Indeed, the transparency of the flexible element acquisition plane 3 allows a scanning with the light emitted by the flexible element viewing plane 5 and it is not necessary for the acquisition element 3 to have its own lighting device further decreasing the weight of the device.

This viewing plane element 5 is for example glued on the acquisition plane element 3 to form a digital layer device 1. Optionally, the viewing and acquisition planes 3 can be glued on the two opposite faces of the plane. a transparent element, for example a flexible film.

For example, the viewing planes 5 and acquisition 3 elements are coupled through an input-output port 23 to a data processing element 25 having the memory 13 and a central unit 27 to control the scanning of the document 7 and the viewing of the scanned document. Of course, the data processing element 25 may control the display of any other digital document received by the digital layer device 1 from an external terminal.

Indeed, the digital layer device 1 can comprise a connection interface 29 connected to the input-output port 23, so that the digital layer device 1 can be connected wired, by radio, or by electromagnetic means. to an external terminal (not shown) of the personal assistant type, computer or mobile phone. This allows the digital layer device 1 to interact with this terminal and / or have a data processing element 25 having a minimum computing power.

Furthermore, it will be noted that the connection interface 29 allows the digital layer device 1 to communicate with the terminal directly and / or via a telecommunication network.

It is also conceivable that one or more elements (for example photodiodes) of the acquisition matrix of the acquisition plane 3 are coupled to one or more elements of the display matrix of the viewing plane 5 via either electrical connections or signal transformation elements provided by the elements of the acquisition matrix excitation signal of the elements of the display matrix. These transformation elements may be formed of a matrix placed between the acquisition plane 3 and the viewing plane 5.

Optionally, the planar acquisition elements 3 and display 5 are flexible thus allowing this set to be pressed against a document 7 of rounded shape.

FIG. 4 very schematically shows a digital layer device 1 which differs from FIG. 2 in that it furthermore comprises a transparent interaction plane element 31 mounted and glued on the viewing plane element 5. As shown in FIG. previously, the interaction planes 31 and display 5 can be glued on the two opposite sides of a transparent film by possibly introducing other transparent elements (for example connection) between these interaction planes 31 and viewing 5.

Furthermore, this interaction plane 31 may cover all or part of the viewing plane element 5, and in particular it may cover all or part of the viewing plane area 5 in which the digitized document is displayed, thus allowing a user to interact with the scanned document as it would with a paper document. Thus, the user can for example highlight or annotate directly the scanned document or possibly block some elements of the scanned document.

By way of example, this transparent interaction plane element 31 may allow the user to interact with the acquisition plane 3 or the viewing plane 5 according to a voice mode by means of a voice interface and / or following an input mode using a touch interface.

Thus, the user can indicate orally a voice command of the type "Scanning" and then in a tactile manner (with a finger or for more precision with an element having a tip, in particular a pencil or a stylus 33) frame the area of the document to digitize. Then, the data processing element 25 triggers the capture of this area of the document 7 by the acquisition plane 3 by, if necessary, lighting of this area by means of illumination of the viewing plane 5.

According to another example, the transparent interaction plane element 31 can comprise keys on at least a part of the interaction plane 31. Thus, following the actuation of one of these keys, it is possible to switch from an input mode of annotations to a scanning input mode or to a shape recognition mode, and in a tactile way respectively, to add comments, to specify the area of the document to be scanned, to specify the part of the document to digitized or scanned on which the form recognition must be performed.

Note that the touch interface of the transparent interaction plane element 31 comprises contact sensitive means allowing the user to enter data, commands or interact on the document scanned and visualized using the example of the stylus 33. Such a touch screen is well known and made in particular by the companies E-INK, TOPPAN PRINTING, or XEROX. Thus, the contact sensitive means may be provided with means for capturing the dynamics of the pattern and translating the pattern into an electronic ink. This electronic ink encoded plot includes the spatial information of the plot (coordinates, stylus surveys) as well as the temporal information of the dynamics of that plot (speed and / or acceleration, according to ink format specifications). electronic).

Thus, the tactile interface of the transparent planar gripping element 31 may be formed of a thin film comprising microcapsules arranged between two transparent electrodes. Each microcapsule has differently charged black and white pigments floating in a clear fluid and moving between the two electrodes in an electric field in response to user interaction gestures by, for example, stylus 33. .

As previously, the acquisition plan 3, display 5, and also capture 31 elements can be coupled via the input-output port 23 to the data processing element 25. data 25 can be mounted on one end of the various flexible elements 3, 5 and 31.

Similarly, the digital layer device 1 can be connected to an external terminal via the connection interface 29 connected to the input-output port 23.

Advantageously, the set of acquisition planar elements 3, display 5, and interaction 31 is sufficiently transparent so that the user can view through the device 1 in order to digitize the document more or less clearly according to example contrast or color.

In addition, the interaction plane 31 can be positioned so as to cover all or part of the acquisition area acquisition plan 3 thus allowing the user to interact with the document 7 to scan. Thus, the user can indicate by framing the part or parts to be digitized with possibly an indication of a coefficient of enlargement or reduction (zoom) of the part or parts to be digitized.

Advantageously, the data processing element 25 comprises software means or computer programs enabling it to interact with at least part of the scanned or digitized document.

In particular, the data processing element 25 comprises one or more connection programs between the different input or interaction modes in the acquisition and / or display plane, or the activation of the lighting means of the viewing plane 5 to emit a specific scanning illumination when activation of the capture by the acquisition plan element 3.

Thus, once the acquisition plan element 3 is positioned relative to a document 7 to be digitized, the computer program (s) implement the scanning steps of the document 7 by the acquisition plan element 3 , and display of the scanned document on the viewing plane element 5. Note that the scanning step may comprise a transmission of a scanning illumination by the viewing plane element 5.

In addition, the one or more computer programs may implement the interaction step via the interaction plan element 31 with the scanned document or the document to be scanned.

In general, these computer programs allow shape recognition and interactive processing between data from the different acquisition plan 3, display 5, and interaction 31 elements.

Indeed, the software means may include a perception level, an interface level, and a system level. Such software means can be implemented according to a software platform described by Eric Clavier et al. in the document entitled "A Cooperative Platform for Heterogeneous Document Interpretation According to User-Defined Scenarios" LNCS No. 3088 Springer Verlag (2003).

The level of perception relates to controlling or managing the scanning of the document.

The interface level concerns, on the one hand, the display of the data (the image and the processing results) and, on the other hand, the perception of the actions of the user. These actions include entering information in the form of handwritten lines (writing, drawing, etc.) and the input of gestural commands (selection, triggering of treatments, etc.).

The system level concerns an architecture for hosting the various software components required for scanning control applications, tools and methods for segmentation and / or pattern recognition, and tools and methods for capturing and / or recognizing actions of the user.

Advantageously, the planar acquisition elements 3, display 5, and interaction 31 are flexible. Indeed, these elements may include organic components allowing all of these elements to operate effectively while having great flexibility, thin thickness and light weight. Thus, all of these elements can be pressed against a document by marrying any curvatures.

In addition, FIG. 5 shows that the data processing element 25 may be a flexible element comprising a flexible memory 13 and a flexible central unit 27. In this case, the input-output port can also be flexible as well as possibly the connection interface. Such flexible components using the TFTC technology are manufactured for example by SEIKO EPSON CORPORATION. According to the example of FIG. 5, the flexible data processing element 25 is mounted in a management zone 35 on one end of the various flexible planar elements 3, 5 and 31 thus making it possible to produce a digital layer device 1 entirely slim.

Thus, according to the invention, the digital layer device 1 may comprise two types of software architectures according to the computing power of the central unit 27 and the memory 13 available.

Indeed, according to a first embodiment, the processing means 25 of the digital layer device 1 can locally manage both the display (text images and geometric traces) and the recognition and analysis of the document.

According to a second embodiment, only the display is managed locally by the processing means 25 of the digital layer device 1. The recognition and analysis software of the document can be hosted on another terminal (personal assistant or PC) either in the telecommunications network in the form of services. The access and the dialogue with the recognition software will be done through the connection interface 29.

Thus, the digital layer device 1 can be a flexible terminal dedicated to written communication and which combines the input of handwritten information (data or commands) and the display of digital documents.

The input of handwritten information relates to the recording of traces made by means of the stylus on the surface of the flexible transparent planar entry element 31. Furthermore, the digital document concerns any presentation of information in the form of a table. points (image), vector descriptions (geometries with or without temporal information on the dynamics of the plot) and text.

Depending on the type of application, it may be necessary to switch from one presentation mode to another, in order to allow the degree of interactivity desired. For example, in the case of a scanned document in the form of an image, tools and methods of segmentation and classification of shapes will be used to extract or recognize the characters or symbols present in the image of the document.

Thus, the digital layer device 1 produces a facsimile of the document 7 and allows a whole set of interactive processes with the document 7. In addition, FIG. 6 shows that the plasticity of the digital layer device 1 makes it possible to capture documents (for example a page or part of a page of a large book 37) under a wide variety of conditions without having framing problems. Indeed, the digital layer device 1 is pressed against the document by marrying any curvatures.

Finally, this plasticity of the digital layer device 1 allows packaging compatible with an embedded context. Out of use, the digital layer device 1 can be stored compactly (rolled or folded) and in use, it can have a viewing area much larger than that of any portable terminal (personal assistant or cellphone).

Claims

1. A digital layer device, characterized in that it comprises an acquisition plane element (3) for digitizing a document (7), a viewing plane element (5) mounted on said acquisition plane element (3). ) for displaying said digitized document, and an interaction plane element (31) mounted on said viewing plane element (5) and coupled to a data processing element (25).

2. Device according to claim 1, characterized in that the viewing plane element (5) comprises a lighting means for transmitting a scanning illumination to enable the scanning of said document by the acquisition plan element (3).

3. Device according to any one of claims 1 and 2, characterized in that said acquisition plan element (3) scans the document on which it is positioned.

4. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that it further comprises a data processing element (25) coupled to said viewing planes elements (5) and acquisition (3).

5. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, characterized in that said interaction plane element (31) is transparent and covers at least a portion of said viewing plane element (5) displaying the digitized document.

6. Device according to claim 5, characterized in that the data processing element (25) is intended to interact with at least a portion of the digitized or digitized document.

7. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 6, characterized in that all the planar acquisition elements (3), visualization (5), and interaction (31) is flexible.

8. Device according to claim 7, characterized in that furthermore the data processing element (25) is a flexible element.

9. Device according to any one of claims 1 to 8, characterized in that it further comprises a connection interface (29) allowing it to communicate with an external terminal directly and / or via a telecommunications network.

10. Digital layer process characterized in that it comprises the following steps:

digitizing said document by the acquisition plan element,

displaying the scanned document on a viewing plane element mounted on the acquisition plan element, and

Interaction via an interaction plan element with the scanned document or the document to be digitized.

11. The method of claim 10, characterized in that the scanning step comprises transmitting a scanning light by said viewing plane element.

12. Method according to any one of claims 10 and 11 wherein the planar acquisition and display elements are flexible, characterized in that the plan elements acquisition and viewing are positioned on a document to be scanned having a non-planar surface.

13. A method of manufacturing a digital layer comprising the mounting of a viewing plane element on an acquisition plane element so that a document scanned by the acquisition plane element is displayed on the plane element. of visualization.

14. The method of claim 13, characterized in that it further comprises mounting an interaction plane element on at least a portion of the viewing plane element.

15. Method according to any one of claims 13 and 14, characterized in that it further comprises the coupling of a data processing element to one or more planar elements acquisition, visualization and interaction said data processing element comprising at least one computer program comprising at least instructions for interaction of one of the viewing and interacting planar elements with another of the acquisition or display planar elements.

16. A computer program implemented in a data processing element of a digital layer device, including instructions necessary to perform one or more of the following steps:

-delivery of a document by an acquisition plan element, -displaying the scanned document on a display plan element mounted on the acquisition plan element, the scanning step comprising a transmission of a scanning illumination by said viewing plane element, -interaction with the scanned document or the document to be digitized via an interaction plan element.