FR2976097A1 - Method for labeling electronic document i.e. webpage, visualized on graphical interface of e.g. mobile phone, involves storing association between selected visual identifier and address attribute to access document - Google Patents

Abstract

The method involves displaying an electronic document (300) i.e. webpage, on a graphical user interface, and obtaining an identifier (310) e.g. image-type visual identifier, that is selected by a user for the displayed document. An association between the selected visual identifier and an address attribute is stored (350) to access the displayed electronic document. The visual identifier is obtained by selection of images contained in the electronic document by the user and shown by cloud images. Independent claims are also included for the following: (1) a method for accessing an electronic document (2) a device for labeling an electronic document.

Description

Electronic document labeling method, associated device and method of accessing an associated electronic document. The present invention relates to an electronic document labeling method viewable by a user, an associated device and a method of accessing an associated electronic document. The invention finds a particular application in the field of classification and access to documents that can be viewed on a graphical interface, in particular documents written in markup language, more commonly known as "Web pages", accessible on server sites via a communication network such as the Internet. With the multiplication of data accessible by dedicated applications, commonly called browsers (or "browsers" in English terminology), various methods to facilitate the search and classification of documents have been developed.

In particular, some applications offer the possibility of labeling or tagging electronic documents with textual identifiers, or keywords, in the form of alphanumeric character strings, which may be proposed by a user. Thus, a user can create his own classification taxonomy, and apply it to the various electronic documents at his disposal.

However, the use of textual identifiers provided by the user has several disadvantages, including the difficulty of handling from an on-board device of the mobile phone type, which generally has a relatively ergonomic alphanumeric character input interface. In addition, the use of textual identifiers does not favor the sharing of these identifiers between various users, because of the possible use of specific language, the existence of many synonyms by category. Thus, it would be desirable to provide users with the ability to identify or label electronic documents in an easier and more ergonomic manner. One of the aims of the invention is to overcome the drawbacks of the state of the art, by proposing, according to a first aspect, an electronic document labeling method that can be displayed on a graphical interface of a device, comprising the association of at least one identifier with said electronic document, characterized in that said identifier is a visual identifier of the image type, the method comprising the following steps: displaying said electronic document on said graphic interface, obtaining at least one identifier visual selected by a user for said displayed document, and - storage of an association between said selected visual identifier and at least one addressing attribute for accessing said electronic document.

Advantageously, the use of visual identifiers of the image type makes handling easier and more fun for the users. In addition, this type of identifier can be shared with a large number of other users, in any type of network connected, social network type or peer-to-peer network, and the understanding of this type of identifiers is more easy than that of textual identifiers of type alphanumeric character string of the state of the art. The method of the invention may also have one or more of the following features: the step of obtaining at least one visual identifier comprises: the selection by the user of an image contained in said electronic document, extracting said image selected by the user; normalizing the extracted image according to predetermined dimensions; and storing said normalized extracted image as a visual identifier; said step of obtaining at least one visual identifier comprises: the extraction of at least one image from said electronic document; the normalization of the at least one image extracted according to predetermined dimensions; standardized extracted images as visual identifiers offered to the user, and - obtaining the selection by the user of one or more of the proposed visual identifiers; in the case where a plurality of images is extracted from said electronic document, the method comprises, before the display step, a filtering step making it possible to keep a subset of the plurality of images extracted according to an attribute associated with each extracted image; said step of obtaining at least one visual identifier comprises: obtaining a plurality of visual identifiers adapted to represent said electronic document; displaying said plurality of visual identifiers on said graphic interface; and obtaining the selection by the user of at least one visual identifier among the visual identifiers displayed; the display of the plurality of visual identifiers on the graphical interface also comprises a visual indication relating to a level of use of each of the visual identifiers displayed; the visual identifiers are displayed in the form of a cloud of images, said visual indication being given by the size of the images; said plurality of visual identifiers is obtained from a local storage space of said device; when said device is connected to a communication network, said step of obtaining a plurality of visual identifiers comprises: obtaining at least one textual identifier characterizing said electronic document; sending a search query visual identifiers corresponding to said at least one textual identifier through the communication network, and - receiving at least one visual identifier in response to said request. According to a second aspect, the invention relates to a method for accessing an electronic document that can be displayed on a graphical interface of a device, said electronic document having at least one associated image-type visual identifier according to a labeling method such as described above, characterized in that it comprises the following steps: - display of a plurality of visual identifiers stored in a storage space of said device, - selection by a user of a displayed visual identifier, and - obtaining at least one electronic document associated with said selected visual identifier. The method of accessing an electronic document further comprises: the selection by the user of one of said electronic documents associated with said selected visual identifier, and the access to said selected electronic document by using said addressing attribute allowing accessing said stored electronic document in association with said visual identifier. The method of accessing an electronic document of the invention may also have one or more of the following characteristics: the display of the plurality of identifiers on the graphical interface also comprises a visual indication relating to a level use of each of the visual identifiers displayed; the visual identifiers are displayed in the form of a cloud of images, said visual indication being given by the size of the images. According to a third aspect, the invention furthermore relates to a displayable electronic document labeling device, comprising a graphic interface, and means for associating at least one identifier with said electronic document, characterized in that said identifier is a visual identifier of the image type, the device comprising: means for displaying said electronic document on said graphic interface; means for obtaining at least one visual identifier selected by a user for said displayed document; means for storing an association between said selected visual identifier and at least one addressing attribute for accessing said electronic document. Other features and advantages of the invention will emerge from the description given below, by way of indication and in no way limitative, with reference to the appended figures, among which: FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a set of devices connected to a network and adapted to implement the invention, - Figure 2 is a schematic view of a device embodying the invention,-Figure 3 is a flowchart of a labeling method d An electronic document according to one embodiment of the invention, - Figure 4 is a flowchart of a first variant embodiment of obtaining a plurality of visual identifiers, - Figure 5 is a flowchart of a second alternative embodiment of obtaining a plurality of visual identifiers, - Figure 6 is a schematic view of an electronic document and associated visual identifiers, - Figure 7 is a flowchart of a method of 'access to an electronic document according to one embodiment of the invention, - Figure 8 is a schematic example of display of visual identifiers according to a first embodiment, and - Figure 9 is a schematic example of display of visual identifiers according to a second embodiment.

FIG. 1 represents several devices adapted to communicate via a communication network 10, for example the Internet: a first device 12 which is for example a mobile telephone, a second device 14 which is for example a computer, and a third device which is a network server 16.

The mobile telephone 12 connects to the network 10 via a connection 18, the computer 14 connects to the network 10 via a connection 20, and the server 16 connects to the network 10 via a connection 22. In addition, the devices 12 and 14 can communicate and exchange data via a local connection 24, for example a Bluetooth type connection.

The method of labeling electronic documents by visual identifiers of the image type, which will be called visual identifiers later, allows the memorization of an association between one or more visual identifiers selected by a user and an electronic document. These visual identifiers are subsequently used in a method of accessing electronic documents.

Visual identifiers of the image type are digital images, for example photographs, logos or drawings. Each digital image is formed by samples or pixels, each pixel taking a value within a given range of values, for example [0,255], for grayscale images or multiple values, each corresponding to a color component. Digital images are stored in a compressed or uncompressed encoding format, such as JPEG which is the most widely used compressed still image format, or uncompressed PNG ("Portable Network Graphics") or GIF (" Graphics Interchange Format "). In a use scenario of the invention, the labeling method is implemented on the mobile phone 12, and then the visual identifiers and associations stored between visual identifiers and stored electronic documents are transmitted to the computer 14. In a variant, the labeling method is implemented on the computer 14, and then the visual identifiers and associations stored between visual identifiers and electronic documents are transmitted to the mobile phone 12. Thus, a user having a telephone mobile 12 and a computer 14 can find the same visual identifiers of the electronic documents on both devices so as to have a homogeneous environment. In another embodiment of the invention, the labeling method is implemented on the server 16 so as to associate visual identifiers with all the documents available on the server, to then propose them to facilitate the search. of documents to any user connecting to the server 16. A synchronization associations memorized on each of the devices implementing the invention, for example when the devices are connected to ensure the homogeneity of visual identifiers associated with electronic documents. A device 200 of the mobile telephone 12 or computer type 14 capable of implementing the invention comprises, as illustrated in FIG. 2, a processor 210 capable of managing the various functional modules of the device 200, a storage space 220 capable of storing in particular the software modules 230 and 240 respectively containing executable code capable of implementing an electronic document labeling method and a method of accessing an electronic document according to the invention. In addition, the storage space 220 includes image storage means 250 selected as visual identifiers and means 260 for storing associations between visual identifiers and addressing attributes of the electronic documents.

The device 200 also comprises a graphical interface 270, used for displaying electronic documents such as web pages in HTML ("Hypertext Markup Language") format or multimedia documents, and a user interaction interface 280 including means for retrieving user commands.

In one embodiment, the user interaction interface 280 is a keyboard. In another embodiment, the user interaction interface 280 is a touch screen. The device 200 also comprises communication means 290 with the communication network 10, for example a network interface card. A server device 16 adapted to implement the invention comprises a processor 210, a storage space 220, able to store software modules 230 and 240 and storage means 250 and 260 mentioned above. The server also comprises communication means 290, in particular for receiving from a client device associations between visual identifiers and electronic documents. FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method for labeling an electronic document according to one embodiment of the invention, implemented by the processor 210 under the control of the software module 230. This method is described here in a particular embodiment in which the electronic documents to be processed are web pages, represented in HTML tags format, and viewable via navigation and display software.

In a first step 300 a DOC electronic document is displayed on the graphical interface 270 of the device. The choice to directly select one or more visual identifiers of the DOC document within the document itself is proposed to the user in step 305, and the user's response is retrieved. For example, a menu in the form of a secondary window is displayed at the same time as the DOC document being viewed, with the question `Do you want to directly select a visual identifier in the document? ' and a choice of 'yes' or 'no' answerable answers. In case of a positive response from the user in step 305, the user is given the option of selecting an image of the DOC document being displayed. For example, in the case of a tactile graphical interface, the user can move in the document being displayed and select a visual element by selecting it by means of touch. The method retrieves the selection of the user in step 310 and determines the data file corresponding to the selection of the user. For example, the selection of the user corresponds to a read image, stored in a file JPEG format lu.jpeg compressed at a location indicated in the electronic document DOC. Alternatively, any other image data representation format, in compressed or uncompressed form, is usable.

The selected image read is extracted in step 315, and optionally normalized in step 320 so that its dimensions (height, width) are less than or equal to a predetermined value set for storing visual identifiers. For example, the dimensions are set at a maximum of MxM pixels, with M = 64 for a mobile phone type device having a screen of 600x400 pixels, in order to maintain a size of the 'thumbnail' type ("thumbnail" in English), so that the visual identifier can easily be displayed at the same time, or superimposed on the document being displayed. More generally, the value of M depends on the size of the screen of the device 200. Next, the normalized read image is stored as a visual identifier in step 325. In one embodiment, all the images chosen as the visual identifier are stored in a local storage area 250 of the device 200. Alternatively, a list of all the visual identifiers, with their storage addresses including the location and the name of the corresponding image files is updated and stored in local storage 250.

In the event of a negative response from the user at step 305, step 305 is followed by step 330 of obtaining a plurality of images that can be used as visual identifiers from which the user can choose one or more visual identifiers to associate with the DOC electronic document. In one embodiment, all the images already present in the device, which have already been used and stored as visual identifiers are obtained in step 330. Variants of this embodiment of obtaining a plurality of visual identifiers adapted to represent the DOC document will be described later with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5. The set of images that can be used as visual identifiers obtained in step 330 is displayed on the graphical interface 270 at step 335, with a view to a selection by the user. In one embodiment, the display includes a visual indication relating to the level of use of the visual identifiers already used as such, as explained hereinafter with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9. Step 335 is followed by the step 340 to retrieve the selection of the user. It is then checked in step 345 whether the user-selected read image has already been stored as a visual identifier. In the case of a negative response, step 345 is followed by step 325 of storing the image selected by the user as a visual identifier already described. Step 325 is followed by step 350 of memorizing an association between the document DOC, and in particular an addressing attribute allowing access to the electronic document DOC, and the visual identifier read selected by the user. for the DOC document. For example, the association of the name of the file containing the visual identifier and an addressing attribute of the document DOC, such as its URL ("Uniform Resource Locator") is stored in a table stored in the storage space 260 device 200. Optionally, a textual identifier is added by the user and stored in association with the visual identifier read. If there is a positive response in step 345, then if the read visual identifier is already stored as a visual identifier, step 345 is also followed by step 350 described above. Optionally, step 350 is followed by a step 355 of incrementing a counter associated with the selected visual identifier read. In this embodiment, a counter is associated with each visual identifier. This counter is initialized to 1 during the first storage of the image as a visual identifier, and is incremented by one each time this visual identifier is used, so as to keep a measurement of the number of uses of each of the identifiers. visuals. Thus, advantageously, a level of use of this visual identifier in terms of the number of uses is indicated to the user when displaying the visual identifiers, to guide him in his choices. FIG. 4 is a flowchart of a first embodiment variant of obtaining a plurality of visual identifiers implemented at step 330. In this embodiment, a textual identifier associated with the document DOC in progress. display is obtained in step 400, for example by displaying a textual identifier input menu and retrieving the string of alphanumeric characters entered by the user. Here, a textual identifier refers to one or more keywords relating to the DOC document. Alternatively, a textual identifier is automatically retrieved, for example by automatically extracting one or more words from the title of the document DOC or more generally from its contents. Then at step 405 an image search request is started on the communication network 10 from the obtained textual identifier. For example, a conventional search engine is started in image search mode with the textual identifier obtained in step 400 as search criteria. Images are received in response to the request at step 410. In general, search engines return results ranked in order of decreasing relevance. In practice, at most a predetermined number N of images (for example N = 5) is retained in step 410. Step 410 is followed by an optional normalization step 415 of each of the images obtained, similar to FIG. Step 320 already described. It may be noted that in one embodiment, the method described with reference to FIG. 4 is implemented in addition to obtaining visual identifiers already stored as such and stored in the memory 250 of the device 200. FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a second variant embodiment of obtaining a plurality of visual identifiers implemented in step 330. The set of images of the document DOC is extracted in step 500. In the case where the DOC document is a document in HTML format, it is easy to extract the images contained in DOC, since the <img> tag is used to indicate an image file to display and associated display parameters. The extraction step 500 is followed by a filtering step 505, which aims to retain only a subset of the extracted images, which are potentially relevant as visual identifiers. The filtering is carried out on the basis of attributes or metadata associated with the identified images.

The images retained after filtering are then normalized in step 510, which is similar to step 320 already described. It may be noted that in one embodiment, the method described with reference to FIG. 5 is implemented in addition to obtaining visual identifiers already stored as such and / or obtaining visual identifiers described in FIG. FIG. 6 is a schematic view of an electronic document and associated visual identifiers. The electronic document 600 includes several images 610, 620, 630 and a text box 640. The images are displayed at various locations specified in the HTML code describing the document 600.

The images 610, 620 and 630 are taken from the document at step 500. In this example, the filtering step does not remove any of the extracted images. They are then normalized to fit into a square MxM, M being the predetermined maximum size M, and displayed in the display space 650 of the graphic interface, in their normalized form: the thumbnail 660 corresponds to the extracted image 610, the thumbnail 670 corresponds to the extracted image 620, the thumbnail 680 corresponds to the extracted image 640. Next, the user can choose one or more of the thumbnails 660, 670, 680 as a visual identifier to be associated with the document 600. FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a method for accessing an electronic document according to an embodiment of the invention, implemented by the processor 210 under the control of the software module 240. In a first step 700, the set of visual identifiers used and stored in a storage space 250 of the device 200 is displayed on the graphic interface 270. Preferably, the display includes a visual indication relating to the level of use of the identifiers. displayed visual ts measured by the counter associated with each of the visual identifiers described with reference to step 355 of Figure 3. Display variants will be described below with reference to Figures 8 and 9. The user is invited to select a visual identifier from those displayed. The selection of the user IVu is then retrieved at step 705.

A list of all the documents for which an association with the visual identifier IVu has been stored is then displayed on the graphical interface. For example, the documents are referenced by their name, or their name and URL addressing attribute already mentioned. Preferably, the displayed documents are easily selectable.

The user then selects one of the documents displayed in the list, DOCu, and his selection is retrieved in step 715.

The addressing attribute which is stored in the association of the document DOCu with the visual identifier IVu is then extracted in the step 720, and used in the step 730 to access the concerned document. In the example of the web pages, the URL is used to send a request to a remote server, and the corresponding web page is obtained in response to the request in the device implementing the invention. In a variant, the electronic document is a file stored locally in a storage space of the device 200, and its addressing attribute is a local address of the file in the file tree stored locally.

FIG. 8 is a schematic example of displaying visual identifiers and associated optional textual identifiers in the display space 800, which is part of the graphical interface 270. In this example, the associated visual and text identifiers are listed in an order representative of the level of use of each of the visual identifiers. Thus, the identifier 810 is used more than the identifier 820, itself more frequently used than the two following identifiers 830 and 840. When the user selects the identifier 810, a list of corresponding documents is displayed instead the set of visual and textual identifiers in the display space 800, the documents denoted 850, 860 and 870 each being identified by an associated name, for example the title of the document.

When the user selects one of the documents, for example the document 850 identified by the name `Last Releases', the corresponding web page is retrieved and will then be displayed in the display space 800. FIG. 9 is an example schematic of an alternative display of visual identifiers.

In this variant, the visual identifiers are displayed in the display space 900, which is part of the graphic interface 270, according to a cloud of images rather than sequentially. Advantageously, the images can occupy the display space, and even be partially superimposed on the display while remaining easy to interpret by the user. In this example, it is the display size that visually indicates the level of use of each of the visual identifiers: the larger the size, the more the visual identifier is used. Thus, in this example, the visual identifier 910 is the most used, followed in the order of the visual identifiers 920, 930 and 940. In practice, starting from a standardized initial size of maximum MxM pixels, each image used as a visual identifier is enlarged for display proportionally to the counter associated with the visual identifier, up to a predetermined maximum pixel size PxP, dependent on the screen size of the device 200. For example, for a mobile phone having a screen of 600x400 pixels, we choose P = 128. As in the example of FIG. 8, following a selection of the user for example from the visual identifier 910, a list of corresponding documents is displayed instead of the set of visual identifiers in the space d 900 display, documents 950, 960 and 970 are each identified by an associated name, which is the title of the document in this embodiment. When the user selects one of the documents, for example the document 950 identified by the name `Latest Releases', the corresponding web page is retrieved and will then be displayed in the display space 900. Alternatively, the visual identifiers are displayed in 2.5D or 3D format if viewing of 3D images is planned.

Claims (1)

CLAIMS1.- A method of labeling an electronic document viewable on a graphical interface (270) of a device (200), comprising associating at least one identifier with said electronic document, characterized in that said identifier is a visual identifier. of the image type, the method comprising the following steps: - displaying (300) said electronic document on said graphic interface (270), - obtaining (310, 340) at least one visual identifier selected by a user for said displayed document, and - storing (350) an association between said selected visual identifier and at least one addressing attribute for accessing said electronic document. 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of obtaining at least one visual identifier comprises: the selection (310) by the user of an image contained in said electronic document; (315) of said user selected image; - normalizing (320) the extracted image to predetermined dimensions; and - storing (325) said normalized extracted image as a visual identifier. 3. A method according to claim 1, wherein said step of obtaining at least one visual identifier comprises: the extraction (500) of at least one image from said electronic document, the normalization (510) at least one image extracted according to predetermined dimensions, - the display (335) of the normalized extracted images as visual identifiers proposed to the user, and - the obtaining of the selection (340) by the user of a or more of the proposed visual identifiers. 4. The method according to claim 3, further comprising, in the case where a plurality of images is extracted from said electronic document, before the display step, a filtering step (505) making it possible to preserve a subset of the plurality of images extracted according to an attribute associated with each extracted image. 5. A method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein said step of obtaining at least one visual identifier comprises: obtaining (330) a plurality of visual identifiers adapted to represent said electronic document, - displaying (335) said plurality of visual identifiers on said graphic interface, and - obtaining (340) the selection by the user of at least one visual identifier among the visual identifiers displayed. The method of claim 5, wherein displaying the plurality of visual identifiers on the graphical interface further includes a visual indication of a usage level of each of the displayed visual identifiers. 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the visual identifiers are displayed as a cloud of images, said visual indication being given by the size of the images. The method of any one of claims 5 to 7, wherein said plurality of visual identifiers is obtained (330) from a local storage space (250) of said device. 9.- Method according to one of claims 5 to 8, wherein said device is connected to a communication network (10), said step of obtaining a plurality of visual identifiers comprising: - obtaining (400) ) at least one textual identifier characterizing said electronic document, - sending (405) a search query for visual identifiers corresponding to said at least one textual identifier through the communication network (10), and - the receiving (410) at least one visual identifier in response to said request. 10. A method for accessing an electronic document viewable on a graphical interface of a device 200, said electronic document having at least one associated image-type visual identifier according to a labeling method according to the present invention. any one of claims 1 to 9, characterized in that it comprises the following steps: - display (700) of a plurality of visual identifiers stored in a storage space (250) of said device, - selection (705) by a user of a displayed visual identifier, and - obtaining (715, 730) at least one electronic document associated with said selected visual identifier. 11. A method according to claim 10, characterized in that it further comprises: the selection (715) by the user of one of said electronic documents associated with said selected visual identifier, and the access (730) to the audit electronic document selected using said addressing attribute for accessing said stored electronic document in association with said visual identifier. The method of claim 11, wherein displaying the plurality of identifiers on the graphical interface further includes a visual indication of a usage level of each of the displayed visual identifiers. 13. The method of claim 12, wherein the visual identifiers are displayed in the form of a cloud of images, said visual indication being given by the size of the images. 14. A device for labeling a viewable electronic document, comprising a graphic interface, and means for associating at least one identifier with said electronic document, characterized in that said identifier is a visual identifier of image type, the device comprising display means (270) of said electronic document on said graphic interface, means for obtaining (280, 290) at least one visual identifier selected by a user for said displayed document, and means for storing (260) an association between said selected visual identifier and at least one addressing attribute for accessing said electronic document.