GB2296115A

GB2296115A - Transfering data from a portable computer

Info

Publication number: GB2296115A
Application number: GB9425184A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Tim Mills; Michael John Flynn
Original assignee: Rank Xerox Ltd
Current assignee: Xerox Ltd
Priority date: 1994-12-12
Filing date: 1994-12-12
Publication date: 1996-06-19
Also published as: GB9425184D0

Abstract

A system for transferring data from a portable computer, preferably a wristwatch computer (2), having an integral display (8), comprises: locating assembly (6) for receiving the computer with its display in a predetermined orientation, a video camera (10) or scanner (13, Fig. 2) for capturing an image of the display, and a processor (12) for recognising a feature of the image, and for performing a function related to the feature. The recognised feature is preferably a document reference, which uniquely identifies an electronic document to which the processor has access, and the function performed may be printing out the corresponding document on an associated printer (14). <IMAGE>

Description

TRANSFERRING DATA FROM A PORTABLE COMPUTER This invention relates to the transfer of data from a portable computer. and more particularly to a method and system for transferring data from a very small computer such as a wristwatch. Even more particularly, a method for providing output facilities from a digital watch equipped with no other means of output other than a standard liquid crystal display is described.

There are many digital watches on the market which, besides telling the time, are able to store data, such as telephone numbers, addresses and so on. Typically, these watches provide no means of accessing this data electronically, and few provide any form of electronic output at all.

Most watches available to date have no means of electronic input or output. i.e. to/from another electronic device. Of those watches which do have this facility, the following are of interest.

An existing programmable watch, Seiko's "Mac Watch", uses a special cable which cradles the watch in order to make electrical contact, and hence bi-directional data transmission. However, the cable slots onto the back of the watch, and the watch must be taken off to achieve this. This operation is intended for bulk data transfer - its entire telephone database, for example.

The Timex DataLink watch uses DataLink technology to provide input to the watch from a TV or computer monitor (by modulation of the displayed images), but has no output capability other than the ordinary LCD display.

There exists a need for "contact-free" output of data from a watch. i.e. without the requirement of special purpose electrical hook-up cables, and which is compatible with existing devices for data capture, image sensors such as video cameras and document scanners, and the like.

The present invention provides a system for transferring data from a portable computer, preferably a wristwatch computer, having an integral display, comprising: means for receiving the computer with its display in a predetermined orientation, means for capturing an image of said display, processing means. including means for recognising a feature of said image, and means for performing a function related to said feature of the image.

The invention further provides a method for transferring data from a portable computer, preferably a wristwatch computer, having an integral display, comprising: receiving the computer with its display in a predetermined orientation. capturing an image of said display, recognising a feature of said image, and performing a function related to said feature of the image.

The invention further provides a system for accessing or distributing electronic documents, including: a database of electronic documents and corresponding document references. and a plurality of objects, at least one of said objects being portable or mobile, each object including means for communicating with the or each other object and with a user interface, and means for receiving, storing or transmitting a document reference corresponding to one of said electronic documents.

The invention further provides a portable device for accessing or distributing electronic documents, including: means for communicating with fixed or mobile electronic devices and with a user interface. at least one of said devices including a database of electronic documents and corresponding document references, and means for receiving, storing or transmitting a document reference corresponding to one of said electronic documents.

The invention further provides an apparatus for scanning, copying and/or printing documents, including: means for accessing a database electronic documents, each electronic document having a corresponding document reference. means for communicating with one or more of a plurality of objects, at least one of said objects being portable or mobile, and with a user interface, and means for receiving, storing or transmitting a document reference corresponding to one of said electronic documents.

In preferred embodiments, the invention consists of an image sensing device (such as a video camera or scanner), an assembly for accurately locating the watch, and computer image recognition software. Using a video camera as the image sensing device, the video camera is contained in an assembly suitable for accurately locating the watch. The video camera is connected to a video digitiser and computer. Image recognition software allows the image displayed on the watch screen to be recognised by the computer. By using a standard video camera to capture data directly from a watch face, simple 'contact-free" output is achieved.

Using a scanner as the image scanning device, the watch is placed on the platen of the scanner, and computer-based scanning software used to retrieve the image from the watch face. This image is then used for subsequent image recognition. An advantage of this is that no extra hardware is required when the watch is used in conjunction with a scanner.

The computer is able to perform useful tasks in response to the recognised watch display. For example, instead of using the watch's stored telephone number database for the intended purpose, each (numerical) entry may instead represent a document. At a suitably equipped printer, the watch, showing a particular document representation (number), is presented to the video camera causing the document to be retrieved and printed.

The feature in the display of the watch, which represents a document and/or a function to be performed thereon, may be displayed in human-readable text glyph code (e.g. as described in US-A-s 5.168.147: 5.091.966: and 5,128.525), barcodes or other suitable encodings to represent the information.

The invention facilitates a wide range of uses for retrieved information, e.g. document references. The document satchel concept. disclosed in British patent application 9412871.7. is preferably implemented on such a watch, thereby providing interface to photocopiers, printers. fax machines etc.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of example. with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure I is a schematic illustration of a system according to one embodiment of the invention, employing a video camera as image sensor: Figure 7 is a schematic illustration of a system according to a second embodiment of the invention, employing a document scanner as image sensor: Figures 3 shows (a) an exemplary wristwatch display, and (b) an enlarged display digit in one embodiment of the invention; and Figure 4 is a flow chart of the processing by which information is transferred from the wristwatch and a number of functions are performed.

Referring to Fig.l, a wristwatch 2 is placed in a locating aperture 4 of a locating assembly 6 by a user, such that the watch display surface 8 is in a predetermined orientation with respect to a video camera 10 fixedly coupled to the assembly 6. The aperture 4 is preferably designed to accept various shapes of watch, but in any event ensures that no rotation or skew correction of the image of the watch display captured by the video camera 10 is required to be performed. The image recognition system, generally designated 12, performs the processing steps on the video image(s), and may comprise a conventional image processing board coupled to a general purpose computer, as discussed in Digital Image Processing by B. Jähne (1991), Springer-Verlag, Appendix B, or as described in EP-A-622,722.

The image processing system 12 is coupled to at least one other electronic device 14 (e.g.

printer), and is preferably coupled to a network of file servers, workstations, PCs, printers and multifunction machines, as described in British patent application 9412871.7. The processing system 12 commands the device 14 to perform functions input to the system from the wristwatch 2, as described further below.

Figure 2 shows an alternate embodiment of the invention, which is the same as that of Fig. I except that it employs a document scanner (13) as image sensor rather that a video camera. Here, the watch 2 is placed with its display surface 8 on the platen 15 of the document scanner 13. In this embodiment. as well as including the image processing steps described further below, the preliminary step of rotating the image of the watch display is also included to put it in the desired orientation for reading a display entry.

Figure 3(a) shows an exemplary wristwatch display 16 captured by the abovementioned camera or scanner. the display 16 containing one entry 18: the entry may take any suitable form. and may suitably take up only a single line of the display. The display entry 18 comprises (a) a number 20 which, in this embodiment is a document reference corresponding to a document entitled "Agenda", (b) and abbreviation 22 of the title (although the full title may be used), (c) a cursor 24, and (d) a function sign 26, which will be discussed in further detail below. Optionally, the item (b) may be horizontally scrolled along the display to assist a user, or may be omitted altogether; the title of a document may change with time, while its document reference remains the same. In addition (and as discussed further below) items (c) and (d) may be omitted. and the numbers 20 alone displayed.

The wristwatch 2 includes a touchscreen which enables a user to select the number 20 from a menu, and, in response to the cursor 24 being displayed, to enter a sign 26 designating a function to be performed. Alternatively. any suitable system of pushbutton selection and entry may be used instead of a touchscreen.

Each item 20-26 of the entry 18 is formed by digits of the conventional 7-segment form.

Figure 3(b) shows an enlarged display digit in one embodiment of the invention. Test areas 28, 30 of single pixels or linear or 2-D groups of pixels are shown which are used during the process of recognising the digits of the entry 18. Since the position of the LCD segments in the display 16 is fixed, the locations of the test areas 28. 30 is know.n [To allow for minor position variations. the test area 28 for a horizontal segment may extend vertically, and a test area 30 for a vertical segment 34 may extend horizontally.] Figure 4 is a flow chart of the processing by which information is transferred from the wristwatch and a number of functions are performed.

The watch is presented to the camera in a fixed position and orientation. The position of each digit is fixed, since this is an LCD display. Also, in this embodiment the font is fixed - namely. the standard seven segment numeric font.

The incoming image is thresholded to give a binary image. The grey level of each pixel is compared against a constant value. Those pixels that are brighter than the constant are assigned white.

those darker, black. An alternative technique (e.g. adaptive thresholding: see EP-A-629.722) may be used for other illumination methods where there arise variations across the face, reflections and so on.

In the areas (see Fig. 3) known to contain LCD segments (the position is fixed), the on (black) and off (white) pixels are counted, and a decision is made as to which LCD segments are on (black) or off (white). This is a simple numeric threshoiding operation.

Once it is known which segments are on or off in each digit group. a simple table lookup tells which digit is showing. in each digit position.

The digits are combined into a number. The number for example refers to a document to be printed (if 'P' is entered after the curser 24). copied to disk (D), mailed by electronic mail over a network ('M'). to an address entered. for example. after the 'M'. or faxed to somebody ('F') at a number given after the 'F'.

The numeric identifiers (numbers 20 in Fig. 3) may refer to global addresses of documents.

for example. which could be passed around between colleagues, and may comprise a document references as described in British patent application 9412871.7.

It will be appreciated that the watch may include a display. other than a 7-segment LCD display. of any suitable type. e.g. capable of displaying bit-mapped alphanumeric images. In such an implementation. the image-processing software includes recognition techniques (e.g. Xerox ScanworX) such as are widely known in the field of OCR devices. in addition to rotation/skew correction steps.

If only numbers. and no characters. can be displayed by the watch, commands corresponding to functions to be performed. may be encoded numerically: the numbers can cause anything that the computer can do to happen. Alternatively. icons such as described in British patent application 9412871.7 may be employed in the wristwatch display. the image processing software being suitably adapted for recognition of any of such a set of icons.

The functions to be performed on a document (and represented by the signs P, D, M. F in the above-described embodiment) may alternatively be used switch video, open building doors, play music, speech samples, or whatever. The recognised numbers correspond to an array of programs that are executed upon recognition of the corresponding number. The program can do whatever it likes.

Typically its a short script which synthesises some speech ("I'm printing your document"). and then prints a document.

The above-described embodiment is suited to a system in which a camera/scanner is connected to a data processing machine which can perform a repetoire of tasks, or can cause any of a number of machines to preform such tasks.

An alternative is that there are many cameras and machines at various locations in a building, one camera adjacent each machine, and that the task performed by each is specific (although drawn from a predetermined repetoire). So, for example, the camera/ image processing system at the printer prints documents: the one by the fax machine faxes them, and so on. In other words, the location and context of the camera/computer determines what is to be done, even when presented with the same document references. In such a case there is no need to for the watch to receive/display function: reduces the amount of manipulation on the watch required of a user.

Claims

CLAIMS:

1. A system for transferring data from a portable computer, preferably a wristwatch computer, having an integral display. comprising: means for receiving the computer with its display in a predetermined orientation, means for capturing an image of said display, processing means, including means for recognising a feature of said image, and means for performing a function related to said feature of the image.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein said feature is a visually encoded item corresponding to a data set or document, or to a function to be performed with a data set or document.

3. The system of claim 2. wherein said encoded item corresponds to a digital document reference, and said processing means includes means for retrieving electronic document associated with said document reference.

4. The system of claim 2 or 3, further including. coupled to said processing means, a printing device: wherein said encoded item is a command to initiate printing of the electronic document.

5. The system of any preceding claim, wherein said encoded item is a keyword or title in text form.

6. The system of any of claims I to 4, wherein said encoded item is a barcode or a glyph code.

7. A method for transferring data from a portable computer, preferably a wristwatch computer, having an integral display. comprising: receiving the computer with its display in a predetermined orientation.

capturing an image of said display.

recognising a feature of said image. and performing a function related to said feature of the image.

8. A system for accessing or distributing electronic documents, including: a database of electronic documents and corresponding document references, and a plurality of objects, at least one of said objects being portable or mobile. each object including means for communicating with the or each other object and with a user interface. and means for receiving. storing or transmitting a document reference corresponding to one of said electronic documents.

9. A portable device for accessing or distributing electronic documents, including: means for communicating with fixed or mobile electronic devices and with a user interface. at least one of said devices including a database of electronic documents and corresponding document references, and means for receiving, storing or transmitting a document reference corresponding to one of said electronic documents.

10. An apparatus for scanning, copying and/or printing documents, including: means for accessing a database electronic documents, each electronic document having a corresponding document reference, means for communicating with one or more of a plurality of objects at least one of said objects being portable or mobile, and with a user interface, and means for receiving, storing or transmitting a document reference corresponding to one of said electronic documents.

11. A system for transferring data from a portable computer, substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figs 1, 3 and 4 of the accompanying drawings.

12. A system for transferring data from a portable computer, substantiaily as hereinbefore described with reference to Figs 2, 3 and 4 of the accompanying drawings.