GB2596333A

GB2596333A - Improvements relating to sequence recognition to enable communications

Info

Publication number: GB2596333A
Application number: GB2009716.8A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Rogers Alex; Leigh Thomas; Vikulov Alexey
Original assignee: Mondago Ltd
Current assignee: Mondago Ltd
Priority date: 2020-06-25
Filing date: 2020-06-25
Publication date: 2021-12-29
Also published as: GB202009716D0

Abstract

Content is displayed on a display device. A content capture program is enabled, and an input is received from the capture program designating a portion of the content to be captured. The captured portion is analysed to recognise a sequence of characters and the recognised sequence is extracted. The recognized sequence is evaluated to determine a valid character set for enabling a communication. The valid character set may be provided to a telephony system to instigate the communication via a communication network using the valid character set. The display may be augmented to identify the valid character set i.e. altering its appearance by placing a telephone icon next to the telephone number. Analysing the captured portion may use optical character recognition (OCR).

Description

IMPROVEMENTS RELATING TO SEQUENCE RECOGNITION TO ENABLE COMMUNCIATIONS

The present invention relates to a method of recognizing a character sequence on a display for enabling communication over a communication network. Specifically, recognizing a telephone number to enable click-to-call functionality. The term "telephone number" encompasses any numerical or alphanumeric sequences which can be used to instigate a communication between at least two end-users.

Integrated software applications which enable the ability to make calls from other software applications wherever telephone numbers exist are known. Recently, new genres of software are being produced that make it impossible to natively integrate with and to fetch numbers. One such application is "Microsoft Teams". Therefore, it is desirable to provide a method to allow dialling from any application where telephone numbers are displayed with only minimal configuration.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of recognising a sequence of characters for enabling a communication via a communication network, the method comprising the steps: displaying content on a display device; enabling a content capture program; receiving an input from the capture program designating a portion of the content to be captured; analysing the captured portion to recognise a sequence of characters; extracting the recognised sequence; evaluating the recognized sequence to determine a valid character set for enabling a communication.

Advantageously, the method is application agnostic, useable on any displayed content to identify and retrieve valid character sets regardless of inherent presentation and tolerant of display quality, thereby enabling the valid character sets to be used to launch a communication.

In an embodiment, the method includes the further step of providing the valid character set to a telephony system to instigate the communication via the communication network using the valid character set.

In an embodiment, the method includes the further step of augmenting the displayto identify the valid character set.

In an embodiment, the captured portion is captured in a lossless image format.

In an embodiment, the step of analysing comprises optical character recognition techniques.

In an embodiment the step of analysing further comprises upscaling techniques.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system comprising: a display device, a processing unit, and a memory comprising computer storage media including instructions that when executed by the processing unit: display content on the display device; enable a content capture program; receive an input from the capture program designating a portion of the content to be captured; analyse the captured portion to recognise a sequence of characters; extract the recognised sequence; evaluate the recognized sequence to determine a valid character set for enabling a communication.

In an embodiment, the computer storage media include instructions executable by the processing unit to provide the valid character set to a telephony system to instigate the communication via the communication network using the valid number.

In an embodiment, the display device includes a touch-sensitive or proximity sensitive display surface.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided at least one computer-readable storage medium containing computer-executable instructions for causing a computer device to perform operations comprising: displaying content on a display device; enabling a content capture program; receiving an input from the capture program designating a portion of the content to be captured; analysing the captured portion to recognise a sequence of characters; extracting the recognised sequence; evaluating the recognized sequence to determine a valid character set for enabling a communication.

In an embodiment, the operations further comprises: providing the valid character set to a telephony system to instigate the communication via the communication network using the valid character set.

In an embodiment, the operations further comprises: augmenting the display to identify the valid character set.

The invention may be produced in various ways and an embodiment thereof will now be described, by way of example only, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which:-Figure 1 is a flow chart illustrating in overview an embodiment of the method according to the present invention; Figure 2 illustrates an embodiment of the system according to the present invention; and, Figure 3 is a screen print showing operation of the method according to the present invention on a display in an embodiment as a software application.

Referring to Figure 1 of the drawings, there is illustrated a flow chart sequencing the steps associated with the method (100) according to an embodiment of the present invention. Prior to implementing the method, the content is displayed on a display device of a computer system (an example of which is described with reference to Figure 2). Once the content has been displayed, the first step (110) associated with the method (100) includes enabling a content capture program; this step may correspond to a user inputting a command on a device, to implement the subsequent method steps. The second step (120) comprises the user designating or selecting a portion of the content to be captured and may involve the user directing an input device cursor over a specific area of the displayed content. The third step (130) comprises analysing the captured portion to recognise a sequence of characters and extracting the recognised sequence. This step may involve the use of optical character recognition techniques. The fourth step (140) comprises evaluating the recognized sequence to determine a valid character set for enabling a communication and may involve the use of validation algorithms and/or lookups via stored databases of valid characters sets.

A further step (150) includes providing the valid character set to a telephony system to instigate the communication via the communication network using the valid character set; this step may involve known protocols to enable the user to place a call such as via telephone system, for example a system including a VolP (voice over internet protocol) enabled telephone connected to a computer system running the method.

A further step may include augmenting or modifying the display to identify the valid character set, once the valid character set has been found. This enables the user to understand that a valid number has been found and that a call can be made, for example a click to call function.

The present invention combines several technologies to allow a software application to read and understand telephone numbers from a user display. An overview of the exemplary usage of the method according to the invention can be described as follows: * The user activates the method herein via a software application * A section of the display is captured * The section is analysed using optical character recognition techniques to extract readable characters * The extracted characters are parsed and validated * If a valid telephone number is found, the telephone number is presented to the user with an option to make a telephone call to the number.

The user can indicate that they want to call the extracted telephone number, by clicking on the modified display, then the method can enable this using known telephony communication techniques. The specific implementation of each step is important to ensure sufficient usability.

OCR can be computationally intensive and in an envisaged use of the method, computer terminals which may run the method will likely have restricted processing power due to cost and scale. Indication of activation (110) by the user reduces the processing load and in avoiding retrieving false positives, were the display being continuously analysed for valid character sets. A potential embodiment may include a keypress input on a user input device such as a keyboard, alternatively activation may be controlled by holding the input key for the duration of the process or toggled on and off. In an example the method may be running while a user holds the activation key and navigates the display with a mouse, an area surrounding the cursor is analysed for valid character sets, this reduces the processing required to only an area of interest of the user and when they are interested.

Determining a section of the displayed content to be captured (120) reduces the processing load from that required to analyse the entirety of the displayed content constantly. In a potential embodiment a region surrounding a pointer cursor is shown on the display (as described with reference to Figure 3), which intuitively allows the user to indicate a telephone number by positioning the cursor close to the number. The region may be illustrated with a borderline having a preferred shape to denote the region of the displayed content to be analysed, for example a rectangle can be used which is wider than it is tall to suit telephone numbers as commonly displayed. The size and shape of the section should be sufficiently large to surround on-screen displayed telephone numbers, however, if the region is too large then it can include extraneous data and waste CPU time. The capture section of the display can be in an uncompressed and/or lossless format, for example a bitmap map may be used.

Analysing the captured portion (130) using optical character recognition (OCR) requires the technique to be resilient to the variance in display quality or font style. OCR is more effective on high quality images such as the printed word, and difficulty can arise with small images having a low number of pixels. In an exemplary embodiment, an upscaling technique (such as a bicubic) can covert the captured content to a level suitable for recognition. OCR is typically done on print having a resolution of 300 dots per inch (DPI), thus allowing the OCR to work with a high confidence level. Computer displays, commonly used in call centres, generally operate at 96 DPI, while less common computers can also work at 240 DPI ("High DPI"). Known OCR techniques will work satisfactorily on High DPI, however, on common low DPI displays upscaling techniques render the images larger, and as such, the images become increasingly "blocky" or "fuzzy" and give no extra value to OCR. It has been found that a using a bicubic upscaling technique will artificially create the needed missing content for the OCR to work. Other potential upscaling techniques such as angle compensation can also produce satisfactory results.

The extracted numbers require parsing to form valid telephone numbers (140). The extracted numbers needed to be distinguished from other similar strings of numbers, e.g. dates, account numbers, monetary values. Functions such as string searching algorithms or lookups are used to understand valid numbers, extract their location (area code) information and validate the length.

If a valid number is found, then the number is presented to the user with an option to make a call to the number. The number is represented in a similar style and displayed above its original location to make it stand out as an element to be clicked on. The display size is compensated for the displayed value such that it can be superimposed above the original, to make it clickable.

Figure 2 illustrates an exemplary computer system (200) that may be used to implement aspects of the invention. In a basic configuration the system includes a display (210), input means (221/222), communication means (230), and standard components such as a processing unit and memory. The display (210) may be used to present content such as graphical user interfaces and data. Content (240) is displayed on the display (210) when the method (as described with reference to Figure 1) is launched, and a region or area around the cursor (250), corresponding to the input device position is illustrated via the borderline. Within the area around the cursor (250) the method is attempting to find valid characters sets, which can be used to make a call, via communication means (230) such as a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone.

Figure 3 illustrates the steps of a method as they are performed on content on a display (300), including a portion that has been designated by a user in accordance with an embodiment of the invention. In the Figure, the displayed content is shown as it would appear to the user (a), the portion of content (340) is surrounded by a borderline (350) denoting where the method is extracting and analysing the content for valid character sets (b). Within the borderline the valid characters set can be seen to have its appearance altered (360) to enable the user to interact with the number to make a call (c).

Select embodiments of the invention only have been described and illustrated, and it will be readily apparent that other embodiments, modifications, additions and omissions are possible within the scope of the invention.

The invention may be varied according to requirements, including but not limited to programming language or emulation, having as its objective the ability to recognising a sequence of characters for enabling a communication via a communication network.

Claims

CLAIMS1. A method of recognising a sequence of characters for enabling a communication via a communication network, the method comprising the steps: displaying content on a display device; enabling a content capture program; receiving an input from the capture program designating a portion of the content to be captured; analysing the captured portion to recognise a sequence of characters; extracting the recognised sequence; evaluating the recognized sequence to determine a valid character set for enabling a communication.
2. The method according to claim 1, including the further step: providing the valid character set to a telephony system to instigate the communication via the communication network using the valid character set.
3. The method according to any previous claim, including the further step: augmenting the display to identify the valid character set.
4. The method according to any previous claim, wherein the captured portion is captured in a lossless image format.
5. The method according to any previous claim, wherein the step of analysing comprises optical character recognition techniques.
6. The method according to any previous claim, wherein the step of analysing further comprises upscaling techniques.
7. A system comprising: a display device, a processing unit, and a memory comprising computer storage media including instructions that when executed by the processing unit: display content on the display device; enable a content capture program; receive an input from the capture program designating a portion of the content to be captured; analyse the captured portion to recognise a sequence of characters; extract the recognised sequence; evaluate the recognized sequence to determine a valid character set for enabling a communication.
8. The system of claim 7, wherein the computer storage media include instructions executable by the processing unit to provide the valid character set to a telephony system to instigate the communication via the communication network using the valid number.
9. The system of claim 8, wherein the display device includes a touch-sensitive or proximity sensitive display surface.
10. At least one computer-readable storage medium containing computer-executable instructions for causing a computer device to perform operations comprising: displaying content on a display device; enabling a content capture program; receiving an input from the capture program designating a portion of the content to be captured; analysing the captured portion to recognise a sequence of characters; extracting the recognised sequence; evaluating the recognized sequence to determine a valid character set for enabling a communication.
11. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 10, wherein the operations further comprises: providing the valid character set to a telephony system to instigate the communication via the communication network using the valid character set.
12. The at least one computer-readable storage medium of claim 11, wherein the operations further comprises: augmenting the display to identify the valid character set.