WO2008120032A1

WO2008120032A1 - Terminal and method for business card scanning and detection of preferred language of a contact

Info

Publication number: WO2008120032A1
Application number: PCT/IB2007/001399
Authority: WO
Inventors: John Rieman; Minna Hekanaho; Minna Koutonen; Tero Rantonen; John Hard
Original assignee: Nokia Corporation
Priority date: 2007-03-29
Filing date: 2007-05-29
Publication date: 2008-10-09
Also published as: TW200839539A

Abstract

A mobile communication apparatus comprising a display and means for navigating, comprising enabling of inputting of a first set of information comprising contact information data, and further processing contact information data to extract one or more items from the contact information data. It also comprise comparing one or more items with a list of items and determining corresponding property of one or more items from the result of said comparison, and performing an action based on said property. A corresponding application, apparatus, system and computer program product is also disclosed.

Description

TERMINAL AND METHOD FOR BUSINESS CARD SCANNING AND DETECTION OF PREFERRED LANGUAGE OF A CONTACT

Technical field

The present invention relates to methods for detecting contact information language, setting preferred contact correspondence language, and translating and replacing contact information in a portable apparatus, a rendering application, a portable apparatus comprising a display and means for navigating, and a computer-readable medium having computer-executable components. Background of the invention

Modern-day businessperson handles a lot of client contact information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, etc., in various forms such as on business cards, on vCards, in e-mails, on printed matter, in pictures, or just handwritten on a piece of paper. The amount of client contact information's grows rapidly, especially after visits to national and international fairs, workshops, and conferences. After a while when a 5 businessperson wants to contact a client that he or she have met at for example an international conference, it can be hard to recollect in which language the client wants to communicate. Unfortunately the contact information does not always help to disclose in which language the client wants to communicate. Contacting and trying to communicate in the wrong0 language can cause great embarrassment and may appear both ignorant and unprofessional, which can be potential disastrous for business.

For example, if a Danish businessperson wants to contact, by phone, e-mail, letter, etc., a Swedish businessman with his place of business in Kiruna, located in the northern part of Sweden, the Danish businessperson5 needs to remember that the Swedish businessperson wants to communicate in English, since the Swedish businessperson may not understand the Danish language that well. However, the Danish businesspersons other Swedish business contact located in the town Malmδ, in the southern part of Sweden close to the Danish capital Copenhagen, understands Danish very well and would perhaps preferred to communicate in Danish instead of in English. If the Danish businessperson starts talking in English with the Swedish businessperson being from Malmό, the Danish businessperson would surely get a comment that it is ok to talk in Danish, leaving the Danish businessperson ashamed and embarrassed.

Successful businesspersons may have hundreds of business contacts scattered around the world and it can be quite hard and cumbersome to remember or make notes on in which language each business contact prefers to communicate in.

Summary of the invention

In view of the above, an objective of the invention is to solve or at least reduce the problems discussed above. In particular, an objective is to provide a user friendly and efficient way of determining and/or setting a preferred communication language based on the contact information.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for a portable apparatus, comprising enabling inputting of a first set of information comprising contact information data, processing said contact information data to extract one or more items from said contact information data, comparing said one or more items with a list of items, determining corresponding property of said one or more items from the result of said comparison, and performing an action based on said property.

The method may comprise a first set of information is of the group comprising: characters, images, audio, or moving images. The method may comprise a first set of information is comprised in any of the group comprising: business cards, vCards, e-mails, printed matter, images, and handwritten material.

The method may comprise an action comprising associating said property with said contact information data. The method may comprise an action comprising replacing at least part of the contact information data.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a rendering application for an portable apparatus comprising a display and navigation means where said application causing enabling of inputting of a first set of information comprising contact information data, processing of said contact information data to extract one or more items from said contact information data, comparing of said one or more items with a list of items, determining of corresponding property of said one or more items from the result of said comparison, and performing an action based on said property.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus arranged to enable inputting of a first set of information comprising contact information data, processing of said contact information data to extract one or more items from said contact information data, comparing said one or more items with a list of items, determining corresponding property of said one or more items from the result of said comparison, and performing an action based on said property. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a computer program product comprising program code means stored in a computer-readable medium, the program code means being adapted to enable inputting of a first set of information comprising contact information data, for processing said contact information data to extract one or more items from said contact information data, for comparing said one or more items with a list of items, for determining corresponding property of said one or more items from the result of said comparison, and for performing an action based on said property.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a system comprising an apparatus according to the third aspect of the invention, and a dictionary server arranged to provide the associated dictionary for downloading.

The system may comprise a communications network, wherein the dictionary server and the apparatus is in communication via the communications network.

According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a user interface comprising a display, and an input receiver, wherein said user interface is arranged to enable said portable apparatus for input of information which is processed to extract items from, and where one or more items are compared whit a list of items, and a property of said one or more items are determined, and an action is based on said property are performed, and to display information to the user depending on said performed action. The second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth aspects of the present invention may be combined in any way with the features of the first aspect of the present invention.

In the above description a renderer should be interpreted as a functional block applicable to any communication device, such as a mobile phone, capable of performing at least one of the following tasks; inputting, processing, extraction, comparing, determining, performing, prioritizing, listing, enabling, and updating.

Generally, all terms used in the claims are to be interpreted according to their ordinary meaning in the technical field, unless explicitly defined otherwise herein. All references to "a/an/the [element, device, component, means, step, etc]" are to be interpreted openly as referring to at least one instance of said element, device, component, means, step, etc., unless explicitly stated otherwise. The steps of any method disclosed herein do not have to be performed in the exact order disclosed, unless explicitly stated. Other objectives, features and advantages of the present invention will appear from the following detailed disclosure, from the attached dependent claims as well as from the drawings.

Brief description of the drawings The above, as well as additional objects, features and advantages of the present invention, will be better understood through the following illustrative and non-limiting detailed description of preferred embodiments of the present invention, with reference to the appended drawings, where the same reference numerals will be used for similar elements, wherein: Fig. 1 shows a mobile communication apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 2 illustrates a business card; and Fig. 3 illustrates an e-mail; and Fig. 4 shows a flow chart of an embodiment of the present invention; and

Fig. 5 shows a flow chart of an embodiment of the present invention; and Fig. 6 shows a flow chart of an embodiment of the present invention; and

Fig. 7 illustrates ways of communication between a mobile communication apparatus, a server and another mobile communication apparatus; Fig. 8 schematically illustrates a system according to an embodiment of the present invention;

Fig. 9 illustrates a computer readable medium according to an embodiment of the present invention; and

Fig. 10 illustrates a user interface of the present invention.

Detailed description of preferred embodiments

Fig. 1 shows a mobile communication apparatus 100 comprising a display 102 and means 104 for navigating among menus and items displayed in a display area 102. The navigation means 104 can be a rotating input, a joystick, a touch pad, but can also be implemented using a touch sensitive display, wherein the displayed items directly can be tapped by a user for selection, or be voice activated via a headset or a built-in microphone. The mobile communication apparatus can also comprise other elements normally present in such an apparatus, such as a keypad 106, a speaker 108, a microphone 110, a processor (not shown), a memory (not shown), etc.

Contact information may come in the form of a business card. Figure 2 illustrates an example of a business card 200 comprising the following features; company name 201 , name 202, address 203, land code 204, zip code 205, country 206, phone number 207, fax number 208, e-mail address 209, job title 210, academic title 211 (and/or position title e.g. VP, CEO,...), personal photo 213, logotype 213, and a background such as texture, color, picture, etc.. A business card may comprise all or a subset of the listed features. These features revile information about the business cardholder that can be used to derive the holder's preferred contact language. Contact information may not only be provided via business cards, it may also be provided in other forms such as in e-mails. An e-mail is shown in figure 3. The e-mail comprises of a mail header

313 with sender, receiver, and subject, and a mail body 312 with the message and a contact information area 314 at the bottom. The contact information area 314 may contain all or some of the features found on a business card. The example in figure 3 have the following features; company name 301 , name 302, address 303, land code 304, zip code 305, country 306, phone number 307, fax number 308, e-mail address 309, job title 311 , and academic title 210 (and/or position title e.g. VP, CEO,...), which can in the same manner as a business card be used to derive preferred contact language. Contact information may also be provided in vCards, on printed matter, in pictures, or just handwritten on a piece of paper or on another type of material.

One way of storing and organizing all types of contact information, received on business cards, in e-mails, etc., is to store the contact information digitally (in a contacts database) in a mobile communication apparatus, such as in a mobile phone, or on a storage and processing device such as a server or a handheld device. By analyzing the contact information, when receiving and storing it, the preferred contact language may be derived so that actions, such as storing preferred contact language, translating the contact information, interpret contact information, replacing contact information, and other similar actions might be taken. Figure 4 is a flow chart illustrating a method according to the present invention. The process in 400 is able to extract contact information, determine preferred contact language from the extracted contact information, and take one or several actions.

Contact information data is read or inputted 401 to a mobile communication apparatus, such as a mobile phone, from either an internal or an external source.

Internal sources can for instance be one or several cameras, scanning devices, or voice-recording devices integrated into or added onto the mobile communication apparatus, or contact information stored in an internal storage device such as a memory card, a hard drive, an integrated solid state memory, or in similar internal storage devices.

External sources can for instance be any in the field well known ways of communicating wireless, such as via the GSM and 3G wireless networks, Bluetooth, wireless local area network (WLAN)₁ wireless universal serial bus (WUSB), infrared (IR), or be any in the field well known ways of communicating by wire connected to the apparatus, such as via universal serial bus USB, Firewire, Ethernet cable, or any special made cable connecting the apparatus to an external source.

The read or inputted contact information data from 401 can be in the form of information contained in an image(s), moving images, characters or symbols, audio, or any combination thereof. If for example the contact information source is a business card, it can for example be scanned using a card scanner, or any other type of scanner connected either by wire or wirelessly to the mobile communication apparatus, generating characters and images as an output, or be photographed, using an internal or add-on camera to the mobile communication apparatus, generating an image as an output. Since the contact information data can come packaged in various information forms it can if necessary be converted to one or several user defined formats. For example, if a user wants to extract an address from contact information data all images, moving images, and audio are converted to character information.

The provided contact information data may also contain more information than needed. The contact information data can be analyzed and processed so only wanted contact information items (hereinafter referred to as items) are identified and extracted 402. An item can for instance be a group of alphanumerical characters, symbols, or Unicode characters (e.g. Asian, Russian, Arabic, Greek, etc.) representing a name, address, postal code, country prefix code, city, state, country, phone number, alternative phone number(s), fax number, e-mail address, Internet call sign (ICQ, MSN, Skype, etc.), academic title, job title, company name, slogans, etc., or a graphics representing a photograph, logo, background picture, texture, color, or any other identifiable information. Which items to extract from contact information data can either be predetermined when manufacturing the communication apparatus or be optional (indicated by the dashed line) and user configurable 404. The extraction configuration can for instance be set to only extract items such as 'name', 'address', 'phone number', and 'country' from the contact information data. This is especially beneficial when the inputted contact information data 401 is large and the processing capability of the mobile communication apparatus is low.

In 406 the extracted items 402 are analyzed and compared to determine the property of the item, which in this case may be a language. The property of the item or items is then used to determine the preferred contact language of the cardholder. The detection 406 may be user configured to use one or several items in the analysis to provide clues to the preferred contact language. For example items such as 'address', 'land code' and 'zip code', 'country', 'telephone', and 'fax number' (especially the country prefix), can be used to locate the cardholder's place of business or country of residence, which consequently can be used to determine preferred contact language.

To be able to determine for instance place of residence the extracted items in 406 are compared to a list of items such as a general or customized dictionary or list (hereinafter called a dictionary) 407, containing suitable and tailored information for usage in identifying preferred contact language. For example, if an item containing a 'phone number' is provided it will in 406 be compared to a dictionary containing for instance country prefix and area code. In this way the compared cardholder's country and region can be determined. Similar comparisons can be done with other items such as 'address', 'country prefix', 'zip code', 'country', etc..

If no matches are found 409 in the dictionary stored locally in the mobile communication apparatus, the information can either be sent to an external server for processing using larger dictionaries, greater processing power, and other services, or items not extracted in 402 and consequently not used during previous comparisons, can be used e.g. going back to the extraction of items 411 , or the user can just be prompted that no matches where found, e.g. ending the process 412, and given the choice of enter preferred contact information by hand. The user can configure 408 how the comparison should operate, for instance to only compare with the local dictionary, the local plus the external dictionaries simultaneous, only the external dictionary, no comparison at all, or any combination thereof. The comparison may also result in several conflicting matches. This can for instance happen when the item 'phone number¹ indicates a country while the item 'address' or the item 'company name' indicates another country. The conflicts can be resolved in several user-configurable ways 408. One way is to prioritize certain matches such as matches in 'address', 'phone number', and 'country' over other matches in items such as 'e-mail address', 'company name', and 'logo'. Another way is to prompt the user about the problem and let the user make an active choice, if any, of which match(es) that are right. Another way is to flag the result by indicating that conflicting matches was found in the detection process 406 and deal with the problem in 410. When a match or matches have been found an action is taken 410.

Figure 5 shows an embodiment of the present invention describing one of several possible actions. First is the language of the cardholder is determined in 500. If multiple conflicting matches are found, the matches can be prioritized as described above where certain matches are more likely to accurate determine the cardholder's own native language. An alternative is to prompt the user and let the user make an active choice. Yet another action is to prioritize the languages. For instance, lets say that the detected matches points to the languages German, Danish, and English. Since the English language is spoken by more people than the Danish and German languages, the English language is prioritized. If the user has some other preference, the languages can be set in a another priority order.

If there is only one match found in 406 Figure 4 then the language is determination 500 by that match. If for example a match in 'country' is equal to Germany then the language determination 500 sets the language to German. The preferred language can now be set for that specific contact information. The preferred language can either be set automatically to the cardholder's language, German in our example, or the user can be prompted to verify that the preferred contact language should be German. Since more and more people speaks English the user can configure 502 so that English always is an alternate preferred contact language (or the preferred contact language) when for instance is prompted to chose. When the user in the future wants to contact the businessperson, the user gets prompted to remind him that the businessperson wants to communicate in German. Application used in such communications may react to the preferred language and for instance set correct dictionary (German in this example), insert Germanys country prefix when dialing the contacts number, or activate some translation application (English to German in our example), etc..

Figure 6 shows another embodiment of the present invention describing a possible action where text on the business card can be translated and replace the original text. As in Figure 5 the language of the cardholder is first determined 600. In this case only the language of the text on the contact information is interesting. This means that in most cases only one match corresponding to the language used in the contact information is found. If the language is determined 600 by the single match the user will (optionally) get prompted 602 to verify that the foreign text on the business card is going to be replaced with a translated text. If the user confirms, the original characters are translated and replaced 606.

If several matches are found the different items belonging to each match can in the same manner be translated and replaced 606 by a language of choice 604. The user can also configure the system to ignore translating certain languages or certain parts of the text. The translation action is especially useful when dealing with contact information not using characters that the user are familiar with such as for example characters used in Japanese, Greek, Russian, Arabia, etc..

The two actions described in conjunction with Figure 5 and 6 may be used separately or together. Other possible actions not described above are also possible. One possible action is to use the determined language of the contact information, as described above, when executing other applications in conjunction with the contact information holder. For instance making use of preferred (detected) language when writing documents destined for the contact information holder, translating documents originating from the contact information holder, translating documents destined to the contact information holder, calling or receiving a call (as voice, video, or text) from the contact information holder, launching application specific to the contact information holder, or in other application generating information destined or originating from the contact information holder.

An example is provided to clarify the process described above. An English-speaking user has gotten a business card with Chinese characters from a Chinese businessman. He takes a picture of a business card using his build-in camera in his Nokia mobile phone. The picture file (containing the contact information data) is read and analyzed. The user has configured the item extraction process to extract items such as 'text', 'address', 'country', and 'telephone number'. The items are extracted from the picture using for instance optical character recognition. The extracted items are compared to a dictionary receding in the memory of the mobile phone. The dictionary is customized (user configured) to include useful information matching the extracted items. Several matches are found. The items 'text', 'country', 'address', and 'telephone number' pinpointed the businessman to be of Chinese nationality, receding in the city of Hong Kong. This would indicate that the Chinese businessman would prefer to communicate in Chinese. However, the city Hong Kong is flagged in the dictionary as being bi-lateral city speaking both Chinese and English. Since both parties speak English the preferred contact language is set to English. The user gets prompted to accept the setting and if the user would like to translate the text on the business card. The user confirms the actions. The business card is now stored digitally in the phone in the users native language English and the next time the user wants to contact the Chinese business man the user will get prompted to use English as contact language. Thus avoiding any embarrassing situations. The processed contact information is stored in the mobile communication apparatuses memory. As illustrated in Figure 7 the information can be shared with another user by downloading the stored contact information from the users mobile communication apparatus (e.g. mobile phone) 701 to another users mobile communication apparatus 705 via a wireless connection. The stored contact information can also be uploaded to a server 702 (and downloaded from) by either a wireless connection with for instance a cellular network 703 or by wire 704. In this way the processed contact information can be shared with other users or apparatuses with similar applications (e.g. personal computers, web based address books, etc.), or just used as a safety backup.

A system architecture for managing a system 800 according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown in Figure 8. A Home Location Register (HLR) 802 contains a database (not shown) including relevant subscriber information for provision of telecommunication service. An International Telecommunication Union (ITU) specified network 804 interconnects the individual parts of the system 800. A dictionary gateway 806 is a switching unit routing a requested dictionary to a mobile communication apparatus 808-812. A Dictionary Service Center 814 (DSC) and the dictionary gateway 806 handles and routes the dictionaries between the DSC 814 and the network 804. From the network 804, the dictionaries are routed to the mobile communication apparatuses 808-812 via a Mobile Switching Center (MSC) 816 to a Base Station Controller (BSC) 817 and a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) 820, 821 , or a Radio Network Controller (RNC) 818 and a Node B 822. Alternatively, the dictionaries are routed to the mobile communication apparatuses 808-812 via a Serving GPRS Support Node (SGSN) 826, 828 to the BSC 817 and the BTS 820, 821 , or the RNC 818 and the Node B 822, respectively. The BTS 820, 821 or the Node B 822 establish the air connection to the mobile communication apparatuses 808-812.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a network operator or other third party company, for example the provider of the application, handling a dictionary server 824 could offer a dictionary service function where dictionaries associated with certain applications can be purchased. For example a network operator may have a dictionary server 824 supporting a feature where the user may send a dictionary request from his mobile communication apparatus 808-812 to the dictionary server 824 upon using a certain application of the mobile communication apparatus, e.g. a gaming or messaging application.

The invention can be computer-implemented, i.e. the media handling is performed on a general or dedicated computerized apparatus 901 , such as a personal computer, a mobile phone, a digital camera, a digital video camera, a personal digital assistant, a media player, or other similar apparatus. Instructions for performing the invention can then be executed by the apparatus. These instructions can be loaded into the apparatus 901 from a computer-readable medium 902, as exemplary illustrated in Fig. 9, having a data structure stored. The data structure comprises the control instructions, which upon execution causes the apparatus to perform any of the embodiments of the present invention as described above.

Figure 10 illustrates a user interface (Ul) 1001 in a portable apparatus having an input interface 1002, which as described in above embodiments can be actuated by a user, and a display interface 1004 for displaying information to the user as described in the above embodiments of the present invention.

While the embodiments of the present invention have been described with specificity to handheld communication devices, other types of computing devices with which the embodiments can be used will occur to those skilled in the art. For example, a personal computer can benefit from the invention in the same manner as the handheld communication device. Further, while the illustrated embodiments discusses the use of user-configurability, the user- configurability may be implicit or provided in some other manner than described above. The above-described embodiments of the invention are intended to be examples of the invention and alterations and modification may be affected thereto, by those skilled in the art, without departing from the scope of the invention, which is defined solely by the claims appended hereto.

Claims

1. A method for a portable apparatus, comprising: enabling inputting of a first set of information comprising contact information data; processing said contact information data to extract one or more items from said contact information data; comparing said one or more items with a list of items; determining corresponding property of said one or more items from the result of said comparison; performing an action based on said property.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said first set of information is of the group comprising: characters, images, audio, or moving images.

3. The method according to any of the previous claims, wherein said first set of information is comprised in any of the group comprising: business cards, vCards, e-mails, printed matter, images, and handwritten material.

4. The method according to any of the previous claims, wherein said action comprises associating said property with said contact information data.

5. The method according to any of the previous claims, wherein said action comprises replacing at least part of the contact information data.

6. A rendering application for an portable apparatus comprising a display and navigation means, said application causing enabling of inputting of a first set of information comprising contact information data, processing of said contact information data to extract one or more items from said contact information data, comparing of said one or more items with a list of items, determining of corresponding property of said one or more items from the result of said comparison, and performing an action based on said property.

7. The application according to claim 6, wherein said first set of information is of the group comprising: characters, images, audio, or moving images.

8. The application according to claim 6 or 7, wherein said first set of information is comprised in any of the group comprising: business cards, vCards, e-mails, printed matter, images, and handwritten material.

9. The application according to any of the previous claims 6-8, further comprising an action comprising associating said property with said contact information data.

10. The application according to any of the previous claims 6-9, further comprising an action comprising replacing at least part of the contact information data.

11. An apparatus comprising a display and means for navigating, arranged to enable inputting of a first set of information comprising contact information data, processing of said contact information data to extract one or more items from said contact information data, comparing said one or more items with a list of items, determining corresponding property of said one or more items from the result of said comparison, and performing an action based on said property.

12. The apparatus according to claim 11 , further comprising a Tenderer, wherein said first set of information is of the group comprising: characters, images, audio, or moving images.

13. The apparatus according to claim 11 or 12, further comprising a renderer, wherein said first set of information is comprised in any of the group comprising: business cards, vCards, e-mails, printed matter, images, and handwritten material.

14. The apparatus according to any of the previous claims 11-13, further comprising a Tenderer, wherein said action comprise associating said property with said contact information data.

15. The apparatus according to any of the previous claims 11-14, further comprising a renderer, wherein said action comprise replacing at least part of the contact information data.

16. A computer program product comprising program code means stored in a computer-readable medium, the program code means being adapted to enable inputting of a first set of information comprising contact information data, for processing said contact information data to extract one or more items from said contact information data, for comparing said one or more items with a list of items, for determining corresponding property of said one or more items from the result of said comparison, and for performing an action based on said property.

17. The computer program product according to claim 16, further comprising instructions for taking an action comprising associating said property with said contact information data.

18. The computer program product according to claim 16 or 17, further comprising instructions for taking an action comprising replacing at least part of the contact information data.

19. A system comprising an apparatus and a dictionary server wherein said apparatus comprises a memory storing a set of instructions, and a processor, executing the stored set of instructions, to perform a method comprising determining an application to be executed; determining a dictionary associated to said determined application; and enabling said associated dictionary, and said dictionary server is arranged to provide the associated dictionary for downloading.

20. The system according to claim 19, further comprising a communications network, wherein the dictionary server and the apparatus is in communication via the communications network.

21. A user interface comprising a display, and an input receiver, wherein said user interface is arranged to; enable said portable apparatus for input of information which is processed to extract items from, and where one or more items are compared whit a list of items, and a property of said one or more items are determined, and an action is based on said property are performed; and display information to the user depending on said performed action.