Abstract: A computer program product for compressing data files representative of an image document. The document includes color information and/or graphical information. The product is on a computer readable medium and includes instructions for causing a computer to provide a first image file at a first resolution and a second image file at a second resolution of said document with said second resolution being lower than said first resolution. The product causes a computer to process the first image file to convert the first image file into a text file representation of the document and compress the text file representation of the document to provide a first compressed file. The computer processes the second file to extract information corresponding to color information and graphics information. It compresses the second file using a second, different compression technique to provide a second compressed file corresponding to the image and the color information from the low resolution image file.

Abstract: A reading system includes a computer and a mass storage device and software including instructions for causing a computer to accept an image file generated from optically scanning an image of a document. The software converts the image file into a converted text file that includes text information, and positional information associating the text with the position of its representation in the image file. The software records the voice of an operator of the reading machine as a series of voice samples in synchronization with a highlighting indicia applied to a displayed representation of the document and stores the series of voice samples in a data structure that associates the voice samples with displayed representation. The reading machine plays back the stored, recorded voice samples corresponding to words in the document as displayed by the monitor while highlighting is applied to the words in the displayed document.

Abstract: A method of correcting an image file produced by scanning a document is described. The method includes determining probable regions of text from an image file containing an image of a left page and a right page of a document and determining a page boundary between the regions of text. The method splits the image file about the determined page boundary into two separate image files corresponding to an image of the left hand page and the right hand page. The method can be implemented as a computer program product residing on a computer readable medium for separating an image file containing a pair of pages into separate image files of each page.

Abstract: A system and method of interpreting user commands for controlling a computer application. When a user command includes a pronoun such as "it", "this", "that" etc., the pronoun will be interpreted in an intuitive fashion according to the context of the computer application. In a word processing application, users can issue commands such as "copy that" or "bold that", and the system will select the proper object to perform the operation on. The system can be used with a speech recognition application to allow users to control applications easily through voice commands and text.

Abstract: The system described herein facilitates the control, by spoken input, of multiple user application programs running under an operating system providing multi-tasking capability. A speech recognition program runs as one of the multi-tasked programs. The recognition program is operative to provide translation, either text or program commands, of spoken words in accordance with a translation table. Each of the other user application programs which is to be controlled is provided with a respective translation table section. In accordance with the invention, the recognition program includes means for creating a database for each of the other user application programs which is run and stores, in the respective database, a record reflecting each translation which is sent to a running one of the other application programs. These records identify the speech event which was translated and also identifies alternate possible translations of the speech event.