Abstract: A pure and crystalline single-crystal nitrogen-functionalized graphene nano-flake powder comprising from 2 atomic % to at least 35 atomic % of total functionalized nitrogen within the graphene nano-flakes is disclosed. As well, the method of producing the nano-flakes that comprises injecting a carbon source into a thermal plasma system, dissociating the carbon source into carbon atomic species, transporting the carbon atomic species through a controlled nucleation zone to produce a crystalline graphene nano-flake structure, injecting the nitrogen source into the thermal plasma system dissociating the nitrogen source into nitrogen active species, and transporting the nitrogen atomic species to contact the crystalline graphene nano-flakes to produce the crystalline nitrogen-functionalized graphene nano-flakes is also disclosed. Finally, a multilayer composite comprising a carbon substrate and a layer of crystalline nitrogen-functionalized graphene nano-flakes is also described.

Abstract: A system and method for preserving privacy of evidence are provided. In the method, an encrypted first image is generated by encrypting a first image acquired at a first location with a symmetric cryptographic key that is based on first information such as a license plate number extracted from the first image and first metadata associated with the first image, such as a time at which the first image was acquired. When a link is established between a second image and the first image, for example, through visual signature matching, the symmetric cryptographic key can be reconstructed, without having access to the first image, but based instead on the first metadata and information extracted from the second image. The reconstructed symmetric cryptographic key can then be used for decryption of the encrypted image to establish evidence that the license plate number was indeed extracted from the first image.

Abstract: A method of detection of numbered captions in a document includes receiving a document including a sequence of document pages and identifying illustrations on pages of the document. For each identified illustration, associated text is identified. An imitation page is generated for each of the identified illustrations, each imitation page comprising a single illustration and its associated text. For a sequence of the imitation pages, a sequence of terms is identified. Each term is derived from a text fragment of the associate text of a respective imitation page. The terms of a sequence complying with at least one predefined numbering scheme which defines a form and an incremental state of the terms in a sequence. The terms of the identified sequence of terms are construed as being at least a part of a numbered caption for a respective illustration in the document.

Abstract: A method and system for document processing allow a service provider to process a document without having access the textual content of the document. The system includes memory which receives an encoded source document from an associated client system. The encoded source document includes structural information and encoded content information. The encoded content information includes a plurality of encoded tokens generated by individually encoding each of a plurality of text tokens of the source document. The structural information includes location information for each of the plurality of text tokens. A processing module processes the encoded document to generate a modified document, without decoding the encoded tokens. A transmission module transmits the modified document to an associated client system whereby the client system is able to generate a transformed document based on the modified document and the plurality of text tokens.

Abstract: A method of detection of numbered captions in a document includes receiving a document including a sequence of document pages and identifying illustrations on pages of the document. For each identified illustration, associated text is identified. An imitation page is generated for each of the identified illustrations, each imitation page comprising a single illustration and its associated text. For a sequence of the imitation pages, a sequence of terms is identified. Each term is derived from a text fragment of the associate text of a respective imitation page. The terms of a sequence complying with at least one predefined numbering scheme which defines a form and an incremental state of the terms in a sequence. The terms of the identified sequence of terms are construed as being at least a part of a numbered caption for a respective illustration in the document.

Abstract: A method and system are disclosed for wireless payment and information collection. A central system generates a personalized application including unique application and transaction identifiers, security keys, and signatures for a user device. The user device implements the personalized application in order to access the services of the associated network. Tags, capable of short-range communication with the user devices, are deployed to service access points of the associated network. The tags and user device mutually authenticate and share identifiers. Validation of the user device results in the tag updating an irreversible counter, generating transaction certificate, and logging this transaction information. The transaction certificate and a portion of the log are communicated to the user device, and service is granted. The user device transmits the transaction information and log to the central system for billing when a network connection is available.

Abstract: A method and system are disclosed for post optical character recognition font size determination. Optical character recognition output from an optical character recognition engine that includes character and bounding box information is aggregated into character strings. Measurements are then collected from each character in each character string that correspond to alignment heights of the top or bottom of the character with an ascender-line, a cap-line, a digit-line, a mean-line, a base-line, or a descender-line. Histograms are formed for each of these heights for each character string from the collected measurements. Based on the histograms, a pivot height is selected and used to determine the relative font size of the character string. The relative font size is normalized using a preselected factor associated with the selected pivot height. The normalized font size is then output as the font size of characters in the optical character recognition output.

Abstract: A system and method generate an ontology of linked resources. The method includes providing a policy comprising at least one logical rule which is to hold across an ontology of linked resources and initializing a set of resources with an initial subset of the set of resources, each resource in the initial subset being identified by a respective link. Each of the resources in the subset is processed, which includes populating the ontology with a corresponding member of a resource class, for a resource that is valid against a schema, asserting the member's class as a class specific to the schema of the validated resource in the ontology and providing a dependency specification for extracting links within the resource, each extracted link identifying one of the set of resources.

Abstract: A digital processing device is configured to perform a method comprising: identifying logical page numbers of a document, the identifying constrained to identify either zero or one logical page number per page of the document, the logical page numbers and an ordering of the pages of the document defining an ordered sequence of logical page numbers; identifying a sequence of logical page number references in the document, each logical page number reference matching one of the logical page numbers of the document; and selecting a sub-sequence of the sequence of logical page number references for which corresponding logical page numbers are in a nondecreasing order in the ordered sequence of logical page numbers. The sub-sequence is used in organizing the document, for example by generating hyperlinks linking the logical page number references of the selected sub-sequence with corresponding pages indicated by the logical page numbers.

Abstract: In a method for identifying a table of contents in a document, an ordered sequence of text fragments is derived from the document. A table of contents is selected as a contiguous sub-sequence of the ordered sequence of text fragments satisfying the criteria: (i) entries defined by text fragments of the table of contents each have a link to a target text fragment having textual similarity with the entry; (ii) no target text fragment lies within the table of contents; and (iii) the target text fragments have an ascending ordering corresponding to an ascending ordering of the entries defining the target text fragments.

Abstract: A method and system for document processing allow a service provider to process a document without having access the textual content of the document. The system includes memory which receives an encoded source document from an associated client system. The encoded source document includes structural information and encoded content information. The encoded content information includes a plurality of encoded tokens generated by individually encoding each of a plurality of text tokens of the source document. The structural information includes location information for each of the plurality of text tokens. A processing module processes the encoded document to generate a modified document, without decoding the encoded tokens. A transmission module transmits the modified document to an associated client system whereby the client system is able to generate a transformed document based on the modified document and the plurality of text tokens.

Abstract: A system and method generate an ontology of linked resources. The method includes providing a policy comprising at least one logical rule which is to hold across an ontology of linked resources and initializing a set of resources with an initial subset of the set of resources, each resource in the initial subset being identified by a respective link. Each of the resources in the subset is processed, which includes populating the ontology with a corresponding member of a resource class, for a resource that is valid against a schema, asserting the member's class as a class specific to the schema of the validated resource in the ontology and providing a dependency specification for extracting links within the resource, each extracted link identifying one of the set of resources.

Abstract: This disclosure provides collaborative communication systems and methods to facilitate troubleshooting of a device. Specifically, the disclosed systems and methods include a dynamic virtual representation of a device from the perspective of a user of the device which is shared with a remote troubleshooter. The dynamic virtual representation is based on the position of the user.

Abstract: A method and system for managing distribution lists rely on the collection of job log data from shared devices, such as networked printers. For each printer, a usage community comprising users of the shared device, can be determined, based at least in part on the job log data. At least one distribution list of users is generated, based on the usage community. The distribution list can be linked with a mailer program, whereby users in the usage community are grouped together under a common contact address. Updating the distribution list at intervals to reflect changes in the usage community allows a static email address to be used for a varying group of users.

Abstract: A method and system are disclosed for post optical character recognition font size determination. Optical character recognition output from an optical character recognition engine that includes character and bounding box information is aggregated into character strings. Measurements are then collected from each character in each character string that correspond to alignment heights of the top or bottom of the character with an ascender-line, a cap-line, a digit-line, a mean-line, a base-line, or a descender-line. Histograms are formed for each of these heights for each character string from the collected measurements. Based on the histograms, a pivot height is selected and used to determine the relative font size of the character string. The relative font size is normalized using a preselected factor associated with the selected pivot height. The normalized font size is then output as the font size of characters in the optical character recognition output.

Abstract: A detachable display unit, an electromechanical device utilizing the display unit, and a method of use are disclosed. The display unit includes a communication link whereby data can be communicated between the display unit and the associated electromechanical device. The display unit includes a position sensor which provides position information for determining a current position of the display unit when detached from the associated electromechanical device. A graphical user interface displays a dynamic virtual representation of the associated electromechanical device based on the determined current position.

Abstract: A computer implemented electronic out-of-office message analysis system and method are disclosed. The method includes, for each of a plurality of users, receiving a user-generated electronic out-of-office message in a natural language in which a time window of absence and at least one alternate named contact are expressed and, based on the out-of-office message, generating a structured representation of the out-of-office message which links the alternate contact to a normalized representation of the time window. The structured representation of the out-of-office message is stored in a database. From the database it can be determined whether a current user's out-of-office message conflicts with another user's out-of-office message. If a conflict is detected, the current user can be notified.

Abstract: An image of a paginated document is zoned to identify text zones. First-pass character recognition is performed on the text zones to generate textual content corresponding to the paginated document. The image of the paginated document is re-zoned based on the textual content to identify one or more new text zones. Second-pass character recognition is performed on at least the new text zones to generate updated textual content corresponding to the paginated document.

Abstract: A document is organized as a plurality of nodes associated with a table of contents. The nodes are clustered into a plurality of clusters based on a similarity criterion. One of the clusters is identified as corresponding to a highest or lowest level of the table of contents based on a selection criterion. The highest or lowest level is assigned to the nodes belonging to the identified cluster. The identifying and assigning are repeated to assign levels to the nodes belonging to each next highest or lowest level of the table of contents. The repeated identifying is based on the selection criteria applied disregarding nodes that have already been assigned a level. The document is structured based at least in part on the levels assigned to the table of contents nodes.

Abstract: This disclosure provides collaborative communication systems and methods to facilitate troubleshooting of a device. Specifically, the disclosed systems and methods include a dynamic virtual representation of a device from the perspective of a user of the device which is shared with a remote troubleshooter. The dynamic virtual representation is based on the position of the user.