Abstract: An information retrieval system having a secondary content analysis engine for use on collections of documents. Such collections of documents dynamically arise as a result of queries one or more, possibly distal, information sources. The secondary content analysis engine resides on an Information Access client computer system and allows the user to: 1) iteratively refine queries in more powerful ways than typically supported by relevance feedback or other query modification methods, 2) browse a medium-sized collection of documents (on the order of 1000 items) in more effective ways than is traditionally possible or 3) obtain more information for increasing user understanding of the collection.

Abstract: An information retrieval system providing for cross-lingual information retrieval. The method as implemented in the system causes elementary words to be extracted from a search expression. These elementary words are translated and stemmed into the target language(s). Searches are then made for documents containing combinations of the stemmed and translated elementary words. When documents are retrieved they are verified that they contain the same linguistic structure as the initial search expression. Documents that cannot be verified are eliminated from the set of search documents returned to the user.

Abstract: Domain objects for use in a freeform graphics system. Domain objects are context specific representations of information that are used in a freeform graphics system. Domain objects are represented in a freeform graphics system by a graphic object (icon) representing an instance of the domain object. The icon representing a domain object may be manipulated like any other graphic object. Domain objects are defined by a domain object class which define attributes, a set of action rules and layouts. The attributes describe the information or data associated with the domain object. The set of action rules map user actions and system events to operations that may be performed on the domain object. The layouts define how domain object information is displayed as an icon. The attributes may have computed values. An attribute have it's value computed based on the value(s) other attribute(s) or based on the spatial positioning of the icon representing the data object on a work surface.

Abstract: A system for controlling the playback of a recorded session utilizing a window acting as a player for playing back a timestream for a shared representation media, such as an electronic whiteboard. Timestream and event information for the session is captured by one or more recording devices. Playback of a session is performed under the control of a session access device which utilizes event information to create a user interface for controlling session replay. The user interface includes the window for playing back the timestream of a shared representation media. Each graphical object in the window is associated with one or more events (e.g. a creation event, an editing event, a move event or a deletion event). Selection of a graphical object enables playback time to be moved to the time for one of the associated events. Selection may also be made on an area of the window.

Abstract: A system and method for ranking the results of a search on a collection of linked documents. Documents found on the Web are typically referred to as Web pages. The system utilizes various information relating to the collection of linked documents, including the topology, content and historical usage of the linked collections of documents. The ranking is based on historical patterns and information about the current context of interest (e.g. what the user or group seems to be currently interested in doing). A spreading activation technique is used to identify the frequency of activation of the documents in the search results. Spreading activation techniques are based on representations of Web pages as nodes in graph networks representing usage, content, and hypertext relations among Web pages. After performing the spreading activation based on an initial set defined by the search results, each document from the results may be ranked based on their level of activation.

Abstract: A system and method for providing interactive computer assisted teaching. The system is premised on and extends the ubiquitous nature of paper in classroom environments to be an interaction medium with a computer based system. By utilizing intelligent form and embedded data processing, highly interactive and customized teaching applications can be created. A student and other members of the educational community interacts with the system by making marks on an educational material and then scanning that educational material back into the system. Intelligent forms processing techniques are used to identify the marks made and pass them on to a teaching application. The teaching application will then determine an appropriate course of interaction, which may include having a responsive educational material printed out for the student. The system provides for having a single computer in a classroom, wherein students can use a familiar medium, paper, to interact with the computer.

Abstract: Meeting support objects for supporting meeting objectives for use in a freeform graphics system. Meeting support objects are representations of dynamic information that is used to support various common activities performed in meetings, such as decision making, assigning action items, agenda tracking, etc. Meeting support objects are defined by a domain object class. The domain object class defines attributes, a set of action rules and layouts. The attributes describe the information or data associated with the meeting support object. Further, the underlying attribute values represented by the icon may change, based on predefined spatial parameters, as the result of user actions performed on the icon (e.g. via a gesture) or upon the occurrence of a system event. The set of action rules map user actions and system events to operations that may be performed on the meeting support object. The layouts define how meeting support object information is displayed as an icon.

Abstract: An interactive desktop system comprising a work surface, a display device such as a projector for displaying images in a first area on the work surface, a camera for capturing images in a second area on the work surface, and an image processor, coupled to the display device and to the camera, said image processor being suitably programmed (a) for causing the display of barcodes on the work surface, (b) for causing the capture of said barcodes and, in dependence on the captured information, (c) for determining the position of said second area relative to said first area. The barcodes are displayed in a horizontal then vertical orientation, with an image capture in each display orientation being performed by the camera. This enables the camera's field of view within the displayed image to be determined. In an alternative embodiment, glyph codes may be used instead of barcodes.

Abstract: A method for compression and decompression of dithered images is disclosed. Logical units (tiles) of the binary representation are classified into equivalence classes which are then compressed. Each equivalence class represents tiles having similar gray levels (i.e. the same number of black pixels), but which may have different sequences of black and white pixels. Each equivalence class has associated with it a predefined set of rendering exemplars. Each of the exemplars has a similar gray level. Upon decompression, each instance of an equivalence class takes on the value of one of the rendering exemplars which is selected pseudo-randomly.

Abstract: A computer controlled display system for defining flow regions. A flow region enables a user to view long lists of data items on the work surface of a graphical display system. In a flow region, a rectangular region typically the size of the viewable work surface area, is organized into columnar columns. The items in the long list are mapped to the columnar columns. As items are added to or deleted from the list, the items contained within the columnar columns may "flow" to other columns. In this organization the items in the top of the list are in the first column and the list is displayed in columnar fashion from left to right. Thus, all items in the list may be displayed in the viewable work surface area.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for organizing a workspace of a graphical input system that utilizes borders to define regions within the workspace. The present invention addresses the problem of determining the scope of structure operations. Structures, e.g. a list, table or other group of items having some fixed relationship by introducing the notion of a border dynamically created on such systems using available areas on the workspace. Some ambiguity may exist as to where a structure begins or ends. Further, such structure operations may cause a structure to overlay another structure. Borders are used to tessellate a work surface into non-overlapping regions. Typically, within each region is a structure. Deleting borders on a tessellated work surface may cause others borders to be deleted with the object being to maintain a completely tessellated work surface. Further, various border types, visually represented by different line types, are enabled which in turn provide for defining different types of regions.

Abstract: A system for extracting and analyzing information from a collection of linked documents at a locality to enable categorization of documents and prediction of documents relevant to a focus document. The system obtains and analyzes topology, usage and path information from for a collection at a locality, e.g. a web locality on the world wide web. For categorization, document meta information is represented as document vectors. Predefined criteria is applied to the document vectors to create lists of "similar" types of documents. For relevance prediction, networks representing topology, usage path and text similarity amongst the documents in the collection are created. A spreading activation technique is applied to the networks starting at a focus document to predict the documents relevant to the focus document. Using category and relevance prediction information, tools can be built to enable a user to more efficiently traverse through the collection of linked documents.

Abstract: A three dimensional document workspace for interacting with large numbers of document objects. A document object may be a document or a document collection. The document workspace is divided hierarchically in terms of interaction rates. A focus space is where direct interaction with a document or document collection occurs. An immediate memory space or desktop is for placing pages or books that are in use, but not currently being interacted with. A tertiary space or bookcase is where many books and pages that are not in use, but which it is desirable to have ready access to. Moving document objects in the document workspace is facilitated by touch-drop and flick gestures. The touch-drop gesture addresses the problem of obscuring distant (hence smaller) document objects by presenting a visual line indicating a destination for a moved document object. Flick gestures are used to quickly move document objects within the document workspace.

Abstract: A three dimensional document workspace for interacting with large numbers of document objects. A document object may be a document or a document collection. The document workspace is divided hierarchically in terms of interaction rates. A focus space is where direct interaction with a document or document collection occurs. An immediate memory space is for placing pages or books that are in use, but not currently being interacted with. A tertiary space is where many books and pages that are not in use, but which it is desirable to have ready access to. Moving document objects in the document workspace is facilitated by touch-drop and flick gestures. The touch-drop gesture addresses the problem of obscuring distant (hence smaller) document objects by presenting a visual line indicating a destination for a moved document object. Flick gestures are used to quickly move document objects within the document workspace.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for comparing symbols extracted from binary images of text for classifying into equivalence classes. The present invention uses a Hausdorff-like method for comparing symbols for similarity. When a symbol contained in a bitmap A is compared to a symbol contained in a bitmap B, it is determined whether or not the symbol in bitmap B fits within a tolerance into a dilated representation of the symbol in bitmap A with no excessive density of errors and whether the symbol in bitmap A fits within a tolerance into a dilated representation of the symbol in bitmap B with no excessive density of errors. If both tests are passed, an error density check is performed to determine a match. The dilated representation of the bitmap accounts for various quantization errors that may occur along the boundaries of a symbol defined in the respective bitmaps. The dilation utilized preserves the topology of the symbol.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for consolidation of equivalence classes of scanned symbols as may be used for image data compression. The present invention performs run-length symbol extraction and classifies symbols based on both horizontal and vertical run length information. An equivalence class is represented by an exemplar. Feature-based classification criteria for matching an exemplar is defined by a corresponding exemplar template. The feature-based classification criteria all use quantities that can be readily computed from the run endpoints. Reducing the number of equivalence classes is achieved through a process called equivalence class consolidation. Equivalence class consolidation utilizes the symbol classifier to identify matched exemplars indicating equivalence classes which may be merged. For a consolidated equivalence class, the exemplar matching the most symbols is selected as the representative for the class.

Abstract: In a computer controlled display system capable of supporting free form graphical input, techniques for maintaining the topology of a node-link structure when nodes are moved. When a node is moved, arbitrarily shaped links to other nodes will automatically be reshaped. The manner in which the link reshapes will depend on where a node is moved relative to the node to which it is linked. Various techniques for reshaping the node in order to retain the node-link structure topology are provided. A link may be reshaped by curve transformation or flipping the link shape about an axis. Curve transformation is a technique wherein the shape characteristics of a link are retained no matter where the node is moved. However, links that intersect, i.e. pass through, the nodes may arise from such reshaping.

Abstract: A method for maintaining the uniqueness of user entered data in a system for processing machine readable forms. Use of such a method in a system for processing machine readable forms facilitates forms reuse by creating keyword objects for new instances of user entered data, thus avoiding the creation of duplicate data. When user entered data is encountered in a machine readable form, the user entered data is compared to keyword objects of previously encountered user entered data. If no match is found, a new keyword object is created for the user entered data. Otherwise, it is assumed that the user entered data is a copy of previously entered data.

Abstract: A system for controlling the playback of a recorded session. Timestream and event information for the session is captured by one or more recording devices. Playback of a session is performed under the control of a session access device. A session access device utilizes event information to create a user interface for controlling session replay. In the present invention, two windows are used in a coherent and synergistic fashion. A first window functions as a player for playing back a timestream for the electronic whiteboard is also used for controlling playback of the session. A second window functions as a playback controller utilizing a timeline metaphor. Various interactions in one window will cause a resulting change in the other window. For example, selecting a marking in the first window may cause all related events to be displayed on the timeline of the second window. This coherency enables a user to more clearly pinpoint points in the session that would contain information of interest.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for increasing the displayed detail of a tree structure. The present invention is for use on a computer controlled display system and provides for visualization of a tree structure so that a greater amount of the detail of the tree structure may be displayed in a display area. In the present invention, a tree structure is warped about an arbitrary surface for display. Such an arbitrary surface would include a surface defined by a parabola, a hyperbola or by the intersection of two lines. As a result, an increased number of nodes in each level of the tree can be displayed.