Abstract: A system for displaying video on electronic paper displays to reduce video playback artifacts comprises an electronic paper display, a video display driver, a video transcoder, a display controller, a memory buffer and a waveforms module. The video display driver receives a re-formatted video stream, which has been processed by the video transcoder, from the memory buffer. The video display driver directs the video transcoder to process the video stream and generate pixel data. The video display driver loads waveforms into the frame buffer and updates display commands repeatedly to activate the display controller until the end of the video playback. The video display driver directs copying video frames sequentially one by one from the memory buffer to the frame buffer in real time during the video playback. The video transcoder receives a video stream for presentation on the electronic paper display and processes the video stream generating pixel data that is provided to the display controller.

Abstract: A MMR system for newspaper publishing comprises a plurality of mobile devices, an MMR gateway, an MMR matching unit and an MMR publisher. The MMR matching unit receives an image query from the MMR gateway and sends it to one or more of the recognition units to identify a result including a document, the page and the location on the page. The MMR system also includes a quality predictor as a plug-in installed on the mobile device to filter images before they are included as part of a retrieval request or as part of the MMR matching unit. The quality predictor comprises an input for receiving recognition algorithm information, a vector calculator, a score generator and a scoring module. The quality predictor receives as inputs an image query, context information and device parameters, and generates an outputs a recognizability score. The present invention also includes a method for generating robustness features.

Abstract: A MMR system for newspaper publishing comprises a plurality of mobile devices, an MMR gateway, an MMR matching unit and an MMR publisher. The MMR matching unit receives an image query from the MMR gateway and sends it to one or more of the recognition units to identify a result including a document, the page and the location on the page. The MMR matching unit also includes a result combiner coupled to each of the recognition units to receive recognition results. The result combiner produces a list of most likely results and associated confidence scores. This list of results is sent by the result combiner back to the MMR gateway for presentation on the mobile device. The result combiner uses the quality predictor as an input in deciding which results are best.

Abstract: A Mixed Media Reality (MMR) system and associated techniques are disclosed. The MMR system provides mechanisms for forming a mixed media document that includes media of at least two types (e.g., printed paper as a first medium and digital content and/or web link as a second medium). In one particular embodiment, the MMR system includes a method, system, and computer readable medium for embedding a hot spot in an electronic document. Marks corresponding to a designation for a hot spot in an electronic document are embedded, allowing for later capture of coordinates corresponding to a printed representation of the electronic document and the hot spot.

Abstract: The system includes a registry server and devices. The registry server is coupled to the devices for publishing or registering spots, managing places and authenticating membership and places. The registry server includes a data store for constraint metadata, an authentication module, a spot manager module, a place manager module and a query response module. The devices are adapted to collect field values, create spots, access places, and interact and share information with other spots. In one embodiment, the devices include a constraint collection module, a spot creation module, a query module, a challenge creation module, a presentation module, a challenge response module, a spot action module and a spot communication module. The present invention includes methods for creating a spot, for generating and approving a challenge, for direct communication or sharing of documents, for performing an action based upon information space membership and for searching for available places.

Abstract: A MMR system for publishing comprises a plurality of mobile devices, an MMR gateway, an MMR matching unit and an MMR publisher. The mobile devices send retrieval requests including image queries and other contextual information. The MMR gateway processes the retrieval request from the mobile devices and then generates an image query that is passed on to the MMR matching unit. The MMR matching unit receives an image query from the MMR gateway and sends it to one or more of the recognition units to identify a result including a document, the page and the location on the page. The MMR matching unit includes an image registration unit that receives new content from the MMR publisher and updates the index table of the MMR matching unit. A method for automatically registering images and other data with the MMR matching unit, a method for dynamic load balancing and a method for image-feature-based queue ordering are also included.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and article of manufacture for assisting a user with authoring a multimedia representation of documents. In one embodiment, the method comprises displaying one or more visual, audible, or audiovisual document elements from an input document in graphical user interface; and selecting one or more elements and for inclusion in a multimedia representation.

Abstract: Techniques for annotating or bookmarking digital information. The digital information is annotated based upon events determined from the digital information. The digital information that is annotated may comprise one or more types of information including but not restricted to video information, audio information, images, documents, slides information, whiteboard information, notes information, and the like.

Abstract: An MMR system for processing image queries across index tables with unequal priority comprises a plurality of mobile devices, a pre-processing server or MMR gateway, and an MMR matching unit, and may include an MMR publisher. The MMR matching unit receives an image query from the pre-processing server or MMR gateway and sends it to one or more of the recognition units to identify a result including a document, the page, and the location on the page. The MMR matching unit includes a dispatcher, a plurality of recognition units, and index tables, as well as an image registration unit. In one embodiment, the system includes an MMR matching plug-in installed on the mobile device. The present invention also includes methods for processing image queries across index tables of unequal priority and updating a high priority index based on received or projected image queries.

Abstract: An MMR system includes an analytics module for monitoring and analyzing the creation and usage of visual content search. The analytics module is part of an MMR gateway and provides a mechanism for administrators to determine the usage patterns and other information about users of the MMR system. The analytics module comprises a monitoring module, a usage database, an access analysis module and a presentation module. The monitoring module collects information about the retrieval request, image queries, context information and recognition results. The usage database stores the information collected by the monitoring module.

Abstract: A Mixed Media Reality (MMR) system and associated techniques are disclosed. The MMR system provides mechanisms for forming a mixed media document that includes media of at least two types (e.g., printed paper as a first medium and digital content and/or web link as a second medium). In one particular embodiment, the MMR system provides for image matching portions of a document.

Abstract: A method, apparatus and article of manufacture for creating visualizations of documents are described. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving an electronic visual, audio, or audiovisual content; generating a display for authoring a multimedia representation of the received electronic content; receiving user input, if any, through the generated display; and generating a multimedia representation of the received electronic content utilizing received user input.

Abstract: Techniques for encoding a media object are provided. First information is determined from an input media object. Second information is then determined from the input media object. A first visual representation is created based on the first information and a second visual representation is created based on the second information, wherein an output media object is constructed from the first and second visual representations.

Abstract: A Mixed Media Reality (MMR) system and associated techniques are disclosed. The MMR system provides mechanisms for forming a mixed media document that includes media of at least two types (e.g., printed paper as a first medium and digital content and/or web link as a second medium). In one particular embodiment, the MMR system provides for multi-tier image matching.

Abstract: A MMR system for newspaper publishing includes a plurality of mobile devices, an MMR gateway, an MMR matching unit and an MMR publisher. The MMR matching unit receives an image query from the MMR gateway and sends it to one or more of the recognition units to identify a result including a document, the page and the location on the page. The image registration unit includes an indexing unit for generating images adapted to the environment and capabilities of the image capture device. The indexing unit also automatically adapts the configuration of the plurality of recognition units and index tables based upon image queries applied to the plurality of recognition and index tables. The plurality of recognition units and index tables are configured based on content they reference, recognition algorithm used or other factors.

Abstract: An MMR system for searching across multiple indexes comprises a plurality of mobile devices, a pre-processing server or MMR gateway, and an MMR matching unit, and may include an MMR publisher. The MMR matching unit receives an image query from the pre-processing server or MMR gateway and sends it to one or more of the recognition units to identify a result including a document, the page and the location on the page. The MMR matching unit includes a segmenter for segmenting received images by content type, a distributor for distributing the images to corresponding content type index tables, and an integrator for integrating recognition results. The result is returned to the mobile device via the pre-processing server or MMR gateway. The present invention also includes a number of novel methods including a method for processing content-type specific image queries and for processing queries across multiple indexes.

Abstract: An MMR system includes an analytics module for monitoring and analyzing the creation and usage of visual content search. The analytics module is part of a MMR gateway and provides a mechanism for administrators to determine the usage patterns and other information about users of the MMR system. This information is fed back to other components of the MMR system to improve its operation. The analytics module comprises a monitoring module, a usage database, an access analysis module and a presentation module. The monitoring module is coupled to other components of the MMR gateway and collects information about retrieval request, image queries, context information and recognition results. The usage database stores the information collected by the monitoring module. The access analysis module performs queries on the usage database and analyzes the results. The output of the access analysis module is provided to the presentation module for presentation or output to other systems and users.

Abstract: A web-based image detection system includes: an image capture device, a web browser, a plug-in, and a recognition server. A captured image is processed by the plug-in to assess whether a pre-determined content type is contained with in the image. Once an initial analysis at the browser plug-in detects a pre-determined content type in an image, the image is transmitted to a recognition server for content recognition of the image by content type. The system thus enables users to link documents or other image types to electronic data using only a capture device and a web browser.

Abstract: A printing system enables the printing of enhanced documents using a semantic classification scheme. A printing system receives an image to be printed. The system classifies the image according to the semantic classification scheme and, based on this classification, performs enhancement processing on the image. Depending on the desired application, the printing system may recognize and classify any number of image types and may then perform various enhancement processing functions on the image, where the type of enhancement processing performed is based on the classification of the image.

Abstract: An MMR system for searching across multiple indexes comprises a plurality of mobile devices, a pre-processing server or MMR gateway, and an MMR matching unit, and may include an MMR publisher. The MMR matching unit receives an image query from the pre-processing server or MMR gateway and sends it to one or more of the recognition units to identify a result including a document, the page and the location on the page. The MMR matching unit includes a segmenter for segmenting received images by content type, a distributor for distributing the images to corresponding content type index tables, and an integrator for integrating recognition results. The result is returned to the mobile device via the pre-processing server or MMR gateway. The present invention also includes a number of novel methods including a method for processing content-type specific image queries and for processing queries across multiple indexes.