Abstract: The present invention discloses a system and method to telephonically access information related with items printed on a physical document, simply by touching with a finger items marked on the physical document or on any other physical surface. The system includes a touch foil placed over (or under) the document, for reading the coordinates of selected marked items, a telephone set for receiving the coordinates of the items selected by the user and for dialing to an interactive voice response (IVR) service used for accessing and retrieving selected hyperlinked documents from the web through a documents proxy server, for converting retrieved documents to synthesized speech, and for providing to the user through the telephone network, the selected documents that have been converted into speech.

Abstract: A system, method and program product for enabling an audience member, during the course of a presentation, to select one or a plurality of topics of interest and after the presentation, to access more information related to the selected topic(s). The system and method are based on a synchronization of the local times of the speaker workstation and audience member's devices, so that the times at which selections of interesting topics are made by audience members can be correlated with the time intervals during which the presentation foils are presented by the speaker.

Abstract: A system, method, and program product for accessing or retrieving on a computer network the required software to process a file is disclosed. According to the invention, it is determined, when accessing a file, whether or not software required to process this file is already installed on the user's computing device, depending upon the type of the file. If the required software is not installed on the user's device, the address of a server from which this software can be downloaded or accessed through the network is extracted and decoded from the filename of the accessed file. A browser or file transfer program is launched on the user's computing device and a request for the required software package is sent from the user's computing device to the server corresponding to the decoded address from which it is downloaded or accessed. The software is then unpacked, if necessary, and installed so as to process the accessed file.

Abstract: The present invention discloses a system and a method for selecting, accessing and retrieving directly from a physical (i.e., hard-copy) document, hypertext documents located on a user workstation or on one or a plurality of servers connected to a communication network, and for displaying the retrieved hypertext documents over said physical document. The information is accessed by the user simply by touching with a finger items (i.e., words, letters, symbols, pictures, icons, . . . ) that are highlighted on an electronic hypertext document displayed over the physical document.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a user system, a method for use in a user system, and a computer program for accessing information related to a physical document. The method comprises the steps of: identifying a physical document; identifying and locating an electronic copy of said identified document; identifying one or a plurality of pages of said physical document and identifying a part of the identified physical document using the position of points pressed on a touch foil successively placed and aligned over or under said identified pages; retrieving from the electronic copy of the physical document, data related to the selected part of the document; presenting said retrieved data visually or orally on the user workstation.

Abstract: The present invention is directed to a system, method and computer program for enabling a user (100) (an auditor or a viewer) to access complementary information related to one or a plurality of sequences or topics of interest (102) in a recorded program (103) previously broadcast on the radio or television and played back on a device, such as an audio or video tape or disk recorder/player (104). The preferred embodiment of the invention relates to a system and method for enabling a person (100) listening to or watching a recorded program (103), to select one or a plurality of topics (101) (102) drawing his or her attention and for immediately receiving further information related to these topics from the World Wide Web. The system is based on the synchronization of local times (204) (205) of transmitters (201) and recorders (203). The flow of information transmitted, received and recorded is always synchronized, independently of the relative positions of recorders and transmitters.

Abstract: The present invention generally relates to interactive hypermedia systems for locating electronic documents referenced on physical documents. More particularly, the present invention discloses a method and system for creating hyperlinks from one or more items, e.g. words, pictures, foot notes, symbols, icons, on a physical document to electronic documents and for activating the hyperlink in response to touching the selected item on the physical document. Also disclosed is a method and system for accessing, retrieving and displaying the hyperlinked electronic document and for pointing to the position (or positions) of the selected item on the displayed electronic document. In one embodiment, the invention discloses a method and system for locating on digital images, e.g., digital maps, the positions of items, e.g., locations names, referenced in a hard-copy document.